/.//.''/. 
 
 
 
 '* 
 
 r-\ 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. ^ 
 
 BV 4501 .C7 1880 
 Cooper, John. 
 Self-sacrifice 
 
SELF-SACRIFICE. 
 
* JAN 4 1911 
 
 SELF-SACRIFICI^^-^ 
 
 THE GRANDEST MANIFESTATION OF THE 
 
 DIVINE, AND THE TRUE PRINCIPLE 
 
 OF CHRISTIAN LIFE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE LOST POWER OF CHRISTIAN ZEAL RESTORED 
 TO THE CHURCH. 
 
 y 
 
 REV. JOHN COOPER, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "the SCIENCE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE," " THE PROVINCE OF LAW, 
 
 " Christ's mode of presenting himself to the world," etc. 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 mdccclxxx. 
 
Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbufy. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 QCEPTICISM is abroad; there is a rustling 
 among the dry bones, a shaking of those 
 things which are to be removed, that those 
 things which cannot be shaken may remain. 
 Anxiety is felt, fears expressed, and efforts put 
 forth to meet what is regarded as the demand of 
 the day. At all times there has been, is, and will 
 be, commotion, agitation, and misgiving, and in 
 such times it is especially incumbent on truth- 
 seekers to distinguish between the real and 
 enduring, the mutable and the evanescent of 
 truth, between the body and soul of revelation. 
 In every endeavour to meet what is felt to be 
 the religious demand of the period, care must 
 be taken to distinguish between the ritualistic 
 
vi Preface, 
 
 and formal, and the spiritual of religious life. 
 The one is necessarily mutable, the other essen- 
 tially permanent. 
 
 Care also must be taken to distinguish be- 
 tween self-seeking and self-sacrificing in reli- 
 gious endeavours. The one, displaying itself 
 in connection with the externals of religious 
 life, will produce formalism, and secure dis- 
 appointment and grief The other, operating 
 internally, will reveal itself in the life, and pro- 
 duce the lovehest phase of religious character, 
 opening up the well-spring of pure bliss in the 
 soul, and producing the most generous and 
 beneficent deeds. 
 
 Religion is an embodied life. The religious 
 creature must have devotion, rite, creed, eccle- 
 siasticism, and forms of morahty. As long as 
 these forms are regarded as accidental and 
 mutable, all is well. But if these are looked 
 upon as essential and permanent, then mistake 
 is fallen into, and evil in its direst forms incurred. 
 The distinction between the embracing and 
 manifesting the Divine in connection with and 
 
Preface, 
 
 vii 
 
 by means of the appointed instrumentalities, 
 and the clinging to and resting in outer forms, 
 must be ever carefully kept in view. If the 
 forms of religious life are animated by the spirit 
 of self-seeking, evil and only evil is and must 
 be the result ; but if these forms are animated 
 by the spirit of self-sacrifice, all is and must be 
 
 well. 
 
 The shaking of the formal in religious life is 
 necessary to its progress in the spiritual. It is 
 through tribulation that the kingdom is entered, 
 that the Church and the believer ascend into the 
 higher realizations of the Divine. Shaking has 
 been from the beginning, and must be to the 
 end ; but now that the essentially Divine has 
 descended into the renewed life of the human, 
 the changes sought must be in the endeavours 
 to bring out the deeper depths of the spiritual 
 verities of the Divine life in the soul of man. 
 And this endeavour must be the work, not only 
 of the epochs of time, but likewise of all the 
 cycles of eternity. Such efforts are necessary 
 to enlarge, sustain, and develop the fulness of 
 
vlil Preface, 
 
 the life of God in the soul of man. And we 
 are not to be alarmed at the apparent failures 
 of the Church and the bitter attack of infidelity 
 upon Christianity. These aid the birth throes 
 of higher forms and deeper realizations of reli- 
 gious life. Such has been the past experience 
 of the Church. 
 
 To endeavour to introduce the spirit of 
 accommodation into the reHgious life of man, 
 or to seek to yield the spirit and to polish the 
 forms of religion so as to meet the cravings of 
 self-seeking in an age of declension, is to mis- 
 take the character of Christianity, and to betray 
 the power of the Church. Christianity can 
 never conform itself to its surroundings, or 
 comply with the tastes of those it came to win 
 and to rule. It is essentially sovereign, and must 
 ever assert its royal right to reign in the hearts 
 and over the lives of men ; and it can reign 
 only in its true, and in no false or assumed 
 spirit. Accommodation of Christian principles 
 or teaching to the likings of men, with the view 
 of retaining or reclaiming the frivolous to a 
 
Preface, ix 
 
 Christian profession, would be an acknowledg- 
 ment of felt weakness and inherent decay. It 
 would be the confession that Christ has not in 
 and from Himself all that is necessary to effect 
 all that He has undertaken to accomplish, and 
 that He must give place to another to finish 
 what He has begun; in other words, to give 
 up Christianity into the hands of infidelity, the 
 end scepticism is eagerly desirous of securing. 
 Such a course would be suicidal. It would be 
 to have a Christianity that would always ac- 
 commodate itself to the ever-shifting tastes of 
 man ; and not a Christianity of ever fresh evo- 
 lution, and of infinite depths, that speak to the 
 immutable nature and unchanging necessities 
 of human well-being. 
 
 We must rather seek to remove from Chris- 
 tianity the patchwork which well-meant but 
 weak and erring discipleship, since the fulness 
 of the times, has been throwing around the 
 Person and work of Christ. We are not to 
 seek Christ, because we eat and are filled with 
 the loaves and fishes of His miraculous produc- 
 
X Preface. 
 
 ing, neither to call fire from heaven to consume 
 those who follow not with us ; nor are we to 
 refuse the admission of little and weak ones 
 into the presence of the Master, because we do 
 not see how they can be benefited by Him. 
 We are not to betray or deny Him, and when 
 He is arrested, mocked, and crucified, forsake 
 Him because we cannot perceive His true 
 method of performing His work, and in our 
 bewilderment imagine that all is lost. We must 
 determine to know the Truth, investigate with a 
 keen discernment the evidence He affords us 
 of its genuine character, and then we shall 
 be enabled to exclaim, " My Lord and my 
 God ! " 
 
 We shall then perceive that the infinite depths, 
 the undisclosed glories, the Divine powers that 
 are in Christ Jesus are not to be evolved after 
 the imaginings of our limited conception, nor in 
 accordance with the temporary likings of imper- 
 fect man, but in accordance with the unchanging 
 conditions of human well-being, and in a man- 
 ner worthy of the manifold wisdom of God, 
 
Preface. 
 
 XI 
 
 and the vast and important ends which are 
 being wrought out by Christ Jesus. 
 
 We must perceive that the lofty ends of 
 human salvation are not mere escapes from 
 hell, nor the bargaining on commercial terms 
 with God for a desired place in heaven ; that 
 the Church's work on earth is not to impose 
 forms of belief on the consciences of men, or 
 to enforce the restraints of ascetism on those 
 who know nothing of the power of religious 
 belief. From all such the religious life of man 
 recoils, and pants to breathe the pure atmos- 
 phere of a higher and loftier region; longs for 
 its native liberty, and strives after the freedom 
 wherewith Christ makes His people free, and 
 the service that is worthy of discipleship in 
 
 Jesus. 
 
 In order to our entering into this lovelier and 
 more blissful realization of Christian life, we 
 must perceive that this sinful state of man's 
 present existence affords the very conditions 
 of developing the loftiest life possible, not only 
 to the finite spiritual being of man, but to in- 
 
xii Preface, 
 
 carnate Divinity itself; that the principle of 
 self-sacrifice, understood and acted on, is the 
 one great power of the most illustrious of all 
 life, is the deepest underlying principle of the 
 Godhead itself. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE V 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 Christ's mode of receiving and bestowing 
 
 GLORY 27 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 CHRIST qualifying HIS DISCIPLES FOR THE 
 RECEPTION OF HIS GLORY IN THEIR PER- 
 FORMANCE OF HIS WORK . . . . 41 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 man's RESPONSIBILITY IN REGARD TO DIVINE 
 
 QUICKENING ...... 6^ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE DIVINE RE-POSSESSING ITSELF OF THE 
 
 HUMAN 81 
 
xiv Contents, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE TRUE AND THE FALSE OF AMBITION . 97 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF SELF-SACRIFICE . . II9 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 THE FOLLY OF SELFISHNESS . . . .135 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EFFICIENT PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN LIFE 1 47 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IS A ONENESS OF LIFE POSSIBLE TO THE 
 FINITE WITH THE INFINITE, AND OF THE 
 INFINITE WITH THE FINITE? . . . 169 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 IS THE PRINCIPLE OF SELF-SACRIFICE ADAPTED 
 
 TO THE DEEDS OF EVERY-DAY LIFE ? . . 189 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 SELF-SACRIFICE THE ONLY PRINCIPLE THAT CAN 
 
 RAISE THE FALLEN 203 
 
Contents, xv 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE ADAPTATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SELF- 
 SACRIFICE TO THE NECESSITIES OF HUMAN 
 WELL-BEING ^^7 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST THE ONLY TEACHING 
 ADAPTED TO THE NATURE AND CIRCUM- 
 STANCES OF MAN ^35 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SELF-SACRIFICE IS THE PRINCIPLE WHICH PER- 
 VADES UNIVERSAL BEING, AND MUST EMBRACE 
 CHRISTIAN LIFE '247 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 . 271 
 SUMMATION 
 
 . 285 
 CONCLUSION 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 IV /r AN lives, thinks, speaks, and believe?, 
 and in the consciousness of each of these 
 acts has the evidence in himself of the duality 
 of his nature, of the objective and subjective 
 of his life. In thinking, there is the mind that 
 thinks, and the thoughts which it thinks ; in 
 speaking, there is the person who speaks, and 
 the words which he utters ; in believing, there 
 is the individual who believes, and the truth 
 or falsehood which he believes. 
 
 There is an obvious distinction between the 
 subjective and the objective, as well as an 
 intimate relation in which the one stands to 
 the other. A life manifests itself as it is lived, 
 and is conscious of living as it lives. A mind 
 cannot but think, and the thousfht of the mind 
 
4 Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 depends upon the mind : the mind is as it 
 thinks ; a person believes as he is inclined or 
 compelled, and an individual speaks as he 
 thinks when he speaks his own thoughts. 
 
 The relation between the subjective and ob- 
 jective is close and intimate. In finite vitality 
 the subjective is moulded by means of its 
 objective, and by the manner of its reception 
 of its objective. The relation of the vital germ 
 in the seed to the substance of the seed, to 
 the atmosphere, to the light and heat of the 
 sun, to the moisture and quality of the soil, 
 is apparent in the development of the life of 
 the seed in the plant. This relation, while 
 close and intimate in all its bearings, is incom- 
 prehensible. 
 
 The beauty, vigour, and fertility of the plant 
 are seen to be in exact accordance with the 
 mode in which the germ of vitality in the 
 seed develops its life in connection with the 
 substance of the seed, etc. If in the growth 
 of the plant there be the least interruption 
 of the flow of the sap from the root, or 
 
Introduction, 5 
 
 peculiarity in the mode of the plant's reception 
 of the air, the light, the heat, the dew, that 
 interruption or peculiarity will cause a mark 
 or modification in the plant which will be 
 apparent and permanent while it continues to 
 exist. 
 
 And so in animal life ; if in the development 
 of the embryo in the womb, or in the growth 
 of the young, there occur the slightest inter- 
 ruption in the circulation of the blood, or if 
 there be the inhaling of impure atmosphere, 
 the partaking of improper food, or neglect of 
 cleanliness, then that interruption or modifi- 
 cation of the nutrition or treatment will produce 
 a corresponding defect in the body, which will 
 cling to it, and be apparent in its health, while 
 it lives on throughout the entire period of its 
 existence. 
 
 If in the body of an animal, rational or 
 irrational, any injury or wound occurs, the 
 injury may be repaired, the wound healed, but 
 the scar will remain in the body throughout 
 the entire life, and indicate, while it continues, 
 
6 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 the locality of the injury ; and the prominence 
 of the mark will be in accordance with the 
 degree of the injury and character of the wound. 
 The analogy of this process in vegetable and 
 animal life holds good in the rational and 
 spiritual life of man, only in a far greater 
 degree ; and in the historical development of 
 the church. 
 
 The objective of finite life is independent of 
 the life, but the finite life is not independent of 
 its objective, or the aliment on which it feeds, 
 and especially is this the case with the spiritual 
 or Divine life in man. The Infinite or Absolute 
 is in itself the all-glorious of existence, but it is 
 to the finite consciousness what the personal 
 life of the individual makes it. If any finite 
 personaHty makes to itself a creation of the 
 Infinite or Divine, instead of learning from 
 what the Infinite or Divine manifests of itself, 
 and attempts to live according to the divine 
 life of its own creation, instead of on the im- 
 mediate manifestation which the Infinite gives 
 of itself, then the finite life or personal con- 
 
Introduction . 7 
 
 sciousness cannot be elevated into communion 
 with God, and be enabled to hold satisfying 
 fellowship with the Divine, but must be famished, 
 dwarfed, and degraded into a resemblance of its 
 own creation of the Infinite or Divine. The 
 same law ruleth the life of the church. 
 
 A disinclination in the finite, however pro- 
 duced, to perceive the supernatural in the natural, 
 necessarily shuts out the finite mind from the per- 
 ception of the supernatural in the natural, how- 
 ever clearly it may be revealed in the material, 
 intellectual, and spiritual, and thus shuts out 
 the reluctant finite from holding fellowship with 
 the Infinite. The mind of man never rises above 
 its own ideals ; and so it is that the objective 
 is ever to the subjective what the subjective 
 makes it to itself. The Infinite as the objective 
 of the finite, is ever in itself the same. It is, 
 however, varied in its manifestations to the 
 different orders of finite existence, because it 
 manifests itself to the finite as the circumstances 
 of the finite need, and while in these manifes- 
 tations it is in itself the same, it is to each 
 
8 Self' Sacrifice, 
 
 individual what he conceives or believes it to 
 be, and similarly to the sect or church. If the 
 Church, in her incrustation of Divine manifesta- 
 tion in doctrine, alters in the least the aspect 
 of that manifestation, then does she shut herself 
 up to the necessity of contemplating God 
 through the medium of that distortion of Divine 
 revelation ; i£.^ to look upon God in a false 
 light. 
 
 If the Infinite is to be known by the finite, the 
 Infinite must reveal Himself to the finite, and 
 the revelation which the Infinite affords of Him- 
 self to the finite must be such a manifestation as 
 is adapted to the condition or circumstances of 
 the finite to which the Infinite reveals Himself 
 And the finite will become acquainted with or 
 know the Infinite just as its subjective assimilates 
 itself into a oneness with the Infinite, through 
 its reception of and feeding upon the manifesta- 
 tion the Infinite affords of Himself to the finite. 
 It is the same with the sect or church. 
 
 If there be in the finite a disinclination to 
 receive the manifestation which the Infinite 
 
Introduction. g 
 
 affords of Himself; then in order to the finite's 
 coming to the reception and understanding of 
 the manifestation which the Infinite gives to it 
 of Himself, there must be such an operation of 
 the Infinite on the finite as will remove the 
 disinclination of the finite, and awake in its 
 stead sympathy with the manifestation, and a 
 desire to know it ; in other words, there must 
 be such a bearing of the Infinite on the sub- 
 jective of the finite as will overcome its dis- 
 incHnation, and secure in the room of this 
 disinclination a readiness to receive and to 
 appreciate the afforded manifestation. It is 
 the same with the denomination or church. 
 
 Hence, in the recovery of man, the work of the 
 Son manifesting the Father to the world must 
 be succeeded by the work of the Spirit removing 
 the disinclination of the carnal mind by the 
 quickening of the soul of man with the sym- 
 pathy and love of the Divine, as He takes the 
 things which are Christ's, and shows them unto 
 the awaking spirit of faith or belief. The Spirit 
 awakes faith in the waiters upon God, as He 
 
I o ^^^ Sacrifice, 
 
 reveals to the inner eye of the soul the mani- 
 festations which God has given of Himself to 
 man in His Son. And in all these manifesta- 
 tions and operations of His grace God never 
 interferes with the free agency of man, or 
 tampers in the least with the principles, laws, 
 or ends of being, but acts in perfect accordance 
 with the functions of all finite life, and the 
 ecclesiastical condition of His church. 
 
 These are facts which ought to be patent to 
 every intelligent mind. The varied conditions 
 of men on earth in connection with God's grace 
 are not at variance or inconsistent with the 
 principles of God's dealings with any or all of 
 His creatures ; could we penetrate into the 
 inner depths of the Divine essence, we would 
 see that these had all their source there, and 
 were all in accordance with His wisdom, and 
 worthy of Him. We cannot, while in this life, 
 perceive all the relations of the principles, 
 powers, and operations of God's grace ; we 
 cannot discern them in their modes of working 
 and methods of securinof their ends. These, 
 
Introduction. 1 1 
 
 do what we may to comprehend them, lie for 
 the present beyond our penetration. Secret 
 things belong- to the Lord our God ; but the 
 things which are revealed, unto us and to our 
 children for ever, that we may do all the \\\\\ 
 of the Lord in our private life and public work. 
 
 Our imperative duty is to ask God's Spirit, 
 that He may incline our hearts to keep His 
 law. It is incumbent on us to study God's 
 truth, to walk in accordance with His will, 
 whether that will is expressed in the indica- 
 tions of nature, the precepts of revelation, or 
 the gracious manifestations of His Spirit in 
 the soul ; and thus to yield our hearts up to 
 God's awakening in them the rising of the 
 Divine. By whatever means or methods we 
 can learn the indications of God's will, it is our 
 duty to acquire that knowledge, and to obey 
 it in our thoughts, feelings, and deeds of life. 
 
 Transmission is necessary to fellowship. With- 
 out interchange there can be no communion, 
 and the necessity of fellowship between the 
 Infinite and the finite is that the Infinite come 
 
1 2 Self' Sacrifice, 
 
 into the finite in the creation of capacity or 
 sympathy, and disclose Himself to this capacity 
 as it is able to receive His manifestations. The 
 finite, in order to its assimilation and expansion 
 by means of its reception of the Divine, must 
 steadily contemplate, conform to, and cordially 
 enjoy its reception of the Divine. This is true 
 of the individual and of the church. 
 
 If the human mind does not receive the exact 
 impression from the objective, if it learns not 
 from the pages of creation and revelation, the 
 thoughts of God as expressed in these pages, — 
 if its conception of the nature and end of being 
 be not the same as the Divine, — then it possesses 
 ^aot truth, its subjective is not one with its objec- 
 tive, it enjoys not communion with the Divine, 
 but is in disunion and conflict with God. 
 
 This disunion and conflict with the Divine 
 may result from confusion either in the objective 
 or the subjective of human life, i.e., either from 
 confusion in the work of God — the pages of 
 revelation, or from conflict in the nature of man 
 — disease in the organ of human vision. This 
 
Introduction, 13 
 
 confusion, either in the reader or in the pages 
 read, cannot reach the principles revealed. Man, 
 however confused or conflicting in his views, 
 feels himself shut up to certain elementary 
 principles of belief. 
 
 And the necessity of agreeable fellowship 
 between the immaculately pure Jehovah and 
 His sinful creature man, is that God comes near 
 and into the guilty spirit of the fallen, in such a 
 manifestation of His love and purpose as will 
 remove the consciousness of guilt from the soul 
 by fining the heart with loyal affection ; and as 
 He thus works in the inner nature or heart of 
 man, God produces the faith of His gracious 
 purpose, destroys the consciousness of rebellious- 
 ness, and awakes felt delight and satisfaction in 
 complying with the Father's will in the indi- 
 vidual and in the church. 
 
 And thus, in order to the renewal of fellow- 
 ship between God and man, God through His 
 self-sacrificing grace must recreate the chaos of 
 the carnal into the devotedness of the filial ; and 
 the human, in and by believing, must yield itself 
 
14 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 up to the reconciling of the Divine, so that be- 
 holding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he 
 may be changed into the same image, from glory 
 to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. 
 
 As the Absolute must come into the con- 
 ditioned or self-sacrificing to disclose Himself 
 to the finite, so the human must rise out of the 
 carnal into the consciousness of the self-sacrific- 
 ing, ere man can realize fellowship with God in 
 the highest manifestations of the Divine. While 
 man remains in the consciousness of the carnal, 
 the visions of the glory of the Infinite in the 
 self-sacrificing of the Divine are to him as 
 impossible as would be the clear perception of 
 the loveliness of nature to him who has a film 
 covering his eyes. Realization of fellowship 
 with God in the bliss of self-sacrifice is to the 
 carnal mind an utter impossibility. 
 
 It is only in the progressive discernment of 
 the True, and in the enlarging fellowship of the 
 Divine, that the possible of human capacity can 
 be realized. Ev^ry feeling of aversion in the 
 spirit, every phase of error in the mind, every 
 
Litroduction. 1 5 
 
 perversion of love in the heart, every move- 
 ment of self in the soul of man against the 
 Divine, is a loss and an evil to the human which 
 the Infinite alone can perceive, and for which no 
 possible attainment and enjoyment of the finite 
 can make up. As a mind cannot realize the 
 benefit and delight of a perception in advance 
 of or out of the reach of its intellectual dis- 
 cernment ; so the heart cannot know the benefit 
 and joy of a vision of the Divine beyond the 
 degree of the purity of its love or the measure 
 of its devotion to God ; and so with the church. 
 It is only in the grace of self-sacrificing love 
 that the Godhead can disclose its radiant bright- 
 ness, and it is only in the grateful admiration 
 and delight of the filial heart in the conscious 
 sacrifice of the self of the carnal, that the human 
 can enter into and comprehend the breadth 
 and length, the depth and height, and know the 
 love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and 
 be filled with all the fulness of God. The para- 
 mount duty and the chief interest of the sinner 
 is not to be concerned about escaping from hell ; 
 
1 6 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 nor does it lie in acrimonious discussions, eager 
 inquiries about abstractions, and doctrines which 
 lie beyond the ken of mortals. But it is yield- 
 ing up his heart to the striving Spirit of God, 
 to realize the faith which enables him to know 
 the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 The carnal can never desire or labour with 
 eagerness to destroy itself. This in the very 
 nature of things is an impossibility. The selfish 
 can only be subdued by the overcoming love of 
 the self-sacrificing ; the rebel sentiment of self- 
 will can be expelled from the spirit only by the 
 invading light of loyalty ; the insensibility of 
 the carnal can be removed only by the quicken- 
 ing of the Divine. This law holds good in the 
 church, as well as in the individual soul. 
 
 God in Himself is ever one and the same — 
 the absolutely perfect, all-glorious, and ever- 
 blessed One ; His manifestations are worthy of 
 Him, and in themselves are the same and equal 
 to all ; yet they are to His creatures what each 
 of them makes them to be. Each one will 
 conceive of these manifestations as he is in- 
 
Introduction, 17 
 
 clined. Inclination, or the subjective condition 
 of the creature, is the medium and means of 
 its true greatness or degradation, of its bliss or 
 woe. The nature or constitution of a creature 
 determines its capacity or position in the scale 
 of existence, and its inclination corresponds with 
 its nature. 
 
 The jelly speck of protoplasm in the womb 
 contains in it the possibility of the finest physi- 
 cal frame that ever appeared on earth, the natural 
 embodiment of the loftiest intellect that ever 
 scanned the works of God, the divinest spirit 
 ever indwelt by God ; and yet, as the tiny film 
 of the spider spun round the rosebud will pre- 
 vent its outburst into blossom, so the insignificant 
 inclination of the carnal mind may frustrate 
 man's realization of his lofty destiny. 
 
 While a creature gifted with a capacity to 
 rise to the loftiest condition of glory and bliss 
 — notwithstanding all the influences acting on 
 him to lift him up — resists all the powers brought 
 to operate constitutionally on him, refuses to 
 co-operate with the agencies urging him to 
 
 2 
 
i8 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 comply, as they awake within the beginning of 
 a new life, shuts his inner eye, resists the con- 
 straining power of Divine manifestations given 
 to raise him, he must come short of the realiza- 
 tion and enjoyment of the Divine life. If all 
 the adaptation, freeness, and riches of God's 
 grace fail to move him, then, notwithstanding 
 all the possibility of nature and capability of 
 circumstance, he will not rise out of his degra- 
 dation and woe to the true condition of his 
 well-being. 
 
 And as it is in the beginning, so is it with 
 the progress of the work of grace in the soul of 
 man, and the attainment of its reward. As the 
 human capacity receives, so it is filled with all 
 the fulness of God ; as the germ of the Divine 
 life in the soul unfolds itself through his work- 
 ing out what the Spirit works in him to will 
 and to do, so the Spirit of God dwells in and 
 manifests Himself to the spirit of the beheven 
 As the life of the believer develops itself in 
 feeding on the pure and unadulterated Bread 
 of Life, so the soul assimilates to the image of 
 
Introduction, 
 
 1 9 
 
 God's Son. The same holds good in the sect, 
 denomination, and church. If the Hfe of the 
 spirit of man receive not the pure truth of the 
 Word in the love of it, then the spirit of man 
 realizes not the pure life of God. If in any way 
 the spirit of man refuses to conform to the Spirit 
 of God in the development of its life, it may 
 recover from its lapse, but it will carry with it 
 the mark of its mishap, or the scar of its wound, 
 and realize the consciousness of its disaster 
 throughout its after-existence. 
 
 The Father is in the Son and by the Spirit. 
 The unconditioned, self-sufficing, infinite, and 
 eternal God conditions Himself, not merely in 
 the Creator, Preserver, Ruler, Judge, Avenger, 
 but above all in the Father. These are but 
 lower stages of His manifestations. Father 
 sums up the conditionings of the absolute. God 
 is under no necessity of conditioning Himself, or 
 of coming under limitations, but being pleased 
 to do so, He has no other form that can ade- 
 quately express the relations He is pleased to 
 form with man, than that of Father. 
 
2 o Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 The Father reveals Himself in the Son, who, 
 being the express image of His Person, or the 
 conditioned form of the invisible God, the Logos, 
 in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness 
 should dwell, in whom are hid all the treasures 
 of wisdom and knowledge, in whom dwells the 
 fulness of the Godhead bodily, is the ladder 
 of the Father's descent, and of the believer's 
 ascent. 
 
 The Son imparts Himself consciously to the 
 believer in a oneness of spirit. Man, in ceasing 
 to resist by yielding himself up to the in-breath- 
 ing of the one Spirit, becomes one in spirit, 
 mind, and life, with God's own Son. As he 
 drinks in the one Spirit, he is one in the spiritual 
 with God's own Son, one in the consciousness 
 of Divine life, one in the realization of glory 
 and joy ; and it is only as he becomes one in 
 spirit with the Son of God that he can enter 
 into the spiritual of being, live the life of God, 
 realize the glory and bliss of existence, have 
 access into the presence or fellowship of the 
 Father — know God. 
 
Introduction, 2 1 
 
 This is the mystery of revelation and faith. 
 In the manifestation of Himself, the Absolute 
 comes into or under the condition of revelation, 
 discloses Himself in a series of out-comings — 
 descends into the fulness of the times ; and man 
 by faith sees the Invisible, ascends into the 
 heights of the Divine, assimilates into the like- 
 ness of God's own Son. In this process there 
 is illimitable capacity of becoming filled with 
 boundless fulness. The Absolute coming under 
 conditions that the finite may rise out of the 
 limitation of evil into the boundless fellowship 
 of the Divine ; the Absolute conditioning Him- 
 self in the condescending love of self-sacrifice 
 to the necessities of the ascent of man out of 
 the carnal or selfish ; — this is the glorious and 
 blessed mystery which is being disclosed to the 
 visions of faith in the consciousness of the life 
 divine. 
 
 The Christianity which makes known to the 
 world a spirit which is so different as to be 
 the very opposite of what it cherishes ; which 
 is the only power of man's well-being, and 
 
2 2 ^^if- Sacrifice, 
 
 which for its embrace requires the greatest 
 possible self-denial ; which is so opposite to 
 all the radical elements of all human religions, 
 as to require the expulsion of those elements 
 from the minds of those believing in Jesus ; the 
 reception of which necessitates the expulsion 
 of man's natural conception regarding God, and 
 his relations to Him, and of his conception of 
 God's disposition to man, may be seen at a 
 glance to be a religion which makes such a 
 demand of man, and produces such a result in 
 him, as renders it impossible that it should be 
 of man. 
 
 Christ, however, is original, not merely in the 
 one characteristic of self-sacrifice, but in all that 
 is peculiar to Him, — in His working, His work, 
 His tuition, His philosophy, indeed, in the whole 
 of His being and doing. There is not 07ie 
 lineament of His graceful portraiture to be met 
 with in equal perfection in all the prior thinking 
 of the Jew or Gentile in the eastern or western 
 world. Nor in them can we find one fragment 
 of that conception of His work, the striking 
 
Introduction, 23 
 
 characteristic of which is the raising through 
 His own self-sacrifice the chief of sinners to be 
 the very chief of saints, the conferring of His 
 highest honours on His most mahcious blas- 
 phemer, the employing in His noblest service 
 His bitterest foe. Nor is there one shred of that 
 tuition, the marked peculiarity of which is that 
 there is greater joy among the innocent and 
 loyal spirits of glory over the repentance of one 
 sinner, than over vast numbers of just and virtuous 
 persons. Nor is there the dimmest apprehension 
 in the speculations of the sages of the philosophy 
 which lays bare the profound truth that the 
 affection of the much-pardoned far outmeasures 
 in depth, tenderness, and purity the love of the 
 unfallen, and thus opens their illimitable capaci- 
 ties for the inflowing of that love which affords 
 to them the comprehension of the incomprehen- 
 sible, so as to be filled with all the fulness of 
 God. This philosophy, contemplated in the 
 presence of the ethical teaching of the Gentile 
 and self-righteous doctrine of the Jew, is of itself 
 sufficient to demonstrate the unearthly character 
 
24 Self 'Sacrifice. 
 
 of Christ's mode of viewing life in its relations 
 and possibilities. 
 
 Although in a somewhat different form, we 
 may sum up the subject-matter of the following 
 pages thus : Man is an ambitious being, he is so 
 by the deep, indestructible instinct of his soul, 
 and by the fervently cherished sentiments of his 
 heart. 
 
 Man actuated by selfish ambition has per- 
 formed wonderful deeds, displayed amazing 
 powers, attained to widespread fame, but only 
 to his own disappointment and the injury of 
 others. 
 
 Man actuated by the spirit of self-sacrificing 
 ambition has accomplished the most stupendous 
 work that has been or ever will be performed in 
 time or eternity, has lived the most illustrious 
 Hfe, secured the greatest benefit to humanity 
 that has been or ever will be possible in time or 
 eternity, has formed the loveliest character that 
 has or ever will be known in present or future 
 ages, has, in yielding to the sufferings of moments, 
 realized the purest, most satisfying, and enduring 
 
Introduction . 2 5 
 
 bliss, won the brightest glory, and founded an 
 everlasting empire. 
 
 This world of sin is probably the only sphere 
 in all God's universe, where man by ambitious 
 self-sacrifice can achieve a marvellous work, 
 acquire a glorious character, lay the basis of 
 the sweetest and most enduring bliss. 
 
 In the invitation of the great and glorious 
 Self-sacrificer, men are called by God to the 
 performance of a great work — to the acquisition 
 of a pure and bright glory — to the realization of 
 a deep, enduring, and satisfying bliss. 
 
 Why is it that the Christian Church in the 
 nineteenth century of her existence is not in the 
 enjoyment of her millennial glory and bliss ? 
 simply and only because she has not recognised 
 and realized the grandeur, importance, and 
 power of the principle of self-sacrifice. 
 
 And how comes it that of all the ambitious 
 and covetous men that have ever appeared on 
 the earth, and striven to immortalize themselves 
 by the performance of stupendous deeds, the 
 humble Nazarene is the only man who has 
 
26 Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 perceived and exemplified the power of self- 
 sacrificing ambition, and by so doing draws the 
 world into the imitation of Himself in His 
 wondrous life and death ? — into the ascent with 
 Him to the realization of universal and ever- 
 enduring empire over all evil, in the enjoyment 
 of endless bliss and satisfying joy ? 
 
 Self-sacrifice is the outcome of the inmost 
 perfection of Godhead, and could have been 
 known in its highest perfection and manifested 
 in its fullest power only by the Incarnate One. 
 
I. 
 
 CHRIST S MODE OF RECEIVING AND 
 BESTOWING GLORY. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHRIST S MODE OF RECEIVING AND 
 BESTOWING GLORY. 
 
 MAN thirsts for glory, and strives after its 
 possession in many ways ; but he per- 
 ceives not the superiority of inner to outer 
 possessions, or of spiritual to material glory ; 
 and thus it is that he fails of acquiring true 
 greatness, and of obtaining enduring possessions. 
 The idea of Christianity being a mere deliver- 
 ance, a sociality, a philosophy, and a kingdom 
 of peace, is inadequate to the true life of God 
 in the soul of man. The Church of Christ is 
 the arena of a protracted warfare, a mighty 
 conflict, and a sublime victory. The contro- 
 versy between Satan and Christ is regarding the 
 agency and method of establishing the king- 
 dom of heaven, or the reign of glorious life on 
 earth : whether it shall be by self-gratification 
 or self-sacrifice. In the one method the disciple 
 realizes a momentary and superficial enjoyment, 
 with deep and enduring distress ; in the other a 
 
3 o ^^^f- Sacrifice, 
 
 momentary and superficial distress, with a deep 
 
 and enduring enjoyment. 
 
 \ Every disciple of Jesus is a soldier fighting 
 
 J for his Lord, in winning his immortal crown. 
 
 / Christian life is not simply an obligation or 
 
 \ service, but a privilege and opportunity, an 
 
 I enviable grace to be seized and delighted in. 
 
 \ Until it is regarded as more than an obligation 
 
 (or a service, and is looked upon as an opportu- 
 nity of acquiring glory in the display of true 
 heroism, of self-sacrifice, its real consciousness 
 will not be realized, nor its exalted character 
 displayed. The non-perception of this is the 
 explanation of so much formality and selfish- 
 ness in the self-sacrificing Church of the self- 
 sacrificing One, and of so much devotion and 
 service to the world. 
 
 The combination of inherent and acquired 
 greatness is the perfection of moral character. 
 The inherent is necessary to the acquired. The 
 tree bears fruit in accordance with its nature. 
 The life lived is fashioned after its radical prin- 
 ciple. The character formed is in accordance 
 with the motive, principle, and aim of life. The 
 sinner, in order to live the true life of man upon 
 earth, or form the real Christian character in 
 time, must yield himself up to the quickening 
 Spirit of the living God, and by working out 
 
Christ Receiving and Bestowing Gloiy. 3 1 
 
 what the Spirit works in him to will and to do, 
 put on the Lord Jesus. 
 
 To win His glory, form His wonderful charac- 
 ter, accomplish His gracious work, Christ had to 
 become incarnate — His human had to be in- 
 dwelt by His Divine nature. To acquire glory 
 in a sinful world (the true sphere of winning 
 glory), two things are necessary — the Divine 
 working on and dwelling in the human, and the 
 human working out what the Divine works in 
 it, to will and to do, in accordance with indi- 
 vidual circumstances. 
 
 God gives to man both directly and indirectly ; 
 He gives directly in order to His giving indi- 
 rectly; i.e., He must first give directly, ere the 
 receiver can acquire what He gives indirectly. 
 In other words, man must act in accordance with 
 what he has received directly from God, ere God 
 will give to him indirectly. God gives indirectly 
 through man's acting in accordance with what 
 He has already given him directly. God gives 
 glory to man through his acting in accordance 
 with his renewed nature and circumstances. 
 Glory is the radiance of matter, the brilliance 
 of illustrious deeds, the true nobility of heroic 
 character. Glory is essential and acquired. 
 Essential glory cannot be won, acquired glory 
 m.ust. It is not of His essential glory that 
 
3 2 ^^If- Sacrifice, 
 
 Christ speaks when, addressing His Father, He 
 says, " The glory Thou hast given me I have 
 given them," but of His acquired glory, the 
 glory He won as the servant of His Father 
 in His self-sacrificing encounter with, and over- 
 coming of, the powers and principalities of evil ; 
 and this is the glory Christ shares with His 
 disciples in the measure of their self-sacrificing 
 imitation of Him. 
 
 Christ received glory from God in receiving 
 from Him His appointment. His qualifications, 
 the circumstances in which He wrought, and 
 the reward of His working. 
 
 Christ received His appointment from His 
 Father in humility, in love, in ardent devotion 
 to the glory of God and the good of men. No 
 pride, arrogance, or vanity, ever characterized 
 the life or actions of Jesus of Nazareth. He 
 ever realized and cherished the feeling of de- 
 pendence upon His Father. He saw what was 
 with His Father, and learned from Him. He 
 spake and only spake the words He learned 
 from His Father, He did and only did the deeds 
 He saw with His Father ; and thus He could 
 say, The words which I speak, and the deeds 
 which I do, are not mine, but the Father's, which 
 sent me. 
 
 Christ accepted of the qualifications for His 
 
Christ Receiving and Bestowing Glory. 33 
 
 work from His Father ; He descended into the 
 " holy thing " which was prepared for His in- 
 dwelling in the womb of the Virgin. He lived 
 among sinful men, in the presence of His Father, 
 e/er feeding His ardent zeal by spending nights 
 of inspiring commune with His Father; and 
 thus He received the unmeasured fulness of the 
 indwelling Spirit of His Father. This was the 
 manner in which He qualified Himself for the 
 performance of the work His Father gave Him 
 to do. 
 
 Christ received from His Father the circum- 
 stances in which He wrought. He accepted of 
 His life in a sinful world ; of His encounter with 
 the spirits of darkness ; of His sufferings from 
 the hands of sinful men as instigated by demons ; 
 of the anguish of His spirit in His encounter 
 with Satan ; of the hiding of His Father's face 
 as He hung in agony on the cross. It was no 
 matter of surprise to Him that He was led up of 
 the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of 
 the devil ; neither was He taken unawares when 
 He was assailed by the artifice of cruel and 
 wicked men ; nor was He amazed that He was 
 left by His Father to the full fury of the deadly 
 rage of the devil. He knew that it was only 
 thus that He could display the power of the 
 Divine in the human in a sinful world, and 
 
 3 
 
34 Self' Sacrifice, 
 
 allure men to the imitation of His self-sacrifice. 
 And thus it may be seen that if Christ had not 
 come and done what He did, by the appoint- 
 ment of His Father, in this sinful world, His 
 character would not have been so glorious. 
 
 Christ did not murmur at the opposition He 
 had to encounter. He knew that ore, to be made 
 available, had to be smelted ; that marble, to 
 assume the beautiful figure of man, had to pass 
 under the chisel of the sculptor; that gold, to 
 ornament the neck of beauty, required to be 
 shapen by the skill ^of the artificer ; that the 
 diamond, to appear in its brightness, had to be 
 pohshed by the hand of the lapidary; that the 
 student, to acquire knowledge, had to devote 
 himself to the study of nature and the reading 
 of books ; that the warrior, to win his crown, had 
 to contend successfully in the fight ; and that 
 even He, to acquire His glory, had to pass 
 through all that was necessary for His appear- 
 ance in its pure radiance. 
 
