1. m ■1^ ■^'^t-.;- r •■' it.-t. \ W' ^1'i^^ J-ffr BV 4501 .B42 1895 Beet, Joseph Agar, 1840- 1924. The new life in Christ THE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST A STUDY IN PERSONAL RELIGION BOOKS BY JOSEPH AGAR BEET, D.D. Credentials of the Gospel $0 90 Holiness as Understood by Writers of the Bible. 35 Through Christ to God 1 50 The New Life in Christ, 1 50 The New Life IN Christ A STUDY IN PERSONAL RELIGION JOSEPH AGAR' BEET, D.D. NEW YORK : HUNT & EATON CINCINNATI : CRANSTON 4 CURTS •'Thou liast made us for Thyself; ami restless is our heart till it finds rest in Thee." — Augustine. PREFACE 'THHIS volume is a necessary sequel to an earlier one entitled Through Christ to God,. in which I endeavoured to set forth the historical basis of the Christian faith and hope. The present volume goes on to delineate the goodly structure of the Christian life which rests securely on that firm foundation. In the former volume, what may be called the theological element claimed almost exclusive attention. In the present one, inward spiritual experience and practical life occupy a large place. Each volume needs to be supplemented by the other. For theology is useless unless it bears fruit in righteousness and peace and beneficence ; and inward experience is fitful and uncertain unless it rests on reliable external evidence. The New Life in Christ pourtrayed in this volume, I have endeavoured to investigate according to the principles of scientific research. We have found it to be one organic whole consisting of various elements mutually related and holding definite relations to other vi PREFACE matters of human thought and knowledge. This mode of study has given to us, in some measure, a connected and intelligent view of the whole subject of personal religion. This department of theology has received from theologians much less attention than have the great doctrines of the Atonement and the Person of Christ dealt with in the former volume. It has been for the more part left to devotional and practical works which have treated of special topics singly without any attempt to view the Christian life as a whole. But without such view of the whole subject there can be no comprehensive grasp even of its details. And no study of details can reveal the more wonderful harmony pervading the whole. The comparative neglect by theologians of the subject now before us is in part accounted for by the fact that its investigation is much more closely connected with the student's own spiritual Itfe than is the investigation of what may be called the objective doctrines of the Gospel of Christ — i.e.y those which set forth that which God has long ago done for us in Christ. We now consider what God does in us day by day by His Spirit dwelling in our hearts. This can be known only by actual experience. By this, therefore, is limited each one's power to delineate the New Life in Christ. And PREFACE vii a theologian is naturally reluctant to enter upon a course of teaching which will expose the imperfections of his own spiritual life. But, however this may be, the inner life of the servants of Christ needs, and will well repay, careful systematic investigation. The spiritual insight needful for the highest success in such investiga- tion, I cannot claim. I write only as a careful student of Holy Scripture and as one who has derived from that study abundant spiritual blessing. This personal benefit prompts a hope that others may be benefited by that which has been profitable to myself And perhaps the manifest defects of my work may prompt others who have followed the Master more closely than 1 have done to enrich the Church with the profounder lessons which they have learned. As embodying original research, this volume will, I hope, be found useful even to those most familiar with the Bible and with theology, and especially to those who, as Christian pastors, are called by the great Shepherd to feed His flock. It is, however, written in a style which will be easily understood by all intelligent and devout men and women ; and especially by all Christian workers. These last need, as an equipment for their work, an accurate and comprehensive know- ledge of the Gospel of Christ. For they can teach only what they know. And only by conveying to others a PREFACE knowledge of Christ can we lead them to vital union with Him. I therefore cherish a hope that this literary work of mine may render help to many who in various ways are " fellow-workers for the Kingdom of God." To render such help is the aim and reward of theological research. The Index of Scripture Passages I owe to Mr. G. A. Cia}'ton, son of an old and valued friend, Rev. A. Clayton. Plymouth, 2/^th July, 1895. CONTENTS PAGE Lect. I. Our Starting-point and our Aim . . . i Results attained in the former volume — No effectual relief of our deep spiritual need — Yet in our search for deliverance from the bondage of sin we are not without hope — The path before us. PART I. THE RUIN. Lect. II. Man as created : Flesh and Spirit ... 4 The distinctive and multiform garb of life — Living bodies dependent on their environment — An unseen element — The spirit is higher than, yet conditioned by, the body— Animals attain their highest well-being by a life according to flesh — To man, such life is degrading — New Testament teaching about flesh and spirit — Gen. ii. 7. Lect. III. Man under Probation . . '. . .10 Certain inevitable sequences — The laws of nature — Other more important sequences : the Moral Sense --They come from the Author of our being — The far-reaching influence of our body — Man's inborn power of choice — Also due to his Creator — Man's dual nature is the basis of his probation. Lect. IV. Sin and Bondage 17 All have sinned — Universal moral bondage taught in the New Testament — Confirmed by experience— Spiritual death — Limitation of the metaphor — The Law of Sinai — Unavailing efforts to obey it — They increase our self-condemnation- Teaching of Paul — One ray of hope. CONTENTS PAGE Lect. V. The First Fall and its Results .... 25 The universality of sin suggests an inborn fault — Eph. ii. 3, Psa. 11. 4, 5— John iii. 5, 6, Job xv. i4~Rom. v. 12 — Men die because Adam sumed — Other consequences — Inherited moral bondage— Apparent injustice — It is removed in Christ — This inference is not overturned by Geology — For the Moral Sense lies beyond its ken — Evidence scanty, but sufficient. Lect. VI. Man unsaved 2,^ Two elements in man, each claiming to control him — Man yielded to the lower — Universal moral inability — Yet there are in man remains of good — Rom. vii. 14-25 — Divine influences — The inborn Moral Sense — Rom. ii. 14 — A moral displacement — A theory which meets all the facts of the case — The salvation needed. Sin— Trangression of limits — Often prompted by bodily needs— The origin of sin. PART II. THE RESTORATION. Lect. VII. Repentance, Faith, Justification ... 46 The historic working out of the purpose of salvation — Personal salvation— Repentance— The voice of pardon — Faith— Justi- fication — Does not remove all consequences of sin — A new hope. Lect. VIII. Adoption 50 The Son of God — Later-born sons — Angels— Israel— Sons of God by faith— Adoption — Its great significance— Rom. viii. 19, 23 — Heirs of God — Not sons by creation — Acts xvii. 28 — The prodigal son — The universal sonship ignored— Adoption by faith — Its practical worth. Lect. IX. The Spirit of Adoption 63 The Spirit of the Son— A Guide and Saviour— Abba, Father- Christ's promise of the Spirit— The Spirit in the Old Testament — In the New Testament — The divine-human cry — The revealed love of God. CONTENTS PAGE Lect. X. Assurance of Salvation 72 Rom. viii. i6— A joint testimony — The witness of the Spirit — The moral guidance of the Spirit— The argument in Rom. viii. 12-17— A confident assurance of the favour of God— The witness of our conscience— Forgiveness of sins in I John- Eternal Life — The doctrine guarded. Lect. XI. The New Birth 83 A metaphor derived from natural birth— The water of Baptism- Various New Testament teaching— The doctrine of Adoption contrasted with that of the New Birth -Their harmony- Results attained. PART IIL THE WAY OF HOLINESS. Lect. XIL Holiness in the Old Testament ... 93 The word holy in the New Testament recalls its use in the Old — The holy objects stood in special relation to God— Objective and subjective holiness— Earlier uses of the word— The later books of the Old Testament— The word holy in the Septuagint — Two Greek words — The Apocrypha. Lect. XIIL The Holiness of Christ 108 The earlier use continues— The Holy Spirit— The Incarnate Son — His devotion to God — ^John and Jesus — Devotion to the purpose of salvation — The holiness of the Eternal Son. Lect. XIV. The Holiness of the Servants of Christ . 115 The saints— A. contrast to the Old Testament —The saints at Corinth — Subjective Christian holiness — The Christian temple, priesthood, and sacrifices — I Cor. vii. 14 — i Tim. iv. 4— Summary. Christian holiness explains the Levitical Ritual. COI^ TENTS PAGE Lect. XV. The New Life of Devotion to Christ . . 127 The devotion of the Incarnate Son — It saved the world— Christ claims from us a like devotion— Excellence of the ideal life thus set before us — It involves love to God — God's earlier love to us— It prompts love to our fellows, and ceaseless activity for their good — Restored harmony of man with God, and of man with man. Lect. XVI. The New Life in the Spirit of God . .140 "What God claims, man cannot give— It must be God's work in man — Through the Spirit— A distinctive feature of the Gospel — Foretold in the Old Testament. Lect. XVII. The New Life in Faith 148 A human condition— Faith- -Teaching of Paul and others — Sanc- tifying Faith— Distinguished from Justifying Faith— Implies consecration — Appropriateness as a condition — Three insepar- able elements of the New Life — New aspect of religion. Lect. XVJII. The New Life in its further relation to Christ 160 For Christ — Through Christ— Like Christ— In Christ, and Christ in us— With Christ — Dead, buried, risen, and enthroned with Christ — Fresh light on the death and resurrection of Christ. Lect. XIX. The New Life in its relation to Sin . .174 Continued conflict with sin — We are now victorious — Yet sin is not annihilated — Gradual destruction of sinful appetites — Through faith— Confirms our faith. Lect. XX. The New Life in its relation to the Law . 182 The authority of the Moral Law — Dead to the Law — Yet the Law is to be fulfilled in us — Romans vii. 1-4 — The gift of the Spirit — Paul and James — Their deep harmony. coxTLyrs Lect. XXI. The New Life in its relation to Things Around 189 ^^an's dependence on his environment — The successful struggle against it— All things work together for good — Plato— Paul's teaching verified — All is now changed — Right with God, and with all else. Lect. XXII. The Christian Conflict 198 The athletic contests of Greece — The Christian athlete — He does not fight alone — The victory is by faith — Two aspects of the contest — The peace of God. Lect. XXIII. Perseverance in the New Life . . .204 Paul's joyful confidence — Yet victory is conditioned by faith. Lect. XXIV. Spiritual Growth 208 Faith sometimes gradual — Definite stages— Gradual development — Growth in knowledge. Lect. XXV. The Means of Grace. Prayer . . .215 The preached Word — Teaching— Study of Holy Scripture- The Sacraments. Prayer— Sanctioned by Christ— Paul's desire for his readers' prayers — Rationale of prayer — God will answer prayer only in harmony with His will — Various forms of prayer — Inter- cession of Christ and of the Spirit. The Church of Christ. Lect. XXVI. Results attained 231 PART IV. 7//E DIVINE AND HUMAN IN THE CHRISTIAN IIFE. Lect. XXVII. The Eternal Purpose 241 The one purpose of creation and redemption — Not prompted by foreseen merit of man— Teaching of the New Testament — Election and predestination. CONTENTS Lect. XXVIII. The Progressive Realisation . . .250 Creation of matter and life and reason — Suffering and sin — The historic development of the kingdom of God— Inward spiritual progress of individuals. Lect. XXIX. Human Freedom 255 Difference between calamity and crime — Man's consciousness of his freedom — Its moral helpfulness — The Philosophical Neces- sity of J. S. Mill and H. Spencer— Its baselessness — Man's freedom is a part of God's eternal purpose. Lect. XXX. The Divine-Human Christian Life . . 263 Divine influences, and man's self-surrender to them — Teaching of the New Testament — Not inconsistent with the omnipotence of God — The Christian life is both passive and active — God hardens the impenitent — Slow progress of the Gospel. Another theory — Teaching of Calvin and Augustine — Arminius and the Remonstrants — The Synod of Dort — The teaching of Wesley. Lect. XXXL The Eternal Realisation .... The way of salvation — Purposed from eternity— Partial present accomplishment — Real progress — Prospect of further pro- gress — The perfect and final realisation. '-r PART V. THE RE VELA TION OF GOD IN THE NE W LIFE IN CHRIST Lect. XXXI L God our Father 284 Marks of an intelligent and moral Creator- Confirmed by the Gospel — And by the spiritual life of the servants of Christ — God our Father — His love to man — God is love — The holiness of God — A new and definite conception of God. CONTENTS PAGE Lect. XXXIII. The Son of God 296 Unique dignity of Christ — The love of God manifested in the Son — Creation through the Son — The God-man — Three elements. Lect. XXXIV. The Spirit of God . . . .301 In the Old Testament and the New — Other teaching — The Para- clete — ^The Spirit of the Truth — A Person distinct from the Father and the Son — The Procession of the Spirit — The Creed of Constantinople— />7/^(7«^ — Practical significance of the per- sonality of the Spirit — The Holy Spirit. Lect. XXXV. The Eternal Three in One . . . .314 Claims of Jesus of Nazareth — A new conception of God— Father, Son, and Spirit —Three Persons and one God — The love of God manifested in Christ — Yet sin was not needful for the full manifestation of God — Distinct functions of the three Divine Persons — Divine avenues of the self-manifestation of God. Lect. XXXVL Angels, Good and Bad . . . .323 Meaning of the word angel -The angel of Jehovah — The cherubs — An angel-interpreter — Michael, the angel-prince — Successive ranks of angels. The great adversary — Demons — The unseen and personal realm of evil — Created by God, yet fallen. Lect. XXXVII. Man at rest in God ^t^z Man created by God and for God — His fall — Conscious ruin — The promise of pardon — Faith, pardon, gift of the Spirit — Christ claims unreserved devotion — This devotion God works in us — All things now changed — Growth — The means of grace — The final consummation — The religion taught by Christ is the highest form of religion known to man. LECTURE I OUR STARTING POINT AND OUR AIM IN an earlier volume entitled ThrougJi Christ to God I have endeavoured to prove by evidence of various kinds that beyond and above the visible universe is an intelligent and loving Creator and Ruler ; that the Moral Sense of man is His Voice proclaiming His Will touching the action of His intelligent creatures ; and that beyond the grave exact retribution awaits all men. These earliest results of our inquiry awoke in us a consciousness of personal sin and a fear of coming punishment. From this dark apprehension we found no refuge either in the material world or in our own moral sense ; except some faint and general indications of the goodness of God. Further research, however, in a different direction, proved to us that Jesus of Nazareth, whose moral teaching and personal character at once won the homage of whatever in us is noblest and best, taught that all who believe the good news of salvation announced by Him are, in spite of their past sins, received into the favour of God as heirs of eternal life ; and taught also that this salvation comes to them through His own approaching and voluntary death upon the I 2 OUR STARTING POINT AND OUR AIM [Lect. I cross ; that He claimed to be a sharer of the infinity and eternity of God, thus giving to men a new concep- tion of God, a conception now conterminous in the main with human progress ; and that in proof of this claim He rose from the dead. The resurrection of Christ was to us complete proof both of the justness of His claims and of the truth of the good news of salvation announced by Him. And this proof was confirmed by the effect of Christianity, as manifested in the immense superiority of the Christian nations to all others. The results of this theological research did something towards supplying, in one direction, the deep spiritual need evoked by the indications of punishment beyond the grave. But they gave no effectual relief For our inborn Moral Sense asserts, with an authority we dare not contradict, that God smiles only on those who obey His commands. And this obedience, long experience proves that we are unable to give. Indeed our efforts to do right reveal the presence in our hearts of a hostile power compelling us to continue in sin. From this moral bondage, we now seek deliverance. Such deliver- ance is the needful complement of the pardon of past sin which we have already traced to the lips of Him who was raised from the dead. In this search we are not without hope. For the love of God manifested in the costly gift of His only-begotten Son to die for man assures us that He will not leave incomplete the work for which Christ died. And the power manifested in His resurrection from the dead assures s that God is able to raise even sinners from Lect. I] OUR STARTING POINT AND OUR AIM 3 that moral death which is the most terrible element in the penalty of sin. This needful moral resurrection into new life is the specific object of the present volume. We shall consider, in Part I., the state of man as unsaved, and the relation of this state of ruin to the first sin of the first man. In PART II. we shall survey the gate through which sinners pass from bondage into liberty. Our next task will be to trace, in Part III., the path of life entered at the narrow gate, looking at it from various points of view, up to the close of man's probation on earth. This new life we shall find to be in its source and nature superhuman ; and we shall .seek, in Part IV., the relation between its divine and human elements. This investigation will be to us, in Part V., a new and fuller revelation of God, and of each Person of the eternal Trinity. And in God thus revealed to man, and in the conception of God thus obtained, we shall find satisfaction for every noble yearning of man, a stimulus to activity of the best kind, a profound and secure rest of man in God. Throughout this volume I shall assume as correct the results attained in the former volume. These I shall bring to bear on the moral and spiritual life of men. By so doing I shall vindicate for Theology its claim to be the Science of Religion. PART I THE RUIN LECTURE II MAN AS CREATED: FLESH AND SPIRIl IN order to understand the salvation announced by Christ, it is needful first to understand in some measure the condition and position of man as unsaved ; and to trace his present state of sin and bondage back to that in which he sprang from the Creator's hands. This last we can best do by studying those elements of his present condition which evidently belong to his original constitution. Wherever we find life, we find it clothed in a dis- tinctive visible and tangible form. This outward garb of life presents infinite variety, a variety far greater than that which distinguishes from each other the various forms of inorganic matter, i.e. matter which has no immediate connection with life. Yet, amid infinite variety of form, all living objects, animal or vegetable, are closely related both in their chemical composition, their cellular structure, and even in the functions of Lect. II] MAN AS CREATED: FLESH AND SPIRIT 5 vegetable and animal life. Moreover, the various kinds of animals are, in different degrees, similar even in the general arrangement of their bodies. Living bodies differ from all others in their great dependence on their environment, in their need of food, in their growth .and reproduction, and in their liability to change and decay. Without air and food, or if exposed to extremes of temperature, the distinctive features of life will cease, and animal bodies will in time go back into the simpler forms of inorganic matter. The phenomena of life, and especially of human life, reveal the presence in living animal bodies of an element invisible and intangible and altogether different from the material form in which it dwells. The presence in living bodies of this unseen element is made very conspicuous by the phenomenon of death. In some cases, e.g. in suffocation, there is no perceptible change in the visible organism. But there has been a change in environment ; and, as a result, the functions of life have irrevocably ceased. In a short time the distinctive features of life vanish, and the once active body returns to dust. Evidently, in animals, and most conspicuously in man, are two elements belonging to altogether different realms of being, yet interpenetrating at every point, a visible body akin to the graveyard sod with which it soon will mingle, and an invisible spirit within. The link holding them together is the life. When this link is broken, each element returns in its own direction : " the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." THE RUIN [Part I Of these elements, the spirit is manifestly the higher and nobler. We cannot but think of the body as merely living and of the spirit as the source and principle of life ; of the body as moved and of the spirit as moving it. In the human spirit chiefly is seen man's infinite superiority to anigials. It is the seat of intelligence, of the moral sense, and of all that goes to make up our conception of personality. We have accustomed ourselves to think of man as still existing in happiness or woe even after the body has been resolved into dust ; but we cannot conceive of the man as himself existing after the phenomena of mind and spirit have finally ceased. We notice now that the whole of human life and the entire activity of the human spirit are conditioned by the constitution of the body, and in great part by that constitution which is common to all animals. This bodily constitution compels us to spend hours every day in sleep, during which the spirit is inactive and unconscious ; and to spend time in obtaining food for ourselves and for those dependent upon us. Frequently, as in the case of miners and fishermen, these efforts to obtain food involve hardship and peril. The peculiar structure of our bodies, making us dependent on the mysterious laws of animal life and on our environment near and remote, exposes us to anxiety and pain, and will some day bring us down into the deep valley of death. In short, the whole of human life is limited, and in some measure shaped, by the constitution of our body. Lect. II] MAN AS CREATED: FLESH AND SPIRIT 7 Of animals, so far as our observation goes, the entire activity is not only limited and moulded, but is prompted, by the necessities and pleasures of bodily life. To this source may be traced all they do. In them the body reigns supreme, as the determining principle of their whole being. They live " according to flesh." And, so doing, they attain the highest well- being possible to them. Their manifest destiny is to live, feed, grow, beget offspring, and die. And it is attained by obedience to the instincts of the body. In man, such a life is at once felt to be both unworthy and degrading. He is capable of better things ; and to these he must rise, or sink into intellectual and moral ruin. All experience teaches that, for the well-being of both body and spirit, the spirit must rule and the body obey. Otherwise, in most cases, the body will lack its needful food and clothing and protection ; and in all cases the spirit will fall a prey to moral evils worse than death. All education has for its aim the control of the body by the intelligence and the moral sense. And a moral instinct which we dare not contradict compels us, under penalty of universal condemnation, to educate our children, i.e. to train them to make the body obey the dictates of the spirit within. Indisputably the spirit is designed to rule and the body to obey ; and only thus can man attain the well-being of which he is capable. The normal human life is one in which the body is the submissive organ for the self-manifestation of the unseen spirit within. THE RUIN [Part I The above contrast and its moral significance are conspicuous in the Bible, and especially in the Epistles of Paul. We read frequently of the Jlesh, the living material common to all human bodies and common in a somewhat different form to animals ; of the body, the complex organism belonging to each living creature ; and of the various in ember's of the body ; all these in relation to the moral life of men. In contrast to them we have the soul, the seat of individual life, common (in the Bible) to men and animals ; the spirit, which is always, when the two are compared, higher than the soul, and which man has in common with God ; also the mind, the seat of intelligence and thought. As examples of this contrast in its moral significance, I may quote Rom. viii. 4, " who walk, not according to Jlesh, but according to Spirit','" v. 13, "if ye live according to flesh ye will die, but if by the Spirit ye put to death the actions of the body ye will live ; " ch. vii. 23, " I see another law in the members of my body carrying on war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin which is in my members." Also Gal. v. 16, 17 : " Walk by the Spirit and ye will not accomplish the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires against the Spirit and the Spirit against the fleshy Whatever be the precise meaning and compass of the word flesJL in these and many similar passages, this use, in a moral significance, of a word denoting primarily the peculiar material of which living bodies are composed suggests or proves that in the thought of Paul the body. Lect. II] MAN AS CREATED: FLESH AND SPIRIT 9 owing to its peculiar composition, exerts or tends to exert an immoral influence over the spirit within. Since human life on earth is never found apart from flesh, and since the entire activity of man is limited by the constitution of his body, the word flesh frequently describes the entire man and sometimes the entire race. So Acts ii. 17, "I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh ; " Rom. iii. 20, " By works of law shall no flesh be justified before Him." Notice also Matt. xvi. 17 : " Flesh and blood have not revealed it to thee, but My Father which is in heaven." This usage is another witness to the importance of the material constitution of the body as a great factor of human nature. It is at once evident that the mutual relation of the visible living form and the invisible animating principle within, a relationship as wide as human life and found also in the lower forms of life in proportion as these approach the higher life of man, pertains to human nature as it sprang from the Creator's hands and to the original creative purpose of God. The dual nature of man is conspicuous in the account given in Gen. ii. 7 : " Jehovah God formed man, dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and man became a living soul." The complex and far-reaching relationship of these two elements of human nature underlies and conditions at every point the moral and spiritual life of man. It will therefore be a suitable starting point for further study of human nature in its ruin, its rescue, and its moral and spiritual development in Christ. LECTURE III MAN UNDER PROBATION WE have just seen that in all human life on earth are two distinct elements, a visible and material body and a conscious and active spirit ; and that in this last dwells the mysterious personality of man, which distinguishes him from the lower animals, the ultimate source, as we shall learn in Lect XXIX., of human action. And we have seen that each of these elements is in large measure dependent on the other ; that the well- being, and the continuance in life, of the body depend very much on the action of the spirit, and that the state of consciousness of the spirit, especially pleasure or pain, depends on the body and on certain forces operating in it which the spirit can only in small part control. This dependence of the welfare of the body upon the action of the spirit and personality within is in large measure not direct but indirect. It is determined by certain inevitable sequences older than the individual man and many of them older than the race. Each one can, within certain limits, choose his own action. But its results are determined by fixed laws from which he cannot escape. Lect. Ill] MAN UNDER PROBATION ii Some of these sequences touch only bodily life. They determine pleasure and pain, health and sickness, life and death. We speak of them as the laws of nature, and of some of them as the laws of bodily life. As thus used, the word law denotes the uniform action of natural forces, as this action is observed and written down by men. Other sequences equally inevitable and beyond man's control, and vastly more important, are observed in the moral life of men, e.g. that of sin and shame and moral degradation, and that of right doing and self-respect and clearer moral vision and increased moral strength. These sequences differ from the former class in that they give rise to, or are indissolubly connected with, a conception unique in human thought, viz. man's deep sense of moral obligation. Through them speaks to us, sometimes approving, often condemning, a voice of supreme authority from whose judgment there is neither appeal nor escape. This voice is the Moral Law. It is no mere description of the uniform action of natural forces, but a prescription, by an authority we cannot contradict, of a path in which we are bound to walk. This Moral Law, or Moral Sense, claims unreserved allegiance. Sometimes in obedience to it we are bound, under penalty of self-condemnation and moral degradation, to set at nought material con- sequences and to act in a manner injurious or possibly destructive to the body. For the Moral Law and the moral sequences associated with it differ from the laws of the material world in that these last are not, whereas the Moral Law is, a final rule of human action. 12 THE RUIN Part I Just as the bodily well-being of men and animals is conditioned by continuance in an activity and an environment marked out for them by nature, so all experience proves that the highest well-being of man is conditioned by obedience to the law written within. Evidently, just as nature has given water as the environ- ment of fishes, and air as that of birds, and has made their continued life conditional on their continuance in this suitable environment, so there is marked out for man, in his own Moral Sense, a path along which alone he can attain his highest well-being. The indisputable and absolute authority of the Moral Sense, so deeply inwoven into the thought and literature of all ages and nations, we have already {Through Christ to God, Lect. III.) traced to the intelligent Author of the universe and of man. If so, the Moral Law is an expression of His will touching the action of His intelligent creatures. In other words. He who made man marked out for him, in the law written on the hearts of all men, a path in which He would have him go ; and made his well-being conditional on his progress along that path. And if so, the Moral Sense is an all-important element, as is the mutual dependence of body and spirit, of man as originally created. It is a powerful influence from the Author of our being drawing us towards and along the only path in which we can attain our highest well-being. Other influences rooted in the original constitution of man and closely connected with his environment draw him sometimes in an opposite direction. Not unfre- Lect. Ill] MAN UNDER PROBATION 13 quently the pressing needs of bodily life can apparently be supplied only by disobedience to the law written within. Still more frequently forbidden objects are pleasant or apparently helpful. Sometimes the Moral Law alone seems to stand between a man and all earthly good. At other times the path marked out by the Moral Law leads to hardship or peril or death. In all these cases the needs or pleasures or aversions of bodily life are a powerful influence prompting us to do that which our Moral Sense condemns. This influence of the body is far-reaching in its effects. For, the dependence of the body on various external and visible objects needful or pleasant to it gives to these objects special value ; and prompts us to make them the chief aim of life. Such an aim tends to mould a man's entire action and thought. His intelligence becomes unconsciously a servant of his body ; and his entire activity of body and mind becomes a striving for material objects around. Moreover, since these objects are only to a small extent under his control or within his reach, man's felt dependence upon them becomes frequently a degrading bondage to things infinitely inferior to himself. These mutually antagonistic influences reveal to man an element in himself, distinct from each of them, viz. his own inborn power of choice, the mysterious pre- rogative of personality. A voice within speaks to him from above with an authority he cannot question : another voice within speaks to him with the authority pf those material conditions which rule his bodily life, 14 THE RUIN [Part To one or other of these voices he must submit. To which of them he will submit, rests with, himself. He is thus the ultimate source of his own actions, and the sole arbiter of his own destiny. For upon his choice depends his highest well-being or deepest moral degradation. Already we have seen that the Moral Sense belongs to man as he sprang from the Creator's hands. To the same source must be traced the mysterious prerogative of personal choice. It is equally evident that man's dependence on bodily life and on his environment is also a part of his original constitution as received from God. This is not disproved by the immoral influence of the body on those who make it the aim of life. The needs and desires of the body injure us only when they usurp a place for which they were not designed, and become the ruling principle in man. Kept in submission to the dictates of the Moral Sense, of that element in man which is designed to rule, they afford a most valu- able moral discipline, opening to man a moral growth and grandeur otherwise impossible. It is true that man's dependence on bodily life and its environment makes life to be toil and conflict. But, as we proceed, we shall find that God has provided means by which to every man that toil may have abundant recompense, and that conflict may be a victory bringing with it the spoils of victory. The only explanation of the facts of human nature is that He who made man gave to him a freedom of personal choice and action like His own divine freedom, Lect. Ill] MAN UNDER PROBATION 15 thus making man the sole arbiter of his own action and destiny ; that He inwove into human intelligence an authoritative guide of action, and put man in a body dependent on its material surroundings, thus compelling him to choose whether to yield allegiance to that in him which he knows to be most fit to rule or to that which he knows to be designed to obey. In other words, when the Creator breathed into a material body a higher life and thus made man, He put him in a state of proba- tion, exposed to contending infiuences, in order that by right choice and action man might attain moral worth. So closely inwoven in human life, as noticed above, is the contrast and mutual dependence of flesh and spirit that we need not wonder that this all-pervasive relation is the basis, or at least the starting point, of man's moral probation. And, inasmuch as the lower forms of life lead up to man, we may well believe that the bodily constitution even of these earlier and lower forms was designed by God to lead up to the moral life of man. It is worthy of note that the account of the creation of the dual nature of man in Gen. ii. 7 is followed almost immediately by a limitation set by God to man's desire for food. By affixing this limit, God put man at his creation under moral probation. We find then, from indisputable facts of human nature to-day, that man as originally created consisted of two elements, one closely akin to his Creator, the other akin to the lower animals and like them dependent on the material world ; that between these very different, 1 6 THE RUIN [Part I and in some measure hostile, elements was placed a personal power of self-determination ; that each of these elements tends, by its nature, to control man's choice and action ; and that all this was ordained by God in order to test man's loyalty to that in him which is noblest and best and which ever leads him up to God, in order that by person J moral victor}^ man may ever rise towards God. LECTURE IV SIN AND BONDAGE WE have already seen {Through C/in'st to God, Lect. X.) that the various writers of the New Testament assume frequently that all men are guilty of personal sin. This assumption underlies everywhere the Gospel of Christ. For this last is essentially an announcement of pardon. And, where no sin is, there can be no forgiveness. To prove the truth of this assertion, is both needless and useless. The literature of the world, wherever it touches morals, is an acknowledgment of universal sin. But unless we are immediately conscious of personal sin, neither the abundant testimony of moralists nor the authority of Holy Scripture will convince us. Christ offers rest only to the weary and heavy laden. All others lie outside the scope of the Gospel. That all men are not only guilty of past sin but are in present bondage to sin, is assumed in Rom. vi. 6, " in order that we be no longer slaves to sin ; " in v. 12, " let not sin reign as king in your mortal body, in order to obey its desires;" in vi'. 17 and 20, "ye were slaves of sin ; " in v. 19, '* ye presented the members of your bod}' THE RUIN [Part I slaves to uncleanness." The long contrast, in this chapter, of the past and present condition of the readers implies throughout that formerly they were held fast by a power hostile to righteousness and compelling them to pursue a path of sin. That this bondage is recog- nised by law, or in other words that it is the punishment prescribed by law for personal transgression, is taught in Rom. vii. 1-4, where Paul compares his readers to a woman formerly bound by law to her husband but now set free by his death. This comparison implies, as Paul teaches elsewhere, that the Law of God presented a hindrance to the deliverance of the sinner from the hostile power of sin. A more full and graphic account of this bondage is given in vv. 14-25. The writer finds himself unable to do what he desires, and compelled to do what he hates. He notices that what he vainly wishes to do is good, and that that which he is compelled to do is bad. P'rom this he draws the terrible but inevitable inference that an enemy has entered, not into his country or his house, but into his own body, and within the citadel of his own inner life is carrying on war against him and is leading him helpless into captivity. In this awful sense, Paul declares that he is " sold under " the power of " sin." This picture of moral bondage is confirmed by Rom. i. 24, 26, 28, where three times we read that the heathen were given up by God to shameful sin. For, the conspicuous repetition of the word gave-up suggests irresistibly surrender to a hostile power against which their own unaided moral efforts were powerless. In Lect. IV] SIN AND BONDAGE 19 Eph iv. 19 wc read that the heathen gave themselves up to wantonness. The s.ime teaching may be traced to the lips of Christ as His words are recorded in John viii. 32-36. To some Jews who had already put faith in Him^ Christ an- nounced, " the truth shall make you free." This they resented as implying present bondage. But Christ justified His promise of liberty by the general and solemn statement, " Everyone that does sin is a slave of sin." This implies that apart from the Gospel all men are committing sin and are, according to Christ's asser- tion, slaves of sin. For unless all men are sinners and in bondage, this general assertion would not prove that the persons in question needed liberation. This emphatic teaching of Paul and of Christ is confirmed by a wide-spread experience. Every action tends to form a habit ; every sin to form a habit of sin. Our past life is a present power urging us along the path we have hitherto trodden. In this abiding influence of our own past transgressions we trace the presence of a mysterious and tremendous power of evil. To this present power of past sins, the literature of all ages and nations and the annals of crime bear abundant testimony. Multitudes have felt themselves to be carried alone and carried downward by immoral forces in themselves which they were unable to resist. And all have found it impossible to do right except by strenuous resistance to a hostile force within. This present bondage resulting from past sin evokes in us a dark apprehension of more terrible results to THE RUIN [Part I follow. The loss of moral liberty reveals how far man has fallen below the moral dignity for which he was created. Thus moral bondage is itself the deep shadow of eternal death. Another and very important description of the unsaved is given in Eph. ii. 1-3. The readers of the Epistle are said to have been formerly dead by reason of their trespasses and sins. They walked in a path marked out for them by the course of things around, by the material world and the present age, directed by the inward influence of a spiritual potentate. Both Paul and his readers lived and moved among " the sons of disobedience," men whose moral nature was derived from the principle of disregard of God's commands, and whose moral or rather immoral environment was deter- mined by the desires of bodily life. They were working out their own desires, whether bodily or intellectual. And so doing, they were " children of anger," i.e. men on whom rests the frown of God, being in this respect " like the rest " of mankind. These last words assert that the account just given describes the state of all men apart from Christ. And, that in v. 5 Paul repeats the phrase in v. i " dead by reason of trespasses " and goes on to speak of a new life from God, implies that vv. 2, 3 are an exposition of what is involved in this spiritual death. The same phrase meets us again in Col. ii. 13 ; and in I Tim. V. 6, " she that lives wantonly is dead while she lives." The same thought, viz. that sin and the con- sequent anger of God involve spiritual death, is found Lect. IV] SIN AND BONDAGE 2i in John iii. t,6, *' He that believes in the Son has eternal life : he that disobeys the Son will not see life, but the anger of God abides on Him." So ch. v. 24: ** has eternal life and comes not into judgment, but is passed out of death into life." The metaphor of spiritual life and death underlying this phraseology, an element common to the writings of Paul and John, deserves careful attention. Life is the normal condition of organic matter: of this normal condition, death is the absolute and final cessation. In the moment of death, all the functions of life cease, the body falls a helpless prey to corruption and returns more or less quickly to the simpler condition of inorganic matter. Death places a man beyond reach of human help. While there is life, there is hope. Friends may comfort and assist : a physician may help recovery. But in the presence of death all human aid is vain. These ideas we must cautiously transfer to the men said to be dead by reason of their sins. This phrase can only mean that the unsaved are in the abnormal state of a moral corpse, that they are a helpless prey to ever-increasing corruption, that from this ruin no human hand can save them, and all this in consequence of their own sins and of God's anger against sin. A corpse is utterly unconscious of things around. And it has often been noticed that they who live in sin are to a large extent indifferent to the vast realities of the unseen world. But here we must be careful not to press the analogy too far. No metaphor is valid at every point. A corpse can do as little to hinder as to THE RUIN [Part I help its own resurrection. But the whole teaching of the Bible implies, as we shall see in PART IV., that salvation is altogether conditional on the sinner's self- surrender to divine influences. Those dead by reason of their sins still have a conscious existence. Probably none are altogether unconscious of influences drawing them towards that which is right and good : and probably all are more or less benefited by them. All that the metaphor fairly implies is that they who have not been saved from their sins are under the frown of Him whose smile is spiritual life, and that in consequence of His anger they are a prey to corruption from which they and their fellows are as powerless to save them as is a corpse to save itself from the inevitable cor- ruption which dominates all the dead. The powerlessness of sinners to save themselves finds clear expression in Rom. viii. 8 : " They that are in flesh cannot please God." This can only mean that they who are controlled by the constitution of bodily life cannot by any power of their own obtain the favour of God. To the above picture must be added an important element derived from the history of our race. The law written upon the hearts of all men has received, according to the confident testimony of both Old and New Testa- ments, an all-important counterpart and confirmation in the Voice of God at Sinai as recorded and expounded in the Jewish Scriptures. This written Law dominates so completely the entire thought of ancient Israel, in marked contrast to all other ancient nations, that we Lect. IV] SIN AND BONDAGE 23 cannot doubt its divine origin. No fact in the early history of the world is better attested than that through Moses God gave to Israel definite moral commands and a definite ritual. The external law thus given secures at once the allegiance of our Moral Sense, and strengthens its authority. In many cases the combined authority of the outward and inward law evokes efforts to obey. Such efforts are never more than partially successful. And moral elevation derived from partial obedience does but reveal the shortcoming of this obedience. For every right act gives us a clearer view of the lofty and just claims of the Moral Law. These unavailing efforts increase our consciousness of moral bondage, and thus deepen our self-condemnation and our fear of punishment to come. The divine authority which speaks in the Moral Sense and still more clearly in the written Law presents to us sin in the light of rebellion against God. Sin becomes an offence against a definite Person far above all other personality who claims our obedience and devotion. The thought of God, evoked in us first by contemplation of the material universe, then by the inborn Moral Sense, is now strengthened by the manifestation of God in the history of our race. Unfortunately, this mani- festation does but make us more conscious of helpless moral bondage. This condemnation pronounced by the written Law is conspicuous in the teaching of Paul. In Rom. iii. 19 he declares that the Law speaks in order to bring all 24 THE RUIN [Part I the world silent and guilty before the bir of God. In Gal. iii. 23 he writes that himself and his readers "were kept in guard under law." So 2 Cor. iii. 6 : " the letter kills." In Col. ii. 14 we read of "the handwriting against us with the decrees, which was opposed to us.'' Evidently, in the ancient law given to his nation the Pharisee read, in spite of his outward morality, his own condemnation. Such is man apart from the Gospel of Christ, as depicted in the New Testament : eveayone guilty of personal transgression, and in consequence of it in present bondage to the hostile power of sin, under the anger of God; and in a state of ruin from which no human hand can rescue. Only one ray of hope remains. That God gave to man a law, reveals His interest in man. Now the Law cannot save. For a mere command speaking to man from above cannot break moral fetters. Consequently the Law cannot give life : Gal. iii. 21. Therefore, as a means of salvation, it is a failure. But, if so, it was a foreseen failure. For God, when giving it, knew its insufficiency as a means of salvation. But God cannot select a means insufficient for the end He has in view. We therefore infer with confidence that under apparent failure must be a further purpose. Thus the Voice of Sinai, which, as we first heard it, announced only condemnation, awakens hope of a salvation which, by itself, the Law cannot give. LECTURE V THE FIRST FALL AND ITS RESULTS WE have seen that the writers of the New Testa- ment assert or assume everywhere that all men are guilty of personal transgression of a law given, in some form, to all men ; and assume that all men are under a bondage to sin which compels them, unless rescued by supernatural power, to continue in a course of sin. We have also noticed, as a conspicuous element of this moral disorder, the subjection of that in man which is highest and noblest to the rule of the lower side of his nature. The universality of this moral disorder suggests irresistibly an inborn fault in human nature. And this is confirmed by a universal experience that we can do right only by strenuous resistance to influences from within tending to lead us astray. The facts of human life thus reveal a derangement, in human nature, of the moral order. This inference is supported by a few words in Eph. ii. 3 at the close of an important description of the former condition of those to whom Paul writes : " and were by nature children of anger as also the rest." The 25 26 THE RUIN [Part words foregoing assert that both Jews and Gentiles were formerly pursuing a path of sin : " the sons of dis- obedience, among whom also we all had our manner of life formerly, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind." Paul then says, in the words quoted above, that this course of action brought them under the " anger " of God ; that in pursuing it they were guided " by nature," z.e. by forces born in them, as distinguished from influences which had come to them since birth ; and that in this they were like other men. In other words, the nature common to all men and received at birth contains in it a tendency to sin. The words " by nature children of anger " do not imply that God is angry with men because of the moral condition in w^hich they were born. The actual ground of God's anger is indicated in the words foregoing : " doing the desires of the flesh and of their minds." The word " by-nature " traces these actual sins to an inborn moral fault. We have a similar connection of thought in Ps. li. 4, 5 : " Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, and that which is evil in Thine eyes I have done. . . . Behold, in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The personal sin here confessed was a result of culpable surrender to evil influences inherited at birth. The felt guilt of this surrender evoked the Psalmist's cry for pardon. That man was originally created with these tendencies to sin, we cannot believe. That he was created liable to sin and exposed to temptation, is not inconsistent with the moral character of the Creator. P'or the only Lect. V] THE FIRST FALL AND ITS RESULTS 27 alternative to such liability to sin is the suppression of freedom and of all that gives worth to human life. But we cannot conceive a moral and loving Creator giving to man a positive bias to evil such as is implied in Eph. ii. 3 and Ps. li. 5. That the moral nature inherited by man at birth is radically defective, is taught also in John iii. 5, 6, where our Lord