V LI BRARY OF PRINCETO N JUL 3 I MB ( i THEOLOGICAL BV4510 .B6 Bodell, William Alexander. New life / » ♦ LIBRARY OF PRINCETON ■ --- JUL 3 1 2009 BY WILLIAM ALEXANDER BODELL Author of “The Spiritual Athlete” and “The Skilled Workman” BOSTON THE GORHAM PRESS MCMXVIII Copyright, 1918, by William Alexander Bodell All Rights Reserved MADE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A, CONTENTS I Page Death. 7 II The Beginning of the Life. 13 III The Secret of the Life. 30 IV Growth . 40 V 56 Fruitage ■ ■ ' • r • • • ' ' . a * , - I - t • ' « « * 1 • • • THE NEW LIFE I DEATH T\ EATH is the absence of life. As one who has ^ never been born at all is dead unto this natural world, so he who has never been born again is dead unto the spiritual world. He knows nothing about it; it does not vitally touch him at any point. The natural man, the man descended from the First Adam, is under the penalty of death. Death is at work within him. He scarcely has begun to live until he begins to die. The time comes when he will be entirely out of touch with this world. If then he has not been made partaker of another life —the eternal life—by which he can come in touch with the eternal world, or spiritual world, he is doomed. But such a life one may have in Christ Jesus— the Second Adam, who was made a life-giving Spir¬ it, “in whom was life,” and “who came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly.” “He that hath the Son hath life.” Now by this natural birth we come into posses¬ sion of an organism with capacities that bring us into touch with this natural world. We have eyes to see its beauty, ears to hear its sounds, touch by which we know its fiber, taste by which we know its fruits, and smell by which we distinguish its 7 8 The New Life flowers. By the New Birth we become possessor of a new life—the Christ life, which is the Christian life, the divine life, by which we come into capaci¬ ties by which we are brought into touch with the things of the eternal, spiritual world. Not to have that life is death—death to the spirit¬ ual world. Just as an unborn man can know noth¬ ing of this natural world—he has no organism by which he can come into touch with it; so one who has not been born again, can know nothing of the spiritual world; he has no organism by which he can come into touch with it. The reason eternity and heaven, which must be the dwelling place of the Children of God—those who have been born of Him, will mean so little to some, is that they have not been made partakers of that life which can ap¬ preciate it. They have none of its capacities by which to come into touch with it. They can behold none of its glories or beauty. They will be in outer darkness because there is no inner light. Just as a mad beast could see nothing to appreciate in an art gallery—he was not born with any capacity for it; some will not be able to enjoy the bless¬ edness of heaven because they have not been born again, by which alone come the capacities to enjoy the things that heaven gives. Death is the antithesis of life. After you have postulated all that it is possible to say about life, you can then get a glimpse of what death is; it is diametrically the opposite of it. Life grows; death decays. Life gets better and better; death, worse and worse. Life is expressive; death is silent. Life Death 9 has capacities; death has none. Life sees; death is blind. Life hears; death is deaf. Life speaks; death is dumb. Life feels; death is paralysis. Life comes into touch with surrounding nature; death is as if there were no surrounding nature. Life is touched by its environments; but death—what are environments to it; nothing moves it, nothing stirs it; it has no knowledge of its surroundings; it is incapable of the least impression. To one who is alive, there is nothing more de¬ plorable than death. To think of not being, not knowing, or feeling or seeing—to be out of touch with everything—that is one of the staggering things to one who has been alive. But oh, to become the possessor of a new life in Christ by which as we grow in grace we shall more and more see the beauties of holiness, beauties this natural eye cannot see, beauties incarnate, even Jesus Christ who is the fairest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely. One who is alive is in vital touch at one or more points with the things of the natural world that surround him. To be entirely out of touch with them is death. One keeps on living just so long as one is able to keep in touch at some point with this world. Death means that he is thrown out of relation with this natural world, every function by which he comes into touch with it, is gone. One may be only partially dead. He may be dead to some things while alive to others; and one may be more dead at one time than at another. It depends on the amount of environment with which IO The New Life one is in touch. The man who is blind, while alive to much is also dead to much. He is dead to all of this world with which we come in contact with the eye; nothing that can be seen touches him. Neither the beauty of sea or sky, of evening sunset or morning dawn; neither the face or form of his child which bears his image, nor the hills and valleys that surround his home, nor the trees and flowers of his garden; they are as if they were not to him. He is dead unto them. But if in addition to this blindness, he were also deaf, then how much more dead he would be! He is out of touch with all of nature into which he comes into touch by sound. The prattle of his babe, the song of the birds, the strains of harmonious music, the majesty of the rolling thunder never moves him; he is dead to them. But such a man—the blind and deaf man—while dead too much is still partially alive; he still has feeling and sensation. But suppose his brain be¬ comes paralyzed; it refuses to register any sensation telegraphed to it by the nerves, and there is no way to acquaint him with what is going on in the world about him, no touch or caress seems to move him. Of such a one, while he is not dead, it must be said that he is not very much alive. We examine his pulse and there is yet sign of life, but to most of the world he is dead. Finally his heart ceases to beat; his lungs no longer perform their function, he is no longer in touch with the life-giving air; he is entirely thrown out of touch with this natural world, and we say, Death ii “He is dead.” He sees not the form of friends and loved ones at his bedside; he does not hear the cry and sobs of his heart-stricken wife. The earnest call of his children do not so much as make him turn his glassy eyes. Nothing moves him, nothing touches him now. Now carry this over into the spiritual realm and we begin to get a glimpse of what spiritual death is. It means to be entirely out of touch with the spir¬ itual world. It does not touch him at any point. Spiritual realities are to him as if they were not. They do not appeal to him in the least. Religion to him is a sealed realm. It is empty darkness; he has no eyes to see. It is a gulf of silence; he has no ears to hear. It is a vast unknown nothingness; he has no sensation to feel. Nothing of the spirit¬ ual world appeals to him. Yet he may be very much alive to other things, to the things of the natural world. He is very much alive to material things—to making money, to busi¬ ness, to pleasure; everything in nature appeals to him; but he is utterly dead to the things of the divine life, its reality, its joys, its culture, its highest at¬ tainments. But that he should be alive to the things of the natural world is not strange. He is born to all these things by the natural birth. He has come into po- session of functions by which he can appreciate them. They are very real to him, and it would be strange if he were not wide awake to them. But there is a higher, richer realm beyond this natural realm into which we were born by the na- 12 The New Life tural birth. It is the spiritual realm. And it is more real than the natural. The Apostle Paul says, The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. ,, To be dead unto that realm—what greater ca¬ lamity can befall a human soul? Never to have the capacities for enjoying heaven or the things that heaven gives—that will be a hopeless handicap throughout all eternity! Never to become partaker of the divine life, the life of Christ, which is eternal life with its capacities for knowing eternal things, must mean eternal death. He is dead unto the eternal world; it is as if it were not to him. And what a death that must be! Not that one will not exist; but so far as he is concerned, heaven might as well not exist; it will mean nothing to him; he is dead to it; he has no capacity for knowing it. Hence, if ever he is to know it, he must be born again. For just as we come into touch with the things of this world by the natural birth, so we come into touch with the things of the spiritual world by the spiritual birth, commonly called the new birth. If one is ever to see the Kingdom of God, nothing is truer than what Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again; except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” II THE BEGINNING OF THE LIFE “Ye must be born again” John 3:7 D O not, I beseech you, think that this is an old- time, worn-out theme. It is as up-to-date as the last soul that has been born into the world. For that soul was born in sin and needs to be born again. As long as men have hearts and natures that are evil; as long as they have evil propensities and tendencies; as long as they are bound by passion and habit, so long the truth suggested by this text is timely and needed. For the new birth is the only thing that can give new life to dying souls; it is the only power that can lift man from sin and ruin, utter and complete, back into a life with God. I know there are those who say we have out¬ grown the new birth; that we have become so cul¬ tured that we no longer need it. But the new birth is as much needed now as in the days when the Master spoke it. We do not need it? Not after what is happening the world over? Not after what is going on in our own city every twenty-four hours ? Not after what is taking place in our own hearts every waking moment? If there is any urgent need in this day and generation along moral and spiritual lines, it is this, “Ye must be born again.” We need the new birth just as much as Nicodemus needed it. If any man could be exempt from it, 13 / 14 i ■ * ... ■ The New Life you would naturally say Nicodemus was that man. To whom did Jesus speak these words? To a drunkard, a harlot, or a murderer? No. To one who was an outcast of society—the