 Hence Christ did not shrink from His un- 
 dertaking, nor strive to alter in the least the 
 conditions under which He had to work, but 
 nerved Himself for the successful discharge of 
 His duties by continual communings with His 
 Father. He did not fret, murmur, or repine at 
 what befell Him, or fold His arms in dread or 
 
Christ Receiving and Bestowing Glory. 35 
 
 dismay, and long to be away from the scene of 
 toil and suffering-. He did not regret that He 
 had undertaken His work, and wish that He had 
 never come into this world of sin. While keenly 
 alive to all He had to encounter, He set Him- 
 self with devotion to the accomplishment of His 
 task. He knew the value of life in a sinful 
 world, the precious opportunities of doing good 
 in the sphere of self-sacrifice, the fleeting cha- 
 racter of time, and the importance of seizing its 
 every moment. Hence He braced His spirit by 
 meditation and prayer, He aroused His soul by 
 cherishing ardent love to God and man, and 
 fired His zeal by the steady contemplation of 
 the joy that was set before Him. And thus if 
 Christ had not encountered and overcome the 
 opposition He met with, His character would 
 not have been so glorious. 
 
 Christ understood His work. He asked and 
 received from His Father the Spirit necessary 
 for its accomplishment. He never complained 
 of the work His Father had given Him to do. 
 He knew that motive characterizes action, that 
 devotion to duty beautifies character and life, 
 that perseverance secures success. Nor did He 
 wish that His surroundings had been different 
 from what He found them. He did not loathe 
 the wicked, scorn their presence, and long for 
 
/ 
 
 36 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 other and better society. While hating sin, and 
 grieving over its power in the sinner, He pitied 
 him in his wretchedness and guilt, longed for 
 his emancipation, strove to win him to purity 
 of life and loftiness of character by displaying 
 before him the loveliness of Divine patience, 
 meekness, and long-suffering in bearing with the 
 contradiction of sinners against Himself. He did 
 not desire an easier way of accomplishing His 
 work, nor did He engage in it in a mercenary 
 spirit ; He cherished ardent love to His work, 
 and breathed the spirit of true devotion into His 
 undertaking, and He gave Himself in self- 
 sacrifice to its performance ; and He did so 
 because He saw into the nature of being, the 
 principles of life, and the character of glory and 
 joy. Christ knew what was the consciousness 
 of doing and of having done the illustrious. He 
 was aware of what was the satisfaction of hav- 
 ing toiled and suffered in the accomplishment 
 of the illustrious. He realized the joy of seeing 
 the fruit of His illustrious deeds. Hence, if 
 Christ had not performed His work in the 
 spirit in which He accomplished it, His charac- 
 ter would not have been so glorious, nor His 
 joy so pure. 
 
 Christ toiled not only to acquire glory from 
 His Father for Himself, but that He might 
 
Christ Receiving and Bestovoing Glory, 3 7 
 
 manifest it to men, and allure them into the 
 quest and reception of it from Himself. 
 
 If men are to receive of the glory which 
 Christ gives to His disciples from His Father, 
 they must accept of His appointment to the 
 work which He gives them to do, and accept of 
 it in humble dependence on Him, in love to God 
 and man, and in ardent devotion to the glory of 
 His kingdom. They must also accept of their 
 qualifications from Him for the performance of 
 the work He gives them to do. They must be 
 quickened with His life, live in His presence, 
 be filled with His spirit. They must also 
 accept of the circumstances in which He calls 
 them to work in this sinful world, of their 
 encounter with the spirits of temptation, and of 
 their suffering from the hands of men and devils ; 
 nor may they murmur at the opposition they have 
 to meet, nor repine at the difficulties they have 
 to encounter. They are to remember that trials 
 and conflicts are necessary to discipline, and 
 that skilful energy in the conflict alone can secure 
 victory and the enjoyment of it. Neither may 
 they strive to alter the circumstances in which 
 Christ places, them, nor fret over what befalls 
 them, nor fold their arms in regret, longing to be 
 away from this world of sin, and wishing they had 
 never engaged in Christian work. They must 
 
38 Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 brace their spirits by meditation and prayer, fire 
 their souls by cherishing ardent zeal for the glory 
 of their Master, and animate their minds by the 
 contemplation of the joy that is set before them. 
 
 And they are to work in Christ's spirit, ever 
 bearing in mind that motive characterizes action, 
 that devotion beautifies character and life, and 
 that perseverance leads to success. They are 
 not to loathe contact with the wicked, nor long 
 to be in better society, but ever to keep stead- 
 fastly in mind that it is only among the sinful 
 that they can work Christ's work. Nor are they 
 to seek for easier methods of effecting the work 
 which He gives them to do. They are not to 
 engage in Christ's work in a selfish or mercenary 
 spirit, but are to breathe into it the ardour of 
 love and self-sacrifice, knowing that they can 
 accomplish it only in self-sacrificing devotion to 
 the glory of God and the good of man. 
 
 This aspect of Christ's receiving and impart- 
 ing glory, while spread before the view of the 
 Church for nearly nineteen centuries, has hardly 
 yet been discerned by it. The apostles had a 
 vision of it, but it cost them a hard struggle 
 and a special training to attain to it ; they did 
 not easily and of themselves learn the contrast 
 between heavenly and earthly sovereignty. 
 The sovereigns of the world come forth in 
 
Christ Receiving and Bestowi^ig Glory. 39 
 
 great pomp and pageantry, to feed their vanity 
 and empty conceit by receiving the homage 
 of fawning and flattering myriads ; but the 
 Sovereign of the Universe came forth from the 
 " most excellent glory " into the society of men 
 in meekness and humility, not to be ministered 
 unto, but to minister unto the wants of sinful 
 humanity, by scattering in rich profusion the 
 gifts of infinite love, and to lay down His life 
 that He might rescue sinners from their selfish- 
 ness, and restore them in filial love to God. 
 
 What then is the end to which Christianity^ 
 directs the eye of man ? Escape from dreaded ^ 
 ruin, deliverance from all evil, introduction into 
 the enjoyment of boundless fulness, a position 
 among the greatest and most illustrious of all 
 times and of all regions, visions of dazzling 
 glory and of rapturous bliss, likeness to God, 
 appearing among the manifested sons of the 
 Highest in the fulness of power, in the sweetness 
 of uninterrupted fellowship with the Father, Son, 
 and Spirit, in the gracious reign over all. Yes, 
 to all these ; but in what and how } Not in 
 the physical, the social, the rational, the specu- 
 lative, and selfish, but in the spiritual, the self- J 
 sacrificing, the divine. 
 
 What is the real foundation of fellowsh 
 Christ in His reign of glory and bliss 
 
 lip with \ 
 s } His J 
 
40 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 Jvork for us ? Yes. And what is the true quali- 
 fication for appearing with Christ in His glory 
 /and bliss? is it our wealth? our power? our 
 I standing in society ? our fame in this Hfe ? our 
 J attainments in the arts, sciences, philosophy, 
 I literature ? our ecclesiastical deeds ? Ah, no. 
 f It is our conscious oneness with Christ in 
 nature, life, and work ; our fellowship with Him 
 in the spiritual and divine ; our imitation of 
 Him in His self-denying devotion to the re- 
 quickening of the human with the life of God ; 
 I participation with Him in His stooping to be 
 I raised on the cross, where in the ardour of His 
 I self-sacrificing love He exclaimed, '' Father, 
 I forgive them, for they know not what they 
 I do." In the consciousness of the faintest ap- 
 I proach to this spirit in life and death, is the true 
 • qualification for appearing with Him in His glory. 
 If we are to appear with Christ in His glory, 
 v#e must receive our appointments and quali- 
 fications from Him for the performance of His 
 work ; act in His spirit, and for His glory. If 
 we do not receive our appointment and quali- 
 fication from Him, we cannot do His work; and 
 if we receive our appointment and qualification 
 from Him, yet fail to act in His spirit, and for 
 His glory, we cannot win His approbation, nor 
 appear with Him in His glory. 
 
II. 
 
 CHRIST S QUALIFYING HIS DISCIPLES 
 FOR I HE RECEPTION OF HIS GLORY. 
 IN THEIR PERFORMANCE OF HIS 
 WORK. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHRIST S QUALIFYING HIS DISCIPLES 
 FOR THE RECEPTION OF HIS GLORY, 
 IN THEIR PERFORMANCE OF HIS 
 WORK, 
 
 MAN by an instinct of his nature desires to 
 be religious, but by the force of depravity 
 is eager to content himself with the least possi- 
 ble amount of spiritual life. He is more taken 
 up with the formal than the vital — the ritual 
 and ceremonial than the intellectual and gracious 
 of relisfious communion with God. He would 
 be religious rather in the selfish than in the 
 self-sacrificing. This is exhibited in the ex- 
 perience of the apostles in connection with the 
 method and labour of Christ in training them 
 to embrace the life of self-sacrifice. 
 
 Man is unfit in himself for receiving the glory 
 of Christ — not in capacity or circumstance, but 
 because of his religious prejudices and selfish- 
 ness. The disciples were a striking illustration 
 of this fact. What could the " twelve " make 
 of Christ's declaration to His Father in their 
 
4 4 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 hearing, " The glory which Thou gavest me I 
 have given them " ? Why could they not under- 
 stand these words ? They had every possible 
 religious advantage men could have possessed. 
 But instead of employing their advantages to 
 the rooting out of their prejudices, they used 
 them to feed their selfishness. 
 
 Christ's difficulty with His disciples was the 
 same as it is with all imperfect religious men, i.e.^ 
 to rend the veil of their prejudice, and to induce 
 them to see His truth in its own light, that they 
 might enter into the inner fellowship of His love. 
 But as yet they had no sympathy with the essen- 
 tials of Christian life, and hence they had to pass 
 through a severe ordeal, ere they could, through 
 listening to the still small voice, enter into the 
 fellowship of self-sacrifice. And the hindrance 
 they had to overcome was in their selfish pre- 
 judice, and not in the spirit of heroic martyrdom. 
 
 The disciples had dreamed of realizing the 
 supreme of life in the Jewish, the politico- 
 ecclesiastical, the ritual, the formal, the devo- 
 tional of fellowship with the Messiah, and 
 expected to find their entire satisfaction in such 
 forms of religious life, but they met only with 
 disappointment, as all must who entertain 
 similar conceptions and make the same attempt. 
 They had a vague conscious craving, a longing 
 
Christ s Qualifying for His Work, 45 
 
 after a fuller and more satisfying condition of 
 life, and hence they were eager that their Master 
 should set up His kingdom, and assiga to them 
 their respective places in it ; but they were 
 wholly ignorant of the sublime place of self- 
 sacrifice, and of how they were to enter upon 
 the purer and loftier enjoyments of the Messi- 
 anic reign. They were somewhat willing to 
 extend the benefits of the Messiah's kingdom 
 to the Gentiles, on the condition of their becom- 
 ing Jews ; but that all who were to enter into 
 the enjoyment of spiritual life in Christ Jesus 
 should possess themselves of their positions in 
 the kingdom of the Messiah, on the same prin- 
 ciple of self-sacrifice as that by which Christ 
 Himself won His glory, never entered into their 
 minds. The light of such illumination could 
 not penetrate the dark chasm of their prejudice. 
 Of this higher, sublime, and more enduring 
 realm of light, love and self-sacrifice, they had 
 not the most distant conception ; such a region 
 of spiritual life was to them far out of sight. 
 
 And to receive them into this realm of light 
 and life was the object of Christ's return to 
 them from the invisible world. It was not to 
 take them out of this world of sin into some 
 other region of space, where they might enjoy 
 repose and enjoyment to their hearts' content, 
 
4 6 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 but to introduce them into a new condition of 
 life on earth, a new medium of fellowship with 
 the seen and temporal, by means of new con- 
 ceptions of the unseen and eternal, — into a life 
 of new motives, principles, and ends, of living 
 in the only sphere where such life could be 
 realized — a life the very opposite of what they 
 had coveted and eagerly desired to possess. 
 They had sought to live in the realm of selfish- 
 ness, striving after the chief places, powers, and 
 honours, in dreams of triumph over the Gentiles, 
 whom they were to subdue and govern. They 
 had delighted in their fancied conceit of being 
 beyond all other men the favourites of Heaven. 
 Hence they were appalled at the arrest, con- 
 demnation, and death of their Master, the very 
 thing which was necessary to break in upon their 
 prejudice, and prepare them for clearer light. 
 They were not only appalled, but disappointed, 
 bewildered, and stunned, so confounded as to 
 be unable to realize the fact of His resurrection. 
 But having suffered the shock which was 
 fitted to drive them out of all their fondly 
 cherished dreams of a political Messiah, a 
 theocratic kingdom, Christ returned to them 
 from the tomb, that He might receive them into 
 purer regions, of fuller fellowship with Himself, 
 into a life to be realized in the discernment of 
 
Christ's Qualifying for His Work. 47 
 
 the spiritual and divine of man's nature and 
 opportunities, a life to be known in the entire 
 consecration of their being and doing to the 
 highest good of all. They were now to live 
 in the constant view of humanity being the 
 image of God — of man's glory in being indwelt 
 by the Divine — of the necessity of expelling 
 the insane, self-tormenting dream of selfishness 
 from the human breast, by the quickening of 
 the soul of man with the Spirit of Christ. 
 They were to become conscious of the un- 
 paralleled grandeur of effecting the transfor- 
 mation from the selfish to the self-sacrificing, 
 and of expelling the devilish by the renewing 
 with the Divine ; especially when this was 
 achieved through a momentary realization of 
 obscurity and suffering. 
 
 Christ's return to His disciples had to corre- 
 spond with His departure from them. It was 
 not a mere return in space, but in the fuller 
 disclosure of Himself to them, that He might 
 raise them into a conscious oneness of life with 
 Himself. His return to them was an entrance 
 into their understandings, lives, aspirations, zeal, 
 and consciousness, that they might be lifted 
 into the apprehension and realization of His. 
 He came to them to change their conceptions 
 of the character of His kingdom and reign, 
 
48 Self ~ Sacrifice, 
 
 that they might become qualified for sharing 
 His glory and joy. He came to them as the 
 Conqueror of all evil, the Consecrator of all 
 power in heaven and earth to the reign of 
 love and peace. He appeared before them as 
 the glorious Self-sacrificer, who could be known 
 only by conscious sympathy with Him in His 
 self-sacrificing. Thus they recognized, but did 
 not know Him ; He was the same in Himself, 
 yet very different to them. Hence He required 
 to afford them infallible proofs of His resur- 
 rection. Yet in the presence of what should 
 have overwhelmed them with evidence they 
 doubted. And of these infalUble proofs they of 
 all men were the most competent to judge. In 
 regard to such evidence it was impossible that 
 they could have been deceived. Of the identity 
 of His Person He afforded them the most 
 indubitable evidence it was possible for them 
 to receive or for Him to afford. He appeared 
 in their presence, not once, but frequently ; they 
 saw Him, they heard Him, they conversed 
 with Him, " they handled Him with their 
 hands," they ate with Him, they drank with 
 Him, they journeyed with Him ; He showed 
 them His hands and His feet, and in them the 
 prints of the nails, and in His side the mark 
 of the spear. They were familiar with His 
 
Christ'' s Qualifying for His Work, 49 
 
 voice and the manner of His address. He 
 talked and conversed with them, and the 
 subject-matter of His conversation was so 
 peculiar in its character, that they could not 
 but have recognized its identity. 
 
 He not only afforded them the clearest 
 evidence possible to their bodily senses, but 
 likewise the most forcible proofs possible to 
 their intellectual powers and spiritual percep- 
 tions. His manner of intercourse with them 
 was so characteristic of Him, that they could 
 not have mistaken another for Him. To those 
 who met Him by His own appointment on the 
 mountain of Gahlee, He displayed the same 
 extraordinary powers which He had been in 
 the habit of manifesting while He was with 
 them alive. His appearance. His discourse, the 
 matter and manner of His instructions, were the 
 same after His resurrection that they had been 
 before His death. The doctrines He taught 
 them, the promises He made them, the work 
 He assigned them, the signs He showed them 
 were the very things He had so frequently 
 spoken of, that they could not have mistaken 
 either the speaker or the subject of His address. 
 These were not only so pecuHar to Him, but 
 so different, nay, so opposite to anything they 
 had ever heard from any other, that deception 
 
 4 
 
5 o Self' Sacrifice . 
 
 in the matter was an absolute impossibility. 
 Why then were they not fully convinced, and 
 ready to embrace His doctrines, and engage in 
 His mission ? because of the inveteracy of their 
 prejudices regarding a political Messiah, and 
 the difficulty they felt in casting aside their 
 Jewish notions. It required the cumulative 
 influence of the " forty days' " teaching, and the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost, not only in " cloven 
 tongues," but in fulness of His renewing grace, 
 to raise them into a conscious oneness with 
 Christ regarding His mission and the method 
 of prosecuting it. 
 
 Christ came from the bosom of bliss into this 
 world of sin on the embassy of mercy to a fallen 
 race. He came into the nature and responsi- 
 bilities of man, that He might encounter and 
 overcome the principalities of evil, by enduring 
 their inveterate hate, in the display of the loftiest 
 self-sacrifice, for an example to His followers. 
 In this He displayed the tenderness of His own 
 and His Father's love, the graciousness of the 
 Divine purpose to a sinful world. We have 
 only to study the manner of Christ's meeting 
 with His disciples, and the mode of His inter- 
 course with them during the " forty days " after 
 His resurrection, to perceive how hard it was for 
 the apostles to rise above their prejudices, and 
 
Chris f s Qualifying for His Work. 5 1 
 
 to be struck with the love and tenderness which 
 characterised His intercourse with them, and 
 the earnestness of His purpose to raise them to 
 the discernment of the Divine of self-sacrifice. 
 
 Love hastened Him into their midst. He 
 felt for their disconsolate condition, and was anx- 
 ious to give them correct views of the purpose 
 of His death. The treatment He received from 
 them in no way cooled, but rather intensified, the 
 ardour of His love. His immediate return to 
 them was not only a clear proof of His love, 
 but also of the nature of His mission and of 
 the wisdom with which he had trained them for 
 their work. The manner in which He met His 
 disciples, and conducted Himself towards them, 
 is a beautiful illustration of the benignity and 
 tenderness of His love, and was well calculated 
 to afford them a glimpse of His self-sacrificing 
 character. His address to Mary Magdalene, 
 His conversation with the two disciples, His 
 intercourse with Thomas, and His treatment of 
 Peter ; in short, His whole dealings with the 
 eleven, were designed and fitted to prepare 
 them for the descent of the Spirit. 
 
 And hence He came to them not only in but 
 for love ; not merely to embrace them in His 
 affection, but to enable them to realize it in 
 their hearts, and to kindle in their spirits the 
 
52 Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 same flame that glowed in His own. Herein 
 lies the depths of man's existence, of his re- 
 demption and of his glorious life. Man realizes 
 his existence only as he lives in love, the love 
 in which God realizes His being and life. 
 Hence man is near to God, nay, identified with 
 Him, not in the consciousness of an underived 
 existence, but in the consciousness of a love 
 realizing itself in the sacrifice of itself for the 
 benefit of its objects. What a capacity for love 
 is there in man ! what a deliverance from the 
 enmity of selfishness is there in Christ ! what a 
 glorious Divine life is held out for humanity in 
 tlie consciousness of self-sacrificing devotedness 
 to the cause of God in man ! It is a being 
 filled with all the fulness of God, when the heart 
 of man glows with the very same self-sacrificing 
 love which glows in the heart of God Himself. 
 What a security, dignity, glory, and bliss to be 
 bound to God with the most powerful, assimi- 
 lating, sweetest bond of all possible ties ! He 
 that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God 
 in him. Love is a blissful condition of life; it 
 fills the soul of the lover (in the measure of his 
 love) with the bliss of life. The love of God, 
 with all the fulness of His life, is the highest 
 possible life, the most satisfying condition of 
 conceivable existence. 
 
Chrisfs Qualifying for His Work, 53 
 
 Christ returned to His disciples in the mani- 
 festation of His grace to fire their spirits with 
 the zeal of self-sacrifice. This was the necessary 
 accompaniment of His return to them in love. 
 He came to them, not only with the full for- 
 giveness of all their past delinquencies, but to 
 take occasion from such to raise them in fuller 
 measure into the consciousness of His own 
 higher life. He can return to any of His dis- 
 ciples only in a higher measure of grace ; He 
 came to them not only to display but to impart 
 to them this grace, nor solely to make them 
 conscious of its reign in their inner being, but 
 that they might likewise display it in their 
 outer lives. He manifested Himself to them 
 that He might draw them out of their false con- 
 ception of Him and His kingdom, into correct 
 knowledge of the end for which He displayed 
 His self-sacrificing grace. He returned to them 
 that He might allure them into the zeal of 
 winning His as He had won His Father's 
 glory ; to draw them into the perception of 
 the true grandeur and dignity of the human 
 spirit in itself, and of the honour and glory of 
 its becoming all engrossed with the conception 
 of consecrating life to the work of raising im- 
 mortal souls from the bondage of the demon 
 spirit of self-conceit into the realization of true 
 
54 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 human greatness through conscious fellowship 
 with the Godhead in its self-sacrifice on behalf 
 of man. And it required all His desire and 
 deeds to secure His end with them. 
 
 Christ returned to His disciples to open their 
 understandings to a clear discernment of the 
 principles of His kingdom and reign. Before 
 His death, in the face of all His teaching to 
 the contrary, they would cling to their own 
 conceptions of the world-wide kingdom their 
 Master was by the sword about to establish on 
 earth, in subjugating the Gentile to the Jew. 
 They had often dreamed of the powers they 
 were to wield, nay, contended among them- 
 selves about the chief places they were to 
 occupy in it, and the glory they should enjoy, 
 when they should sit with Him as His coun- 
 cillors of state. So engrossed were their hearts 
 with such conceits, that notwithstanding His 
 many efforts to bring them to right conceptions, 
 His exertions were all fruitless. Their preju- 
 dices so far closed their minds against His 
 endeavours, that His death was necessary to 
 stun and overwhelm them. Now that they had 
 so far recovered from that shock, and were 
 satisfied of the reality of His resurrection, they 
 listened to His discourses, with minds shattered 
 in prejudice, and hearts opening to the drawing 
 
Chris f s Qualifying for His Work. 55 
 
 of His truth, so that they could apprehend 
 something of the self-sacrificing character of 
 His work, and of the spirituality of His reign. 
 
 He thus drew them into a dawning appre- 
 hension of the glorious nature and results of 
 His passing through an anguish of bloody 
 sweat, to a death of desertion on the cross of 
 infamy, for the reclamation of a murderous 
 world to the perception of the wondrous charac- 
 ter, and to the admiration of the Divine nature, 
 of self-sacrifice. But for the clear and full 
 vision of the radiant glory of such, and for the 
 ready giving up of themselves to entire con- 
 formity with Him in this one characteristic of 
 His being and doing, they had to wait till they 
 were endued with the Spirit from on high. It 
 was only then that they could rise to the 
 sublime height of glorying in the cross of 
 Christ ; then they could see His glory, covet 
 earnestly the better gifts, pursue the more 
 excellent way ; then they could face a frown- 
 ing world, if only by expelling the enmity of 
 the carnal from the spirits of men they could 
 win sinners to God, and thus become the in- 
 struments of transforming demons into seraphs. 
 In thus extending Christ's kingdom they would 
 sit with Him in His high council, reign with 
 Him in swaying the sceptre of His power, and 
 
56 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 open wide the floodgates of everlasting bliss 
 in immortal souls. 
 
 As the "eleven" were "endued with the Spirit 
 from on high," they began to perceive some- 
 thing of the vast and enduring kingdom Christ 
 had won by His self-sacrifice, and realized in 
 His conscious victory of the Divine, a kingdom 
 founded on very different, nay, opposite prin- 
 ciples from those of which they had dreamed, 
 and which rule in the political states of earth ; 
 a kingdom fashioned by a far higher vitality 
 than that which builds up the rich and beautiful 
 figures of life out of the "jelly speck " or vital 
 germ in the womb, or chrysalis of the moth ; 
 a kingdom very opposite to that which is con- 
 ceived of in the speculations of Rationalism, or 
 the dreams of those who are endeavouring to 
 establish a " science of comparative religion." 
 The disciples now began to discover something 
 of the grandeur of self-sacrifice, of the Divine 
 life in the soul of man, of the spiritual work of 
 the Christian calling on earth, of following the 
 Lord in the regeneration of the world. The 
 zeal of consecrating themselves to a life and 
 death of fellowship with their risen Lord in 
 His self-sacrifice, of being His agents and in- 
 struments in the establishment of His kingdom, 
 of being partakers with Him in His reign of 
 
ChrisV s Qualifying for I lis Work. 57 
 
 righteousness, love, and grace, began to glow in 
 their hearts and to rule in their lives. Their 
 dark, dreary gaze into the blank future ot 
 blackness was turned into the joy of beholding 
 rising up before them the brightest, most glori- 
 ous, and blessed future that their hearts could 
 covet or imagination conceive. They now saw- 
 as they never anticipated they would see. They 
 saw that the fond dreams they had loved to 
 dream of political place, power, and greatness, 
 were but the conceptions of childhood, nay, the 
 ver>' bubbles of earth, compared v.ith the visions 
 which were now clearly in their view. They had 
 now displayed before them in ever-brightening 
 visions the most illustrious, absorbing, elevating 
 career the finite could pursue or the Infinite 
 could unfold to created eye. They now felt 
 that their intercourse with Christ was to be 
 ver>- different from what it had been before His 
 death. Previously they had been prejudiced 
 and selfish, now they were self-sacrincing and 
 enlightened, ready for any amount of toil and 
 suffering ; all their desire being to become like 
 Christ, and to ser\'e Him. 
 
 And as ^\^th the "eleven,'' so with the Church 
 in all times and sections : it is not enough for 
 the Church to possess even the mind of Christ ; 
 if she is to do His work, she must be pervaded 
 
58 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 by His Spirit ; and so Christ must train her as 
 He did His disciples. The merciful purpose of 
 Heaven to the universe of intelligence was not 
 to be frustrated ; the past three years' labours 
 were not to be lost. Christ opened their minds 
 as they were able to bear. He had to breathe 
 upon them, and say, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." 
 They had to learn that truth can be received 
 only in the love of it, that the spirit of truth 
 must precede the knowledge of truth ; ere men 
 can realize a truth, they must inbreathe its spirit. 
 The non-perception of this truth has been the 
 mistake of centuries. Without the spirit of a 
 truth men may study it, and learn much about 
 it, but they can never come to the realization 
 of it. It is only through the truth in the One 
 Spirit that men can have access to the Father. 
 
 The mystery of creation is the opening of 
 finite capacity, and the mystery of Christianity 
 is the opening of perverted capacity to the 
 reception of the conditionings of the Infinite. 
 The limitations of the Absolute are not in 
 Himself, but in His entering into and dwelling 
 in the finite or conditioned. And thus the 
 Great Teacher had and has to put up with in 
 the condescension of His instructions, " be it 
 far from, the Lord ; " and thus Christ had to 
 appear to His disciples, not once, but frequently, 
 
Chris f s Qualifying for His Work, 59 
 
 not on one, but during '' forty days," to qualify 
 them for the descent of the Spirit. The training 
 of the disciples and the Church into the percep- 
 tion of the glorious character, the important 
 work, and deep necessity of self-sacrifice was 
 and is the one work of the Divine Revealer. 
 The difficulties of this work are not in the 
 Divine, but in the carnal. It is in this work 
 that God finds scope for the fuller revelations 
 of Himself. In the manifestations of Himself 
 the Absolute must come under the conditions 
 of revelation, disclose Himself in a series of 
 outcomings, descend into the conflict of the 
 fulness of the times, reaHze the " hidings " of 
 cloudless Light, experience the anguish of 
 self-sacrifice. And finite capacity to see the 
 Invisible must ascend into the realization of 
 the heights of the Divine, assimilate into the 
 consciousness of fellowship with the Self- 
 sacrificer, drink in the one Spirit, believe on 
 the Son of God ; and in this there is illimit- 
 able capacity of being filled with " boundless 
 fulness ; " the Absolute coming under conditions 
 that the finite may rise out of the limitation of 
 the carnal, into all the " fulness of God " in the 
 infinite and eternal fellowship of the Divine. 
 
 What a stretch was there in the conscious 
 descent of the Unconditioned through creation 
 
6o Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 and incarnation to the exclamation of " My 
 God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? " 
 And what possible realization is there, from the 
 faintest consciousness of the quickening with the 
 Divine, to the omniscience of all knowledge ? 
 This was realized in the experience of the 
 Incarnate One, in His becoming obedient, 
 complying with the necessary conditions of 
 manifesting the inner depths of the Infinite 
 Essence, or the self-sacrificing of the God- 
 head, by the things which He suffered. What 
 was known in the experience of the Incarnate 
 One may be learned and realized in the con- 
 sciousness of the believer in Him. To qualify 
 the " eleven " for the consciousness of glory 
 and bliss in the fellowship with Him of self- 
 sacrifice, and the Church through them, was 
 the object of Christ's returning to them, ascend- 
 ing from them, and sending down the Spirit 
 upon them. It is only as men drink in the 
 Spirit, become one in spirit with Christ, that 
 they can know Him, work His work, enter 
 into the fellowship of His reign. And in this 
 fellowship what glorious occupation, what end- 
 less realization, what mfinite expanse is there 
 in thus learning Christ ! 
 
 The effect produced on the apostles by the 
 resurrection and intercourse of Christ is incapable 
 
Christ'' s Qiialifymg for His Work. 6i 
 
 of explanation, except on the admission that 
 *' He rose from the dead." If we look at their 
 ignorance of Him and of His work, the tenacity 
 with which they clung; to their notion of a 
 political Messiah, of an earthly kingdom, and 
 of a physical reign ; if we look at the panic 
 which seized them on the occasion of His 
 arrest, the bewilderment and cowardice they 
 displayed, the amazement they manifested at 
 the intelligence of His resurrection ; and if we 
 look at the determination, fortitude, perseverance, 
 self-sacrifice, subsequently exhibited by them in 
 the entire consecration of themseh^es to His 
 cause, we shall see an effect which could have 
 been produced by no other cause than the fact 
 of His resurrection and "forty days'" inter- 
 course, and the descent of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 If it required so much gentleness, skill, and 
 patience in Christ to guide the eleven from 
 their Jewish politico-ecclesiastical notions of 
 the Messianic reign, to self-sacrificing devotion 
 to universal well-being, need we wonder that 
 the Church, instead of passing by a straight 
 and rapid course from pentecost to millennial 
 glory, has had to advance through Gnostic 
 heresy, imperial persecution, patristic struggle, 
 the ambition of ecclesiastical rivalry and jealousy, 
 fed by State connection, the monkish super- 
 
6 2 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 stitions of Asceticism, and the fearful abuses 
 that arose out of papal arrogance; Romish 
 persecutions, the speculations of the schoolmen, 
 the frightful irregularities of the dark ages, the 
 dreadful bondage of the Inquisition, the abstrac- 
 tions of creedism, the doctrinal controversies, 
 the divisions and sects of the Reformation, the 
 imperfections of modern missions, and whatever 
 else awaits her ere she arrives at her final 
 triumph ? The cause of this delay is not in 
 Christ, or in His truth, but in the prejudices of 
 fallen humanity. Man for his recovery needs 
 more than a revelation. 
 
III. 
 
 MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY IN REGARD 
 TO DIVINE QUICKENING, 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY IN REGARD 
 TO DIVINE QUICKENING. 
 
 THERE are external operations and influ- 
 ences acting on man, which lead to internal 
 realization and individual action. This fact is 
 so obvious as to need no proof or illustration. 
 There is revolution in the inner nature of man, 
 as well as among the nations of mankind. Men 
 frequently change in regard to the object, prin- 
 ciples, and motives of their living. There is such 
 engrossment with the outer things of life as to 
 lead to the neglect of the inner consciousness. 
 And there are such inner realizations as enable 
 the individual to surmount the enslaving allure- 
 ments of the outer, nay, neglect the necessary 
 requirements of the useful and comfortable in 
 life It is the inner that makes the outer of 
 life to man even as regards this, and especially 
 in reference to the life to come. 
 
 We have mediate fellowship with God, m the 
 intelligent reading of His works, in the clear 
 
 5 
 
66 Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 discernment of the rich and varied combinations 
 of Nature, not as the spontaneous operations of 
 a self-evolving power, but as the evidence of the 
 power and goodness and wisdom of God, and 
 the permanence and immutability of His law. 
 We have mediate and immediate fellowship 
 with God, in the apprehension and realization 
 of His grace in our regeneration, co-operation, 
 communion, assimilation, purification of spiritual 
 enjoyment, enlargement of capacity, elevation 
 of life, and fulness of vision. And we have 
 immediate fellowship with God through the 
 indwelHng of His Spirit in our spirits, in His 
 awakening in us the stirrings of the Divine, 
 in His causing to spring in us sympathy, ideas 
 of affection, desire, will, realization, assimilation, 
 oneness of life with Himself. 
 
 Man is a religious being, his whole history 
 and experience prove this. His irreligious hfe 
 no more weakens the force of this truth, than 
 insanity proves that man was not made for 
 reason, or that sickness shows that he is not 
 framed for health, or that ignorance or error 
 demonstrate that he is not constituted for know- 
 ledge and truth. The false conditions are not 
 the normal state of man's life ; he cannot rest 
 satisfied in any or all of these conditions, but 
 must, by an impulse of soul, strive to escape 
 
Responsibility in regard to Quickening. 67 
 
 from each and all of them. Irreligion and pre- 
 judice prove that man is constituted for a true 
 religious life, for these do not and cannot satisfy 
 his deepest cravings. He must, by a necessity 
 of nature, strug^crle to rise above them. 
 
 Man is a conscious being. Consciousness 
 underlies all his realizations, and makes them to 
 him what he experiences them to be. He is 
 conscious of his different states of existence, and 
 that these are at times opposite the one to the 
 other. He feels one state of being to be agree- 
 able, and its opposite to be disagreeable. Indeed, 
 it is the difference of feeling or consciousness 
 that causes him to distinguish between his states 
 of existence. He realizes satisfaction in har 
 mony, and dissatisfaction in discord. It is in 
 consciousness that man lives, suffers, or enjoys. 
 
 Man is conscious of different, nay, opposite 
 thoughts, feelings, desires, ends, principles, and 
 motives of life. Man also reflects on what 
 occurs within him. He anticipates the future 
 results of his deeds, and sits in judgment over 
 the past actions of his life ; and he approves or 
 disapproves of what he is, does, or intends to do. 
 He is often disturbed about the present, hardly 
 knowing what to make of it ; he is likewise at 
 times anxious about the results of the past, and 
 deeply concerned with the future. 
 
68 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 Man is occasionally conscious of inner awaken- 
 ings of better thoughts, desires, and resolutions. 
 A little reflection will enable him to perceive 
 that these awakenings of better thoughts, feeling, 
 desire, and resolution are not produced in him 
 by Satan, the world, or the flesh, but by the 
 Spirit of the living God striving with him, 
 affording him " tastings " of " the good mind of 
 God, of the powers of the world to come, making 
 him a partaker of the Holy Ghost" by darting 
 across the vision of his soul waves of light 
 regarding the things of God. In these awaken- 
 ings the Spirit affords the subject of them the 
 evidence that not only in the Scriptures is God 
 offering to him the gift of eternal Hfe, but also 
 that in the person of His Spirit He is coming 
 to him to quicken him with the Divine life. 
 The awakened is also conscious of what use he 
 makes of these inner risings in his soul ; he 
 knows whether he likes or dislikes them, whe- 
 ther he strives to rid himself of them as dull 
 cares, melancholy thoughts, unwelcome visitants 
 intruding themselves into the chambers of his 
 soul, and by engrossing himself with worldly 
 anxieties, frivolous amusements, intemperate in- 
 dulgences, false counsels, extirpates them from 
 his spirit ; or whether he prizes these awakenings 
 of the Spirit of God, endorses and fosters them 
 
Responsibility in regard to Quickefiing, 69 
 
 in his heart by supplication to God for the o-ift 
 of His Spirit, by study of Christian truth, by 
 acting in accordance with his convictions of 
 right, and carefully shunning whatever Is op- 
 posed to these inner awakenings, or calculated 
 in the least to Injure them. 
 
 Man is neither virtuous nor vicious by the 
 mere suggestion or awakening of good or bad 
 thoughts within him. Satan, in tempting the 
 Saviour, suggested forbidden thoughts to Him. 
 But Christ in no way gave the least countenance 
 or encouragement to such. The Spirit of God, 
 striving with sinners, awakens good thoughts 
 within them ; but they often refuse to entertain 
 or encourage these in their hearts. It is in 
 clinging to, encouraging, welcoming the good, 
 that men become virtuous, and it is in clinp-Ino- 
 to, encouraging, welcoming the bad, that men 
 become vicious. 
 
 By the one course of action man resists, grieves, 
 quenches, the Holy Ghost ; and If he persists in 
 such a course of conduct, commits the sin which 
 is not forgiven, neither in this world, nor In the 
 world to come. How can this sin be forgiven } 
 If the forgiveness of sin is Inseparable from the 
 possession of the Divine life in the soul ; and if 
 the sinner, as the Spirit of God rouses within 
 him desires after the Divine life, quenches these 
 
70 Self -Sacrifice. 
 
 beginnings or inner awakenings by his resistance 
 of the Holy Ghost, (inasmucli as he quenches 
 the Spirit's quickenings of the Divine life,) he 
 cannot, while he continues to do so, become 
 possessed of the Divine life in his soul, and thus 
 realize the forgiveness of sin. The thing in the 
 very nature of things is an impossibility. 
 
 If, on the other hand, by working out what 
 the Spirit of God works in him, to will and to 
 do of God's good pleasure, the sinner endorses, 
 cherishes, fosters, and feeds these awakenings of 
 the Divine life in his soul, he becomes conscious 
 of the Spirit itself " bearing witness with his 
 spirit that he is a child of God," and thus 
 realizes the forgiveness of sin. In his con- 
 sciousness of the Divine life he has the witness 
 in himself, and knows that he is born of God, 
 has become a new creature, and thus his evi- 
 dence of regeneration is immediate — the most 
 reliable evidence possible to him. 
 
 By perseverance in working out what God by 
 His Spirit works in him, the believer in Christ 
 advances and matures the Divine life in his soul. 
 As the child inhaling a pure atmosphere, feeding 
 on a wholesome and nutritious diet, grows up to 
 manhood, so the believer in Jesus, by co-operat- 
 ing with the Spirit of God, deepens his conscious 
 realizations of the Divine life, and grows into 
 
Responsibility in regard to Quickejiiiig, 71 
 
 the perfect stature of the fulness of Christ. 
 And in all this he acts in strict accordance with 
 spiritual principles, powers, and laws. 
 
 In producing and maturing the Divine life 
 in the soul of the believer, God acts in accord- 
 ance with the analogies of nature and providence. 
 In these analogies He warns the sinner against 
 trifling with the quickening of the Holy Ghost. 
 There is in the providence of God a great waste, 
 a vast destruction of the embryo or germ of 
 life ever taking place in the natural, to warn 
 man of the possibility of it occurring in the 
 spiritual. In all the grain which is not sown 
 as seed, but consumed for the different purposes 
 of life, in all the spawn of fish and eggs of 
 fowl which are not brought to life, in all the 
 embryo and young of man and beast that fail 
 to come to birth, or are neglected in coming 
 into life, there is a great destruction of the 
 beginning of vitality. The infancy of life, in 
 order to reach maturity, must be gently treated 
 and carefully nurtured. If the seed be not 
 properly sown, it will not germinate into vege- 
 table life, and reach the maturity of the plant. 
 If the new-born child be neglected, it will die. 
 And so, if the quickenings of the Holy Ghost 
 be despised, resisted, and quenched, the germ 
 of the Divine life produced in the soul will never 
 
7 2 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 come to maturity, but perish by the suicidal act 
 of the sin against the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Those who disHke the awakenings of the 
 spiritual, and quench the beginnings of the 
 Divine life in the soul, may not be aware that 
 they are opposing themselves to God, in the 
 accompHshment of His loftiest and most gracious 
 undertaking, but they are nevertheless doing it ; 
 and by so doing they must come short of the 
 realization of the Divine life in its purest, 
 sweetest, most thrilling enjoyment, and thus 
 prepare themselves for the most awful endurance 
 of conscious existence, the ever and anon con- 
 sciousness of disordered and restless realization 
 of life. 
 