supports His assertion that without a new birth none can enter the Kingdom of God by adding ' that which is born from the flesh is flesh." Evidently He means that the nature derived from human parents is incapable, apart from the infusion of new life from above, of the blessedness which God has prepared for His people. Another confirmation of the same is Job XV. 14 : " What is man that he should be clean, and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous ?" We now ask, W'hence came this universal moral defect in human nature ? That human sin is later than human life, is implied in Rom. v. 12, "through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death." For this entrance of death through one man is further explained in vv. 15, 17, ''through the one man's trespass, the many died." So V. 16, "through one having sinned; " and v. 19, " through the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners." These passages imply clearly and conspicuously that, until one definite transgression of the first man, the race was sinless. The above quotations refer evidently to the story of the fall in Gen. iii., where we finel man placed under a 28 THE RUIN Part I definite probation, exposed to a definite temptation, guilty of a definite sin, and under a definite curse. The whole narrative depicts this first sin as a new and evil era in the history of our race. Another reference to the same event is found in i Tim. ii. 14, " the woman, having been deceived, came into transgression." That this first sin of the first man was the source of the tendency to evil which, as is taught or implied in the passages quoted above, all men inherit by birth, I shall now endeavour to prove. In so doing, I shall also trace other consequences of the same first transgression. Paul teaches in Rom. v. 12, 14 that through the first sin " death passed through to all men," and " reigned as king." So vv. 15, 17. Similarly, i Cor. xv. 21, 22 : "through man came death ... in Adam all die." These last words refer manifestly to the death of the body, which throughout the chapter is the dark counter- foil to the resurrection of the body : cp. v. 44, " it is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body." Manifestly Paul asserts that the reign of death to-day over all men is a result of Adam's first sin. The same is implied in John viii. 44, " he was a murderer from the beginning." It is also taught in Wisdom ii. 23, *' God created man for immortality . . . but by envy of the devil death entered into the world ; " and in Sirach XXV. 24, " because of her we all die." But neither in the Old Testament nor elsewhere in the New, is the universal reign of death expressly and clearly traced to Adam's sin. In Gen. ii. 17, death is represented as the threatened Lect. V] THE FIRST FALL AND ITS RESULTS 29 penalty of sin. As matter of fact, all men die. And, as we have just seen, Paul teaches that their death is a result of Adam's sin. If so, the punishment threatened in paradise to Adam may be said to have been inflicted upon all his children. In this sense, his sin was imputed or reckoned to them ; not that God looked upon them as though they had committed a sin which took place long before they were born, but that He laid upon them the punishment threatened to their father in case of dis- obedience. This use of the word may be illustrated by Philemon 18, where Paul asks his friend to reckon to his account any fraud committed by Onesimus : " I will repay it." To this infliction upon Adam's children of the punish- ment threatened to their father, refer probably the con- cluding words of Rom. v. 12, " inasmuch as all sinned ;" and V. 19, "through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners." By inflicting on all men the penalty threatened to Adam, God may be said to have treated all men as if sharers in their father's sin. This cannot have been an arbitrary act of God. We infer therefore that Adam's descendants stood to their father in a relation so close that the punishment of death threatened to him fell also upon them. That, in consequence of this close relation, other effects of Adam's first transgression fell upon his children, will soon appear. We have already seen that both Christ, as His words are recorded in the P'ourth Gospel, and Paul in his Epistles teach that to commit sin is to surrender oneself 30 THE RUIN [Part I a slave to the power of sin ; and that this teaching is confirmed by the general experience of mankind. This universal sequence of sin committed and moral degrada- tion following must have determined the effect of Adam's first sin. Indeed all experience teaches that the first step in a wrong path has consequences most serious. Frequently the entire subsequent downward course seems to be an almost inevitable result of the first wrong act. All analogy compels us to believe that by his first sin Adam fell into bondage to sin. And, if so, since moral sequences are linked together by the m(;ral Ruler of the world, this moral bondage must have been a divinely- ordained and inflicted punishment of that first dis- obedience. Consequently, the punisbment of Adam was ' twofold, viz. death bodily and spiritual, surrender of his body after a few years of toil to the worms, and immediate . surrender of his spirit to moral bondage. That the former part of this penalty is inflicted on all Adam's children, or in other words that they die because he sinned, we have learned from the clear teaching and argument of Paul. We have ako observed that moral bondage, the second part of Adam's punishment, is as widespread among his children as is the first part of it, viz. the doom of death. This universal moral bondage we have traced, in the pages of the Bfble, to a fault in the moral nature inherited by each man at birth ; just as the bodily death of each may be traced to the bodily constitution received from his parents. This defective moral nature of man needs explanation. Surely it cannot be the immediate handiwork of a good and Lect. V] THE FIRST FALL AND ITS RESULTS 31 righteous and aliiiiglity Creator. Some evil influence has come in between the original creation of man and the birth of men as we know them. What this evil influence is, we cannot doubt. If, as we have learnt from Paul and others, their mortality is due to Adam's sin, to the same source must be traced this universal moral defect. If the first part of the penalty of Adam's sin has been inflicted on his children, so has the second. In other words, we infer with confidence that by his first sin our father sold himself into bondage to sin and death : and that his children inherit that bondage. " In Adam all die : " and we " were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." The above inference is supported by our observation that bodily defects, leading often to an early death, and tendencies to sin, leading often to immoral lives, may not unfrequently be traced from father to son. This inheritance of moral qualities, themselves formed by moral actions, must be by the ordinance of Him who has linked together, in infinite wisdom, moral sequences. If so, the inheritance, by all men, of the bodily and spiritual consequences of Adam's sin is but the earliest and greatest and furthest-reaching example of a principle apparently co-extensive with human life, and perhaps with all life. The doctrine, just expounded, that in consequence of Adam's sin all men are born with a tendency to evil and with bodies doomed to die has, it must be admitted, at first sight an appearance of injustice. If 4 32 THE RUIN [Part I it were the whole case, it could not, I think, be har- monised with the character of God. But it is not the whole case. In the two chief passages in which it is taught in the Bible, Rom. v. 12-19 and i Cor. xv. 21, 22, the doctrine that through Adam's sin all men die is used mainly as a dark counterpart to the great doctrine that through the obedience of Christ they who accept the salvation offered to all men will reign in life eternal. Thus will be reversed in them not only the inherited result of Adam's sin but the result of their own many transgressions. Our relation to Adam is involved in the solidarity of the race. This solidarity involves temporary hardship to individuals. But it is a gain to the race as a whole, and to everyone individually who accepts the free gift offered to all men in Christ. Just as Paul teaches in Rom. iii. 25 that under the Old Covenant God acted in His forbearance towards sin in a way which, apart from the coming death of Christ, justice would not have permitted, so, as we may infer from ch. v. 12-19, He acted, in the infliction of the penalty of Adam's sin on all his children, on principles harmonised with justice only by the pre- determined gift of His Son to bear the death penalty of Adam and His children. , Notice carefully that neither the inferences noted above nor the story of the creation and fall of man in Gen. ii. and iii. imply or suggest a long period of innocence. The first recorded moral act of man was transgression. Earlier than this we have only the intellectual discrimination mvolved in the names given Lect. V] THE FIRST FALL AND ITS RESULTS 33 to animals, a valuable indication that intelligence was earlier than sin. Nor are these inferences weakened by any geological evidence that the earliest men were on a low level of civilisation. For immature civilisation by no means implies moral corruption. About this, geological remains have nothing to say. Indeed they scarcely prove that the earliest men were savages. They rather point to progress, slow but sure ; which is unknown among savage races. So far as I know, such races have not even traditions of progress like those recorded in Gen. iv. 20-22. Nor have we an example of a savage tribe raising itself, unaided, into civilisation. Of such tribes, a universal feature is helpless stagnation. A more serious difficulty is the geological evidence that anim.als died long before man existed on earth. The force of this evidence cannot be resisted. Nor can we deny the close relation between the death of animals and that of man. We now ask. How does this evidence bear on the teaching of Paul that all men die because Adam sinned ? We have already {Through Christ to God, p. 349) seen that the intelligence and moral sense of man cannot be accounted for by any of the forces known to be at work in the lower animals ; * and therefore reveal in man the inbreathing of a higher life from a supernatural Source. Evidently, this higher life was dcsicjncd to rule the lower and animal life in man. o * This is well argued, by an eminent naturalist, in Wallace's Darwinism, pp. 461-74. 34 THE RUIN [Fart 1 Indeed the welfare of man as a whole was made con- ditional on the submission of the lower to the higher side of his nature. Need we wonder that also the con- tinuance of human life in the form originally given was made subject to the same condition ? Certainly He who at first breathed the higher life of man into a bodily form closely related to that of animals, thus raising him infinitely above them, could have maintained in man this higher life even in spite of death reigning over all the lower animals. If this suggestion be correct, man was created neither mortal nor immortal, but living ; his continued life being contingent on his own action, just as his own highest welfare, and to some extent his continued bodily life, are contingent now. Two elements in man claimed dominion over him ; his moral sense, speaking to him through his intelligence with the authority of God, and the needs and desires of a bodily life akin to that of animals. Had he obeyed the voice divine, obedience would have raised him above the doom of death, to which are subject the animals around. But he yielded to the allurements of that in him which is akin to animals, and thus fell under the doom under which lies all animal life. If this be so,. Adam's death was a result of his own sin : for had he not sinned, he would not have died. And the wide prevalence of heredity in human life makes it easy to believe that his mortality was inherited by his descendants. If so, the universality of death to-day is, as Paul teaches, a result of Adam's sin. Lect. V] THE FIRST FALL AND ITS RESULTS 35 The above suggestion seems to me to account fairly for all the known facts o{ the case. Against this suggestion, unsupported though it is by scientific evidence, Natural Science has nothing to say. For the origin of reason and of the moral sense lies at present altogether beyond its ken, in the realm of the unexplored supernatural. And, if so, it can say nothing about the conditions on which they were given. Certainly, in its ignorance of the supernatural, Natural Science has no right to contradict the teaching of the great Apostle who was a chief actor in a spiritual revolution which has regenerated the world. So closely related on its lower side is human life to the life of animals that possibly, had man been faithful to his higher nature, his victory would have eventually rescued even the animal world from the doom of death. It may be that these are included in "the whole creation" which, as Paul teaches in Rom. viii. 19-23, is waiting to share the coming deliverance of the children of God from their present bondage under the conditions of bodily life. It will be noticed that the geological objection, noted above, to the teaching of Paul about the origin of human death bears only indirectly and slightly upon our own important inference from various teaching in the Bible and from wide-spread facts of human nature that the universal moral weakness and bondage of man are due to Adam's sin. It must be admitted that the evidence adduced in this lecture is much less direct and abundant than that 36 THE RUIN [Part I adduced in my last volume for the great fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. According to our need, we have received. The good news of salvation announced by Christ seems to contradict the condemnation pro- nounced, by an Authority we cannot gainsay, against all sin and all sinners. We therefore could not accept it if it were not supported by an authority equal to that which condemns us. And we found evidence, abundant and various and decisive, which left no room for doubt that the word of pardon is the voice of the Creator of man and of the universe. But, to every one who is loyal to that in him which he knows to be the law of his being, the universality of sin and of moral bondage is known by direct experience. It therefore needs no confirmation. It is, nevertheless, confirmed by express and conspicuous teaching of Paul and of Christ ; and in less definite form it underlies the entire Bible. And this testimony is supported by that of the literature of all nations and ages. That this universal moral ruin is due to the first sin of the first man, is of less importance to the moral and spiritual life of men living to-day. But it is of great interest to those who endeavour to study as a whole the moral government of God. And it is supported by evidence which seems to mc, when fairly weighed in its various parts, sufficient to banish all doubt LECTURE VI MAN UNSAVED THE foregoing results, we shall now sum up, and weave together into a picture of man apart from the salvation announced by Christ. Into a bodily form closely allied with, though con- spicuously superior to, all earlier living bodies, God breathed an intelligence and a capacity for intellectual growth surpassing infinitely that of animals. This intelligence He endowed with a moral sense which man is compelled to recognise as the supreme law of his being. Each of these elements of his nature claims to be the sole guide of his action. Apd these contra- dictory claims reveal in man two widely different and mutually antagonistic influences, viz. the needs and desires of the body claiming loudly to be supplied and gratified, and the moral sense claiming, with an authority which the intelligence of man is compelled to recognise as supreme, to control and direct his entire activity. These contending influences make human life a conflict ; and make it also a test of man's loyalty to that in him which he knows to be most worthy to rule. Between these contending influences he is compelled to choose 38 THE R17/:V [Part I day by day and hour by hour. An J each choice reveals and moulds his character. Thus is human life on earth, in consequence of the constitution of human nature, a moral probation. The first recorded moral act of the first man wa-^ self- surrender to a bodily ap;)etite and disobedience to an express command of God. Man thus fell under the condemnation of God and under the doom of death, the threatened penalty of disobedience. Another element of the same penalty was moral bondage. By the first act of disobedience Adam must have lost his moral balance ; and the balance thus lost he was unable to regain. In this way man fell helplessly and hopelessly under the dominion of the lower side of his nature ; and became utterly unable to win back the favour of God. Inasmuch as all life known to us to-day is inherited from earlier hfe, the derived life inherititig in many cases even acquired characteristics, we are not surprised to find that the sin of the first man and its moral and bodily consequences to himself influenced greatly his descendants. We have learnt from Paul and others that the doom of death pronounced on Adam has passed down to all men. And from this inherited penalty we have inferred with confidence that the universal moral bondage of men, which cannot have been a part of the original purpose of creation, must also be a result of the same first transgression. If so, the mortality, and the tendency to evil present in all men to-day, are an extension or multiplication, handed down from father Lect. VI] MAN UNSAVED 39 to son, of that first mortality and mora! bondage under which Adam fell. We may therefore describe the state of man, apart from the salvation announced by Christ, as one of utter moral inability so to obey God as by obedience to obtain His favour, so to realise his own moral ideal as to find in that realisation moral rest. This teaching of the Bible is in complete harmony with the facts of human nature as we see them around us to-day and read them in history, and with the testimony of the moral sense of man as it speaks in the literature of the world and in the heart of man. We all know by direct experience that we can do right only by strenuous resistance to hostile influences, and that apart from supernatural help our own resistance is vain. The annals of crime contain abundant evidence that sinners are victims of their own sins. The above teaching does not imply that in those who have never heard the Gospel, or even in those who have rejected it, there is nothing good. For abundant evidence attests that the moral sense remains, distorted and weakened but not silent, in very many, probably in all, who daily break the moral law. In the terrible picture of his former state given in Rom. vii. 14-25 (see my Coinine7itary) Paul declares that he agrees with the Law that it is good, that he desires to do the good and hates the sin which he commits, but that he is led captive by an irresistible power within. Similar testimony has been given in all ages. The moral sense, however, good as it is, is nevertheless unable to rescue man from the 40 THE RUIN [Part I power of sin. It does but reveal his bondage, and extort a cry for deliverance. The actual condition of man apart from the direct influence of the Gospel is also affected by another element as wide as the race. In Rom. ii. 4 Paul blames a man, whom he describes as hard-hearted and im- penitent and as treasuring up for himself anger in a day of anger, for not knowing that God is leading him to repentance. This implies that on all men God is exerting this influence. For, if there were any exceptions, the man in question might be one. In the case supposed by Paul, this good influence was manifestly unavailing. But it left the man without excuse. Our Lord teaches in John vi. 44, 65 that apart from such divine influences none can come to Him. Doubtless the inborn moral sense is a chief instru- ment by which God draws men towards repentance and Christ. If so, the moral sense of man is an essential part of God's purpose of salvation in Christ. In other words, the Fall left in man, by the mercy of God, injured but not destroyed, an element of which God thought fit to make use for his restoration. It is a source in all men of divine influences leading towards salvation. And, although some men seem to trample under foot these influences, we may yet hope that in none they are altogether without good moral result, and that in many who do not fully yield to them they are yet an upward moral force raising more or less the moral life. To this source we may attribute much Lfct. VIJ man UXSAVED 41 in the ancient heathen world which evokes bur sincere admiration. This element of moral good in the heathen is referred to in Rom. ii. 14, "whenever Gentiles, the men who have no law, do by nature {(f>vaet as in Eph. ii. 3) the things of the Law ; " and in Rom. ii. 26, 27, " if the Uncircumcision keep the decrees of the Law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision? and the Uncircumcision which is from nature (eV (f)va€co. who guided by the lower element received at birth do actions which bring them under the anger of God, are here said to do " by nature," i.e. guided by their inborn moral sense, some things which the Law prescribes. 42 THE RUIN [Part I Of these two elements in the "nature" of man, if the lower were controlled by the higher, as was manifestly the Creator's purpose, all would be well. But the clear teaching of the New Testament that all men are or have been slaves of sin implies that, apart from a special deliverance wrought by God, the higher is held down by the lower. In other words, there has been a moral displacement which even the moral influences born in man cannot restore. The Moral Sense is at first only a voice crying in the wilderness. But it is the voice of God, and a herald of divine deliverance. Where the Gospel is preached, and in proportion as it is preached fully, the inborn moral sense leads men towards Christ. For, as an authoritative moral standard, it reveals to them their sin, and by prompting efforts after amendment makes them conscious of their moral helplessness and of their need of a Saviour. Thus, like the Law of Moses, the Law written within is a guardian- slave leading to Christ. Inasmuch as this divine influence is an essential Unk in the chain of salvation wrought out for us in Christ, it is a result of the death of Christ upon the cross. For through His death was removed (^Through Christ to God, Lect. XVIII.) a barrier to salvation having its root in the justice of God. Its universality, inferred above from Rom. ii. 4, therefore confirms abundant teaching in the New Testament that Christ died for all men. The above double picture of man, as fallen yet not without a witness for God even in his fallen nature, embraces all the known facts of the case. The terrible Lect. VI] MAN UNSAl/ED 43 prevalence of sin, and a wide experience that men can do right only by personal victory over a deeply im- planted tendency to evil, are explained by the teaching that all men inherit a nature prone to sin. And this evil inheritance is in part harmonised with the goodness and power of the Creator by being shewn to be a result of Adam's sin ; and, as we shall see, by the teaching that in Christ we are made sharers of a new life of victory over sin. On the other hand, all moral excel- lence in man, even in those men not directly and consciously saved by the Gospel of Christ, is explained by the inborn moral sense and by divine influences leading men back towards the path marked out for them by God. The above results indicate clearly the salvation needed by man. He needs first pardon for past sins and restoration to the favour of God forfeited by these sins. But, since God smiles only on those who obey His commands, which the unsaved are unable to do, we need also deliverance from moral bondage, from the mighty hostile powers leading us astray. And, inas- much as bodily death is a result of Adam's sin, this rescue will not be absolutely complete till the body laid dead in the grave is raised to life in the presence of God. This full salvation is the object of our further research. In a practical work like the present, it is needless to discuss the nature and the origin of SiN. Indeed it may be questioned whether in a phenomenon so abnormal 44 THE RUIN [Part I and unnatural as sin there is anything which can be called its nature. At the same time there are in con- nection with sin associations and sequences which are worthy of careful research. But such research is beyond the scope of this volume. The idea conveyed by the word sin, in the Bible and in modern thought, is sufficiently definite for our pur- pose. All human literature and thought bear witness that around human action certain limits are drawn, not by a mechanical necessity, but by an obligation which every one is compelled to recognise as the supreme law of his being. To cross those limits in action, is actual sin ; and is at once followed by the inward phenomenon of guilt. To purpose, or even to desire, to cross those limits in any direction, is sinful thought and purpose ; producing, even if it do not pass into action, a felt inward defilement. In many cases, possibly in all cases indirectly, the transgression of these limits may be traced to the needs, desires, and aversions of the bodily life claiming to be supplied and gratified ; i.e. to man's free self-surrender to that lower side of his nature which is akin to animals, in spite of the prohibition of that nobler element of his nature which he knows to be worthiest to rule and which is akin to One higher than man. It is a revolt of that in man which is manifestly designed to obey against that which is manifestly designed to rule. The moral sense of man ever points to a superhuman Source, to an intelligent and righteous Creator and Ruler of man and of the universe, who through the moral LixT. VI] MAN UNSAVED 45 sense claims to direct and control the entire activity of man. We shall learn that this supreme Ruler claims, in Christ, the unreserved devotion of His intelli- gent creatures. Sin is the rejection of this rule and claim. The origin of sin lies hidden in the mystery of created personality. The Creator gave to man a capacity to select his own line of action, to initiate actions for which ultimately he is alone responsible. About this freedom of the will, more will be said in Lect. XXIX. Sin is an abuse of this great gift : and all such abuse is sin. For our further research, it will be sufficient to note that the Bible frequently asserts or assumes that all men have, as the heart of each one testifies, transgressed limits marked out by an authority which none can question ; that this transgression has overthrown man's moral balance, and has left him, with whatever in him is highest and best, a helpless captive held down by that lower element which his higher nature was designed to rule. From this bondage, we now seek deliverance. PART II THE RESTORATION LECTURE VII REPENTANCE, FAITH, JUSTIFICATION THE rescue of man from the various consequences of his past sins, we shall in PART IV. trace to an eternal purpose of God to save man whom He foresaw in sin and ruin, and to the eternal love of which that purpose is an eternal outflow. The working out of this purpose may be traced in the call of Abraham, in God's covenant with him and with his descendants, in the giving of the Law through Moses, in God's dealings with the Sacred Nation throughout its chequered history; and still more conspicuously in the birth and teaching and death and resurrection of Christ, and in the founding and protection and growth of the Church. This accom- plishment of the purpose of salvation reaches each individual, as we have seen on p. 40, in divine influ- ences leading, or tending to lead, him to repentance. Through the moral law written on the hearts of all men, Lect. VII] REPENTANCE, FAITH, JUSTIFICATION 47 God exerts an influence prompting them to walk along the path thus marked out. In the Jew, this influence would prompt to obey, not only the moral law, but the various special commands given by God to Israel. In those who have heard the Gospel and have accepted the unique claims of Christ, these influences prompt obedi- ence to Him and devotion to the great purpose for which the Eternal Son assumed human form. We have thus man held fast by sin, but an object of influences which, if yielded to, will make him free. The actual salvation of each one begins when he surrenders himself to these divine influences ; and pro- gresses in proportion to the constancy and completeness of this surrender, i.e. in proportion as he embraces and makes his own God's purpose that men forsake sin and serve Christ. This change of purpose (see Through Christ to God, Tect. XIV.) is REPENTANCE. It is prompted by dissatisfaction with the former life of sin, or in other words by sorrow for sin ; and prompts an earnest effort to walk in future along the path marked out by the Moral Sense. To man thus repentant, Christ announces pardon for all past sin ; or rather announces pardon for all who believe His words. And, as we saw in the lecture just quoted, none can believe this promise of pardon except those who are resolved to abandon all sin. This gracious promise, supported as it is by the infinite love of God manifested in the death of Christ for man's sin and by the power manifested in His resurrection from the dead, the repentant sinner ventures to believe. He 48 THE RESTORATION [Part II thus enters the number of those whom God accepts as righteous. And the Gospel promise of forgiveness for all who believe assures him, conscious of his own faith, that he is himself forgiven. Thus in the Gospel of Christ, speaking to Him from His cross and from His empty grave, and received by faith, the penitent sinner obtains, and becomes conscious of, his own for- giveness. By FAITH he is JUSTIFIED. Forgiveness, however, does not remove all the con- sequences of past sin. The drunkard's repentance does not restore the health and fortune squandered by intem- perance. Nor does it destroy the passion for drink which has so often led him astray. It has brought him into the favour of God. But, unless in the future he conquers the sins which hitherto have held him in bondage, he cannot retain the favour so graciously given. The sinner has, nevertheless, gained much : and what he has gained is a sure pledge that all else needed will follow. In former times, he was at war with God ; and had to reckon with Him as, in a real and terrible sense, his righteous and all-powerful foe. But now he has been reconciled to God. Moreover, the infinite cost, to God, of this reconciliation, reveals the infinite earnest- ness of God's purpose to save and to bless him. That earnestness assures us that, whatever is needful to complete the work already begun, God will do. For, otherwise, the work already done will be in vain, and the price paid for it wasted. We cannot doubt that "He who has begun a good work will complete it." We Lect. VII] REPENTANCE, FAITH, JUSTIFICATION 49 therefore look forward with confidence to the eternal glory which God has promised. And the prospect fills us, even amid the hardships of life, with exultant joy : " we exult in hope of the glory of God." This hope and joy (Rom. v. 2) are immediate results of justification through faith and through the death of Christ. LECTURE VIII ADOPTION WE come now to consider the teaching of the New Testament, and especially of Paul, about the work of God in man following justification. In order to be effectual, this work must, as already seen, include deliverance from all inward bondage to sin : and, for the accomplishment of God's creative purpose, it must also include restoration of man's normal relation to God. In the earlier volume we found, with the Father in eternity yet personally distinct from Him, one who claims, as expressing a relation to God of unique dignity, the title Son of God. In Rom. viii. 29 Paul teaches that God predestined His chosen ones " to be conformed to the image of His Son," with the ultimate purpose that He may be " firstborn among many brethren." In other words, before the world was, God resolved to surround His eternal Son with later-born sons who should be sharers of His likeness. Thus wi.l the Only-begotten become the Firstborn. The accomplishment of this eternal purpose has already begun. In Job i. 6 and again in ch. xxxviii. 7 Lect. VIII] ADOPTION 51 we read of *' sons of God : " and it is difficult to inter- pret this phrase otherwise than of supernatural, in- telligent, and holy beings. As possessing a nature like that of God and derived from God, these may appropriately be described as His sons. Here then we have created sons of God. In Exodus iv. 22, 23 God bids Moses say to Pharaoh " Israel is My son, My firstborn ... let My son go that he may serve Me." A nation is here spoken of as holding a peculiar relation to God which may be described as sonship. Similarly, in 2 Sam. vii. 14 God says, touching David's son, " I will be to him for a father, and he shall be to Me for a son." Here the dignity given, under the oppression in Egypt, to the whole nation is summed up in the theocratic king who was to occupy a unique relation to God as His Son. A further development, we note in Hosea i. 10, where the prophet announces that in days to come " in the place where it is said to them, * no people of Mine are ye,' it shall be said to them, * ye are sons of the living God.'" This ancient prophecy, Paul quotes in Rom. ix. 26 as fulfilled in those who have obtained the righteousness which is through faith. To the Christians in Galatia, imperfect as they were, after teaching in Gal. ii. 16, iii. 8 that through faith a man is justified, Paul writes in ch. iii. 26, "ye are all sons of God through faith, in Christ Jesus." This assertion, especially the concluding words, he supports by adding, " for so many of you as were baptized for Christ have put on Christ." Evidently he means that 52 THE RESTORATION [Part II they who have believed and been baptized have, in some real sense, assumed Christ's relation to God, and arc therefore, like Him, sons of God. This teaching is further expounded in ch. iv. 6, 7, where we read, " because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying * Abba, Father.' So then thou art no longer a servant, but a son," Similar teaching meets us in the closely-related Epistle to the Romans. In Rom. viii. 14 we read, " so many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." So vv. 15, 16 : " in whom we cry, * Abba, Father.' The Spirit Itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." In v. 19 we read of "the revelation of the sons of God ;" and in z/. 21 of "the glory of the children of God." Similarly in ch. ix. 8, " not the children of the flesh, not these are children of God." In Phil. ii. 15 Paul desires that his readers may be " spotless children of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among w^hom ye appear as lights in the world." Similar teaching, from an altogether independent source, but in close harmony with Gal. iii. 26, meets us in John i. 12 : "so many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." Also, from the same writer, in I John iii. i : "see what kind of love the Father has given to us, in order that we may be called children of God; and such we are." Again, in vv. 9, 10: " everyone that is born from God does no sin . . . and he cannot sin, because he is begotten from God. In Lect. VIII] ADOPTION 53 this are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil." Teaching very similar to this last is traced to the lips of Christ in John viii. 43, where to men who claimed to have " one Father, even God," our Lord replies, " if God were your Father ye would love Me ... ye are from your father the devil, and the works of your father ye wish to do." In Matt. v. 9, in the Sermon on the Mount, we read " blessed are the peace-makers : for they shall be called sons of God." And again in vv. 44, 45, "love your enemies ... in order that ye may become sons of your Father in heaven " In Luke xx. 36 Christ says that " they who have been counted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead . . . cannot die any more : for they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection." From the above it appears that Paul and John agree to teach that they who believe the Gospel of Christ thereby become sons of God ; and that similar teaching is in three Gospels attributed to Christ. This teaching receives in the Epistles of Paul, where it occupies a larger place than elsewhere in the New Testament, a peculiar form. In Gal. iv. 6 he states that " God sent forth His Son ... in order to redeem those under law " with the ultimate purpose " that we may obtain the adoption^ Similarly in Rom. viii. 15 : "ye have received a Spirit of adoption " ; and in a later group of Epistles, in Eph. i. 5, " having predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ." The uncommon Greek word here used is an equivalent to the Latin 54 THE RESTORATION [Part 11 word adoptlo, the ordinary term for a Roman legal process by which one man took another's son to be his own son. This process sundered, with certain limi- tations, all legal relations, between the adopted son and his natural father, and created a new relation which in the eye of the law was, with the above limitations, the same as that of a born son to his own father. The adopted son took the name and rank, and became heir to, the adopting father. " The person adopting became the lawful father of one who was not his natural child, but, who thereupon became his lawful son or daughter, and a member of his family : " Smith's Dictionaiy of Greek and Roman Antiquities, art. Adoptio, Third Edition. This term, Paul the Roman citizen, and of the writers of the New Testament he only, uses to describe the changed relation to God of the justified. It suggests that the change is as great as when a child of a poor man, or, as was sometimes the case, of a slave, was received into a rich man's family to be henceforth his son. The adopted one might be a little child. How vast to him the significance of the legal process about which he knew nothing ! There awaits him now, not the hardship and degradation of slavery, but wealth and luxury. By using this term, Paul teaches that they who were once slaves of sin have been received into the family of God as His children. The same word is used in Rom. viii. 23 as an equivalent to " the redemption of the body," i.e. its rescue from the grave. This use is easily explained. For the outward Lect. VIII] ADOPTION 55 and visible reception of the adopted sons is still future. At present their real position is veiled. But even the material world is waiting (Rom. viii. 19) for "the un- veiling of the sons of God." They will, on the resur- rection morning, be welcomed in splendour to the home of their adopting Father in heaven. This will be " the glory of the children of God." The word is used again in Rom. ix. 4 to describe the first of the many privileges of ancient Israel whose misuse Paul so sadly deplores. This is in close harmony with Exodus iv. 22, already quoted, " Israel is My firstborn son." Of all the nations of the world, God took Israel to stand in a special filial relation to Himself. The use of this legal term, and by Paul only, is a remarkable coincidence with the use by him only of the legal term iustification to describe the pardon of sins, and with the teaching by him only that the death of Christ stands in special relation to the justice and the Law^ of God. So familiar to Paul's thought was the idea of law that even the Gospel of Christ assumes with him a legal dress. In close harmony with the teaching expounded above, the adopted sons are spoken of as heirs. So Gal. iii, 29, " if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise ; " and ch. iv. 7, " if a son, also an heir through God." Also Rom. viii. 17, "if children, also heirs ; heirs of God, and joint-heirs of Christ." This last passage asserts that we are sharers with Christ, not only in His relation to God as Son, but also in the infinite blessings which are His in virtue of that relation- 56 THE RESTORATION [Part II ship. The same idea is expressed by the cognate word inheritance in Eph. i. 14, 18, v. 5, Col. iii. 24. Notice also Titus iii. 7, "in order that, justified by His grace, we may become heirs according to the hope of eternal life ; " and Acts xx. 32, in an address of Paul, " to give to you an inheritance among all that are sanctified." That believers in Christ are " sons " whom He " isjiot. ashamed to call bmtlireD," is taught in Heb. ii. 10-12 : so ch. xii. 7, 8. As Son of God, Christ is " made heir of all things : " ch. i. 2. And in ch. i. 14 we read of " those who will inherit salvation." The same or cognate words, in the same connection of thought, are found in Heb. vi. 17, ix. 15, xi. 7, 8 ; and in i Peter i. 4, " begotten us again for an inhe?'itance ;" also in James ii. 5, ^' Jieirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those that love Him." This use of the word recalls its use in the Lxx. as a constant equivalent of a Hebrew word describing the covenant with God and the blessings involved therein which passed down from Abraham to his descendants. So Gen. xv. 3, 4, 8 ; Deut. iv. i, 5, 14, 22, 26, 38, 47. Thus various writers of the New Testament assert, in somewhat different forms, that they who believe the Gospel of Christ are not only accepted by God as righteous, in spite of their past sins, but are received into His family as His sons and as sharing, or some day to share, with the eternal Son, in virtue of their new relation to God, all the wealth of God. As a conspicuous element common to several types of teaching in the New Testament, we may accept this with perfect confidence as actually taught by Christ. Lect. VIII] ADOPTION 57 In all these passages, from various writers, we have not an original, but an acquired, sonship. They who are sons of God " by faith " were not, in the same sense. His sons before they believed. Adopted sons could not be sons by birth. For no Roman adopted his own son. They to whom God gave " authority to become children of God " manifestly were not such before they received Christ. The contrast between " the children of God and the children of the devil " proves that in the writer's thought not all men are children of God. From all this it is evident that the writers of the New Testa- ment did not look upon men as sons of God in virtue of their original derivation from Him ; that, as used by them, the term " sons of God " denotes a new relation acquired by personal faith. On the other hand, in the address at Athens recorded in Acts xvii. 28, Paul quotes with approval a poet who claims for men divine origin : *' His offspring we are." The word offspring is a general term used also for animals, noting mere derivation of life, rational or irrational. It is worthy of note that in v. 29, which is a comment on this quotation, Paul is satisfied with the same term to describe the common relation of all men to God. Instead of using his own familiar phrase, soirs or children of God, he says merely " being then an off- spring of God." Had it stood alone, this choice of words would have had no significance. But, taken in connection with the teaching quoted above, it reminds us that Paul never speaks of all men as sons of God, but habitually uses language which excludes this idea. 58 THE RESTORATION [Part II A conspicuous and beautiful exception, and in the New Testament the only exception, to this usage is found in Luke xv. ii , 24, where, even in the far country, the prodigal remembers his father, and returning is recognised as his son : " this my son was dead," etc. It is always unsafe to build theology on parable or metaphor. But this parable presents what we at once feel to be another real side of the sinner's relation to God. Among all visible creatures of God man occupies a unique place as in a special sense an offspring of God sharing His intelligent and moral nature. This unique relation and similarity to God is conspicuous in Gen. i. 26-28, " let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness . . . and God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him ; " and in ch. ii. 7, " and Jehovah God formed man, dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." And the Bible bears abundant witness that the whole human race, thus closely related to God, is an object of His tender paternal love. In this correct sense, even beyond the limits of the historic revelations recorded in the Bible, men have looked up to the Creator of the universe as the loving Father of all men. To this conception ot our relation to God, we have an easy and remarkable transition, from the different points of view of Paul and John, in Matt. v. 45, where Christ speaks to His disciples (v. i) about God as their Father in heaven, and says that by imitating Him they may become His sons. Similarly in chs. v. 16, vi. i, 4, 6, 9, 14, 15, 18, 26, 32, vii. II, X. 29, Mark xi. 25, Luke vi. 36, Lect. VIII] ADOPTION 59 xi. 13, xii. 30, 32. But we cannot fairly infer from these passages that God is Father of all men : for Christ is speaking to His disciples. Yet, when we remember that all men spring from God and share His nature, as the lower animals do not, and are objects of His special love, it is easy to extend to the whole race the relation expressed in the words " our Father in heaven." On the other hand, this language does nothing to weaken the remarkable reservation by Paul and John of the terms S071S and children of God to those who believe in Christ. This reservation, obscuring as at first sight it does the great truth of the universal fatherhood of God, demands explanation. This is to be found in the solemn truth that by sin all men have lost the rights of sonship involved in their original derivation from God. Just so, we may conceive a king's son who had rebelled against his father to lose the right of inheritance and to be treated as an ordinary rebel. The completeness of this loss could not be more forcefully expressed than it is by the language which describes the sinner's re-entrance by adoption into the family of God. To that family he now comes as an alien and is received into it, not by right of birth, but by a familiar legal process by which even the child of a slave might become a member of his master's family. And we cannot doubt that it was in order to put in the clearest light the utter loss by sin of man's original privileges as a son of God that Paul and John ignored altogether that original relationship and used the language quoted above. It is now evident that the believer's adoption into the 6o THE RESTORATION [Part II family of God differs from Roman adoption in that it is a restoration to an original and glorious relation. This original relation gives to the newly acquired relation its real significance and worth. Roman adop- tion was only a legal fiction. A man might teach an adopted son to call him father ; but for all that he was no father and the child no son of his. But when the adopted sons of God call Him Father, their cry is no fiction but profound truth. For originally, in a sense deeper than any mere human relationship, they sprang from God. As derived from Him, sharing His nature, yet personally distinct from Him, they are His children. All that Adoption has done is to restore a relation broken by sin. Such is, as taught by Paul and in part by John, the next step after justification in the way of salvation. In human courts, when a man is charged with a crime and after due investigation acquitted, he simply goes away, perhaps to starve. But those who have been found guilty of rebellion against God, and have been pardoned " through the redemption in Christ Jesus," are at once received into the family of God with all the rights of sons. Adoption is by faith and for all that believe. So Gal. iii. 26, 27, *' ye are all sons of God through faith, in Christ Jesus : for so many as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ ; " and John i. 12, "as many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become children of God, even to them that believe in His name.'