poor beggar by the wayside, or the sinful woman out of whom He had cast seven devils? No. But to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrim, a man of religious authority in Jerusalem—a typical church member of his day. How significant it is that Jesus spake these words to such a one! But it is wise that He did, otherwise some of the socially elevated, the ethically cultured, the morally puffed-up, the religiously self-complacent would say, “Certainly! Those poor outcast, sub¬ merged people need to be born again, for they have been poorly born the first time; but as for us, we do not need it.” But we must remember that Nicode¬ mus was as well born as any of us; he was as socially elevated, as ethically cultured, as carnally polished, if he was not as religiously satisfied, as the best of us. And yet Jesus said to him, “Ye must be born again.” If he needed it, then surely the best of us need it. Now this man, we are told, came to Jesus by night. Three times in this gospel of John, Nicode¬ mus is mentioned as coming to Jesus, and each time with the significant phrase “by night.” Some one has said that the spirit of night must have been in him. Anyhow, the darkness was upon him. He knew the failure of culture; he had experienced the emptiness of formal religion; he never had known the exhilaration of the new life. His position, his culture, his philosophy did not satisfy the longings f The Beginning of the Life 15 of his soul. So he came to Jesus for light. But why did he come by night? It may have been because he was so busy with his state and re¬ ligious affairs that he had no other time; or it may have been that he was so anxious about his soul’s interests that he felt it perilous to postpone it until the morrow; or it may have been that he feared the Sanhedrim to which he belonged, and sought the cover of the night—and it was more likely this than any other; but whatever it was, underlying it all, there was concern for his spiritual state. So without any formality he came at once to the mat¬ ter and said, “Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these things that thou doest, except God be with him.” And Jesus with His divine insight into the hearts of men, saw his need and frankly told him that what he needed was the new life, and said unto him, “Ye must be born again.” When Nicodemus expressed surprise about the matter, Jesus emphasized it by adding further, “Ex¬ cept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” much less enter it. And how plain that is. An unborn man can see nothing. It is by the natural birth that we come into capacity for seeing the things of the natural world; it is by the new birth, spiritual birth, that we come into possession of senses by which we come into possession of the spiritual world. The “Kingdom of God,” said Jesus, “cometh not by observation.” “The Kingdom of God,” said He, “is within you.” The Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom; and if we have not been spiritually re- i6 The New Life newed, the nature of it cannot be understood. Some one once said to Turner, the great artist, “O Mr. Turner, I can’t see the sunsets you paint!” “No Sir,” he replied, “don’t you wish you could?” It takes more than the natural eye to see Turner’s sunsets; it takes the artist’s eye. It takes more than the natural senses to see the Kingdom of God; it takes a spiritual sense which comes with the spiritual birth* If one is ever to see the Kingdom of God he must be born again. It is yet more evident that “except a man be born again he cannot enter the Kingdom of God,” for the only way anything enters any kingdom is to be born into it. The only way in which a plant can enter the vegetable kingdom is to be born into that king¬ dom ; the only way in which an animal can enter the animal kingdom is to be born into that kingdom; the only way in which one can enter the man king¬ dom is to be born into that kingdom; and the only way in which one can enter the kingdom of God is likewise to be born into that kingdom. But what is the new birth? It is not the culture of the carnal life —the de¬ velopment of the natural man. You can culture the natural man to a very high degree, as the Greeks and the Romans did; but it is still the life of the Old Adam, and not the life of the New Adam. One may be very cultured in the old life and yet not be a new creature in Christ Jesus. That would be the emphasizing of the temporal life, and not the im- partation of the new life. The Beginning of the Life 17 You can cultivate the carnal life, but you never can cultivate it into the spiritual. Between the two, there is an impassable gulf fixed. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” said Jesus to Nicode- mus; “and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” Regeneration is not the change of the old life, but the impartation to the soul of a new life. You can¬ not change the carnal into the spiritual. There is no developing the flesh into the spirit. To the carnal there may be added the spiritual, but the carnal never can be developed into the spiritual. The real Christian is not made, but born—born again. There are too many order-made Christians who never have been born again. “They have the form of godliness, but deny the power thereof.” You can cultivate the natural man and make him a more cultured man, but you cannot culture him into a religious man. You can cultivate a thistle and make it a larger thistle; but you never can cul¬ tivate it into a fig-tree. You can cultivate the crab apple and make it a better crab apple; but you never can cultivate it into a pippin apple. But that is not saying that the crab apple cannot become a partaker of the pippin life. It can. You can engraft the pippin apple upon the crab apple, so that the life as it passes through the graft is no long¬ er crab apple life, but pippin apple life; and the fruit above the graft is not crab apple fruit, but pippin apples. The husbandman often performs that seeming miracle. He goes and cuts the crab apple stalk un¬ til it bleeds; and then to it he fastens a little twig i8 The New Life holding a superior kind of life, being sure all the while that the union is close and clean. Then, by and by, the sap begins to mingle and there is a vital union. Then a little shoot appears and grows into a bough; and sooner or later there is a blossom, and presently fruit appears, and as it matures you find a fruit so different, so superior to the crab apple, that if you had not seen it, you scarcely would believe it. The crab apple life was not changed; but to it there was imparted another, higher, sweeter life. If this is possible with the natural husbandman, ought it not be possible for the great husbandman— Our Heavenly Father, to so impart to us the higher, heavenly life of Jesus Christ, that henceforth our life will be the Christian life, and not merely the old carnal life. But we must not think that the very moment that we are born again, made partakers of the Christ life, which is the Christian life, that we are free from the manifestations of the carnal. The carnal nature is not all at once eradicated. The shoots of the crab apple life will still put forth, which must be pruned away until the new life is in the ascendency. In every Christian man there are two natures— the carnal and the spiritual. In the unregenerate man there is only one nature—the carnal. But when he is born again, he receives the spiritual, and these two dwell side by side. Between them there is con¬ stant antagonism; “The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary the one to the other.” But as the spiritual grows, the carnal becomes The Beginning of the Life 19 less and less, and by and by we shall have but the one nature again, but this time the spiritual. And this is the glorious hope of it: “Beloved, now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall ap¬ pear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is.” The important question with every Christian ought to be, “What part of my dual nature is grow¬ ing? My baser or my better self? Is the flesh or the spirit on top? Is John the Baptist decreasing while the Lord Jesus is increasing?” Again, the New Birth is not reformation. Refor¬ mation is the change of the old life; regeneration is becoming partaker of the new. Reformation is the rearranging of the outer; regeneration is the beginning of a new life within. Man works from the out side in; God works from the inside out. Man’s work is formal; God’s is vital. The sculp¬ tor works on his statue from the outside down to his ideal. When he is done* however beautiful the statue may be, it is still a stone, and dead as a stone. With all his work and genius, he imparts no life to it. But when God makes a man, He imparts the principle of life to the very center of his being, and the new creation grows into a man. The one is work, the other is growth. The trouble with so many Christians is just here: they are sculptured not grown. They are statues, not living, breathing, growing. They are shaped according to the custom of the community or ac- 20 The New Life cording to the pattern of the church to which they belong; but they are machine-made, and not new¬ born. One may re-form his habits; but that is not regeneration. You can make a dog give up some of his canine tricks, but that does not make him a human being. A man may give up a sin or so; but that does not make him a new creature. He must become the possessor of a new life in Christ Jesus. Benjamin Franklin had a very plausible method —one that appeals very strongly to the carnal man; it was to keep strict tab on himself. He had in his diary two columns—one for the good, the other for the bad. He thought by watching the evil column and by giving up his bad deeds, that by and by he should get rid of evil. But when he balanced his account, he found that while he had given up a few bad traits, his heart was left untouched. He aban¬ doned the method. The way to get rid of the old life is to become possessor of the new. When the new comes on, the old lops off. In the spring of the year you have noticed the leaves of the previous year falling from the boughs. The new life coming on is driving the old life off. Where the Christ life has its way, the old carnal life disappears. There are those who are always saying, “If I become a Christian, must I give up this and that and the other?” No. But if you really become a Christian—become partaker of the new life, you will give them up. Then the effort would not be The Beginning of the Life 21 to give them up, but to hold on to them. You could not, if you would. Paul said, “When I became a man, I put away childish things.” There is such a thing as outgrowing the carnal in the triumph of the spiritual. Again, regeneration is not merely education. One may■be educated and not be regenerated. The Duke of Wellington said, “Educate a man without relig¬ ion and you only make him a clever devil.” You can educate the carnal man to a very marked de¬ gree, but you never can educate him into the spirit¬ ual man. You can by education show him the need of the new birth, but no amount of education can produce it, because it does not bring one into vital union with Christ in whom is eternal life. Educa¬ tion is merely drawing out of one what is in him; and the merely natural man has not the divine life within him. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.”—I John 5 :12 * You might as well try to educate a lily into a bird, or a diamond into a child, or a thistle into a fig, as to educate the natural man into a spiritual man. You can teach a parrot the Lord’s prayer, but that does not make it a Christian. You can teach the natural man some Christian traits, but that does not make him a new creature in Christ Jesus. One may be born with all wordly advantages, but if he is ever to enter the Kingdom of God, he must be born again. 22 The New Life What then, you say, is the new birth? It is the beginning of the new life, the Christ Life, the life from above, the heavenly life. Birth is the begin¬ ning of life; the new birth is the beginning of the New Life. It is the impartation to the soul of the new principle of life. God at first breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul; at the new birth God breaths into him His own Divine Spirit, and he becomes an eternal being. By the natural birth we were made partakers of the life of the First Adam; by the new birth we became partakers of the eternal life of the Second Adam. “Ye must be born again”; or, as the revised ver¬ sion has it, “Ye must be born anew”; or you may use the theological term, “Regeneration,” or the psychological term, “Twice-Born Men,” or the com¬ mon term, “Change of Heart;” or the all inclusive term, “Conversion”;—whatever you call it, it means that you have been made partaker of the life of Christ. “In Him was life.” By faith in Him it becomes ours. The new birth often is defined as Christ being born within us. Surely it is His life begotten with¬ in us, or imparted to us by the Holy Spirit, that makes us children of God, “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). We are born into His life; He is born into ours. His birth in the flesh has its counterpart in His birth in our hearts. He became partaker of our human nature that we might be made partaker of His divine nature. God made one in the image of The Beginning of the Life 23 us all, that we might all be made into the image of that one. Not until we are informed by His Spirit, do we become tranformed into His likeness. “Though Christ a thousand times In Bethlehem be born; If He is not born in thee, Thy soul is still forlorn.” You see then, it is not the work of man upon him¬ self ; it is the work of Christ in him. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saves us, by the washing of re¬ generation, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Titus 3:5. Christ held all self-effort up to ridicule when He said, “Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?” One might as well try to lift himself to the skies by pulling at his hair, as to try to lift himself into the Kingdom of God by his own efforts. He needs a power outside himself. A clod could as well lift itself into the vegetable kingdom, or a plant lift itself into the animal king¬ dom, as for a man by his own efforts to lift himself into the spiritual kingdom. But as the life of the vegetable lays hold on the clod and lifts it into plant and tree; as the animal lays hold on the vegetable and builds it into its organism, so the life from above, which is in Christ Jesus, lays hold on us in response to faith in Him, and it becomes ours. It is the lily life that lifts the muck and the mire and the slime into the beautiful flower. It is the life of Christ striking its roots into our life, that lifts 24 The New Life us into His life and into the Kingdom of God. Faith is the condition on which Christ does this glorious work. I sometimes think we make too much of environ¬ ment as regards the Christian life. Our natural life depends very materially upon our environment; but our Christian life does not, for it is the life of Christ within us. Our natural life is from below, but the new life is from above and must draw its nourish¬ ment from above. Environment is something, but it is not everything, else the First Adam never would have fallen, and the Second Adam surely would; for the First Adam had the best surroundings, and the Sec¬ ond Adam was tempted as few are tempted. The Second Adam had a life, the divine life, the life from above which kept him in the sorest temptation. That life we may have, and if we have it the sur¬ roundings will not matter so much. Like the lily, even out of its surroundings it will manifest its purity and beauty. Now I surmise I can hear some of you saying, “Then we have little or nothing to do with our new birth.” Yes indeed we have; we have our part to do, and that is to believe in Christ. It is faith that brings us into such union with Christ that His life becomes ours. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Be¬ cause Christ gave His life for all is no evidence that all have it. The gift of God is one thing, the ac¬ ceptance of that gift is quite another. “God gave His only beloved Son,” but “He that believeth on Him hath everlasting life.” “As many as received The Beginning of the Life 25 Him to them gave He the power to become the^sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” When Nicodemus did not understand the mystery of the new birth, Jesus very plainly told him the secret of it; for said he to him, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3 :i 4 > 15). And again in this same interview the Master said to him, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Everlasting life is but the life of Christ, for that is everlasting; he had no beginning of days nor end of years; it is His life begun at the new birth that goes on forever. The eternal Christ Who was in the beginning with God, Who is from everlasting to everlasting, dipped down into this world, taking the form of a man, that we might by faith become linked to Him in His everlasting life, and henceforth go on forevermore. But you say, “How may I know that I am born again?” That is not the vital question. The vital question is, “Am I believing on Christ? If I am, I have everlasting life, and I cannot have everlasting life without the new birth. I may have an eternal existence, but it cannot be called everlasting life. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3 :3b). Dr. Meyer says that trusting Christ is regenera¬ tion, and regeneration is trusting Christ. He is 26 The New Life evidently right for that is just what Jesus told Nicodemus. If you believe in Christ you have a right to claim your new birth, your sonship, your everlasting life; for “He that believeth on the Son hath it.” But while it is true that to begin with we may know that we are born anew by our faith, for faith is the evidence of things not seen, yet it is also true that we may know, and must know, by the fruits of the new life. “By their fruits ye shall know them,” said Jesus. Wherever there is life and growth, there is also fruit. And the fruitage of the new life is but the fruitage of the Spirit, for that life is made fruitful by the Spirit. What is the fruitage of the Spirit? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22). If there has been a change in the heart, there must also be a change in the life. As we are what we were not, so we will do what we did not. Once we were prone to evil, now our tendency is towards the good. Once we hated the good and loved the evil, now we love the good and hate the evil. Are we being weaned from low desires ? Are the world, the flesh, and the devil loosing their grip on us? Have we a growing passion for purity? Is there a deepening of our spiritual life? Are we becoming more Christlike? These are evidences of the new birth. But you must not become disheartened if at once there is no appearance of fruit. It takes time to pro¬ duce fruit. It is grown, not made. You can make The Beginning of the Life 27 paraffine apples in a day, but it takes a season to grow real apples. There must be quite a bit of growth before there can be any real fruit. If you believe in Christ, believe that you have the new life, and that in due season the fruit will appear. But until then, you must be satisfied to maintain your faith in Christ. You need not look for any mysterious manifes¬ tation. It is not an emotion or a vision. It is not a thrilling experience. It is a very quiet work. “The wind bloweth where it listeth; thou canst hear the sound thereof, but canst not tell from whence it cometh or whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). “Oh,” you say, “if I could only see it, then I would believe it.” But that would be sight and not faith, and the condition of the new birth is faith. Faith is more blessed than sight. Any one can believe what they see with this natural eye; but the new birth is not something that can be seen with the natural eye, but must be apprehended by faith. When Jesus showed Thomas the unmistakable marks of His passion, he believed. But Jesus mildly rebuked him by saying, “Because thou hast seen thou hast believed; but blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed.” “Explain to me the process of it,” you say, “and I will believe it.” I cannot. You must not expect it. It is impossible for the finite to comprehend the infinite. You cannot see through it; but you can believe yourself through; you can obey the di¬ rections of him who got through—even Jesus 28 The New Life Christ, but you will never get through with your quibblings, and speculations. God tells us what to do, and it works. We combine two gases in their proper propor¬ tions, and we have water. Do you know how it is done? No. Then you must never again drink any water, because you do not understand the pro¬ cess. God tells us to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we shall have everlasting life.” Do it, and stop your quibbling about it. It works. But you say, “I never believe anything I do not understand.” Then you must be a very great ignor¬ amus indeed; for we only understand the lower, the material things. You do not understand even