 Those who endorse and cultivate the risings 
 of the Divine life in the soul, realize the growth 
 of the highest, most glorious and blessed of all 
 lives, they co-operate with the highest agencies 
 of being, the greatest powers and instrumentali- 
 ties of nature and of grace, with God, truth, and 
 all holy intelligences. They ever deepen their 
 consciousness of the Divine life in feeding on the 
 Manna of heaven, the Bread of immortal life ; 
 and drink of the everlasting streams which flow 
 from the fount of God. They are ever nearing 
 God in their assimilation into His image ; they 
 live with God as they ascend into the highest 
 
Respo7isibilUy in regard to Quickening. 73 
 
 order of conscious existence, as they grow in 
 meetness for the manifestation of the sons of 
 God. They ever become like God in seeing 
 Him as He is, in reahzing the Divine, in reign- 
 ing with Christ over all evil throughout the 
 everlasting ages. 
 
 The only principle and true power of the 
 Christian calling is ''to work out what God 
 works in us to will and to do;" it is this that 
 enables us to advance in the Divine life, and it 
 is the failing to do this that retards our progress 
 in that life. The work of grace in the believer, 
 the Church, and the world, is the work of God 
 in its design, commencement, continuance, and 
 consummation, and in this work man is the 
 active subject and fellow-worker with God. 
 The Spirit comes to him with the things that 
 are Christ's, to awaken in him the risings of the 
 Divine ; and if he endorses and works out what 
 the Spirit of God works in him " to will and to 
 do," he realizes faith in Jesus ; but if he rejects 
 or refuses to work out what the Spirit works 
 in him, the Spirit makes no further progress in 
 working in him. The Spirit may continue to 
 work on him in producing the risings of the 
 Divine in his soul, but he will not advance one 
 step till he works out "what" the Spirit has 
 awakened in him, and " as " the Spirit requires 
 
74 Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 of him, in working in him to will and to do of 
 God's good pleasure. 
 
 And thus it is that the entire work of the 
 believer's assimilation into the Divine image 
 is accomplished by the Spirit of God : in its 
 every degree it is thus produced in the believer's 
 realization of the Divine, in his putting on the 
 Lord Jesus, in his shining in the beauty of 
 holiness, in his letting the light that is in him 
 shine around him so as to allure others to Jesus. 
 He is, in his consciousness of the Divine, wholly 
 the workmanship of the Spirit of God. If he 
 work out as and only as the Spirit works in 
 him, then will he make rapid progress in the 
 Divine hfe, and be greatly honoured to glorify 
 God in his day and generation : but if from 
 yielding to other influences he halts in working 
 out, or endeavours to work out after his own 
 conceptions or the opinions of man, then will 
 the Spirit cease His workings in him, until God, 
 by His providential dealings, leads him to 
 repent of his wickedness, and brings him to 
 work out as the Spirit works \\\ him to will and 
 to do. This view of God's dealings with His 
 children enables us to see the consistency of 
 God, in what otherwise would appear strange 
 in His training of His children, and providence 
 over His church. 
 
Responsibility in regard to Quickening, 7 5 
 
 These awakenings of the Spirit of God 
 originate in the soul of man the beginnings of 
 the grandest, most Godlike work of the God- 
 head ; no achievement of time or eternity can 
 for one moment be compared with the work 
 of God, — with these awakenings of the Spirit of 
 God in the soul of man, with the quickenings 
 of the human spirit through the risings of the 
 Divine life. This work of the Spirit effects the 
 reconciliation of the spirit of man with the 
 Spirit of God ; secures the harmony of the life 
 of man with the outgoings of God, with the 
 principles, laws, and ends of being and doing. It 
 enables the believer to do the will of God, in 
 working out what God works in him to will and 
 to do of God's good pleasure, to take his part 
 in, and accomplish his portion of, that work 
 which displays the supreme majesty, glory, and 
 delight of the Godhead, which enables man to 
 choose, will, and enjoy with God, as he co- 
 operates with Him in the most wondrous, 
 sublime, and glorious of all the undertakings 
 possible to God or man. 
 
 Is there anything within the wide range of 
 possible existence, that can be of such impor- 
 tance to man as the endorsing and working 
 out these suggestions, which the Spirit of God 
 awakes in his inmost consciousness, to enable 
 
76 Self- Sacrifice . 
 
 him to begin and work out his own salvation, 
 and to aid in the deifying his own and the Hfe 
 of others ? What is there in time, that is worth 
 one moment's preference to the Hfe of God in 
 the soul of man ? And this working out what 
 the Spirit of God works in him to will and to 
 do, is absolutely necessary to the believer's 
 realizing the Divine life. To enjoy the beauti- 
 ful, the euphonic, the artistic, the sublime, we 
 must have and cultivate the taste for such ; to 
 enjoy the heroic, the grand, the self-sacrificing, 
 in moral conduct, we must have the love for 
 and consciousness of such deeds. And it is 
 only while we are members of the Church below, 
 while we are in this world of sin, that we possess 
 the opportunities of co-operating with Christ in 
 the sublime of self-sacrifice, and of enjoying 
 fellowship with the Godhead in the most 
 glorious possible achievements of God. It 
 must be kept in mind that in order to His 
 performance of His portion of this work, the 
 Brightness of the Father's glory had to come 
 into this world of sin and suffering, and yield 
 Himself up in self-sacrifice to the will of His 
 foes. It was not in heaven, nor in the in- 
 dolence of repose on earth, but in the sphere 
 of self-sacrifice, that the well-beloved Son of 
 God yielded Himself to the injustice of sinners, 
 
Responsibility in regard to Quickening, 77 
 
 that He might draw them to God, and by so 
 doing achieve His wondrous work, win His 
 glory, and realize His bliss. And it is only 
 while men are in this world, that they can 
 imitate the Incarnate One in the grandeur of 
 His self-sacrifice. 
 
 And in this view of God's dealing with man 
 by His Spirit we are enabled to see the true 
 nature of human responsibility. Man cannot 
 immediately create power, alter the conditions 
 of his life, nor place himself in relations different 
 from what he finds himself to be in ; but he 
 can resist or yield to, and co-operate with, the 
 powers bearing on him, and thus avail himself 
 of his circumstances, and by so doing, better or 
 deteriorate his condition. He cannot command 
 the Spirit's influence,, but he can resist or yield 
 to truth or error. He knows whether he allows 
 the light that darts across his mind to guide 
 his life, or refuses to give it a place among his 
 thoughts. He can choose between dispositions, 
 ideas, motives, principles, and actions, and he 
 must realize in accordance with his choice. 
 He can form a combination, but he cannot 
 control or alter the operations of the powers 
 acting in combination. He must realize the 
 benefit of yielding to right power, or the bane 
 of giving himself up to evil influence, and his 
 
78 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 conscience will tell him that he merits these 
 results. 
 
 If there had been no carnality, there would 
 have been no need of quickening. And if renew- 
 ing had not been in overcoming and expelling 
 carnality from the immortal spirit, there would 
 have been no scope for the display of Divine 
 grace, wisdom, and long-suffering on the one 
 hand, or for selfishness, ascetic abuse, and per- 
 version on the other. Humanity in its fall and 
 recovery is the " area " where the grandest 
 achievements of God and man are wrought 
 out, and in which the fullest operations of 
 responsibility are realized. 
 
 Man's obligation and responsibility in regard 
 to the Spirit of God are cautiously to avoid 
 every practice that has a tendency to increase 
 his aversion and opposition to the Spirit. As 
 the Spirit of God is the Spirit of love, light, 
 liberty, purity, generosity, he is to avoid the 
 giving way to enmity, the cherishing of pre- 
 judice, inordinate affections or dispositions, in- 
 temperance, narrow-mindedness, miserliness, i.e.y 
 selfishness ; he is to cultivate whatever has a 
 tendency to open up his heart, his mind, his 
 life, to the reception of the Spirit of God. And 
 man knows well that he can either do or refuse 
 to do such things. Every human being is con- 
 
Responsibility in regard to Quickening. 79 
 
 scious of a power to yield to or resist external 
 influence ; he knows that his life and character 
 are in accordance with his reception or refusal 
 of influence, of idea, of example, and in this he 
 feels that his responsibility rests. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE DIVINE RE-POSSESSING ITSELF 
 OF THE HUMAN 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE DIVINE RE-POSSESSING ITSEIF 
 OF THE human:- 
 
 WE are familiar with indwelling. We have 
 numerous examples of its different 
 phases. An individual enters into and dwells 
 in a house. Eight, when the shutters are opened, 
 comes into and dwells in a room. Electricity 
 enters and runs along the iron rod. Heat pene- 
 trates and pervades many things. Truth enters 
 into and dwells in the mind of man. Love 
 comes into the heart, and life into the conscious- 
 ness or conscious capacity of humanity. But 
 they do not all enter into and take up their 
 abode after the same fashion. 
 
 There are numerous manifestations of supe- 
 rior to inferior existence. It is as the higher 
 enters into the inferior life, and assimilates it to 
 itself, that it raises it in the scale of being. And 
 there is the discernment and appropriation of 
 such manifestations ; so also there is near, sweet, 
 full communion of life with life, by means of the 
 * See '' Science of Spiritual Life," chap, xviii. 
 
84 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 appropriation of manifestation, and assimilation 
 of life with life through appropriation. It is 
 only as the inferior life assimilates to the supe- 
 rior, that it can hold satisfying fellowship with 
 the superior life entering into and dwelling in it. 
 God manifests Himself in His works of 
 creation, in His providence over the nations, in 
 His Son, and by His Spirit ; He manifests 
 Himself externally and internally to man. His 
 external are subservient to His internal mani- 
 festations. In His external manifestations He 
 conditions Himself under certain limitations, 
 comes under different forms of finite existence. 
 The Absolute or Infinite has no forms, but 
 the finite necessarily has : it cannot exist but 
 in forms ; wherever it appears, it appears in 
 the limitation of forms. Forms are necessary 
 to the manifestations of God, at least to His 
 external manifestations. When one mind mani- 
 fests itself to another, it must necessarily con- 
 dition itself in certain forms, or come under the 
 limitations of thought expressed in language, 
 written or spoken, in order to enter into and 
 dwell in other minds. In like manner God 
 the Infinite, in order to manifest the perfection 
 of His Being, must come under the Hmitations 
 of the finite. Only thus does He become 
 recognizable by it. 
 
The Re-possessing of the Hu7iian, 85 
 
 The connection of matter with mind is mys- 
 terious, and to us unknown. If mind for its 
 manifestations be dependent on matter, it is 
 in no way under the control of matter. Mind 
 moves matter as it wills. Matter is not self- 
 active, but inert. Mind is essentially active. 
 The thoughts of one mind pass into forms of 
 sound or written words, to enter into the appre- 
 hension of other minds. In thinking, the sub- 
 jective of mind becomes its objective. And in 
 the process of one mind expressing itself to 
 another, it embodies its objective so as to be- 
 come the objective of other minds. And the 
 believing mind apprehending its received ob- 
 jective, becomes in its subjective one with the 
 revealing mind. Matter is thus the medium of 
 mind communicating with mind. 
 
 God manifests the gracious purpose of His 
 heart, and the enmity of sin, by means of self- 
 sacrifice. We cannot conceive of God adopting 
 another or a more efficacious method of dis- 
 playing the gracious purpose of His heart, or 
 the bitter enmity of sin, than He has done in 
 the self-sacrifice of His Son. And thus it was 
 that His well-beloved Son was delivered up to 
 the power of the carnal mind, by the deter- 
 minate counsel and foreknowledge of God. 
 God manifests the long-suffering of His gracious 
 
86 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 purpose concerning the salvation of man in and 
 by the persistent striving- of His Spirit. 
 
 The Son in His incarnate being, sayings, and 
 doings, manifests the being, purpose, and will 
 of the Father. He who sees the Son sees the 
 Father, he who hears the Son hears the Father, 
 and he who receives the Son receives the Father 
 also. The Spirit, by working that faith in man 
 which appropriates the Son, manifests to the 
 inner consciousness of the believer the highest 
 perfections of the Godhead. In His inner 
 workings the Spirit enables the believer in Jesus 
 to appropriate the lineaments and properties of 
 the Divine, as He awakes in his consciousness 
 the realizations of immediate fellowship with 
 the Divine, and develops the life of God in his 
 soul. 
 
 The Spirit wakens in the soul of the believer 
 the beginnings of the Divine life, by producing 
 in him the risings of sympathy, of disposition, 
 of affection, of thought, of feeling, of desire, of 
 aspiration, of purpose, of resolution, the will, of 
 becoming one in conscious life with God. 
 
 The Spirit, by inducing the beUever to endorse, 
 foster, and develop the Divine awakenings in his 
 soul, works in him to will and to do in accord- 
 ance with God's good pleasure ; and thus estab- 
 lishes the believer in the deepening consciousness 
 
The Re-possessiitg of the Humaft, 87 
 
 and bliss of the life of God in his soul. In thus 
 working, the Spirit produces in the inner being 
 of the believer, the ear, the eye, the palate, the 
 intellect, the soul — in one word, tlie consciousness 
 through which the Divine life is realized. The 
 Spirit thus re-creates the believer in Jesus in 
 the image of God, or creates him anew in that 
 through which God comes into the believer in 
 His Son, and manifests Himself to him ; and 
 that through which the believer in Christ ascends 
 to the vision of God ; that by which the believer 
 and God become one in the consciousness of the 
 Divine life. 
 
 The work of the Spirit in the believer in 
 Jesus is the highest possible doing of the God- 
 head in the manifestation of the Divine. These 
 awakenings in the believer in God's Son are the 
 lineaments, elements, properties, and functions 
 of the Divine life ; to manifest which to the 
 inner life of man the brightness or subjective 
 had to become the objective of the Father's 
 glory, had to descend to the cross ; and to im- 
 part which to the inmost consciousness of the 
 believer, the Spirit had to strive persistently, 
 and suffer grief, in order to make the objective 
 of the Divine the subjective of the human. 
 
 The importance of these inner awakenings 
 may in some measure be discerned in reason, 
 
8 8 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 without being realized in life ; but the discern- 
 ment of the importance of these in reason is far 
 inferior to the realization of them in life. 
 
 In imparting these lineaments to the believer 
 in Jesus, the Spirit quickens his life with the 
 very properties and functions of the life of God. 
 In the consciousness of which the life of the 
 believer becomes one in consciousness with the 
 conscious life of God. And thus the believer 
 in God's Son enters into a oneness of spirit, 
 mind, and life with God, reahzes the beg-innincrs 
 of the perfection of the Divine life in his soul, 
 the foretaste of the glory which is yet to be 
 revealed. 
 
 To the production of these elements of the 
 Divine life in the soul of man, Creation, Provi- 
 dence, Revelation, Atonement, Ascension of the 
 Son, and descent of the Spirit of God, have 
 all been subordinate and subservient. How 
 unspeakable then is their importance ! The 
 highest attainments in material being, in the 
 sentient, social, national life of man, in the 
 world of mind, in the angelic ranks, are as 
 nothing in comparison with these re-created 
 lineaments of the Divine in the soul of the 
 believer. In the consciousness of these man 
 enters into the nearest possible likeness to God. 
 He ascends to the loftiest pinnacle in the temple 
 
The Re-possessing of the Humart, 89 
 
 of being and life, rises far above all other finite 
 existence in the grandeur and greatness of his 
 soul. 
 
 In the mouldings of matter the substance is 
 plastic, but in the creation and education of life, 
 the substance is co-operative, especially in the 
 highest of all creation and life. Greece could 
 see and appreciate the glory of the physical 
 figure of man, she had even dim glimpses of 
 the surpassing grandeur of his intellectual genius 
 and greatness, but she had not the most distant 
 glimpse of the high altitude of his conscious 
 fellowship with God in His manifestations 
 through faith, and in realization of the most 
 wondrous displays of the Divine. 
 
 The conscious realization in the inner and 
 manifestation in the outer life of the believer 
 of these properties and perfections of the Divine 
 in his soul, is the enjoyment of the nearest 
 fellowship, of the purest bliss of the finite with 
 the Infinite, of the human with the Divine. 
 There is no possession possible to man, which 
 either for its own importance or that of its 
 results, can be compared for one moment with 
 the possession of these inner awakenings of the 
 indwelling of the Spirit of God in the spirit of 
 man. 
 
 And there is no Divine life in man, no religious 
 
90 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 action performed by him, that is acceptable to 
 God, or profitable to himself, but what is the 
 manifestion of the Spirit's awakening in his soul. 
 The consciousness of this inner life, and of its 
 outer manifestations, is the realization of salva- 
 tion, the enjoyment of the saints in light, the 
 only appearance with Christ in the glory of His 
 reign. The consciousness of this inner realization 
 and outer manifestation is the entrance of the 
 believer into the perfections of the Divine, the 
 beginning of being for ever with the Lord. 
 
 If the fall of man was not necessary, it w^as at 
 least subservient to the highest manifestations of 
 the Divine, the most striking display of the self- 
 sacrificing of the Godhead, to the creation in 
 the human of the most receptive capacity for 
 the realizations of the nearest, fullest, and most 
 blissful indwelling of the Divine. 
 
 The entrance on a lofty condition of spiritual 
 existence, through strife and conflict, by sell- 
 denial and self-sacrifice, is a far nobler and 
 much more efftcient preparation for its realiza- 
 tion and enjoyment, than the being thrown into 
 it by the mere accident of birth, without any 
 individual effort to secure it on the part of him 
 who enters upon it. This is the underlying 
 principle for the permission of persecution, the 
 sustaining power of the lofty heroism of the 
 
The Re-possessing of the Human. 91 
 
 martyr, and of the sympathy which is felt for 
 the sufferer, as well as of the admiration in 
 which his conduct is universally held. And yet 
 Christian society, with all its means of informa- 
 tion, has much to learn regarding this phase of 
 Divine Providence. 
 
 Communion with God, in the realization of 
 His self-sacrificing, redemptive love, is possible 
 to the believer only in this sinful world. The 
 existence of evil is to the discipline of the 
 believer, in his progress to the perfection of the 
 Christian life, what atmosphere is to the flight 
 of the bird. It is only in overcoming evil that 
 we can realize the victory of faith. Hence it 
 is through tribulation that the believer enters 
 the kingdom. 
 
 God works in the material, in endless variety, 
 and in doing so produces numerous lovely and 
 magnificent results ; the most stupendous of 
 which is what the Psalmist speaks of when 
 he says, " I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 
 My substance was not hid from Thee, when I 
 was made in secret, and curiously wrought in 
 the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see 
 my substance, yet being unperfect ; and in Thy 
 book all my members were written, which in 
 continuance were fashioned, when as yet there 
 was none of them." Yet none of the grandeur 
 
9 2 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 of this work is seen or known in consciousness 
 when it is being " curiously wrought." And so 
 of the far more grand and illustrious work which 
 is being wrought out in the training of the sons 
 of God for their manifestation in glory. This 
 glorious work of transformation in the re-creation 
 of the sons of God is scorned by the world, and 
 far from being clearly discerned and understood 
 by the Church, but it is none the less wondrous 
 in its nature, Divine in its character, and glorious 
 in its consummation. This work is advancing 
 in the silent majesty of its unobserved grandeur, 
 unknown or little regarded now, but will be seen 
 in its full-orbed splendour when brought con- 
 spicuously before the gaze of the assembled 
 universe. 
 
 To perceive the vast importance of the present 
 condition of Christian living and working, the 
 believer and the Church require to rise to a 
 clearer vision of the profound principles and 
 deepening realizations of the Divine in Christ 
 Jesus. And to acquire such they must cease 
 to resist, and more vigorously co-operate with, 
 the Spirit of God in His striving to raise the 
 Church into fuller realizations of the spiritual 
 and Divine. They must drink deeper into the 
 Spirit, realize more fervent communion with the 
 Spirit, and manifest more of the Hfe of the Spirit. 
 
The Re-possessing of the Human, 93 
 
 All love of worldly vain show, all desire to 
 conform to its selfish customs, all striving after 
 its power, distinctions, honours, and rewards, in 
 preference to the inner attainments of the Divine, 
 and manifestations of the grace of self-sacrifice, 
 is a resistance of the Spirit, whether it be in 
 the formal of religious life, the emulations of 
 ecclesiastical aims, or the contentions about the 
 doctrines of Christianity. It is only \\\ yielding 
 up to the higher quickening of the Divine that 
 Christian society can rise to the enjoyment of 
 nearer, fuller, and sweeter fellowship with God 
 in the purest, loftiest, and divinest of His being, 
 doing, and realizing, whether in this or the life 
 to come. Life can be realized only in and by 
 conformity with the conditions of its progress. 
 In the consciousness of life in communion with 
 God we have the inmost of the spiritual, the 
 clearest visions of the realized indwellings of the 
 Father, Son, and Spirit. We have the conscious 
 realization of the Father, Son, and Spirit coming 
 into us, and making their abode with us, in the 
 manifestations of their indwelling presence. 
 
 Desire for an end manifests itself in the 
 employment of the necessary means. It goes 
 out through will, manifests itself in volition, 
 producing means for the accomplishment of 
 its end. In this way God reproduced Himself 
 
g 4 S^lf- Sacrifice, 
 
 in man, creating him in His own likeness. He 
 thus wrought His way at first to His indwelling 
 in the human, producing the universe with man 
 at its head. 
 
 God was expelled from His indwelling in 
 the human by man's transgression of the law 
 of fellowship. By desiring something different 
 from a condition of fellowship, the individual 
 so desiring begins to move out of that fellow- 
 ship, and thus passes from its realization into 
 another condition ere he is aware of what is 
 going on within him. In this way man pre- 
 pared himself for the deed by which he passed 
 from a condition of agreeable fellowship with 
 God, into one of disagreeable fellowship with 
 himself, with God, and all that stands in the 
 way of his selfishness. 
 
 God wrought His way to His re-indwelling 
 in the human by a more immediate outgoing of 
 Himself in incarnation. The essential instead 
 of the mere vital of the Divine took up His 
 abode in the immaculate child, and thus the 
 essentially Divine developed the human in 
 undeviating conformity with Himself, and in 
 this He displayed what the human in perfect 
 accord with the Divine could be, do, and realize. 
 
 This incarnation of the Divine in the human 
 was all that the Father's heart desired. He 
 
The R(-possessing of the Human. 95 
 
 rested with fullest complacency in the life of 
 His Son, and He exulted in the self-sacrificing 
 death of Calvary, because it was the fullest 
 possible manifestation of His gracious love. 
 This exultation, however, was not in the suffer- 
 ing but in the heroism of that death. 
 
 The objective Divine becomes the objective 
 human through man's believing in the Son of 
 God. Faith in Jesus realizes the invisible of 
 the Divine in the consciousness of the believing 
 human. The object of faith becomes subject 
 to the believer in his conscious oneness of 
 realization with God in his soul, and thus the 
 subjective human becomes one with the sub- 
 jective of God. The believer in God's Son thus 
 lives the life of God. Through God's loving 
 him and his loving God, God dwells in him and 
 he in God. Between God and the believer in 
 Christ there is a oneness of conscious life 
 realized in a similarity of mind and identity 
 of heart. The conscious life of the adopted is 
 the reflection of the conscious life of the only 
 begotten Son of the Father. The Father and 
 the Son having taken up their abode with the 
 believer, in and through means of his reconcilia- 
 tion with them, they are one in their enjoyment 
 of conscious life, or in the fellowship of the 
 self-sacrificing of the Divine. 
 
THE TRUE AND THE FALSE OF 
 AMBITION, 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE TRUE AND THE FALSE OE 
 AMBITION. 
 
 MAN, by the deepest instincts of his nature, 
 and the highest ends of his existence, is 
 an ambitious being ; but he knows not how to 
 pursue the true object of his ambition, nor to 
 gratify aright the ruling passion of his heart. 
 He does not perceive that there is a far more 
 illustrious way of displaying ambition than in 
 vieing with one another in vainglory about 
 human attainments and earthly possessions. 
 Man requires to have a proper object of am - 
 bition made known to him, and the best method 
 of pursuing the high end of his existence. In 
 this lies the profound truth and important 
 principle of his well-being. 
 
 Man has to struggle, and to struggle severely, 
 with or against evil. Man cannot use evil to 
 his advantage. This in the nature of things is 
 an impossibiUty. He may make it the occa- 
 sion, but never the instrument, of good. And 
 
lOO Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 this he can do only in connection with self- 
 sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is the only deed that 
 enables man to take occasion from evil to realize 
 the highest possible good, and live the noblest of 
 all conceivable lives. He thus can give full scope 
 to his ambition, and rise to the loftiest condition 
 of existence in the pursuit of his chief good. 
 
 Selfishness animating the sordid spirit of man 
 has produced the most hideous forms of crime, 
 debauchery, and baseness, that have marred the 
 life of man on earth, and darkened with the 
 foulest blots the pages of human history and 
 biography. Selfishness can only lead to failure, 
 disappointment, and ruin ; ambition moved by 
 selfishness has led to illustrious achievements, 
 the display of gigantic powers, and the acquisi- 
 tion of dazzling fame, but only by severe effort, 
 at great expense, terminating in disappointment 
 and sadness. In the lofty aims and alluring 
 enterprises which captivate the spirit of man in 
 the various departments of life, both in Church 
 and State, he has performed deeds which have 
 attracted the gaze and drawn forth the admira- 
 tion of multitudes of observers. But man in 
 the performance of the most illustrious deeds 
 of selfish ambition has ever failed to secure 
 lasting benefits to his race, or permanent honour 
 to himself. From the arena of the most startling- 
 
The Trice and the False of Ambition, loi 
 
 exploits of selfish ambition he has had to retire 
 under darkening clouds of discomfiture, in the 
 chagrin of conscious failure. And whenever the 
 motives and principles of his deeds of selfish 
 ambition have come to light, they have awakened 
 the strongest feelings of condemnation, if not of 
 scorn and contempt. 
 
 The deeds of selfish ambition, from the initial 
 act of covetousness and sin of our first parents 
 down to the present moment, have only been 
 fraught with evil. The Nimrods of Babel Tower, 
 the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Nebuchadnezzars of 
 Babylon, the Dariuses of Persia, the Alexanders 
 of Greece, the Caesars of Rome, the bishops, 
 cardinals, and popes of Italy, etc., have all 
 through selfish ambition fearfully perverted 
 their powers and opportunities, brought ruin on 
 themselves, and injury on others. If proof were 
 necessary, we have only to refer to Cardinal 
 Wolsey's exclamation, " If I had served my 
 God with half the zeal I have served my king. 
 He wouldn't have abandoned me ; " also the 
 recorded confession of ^neas Sylvius Piccolo- 
 mini, " While I was a priest I had some good 
 hopes of salvation ; when I became a cardinal, I 
 began to doubt it ; but since I became pope I 
 have no hope at all;" or to Napoleon's reflections 
 in St. Helena on the principles of empire. 
 
I o 2 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 On the other hand, ambition animated by the 
 spirit of self-sacrifice has produced the noblest, 
 the most sublime, heroic, and happy characters 
 of time ; characters which have won the highest 
 honours, secured the most lasting benefits for 
 the human race, and drawn forth the spontaneous 
 admiration and gratitude of all after-ages and 
 generations. The self-sacrificing spirit of the 
 missionary of the Cross ennobles his life and 
 benefits the scene of his self-sacrificing labours. 
 The influence of such spirits as those of Living- 
 stone, Duff, Paterson, Williams, Schwartz, and 
 Xavier are felt, and will for ages to come 
 exert the most telling influence on mankind for 
 good. The self-sacrificing spirit of Christian 
 philanthropists, as in the case of John Howard, 
 has and will continue to shed a benign influence 
 on all susceptible society, and bring untold 
 blessings on innumerable multitudes of unborn 
 humanity. The self-sacrificing spirit of Christian 
 reformers, as that of Luther, has burst asunder 
 the bonds of the most galling bondage, emanci- 
 pated millions from degrading superstition, and 
 exhibited a devotion and courage to the highest 
 interests of God and man, which has commanded 
 and will continue to command the homage of 
 admiring myriads. The courage which could 
 declare its resolution to proceed to Worms in 
 
The True and the False of Ambition, 103 
 
 the face of innumerable frowning fiends, and 
 display singly and alone that undaunted mag- 
 nanimity which awed that august assembly, 
 irresistibly compels admiration and applause. 
 The self-sacrificing spirit of the martyrs of 
 Christ, from that of Stephen, calling upon Jesus 
 to forgive his murderers, to that of Cranmer, who 
 in a lofty indignation at his momentary v/eak- 
 ness of recantation, burned off the hand that 
 signed the record of his frailty, has led to the 
 performance of the most heroic deeds, and set 
 the most illustrious examples that earth can 
 ever witness. No tongue can tell or pen de- 
 scribe the innumerable blessings which the self- 
 sacrificing spirit of the martyrs of Jesus Christ 
 has conferred on mankind. The deeds of heroic 
 grandeur, the benefits of lasting worth, the 
 example, which the self-sacrificing spirit of the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles has bestowed on the 
 human race, will require eternity itself to dis- 
 close ; and all the benefits which philanthropy, 
 literature, art, science, and philosophy have con- 
 ferred on the race, have been bestowed through 
 self-denial and self-sacrifice. 
 
 And when even in thought we call before us, 
 and dwell in meditation upon, the self-sacrificing 
 spirit of the Son of man, we are constrained to 
 prostrate ourselves in the deepest adoration, 
 
I04 Self' Sacrifice. 
 
 admiration, love, and gratitude. In His felt 
 presence we are fired with His spirit, allured 
 by His example, dignified and blessed in the 
 conscious imitation of His life. As in the con- 
 templation of His illustrious character and the 
 grandeur of His work we are constrained to 
 enquire, how is it that He alone of all that 
 ever appeared on earth, understood the true 
 use of ambition, and how it was that He 
 turned it to its proper account } To such an 
 enquiry there is but one reply : " For the joy 
 that was set before Him, He endured the 
 cross, despising the shame." 
 
 The great want of this age of self-seeking 
 enquiry is the proper understanding of the 
 true sphere, right action, and proper results of 
 self-sacrificing ambition. Christian life in its 
 consecrated devotion meets the want, and 
 affords to the human spirit all that is neces- 
 sary to a noble career in the formation of an 
 illustrious character, a blissful consciousness in 
 the boundless expanse of the soul. The spirit 
 of Christian devotedness has only to consecrate 
 itself in enlightened self-sacrificing zeal to the 
 glory of God in the bliss of man, in order to 
 perform Divine deeds, both in the humblest 
 and in the highest walks of life, and in so doing 
 to realize the purest fellowship with the infinite 
 
The True and the False of Ambition. 105 
 
 and eternal God in the attainment of the 
 loftiest destiny of being and life. 
 
 Christ alone knew how to take occasion from 
 evil to turn ambition to its proper account. 
 He saw that notwithstanding the hateful charac- 
 ter of evil, it may be made the occasion of the 
 very highest possible good ; and that this world 
 of sinful hfe, if not the only, is the fairest region 
 in all God's universe for taking occasion from 
 evil to achieve the highest good. He saw that 
 the virtues of patience, of forbearance, of for- 
 giveness, etc., could never have been cultivated 
 and matured if evil had never existed. He 
 was well aware that the achievement of the 
 noblest deeds, the formation of the loveliest 
 character, the breaking open of the fountain 
 of the purest bliss, the alluring of men from the 
 selfishness of the Satanic to the self-sacrificine 
 
 o 
 
 of the Divine, could never have been, if there 
 had been no evil to contend with. 
 
 The noblest attributes of Godhead would not 
 have been known out of the consciousness of 
 God Himself, the operations of Divine love in 
 the fullest manifestations of itself could not 
 have been disclosed, the sublime conception 
 of grace reigning through righteousness would 
 not have been realized, the transformation of 
 the rebel into the filial child could not have 
 
io6 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 been accomplished, the most glorious achieve- 
 ment of Godhead, in the perfection and blessed- 
 ness of sinful human souls, could not have been 
 known, had evil not existed. 
 
 These glorious ends could only have been 
 achieved by the spirit of self-sacrifice animating 
 the soul of ambition. The graces of patience, 
 forbearance, fortitude, forgiveness, love of ene- 
 mies, blessing them that curse, praying for them 
 that despitefully use and evil entreat, are pos- 
 sible only through self-sacrifice, and self-sacrifice 
 in its most perfect form is possible only through 
 the existence and operations of evil. But for 
 the cherishing and manifesting the spirit of 
 self-sacrifice in the meek and patient endurance 
 of evil, Christ Himself could never have lived 
 His true Hfe, formed His sublime character, 
 risen to the superhuman height of exclaiming, 
 " Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do." 
 
 The false conceptions and teachings of not a 
 few of Christian dogmatists regarding Christian 
 humility, together with the perversions of the 
 principles of sacrifice in the popular theology of 
 the Church, have formed an incubus which has 
 fearfully oppressed and enervated the energies 
 of Christendom, and threatened the extinction 
 of the very life of the Church itself 
 
The True and the False of Ambition. 107 
 
 Love seeks, if it does not demand, nay, 
 necessitate, the occasion of self-sacrifice. Love 
 never attains its true altitude, never expresses 
 its true self, never realizes its purest satisfaction, 
 never knows itself, till it suffers on behalf of 
 its objects. Self-sacrifice is the deed in which 
 love outbreathes its true self This is true 
 of human as well as of Divine love. The 
 lover, in the measure of his true affection, is 
 ever ready to sacrifice himself for or on behalf 
 of the object of his heart. This is the true 
 explanation of the incarnate life, death, and 
 ascension of God's own Son, the voluntary 
 self-sacrifice of the Godhead. Without this 
 sacrifice, as far as we can see, God would never 
 have outwardly realized the inmost depths of 
 His own Being, crowned His workings with 
 a display worthy of His love, i.e., Himself. 
 In this, however, He is not self-seeking. This 
 is impossible to love, which in its very essence 
 is self-devotion. There are mysteries in love 
 which are yet to be learned. 
 
 May this fact not throw some light on the 
 true solution of the permission of evil .? It was 
 not from love of it, nor indifference to evil, that 
 it was permitted to invade God's fair universe. 
 It was allowed an existence, that occasion 
 might be taken from its presence to work out 
 
I o 8 ^^If- Sacrifice, 
 
 the highest, sublimest, divinest ends of being, 
 that Godhead might reahze its inmost being 
 in the fullest expression of itself on behalf of 
 rebel existence. 
 
 If so, what a future opens up before us in 
 the hereafter of the Christian Church ! When 
 the sublime importance of the principle of self- 
 sacrifice shall be understood, and felt pervading 
 and influencing the ranks of all Christian 
 Society, then Rationalism, Formalism, Creedism, 
 Ecclesiasticism, Moralism, Asceticism, Pietism, 
 will fall into and occupy their inferior places. 
 The spirit of vainglory, rivalry, strife and con- 
 tention among brethren will become unknown, 
 immorality in conduct, trickery in trade, undue 
 advantage in commerce, crime in social life, 
 selfish deeds among Christians, will be seen 
 in their true unworthiness, and so frowned 
 upon as to be banished out of the Church. 
 Intelligence will be cultivated, brotherly love 
 will prevail, so that communion in a refined, 
 exalted, and just character, will be all but 
 universally rejoiced in. For while Christians 
 will still have to bear their cross in crucifying 
 the flesh, with its afi"ections and lusts, they 
 will joy and rejoice in self-sacrifice with joy 
 unspeakable and full of glory. As the great 
 Self-sacrificer, under the pressure of His outer 
 
The True and the False of Ambition. 109 
 
 sufferings, realized the more fully the deep 
 and abundant welling up of the inner streams 
 of bliss, so will the joy of His disciples living 
 in the nearer imitation of Him abound in them 
 the more. 
 
 When once the spirit of self-sacrifice as the 
 true principle of Christian life in a sinful world 
 is properly understood, a new atmosphere will 
 be created in the Church, and a new influence 
 breathed by the heart of the brotherhood. To 
 the extent in which this inflnence shall be felt 
 and acted on, hypocrisy, meanness, and fraud 
 will be found impossible. There will then be 
 no need of gilding the Christian life, or of 
 getting up in the Church attractions to draw 
 to or retain within her pale the youth of her 
 communities, nor will there be any need of 
 devising institutions or framing laws to regulate 
 the intercourse of brethren. Intelligence, piety, 
 brotherly kindness, godliness, will be so pure, 
 exalted, and appreciated, that the power of self- 
 sacrifice being all but universally felt, acknow- 
 ledged, and delighted in, the Church, as in the 
 beginning, will attract mankind within her pale 
 by myriads. 
 
 The principle of self-sacrifice will then take 
 occasion, from existing evil, to display its true 
 character, and accomplish its Divine work so as 
 
1 1 o ^^y^- Sacrifice, 
 
 to command the homage of all. It will in this 
 crucifixion of self encounter and subdue the 
 evils in the life of the individual, the Church, 
 and the world, so as to bring the Christian 
 communities into resemblance with the apostolic 
 times. It was the spirit of self-sacrifice reigning 
 in the Church of those days, that strengthened 
 and glorified her in the sight of men. The 
 ambition of aiding in effecting such GodHke 
 results, of acquiring such glory, and of diffusing 
 such bliss, will baptize men with the spirit of 
 self-sacrifice to such a degree as will enable 
 them to see that it was the spirit of this lofty 
 ambition that, animating the Son of man in 
 His wondrous life and amazing death, exalted 
 Him in the view of the universe, and made 
 Him the recognized principle and acknowledged 
 power of all that is dignified and illustrious 
 in the true life of man. 
 
 This world may have been needed for the 
 highest education of the entire universe ; the 
 need be of which is not grounded in the Infinite 
 or Absolute, but in the limited, and consequently 
 imperfect, condition of the finite. If the principle 
 of self-sacrifice is to occupy so lofty a position, 
 and effect so glorious a work on earth, will its 
 power be unfelt in other spheres and periods of 
 existence t We cannot imagine that its opera- 
 
The True and the False of Ambition, 1 1 1 
 
 tions will be limited to this terrestrial ball, or to 
 the brief period of time. If the principle of self- 
 sacrifice be the very essence of love, the inmost 
 virtue of the Godhead itself, the most glorious 
 element of the highest character, the most 
 blessed ingredient of all exalted life, may it 
 not be destined to reign throughout the entire 
 universe of being, and to bind together, not 
 in a dead uniformity, but in the rich diversity 
 and varied degrees of life, ail the orders and 
 ranks of spiritual existence ; and thus em- 
 bracing all finite orders of intelligence, extend 
 throughout all time and the whole of eternity ? 
 