* Similarly, though in a somewhat different form to be Lect. VIII] ADOPTION 6i expounded in Lect. XL, in i John v. i, "everyone that believes that Jesus is the Son of God is begotten from God." Consequently, as each obtained by faith in Christ, justification and adoption go together. But they are distinct objects of thought and faith. By the one we pass from under the frown and condemnation of God ; by the other we enter His family The teaching just expounded is of the utmost practical importance. Thousands of men and women, to-day, amid the pressing cares and the disappointments of life look back with vain regret to the bygone days of child- hood with its freedom from care and its bright hopes. These joys of childhood, but in richer measure, the teaching of this lecture gives us back again. For the children of God, touching all that is good in childhood, are children still. The fathers in whom once they trusted lie dead in the grave. Yet they are not orphans. For they live in the presence and smile of a Father in heaven who is infinitely better able to help them than was the father they have lost ; and in His protection and love they find refuge from every storm and a solace in every sorrow. The day dreams of their past childhood have been dispelled by the rude actualities of mature life. But the roughness of their journey is cheered, and its darkest steps are brightened, by the prospect of an eternal manhood in which the loftiest hopes ever cherished will be surpassed by an infinite and glorious realisation. The prospect of that inheritance has given to them unfading youth. As yet, however, we have found no actual inward 62 THE RESTORATION [Part II change, no rescue from the power and bondage of sin. But, of this deliverance, both justification and adoption are sure pledges. For without loyalty and love sonship is an empty name : and love to God is incompatible with sin. Moreover the infinite cost involved in the mission of the eternal Son to save His lost brethren assures us that God will do all that is needful to make their adoption into His family a glorious and complete reality. How this deliverance will be wrought out, we wait to learn. LECTURE IX THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION' IN Gal. iv. 5 Paul asserts that the ultimate purpose for which God sent forth His Son to buy off those under law is " that we may obtain the adoption." In his readers in Galatia this purpose was attained. For in ch. iii. 26 the Apostle writes, " ye are all sons of God through faith, in Christ Jesus." In ch. iv. 6 he goes on to say that, because this purpose is attained and his readers are already sons, God, who sent forth His Son, has sent forth also " the Spirit of His Son " into their hearts ; and that the Spirit thus sent cries " Abba, Father." From this he at once infers, " so then thou art no longer a servant but a son." This new cry, prompted by the Spirit of the Son sent by the Father into the hearts of His adopted sons, reveals an inward change in them corresponding to the relative change involved in their adoption. And the mission of the Spirit into their hearts affords proof of the change wrought in them by the mission of the Son of God into the world. The Spirit thus given is designed to be a Guide in life leading us in a direction opposite to that prompted 6 63 64 THE RESTORATION [Part II by the needs and desires of the body. So Gal. v. i6, 17 : "walk by the Spirit and ye will not accomplish the desires of the flesh ; for the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, in order that, whatever things ye wish, these ye may not do." The Spirit is also represented in v. 22 as a living seed bearing the manifold and beautiful fruit of all human excellence. In ch. iii. 2, 3, the Spirit obtained by faith is appealed to in argument as a conspicuous feature of the new life in Christ. In Rom. viii. 2, Paul joyfully declares that the law of the Spirit of life has made those in Christ Jesus free from the law of sin and death. His whole argu- ment implies that the word spirit has the same reference throughout vv. 2-16; and if so it denotes throughout, as in V. 9, the Spirit of God. Evidently Paul means, in V. 2, that the Holy Spirit, by working out His own will in the justified as a rule of life, has broken the bondage to sin and death described in ch. vii. 14-25. They in whom is fulfilled the purpose for which (v. 3) God sent His Son "walk {v. 4) not according to flesh but according to Spirit." In other words, their steps in life are in harmony with the will of the Spirit of God. They are (v. 14) "led by the Spirit ;" and (v. 13) by His influence are destroying the power of their bodily life. In close agreement with Gal. iv. 6, this guiding Spirit is called in Rom. viii, 15, 16 a "Spirit of Adoption," is said to move those in whom He dwells to " cry Abba, Father," and " bears witness that they are children of God." This teaching suggests or implies Lect. IX] THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION 65 that the gift of the Spirit follows immediately, and cpnsummates, and testifies to, adoption. Throughout the Epistles of Paul, the gift of the Spirit is a conspicuous element of the new life in Christ. So 2 Cor. i. 22, " who sealed us, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts ; " Eph. i. 13, 14, "in whom, having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is an earnest of our inheritance ; " ch. iv. 30, "the Holy Spirit, in which ye were sealed for the day of redemption." Very conspicuous in the Fourth Gospel is the promise of the Spirit given by Christ to His disciples on the night of His betrayal. He then spoke of "another Helper, the Spirit of the Truth," whom He would send from the Father and who would teach the disciples ail things, would bring to their memory the words of Christ and guide them in, or into, all the truth, and who would abide with them forever: John xiv. 16, 17, 26, xv. 26, xvi. 13, 14. John the Baptist announced, as recorded in Matt. iii. 11, that Christ would "baptize with the Holy Spirit." And Christ promised (Matt. x. 20) that, when His disciples were for His sake brought before judges, the Spirit of God would speak in them. All this leaves no room for doubt that Christ taught that, to those who should believe His words, He would give the Holy Spirit to be in them the animating principle and the guide and strength of a new life. This we may accept as an assured result of our examination of the Christian documents. The meaning of the evidently equivalent phrases the 66 THE RESTORATION [Part II Spirit of Godf the Spirit of His Son^ the Holy Spirit now demands attention. The word spirit suggests or implies an invisible and life-giving principle moving men from within, as man's own spirit gives life to, and moves, his body. This suggestion is supported by a comparison in I Cor. ii. ii : " who of men knows the things of the man except the spirit of the man which is in him ? So also the things of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." And in Rom. viii. i6 the Spirit of God and the spirit of man are placed in close relation as together bearing witness that those led by the Spirit are sons of God. The distinctive term Spirit of God suggests that this last is as much above our spirit as is God above man. The same or a similar phrase is already familiar to us in the Old Testament. Of Samson we read in Judges xiii. 25, " the Spirit of Jehovah began to move him at times in the camp of Dan ; " and in ch. xiv. 5, 6, " a young lion roared against 'him. And the Spirit of Jehovah lighted upon him, and he rent it as he would have rent a kid." Here we have manifestly an inward divine influence arming Samson with superhuman power. Similarly, Exodus xxxi. 2, 3 : " I have called Bezaleel and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all work, to devise devices, to work in gold and in silver and in brass." Here the Spirit of God gave to the artist skill to design and erect the Tabernacle. A still more important inspiration is mentioned in 2 Sam. xxiii. I, 2: "The sweet psalmist of Israel said, the Lect. IX] THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION 67 Spirit of Jehovah spoke in me and His word was upon my tongue." Similarly, Ezek. ii. 1,2: " And He said to me, son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee. And there entered into me a Spirit when He spoke to me ; and He set me upon my feet, and I heard Him that spoke to me." In the New Testament, the voice of the prophets is frequently traced to the Spirit of God. So Acts xxviii. 25, " Well spoke the Holy Spirit through Isaiah the prophet ; " i Peter i. 1 1, " searching what or what manner of season the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify." In this last passage, the prophets are represented as themselves conscious of a higher inspiration and as seeking for its meaning. And in all these places the Spirit of God is evidently a divine influence, or a divine source of such influence, moving men from within and giving to them supernatural power, skill, and intelligence, and thus making them to be the arm, hand, and voice, of God. In the New Testament, the Spirit bears a new name. He is the " Spirit of Christ " and " of the Son of God." Now in the incarnate Son we must conceive (see Lect. XXXIII.) a created sinless human spirit and the spiritual personality of the eternal Son of God. But neither of these can be the meaning of the term before us as used in Rom. viii. 9, Gal. iv. 6 : for it is manifestly equivalent to the term Spirit of God. It denotes rather the source of an inward influence related both to the Son and to the Father, animating, strengthening, and guiding from within, the adopted sons of God. In 68 THE RESTORATION [Part II Lect. XXXIV. we shall learn that the source of this influence is a divine Person distinct from, yet intimately related to, the personality of the Father and of the Son. He is called in Gal. iv. 6 "the Spirit of His Son " in order to note the close relation between the eternal Son and the Spirit given to the adopted sons. We shall find that between the Son and the Spirit is absolute and eternal and essential harmony, each being derived from the one eternal Father, and sharing to the full His divine attributes. In the incarnate Son, the glory of the Father is set before the eyes of men. By the Spirit of God, given to dwell in the adopted sons, is revealed in them the glory of the Father and the Son. And He is the Bearer to them and in them of the mind and power of God. Such then is the Spirit of God. To those whom, by a divine act which Paul compares to the Rom.an legal process of adoption, God receives into His family as sons, He gives the Spirit of the eternal Son, the Bearer of the mind and power of God, to be in them the animating principle of a life like that of the eternal Son. Notice here another difference between Evangelical and Roman Adoption. The latter was only formal. For the nature of the adopted son was in no wise derived from his adopting father. But He who at first breathed into Adam rational and moral life, and who in Christ has adopted those who by their sin had lost all rights of sonship, can and does breathe into His adopted sons the breath of a new and divine life, even the Spirit of the Son of God. Thus, evangelical adoption, which in Lect. IX] THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION 69 itself is but a relative change, is immediately followed by, and inseparably connected with, the inspiration of a new life, the life of the eternal Son. The Spirit, thus given, " cries" in the hearts of those to whom He is given, " Abba, Father." The word Abba is Aramaic, the language commonly spoken in Palestine in the days of Christ. Of the same language, we have specimens in Mark. v. 41, vii. 34, xv. 34. We may speak of it as the mother-tongue of Christ. He spoke often and conspicuously of God and to God as Father of Himself and of His disciples : " My Father and your Father." And in the word Abba, preserved in the same connection in Mark xiv. 36, Rom. viii. 15, Gal. iv. 6, the vocal form used by Christ has passed into other languages. To this Aramaic word was added, in all three passages just quoted, in order to explain its significance, its Greek equivalent Fat/iej' ; the two words, Aramaic and Greek, being blended together in one address to God. This cry is evidently a genuine human expression of man's consciousness of filial relation to an unseen Father in heaven. Hence Paul writes in Rom. viii. 15, "we cry Abba, Father." Since it is prompted by a super- human and divine influence, he writes also " in whom we cry." And, leaving out of sight for a moment the human appropriation of the inspired cry the Apostle speaks, in Gal. iv. 6, of " the Spirit of His Son " as Himself " crying Abba, Father." The process of this divine-human cry, we may trace one step further. In Rom. v. 5 we read that " the love 70 THE RESTORATION [Part II of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us." From v. 8 we learn that the love of God here mentioned is God's love to us revealed in the gift of Christ to die for man. The love poured out in our hearts can be no other than the love of God manifested historically in the death of Christ and made known to each believer by the Holy Spirit opening his intelligence to grasp the significance of the historical fact. Thus does the Spirit of the Truth take the things of Christ and show them to His disciples. And, like poured-out perfume, the love thus revealed fills and permeates their consciousness. This love, historically manifested and spiritually apprehended, is recognised as a Father's love : and the immediate response is Abba, Father. Thus the Spirit of Adoption puts into the hearts of the adopted ones a consciousness of, and filial confidence in, a Father in heaven. As already seen, the same Spirit guides the adopted sons along a path of obedience, a path trodden by the Firstborn Son, to whose image God has predestined the later-born sons to be conformed. That in them filial confidence is accompanied by filial obedience, and that the Spirit who moves them to call God their Father leads them along a path which their moral sense approves, is the strongest possible confirmation of the truth of the Gospel they have believed and of the reality of the adoption it announces. The teaching just expounded contains a strong moral motive. For we have learnt that confidence in God as our Father is wrought in us by that Spirit who ever Lect. IX] THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION 71 guides men along the path marked out for them by the Law of God. Consequently, all sin is resistance to the Spirit of Adoption, and therefore tends to weaken our filial confidence in God and to dim the brightness of our hope and joy. This moral lesson is enforced by Paul in Rom. viii. 12-14, ^i^d in Gal. v. 16-26, in each place- as a corollary from his teaching about adoption. LECTURE X ASSURANCE OF SALVATION AFTER asserting in Rom. viii. 15 that himself and his readers have received a Spirit of adoption, under whose influence they cry Abba, Father, Paul adds in V. 16, without any connecting particle, "the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." These last words recall v. 14, "so many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." Evidently, v. 16 \s added to prove the statement in v. 14, i.e. to show how the Spirit of Adoption, which moves us to cry Abba, Father, affords proof that they who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. We shall find that it states in compact form the argument already involved in vv. 14, 15. The Greek word rendered spirit (irvevfjia) is neuter. Hence the A.V. renders " the Spirit itself." But inas- much as there is proof elsewhere that the Spirit of God is a person distinct from the Father, the R.V. renders " the Spirit himself" It thus reads into Paul's words a just inference from other New Testament teaching. This teaching will be expounded in Lect. XXXIV. The results there reached, I shall at once assume, and speak Lect. X] ASSURANCE OF SALVATION 73 of " the Spirit Himself." This last word thrusts into prominence the Spirit of God as by His own presence Himself h&3.vmg witness that they whom He guides are children of God. Notice here two witnesses, the Spirit of God and our own spirit, bearing the same testimony. For the com- posite verb avv/jiaprvp€L denotes a joint testimony : and the only partner in it here suggested is "our own spirit." The same composite word is found also in Rom. ii. 15, ix. i, in each case denoting a joint and confirmatory witness. The Greek word rendered dear-witness is frequent in the New Testament, and in some classical writers, for anything which affords proof. A close parallel to Rom. viii. 16 is found in John v. $6 : "the works them- selves which I do bear-witness about Me that the Father has sent Me." Evidently Christ means that His works of power afford proof of His divine mission. So in John X. 25, to some who asked Him to say plainly whether He is the Christ, our Lord replied, " the works which I do in My Father's name, they bear-witness about Me." In Acts xiv. 3, we read that " the Lord bore-witness to the word of His grace, by giving signs and wonders to be wrought by the hands " of Paul and Barnabas. Similarly, \nv. 17 Paul asserts that the God of nature "left not Himself without witness, giving rain and fruitful seasons." In all these cases we have silent witnesses ; but they afford convincing proof. In several passages, the word witness is used in con- nection with the Spirit of God. So Acts xv. 8, " God 74 THE RESTORATION [Part II bore witness for them, by giving the Holy Spirit as also to us." Peter refers to the manifest gift of the Spirit to Cornelius and his friends, as narrated in Acts x. 44, 47, xi. 15. Notice also Heb. ii. 4: "God bearing witness along with, and upon, their witness {a-vveirLfjiapTvpovvTo^) by signs and wonders and various powers and impar- tations of the Holy Spirit." In another mode, viz. by prompting an Old Testament prophet to speak and write, we are told in Heb. x. 1 5 that " the Holy Spirit bears-witness!' How do the Spirit of God and man's own spirit " bear joint testimony that we are children of God ? " An answer to this question is found in the preceding verse. For evidently the human cry (" we cry, Abba, Father ") is a testimony of a human spirit revealing the speaker's consciousness of a filial relation to God. The words our spirit are specially appropriate : for experience tells us that this cry is a voice, not of man's lower bodily nature, but of that in him which is noblest and nearest to God. This cry is also superhuman. For it is prompted by the Spirit of God : " in whom we cry Abba, Father." By prompting that cry, the Spirit of God affords proof, and in this sense bears witness, that we are children of God. For otherwise we should have no right to accost Him as our Father. In other words, the filial confidence in God of those led by the Spirit of God is itself a decisive and divinely-given proof that they are His children. This proof, Paul describes, using a mode of speech frequent in the New Testament, by saying that the Spirit of God joins with our own Lect. X] ASSURANCE OF SALVATION 75 spirit in bearing witness that we are children of God. An essential link in the argument of Rom. viii. 12-17 is (v. 14) the guidance of the Spirit and {v. 13) the gradual destruction of the immoral dominion of the body. The believer is immediately conscious of his filial confidence in God ; and knows by experience that it has its seat in the noblest element of his being. But he is also conscious of power over sin, of a supernatural influence within him which enables him to break off the fetters of the bodily life with its desires and passions and which leads him along a path which his moral sense approves. This filial confidence and moral power have manifestly the same source : for they rise or sink together. This moral effect identifies the influence which prompts it as distinctively that of the " Spirit of God :" V. 14. And, that the same influence moves us to call God our Father, as we read in v. 15, leaves no room for doubt that we are His children. Paul continues his argument by saying that, if we are children of God, then are we His heirs, sharers of the heritage of Christ, i.e. partners not only of His sufferings but of His glory. If so, they who, under the guidance of the Spirit, are crushing the appetites of their bodily life will share the eternal life of Christ : " if by the Spirit ye are putting to death the actions of the body, ye will live." Notice here a confident and intelligent assurance of the favour of God. For the sonship here asserted and proved involves partnership in the heritage of Christ 76 THE RESTORATION [Part II and a share in the glory about to be revealed. And, since "all have sinned, and fall short of the, glory of God," it involves pardon of sin and assurance of pardon. Notice also that this inward experience of filial confid- ence in God is made a basis of argument and a ground of " hope of the glory of God." This assurance is worthy of further consideration. In Lect. IX. we traced the believer's filial cry to the love of God manifested in the death of Christ for man's sin. Consequently, on this well-attested historical fact rests his confident assurance of the favour of God. We notice also that in Rom. v. 5-11 the spiritual significance of this historical fact and of the love therein manifested is expounded by logical and conclusive argument. This argument assumes Christ's claim to be " the Son of God " and the good news of pardon announced by Him. This claim and this good news Paul accepted because they came from Him who was raised from the dead. Consequently, the assurance of personal salvation which finds expression in Rom. v. i-ii, viii. 15-18 rests upon teaching which we have traced to the lips of Christ, and upon facts about Christ attested by abundant and decisive documentary and historical evidence. We have, as I have shown in the earlier volume, historical proof that He announced pardon for all who believe, that He claimed to be in a unique sense the Son of God, and that in proof of this claim He rose from the dead. The glad announcement of forgiveness so well attested, we venture ourselves to believe. By so doing we enter into the number of those whom God receives as Lect. X] ASSURANCE OF SALVATION 77 righteous, and whom in the Gospel He declares that He receives. Now faith is matter of direct consciousness. The mind which is at rest knows that it is at rest. Consequently, by faith we not only enter the number of those whom God receives but know that we enter. Moreover, we have documentary proof that Christ taught that the salvation announced by Him comes through His own death on the cross. In the death of the Son of God in order to save man, we see a proof of the infinite love of God to man. And in this love, thus attested, our faith finds still broader and firmer ground on which it rests with a security which nothing can disturb. In Rom. V. 5 Paul mentions for a moment the Holy Spirit as revealing to us the love of God manifested in the death of Christ. In ch. viii. 1-16 the relation of the Spirit of God to our salvation and to our assurance of salvation is more fully expounded. We are there told that He gives us power over sin and thus sets us free from its dominion ; and that He mov^es us to call God our Father, thus bearing witness that we are children of God. This last, the Spirit does by opening our minds to understand the Gospel of Christ and the significance of His death and resurrection. Thus our assurance of salvation has an historical and document- ary basis, capable of intelligent investigation, and a superhuman and spiritual source, attested by spiritual phenomena known to us by direct introspection and incapable of explanation by natural causes. Notice carefully that, although our filial confidence in 78 THE RESTORATION [Part II God and our assurance of personal salvation are derived from the Spirit of God and are confirmed by their own evidently divine origin, they do not at first, nor after- wards as their ultimate ground, rest upon this confidence. Our assurance of the favour of God rests primarily on words and teaching which we have traced by docu- mentary evidence to the lips of Christ, on the love of God manifested in the historical fact of His death, and on His well-attested resurrection from the dead. To this abundant and decisive objective evidence we can go back in moments of doubt, and in it find mental and spiritual rest. At the same time we infer with con- fidence that the faith which rests securely on these words and facts is wrought in us by the Spirit of God ; and in the manifest presence of the Spirit in our hearts, guiding our steps and breathing into us confidence in God we find important confirmation of the word which at first in our guilt and fear and darkness we ventured to believe. Closely connected with, yet distinct from, the double witness mentioned in Rom. viii. i6, we find in 2 Cor. i. 12 another inward witness, viz. that of our con- science : " For this our exultation is the witness of our conscience that with holiness and sincerity of God, not in worldly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and especially towards you." Here that inner faculty by which a man searches and judges his own actions and motives bears witness to the holiness and sincerity of Paul's past life. We have thus in the Christian life four distinct, though Lect. X] ASSURANCE OF SALVATION 79 closely related, witnesses : (i) the testimony of Christ (cp. John iii. 11," what we have seen we bear witness ") preserved for us in the New Testament, (2) the testi- mony of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Truth, who makes the recorded words of Christ to be a living voice in our hearts, (3) the re-echo of this voice in our own spirit, in that element of our nature on which the Spirit directly operates, and (4) the testimony of our conscience to the moral effects wrought by the Gospel in our lives and hearts. This last is the final verification of all that goes before. An assurance of personal salvation involving forgive- ness of sins is conspicuous in the First Epistle of John. So I John ii. 12, " I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." Whether the words " little children " refer to believers generally or to the latest-born children of God, these words imply that forgiveness of sins is a privilege of all who believe in Christ. And manifestly the persons here referred to knew that their sins were forgiven. Otherwise these words would be an important announce- ment, whereas they are given merely as explaining the reason for writing. Full assurance of salvation is also asserted in i John iii. 14, "we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren." Notice also i John iii. 24, " and he that keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, from the Spirit which He has given to us." In this passage, the words " in this " may refer either back to " keeps 8o THE RESTORATION [Part II His commandments," or forward to "from the Spirit:" in the former case the writer asserts that our knowledge of our inward union with Christ has its root in our obedience to His commands and its source in the Spirit of God given to us ; in the latter he asserts only that our assurance is derived from the Sg^irit. In either case our knowledge of union with Christ is traced indirectly or directly to the Holy Spirit. More definite is I John iv. 12, 13, "if we love one another God dwells in us and His lo\c is perfected in us. In this we know that wc abide in Him and He in us because He has given to us of His Spirit." Here the words "we know . . . because " seem to point to a logical inference. We find ourselves loving our brethren with a love which we know to be not human but divine and therefore given to us by the Spirit of God : and from this we infer that we are inwardly united to Him {vv. 10, 11) who "so loved us " that " He sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins." These passages, while approaching in modes of thought tl.osc of Paul expounded above, do not assert so definitely as docs Paul that our filial confidence in God is a divinely-given proof that we are His children and shall share the heritage of Christ. In I John V. 13 we are told that the Epistle was written in order that they who believe in the name of the Son of God may know that they have eternal life. In other words, assurance of salvation is one purpose for which the New Testament was written. This implies that our assurance rests upon the written word. Lect. X] ASSURANCE OF SALVATION 8i A secure objective basis for assurance of personal salvation is found in the words of Christ recorded in the Fourth Gospel. In John v. 24 Christ says, *' Verily, verily, I say to you, He that hears My word and believes Him that sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life." Similarly, John iii. 16, 18, 36, vi. 35, 40, 47, xi. 25, 26. In these passages Christ asserts, with conspicuous and emphatic repetition, that everyone who believes in Him has eternal life. This can only mean that they who believe have a life which death cannot destroy and which will abide for ever. This implies forgiveness of sins. For all have sinned ; and the wages of sin is death. They who venture to believe these glad tidings of life read in them an announcement of their own pardon. For they are immediately con- scious of their own faith ; and therefore know that they come within the number of those for whom the Gospel proclaims forgiveness. Thus in the recorded words of Christ they find a firm objective ground for faith in Christ and for assurance that, though sinners, they are heirs of the infinite blessings promised by God to those who believe in Christ. And this objective evidence is confirmed, as we have seen and shall in the following lectures see still more clearly, by subjective evidence found in their own inner life. The doctrine of assurance as expounded in this lecture is guarded from immoral abuse by the plain teaching of Paul and John that the judgment of God is against all who commit sin, teaching re-echoed, with an authority 82 THE RESTORATION [Part II we dare not contradict, by the judge supreme who sits enthroned in the moral sense of man. As examples, I may quote Rom. ii. 1-29 which forms a foregoing moral basis for the evangelical teaching in the chapters follow- ing ; also ch. viii. 1-16, where the two elements are interwoven throughout ; Gal. v. 16 — vi. 10, following ch. iii. 26 — iv. 7 ; and i John ii. 29— iii. 24, where again the two elements are interwoven. This teaching, thus re-echoed, makes it impossible for us to believe that we enjoy the favour of God while doing that which He condemns. The possible or conceivable or inconceivable case of men having their conscience so seared that they believe that God smiles on them because of their faith or of some religious observance, even while continuing in sin, need not perplex us. For any such abnormal development cannot shake the well-grounded confidence of sincere servants of Christ. LECTURE XI THE NEW BIRTH IN John i. 12 we read, in close agreement with the teaching of Paul, " so many as received Him, He gave to them authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." These children of God, the writer further describes by adding, " who were born^ not from blood, nor from the will of flesh, nor from the will of man, but from God.'' The phrase born from God evidently describes an inward spiritual change accompanying entrance into the privileges of the chil- dren of God. This teaching makes natural birth a metaphor of the spiritual life. It implies that, just as by natural birth we enter into a new life and into the visible world and receive powers fitting us for life in the world, so in those who believe in Christ a spiritual change has taken place which has given to them a new life, a new spiritual environment, and new spiritual powers. Of this new life, God is the source. It is not derived " from blood," i.e. from the material constitution of living bodies, nor " from the will of flesh," i.e. from animal instincts, nor " from the will of man," i.e. from human desire and purpose, but " from God." 83 S4 THE RESTORATION [Part II In John iii. 3-8, similar teaching is traced to the lips of Christ. To Nicodemus He says, " except a man be born from above (or, born agahi) he cannot see the King- dom of God." The precise rendering is unimportant. For a birth from above must necessarily be a second birth : and a birth from the Spirit {y. 5) must be a birth from above. This new or higher birth is said to be " from water and Spirit." That these two different sources are united under one preposition, places them in close relation. The contrast of water and Spirit recalls the Baptist's words recorded in John i. 26 and 33 : "I baptize with water . . . this is He that baptizes with the Holy Spirit." That this new life is derived from the Spirit, is indis- putable. For, as we shall see, the Spirit of God is the divine inward channel of all blessing from God to man, and the inward immediate source of all life, natural and spiritual. Consequently, they who are born from God must be born from the Spirit. The simplest interpretation of from water is to take it as a reference to Baptism. By commissioning His disciples to baptize all the nations, Christ made Baptism obligatory to all His followers. To men who, like Nicodemus, first received the Gospel in adult age, Baptism was a formal confession of Christ. And such confession Christ required from all His followers. In this important sense, to Nicodemus, Baptism was a condition of salvation. It was for him the only gateway into the new life. And as such it might be, as here, spoken of as a source of the new birth. For, every Lect. XI] THE NEW BIRTH 85 condition may be looked at as a source of that which is dependent upon it. Nicodemus shrank from pubHc confession of Christ. In these words our Lord suggests plainly that there is no other way into the Kingdom of God. To the words just expounded, Christ adds in John iii. 6 a comparison and contrast of natural and spiritual birth similar to that suggested in John i. 13. The stream cannot rise above its source. Consequently, " that which is born from flesh is flesh : " i.e. a life derived from a merely animal or human source must be itself only animal or human, whereas a life derived from a spiritual source partakes the higher nature of its source. The new birth is further illustrated by another comparison. The Greek word rendered spirit also denotes wind. Our Lord points, in John iii. 8, to the wind, mysterious in its source and aim, and declares that similar mystery overhangs the spiritual birth. Doubtless in these words of Christ to Nicodemus we have the source of the Evangelist's own teaching in John i. 13. Similar teaching meets us in the First Epistle of John, a document evidently from the same hand as the Fourth Gospel. In 1 John ii. 29 we read, "if ye know that He is righteous, ye know that everyone that does righteousness has been born from Him." Here all human righteousness is traced to Christ through a super- natural birth. The writer goes on to speak of his readers in i John iii. i, 2 as "children of God." In V. 8 wc read that " he who commits sin is from the S6 THE RESTORATION [Part 11 devil ; " and in v. 9, " everyone that is born from God commits no sin . . . and he cannot sin because he is born from God. In this are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil." Similarly, in i John v. i, 2, " everyone that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born from God. And everyone that loves Him that begat loves him also that is begotten from Him;" also in V. 4, " all that is begotten from God conquers the world." Other similar teaching in v. 18. These pas- sages assert that all who believe in Christ and all who do right are born from God, and that the new life thus received, so long as it lives in them, makes sin im- possible. In other words, they have received from God a new life which, like natural birth, brings them into a new environment and gives to them new powers corresponding to it. Teaching practically the same is found in i Peter i, 3 : " who, according to His great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incor- ruptible and undefiled and unfading." Here God is the Author of the new birth : and the resurrection of Christ is the instrument by which it was brought about. By raising Christ, God gave to men an historical foun- dation for that faith which is in a unique sense the condition of salvation ; and thus virtually raised, with Him, to share His resurrection life, all who will after- wards put faith in Him. For, had He not risen from the dead, there had been no saving faith, no Gospel, no Pentecost, and no Church of Christ. So in v. 21 : Lect. XI] THE NEW BIRTH 87 "who through Him are behevers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory ; so that your faith and hope are in God." The state into which the new Hfe brings those who receive it is one not so much of possession as of " hope." But it is a " Hving hope : " for it is the inspiration of a new Hfe. The object of this hope is an " inheritance," i.e. an enrichment to be received in virtue of fihal relation to the source of the new life. Just so, the heir to an estate is born, not to immediate possession, but to a hope of wealth to be his in the future, and this in virtue of his filial relation to its owner. Similarly, in i Peter i. 23 : " born again, not from corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by means of the living and abiding word of God." The word seed recalls I John iii. 9 : " his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he is born from God." Here the Gospel, which is God's voice and word to man, is represented as the instrument of the new birth. And appropriately so : for the good news of salvation is the means by which God evokes in man saving faith. Teaching practically the same as the above is found in James i. 18: "of His awn will brought He us forth, by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first- fruit of His creatures." It is now evident that Peter and James and John, and Christ as His words are recorded in the Fourth Gospel, agree to teach that they who believe in Christ have experienced an inward change analogous to birth ; or, in other words, have received from God, while the 88 THE RESTORATION [Part II natural life derived from natural birth still lives in them, a new and higher life breathed into them by the Spirit of God, placing them in a new spiritual environ- ment, and giving them new spiritual faculties corres- ponding to this new environment. This new life is obtained by faith. To the earliest disciples it was obtained by Baptism. For, by ordaining this rite and commanding the Apostles to baptize all the nations, Christ made it obligatory on all His servants; and therefore, to all who had not already received it, a condition of His favour. Already we have seen that the terms Jiistification through faith and Adoption are found in the New Testament only from the pen or lips of Paul. It is worthy of note that the New birth is mentioned by Paul only in Titus iii. 5, where we read of the " bath of the new birth." These words, I do not know how to interpret except as a reference to Baptism. Cp. Acts xxii. 16 : " arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." The connection in Titus iii. 5 between salvation, the bath of the new birth, and the Holy Spirit, recalls John iii. 5. An approach to the doctrine of the new birth is found also in i Cor. iv. 15: " not many fathers : for in Christ Jesus through the Gospel I begat you." Here, as in the teaching of Peter and James, tha- Gospel is the instrument of a new birth. But the spiritual change thus described is traced only as far as the preacher of the Gospel. We now see that ADOPTION, accompanied by the gift of the Spirit of adoption, is a distinctive element Lect. XI] THE NEIV BIRTH 89 of the teaching of Paul ; and that the NEW BiRTH is an element common to some other writers of the New Testament, especially to John, but not familiar to the thought of Paul. The two phrases, however, represent, under different aspects, substantially the same spiritual experience. Paul, with his legal bent of mind, looks upon the believer's reception into the family of God and into the rights of sons, as forensic, i.e. simply as a changed relation of man to God, in accordance with the principles of the Law of God, But a mere forensic change will not supply man's deep spiritual need. Con- sequently, Paul supplements his teaching about Adop- tion by that of the gift of the Spirit to the adopted sons. So, in addition to passages already quoted, Eph. i. 5, 13, 14: " predestined for adoption ... having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is an earnest of our inheritance." The Holy Spirit thus given to those who believe becomes in them the animating and directing principle of a new life, makes them conscious of a new environment, and endows them with capacities for a new life therein. These ideas permeate the entire teaching of Paul. Every church- member is assumed to have received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and thus to have been made alive in Christ, and to have received from the Spirit powers fitting him for the new environment into which the new life has brought him. Other writers of the New Testament, and our Lord as His words are there recorded, look upon the same great change from another point of view and describe 90 THE RESTORATION [Part II it as a new birth. And rightly so : for it is an entrance into a new Hfe and into a new world. The element common to, and underlying, these two modes of presenting the inward change which follows justifica- tion is the teaching of nearly all the writers of the New Testament that those whose sins are forgiven are also sons of God. Paul, remembering that God gave Christ to die in order to harmonise the pardon of sin with His own justice, represents believers as sons of God by the legal process of adoption ; supplementing this by his teaching about the Spirit of Adoption. The other writers represent them as sons of God in virtue of a new birth wrought in them through the agency of the Holy Spirit. That this common element gave rise to these two distinct, though harmonious, modes of expression, reveals its deep and firm hold of the thought of the early followers of Christ Results attained. In Part I. we found man guilty of actual sin and thus shut out from the smile of God and exposed to the penalty which inevitably follows sin, and unable either to win back the favour of God or to obey in the future ; but at the same time an object of influences from God tending towards repentance and righteousness and revealing a purpose of God to save fallen and rebellious man. In Part II. the accomplish- ment of this purpose has begun. Man has been rescued from ruin and has entered the path which leads to the glorious inheritance of the sons of God. To the sinner God has revealed his sin and ruin, and Lect. XI] THE NEW BIRTH 91 has thus forced from him a cry for deliverance and evoked in him an earnest purpose to forsake sin. The penitent has heard the good news of salvation announced by Christ ; and, in view of the infinite love manifested on His cross and the infinite power mani- fested in His resurrection from the dead, he has ventured to believe it. He has thus come within the number of those for whom Christ announced pardon. Although his original rights as a son of God were forfeited by sin, God has received the now justified sinner into His family and has counted him among the heirs to the inheritance of Christ. Both pardon and reception into the family of God were in harmony with the principles of justice. They are therefore described by Paul as justification and adoption. The happy change which has taken place is much more than legal. For the adopting Father has put into the bosom of His adopted sons the Spirit of His firstborn Son to be in them the animating principle of a new life like that of Christ The Spirit thus given is a new inward moral pouer breaking the fetters of past sin, and a fruitful seed of all virtues. The same Spirit reveals to them, i.e. brings home to their consciousness, the infinite love of God manifested, i.e, set publicly before the eyes of men, in the death of Christ ; and thus evokes in them the filial cry. My Father God. This cry, the believer recognises as no mere human voice but the voice of that Spirit who has already, by breaking the bonds of sin, proved Himself to be the Spirit of God. This filial confidence 92 THE RESTORATION [Part II in God thus becomes a decisive confirmation of that Gospel which in his sin and helplessness he dared to believe. Thus a cry from man to God becomes a voice from God to man assuring the adopted children of their adoption into the family of God. By this inbreathed Spirit God gives to the pardoned ones a new and divine life, brings them into a new spiritual world, and endows them with new faculties corresponding to this new spiritual environment. This entrance into a new and divine life is appropriately called a New Birth, a Birth from God. Man is thus restored to his normal relation to God. At his creation, God breathed into man His own life, thus making him a son of God. This sonship, with all its privileges, was lost by sin. But the lost privileges have now been restored ; and man rejoices under the smile of a loving Father in heaven. The child of God is born, not to the immediate posses- sion, but to the hope, of a great inheritance. Moreover he is in a state of probation, not at the end, but at the beginning, of the path which leads to life eternal. And the way is beset by enemies and perils- But the infinite cost at which God has opened for man an entrance into this way of life assures us that whatever is needed to guide and guard His children along it will be given. It remains to us to trace this path ; to note its relation to other paths, and to various objects in man's environ- ment, the safeguards by which it is protected, and the goal towards which it leads. PART III THE WA V OF HOLINESS LECTURE XII HOLINESS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT A CONSPICUOUS feature of the Epistles of Paul and of the Book of Revelation, and in less degree of other parts of the New Testament, is the use of the word holy as a common designation of the servants of Christ. The same word is still more frequently used, throughout the New Testament, as an attribute of the Spirit of God given, as we have seen, to His adopted sons to be the inward guide of their life. From this word, therefore, we may expect to learn something about the New Life in Christ. The conspicuous use of the word holy and its cognates in the New Testament is made still more conspicuous by the rarity in classical Greek of the word thus ren- dered ; and by its use in the Greek version of the Old Testament as a constant rendering of a Hebrew word found there very frequently, always in a religious sense. This directs us at once to the Old Testament for the ideas conveyed by the word holy in the New Testament, 93 94 HOLINESS [Part III It is needful to say that, whereas one Greek word or family of words is almost always used for the one Hebrew word now before us, this family of words has in the English Bible two sets of renderings, viz. /loly, hallow, kolmess, and saint, sanctify, sanctification. These render- ings are absolutely equivalent, as are the words righteous and Just, belief and faith. They may be transposed without error. A saint is a holy person : to Jialloiv is to sanctify : holiness is the state resulting from sanctification. These words, so frequent and conspicuous in the later books of the Law, and more or less throughout the Old Testament, are found in Genesis only once, Gen. ii. 3, in a passage more closely related to Exodus than is any other part of Genesis. This suggests, and further research will prove, that the idea conveyed by the word belongs specifically to the covenant given to Israel through Moses as distinguished from the earlier cove- nant made with Abraham. To the books containing the Mosaic Covenant we therefore turn in our search for the meaning of the word Jioly. In the solemn opening scene of that covenant, from the lips of God, in a connection of thought wonderfully indicative of the nature of the covenant He had come down to make, we hear the great word henceforth to be so deeply interwoven into the religious life of Israel and of mankind. God's words to Moses from the bush, as recorded in Exodus iii. 5, " Draw not nigh hither . . . for the place thou art standing upon is ground of holiness,'' introduce a covenant of which one great feature was to be Holiness embodied in visible places and things, Lect. XII] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 95 a holiness which made the holy objects partly or alto- gether inaccessible to man. The meaning is clear. God wished to say that the ground stood in special relation to Himself ; and that, because it was God's ground, none could tread it except by His command. Very instructive are the words of Exodus xiii. 2 : " sanctify for Me the firstborn." For they are at once explained by words following, " it is Mine." So also v.12 : " thou shalt make all that open the womb pass over to Jehovah ; the males are Jehovah's." With this compare Num. iii. 12, 13 : "I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel ; and the Levites shall be Mine. For Mine are all the firstborn. For in the day when I smote all the firstborn in Egypt I sanctified for Myself every firstborn in Israel, from man to beast. Mine shall they be." Also Num. viii. 16, 17 : *' they are altogether given to Me from among the sons of Israel. Instead of such as open every womb, even every firstborn from the sons of Israel, I have taken them for Myself" And Deut. XV. 19: "every firstborn male thou shalt sanctify for Jehovah thy God ; thou shalt do no work with the firstborn of thine ox, nor shear the firstborn of thy sheep." These passages make quite clear the meaning of the word sanctify. The firstborn were to be holy in the sense that they were henceforth to stand in special relation to God as His property, and were to be touched by man only according to the bidding, and to work out the purposes, of God. In other words, they were not man's but God's. The solemn words of Exodus xix. 6, "ye shall be 96 HOLINESS [Part ill to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation," are specially important as illustrating the meaning of the word holv, because of their contrast with Exodus xiii. 2. They are explained by the foregoing words, "ye shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all people : for all the earth is Mine." Of these words, the phrase " a holy nation " is evidently a summing up. And, by the words "kirgdom of priests," the word holy is linked with the priestly ritual soon to be established. Just as in Egypt God had already declared that the firstborn should stand in special relation to Himself as His property, in virtue of their deliverance from the destroyer, so now He says that the entire nation shall stand in a similar, though not exactly the same, relation to Himself, in virtue (Exodus xix. 4) of its deliverance from Egypt. We have here an anticipation of the holiness which now belongs to every member of the Church of Christ. The same wider use of the word is found in Lev. xi. 45, " I am Jehovah that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God : and ye shall be holy ; for holy am 1." So also ch. xx. 26 : " ye shall be holy for Me ; for holy am I, Jehovah : and I have separated you from the peoples, that ye may be Mine." In these last passages we have subjective, holiness ; about which I shall say more in the course of this lecture. To men already claimed by God to be His own, and in that sense already holy, God declares that they s/iall be holy, i.e. that they shall render to Him the devotion He requires. Lect. XII] 7^ THE OLD TESTAMENT 97 Exodus xix. 23, " set bounds around the mountain and sanctify it," develops ch. iii. 5. By putting a fence, Moses was to mark off the mountain as be- longing to God, and therefore not to be trodden by man or beast except at His bidding. And now, beneath the shadow of the holy mountain, rises before us the complicated solemnity of the Mosaic ritual : and of that ritual every vessel and every rite bears on its front, in broad and deep characters, the name of holiness. In the Decalogue God commands, as recorded in Exodus XX. 8, " Remember the Sabbath Day to sanctify it;" and adds in v. 11, "Jehovah blessed the Sabbath Day and sanctified it." So Gen. ii. 3, " God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it : " the only place in Genesis where the word holy or sanctify is found. With this compare Exodus xxxi. 14 ; also Isaiah Iviii. 13, "turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My day of holiness." The tabernacle is called the sanctuary or holy place : Exodus XXV. 8. The outer chamber bears the abstract title, holiness : the inner one bears the superlative name, holiness of holinesses, conveniently rendered, holy of holies : ch. xxvi. 33. The same august superlative title is given in ch. xxix. ly to the brazen altar ; in ch. XXX. 29 to the vessels of the tabernacle ; and in Lev. ii. 3 to the bodies of animals offered in sacrifice. In this last passage it is explained by the words, " the remnant of the meat-offering is for Aaron and for his sons : it is holy of holies from the burnings of 98 HOLINESS [Part III Jehovah." In other words, the unburnt parts of the sacrifices were God's ; and were therefore to be given to the priests, His servants. So absolute was the hoHness of these sacred objects that God said three times, in Exodus xxix. 2)7, xxx. 29, Lev. vi. 18, " what- ever touches the altar shall be holy : " i.e. by that touch it ceases to be man's possession and must hence- forth be used only for the purposes of God. Aaron and his clothes, and his sons and their clothes, were holy: Exodus xxix. 21. So was the oil: "Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured, neither shall ye make any like it : it is holy and shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it, and whoever puts any of it upon a stranger, shall be even cut off from his people:" Exodus xxx. 32. Houses, fields, and cattle were made holy by consecration to God : Lev. xxvii. 9, 14. Their holiness is thus described in v. 21 : " the field shall be holy for Jehovah, like the field of the anathema : for the priest, the possession of it shall be." If a man wanted back something he had sanctified he must pay for it: v. 15. But some objects were given to God by an irrevocable consecration, and were called anathema and holy of holies : vv. 28, 29. The Nazarite was holy, Num. vi. 5, 8 : and his sacrifice was "holiness for the priest," v. 20. The censers of Korah (Num. xvi. 38) were holy ; and therefore could not be put to common use. The fourth year's fruit of the land of Canaan was holy : Lev. xix. 24. Lastly, God says to Israel in Deut. vii. 6 : " a holy people thou art for Jehovah thy God : thee has Lect. XII] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 99 Jehovah thy God chosen to be His, for a people of special possession beyond all the peoples which are upon the face of the earth." The above passages from the Books of the Law are samples of hundreds of others. In all of them the meaning is the same, and is clearly marked. These holy objects stand in special relation to God as His property. Consequently, they are not man's. They have no human owner who can do with them as he pleases. None can touch them except at the bidding of God. Else, as we learn from Mai. iii. 8, they will be guilty of robbing God. The word holy is the inviolable Broad-Arrow of the divine King of Israel. The sanctification of the firstborn, the Sabbath, the tabernacle and altar, and Aaron and his sons, is attributed to God in Num. iii. 13, Exodus xx. 11, xxix. 44. For, the devotion of these objects to God originated, not in man but in God. And, apart from anything man does or fails to dcJ, God's claim placed them in a new and peculiar and solemn relation to Himself. Man might profane the Sabbath ; but it still remained a holy day, a day which God had' claimed for Himself. This relation to God, created by God's claim and incapable of being destroyed by man's unfaith- fulness, may be called OBJECTIVE HOLINESS. It is the most common use of the word. In this sense God sanctified these objects for Himself In Exodus xix. 14, xxviii. 