many of the commonest things of the natural life, yet you believe them. You do not understand how the light passes through your eye and paints pic¬ tures on the retina of your brain: but are you going to pluck out your eye? You do not under¬ stand how your heart beats: are you therefore go¬ ing to thrust a dagger into your heart? You do not understand how your brain thinks: are you there¬ fore going to blow out your brain? You must not repudiate the new life because you do not understand it. When you once become pos¬ sessor of it, and give it time to demonstrate itself, its secrets will be revealed to you, and its blessed fruitage will assure you. Here is a man whose habits of life already were fixed. He had been established in hard pharisaism. He was prejudiced against any system that was not operative according to the Mosaic law. But one The Beginning of the Life 29 night he came to Jesus, and under his notion of works asked, What he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him that he must be born again, that if he believed on him he would have everlast¬ ing life. Whether that night or later—we do not know—Nicodemus was born again; and by and by the fruitage of that new life appeared. In due time he boldly confessed Christ; for at the most danger¬ ous time for him to make known his faith in Christ —at the burial of Jesus, he came with his costly gift of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight, with which to anoint the body of Jesus. Oh soul, are you dissatisfied with the fruitlessness, the emptiness of your formal religion? Are you of your carnal life? Are you becoming weary with coming to see the shallowness of your mere human culture ? Oh then come to Christ, and He will give you a life that is full and abundant. Cast your¬ self upon Him, and He will quicken thee with a life that is free and spontaneous. Make Christ your life, and He will bring you unto His own glorious likeness. Lay aside your doubts and hesitations, and cast yourself at the feet of your Heavenly Father—-the Divine Husbandman, and He will bring you into vital union with the True Vine, so that you shall grow in grace and be made to bear fruit, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Ill THE SECRET OF THE LIFE “Christ who is our life ” — Col. 3:4 'T'HIS is by no means an exceptional text. If you will closely study your Bible, you will find that it is anything but that. There is no other doctrine that Christ more frequently and emphatically taught than that this divine life is in Him. He said, “I am the life.” “He that hath the Son hath life.” “He that believeth on the Son hath ever¬ lasting life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” “He came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly.” “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “In Him was life and that life was the light of men.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” These are but a few of the passages that set forth the much neglected truth that Christ is our life. What does this truth imply? It implies that the natural man has no real abiding life; that he is under the penalty of death; that he is dead in trespasses and sin; that to be carnally minded is death; that death worketh in us; that by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death has passed on all men because all have sinned; that he is under the penalty of death by nature, and if he have no other life than that which is by nature, he must perish. 30 The Secret of the Life 31 Moreover it teaches that by no effort of our own, either physical, intellectual, or moral, can we attain unto eternal life. It is in Christ, and flows to us through the channel of faith. Faith is not a mere belief; it is a vital something imparted to the soul that vitally unites one with Christ. “It is the soul’s adhesion to God”; and only to the soul that adheres to God can this life be imparted. I know that this is a truth that the naturalist is loath to accept, or the moralist to adopt, or the sac- ramentalist to believe; but it is a truth as plainly taught as any in scripture, that the natural man, the unregenerate man, has no enduring life, no di¬ vine life, no everlasting life: that is, he has not been begotten unto the things of the eternal world of blessedness and bliss. The natural man, the carnal man, is only partial¬ ly alive. He is dead unto the spiritual life, the life more abundant. It has no realities for him. A truly regenerate, spiritual man is in touch with much of which the natural man knows nothing. There are various degrees and kinds of life. The tree, for instance, has life; but it is far from being the highest kind of life; it is dead to much of sur¬ rounding nature. True it is in touch with the soil by its roots, with the sunlight and air by its leaves; yet it is dead to much. It hears not the murmur of the brook as it goes babbling by, nor the hum of the bee among the foliage. The bird in its nest among its branches, and the child playing beneath its boughs, stir within it no sympathy. It sees not the sun that beams upon it, nor the crystal lake that re- 32 The New Life fleets its beauty. Such incomprehensiveness, such unresponsiveness is death. But the bird has a higher life than the tree. Be¬ cause of sight and sense and locomotion, it is more alive than the tree; that is, it is in touch with more of surrounding nature than the tree. To it, moun¬ tain and stream, sky and lake, bee and child are real. It can fly and knows what is over the hill. It can soar into the sky and bathe its plumage in the stream and lake. But even the bird with this more ex¬ tensive life, is dead to much. There is much in mountain and stream, in sky and sea, in insect and plant that the bird never saw, cannot see. But take the merely natural man, and see how much more alive he is than the bird. He sees much in surrounding nature to which the bird is utterly dead. He sees design and purpose and beauty in nature, which the bird never saw. So far as the mere natural life goes, man is the most alive of all creatures. But man even, with this higher life than any other creature, is yet dead to much. He is dead unto the spiritual life and the spiritual world. They mean nothing to him. The spiritual man sees things the natural man does not see, cannot see; he is dead unto them. Spiritual things are to the natural man, just what natural things are to a dead man; they are nothing to him. To him they are as if they were not. There is a life far above that which the natural man by his natural capacities can know; it is the Christian life, the spiritual life, the heavenly life begun on earth. The Secret of the Life 33 The secret of this life is in Christ Jesus. “As the father hath life within Himself, so hath He given the Son to have life within Himself.” And that is why we may have it in Him. He is the true Vine in whom this life dwells. By faith abiding in Him, as the branch abides in the vine, His life flows into us, and He becomes the sustenance and main¬ tenance of our Christian life. The church always has held that Christ was the source of spiritual life, and the only source. No spiritual man ever claims that his spirituality is his own. No really good man ever boasts of his good¬ ness, for he knows too well that it is not any result of his carnal nature, but of the more abundant life within him. He says with the great Apostle, “I live; yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me.” Now this life was liberated for us in Christ’s death upon the cross. There He was losing His life that we might gain it. As the coal must con¬ sume away in order that the heat may be given out to warm them that are cold; as the ice must melt in order to refresh those that are feverish; as the seed must die in order that the new life may come forth, so it was necessary for Christ to die that the life which He had might become ours. This is evidently what Christ meant when He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” For three and thirty years Christ tabernacled in the flesh, show¬ ing how it is possible for the divine life to dwell in the human form, and when He had done this on 34 The New Life earth, He gave up His life for us, and went home to heaven that He might come in the spirit and do more than show us, that He might come and live that life in us. “Unto you hath He given life who were dead in tresspasses and sin,” by being made sin for us and dying for us. But how is this life to become ours? It is by faith. That is the wonderful truth taught in the fifteenth of John. As the branch abides in the vine and receives its life from the vine; so must we by faith abide in Christ and receive the very life of Christ. As well might a branch separated from the vine have the life of the vine, as for a soul apart from Christ to have the life of Christ. As well might my arm have life and fulfill the functions of the body, separate from the body, as for a soul to have the life of Christ without abiding in Him. “Abide in me, and I in you,”—that, said Jesus, wafs the secret of life and fruit-bearing. Apart from Christ we may exist, but we have no real abiding life. “Apart from me,” said He, “ye can do nothing.” You may have many attractive and amiable qualities; you may have much that is correct in behaviour and beautiful in conduct; but this may all be of the natural life; and one may have these and not have the divine life of Christ. Without Christ you have not that life that is from above, and whose tendency is ever upward. As a branch torn from the vine may for a while have the semblance of life, but the penalty of death is upon it; so may one apart from Christ have the name that he is living, but he is dead. The Secret of the Life 35 If it be possible to impart by grafting the Concord grape upon the good-for-nothing wild fox grape, ought it not be possible for the Divine Husbandman, our Heavenly Father, to engraft upon us the sweet, beautiful life of Christ, so that henceforth we will bear the blessed fruitage of His life? Upon the vine-clad hills of France, there originally grew a very fine species of grape; it grew upon one single vine; but the life of that grape has been engrafted upon other vines all over the world, bearing its fruitage in thousands and thousands of vineyards. And so too, the divine life of Christ, so rare, so rich, so abundant—found originally only in heaven—has been engrafted upon thousands and thousands of be¬ lievers, so that they are partakers of His life and bear His fruit the world over. To have this life is very important. For we are not only saved by the death of Christ, but by His life. His death saves us from the guilt and