 The imperfections of human frailty subserve 
 the manly struggles of earthly life, in which 
 self-sacrifice finds its true sphere of operation. 
 It certainly is far more noble to struggle 
 through tribulation into the kingdom, in the true 
 discipline of noble powers which qualify for the 
 loftiest conditions of conscious being and life, 
 than to be brought into the enjoyment of con- 
 scious innocence of life by mere submission 
 to or plastic compliance with creative power, 
 leading into the calm security of angelic life. 
 Is it not amazing that the theologians of 
 the Christian Church could have so shut their 
 eyes to the grandeur of Christ's earthly life, as 
 to fall into dreams of the vast superiority of 
 
112 ^^If- Sacrifice, 
 
 angelic experience to Christian life on earth, 
 and thus lead to a mawkish sentimentalism, 
 which has induced the weaker members of 
 Christ to long to be away in heaven, instead of 
 embracing their fair and enviable opportunities 
 of imitating their Lord in winning, through self- 
 sacrifice, the brighter diadems of glory ? 
 
 We advance a step further than the defence 
 of self-sacrifice from the point of its importance 
 and underlying power of bliss, and assert the 
 absolute necessity of it, not the mere necessity 
 as arising out of the wants and circumstances 
 of fallen humanity, but the necessity which is 
 grounded in the deeper depths of immortal 
 being and life, the inmost nature of the infinite 
 and eternal Godhead. We would shrink from 
 writing presumptuously on so mysterious a 
 theme, but we cannot forego the opportunity of 
 giving expression to the conviction that as 
 philosophy has hitherto underlain the intepre- 
 tation of the deep mysteries of revelation, the 
 time is not distant when the teaching and 
 principles of philosophy will be received only 
 in as far as they quadrate with the profounder 
 truths of Christianity. 
 
 Why is the love of glory so deeply and 
 indestructibly imbedded in the nature of man ? 
 why does he in every sphere and circumstance 
 
The True and the False of Ambition, 113 
 
 of life long for (and seek after) distinctions ? 
 why was creation called into existence in its 
 present peculiar form ? man permitted to fall, 
 and suffering to prevail in the world ? why did 
 incarnate Deity travail in the greatness of His 
 strength, mighty to save? May it not have been 
 because there is in the Godhead a yearning to 
 display the inmost glory of the Absolute Essence, 
 a longing of Infinite and Eternal Love to realize 
 itself in the consciousness of self-sacrifice, that it 
 might raise its own expressed image into the 
 nearest possible consciousness of its own life, in 
 an everlasting and uninterrupted fellowship with 
 itself, not from self-seeking, which is contrary 
 to the very essence of love, but in the deepest 
 devotion of itself to the supreme glory and 
 bliss of the objects of its purest affection ? * 
 
 Man cannot satisfy himself with mere exist- 
 ence, with mere painless existence, no, nor with 
 mere sinless life. If he reads aright the deepest 
 instincts of his spirit, he will detect yearnings 
 after the conscious possession of the virtues of 
 heroic martyrdom. To become conscious of 
 such he will readily sacrifice his life, his all. 
 We pen these lines not in ignorance of the bent 
 of popular preaching, which paints heaven to 
 the eager listener as a most desirable state of 
 
 * See chap. ix. 
 
 8 
 
114 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 indolent repose ; but such teaching, while it 
 rivets the attention and captivates the hearts 
 of the thoughtless multitudes, will not meet the 
 deep cravings of man's immortal spirit within, 
 satisfy his indestructible yearnings after dis- 
 tinction, nor raise him to the elevation of the 
 spiritual and Divine. 
 
 The enjoyment of innocence, the happiness of 
 blameless existence, is the bliss of angelic being 
 and seraphic life; but man, created in the highest 
 order of finite existence, and formed for fellow- 
 ship with the Godhead in its purest, deepest, 
 sweetest bliss, for the nearest possible approach 
 of the created to the uncreated life, must crave 
 after a loftier condition of existence and life, 
 than that of mere blameless being or innocent 
 living. His proper sphere of action in the 
 Church below is the martyrdom of self-sacrifice, 
 and in the Church above, to realize the full 
 consciousness of having so lived upon the earth, 
 as to have washed his robes in the blood of the 
 Lamb. It is then he will possess the clear 
 vision of the glorious results of self-sacrifice. 
 The song of the redeemed in heaven is a song 
 which no one can learn but the '* hundred and 
 forty and four thousand which were redeemed 
 from the earth." Man is created for fellowship 
 with the Godhead, and this can be enjoyed in 
 
The True a7id the False of Ambition. 1 1 5 
 
 its highest bliss only in the consciousness of 
 self-sacrifice. 
 
 The true condition of believers on earth is to 
 be blameless and harmless, the sons of God 
 in the midst of a crooked and perverse genera- 
 tion, among whom they are to shine as lights 
 in the world, holding forth the word of life. 
 This is a condition of being and life which is 
 possible to those only who live in the practice 
 of self-sacrifice. This state of being is very 
 different from that of the unfallen intelhgences 
 of heaven, in all their glory and bliss. It is 
 the most illustrious phase of life possible to 
 finite or infinite existence in time or in eternity. 
 Of course such a condition of life can only 
 be, in the very nature of things, temporary self- 
 sacrifice ; martyrdom, a suffering life, miscon- 
 ception, and unmerited reproach, are not and 
 cannot be in themselves desirable. They are 
 submitted to only as a means to an illustrious 
 end, yielded to as necessary for the opening up 
 of the deeper springs of consciousness in the 
 soul, and leading to the clearer discernment of 
 the profounder nature of things, the more distant 
 possibilities of existence. Obscurity and suffer- 
 ing can therefore be only temporary, and as 
 such they are offered to believers on earth as 
 the most favourable conditions, while they are 
 
ii6 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 in the Church below, of becoming like Christ ; 
 inasmuch as these conditions afford the disciple 
 of Jesus the most apt opportunities of imitating 
 his Lord, and becoming identified with Him in 
 His most glorious and blessed consciousness. 
 But who in the professing Church below believes 
 this ? and who of those who do believe it, eagerly 
 seize, like Paul, their present opportunities ? 
 
 This is the doctrine which is needed by the 
 Church, and which meets the wants of the world, 
 which is fitted to enlist the energies of all 
 Christians, in the different spheres of life ; which 
 speaks to the deepest instincts of humanity, 
 and which sheds a flood of light on God's deal- 
 ings with man — nay, opens up to our view the 
 inmost recesses of the very heart of Godhead 
 Itself. Let every believer in Christ realize the 
 power of this doctrine, and the worldliness of 
 the Church is at an end, she will become ani- 
 mated once more with apostolic zeal, and her 
 glorious work will be understood and performed 
 in its true spirit. The attempts to morahze 
 Christian truth, and the preaching of such doc- 
 trine for the ascetic life of the Church, will not 
 elevate her in the view of the world, nor equip 
 her for the performance of her true work. 
 
 It is no valid objection to such teaching to 
 say that it is inconsistent with the immutability 
 
The True and the False of Ambition, 1 1 7 
 
 and absolute perfection of the Godhead. Scrip- 
 ture furnishes us with the means of meeting 
 such objections ; for while the Bible teaches us 
 clearly the absolute perfection and immutability 
 of the Divine essence, it also shows us that life 
 is a consciousness which, while it can be realized 
 in its infinitude and eternity by the Absolute in 
 Himself, required for its manifestation in fellow- 
 ship with the finite, the conditionings of an out- 
 come in the developments of time. 
 
 The end was known to God, was present with 
 Him, in the beginning ; His delights were with 
 the children of men. Christ, in the conscious- 
 ness of Godhead, is the Lamb slain from the 
 foundation of the world. In the consciousness 
 of the Infinite all was ever present ; but in the 
 outcome of the Infinite in the Absolute, con- 
 ditioning Himself, the Eternal com.es into the 
 temporary, that the temporary may pass into 
 the Eternal. And in the elevation of the finite 
 and temporal into the consciousness of life and 
 fellowship with the Infinite and Eternal, there 
 must be the outgoing or conditioning of the 
 Absolute in a creation, incarnation, and mani- 
 festation of life, a proclamation, a behef of the 
 faith, or fellowship in self-sacrifice.* 
 
 This doctrine shows us that it is only those 
 * See chap. ix. 
 
1 1 8 Self-Sacri^ce. 
 
 who live the life of Christ on earth, that can, in 
 the very nature of things, realize the oneness 
 of consciousness with Him in the glorious and 
 blessed reign in heaven. It shows us the deep 
 necessity for diligence and fidelity in our Chris- 
 tian calling here below ; and will secure believers 
 from contentions among themselves, as well as 
 save them from resting in the mere admiration 
 of the martyr, and especially from the danger of 
 making him an idol of worship, which it is to 
 be feared is done by many. On the contrary, 
 it will induce the Church, while admiring the 
 heroism of the martyr, to strive to surpass his 
 devotion, and coveting earnestly the better gifts, 
 labour in fervent zeal to imitate in even higher 
 measure the example of the Great Sacrificer 
 Himself. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE CHARACTER 01^ SELF-SACRIFICE. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 THE CHARACTER OF SELF-SACRIFICE, 
 
 SELF in God is not to be confounded with 
 self in the sinful creature. Self in God 
 denotes the perfection of His Being, and self- 
 love in God signifies His love of the perfection 
 of His Being and doing, especially of His self- 
 sacrificing devotion for the good of man. Self- 
 love in the sinful creature denotes the preference 
 of individual likings, methods, and ends, irre- 
 spective of, nay, in opposition to, the nature of 
 things, the constituted order of the universe, 
 the law and authority of God. Self in God is 
 noble, and worthy of His Being. Self in man is 
 ignoble and degrading. Self in the sinful crea- 
 ture is an idol, a delusion which has no existence 
 except in his own diseased imagination. Ad- 
 herence to self leads the sinner to act against 
 reality, the reality of the Infinite and Eternal, 
 of the creaturely and vital against the require- 
 ments of law and perfection, against the con- 
 ditions of pure enjoyment of all existence. 
 
12 2 ^^If- Sacrifice, 
 
 Self in the creature being that which drags its 
 dupes down to the lowest depths of degradation 
 and woe, the sacrifice of self in man must 
 necessarily be elevating both in the measure and 
 manner of its operations. Self-denial and self- 
 sacrifice in the sinner is the giving up of the 
 idols which deceive him and lead him to war 
 with God, the constituted order of the universe, 
 the nature of man, and the principles of universal 
 well-being. Self-sacrifice or denial in the Chris- 
 tian is the giving up of all in him which conflicts 
 with his own and the well-being of others ; it 
 also denotes the patient submission to wrong, 
 that the wrong-doer may be reclaimed to God. 
 Self-sacrifice thus impHes no indifference to the 
 perfection or comfort of life, but only the part- 
 ing with those habits of fallen humanity which 
 interfere with man's true standing, enjoyment, 
 and influence for good, in a correct and benefi- 
 cent life, or momentary suffering for the good 
 of others. Christianity, being designed for the 
 good of all men, in all circumstances and con- 
 ditions of life, cannot demand of man anything 
 that would interfere with the perfection of his 
 life, character, or true enjoyment. It is the being 
 in a sinful world, or in a more or less sinful state, 
 that necessitates self-sacrifice, and makes it a 
 duty. Christ set the example of foregoing for a 
 
The Character of Self- Sacrifice, 123 
 
 season all things the surrender of which would 
 conduce to higher and more beneficent ends. 
 
 Man, in undergoing self-denial, allies himself 
 with the Divine, and by so doing overcomes the 
 most numerous, powerful, and subtle tempta- 
 tions he is exposed to. By self-sacrifice the 
 believer in Jesus unites himself with the more 
 immediate outgoings of the Godhead, and thus 
 emancipates himself from the most impending, 
 enslaving, and ruining of evils. He inbreathes 
 immediately the love, purpose, and will of God ; 
 allies himself in destiny with the most glorious 
 elements of being, doing, and realizing. 
 
 Self-sacrifice on behalf of others is possible 
 only to the highest natures and most godlike 
 of lives. It stirs in them the deepest powers, 
 principles, realizations, and ends of existence. 
 Self-sacrifice not only honours and blesses the 
 self-sacrificer, it likewise benefits those who are 
 influenced by the sacrifice, far beyond what any 
 other deed could accomplish. 
 
 The spiritual and permanent elevation of man 
 can never be effected by military force or com- 
 munistic theories, nor by philanthropic, philo- 
 sophic, scientific, literary, or artistic doings, in 
 the national, social, or individual life of men ; 
 but only by his inbreathing the Divine, in the 
 sacrifice of self. In the pre-christian world, 
 
124 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 when military prowess, political sagacity, moral 
 speculation, philosophic attainment, scientific 
 discernment, artistic skill, literary refinement, 
 prevailed in the highest degrees, man sank in 
 the noblest and truest of his being, life, and work. 
 Self-sacrifice improves and benefits the outer con- 
 dition of mankind, above and beyond what any 
 other endeavour after well-being can secure. It 
 accomplishes the truest and richest development 
 of art, science, philosophy, government, litera- 
 ture, and morality. For whenever self influences 
 man in the study or practice of these, to the full 
 extent that it does so it perverts the endeavours 
 of the individual to discern the true nature of 
 things or to promote the real happiness of man. 
 Whereas self-sacrifice, being the true exponent 
 of the love of God, not only glorifies God, but 
 deifies the spirit of man in the loftiest degree. 
 
 By self-sacrifice man co-operates wnth the 
 Godhead in its divinest and most glorious 
 undertaking. The teaching of revelation is that 
 the greatest work of God is the work of saving 
 man, and reason at once endorses the authentic 
 dictate of revelation. As the rational, spiritual, 
 and Divine are superior to the material, sen- 
 tient, and social, so must be the re-creation of 
 the Divine in the human. The creation of the 
 material universe was truly a majestic deed ; 
 
The Character of Self -Sacrifice. 125 
 
 the production of immortal mind and adoring 
 spirit was a more stupendous display of power 
 and skill, but the reclamation from a false to 
 a true life was a greater still. To call into 
 being, to organize and set in motion the opera- 
 tions of responsible spirit, was indeed a magni- 
 ficent work, but to recall the same spirit from 
 a diabolic to a Divine life, to recreate the inner 
 chaos of free self-determining spirits, to readjust 
 the relations, and harmonize the principles of 
 that life, was a more majestic, a diviner work. 
 The one required the unerring fiat of omnipotent 
 energy going out in the conscious majesty of the 
 Divine. The other necessitated the self-sacrifice 
 of the Godhead, the travailing of the Incarnate 
 One in the greatness of His strength, mighty to 
 save, the manifestation of the sovereignty of 
 Incarnate Love in self-sacrificing grace. As 
 the displays of condescension are sublimer far 
 than the manifestation of conscious power, so 
 the rescue of man's immortal spirit from the 
 degradation and misery of sin is greater far than 
 the original formation of the same in the image 
 of God. 
 
 The self-sacrifice of the sovereign is absolutely 
 necessary to the reclamation of the rebellious. 
 Officialism can never melt the ire of the sullen ; 
 the stubborn will does and ever will resist the 
 
12 6 ^^^- Sacrifice, 
 
 command of mere authority. It is only the 
 entreaty of compassionate self-sacrificing love 
 that will arrest the attention, overcome the 
 opposition, and fire with filial love and grati- 
 tude the spirit of disobedience. If the self- 
 sacrifice of the ruler is manifested in a striking 
 display of devotedness to the well-being of the 
 rebellious, it will tell upon them with ready and 
 powerful effect. God and man may lecture, 
 threaten, denounce, and by such means en- 
 deavour to alarm the rebellious, and warn them 
 of their danger ; but the result will be only to 
 harden them the more, and to make them more 
 defiant. The rebel will remain in his stolid 
 indifference, or the more violent in his wrath. 
 
 It is only by laying aside the officialism of 
 authority, and coming before the self-willed 
 in an unmistakable display of self-sacrifice on 
 his behalf, that either God or man will melt 
 the hardness of the self-willed spirit, and awake 
 within it the risings of conviction, contrition, 
 gratitude, love, and resolve to turn from its 
 false and ruinous ways to the path of life and 
 obedience. The power of self-sacrifice on 
 behalf of the self-willed, when once perceived 
 by them, is felt to be omnipotent in its reclaim- 
 ing power to draw them into a life of devoted- 
 ness. Only let the rebel spirit behold the 
 
The Character of Self- Sacrifice. 127 
 
 rightful Sovereign bleeding on his behalf in the 
 grace of self-sacrifice ; let him come under the 
 conviction that all his Sovereign's sufferings 
 have been voluntarily undergone on his behalf 
 nay, inflicted by his rebel hate, on a self- 
 sacrificing Ruler, who submits to the fierce- 
 ness of ignorant enmity, that He may enable 
 the rebel, in the light of his own doings to 
 see the depth of his hatred to his rightful 
 Sovereign, and at the same time the depth of 
 self-sacrifice which his lawful Ruler is willing 
 to incur for his reclamation to the glory and 
 bliss of loyal devotion ; that moment he is 
 overcome, the rebel spirit in him is slain • he 
 >s stripped of its wilfulness, and is fired in his 
 inmost soul with the profoundest emotions of 
 affection and delight; he is divested of his 
 enmity, stirred in spirit, and bound to his lawful 
 Sovereign by the most powerful and enduring 
 bonds of filial love and fervent gratitude.* 
 
 Politics, arts, science, philosophy, morality, 
 aesthetics, philanthropy, asceticism-notwith- 
 standing all the earnest and persevering endea- 
 vours men have put forth through them on 
 behalf of fallen humanity-can never of them- 
 selves raise the suffering, immoral, and sinful of 
 
I c 8 ^^If- Sacrifice. 
 
 earth. And they fail to raise the fallen simply 
 because they are unable to meet the inmost 
 necessities of sinful and sorrowing humanity. 
 
 The benefactor of the sentient Hfe of man can 
 at best, by his cultivation of art, science, and 
 literature, enable his disciple to live a more 
 refined animal or sentient life. The benefactor 
 of the social life of man can at best, by the cultiva- 
 tion and application of science to art and hus- 
 bandry, trade and commerce, enable his disciple 
 to live a more refined worldly life. The benefactor 
 of the rational life of man can at best, by the 
 study of philosophy, in the training of the intel- 
 lectual faculties of his disciple, enable his pupil 
 to live or luxuriate in the speculations of rational- 
 ism. The benefactor of the innate religious life 
 of man can at best, by the cultivation of his 
 spiritual faculties in ascetic and aesthetic endea- 
 vours, enable his disciple to live a pharisaic 
 self-righteous life. But each and all of them 
 can do little or nothing to elevate mankind or 
 satisfy the deep necessities of human well-being. 
 
 These, even were they as successful as ima- 
 gination can conceive, could only in a tempo- 
 rary manner refine and gratify a portion only 
 of the inferior side of man's being, religion^ 
 and life. But when or where have they been 
 successful t They cannot elevate and bless the 
 
The Character of Self- Sacrifice, 129 
 
 whole life of man by quickening his inmost soul 
 with the Divine life ; and they cannot quicken 
 his inner life, because they cannot fill the deep 
 void, calm the secret conflict, satisfy the eager 
 cravings, unburden the conscience, and give in- 
 fallible instruction to the spirit of man. Hence 
 revolutions, communism, socialism, nihlism, poli- 
 tics, ecclesiasticism, morality, commerce, philo- 
 sophy, art, have never raised, and never can 
 raise, fallen man. The experience of the pre- 
 and post-christian worlds demonstrate this truth. 
 The true and permanent elevation of human 
 society is possible only through the quickening 
 of the human soul with the Divine life. And 
 this quickening of rebellious, fallen humanity 
 with the life of God is possible even to God 
 Himself only through an amazing display of the 
 self-sacrifice of the Godhead. 
 
 The opportunities of such self-sacrifice, for 
 either God or man, are found only in the region 
 of the fallen. If God undertakes the elevation 
 of fallen humanity. He must come into the sphere 
 of sin's operations, appear before the sinner, and 
 act in his view, so as to influence him to receive 
 the Divine life in accordance with the principles 
 of his nature, circumstances, necessities, and 
 aspirations. And man, to be serviceable in the 
 work of raising his fallen brother, must act 
 
 9 
 
130 Self- Sacrifice . 
 
 towards him in the same manner. It is only 
 through the self-sacrificing exertions of the ele- 
 vator that the fallen can be raised. 
 
 Hence the numerous failures of the reform- 
 ing institutions of mere human device. The 
 founders and managers, instead of breathing 
 the spirit of self-sacrifice in their discharge of 
 the duties they have undertaken, too often dis- 
 play the spirit of officialism, self-assertion, and 
 domineering, and thus produce the opposite of 
 what is expected. Hence the necessity for the 
 believer in Jesus, while in the world, to realize 
 the greatness of his privileges, the grandeur of 
 his calling, the nature of his power, and, in the 
 spirit of self-sacrificing devotion to the glory of 
 Christ, to copy His example. Whatever may 
 be the opportunities of departed spirits for 
 co-operating with the Spirit of all grace, we 
 may be sure they will avail themselves of every 
 occasion of doing so. Angels are ministering 
 spirits to the heirs of salvation, and so may be 
 departed souls. But these opportunities are as 
 nothing to those of the believer on earth. Co- 
 operation with the Spirit of God in self-sacrifice 
 is only confided to the believer in Jesus in this 
 life; and did he know his privilege, he would 
 value it as an enviable possession. To follow 
 Christ in the regeneration of this world is the 
 
The Character of Self -Sacrifice. 131 
 
 most glorious work and highest honour conferred 
 on man in time. 
 
 Into this region the Son of God came by His 
 incarnation. It was the only sphere in which 
 He could accomplish His glorious work of 
 human redemption. And as the Scriptures 
 represent the self-sacrifice of the Son as greater 
 than the self-denial of the Holy Ghost, so may 
 we regard the work of the believer in following 
 Christ as more arduous, noble, and enviable 
 than that of the angels or redeemed spirits in 
 ministering to the heirs of salvation. 
 
 Did we see things now as they will be seen 
 by us hereafter in the disclosures of the experi- 
 ence of the saints in glory, we should perceive 
 that this world of sin, into which the Son of 
 God came to win His glory, was, of all other 
 spheres in the wide universe of being, the most 
 favourable for winning glory and laying the 
 deep and permanent foundations of sweetest 
 bliss. We should see that he is the most wise 
 and dutiful believer, who does all in his power 
 to bring fallen immortals to Christ ; we should 
 rest in the conviction that he which " converteth 
 a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a 
 soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of 
 sins." If we look at the nature of the immortal 
 spirit of man as created in the image of God, we 
 
132 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 shall discern something of its vast and enduring 
 capacities, responsibilities, condition, and danger. 
 If we consider what Christ has done for the 
 salvation of souls, if we believe in the obligation 
 He has laid upon us to do all in our power 
 to extend His kingdom by the conversion of 
 sinners, if we remember the rewards He promises 
 us, and the results of compliance with or indif- 
 ference to His will, we shall perceive that our 
 present opportunities of living for the glory of 
 Christ are the most enviable of all privileges we 
 could enjoy. 
 
 This was what Paul felt when he was in a 
 strait between going to glory and bliss, or re- 
 maining in the persecutions and the sufferings 
 of self-sacrifice in this world of sin. He was 
 far from being indifferent to the employment, 
 the glory, the bliss, the security, and the society 
 of heaven, and he was no less indifferent to the 
 persecutions, sufferings, risks, and dangers of the 
 Christian calling on earth. He shrank from the 
 one, and he longed for the other ; yet his clear 
 conviction of the highest glory won, and the noble 
 rewards of the work done in the Church below 
 through self-sacrifice, compared with the results 
 of the work done, in the Church above, deter- 
 mined him to prefer remaining a longer period 
 on earth to immediately ascending to heaven. 
 
The Character of Self- Sacrifice, 133 
 
 Self-sacrifice is not without its pains and 
 pleasures; but the joys of the one far out- 
 measure and outlast the sufferings of the other. 
 The pain is momentary and limited, the joy is 
 boundless and enduring. The pain is like that 
 of the woman in travail ; the joy is like that of 
 the mother embracing her man-child, and the 
 delight with which she beholds him rising into 
 manhood, in health, prosperity, and honour. 
 Self is not without its gratifications, but they 
 are only momentary and deceptive. Man ruled 
 by self acts in accordance with the liking, think- 
 ing, and willing which are peculiar to fallen 
 humanity, and he does so in the measure of his 
 carnality. Self is the disease of man's spiritual 
 life, and stands in the way of his true dignity 
 and bliss. Self-sacrifice secures the health of 
 the soul, and is that which dignifies and blesses 
 the life of him who lives in it ; and it is profit- 
 able to him in the measure of the true nobility 
 of his soul. 
 
 Hence the wisdom and benignity of the 
 Saviour in requiring every disciple coming to 
 Him to deny himself. To deny self, an indi- 
 vidual must struggle with and overcome his 
 worldliness, prejudice, covetousness, devilishness, 
 the self that is in him. In this conflict with 
 self there is more or less pain experienced, but 
 
1 3 4 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 the pain is nothing compared with the conscious 
 joy of overcoming self, and entering into fellow- 
 ship with Jesus. Self can be overcome only as 
 the individual yields himself up to the Spirit of 
 God, working in him that faith which opens up 
 to his inner eye the sublimity of the self-sacrifice 
 of the Godhead on his behalf, and of his own 
 on behalf of a sinful world. Self-sacrifice is 
 the bearing of injury and wrong, that the wrong- 
 doer may be won to rectitude, to God, and to 
 the joy of self-sacrifice. Thus the joy of self- 
 sacrifice far outmeasures the suffering of the 
 self-denial it demands. The fruit of self-denial 
 is the conscious rectitude of being and doing, 
 the harmonious relations of life, the freedom of 
 energy and conscious joy of fellowship with the 
 Divine, which is the purest, deepest, and most 
 delightful which finite being can realize. It is 
 the joy of the Spirit, the realization of a satisfy- 
 ing bliss ; it is the drinking of the rivers of 
 pleasure which flow from the fount of God. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE FOLLY OF SELFISHNESS. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE FOLLY OF SELFLSHNESS, 
 
 SELF is an idol, and as such is nothing in 
 the world, or among the realities of objec- 
 tive existence. Still, as an idol, self exerts a 
 fearful power in the life, and reigns with a 
 tremendous sway over the subjective of man. 
 The worship of self is the most degrading 
 known to the finite, far more degrading than 
 the worship of idols of wood, of silver, or of 
 gold. In the homage of self, man pursues 
 " vanities, and follows lies ;" " sows to the wind, 
 and reaps of the whirlwind." The pursuit of 
 selfish ends must necessarily lead to disappoint- 
 ment ; for in following these objects man only 
 pursues the delusions of a vain imagination ; he 
 pursues things which have no existence but in 
 the dreams of disordered minds. Self is the 
 ignis fatuus of the world, the syren which 
 lures man to disappointment, degradation, and 
 
 woe. 
 
 The pursuit of self not only disappoints man. 
 
138 Sclf-Sacrijice, 
 
 but separates man from man, and turns him 
 upon his fellows in the retaliation of imaginary 
 and real injuries and wrongs. If men selfishly 
 desire the same object, then will they fall out 
 and contend about it. If the selfishness of some 
 lead them to ensnare others, they will do an 
 injury to the ensnared ; and when the ensnared 
 or enslaved become aroused to a sense of the 
 wrong done to them, they will seek to escape 
 from their bondage, and to avenge the injuries 
 done to them by their oppressors. If the 
 selfishness of owq leads him to deceive his 
 brother, then will he do an injury both to 
 himself and to his brother, which when per- 
 ceived by his brother will lead him to retaliate ; 
 and thus selfishness necessarily instigates those 
 in and on whom it acts to strife and wrong-doing. 
 Self usurps the throne of God in the heart of 
 man, and thus deprives man of fellowship with 
 His Father in heaven, in the conscious enjoy- 
 ment of the Divine. No human spirit can at 
 one and the same time realize gratification in 
 the service of self, and bliss in the consciousness 
 of pure devotedness to God. This fact explains 
 what appears a mystery in the experience of 
 many professors of religion, that so few realize 
 the pure satisfaction of spiritual joy. The ex- 
 planation is that few religious professors are 
 
TJie Folly of Scl/iJuicss. 139 
 
 devoid of more or less selfishness even in their 
 religious devotedness. There is much of self- 
 seeking and self-pleasing in the religious acts of 
 not a few. Some are religious, that they may 
 escape hell, that they may procure the favour 
 of God, and get good places in heaven. Self, in 
 the measure in which it operates in the life of 
 man, does and cannot but come in between the 
 soul and the pure realizations of the Divine. 
 The pure realization of the Divine, or sweet and 
 satisfying fellowship with God, can be enjoyed 
 only in and by means of the clear and full con- 
 sciousness of supreme love to God, and simple 
 devotion to His glory in the good of man. 
 
 Self necessarily involves its victims in delusive 
 pursuits of the unattainable, and cannot but 
 lead them in the end to disappointment, shame, 
 sorrow, and regret in the consciousness of their 
 defeat. Self occupying the throne of God in 
 the heart of man must keep up in his spirit an 
 unceasing conflict. Self must, in the measure 
 in which it is clung to by any individual, secure 
 the perversion of his powers, the prostitution of 
 his faculties and capacities, and in the end the 
 complete degradation and ruin of his life. Self, 
 wherever it exists and acts, necessarily leads to 
 the dishonour of God and to the injury of man. 
 
 Self not only leads to the destruction of 
 
1 40 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 man's fellowship with God, in the conscious 
 enjoyment of the Divine, but likewise as neces- 
 sarily alienates man from man, sets men in 
 opposition to one another, and leads to rivalry, 
 disappointment, retaliation, and revenge. There 
 is no sin or crime committed by men, but has 
 its source in selfishness. Selfishness in its 
 operations cannot but produce disturbance and 
 conflict in man's nature and life. If we take 
 the first sin as an illustration, and trace the 
 origin of every transgression committed by man, 
 we will find its source in self 
 
 Self not only appears in the sentient, and 
 works mischief in the social and religious life 
 of man, but likewise displays its power in the 
 speculations of his mind, and searchings after 
 the knowledge of truth. Man has his " idola " 
 in his philosophical speculation, as really as his 
 " idols " in his religious life. And his idola 
 reign with as much sovereign sway in his specu- 
 lations, as his "idols" in his prejudice and 
 superstition. Whenever self influences man, it 
 w^orks only for his degradation and ruin ; self 
 is a fearful tyrant in and over man. There 
 can be no sincere friendship, brotherly love 
 and kindness, or lasting agreement among the 
 selfish. 
 
 Self necessarily blinds the selfish to the 
 
The Folly of Selfishness, \\\ 
 
 perception of the first and underlying principle 
 of all being, life, and perfection ; viz., that love 
 devotes itself to the fullest extent, and in every 
 possible way, for the benefit of its object; that 
 it is more blessed to give than to receive ; that 
 the Brightness of the Father's glory, who, being 
 in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be 
 equal with God, yet made Himself of no reputa- 
 tion, and took upon Himself the form of a ser- 
 vant, and was made in the likeness of men, and 
 being found in fashion as a man, He humbled 
 Hin-Tself, and became obedient to death, even 
 the death of the cross. It also blinds man to 
 the perception that self-sacrificing love is the 
 only principle which sounds the deepest depths 
 of the Godhead, and is the principle which 
 binds all holy intelligence together, and under- 
 lies the pure bliss of all right-minded existence. 
 It is the immutable law of well-being. The 
 harmonizing power of the universe is, that the 
 highest condescend to the lowest, penetrate, 
 pervade, and fill it, and by so doing elevate it 
 to the level of itself— the holy the unholy, the 
 happy the suffering, the living the dead, etc. 
 
 Selfishness expelled man from Paradise, and 
 has been the cause of all the sufferings he has 
 since endured. Selfishness in pride leads to 
 the miseries which man endures from the 
 
142 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 oppression of the despot on the throne to the 
 cruelties of the despot in the family. Selfish- 
 ness in the vanities of life leads to the sufferings 
 of life which man endures in connection with 
 his efforts, to appear conspicuous and great in 
 the highest circles and departments of fashion- 
 able life to the feeblest imitations of the frivo- 
 lous and gay. Selfishness in the passions leads 
 to the suffering man has endured from licen- 
 tiousness, crime, and brutality. Selfishness in 
 worldliness has led to the suffering man has 
 endured from all the over-strained efforts put 
 forth to acquire pleasure, gain position and 
 power, and the cruelties and tyrannies he has 
 inflicted on those he has trampled on to reach 
 such. And selfishness has been the source of 
 the religious abuses which have disfigured 
 Church history, from the dispute among "the 
 twelve/' who should be the greatest, down to 
 the proclamation of the infallibility of the 
 Pope, — from the sectarianism of the Judaising 
 teachers of the primitive Church to the envy 
 and jealousy of modern times, — and in all the 
 contentions and wranglings of the brotherhood, 
 which have deprived them of the delights of 
 pure spiritual life, and involved them in the 
 heart-burnings of divisions and bitter feuds. 
 We cannot desire to be in a condition with- 
 
The Folly of Selfishness. I43 
 
 out moving towards it, or desire to be out of 
 a condition without moving out of it in the 
 degree of the intensity of the desire. Now, 
 sin'ce selfishness is the desire of possessing 
 and employing all being for itself, selfishness 
 cannot realize, enjoy, or act on the principle 
 of self-sacrifice, and must by the immutable 
 law of existence exclude the selfish from the 
 lofty and blessed realization of life and com- 
 munion with God in the most Godhke elements 
 of His being and doing. 
 
 If the source of conflict in the spiritual be 
 the usurpation of self over conscience, the will 
 of self setting itself over the Supreme will, 
 the fallible placing itself above the Infallible ; 
 and if selfishness not only results in disobedi- 
 ence of the Divine, but produces strife, rivalry, 
 envy, hatred, wrath, and revenge among the 
 fallen, it is in the very nature of things im- 
 possible that the selfish can perceive the gran- 
 deur of the deepest underlying principle of all 
 well-being, viz., that the Infinite condescend in 
 self-sacrifice for the reclamation and bliss of 
 the fallen finite, or that the selfish can believe 
 that the loftiest condition of being and life is 
 compliance with Christ's injunction to ''love 
 your enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
 good to them that hate you, and pray for 
 
144 ^^If- Sacrifice, 
 
 them which despitefully use you and persecute 
 you." 
 
 If an enemy be one who dislikes and opposes 
 all that is pure, lofty, and Divine in self-sacrifice, 
 one who recklessly denounces, hates with deadly 
 spite, imprecates vengeance on, labours to de- 
 throne, and even put out of existence the Being 
 who seeks to allure him from the selfish and 
 impure to the illustrious and sublime ; if cursing 
 be the angry condemnation of the hated deeds 
 of those that are disliked, if hatred be the 
 opposition of the bitterest enmity to all that 
 is held worthy of destruction, if persecution is 
 the unavailing effort of haughty pride, to destroy 
 and put out of existence what is essentially 
 Divine ; how can those who are under the 
 government of such passions comply with the 
 loftiest condition of being and life ? To comply 
 with it is difficult, nay, impossible, to the selfish, 
 but glorious and blessed to the self-sacrificing. 
 The principle of self-sacrifice is the embodiment 
 of the underlying principle of the incarnation, 
 life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the 
 Son of God. The end for which the Logos 
 left the bosom of the Father, and came into 
 this world of sin, was to manifest in Himself, 
 through suffering in the material, this divinest 
 principle of being and life. 
 
The Folly of Selfishness, 145 
 
 Self moves in selfishness, it can move in 
 nothing else ; and in moving in selfishness it 
 acts in opposition to all the interests of universal 
 well-being, the interests of the spirit in which it 
 reigns, as of the individuals it opposes ; and in 
 so acting it arouses the antagonism of those it 
 would oppress, and its own exasperation at being 
 resisted. The law of self-defence is as primary 
 as the law of self-aggression and exasperation. 
 Self, by moving in selfishness, kindles the fires 
 of its own tormenting, forges the fetters of its 
 own bondage, builds the walls of its own prison, 
 immures itself in its own dungeon, voluntarily 
 goes into a bondage out of which it cannot, 
 do what it will, raise itself. Self-escape by its 
 own efforts from the grasp of selfishness is in 
 the nature of things an utter impossibility ; self 
 cannot reform itself, or be improved by others ; 
 it will not yield ; it can only be annihilated 
 by a superior power ; and the only power that 
 can annihilate self is the condescension of self- 
 sacrifice on behalf of the voluntary victims of 
 selfishness. 
 
 If selfishness necessarily shut out from the 
 perception, participation, and enjoyment of the 
 consciousness of such being and life, if it set 
 immortal beings in mortal strife with one 
 another, if it fire the soul with the most tor- 
 
 10 
 
146 ^^{f- Sacrifice, 
 
 meriting passions, if it plunge its dupes into the 
 lowest degradation, and hold them in the most 
 galling bondage, surely selfishness is the greatest 
 of human follies. 
 
 Of the evil nature and baneful character of 
 selfishness, mankind might long ere now have 
 been well informed. But man, with all his 
 opportunities and means of knowing the tremen- 
 dous power of selfishness, believes not in its 
 devilishness. It may therefore be necessary, 
 in the wise over-rulings of a gracious Providence, 
 to permit such a display of its true nature and 
 workings as will exhibit its tremendous evil so 
 as to open the eyes of men to its real character 
 And if we mistake not, the present aspect of 
 the civilized world indicates the approach of 
 such an event. The civilized world is at this 
 moment honey-combed with Sociahsm, Commu- 
 nism, and NihiHsm, to such an extent, that if 
 God does not restrain them, they will so unite 
 and combine as to display their true workings 
 in such a manner as will astonish the world, and 
 convince men that selfishness is nothing but 
 essential evil, and thus prepare them for the 
 reception of self-sacrifice as the only principle 
 of well-being in a fallen race. 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE EFFICIENT PRINCIPLE OF 
 CHRISTIAN LIFE, 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EFFICIENT PRINCIPLE OF 
 CHRISTIAN LIFE, 
 
 IT is in the spiritual that man lives and 
 realizes his being. The spiritual is the 
 underlying principle of all human existence. 
 The spiritual dwells in and realizes itself in the 
 legal, the legal dwells in and manifests itself in 
 the formal, the formal dwells in and displays 
 itself in the material. Matter is the spoken or 
 written language of thought, the gossamer web 
 of life, that through which spirit holds fellow- 
 ship with spirit, the Infinite with the finite, and 
 the finite with the finite. The material is the 
 conditioning of the spiritual. 
 
 The Christian is to distinguish between the 
 nature and the disease of the life of enmity, 
 and while he is to dread and shun the one, he 
 is to love and desire the well-being of the other. 
 He is to perceive that his enemy is capable of 
 becoming as deified in his life as he is Divine 
 in his nature ; that the very existence of enmity 
 
1 5 o Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 implies the capability of the divine loving of 
 life, the transformation of the inner character 
 of his spirit, and that the work of transforming 
 a spirit from the devilish to the Divine is the 
 grandest achievement possible either to finite 
 or infinite self-sacrifice. He is to desire and 
 design this possible transformation. He is 
 meekly and patiently to submit to and bear 
 with the opposition of enmity in the spirit of 
 self-sacrifice ; and supplicating the aid of om- 
 nipotent grace, that he may allure his enemy to 
 this nobler and more sublime existence ; trusting 
 in the conscious superiority of the meekness of 
 self-sacrifice to the meanness of self-seeking, he 
 is to be confident of the success of his endeavour. 
 The one is not for a moment to stand in com- 
 parison with the other. 
 
 Love is the supreme, all-glorious blessing of 
 being. *' God is love." We distinguish be- 
 tween the nature of humanity which is to love, 
 and its disease which is enmity. Love realizes 
 itself in the embrace of its objects. It cannot 
 realize its fulness while alone. Love without an 
 object would be a contradiction in nature. The 
 intenser the love, the sweeter, more powerful, 
 and benevolent the life. The more underserving 
 the object of love, the more divine the passion 
 that embraces it. The greater the suffering. 
 