41, xxix. i,xl. 9-13, Moses, as the minister through whom was brought about the devotion to God of these objects claimed by Him, is loo HOLINESS [Part III said to have sanctified Mount Sinai, Aaron, and the tabernacle and its vessels. Similarly, in Exodus xix. 22, Lev. xi. 44, xxvii. 14, the priests and the people are said to sanctify themselves and some of their possessions. They did this, either by formally placing themselves or their goods at the disposal of God, or by separating themselves from whatever was inconsistent with the service of God. This may be called SUBJECTIVE HOLINESS. It is man's surrender to God of that which God has claimed. This distinction of objective and subjective holiness is of the utmost importance. The former traces holiness to its source, viz. God : the latter points to the obligation laid on man by this claim of God. The two senses are often found together : e.g. (Exodus XX. 11) God sanctified the Sabbath; therefore {v. 8) man is bidden to sanctify it. Light is shed upon the radical meaning of the word holy by Gen. xxxvii*. 21 and Deut. xxiii. 17, where a cognate word is used to designate a prolligate woman. This recalls the " sacred slave-girls " at Corinth " whom both men and women presented to the goddess : " see Strabo, bk. viii. 378. The essential idea of holiness is found here, though in a peculiar form. Devotion to an impure deity creates impurity in the devotee ; whereas devotion to God implies separation from all impurity. Another trace of the word is found in the name Kadesh, in Gen. xiv. 7, xvi. 14, xx. i, Num. xiii. 26, Joshua XX. 7, I Chron. vi. 72, etc. It suggests that the Lect. XII] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT ioi towns which bore this name were specially devoted t^ the service of some deity. Throughout the Old Testament, the word holy and its cognates are found in the meaning expounded above. The words of Joshua iii. 5, "sanctify yourselves: for to-morrow Jehovah will do wonders among you," recall Exodus xix. 10: those of Joshua v. 15, "the place whereon thou art standing is holiness," recall Exodus iii. 5. Notice Joshua vi. 19: "all the silver and gold is holiness to Jehovah : into the treasury of Jehovah it shall come." We read in ch. xx. 7 that " they sanctified Kadesh in Galilee " to be a city of refuge : for these stood in special relation to God. Micah's mother said, in Judges xvii. 3, " I have altogether sanctified the silver for Jehovah : " for she supposed that by using the money to make an image she was devoting it to His service. In the Book of Psalms, the word sanctify is never found : a clear proof that it was not equivalent \.o punfy, an idea which not unfrequently occurs. It is found only once in the other poetical books, in Job i. 5 ; and then in a ritual sense. In Psalm Ixxxix. 5, 7, Job v. i, xv. 15, the word holy or saint denotes the angels. And appro- priately so : for our chief thought about them is that they stand in special relation to God, and are doing His work. "Aaron, Jehovah's holy one," in Psalm cvi. 16, recalls the ritual phraseology of the Law. Very rarely in the poetical books are good men called holy : e.g. Psalm xvi. 3, " to the holy ones which are in the earth ; " Psalm xxxiv. 9, "fear Jehovah, ye His holy ones." These passages w^ere prompted by a consciousness that HOLINESS [Part III ihc good man stands in a special relation to God, as God's own ; and are thus an approach to the New Testament use of the word. This use was rare because as yet holiness was revealed only in symbolic outline. The inward reality underlying the symbolic form could not be clearly seen until the appearance of Him who was a perfect embodiment in flesh and blood of what the symbols dimly foreshadowed. In the later books of the Old Testament traces of this moral sense are occasionally found. The lady of Shunem observed that Elisha stood specially near to God, and she spoke of him in 2 Kings iv. 9 as a " man of God, a holy man." In prophetic vision, Isaiah sees the day (Isaiah iv. 3) when " all that are left in Jerusalem shall be called holy." So ch. Ixii. 12 : " they shall call them a people of holiness, redeemed of Jehovah." In the Book of Daniel, e.g. chs. vii. 18, 22, 25, 27, the word holy is a frequent designation of the future people of God. In the Books of Chronicles and Nehemiah the words holy and sanctify are common, always in a ritual sense. So 2 Chron. xxiii. 6 : " let none come into the house of Jehovah except the priests. They shall come in : for they are holy." A foreshadowing of the universal consecration an- nounced in the Gospel of Christ is found in Zech. xiv. 20, 21 : " In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses Holiness for Jehovah : and the pots in the house of Jehovah shall be like the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness for Jehovah of Hosts : and all those who Lf.ct. XII] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 103 sacrifice shall come and take of them and cook in them. And no Canaanite shall be any more in the house of Jehovah of Hosts, in that day." We have here under levitical forms important Gospel truth. The Holiness of God will be discussed in Lect XXXH. The above quotations are samples of the use of a word found in the Old Testament more than eight hundred times. Its frequency, the variety of the objects to v/hich it is applied, and the definiteness of the one idea which in all these objects the word conveys, make its meaning quite clear and beyond doubt. All the various holy objects, rational or irrational, stand in special relation to God as His possession ; and therefore must not be used or touched by man except at God's bidding and to do His work. He has claimed them for His own ; and His claim lays upon man an obligation to devote them to His service. This definite idea is present, in various forms, wherever in the Old Testament the word holy is found. As already stated, this conspicuous Hebrew word is in the Septuagint Version almost always translated by one Greek word. This one word is, however, not its most exact Greek equivalent. The not uncommon word fepo? denotes that which is consecrated to a deity : an idea not unfamiliar to Greek thought. Strange to say, this at first sight appropriate rendering is, with one slight exception, never used by the Greek translators. As a rendering of the adjective holy, it never occurs. And only once is the substantive lepov used in its 104 Holiness Part hi frequent New Testament sense of sanctuary, viz. in that one strange passage (Ezek. xxviii. i8) in which we read of the sanctuary, not of Jehovah, but of Tyre. The reason is not far to seek. 'Je/069 had been polluted by contact with the corruptions of idolatry ; and was therefore unfit for service in the temple of God. Of this we have an example in the sacred prostitutes of Corinth. It is true that in the Hebrew language a similar corruption had defiled one member of this family of sacred words. See, as noted on p. 100, Gen. xxxviii. 21, Deut xxiii. 17. But the defiled member was rigidly excluded from the service of God : and the defilement went no further. Whereas, in Greek, the defilement reached and saturated every member. With the Hebrew word, as a result of its consecration to the service of Jehovah and in spite of the occasional profanation of sacred things, were associated ideas of purity and goodness. With the Greek word, in consequence of the fearful debasement of idolatry, were as.sociated conceptions the vilest and worst. Another word must therefore be found to carry to the nations of the West, in its purity, the Hebrew conception of holiness. This honourable ofifice was conferred on the compara- tively rare word, ayio^. Its rarity was a recommendation. For, that it had so few associations of its own, made it the fitter to take up the meaning and appropriate to itself the associations of the Hebrew word. And its associations, though few, were suitable. In classical Greek it is never found as a predicate of gods or men ; and was therefore free from the ideas of imperfection Lect. Xll] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 105 and sin which belonged in the minds of idolaters to both gods and men. It is frequently used by Herodotus, and occasionally by other writers, to describe tcmp'es of special sacredness ; and seems to denote the reverence which their connection with the deity, lepov, gave them a right to claim. It is probably akin to a^ofiat, used by Homer {Iliad, bk. i. 21, etc.) to denote reverence for the gods and for parents. It was evidently a nobler and purer word than /6/069. The difference arose from the fact that, owing to the degradation of idolatry, there were objects supposed to stand in close relation to the gods, which had no claim whatever to man's real reverence. A very good instance of the distinction is quoted in Cremer's valuable New Testament Lexicon, from Plutarch, Conviv. 5. 682, C : " Amorous and un- tamed men are unable to abstain even from the most holy bodies ; " which Cremer properly contrasts with the " sacred " bodies of the " sacred slaves," in Strabo, bk. vi. 272. Such being the associations of the words, the Seventy Translators, moved by a delicate appreciation of the difference between the gods of heathendom and the One God of Israel, rejected /e/36?, which was already occupied by conceptions partly impure, and chose ar^io^, which was in part unoccupied and in part occupied by a pure conception, namely reverence, to receive and bear to the nations of Europe the definite Old Testament conception of holiness. To represent the modifications of the Hebrew word, the Seventy thrust aside the exist- ing though rare derivatives of a'^o^, and derived directly io6 HOLINESS [Part III from ci'yiof; a family of words of which every member was altogether new in Greek literature. It is worthy of note that in Judges xvi. 17, for the words " Nazarite of God," which the Alexandrian MS. reproduces, the Vatican MS. gives ^7^09 Geov. And rightly so. For the Nazarite was holy. And this objective holiness, Samson's deep sin could not obliterate. In the Apocrypha, the use of a'yLo^ and its cognates corresponds exactly to its use in the Septuagint, i.e. to the use of the Hebrew word. The purely ritual use is found in Judith xi. 13 : "The firstfruits of the corn, and the tithes of the wine and the oil, which they kept, having sanctified them for the priests who present them- selves before the face of our God." So i Mace. x. 39 : " for the holy things which are at Jerusalem, for the expenses suitable for the holy things." Compare Sirach xlv. 4, "in his faith and meekness He sanctified (Moses), He chose him out from all flesh ; " and v. 6, " He exalted Aaron to be holy like him." In v. 10, we have Aaron's "holy robe." So Sirach xlix. 12: "a people holy for the Lord, prepared for glory of eternity." From the days of the week, God " exalted and sanctified the Sabbath : " Sirach xxxiii. (xxxvi.) 9. God is " the Holy One from heaven," who redeemed Judah from the host of Sennacherib : Sirach xlviii. 20. In 2 Mace. viii. 23 we read of " the holy book." In 2 Mace. v. 1 5, the word lepov appears, in the sense of sanctuary : " he dared to enter into the most holy (ayLcoraror) sanctuary of all the earth." This use was now safe : for the conception Lect. XII] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 107 of holiness was already indissolubly linked to the word 07^09. In the Apocrypha, as in the Septuagint Version, the word a7to? simply takes up the ideas associated with the Hebrew word ; and passes them on unchanged, as an almost lifeless body, awaiting the new life soon to be breathed into it by a new and more glorious revelation. LECTURE XIII THE HOLINESS OF CHRIST THE writers of the New Testament perpetuate and develop the Old Testament conception of holiness. It was still remembered, as we read in Luke ii. 23, that God had commanded that every firstborn male " shall be called, Holy to the Lord." The emphatic teaching of Exodus xxix. 37, etc., that " whatever touches the altar shall be holy "is reproduced in Matt, xxiii. 17, 19, where Christ appeals in argument to the truth that already " the temple has sanctified the gold " used in its construction, and that day by day " the altar sanctifies the gift " laid upon it. (Note here the contrast of the tenses.) As in the Greek (Lxx.) version of Neh. xi. i, so in Matt. iv. 5, xxvii. 53, Jerusalem is called " the holy city : " for it stood in special relation to God. The words of Stephen recorded in Acts viii. 33, " the ground on which thou standest is holy ground," prove that the opening words of the revelation to Moses (Exodus iii. 5) still lived in the memory of the people. In Matt. xxiv. 15, Acts vi. 13, xxi. 28, the temple is still called " the holy place." The word holy, used in Job v. i, xv. 15, Dan. viii. 13, to designate the angels, as persons who occupy a special 108 Lect. XIII] THE HOLINESS OF CHRIST 109 relation to God and do His bidding, is applied to them as an epithet in Luke ix. 26, Acts x. 22. Similarly, though in lower degree, as in Jer. i. 5 so in Luke i. 70, Acts iii. 21, it is applied to the prophets. So Mark vi. 20, where we read that " Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man : " i.e. one whose conduct agreed with the Law and w^ho stood in special relation to God. Very conspicuous, especially in the Third Gospel and the Book of Acts, is the term " Holy Spirit," already used in the Septuagint as a rendering of the phrase " Spirit of Holiness" in Psalm li. ii, Isa. Ixiii. 10. The Spirit of God claims the epithet as being in a very special manner the Source of an influence of which God is the one and only aim. All other influences tend away from God. He is, therefore, in a sense shared by no other inward motive principle, the Holy Spirit. The holiness of God, solemnly asserted in Lev. xi. 45, xix. 2, XX. 26, xxi. 8, and frequently in the Book of Isaiah under the title " The Holy One of Israel," is asserted or implied in John xvii. 11, Heb. xii. 10, i Pet. i. 15, 16 (from Lev. xi. 44), Rev. iv. 8 (a repetition of Isa. vi. 3), and Rev. vi. 10. It will be further discussed in Lect. XXXII. So far the conception of holiness has advanced little beyond the development attained in the Old Testament. The greater frequency of holiness as an attribute of the Spirit is, however, a mark of that better Covenant of which the indwelling and sanctifying presence of the Spirit is so conspicuous and glorious a feature. And THE HOLINESS [Part III the similarity of the use of the word in the Old and the New Testaments is a proof how fully the Old Testament conception of holiness lived on in the minds of the people. In the life and character of the Incarnate Son of God we see the full development and realisation of the Biblical conception of holiness. Before His birth, as we read in Luke. i. 35, He was announced by the angel as " the Holy Thing : " the neuter form leaving out of sight all except that He would be an embodiment of holiness. He was acknowledged, both (John vi. 69) by His disciples and (Mark i. 24) by evil spirits, to be " the Holy One of God." Himself declared, as recorded in John X. 36, xvii. 19, that the Father had sanctified Him and sent Him into the world, and that day by day He sanctifies Himself The ascended Saviour is spoken of in Acts iii. 14, iv. 27, as " the Holy and Just One," and " the Holy Servant of God." Paul teaches in Rom. i. 4 that He " was marked out as Son of God according to a Spirit of Holiness." He is probably " the Holy One in I John ii. 20 ; and in Rev. iii. 7 He is called " Holy and true." Since Holiness is thus solemnly predicated of the Son of God, we expect to find in Him a fully developed impersonation of the idea imperfectly shadowed forth in the Mosaic ritual. We expect to find Him standing in a special relation to God, and living a life of which the one and only aim is to advance the purposes of God. Our expectation is fulfilled. The Son of God declared, Lect. XIII] OF CHRIST as recorded in John iv. 34, '' It is My meat to do the will of Him that sent Me and to complete His work ;" in ch. V. 19, "the Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He sees the Father doing ; " in v. 30, " I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me ; " in ch. vi. 38, " because I have come down from heaven, not in order that I may do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me ; " and in ch. xvii. 4, " I have glorified Thee on the earth, having finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." Similarly, we read in Rom. vi. 10, " the life which He lives, He lives for God;" inch. xv. 3, "Christ did not please Himself;" in I Cor. iii. 23, " Ye are Christ's and Christ is God's ; " in Heb. iii. 2, " being faithful to Him that made Him ;" and in ch. ix. 14, " He offered Himself spotless to God." In Jesus we see a life, lived in human flesh and blood, of which God was the one and only aim. All the powers, time, and opportunities of Jesus were used, not to gratify selfj but to work out the Father's purposes. And this devotion to the Father was rational. The human intelligence of the man Jesus, mysteriously in- formed by the Divine intelligence of the Eternal Son of God, comprehended and fully approved and appropriated the Father's eternal purpose to save mankind through the death of His Son : and of this intelligent approval every word and act of the human life of Jesus was a perfect outworking. And in this sense, in a degree infinitely surpassing whatever had been known before, the incarnate Son of God was holy. Consequently, as we read in John ii. 21, Heb. x. 10, iii. i, His body was a 9 THE HOLINESS [Part III " temple " and a " sacrifice," and himself a " High priest." Whatever holiness belonged to the ritual and priesthood of the Old Covenant, belonged in infinitely higher degree to Him and to His life : whatever in them was imperfect found in Him its full realisation. We notice further that, under the Old Covenant, the holy men were separated by their holiness from the common work of common life. This was very con- spicuous in the last of the prophets, in that " righteous and holy man " (Mark vi. 20) in whose person and teaching was summed up whatever had been revealed under the earlier dispensation. The contrast of John and Jesus is the contrast of holiness as revealed in the Law, and as revealed in the Gospel. John lived in the wilderness, away from the dwellings of men, and ate strange food. Jesus lived a common life, toiling at a trade, enjoying social intercourse, partaking of human hospitality, and eating the food set before Him. This teaches plainly that holiness in its highest degree, i.e. the highest con- ceivable devotion to God and to the advancement of His kingdom, does not imply separation from the com- mon business of life. And when we see Jesus using the opportunities afforded Him by this common intercourse with men to advance the interests of the kingdom of God, we learn that even the common things of daily life may be laid on the altar of God as a means of doing His holy work. We saw that under the Old Covenant devotion to God implied separation from whatever, in .symbol or reality, was opposed to God. Now, all sin is opposed Lect. XIII] OF CHRIST 113 to God : for sin, in whatever form or degree, tends to misery and destruction, whereas God's purpose is h'fe and happiness. Consequently, the hoHness of Jesus involves His absolute separation from all sin. So 2 Cor. V. 21 : "who knew no sin." Again, the only purpose of God which we can con- ceive as having a practical bearing on us is God's purpose to save men from sin and death, and to set up the eternal kingdom of which Christ will be king and His people citizens. Consequently, to us, devotion to God implies devotion to this one purpose. And this one great divine purpose is inseparably linked with our conception of holiness. Therefore, since to realise this purpose God sent His Son into the world, our Lord spoke appropriately, as recorded in John x. 36, of Himself as " Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world." And, in reference to His own daily devotion of Himself to this enterprise. He said, as we read in John xvii. 19, " on their behalf I sanctify Myself in order that also they may be sanctified." Thus, from the great Author and Archetype of renewed humanity, we have obtained a complete conception of holiness. We have seen a man, though God yet perfect Man, whose life was a constant and perfect realisation of one purpose, a purpose to use all His powers, time, and opportunities, to advance the kingdom of God : and we have seen that this purpose was a result of an intelligent comprehension, and full approval, of the Father's purpose. In virtue of this intelligent, hearty, and continued appropriation of the Father's 114 THE HOLINESS OF CHRIST [Part III purpose, and in virtue of its realisation in all the details of His own life on earth, the Incarnate Son was appro- priately called " the Holy One of God." In my earlier volume {Through Christ to God, Lectures XXIX. and XXXI.) I endeavoured to prove that the life of Christ on earth is a perfect and full outflow and manifestation, in human flesh and blood, of the nature of the eternal Son of God. The teaching of the New Testament implies, and with this agrees the historic faith of the Church of Christ, that with the Father, yet personally distinct from Him, is Another who shares, by eternal derivation from the Father, all the attributes of God. And we saw that the New Testament teaches that the divine life thus received flows back, with full volume, in unreserved devotion to the Father ; the eternal Stream to its eternal Source. Of this eternal devotion of the Son to the Father, the lifelong consecration of Jesus Christ to the work of God was a human historic counter- part. And we have just seen that this self-consecration of Christ to God is a perfect realisation, in actual human life, of the holiness symbolically set forth in the ritual of the Old Covenant. Thus is the Biblical conception of holiness, set forth in outline in the Mosaic ritual and afterwards fully realised in the human life of Christ on earth, traced to its ultimate source in the eternal nature of God, to the eternal devotion of the Son to the Father. In the Lectures following we shall see that this eternal nature of God is, through the Incarnate Son, the eternal Arche- type of whatever is good in man. LECTURE XIV THE HOLINESS OF THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST IN Rom. i. 7, i Cor. i. 2, Eph. i. i, Phil. i. i, Gal. i. i, Paul addresses his readers as " called to be saints," or " called saints." The latter rendering is better. For frequently elsewhere he speaks of them as actually saints. So Rom. viii. 27, " the Spirit makes intercession on behalf of saints;" ch. xii. 13, "the necessities of the saints ; " ch. xv. 25, " ministering to the saints," i.e. performing friendly service for them ; v. 26, " the poor ones of the saints in Jerusalem;" and v. 32, "accept- able to the saints." In ch, xvi. 2, he asks for Phoebe a reception " worthy cf the saints." The same use of the word is found in i Cor. vi. i, xiv. 33, xvi. I, 15, 2 Cor. i. I, viii. 4, ix. i, 12, xiii. 13, and elsewhere frequently. Evidently, by the phrase in Rom. i. 7, etc., Paul means that just as he had himself received a summons from God which made him an apostle, " a called apostle," so his readers had received a divine summons which made them saints. So in i Cor. i. 2 he addresses them first as " sanctified in Christ " and then as " called saints." The same use of the word holy or samt as a designation 1 6 The holiness [Part ill of Church members generally is found also in Heb. iii. I, "holy brethen ;" in ch. vi. lO, "ministering to the saints ; " in ch. xiii. 24, " greet all the saints ; " and in Jude 3, "the faith committed to the saints." So Acts ix. 13, "how many evil things he has done to Thy saints:" v. 32, "the saints inhabiting Lydda ; " v. 41, " the saints and the widows;" ch. xxvi. 10, "many of the saints." The same word in the same sense is common in the Book of Revelation : so " the prayers of the saints " in chs. v. 8, viii. 3,4; " the blood of the saints," and " of saints and prophets " in chs. xvii. 6, xvi. 6, xviii. 24 ; the " faith " and " endurance of the saints " in chs. xiii. 10, xiv. 12 ; and in ch. xx. 9, " the camp of the saints;" also chs. xi. 18, xiii. 7. In all these places the word saint is evidently an ordinary designation of the professed servants of Christ. That this use of the word saint is not found in the Gospels, will excite no surprise. For not till the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost did the sacred race begin to be. We now seek for the light which this use of the word holy or saint sheds upon the new life of the adopted sons of God. It is manifestly a new religious use of a word already very familiar in a religious sense. The Jews at Jerusalem had ever before their eyes the holy objects of the temple ritual. And those scattered in other lands heard read in their synagogues week by week the ancient Scriptures in which the word holy occurs very frequently to denote or describe persons and things, always in the same Lect. XIVJ OF THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST 117 definite religious sense. This use and sense of the word are indisputably found in certain passages of the New Testament quoted at the beginning of the last Lecture. The earliest readers of the New Testament could not but give to the word when used to describe the servants of Christ a meaning derived from its ordinary and familiar use. Certainly the holy persons of the New Covenant must stand in close relation to those of the Old. A conspicuous difference between the two Covenants at once attracts attention. In the Old Covenant the word holy was reserved for the priests, as distinguished from other Israelites. In Num. xvi. 3, Korah complains that " all the congregation are holy, every one of them ; and Jehovah is among them." Moses replies, in v. 5, that "Jehovah will show who are His and who are holy, even him whom He will choose." In v. 10, he explains these words as referring to "the priesthood." So 2 Chron. xxiii. 6 : " Let none come into the house of Jehovah except the priests . . . they shall come in : for they are holiness. And all the people shall keep the watch of Jehovah." This reservation of the word, which is maintained throughout most of the Old Testament, teaches that the priests stood in a special relation to God not shared by the rest of the nation. The usage of the New Testament, quoted above, teaches that all the servants of Christ stand in a special relation to God. It thus marks a distinction between the Old Covenant and the New. In Dan. vii. 18, 22, 25, 27, the people of God, to whom is to be given the everlasting kingdom, are called " the ii8 THE HOLINESS [Part III saints of the Most High." This prophecy receives a partial and preliminary fulfilment in the New Testament use of the word saint as a designation of the servants of Christ The title samt or holy one is in the New Testament given to church-members generally, however immature their actual Christian life. The Corinthian Christians are in i Cor. i. 2 addressed as "sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints," although in ch. iii. i they are said to be " not spiritual but carnal, babes in Christ." This use of the word, which differs very much from its use in popular modern religious phraseology, is explained by the use of the same word in the Old Testament. What- ever their actual conduct and character might be, the priests were, as men whom God had claimed for Himself and who were therefore bound to devote themselves wholly to His service, objectively Jioly. For God's claim put them in anew position of obligation, an obligation not set aside by, although it greatly aggravated the guilt of, their unfaithfulness. Just so, God claims for Himself all those whom He receives as His adopted sons. And, whatever they may do, His claim puts them in a new and very solemn position. The word saint is therefore very appropriate as a designation of the followers of Christ : for it declares what God requires them to be. To admit sin or selfishness into their hearts is sacrilege. Nay more. It also points out their privilege. By calling His people saints^ God declares His will that we live a life of which He is the one and only aim. Therefore, since our own efforts have proved that such a life is Lect. XIV] OF THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST 119 utterly beyond our power, we may take back to God the name He gives us, and claim that it be realised by His power in our heart and life. To keep these all- important truths ever before the mind of believers, the Holy Spirit moved the early Christians to speak of themselves as saints, as holy men. This is the objective holiness of the Church of Christ. But, although, as claimed by God, all the children of God are holy, it is evident that the full idea of holiness is realised in them only so far as they yield to God the devotion He claims. To bear the name of saint and yet be animated, in part, by a worldly spirit, is evidently a contradiction in terms. Consequently, in a few pas- sages, the word Jioly denotes actual and absolute devotion to God. And holiness is set before the people of God as a standard for their attainment. So i Cor. vii. 34, "that she may be holy both in body and spirit," parallel with, " how she may please the Lord ; " Eph. i. 4, " that we may be holy and blameless ; " ch. v. 27 ; Col. i. 22 ; I Thess. v. 23, " may the God of peace sanctify you ;" Heb. xii. 14, " follow after holiness;" i Peter i. 15? " be yourselves holy in all behaviour." In these passages the word holy denotes a realisation in man of God's purpose that he live a life of which God is the one and only aim. In other words, that man is holy who looks upon himself and all his possessions as belonging to God, and uses all his time, powers, and opportunities to work out the purposes of God, i.e. to advance the kingdom of Christ. This is the subjective holiness to which God calls His people. 120 THE HOLINESS [Part III It will, I think, be found that, where the servants of Christ are spoken of as actually holy, the word is used objectively as noting what God claims them to be ; but that, where it is used in a subjective sense for actual and unreserved devotion to God, holiness is represented as an aim to be pursued. Even the worldly-minded Corinthians were said to be already "sanctified in Christ ;" whereas for the Thessalonicans, with whom Paul finds no fault, he prays, in i Thess. v. 23, that "God may sanctify " them and thus bring them to completeness and maturity. The apparent contradiction is explained by the different uses, objective and subjective, of the same word. The subjective use of the word holy is illustrated by the abundant teaching of the New Testament that the ideal life which Christ died to realise in His people is a life in which all our powers are put forth to advance the purposes of God. So Rom. vi. 11, " reckon yourselves to be living for God in Christ Jesus;" V. 19, "present the members of your body, as servants, to righteousness, for sanctification ; " ch. xiv. 7, " none of us lives for himself ; for, if we live, we live for the Lord ; " 2 Cor. v. 1 5, " He died that they who live may live no longer for themselves but for Him who on their behalf died and rose ; " i Cor. vi. 19, iii. 23, "ye are not your own," but "Christ's." The life here described is a life of holiness. Since holiness is God's claim to the service of His creatures, the word is predicated of both spirit and body : so I Cor. vii. 34, Rom. xii. i, i Thess. v. 23. Lect. XIV] of the servants of CHRIST t2i For God claims even our body, that its powers may work out His purposes. Since holiness as set forth in the Mosaic ritual was a prophetic outline of the holiness required in us, the various holy objects of that ritual were types, as of Christ, so also of His followers. We are a " temple," I Cor. iii. i6, vi. 19; a "priesthood," I Peter ii. 5, 9; a "sacrifice," Rom. xii. i. Our future life will be a " Sabbath-keeping," Heb. iv. 9. We also notice that in the New Testament the word sanctify occurs most frequently in that portion of it which deals most fully with the Mosaic ritual, the Epistle to the Hebrews. This suggests that in the Apostolic Church the word had not shaken off, as to a large extent it has now, its original connection with that ritual. To this original reference of the word we must ever recur if we wish to think of holiness as it was understood by the early Christians. Very interesting is i Cor. vii. 14 : " the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife." Since the people of God are holy, it might be thought that, as taught in Ezra ix. 2, " the seed of holiness " ought to separate itself from contact with the unholy. Paul saj^s, No. The Christian wife, in virtue of the universal priest- hood of believers, lays her husband upon the altar of God, and in all her treatment of him seeks to advance the purposes of God. Therefore, in the subjective world of the wife's inner life, the husband, unbeliever though he be, is a holy object, and the wife's intercourse with him is a service of God. Paul proves the correct- 122 THE HOLINESS [Part III ness of this view by showing that if the principle of separation from the unbeHeving were accepted it would in some cases compel the Christian mother to forsake her children, who evidently, in spite even of their possible rejection of Christianity, had a claim upon their mother's care. Whereas, he says, on the principle that to the Christian wife the heathen husband is a sacred object, the children also are sacred and there- fore fit objects of a Christian mother's care. And if it be right for her to live with her children, some of whom may be adult idolaters, on the same principle it is right for her to live with her husband. Thus, from the case of the children, Paul proves the case of the husband. Equally interesting is i Tim. iv. 4 : " Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be cast away, when received with thanksgiving : for it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer." The " Word of God " is the voice of God (Gen. i. 29, ix. 3) by which God devoted vegetables and animals to be food for His rational creatures. This universal word was for a time restricted by the Law, which declared that only certain specified animals were holy : but the restriction had been solemnly revoked (Acts x. 15), and the original word was again in force. Thus, by the Word of God, all manner of food was consecrated for the use of the sacred people. The general word "prayer" includes the "thanksgiving" of v. 4. Our thanks to God is the testimony of our conscience that we believe our food to be His gift to us ; and is therefore a proof Lect. XIV] OF THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST 123 that we eat it for the Lord. " He eats for the Lord : for he gives thanks to God : " Rom. xiv. 6. Con- sequently, whatever food we eat with genuine thanks- giving, is, by God's original word, and by our thanks, which is a recognition of that original word, made holy food suitable for the holy people. But the same food, if eaten without this intelligent recognition of it as God's gift, would, in spite of its objective sanctification by God's original word, be unholy and defiling: see Rom. xiv. 14. We have now, by study of the Old and New Testa- ments, obtained a clear conception of holiness as under- stood by the writers of the Bible. The adjective holy describes in the Old Testament various objects which God claimed to be specially His own : the verb sanctify denotes the action of God in reserving them for Himself, and the action of man in devoting them to His service. In the New Testament, the word holy is a frequent title of church- members generally, thus teaching that God claims for Himself and His service all those whom He receives as His children in Christ. It is used occasion- ally to describe the new life He would have them live. That this is a life of unreserved loyalty to God, we learn from other teaching of the New Testament. And that this is the meaning of the word lioly when used to describe the new life in Christ, is proved by its use throughout the Bible. The holiness of God and of the Spirit of God will be discussed in Lectures XXXII. and XXXIV. The central idea of holiness is devotion to God. This idea was embodied in the sacred things and persons and 124 THE HOLINESS [Part III times of the Old Covenant : for God had claimed them to be specially His own. It assumed an infinitely loftier embodiment in the Incarnate Son who took upon Him our fiesh, lived a human life on earth, and now lives a glorified human life upon the throne of God, with a single aim to accomplish the purposes of God. The same idea is in part embodied in all the adopted children of God. For God has claimed them to be His own : and His claim puts them, whatever they may do, in a new and solemn position. But the complete idea of holiness is realised in them only so far as their entire activity of body and mind are the out-working of a single purpose to accomplish the purposes of God. It has been well said that Purpose is the autograph of Mind. Wherever purpose is, there is mind. And wherever mind is directed towards the Great Source of Mind, there is Holiness. Hitherto, we have sought, by study of the Mosaic ritual, to understand the holiness which Christ came to realise in His people. This process may be profitably reversed. The holiness proclaimed by Christ explain.s, and is the only conceivable explanation of, a great part of the Mosaic ritual. It has frequently been observed that the only explanation of the Mosaic sacrifices, and of the prominence given to blood in the Mosaic ritual, is the doctrine that in later ages Christ came to save mankind by His own death ; and that apart from the death of Christ the Old Testament sacrifices are meaningless and therefore unaccountable. It is equally Lect. XIV] OF THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST 125 true that the prominence given in the Old Covenant to ceremonial holiness receives its only explanation from the holiness taught by Christ. In order to teach men, in the only way they could understand, that God bids them to look upon themselves as belonging to Him, and to use all their powers and time to work out His purposes, God set apart for Himself, in outward and visible and symbolic form, a certain place, and certain men, things, and periods of time. Afterwards, when in this way men had become familiar with the idea of holiness, God pro- claimed in Christ that this idea must be realised in every man and place and thing and time. Thus, in the Biblical conception of holiness, we have an explanation of a marked and otherwise inexplicable feature of the Old Covenant ; we have a link binding the Covenants to- gether ; and a light which each Covenant reflects back on the other. In this Lecture we have seen the abiding practical worth of the Levitical Ritual, as a symbol of the New Life in Christ. To this abiding value, abundant witness is borne in Christian literature, and especially in Christian psalmody. In all ages and countries Christian thought has found appropriate expression in the phraseo- logy of the ancient ritual. This spiritual benefit of the symbolic teaching of the Old Covenant, of symbols which have now altogether passed away, reveals their divine origin, and thus renders important confirmation to the historical narratives which trace them to commands given by God to ancient Israel. Of this manifold and far-reaching benefit, the writers of the 120 HOLINESS OF THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST [Part III Old Testament seem to have been themselves almost unconscious. And their unconsciousness ot the real significance of that which they carefully describe, and which without their description would have been unknown to us, indicates clearly a Hand unseen guiding their hands, or at least attests the divine origin of that which they describe. That in this remarkable manner the Old Covenant prepares a way for the New, proves that it came from Him who in later days sent His Son to announce the salvation dimly foreshadowed in the ancient symbols. This confirmation, however, extends only to the broad principles underlying the ritual, not to all its details ; and it sheds little light on the authorship or age of the documents from which we derive our knowledge of the ritual. But it affords important evidence touching the historical truth of these documents. LECTURE XV THE NEW LIFE OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST WE shall now trace the practical bearing of the teaching expounded in Lect. XIV. upon the inward and outward life of the servants of Christ. Already {Through Christ to God, p. 253) we have seen that the eternal Son lives a life of unreserved devotion to the Father, a life in which all the infinite powers derived by the Son from the Father are put forth for the accomplishment of the Father's purposes. In the incarnate Son, this unreserved devotion to the Father assumed visible human form in the consecration, to God and to the salvation of men, of all the human powers assumed by the Son at His entrance into human life. In Him we see a pure human life, lived under the conditions imposed by flesh and blood, amid human weakness and surrounded by bad and hostile men and under the fierce attack of spiritual foes ; a life of unswerving loyalty to God and to the great purpose for which He sent His Son into the world ; a created human life in full harmony with the divine life of the eternal Son. The one definite aim of God in sending His Son, and of every thought, word, and act of the 10 "7 128 THE NEW LIFE [Part 111 Son's life on earth, was to rescue men from sin and to build up the eternal Kingdom of God. This one aim, unwaveringly pursued by the incarnate Son, gave to human life a unity and dignity and power unknown before and otherwise inconceivable. Already {T/u^ongh Chris o Gody p. 49) we have seen that Christianity has saved the world from the ruin into which in Christ's day it was sinking, and has inaugurated a new era of human history marked by sustained progress. And we saw that the beneficial results of Christianity were due to the personality of its Founder. In other words, all that is noblest and best in modern life is due to the short life of a Syrian artisan who was prematurely laid in His grave nearly nineteen centuries ago. Thus the human life which was ideally the noblest has been infinitely the most fruitful in blessing to mankind. That life is the divinely-given pattern of all human life. The use of the word holy in the New Testament implies, as we have seen in Lect. XIV., that Christ claims from His servants a devotion to Himself and to the kingdom He came to establish similar to His own devotion to God. He claims that we use all our powers of body and mind, all the resources at our disposal, and all the opportunities which life affords, to save men from sin, to bring them to bow to Christ, to enrol them as citizens of the Kingdom of God, and to help them to serve Christ ; and that we do all this for His sake. In other words. He claims that all our purposes be subordinate to His one great purpose, Lect. XV] OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST 129 intelligently and earnestly embraced and appropriated by us. This is the New Life in Christ, the purpose of God touching His adopted sons. This life of unreserved devotion to Christ is the noblest life possible to man. For it sets before us an aim, the best possible aim, one which every one can pursue at all times amid all the various and varying circumstances of life, one in pursuit of which he can use all his powers, and one which everyone can attain. Now all human effort receives its worth from the object aimed at. No act is trifling which tends to realise some great purpose : whereas the greatest effort which aims at nothing beyond itself is valueless. An aim persever- ingly pursued gives to life unity, force, and grandeur. This has sometimes been the case to some extent even when the aim has been unworthy. Life has then been a ruin ; but in some cases a splendid ruin. Now all self- chosen aims must needs be earthly and selfish, and tlierefore unworthy. For the stream cannot rise above its source. Therefore, God, in order to ennoble even the humblest of His children, has given Himself and His own purpose of mercy in Christ to be their single aim ; in order that thus, by directing their efforts towards the accomplishment of a purpose chosen by divine wisdom and love, they may themselves rise daily towards God. The aim which Christ sets before us commends itself to us at once as worthy of our highest effort and of any sacrifice it may involve. For His purpose is the rescue of the perishing, the highest well-being of every man, and the establishment of the eternal and crlorious I30 THE NEW LIFE [Part III Kingdom of God. Christ's own consecration to this purpose at once claimed our profound homage. He now bids us make His purpose our own : and this purpose, embraced by us, satisfies us as being worthy of our most strenuous and sustained effort. From the above it is evident that a Hfe of unreserved loyalty to Christ is a life of loyalty to the highest interests of men. By our own submission to Christ, by exalting Him in the eyes of others, by leading others to bow to Him, we are doing the most we can for the good of our race. Devotion to Christ stimulates every kind of human excellence, and in the highest degree. For the work of Christ demands the exercise of all our powers. It stimulates intellectual effort to know all we can about God and Christ and the Gospel of Christ, in order that we may lead others through Christ to God. It thus gives to human intelligence its noblest aim ; and guards intellectual success from the perils which surround it. It gives a worthy motive for the care and development of the body : for it shows that the powers even of our perishing body may work out eternal results. And it gives the only pure motive, and a very strong motive, for effort after material good : for it teaches that this world's wealth may be a means both of doing spiritual good to others and of laying up for ourselves treasure in heaven. In various ways it calls into exercise, for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, and thus quickens and develops and elevates, all our powers, bodily, intellectual, and moral. Lect. XVJ of devotion TO CHRIST 131 This life of loyalty to Christ, and it only, is strictly in harmony with God's creative purpose for His in- telligent creatures. For it puts into active exercise various powers designed to be thus exercised and capable of their highest well-being only by exercise. It sets them to work for an object which commands the full approval of our intelligence. That which is by nature highest, the mind, actually rules : and that which is by nature lower, the body, attains its goal by acting under the direction of that which is nobler than itself Con- sequently, in him who lives for Christ, there is perfect harmony, and perfect peace, combined with highest activity. This ideal life is practicable, in the highest degree, to all persons in all positions in life. The man who has fewest powers may use them all for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. And the man whose circum- stances are most adverse may yet make it his single aim to do all he can to accomplish the purposes of God. And, if so, even adversity will show forth the glory, and thus help forward the work, of Him whose grace is ever sufficient. That unreserved devotion to Christ is possible to all men always, is a strong presumption that the teaching which claims it is from God. This presumption is confirmed by the fact that de- votion to Christ is not only possible in, but fits a man for, every position in life. By making men right with God, it makes them right one with another. For we have seen that the man who accepts as his own the purposes of God will seek to do all possible good to all 132 THE NEW LIFE [Part I.I within his reach. He will therefore be a good father, a good citizen, a good neighbour, and a tradesman pleasant and profitable to deal with. In Lect. XXL we shall find that unreserved de- votion to Christ saves us from bondage to the world around, by placing us in complete harmony with our environment ; that even the dark things of life are helpers affording us opportunities and aid in serving God. Thus loyalty to Christ gives to us a peace passing understanding ; and makes us in some sense sharers of His throne. Another important element of the New Life in Christ now demands attention. Whole-hearted loyalty is possible to us only for such as we love supremely. All other service is more or less compulsory, and con- sequently imperfect. We therefore wonder not that He who claims the unreserved devotion of all His intelligent creatures claims also their love. So, very conspicuously, in Deut. vi. 4, 5 : " Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. And thou shalt love Jehovah th}' God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength." Here the oneness of God is made the ground of a claim to His people's whole- hearted love. To this command our Lord pays honour, as recorded in Matt. xxii. 38, by quoting it as " the great and first commandment." And, throughout the New Testament, love to God and to Christ is the mainspring of the Christian life. In Christ we see God using means to evoke in His servants the love which He claims. The means used Lect XV] OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST 133 is the infinite love of God to man manifested in the mission and death of Christ to save man. So, with emphatic repetition, i John iv. 9, 10 : " In this was manifested the love of God about us, that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world in order that we may live through Him. Herein is love : not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins." And Rom. V. 8 : "A proof of His own love to us God gives, that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." This love of God is equally the love of Christ. So Gal. ii. 20 : " who loved me, and gave up Himself for me." The love thus historically manifested eighteen centuries ago is inwardly revealed to each individual day by day by the Holy Spirit given to the adopted sons of God. So Rom. v. 5 : " The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us." And the love of God. which is the essence of God, thus mani- fested in Christ and revealed by the Holy Spirit, becomes the new mental environment of the children of God. So I John iv. 16 : " We have known and believed the love which God has about us. God is Love : and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him." This love of God and of Christ to man, thus mani- fested and revealed, melts even man's hard heart into love to God. For love tends ever to evoke response in the object loved. Indeed, of this love of God to man, all love of man to God and all Christian love of man to man is a reflection. " We love ; because He first 134 THE NEW LIFE [Part III loved us : " I John. iv. 19. And this love to God and to Christ is an essential element of the new life in Christ. " To those who love God all things work