pun¬ ishment of sin, but it is His life that saves us from the power and dominion of indwelling sin. The former we call justification, the latter we call sanc¬ tification. There is more to salvation than pardon, because there is more to sin than guilt. Sin is an indwelling principle which we have inherited, which can be eradicated only by the new inheritance of the eternal life in Christ Jesus. “For,” says the Apostle, “If, when we were enemies, we were recon¬ ciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10). The life by which He saves us is not the life He once lived on earth, but the life 36 The New Life which He now lives in us. The life that avails is not the life that He lived in the flesh, but the life that He now lives in our very souls. In the flesh He showed us how He can live that life in us. And “Christ within us,” said the Apostle, “is the hope of glory.” Christ is our life, not by substitution, but by a vital union. Our justification is imputed, but our sanctification is imparted; it is the growth and fruitage of His indwelling life. Justification is an act. If we are justified at all, we are justified just as much now as we ever will be; but sanctifica¬ tion is the growth and fruitage of the life of Christ within, and is a process which will be consummated in glory. The life that Christ lived in the flesh, He means to live now in us. What the Father worked out in the Son, the Son by the Spirit is now able and will¬ ing to work out in us. The same life that works in the vine, works also in the branches. And how did Christ live out that divine life when He was here on earth? It was not by any slavish adherance to form, nor by any set program which he had arranged for Himself, nor by the imi¬ tation of a life that had been set before Him; it was just the outworking of the life within Him. As naturally as the bud unfolds into the flower, and the flower into the fruit, so naturally did His life unfold in all its beauty. He said, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” He let His Father work through him; He went just as far as the Father went in Him. He did it in full dependance upon God. He said, “The Son can do nothing of The Secret of the Life 37 Himself.” He waited continually for the guidance and help of His Heavenly Father. He prayed often; yea, unceasingly for this help. He felt the need of prayer, of much prayer, of persevering prayer, yea of agonizing prayer in bringing down from heaven and maintaining the divine life. And does it not seem almost like an affront to Jesus Christ for us to think that we can live this life on our own strength? The reason people have thought that they could live this life in their natural strength is that they have not realized what it is. Of course if it is noth¬ ing more, as some seem to think, than merely the culture of the carnal life; if it is only the life of earth and not the life from above, if it is just a community decency, then they can live it without Christ. But if it is the very life of Christ operative within the soul of man, then what folly, yea what almost blasphemy, to think that we can live it in our own carnal nature! What think ye? Ought we not to humble our¬ selves before God, that we have been so long Chris¬ tians and have realized so little what we are; that we have gone on so long in our own feeble efforts and have so little realized what He is? Is it not about time that we abandon living our weak wordly lives and begin to live the Christian life—the life of Christ in the soul? Do not many professing Christians need to seek more fully this indwelling life of Christ? How many Christians, after all, are only civilized pagans, who merely have cultivated the natural life, and 38 The New Life are not dwelt in by the life of Christ? They are mere polished worldings, and not Christ-men and women. What worldliness, what lukewarmness, what fruitlessness characterize so many professing Chris¬ tians of to-day! What ever can renew them? What ever can change them? The answer is: Christ the Crucified One, the Risen One, the Glor¬ ified One, the Almighty One, must come and live in them. There is very little permanent hope in anything else. For not sacraments, not vows, not forms, not creeds, not dogmas, not traditions, not rela¬ tions, not association, not surroundings long can avail the soul that has not the more abundant life which Christ came to give. Oh brethren, so urgent is the need of having this life that Christ laid the stress of His teaching upon it. It was His terrible warning that nothing must stand between us and this life. For said He, “If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee; it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell- fire.” We need to get down in the very dust before God, and in deep humiliation lay ourselves at Jesus’ feet, and tarry there, until we be filled with His fullness, for of such it shall be said, in that great The Secret of the Life 39 day of revelation and reckoning, “And these shall go away into life eternal.” “Oh Jesus Saviour, Christ Divine, When shall I know and feel thee mine Without a doubt or fear? With anxious, longing thirst I come, To beg thee make my heart thy home, And keep me holy here. “What is there that I will not give To have thee ever in me live, A conquering Christ within? My life, my all, this blessed day Down at thy precious feet I lay, To be redeemed from sin. “Oh God of pentecostal fame, Can I not have that living flame Burning where’er I go? From sin and self and shame set free, Can I not lead lost souls “to thee, And conquer every foe? “I can, I do, just now believe, I do the heavenly grace receive, Thy Spirit makes me clean. Christ takes the whole of my poor heart, No charms shall ever from me part, While Jesus reigns supreme.” IV GROWTH “But grow in grace” II Pet. 3:18 HE prerequisite of growth is life. There can A be no growth without life. There may be ac¬ cretion without life, but not growth. A stone for instance cannot grow; it lacks the principle of growth. A plant, a bird, a child can grow; they are living organisms. Growth implies life. We can put that down without any further elucidation. This is true, not only of the natural realm, but of the spiritual as well. There can be no spiritual growth without spiritual life. There can be accre¬ tion, but not growth. One may add certain traits to his character, but that is not growth. That may be the moral life, but not the Christian. We hear a great deal in these days about build¬ ing character. But a real Christian character is not built, but grown. It is not the result of work, but life. I have nothing to say about building character, if thereby you mean merely a moral character. That may be built as you build a wall, adding brick to mortar, and mortar to brick. But that would be only a formal thing, at best, when completed. It would be destitute of life. A Christian character is something quite different. It is not the result of work, but life. It is not built like a wall, but grown like a tree. Its fruit is not manufactured, but grown. It is not imitation, but real. 40 Growth 4i I allow that the formal life of the moralist may in outward appearance be as beautiful as the fruitage of the Christian life. But between them there is a vast difference. The one is artificial, the other is real. Papier-mache grapes may be as beautiful as real grapes; but if you were to eat them, you would detect the difference. A statue may be as beautiful in form and figure as a man; but between them there is a world of difference. The man has life, and the statue has not. The statue may be far more perfect in outline than a man; but the most deformed man is of a higher order than the statue. The man has life, the statue has not. We reiterate it: in order to have spiritual growth we must have spiritual life, which begins by the new birth, and is maintained in Christ. Now, for every Christian there is nothing more desirable than “growth in grace.” Not growth into grace! We cannot grow into grace. Grace is an unmerited bestowal of God, and having received it, we are to grow in it. Grace is to the soul what the soil is to the plant, or what the water is to the fish: we grow in it. There is nothing more deplorable than lack of growth—stuntiness, runtiness. And it is as much to be deplored in the spiritual life as in the physical. But dwarfiness does not occasion so much alarm in the spiritual world as in the physical; because it is not so apparent. If we could see the defects in our spiritual growth as we do in our physical, if we could see our souls as we see our bodies, we not only would be alarmed but greatly distressed. 42 The New Life A sweet babe is a very pretty thing. But if it never grew, it would cause the parents a great deal of alarm; for the joy of a mother’s heart is to notice the healthly growth of her babe. But sadder than the lack of growth of the babe in the mother’s arms is the lack of growth of babes in Christ. To be able to see no growth in Christians, or to see those who have been Christians a long while making no progress, is one of the saddest spectacles in human experience. For where there is life, there ought to be growth, provided there is health. There are thousands of cases of arrested development, of stunted growth, of spiritual runt among Christians. Why is this? Is it because they never have been born again? It is not for me to say. It is not for me to unchristianize people who do not live up to their birthright. But somewhere there has been lacking the condition of health. Into the spiritual organism there has crept the principle of disease— some sin, some habit, some friendship, some trick of life, something that has been contrary to the will of God. Any one of these will mar one’s spiritual progress. If we are to grow, we not only must have the principle of growth which is life, but we must be very careful that nothing is permitted which would mar that life. Everything of the old carnal life must be kept pruned away so that the new life may • have a chance to grow. Many a spiritual life has been choked by the verbage of the carnal. We must mortify the flesh, if the Spirit is to have His way. Growth 43 Having then become partakers of the new life by faith in Christ, what is necessary for growth in grace? Striking an analogy between the physical and the spiritual, the first thing necessary is breath. The first thing we do in this world is to breathe. Life cannot be maintained very long without breath. When we cease to breathe, we cease to live. The same thing is true of our spiritual nature and life. It too must breathe. We cannot live with¬ out it. There can be no physical life without breath any more than there can be spiritual life without breath. What is there in the spiritual life that corre¬ sponds to breathing in the physical? It is prayer. Prayer is the breath of the soul. “Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, The Christian’s native air.” Breathing physically has its parallel spiritually in prayer. In breathing there are just two func¬ tions: inhalation and exhalation, breathing in and breathing out. This is true of prayer. We breathe out our souls to God, and breathe in His Spirit into our souls. What breath is to the physical body, prayer is to the soul. Prayer is something more than form, or an exer¬ cise, or a speech, or vain repetition; prayer is com¬ munion—the outgoing of the soul to God and the incoming of the Spirit of God into the soul. There is the emptying of self and the infilling of the Spirit. 