Efficient Principle of Christian Life. 1 5 1 
 
 degradation, and helplessness from which love 
 rescues, the deeper the realization of the rescuer 
 and the rescued. 
 
 Love disclosing its inmost depths in self- 
 sacrifice for the glory and bliss of its enemies, 
 is the most sublime of all possible revelations of 
 the Divine condescension of the powerful and 
 happy on behalf of the helpless and the suffer- 
 ing. Such is the true outcome of love in its 
 manifestations. It is the true enjoyment of 
 love in the realization of itself It is the 
 genuine reward of love in the triumph of its 
 self-sacrifice. It is love proving itself superior 
 to enmity. 
 
 The mission of the Logos is the revelation of 
 the deep things of God. God having begun to 
 manifest Himself, could not consistently stop 
 short of a revelation of His inmost Being. 
 Christianity has its foundation in the inmost 
 recesses of the Godhead. Hence it is " the 
 gathering together of all things in Christ." It 
 is the efficient preparation for God being all in 
 all. 
 
 And thus the manifestation of the principle of 
 self-sacrifice is the inevitable condition or result 
 of God's revelation of Himself Love being 
 essentially active, it must manifest itself; love 
 being essentially gracious, it must display its 
 
152 ^^^f- Sacrifice, 
 
 yearnings ; love being essentially self-sacrificing, 
 it must adopt every possible means of realizing 
 itself in the fulness of its disclosure. Love, 
 while alienation and suffering continues, will 
 leave no effort untried to rescue its objects from 
 the dominion of evil. The self-sacrifice of love 
 shows that the purest, sweetest, and most en- 
 during bliss is possible only in the fellowship of 
 love. 
 
 Christ not only inculcated such a principle, 
 but exemplified it in His mission. He came 
 from the realms of bliss into this world of sin 
 and suffering, on an embassy of mercy, to over- 
 come the principalities of evil, that He might 
 prove His own and His Father's love to our 
 guilty race, and give the fullest evidence that 
 the Godhead's highest, most cherished desire 
 was the rescue of sinners from sin, through the 
 display of self-sacrifice on their behalf; and in 
 this He bequeathed His legacy to His Church. 
 
 Christ receives His disciples into the con- 
 sciousness of God's unselfish self-sacrificing love 
 to man, and of the unselfish self-sacrificing love 
 of man to God, and to his fellow-men. This 
 love is one, and so is the consciousness of it, and 
 thus it is that " he that dwelleth in love dwelleth 
 in God, and God in him." And thus disciples 
 received into this consciousness are made par- 
 
Efficient Prmciple of Christian Life. 153 
 
 takers of the Divine nature and life. There is 
 in Christ, in the Hfe which is through Him, if 
 we may use the phrase, a " pantheism " of life. 
 The disciples of Christ are enabled to see into 
 the reality and glory of the self-sacrificing love 
 of God, and are drawn into the fellowship of 
 this love, which is the highest, noblest, sweetest 
 realization of conscious being. 
 
 The realization of love is the grandest, most 
 influential, and enduring form of being. '*God 
 is love." Love takes possession of the deepest 
 capacities, the highest powers, the noblest 
 desires of existence. Love is vivid delight in 
 the contemplation of its objects, and untiring 
 devotion to their good. Love is self-rewarding. 
 It loves not for the bliss of loving, but is blessed 
 because it reaHzes itself in its activity on behalf 
 of its objects. Love cannot be selfish; selfish- 
 ness is contrary to its nature, and suicidal to 
 its enjoyment. Love is blessed, because it is 
 love, and because it loves. It lives in bliss, 
 because it delights in the blessedness of its 
 objects, and realizes most of itself in its en- 
 deavours to secure to them the highest amount 
 of pure enjoyment. Hence love is self-sacrificing. 
 The danger, degradation, and distress of its 
 objects awake its deepest emotions, arouse its 
 tenderest yearnings, impel it into every possible 
 
1 5 4 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 exertion on their behalf, and make it impatient 
 till it embrace them in its own loveHness and 
 joy, and behold them in possession of its very- 
 image and life. 
 
 Never was love more itself than when in 
 blood and agony it hung upon the accursed 
 tree, and expressed itself in the self-sacrifice 
 of the cross. Love never had a beginning, and 
 it will never have an end. Love is uncreated, 
 self-existent, omnipotent, eternal. Although, in 
 the mysteries of time, hatred has sprung into 
 existence to dispute the reign of love, love 
 through self-sacrifice has conquered hatred, and 
 in the unfoldings of its own omnipotent loveli- 
 ness must prevail over all the ingenuity and 
 wiles of hatred. The radiant light of love, the 
 pure bliss of love, the omnipotent power of love, 
 the self-sacrificing grace of love, must chase 
 away all the darkness, and rise superior to 
 all the degradation and woe of hatred, in all 
 who yield to its invading force, and open their 
 hearts to its indwelling operations. No finite 
 mind can conceive what is implied in Christ's 
 receiving His disciples into the consciousness 
 of His self-sacrificing love. In the love of God, 
 man is nearest to God. He is in life one with 
 God, and must be for ever with Him. Is love 
 less a reality in being than the qualities or 
 
Efficient Pri7iciple of Christian Life. 155 
 
 affinities of matter ? are its operations less im- 
 portant ? or is it less scientific to trace the 
 nature and results of its movements ? 
 
 Love is grateful, admiring, adoring, assimi- 
 lating in its actions. It vivifies, strengthens, 
 blesses itself in feeding on the self-sacrificing 
 of its Divinity. In the disciples of Jesus it 
 transforms itself into the very image of its 
 adoration and delight, as it gratefully recog- 
 nizes the favours the Master confers on all His 
 friends. It lives in the life as it rises in the 
 consciousness of a oneness with its object. So 
 conscious is love of its own Divinity, so satisfied 
 is love with itself, so convinced is love of its own 
 superiority, glory, and bliss, that it can rest in 
 nothing short of its objects being transformed 
 into the full consciousness of its life ; and so 
 adoring is love, that it can be satisfied with 
 nothing short of conscious oneness with its 
 object. The Father so loves the Son, that 
 nothing short of the bringing out into the 
 brightest radiance the inner perfections of His 
 being and life would satisfy the Father's heart. 
 And the Son so loved the Father's will, that to 
 give the highest possible proof of His disinter- 
 ested devotedness to that will He laid down 
 His life. And the Father so loves the human 
 as lived by Christ, that to raise all such huma- 
 
156 ^^If- Sacrifice, 
 
 nity to unity of consciousness, a oneness of life 
 in glory and joy with Christ, in His reign over 
 all, is the only end that can satisfy the che- 
 rished yearnings of His gracious love. And 
 humanity in Christ is so devoted to the glory of 
 the Father in the Son, that nothing short of the 
 realization of this goal of life will afford it rest, 
 and satisfy its joy. 
 
 The objects, the exertions, the principles, the 
 motives of love in self-sacrifice are necessary to 
 display its true nature and Divine character ; 
 and in such deeds love lives and luxuriates. 
 The objects for whose benefit it exerts itself to 
 the highest conceivable degree are the unde- 
 serving, suspicious, rebellious foes, who treat it 
 with contemptuous scorn ; and for the glory and 
 blessedness of these it exerts itself in every 
 possible manner, and to the utmost extent. In 
 so exerting itself, its motives and principles of 
 action are to do nothing but what is in the 
 strictest accordance with equity and right in 
 enduring and endeavouring to the very utmost 
 of self-sacrifice. Its motives are to disclose 
 itself to its foes by voluntary endurance, on their 
 behalf, of the wrongs they inflict upon it, until 
 by its patient bearing it shall overcome their 
 enmity, quicken them with its own spirit, and 
 draw them into the realization of its own fel- 
 
Efficient Principle of Christian Life. 157 
 
 lowship and inmost consciousness of the dignity 
 and joy of self-sacrificing devotedness. To 
 breathe the spirit of this love, to live in the 
 imitation of this devotedness, to realize in human 
 consciousness this Divine life of self-sacrificing 
 love, is to know Christ in the power of His 
 death, and to enter into conscious participation 
 of the motives, principles, and ends of the self- 
 sacrificing life of fellowship with Him. 
 
 Jesus, in raising His disciples into the realiza- 
 tion of this fellowship with Himself, raises them 
 into the consciousness of swaying with Him the 
 one sceptre, wielding with Him His own power. 
 In this self-sacrificing devotedness to human 
 well-being in the promotion of His glory, while 
 exulting in spending and being spent in exhibit- 
 ing Christ to the view of the world, in order to 
 draw it into faith in Jesus, the disciple necessarily 
 exerts the influence of His saving power, and in 
 the conscious exertion of such power he as 
 necessarily reigns with Him, as he sits with 
 Him on His throne. Christ's disciples, living 
 thus, cannot but feel that they live in a con- 
 scious oneness with Him in His self-sacrificing 
 devotedness to the salvation of a world lying 
 under sin. In so living, they cannot but breathe 
 somewhat of quickening, enlightening, and ele- 
 vating power into the immortal spirit of man, 
 
1 5 8 ^^If- Sacrifice . 
 
 and thus prove themselves one with Christ in 
 the fellowship of His reign. 
 
 This reign of self-sacrificing devotedness dis- 
 plays itself in the truest forms' of loveliness in 
 lifting immortal souls out of the bondage of evil 
 by introducing them into the realization of the 
 Divine. In the measure in which Christ makes 
 His disciples the agents of quickening undying 
 souls with the Divine life, of enlightening im- 
 mortal minds with the knowledge of the truth, 
 of retracing His image on the substance of 
 humanity, in drawing men into the fellowship 
 of self-sacrificing devotedness to the glory of 
 God, He raises them up to sit with Him on His 
 throne, shares with them His sceptre, gives 
 them to realize a conscious oneness with Him- 
 self, enables them to rejoice with Him in the 
 advance of His reign. 
 
 Such is the nature of self-sacrifice, and such is the 
 condescension of the Divine, that there is no ray of 
 its glory which Christ will not bestow, no element 
 of its bliss which He will not impart. Thus Christ 
 frequently spoke to His disciples of their sharing 
 with Him His glory, and of His joy remain- 
 ing in them. Addressing His Father on their 
 behalf, He said, " The glory which Thou gavest 
 Me I have given them." If we enquire into the 
 nature of this gift, we shall perceive that it con- 
 
Efficient Principle of Christian Life. 159 
 
 sists in employing them in the advance of His 
 kingdom, and thus sharing with them His reign. 
 As they share with Him in His self-sacrifice, 
 so they reign with Him in a oneness of nature, 
 Hfe, intercourse, destiny, and duration. As they 
 reign with Him in a oneness of conscious love, 
 in a oneness of the realization of the Divine, in 
 a oneness of the manifestation of the true, in a 
 oneness of dominion over all evil, so they realize 
 with Him a oneness of the conscious consum- 
 mation of His glory and bliss. As He ascended 
 to His native skies, and shed down upon " the 
 eleven " His Spirit, they began to discern some- 
 thing of the true self-sacrificing spirit of His reign, 
 something of the radiance of His glory, and of 
 the sweetness of His heavenly bliss; in one word, 
 something of the graciousness of the Christian 
 calling. And the zeal of consecrating them- 
 selves in self-sacrificing devotedness as His 
 agents and instruments in estabhshing His 
 kingdom of grace in the world, began to glow 
 in their spirits, so that from that time forth 
 the honour of being the immediate followers of 
 the self-sacrificing Immanuel, in establishing and 
 extending His dominion over all principalities 
 and powers, became with them the ruling pas- 
 sion, the absorbing thought, and the governing 
 power of their lives. 
 
1 6o Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 What Christ bestowed immediately on "the 
 eleven," He holds out for the reception of all 
 who believe in Him, and secures to them ac- 
 cording to the measure of their faith in Him, in 
 their realization of the Divine, their devotion 
 to, or readiness to act on, the principle of self- 
 sacrifice. And all that He does Himself and 
 by His disciples in the maintenance of principle 
 and in defence of right, is in strict accordance 
 with law. He raises out of the bondage of the 
 law of sin and death, into the realization of the 
 freedom of the law of life, all who give them- 
 selves up to the principle of His life and death. 
 
 Prior to Christ's death, " the eleven " did not 
 know Him. They had but imperfect conceptions 
 of His nature, dim glimpses of the true dignity 
 of His person, and of the object of His mission. 
 They had no apprehension of His character, 
 or discernment of His work. No, they had no 
 idea of His incarnate personality, of the tender- 
 ness of His Divine love, of the condescending 
 depths of His self-sacrifice, of the vastness of. 
 His eternal design, of the wisdom of His infinite 
 plan, of the glory of His gracious kingdom, or 
 the bliss of the fellowship of His endless reign. 
 No, not even in their most sanguine dreams or 
 vivid conceptions of His coming glory, did they 
 see into the grandeur of His work or the wonder 
 
Efficient Principle of Christian Life. i6i 
 
 of His love. But the stirring events of the 
 garden and the cross, read by them in the light 
 of His resurrection and return to them in the 
 fulness of His grace, poured such a flood of light 
 into their benighted minds, as to open their eyes 
 to the past and the present of His sayings and 
 doings, as to afford them new views of His 
 kingdom, and of themselves. They could now 
 by the glance of a moment learn of Him what 
 former years had failed to teach them. Thomas 
 had only to see the print of the nails and the 
 mark of the spear, to be constrained to exclaim, 
 " My Lord and my God." Now that they gazed 
 upon Him, the risen One, they could yield their 
 understanding up to the flooding light He poured 
 into their minds, as He opened to them the 
 Scripture concerning Himself. Beginning with 
 Moses, and ending with Malachi, He showed 
 them that the end of the Scriptures was to 
 testify of Him as the Messiah, that by the 
 sacrifice of Himself He should save the race. 
 
 And now that they no longer beheld Him as 
 a poHtical Messiah, but as the Son of God come 
 to found a spiritual kingdom which was to 
 embrace the regenerate of all time and place, 
 they began to perceive that to realize His life, 
 aid in His undertaking, enjoy His fellowship, 
 and reign with Him in His spiritual kingdom, 
 
 II 
 
3 62 ^elf- Sacrifice, 
 
 was an honour, the thought of which they fondly 
 cherished in their hearts. To be one with Him 
 in the spiritual they now began to see was the 
 highest glory and purest bliss to which the 
 spirit of man could aspire. The experience of 
 " the eleven " is an illustration of the transition 
 of the Church from the old to the new dispen- 
 sation of the epoch she and her disciples have 
 to pass through. For what He was to "the 
 eleven," He is to all who believe in Him, and 
 He is so in the simplicity and strength of their 
 faith. 
 
 The substance of what v/e have said is, that 
 the great difficulty of raising the believer and 
 the Church to the highest conditions of the 
 Divine life is the slowness of man to learn the 
 things of God, and to learn that there are no 
 limitations in God. Love will maintain the 
 operations of law, especially in the higher regions 
 of life. God creates substances, in which He 
 places principles, powers, capacities, relations, 
 laws, for the enjoyment of personal life. Over 
 these He sets intelligence, conscience, will ; i.e., 
 personaHty to preserve and develop these in 
 harmony for progress in well-being. And to 
 the free agent He gives the power of choice, 
 that he may judge and act in the consciousness 
 of his personal freedom, in the preservation of 
 
Efficient Principle of Christian Life. 163 
 
 his life, and harmony of relationship in the en- 
 joyment of dignity and bliss, but so as to suffer 
 in degrading himself, if by selfish action he dis- 
 turbs the harmony of his being and relationship. 
 
 Love recognizes the principles of retribution, 
 has satisfaction in justice, maintains and defends 
 the harmonious operations of nature, and up- 
 holds the necessary functions of life. It is love 
 that has produced these, placed them in their 
 several relations, set them in their harmonious 
 operations, and delights in seeing them deve- 
 loping their capabilities. Love has produced 
 them to realize conscious dignity and bliss in 
 harmonious operation, and suffering in a sense 
 of degradation and shame, in a condition of 
 discord. And love cannot go back on her 
 own work, and destroy or alter the nature or 
 capacities of these, when they by an act of 
 personal disobedience are brought into a state 
 of discord. 
 
 Love cannot delight in suffering for its own 
 sake ; were she to do so, she would be guilty of 
 deep sin, and realize inner conflict, degradation, 
 and woe. Neither can love delight in the con- 
 flict of nature and life that produce the suffering; 
 and much less can she delight in the disobedience 
 or act of self-will which produces the conflict. 
 Love is all-comprehensive in her discernment 
 
164 ^^^f- Sacrifice, 
 
 and appreciation of the relations and operations 
 of varied existence, in their harmonious develop- 
 ment. She is also impartial in her attachments 
 and yearnings. Love cannot sacrifice a higher 
 for an inferior object or end. That would be 
 for love, in her all-wise discerning, to act un- 
 justly, unwisely, unbenignly, which is an utter 
 impossibility. 
 
 Love never requires to be appeased towards 
 the objects of her affections ; if she did, she 
 would act contrary to her inmost nature and 
 essential impulses. When she sees the objects 
 of affection suffering, she must hasten herself .to 
 draw them out of their suffering, out of their 
 conflict, out of their disobedience, out of their 
 self-willedness or selfishness ; and in all this 
 she acts spontaneously, in accordance with her 
 inmost nature. 
 
 Love never needs the interference of another 
 to awaken her sympathies ; were she to do so, 
 she would not be love ; in doing so she would 
 be guilty of the inconsistency of doing a wrong 
 to herself, of producing a conflict in her inmost 
 self, of committing self-destruction. The very 
 supposition that love could require the interfe- 
 rence of another is an injury, a wrong, an insult 
 to love. 
 
 Love shows mercy in long-suffering, anil 
 
Efficient Principle of Christian Life, 165 
 
 creates of herself the remedy for the evil she 
 mourns and longs to draw men out of. Love 
 cannot look on suffering, conflict, disobedience, 
 self-willedness, or selfishness, with indifference. 
 Love must yearn to rescue the suffering from 
 their conflict of nature, from their disobedient 
 obstinacy, their self-willed rebelliousness, their 
 selfishness ; and in so doing she must act in 
 accordance with the principles, powers, capabili- 
 ties, and relations of universal existence. 
 
 Love displays her inmost nature, and exerts 
 her greatest power, in self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice 
 is the manifestation of the deepest, most worthy, 
 and expressive deed of love. It is in the mani- 
 festation of self-sacrifice that love acts most 
 gloriously, in the display of self-sacrifice on 
 man's behalf, that the Godhead has created 
 the power which above every other is most 
 capable of destroying the rebel principle of 
 fallen life. 
 
 Love with tears of blood entreats the self- 
 willed, the disobedient, the conflicting, the suffer- 
 ing, to fall into her embrace. Self-will is the 
 rebel principle of fallen life, the only gulph 
 between man and God. Self-willedness is the 
 most ruinous, unjust, and unsatisfactory condi- 
 tion of existence possible to finite intelligence. 
 Self-sacrificing love must yearn to draw the 
 
1 6 6 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 rebellious out of such a condition of life. The 
 mother never so fully and correctly expresses 
 herself as when she rushes into imminent 
 danger to snatch her child from its devouring 
 jaw. And the wife is most the Christian lady, 
 when it may be in rags she toils to the utmost 
 of her ability to feed and clothe her children, 
 does what she can to make her home as com- 
 fortable as it is in her power to do, and sits to 
 midnight hours to receive with meek and gentle 
 smiles her inebriate husband, setting before him 
 the morsel she has withheld from her own lips, 
 that she may win him to God and to virtue. 
 
 The sinner, by beheving in the self-sacrificing 
 love of God on his behalf, realizes its powerful 
 operations in his soul, quickening him with its 
 own consciousness. The power of self-sacrifice 
 once apprehended cannot be resisted ; hence 
 the believer in the self-sacrificing love of God on 
 his behalf cannot but realize its transform insf 
 operations. The only hindrance to a sinner's 
 salvation is his resistance of the Spirit striving 
 to work faith in him. 
 
 The believer in God's Son is thus saved from 
 selfishness, self-will, disobedience, conflict, and 
 suffering, by faith. He sees the character of 
 these things, and detests them, as in the light of 
 the cross he sees them causing the self-sacrifice 
 
Efficient Principle of Christian Life. 167 
 
 of God's Son. The believer cannot but glow 
 with love, gratitude, confidence, and delight in 
 God as the gracious Self-sac rificen And thus 
 the believer in God's Son must be the most 
 godlike of finite existence^ 
 
 We thus see the fitness of Christ or the 
 adaptation of His work to glorify God in the 
 salvation of man. It brings into clear view 
 the deepest depths, the inmost recesses of love. 
 It displays the only manifestation of the Divine 
 that can slay the enmity of the " carnal mind;" 
 It recreates the sinner in the life of God, by 
 enabhng him to see into the breadth and length, 
 the depth and height of the love of God, so 
 as to be filled with all the fulness of God. Love 
 is the fulfilling of the law, i.e.^ the securing of 
 the end of all legal or legitimate existence. It 
 alone realizes the requirements of the highest 
 ends of finite or infinite being. 
 
IX. 
 
 IS A ONENESS OF LIFE POSSIBLE TO 
 THE FINITE WITH THE INFINITE, 
 AND OF THE INFINITE WITH THE 
 FINITE ? 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IS A ONENESS OF LIFE POSSIBLE TO 
 THE FINITE WITH THE INFINITE, 
 AND OF THE INFINITE WITH THE 
 FINITE ? 
 
 IT is now generally regarded as an established 
 point in controversial matters, nay, has even 
 come to be looked upon as an axiomatic truth, 
 that no school in philosophy or sect in reh- 
 gion will exist for any given time, that has 
 not some element of truth to sustain it ; wher- 
 ever an element of truth is found, although 
 blended with much error, it will preserve its 
 school or sect from annihilation, and sooner or 
 later manifest itself in its true form. 
 
 To endeavour to establish a pantheistic 
 doctrine in one phase or another has been the 
 aim of philosophic effort and devout feeling 
 from the earliest ages to the present time. 
 There seems ever to have been among the 
 highest intellects and most fervent hearts of 
 earth some who have given themselves per- 
 sistently to the endeavour to secure a basis for 
 
1 7 2 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 their ideal visions of a pantheistic doctrine, and 
 ardent piety in its subhmest flights has sighed 
 to burst asunder the bands of the finite, that it 
 might catch a gHmpse of the Infinite, and lose 
 itself in the feeblest of its sparks. 
 
 Is this pantheistic dream one of the many 
 penalties which man has had to pay for yielding 
 to the temptation, " Ye shall be as gods " ? or 
 is it the feeble stirring of an irrepressible instinct 
 of the human spirit, impelling man onward to 
 the goal of his destiny ? In other words, was 
 man's first sin a misdirected impatience or false 
 impulse of an indestructible yearning to sur- 
 mount the limits of finite consciousness by an 
 immediate realization of the fulness of com- 
 munion with the Infinite life ? If there had 
 not been a desire grounded in a felt capacity 
 for immediate communion with the Infinite in 
 man's spirit, there could have been no tempta- 
 tion in the promise, " Ye shall be as gods." It 
 could not have been for man a snare — however 
 artfully laid — to entice him to lose his satisfying 
 bliss in a progressive learning and enlarging 
 fellowship with God, by a rash and unguarded 
 attempt to grasp the end of his existence in an 
 impatient, instantaneous seizure. 
 
 Man is ever striving to regain his lost liberty 
 and power in an endeavour to rise superior to 
 
A Oneness of Life with the Infinite. 173 
 
 the evil under which he groans, by the hope that 
 in the conscious enjoyment of all his desire he 
 may attain to the possession of his " chief good." 
 The one effort of his soul seems to be to burst 
 the trammels of his finite surroundings by enter- 
 ing into union with the Infinite and Eternal. 
 He may in the dissolution of his mortal frame 
 surmount the sense by which he is at present 
 ensphered, he may even surmount his intel- 
 lectual visions, as Paul obviously did in the 
 "third heaven/' if it be an unquestionable 
 truth that " realization in soul " is possible 
 without, and superior to, mere discernment of 
 intellect. 
 
 A pantheism of matter is inconceivable, whether 
 matter be regarded as the reverse of spirit, or 
 the gossamer web of spirit's fabricating. A pan- 
 theism of personalities is still more inconceivable, 
 inasmuch as personality is that which distin- 
 guishes and holds itself apart from all other 
 entities. A pantheism of the highest order of 
 life is the only pantheism conceivable to man ; 
 and on this profoundest of all themes of pan- 
 theism, Christianity seems to throw a flood of 
 light. Christ in this, as in every other aspect of 
 human want, is the " desire of all nations ; " in 
 Himself, His work. His teaching, He is the "all 
 in all," He is the supreme love of the Infinite, 
 
1 7 4 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 Eternal, and Divine, He is the only condition of 
 human well-being. His revelation is, " He that 
 dwelleth in love dvvelleth in God, and God in 
 him ; " that the pure supreme love of the Divine 
 enables its possessor to comprehend the incom- 
 prehensible, so as to be filled with all the fulness 
 of God ; that faith in Him, in its endless trans- 
 formations, secures for the believer a oneness of 
 life with His, brings the Infinite into the finite by 
 assimilating the finite into a oneness with the 
 Infinite, and thus shows us that in a oneness of 
 spirit, i.e., of love, mind, and life, we realize a 
 pantheism of soul. 
 
 There are mysteries in God, in being, in life, 
 in man, in providence, in Christianity ; but these 
 mysteries are not contradictions ; they are the 
 conditions of the profounder relations of truth : 
 to the uninitiated they are so profound as to be 
 incomprehensible, but to the Omniscient they 
 are clear; in His consciousness of Himself, and in 
 His discernment of the external. He has given 
 existence out of and beyond Himself And 
 to men He has given the capacity for endless 
 progress in knowledge. The solution of these 
 mysteries is ever opening up in the enlargement 
 of their capability for the reception and enjoy- 
 ment of Him as the portion of their souls. But 
 can God impart Himself fully to mere capacity, 
 
A Oneness of Life with the Infinite, 175 
 
 to mere spirit, to mere life or consciousness ? 
 Can He impart Himself in all His fulness— 2>., 
 in the fulness of Him who filleth all in all— to 
 anything short of the consciousness of self- 
 sacrificing love in Its devotedness to the well- 
 being of enemies ? This may be the profoundest 
 question possible to man. 
 
 The manifestation of the perfection of nature 
 and life may be possible only through suffering. 
 Is it not in the display of this truth that the 
 Captain of salvation was made perfect through 
 suffering? And certainly in exposing them- 
 selves to death by relieving the suffering in the 
 pestilence from which the heathen fled, the 
 early Christians won the applause of the Idolaters 
 themselves. In the discipline of personal, family, 
 social, and national life, man reaches the heights 
 of perfection. The martyr at the stake has won 
 admiration in the display of heavenly graces, 
 and reached the heights of the Divine. The 
 attainment of the highest perfection through 
 suffering may be involved in the very nature of 
 being. If the Incarnate Revealer of the inner 
 depths of Godhead required to pass through the 
 ordeal of the severest suffering in order to His 
 realization of the highest perfection possible to 
 Him, was there not a deep necessity for such 
 suffering.? And this necessity lay not In a 
 
1 7 6 Self' Sacrijii 
 
 ce. 
 
 fiction or a freak of the Infinite mind, but in the 
 deepest depths of the uncreated essence. 
 
 There can be no enjoyment of life outside of 
 the consciousness of hfe ; if such there could be, 
 where would it be found ? Is not consciousness 
 the sphere, measure, condition of life ? If enjoy- 
 ment could be found outside of consciousness, 
 body might exist outside of space. Satisfaction 
 in action must be within the contemplation or 
 conscious performance of the action. There can 
 be no satisfaction of doing what is not done. 
 If there could, when or in what way could it be 
 realized "i If we could conceive of the possibility 
 of such, our nature would be in itself a contra- 
 diction. Spirit which is essentially active cannot 
 exist but in a state of activity. If it could, it 
 must exist outside of itself It would exist 
 contrary to its essential nature. It would exist 
 where and when it did not exist. Action cannot 
 be without manifesting itself in internal con- 
 sciousness or external form. We cannot think 
 or will without knowing that we do so. We 
 cannot will without moving in volition, and we 
 cannot move in volition without realizing a 
 change in consciousness. The subjective is 
 necessary to the objective, and the objective to 
 the subjective. There can be no idea without 
 mind, or mind without idea. The relation 
 
A Oneness of Life with the Infinite, 177 
 
 between mind and thought is necessary, im- 
 mutable, enduring, and so of spirit and con- 
 sciousness. Love cannot exist but in loving. 
 Love must thus have a proper object of its love. 
 Thus there must be a plurality in the Godhead, 
 or God would be selfish, loving only Himself, 
 and creation would never have been, self-sacri- 
 fice never known, the deepest possibility of Hfe 
 latent, and the ultimate principle of being 
 undisclosed. 
 
 The Absolute must clearly, fully, perfectly 
 know Himself There can be no shade of 
 darkness dimming the all-seeing glance of the 
 omniscient eye: all things are and must be 
 naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom 
 we have to do. And if so with being external 
 to Him, how much more so with His own in- 
 most consciousness. The Absolute must also 
 fully enjoy Himself. If there could be any 
 obstacle or marring element to the enjoyment 
 of His own being in the Absolute, He could 
 not be the absolutely perfect One. If there 
 could be any external restraint or condition to 
 the enjoyment of the Absolute, He could not 
 be such. The Absolute is without conditions, 
 consequently without limitations of any kind. 
 
 Could Eternal Love realize Himself otherwise 
 than through self-sacrifice } Is love realized 
 
 12 
 
178 ^^y^- Sacrifice, 
 
 outside of the consciousness that measures it ? 
 and does it measure itself until it undergoes 
 self-sacrifice on behalf of its objects ? Love 
 does not sound its depths until in the struggle 
 of self-sacrifice the mother yields her darling 
 to the grasp of death ; nor does it do so in 
 the father's heart until in anguish of spirit he 
 exclaims, '' Would God I had died for thee, my 
 son, my son ! " It was in this that David was 
 the man after God's heart. Hence Christ says, 
 (John X. 17, 18,) "Therefore doth my Father 
 love me, because I lay down my life, that I 
 might take it again. No man taketh it from 
 me, but I lay it down of myself I have power 
 to lay it down, and I have power to take it 
 again. This commandment have I received 
 of my Father." 
 
 Thus love surmounts and surpasses intellect 
 in the depth and comprehensiveness of its dis- 
 cernment. Self-sacrificing love penetrates the 
 deepest mysteries of being and life, knows as 
 only the Godhead Itself can know. Hence the 
 profundity of Paul's prayer on behalf of the 
 Ephesian Church, "That He would grant you, 
 according to the riches of His glory, to be 
 strengthened with might by His Spirit in the 
 inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts 
 by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in 
 
A Oneness of Life with the Infinite, 179 
 
 love, may be able to comprehend with all saints 
 what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and 
 height ; and to know the love of Christ, which 
 passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with 
 all the fulness of God." In this wonderful 
 passage we have the teaching that the pene- 
 tration of love far excels the ken of intellect. 
 Hence the class of passages which direct our 
 attention to the texts which dwell on the 
 superiority and power of love to intellect. 
 The reahzation of Himself in the conscious 
 perfection of His being and doing is the joy 
 of God's self-sacrifice. This reward is not that 
 for which the Godhead resolved to enter into 
 self-sacrifice ; but that which inevitably arises 
 out of the Godhead sacrificing Itself. The 
 attainment of this realization was not and could 
 not be the end of God's self-sacrifice. Self- 
 sacrifice cannot be for any personal end or 
 gain; self-sacrifice must be for the benefit of 
 beloved ones. Had God manifested Himself 
 in sacrifice for His own gain or benefit, He 
 would have acted from selfishness, and would 
 not have displayed self-sacrificing devotedness. 
 Selfishness is the very opposite of self-sacrifice. 
 The one necessarily excludes the other. Work- 
 ing for selfish ends is utterly impossible to 
 self-sacrifice. Suffering may be involved in the 
 
i8o Self' Sacrifice, 
 
 very nature of the highest life, and may be 
 the necessary medium of its purest enjoyment, 
 and yet is and must be the abnormal state of 
 that life. It must thus be only momentary, or 
 the brief passage through which life enters 
 into the full realization of itself 
 
 If such be the case, Christianity is not an 
 after-thought of the Godhead, but the outcome 
 of the deepest conception of the Infinite mind, 
 the manifestation of the underlying principle 
 of all profound life. God is love, and love 
 realizes its depth and fulness, its sweetest and 
 most satisfying joy, through self-sacrifice on 
 behalf of its objects. The pure joy of unselfish 
 self-sacrificing love in devotion to the highest 
 well-being of its beloved offspring far transcends 
 the momentary pang of suffering on their behalf; 
 and thus it is that in the conscious suffering of 
 self-sacrifice there is realized the sweetest satis- 
 faction and delight. 
 
 Self-sacrifice is the only avenue through which 
 life can enter into its loftiest consciousness, its 
 richest realization, its purest enjoyments. The 
 refusal, then, to realize self-sacrifice necessarily 
 excludes from the highest realm of conscious 
 life and enjoyment ; and in this lies the deep 
 significance of what is mentioned in the Hebrews: 
 ** We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than 
 
A Oiteness of Life with the Infinite, i8z 
 
 the angels for the suffering of death, crowned 
 with glory and honour, that He by the grace of 
 God should taste death for every man : for it 
 became Him for whom are all things, and by 
 whom are all things, in bringing many sons 
 unto glory, to make the Captain of their salva- 
 tion perfect through suffering." '* For in the 
 days of His flesh, when He had offered up 
 prayers and supplications, with strong crying 
 and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him 
 from death, and was heard in that He feared." 
 "Though He v/as a Son, yet learned He obedi- 
 ence by the things which He suffered ;" i.e., by 
 self-sacrifice He entered into the condition of 
 fullest consciousness, power, and beneficence. 
 
 The possibility of self-sacrifice may thus be 
 the underlying principle of the Godhead. The 
 Logos who dwelt in the inner depths of the 
 Absolute Essence, descended through self-denial 
 and self-sacrifice to the lowest possible depths 
 of condescension, that He might realize and 
 manifest the fulness of the Godhead, and thus 
 allure a rebel race into an ascent with Him to 
 the highest possible heights of glory and bliss 
 the purest enjoyment of all the fulness of the 
 Infinite and Eternal, which may be the only 
 possession which can reclaim and retain the 
 beings created in the image of God, in free and 
 
1 8 2 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 perfect allegiance to the Absolute in the reve 
 lation of Himself, and afford them that com- 
 munion "with the Infinite and Eternal which 
 will make them as gods. Here, doubtless, are 
 mysteries, but mysteries which will arrest and 
 rivet adoring powers of all loyal intelligence 
 throughout the endless ages of conscious life. 
 As the simple law of gravitation holds the 
 architecture of the material universe in its glo- 
 rious order, so will the principle of self-sacrifice 
 be the power by which the Son will bring back 
 the kingdom to God the Father, and bind in the 
 grandeur of God's finished work " all things in 
 Christ which are in heaven and which are on 
 earth." 
 
 If love cannot fully realize itself in mere 
 loving, but only in self-sacrifice on behalf of its 
 objects, and thus enable them to enter into the 
 loftiest fellowship with itself, might not love for 
 the highest ends of life permit a transition of 
 spiritual consciousness out of love into enmity? 
 We know that spirit in the mysterious possi- 
 bilities of its consciousness may pass from a 
 state of ardent affection into one of bitter 
 hatred. How often is this made apparent in 
 human experience ! 
 
 There are disintegrating operations among 
 the forces of being and phases of life. Such 
 
A Oneness of Life with the Infinite, 183 
 
 operations destroy not the substances, princi- 
 palities, powers, or personalities of life, but in 
 the emotions, feelings, desires and aims of life 
 they make fearful havoc. This disintegrating 
 power is selfishness. Selfishness is regardless of 
 everything but its own gratification through the 
 pursuit of its own ends, by its own means, in its 
 own way. In the wars and persecutions of 
 earth it displays most of itself Sin has no 
 substantive existence. It is only an abnormal 
 condition of life, a disease of personality, a 
 burning fever of enmity in the breast of the 
 rebellious. It effaces the image of God from 
 the soul of man, deprives him of the sense of 
 the worthiness of his life, the consciousness of 
 the rectitude of his being and doing, and brings 
 on him the condemnation of conscience. It 
 involves him in restlessness, subjects him to 
 struggle and conflict, and leads him to attempt 
 his justification by any and every possible effort. 
 It fires him with aversion to all that stands in 
 the way of his endeavours to vindicate himself 
 and secure the object of his desires. 
 
 A close attention to what passes within when 
 we are under the influence of temptation may 
 afford an obscure conception of how man fell. 
 We know that if we dwell on the contemplation 
 of the forbidden, we realize a growth of the 
 
I S 4 ^^If- Sacrifice, 
 
 desire to do what we fear to be wrong or doubt 
 to be right ; or if we endeavour to rid ourselves 
 of the sense of wrong-doing by an attempt to 
 palliate or vindicate what we have done, there 
 rises within us a vindictive feeling towards 
 whatever would press home upon us the con- 
 viction of transgression. In this consciousness 
 we may obtain a vague idea of how a spirit 
 under an impatient desire of realizing the fulness 
 of its life might have been induced in a hasty 
 deed to transgress the law of its well-being, and 
 to turn against whatever would press upon it 
 the conviction that it had violated the condition 
 of holy realization. And thus, however in- 
 adequately, we may conceive how sin invaded 
 the fair creation of God. But how the tempta- 
 tion arose, which inclined man to such an act, 
 is beyond our imagination to conceive. 
 
 Sin lays on God the necessity of maintaining 
 in conflict the powers which it has brought into 
 a state of disturbance. God cannot suspend 
 the operations, or annihilate these powers which 
 sin has disturbed, immediately they are brought 
 into a state of conflict. He must inflict the 
 penalty of the broken law by upholding in 
 conflict the powers which act in disturbance, 
 while the combination endures in which they 
 operate. And the sinner is utterly helpless to 
 
A Oneness of Life with the Infinite, 185 
 
 deliver himself from any or all the consequences 
 of his sin. Creation can furnish no power 
 adequate to readjust the relations of life dis- 
 turbed by sin. This must be a power capable 
 of harmonizing the relations, of alluring the love, 
 of awakening the gratitude, and consecrating 
 the life of the repentant sinner ; in other words, 
 of readjusting the principles of man's life, of 
 drawing his spirit into delightful communion 
 with God, of alluring his heart into union with 
 the law, administration, and powers of Heaven. 
 Hence sin is the most awful evil possible to 
 man. It is in him defiance and antagonism to 
 God. It was not permitted for its own sake, 
 but that occasion might be taken from it of 
 securing the one true end of all existence. 
 
 If Divine love essentially contain in it the 
 element of self-sacrifice, the love of enemies, 
 the yearning to embrace through self-sacrifice 
 its bitterest foes ; if while it could never influ- 
 ence to wrong in any way, or encourage to sin 
 in any degree, it might for the higher ends of 
 being permit the self-will of selfishness to display 
 itself in fiendish violence, thereupon taking the 
 opportunity of bearing the enmity of sin in 
 such a display of its devotion to the well-being 
 of the sinner, as shall overcome his hatred and 
 fire him with the love that can raise him to the 
 
1 86 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 fullest realization of its Divine emotions, elevate 
 him to the loftiest altitude of life by enabling 
 him to discern the inmost recesses of love 
 displaying itself in stooping to self-sacrifice for 
 the rescue of others ; was it in any way in- 
 consistent with love thus to act ? 
 