together for good : " Rom. viii. 28. But, " if anyone love not the Lord, let him be anathema : " i Cor. xvi. 21. Thus, as we shall see still more clearly in Lect. XVI., He who of old bade His people to love God with all their heart works in them now obedience to His own command by revealing in Christ and by the Holy Spirit His own infinite love to them. The wonderful effect of the love of God manifested in Christ, we may trace a step further. The love of God is love to all mankind. And they who under the influence of that love have learned to love God cannot but love those for whom He gave His Son to die. " This commandment have we from Him, that he who loves God love his brother also:" i John iv. 21. Thus is fulfilled (Matt. xxii. 39, quoted from Lev. xix. 18) not only the first great commandment, but " a second like to it : Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Between love to God and love to our fellows is, however, an important difference. We love God because He is in Himself infinitely worthy of our love. But many of our neighbours whom we are bidden to love are repulsive and hostile. We love them in Christ and for Christ's sake. And in Christ they become objects worthy of our love. For in His great sacrifice on their behalf we learn the essential worth of manhood, a worth which sin cannot wholly Lect. XV] OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST 135 efface. Deeply fallen as some men are, they are capable of salvation, and are worth saving. This inherent worth of lost humanity has been felt by thousands of the servants of God who have spent lives of hardship and peril to rescue the vilest and worst, and have found an abundant recompense in the salvation of those for whom Christ died. We have already learnt that God claims, for His great purpose of saving men from sin and building up out of the ruins of lost humanity the eternal Kingdom of God, the unreserved devotion of all His people. And we have now seen that this claim comes to us from One who so loved us that He laid down His life to save us and to save the world. A claim supported by such love and such self-sacrifice we cannot resist. Henceforth our love to Christ assumes the form of devotion to the cause for which He died. And in the light of His great sacrifice any peril or hardship endured by His servants sinks into insignificance. They rejoice to lay themselves and all they have upon the altar consecrated by His blood. Thus His yoke, be it what it may, becomes pleasant and His burden light. This influence of the love manifested on the cross of Christ, prompting devotion to the work of saving men and making it joyous, finds expression in 2 Cor. v. 13-17, where Paul is unveiling the inner motives of his lifelong devotion to the work of God. " If," as some suggest, " we have gone out of our mind, it is for God," i.e. to do His work. " If," as others say, " we are of sound mind," 13^ THE NEW LIFE [Part III i.e. men who know well what they are doing, we use our intelligence " for you," i.e. to do you good. This devo- tion to God and to the good of men is explained by the manifested " love of Christ " which "holds " them " fast" and leaves them no other course open. This compulsory influence of the love of Christ results from Paul's judg- ment about the purpose of His death, viz. "that He died for all, in order that they who live may live, no longer for themselves, but for Him." This manifested love, with this definite purpose, Paul cannot resist ; and there- fore makes this purpose of Christ to be the guiding and all-controlling purpose of his own life. This divine purpose, thus embraced, completely changes both Paul and his environment. "The old things have passed away ; behold they have become new." Thus in Christ and in His death on the cross God not only claims for Himself and for His Kingdom the unreserved devotion of all His servants, but gives them the strongest conceivable motive for whole-hearted and joyful surrender of that which He claims. From the above it is evident that the New Life is one of ceaseless activity. For the needs of the perishing around us and the opportunities afforded us of doing something to save them permit, to those who have caught the compassion of Christ, no rest except such as is needful for more effective work. Thus the service of Christ involves toil and weariness ; and the difficulty of the work involves sometimes hardship and peril and suffering. But it sets before us an aim worthy of any sacrifice. And personal self-denial for a worthy object Lect. XV] OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST 137 ever ennobles. Thus while apparently living for others, the servants of Christ attain their own highest good. This life of active devotion to Christ and to His work is the normal condition of intelligent creatures and their normal relation to their Creator. He is the besrinnincr • and He claims to be the end. He made us for activity ; and in activity we find our highest well-being. And, of this normal relation of the creature to the Creator, an eternal Archetype exists in the Godhead. For the divine life and infinite powers derived by the Son from the Father flow back to Him in absolute and ceaseless devotion. This divine Archetype found a full human counterpart in the incarnate Son. And only so far as it is reproduced in us do we attain our highest well- being. Thus the new life in Christ restores each one to his normal condition and to right relation to God. The New Life also restores each one to right relation to his fellows. Man was created not only to serve God but to help his brother man. Various powers have been allotted to various members of the race in order that each may use them for the general good, so that the endowment of each may become an enrichment to all. The mutual dependence of each upon others reveals the Creator's purpose that each should help the others. Thus the race to some extent is, and to the fullest extent is designed to be, one organic whole. And only so far as this unity is realised in mutual co-operation can our race attain its destined well-being. This divinely-ordained harmony, sin disturbed. When man threw off the vokc of God, he fell a victim to his 138 r//5 NEW LIFE [Part III own selfishness. This set man against man, and thus broke up the race into antagonistic fragments. The harmony thus lost, God restores by setting before all His servants one definite aim in which all have a common interest, viz. the Kingdom of God ; and thus drawing men not only to Himself but to harmonious co-operation with their fellows. It is as though the planets had broken away from the central attraction of the sun, and each pursuing its own path had come into collision w4th others, causing everywhere confusion and ruin. Into the midst of that ruin came the Son of God in order that by drawing to Himself the wandering stars He might become Himself the Centre of a restored moral universe. Thus by rescuing individuals from sin, by joining them to Himself and to their fellows, is Christ the Saviour of the world. He regenerates society by inspiring each member with loyalty to Himself in His purpose of universal blessing, and thus with loyalty to the highest interests of the whole community. This life of unreserved devotion to God in the service of Christ is a new and conspicuous feature of the Gospel of Christ. Before His day, men had recognised, especi- ally in Greece and still more in Rome, that the interests of the individual were bound up in the interests of the community. And recognition of this truth raised patriotism into a sacred duty. Loyalty to God was enjoined by the religious teachers of ancient Israel. And many religions have demanded from their votaries costly sacrifices to be laid on the altars of their gods. Yet not until Christ came was there set before each of the Lf.ct. XV] OF DEVOTION TO CHRIST 139 servants of God one definite work, viz. to save and bless all within our reach by leading them to bow to Him who justly claims their devotion, a work within the capacity of the humblest yet demanding the full conse- cration of the most richly endowed, a work worthy of and abundantly recompensing the greatest sacrifices and ennobling everyone engaged in it. This lofty con- ception, affording a new standard of duty and of human excellence, we have traced by conclusive documentary evidence to Jesus of Nazareth. To this life of devotion to God in Christ, Paul summons his readers. In Rom. vi. 13 he bids them " Present yourselves to God, as if living from the dead, and the members of your bodies, as weapons of righte- ousness, to God." To this exhortation he adds emphasis by repeating it \n v. 19 ; and again, at the close of his exposition of the Gospel, in ch. xii. i, " Present your bodies a living sacrifice . . . your rational service." This last passage represents this life of devotion as a priestly ritual, the Christian counterpart of the daily sacrifice laid on the brazen altar. To present ourselves and our bodies to God can be no other than to resolve henceforth to use our powers in His service. The Greek aorist tense used in all three passages represents this consecration as a definite spiritual act, a definite entrance into a new life of unreserved devotion to God. How this definite self-surrender can be worked out in actual life, we shall now inquire. LECTURE XVI THE NEW LIFE IN THE SPIRIT OF GOD WE have already learnt that Christ claims that we live a life in which all our powers are ever put forth to advance His Kingdom ; and that only so far as this aim is maintained in us and is worked out into the details of our life do we attain our highest well-being. We saw also that by making this claim Christ set before us a new and loftier ideal of human excellence, a new and higher law. The realisation of this ideal in themselves is the task set before the servants of Christ. We ask how it may be achieved. Evidently the first step towards, and the abiding con- dition of, this life of loyalty to Christ is a resolute purpose to devote ourselves without reserve to His service. This purpose involves a surrender of all other purposes except so far as they can be and are sub- ordinated to this one great purpose ; and an acceptance of a path in life marked out not by our own choice but by the will of Another. This initial and continued self- surrender is the costly sacrifice which Christ demands : it is the costliest sacrifice which man can lay upon the altar of God. It is self-consecration to the great work Lect. XVIJ THE NEW LIFE IN THE SPIRIT OF GOD 141 of which Christ says, in John xvii, 19, " on their behalf I sanctify Myself in order that also they may be sanctified in the truth." Strange to say, an immediate result of this deliberate resolve is a painful discovery of our inability to ac- complish or even to maintain it. In proportion to our earnestness, we become conscious of a hostile force within us hindering the accomplishment of our purpose and even more or less dethroning the purpose itself While recognising with increasing clearness the breadth and the justice of Christ's claim, and with a desire more or less constant to yield what He so justly claims, we find ourselves unable to fulfil our own resolve. This felt inability becomes to us an intolerable bondage and con- demnation. Henceforth for us there is no real peace until we yield to Christ the devotion He claims. For deliverance from this bondage, and for a realisation in ourselves of this new life of loyalty to Christ, we turn again, as when seeking pardon for past sins, to the Gospel of Christ. Our inability to live for Christ by any moral strength of our own proves at once that devotion to Christ is possible to us only as a gift and work of Him who gave His Son to rescue man from sin. And, that the new life in Christ is a work of God in us is plainly taught by Paul. So Phil. i. 6, " He who has begun in you a good work will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;" and ch. ii. 12, 1 3, "work out your own salvation : for it is God who works in you both to will and to work, on behalf of His good pleasure," i.e. in order to accomplish what 142 THE NEW LIFE [Part III seems good to Himself. The same is taught in the passages which speak of the new Hfe as a work of the creative power of God. So 2 Cor. v. 17, "if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature ;" Gal. vi. 15, "in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision is anything nor uncircum- cision but a new creature." For a new creation implies a fresh putting forth of the creative power of God. In Eph. i. 19, 20, the surpassing power of God put forth in those who believe is compared to the power which raised Christ from the dead and to heaven. Consequently, as we read in ch. ii, 10, " we are His work, created in Christ Jesus ; " and, in ch. iv. 24, we read of " the new man which, in harmony with God, has been created in righteousness and purity of the truth." We are not surprised to find that of this good work and new creation the Holy Spirit is the Agent. For whatever God does in man. He does through the agency of the Spirit. Just as we read in Gen. ii. 7 that God breathed into a human form the " breath of life and man became a living soul," so Paul teaches that to all who believe the Gospel God gives His Spirit, which is also the Spirit of Christ, to be in them the animating principle of a new life like that of Christ. In Gal. iii. 2, 3, he assumes that his readers have received the Spirit, and says in vv. 13, 14 that " Christ bought us off from the curse of the law ... in order that we may receive the promise of the Spirit." In ch. v. 16 (cp. v. 25) he urges to "walk by the Spirit;" he speaks in ^. 18 of those who are " led by the Spirit ; " and in v. 22 describes all moral excellence as a " fruit of the Spirit." Lect. XVI] IN THE SPIRIT OF GOD 143 In Rom. viii. 2, he asserts that " the law of the Spirit of hfe in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death ; " evidently meaning that the Holy Spirit, given to all who are in Christ, imposes His will as a rule of life and thus rescues them from bondage to the evil rule imposed by sin. Consequently, as we read in v. 4, they " walk according to the Spirit : " i.e. the will of the Spirit is the standard by which they choose their steps." On the other hand, if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, this man is not His : " v. 9. And this indwelling of the Spirit is "Christ in you : " z/. 10. By the help of the Spirit, the Roman Christians " are putting to death the actions of the body ; " and they " are led by the Spirit of God:"z^7'. 13, 14. Similar language runs through the Epistles of Paul. Whatever is good in man, he attributes to the Spirit of God dwelling in those who believe in Christ. An important coincidence is found in Luke xi. 13, where Christ assures His hearers, by a comparison with human parental love, that " the Father from heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him." A still more important coincidence is found in John vii. 39, where a wonderful promise that from those who believe in Christ shall flow rivers of living water is thus ex- plained : " this He spoke about the Spirit which they who believed in Him were about to receive." That Christ will baptize with the Holy Spirit, is a conspicuous element of the teaching of the Baptist in all four Gospels. The same promise is repeated, in Acts i. 5, by the risen, but not yet ascended. Lord. This 11 144 THE NEW LIFE [Part III united testimony leaves no room to doubt that as matter of historic fact Christ promised to give to His servants the Holy Spirit to be in them the source of a life not human but divine. The nature of the Spirit thus promised has been in some measure expounded in Lect. IX., and will be further discussed in Lect. XXXIV. We have seen that the Spirit of God, in the Old and New Testaments, is the source of an influence guiding and enlightening and strengthening men from within with the wisdom and power of God. And we shall learn that the source of this divine influence is an eternal Person distinct from the Father and sharing to the full His infinite attributes. We have just learnt that He is given to the servants of Christ to work out in them the purposes of God as the animating principle of the New Life in Christ. This being so, the examples of the work of the Spirit quoted in Lect. IX. become illustrations of the Christian life. The Spirit who fitted Samson and Bezaleel for their work and made the prophets to be the mighty voice of God is given to be in us the arm and hand and voice of God. Against that power no hostile force, human or natural or diabolical, can prevail. And the wisdom thus given is able to guide in every perplexity. He who gives the Spirit may well say, " Sufficient for thee is My grace." A new feature of the Spirit of God in the New Testament is that He is also the Spirit of Christ, i.e. of Him who lived a human life of unreserved devotion to God. We wonder not to find (e.g. Rom. viii. lo, Gal. Lect. XVI] IN THE SPIRIT OF GOD 145 ii. 20) that the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ is the actual presence of Christ in us, the source in us of a life like that of Christ. They who are filled with the Spirit of Christ are filled with the mind and power of Christ. Their life is thus, in some sense, a continuation of His Incarnation. He who of old manifested Himself to men in the flesh and blood born of Mary now manifests Himself in His servants living on earth by His Spirit dwelling in them. Other teachers can impart know- ledge and set before their pupils a worthy example. But Christ puts His own life into His servants, His own intelligence to enlighten them, His own moral strength to make them strong, and His own love to be the main- spring of their life. It is now evident that the gift of the Spirit of God is sufficient for all our needs. As a bearer of the intelli- gence of Christ, He reveals to us in its excellence the great purpose of God touching His Kingdom, and thus leads us to approve and embrace it. As a bearer of the moral power of Christ, He maintains that purpose in us, in spite of allurements around, and gives us moral strength to work it out in the various details of life. We are thus conscious that our life and purposes and actions have their source not in ourselves but in God ; and are led onvv-ards and upwards by a wisdom and power not human but divine. No longer do we live, but Christ lives in us. The doctrine just expounded, viz., that whatever God claims from us He is ready to work in us by His Spirit dwelling in our hearts, places the moral life of man in a 146 THE NEW LIFE [Part III light altogether new. Apart from the gift of the Spirit, we could obey God only by our own moral strength ; which experience has proved to be utter weakness. Consequently, even the yoke of Christ was a burden we were unable to bear. But now every command is a virtual promise : for it declares what God purposes to work in us. We have learnt the prayer of Augustine, " Give what Thou bidst, and bid what Thou wilt : " Confessions bk. x. 29. The ancient moral law and the new and broader law of Christ have become to us a Gospel of joy. " Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." This doctrine is a characteristic and all-important feature of the Gospel of Christ as compared with all other moral teaching ; except that it is more or less clearly indicated in the Old Testament, chiefly as a promise of blessing foreseen in the far future. So Deut. x*xx. 6 : " Jehovah thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, in order that thou mayest live." Also Ezek. xxxvi. 25 : " And I will sprinkle upon you clean water, and ye shall be clean. From all your filthinesses and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give to you a new heart ; and a new spirit I will put within you : and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and 1 will give you a heart of flesh. And My Spirit I will put within you, and I will make you to walk in My statutes, and My judgments ye shall keep and do." God promises in Joel ii. 2%, 29, " It shall come to pass Lect. XVI] IN THE SPIRIT OF GOD 147 afterwards that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh," upon men and women, slaves and freemen. With these promises of a divinely-wrought salvation agrees the prayer in Ps. li. 7, 10 : '■ Purify me from sin (literally, unsin me) with hyssop, and I shall be clean • wash me and I shall be whiter than snow ... a clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me." The above teaching and other teaching similar raise the Old Testament above all contemporary religious literature, and give to it abiding value even to those who have heard the Gospel of Christ. It is an important link between the Old Testament and the New ; an evidence of a special revelation given to ancient Israel, in addition to the revelation given to all men in creation and in the Moral Sense of man, leading up to the greater revelation afterwards given in Christ. That these promises given of old to one small nation are finding to-day a world-wide fulfilment in the servants 'of great David's greater Son, is no small proof that both the ancient promises and the Gospel of Christ are from the Creator and Ruler of the world. LECTURE XVII THE NEW LIFE IN FAITH IN the last Lecture we learnt that the new life in Christ is a work of the Spirit of God in man and therefore a gift of God to man. It is at once evident that this work of God is not wrought in all men, not even in all who hear the Gospel. And the experience of the servants of Christ tells them that in them, even in their best moments, the purpose of God has not been fully accomplished. All this proves that its accomplishment has conditions other than the will of God. We ask what these conditions are ; or, in other words, how we may obtain for ourselves in the highest degree the new life breathed into men by the Spirit of God. That the condition sought for is in man, that on himself alone depends whether, and to what degree, the salvation announced by Christ is appropriated by each one who hears the glad tidings, we shall learn in Part IV., where we shall discuss the divine and human elements in the Christian life. The various writers of the New Testament agree to teach that the new life is conditioned by FAITH ; in other words they teach that only so far as each one 148 Lect. XVII] THE NEW LIFE IN FAITH 149 believes the good news of salvation does the Spirit of God work out in him the purpose of God and lead him along the path already trodden by Christ. So Paul in Gal. ii. 20, after saying, " no longer do I live, but in me Christ lives," goes on to say, "the life which I now live in flesh I live in faith, viz. belief of the Son of God who loved me and gave up Himself for me." Here we have the source of the new life, Christ living in us ; its con- dition, a faith which has Christ for its personal object ; the historic fact of the death of Christ, which, as we saw in my last volume, makes salvation of sinners possible ; and the eternal love manifested in that historic fact. In ch. iii. 4, to some who were seeking to be justified in law, Paul asks one question " only," viz. " was it by works of law that ye received the Spirit, or by a hearing of faith ? " The whole argument following proves that, as the beginning, so the development, of the Christian life is through faith. In Gal. iii. 14 we read that Christ became a curse on our behalf " in order that we may obtain the promise of the Spirit through faith." In v. 26 Paul writes, " ye are all sons of God through faith ; " and adds in ch. iv. 6 " because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts." In Gal. V. 6 we read that ■ ' in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love." In 2 Cor. v. 7, Paul writes, " we walk by faith, not by appearance." In Eph. i. 13 Paul reminds his readers that "when they believed " they " were sealed with the Holy Spirit." In z;. 19 he speaks of "the surpassing greatness of the I50 THE NEW LIFE [Part 111 power " of God " towards those that believe ; " comparing it to the mighty power which raised Christ from the dead. Inch. iii. 1/ he prays "that Christ may dwell, through faith, in the hearts " of his readers ; and that thus they " may be strengthened through His Spirit " with an influence reaching " to the inward man." And in ch. vi. i6 he speaks of " the shield of faith with which ye will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one." In Rom. vi. 1 1 Paul bids the Roman Christians reckon themselves to be " dead to sin, but living for God, in Christ Jesus." This reckoning can be no other than the process of faith. For it involves a conviction that we are, or from the moment of the reckoning shall be, dead to sin and living for God. Now this reckoning and con- viction would be an illusion unless that which we reckon be true or at once become true. And, if true, it must be wrought in us by the power and Spirit of God. For all experience proves that apart from such divine in- working we are neither dead to sin nor living for God. Consequently, the reckoning to which Paul exhorts is an assurance based on the word and promise of God that from this moment we shall be, by the grace and power of God, separated from all sin and living a life of un- reserved devotion to Him. Such assurance is faith. Many slighter indications running throughout his epistles leave no room for doubt that the great Apostle looked upon the inward salvation wrought in man by the Holy Spirit, and the New Life thus imparted, as conditioned by belief of the promise of God. So 2 Thess. Lect. XVII] IN FAITH 151 ii. 13, " God chose you for salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and beUef of the truth ;" and Col. ii. 12, in reference to the new life which comes through union with Christ, "In whom also ye were raised together with Him through belief of the working of God who raised Him from the dead." The long list of examples of faith in Heb. xi. was given (ch. x. 22, 23) as an encouragement to approach God " in full assurance of faith " and to " hold fast the confession of hope without wavering : " and this thought dominates much of the epistle, e.g. ch. vi. 1 1, 12, 18. Similar teaching is found in i Peter i. 5, " who are guarded in the power of God, through faith." The military term, " guarded," and the present tense, " are guarded," imply deliverance from sin wrought by the continuous act of God. For none are safe unless saved from sin : and the safety here is attributed to the abiding operation of the power of God. It is said to be " through faith." Cp. ch. ii. 6, 7, V. 9, where again faith is a condition of perseverance in the Christian life. Equally clear is the teaching of Christ in John vii. 38 : " He that believes in Me, from within him shall flow rivers of living water." This great promise is explained by the words following : " This said He about the Spirit which they who believe in Him were about to receive." The promise and the explanation assert that the fulness of the Christian life which brings blessing to others around is wrought by the Spirit of God in man. on the condition of faith. In the Synoptist Gospels faith is very conspicuous 152 THE NEW LIFE [Part III as a condition of blessing. In Matt ix. 22, Christ says to an afflicted woman, " Be of good cheer, daughter, thy faith has saved thee." In v. 29, of two bhnd men who cried to Him for help Christ asked, " Believe ye that I am able to do this ? " And, when they had replied in the affirmative, He said, evidently stating a general principle, " According to your faith, be it done to you." Very remarkable is Christ's reply in Matt. xvii. 20 to His disciples when asking why they were powerless to heal a lunatic boy : " Because of your unbelief" This reply he emphasises by adding, " Verily I say to you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain. Remove hence thither, and it will remove ; and nothing will be impossible to you." In other words, the power of God working in man is con- ditioned and limited by man's faith. So Matt. xxi. 22, "all things, so many as ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Similarly, in Mark ix. 23, to one who, asking help for his son, said, " If Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us," Christ answered, rebuking the doubt implied in the petition, " If thou canst believe ! All things are possible to him that believes." This frequent teaching of the Synoptist Gospels is in remarkable harmony with the teaching of Paul, which in many respects differs so widely from that of the Synoptists, that the moral salvation wrought in man by the Spirit of God is also conditioned by man's faith. The agreement of these various types of New Testament teaching is complete proof that Christ Lect. XVII] IN FAITH 153 actually taught that sah'ation, from beginning to end, is through faith. And this is one of the most conspicuous features of the Gospel of Christ. Since the new life is a life of holiness, we may speak of the faith which conditions it as SANCTIFYING Faith, thus distinguishing it from the faith described on pp. 116, 117 of my earlier volume as the condition of Justification. We shall now investigate its specific nature. Already we have learnt {Throng/i CJirist to God, p. 106) that faith or belief, these being equivalent, is mental rest in an idea ; and that, where faith has a personal object, this mental rest is caused by a spoken word and assumes the form of reliance upon the word spoken and upon the character of the speaker. Justifying and sanctifying faith are alike in having God and Christ as their personal Object. So Gal. ii. 20, " in faith of the Son of God ; " according to the ordinary objective use of the Greek genitive. Also 2 Tim. i. 12, " I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard, to that day, that which I have committed to Him." Similarly, in John vii. 38, Christ says, " He that believes in Me, from within him shall flow rivers of living water ; " and in Mark xi. 22, " Have faith of God." Indisputably the faith which conditions the work of the Spirit of God in man has God for its Personal Object. In other words, in each of its two departments, saving faith is an assurance, resting upon the word and power and love of God, that He will fulfil to us His promise of salvation. In this idea, the mind of the believer is at rest. 154 THE NEW LIFE [Part III Sanctifying faith differs from the faith which justifies in the specific word believed^ i.e. in its OBJECT-MATTER. When we come to God for pardon, we grasp, and appropriate to ourselves, His promise of pardon for all who believe that promise. And the promise gives us a measure of rest. By faith we obtain the pardon promised to all who believe : and the promise assures us that God no longer frowns upon us because of our past sins. On the other hand, we know that God smiles only on those who obey Him, and that Christ claims the unreserved loyalty, in action and word and thought, of all those whom He saves. This unreserved devotion we have not given ; and for our failure in the past and for our lack of love we stood condemned, until we ventured to believe that this condemnation was buried in the grave of Christ. But forgiveness for past un- faithfulness will not satisfy us. We cannot be at rest in God by mere forgiveness and falling again. We need to be kept from falling and actually to yield to God the devotion He claims. In view of this deeper need, Christ speaks to us again ; and thus a new object-matter is given for faith. He promises to work in us by His Spirit the devotion which He requires, to give us complete victory over all sin and to fill our hearts with an all-controlling love to God. This promise we embrace. We dare not doubt His ability and His purpose to save. Incredible as it may seem that we who have been so long led captive by sin should now triumph over all sin, even over the accumulated present power of our own past Lect. XVII] IN FAITH 155 transgressions, and yield to God henceforth a whole- hearted service, it is easier to believe that God will enable us to do this than to suppose that His promise will fail. We therefore venture to believe that what He has promised He will also perform, even in us. This reasonable expectation gives us rest. And in proportion to this rest of faith is the promise of God fulfilled in us. This inward rest in expectation of a salvation wrought in us by the power of the Spirit of God is sanctifying faith. This confident expectation of victory by the in- working power of God by no means supersedes earnest and watchful struggle against sin and intense and intelligent personal effort to yield to Christ the devotion He claims. For the new life is both divine in its source and human in its development. Indeed, it is psycho- logically impossible to believe that God will save us from sin unless we resolutely set ourselves against it. Nor can we expect Christ to live in us a life of devotion to God like His own life on earth unless we appropriate to ourselves the mind that was in Christ and gladly lay upon the altar consecrated by His blood whatever we have and are. Thus, just as the faith which justifies is impossible apart from repentance, so sanctifying faith is impossible apart from unreserved consecration of our- selves to God. Since this consecration is a new purpose, it stands related to repentance, which as we saw {Through Christ to God, p. 135) is a change of purpose. Not unfrequently, reluctance to give to Christ the 156 THE NEW LIFE [Part III devotion He claims, i.e. to use for Him and under His direction our various powers, has paralysed faith and left men in spiritual weakness. On the other hand, an unreserved surrender to God not supplemented by faith in the promise and power of God has often been followed by failure and disappointment and sometimes by despair. For full rest in God and for full realisation of the new life in Christ, we need first an earnest and all-embracing consecration, and then a full assurance that what we need God will work in us by His Spirit. Christ's claim to the unreserved devotion of His servants is the LAW, and His promise to work in them whatever He claims is the GoSPEL, of the New Life in Christ. That faith is the one immediate condition both of Justification and of the entire Christian life, suggests irresistibly a deep and far-reaching congruity between this unique condition and the benefits dependent on it. And this congruity is not far to seek. All real belief is a surrender of the whole man to be controlled by something or some one which or whom his intelligence declares to be worthy of confidence. Faith in God is confidence given to One whom our highest intelligence recognises with complete satisfaction as most worthy of our confidence. We need not wonder that such satis- faction with, and rest in, God is the one condition of the effective operation in man of those divine influences which raise him from bondage to sin into a life of intelligent devotion to God. Faith in God is the normal mental attitude of an intellic^ent creature to whom his Lect. XVII] IN FAITH 157 Creator has spoken good tidings of salvation and blessing. Sanctifying faith differs from justifying faith in that the former is at once and in increasing measure verified by actual experience. Justification takes place in God. It is the smile of a pardoning God replacing, for the justified, His righteous anger against sin. But, that God smiles on them, the justified know at first only by faith. On the other hand, the new life in Christ is matter of direct experience. They who possess it are conscious of a hand from above raising them, and breaking their previous bondage to sin ; and they feel in their hearts the pulsations of a new life. They are conscious of aims and efforts which their moral sense approves as good. This new and self-attested life is a complete verification of the faith with which in their felt moral weakness they ventured to expect it ; and of the earlier faith with which they accepted the Gospel promise of forgiveness. For, that they have now power to do right in a measure unknown to them before, is complete proof that their past sins are forgiven. Thus sanctifying faith and its blessed results both supplement and verify the faith which justifies. The three elements of the New Life in Christ dis- cussed in the three foregoing lectures, viz. (i) unreserved loyalty to Christ, (2) wrought in man by the Holy Spirit, (3) on condition of man's faith, are inseparably connected, not only, as we have seen, in the teaching of the New Testament, but in their own nature. For 158 THE NEW LIFE [Part III God's claim to the unreserved devotion of His servants would, in consequence of the bondage to sin in which all men are born, be in vain unless God work in them the devotion He claims. And, if this devotion is to be in any real sense their own, this work of God in man must be conditional on man's free surrender to it. Of this surrender, faith is the simplest form. For, all actual obedience, involving as it does victory over a hostile power, is possible only by the work of the Spirit of God in man. But faith in God is simply man's inward surrender to One whom his intelligence and moral sense declare to be worthy of his utmost confidence. In other words, if we are to live for God, this must be by His work in us through the Holy Spirit, and this conditioned by our faith. It may be objected that faith is itself a work of the Spirit and therefore cannot be a condition of the gift of the Spirit. And, undoubtedly, the Spirit, when received, reveals to us in increasing measure the power and earnestness and love of God, and thus gives to faith a broader foundation on which it builds a firmer confidence. Moreover, even the earliest surrender of faith is helped by the influences with which God draws all men to Himself But, as we shall see in Part IV., there is in faith a personal surrender which is in a very real sense man's own act, dependent on himself alone. And this is the ultimate condition of salvation, the ultimate reason why one man is saved and another is not saved. Notice that the Spirit is the link connecting faith with the New Life conditioned by faith. For faith has Lect. XVII] IN FAITH 159 not in itself power to save. But, to those who believe, God gives, in sovereign mercy, the divine Bearer of the power and life of God. To know this, greatly helps our faith. For we dare not doubt that the Spirit thus given is able to impart even to us the devotion which God claims. That God works in man by His Spirit the devotion He claims, in proportion to man's faith, changes com- pletely the whole aspect of the Christian life. It becomes now an effort to understand the will of God concerning us, and an effort to believe that what He desires Himself will work in us. This new aspect greatly increases our obligation to give to God that which He claims. For we can no longer plead the excuse of inability. On the other hand it brings within our reach a completeness of devotion to God otherwise impossible and inconceivable. Henceforth we wait with confidence and joy to see in our own experience the wonderful works of God. Our delineation of the New Life in Christ has now reached a certain general completeness. We have learnt its distinctive character, viz. unreserved loyalty to Christ, i.e. the use of all our powers to work out the purposes for which the Eternal Son assumed human form ; its source, viz. the Spirit of God given to dwell in man ; its condition, viz. a confident expectation, based upon the word and promise of God, that God will work in us whatever He desires us to be and to do. It remains only that we trace into certain practical details the broad principles thus laid down. 12 LECTURE XVIII THE NEW LIFE IN ITS FURTHER RELATION TO CHRIST VERY remarkable teaching peculiar to the New Testament as compared with all earlier religious teaching, in some of its elements peculiar to Paul, in others to Paul and John, now demands our best attention. Already we have seen that of the New Life in Christ, of its every thought, purpose, and effort, Christ and His Kingdom are the one definite AIM. (He is also the aim of the universe. So Col. i. i6: "for Him have all things been created.") In other words, the new life is (i) FOR CHRIST. We are also frequently taught that this aim can be attained, i.e. that God's purposes about us are accom- plished, only (2) Through Christ. This phrase is very frequent in the New Testament to describe the relation of Christ to the work both of creation and of salvation. It represents Him as the Agent or Instrument through whom God accomplishes His creative and redemptive purposes. As examples, I may quote i Cor. viii. 6, " To us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all Lect. XVIII] NEW LIFE IN RELATION TO CHRIST i6i things . . . and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him." So 2 Cor. v. i8, " God reconciled us to Himself through Christ ; " Rom. V. I, 2, "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have had access into this grace in which we stand ; " and again in v. 1 1, " through whom we have now received the reconciliation." In vi>. 12-21, the phrase before us is the dominant note of an important comparison between Adam and Christ, and of an important statement about the Law. It occurs also in Rom. i. 5, 8, ii. i6, vii. 4, xv. 30, xvi. 27. Similarly Col. i. 20, " He was pleased through Him to reconcile all things to Himself;" Eph. i. 5, ii. 18, Phil. i. II, I Thess. v. 9, Titus iii. 5, and elsewhere. The same phrase is found, in the same sense, in Heb. i. 2, " through whom He made the ages ; " ch. ii. 10, through whom are all things;" ch. vii. 25, "those that come through Him to God;" ch. xiii. 15, 21. Similarly John i. 3, "all things w^ere made through Him;" v. 10, "the world was made through Him ; " v. ly, " grace and truth through Jesus Christ ; " ch. iii. 17, "that the world may be saved through Him ; " ch. xiv. 6, " no one comes to the Father except through Me ; " and I John iv. 9, " that we may live through Him." Also i Peter i. 21, "who through Him believe in God;" ch. ii. 5, "acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." The frequency of tuis phrase in various wTiters of the New Testament reveals its importance as noting 1 62 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III a far-reaching relation between Christ and the works and acts of God. He is not the First Cause : for all things (i Cor. viii. 6, 2 Cor. v. i8) are from God. But He is the avenue or medium through which, i.e. the Agent through whom, God works out His purposes. As such He is " Mediator of a New Covenant." That the Son of God holds a similar relation to creation and redemption, to the universe and to the Kingdom of God, reveals their common source and essential unity. He who is the Aim and the Agent of the New Life, is also its Pattern. Just as the Creator (Gen. i. 26) is Himself the eternal Archetype of His intelligent creatures, so the incarnate Son is the pattern of those whom through Him God reconciles to Himself. As examples I may quote i Cor. xi. i, "become imitators of me, as I also am of Christ ; " and 2 Cor. viii. 9, where Paul, when urging his readers to gene- rosity, appeals to the supreme example of Christ, " for ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that because of you He became poor, though He was rich, in order that ye by His poverty may become rich." Still more remarkable is Phil. ii. 4-8 : " not each one seeking his own interests, but each one also the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God deemed not His equality with God a means of self-enrichment, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men . . . becoming- obedient to death, even death on a cross." Here the incarnation and death of the Son of God are set before Lect. XVIII] ITS FURTHER RELATION TO CHRIST 163 US as revealing the mind of Christ, a mind which Paul desires to be reproduced in his readers. In Rom. vi. 10 we read that Christ "lives for God ;" and in z>. 11 this is set before us as our example, " in like manner reckon yourselves to be dead to sin and living for God." In Rom. viii. 29 we read of a divine purpose that we be " conformed to the image of His Son," in order that thus the only-begotten may become " firstborn among many brethren." This refers evidently to the future glory of the servants of God ; and it asserts that of that glory the splendour of the eternal Son is to be the pattern. In Phil. iii. 21 we are expressly taught that the glorified body of the risen Lord is the model to which will be conformed the risen bodies of His servants. That, even in His suffering and death, Christ is our pattern, is very conspicuously taught in i Peter ii. 21-24, where the writer, while urging his readers to endure suffering even for doing good, holds before them the great example : " also Christ suffered on your behalf, leaving you an example in order that ye may follow in His steps." This pattern is then further described : " who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth ; who when reviled did not revile again, when suffering did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him that judges justly, who bore our sins in His body on the wood." The same example is again urged in ch. iii. 17, 18 ; and in ch. iv. i, "Christ having suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind." In John xiii. 15, after washing His disciples' feet, Christ says, " I have given you a pattern in order i64 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III that, according as I have done, also ye may do." In ch XV. 10, Christ sets Himself before His disciples as their example: "if ye keep My commandments, ye shall continue in My love, as I have kept My Father's commandments and continue in His love." So again in v. 12: "this is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you." Note also I John ii. 6, " he that says that he abides in Him ought, as He walked, also Himself to walk." Similarly, in Matt. xi. 29 Christ says, "take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me : for I am meek and lowly in heart." Throughout the New Testament, Christ's own disposition and action are in various ways set before His servants as a perfect model for their own thought and life. The servants of Christ are to be LIKE Christ. It is worthy of note that the elements in Christ chiefly held up for our imitation are those elements which at first sight seem to be most completely beyond us, viz. His incarnation and His death. These are set before us, not for literal imitation, which is impossible, but because in them most conspicuously was manifested that mind of Christ which must be in us. Very conspicuous and remarkable is the phrase IN Christ, common, in a somewhat different form, to the writings of Paul and John, but not found elsewhere in the New Testament. Evidently it embodies a concep- tion of the believer's relation to Christ which dominated and moulded the thought of the two great theologians of the New Testament. Lect. XVIII] ITS FURTHER RELATION TO CHRIST 165 In Rom. iii. 24 we read of " the redemption which is in Christ Jesus ;" in ch. vi. 1 1, " living for God in Christ Jesus ; " in z^. 23, *' eternal Hfe in Christ Jesus ; " in ch. viii. I, " no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus ; " in V. 2, " in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and of death ; " and in v. 39, " the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." So i Cor. i. 2, "sanctified in Christ Jesus ; " V. 30, " from Him are ye in Christ Jesus ; " ch. iii. I, "babes in Christ;" ch. iv. 17, "beloved and faithful in the Lord ;" 2 Cor. v. 17, "if any one be in Christ, he is a new creature ; " v. 19, " God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself" Still more marked is the same phrase in the Epistle to the Ephesians. So ch. i. I, "faithful in Christ Jesus;" v. 3, "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world ; " vv. 6, 7, " made us objects of His grace in the Beloved One, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins ; " v. 10, " to gather together all things in Christ ; " v. 12, "before-hoped in the Christ ;" ch. ii. 6, " made us sit together with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus ;" v. 10, "created in Christ Jesus for good works;" v. 13, "now in Christ Jesus ye who were formerly far off have become near in the blood of Christ;" vv. 20, 21, "Christ Jesus, in whom every building grows into a holy temple in the Lord." The phrase, " in Christ," has its counterpart in the teaching that Christ dwells and lives in His people. So Rom. viii. 10, " if Christ be in you : " evidently equivalent to " if the Spirit of God dwells in you," in vv. 9, 1 1. i66 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III Similarly Gal. ii. 20, "no longer do I live, but Christ lives in me;" and Eph. iii. 17, "that Christ dwell, through faith, in your hearts ; " and Col. i. 27, " Christ in you the hope of glory." In the Fourth Gospel, similar words are traced to the lips of Christ. So John vi. 56, " he that eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him." They are illustrated by the parable of the vine in John xv. 1-8 : " Every branch in Me not bearing fruit. He takes it away ... as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the vine, so neither can ye except ye abide in Me ... if any one do not abide in Me, he has been cast outside like the branch and has become withered ... if ye abide in Me and My words abide in you." Notice the slightly changed phrase in vv. 9, 10, " abide in My love." Very important, as shedding light upon the mysterious relation of the Father to the Son, and on that of God to man, is ch. xvii. 21-23 : " in order that they all may be one, according as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, in order that also they may be in Us ... in order that they may be one as We are One, I in them and Thou in Me, in order that they may be perfected into one." Notice also i John ii. 6, "he that says he abides in Him ; " v. 24, " if that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you, also ye shall abide in the Son and in the Father ; " ch. iii. 6, " every one that abides in Him does no sin, every one that sins has not seen Him nor known Him." As in the Epistles of Paul, so more conspicuously in the writings of John, Christ abides in those who abide Lkct. XVIIl] ITS FURTHER RELATION TO CHRIST 167 in VAm. So John xv. 4, "abide in Me, and I in you ; " V. 5, " he that abides in Me and I in him, this one bears much fruit, because apart from Me ye can do nothing ;" I John iii. 24, "he that keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in him : and in this we know that He abides in us, from the Spirit which He has given us ; " ch. iv. 4, "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world ;" vv. 12, 13, " if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us : in this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, from the Spirit which He has given us ; " z^. 