44 The New Life No Christian can live long without prayer. He may have a name that he is living, but he is dead if he does not pray, just as one is dead if he does not breathe. There are those who are in a very critical state, and if there is not a speedy resuscitation, they are gone. In the matter of breathing, atmosphere is a very important factor. Few things are more important to health and growth than atmosphere. Deep¬ breathing in pure air is vitalizing. It is no wonder that some do not grow in their Christian life. We do not marvel at it when we come to know the influences in which they live, the company they keep, and the surroundings they have. As well might a child grow in a miasmic swamp, or live in a diphtheritic room as for some to grow spiritually under the influences in which they are. The Christian must live in the true atmosphere which is the fellowship of the Spirit. He brings to us all the blessings of Christ Himself. There is no essential difference, says one writer, between the indwelling Christ and the indwelling Spirit. It is in the Spirit that Christ dwells within us. The Holy Spirit outbreathed by Christ and inbreathed by the believer becomes the vitalizing breath of the Christian. The true atmosphere therefore of the new life is that of the Spirit of God. Life in the Spirit is life in the atmosphere which will give us growth and strength and health. The primary need of the Christian, therefore, is prayer—the inbreathing of the very influence of Growth 45 heaven. We no more can live spiritually without inhaling the breezes that blow from heaven, than we can live physically without inhaling the pure air that blows from mountain and sea. There is an ozone for the soul as well as for the body. Christ Himself felt the need of much prayer. He could not get along without communion and fellow¬ ship with His Heavenly Father. He prayed all night long, until His locks were wet with the dews of the morning. It has been the secret of strong men in all ages. Prayer takes us back to the life of Moses, to the plains of Mamre, to the fords of Peniel, to the prison of Joseph, to the closets of the apostles and the prophets. It was the secret of the strength of the saints and the fortitude of the martyrs in death. In the second place, there must be food. The second thing we do when we are born into this world is to cry for foQd. The same thing is true of the soul that is born into the Kingdom of God. They will cry to God for spiritual food. And if there is no cry for such food, it is a very strong evidence that we are not born again. “Blessed are they that do hunger after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Life cannot be maintained without food. In order that a living organism may build itself up in growth and strength, food must be supplied in order that the body may assimilate that of it which is necessary to rebuild the wasted tissues. 46 The New Life No more can the soul live without food than the body. The soul too must feed if it is to grow. And what is there in the spiritual life that corresponds to eating in the physical? It is reading, study, meditation, reflection. As we take food into our mouths and masticate it, and digest and assimilate it, and it becomes a part of our physical body; so must we take truth into our minds, meditate upon it, re¬ flect over it, believe it, and it becomes a part of our spiritual nature. The one is no more mysterious than the other. Very much depends on the kind of food you eat. If people live on poor, unsubstantial food, their bodies and health must suffer. You cannot live on the phiz of the soda fountain, or the sweets of the confectioner, though they taste well; there must be substantial food containing the ingredients the body needs. The same thing is true of the soul. It must have good, substantial food. It cannot live long upon the trashy books and light literature which some read. There are many Christians dying spirit¬ ually for want of proper spiritual food. They have been feeding on light stuff and frothy fiction, and sometimes even vicious reading, until they have lost their appetites for substantial, wholesome reading. Many have spoiled their appetites. They have grown into such a state that good solid food rests heavily on their stomachs. The great danger, we are told, in reading light literature, is not only that it fails to supply the ingredients the body needs, but it spoils the taste for good reading, and causes a loss Growth 47 of power to digest and assimilate it. Some have so long lived on the lighter stuff that they have become spiritual anaemics. And then they wonder why in the world they are not growing in the Christian life and enjoying their religion. There are men who on Sunday morning will fill themselves up on the garbage of the Sunday news¬ paper, and then they wonder why they cannot relish the sermon. No matter how good and meaty the sermon is, it does not set well on their vitiated stomachs. What most Christians need in this day and gen¬ eration is good, substantial, gospel food, and not the condimented hash which so many get. You might as well feed a man on chaff, or a child on chalked water, and expect them to be strong; as to expect a young Christian to grow on the things they read. For spiritual growth there must be spiritual food. Merely intellectual food is not sufficient. Science, philosophy, history, mathematics—these are good in¬ tellectual food, but not necessarily spiritual. The study of them will give strength and growth to the mind, but not necessarily to the spirit. Two times two are four—that is truth, but it is not very likely that any one would be converted or sanctified by it. It is another sort of truth that is needed for growth in grace. For our spiritual growth there must be a special kind of food. There must be truth for the soul, which has not been provided by man, but has been revealed of God. If we are born from above, then also our spiritual food must come from 48 The New Life thence. Jesus prayed for His disciples saying, “Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth.” But where shall we get such food? It is found in the Bible. That is a well-filled larder for every Christian. Are you but a babe in Christ, and need the milk of the word ? Here it is. Are you engaged in great strenuous spiritual work and need great strength? Here is the meat of the word. Are you hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Here is the staff of life, the bread of heaven; here is the water of life, of which, if a man drink, said Jesus, he shall never thirst again. But instead of feeding upon so many things, there is a composite bread provided which contains every ingredient the soul needs. It is in Christ. “I,” said he, “am the bread of life.” “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Scientists are talking about a perfect food that shall contain in the needed proportion every ingredient that the body requires. Jesus Christ is such a spiritual food. He contains every ingredient that the soul needs. There is noth¬ ing the soul can hunger for; there is nothing it can thirst for, that is not provided in Christ Jesus. “Thou, O Christ, art all I want; All I need in thee I find!” If the Christian life is in Christ, then the food to sustain it must also be of Him. He is the sus¬ tenance of the life He has given us. That sus¬ tenance is not something He gives us apart from Growth 49 Himself, not even in the blessings He bestows upon us, but in Him. He is the heavenly, eternal Word upon which we feed. The weakness of most people in these days, so far as their Christian life is concerned, is the woeful lack of Bible study. True, some do what they call religious reading, but it may or may not have much of the word of truth in it. It is often so seasoned with human opinions, that they are taken more than God’s revelation. People now expect their preacher to prepare their spiritual food for them, seasoning it to their taste, and dishing it up to them once a week. But it must be seasoned to their taste, even if it is a depraved taste, else they will not receive it at all. So it has come to pass that many a preacher has come to be a mere caterer, catering to the tastes of people, rather than to their needs. He runs a mere ‘’Deli¬ catessen” of sensationalism or entertainment, with little, or none of the gospel in it, until people have lost their appetites for plain, substantial gospel preaching, and have been robbed of the power to relish it. There are churches who have been so spoiled by these catering preachers, that the gospel preacher who preaches the simple gospel, is not likely to have a very great patronage. The lighter vein has come to be very popular with some people. But you cannot blame the people for it. They take it for granted that the preacher, especially if he has been doctored with a D. D., ought to know what they need. When all sorts of dope is given 50 The New Life them, they take it, even if they die under it. But the dangerous thing about such dope is, that it stupefies them so that they do not know they are dying. Perhaps that is the pleasant thing about it to many. We need to get back more and more to living upon the Word, and less and less upon what men think about it. What a starving man needs is not the ingredients of bread, but the bread. What a thirsting man needs is not the analysis of water, but water. What a dying man needs is not the chem¬ istry of medicine, but the medicine. And what a starving, thirsting, dying soul needs spiritually, is not men’s opinion about the word, but the word. It is not the study of cook-books or the scanning of bills-of-fare that will give strength physically; neither is it merely a novel way of putting a thing, nor a sensational program that has been arranged, that will strengthen