 There is going on in humanity a regenerating, 
 vitalizing transformation of life, by means of the 
 Infinite descending into the finite, the Divine 
 into the human. And this is in accordance with 
 the underlying principle of all existence, the 
 accomplishment of the grandest achievement of 
 the Divine acting along with the hum.an. The 
 mode of renewing and elevating consists in the 
 higher descending into the lower life, and by so 
 doing transforming its state into a higher condi- 
 tion. In this operation of underlying principle 
 we perceive the workings of the inmost power 
 of the uncreated essence. It would appear that 
 only thus could the inmost depths of the gracious 
 be disclosed. 
 
 And as with the Infinite, so with the finite 
 Christian life. The renewed, the joyous, the rich, 
 must descend to the poor, the corrupt, the sad ; 
 the civilized, the learned, the virtuous, to the 
 savage, the ignorant, the vicious ; the meek, 
 the benignant, the loving, to the haughty, 
 revengeful, hating. 
 
A Oneness of Life imth the Infinite. 187 
 
 If, in the mysteries of love and the condescen- 
 sion of grace, the rebel victim of self is enabled 
 to see the Sovereign of all drenched in blood by 
 and for his emancipation from the bondage of 
 self, then self in him is destroyed, his selfish- 
 ness is annihilated. He sees the wondrous 
 condescension of self-sacrifice, he realizes in its 
 elevating power its transforming operations ; he 
 is now no longer the rebellious prodigal, but the 
 filial son. The vision of the Godhead stooping 
 in self-sacrifice for the life of the suicidal child, 
 overwhelms him with love, gratitude, and self- 
 sacrificing devotedness. The Eternal Spirit 
 entering into and taking up His abode, in 
 quickening grace expels all rebellious disposi- 
 tions, fires him with the purest emotions of 
 glowing love. And if his quickened spirit is 
 guided aright in the direction of self-sacrificing 
 devotion to universal well-being, he enters upon 
 the most glorious, blessed, and beneficent life 
 possible, the rising into the heavenly, the as- 
 similation of the Divine, the deepening con- 
 sciousness of the True, the fullest, sweetest, most 
 transforming communion of the finite with the 
 Infinite. 
 
 In these operations of self-sacrificing love we 
 see the gathering together of all things in Christ, 
 the putting down of all insubordinate rule, 
 
1 8 8 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 authority, and power, the dehvering up of the 
 kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in 
 all, the losing of the consciousness of the imper- 
 fection of the selfish finite in the realization of 
 unselfish communion with the Infinite, the loss 
 of the selfish fallen in the enjoyment of the re- 
 newed, the realization of the self-sacrificing life 
 of God in the consecration of the self-sacrificing 
 life of man. This is the absorption of the human 
 by the Divine for which the mystic longs, the 
 pantheism after which the philosopher enquires. 
 
 Was it then unworthy of God, in the myste- 
 rious conditioning of the Absolute, the revealing 
 of the deep things of the True, the manifesting 
 of the inner depths of self-sacrifice, in the dis- 
 play of the transforming power of Eternal Love, 
 that its objects might be raised into its purest 
 embrace, in the enjoyment of its most perfect 
 life, to permit them to fall into a temporary 
 rebellion ? Amazing work of faith in Jesus ! 
 wondrous power of Christian truth ! glorious 
 mystery of incarnate life and atoning death ! 
 The wondrous character of the important dis- 
 coveries of science pales before the Christian 
 mysteries of Divine Love. 
 
X. 
 
 /S THE PRINCIPLE OF SELF-SACRIFICE 
 ADAPTED TO THE DEEDS OF 
 EVERY- DAY LIFE? 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 IS THE PRINCIPLE OF SELF-SACRIFICE 
 ADAPTED TO THE DEEDS OF 
 E VERY-DAY LIFE? 
 
 MAN by the instincts of his nature and 
 the necessities of his life requires to 
 give his first attention to the external ; and to 
 the external he is conscious of a bias influencine 
 him throughout the entire period of his earthly 
 life. He requires to be well advanced in civi- 
 lization ere he gives himself in earnest and 
 attentive study to the internal of his being 
 and life, and by so doing learns his true nature 
 and requirements. Science should precede 
 philosophy. The perception of this necessity 
 leads to a correct and comprehensive know- 
 ledge of the principles of religion, and to the 
 understanding of the conscious life of the spirit 
 of man. The knowledge of the inner nature 
 of man, and of the experience of the deepest 
 principles of Christian life, is to be obtained by 
 long observation and patient study of the spi- 
 
1 9 2 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 ritual in man, and of the varied manifestations of 
 the Divine to the human in nature, providence, 
 and grace. 
 
 Revelation began in figurative manifestations 
 of Divine truth, and terminates in the en- 
 lightenment of the indwelling Spirit. The 
 Church has had to pass through a series of 
 varied experiences from the beginning of the 
 work of redemption until now, and may be 
 expected to pass through a varied process, 
 during her earthly progress. And as with the 
 Church, so with the individual believer. As 
 man through the aid of physics and psychology 
 learns the nature of the spiritual part of his 
 being, and the personality of his life, he will 
 give more attention to the principles of his 
 inner religious experience than to the progress 
 of ecclesiastical orders and forms of ritualism 
 or of denominational distinctions. 
 
 The infancy of religious life was necessarily 
 ritualistic and formal, then arose the eccle- 
 siastical and doctrinal, and afterwards the 
 intellectual and sectional. The Jewish Church 
 followed this order of development, and in a 
 similar manner the Christian is advancing. 
 The decay of one condition or epoch precedes 
 the advance of a higher and more spiritual and 
 vital. The bane of religion is that the indivi- 
 
Self- Sacrifice adapted to Life, 193 
 
 dual, the family, the social, and ecclesiastical 
 life of man has been selfish. In no form of life 
 on earth has selfishness appeared more baneful 
 than In the ecclesiastical. No sooner does a 
 religious man inbreathe the spirit of eccle- 
 siasticism, than In the measure of such he sinks 
 in his spirltuaHty and godliness. The cure for 
 all such evil must be the self-sacrificing of the 
 Divine in the human. 
 
 The self-sacrifice of the Godhead is the 
 glorious contrast of selfishness in man, and the 
 self-sacrifice of the genuine disciples of Jesus 
 in the imitation of their Lord is the needed 
 power of the Church to raise her to the plat- 
 form of apostolic times. The intelligent Chris- 
 tian, by the careful study of the Church's 
 experience of almost nineteen centuries, will 
 easily perceive that if the Church is to occupy 
 the prominent position prophecy assigns to her 
 in the latter days, and reign with the sovereign 
 sway of apostolic times, she must give equal 
 prominence to self-sacrifice now as she did then. 
 The principle of self-sacrifice is the energy of 
 the Church and the securing power of the 
 loveliness of Christian life. 
 
 The spirit of self-sacrifice animating the man 
 in power will prevent the abuses of the despotic 
 spirit of selfish man, and secure the wielding of 
 
 13 
 
194 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 might only for beneficent ends. The spirit of 
 self-sacrifice displaying itself in the rivalries of 
 social life will restrain from all the abuses which 
 are so lamentably common in the different 
 departments of human intercourse, and secure 
 the true results of the right spirit of emulation. 
 The spirit of self-sacrifice manifesting itself in 
 the sentient life of man will curb in him all 
 undue indulgence of the appetites, all feeling 
 of retaliation and desire for revenge, will secure 
 temperance in all things. The spirit of self- 
 sacrifice ruling in the different spheres and 
 varied movements of human life would secure 
 integrity in sovereigns, in cabinets, in govern- 
 ments, in politics, in executive functionaries, 
 in commerce, merchandise, trade, in all the 
 departments of professional life, in the entire 
 intercourse of men. The spirit of self-sacrifice 
 animating the religious life of the world would 
 restrain men from self-righteousness, pietistic 
 and ascetic abuses, ministerial officialism, clerical 
 pomposity ; from all vain and ostentations dis- 
 play in the religious profession, which offend 
 good taste, provoke the sneer of intelligent 
 discerners, perplex the minds of religious en- 
 quirers, and repel the wavering and doubting 
 from making a profession of Christian life. The 
 spirit of self-sacrifice regulating the lives of all 
 
Self- Sacrifice adapted to Life, 195 
 
 who hold office in the public institutions of 
 Christendom would secure the most blessed 
 results. Were all in authority in prisons, in 
 reformatories, in hospitals and all charitable 
 institutions, in schools, colleges, universities, in 
 the army, the navy, to live in the spirit of self- 
 sacrifice, what changes for the better would be 
 conspicuous among the nations ! 
 
 Self-seeking instead of self-sacrificing being 
 the underlying motive of religious efifort with 
 many who make great and persevering en- 
 deavours to be pious, leads rather to self- 
 righteous deeds than to spiritual realization 
 and growth in grace. Those who make such 
 efiforts are earnest in their devotions, they are 
 persevering in their pious readings, they are 
 diligent in their attendance on the observance 
 of religious rites, ceremonies, and gatherings, 
 that they may be the more pious and devout 
 Christian examples to others ; but they per- 
 ceive not that in all this their efforts are " for " 
 and terminate "on" self; they perceive not 
 that all individual attendance on religious 
 worship is serviceable only as far as it enables 
 the worshipper to see into the spiritual nature, 
 and to realize the elevating power of the self- 
 sacrificing spirit of the Christian life; that all 
 din, fuss, fervour, and gatherings for excitement 
 
196 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 for religious ends are a perversion of the first 
 principle of Christian living. 
 
 While individuals endeavour to gain religious 
 enthusiasm, climb into religious heights to be 
 pious and devout for their own benefit, they 
 attempt an impossibility, labour to effect a 
 spiritual contradiction. Hence they may be 
 loud in their praise of Jehovah, zealous in the 
 worship of the Most High, and eager to realize 
 the height of the Divine glory and sweets of 
 blissful communion with God; but all to no 
 purpose, for they are selfish, and being such 
 they must be formal in their religion, contracted 
 in their realization of the Divine, and barren in 
 the fruits of spiritual life. 
 
 There is no labour on their part to acquire 
 discernment, spiritual influence, and means where- 
 with they may meet the wants of the destitute, 
 allure and guide the erring, minister to the sick, 
 console the distressed, encourage the cast down, 
 aid the struggling, reclaim the outcast, and 
 to engage in such efforts not for their own 
 spiritual profit, but out of love to humanity, 
 devotion to Christ, and in imitation of Him. 
 They have no desire like the Master, to be 
 continually doing good in the several relations 
 of life ; and thus, not seeking their own, but 
 forgetful of self, to reach the highest heights of 
 
Self- Sacrifice adapted to Life, 197 
 
 spiritual life, and occupy the loftiest niches in 
 the eternal temple of Fame, with the deepest 
 and purest joy in their Christian living. 
 
 In the above statement it is not imphed that 
 to be pious, to attain to spiritual realization, and 
 to grow in grace, are not in themselves godly 
 aims, and worthy of earnest effort, devout aspira- 
 tion, and persevering supplication ; but it is as- 
 serted that those attainments cannot be possessed 
 by fallen humanity in self-seeking, however 
 strenuously pursued. "If any man come to Me, 
 and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, 
 and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and 
 his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." 
 Fallen man can attain to and advance in reli- 
 gious life only by self-sacrifice, and that consists 
 not in one act or occasional deed, but in unin- 
 terrupted inbreathing and cherishing and exer- 
 cising the spirit of self-sacrifice in all that is 
 said and done. 
 
 But the spirit of self-sacrifice has a higher 
 and more special function to discharge and 
 mission to accomplish than that of regulating 
 the intercourse of men in all the departments 
 of social and religious life, so as to shun the evils 
 which selfishness brings upon fallen humanity, 
 and secure the advantages its beneficence cannot 
 but confer. In its higher bearings, the spirit of 
 
1 9 8 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 self-sacrifice leads men to see how inducing a 
 man to suffer that he may reclaim the wrong- 
 doer to the paths of righteousness and peace 
 secures the most beneficent results, as well as 
 displays the noblest aspects of Christian cha- 
 racter; such displays of self-sacrifice present 
 religious influence to the eye of the world so as 
 to arrest its attention and win its acknowledg- 
 ment of the truth as it is in Jesus. Self-sacrifice 
 necessarily involves momentary suffering, yet at 
 the same time it awakes in the soul of the self- 
 sacrificer the well-spring of the purest bliss and 
 joy, which far outmeasures, and far more than 
 compensates for the external suffering it imposes. 
 Self-sacrifice on behalf of sinners leads to the 
 conversion of sinners, and covers a multitude of 
 sins. It thus secures a twofold benefit of highest 
 character ; a benefit to him who undergoes the 
 self-sacrifice, and to him who is rightly influenced 
 by it. If a cup of cold water given to a disciple 
 in the name of a disciple is not to lose its reward, 
 what must be the gain of saving a soul from 
 death, of perceiving the beneficent results of the 
 most benevolent deeds ! The discernment of the 
 glorious results in the world to come, of having 
 been instrumental in saving a soul from death, 
 must afford a pure, lasting, and satisfying joy. 
 The spirit of self-sacrifice is the noblest, most 
 
Self- Sacrifice adapted to L ife, 199 
 
 beneficent, and self-rewarding, that can animate 
 the finite or Infinite spirit In itself and in its 
 doings it is Divine. It may be cherished and 
 acted on from the highest to the humblest 
 of intellectual beings ; it may pervade every 
 thought, feeling, and action of every individual 
 professor of Christianity ; and were this to be 
 the case, the millennial period of glory and bliss 
 would be enjoyed all over the globe. It may 
 be mistaken, and through mistake abused, but 
 in itself it is infallible ; no person breathing it 
 into his every action would do wrong. Its trust 
 is human dignity, glory, and bliss. To secure 
 these it condescends to any depths, but never 
 acts for the injury or wrong of any one. Mean- 
 ness, grovelling servility, it knows nothing of, 
 and can never stoop to ; falsehood, pretence, and 
 hypocrisy are abhorrent to its soul. This world 
 of sin, degradation, and suffering is its true 
 sphere of operation. Ambition is the atmos- 
 phere in which it most freely breathes. 
 
 What then is this spirit of self-sacrifice 1 and 
 what does it do for them in whom it reigns, and 
 for those in whose behalf it acts } It is the 
 outbreathing of enlightened generous love, love 
 of all that is real, right, true, and good in nature 
 and in Xii^, It weeps over sin and suffering, 
 and while it strongly disapproves of the conduct 
 
2 oo Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 of the perpetrator, it will bear with, nay, refuse 
 to shun, his wrongs, that by its patient endur- 
 ance it may win the wrong-doer out of his 
 sinfulness, degradation, and woe, into dignified 
 and happy life. 
 
 For its proper manifestation it requires no one 
 to leave his position in society or his calling in 
 life. It subjects to a momentary suffering, and 
 it may be to temporary misunderstanding and 
 misrepresentation and calumny, but it bursts 
 open the well-spring of the purest bliss in the 
 soul, and ultimately secures the brightest radi- 
 ance of the enduring glory. Like mercy, it 
 blesses him in whom it reigns, and all who are 
 properly influenced by it. 
 
 Let but an enlightened teaching regarding 
 the true spirit of self-sacrifice take possession 
 of the pulpits of Christendom, and what a revo- 
 lution would be wrought in the lives of all 
 Church-going communities 1 A reformation 
 greater than any of past times would ensue. 
 There would then be no need of devising 
 schemes for the garnishing of Christian hfe, 
 with the view of retaining or drawing the youth 
 of Christian communities into the Church, no 
 need of gilding the services of the Church with 
 the glittering tinsel of ritualistic manoeuvring, 
 to make them more attractive to the worldly 
 
Self- Sacrifice adapted to Life, 201 
 
 minded. No, the Church as in the beginning 
 would allure to her communion mankind in 
 myriads. Devotion and zeal, while sufficient to 
 bind the pure in heart, are not powerful enough 
 to raise the fallen. This can be achieved 
 through self-sacrifice alone. 
 
 And why should not the spirit of self-sacrifice 
 animate every Christian breast, and fill every 
 pulpit of Christendom ? Is not such required 
 by Christ, demanded by reason, and necessary 
 to the believer's peace, and to the prosperity of 
 the Church ? 
 
XL 
 
 SELF-SACRIFICE THE ONLY PRINCIPLE 
 THAT CAN RAISE THE FALLEN 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 SELF-SACRIFICE THE ONLY PRINCIPLE 
 THAT CAN RAISE THE FALLEN 
 
 SELFj as we have seen, is degrading to man ; 
 whereas self-sacrifice is sublime, adapted 
 to the nature and circumstances of man, and 
 the sole condition of human elevation. Man 
 thirsting for glory, by an indestructible law of 
 his nature compelled to pant for distinction, 
 may, through self-sacrifice, attain to the loftiest 
 heights of being and life, and luxuriate in the 
 pure consciousness of greatness. It is not too 
 much to affirm that the chief cause of the 
 Church's failure to raise the world to the 
 sublime altitude of Christian faith is mainly 
 attributable to her not realizing in herself the 
 true grandeur and importance of the principle 
 of self-sacrifice, and consequently not perceiving 
 the true relation of ambition in connection with 
 self-sacrifice to the work of grace. 
 
 As long as the Church contemplates man 
 merely as a sinner, and the grace of self-sacrifice 
 
2 o 6 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 only as an evil incident to man's present circum- 
 stances, or as the endurance of penal suffering 
 by his substitute designed to deliver men from 
 the punishment of hell, she must be weak in 
 her endeavours to elevate her own, and power- 
 less to transform the life of the world. In so 
 doing she keeps in view but a part of Christ's 
 intention and work, she loses sight of the 
 grandest portion of her calling, and neglects 
 the chief element of human exaltation. 
 
 Why is it that the Church, while making 
 extensive progress in heathen lands, is losing 
 hold of the masses in Christian countries ? This 
 does not appear to be taking place from any 
 superior power of infidelity, or from any in- 
 difference in the Church herself to her own 
 possessions, but is traceable to her neglecting 
 to direct the minds of her members to the glory 
 of the Christian calling in its connection with the 
 grandeur of self-sacrifice, in imitation of Christ, 
 and enlightened devotion to the souls of men. 
 
 While Christ ever breathed the meek and 
 lowly spirit, He always kept steadily in view 
 the grandeur and glory of His calling. It was 
 for the joy set before Him that He endured the 
 cross, despising the shame ; and His prayer was, 
 " Father, glorify Thy Son," and " O Father, glorify 
 Thou Me," and " The glory Thou hast given Me 
 
Self- Sacrifice can Raise the Falle7i, 207 
 
 I have given them." The Christian, in order to 
 rise superior to the bewildering influence of the 
 world, must ever keep in view "■ the mark for the 
 prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," 
 " he must covet earnestly the better gifts," and 
 steadfastly pursue the more excellent way ; 
 while he is never to forget that as a sinner he 
 deserves banishment from the glory of God's 
 power, and that by " the grace of God he is 
 what he is ; " as a believer in Christ, he is ever 
 to remember that he has set before him " the 
 crown of righteousness, which the righteous 
 Judge shall give to all them that love His 
 appearing," and that he has all the aids and 
 facilities and encouragements which are fitted 
 to induce him to follow Christ in the regenera- 
 tion of the world. By co-operating with the 
 Spirit of God in working out what He works in 
 him to will and to do, he attains to the higher 
 heights of the Divine life. It was thus that 
 Paul was enabled to pursue his illustrious career. 
 The Church has greatly erred in neglecting this 
 aspect of her Divine calling, and this mighty 
 power of her Christian work. 
 
 The greatness of the human spirit, its creation 
 in the image of God, its capacity for union and 
 communion with the essentially Divine, its capa- 
 bility of rebelling against God, of eternal conflict 
 
ro8 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 and anguish, of the consciousness of self-de- 
 struction, its possibility of regeneration into the 
 Divine life, its possible conscious co-operation 
 with the self-sacrificing Saviour, of fellowship 
 with the Godhead in working out its own sal- 
 vation, and aiding in the recovery of fellow 
 immortal souls, are clear and unmistakable 
 evidences of the innate greatness and possible 
 glory of man's spirit, and ought to be matter 
 not only of casual observation, but of the most 
 careful study, especially by the members of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 The descent of the "Brightness of the Father's 
 glory " into the arena of spiritual conflict, to 
 accomplish the deliverance of man, the conde- 
 scension of the great Self-sacrificer, in submitting 
 Himself to misunderstanding, calumny, anguish, 
 and death, in order to encounter and overcome 
 the principalities of darkness, that He might 
 set mankind the example of a glorious conquest, 
 that He might exhibit to all intelligence the 
 grandeur of the self-sacrifice of the Christian 
 salvation, that He might afford to the Church 
 the Divine principle and motive-power of her 
 life and work, surely demands of every believer 
 in Jesus the most careful attention and patient 
 study, as well as the first place and chief homage 
 of his heart. 
 
Self- Sacrifice can Raise the Fallen. 209 
 
 Are the disciples of Christ wise in neglecting 
 such an example ? If the most illustrious of 
 beings could heighten His underived glory by 
 an acquired glory of character through the 
 accomplishment of the most stupendous work of 
 time or eternity, and if He came into this world 
 of sin for the very purpose of undergoing self- 
 sacrifice, that He might create the power and set 
 the example of Christian life, surely it becomes 
 those who are in this world of sin, His professed 
 followers and fellow-workers, in working out 
 what His Spirit works in them, to perceive that 
 they are engaged in an undertaking that requires 
 and is worthy of the profoundest self-denial 
 and most arduous endeavours ; that they are 
 engaged in a work that will yet throw into 
 obscurity the most dazzling splendour of one 
 and all earth's greatest achievements, acquire 
 glory that will envelop in darkness all the blan- 
 dishments of time's greatest deeds of chivalry, 
 statesmanship, philosophy, science, art, literature, 
 poetry, philanthropy, wealth, and fame ; and fire 
 aspirations of the deepest, purest, most thrilling 
 joy and delight possible to human consciousness. 
 
 The magnitude, grandeur, and blessed results 
 of Christian life and work in this sinful world 
 may in some measure be made apparent by a 
 reference to Paul's injunction, " Work out what 
 
 14 
 
2IO Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 God works in you to will and to do of His 
 good pleasure." These words, perhaps more 
 than any other we may take from the sacred 
 volume, teach the magnitude and grandeur of 
 the Christian calling on earth. They tell us 
 that the end of the behever's work in time is to 
 work out what the Spirit of God works in him 
 to will and to do in the matter of self-sacrifice ; 
 for this is that portion of the believer's co-ope- 
 ration which underlies his progressive advance in 
 the Divine life ; and this is the work, above all 
 others, in which God takes His supreme delight. 
 Now, what can and what must be the magni- 
 tude, grandeur, and importance of that in which 
 each person of the Blessed Trinity takes His 
 supreme delight ? Has the Godhead busied 
 Itself in its inmost depths, laid its plan in the 
 eternal council, created the universe of finite 
 existence, sent the Brightness of its glory into 
 the region of conflict to display its highest 
 perfection in a deed of self-sacrifice, and to 
 render it possible for man to co-operate with the 
 Godhead in the manifestation of the power of 
 self-sacrifice, that he may attain to the highest 
 heights of glory and bliss, and is the believer in 
 Jesus to fail to recognize his enviable oppor- 
 tunity } 
 
 To acquire wealth, to gain high position, to 
 
Self- Sacrifice can Raise the Fallen. 2 1 1 
 
 value the honours, and seek the enjoyment of 
 time, is far from being unworthy of the en- 
 lightened Christian. To be anxious about the 
 virtue, the attainments, the positions, the success 
 of children in life, is in no way unworthy of, but 
 very becoming in, Christian parents; but to seek 
 these in preference, nay, in neglect of the posi- 
 tions, honours, and enjoyments of the Divine, the 
 illustrious attainments of the Christian calhng. 
 is unbecoming in the disciple of Jesus. To seek 
 the things of this life for any other object than 
 that of consecrating them in self-sacrifice to the 
 cause of Christ, for the good of fellow-men, is 
 unworthy of the imitator of Christ. The disciple 
 of Jesus who lives after this manner reverses 
 the Divine order of things ; he prefers fellowship 
 with the world in the sentient and imaginary, to 
 fellowship with God in the illustrious and Divine 
 of self-sacrifice ; and thus he fails in opening up 
 in his heart the purest well-springs of the water 
 of life ; he casts away the opportunity of living 
 the most illustrious of hves, of accomplishing the 
 noblest deeds, of acquiring the highest honours, 
 and of enjoying the sweetest bliss ; he makes 
 himself a child, detains himself in the nursery, 
 sports himself with toys, instead of advancing 
 into the youth and manhood of Christian life. 
 To be in any way the instrument of separat- 
 
212 Self- Sacrifice , 
 
 ing an immortal spirit from its antagonism to 
 the Divine, from its burden of guilt, its internal 
 restlessness and conflict, from its vain endeavours 
 to satisfy itself with the husks of the sentient 
 and social ; to be in any way the means of 
 quickening the soul of man with the life of God, 
 of imparting to it inner peace, enduring concord, 
 unfettered freedom, pure satisfaction in the 
 Divine, the consciousness of well-being, serenity, 
 and bliss of life in the present and in the world 
 to come, through self-sacrificing exertions, is to 
 achieve a far nobler conquest than those of the 
 great Napoleon, a more illustrious deed than 
 that of Newton in deciphering the heavens, to 
 confer a nobler boon than that of Columbus in 
 bestowing a new world on his age ; it is to snap 
 asunder more galling fetters, and wrest from 
 the most hideous of tyrants a freedom more 
 illustrious than that which Bruce or Tell secured 
 for their countrymen. Yes, it is to accomplish 
 what is far more illustrious than would be 
 achieved by the individual who should, if such 
 could be found, do in his one life all that these 
 great men have done in theirs. The glory of 
 the true Christian hfe of self-sacrifice is brighter 
 far than would be the glory of their illustrious 
 deeds concentrated in one career. 
 
 The Church has had different work to accom- 
 
Self- Sacrifice can Raise the Fallen. 213 
 
 plish in different periods or epochs of her history, 
 and this was pointed out to her by her Divine 
 Master. She had first to contend with her 
 imperial persecutors, then with the corrupters 
 of her simplicity, then with her ecclesiastical 
 spoilers, then she had to indoctrinate with right 
 conceptions of Christian truth, and to exemplify 
 the power and beauty of faith in Jesus ; and in 
 the performance of such tasks she must never 
 grow weary. But neither the Church nor the 
 doctors of theology have as yet sufficiently seen 
 that the great difficulty they have to contend 
 with in indoctrinating minds with right views 
 of Christian truth, and leading them into the 
 realization of the power of faith, arises out of 
 the fact that the world possesses not the Spirit 
 of Christ, and that the Church of these days, in 
 dealing with the world, has exhibited far too 
 little of the self-sacrificing spirit of Christ ; that 
 in her work of seeking to enlighten the minds of 
 men in Christian truth, and in her endeavour to 
 induce men to imitate Jesus, she herself has 
 forgotten " what manner of spirit she ought to 
 be of ; " she has too frequently lost sight of 
 the fact that it is a possible thing to possess 
 clear abstract views of Christian doctrine, and 
 to exhibit a formal life of faith, while devoid 
 of the real " Spirit of Christ," and thus come 
 
2 1 4 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 short of the fellowship of the inner life of self- 
 sacrifice, and fail in her portion of the work of 
 evangelizing the world. " If ye have not the 
 Spirit of Christ, ye are none of His." " Hereby we 
 know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which 
 He hath given us." Until the Church is baptized 
 with a fuller measure of the self-sacrificing spirit 
 of Christ, she will not, she cannot, attain to the 
 perfection of the Divine life, appear in her glory, 
 exert the influence on the world which is neces- 
 sary to its turning to God. 
 
 The centralizing method of performing Chris- 
 tian work, adopted by the Church, has not a 
 little interfered with the individual activity of 
 disciples. Centralization, while necessary to the 
 work of the Church in her aggressive advance on 
 heathenism, in the spread of the gospel over all 
 the earth, has been so allowed to occupy the 
 attention of members, as to withdraw their 
 minds from realizing their individual responsi- 
 bilities in connection with personal effort. The 
 one should be done, while the other should not 
 be left undone. While the Church is to make 
 every possible effort to advance in her aggressive 
 operations on heathenism, till she shall compre- 
 hend all races of men among her people, and all 
 lands within her pale, she is not to lose sight of 
 her responsibility to those born in her midst, nor 
 
Self- Sacrifice can Raise the Fallen, 215 
 
 to let go her hold on those she has already won 
 within her pale ; and this she can only do by 
 the self-sacrificing efforts of each and all of her 
 disciples, embracing every opportunity, in the 
 several relations of life, of exhibiting the beauty 
 and power of Christian devotedness in self-sacri- 
 fice. This is especially incumbent on her, when 
 the masses are drifting beyond her pale. Chris- 
 tians have been in danger of making an idol of 
 the Church, instead of perceiving the beauty 
 and divinity of self-sacrifice in the cause of 
 Christ. The most ardent and persevering zeal, 
 if in any degree breathing the spirit of selfishness 
 in any of its numerous forms, must necessarily 
 fail of promoting spiritual ends. 
 
 It is not implied that all in the Church can 
 rise to the higher heights of self-sacrifice. There 
 are some things in the Christian life which " all 
 cannot receive " or attain to, and their accept- 
 ance should not be pressed on all. The same 
 attainments should not be expected of all, no 
 more than the same standard laid down for all 
 As there have been epochs in the development of 
 the Church, so there will be diversity in the dis- 
 play of individual attainments, in all the periods 
 and conditions of Christian life; and this variety 
 contributes to beauty, as the rich display of 
 colour in the floral kingdom. 
 
XII. 
 
 THE ADAPTATION OF THE PRINCIPLE 
 OF SELF-SACRIFICE TO THE NECES- 
 SITIES OF HUMAN WELL-BEING, 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE ADAPTATION OF THE PRINCIPLE 
 OF SELF-SACRIFICE TO THE NECES- 
 SITIES OF HUMAN WELL-BEING. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY is equally adapted to all 
 men, is equally offered to all men, is 
 equally needed by all men, and is equally suffi- 
 cient for all men ; and requires to be equally 
 embraced by all men to prove itself equally 
 successful in all men. To secure the realization 
 of this important fact in the experience of the 
 rising generation, in the social ranks of the 
 different communities, in the public life of the 
 nations professing Christianity, every disciple 
 must reaHze his individual responsibility and 
 personal opportunity of shining in the true light 
 of Christian self-sacrifice in this world of sin. 
 
 The Church's work in this and every age 
 requires of her every member in his individual 
 life and social connection, that he see and feel 
 the necessity of making it his object, in all that 
 he is and does, to let the power of Christ in 
 
2 2 o Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 His self-sacrificing be seen in him. It is not to 
 procure wealth, fame, power, and distinctions 
 among the fashionable of the world that he is 
 called of God, and placed in the Church of the 
 Self-sacrificer in the midst of the sinful, but to 
 display in the view of the world the power of 
 Christ's life and death, to consecrate all that he 
 is and all that God gives him to the cause of 
 Jesus. 
 
 The history of the Church clearly proves 
 that the gospel is the power of God unto sal- 
 vation to every one that believeth. The preach- 
 ing of the Apostles in their day, and of the 
 Reformers in their time, was powerful to the 
 conversion of sinners ; but to understand why, 
 it must be borne in mind that it was not the 
 eloquence of the Apostles nor of the Reform- 
 ers, but the exhibition of Christ in His self- 
 sacrificing grace, by those who saw, felt, and 
 delighted to exhibit the power of self-sacrifice 
 in themselves, that was the power of God unto 
 the salvation of others. Modern missions, 
 reformatory and ragged schools, Bible-women, 
 tract distribution, revival eff"orts, are^ have bee7i, 
 and will be success/id in the measure in which 
 the spirit of self-sacrifice has been active in 
 them. What the Church needs, is not the 
 accommodation of the teaching of Christ to the 
 
Adapted to Huma7i Well-being. 221 
 
 tastes or likings of men, or that members of the 
 body of Christ should conform to the customs 
 and maxims of the world, but that each disciple 
 should see and act on the conviction that his 
 own spirituality and his influence on the world 
 depend on the degree in which he Hves in the 
 display of the spirit of self-sacrifice. 
 
 The want then of the Church is that every 
 member of her communion should realize his 
 individual responsibility, seize his opportunities, 
 recognize that the need of his time is that every 
 believer in Jesus, from the highest to the hum- 
 blest, keep steadily in view that he is called by 
 Christ to shine in the light of the true, to live 
 in the giving out of Christian influence, so that 
 all who come into contact with him in the inter- 
 course of daily life may feel the power of true 
 Christianity. The demand of this age is, that 
 each disciple live in the full consciousness that 
 his influence on others, his own glory and joy, 
 are conditional on his exhibiting the power 
 of self-sacrifice in his individual sphere of life 
 and personal calling in society; that for the 
 performance of his peculiar portion of Christian 
 work he is so to live that all coming into con- 
 tact with him will be able to observe and admire 
 the power of Christian principle, learn from him 
 that Christian conviction can make man content, 
 
222 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 diligent, honest, generous, self-sacrificing, happy, 
 in the humble, middle, or exalted circles of life. 
 By so living he will do far more to commend 
 the religion of Jesus to others, than by joining 
 in the popular pubhc efforts or party ends of 
 much that is called Christian work. It is far 
 easier in connection with such efforts to foster 
 and display self, than in meek humility to mani- 
 fest the spirit of self-sacrifice. It is an easy 
 thing to be a self-conceited would-be great man 
 in public life, it is a difficult thing to fill a 
 prominent position in the meekness and gentle- 
 ness of Christ. Hence the fruitless character 
 of much so-called Christian work, that is sounded 
 forth with popular applause. It is not so much 
 the getting up of religious services, or the per- 
 formance of religious deeds, as the engaging in 
 every act of personal life in the self-sacrificing 
 spirit of Christ, that is needed. Whenever this 
 spirit animates individual hfe, these religious 
 services and all that is necessary for the promo- 
 tion of Christ's kingdom will be duly attended 
 to. 
 
 The Christian is ever to keep in view that 
 the gratification of sense, the acquisition of the 
 things which minister to the honour and enjoy- 
 ment of social hfe, are good in themselves, and 
 when given by God, i.e., obtained by honest 
 
Adapted to Human Well-being. 223 
 
 industry, are to be possessed and used by the 
 Christian. He is also to keep in mind that the 
 legitimate power and enjoyment of these is far 
 inferior to the possession and enjoyment of the 
 Divine in Christ Jesus, and to prefer the things 
 of sense and social life to the acquisition and 
 manifestation of the things of God in Christ is 
 unwise and undutiful. It is unwise inasmuch 
 as it is not only to prefer the inferior to the 
 superior, but by so doing to lose the true and 
 proper enjoyment of both ; for the Christian 
 can really enjoy the things of sense and social 
 life only in as far as he holds them in subor- 
 dination, and lives for the things of the Divine 
 life. It is undutiful to God, inasmuch as it is 
 reversing the order of heaven ; in so doing the 
 Christian proves himself undutiful to himself, 
 because he gives up the pure enjoyment of the 
 Divine for the temporary, which perishes in 
 the using. He is also undutiful to the world, 
 because by so living the Christian neglects, nay, 
 perverts, the only period and opportunity pos- 
 sible to him of so exhibiting Christian life as to 
 exert its true influence of winning sinners to 
 Christ. The Christian is to realize the true 
 natural life of man by rising superior to the 
 corrupt or selfish gratification of worldliness. 
 Let Christian parents imitate the Saviour, and 
 
2 24 ^^^f- Sacrifice. 
 
 take their children into the arms of enhghtened 
 Christian affection, fold them in the bosom of 
 Divine love, and draw out their hearts and as- 
 sociate their minds with whatever is gentle, 
 pure, and true in Christian life, awake and foster 
 in them the love of the Divine, impress them 
 with the conviction that while secular education, 
 attainments in wealth, comfort in life, standing 
 in society, are all to be desired and followed 
 after in their proper place, they can only be 
 properly enjoyed as the Divine life is realized 
 through grace reigning in the spirit. They are 
 to be taught that heavenly-mindedness, or the 
 consciousness of enlightened self-sacrificing de- 
 votedness to the glory of God in the good of 
 men, is far higher in itself than worldliness, and 
 necessary to the proper use and true enjoyment 
 of the things of life. Such training will be the 
 rearing them in the true atmosphere of Christian 
 life. They may train them in the finesse of 
 refinement, the highest code of morals, the most 
 perfect creed of Christendom, and the most 
 approved forms of devotionalism, breathe into 
 their formal life the sweetest breath of piety ; 
 but if they leave them in selfishness, all will 
 be vain. 
 
 Let the youth of all Christian lands be reared 
 in the idea that vain foppery is unmanly and 
 
Adapted to Human Well-being, 22^ 
 
 mean, that the display of egotism is childish, 
 that the clinging to self-will and obstinancy is 
 ruinous, that retaliation, cruelty, and revenge are 
 devilish, that the acquisition of wealth, the pos- 
 session of power, the attainments in rank, etc., 
 are to be attended to only as means of progress 
 in civilization, serviceable to the comfort and 
 enjoyment of social life in as far as they are 
 sought in subordination to the high ends of 
 Christian life, nobility of spirit, godliness of 
 heart, knowledge of the true, and fellowship 
 with God in the self-sacrificing, and that these 
 inner attainments are necessary to the pure 
 enjoyment and honourable employment of the 
 things of the outer life ; that godliness is profit- 
 able to the life that now is, as well as to the 
 life that is to come. Education in this form is 
 the bringing of youth to breathe in the true 
 atmosphere of manly and beneficent life. 
 
 Let the members of the Christian Church be 
 taught that while they are not to neglect public, 
 relative, personal duties in social life they are 
 ever to bear in mind the necessity and impor- 
 tance of Christian truth, principle, and motive to 
 the present and future life of man ; that they have 
 been brought by God into the Christian Church, 
 to live for the true ends of human well-being, 
 and while they are never to seek to force men 
 
 IS 
 
2 26 Self -Sacrifice. 
 
 into conviction, and lecture their associates into 
 faith, never in any way to strive to coerce indi- 
 viduals into religious life, they are ever to keep 
 in mind the condition of man in the world 
 without God, the value of souls, the momentous 
 importance of Christian life, the grandeur of 
 self-sacrifice, and to strive to live in their re- 
 spective positions in society, so as to draw men 
 into the life of Jesus. 
 
 Let Christian youth, thirsting for nobler 
 employments than those which mere sentient, 
 social, or worldly life can afford to them, pant- 
 ing for glory worthy of the life God has given 
 them, and the circumstances He has placed 
 them in, have their attention properly directed 
 to the illustrious work of the true Christian life, 
 let them be taught to look for distinctions in 
 the pursuit of " the mark for the prize of the 
 high calling of God in Christ Jesus," let them, 
 in the self-sacrificing spirit of their Lord, devote 
 themselves to the performance of the illustrious 
 deeds of self-sacrifice in the highest of all under- 
 takings, let them learn the true nobility of 
 fellowship with God in the prosecution of His 
 glorious work, and they will not need to have 
 Christian doctrine moulded to their tastes, or 
 Christian life fashioned to their likings, to retain 
 them within the pale of the Christian Church. 
 