1 5, " God abides in him and he in God;" v. 16, "he that abides in love, abides in God and God in him." This language of Paul and John and Christ represents Christ as not only the Aim and Agent and Pattern of the new life but also as its Environment, as the home and refuge and vital atmosphere of whatever His servants think and speak and do. He is on every side of them: and IN CHRIST they rest. It also represents Christ as the animating principle moving them from within and breathing into them a new life. These two aspects of their relation to Christ are inseparably con- nected. For the new life within raises us into a new environment ; or rather it becomes itself a new environ- ment transforming everything around us. They in whom Christ dwells find in Him their home and safe refuge. Notice carefully that the relation, just expounded, of believers to Christ is traced to an essential relation of the Son to the Father. So John xiv. 20 : "I in My 1 68 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III Father, and ye in Me, and I in you ;" ch. xvii. 21, "as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee." Each of these divine persons is to the other both centre and circum- ference. And, in close agreement with the frequent teaching both of John and Paul, this eternal and mutual relation of the Father and the Son is the pattern of the mutual relation of Christ and His servants. Conse- quently, as quoted above, they who abide in Christ abide also in God. Of this indwelHng of Christ in His servants, the Spirit of God dwelling in the hearts of believers is the im- mediate Agent. For He is that divine person who comes into immediate inward contact with the spirit of man. Hence, to be in Christ is to be in the Spirit and to have the Spirit in us. So Rom. viii. 9, 10, ''ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you : but if any one has not the Spirit of Christ, this man is not His : but if Christ be in you," etc. He is the one Administrator of the entire work of God in Christ. Since Christ is a Person distinct from us. He is, to those who dwell in Him and in whom He dwells, a divine Companion, and they are sharers with Him of all that He has and is. Hence flows a fifth relation of Christ to His servants. They live, not only for Him and through Him and like Him and in Him, but WITH Him. After teaching in Rom. viii. 14 that " so many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God," Paul goes on mv. 17 to argue that they are, " if children, also heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." He means that, since they share with Christ in some measure Lect. XVIII] ITS FURTHER RELATION TO CHRIST 169 the relation to God indicated by the title " Son of God," they share also His great inheritance : in other words, he asserts that the servants of Christ in virtue of their relation to God will themselves enjoy, as His children, the infinite wealth of God. The solemn words following, "if we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him," assert conspicuously that in all things the servants of Christ share the fortunes of their Lord. This partnership with Christ is again asserted in Eph. ii. 5,6:" He has made us alive together with Christ . . . and has raised us together with Him and made us sit together with Him in the heavenly places in Christ." In other words, God has made us, who were dead by reason of our sins, to be sharers of the life which He breathed into the lifeless body which lay in Joseph's tomb. Virtually, by raising Christ from death to life and from earth to heaven where He now sits enthroned, God has raised us from spiritual death into a new life and has made us already sharers of the throne of Christ. For, our new life in Christ is a result of the return to life of the sacred corpse of the Crucified. Similar language is found in Col. ii. 12, 13, iii. i , 3. Compare 2 Tim. ii. 1 2, " if we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him ; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him." In John xvii. 24 our Lord prays, " Father, that which Thou hast given to Me, I desire that where I am also they may be with Me, in order that they may behold My glory." And in Rev. iii. 21 the Risen One says again, "he that overcomes, I will give to him to sit I70 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III with Me in My throne, as also I overcame and have sat down with My Father in His throne." Similarly, Matt. xix. 28, " when the Son of Man shall sit upon His throne of glory, also ye shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." In the Epistles of Paul, the foregoing teaching receives a peculiar and important development, viz. that the great historic events of the human life of Christ are reproduced in the spiritual experience of His followers. So Gal. ii. 20, " I died to law . . . ^^'ith Christ I have been crucified ;" ch. v. 24, "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires ; " and ch. vi. 14, " through which (cross) the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Similarly Rom. vi. 2-1 1, "we died to sin ... we were buried with Him through the baptism for death ... we were united in growth with the likeness of His death and we shall be with that of His resurrection . . . our old man has been crucified with Him ... we have died with Christ, and we shall live with Him ... in this way (as Christ died to sin) reckon yourselves dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus." Also ch. vii. 4, " we were put to death to the Law through the (crucified) body of Christ." And again Col. ii. 11, 12, "we were buried with Him in our baptism ; in which also we were raised with Him through faith ; " so v. 20, " if ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world ;" ch. iii. i, "if then ye were raised with Christ ; " and 2 Tim. ii. 12, "we died with Him." Slightly different is the thought expressed in Col. Lect, XVIII] ITS FURTHER RELATION TO CHRIST 171 ii. 13, "you, being dead by reason of the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses ; " Eph. ii. 5, 6, " and us, being dead by reason of our trespasses, He has made alive with Christ . . . and has raised us with Him and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." In the above passages, notice the frequent and con- spicuous recurrence of verbs compounded with auv-, a mode of speech reproduced very imperfectly by any English equivalent. This teaching implies that the servants of Christ not only are sharers of His inheritance but have passed through an experience analogous to the various steps of the transition from Christ's human life on earth to the throne of God. Paul's language implies also that their inward .spiritual experience is a result of His outward and historic experience : that because centuries ago He escaped by His own death from the assault of evil they are to-day conquerors of sin, that because God raised Him once from the death in which He lay they now^ live a new and deathless life. The life which entered into the sacred corpse of Christ has, in con- sequence of their inward contact with the Risen One, entered into them and become to them the breath of immortality. And the assurance that, in consequence of what Christ has already done and suffered for them, they will some day reign with Him in endless life is to them, in the anticipation of faith, a present partici- pation in that glory. 172 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part. Ill This teaching affords remarkable and powerful confirmation of the historic truth of the death and resurrection of Christ. For it reveals the deep impression made by these events on the mind and thought of Paul ; an impression without parallel in the religious thought of man. And this impression can be accounted for only by the truth of the belief which exerted so profound an influence on the mind of the Apostle. It is thus an important addition to the argument of my last volume. The same teaching greatly helps our faith. As we look back to Christ's death upon the cross and remember that in the moment in which He bowed His head in death He escaped completely from the enemies to whose assault, for our sakes, He had exposed Himself, we venture to believe that we are sharers of that deliverance, that upon His cross we have ourselves escaped from the dominion of sin ; and we also venture to believe that by faith and in Christ we already share the triumph of our Risen Lord over all the enemies of Him and of us. Our faith is realised in actual experience. Henceforth His cross stands between us and our sins : and through His empty grave we enter a life of victory. Thus is Christ, the eternal Son of God who became Son of Man and died on the cross and rose from the dead and rose to heaven, the Beginning and the End, the Centre and the Circumference, of the new life given by God to His adopted sons. He through whose agency and for whose glory the universe was Lect. XVIII] ITS FURTHER RELATION TO CHRIST 173 created is also the Agent and the Aim of this new life. He is also its Pattern, and both its animating Principle and its living Environment. The entrance of this new life into the hearts of its happy possessors involved a change so wonderful that it can be compared only to the death by which Christ escaped from His human and spiritual enemies, to His resurrec- tion from the dead and His ascension to heaven. It places them in close fellowship with Christ, and makes them partakers of all that He has and is. This conception of life, viz. as inspired and dominated by one human and superhuman personality, is unique in human thought. " Other men have founded religions : and some of these religions have continued to our day. But not one of them has gained for himself and for the events of his life, in the minds even of his most devoted followers, a place which can for a moment be compared to the place which throughout the Christian centuries Jesus of Nazareth has held in the hearts and lives of unnumbered thousands of whose whole thought He is the beginning and the end. LECTURE XIX THE NEW LIFE IN ITS RELATION TO SIN ALREADY in Lect. IV. we have seen that the various writers of the New Testament agree to teach or plainly to assume that all men have committed actual sin. In this, they are supported by the moralists of all ages and nations. The same sacred writers assert, and represent Christ as asserting, that exact retribution beyond the grave for all things done on earth awaits every man. They teach also that all sin is against God, and incurs His strong dis- pleasure. And this teaching is, in no small degree, verified in our own experience. For, while our hearts are turned towards sin, we cannot think of God without fear. Evidently and indisputably all sin is a shadow hiding from us the smile of God, a discord disturbing the normal harmony of the Creator and His intelligent creatures, and a barrier separating us from the one Source of all good. We have also learnt that all past sins are a present hostile power holding back the sinner from doing what he knows to be right, and thus holding him down in degrading bondage. This hostile power is increased by Lect. XIX] THE NEW LIFE IN ITS RELATION TO SIN 175 each past indulgence in sin. For every act goes to form a habit leading or forcing us along the path we have already trodden. Consequently, each man has to reckon with the accumulated inward result of his past life ; and must either resist effectually, or be carried along by, the accumulated power of his past sins. We ask now, In what relation do the adopted sons of God stand to this deep shadow and to this hostile power? That they have been received into His family as His sons, implies that they have passed from under the frown of God into the sunshine of His smile. And the smile of God implies victory over all sin. For the inborn moral sense, which claims to rule the life of man, asserts, in words we cannot misunderstand or contradict, that God is angry with all who commit sin. Conse- quently, since experience has proved that we have no power of our own to conquer sin, the promise of pardon virtually includes deliverance from the hostile power of sin. So Matt. i. 21 : "He shall save His people from their sins." This deliverance from sin demands now further examination. This victory over sin, Paul describes in Rom. vi. 11 by bidding his readers " reckon " themselves " dead to sin." This reckoning is evidently (see p. 1 50) the mental process of faith ; and this death to sin is an accomplish- ment of the purpose mentioned in v. 6, "in order that we may no longer be in bondage to sin." The phrase " dead to sin " can mean no less than complete de- liverance from sin. For death is absolute separation. Between the dead and the things amid which they 13 176 THE NEW LIFE [Part III lived is an infinite gulf. Well may Paul ask in v. 2, "We who died to sin, how are we still to live in it?" This death to sin Paul compares in vv. lo, 1 1 to Christ's death on the cross : " He died to sin once ... in the same way reckon yourselves to be dead to sin . . . in Christ Jesus." That Christ died to sin, can only mean that when He breathed out His life on the cross He thereby escaped from all contact with those powers of evil to whose assault He exposed Himself in order to rescue us. And the separation was complete. On the morning of that day Christ was exposed to the fury of His foes, human and superhuman. But in the evening He was free. By death He had escaped for ever from Annas and Caiaphas and the Roman soldiers and from the burden and curse of man's sin. As His sacred corpse hung upon the cross, He was indeed " dead to sin." A similar deliverance Paul bids his readers appropriate by the reckoning of faith. It can be no less than complete deliverance from all pollution and bondage of sin. The same is implied in v. 22: "but now, having been made free from sin and having become servants to God, ye have your fruit for holiness and the end eternal life." Similarly, in 2 Cor. vii. i we read, " Having then these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all defile- ment of flesh and spirit, accomplishing holiness in the fear of God." This implies a salvation so complete that not even our thoughts will be soiled by the defilement of sin. For, whatever pollutes the thought pollutes also the thinking spirit. This purification is represented as Lect. XIX] IN ITS RELATION TO SIN 177 our own act : for, although only God can save from sin, our salvation is conditional on acceptance of the deliver- ance offered by God. These passages and others similar prove that Paul taught, as the privilege of the sons of God, complete victory over all sin. In close agreement with the above is i John i. 7, "the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin ; " and V. 9, " He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The Greek aorist here and in 2 Cor. vii. I represents the cleansing as already attained. And the words, " the blood of Jesus cleanses," teach that purification is a result of Christ's violent death on the cross. The same is implied also in Titus ii. 14, "who gave Himself on our behalf that He may ransom us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people of His own, zealous for good works." Salvation from the hostile power of sin is implied in the military term used in i Peter i. 5, " who are guarded in the power of God, through faith." For sin is man's worst foe ; and none are safely guarded unless they are saved from all sin. A similar deliverance is asserted in an address of Peter recorded in Acts xv. 9 : " having cleansed their hearts by faith." Thus agree Paul and John and Peter in announcing salvation from all sin. Similarly Heb. ix. 14: " how much more shall the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God." And much else in the New Testament. The language quoted above does not necessarily imply annihilation of the inward hostile influence resulting, as 178 THE NEW LIFE [Part III we have seen, from sinful indulgence in the past, z.e. annihilation of all formed habits of sin. For these influences and formed habits do not defile us unless yielded to. Consequently, a felt tendency to evil, trampled under our feet by the power of God, is not inconsistent with the purity described above. Similarly Christ, though dead to sin, is ever from His throne carrying on war against it. The passages quoted above teach plainly complete victory over every temptation to sin, a victory gained for us by the death of Christ. For we cannot be dead to sin while we are led astray and polluted by it. But if, as each temptation arises, it is overcome, even though we be conscious of its presence as a conquered enemy ever ready to rebel and therefore an abiding danger, then are we, kept by the power of God, both cleansed from sin and dead to sin. This distinction is of the utmost practical importance. For many who have ventured to accept the full salvation promised in the Gospel have been dis- appointed to find the old tendencies to evil, perhaps after a period of apparent quiescence, again asserting themselves and endeavouring to regain their lost power, thus occasioning fresh conflict with a foe supposed to be dead. The disappointment is needless. If we abide in faith and thus abide in God, each temptation will be followed by victory. Each victory will weaken the power of our adversary, and will reveal the im- pregnability of the fortress in which we have taken refuge. Sinful habits can be eradicated only as they have Lfxt. XIX] IN ITS RELATION TO SIN 179 been formed, i.e. by a course of action. God will both rescue us from, and destroy, formed habits of sin, in thought, word, or act, by giving us successive and constant victory over them. The man who has been a slave to drink will not at once lose his appetite for it. But he will receive power to control that appetite. And each victory will weaken it. But it will still remain as a danger needing to be guarded with constant watchfulness. This gradual destruction of the power of bodily appetites, strengthened by sinful indulgence, seems to be referred to in Rom. viii. 1 3 : " if by the Spirit ye are putting to death the actions of the body, ye will live." Here " the actions of the body " are repre- sented as having life : otherwise they could not be put to death. And this abnormal life can be no other than the present evil influence resulting from actions done in obedience to the dictates of the bodily life. The present indicative, " ye-are-putting-to-death," de- notes an action now going on ; and consequently gradual. We have here, as the normal state of the believer, a gradual destruction, by the aid of (v. 14) the Spirit of God, of an evil influence proceeding from the bodily life. Instructive also is Gal. v. 16, 17: "walk by the Spirit, and ye will not accomplish the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are hostile, each to the other, in order that, whatever things ye wish, these ye may not do." Here is no word of blame, i8o THE NEIV LIFE [Part III simply a statement of fact. We may therefore take it as describing the normal state of the adopted sons of God. Two mutually hostile influences seek to control their action, viz. the bodily life which they share with animals, and the Spirit of God. This suggests or implies a continuance of influences opposed to the Spirit of God and derived from the constitution received at birth. From Lectures XVI. and XVII. it follows that this deliverance from sin is wrought in us by the Spirit of God on the condition of faith. This puts within our reach a degree of purity otherwise im- possible. For to the power of the Holy Spirit there are no limits. And we cannot doubt the promise of Christ. We therefore go each day into the conflict against sin, even against the accumulated power of our own past sins, and in spite of our felt moral weakness, with a shout of victory. For we know that the conflict is carried on not by our weakness but by the infinite power of the Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts and guarding us from all evil. To thousands of the servants of Christ, the discovery that salvation from sin is wrought by God in those that believe has been an era in the spiritual life. Probably each day as they review it they are ready to admit that through defective faith it has been marked by sinful imper- fection. But they thankfully acknowledge that by the grace of God they have lived a life of victory over sin unknown to them until they ventured to trust the keeping of their wayward hearts to the great Shepherd. Lect. XIX] IN ITS RELATION TO SIN i8i In I John iii. 6, we read that " everyone that abides in Him does not sin ; everyone that sins has not seen Him, neither knows Him." So v. g : " everyone born from God does no sin . . . and cannot sin." Probably the word siji refers here to actual transgression ; as in James i. 15 where it is distinguished from desire, " desire, having conceived, brings forth sin." But these words assert that the new life is altogether antagonistic to sin ; and that they who commit sin either (note the Greek perfect) have not seen the heavenly light or have lost the effect of the vision. The victory over sin described above is a wonderful and decisive verification of the faith with which, while groaning under the power of sin, we ventured to accept the promise of deliverance. For our sins were essen- tially our own : and we found ourselves in the past completely under their power. But now their power is broken ; and this deliverance reveals the presence in our hearts of a Helper mightier than the sins which formerly held us in bondage. Moreover, this Helper moves us to bow to Christ and to call God our Father. And this proves that He is the Holy Spirit given by God in Christ to His adopted sons. In other words, we are directly conscious of an unseen Hand raising and guarding us ; and we know that it is the hand of our Father in heaven. This inward experience of the presence and power of God becomes at once a ground of still firmer faith in God and an inspiration of still more joyous hope of final victory. LECTURE XX THE NEW LIFE IN ITS RELATION TO THE LAW IN the New Testament the word law denotes some- times the body of commands ritual (Luke ii. 22-24, 27, 39, John vii. 23) and moral (Matt. v. 17-43, Rom. vii. 7) given to Israel through Moses ; at other times the Pentateuch, e.g. Gal. iv. 21, where the story of Abraham is quoted as written in the Law ; or the Jewish Scriptures generally, e.g. Rom. iii. 19, where quotations from the Psalms and the Book of Isaiah are spoken of as the voice of the Law. In Rom. ii. 15 the Law is said to be written on the hearts of all men as the standard by which even the Gentiles will be judged. This last we can well understand. For the most important element of the Jewish Law is but a literary embodiment of the inborn Moral Sense of man. That all national laws are embodiments of this inborn primal law, is asserted "by Cicero in an important passage quoted on p. 29 of my volume Through Christ to God. From this unwritten yet deeply written Law, all human laws derive their authority. We shall now discuss the relation of the Gospel of Christ to the inborn Moral Sense of men and to the Law given to Israel by God through the hands of Z82 Lect. XX] NEW LIFE IN ITS RELATION TO THE LAW 183 Moses, as this relation is presented in the New Testament. This inquiry is the more needful because the Moral Sense speaks with an authority which none can deny or question. Every religion must be judged according as it supports that supreme authority. This was recog- nised in the definition of religion given at the beginning of the earlier volume. If it be correct, whatever does not make for righteousness, whatever does not prompt men to do that which the Moral Law commands, lies outside the domain of religion. The relation between the Gospel of Christ and this variously written law demands our best attention. In Gal. ii. 19 Paul says, " through law I died to law, in order that I may live for God." Similarly, Rom. vii. 4 : " so then, my brethren, ye also have been put to death to the Law by the (crucified) body of Christ, in order that ye may become Another's, even His who was raised from the dead." These words are given to explain the foregoing illustration taken from a married woman set free by the death of her husband from the law which bound her to him. They also illustrate an assertion in ch. vi. 14, " ye are not under law but under grace." The phrase " dead to the Law " at once recalls the words " dead to sin " by which Paul describes the believer's complete deliverance from former bondage to sin. The word dead certainly denotes in each case absolute separation. We ask. In what sense is the believer in Christ separated from the dominion of the Law? 1 84 THE NEW LIFE [Part III The statements of Paul just quoted, cannot be limited to the ceremonial lazv. For the compass of the word lazv in Rom. vii. 4 cannot be narrower than in vv. 7, 8 where it includes conspicuously the tenth command- ment. Moreover the Moral Law is a far more terrible barrier to the favour of God than are any mere ordi- nances of ritual. For it touches the springs of action much more closely, and reveals our moral powerless- ness much more clearly, than do these, and makes a far stronger appeal to the Moral Sense. We may perform a rite correctly ; but none can so love God and love his neighbour as to claim on this ground the favour of God. If there is any law from which we need deliverance, it is from the condemnation pronounced upon every man by these two great commandments. In close connection with the above teaching of Paul, we find other teaching at first sight contradicting it. In Rom. viii. 3, 4 he asserts that God sent His own Son " in order that the decree of the Law may be fulfilled in us." This implies clearly that obedience to the Law is a part of the purpose of the Incarnation of the Son of God. The same is implied in ch. xiii. 8-10, where Paul supports an exhortation to love one another by saying that " he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the Law." Then follow several commandments from the Decalogue, and the greater commandment, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Paul adds, " love works no evil to his neighbour. Love therefore is a fulfilment of the Law." This implies that in some real sense, the Law is still valid as a rule of conduct. Otherwise Paul would Lect. XX] IN ITS RELATION TO THE LAW 185 not support a general exhortation touching conduct by an appeal to the Law. In Gal. V. 19-21, I Cor. vi. 9, 10 we have lists of sins, followed by the solemn warning, "they that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." This implies that the broad principles of morality, which are frequently enforced in the Old Testament as binding on Israel and the world, are still binding under the New Covenant, and that obedience to them is an absolute condition of entrance into the glory announced by Christ. And the Epistles of Paul and the New Testament from beginning to end inculcate obedience to the Moral Law as a condition of the favour of God. Returning now to the comparison in Rom. vii. 1-4, we notice that the married woman is, while her husband lives, prevented by the Law from marrying another man. The Law seems to rivet the chains of what may be degrading bondage, and to be an absolute barrier to a union which may be for her highest advantage. But the husband dies. And now all is changed. The hand of death has broken down the insuperable barrier, and the woman is free. In this sense, she is dead to the Law. Paul says that in a similar sense they who believe in Christ have escaped from the Law which formerly condemned them. They are dead to the Law in the sense that, through the death of Christ, they are no longer condemned by it to separation from God and to the consequent bondage under the yoke of sin. On the other hand, the Law is an expression of l86 THE NEW LIFE [Part III the abiding will of God touching the conduct of all His intelligent creatures. It is therefore to the adopted sons of God an authoritative guide in action : and only as they obey it can they enjoy His favour. In this sense Paul says in i Cor. ix. 20, 21 that, while he is " not himself under law," he is yet " not without law of God but in a law of Christ." The changed phrase suggests that the Law is no longer a burden under which he lies in bondage but a vital element in which he lives. This changed relation to the Law is brought about by the gift of the Spirit of the Son of God, to be in the adopted sons, in proportion to their faith, the animating principle of a new life of devotion to God. For the Law is an expression of the mind of the Spirit. " The Law is spiritual : " Rom. vii. 14. It is " the Law of the Spirit of life : " ch. viii. 2. Dwelling in the sons of God, the Spirit reveals to them the excellence of that which the Law commands ; and thus makes them eager to do it. And, more wonderful still. He gives them power to accomplish what He has taught them to desire. This gift of the Spirit on the condition of faith changes completely the whole aspect of the Law. It was ever, and is still, a voice of God speaking with an authority which none can contradict. But formerly we were unable to obey it. And the voice of authority pronounced our condemnation. Consequently the Law, though manifestly divine, was to us an intolerable burden. But now we have learnt that whatever God Lect. XX] IN ITS RELATION TO THE LAW 187 commands He works in those who venture, in faith, to expect Him so to do ; that He will Himself lead them, and enable them to walk, along the path marked out for them in the written law. In other words, the command has become a promise, a promise which will be fulfilled in us by the power and gift of God according to our faith. So complete is the change that it can be described only by saying that the believer is dead to the Law. For, through the death of Christ on the cross he has been saved from its condemnation. And through that death he has entered a new Ufe of obedience to the Law. Thus in the grave of Christ the Law, as Paul and we once knew it, has been buried : and from that grave with the rising Lord it has risen to be the light and joy of His people. The apparent occasional antagonism of Paul to the Law is explained by his own past experience as a sincere and earnest Pharisee. To such, it seemed to be an insuperable barrier to the favour of God. On the other hand, as a precious revelation of the will of God and as a guide through the maze of human life, the Law was a joy and song to the best men in ancient Israel. So Ps. cxix. 97, " O how I love Thy Law! It is my meditation all the day;" and V. 105, " Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." In all ages these words have expressed the experience of the servants of Christ. The abiding validity of the Law finds beautiful expression in James ii. 8-12 : "If ye accomplish the i88 NEIV LIFE IN ITS RELATION TO THE LAW [Part III royal Law, according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect of persons, ye work sin, being convicted by the Law as transgressors. For whoever has kept the whole Law but has stumbled in one thing has become guilty of all. For He that said. Commit no adultery, said also, Do no murder. But if thou dost no adultery, but dost murder, thou hast become a transgressor of law. So speak and so do as being about to be judged by a law of liberty." The deep harmony, expounded above, between the law written in the hearts of all men and in the sacred literature of ancient Israel and the Gospel of Christ is an all-important and decisive confirmation of other evidence proving this last to be a revelation from God to man. Manifestly and conspicuously the Gospel makes for righteousness. For it liberates us from hopeless moral bondage ; affords strong motive for obeying the moral Law ; and gives power to obey it. This wonderful homage paid by the Gospel to the moral Law so deeply inwoven into the highest element of human nature is complete proof that the Gospel comes from the intelligent and righteous Creator and Ruler of men. LECTURE XXI THE NEW LIFE IN ITS RELATION TO THINGS AROUND LIKE the Moral Sense, and the Law given to Israel in which it found historic verbal expression, also the universe around us sprang from God. Consequently the New Life, which is the breath of God in Man, stands in definite relation not only to the Law but to the visible universe. For, as God is One, so are all things which come forth from Him mutually related. We therefore now seek for the new relation to their environment in which the New Life places the adopted sons of God. This inquiry is the more needful because at first sight even to the best of the servants of Christ their environment seems sometimes to be hostile. And in the universe itself, from some points of view, confusion seems to reign. We shall find that under apparent discord lies deep and far-reaching harmony. Evidently to a large extent man is, or seems to be, at the mercy of his environment, material and human. The constitution of the body, to which food is a necessity of life, makes life to be to most men a toil and weariness and anxiety. The need for food makes man dependent on his further environment. For the 189 190 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III supply of food is conditioned by natural forces beyond his control or foresight. This exposes him to want, and possibly to starvation. At all times, in con- sequence of the same bodily constitution, taken in connection with the world in which he lives, man is liable to accident, involving pain, and to sickness. And every man carries in his body the sentence of death. All this is greatly aggravated by man's human environment, by the men around him with whom he has to do. For, in consequence of his bodily constitution and the constitution of the universe, each man is to no small degree dependent on his fellows. These, if hostile, may take the bread from his mouth, and may inflict loss and pain and death. This dependence on others com- plicates greatly the problems of life. On all sides man is hemmed in by his environment near and remote, material and human. This dependence on environment tends to degrade. The effort to maintain ourselves and those dependent on us absorbs both time and energy, and thus hinders the self-culture which would raise us to a higher level of intelligence. And, not unfrequently, under pressure of hunger, men have sunk into cri-me and to all the moral degradation it involves. To them, the necessities of animal life have debased all that gives to human life its distinctive worth. Moreover, man's dependence on his fellows, frequently upon bad men, tempts him to seek their favour by doing that which his better judgment disapproves, thus making him in some sense their slave. Most men seem to be, from infancy and throughout life, Lect. XXI] ITS RELATION TO THINGS AROUND 191 helpless victims to an environment hostile to self-respect, intelligence, and morality. We notice however that in Christian nations much has been done, and more is done each year, to rescue man from the evil influences of his environment. Facilities for communication have lessened the cost of food, and have made famine in the more developed states impossible, and in all Christian states less likely and less terrible. The medical art has done much to lessen human suffering : and the mutual care of man for man protects in increasing measure each individual. Throughout Christendom man is conquering his sur- roundings, rescuing himself from their control, and making them subservient to his well-being. Much is also done, by good government, to rescue men from the unjust violence of their fellows ; and to unite the body politic, in its larger and smaller circles, in efforts for the general good, and thus indirectly for the good of each individual. And this progress in the past, still continuing, encourages a hope that man's environment, material and social, so long a fetter holding him down, will become, to a degree far greater than hitherto, helpful to his pleasure and well-being. In spite of this hope, the burden of life, caused by the constitution of the body and by man's surroundings as a whole, presses very heavily on many loyal servants of Christ. We now ask. To what extent is man's relation to his environment directly affected by the new life breathed by the Spirit of God into those who believe the Gospel? 14 192 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III This question, Paul answers by asserting in Rom. viii. 28, after an exposition of the Gospel, that " to those who love God all things are working together for good." The words following, " to them that are called according to purpose," suggest that this harmonious and beneficent working is an accomplishment of a divine, and therefore eternal, purpose embracing both man and his environ- ment. In V. 29 this purpose is further described as a foreordination of the called ones to be conformed to the image of the Son of God. In other words, under- neath the apparent conflict and confusion around us there is harmony ; and underneath an apparently hostile environment there is universal beneficence : " all things work together ; for good." This is further illustrated, in the verses following, by the song of triumph in which culminates Paul's exposition of the Gospel of Christ and of the new life resulting therefrom. He gives two lists (v, 35 and vv. 38, 39) of apparently hostile elements in the Christian's environment, and declares that they cannot separate him from the love of God in Christ and that therefore in them he is more than conqueror. Of the reality and completeness of that victory, this song of triumph is itself indisputable proof. This glowing argument implies that the universe, including natural forces and bad men, is in the hands of God, that it is part of His original purpose of blessing, and that therefore it cannot hinder, but must help forward, the accomplishment of that purpose. Similar teaching is found in the recorded words of Christ. In Matt. vi. 24-34, after warning of the im- Lect XXI] ITS RELATION TO THINGS AROUND 193 possibility of a service divided between God and Mammon, He teaches that our Father in Heaven knows, and will supply, the bodily needs of His children on earth, thus leaving them no place for anxiety. In John ix. 3, Christ says that a case of blindness from birth, doubtless a result of natural causes, was designed to accomplish a divine purpose : " in order that the works of God may be manifested in him." Similarly, the sick- ness of Lazarus (ch. xi. 4) was " for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God may be glorified thereby." All this implies that natural forces are working out a divine purpose of blessing. Under the earlier covenant Joseph says, as recorded in Gen. 1. 12, in reference to his brothers' great sin in selling him as a slave, " Ye meant evil against me ; but God meant it for good .... to save much people alive." That the universe is in the hands of God, and that all its forces, natural and human, are working out His purposes, underlies the teaching of the whole Bible. Even beyond the limits of the Sacred Nation and the influence of Christianity, similar teaching is not un- known. So Plato, Republic, bk. x. p. 613 <3; : " This must be our notion of the just man that, even when he is in poverty or sickness or any other seeming misfortune, to him these things will turn out in the end for good, living or even dead. For by the gods he is cared for, whoever he be, that eagerly wishes to become righteous and by practising virtue to become like God so far as this is possible to man." This quotation might be supported by man}' others from the best literature of the ancient world. 194 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III To the race as a whole many benefits accrue from elements in man's environment which are unpleasant and painful and at first sight injurious. Man's com- pulsory conflict with nature for food and other bodily necessities has wonderfully stimulated industry and in- telligence ; and has thus been a fruitful source of progress. And it has frequently developed the highest moral qualities. Men have submitted to toil and pain and have dared danger in order to provide for their wives and little ones ; and have thus themselves risen in moral worth. Unquestionably the hardships of life have contributed immensely to the higher education of the race. Even misery has evoked a pity and beneficence which Jhave greatly enriched the benefactors. And if the general environment of man, which taken as a whole has been so beneficial to him, be from God, we need not doubt that this education of the race was part of the purpose of that environment. In this general sense, to the race as a whole, many influences apparently hostile are working together for good. Paul's statement quoted above that all things are working for good is limited to " those that love God." Benefits to others lay outside the Apostle's thought. This limitation is easily understood. For love is the normal relation of an intelligent creature to his Creator. He is worthy of our love ; and has revealed Himself to us in order that we may love Him. Not to love Him, is not to know Him. Where there is no love to God, man's normal development, intellectual and moral, has been hindered. This implies resistance to God, and Lect. XXI] ITS RELATION TO THINGS AROUND 195 discord. On the other hand, to those who have accepted this norma] development there is harmony with God and consequently harmony with all that God has made. This teaching of Paul has been again and again verified. Thousands of men and women have borne bravely and cheerfully the burdens of life : and their endurance has developed in them a nobility of spirit, a trust in God, and an experience of His all-sufficient grace abundantly worth all that they have endured. Even the malice of bad men, failing to evoke in them resentment and thus to do them the only real injury, has wrought in them patience and forbearance like that of Christ, and has thus been a source of spiritual gain. The pleasant things of life have not obscured the better things of the life to come, but have prompted gratitude to God. And wealth has been a means of advancing His Kingdom. Thus amid light and shadow sunshine and storm, aided by both and by its entire environment, the New Life in Christ makes progress. This blessed experience is complete proof that man's entire environment, near and remote, is from God. For this harmonious and far-reaching co-operation of forces and influences so diverse cannot be a mere fortunate accident. It is manifestly designed : and the Designer can be no other than the intelligent Author of the universe. Thus the moral and spiritual benefits actually derived by the servants of Christ from their material surroundings are additional evidence that the material universe is an offspring of an intelligent and righteous Creator. That matter aids the highest development of 196 THE NEW LIFE IN [Part III mind, is decisive proof that matter sprang from Mind. To know that the compHcated tissue of forces and influences around, at whose mercy we seem to be, is from God as a part of His eternal purpose of mercy to us, and is working out that purpose, is to be at peace amid the storms of life and under the shadow of death. It is now evident that, to those who put faith in Christ and yield themselves to the controlling and moulding influence of His love, the world around is altogether changed ; or rather its aspect is so completely changed that its practical influence is also changed. Once the world around, material and human, was their lord. Upon the smile of their fellows and upon the chances of fortune hung their highest interests. And this dependence on their environment was a degrading bondage. Now all is changed. They have learned the secret of the universe. They have seen the hand of a Father in heaven controlling and guiding the forces of nature and of the social life of men, forces so mighty, sometimes apparently .so destructive ; and they know now that all these things are their servants for good. This discovery has broken the material and social fetters under vv'hich formerly they lay bound, and has made them free indeed. This change has come through the Gospel of Christ ; and therefore, as we saw in my last volume, through His death upon the cross. We can therefore say with Paul, in Gal. vi. 14, pointing to a vanquished enemy and lord, and to the cross on which Christ died, " Through which to mc the world is crucified, and I to the world." For through His death Lect. XXI] ITS RELATION TO THINGS AROUND 197 the world has lost its power over them, and their old life of bondage has ceased. Or, they may say, as in 2 Cor. V. 17, " If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature ; the old things have passed away, behold they have become new." We have now seen that the New Life, by putting man right with God, has put him right with all else. To the unsaved, within and around them was discord, con- fusion, and ruin ; each pursuing his own selfish aim, and therefore different aims, and thus coming into collision each against others. But they who, led by the Spirit of God, have felt the magic power of the manifested love of Christ and have thus been drawn to Him in loyal devotion, have by their loyalty to the one Lord been united, each to others, in harmonious co-operation. Although surrounded by influences tending to sin, in- fluences strengthened by their own past indulgence in sin, they are preserved from sin by the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in their hearts. The Law, which they once deliberately or carelessly broke, or painfully and vainly endeavoured to keep while it condemned them for past disobedience, has now become a lamp to their feet and a light to their path, and a song in the house of their pilgrimage. For the Spirit who wrote that Law in the Moral Sense of all men, and guided the writers of the Sacred Books of Israel, dwells in their hearts as the animating principle of a new life. And the universe around, under whose tyranny they once trembled, is now seen to be to them a minister of God for good. LECTURE XXII THE CHRISTIAN CONFLICT TN the foregoing lectures, the New Life has been -L represented as a supernatural inbreathing from God, and the believer has been in the main repre- sented as passive and receptive. We saw, however, in Lect XV., that this divine inbreathing evokes in man the intelligent and ceaseless activity of loyal service to Christ, showing itself in efforts to save those for whom He died and to build up the eternal Kingdom of God. We shall now find that it evokes also the intense effort of personal spiritual conflict. This conflict and the conse- quent victory are a needful counterpart to the picture given in the last lecture. In Luke xiii. 24 our Lord exhorts "Strive (a7&)v/feo-^e, literally agonize, i.e. contend as an athlete against an antagonist) to enter in through the narrow door ; because many will seek to enter in and will not have strength." This implies that the blessings "promised by Christ are to be obtained only by strenuous personal effort. Similar teaching is very common with Paul. So Phil. ii. 12 : " work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." These last words suggest anxious care, as in 198 Lect. XXII] THE CHRISTIAN CONFLICT 199 a matter serious and difficult. This element of Paul's teaching is frequently embodied in a favourite metaphor taken from the Greek athletic contests, a metaphor suggested in Luke xiii. 24. A good example is found in I Cor. ix. 23-27. Paul says that he uses all sorts of efforts to save others in order that he may himself share the blessings of the Gospel, implying that upon his efforts to save others depends his own salvation. This he explains by saying that both his readers and himself are athletes contending for a " crown " or garland ; and reminds them that every athlete makes everything bow to this object. The words " in all things self-controlled " refer probably to the ten months of training during which the athlete submitted to severe regimen in order to fit himself for the contest. Paul finds an adversary in his own body, which last he leads about like a slave lest even he, a herald, be rejected as unworthy of the prize. In Phil. iii. 12-14, ^^'^ have a picture of Paul as a racer pressing forward, forgetting all else, to the goal. So I Tim. vi. 12: "contend the good contest of the faith ; lay hold of the life eternal." This implies that eternal life can be obtained only as the athlete gains a prize, viz. by personal conflict and victory. In 2 Tim. iv. 8, Paul speaks of the conflict as over : " the good contest I have contended, the course I have finished, the faith I have kept ; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness." In the athletic contests of Greece, a chief factor was the antagonist or competitor. Only by victory over another who sought to take away the prize, could 200 THE WAY OF HOLINESS Part III the prize be won. So in Eph. vi. 12 Paul reminds his readers that they are wrestling against superhuman opponents. In view of these antagonists, he somewhat changes the metaphor and bids them put on the armour provided by God. This military metaphor meets us again in 2 Tim. ii. 3,4: " endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." The change emphasises the element common to the two metaphors, viz. intense effort against a terrible antagonist. The Christian race is mentioned in Heb. xii. i. The antagonist appears again in i Peter v. 8, 9 : " be sober, be watchful ; your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour ; whom resist, steadfast by faith." The same idea of conflict with a personal foe finds expression in the words " overcome the wicked one " in I John ii. 13, 14; and "overcome the world" in ch. v. 4, 5. The word overcome is conspicuous by its repetition in Rev. ii. 7, 11, 17, 26, iii. 5, 12, 21, at the close of each of the seven letters to the Churches in Asia. It occurs also in the same connection of thought in Rev. xii. 11, xv. 2, xxi. 7. A stronger form of the same word is found in Rom. viii. 37, " we more than overcome \' and a cognate word in i Cor. xv. 57, "Who gives us the victory!' Thus in the various types of New Testament teaching the New Life is depicted, with conspicuous and emphatic repetition, as a strenuous effort evoked by conflict against personal and tremendous antagonists. This picture is confirmed by our own experience. In Lect. XXII] THE CHRISTIAN CONFLICT 201 our efforts to do right and to advance the kingdom of Christ, we meet resistance from our general environment, from our fellows, and in our own hearts. The moralists of all ages have depicted the path of righteousness as beset by foes. And still more terrible opposition has stood in the path of those who have endeavoured to win the world for Christ. The severity of this opposition suggests irresistibly that it is supported by superhuman enemies of God and man. In this conviction, the language of the New Testament has been re-echoed by the servants of God in all ages. Fortunately, in this conflict, the Christian believer does not stand alone. The superhuman antagonists are met and overcome by superhuman help. So i John iv. 4 : "ye have overcome them ; because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." Also i Cor. XV. 57, "to God be thanks, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ : " and Rom. viii. 37, " we more than overcome through Him that loved us." The two elements are placed conspicuously side by side in Phil ii. 12, 13: "work out your own salvation; for God it is who works in you." Speaking of his own apostolic work, Paul says in Col. i. 29, " for which end I also labour, striving (literally agonizing, as in i Tim. vi. 12, Luke xiii. 24) according to His working which works in me with power." Like all else in the New Life, this victory is a result of the death of Christ, and is conditioned by faith. So Rev. xii. 1 1, " they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb : " and I John V. 4, 5, "this is the victory which has overcome the 202 THE WAY OF HOLINESS [Part III world, even our faith : " Eph. vi. i6, " the shield of faith, with which ye will be able to quench all the burning darts of the wicked one." This latter teaching changes altogether the whole aspect of the moral conflict ; just as in Christ the believer's relation to the moral Law and to his environ- ment is changed. In days gone by, the conflict was unavailing revolt against a deadly despotism. Referring to his former life as a devout Pharisee, Paul writes in Rom. vii. 23, " I see another law in the members of my body carrying on war against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin which is in the members of my body. Wretched man am I. Who will rescue me ? " This cry has been changed into " thanks to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." The fight continues. But it has become a march of triumph. The real conflict was decided long ago in Christ It is our privilege now to appropriate day by day the vic- tory then gained. It is of the utmost importance to keep ever and equally in view these two aspects of the Christian conflict. We are still in an enemy's country. In every object around us, and in our own wayward hearts, foes lie in ambush ever ready to ensnare and destroy us. We therefore need constant watchfulness. But we watch as for conquered and powerless foes. For, from another point of view, the battle is over. It was finished when the Conqueror returned to His home on high. We there- fore day by day go down into conflict against enemies mightier than ourselves with perfect confidence. For Lect, XXII] THE CHRISTIAN CONFLICT 203 we are guarded by the power of God. The only question now is, not whether we can overcome by any moral resolution of our own, but whether we can venture to accept the promise of victory. Then are we more than conquerors. The complete victory given by Christ to those who believe in Him, fills them, even in the midst of conflict, with profound peace. We are at peace because under- neath us are everlasting arms. This is " the peace of God." For it is not only His gift but an overflow of the eternal calm which fills the breast of God. And, being divine in its source, it " passes all understanding " of those who observe, and even of those who experience it. For it is often found in circumstances which seem to make peace impossible. Moreover, to use a military metaphor, it " guards the heart," the inmost source of purpose and action, "and the mind," the home often of troubled thoughts. For they who are kept in peace by the power of God are safe from many spiritual dangers which injure others. And this rest is " in Christ Jesus." Thus is the Christian life, looked at from one point of view, a conflict sometimes very fierce ; and, from another point of view, profound peace. This peace is the rest of victory won for us by Christ, victory over His foes and ours. It is the beginning, and the pledge, of our eternal rest ; the dawn of the eternal day, and the glad harbinger of the sunrise. LECTURE XXIII PERSEVERANCE IN THE NEW LIFE IN the midst of the conflict of life Paul looked forward with joyful confidence, as all his epistles attest, to final victory over all enemies and to entrance into the eternal Kingdom of God. So Rom. v. 2, " we exult in hope of the glory of God ; " ch. viii. 18, '' the sufferings of the present season are of no worth in view of the glory which will be revealed in us ; " Phil. i. 6, " being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun in you a good work will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ ;" 2 Tim. iv. 18, "the Lord will rescue me from every evil work, and will save me into His heavenly Kingdom." This salvation is, as we have already learned in Lect XVI., from the first turning to God till final victory, altogether a work of the Spirit of God in man. But we have also seen in Lect. XVII. that it is conditional on man's faith, i.e. on his self-surrender to divine influences leading up to repentance and faith. That this self- surrender is not a result of irresistible influences but is conditioned only by man's free choice, is attested, as we shall see in Part IV., by our own self-condemnation for 204 Lect. XXIIl] PERSEVERANCE IN THE NEW LIFE 205 not having earlier yielded to divine influences of which we were conscious, but which we resisted ; and by our entire estimate of ourselves and others. This inference is also implied in many warnings running throughout the Bible. Paul teaches also that, not only entrance into, but continuance in, the New Life depends upon ourselves and upon our continued faith ; that it is terribly possible that they who have once enjoyed actual spiritual life may yet fall away and finally perish. And, in this, he is supported by the recorded words of Christ. In Rom. xi. 20-23 Paul teaches that some of the twigs of the olive tree were broken off because of their unbelief, and that his readers stand by faith. He bids them not to think high things but to fear, and warns that He who did not spare the natural branches will not spare them if they do not continue in His kindness ; and adds that, if the unbelieving ones do not continue in their unbelief, God will restore them. Now Paul's unbelieving countrymen were certainly in peril of final ruin. For no less peril would prompt Paul, on their behalf, almost to wish himself separated from Christ. And their fall is held up to his readers as a warning of what will befall them if they do not continue in faith. Yet the Roman Christians, to whom Paul writes, are assumed to have actual spiritual life. For they have been " reconciled to God," and have " received the Spirit of adoption," who " bears witness that we are children of God : " chs. v. 10, viii. 16. Otherwise they would perish whether they continue ur not. The whole warning 2o6 PERSEVERANCE [Part III implies that the readers' final salvation depends upon their maintaining their present spiritual position ; and that it is possible for them to fall from it and perish. In I Cor, ix. 23 Paul writes that he uses all means to save all he can in order to be himself a sharer, with his converts, of the blessings of the Gospel. This can only mean that his own salvation depends upon his fidelity to his divine vocation. He speaks (vv. 24-27) of his readers and himself as athletes contending for a prize ; and is influenced by a fear that, after having preached to others, he may himself be rejected. The warning implied in this fear, Paul supports in ch. x. 1-12 by the example of ancient Israel, of whom all passed the Red Sea but very few entered the promised land. Upon these examples he bases a final warning, " let him that thinks that he stands beware lest he fall." This warning, like the last, would have no meaning if the possession of actual spiritual life necessarily ensured final salvation. SimJlar teaching is in John xv. 6 traced to the lips of Christ : " If any one abide not in Me, he has been cast outside like the branch and become withered ; and they are gathering them and casting them into the fire and they are burning." These branches must have had actual spiritual life ; for, as above, all depends upon continuance in their present state. Moreover, every dead branch has once been living. The branches cannot be mere outward professors. For such will perish whether they continue or not. The above teaching is balanced by that in John x. 28: " they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them Lect. XXIII] IN THE NEW LIFE 207 out of My hand." This passage is easily harmonised with that quoted above. For it refers evidently to sheep of the flock of Christ ; and asserts that no hostile violence will tear them from Christ. Just so Paul says in Rom. viii. 38 that neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God. But nothing is said here about the possibility of a sheep wandering away from the flock, and thus perishing. Similarly, the terrible doom pronounced in Rev. xxi. 8 against " all the liars " does not shut out the possibility that those guilty of falsehood may turn from it and be saved. It is now evident that the New Life in Christ, which is from beginning to end a work of God in man, is never- theless altogether conditional, both in its beginning and continuance, upon man's faith, i.e. upon his voluntary surrender to divine influences which, if yielded to, will lead him to life. Consequently, the Christian life is an intermingling of confidence and salutary fear. We rest in Christ to-day. And we know that no hostile power can force us from Him. The peace of God guards our hearts and minds in Christ. Therefore we are safe. But we know that if we were to leave our impregnable refuge we should fall a prey to our adversaries. We are therefore ever on our guard against whatever would decoy us from it. We now see the intense reality of the Christian con- flict described in Lect. XXII. Upon our faithfulness in it depends our eternal salvation. 