spiritually. It is the Word that hath life that quickens and strengthens. Again, another thing necessary for growth is exercise. Those who do not exercise are retarded in their growth. Expension means expansion. We gain life by losing it. The life that expends none of its energy will atrophy and decay. The pool that has no outlet becomes stagnant. The Dead Sea is dead, because it always is receiving and never giving out. Its deadly Waters are never purified. “There is such a thing as withholding more than is meet and it tendeth to poverty.” If we use the strength that God has given us, we will have more. “He Growth 51 that loseth his life shall save it,” said the Master. The talents employed will be multiplied; but the one hidden away will be taken away. It is neces¬ sary, therefore, if we are to grow and become strong, that we exercise ourselves unto godliness. If bodily exercise profiteth a little, as the Apostle Paul said, then exercise in Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the life that now is, and the hope of that which is to come. Proper exercise will do two things. It will neces¬ sitate deep breathing, and give one a healthy appe¬ tite. r In exercise, in order to supply the energy expend¬ ed, the lungs are put to it, and thereby are ex¬ panded. Deep breathing increases lung capacity. The reason some die from lung trouble is not that there is insufficient air, but because they have not the capacity for breathing it. Exercise expands the lungs, and increases the breathing capacity. This is true of the religious life. Exercise in religious work stimulates prayer. One is driven to prayer in order to supply the energy used up in service. Those who engage in the work of the Lord, feel the need of strength from the Lord and they pray. Some never feel the need of such prayer, because their little, insignificant, carnal work which they do, never calls for it. They can do it without prayer. But the Lord’s work, spiritual work, eternal work—that needs God’s help for which we must pray. Spiritual exercise stimulates prayer. And more, it expands the soul so that it can 52 The New Life breathe in the Spirit of God more deeply. As exer¬ cise compels one to breathe more deeply to supply the oxygen for the blood which has been consumed ,* so exercise in the work of the Lord makes one pray more earnestly to maintain the spiritual strength needed for the service of the Master. When Jesus was touched for healing by the woman in the throng, immediately He perceived that power had gone out of Him—literally dyna¬ mite had gone out of Him. So every one that does efficient spiritual work will be constantly conscious that strength, spiritual power has gone out of him; and knowing that it can be supplied only by breath¬ ing in deep the Spirit of the Infinite, he constantly prays. Work and exercise will incite deep breath¬ ing. But exercise also stimulates appetite. There can be no good, healthy appetite without exercise. It aids assimilation by using up the food in supply¬ ing the body with the needed strength. Great workers are usually great eaters. They necessarily must be. It is the only thing that builds fibre and muscle. Those who do most in the work of the Lord, feed most upon His word. Their capacity for strength is increased by that work and they need more food to supply it. The reason many do not have a better appetite for the Word of the Lord is because they do not engage in the work of the Lord. They do nothing to give them an appetite. It is true, they go to church on Sunday morning, but they look bored all the time of the service like a dyspeptic at Growth 53 a feast. They do not relish anything the preacher has to say. It lies heavily on their stomach, like a barbecue on the stomach of an invalid. They do not relish it a bit. The service is an annoyance to them. No matter how short the sermon is, it is al¬ ways too long, like a seven course dinner to a dys¬ peptic. They think they have religion, but it is a chronic case of dyspepsia. There is many a preacher who prepares the finest kind of sermon, a spiritual repast fit for a king, and some of these indolent folk who never do enough to give them an appetite come and find there seems to be nothing they can eat. Their appetite is like the appetite of an infant who never has exercised a limb. If those same people went to doing something worth while in the Lord’s work, they would soon have a ravenous appetite for His Word. Spurgeon once said that there are people in his church, who are always going about saying, “Oh my weakness, my weakness!” It is not their weak¬ ness, he says, it is their laziness. Eating without exercise is almost as fatal as ex¬ ercise without eating. If one exercises too much and does not eat enough, he becomes a wreck of a weak¬ ling. But if one eats too much and does not exercise enough, he becomes stupid and sluggish. Perhaps it would not be true to say that there are too many who are overfed; but I think it would be wholly within the truth to say that there are en¬ tirely too many who are underworked. They do not engage sufficiently in the work of the Lord to give them an appetite for His word. In almost 54 The New Life every church there are those who are breaking down because they are working too hard; but in every church there are those who are losing their religion because they are underworked. One cannot work too hard if he takes proper food; and one hardly can eat too much if he takes proper exercise. The two go together. Strong Christians are those who are active in Christian work. They engage in Christian work, not only because they are strong, but they are strong because they engage in Christian work. If some who seem to be drying up in their religious life were to feed properly and exercise accordingly, they would become strong in the Lord. If we have been made partakers of the Chris¬ tian life in the new birth; if we have been faithful in prayer; if we have fed properly upon the Word of the Lord and exercised ourselves in the work of the Lord, then surely we also must have grown in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. If there has been no such growth, then we need to examine ourselves seriously; for either it must be that we have not been born again and do not have spiritual life, or else we have not fulfilled the condi¬ tions of growth and have been dwindling and retrograding. Either one is appalling enough to drive us to Him in whom this life is and cling to the very hem of His garment until we have that life, or send us to our knees in prayer breathing forth our very soul to God, and then in a renewed life and strength Growth 55 drive us forth into the Lord’s work, that we go not out into eternity hopeless weaklings and spiritual invalids, if indeed not into a state which compared to eternal life will be like unto an eternal death. V FRUITAGE “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Mat. 7 *20 'C' RUITAGE is the result of life and growth. " There can be no fruitage without a living, grow¬ ing organism. There can be imitation—artificial fruit—without life and growth, but not real fruit. The fruit is indicative of the life, whether it be good or bad, fruitful or barren, and what sort it is. You judge a tree, as to its fruitfulness or bar¬ renness, not by its looks but by its fruit. And you judge a Christian in the same way. The fruit of the divine life will manifest itself in a dis¬ ciple, if he really have that life. And “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Not by their works. There is a world of differ¬ ence between works and fruit. Fruit is something that is grown, and work is something that is done. The one is real, the other is shoddy. There are many who mistake mere carnal effort —ordinary every day hustling and bustling, for the fruitage of the spiritual life. They substitute an imitation for the real. And this is not at all strange. For it is so much easier to imitate fruit than to grow it. It takes time to grow fruit, while one can make the artificial kind in short-order. It requires patient waiting for the real fruit. 56 Fruitage 57 Moreover, people like to show off their works, because it glorifies them, while fruit glorifies the life within. And because some do not have that inner life, they seek to substitute for its fruitage the work of the flesh. One must wait for fruitage, but the artificial stuff—that we can always have on hand. It is not the work of the flesh that glorifies God, but the fruit of the Spirit. He did not say, (Jno. 15:8) “Herein is my Father glorified that ye do much work;” but “Herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit.” “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” “By their fruits ye shall know them,” not by their profession. One may profess the Christian life, and not possess it. For one to profess it and not have the fruit of it is like those trees which are full of leaves but void of fruit. They are very disappointing. One such was to the Master. The world judges us not from what we say, but by what we are. Actions speak louder than words. There is nothing that so glorifies the Christian life as the fruitage of it. ”By their fruits ye shall know them,” not by their badges. In this day men seek to distinguish them¬ selves by their buttons. They designate the society or order to which they belong by putting a button on the lapel of their coat or some ornament on their person. Many are seeking to do that in their Christian life for it is easier than to bear the fruit. Fruit 58 The New Life bearing means careful watching and waiting. It means the curtailing and the pruning of the carnal life, that is always humiliating to the carnal man. We are loath to part with anything that seems to be such a vital part of us. But pruning does not mean the impoverishment of life; it means the enrichment of life. It after all does not mean the curtailing of life; it means the directing of life into more fruitful channels. You have seen the vine-dresser go out into the vineyard and cut away the profuse foliage until it seemed he would destroy the vine. But not so; he was enriching the vine. He was cutting away a great deal of useless foliage that was using up a large portion of the life of the general organism in merely producing useless growth. He was directing the life into more fruitful parts. Self-denial does not mean the impoverishment of one’s nature; it means the enrichment of it. It means the mortifying of the flesh that the fruitage of the Spirit may appear. It means accentuation, concentration, consecration. It means the putting away a lot of things that are taking one’s time and attention which show only in a