Adapted to Human Well-being, ii^j 
 
 No, they will be strengthened with all strength 
 in their inner man, and fortified against the 
 bewitching sin of their individual constitution 
 and calling in life, position in society, or rela- 
 tions in the family circle ; they will, in the pure 
 joy of an ever-abiding conviction that by the 
 grace of God they are what they are in the 
 calm serenity of a deep realization, know that 
 true humility of spirit will not only sustain 
 them under the difficulties, privations, and dis- 
 appointments of their earthly condition, and 
 make them in themselves more than conquerors, 
 but also the honoured instruments of aiding 
 others in their struggles after the Divine life. 
 Instead of seeking to have Christian doctrine 
 moulded to their tastes, or Christian life 
 fashioned after their likings, their one aim will 
 be to have their tastes brought into accordance 
 with Christian truth, and their likings fashioned 
 after the true type of Christian life. 
 
 And thus the Church will afresh be baptized 
 with her youthful ardour, put on her beautiful 
 garments, appear in her true attracting grace, 
 and not in the spirit of pride or vainglorying, 
 selfish conceit or empty arrogance, but in the 
 grace of true emulation, in the assimilation 
 of the self-sacrificing spirit to Christ, believers 
 will desire the noblest honours possible to finite 
 
228 Self Sacrifice. 
 
 existence, " covet earnestly the better gifts ; " 
 they will pursue the " more excellent way," 
 which is the way of self-sacrifice, and not that of 
 glorying in earthly attainments, or ecclesiastical 
 distinctions, or pietistic or ascetic dreamings. 
 And conscious of the quickening, sustaining, 
 and grandeur of the indwelling strength of 
 the Divine, they will enjoy the pure, the true, 
 of sentient, social, and rational life, and the 
 spiritual realizations of the grace of self- 
 sacrifice. 
 
 The Church, in her zeal for the development 
 of Christian doctrine, which she cannot with 
 impunity neglect, has allowed the more talented 
 of her sons to seek for distinctions in the 
 regions of controversial debate and ecclesiastical 
 dissensions, rather than in the higher walks of 
 self-sacrifice, in keeping steadily before them 
 the practical ends of the Church's mission in 
 the world, i.e.y the seizure of the enviable oppor- 
 tunities and glorious means of enabling souls 
 to realize the Divine, and consecrate themselves 
 to the service of God. The Church has not 
 kept sufficiently in view the adaptation of 
 the gospel to man's nature and circumstances, 
 especially to his native thirst for glory, and 
 thus she has failed to keep before the minds 
 of her more ardent converts the motive most 
 
Adapted to Human Well-being, 229 
 
 fitted to hold them in their right path; and 
 to this extent she has lost her hold on the 
 more ambitious of her membership. (See Max 
 MuUer's account of the journey of the converted 
 Brahmin to Christian lands, and intercourse 
 with religious society in them.) 
 
 We cannot rid ourselves of the impression 
 that it is in no small measure traceable to the 
 Church's neglect to present before the minds of 
 her youth the sublime motives, illustrious work, 
 and glorious rewards of imitating Christ in His 
 self-sacrifice for the regeneration of the world, 
 and presenting instead of this such mistaken 
 notions of Christian humility as she has done, 
 that she is not now occupying the high position 
 she ought to possess. She has encouraged her 
 members to afflict their souls, to bow down their 
 heads as a bulrush, spread sackcloth and ashes 
 as an acceptable time unto the Lord, instead of 
 teaching them to imitate Christ in His en- 
 lightened self-sacrifice. Does Christian life and 
 worship really consist in pietistic acts of homage, 
 in making a mere profession of membership, 
 of adhering to mere forms of belief, living a 
 formal moral life, devoting occasionally some 
 material substance to Christian ends ? Is it to 
 be wondered that, in connection with such 
 Christianity, the youth of the Church, instead of 
 
230 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 being drawn into the seizure of their glorious 
 opportunities of living for Christ, are suffered 
 to go into the world for distinctions, honours, 
 enjoyments, and are thus allowed to conform to 
 its customs in the nominal Church, and to fall 
 away from Christ, and sink into the mire of 
 pollution, and thus to grovel instead of rising to 
 the subUme heights of the Christian calling? 
 In her zeal to conform to the externals of 
 religious life, she has lost sight of and allowed to 
 fall into the background the true conceptions 
 and inner power of clear visions of the lofty 
 character of the work of co-operating with Christ 
 through the indwelling Spirit in the self-sacrifice 
 of the Christian calling. 
 
 It is patent to every observer, that as wealth, 
 refinement, science, social industry, rational spe- 
 culation, religious literature. Church efforts, are 
 multiplying in Christian lands, crime, immo- 
 rality, neglect of Christian ordinances, infidel 
 boldness, are increasing in appalling force. And 
 conferences about the state of religion, gather- 
 ings together for the consideration of public 
 questions, loud cries for more religious zeal, 
 discussions about the means and methods of 
 checking immorality, lamentations over the 
 increase of crimes, royal commissions for the 
 improvement of penal discipline, delegate as- 
 
Adapted to Human Well-being, 231 
 
 semblies for the consideration of the most 
 effectual methods of restraining vice and deaUng 
 with criminals, oecumenical, pan-Presbyterian, 
 Anglican councils, attempts to patch up exist- 
 ing creeds, temperance societies, young men's 
 Christian societies, and similar movements, ex- 
 pose the alarming state of Christian civilization, 
 but are utterly helpless to effect a cure, or stem 
 the current of vice, and in not a few cases make 
 bad worse. 
 
 Wherein then lies the true power of Chris- 
 tianity, the power which has made her conspi- 
 cuous in her zeal, glorious in her working, has 
 carried her forward, and sustained her under 
 all the opposition she has had to encounter ? 
 wherein lies the unperceived energy of the 
 gospel of the Son of God to raise fallen man ? 
 Doubtless in the perception of the true dignity 
 and ever-deepening bliss of self-sacrifice, and 
 of what is inseparably connected with it, the 
 inherent dignity and possible greatness of the 
 human soul. The perception of Christianity 
 being the greatest work of Godhead, the discern- 
 ment of the glory and bliss of winning souls to 
 Jesus, of raising fellow-immortals from sin and 
 crime, by firing them with the love of the Divine, 
 of enlightening their minds with the knowledge 
 of the true, of guiding man's life in the noblest 
 
232 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 career of finite existence, seizing through self- 
 sacrifice present opportunities of gaining immor- 
 tal crowns ; this is the true power of Christian 
 life. 
 
 Let the unsatisfied restless heart, the ardent 
 mind, the panting spirit of humanity, wasting 
 its energies, enslaving its powers by giving 
 itself to the false allurements of military enter- 
 prise, place-hunting, political scheming, wealth 
 acquiring, pleasure-seeking, but obtain a glimpse 
 of the true glory of man's life, taste a few drops of 
 the pure water of life, and realize the rising of the 
 Divine in the soul In connection with the deeds 
 of self-sacrifice, and the believer will enter with 
 ardour on the noble career of the Christian 
 calling ; he will escape the trammels of sense, 
 the ensnaring allurements and captivating 
 vanities of mammon, the fascinations of the 
 frivolous, vain, and evanescent ; he will realize 
 freedom, dignity, and joy, live a life of unselfish 
 usefulness, advance the cause of his Saviour 
 God, exert a beneficent influence In his day and 
 generation, and leave behind him a power for 
 good to act ages after he has fallen asleep in 
 Jesus. 
 
 Let but the Christian community realize that 
 such a career is not only open to all, but that 
 every disciple of Jesus Is called of God to the 
 
Adapted to Human Well-being. 233 
 
 performance of such deeds ; that from the sove- 
 reign on the throne to " the beggar on the dung- 
 hill," all are invited by the great God of heaven 
 and earth to be fellow-workers with Him in 
 His glorious work of self-sacrificing grace. Let 
 the aspiring spirits of humanity clearly per- 
 ceive and deeply ponder the difficulties of the 
 inner life, and the obstacles to the outer work 
 of the Christian calHng, and in humble depend- 
 ence on sovereign grace, bravely encounter the 
 arduous undertaking, and they will successfully 
 overcome all the oppositions they have to en- 
 counter ; in the true manliness of Christian 
 fortitude they will buckle on their Christian 
 armour, and go forth to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty, and they will be made more 
 than conquerors through Him that loveth us. 
 
XIII. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST THE ONLY 
 TEACHING ADAPTED TO THE NA- 
 TURE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF MAN 
 
CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST THE ONL Y 
 TEACHING ADAPTED TO THE NA- 
 TURE AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF MAN 
 
 \ T THY should the zeal of human ambition be 
 ^ ^ wasted on the trifles of perishing vanities, 
 and not devoted to the pursuit of the noble 
 ends of life possible to man in the imitation of 
 Jesus ? Why should the Divine energies of the 
 human spirit be squandered away on the ac- 
 quisition of the mere sentient gratifications of 
 an earthly life ? Why should the noble oppor- 
 tunities of triumphing over the powers of evil 
 in the accomplishment of that work in which 
 the Son of God Himself has won His coveted 
 glory, be thrown away on the acquisition of 
 earth's vanities ? Why should the sacred time 
 of human life, given by God to man for the 
 highest ends of self-sacrifice, be wasted in en- 
 slaving men to the bondage of self ? Let every 
 Christian realize the greatness of his Christian 
 calling, '' the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," 
 
238 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 and not be absorbed in vainglorying, but, glow- 
 ing in the love of Christ, desire to be like Him, 
 and strive to imitate Him in His self-sacrificing 
 greatness, and he will live a life and exert 
 an influence of the most illustrious and bene- 
 ficent character possible to an immortal spirit 
 created in the image of God, baptized and 
 indwelt by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Let the office-bearers of Christian lands 
 perceive the dangers of officialism, its great 
 liability to warp the spirit and pervert the 
 powers of individual devotedness to the higher 
 ends of life, and let them keep steadily before 
 them the fact that, to the full extent of its 
 influence on individual life, it blunts the edge 
 of the keen perception of truth and privilege, 
 and enervates the efforts of Christian benefi- 
 cence. It is not by officialism that man can 
 raise himself or aid his brother in escaping 
 the bondage of self; no, but in breathing the 
 Spirit and copying the example of Christ in 
 His self-sacrificing devotedness. Let the sove- 
 reigns of Christian lands imitate the " Lord of 
 Glory" (and such is their Christian privilege 
 and imperative duty) in occasionally laying 
 aside the insignia of royalty, clothe themselves 
 with the spirit of meekess and humility, and 
 while displaying the true grace of majesty in 
 
Christ's Doctrine adapted to Man. 22,g 
 
 the spirit of self-sacrifice, visit the scenes of 
 wretchedness, the abodes of crime, and while 
 loathing the vice, love the humanity of the 
 ungodly and vicious, and in the yearnings of 
 Christian tenderness speak words of kindness 
 with the accents of gentleness, forbearance, and 
 mercy ; and who can predict the results of such 
 tenderness, condescension, and grace ? Let the 
 several members of the different royal house- 
 holds do likewise, and great will be their reward. 
 Let the judge, who tries the criminal, lay aside 
 his ermine, visit his justly condemned brother 
 in the cell to which he has been removed from 
 the scene of his conviction, speak to him in 
 the meekness, kindness, brotherly love of self- 
 sacrificing grace, and an immortal spirit may 
 be gained to God, to humanity, and social well- 
 being in devotion to Christian self-sacrifice, and 
 on the expiration of his sentence he will return 
 to honourable and honest life, an heir of God 
 and a joint-heir with Christ. Let there be 
 proper classification of prisoners. Let ministers 
 of the crown, members of the aristocracy and 
 legislature, magistrates, employers, parents, in 
 their several spheres of influence, breathe and 
 display the spirit of self-sacrifice, especially in 
 connection with first off'ences, and great and 
 numerous would be the reformations wrought 
 
240 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 in the social and religious life of mankind ; few, 
 if any, would there be of second offences. There 
 would then be no dread of infidelity or com- 
 munism, of revolution or of rebellion. Man 
 will go astray (such is the inevitable result of 
 his alienation from God), and the enviable 
 privilege and glorious opportunity of the Chris- 
 tian in this world of sin is not to denounce the 
 criminal, contenting himself with a mere formal 
 life of morality, but to seize, in the spirit of 
 self-sacrifice, the golden opportunities for re- 
 claiming wrong-doers from the error of their 
 ways. 
 
 Let the servants of Christ, the ministers of 
 the gospel, from the highest to the humblest, 
 lay aside the officiahsm of their ecclesiasticism, 
 and in the meekness and gentleness of Christ, 
 speaking in the spirit of self-sacrifice to their 
 hearers of the glory of becoming like to Christ, 
 and of imitating Him by aiding in the rescue 
 of souls ; let them act in the clear perception 
 and deep realization of the power of Christian 
 self-sacrifice, and what glorious things would 
 be achieved in the different communities of the 
 Christian Church! Let believers in Christ think 
 aright of the glory, taste of the bliss, realize 
 the responsibility of neglecting opportunities 
 of winning souls to the Divine life, meditate 
 
Chris f s Doctrine adapted to Man. 241 
 
 on the reward of letting the light that is in 
 them shine around, so as to draw even one soul 
 to Jesus, and how influential for good would 
 be the life of each disciple of Christ Jesus! 
 The bliss of the inner joy v/ould be pure in 
 their consciousness of self-sacrifice for Christ 
 in doing the highest possible good to immortal 
 souls. 
 
 Let not these conceptions be thought Utopian, 
 or scorned as fanatical hallucinations, the disease 
 of a wild enthusiasm run mad. Such sentiments 
 will yet be universally entertained by the Chris- 
 tian Church. And such conceptions must not 
 only be entertained but acted on by the disci- 
 ples of Jesus, ere the world will be rescued 
 from the powers of evil and the principalities 
 of darkness, and the races of mankind con- 
 verted to God. And such, if we mistake not 
 the signs of the times, will be found necessary 
 for the maintenance of social order, and the 
 preservation of the harmony of the different 
 relations of the political life of men. 
 
 Officialism, in one form or another, is neces- 
 sary for the peace of the State and the harmony 
 of the Church ; but mere officialism will never 
 prevent wrong, rescue from crime, arrest back- 
 sliding, or convert souls to Jesus. If officials 
 would understand their true positions and legiti- 
 
 16 
 
242 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 mate function, and not turn their official stand- 
 ing to occasions of vanity and oppression, but 
 employ their power for its right ends, they 
 would live for the good of mankind. And if, 
 after they had performed their day's duty, they 
 would, as opportunities occur, exert themselves 
 in heartfelt endeavours to raise the fallen from 
 their habits of evil, by inspiring them with the 
 love of right in the practice of self-sacrifice, they 
 would not only be honourable members of civil 
 society, but benefactors of their race in their 
 imitation of Jesus. The mischief of prevailing 
 notions is that it is only ministers and mission- 
 aries that are in self-sacrificing devotedness to 
 seek and labour for the conversion of souls ; and 
 that all the officers of the State, the members 
 of the several communities, and the professors 
 of disclpleship in Jesus have to do is to attend 
 to the duties of their several callings and forms 
 of religious worship. This is right In so far as 
 it goes, if they do all that they do for the glory 
 of God ; but this is what they do not do, and 
 hence the indifference to their opportunities in 
 a sinful world of displaying the spirit of self- 
 sacrifice in imitation of Christ. The more 
 correct conception is that every believer in 
 Jesus in his position should realize the privilege, 
 obligation, and honour of seizing all the oppor- 
 
Christ'' s Doctrifie adapted to Man, 243 
 
 tunlties which God in His providence gives 
 him of glorifying God in doing what he can 
 for the promotion of the kingdom of Christ in 
 the reclamation of others. 
 
 Then would all those who aim at being 
 levellers in the Church and State cease their 
 endeavours, and reverse their course of life and 
 action. Differences in society and distinctions 
 in life would seem to be in accordance with 
 the nature of man, and necessary to the main- 
 tenance of order, as well as beneficial to the 
 religious and social life of men. Not only would 
 every act of his public calling, but likewise the 
 spare hours of the disciple of Jesus be devoted 
 to the sublime work of his high calling in God. 
 This does not imply that he should neglect the 
 exercise necessary for the preservation of health. 
 Health, being the first of earthly blessings, and 
 necessary to the proper discharge of social and 
 religious duties, must not be sacrificed for any 
 considerations ; but living in the true spirit 
 of self-sacrifice, a power over temptation would 
 be gained, and a satisfaction in life acquired, 
 which would go far to secure the best condition 
 of health. If, however, instead of living for 
 Christ in seeking the salvation of souls. Chris- 
 tians will conform to the maxims and customs 
 of the world, they will not only deteriorate their 
 
244 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 own salvation, and lose precious opportunities of 
 winning others, but will hinder the advance- 
 ment of Christiantity in the world ; or, as is 
 too often the case, if they attempt to do the 
 work of Christ in the spirit of Belial, whether 
 in public or private life, they will only aid in 
 the increase of infidelity and crime. 
 
 The pure atmosphere of Christian life is 
 greatly needed by the Church and the world, 
 for the welfare of man both in his civil and 
 ecclesiastical life. As in the vegetable and 
 animal kingdoms, so in the spiritual and social 
 life of man. The vitality and development of 
 the plant, the vigour and grace of the animal 
 life, depend much on the atmosphere in which 
 they are reared ; in like manner, pubHc opinion, 
 popular motives, fashionable thought in Chris- 
 tian society, greatly affect the Divine life of the 
 Church and the moral condition of the State. 
 If the prevailing sentiments of the denomination 
 or the religious ideas of the nation be worldly 
 in their tone, ecclesiastical in their temper, 
 pharisaic, pietistic, ascetic, and not Christ-like in 
 their bearing, then will formalism, immorality, 
 infidelity, increase. 
 
 But if the spirit of the Church, the sentiment 
 of the nation, be after the mind of Christ in 
 the spirit of His self-sacrificing, then will 
 
Chris f s Doctrine adapted to Man. 245 
 
 brotherly love, prosperity, and joy abound in 
 all ranks of the community and conditions of 
 life. The opportunities will be seized, and the 
 energies of Hfe devoted to the higher ends of 
 man's existence ; Christians will be ever ready 
 to consecrate the fleeting moments of time, and 
 to give their energies to the interests of spiritual 
 life in self-sacrificing devotedness. Then would 
 the several members of the community, per- 
 ceiving and admiring the true nature and Divine 
 necessities of man, be covetous of the *' better 
 gifts " of the '' more excellent way," and con- 
 secrate their individual influence to the imita- 
 tion of Christ in His self-sacrifice, and draw 
 men into His holy life. Then would the life 
 of the Church and the prosperity of the nation 
 be not sickly and feeble, but lovely and vigorous. 
 Such to a certain degree has been the experience 
 of the past, and such will be the realization of 
 the future. 
 
 The truth of the above will be at once 
 apparent by a reference to the previous history 
 of the world, and their bearing on the present 
 condition of things will be also obvious to every 
 careful student of the principles of man's reli- 
 gious and social life. The bearing of these 
 principles on the religious and literary educa- 
 tion of youth is far from being so carefully 
 
246 Self-Sacrifit 
 
 ce. 
 
 pondered, understood, and rigidly acted on as 
 the state of society and the welfare of the race 
 demand. It is well known that the study of 
 the Bible has influenced the noblest minds 
 and moulded the most generous hearts of 
 modern times. The different States have found 
 it necessary for the taking of evidence in their 
 courts of justice to require an oath or appeal 
 to the author of the Scriptures in evidence of 
 the truthfulness of the testimony of the witness. 
 Yet in the legislation of the day the framers of 
 laws are desirous of excluding from the schools 
 of the land the Book of books, the most influen- 
 tial and elevating instrument of the most impor- 
 tant of all educations. This is carrying out the 
 sectarianism of secularism with a high hand, 
 but at the same time with the blindness of the 
 worst of all forms of bigotry. 
 
XIV. 
 
 SELF-SACRIFICE IS THE PRINCIPLE 
 WHICH PERVADES UNIVERSAL BE- 
 ING, AND MUST EMBRACE CHRIS- 
 TIAN LIFE. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SELF-SACRIFICE IS THE PRINCIPLE 
 WHICH PERVADES UNIVERSAL BE- 
 ING, AND MUST EMBRACE CHRIS- 
 TIAN LIFE. 
 
 SELF-SACRIFICE, being the inmost princi- 
 ple and perfection of the Infinite essence, 
 must pervade all creation and renewed life, in 
 as far as these display the perfection and reality 
 of the Divine. The doctrine of Jesus is that 
 man, in order to well-being, must realize supreme 
 love to God and fellow-love to man. Christ was 
 the first to teach this doctrine, and exemplify it 
 before men ; and the progress of the Church, as 
 well as the glory and bliss of the Christian, is 
 conditioned on this principle of living. He also 
 taught that the life of love is possible to man 
 only as he breathes the spirit of self-sacrifice, and 
 acts in belief of its truth. He likewise assured 
 men that this life was in itself the most benignant 
 and beneficent of lives possible to man, and that 
 the only opportunity men will have of Hving this 
 
250 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 life is their brief period of existence in this world 
 of sin ; and that all who live this life with Him 
 in time will reign with Him in eternity, in the 
 loftiest and most glorious and blessed condition 
 of existence. 
 
 The losing sight of this phase of the true 
 Christian life was the greatest mistake into 
 which the Church fell after the Apostles were 
 taken from the earth, and from which error the 
 Church has not yet recovered herself. Nor is it 
 matter of wonder that in a distracted state of 
 spiritual life she should, to escape from cruel 
 persecutions, have entered into alliance with the 
 worldly power of the State, and by so doing 
 have yielded up the quickening grace of her life. 
 
 But in allying herself with such power she 
 perceived not that she was exchanging the glory 
 and bliss of self-sacrifice for the security and 
 wealth of worldliness, and thereby parting with 
 her true power, glory, and joy. Nor is it matter 
 of surprise that in such an alliance the love of 
 ease, pleasure, and distinction should have led 
 the members of the Church to lose sight of the 
 mark for the prize of the high calling of God, 
 and to seek honour and gratification in ecclesi- 
 astical rank, crusades against the infidels, the 
 fame of knights templars, ascetic mortifications, 
 monastic seclusion, and nun chastity. The 
 
Self- Sacrifice a Universal Principle, 251 
 
 natural result of this perversion of Christ's prin- 
 ciple of life in His Church could not but be that 
 the different orders of ecclesiasticism that arose 
 in the Church of the world should usurp the 
 power and pervert the godliness of Christ's 
 brotherhood, and by so doing prepare the way 
 for the dark ages of superstition that followed. 
 
 The Church has had to retrace her steps of 
 declension, and the reason why she has not re- 
 turned to her former state of glory and power 
 is that she has not yet clearly discerned the 
 high place Christ has assigned to the self-sacri- 
 fice of brotherly love, and the necessity for its 
 action, to the realization of the pure conscious- 
 ness of fellowship with Him. It is not in osten- 
 tatious, false zeal, it is not in fuss about Church 
 extension, it is not in angry controversy about 
 purity of creeds and conduct, that the Church 
 shines in the light that draws to Jesus, and 
 makes her progress in the world, but in the calm 
 beauty of enlightened self-sacrifice for the glory 
 of God in the good of man. To the non-per- 
 ception that this is the only way in which the 
 Church can follow Jesus in the regeneration of 
 the world is to be traced the chief cause of her 
 failures in the great efforts and earnest endea- 
 vours of the leaders of the Reformation, etc., and 
 that the Reformers should have been so blinded 
 
252 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 as not to perceive the lofty character and great 
 importance of self-sacrifice in imitation of Christ 
 is accounted for by the bitter controversies into 
 which the Reformers fell about abstract notions, 
 and the unfortunate rise of personal and sec- 
 tarian rivalries. Christianity can advance only 
 on her own principles. 
 
 The wisdom of Christ is conspicuous in the 
 order established by Him in His Church. The 
 influence of the world and the power of the 
 remaining corruption of the life of the disciple 
 must be counteracted by the opposite pressure 
 of the glorious reward of following Christ in His 
 self-sacrifice. It is to the want of due attention 
 to the doctrine and order of Christ, and not to 
 any defect in His principle and plan, that the 
 apparent failure of Christianity in the world is 
 to be traced. Man, in striving to attain the end 
 of his existence, must have possessions, distinc- 
 tions, religious consciousness ; and Christ has 
 seen this want of humanity, and made provision 
 for its supply in the principle of self-sacrifice. 
 The enjoyment to which He calls man's attention 
 is pure and without alloy ; the possessions which 
 He enables man to acquire are internal and 
 enduring, and far superior to any others possible 
 to finite being ; the distinctions which He holds 
 out to man are lofty and elevating ; the religious 
 
Self -Sacrifice a Universal Principle. 253 
 
 acquirements which He enables man to realize 
 are such as meet his wants, energize his power, 
 and fire his zeal. And thus Christ supplies man 
 with all that is necessary and adequate to his 
 permanent well-being. 
 
 The true atmosphere of self-sacrificing de- 
 votedness requires only to be brought afresh 
 into the Church, the atmosphere in which Christ 
 will be seen to be the grand Luminary of human 
 Hfe, the sphere of thought and desire in which 
 the disciple can imitate Christ, and become like 
 Him. When this atmosphere of spiritual breath 
 is reproduced in the Church, the circumstances 
 of individual life will fall into their proper place. 
 In this atmosphere there will be no dallying 
 with conscience in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, 
 in yielding to the corruption of fallen nature. 
 Each individual will occupy his proper place, 
 and be obedient to the heavenly vision. The 
 cast and colouring of Christian society will not 
 be such as allow the youth and simple-minded 
 of the Church to follow the pursuit of vanities 
 and worldly pleasure, but such as will draw 
 them into the imitation of Christ. 
 
 The atmosphere of spirituality which Christ 
 has given to His Church is the one which will 
 inspire the thoughts and feelings of man to the 
 pursuit of the proper objects and true ends of 
 
254 Self-Sacrijii 
 
 ce. 
 
 his existence. This is the only atmosphere in 
 which man can fully and freely breathe in 
 accordance with his nature, and find an object 
 worthy of his life ; to the accompHshment of 
 which he can with heart and soul consecrate his 
 powers, and in which he will find a motive 
 adequate to all the conditions, contingencies, 
 and hindrances to his fellowship with Jesus. If 
 the true atmosphere of spiritual living which 
 Christ has given to His Church be seen by His 
 disciples to be the only one in which they can 
 freely breathe and fully consecrate themselves 
 to His service, they will the more readily give 
 themselves with earnestness and diligence to 
 the one end of their Christian calling. Let this 
 atmosphere be so pure, that the disciples of 
 Jesus shall as clearly perceive their opportunities, 
 as fully value their privileges, and as diligently 
 pursue the right end of their Christian calling 
 as soldiers, lawyers, physicians, merchants, 
 tradesmen, students, pursue the several ends of 
 their calling, and they will consecrate them- 
 selves and their all to the one end of their 
 existence. 
 
 Let but the spiritual and Divine of man's 
 being and opportunities be as well understood 
 and appreciated as the several objects of his 
 sentient and social life, and then it will be seen 
 
Self- Sacrifice a Universal Principle. 255 
 
 and acknowledged that the deed of the "widow" 
 in casting her mite into the treasury of the Lord 
 is more illustrious in itself and more important 
 in its results than all the hoardings of the mil- 
 lionaire ; that the Bible-woman is greater in her 
 walks of beneficence than the " belle " of fashion 
 in all her flauntings in the gay and giddy circles 
 of the world's dreamers ; that the " teacher " in 
 the Sabbath-school is nobler in himself, and 
 more illustrious in his deeds, than the titled 
 frequenter of the ring, the racecourse, the 
 aristocratic gambler ; that the promoter of 
 ragged schools, the rescuer of " City arabs," the 
 alleviators of human wretchedness in its numer- 
 ous forms, are far more glorious and blessed in 
 their deeds than the "leaders of armies," the 
 amassers of fortunes, or the " popular winner of 
 public applause " in any or all of its forms. The 
 time is approaching when the life and the 
 labours of a "John Howard/' a "John Faulk," 
 a "John Williams," will be seen and acknow- 
 ledged to be far nobler and beneficent than the 
 life of a " Leo the Tenth," a " Plato," or an 
 " Alexander." 
 
 Let the heads of families, of communities, 
 of nations, be but earnest in breathing the true 
 spirit of self-sacrifice, and prudent in their 
 endeavours to bring all whom they influence 
 
255 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 under the power of Christ's example, and how 
 great would be the work accomplished, and 
 how illustrious would be their fame ! Such 
 deeds, instead of being regarded as beneath their 
 positions, or as interfering with the proper 
 discharge of their daily functions, would be 
 felt to be the adorning of their character, and 
 ennobling of their virtuous lives in influencing 
 for good all who came within the sphere of 
 their actions. The want of the Church is that 
 each professing Christian in his own sphere of 
 life should breathe the pure spirit of self-sacri- 
 fice, and seize the passing opportunities which 
 present themselves in connection with the 
 discharge of the duties of his calling, and thus 
 exert a wholesome and legitimate influence on 
 all that move around them. 
 
 Christianity is adapted to all the circum- 
 stances and conditions of man's existence upon 
 earth. Christianity for her promotion requires 
 no man to leave his own position in society, 
 or to occupy himself with anything foreign 
 to his individual calHng in life, but to keep to 
 his own sphere, and in the proper discharge 
 of his duties to exert the influence becoming 
 his place among men. A mistaken zeal, leading 
 professing Christians to intermeddle with things 
 that He beyond their sphere in Hfe, works evil. 
 
Self -Sacrifice a Universal Principle, 257 
 
 and not good. It is in the proper discharge 
 of the obligations of his own calling that the 
 disciple of Jesus best serves Christ, the cause 
 of humanity, and his own salvation. 
 
 Occasions will occur in which those occupying 
 high positions may appear to step out of their 
 usual walk in life to serve Christ, but it must 
 be only in appearance. In such services they 
 are only acting in harmony with their exalted 
 rank, for they interfere with nothing belonging 
 to others, or foreign to their condition in life. 
 It is said of our illustrious Queen, when cer- 
 tain heathen visitants inquired of her the secret 
 of England's greatness, that she led them not 
 into the arsenals or dockyards of her navy, or 
 to a review of her armies or fleets, but presented 
 to them a copy of the Bible, and said, " This is 
 the secret of England's greatness." In so doing 
 she moved not out of her proper sphere, nor 
 exercised an illegitimate influence, but took 
 occasion to occupy what is doubtless the most 
 sublime position, and performed the most 
 illustrious deed of her reign. We have read 
 of a leader of the House of Lords, while 
 seeking health on the banks of the Nile, en- 
 gaging in the labours of the " colporteur," that 
 he might embrace the opportunity afforded 
 to him of circulating the Scriptures in lands 
 
 17 
 
258 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 of darkness ; and in such a deed he went not 
 out of his proper sphere of action, but availed 
 himself of a favourable opportunity of exerting 
 a far more noble, though not a more legitimate, 
 activity than what he performed in leading 
 the British peers in their grave and responsible 
 deliberations. It has been said of one of the 
 Prime Ministers of England, that he taught in 
 a Sabbath school ; in so doing he went not 
 out of his proper sphere, but set a noble 
 example to others in taking part in what will 
 make his name more illustrious, and secure a 
 better reward than he could ever gain in his 
 place in the House of Commons, or in pre- 
 siding in the august Cabinet Council of the 
 nation in its most solemn deliberations. 
 
 Let all who occupy prominent positions in 
 society pursue a like course, and their deeds 
 will be truly great in themselves, beneficent in 
 their influence on others, and blessed in their 
 reward. In the performance of such deeds, those 
 who engage in them will only be doing what 
 alike their common humanity and their common 
 Christianity demand of them. The increase of 
 the number of those who so live and act will go 
 far to diminish the temptation in ecclesiastical 
 circles to idolize those who engage in such deeds, 
 as if they did something that was extraordinary 
 
Self- Sacrifice a Universal Principle, 259 
 
 in itself, and far out of the way of what Christian 
 living required of them. 
 
 We have no desire to malign any of our 
 fellow-men, or to bring a railing accusation 
 against those who differ from us about what 
 may be consistent in Christian profession ; for 
 we have received no such commission from the 
 Master, nor been entrusted with such power 
 of interference with the conscience or liberty 
 of others ; but we would in a friendly spirit 
 earnestly inquire of those professing Christians 
 who frequent theatres, ball-rooms, racecourses, 
 betting saloons, midnight revelries, and such- 
 like, to ponder well and carefully consider if 
 such things be most conducive to man's physical 
 and social well-being, if they feed the spiritual 
 life of the soul, if they afford the best oppor- 
 tunities of imitating Christ in His self-sacrifice 
 on behalf of man, or if they correspond with 
 their Christian responsibilities, or can earn for 
 them a glorious reward in the life to come. We 
 would ask such persons whether, while souls are 
 perishing in ignorance in heathen lands, while 
 neglected outcasts at home are sinking in crime, 
 while sick neglected children and indigent adults 
 are dying of starvation in their own immediate 
 neighbourhood, such frequentings be the most 
 Christ-like methods of devoting their means 
 
2 6o Self- Sacrifice . 
 
 and of consecrating their opportunities. Is it 
 not their first duty and legitimate enjoyment to 
 attend to the urgent claims of their common 
 humanity ? Let them reflect, and see if it would 
 not be more noble, more beneficent, and more 
 blessed to direct their attention to the wants of 
 their fellow-men, and employ their means and 
 opportunities in the rescue of immortal souls, by 
 doing all in their power to draw them into the 
 realizations and pure enjoyments of true Chris- 
 tian life. What if in the providence of God 
 these helpless ones have been brought into their 
 immediate neighbourhood that they might have 
 the opportunity of cultivating the higher graces 
 of the Christian life by attending to the neces- 
 sities of the poor, the suffering, and fallen } The 
 judgment day may disclose such a fact, and 
 will the disclosure afford joy and comfort to 
 those who for frivolous trifles neglected their 
 golden opportunities t 
 
 It is said that Nero, while Rome was in flames, 
 watched the progress of the fire from the top of 
 a high tower, and amused himself in playing on 
 the flute the drama of the destruction of Troy. 
 Such conduct is rightly regarded with abhorrence, 
 and viewed as indicative of the greatest pro- 
 fligacy. If true, it was certainly a manifestation 
 of fearful wickedness and infatuated guilt. But 
 
Self- Sacrifice a Universal Principle, 261 
 
 is the infatuation and guilt less of those who, 
 while possessed of the means and under the 
 highest obligations to do all in their power to 
 relieve the suffering, and save the souls of their 
 fellow-men, neglect their opportunities, pervert 
 their means, and waste their precious hours in 
 frivolities, if not in madness ? Is such conduct 
 worthy of the Christian life, calculated to pro- 
 mote Christian ends, rescue the souls which 
 Christ died to save, awake the consciousness of 
 a pure and lasting satisfaction ? Is it the self- 
 sacrifice He has called men, in imitation of 
 Himself, to make on behalf of their perishing 
 brethren ? 
 
 And we would ask those in the humble sphere 
 
 of Christian society, who worry themselves in 
 
 toiling with might and main to make gain, that 
 
 they may vie with those in higher positions, and 
 
 mimic them in their vain and frivolous deeds of 
 
 empty, fashionable life, if it would not be far 
 
 more satisfactory and nobler in them to seize 
 
 their opportunities, consecrate their means, and 
 
 employ themselves in the imitation of their 
 
 Lord in His self-sacrificing devotion on behalf 
 
 of the fallen and wretched. Surely Christ is 
 
 more worthy of the imitation of professing 
 
 Christians than the frivolous and vain. Were 
 
 each class in society, and each individual in the 
 
262 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 Christian Church, to live as becomes them, in 
 exhibiting the true Christian hfe of self-sacrifice 
 in the view of the world, and thus to display an 
 enlightened zeal for the glory of God in the 
 good of men, how much more consistent would 
 their lives be, and how much more deep, pure, 
 elevating, and enduring the happiness which 
 they would enjoy, compared with what they 
 derive from their imitations of the worldliness 
 of fashionable life. 
 
 Jesus, in exhibiting in the view of the world 
 the spirit and example of self-sacrifice, disclosed 
 the Divine purpose and power of salvation, 
 afforded a perfect illustration of Christian life, 
 and in calling men to the performance of illus- 
 trious deeds displayed His deep insight into 
 the principle of humanity. His full and com- 
 prehensive conceptions of what was necessary 
 and adequate to move the spirit of man to the 
 high and the holy. But while Christ has exhi- 
 bited the perfection of His plan, His Church 
 has failed to perceive what was clear in the 
 view of her Lord, and by so doing has failed to 
 accomplish her work in the world. In this the 
 Church has followed in the path of the twelve, 
 but will, like them, yet be raised to a higher 
 state through the disappointments of struggle 
 and self-sacrifice. 
 
Self- Sacrifice a Universal Prijiciple. 263 
 
 In losing sight of the true dignity of man, 
 of the necessary requirements of human well- 
 being, of the glorious rewards of the Christian 
 calling, and substituting in their place escape 
 from hell, sorrow for sin, and the mortifica- 
 tion of asceticism, theologians have wrought 
 unspeakable mischief in the Church, and done 
 great wrong to the world. Man as instructed 
 by Christ is not to endeavour to work himself 
 up to live for God, that he may escape hell and 
 gain heaven ; but he is, by faith in the gospel, 
 to realize an enlightened love to God, for what 
 He is in Himself, and for what He is to man, 
 and in the perception of the true dignity of 
 humanity he is to strive to live worthy of his 
 nature, means, and opportunities, in the con- 
 viction that in no other sphere can he engage 
 in such illustrious deeds. 
 
 The love of glory, the desire for distinction, 
 the thirst for enjoyment, being innate in man, 
 nothing that robs him of, or fails to secure such 
 to him can long engage his affections, occupy 
 his thoughts, or concentrate his energies. To 
 seek heaven in order to escape hell, to serve 
 God for the benefit of self, to devote the thing^s 
 of time to merit the things of eternity, is to 
 mistake the very nature of the Christian salva- 
 tion, and to stumble on the threshold of a noble 
 
264 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 career. To pursue successfully his noble course, 
 the disciple of Jesus must perceive that as his 
 Lord, ''for the joy that was set before Him," 
 entered on His self-sacrifice, so must he imitate 
 Jesus in rejoicing and being " exceeding glad " 
 when reviled and persecuted falsely, knowing 
 that in himself he is blessed, and that great 
 is his reward. By inspiring men with the love 
 of God, and by the prospect of glory alluring 
 them to the imitation of His own sublime life 
 and heroic deeds, Christ supplies man with the 
 principles and motives which alone are adequate 
 to a successful encounter with and triumph 
 over the evils of his present state, and which 
 are necessary to enable him to turn these evils 
 to the occasion of the highest possible advan- 
 tage for the discipline of his own life and the 
 benefit of others. 
 
 The disciple of Jesus engaging in acts of self- 
 sacrifice from love to God and his fellow-man, 
 perfecting his own salvation as he does what 
 he can, in accordance with his position and 
 circumstances in life, to promote the salvation 
 of others, lives the most glorious of all possible 
 lives on earth, and performs his portion of the 
 most glorious work of time. And to aid and 
 encourage him to persevere, he must keep in 
 remembrance that the glory which Christ now 
 
Self- Sacrifice a Universal Principle. 265 
 
 enjoys as the great Redeemer of men, and will 
 enjoy throughout the everlasting ages, is not 
 the glory which belongs to Him as the " Bright- 
 ness of His Father's glory," but that which 
 He has won by His life and death of self- 
 sacrifice on earth. 
 