15 LECTURE XXIV. SPIRITUAL GROWTH, WE have now learnt that God receives into His favour, and into His family as sons, all who believe the good news announced by Christ ; that He gives to them the Spirit of His Son to be in them the animating principle of a new life of victory over sin and of unreserved devotion to God like the devotion of Christ to God ; and that this purpose is realised in them by faith, and in proportion to their faith. We have also learned that continuance in the New Life and entrance into the eternal Kingdom of God are conditioned on continued faith. It now remains to show that, according to the teaching of Paul, which in this point is verified in the experience of all earnest servants of Christ, these blessings, which may be in a measure appropriated at once by faith, receive their development by continuous growth. In many cases the faith which appropriates justifica- tion is itself a gradual growth. By degrees men venture to accept, and apply to themselves, and appropriate, the great truth that God receives into His favour all who put faith in Christ, and that therefore He now receives 208 Lect. XXIV] SPIRITUAL GROWTH 209 them. In other cases, the Hght streams in almost at once. But probably in every case there has been a gradual preparation for this sudden illumination. Still more gradual, usually, is the apprehension and appro- priation and realisation of the more wonderful truth that God, who claims the unreserved devotion of all His servants, works in them by His Spirit and by inward contact with Christ, here and now, the devotion He claims. But, be this truth ever so fully and firmly grasped, it leaves room for, and demands, a continuous and progressive further apprehension. And, whenever and however grasped, its apprehension creates a definite stage of spiritual growth. The definiteness of this stage of development in Christ is suggested by the Greek aorist tense in i Thess. V. 23, " may the God of peace Himself sanctify you all complete;" in 2 Cor. vii. i, "let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution ; " and in Rom. xii. i, " I exhort you . . . to //Yi"^/?/ your bodies a sacrifice, living, holy, accept- able to God." That all these exhortations are addressed to persons recognised as justified and adopted sons of God and as already possessing the Spirit of God, proves that they describe a higher stage of spiritual life, and one sufficiently definite to be an object of thought and faith. This higher stage involves growth in the New Life. Writing to his young converts at Thessalonica, from whom he had been suddenly snatched away, Paul describes himself in i Thess. iii. 10 as "begging to see your face, and to equip fully the deficiencies of your faith." 2IO SPIRITUAL GROWTH [Part III The word rendered "equip-fully" denotes {e.g. Matt. iv. 21) complete fitting out for work. The faith of the Thessa- lonican Christians was already real and active : for Paul speaks in ch. i. 3 of their " work of faith." But it was capable of, and needed, a firmer grasp and wider com- pass to embrace in wider measure, and more fully to appropriate, the purposes and promises of God. And in this broadening and strengthening of his readers' faith, Paul hopes to help them. A hoped-for result of this development of their faith is described m v, 12 : " may the Lord make you to abound in love one to another and to all men." Paul thus prays that Christ may work in his readers an abundant development of the unique Christian virtue of love, a love embracing both fellow- Christians and the whole race. He thus indicates a line along which the servants of Christ may seek, and may expect, unlimited progress. News from Thessalonica assured the gladdened heart of Paul that his prayer for his readers was not in vain. So 2 Thess. i. 3 : " we ought to thank God always on your behalf . . . because your faith increases beyond measure and the love of each one of you all increases." We have here, still going on, actual progress both in faith and love. In Rom. i. II, Paul writes to the Roman Christians, " I long to see you, in order that 1 may impart to you some spiritual gift, in order that ye may be established." Such spiritual gifts, producing stability in the New Life, involve spiritual growth. Already, on p. 179, we have found in Rom. viii..i3, "ye are putting to death the Lect. XXIV] SPIRITUAL GROWTH 211 actions of the body," a gradual destruction of the inward and hostile power of sin. This reveals and involves spiritual growth. And all spiritual growth weakens the power of sin. For the Spirit of God, permeating and moulding more and more our entire thought and life, reveals with increasing clearness the essential evil and hideousness of sin, and thus destroys its power to deceive us. Moreover, every good act tends -to form a right habit, and thus to weaken contrary habits. There is no surer mark of mature spiritual life than an increasing sensitiveness to, and recoil from, every form of evil. In Phil. i. 6 Paul expresses a confident hope that He who has begun in the readers a good work will complete it. This reminds us that all spiritual life on earth is but a beginning of something which needs completion ; and assures us that He who has begun will continue and complete. The completion required is further described in V. 9, where Paul prays that his readers' " love may more and more abound in understanding and all percep- tion," with the further aim that they may " put to the test " and thus approve " the more excellent things." A still further aim is stated in vv. loi?, 11, viz. that this spiritual intelligence may mould their character, giving spiritual security and a rich harvest of blessing : " that ye may be sincere and without stumbling till the day of Christ, filled with fruit of righteousness." We have here definite mention of an increase of knowledge, a con- spicuous feature of this passage and of this Third Group of Epistles as compared with i Thess. iii. 10. We notice 212 SPIRITUAL GROWTH [Part III that love always tends to develop intelligence, for we use our best intelligence for those we love. And intelligence increases immensely the practical value of love. In Phil. iii. 12 Paul gives a graphic picture of his own spiritual progress. He does not look upon himself as having " already obtained " what he desires, or as having already reached his goal. Like a racer he is pressing on, to grasp something as yet beyond him, to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of him. Forgetting all present acquirements, he presses forward, with a racer's intense effort, to grasp the prize. These words imply that the normal state of the servants of Christ is progress resulting from intense and sustained effort in one direction. In Eph. iv. 13, 14 we have "a full-grown man " con- trasted with " babes." These last are described as " tossed like waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the craft of men." But the ascended Christ gave to His Church the various orders of pastors and teachers, for its full equipment, and in order that, speak- ing truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, from whom as Head, and by the mutual help of the various members, the whole body grows and builds up itself in love. The phrase " grow into Christ " suggests that spiritual development places us in closer union with our Lord. The sublime prayer in Eph, iii. 14-19, on behalf of men already made alive and brought near through Christ, marks out the direction of spiritual growth. As links in that chain of blessing, we note a fuller Lect. XXIV] SPIRITUAL GROWTH 213 comprehension of Christ's love to us, resulting in a fulness tending towards the fulness of God. In Heb. v. 12-14 we have again (cp. i Cor. iii. 2) the contrast of babes requiring milk and full grown men needing solid food. The food required is specified : " because of the time ye ought to be teachers ; yet ye have need to be taught which are the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God." This reminds us that, as with children, so with the servants of Christ, health is accompanied by growth. From the above teaching we learn that faith in Christ is capable of increase as it embraces more and more extensively, and grasps more firmly, the promises of God. This increasing faith reveals with increasing clearness the love of God manifested in the death of Christ, and thus evokes increasing love to Him who first loved us. The love thus revealed will be enriched with increasing perception of moral distinctions and of the purposes of God for man ; for faith is the hand which takes hold of all the revelations of God. This growing faith and intelligence and love will change and raise our whole nature ; and while so doing will unite us in closer fellowship with Christ. In I John ii. 12-14, we read of little children, young men, and fathers, evidently successive grades in the Christian life. That the Four Gospels add nothing directly to the above teaching, need not surprise us. Our Lord taught the rudimentary principles of the New Life, to men in whom, before the gift of the Holy Spirit, (cp. John vii. 39,) 214 SPIRITUAL GROWTH [Part III that life was necessarily immature. But His teaching involves and suggests growth. Further teaching was left, as need should arise, to the Spirit whom the departing Son promised to His disciples. The Book of Acts tells the story of the founding of the various Churches, but does not say much about the progressive development of individuals. This was for the more part left to the great Apostle who cared for his many converts as a father for the education of his children ; and who, while dealing with the many details of actual church life, gives incidentally most important teaching about the spiritual growth of the servants of Christ. LECTURE XXV THE MEANS OF GRACE. PRAYER WE have learnt in Lect. XVI. that the New Life in Christ is breathed into and maintained in man by God through the agency of the Holy Spirit. We come now to consider certain special channels appointed by God to be the ordinary avenues through which this new life is received and sustained and developed. We shall find that, just as there are definite organs through which the spirit of man communicates with others, so are there special channels through which God imparts to men spiritual blessing. We have seen that faith is a condition of all the benefits of the New Covenant. Now, faith in God implies that God has spoken to man, and that the Word of God has been brought to the ears and intelligence of the believer. Hence Paul asks in Rom. x. 14, " How are they to believe Him whom they have not heard ? But how are they to hear without a preacher?" Chief therefore among the means of grace must be the pro- clamation of the good news of salvation. Consequently, as recorded in Mark xvi. 15, Christ bade the Apostles "proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation." So Paul 2i6 THE MEANS OF GRACE [Part III in I Cor. i. 23, " we proclaim Christ crucified ; " and in V. 21, "God was pleased by means of the foolishness of the proclamation to save those that believe." Similarly V. \2>: "the word of the cross ... to us who are being saved is a power of God." Inasmuch as the Gospel is complex and many-sided, its intelligent reception requires not only proclamation but continued teaching. Consequently, Christ bade the Apostles, as recorded in Mark xxviii. 20, to bring all the nations as pupils into His school {iiaOrjTeva-aTe iruvra ra eOv)] and adds " teaching them to observe all things so many as I have commanded you." This command, Paul describes himself in Col. i. 28 as obeying : " Christ, whom we announce, instructing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, in order that we may present every man mature in Christ." Here consecutive teach- ing is spoken of as a means of Christian maturity. And in harmony with this method of spiritual development, we find in the apostolic churches teachers, and a divinely-given order of teachers. In the Church at Antioch, as we read in Acts xiii. i, were "prophets and teachers." In i Cor. xii. 28 we read that " God put in the Church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers." And again in Eph. iv. 11, of the risen Saviour we read, " Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers." To those who have not before heard it, the first announcement of the Gospel brings the truth revealed in Christ to bear upon the mind and heart. Subsequent teaching widens and deepens the impression thus made. Lect. XXV] THE MEANS OF GRACE 217 Since the truth revealed under the Old Covenant and that revealed in Christ have permanent embodiment in the Old and New Testaments, careful study of Holy Scripture has been in all ages a rich nourishment of the spiritual life. Through the silent page God speaks to the devout student, and through the written word His power works in us, enriching and strengthening. We thus sit, not only at the feet of the Apostles, but at the feet of Christ. By giving to us, through the agency of the Holy Spirit prompting and guarding the writers, correct records cf the teaching of Christ and authorita- tive expositions of that teaching by the Apostles, and various literary embodiments of spiritual life under the Old Covenant, God ordained the study of Holy Scripture to be an all-important means of grace. Closely related to the preached and written word are the two rites ordained by Christ for all His servants, which, as visible embodiments of important Gospel truth, we may speak of as the symbolic word. Christ ordained the Lord's Supper to be a memorial of His approaching death ; and, while giving the command to bring the nations into His school, He bade His disciples to baptize them. These plain commands made Baptism and the Lord's Supper imperative on all the servants of Christ. And, if so, they must be channels through which the Spirit of God conveys supernatural good to men. A fuller exposition of this benefit is reserved for my next volume on The CJmrch of Christ. But thousands can testify to great spiritual gain derived from the sacred meal ordained by Christ, and from the important teach- 2i8 THE MEANS OF GRACE [Part III ing embodied, whether administered to converts from heathenism or to an unconscious infant of Christian parents, in the rite of Baptism. In all the above-mentioned means of grace, revealed truth in various forms is the immediate instrument used by the Spirit of God to convey to man spiritual blessing. Another special and definite and all-important means of grace, of a different kind, yet closely related to those just mentioned, now demands attention. In all religions PRAYER is offered to an unseen Helper. Its wide prevalence bears witness to man's deep sense of dependence on a superhuman power who is thus accessible to man. It is a conspicuous feature of the Old and New Testaments. As examples, I may quote Ex. xxxii. II-14, xxxiii. 23, where Moses pleads with God for Israel when guilty of a great sin, and in answer to his prayer the nation is spared ; and Isa. xxxvii. 14-35, where, in a time of great national peril, Hezekiah appeals to God for help, and his prayer is answered. The Old Testament contains other similar cases. The Book of Psalms presents many examples of earnest petition and supplication, which have been most helpful in all ages to the prayers even of the servants of Christ. The incarnate Son spent in prayer, as we read in Luke vi. 12, the night before the appointment of the twelve Apostles. In Mark xiv. 36 we have a pathetic example of His prayer for deliverance from impending and overwhelming agony : " Abba, Father, all things Lect. XXV] PRAYER 219 are possible to Thee ; take away this cup from Me ; nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." In John xvii. ii, 15, 17, 20-23, Luke xxii. 32, Christ prays for His disciples. In His great inaugural address, our Lord gives His broad sanction to prayer by saying, as recorded in Matt, vii. 7, " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened to you : for every one that asks receives." This last assertion is sup- ported by a comparison between human parents who, when asked, give good things to their children and our *' Father in heaven " who " much more will give good things to those who ask Him." In a similar comparison in Luke xi. 13, Christ argues specifically that our " Father from heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him." To the disciples asking Him to teach them to pray, Christ gave (Luke xi. 2) a form of prayer, a shorter version of a form embodied in Matt. vi. 9-13 in the Sermon on the Mount. The close and even verbal similarity of these two forms reveals their firm place in the thought and memory of His earliest followers. On the eve of His betrayal, as recorded in John xiv. 13, 14, Christ promised, "Whatever ye ask in My name, I will do it, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask anything in My name I will do it." Still more important is a promise recorded in oh. XV. 7 : " If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever ye will and it shall be yours." So ch. xvi. 24 : " Hitherto ye have not asked anything in My name : ask and ye shall receive in order that your 220 THE MEANS OF GRACE [Part III joy may be made full." This teaching is followed by the wonderful prayer of Christ in ch. xvii. A marked feature of his Epistles is Paul's eager desire for his readers' prayers on his behalf. In 2 Thess. iii. I, 2 he asks young converts to pray for him " in order that the word of God may run and be glorified," and in order that he "maybe rescued from unreasonable and bad men." In 2 Cor. i. ii, his hope of continued deliverance from great peril is conditioned by his assur- ance that his readers are praying for him : " while ye also are working together with us by prayer on our behalf." In Rom. xv. 30, 31, he begs the Roman Christians to join with him in his struggle (literally, his agony or athletic contest) by prayers on his behalf, in order that he may be rescued from the unbelieving ones in Judaea and that his ministry for the saints may be successful. Similarly, in Col. iv. 12, Epaphras is described as struggling or agonising in his prayers on behalf of the Christians at Colossae. In each of these passages earnest prayer is compared to the intense effort of an athlete contending for a prize. The phrase "wrestling in prayer" reproduces exactly the Apostle's idea. In Eph. vi. 19, 20, and Col. iv. 3, 4 he asks his readers' prayers that God may enable him to preach boldly the Gospel of Christ. In almost every epistle we have mention of Paul's own unceasing prayers on behalf of each of the Churches founded by him. And in Eph. i. 16-23, i^i- 14-19 we have sublime specimens of these prayers. The above passages, and many others similar, leave Lect. XXV] PR A YER 221 no room for doubt that Christ, by example and precept, following earlier teachers, specially sanctioned prayer as a means of obtaining blessing from God. This is an assured historical result of our theological research. Christ's sanction of prayer implies that it is the will of God that men ask for, and thus obtain, blessing from Him. And this implies that, by the ordinance of God, there are blessings to be obtained not otherwise than by prayer. We reverently ask, Why has God ordained prayer as a means of grace ? Not in order to acquaint God with man's needs. For these, known very imper- fectly to the needy ones, are altogether known to God Not to persuade God to bless, as man pleads with man for some benefit which the other is reluctant to give Our question returns to us. Why does God give, to those who ask, blessings which He does not give to others ? A partial answer is suggested by our Lord's compari- son of our Father in heaven to parents on earth who give to children when they ask. Not unfrequently a mother makes asking a condition of receiving in order, by this gentle compulsion, to teach the child to speak and thus to evoke personal intercourse between parent and child. For the sake of the education involved in asking, good things which the child needs, and knows that he needs, are held back until asked for. Now it is matter of blessed experience that in prayer the children of God have intelligent intercourse with a Father in heaven. Thus, by personal contact of spirit with spirit, they obtain a consciousness, otherwise impossible, of the 222 THE MEANS OF GRACE [Part IU presence of an unseen yet ""personal Companion and Helper. In such moments of prayer, men have ex- perienced the reality and nearness of God, sometimes in utter loneliness and helplessness, in a measure far more than compensating for the absence of all human com- panionship and help. This wonderful result points to a divine purpose. We cannot doubt that it was in order to evoke this personal intercourse with God, and thus give to man a fuller revelation of Himself, that God ordained prayer as a means of grace. Another reason may be suggested. We notice that, in the New Testament, prayer is closely connected with faith, and that faith is a condition of successful prayer. So Mark xi. 23, 24: " Whoever shall say to this mountain. Be taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that what he says takes place, it shall be done for him. Because of this, I say to you, all things so many as in prayer ye ask, believe that ye have received them, and they shall be yours." Similarly James i. 5,6: "If any one lacks wisdom, let him ask from God . . . and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord." All this is in close harmony with the teaching of Paul and of Christ that the blessings of the New Covenant are obtained by faith. Now the promise that they who ask shall receive is a searching test of our faith. Many cannot believe that by merely asking they will receive : and, according to their unbelief, it L£CT. XXV] PRAYER 223 is not done to them. Others venture to accept, as did Abraham, the promise of God. They ask, confidently- expecting to receive : and what they expect, they obtain. In no way could implicit faith in God be put to a keener test than by God's promise to give spiritual blessing to those who ask Him. Here again from the result we infer a divine purpose. God ordained prayer and Christ gave the promise to answer prayer in order to test, and thus develop, man's faith in God. God will answer prayer only so far as it is in harmony with the principles of the administration of His King- dom. For these are for the highest good of man, and to deviate from them w^ould be injury to man. By these principles, therefore, are limited, and must be interpreted, all the promises of God. Consequently, to be effectual, prayer must be in harmony with the will of God. The great promise to answer prayer, in John xv. 7, is given to those who abide in Christ. And the prayers of such men will be controlled by the new life derived from their inward union with Him. Similarly, i John v. 14, 15 : "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us : and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked from Him." Consequently, effective prayer is conditioned by careful study of the mind and purpose of God. The simplest form of prayer is for the spiritual blessings promised in the Gospel for all who put faith in Christ. For in these prayers only two persons are involved, ourselves and God, and the will of God is 16 224 THE MEANS OF GRACE [Part III revealed. The only conditions of success are that we understand the manifested will of God, and expect, with humble yet confident faith, its realisation in ourselves. And this simplest form of prayer is in some respects the most fruitful. For the blessings thus to be obtained are the greatest gifts of God to man. To learn that they may be obtained by asking for, has been to thousands a new era in the spiritual life. In the passages quoted above, Paul prays frequently for deliverance from bodily peril. His example justifies prayer for temporal blessings. But such prayers, from men who know not what will most advance their own good and the Kingdom of Christ, must ever be offered with profound submission to the unknown will of God. Of such submission, we have already quoted a supreme example in the prayer of Christ recorded in Mark xiv. 36. Such prayers can never be unanswered : but frequently the answer will assume a form neither desired nor thought of by the offerer. Prayer for the spiritual good of others is justified by the examples quoted above from the Epistles of Paul. But the answer to such prayers involves, in addition to him who prays and God who hears, a third personality, viz. the person on whose behalf prayer is made. The answer to such prayers is therefore conditioned by the free-will of another man, by the awful prerogative, given by God to every man, of refusing and resisting spiritual blessing. This divinely-given prerogative, no prayers of another can efface. But Paul's earnest and constant prayers for others and Christ's prayer (Luke xxii. 32) that Lect. XXV] PRA YER 225 Peter's faith might not fail teach us that such prayers are acceptable to God. And, if so, they cannot pass unanswered. We infer therefore that in answer to such prayers God will bring to bear on those for whom we pray spiritual influences tending towards salvation, although the effect of these influences depends ultimately upon the persons in question. The relation of prayer to natural law cannot be dis- cussed here. And its discussion is needless for the purpose of this volume. If man can, by adapting his own action to the forces of nature, use them to work out his purposes, if he can deflect from their course the operation of natural forces, as when men catch a ball which otherwise would have struck the ground, surely He from whom all natural forces spring can so use them as to work out through them His will towards men ; and His will is, as we have learned, to answer prayer. We pray with complete confidence because our prayers are offered " to Him who is able to do abundantly beyond all we ask or think." Prayer is in some sense a correlative to God's revelation of Himself to man. It is an expression of man's apprehension and approval of, and desire for, the revealed will of God. God makes known to man His purpose to bless. Man hears and approves and asks for, and expects, its accomplishment. Of this accomplishment, God has thought fit to make man's approval and expectation a condition. Already we have found, in John xvii. 11-24, Luke 226 THE MEANS OF GRACE [Part III xxii. 32, the Incarnate Son praying for those on whose behalf He was about to die. In Rom. viii. 34, we read that the Risen Christ, at the right hand of God, " intercedes on our behalf." To this abiding intercession is attributed in Heb. vii. 25 Christ's ability to save : " He is able to save completely those who come through Him to God, seeing that He ever lives to intercede on their behalf" These passages teach that the prayer of Christ for His disciples, begun on earth, is continued now on the throne of God ; and that the salvation which God works in those who believe is not only a result of the death of Christ but an answer to His living prayer. This is the supreme example of prayer. We have learned in Lect. XVIII. that the New Life, in all its elements, is through Christ. In our earlier volume we learned that it is specifically through His death. We have now learned that it is also through His abiding intercession. The intercession of Christ is closely related to the propitiation for sins in His death. This is suggested by the mention of the " priesthood " and the '' high priest " both before and after the intercession of Christ in Heb. vii. 25. The writer's line of thought recalls the incense, a silent and symbolic prayer, with which, on the great Day of Atonement, the high-priest went into the most holy place, with the blood of slain animals, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. But this symbolic intercession was not, as some have caricatured it, a means of persuading God to pardon. It was ordained by God as a means by which guilty man should approach Lect XXV] PRAYER 227 Him. So Christ pleads, not as though He were our friend and God our enemy, but as ordained by God to plead for those for whom God gave Him to die. As we saw in my last volume, His death was needful for our salvation. This great truth is set before us, in a form derived from the ritual of the Old Covenant, in the high- priestly intercession of Christ. Doubtless that ritual was ordained by God in order that it might set forth the death of Christ for man's sin. And from that death and intercession our own prayers derive their power. The intercession of Christ may be viewed in two aspects. It teaches that man's cry for pardon has an eternal archetype within the Godhead, and that the pardon of those who believe in Christ is the legitimate result of His death. On the other hand, our knowledge that while we plead on earth there pleads for us in heaven One who cannot plead in vain assures us that our prayers will be answered. In Rom. viii. 26 the Spirit of God " intercedes on behalf of saints." He prays for them by moving them to pray. So in Gal. iv. 6 He is said to cry " Abba, Father," because, as we read in Rom. viii. 15, He moves us so to cry. He prays for us by praying in us. To know this, greatly aids our faith, and thus gives effective- ness to our prayers. In this prayer of the Spirit on our behalf we .shall, in Lect. XXXIV., find an indication that the Spirit is a Person distinct from the Father and the Son. We have now seen that in our prayers each divine Person has a definite and characteristic part. They are 228 THE MEANS OF GRACE [Part III offered in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father. The Spirit dweUing in our hearts moves us to pray, and thus gives to our prayers His own authority. Only through the abiding propitiation in the death of the incarnate Son can the prayers of sinful man be accept- able to God. And the Father who gave His Son to die is Himself the Hearer and the Answerer of prayer. Thus the harmony of man with God which finds utter- ance in man's prayer to God has its divine source and counterpart in the intercession, prompted by and accept- able to the Father, of the Son and Spirit on man's behalf. We wonder not that prayer, springing as it does from the eternal relation of the Persons of the Godhead, is in a unique sense a means of grace. Prayer is, in one important aspect of it, a solitary approach of man to God ; just as faith is a personal reliance upon Him. But, just as one man's faith is often strengthened {e.g. Rom. i. 12) by that of others, so the experience of the people of God proves the great benefit of united prayer. In Acts iv. 24 we find men who " with one accord lifted up their voice to God " in prayer. And in all ages, such united approach to God has been an abundant means of blessing. Still more conspicuously do the other means of grace mentioned above involve co-operation of the servants of Christ. The benefits of preaching and teaching imply not only a hearer but a speaker. The two sacraments are not solitary rites, but imply co-operation. We have in the New Testament no instance of a man Lect. XXVJ THE CHURCH 229 baptising himself. Even Christ received the sacred rite from another. And the Lord's Supper is essentially a joint meal. So Paul says in i Cor. x. 17, "we all partake the same bread." This needed co-operation reminds us that the New Life in Christ is, like human life in general, social. For his highest well-being, man needs the help of his fellows. For this need, provision is made in the Church of Christ, which is a divinely-ordained society within the larger society of the human race, designed to embrace the race and to give to it a unity and well-being other- wise impossible. Christ designed His followers to be united together, not only by inward loyalty to Himself, but in visible fellowship, in order that His Church may be the earthly home of the people of God in which, by mutual help, their spiritual life may be sheltered and nourished and developed, and in order that by their co-operation the Gospel may be carried to the ends of the earth. It is the duty of the Church to make provision for teaching revealed truth to its members, for administering to them the rites ordained by Christ, and for united prayer and mutual spiritual encourage- ment ; for the preservation and dissemination of Holy Scripture ; and for the announcement of the Gospel to the world. Thus is the Church itself a many-sided and all-embracing means of grace. This important topic will be the subject of my next volume. By the use of the divinely-appointed channels of blessing, the New Life in Christ is maintained, in spite of hostile influences around, and attains day by day 230 THE MEANS OF GRACE [Part III a richer development. And each day's victory over sin and all spiritual growth reveal the reality of the divine life in man, and the truth of the Gospel which, under the shadow of the guilt of past sins and in present bondage to sin, we dared to accept on the word and promise of God. LECTURE XXVI RESULTS ATTAINED WE come now to review the spiritual and practical results of our theological researches up to this point. Amid the many and various inanimate and irrational objects around us, our attention was arrested by other objects rising immeasurably above them, viz. men and women, corporeal, living, and rational. We also found, inwoven into the tissue of human thought, a mysterious and peremptory rule of conduct, one which cannot be accounted for by any of the forces observed at work in the material world. These objects lifeless and living, and the intelligence and moral sense of man, we traced to an intelligent and moral Creator. And we found that, just as all living creatures can live and prosper only in an appropriate environment, so man can attain his highest welfare only along the path marked out for him by the inborn Moral Sense. This last is, to each man, until better instructed, in spite of human liability to error in moral judgments, the Voice and Law of God. Thousands of men and women in all ages and nations and ranks are conscious, as the literature of the world 231 232 THE WAY Oh HOLINESS [Part III bears witness, that they have broken this law so mar- vellously inwoven into their inner life. And not a few of them are conscious of inward moral deterioration resulting from their transgression. This moral deteriora- tion, itself a punishment of sin, reveals a power able and ready to vindicate the authority of the moral sense by due recompense for all actions good and bad. And, inasmuch as such exact retribution is not observed on earth, but is contradicted by the fact that many have lost their lives by doing right, the most thoughtful men in all nations and ages have looked for a retribution beyond the grave. In many cases, this fear of future punishment has prompted earnest and sometimes painful efforts to do right. But these efforts have been for the more part in vain ; and thousands have felt themselves powerless to to do that which their moral sense peremptorily com- mands. This powerlessness is a felt moral bondage. And it increases our fear of punishment to come : for it reveals how far man has fallen from his Creator's purpose. This widespread experience is confirmed by the teaching of the Old Testament, and still more fully by that of the New. Christ and His Apostles assert or assume constantly that all men have sinned, and have thus fallen under the anger of God ; and that none can by his own moral strength so act as to obtain the favour of God. In other words, both Paul and Christ represent all men as guilty of past sins, and there- fore exposed to punishment, and as held fast in a moral bondage they arc utterly unable to break. Lect. XXVI] RESULTS ATTAINED 233 This teaching about the lost state of man, we found supplemented in Old and New Testaments by other teaching about the saving grace of God. We read that upon all men God is exerting influences tending towards repentance and salvation, influences without which repentance and moral liberation are impossible. These influences reveal the mercy of God and His purpose to save even those who have sinned against Him, and are now unable to obey his commands. With this teaching of the Bible agree the facts of human life as we observe them in the social life around us, and read them in the literature of the past. On the one hand, even in Christian countries, sin is prevalent on every side : on the other hand, even among those who have never heard the Gospel, especially in the ancient world, we find here and there great moral excellence. In our own hearts are evil influences which can be overcome only by constant watchfulness and by divine help ; and even bad men are conscious sometimes of influences recalling them towards the path of virtue. The utter helplessness of man to save himself is ex- plained by the teaching of the New Testament about man's bondage to sin. The occasional excellence of men who reject the Gospel or have never heard it is explained by the teaching of Paul that the kindness of God is leading men to repentance. Such is the state of man apart from the salvation announced in the Gospel of Christ. Under these circumstances, as we read in Gen. xii. 1-3, XV. 18, God became the friend of Abmbam., entered into 234 THE WA Y OF HOLINESS [Part III special covenant with him and his descendants, and gave to him promises of blessing for all mankind. In later days, through the agency of Moses, He rescued Israel from Egypt, gave to them a written law consist- ing of various elements, moral, social, and ritual, and made His favour conditional upon obedience to the law thus given. This historic law received authority both from the law written upon the hearts of all men and from the manifestly divin'e deliverance from Egypt which preceded it ; and, as a voice from without, it hoth aroused and strengthened the voice speaking within. The law thus given, whether written on the heart of man or on tables of stone, could not save. Its only immediate effect was to deepen man's conviction of past sin and to increase his fear of coming punishment ; and, by stimulating efforts for amendment, to reveal still more clearly the fetters of his moral bondage. It is right to say that the written law was both preceded and accompanied by promises of blessing from God to man. These promises could not neutralise the condemnation of the Law. But they manifested the goodness of God, and His purpose of blessing even for sinful man ; and thus aroused a hope that He who gave the command will also give power to obey it. In the fulness of the times, when on the broad plat- form of history all human effort seemed to have been tried and to have failed, there appeared in the nation to whom the promises had been given a great religious teacher. He announced as good news that God receives into His favour, in spite of their past sins, all who Lect. XXVI] RESULTS ATTAINED 235 believe His message of pardon. In support of this announcement Christ claimed to be in a unique sense the Son of God, and asserted that in the great Day He will Himself sit upon the throne and pronounce judgment on all men. The voice which made these unheard-of claims was silenced in the agonies of the cross, and the lips which had spoken these words of life soon lay still in the grave. But He rose from the dead ; and bade His disciples announce everywhere His Gospel of salva- tion. They did so ; and appealed to their Master's resurrection from the dead as proof that His Gospel is true. This Gospel, thousands have believed ; and by believing it have entered the number of the justified. The pardon of sinners announced by Christ and His Apostles seems at first sight to overturn the principles of justice. For the Gospel proclaims life for men who deserve to die. But both Christ and His Apostles teach that the salvation announced in the Gospel comes to us through the death of Christ on the cross, that for this end He died, that the need for His death lay in man's sin, viewed (as Paul teaches) in the light of the justice of God. Now the gift of the Son of God to die for guilty man reveals, as nothing else could do, the infinite love of God to man. This manifested love of God broadens the foundation for man's faith already laid securely in the resurrection of Christ. We cannot doubt the word of Him who, to save us, gave up His Only-begotten Son. P>om all this we learned that the faith which, justifies is a reliance upon the character of God as revealed and attested in the death and resurrection of Christ. 