profuse, fruitless growth. But it is not by their leaves that ye shall know them, but by their fruits. Now, if one have the life of Christ, and there is sufficient growth, then there ought to be fruit. If then there is no fruit, there must be something wrong with the life. It takes time to produce fruit; but after a time, if there is no fruit, one ought to examine himself to see what is wrong. If one have Fruitage 59 the new life, in due time he ought also to have the fruitage of that life. And what is the fruitage of that life? It is the fruit of the Spirit. And for a catalogue of that fruit, I will again direct you to Gal. 5 :22,—“Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suf¬ fering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tem¬ perance.” There is nothing said about hustling or bustling, or strenuous effort, it is a spontaneous fruitage. Now if we have not at least some of this fruit¬ age, we need to examine ourselves to see whether we really have by faith received that life; or whether we are letting the profuse verbage of the carnal choke out the spiritual. If we have not the fruit of the Spirit, it may be that we have not the Spirit. And to that alarming state the Apostle said a terrific thing when he said, “Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9). What we need to be concerned about is not whether we have these various graces of Christ, mentioned as the fruit of the Spirit; but do we have Christ? If we have Him within as the hope of glory, He will produce this blessed fruitage. Now, the great fruitage that flows from the life of Christ is Christlikeness. If we have His life, we will more and more become like Him. The sum of the fruitage of the Life of Christ is Christlike¬ ness. Like begets like, and we cannot have the life of Christ without becoming more like Him. As 6o The New Life the man life in the boy will bring him to manhood, so the Christ life in the believer will bring him to Christhood. As there is a distinct life in a tree which always makes the growth look like a tree; as there is a distinct life in man which always make him look like a man, so there is a distinct life in Christ, which if one has, will always make him more and more like Christ. A grain of wheat has a life peculiar to itself, which always produces a wheat-stalk. A grain of corn has a life peculiar to itself, which always pro¬ duces a corn-stalk. A grain of wheat never pro¬ duces a stalk of corn, nor a grain of corn a stalk of wheat. Like begets like. Grapes do not grow on thorns nor figs on thistles. Neither does the natural life produce Christlikeness. Not until we have His life can we become like Him. We can ape Him, but that is not being like Him. People here and there are saying that they desire to be like Christ. Very good; there is nothing bet¬ ter. But how shall they become like Him? They say, “I will be like Christ. I will act as He acted, and walk as He walked.” But, oh, how far they come short of it! They act very little as He acted, and walk very little as He walked. And why? Be¬ cause they are trying to pluck grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. They are trying to tie fruit on a dead tree. They are trying to make fruit instead of growing it. They mistake the artificial for the real. Our hope of becoming like Christ is in having Fruitage 61 the life of Christ. What did Christ become man for, if it was not to live this divine life in God, and thereby to show us how we may live this divine life ourselves? And when He had done this on earth, He went to heaven, that He might more than show us, that He might come and live within us that life. When here on earth He lived a life of absolute surrender, of implicit trust in God. He knew the source of all fruitage—the life from the Father. He expected His supplies from the one Who had com¬ missioned Him. As the firm works through the agent, so—yea, more closely than that—the Father worked through the Son. He did it in vital union with Him. He said, I and the Father are one; the works that I do, I do not of Myself, and the words that I speak I speak not of Myself; but My Father, He doeth them. In a sense, Christ is our example. But He did not say that He was our example; He said that He was our life; and if He is our life, we do not need Him as an example. We will grow up into Him without it. His life will make us like Him. You might as well set a man up before a statue as an example to the statue, and say to it, “There now, you must become like that man;” as to set up Christ as an example before man, and say to him, “There now, become like Christ.” How is it possi¬ ble for the statue to become like a man without the life of a man; and how is it possible for a man to become like Christ without the life of Christ ? And while it is never possible for the statue to become 62 The New Life partaker of the life of a man, so that it may become like a man; it is possible for a man to become par¬ taker of the life of Christ so that he will become like Christ. And that is man’s only hope. I do not want Christ as my example; I want Him as my life. As an example, he appalls me and dis¬ courages me; but as my life, He gives me an eternal and sure hope. To set up Christ before me in all His holiness when I am yet carnal, and to tell me to become like Him, strikes me with terror and dis¬ may; but to tell me that I may have Christ as an indwelling life by which I may become more and more like Him, fills me with joy and hope, and makes me to thrill in the glorious prospect. And the very essence of this Christlikeness is holi¬ ness. That is the ultimate, blessed maturity to which the fruitage of the new life must be brought. “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” That must be the ultimate fruitage of the life of Christ in the soul,—Christlikeness. Sanctification is the operation of the divine life,— the life of Christ in the soul. Holiness is the ma¬ tured fruitage of sanctification. Sanctification is not sinless perfection, but the ultimate holiness is. Fi¬ nally we shall be holy, even as He is holy, if we have His holy life, or rather if we have the Holy One. But when shall this glorious fruition be reached? It will be at the coming of the Lord in glory, when our vile bodies shall be changed like unto His own glorious body. And this is our glorious hope at that Fruitage 63 event; “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). People sometimes get holiness and sanctification confounded with righteousness and justification. Justification is an act of God’s justice, whereby we are set right in the sight of God legally. It is an instantaneous act. We shall never be more justified than we are right now, if we are justified at all; for our justification does not depend upon any pro¬ gressive state of our own, but upon the atonement of Christ; and that is as complete as it ever will be. When He died, He cried, “It is finished.” But our sanctification, the growth and operation of the divine life within the soul—that is progres¬ sive; we shall grow more and more unto holiness, until ultimately we shall be holy as He is holy. Our sanctification goes on until we are glorified with Christ. “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30). Righteousness comes before holiness. We are set right in the sight of God by justification, often long before holiness is completed through sanctification. Righteousness is imputed to us on the ground of our faith; holiness is imparted to us by the outworking of the life of Christ in the soul. The one was ac¬ complished on the cross; the other is accomplished within us. Justification comes through faith in Christ on the ground of what He accomplished on 64 The New Life the cross for us; sanctification is the work of the life of Christ within us. Side by side with the blessed truth of Christ’s taking the sinner’s place, is that equally blessed truth of Christ’s taking His place in the sinner. If God sees fit to declare the sinner righteous, it is because He knows that by the faith He has He also can restore him to holiness. If God counts the sinner righteous, it is because* He knows that He ultimately can restore him to holiness. We all know that we are far from being just or righteous, in the sight of God; but we bless His name that He counts us so. We may rest assured that if He counts us just on the ground of faith, that by that faith He will also finally make us so. If the life of Christ is operative in our souls, we cannot rest content in what we are. Yet we have peace and greatly rejoice in what we are to become. God will finally make real in us what on the ground of faith He already has imputed to us. It is imputed righteousness, because by the indwelling Christ, it finally will become an imparted righteousness— holiness. The work is two-fold. It is a work accomplished for us, destined to effect our reconciliation with God. That we call justification. It is a work that is being accomplished within us, whose fruit¬ age is holiness. That we call sanctification. “By the one a right relation is established between God and us; by the other is holiness the fruitage of the newly established order. By justification the con¬ demned sinner is received into a state of grace; by Fruitage 65 sanctification the justified sinner is associated with the life of God.” It is that life within that will work out for us an exceeding weight of glory. Nothing ought to be so attractive to the Chris¬ tian as holiness, for what could be more blessed than to have it as the fruit of sanctification? The reason the doctrine of sanctification is so distasteful to many is that instead of being presented as the divine life in the soul whose ultimate fruitage is holiness, it has been represented as sinless perfection; and when they have watched those who have made a profession of sinless perfection, and have seen that their life belied their profession, they have become disgusted with it. But you say, “Does not the Bible teach sinless perfection?” It certainly does; and when the life of Christ in the soul has accomplished its work, and the fruit of that life which is holiness has been ma¬ tured, then we will be perfect. When our carnal nature—and every regenerated man still has a car¬ nal nature; the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh—but when that carnal nature shall fall away by death, and there will be left to us only the Christ nature, then we will be holy as He is holy, and perfect as He is perfect. “Then He will be able,” at His coming, “to pre¬ sent us faultless before His throne with exceeding great joy.” Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 1012 01 392 6771 t