 The hfe devoted to the cause of Christ is 
 not only in itself the most glorious, but is 
 also the most blessed a man can live on earth. 
 No delusion regarding Christianity is greater 
 than that which contemplates the Christian con- 
 sciousness as one of narrow, morose, sad realiza- 
 tion, although the delusion is easily accounted 
 for. The Christian's is a far happier life than 
 the man of the world's. Happiness will never 
 disclose her loveliest beauties or bestow her 
 choicest favours on the frivolous pleasure- 
 seeker, whose joys are like the "cracklings of 
 the thorns under the pot." The happiness of 
 the Christian consists in a conscious union and 
 communion with God, in an exchange of heart, 
 in the giving of a pure affection to the reception 
 of the sweetest inflowings of the Divine, in the 
 consciousness of being upheld and guided by 
 infallible power and unerring wisdom, in the 
 consciousness of living for the highest possible 
 end of life, in the consciousness of employing 
 the best and most suitable means for the 
 
2 66 Self' Sacrifice. 
 
 promotion of the most glorious and blessed 
 v/ork, in the consciousness of living in accord- 
 ance with the will of the Father, the end for 
 which the Son became incarnate, suffered, and 
 died. 
 
 And not the least part of the benignity and 
 wisdom of Christ's plan is that every one of 
 His disciples, however apparently humble and 
 insignificant, can take part with Him in the 
 regeneration of the world, and share with Him 
 in the blessed and glorious rewards of His self- 
 sacrifice. Whatever may be the position of the 
 disciple in his particular sphere of action in life, 
 there is work for him to do. And so complete 
 is Christ's plan of operation, that no disciple 
 following Him requires to leave his position 
 in society, or to alter his circumstances in the 
 social scale of life. All that is required of him 
 is to live by faith, in the contemplation and 
 reception of the Divine, so as to be able to 
 consecrate himself and his all, that he may 
 shine in the beauty of Christian life, in the 
 discharge of the several duties of his respective 
 calling. So living he will be able to win souls 
 to Christ, not indeed by ostentation, but by 
 the silent beauty of true Christian vitality, in 
 which he so gently moves as not to let his 
 left hand know what his right hand doeth. 
 
Self -Sacrifice a Universal Principle. 267 
 
 The good deeds of the genuine disciple of 
 Christ are not the fruit, flowers, leaves, twigs, 
 and stems of artificial waxwork, but the genuine 
 stems, twigs, foliage, blossoms, fruit of a vigorous 
 Christian life. 
 
 The point at issue between the believer and 
 the unbeliever in Christ is within the compass 
 of a nutshell, and of easy test. The evidence of 
 the wisdom of the one and the folly of the 
 other is not far to seek, but is near at hand, 
 and can at any moment be adduced. The past 
 experience of the world proves most clearly 
 that all the efforts made to raise man by 
 secular education, rational development, scien- 
 tific discovery, philosophical speculation, political 
 science, moral reformation, aesthetic refinement, 
 ascetic fastings, social elevations, however ear- 
 nestly originated and diligently persevered in, 
 have invariably failed, and can never succeed. 
 They can never meet the deep capabilities of 
 man's nature, occupy the void of his immortal 
 soul, lift from his conscience the load of guilt, 
 allay his inner distress, harmonize the principles, 
 relations, and operations of his life with them- 
 selves, with God, and with the end of his 
 existence, raise his aspirations to the genuine 
 standard of his well-being, and supply him with 
 the true motive power and invigorating nutri- 
 
268 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 ment of the Divine life in his soul. But Chris- 
 tianity is possessed of this power and bread of 
 life ; this is that which distinguishes her from 
 all mere human systems, and in the application 
 of her motive power to the soul of man she does 
 all that is necessary for his true elevation. It 
 is her glory and boast, that she will raise men 
 only in the measure in which they drink in her 
 pure spirit, yield their minds up to her unadul- 
 terated truth, and live by her motive principle 
 and power of life. It is in this manner and 
 degree of raising men that Christianity has 
 never failed. The past and present success in 
 elevating and blessing the life of man proves 
 and clearly proves that whensover she has been 
 understood and persistently acted upon, she can 
 and will do all that is needed for the present 
 and future well-being of the entire race of man- 
 kind. 
 
 In fine, the principle of self-sacrifice pervades 
 the entire of universal being in its operations and 
 life, the heavens shine in the splendour of their 
 celestial glory, not for themselves, but for the 
 being created in the image Divine. The earth 
 brings forth in the luxuriance of her rich abun- 
 dance, not for herself, but for man, placed over 
 her by the act and authority of his Creator; 
 vegetation arrays herself in her beautiful robes, 
 
Self- Sacrifice a Uriiver sal Principle, 269 
 
 not for herself, but to gladden the heart of man. 
 The animal in all his rich variety exists not for 
 himself, but for his owner and lord. And man 
 lives not for himself, but for his fellow and his 
 God. He fills and performs the duties of his 
 many offices, not for himself, but for the benefit 
 of general society ; if he fills such for himself, 
 he only degrades his life and injures his fellow- 
 men ; but if he discharges the duties of his rank 
 for the good of others, he by so doing brings 
 honour on himself, and benefits others. The 
 true student cultivates his intellectual powers, 
 not so much for the benefit he expects to derive 
 in his after-position in society, as from his love 
 of mental cultivation and the dignity it secures. 
 The child of God who understands his privilege 
 and responsibility lives not unto himself, but 
 unto Him that loved him and gave Himself for 
 him, that He might redeem him unto Himself, 
 and purify him from all iniquity. Paul, the self- 
 sacrificing apostle of Jesus Christ, was a far 
 more illustrious and happy man than selfish 
 Saul in the persecuting spirit of his mission to 
 Damascus. In short, nature through all her 
 works proclaims aloud that the Creator delights 
 in self-sacrifice. 
 
XV, 
 SUMMA2I0N. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 SUMMATION. 
 
 IN Christ's declaration that He came not to 
 be ministered to, but to minister, and to give 
 His life a ransom for many, we have a statement 
 which discloses the essential nature of Chris- 
 tianity, and the necessity of the infinitude of 
 Christ, The conception of not being ministered 
 to, but of ministering by conditioning His mani- 
 festations to the production and reclaiming the 
 highest life to the purest enjoyments of the 
 loftiest fellowship is the most profound, compre- 
 hensive, and sublime of Divine ideas, an idea 
 only possible to the consciousness of Infinite 
 fulness, to the consciousness which divides the 
 Infinite from the finite life. 
 
 The finite acquires greatness in being minis- 
 tered unto. It has nothing of its own, but is de- 
 pendent in all that it is, achieves, and attains to. 
 The Infinite displays greatness in ministering. 
 By producing and maintaining the finite in ex- 
 istence, by superintending the development, or 
 
 i8 
 
274 ^^If- Sacrifice. 
 
 regulating the evolutions of progressive existence, 
 the Infinite manifests His fulness. In yielding 
 to the bitter exasperations of enmity for the re- 
 claim of rebel life from abnormal selfishness to 
 filial devotedness in the annihilation of the rebel 
 spirit, through voluntary self-sacrifice, the Con- 
 ditioned displayed a purpose of will which was 
 possible only to Him who was conscious of 
 being the outcome of the Absolute. 
 
 Ambition, or the eagerness to shine in the 
 effusions or the supposed attainments of life, 
 seems to be the deep-seated principle of per- 
 sonality, and is apparent in the manifestations of 
 the Infinite and in the movements of all finite 
 existence. 
 
 The Infinite shines in what He emits, through 
 the conditioning of Himself in evolution and 
 self-sacrifice. For what is creation in all its 
 vast, varied, enduring forms, but God manifesting 
 Himself by coming under the forms of limitation, 
 as He conditions Himself to the accomplish- 
 ment of the ends of His love t And what is the 
 self-sacrifice of the Godhead, but the Father 
 giving the Son of His love to the conditions of 
 the reclamation of rebel spirits, or the conditioned 
 of the Divine yielding Himself up to the wrath of 
 the rebellious } God has an end in view in all 
 the manifestations which He gives of Himself, 
 
Summation, 
 
 275 
 
 and this end is worthy of His unerring wisdom. 
 It is not an end of mere display or of vain 
 ostentation, no, nor of insufficient revelation, but 
 of " fulness of impartation." The Divine heart 
 realizes its fullest delight in the creation and 
 redemption of the objects of its tenderest affec- 
 tion, by means of evolution and self-sacrifice. 
 The creation of the finite leads to the possibility 
 of evil, and the overthrow of evil necessitates 
 the operations of self-sacrifice. 
 
 The human shines in what man receives, 
 appropriates, and displays of the Divine, and 
 only of the Divine, in the normal operations of 
 his hfe. There is nothing in man of a self-crea- 
 tive nature or of a self-sufficing character. Man 
 attains to the perfections of his being only in 
 as far as he receives, appropriates, and manifests 
 the Divine in accordance with the law of his 
 life. In his normal actions he realizes the 
 Divine capabilities of his nature and the grand 
 possibilities of his hfe. If in anything or in 
 the least degree he deviates from the law of his 
 life, or the normal conditions of his well-being, 
 he displays self, and falls from his true eminence. 
 
 The worldling or selfish man shines in his 
 worldliness by seizing, through exaction, usurpa- 
 tion, or oppression, the property, and by domi- 
 neering over the lives of others. In all the 
 
276 Self -Sacrifice, 
 
 aims and efforts of his life the worldling desires 
 and labours for his own selfish ends. He 
 cherishes the thoughts of accumulation, and 
 acts on the principles of exaction for his own 
 individual benefit, and for the advantage of his 
 dependants. The worldling has no conception 
 of accomplishing the ends of life by giving 
 himself in self-sacrifice for the advantage of 
 others, and much less for his enemies. If at 
 any time, in peculiar circumstances, he should 
 feel constrained to appear in the formal of 
 self-sacrificing deeds, it is only for the accom- 
 plishment of his own ends. In his life of 
 selfishness, without being conscious of it, the 
 worldling, in gratifying his own vanity, and 
 securing the physical and social benefits of 
 his family, ignores his higher nature, shuts 
 himself out from the purest enjoyments, the 
 noblest honours, and most enduring rewards 
 possible to man, and at the same time in- 
 jures, if he does not finally ruin, all whom he 
 influences. 
 
 The Christian shines in what he receives, ap- 
 propriates, and displays by means of self-sacrifice. 
 Fallen man can be a Christian and can make 
 progress in Christian life only in the measure of 
 his self-sacrifice. It is only through self-sacrifice 
 that the sinner enters upon the life and realiza- 
 
Summation, 277 
 
 tion of regeneration, and it is through self- 
 sacrifice that the believer in Jesus advances in 
 sanctification, or builds himself up in holiness. 
 It is only through self-sacrifice that the disciple 
 lives for Christ m this sinful world. The bias 
 of the carnal mind, or the efforts of the old 
 man still remaining within him, the example, 
 prejudice, and influence of society around him, 
 all tend to induce him to gratify self. And 
 thus the believer must ever be on his guard, 
 and bear in mind that in the exact measure 
 in which he lives in self-sacrificing devoted- 
 ness for Christ, he lives, realizes, and becomes 
 glorious in the Divine. 
 
 Christ's mission for the sole purpose of 
 ministering necessitates not only the conscious- 
 ness of absolute fulness, but likewise His descent 
 from the infinite into the finite of life. A mere 
 finite being, in order to the perfection of his 
 life, must be ministered unto. But a being that 
 comes under conditions for the sole purpose of 
 ministering to others, must possess the con- 
 sciousness of infinite and eternal fulness. And 
 the Being that comes under the most humi- 
 liating condition, that by self-sacrifice He may 
 allure His enemies to the enjoyments of the 
 highest life, must not only possess the conscious- 
 ness of boundless fulness and immaculate purity, 
 
278 ^^If' Sacrifice, 
 
 but be actuated by the tenderest yearnings of 
 Divine love. And thus it is that Christ's coming 
 to minister to the deepest necessities of the 
 fallen in offering Himself on their behalf, opens 
 to our vision the inmost recesses of the absolute. 
 Christ's display of self-sacrifice not only dis- 
 closes the deepest depths of the Divine, but 
 proves to universal intelligence that there is 
 no other principle by which the fallen can rise 
 to the enjoyment of purest fellowship with the 
 '' Father of all." 
 
 If the Son of the Father condescended to 
 such conditionings of limitation, humiliation, 
 and suffering, that He might win glory and 
 open the deepest well-springs of bliss, then must 
 it be evident that regenerated life among the 
 indigent and suffering is the most enviable state 
 of temporal existence the divinely quickened 
 can desire. In other words, the being put into 
 possession of the means, and afforded the oppor- 
 tunities of exerting themselves in self-sacrifice 
 on behalf of the unworthy, is the true sphere of 
 manifesting the Christian spirit, in living the 
 Divine life, and the only period of displaying 
 the genuine Christian zeal of self-sacrifice. 
 
 As the sun is set in the heavens to shine in 
 the light of day, so Christians are made sons 
 of God, gifted with the life and light of truth, 
 
Summation, 279 
 
 and continued in this world of sin, that they may- 
 exercise the powers and manifest the necessary 
 properties of the Divine life, in ministering to 
 the necessities of the indigent and suffering. 
 They are not gifted with the qualities and 
 functions of the Divine life to lie latent in their 
 souls, but to enable them to acquire greatness in 
 manifesting the Divine that is in them, as they 
 minister to the necessities of fallen man. In 
 the consciousness of his Divine ministrations to 
 the needy, the Christian man is great in action, 
 lofty in character, noble in enjoyment, a steward 
 of the manifold grace of God. Christians are 
 made sons of God, not to employ for themselves 
 or their families the graces bestowed on them 
 in seeking selfish ends. They are, whether they 
 eat, or drink, or whatsoever they do, to do all 
 to the glory of God. They are to bear one 
 another's burdens ; to suffer the loss of all things. 
 Not to forsake Christ, as Demas, for filthy lucre. 
 For if they do so, then their riches will be 
 corrupted, their garments moth-eaten, their gold 
 and silver cankered, the rust of which will eat 
 their flesh, as it were fire. 
 
 And thus it was that the Apostles, while 
 gifted with the power of working miracles on 
 behalf of others, and of raising the dead, had 
 themselves both to hunger and thirst, were 
 
2 8o Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 naked and buffeted, had no certain dwelling- 
 place. And amid such trials they so rejoiced 
 in their lot, that they took joyfully the spoiling 
 of their goods, knowing in themselves that they 
 had in heaven a better inheritance. 
 
 They knew why it was, and for what end they 
 were gifted with the powers and properties of 
 the Divine life, and could not allow themselves 
 to remain among fellow-immortals in a world of 
 sin without exerting themselves to the utmost of 
 their power to allure sinners to God. They saw 
 their opportunities, they felt their responsibihties, 
 they coveted the joys, honours, rewards of self- 
 sacrifice in imitation of Christ. They sought to 
 be in the world as Christ was in it, that they 
 might be made comformable to Him in His 
 death, so as to appear with Him in His glory. 
 
 The watchword of the Christian is not truth, 
 law, humanity, but God, the Redeemer of men 
 to truth, law, humanity. God, by the disciple 
 of Jesus, is not looked to as the Avenger ; truth 
 is not regarded as an idle speculation or wor- 
 ship ; law as a restraint ; humanity as the end 
 of man's life ; the world as the arena of self- 
 seeking ; time as the chance of making gain. 
 But God is looked to by him as the loving 
 Father, redeeming man in His own Son from 
 selfishness to self-sacrificing devotedness. Truth 
 
Suimnation. 28 1 
 
 is regarded as the light of love, guiding the 
 inquiring spirit into the discernment of the 
 principles, laws, and realizations of the highest 
 life. Law is held to be the safeguard of the 
 loyal, and devout humanity is loved as the true 
 temple of God. The world is held to be the 
 suitable sphere of Christian self-sacrifice, and 
 time as the precious moment of being spent in 
 the imitation of Christ in His devotion to the 
 glory of God in the good of men. 
 
 Faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ 
 so quickens the spirit of the believer in raising 
 it in love to God, and in drawing it forth in love 
 to man, as to enable the Christian to avoid the 
 extremes of indifference, and intolerance en- 
 lightens his mind in the harmony of life, and 
 gives him to apprehend all that pertains to 
 human blessedness in its fullest extent. 
 
 And thus idolatry, speculation, asceticism, 
 inhumanity, tyranny, licentiousness, sloth, ease, 
 luxuriousness, and vanity are shunned. Man in 
 the faith of the gospel adores with ardour and 
 delight, worships in truth and righteousness, 
 realizes in the beauty of holiness, honours 
 humanity as the supreme of finite existence, 
 glorious as indwelt by God, lives for its eman- 
 cipation from sin, seizes his opportunities of 
 relieving the suffering, aiding the struggling, 
 
282 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 encouraging the timid, invigorating the weak, 
 and rejoices in the honour and comforts of life 
 in all its normal realizations. 
 
 Man thus receives the Divine life that he may 
 realize its fullest perfection in ministering to 
 the suffering of earth in the tender compassion 
 of self-sacrifice, to the cause of Jesus. And 
 like the Master, the disciple finds his joy not 
 in breaking the bruised reed, nor in quenching 
 the smoking flax, but in being alive to all the 
 interests of man, in exemplifying the true 
 principles, of raising the civilization of fallen 
 humanity to its highest conceivable degree, in 
 taking children in his arms and blessing them, 
 in being present at the marriage feast, in suc- 
 couring the wretched, and in raising the fallen. 
 
 To conquer and subdue, not by the brute 
 force of destruction, the prowess of domineering 
 pride, enslaving the mind by binding its con- 
 ceptions to the forms of finite thought, but 
 by yielding to emnity in order to change it 
 into love, that it might unite itself to all that 
 is true, elevating, and Divine, to enable it to 
 realize the highest life, the purest enjoyments, 
 in consecrating itself to universal well-being, 
 in the discharge of the duties of the Chris- 
 tian's noble calling, embodies a conception of 
 life in this world which is impossible to the 
 
Summation. 283 
 
 selfishness of fallen humanity, and discloses a 
 conception which could have come only from 
 the self-sacrificing God. 
 
 Every peculiar doctrine of Christianity is in 
 itself a clear proof of its supernatural character, 
 and a powerful argument for the Divine origin 
 of the gospel of the Son of God. And the 
 gathering together into such a form all these 
 sayings of Christ would render an eminent 
 service to the Church, 
 
XVI. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ERE closing these pages, we would earnestly 
 address a few words of counsel to our 
 fellow-men, and especially to the youth of our 
 Christian country. Fellow-immortals, if you 
 have perused the previous pages with even a 
 slight attention, it must be apparent to you that 
 the all-important change in human life by which 
 man passes from the service of self to the ser- 
 vice of God, from sin, degradation, and misery, 
 to holiness, dignity, and bliss, is produced in man 
 by the agency of the Holy Ghost, the Eternal 
 Spirit of the loving God. It must also be 
 apparent to you that the Spirit produces this 
 change, not in opposition to, or irrespective of, 
 but by means of and in harmony with individual 
 co-operation with Him. It is therefore your 
 incumbent duty and enduring interest to exa- 
 mine into the evidence, and read the truth as it 
 is in Jesus ; and as you do this, to wait on the 
 ordinances of Christ's appointment, to ask from 
 
288 Self- Sacrifice. 
 
 God the gift of His Spirit, that He may take 
 the things that are Christ's, and show them unto 
 you. And to do this in the conviction, that if 
 a selfish parent, possessed of an abundance of 
 food, would not give a stone to a hungry 
 child entreating for bread, much less will your 
 heavenly Father suffer you to ask the Spirit 
 in vain. And to prevent any hindrance to 
 securing an answer to your prayers, be careful 
 not to resist the Spirit of God awakening the 
 risings of the Divine life in your soul, and be 
 very attentive in working out what the Spirit 
 of God works in you both to will and to do 
 of God's good pleasure. 
 
 You must assiduously guard against the 
 one great hindrance to co-operation with the 
 Spirit of God. This hindrance consists in your 
 selfishness, which manifests itself in your dis- 
 inclination to undergo this change, and your 
 false conceptions of the nature and results of 
 the change. You imagine, if you become the 
 subject of this change, you will have to forego 
 the desirable if not necessary pleasures, sports, 
 and agreeable society of life, and give yourself 
 up to sadness, melancholy, and seclusion ; in 
 other words, make great self-denial in foregoing 
 the benefits of your sentient, social, and rational 
 life. Permit me to correct this mistake by 
 
Conclusion. 289 
 
 assuring you that instead of foregoing the 
 benefits of your sentient, social, and rational Hfe 
 by this change, you will only secure them in a 
 much higher, purer, and more lasting measure. 
 It is only the sacrifice of self that you are 
 called to make, i.e., to part with what is corrupt 
 in you, and what confines you in your spiritual 
 disease. It is in partaking of the medicine of 
 a Divine cure that you can enjoy better health 
 of body, truer health of spirit, mind, life, and 
 fellowship with your P'ather in heaven. You 
 have only to part with whatever in you rises 
 up against God, and your own true and per- 
 manent well-being, whatever in you interferes 
 with the real operations and enduring benefits 
 of your sentient, social, rational, and spiritual 
 life. 
 
 The sacrifice which you make in parting 
 with what you do give up is worthy of you 
 as the subject of this change ; it is the slay- 
 ing the deceitful, the foregoing the baneful 
 pleasures, the parting with the false and mis- 
 guiding notions, the injurious practices and 
 corrupting society of the world, while you 
 receive in their stead the quickening of the 
 Divine, the light of the True, which are 
 necessary and adequate in enabling you to 
 realize the real and enduring pleasures, truthful 
 
 19 
 
290 Self -Sacrifice. 
 
 conceptions, elevating recreations, illustrious 
 and ennobling society of the true, good, im- 
 mortal, and Divine. In short, you receive from 
 God, in fellowship with His Christ, all that is 
 necessary to meet, fill, enlarge, and invigorate 
 the capacities, powers, and aspirations of your 
 souls, occupy aright the faculties and functions 
 of your mind, secure your true peace and 
 comfort in enabling you to live for the indivi- 
 dual, family, and social well-being of mankind, 
 and for the glory of God, by shining in the 
 beautiful and blissful character of true Christian 
 life. 
 
 Christianity asks no man to forego anything 
 but what stands in the way of his highest good, 
 and the real and permanent benefit of each and 
 all the members of the human race. And if, 
 in consequence of the selfishness of the world, 
 she call upon any of her disciples in particular 
 circumstances to forego any external advantage 
 for a brief period, she in return secures for him 
 a far more valuable and lasting benefit. And 
 just as Christianity advances in the world, or 
 to put this in another form, as the men of the 
 world are raised by Christ to the higher life 
 that is in Him, will all such demands diminish 
 and become less known. What you part with 
 in becoming a Christian is the vitiating for the 
 
Conclusiofi, 2gi 
 
 pure, the false for the true, the wrong for the 
 right, the tormenting for the enjoyable, the 
 degrading for the honouring, the obscure for 
 the illustrious, the carnal for the Christian ; and 
 you have only to reflect on this change in the 
 light of its humanizing influence to perceive its 
 reasonableness in a sinful world. It is only in 
 the heroic sublimity of self-sacrifice that you 
 can enjoy life in accomplishing the all-satisfying, 
 grand, and glorious end of your existence. 
 
 Think of the importance of that, for the 
 further accomplishment of which a man of 
 Paul's intelligence and experience would be 
 willing to expose himself to fierce persecution, 
 and for a season forego the glory and joy of 
 heaven, the anticipation of which entranced his 
 soul ; nay, think of the importance of the salva- 
 tion, for the effecting of which the Logos of the 
 Godhead descended to the deepest depths of 
 humiliation and suffering, that He might win 
 the glory and joy of accomplishing so great a 
 work. To engage in such an enterprise on 
 earth, and by so doing prepare more effectually 
 for the fuller fellowship of its honour and bliss 
 in heaven, is doubtless infinitely to be preferred 
 to the places, the power, the wealth, the pleasures, 
 the fame, the empire of earth in the brief period 
 of a mortal life. 
 
292 ^^y^' Sacrifice, 
 
 Is it then unreasonable for Christianity to call 
 upon you to forego the brief, unsatisfying, hurt- 
 ful pleasures which one who spoke from an 
 enlarged experience, as well as from inspired 
 conviction, compared to the crackling of the 
 thorns under the pot, and in their stead to 
 accept the recreations and joys which satisfy 
 and elevate in every possible manner and 
 endless degree ? or is it unreasonable in you to 
 give up your deceitful pleasures for enriching 
 joys, your false notions for true conceptions, 
 your degrading sports for ennobling exercise, 
 your ruinous society for illustrious companions ? 
 Is it really unreasonable in you to yield up your 
 capacities, powers, and aspirations of soul to 
 Divine influence, eternal truth, glorious employ- 
 ment ? Is it, indeed, unreasonable in you to 
 become the instruments, the agents, the co- 
 operators with God's own Son in the accompHsh- 
 ment of the noblest undertaking of time, by 
 acquiring in yourselves, and by conferring upon 
 your fellow-immortals the divinest gifts God 
 Himself has to bestow, or to aid in carrying 
 forward to its consummation the greatest and 
 most illustrious design of the Eternal Council 
 of the Godhead ? 
 
 Brethren, is it unreasonable in us to invite, or 
 is it insulting to your intelligence to plead with 
 
Conclusion, 293 
 
 you that we may induce you to give your most 
 serious attention to the consideration of this 
 most momentous theme, or urge upon you to 
 embrace that truth which enables you to seize 
 the brief and only opportunity that will be 
 given to you to engage in the true, heroic, and 
 sublime of self-sacrifice, and of taking the part 
 assigned to you by Infinite wisdom and bene- 
 volence in the undertaking whereby you become 
 fellow-workers with God, and enter into the 
 reahzation of the most pure and lasting enjoy- 
 ments, and are entrusted with your part in the 
 performance of the most glorious and beneficent 
 of deeds ? 
 
 Suffer not your minds to be perplexed, nor 
 your hearts to be hardened from embracing 
 these views of truth and realizations of life, by 
 any of the conflicts which in these days arise 
 between theologians and scientific savans. Keep 
 steadily in view that, as the medicine of cure 
 in allying itself with the powers of vitality in 
 the physical frame of man has much to en- 
 counter and overcome in the operation of 
 disease in the body, so must the Christianity, 
 which is the restorative power of man's spi- 
 ritual life, in entering into conflict with the 
 disordered operations of a sinful nature and 
 worldly life, have to encounter and overcome 
 
294 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 powers, prejudices, and sinful biases, both in 
 scientific, speculative, and theological creeds. 
 And as in her restorative operations Christianity 
 discloses the unity and harmony of all real 
 principles, powers, laws, and operations of being 
 and life, so will it be seen that the truths of 
 Christianity and science are one and harmoni- 
 ous. This fact is becoming apparent in astro- 
 nomy, geology, chemistry, physiology, and will 
 be so in development and evolution. This will 
 be made plain just as the knowledge of man 
 advances and enlarges. 
 
 And we would ask of the well-meaning, 
 though often misguided professors of Chris- 
 tianity, if they are wise in holding up to the 
 view of noble-minded inquirers after truth, and 
 to the young, who are earnestly groping their 
 way to the embrace of the Divine, a caricature 
 of spiritual-mindedness, instead of the genuine 
 image of the life of Jesus. These youthful 
 truth-seekers require to have presented to their 
 gaze as genuine an illustration of the spirit, 
 mind, and life of the Great Master as it is 
 possible for the disciples to exhibit. It is in- 
 cumbent on you to display before them the 
 cheerful, radiant countenance, the calm, enlight- 
 ened mind, the noble, forgiving spirit, the self- 
 sacrificing devotedness which Christ imparts to 
 
Conclusio7i, 295 
 
 His genuine disciples, which enables them to 
 occupy any position, mingle with any class 
 of society, take part in any and every enter- 
 prise which has for its object the good of their 
 fellow-men, and restrains them from all that is 
 doubtful or liable to misconception. 
 
 It becomes you to exhibit to these truth- 
 seekers the fact that time spent in pubHc 
 worship, and seasons devoted to devotional 
 acts, are beneficial to man only in as far as 
 they are instrumental in feeding the soul with 
 the Bread of Life, enlightening the mind in 
 the knowledge of the true, and fortifying the 
 conscience in the hours of temptation ; that it 
 is faith and fellowship with God that is true 
 godliness, and that by whomsoever and where- 
 soever these are fostered in the heart, they will 
 produce the genuine fruit of righteousness in 
 the life, and will do so in accordance with 
 the constitution and circumstances of the in- 
 dividual believer. It is incumbent on you to 
 show these youthful truth-seekers that the 
 Christian, in the consciousness of the pure and 
 deep welling up of joy in his spirit, in the calm, 
 satisfying peace of his mind, the greatness and 
 grandeur of the object of his life, can easily 
 forego the worthless and baneful excitements, 
 the empty and selfish vanities which the rest- 
 
296 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 less spirits, the troubled minds, the burdened 
 conscience, and fatigued life of the ungodly- 
 urge him to rush into in the hope of finding 
 his chief good, but instead of which he only 
 realizes further disappointments. 
 
 You must be careful to bear in mind the 
 proneness of the partially enlightened disciple 
 to desire, seek, and endeavour to get the prin- 
 ciples of the Master to comply with his inclina- 
 tion and circumstances, instead of realizing his 
 obligations to truth, and the necessity of con- 
 tinually striving to bring his heart, mind, and 
 life into conformity with the requirements of 
 Jesus. You are also to bear in mind, and strive 
 against, the readiness of disciples to impose 
 restraints on those who conform not in all points 
 to their notions of what the Master's work is, 
 and how it is to be promoted, and even to call 
 fire from heaven on those who follow not with 
 them. You must display nothing of the morose 
 and gloomy, nothing of the vain conceits, pre- 
 judices, and party ends of sectarianism, nothing 
 of the defects of asceticism on the one hand, or 
 of the superfluity of the frivolous and vain on 
 the other ; but ever breathing the Spirit, and 
 acting on the principles of Christ, in imitation of 
 His life, you will let your light so shine before 
 men, that they may behold your good deeds, and 
 
Conclusion, 297 
 
 glorify your Father which is in heaven. And 
 thus you will receive the truth in the love of it, 
 and exemplify its power in seeking your own 
 and the good of others. 
 
 In fine, you must be careful in all your inter- 
 course with men to show them that godliness is 
 profitable unto all things, having the promise of 
 the life that now is, as well as of that which 
 is to come, that the grace which is in Christ 
 Jesus leads you to attend to the personal and 
 relative, the domestic, social, and rational well- 
 being of all men, to the cleanliness of the person, 
 wholesomeness of the diet, suitability of clothing, 
 commodiousness, ventilation, and comfort of the 
 dwelling, to mental cultivation, and social pro- 
 gress ; in short, to all things pertaining to the 
 health, prosperity, and comfort of society. In your 
 honest, upright, and generous conduct, you will 
 prove to all around you that Christian principle 
 leads you to shun the vain and frivolous reveries 
 of the diseased brain, and give yourselves to 
 that which prompts you to exercise yourselves 
 in acquiring the knowledge of facts, principles, 
 laws, operations, and results of the physical, 
 rational, and spiritual of being and life. 
 
 In the social you will cultivate the spirit of 
 brotherly kindness in a meek and gentle bearing 
 towards all men. In the national you will seek 
 
298 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 the good of each and every member of the com- 
 munity, — living, as much as lieth in you, peace- 
 ably with all men ; and while you endeavour in 
 your walk and conversation to exhibit what the 
 grace of God can accomplish in you, and enable 
 you to do for others, you will at the same time 
 make no claim to merit, but will be ever ready 
 to testify that by " the grace of God you are 
 what you are," that not you, " but His grace in 
 you," enables you to live such a life. And that 
 Christianity is not responsible for any short- 
 comings in your conduct, you must ever be ready 
 to exemplify to others, that while Christianity 
 is perfectly able to make all her disciples shine 
 in the peerless beauty of a perfect hohness, she 
 actually does enable them so to live only in the 
 exact measure in which they individually breathe 
 her spirit, act on her principles, and manifest her 
 power — that it is only in the life of her Lord 
 Himself that she is responsible for the full ex- 
 hibition of what she can accomplish in man. 
 
 Let not truth-seekers be stumbled and turned 
 aside from their search into the nature and 
 evidence of Christianity by the shortcomings 
 of her disciples. They are to bear in mind 
 that the disciples are but in their infant, sickly, 
 or partially trained condition of Christian life 
 here below. They are not to forget that infancy, 
 
Conclusion. 
 
 299 
 
 sickness, and inexperience will display their 
 imperfections ; and if such be but properly- 
 understood, they will be seen to afford fair 
 opportunities to the more advanced and healthy 
 to display brotherly kindness in the imitation 
 of their Lord, who in His meekness and gen- 
 tleness seized such opportunities of displaying 
 His generosity and true Christian character. 
 The witnessing of the imperfections of Chris- 
 tians should not turn you away from Chris- 
 tianity itself, and those who allow it to do so 
 only display greater weakness. When we , see 
 the sick refuse, or fail to derive the proper 
 benefit from, the food they partake of, we do 
 not refuse to take ours. When we see the 
 infirm unable to discharge the duties of their 
 callings in life, we do not conclude that we 
 should not endeavour to discharge ours ; and 
 why should the imperfections of weak or 
 inconsistent Christians turn us away from 
 Christianity ? 
 
 Let then the Christian ever bear in mind 
 that it is in this world of sin that he possesses 
 his favourable opportunities, that he inherits 
 an ambitious nature, that ambition, allied with 
 selfishness, may perform the most stupendous 
 deeds, reach the highest pinnacle of the Temple 
 of Fame, but must fail in the end of the enjoy- 
 
300 Self- Sacrifice, 
 
 ment sought in the consciousness of success in 
 benevolent deeds ; while ambition, animated 
 by the spirit of self-sacrifice, is not only in 
 itself the most Divine and godlike, but the 
 Divine and godlike that the human can 
 breathe and act on, and being such, will not 
 only in this world secure the highest rewards, 
 but in the world to come the sovereignty of 
 universal empire. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Priiiters, London and Aylesbury. 
 
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 the Church during the first three centuries of the Christian era. His style is 
 good, often eloquent, always perspicuous. It brings out the varying phases 
 of belief which prevailed in the earliest centuries, without indulging in harsh 
 condemnation. The translation is good, and reads well." — AthencBtim. 
 
 "A most valuable and important addition to our Church histories." — 
 Suiiday Magazine. 
 
 " A most fascinating and trustworthy history of the struggles of the early 
 Church, narrated in a stjde of lofty and impassioned eloquence." — English 
 Churchman. 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 Seventh Edition, U7iabridged. Crozv7i 2>zfo, js. 6d. 
 
 Jesus Christ: His Times, Life, and fork. 
 
 In issuing a seventh edition of this important work, the Publishers desire to 
 point out the leading features which distinguish it from other Lives of our 
 Lord. More than one-third of the volume is occupied with a full discussion 
 of " Preliminary Questions," including — i. Objections to the Supernatural; 
 2. Jesus Christ and the Religions of the Past ; 3. The Judaism of His Time ; 
 4. The Sources of the Gospel History. Having thus described His relation 
 to ancient and contemporary history, the author proceeds to unfold the life of 
 Jesus, depicting its scenes with a vividness derived from a visit to the Holy 
 Land. The result is a work which has been referred to by Canon Liddon, as 
 " a most noble contribution to the cause of truth," and by the Contemporary 
 Review as " one of the most valuable additions to Christian literature which 
 the present generation has seen." 
 
 LONDON: 
 HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. 
 
THOMAS COOPER'S 
 LECTUEES m CHEISTIMITT. 
 
 I. THE BRIDGE OF HISTORY OVER THE GULF OF TIME. 
 
 A Popular View of the Historical Evidence for the Truth of 
 Christianity. Seventeenth Thousand. Fcap. 8vo, 2s. 6d, 
 " The present volume is in his best manner, and deserves to be scattered as 
 men fling seed into the furrows, by handfuls. With God's blessing it will re- 
 claim the sceptical and confirm the wavering." — Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. 
 
 II. GOD, THE SOUL, AND A FUTURE STATE. A Twofold 
 
 Popular Treatise. Containing (i) the Combined Argument 
 
 for the Being and Attributes of God ; and (2) the Argument 
 
 for Man's Spiritual Nature and for a Futui-e State. Seventh 
 
 Thousand. 7.s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 " There is no living writer that reminds us more forcibly of Paley than the 
 
 author of these pages, — so plain and simple as he is in his style, so pertinent 
 
 and close in his reasoning, and so full of apt illustrations are his arguments." 
 
 — Standard. 
 
 III. THE VERITY OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION FROM 
 THE DEAD. An Appeal to the Common Sense of the 
 People. Fourth Thousand. Fcap. 8vo, 2s. 6d. 
 
 "The thousands of people who have heard the lectures contained in this 
 volume will need no recommendation from us to obtain and peruse them. 
 They will already know how firmly knit is the argument, how eloquent the 
 exposition, how earnest the tone by which they are characterised." — Christian 
 World. 
 
 IV. THE VERITY AND VALUE OF THE MIRACLES OF 
 CHRIST. An Appeal to the Common Sense of the People. 
 Price 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 "Plain and forcible. Thomas Cooper is a born reasoner. His works on 
 the Evidences are far more likely to be read and to be useful than more 
 elaborate and tedious volumes. By thousands will he be remembered as one 
 of the best popular defenders of the faith." — Siuord and Trowel. 
 
 V. EVOLUTION, THE STONE, BOOK, AND THE MOSAIC 
 
 RECORD OF CREATION. Third Thousand. Price 2s. 6d. 
 " The great subjects to which they are devoted are handled firmly, liberally, 
 and reverently, and in the best way for the classes to whom they are ad- 
 dressed." — Chiirch Bells. 
 
 Noiu ready, the Twelfth Thtnisand of 
 
 THE LIFE OF THOMAS COOPER. 
 
 WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 
 
 Crown Svo, 3J. 6d., with Portrait. 
 "A most interesting woXwm.^."— Leisicre Hour. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HODDER & STOUGIITON, 27, Paternoster Row. 
 
WORKS BY REV. SAMUEL COX, 
 
 Editor of "The Expositor." 
 
 Crozvn %vo, cloth, %s. 6d. 
 
 EXPOSITORY ESSAYS AND 
 DISCOURSES. 
 
 *'A new series of Expository Essays and Discotu'ses, by 
 Samuel Cox, deserves the most cordial welcome we can accord 
 to it. A more helpful book for students and ministers it would 
 not be easy to find. Mr. Cox has a genius for exposition which 
 is very rare. He unites with spiritual insight a keen critical 
 faculty, and a familiarity with the Scriptures which is the result 
 of long and careful research. His books are not only instructive, 
 but stimulating, and are in fact the treasures which the thought- 
 ful preacher will most highly prize, and to which he will give the 
 most honoured place on his shelves."— 7/^^ Congregationalist. 
 
 II. 
 Third Edition, Croivri 2>vo, cloth, price Zs. 6d. 
 
 BIBLICAL EXPOSITIONS. 
 
 "The tone of these homilies is wonderfully vigorous, and 
 their standard surprisingly high. There are always the outlines 
 of earnest and laborious thought to be traced under his most im- 
 passioned passages ; and so far as we have seen, he never quits a 
 subject without illuminating it." — Literary Chtcrchman. 
 
 "The production of a thoughtful, learned, and liberally- 
 minded man. Mr. Cox's volume is full of valuable matter, well 
 thought out, and lucidly expressed."— ^>^^/^/^r. 
 
 III. 
 Fifth Edition, crozvn Svo, 8s. 6d. 
 
 AN EXPOSITOR'S NOTE-BOOK. 
 
 "Mr. Cox's exegetical conscientiousness, fresh and uncon- 
 ventional thinking, tender sentiment, and fine literary taste, give 
 a value to his papers which thoughtful minds and weary hearts 
 will appreciate. We have only commendations for such a book." 
 —British Quarterly Review. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. 
 
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Princeton Theological Semmary^Speer Library 
 
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