236 THE WAY OF HOLINESS [Part III Even this manifestation of the love and power of God in the facts of the earthly life of Christ does not com- plete the salvation of man. For the law written by the Creator in the heart of man and given by Him in literary form to ancient Israel requires obedience as a condition of the favour of God. So deeply written is this law, as a condition of the favour of God, that it cannot be blotted out even by the blood shed on the cross of Christ. Indeed, the majesty of the Moral Sense of man forbids him to be at rest while doing that which the Law forbids. Yet, as we have seen, man is power- less to do that which the Law commands. The writers of the New Testament teach that all who believe the Gospel are received, not only into the favour of God, but into the number of His children. Paul teaches conspicuously that they are adopted as sons of God and made sharers of the heritage of the Firstborn Son. He teaches also that to His adopted sons God gives the Spirit of His Son to be in them the animating principle of a new life, moving them to call God their Father, imparting power to break the fetters of sin, and guiding and enabling them to walk along the path marked out for them by the Law. Other New Testa- ment writers and Christ Himself teach that, by the agency of the Spirit of God, they who believe are born again and thus receive a new and divine life. This new life of filial confidence in God and power over sin, being manifestly superhuman and following faith in Christ, itself confirms the Gospel of pardon which in our deep sin we dared to believe. The Lect. XXVI] RESULTS ATTAINED 237 supreme authority of the Moral Sense, which once condemned us, now bears witness to the divine origin of a salvation which enables us, in a degree unknown before, to do that which we know to be right. That voice, when it condemned us, we dared not contradict : we dare not contradict it now when it bears witness to the reality of the work of God in us. Thus, even in the present life, our faith in Christ and in the Gospel receives complete verification. Such is the entrance into the way of life. We have also in some measure traced its course. We saw that under the Old Covenant God claimed that certain objects, lifeless and living, irrational and rational, be devoted wholly to Himself and His service ; and that Jesus of Nazareth claims from all His followers unreserved devotion to Himself and to the Kinofdom He came to establish. Christ thus gave a new and loftier ideal of life ; an ideal which becomes to us, in proportion as we apprehend it, the highest law of our being, and transforms and ennobles our conception of ourselves, of our fellow men, and of our entire environment. This ideal of human life, we found realised to the full in Jesus of Nazareth. He thus became our perfect pattern. This pattern, we endeavoured to imitate : but our efforts only revealed our inability to do so. We cried for help to Him who, in Christ, had already recon- ciled us to Himself. The New Testament teaches that to those who believe the Gospel God gives His Holy Spirit to prompt, and to work out in them by His wisdom and power, a new 2;^S THE IV A Y OF HOLINESS [Part III life of unreserved devotion to God like the devotion of Christ to God ; and that this work of the Spirit in man is accomplished through faith and in proportion to our faith. Consequently, like the pardon of our sins, the new life of obedience and devotion is a gift and work of God ; and, like pardon, it is obtained by faith. We saw that devotion to God involves victory over sin : for all sin is hostile to God and to the work of Christ. And, since salvation was made possible for guilty man only by the death of Christ, victory over and purification from sin are results of the blood shed on His cross. As involved in loyalty to Christ, this purifi- cation is through faith and through the Holy Spirit. Thus sin, once our conqueror and oppressor, still our antagonist, is put beneath our feet. The Law of GoJ, whether speaking to us in the Moral Sense or from the pages of Holy Scripture, is also changed. For it is no longer a voice from above condemning us but a light within guiding us along a safe path. Nay, more. The entire universe around us is changed. For, to those who love God, all things are working together for good. The New Life, thus begun, is a constant growth, in intelligence, in moral strength, and in likeness to Christ. We are not surprised to find that this growth, and indeed continuance in the New Life, are conditioned by continued faith. Frequently in the New Testament we are warned that, unless by faith we abide in Christ, we shall fall ; and, unless we return to faith, fall finally. We also found various divinely-ordained helps to faith and obedience and spiritual growth. The preached and Lect. XXVI] RESULTS ATTAINED 239 written word is the spiritual nourishment of the New Life. So are the two sacred rites ordained by Christ. That the word may be effectively preached and the sacraments duly and appropriately administered, and that the Gospel may be carried to the ends of the earth, Christ has ordained that His servants be united together in the fellowship of His Church. And, just as in the Gospel God speaks to men and thus conveys to them spiritual life, so God has ordained that in prayer men shall speak to God and ask for and obtain all spiritual good. We also learned that Christ, by putting men right with God, puts each one right with his fellows. Sin, by giving men up to their own selfishness, broke up the race into discordant fragments. For selfishness makes each one an end to himself, and thus brings him into collision with others. Christ came into the world to save men from sin and all its consequences, and to unite them into a living whole in which each various part contributes to the healthy development of the whole. Consequently, devotion to Christ is devotion to the highest good of man. Thus the religion taught by Christ, so far as it is embraced by men, gives back to our race the unity lost by sin, and unites the various resources distributed among men for the enrichment of the whole. In this lofty sense is Christ the Saviour of the World. Such is the scheme of salvation presented in the New Testament. To men guilty of actual sin and exposed to punishment, Christ announced pardon, and gave proof of His authority so to do. To men held fast by inward 17 240 RESULTS ATTAINED [Part III bondage to sin, He gives, by the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of all that believe, inward liberation. In the death of Christ, honour is paid to the law which condemned us. And by the Holy Spirit we are led along the path which the Law prescribes. The new life thus given develops day by day. This new and holy life and this daily growth attest the truth of the Gospel we have believed. And this is further attested by the manifest influence of Christianity in elevating national life and in binding together all Christian nations. PART IV THE DIVINE AND HUMAN IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE LECTURE XXVII THE ETERNAL PURPOSE IN the foregoing exposition I have endeavoured to prove that, in the teaching of Paul and of Christ salvation, from the first turning of the sinner towards God up to the last victory over the last temptation, is altogether a work of God. As such, it is called by Paul " a New Creation." This later manifestation of the creative activity of God differs, however, from the creation of the universe and of man in that in it we trace another determining factor, in addition to the will and work of God, viz. the mysterious personality and the personal action of man. The relation between these two factors in human life and in the development of the Kingdom of God on earth, we come now to consider. This we shall best do by tracing up the work of salva- tion to its ultimate source in the eternal purpose of God. 242 THE ETERNAL PURPOSE [Part IV And this inquiry will bring before us another important element of the teaching of the New Testament. Since all the best works of man (cp. Through Christ to God, p. lo) are products of intelHgence and forethought, and are realisations of deliberate purpose, and since we must think of God as Himself Supreme Intelligence, the Source of all other intelligence, we cannot doubt that also the salvation of men and the development of the Kingdom of God are in all stages an accomplishment of a divine purpose. In other words, the Kingdom of God among men must have existed as a definite thought in the mind of God before it existed in objective actuality. This purpose must have been eternal. For, although we can conceive new outward activity of God, we cannot conceive a new thought in God, i.e. the entrance into His mind of a conception not previously there. In Him there can be no afterthought. For, whereas action is passing, thought is abiding. And that which abides in the eternal mind must have been there from eternity. From all this we infer that, before the foundation of the world and before the earliest creation of matter, both the material universe and the Kingdom of God in all their stages existed as definite thought in the mind of God. In other words, whatever throughout the ages God has done in the salvation of men and in building up the Kingdom of God is an accomplishment of an eternal purpose. So closely related are man and the whole life of man Lect. XXVII] THE ETERNAL PURPOSE 243 to his material environment, and so closely related to this environment is man's rescue from sin and ruin, that we cannot doubt that creation and redemption are mutually related parts of one great purpose. Indeed the earlier stages of the development of the material world are of interest chiefly as preparing a platform for human life and history and for the work of God among men. And, in view of man's sin, his creation would be no lasting benefit apart from the redemption wrought by Christ. When God created the world, He must have foreseen that it would be stained by sin and by the shed blood of the Eternal Son. And, when He Hnked together the various forces of nature, He evidently ordained them so as most to help forward the great purpose for which in future ages the Eternal Son assumed human form. The adaptation of each to the other reveals the Author's comprehensive plan. Viewed in this light, the successive stages of the material world, the creation of matter and the impulse which created motion, the creation of life and of intelligence, are consecutive steps leading up to the eternal and glorious Kingdom of Christ and of God. God's purpose to save man could not have been prompted by any good outside God. For the harmony and unity of whatever is good reveals a common source : and this can be no other than the One Source of the material universe and of the moral sense of man. Con- sequently, all human goodness is an outflow of eternal goodness, and a work of God in man. And, as itself a result of divine activity, it cannot be a motive for the 244 THE ETERNAL PURPOSE [Part IV same. Consequently, salvation cannot be in any way by human merit, i.e. the purpose to save man was not prompted by his foreseen repentance and faith and obedience. For all these are works of God in man. Both creation and redemption sprang only from God's purpose to bless. Being Himself infinite love, He resolved to create intelligent objects of love, and to enrich them with His own fulness : and, since He fore- saw man's sin, which can be forgiven only through some such manifestation of God's righteousness, as was actually given in the death of Christ for man's sin. He purposed before the creation of the world to give His Son to die for the salvation of men. That salvation is, from beginning to completion, an accomplishment of an eternal purpose of God, by no means excludes its contingency on man's action. For man's action is an outworking of a power given to him by God. And we cannot doubt that the intelligent Author of this power foresaw the entire future operation of that which Himself created. He must have known what man would do. And this foreknowledge must have conditioned the details of His own purposes with regard to man. This topic, I shall further discuss in Lect. XXIX. We therefore infer with confidence from the nature of God, as revealed in the material world and in human life and history, that whatever God has done and will do, in creation, redemption, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God, is an accomplishment of an eternal purpose, and that the various elements of this Lect. XXVII] THE ETERNAL PURPOSE S45 purpose stand related, each to the others, as constituent parts of one harmonious counsel of God. I shall now endeavour to show that this inference was anticipated by the clear and abundant teaching of the New Testa- ment and especially of the Epistles of Paul. In his inaugural address recorded in Acts ii. 14-36, Peter speaks (v. 23) of Christ as " given up by the marked out {Mpiaixevrj) counsel and foreknowledge of God." This implies that the death of Christ, to which in the words following Peter expressly refers, was part of a definite purpose of God. Moreover, that this purpose was based upon what God foresaw that the enemies of Christ would do to Him, is suggested by the word foreknowledge. For otherwise the addition of this word is meaningless. It brings before us another element in the death of Christ besides the divine purpose, viz. the foreseen action of man. After stating in Rom. viii. 19-23 that Nature will share the salvation awaiting the children of God, Paul goes on to state in v. 28 that all things are working together for good for those who love God. This universal harmony, he then traces to the divine purpose underlying the Gospel call : " for them who, according to His purpose, are called." This purpose is stated in V. 29 : " whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He may be firstborn among many brethren." The emphatic repetition of the particle irpo- in the composite verbs ''fore- knew " and "/"preordained " suggests strongly that this divine purpose was earlier than the " all things " which 246 THE ETERNAL PURPOSE [Part IV are working together for the good of those who love God. Paul asserts that in the eternal past the eternal Father, contemplating the eternal Son, resolved to sur- round Him with other later-born sons, made like to the Firstborn, whom He would not be ashamed to call His brethren. Of this eternal purpose, whatever God has done in Christ is a realisation. In Rom. xvi. 25 we read of a " mystery kept in silence during eternal ages, but manifested now " in the Gospel of Paul and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, and " made known according to a command of the eternal God for all the nations." This mystery can be no other than the purpose of salvation which from eternity lay hidden in the breast of God and which in the Gospel of Christ is revealed to men. Similarly, in i Cor. ii. 7 we read of " God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God foreordained (same word as in Rom. viii. 29) before the ages for our glory." We are here taught that, before the successive ages of time began, God marked out in His wisdom a definite purpose of salvation, a purpose known only by those to whom God reveals it through His Spirit. Still more clearly in Eph. i. 4 we read that God " chose us in Him before the foundation of the world in order that we may be holy and blameless before Him, having foreordained (same word as in Rom. viii. 29, I Cor. ii. 7) us to adoption through Jesus Christ." In V. 9 we read of " the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him." That purpose is " to sum up all things in Christ, those in the Lect. XXVII] THE ETERNAL PURPOSE 247 heavens and those on the earth." The readers had been " foreordained according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His own will." We have here in the mind of God, before the foundation of the world, a definite purpose to bring sinful men, their sins forgiven through the death of Christ, into the family of God, and to unite the whole universe under the sway of Christ. Notice here two elements in God's purpose of salva- tion, viz. a selection of the objects of salvation, and a marking out beforehand, or predestination, of the goal to which He was resolved to lead them. In the eternal past God resolved to save, not all men indiscriminately, nor on the ground of previous merit, but those and only those who should believe the promise of life in Christ Jesus. This selection, made by the sovereign wisdom of God, seemed to the Jews both arbitrary and subversive of morality. But Paul shows, in Rom. ix. 6-13, that it was no more so than was God's choice of Isaac and rejection of Ishmael, and of Jacob but not Esau before the twin brothers had done good or evil. Paul's doctrine of election is only his fundamental doctrine of Justification through Faith viewed in the light of the eternal purpose of God. Similarly, his doctrine of predestination to be sons of God, conformed to the image of the eternal Son, is but his doctrine of Adoption looked at from the same point of view. The eternal purpose meets us again in Eph. iii. 4-6 : " the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as now it 248 THE ETERNAL PURPOSE [Part IV has been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit." Similarly, in the latest of his epistles, 2 Tim. i. 9, lo : "who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to a purpose of His own and grace given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal ages, but manifested now through the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ." In Rev. xvii. 8 we read of persons " whose name is not Written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world." This implies, in close harmony with the teaching of Paul quoted above, that, before the world was, the future heirs of salvation were present to the thought and purpose of God. The similar words in ch. xiii. 8 may mean either that the book was written or the Lamb was slain, from the foundation of the world. The practical difference is not great. For each interpretation implies that the purpose of salvation, which several times in this book is connected with the death of Christ, is earlier than the creation. In the above quotations we trace, to the writers of the New Testament, our own inferences from the Gospel viewed in the light of the nature of God. Indeed, Paul's doctrines of election and predestination are little more than a restatement of the Gospel in terms of the eternal forethought of God. This creative and redemptive thought, we may con- ceive as an object of divine contemplation in eternity. We may also conceive God contemplating, with com- plete satisfaction, its future realisation in the eternal glory of the sons of God ; and contemplating the Lect. XXVII] THE ETERNAL PURPOSE ' 249 successive stages leading up to this supreme result. We may reverently conceive the eternal Father and the eternal Son contemplating the cost of this realisa- tion, viz. the self- emptying and incarnation and suffering and death of the eternal Son ; and, in view of the glory which would follow, deliberately purposing this stupen- dous sacrifice. This purpose is an eternal outflow, as each step of its realisation is an historic outflow, of that love which is the inmost essence of God LECTURE XXVIII THE PROGRESSIVE REALISATION WE have seen the purpose to create the universe, to redeem man, and to build up the eternal Kingdom of God, as pure thought, but definite and complete thought, in the mind of God ; an outflow of infinite love armed with infinite resources. We come now to consider its progressive realisation. The first step in this realisation, so far as we 'can conceive, must have been the creation of matter. And matter in its earliest form, we cannot conceive as other than homogeneous. For heterogeneity must have had a previous history. This original matter must have been endowed with inherent forces, or a force, of which the present natural forces are specialised developments. And, at its creation or subsequently, it must have received the primal impulse which created motion and broke up its homogeneity. In matter thus created, we have an objective reality other than God, Himself the original and eternal Reality. And in its movements we have activity derived from God but distinct and different from the ever-active thought of God. Under the influence of the primal impulse, and of the Lect. XXVIII] THE PROGRESSIVE REALISATION 251 reaction of the inherent forces of nature, we must conceive the evolution of the solar system, and especially of our planet, as a suitable dwelling-place for man and a suitable platform for human history. A very definite stage in the evolution of the universe was marked by the origin of life. In living bodies we notice new forces at work, differing widely from, yet most closely related to, the forces operating in inorganic matter. The advent of life created a new era in the history of our planet, a further stage in the progressive realisation of the purpose of God. We notice also the many-sided development of innumerable varieties of life ; and, amid them, a well-sustained progress from lower to higher forms. The progressive specialisation of bodily forms was followed, or accompanied, by the dawn and development of animal sensation and intelli- gence. Looking back upon this intelligence from the higher standpoint of human intelligence, we see in it another step forward in the accomplishment of the creative purpose of God. The significance of this stage is indicated by the use of the word life to describe both the lower animals and the spiritual and blessed condition of saved mankind. For this various use of the same word reveals a connection between the very different objects denoted by it. With life, appeared also an element of apparent discord in the harmony of the universe, viz. suffering and death, the dark counterfoil to all forms of life. We notice however that, in the order of nature, even death helps forward the progressive purpose of God. The 252 THE PROGRESSIVE REALISATION [Part IV destruction of the less fit opened a way for the ap- pearance successively of higher and still higher forms of life. Another stage of development was the appearance of man, combining in himself and surpassing infinitely all earlier progress. In him we notice a capacity for development, and especially for development of the individual, which leaves far behind all development of animal life. Man's intelligence differs in kind, especially in its capacity for development, from that of animals. And in his moral sense we have an element altogether new. This new development, however, brings to view an element of discord far more serious even than suffering and death. We find men doing, and ourselves doing, that which they and we cannot but condemn. The dark shadow of sin, as something opposed utterly to the intelligent Source of all things, falls across the scene now opening to our view. In sin we see a footprint of an actor other than, and opposed to, God. And the presence of sin hinders, evidently and seriously, the harmonious realisation of the purpose of God. But we have seen that God did not leave man in his sin. We found Him using means to lead him back to obedience and life. Moreover we notice that God uses sin, and especially sin in its most tremendous form, viz. the murder of Christ, to work out His purposes of mercy. Thus under the shadow of death, and amid the discord introduced by sin, with progress rapid or slow, and in spite of occasional retrogression, during the ages, Lect. XXVIII] THE PROGRESSIVE REALISATION 253 the great purpose of God has advanced towards fuller and fuller realisation. By His covenant with Abraham, God linked Himself with man more closely than ever before. And through the deliverance from Egypt, and the ordinances given at Sinai, God placed the whole Israelite nation in special relation to Himself, and gave to it a knowledge of Himself not possessed by other nations. By its captivity among the heathen, the sacred nation was weaned from idolatry ; and by the return from captivity a people was prepared to receive from the incarnate Son a Gospel designed for all nations. In the fulness of time appeared the hoped-for Saviour. Yet, to our surprise. He passed from view without having attained any conspicuous and world-wide results. But His followers at once began to carry to the ends of the world that knowledge of God which had hitherto been a privilege of Israel only, and with it an announcement of salvation for all men, a salvation in its fulness previously unknown even to Israel. And now for long centuries, in the Christian nations, but in them only, the knowledge and Kingdom of God have been making progress among men. Outside these nations there has been and is everywhere stag- nation and decay. Throughout the Christian centuries an unseen but guiding hand of God is felt, and perhaps most conspicuously in the midst of man's unfaithfulness and sin. As eras revealing this special guidance, we notice the age of the Councils, the conversion of the Germanic peoples, and the Reformation. Step by step, often hindered by man's folly and sin, the Kingdom of 254 THE PROGRESSIVE REALISATION [Part IV God has made progress : and Christianity now promises speedily to overspread the earth. Another kind of progress is observed by thousands of the servants of Christ in their own inward and outward life. A review of their own history reveals to them the guidance of an unseen Hand and help from an unseen Source. This they recognise in early influences holding them back from sin and leading them towards Christ, in special help at special crises of their life, in deliverance where there seemed to be no way of escape, in increasing joy in God, and in sustained moral growth. Their own spiritual experiences reveal to them un- mistakably the working out of a deliberate purpose of One who works all things according to the counsel of His own will. This development, in the individual and in the race, is still going forward. On all sides, and in almost all Churches, we see progress. And the progress visible around kindles a hope of still more glorious advance in the future. For, manifestly, the development of the Kingdom of God among men on earth is not yet complete. This further development, we shall consider in another Lecture. The relation of the purpose and work of God to the free agency of man demands our next attention. LECTURE XXIX HUMAN FREEDOM WE have already noticed, in the facts of life, certain phenomena which cannot, or cannot without difficulty, be attributed directly to God. The first of these was suffering, leading down to death, which we found in close relation to all life, animal and human ; the second was sin, which is utterly opposed to the nature of God, and therefore cannot be His work. These phenomena demand now our serious attention. Between these two groups of phenomena, viz. suffer- ing and sin, which are classed together as evil and are evidently most closely related, we notice at once an immense difference. This difference is indicated by the different emotions aroused in us by a great calamity and a great crime. The one we deplore, the other we condemn. And, while doing so, we feel that these judgments belong to different spheres of thought. They differ in their degree of incongruity to the nature of God. Suffering cannot be in itself an end desired by Him whose one aim is to bless. But sin is utterly abhorrent to God, and cannot be in any way His work. Yet we have no difficulty in believing that God hr.s 18 2SS 2S6 HUMAN FREEDOM [Part IV linked together sin and suffering in that close relation to which the moral life of men bears witness. Of these strange phenomena, we now seek some explanation. In our search, we turn to the facts of man's own consciousness. We cannot throw off a conviction that we are ourselves the ultimate source of our own actions ; and that, although these may be due in some measure to various external influences, the real responsibility rests with ourselves alone. Frequently, this sense of sole responsibility is most painful. If we could per- suade ourselves that some action of ours which we are compelled to condemn was really due to an irresistible influence, outward or inward, we should be greatly relieved. But this relief is denied to us. We dare not say that our own actions have their real source elsewhere than in ourselves. They claim us as their real author. And we stand face to face with a responsi- bility we cannot lay aside. This deeply-rooted and far-reaching conviction, which underlies and colours all human thought about our- selves and others, cannot be a delusion. Otherwise all human thought is a delusion, and worthless. If our moral estimate of ourselves and others be without foundation, we must, in despair, abandon all efforts to learn the significance of human life ; and sink to the level of brutes. Again, a wide experience teaches that this sense of responsibility for our actions is a powerful deterrent from sin and a stimulus to virtue. Consequently, to teach that it is a delusion, is to break down a moral Lect. XXIX] HUMAN FREEDOM 257 safeguard and to rob man of a moral helper. To do this, is to inflict serious injury. If the truth demands this sacrifice, then is the truth an enemy to the highest interests of man. This cannot be. An irresistible conviction, rooted in that in man which is noblest and best, assures us that that which is morally hurtful cannot be intellectually true. If so, our conviction that we are ourselves fully responsible for our own actions is and must be essential truth. In other words, man's deep conviction that in the moment of decision he is free to yield to or resist the influences brought to bear upon him, and that the ultimate decision is with himself alone, is attested not only by the strength of this conviction but by the moral ruin involved in a denial of its truth. Certainly we shall not accept such denial unless it be supported by authority equal to the com- bined evidence just quoted. The doctrine, just expounded and supported, that each man is the ultimate source of his own actions, is contradicted by not a few modern writers. Of these I may quote J. S. Mill, who in bk. vi. ch. 2 of his System of Logic writes as follows : — " The question, whether the law of causality applies in the same strict sense to human actions as to other phenomena, is the celebrated controversy about the freedom of the will : which from at least as far back as the time of Pelagius, has divided both the philosophical and the religious world. The affirmative opinion is commonly called the doctrine of Necessity, as asserting human volitions and actions to be necessary and inevitable. The negative maintains 258 HUMAN FREEDOM [Part IV that the will is not determined, like other phenomena by antecedents, but determines itself; that our volitions are not, properly speaking, the effects of causes, or at least have no causes which they uniformly and implicitly obey. " I have already made it sufficiently apparent that the former of these opinions is that which I consider the true one ; but the misleading terms in which it is often expressed, and the indistinct manner in which it is usually apprehended, have both obstructed its reception, and perverted its influence when received. The meta- physical theory of free-will, as held by philosophers, (for the practical feeling of it, common in a greater or less degree to all mankind, is in no way inconsistent with the contrary theory,) was invented because the supposed alternative of admitting human actions to be necessary, was deemed inconsistent with every one's instinctive consciousness, as well as humiliating to the pride and even degrading to the moral nature of man. Nor do I deny that the doctrine as sometimes held, is open to these imputations ; for the misapprehension in which I shall be able to show that they originate, unfortunately is not confined to the opponents of the doctrine, but is participated in by many, perhaps we might say by most, of its supporters. " Correctly conceived, the doctrine called Philosophical Necessity is simply this : that, given the motives which are present to an individual's mind, and given likewise the character and disposition of the individual, the manner in which he will act might be unerringly in- Lect. XXIX] HUMAN FREEDOM 259 ferred : that if we knew the person thoroughly, and knew all the inducements which are acting upon him, we could foretell his conduct with as much certainty as we can predict any physical event." Similar teaching underlies the Synthetic Philosophy of Herbert Spencer, and is defended in a chapter on The Will in his Principles of Psychology. It is uni- versally accepted by modern Scientific Agnostics as a logical result of their principles. Already we have seen that this theory is contradicted by a conviction too deep and widespread to be a de- lusion ; and by the moral ruin it involves. A theory open to contradictions so serious certainly cannot be entertained unless it be supported by decisive proof. The only proof adduced is one suggested in the above extract, viz. that all other phenomena are governed by invariable sequence, and that if human action be not so governed it is a solitary exception to an otherwise universal law. We are also reminded that the progress of human research has greatly extended the realm of invariable sequence ; and some have asserted, assuming the role of a prophet, {e.g. Huxley, Lay Sermons, p. 142,) that future research will " gradually extend the realm of matter and law until it is coextensive with knowledge, with feeling, and with action." But indisputably human action does occupy, as the universal estimate of it loudly asserts, a position apart from, and superior to, all other phenomena. We have therefore no right to assume that what is true of the lower is true also of the higher. Certainly, this assump- 26o HUMAN FREEDOM [Part IV tion is of no weight against man's deep conviction that in action he is free ; and against his experience of the moral injury involved in a denial of his freedom. More- over, the progress of modern research is not more wonderful than are the limits of that progress. The great questions, viz. the origin of matter, of motion, of life, of the moral sense, are as far from solution to-day as in the days of the Greek philosophers ; except so far as the Gospel of Christ has shed light upon them. Indeed modern research has rather revealed the insolubility of these problems. To assert the universality of inevitable sequence, is to claim to have explored the universe and to have solved its deepest mysteries. This claim we cannot admit : and with it falls the last attempt to prove that human life is a delusion and man the helpless victim of irresistible forces. We therefore infer that in the moment of decision man is free to choose to which of two or more con- tending motives he will yield ; that he is not a mere spectator of contending influences over which he has no control, nor only an umpire who gives the palm to the stronger force, but that in action he is the actor and that the decision rests with himself alone. This inference does something to explain the phenomena of evil. For it traces sin, which is itself essential discord, and all its discordant results, to a rational source other than the Author of the universe. This by no means implies that sin is an effect without a cause, but implies only that its ccusc lies hidden in human personality, i.e. in a personality other than, and Lect. XXIX] HUMAN FREEDOM 261 distinct from, the personal Source of the universe. It irnpHes only that He who, in accomplishment of a definite purpose of His own, created the world created in it persons who are, like Himself, each one the intelligent source of a course of activity. We cannot doubt that, while creating other sources of activity, the intelligent Author of the universe fore- saw the activity which in all ages would flow from the sources thus created. It has often been asked why, in full view of all the sin which He foresaw men would commit. He gave to them this terrible power of originat- ing action. But it must be remembered that the only alternative to such free action is universal mechanical necessity. Such necessity would destroy all real value of human life. The world as it is, stained with sin and full of sorrow, yet rising year by year and century by century with the spread of the Gospel, is infinitely nobler and better than a universe consisting only of invariable sequences. This alternative, the only one possible, is sufficient to silence, if it cannot altogether remove, the objection just mentioned. Certainly, this question, perplexing as it is, is not sufficient to overturn the evidence quoted above from the inner life of man that he is the ultimate author of his own actions. The teaching of Mill and Spencer and Huxley, which I have endeavoured to overturn, is destructive both of religion and of morality. By destroying man's real personality and reducing him to a mere machine, it practically reduces God to the same. It makes the action both of God and of man an inevitable out- HUMAN FREEDOM [Part IV working of some mysterious and invariable ultimate force, the mechanical source of the universe. It destroys the unique evil of sin, making it to be only a misfortune. And it leaves man without any motive for contending against sin as such, and without power to contend. Fortunately a doctrine so destructive of all that is noblest and best is, as we have seen, destitute of foundation, and is overturned by the facts of human consciousness. The results attained in this lecture will help to explain the facts of Christianity and of the Christian life. LECTURE XXX THE DIVINE-HUMAN CHRISTIAN LIFE "\T TE have now found phenomena in human life ' * and action which cannot be traced directly to the intelligent Author of life ; and which therefore reveal a source in some measure independent of Him. This partially independent source of action, we found in the power of self-determination of which each man is directly conscious. In other words, just as the universe with its various forces and its manifold life cannot be traced further back than the will of God, so we found phenomena which cannot be traced further back than the personal self-will of man. This mysterious power of self-determination must be a gift of God to man. And, if so, it must, as we have already seen, have been a part of the original purpose of creation. In other words, when God re- solved to create man. He resolved to give him power to originate action for which man only should be responsible. And this purpose to create a responsible being must have been in full view of the entire future activity of man. We cannot doubt that God foresaw all the consequences of committing to man this mysterious 263 264 THE DIVINE-HUMAN [Part IV and tremendous prerogative of choice : and, foresee- ing all, He yet resolved to give this power to man. This inference from the indisputable facts of human life, looked at in the light of the eternal nature of God, will explain all the facts of the Christian life, in harmony with the teaching of the New Testament. We have seen that Paul teaches or implies that upon all men God is bringing to bear influences leading men to repentance and salvation ; influences without which, as Christ teaches, none are or can be saved. It is evident that some men do, and others do not, repent. The repentance and salvation of the one class, being altogether a result of divine influences, is altogether a work of God in man. The continuance in sin of the others results entirely from their resistance to these universal divine influences. And it proves that these influences are not irresistible. For, had they been so, man's repentance would have been exactly proportion- ate to these divine influences ; and therefore universal. All this is in harmony with the teaching of the whole Bible. For, as we have seen, the work of salvation is everywhere said to be a creative work of God, and on the other hand the blame of sin is ever cast upon the sinner. So Christ says, as recorded in John vi. 44, " no one can come to Me except the Father draw him ; " and, as recorded in ch. v. 40, " ye will not come to Me that ye may have life." And so elsewhere frequently. These correlative assertions can be har- monised only by the teaching that the work of salvation is altogether God's, but that God has thous^ht fit to Lect. XXX] CHRISTIAN LIFE 265 make it altogether contingent on man's surrender to divine influences. This contingency is by no means inconsistent with the omnipotence of God. For this attribute implies, not necessarily the actual putting forth of infinite power, but a capacity for action limited only by the will of God. None can deny that God is able to exert real influences of which the practical effect is contingent on man's self surrender to them. To deny this, would be to limit the power of God. Nor is contingency inconsistent with the foreknowledge of God. For, as we learn from our knowledge of what our fellows are doing, knowledge does not in itself involve influence exerted on the object of our knowledge. Therefore, as we know nothing about the knowledge of God except from the analogy of human knowledge, we have no reason to suppose that man's free agency is inconsistent with full and certain divine foresight of all that man will do. This being so, the above explanation is not in itself inconceivable, or inconsistent with the nature of God. What is true of repentance, is true also of all sub- sequent stages of the Christian life. Faith in Christ is evoked in man by the preached word and by spiritual influences leading man to believe it. So Rom. x. 17 : " Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by means of the word of Christ." To those who believe the Gospel, God gives the Holy Spirit to be in them the animating principle of a new life like that of Christ. In proportion as the believer yields himself to the cruidancc of the 266 THE DIVINE-HUMAN [Part IV Spirit and accepts the life which He waits to impart, is his own life moulded into the likeness of this supreme Pattern. Every Christlike thought, word, and act is the work of God in him, an accomplishment of a divine purpose : whatever is unlike Christ results from his refusal to bend to the moulding influence of the Spirit of God. Thus in man's mysterious power to accept or refuse the good work of God in himself, we find ex- plained the many imperfections, and the slow spiritual and moral growth, of the professed servants of Christ. We have already learnt, in Lect. XXI 1 1., that the continuance of the New Life is altogether contingent on man's continued self-surrender to divine influences. It is therefore, both in its beginning, continuance, and growth, a work of God in man, a work conditioned by man's free acceptance of it. This inference is strongly confirmed by the spiritual experience of the servants of Christ. We are directly conscious of a Hand from above guiding and raising us. And a review of our past life compels us to believe that we might have followed that guiding Hand much more fully than we actually did ; and that, if we had done so, it would have led and lifted us into a richer and loftier life than we have ever known. From the above it follows that in the Christian life man is both absolutely passive and intensely active. He is passive : for every good thought, word, act, is wrought in him by the Spirit of God. But, inasmuch as the Spirit, moving men from within, ever prompts personal activity, man's self-surrender to the Holy Spirit Lect. XXX] CHRISTIAN LIFE 267 is always followed by a corresponding personal putting forth of all his powers. And when he is most passive then is he most active. For, when we are completely under the influence of the Spirit, then are our powers of body and mind most fully put forth to work out the purposes of God. Another form of God's work in man deserves serious attention. Even to those who reject it, the Gospel of Christ and the influences leading men to accept it are by no means without effect. For their spiritual senses are blunted by their resistance to the light. And this inevitable result of their refusal of salvation must be by the deliberate purpose and righteous judgment of God. It is the beginning of the punishment which inevitably follows disobedience. This purpose to punish is the dark counterfoil to the eternal purpose of mercy. Like salvation, this punishment is a work of God in man, contingent on man's own action. But it differs from salvation in that its motive and origin are not in God but in man. We therefore infer that in the eternal past, prompted only by His own mercy, God resolved to save and bless, not all men indiscriminately, but those who would, as He foresaw, accept salvation, and to punish with blindness here and severer punishment hereafter those who should resist to the end His purpose of mercy. That spiritual insensibility is inflicted by God, is frequently taught in the Bible. So Rom. xi. 8, quoting from Isa. xxix. 10 : " God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, until this very day." In this sense we must 258 THE DIVINE-HUMAN [Part IV understand the twofold assertion in Rom. ix. i8 : "on whom He will, He has mercy, and whom He will He hardens." The above teaching explains very much in the course of the Kingdom of God among men, and especially the slow and chequered progress of Christianity. It has been objected that the slow progress of the Gospel, the evils rampant in Christian nations, the many abuses in the Churches, and the defective morality of many Christians, disprove the divine origin of the Gospel ; that if it were from God it would move forward with rapid and resistless progress, and bring all nations and all men to bow to Christ with unreserved submission. All these imperfections and this slow progress are explained by human freedom. If, as we have seen, God thought fit to give to man the mysterious power to accept or refuse His best gifts, and to yield to or resist His spiritual influences, we wonder not that in His purpose of mercy He resolved to respect the freedom thus given and to permit man to refuse the offered mercy. Admit this, and all is explained. Because man is free, the progress of Christianity has been hindered by all the influences which darken the mind and warp the right action of man. Because the Gospel is from God, it survived the hostility which at the first threatened to destroy it, has changed the whole aspect of human life, has become the accepted belief of all progressive nations, has thrown off many corruptions derived from the human imperfections of its advocates and adherents, and bids fair soon to cover the earth. Lect. XXX] CHRISTIAN LIFE 269 Moreover, it cannot be doubted that the slow progress of Christianity, conditioned by man's free surrender to divine influences, is infinitely better than the mechanical progress produced by irresistible divine influences. The loyalty of freemen is grander far than the unconscious and perfect obedience of the planets in their orbits. That man is actually free to yield to or resist the divine influences leading to salvation, we have found abundant proof It is equally evident that freedom to resist them is for man's highest good, singly and collectively. And this freedom, taken in connection with God's eternal purpose to save and bless mankind, accounts for all the facts of Christianity. The way of salvation, as outlined above, is in harmony with the teaching of the entire Bible. It is in harmony with the doctrines of election and predestination as taught by Paul : for, as we have seen, God's eternal purpose to receive into His favour and conform to the image of Christ all who believe the Gospel involves a real election and predestination. It is in harmony with, and is required by, the frequent teaching of the New Testament that Christ died for all men, that God will have all men to be saved, and that salvation is altogether a work of God. It is also in harmony with the many warnings which imply that they who perish do so only through their own refusal of salvation. This teaching has been held in all ages, and is held to-day, by a large proportion of Christian teachers. But it has been confronted by another theory which now demands attention 270 THE DIVINE-HUMAN [Part IV Calmn taught correctly and earnestly that salvation, from the first good desire until victory over death, is entirely a work of God and an accomplishment of His eternal purpose, that we should never have begun to seek Him if He had not first sought us, and that our seeking Him was a result of His drawing us to Himself, that our faith is wrought in us by the word of God and by influences leading us to believe it, and that every victory over sin and self is God's gift to us and work in us. But from this correct teaching he incorrectly inferred that God brings to bear, in pursuance of an eternal purpose, upon some of those who hear the Gospel and not on others, influences which invariably lead to repentance, faith, justification, and eternal salva- tion ; and that the reason why these influences (without which, owing to the completeness of the fall, none are or can be saved) are not exerted upon some men while they are upon others is entirely in God and not at all in man. So Calvin's Institutes , bk. iii. 23. i : " whom God passes by He reprobates ; and from no other cause than His determination to exclude them from the inheritance which He predestines for His children. . . . The obstinate are not converted, because God exerts not that mightier grace of which He is not destitute if He chose to display it." Also § 7 : "I inquire again how it came to pass that the fall of Adam, independent of any remedy, should involve so many nations with their infant children in eternal death, but because such was the will of God. It is an awful decree I confess ; but no one can deny that God foreknew Lect. XXX I CHRISTIAN LIFE 271 the future fall of man before He created him, and that He foreknew it because it was appointed by His own decree." Also ch. 24. 12 : "the same sermon is ad- dressed to a hundred persons : twenty receive it with obedience and faith ; the others despise, or ridicule, or reject, or condemn it. If it be replied that the differ- ence proceeds from their wickedness and' perverscness, that will afford no satisfaction ; because the minds of others would have been influenced by the same wicked- ness but for the correction of the divine goodness.'* And § 13: "let us not refuse to say with Augustine, *God could change the will of the wicked into good, because He is omnipotent. Why then does He not do it? Because He is unwilling. Why He is unwilling, remains with Himself " This teaching of Calvin was derived apparently, as the last quotation suggests, from the much earlier teach- ing of Augustine. But Augustine differs from Calvin in supposing that all infants who die without Baptism will perish, whereas baptised infants will be saved ; and that from some of the regenerate God withholds the gift of perseverance and thus permits them to perish finally. So Reproof and Grace ch. 18 : " It is indeed to be wondered at, and wondered at much, that to some of His sons whom He has regenerated in Christ, to whom he has given faith, hope, love, He does not give per- severance : while to children of strangers He forgives so great crimes, and by imparted grace makes them His sons. Who does not wonder at this? Who is not utterly amazed at it ? But also this is not less wonderful, 19 272 THE DIVINE-HUMAN [Part IV and nevertheless true, and so evident that not even the very enemies of the grace of God are able to find out how to deny it, viz. that God makes to be strangers to His Kingdom, whither He sends their parents, some of the sons of His friends, i.e. of regenerated and good believers, who go forth hence in childhood without Baptism ; for whom He, in whose power are all things, might, if He would, procure the grace of this font ; and brings some of the sons of His enemies into the hands of Christians, and through this font introduces them into the kingdom from which their parents are strangers ; while neither the one nor the other, being children, have merit or demerit of their own will." The same argument is found in Grace and Freewill ch. 44 ; Predestination of the Saints ch. 24 ; The Gift of Perseverance ch. 21. That the same argument is used by Augustine four times in as many different treatises, reveals its great value in his eyes ; and suggests that his teaching that from some men God withholds influences which save others was an inference from his teaching that, whereas baptised infants dying in infancy are saved, the unbap- tised perish. If this be so, the distinctive features of Calvin's teaching about the divine decrees are derived ultimately from the ecclesiastical doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, a doctrine rejected by most Calvinists. The teaching that upon some men and not upon others God brings to bear influences invariably followed by salva- tion, and that the reason why these influences are not brought to bear on those who perish is in God and not Lect. XXX] CHRISTIAN LIFE 273 in man, is utterly unworthy of the universal love of Him whose tender mercies are over all His works. And it is unjust. For it makes the ultimate reason why, while one man is saved, another is lost, to be in God and not in man. This implies that God does not treat all men on the same principles. It contradicts the abundant teaching of the New Testament that Christ died for all men. For He died in order that men who deserve to die may have eternal life : and if there were men from whom God had from eternity resolved to withhold in- fluences without which none can be saved, in no sense can it be said that Christ died for them. A strong protest against Calvin's teaching about pre- destination was given by Arminius, Professor of Theology at Leyden, who died in A.D. 1609. His followers pre- sented to the States of Holland in A.D. 16 10 a statement of their teaching, which was identical with that of Arminius, in the form of a Remonstrance in five articles. From these articles they became known as the Remon- strants. Of these, Art. i is as follows. "That God, by an eternal, unchangeable purpose in Jesus Christ His Son before the foundation of the world, has determined, out of the fallen, sinful race of men, to save in Christ, for Christ's sake, and through Christ, those who, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, shall believe in His Son Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith and obedience of faith, through this grace even to the end ; and, on the other hand, to leave the incorrigible and unbelieving in sin and under wrath and to condemn them as alien 274 THE DIVINE-HUMAN [Part IV from Christ, according to the word of the Gospel in John iii. 36, ' He that believeth on the Son hath ever- lasting Hfe : and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him ; ' and according to other passages also of Scripture." Art. 4 is as follows. " That this grace of God is the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment of all good, even to this extent, that the regenerate man himself, without prevenient or assisting, awakening, following, and co-operative grace, can neither think, will, nor do good, nor withstand any temptations to evil ; so that all good deeds or movements that can be conceived must be ascribed to the grace of God in Christ. But, as respects the mode of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible, inasmuch as it is written concerning many that they * have resisted the Holy Spirit : ' Acts vii., and elsewhere in many places." It will be noticed (see Art. 5) that the Remonstrants were uncertain whether they who have received spiritual life can finally fall. Otherwise the teaching of these articles is in complete accord with the teaching of the New Testament as expounded in this volume. The Dutch followers of Arminius soon developed a tendency to Rationalism. And this tendency somewhat discredited their protest against the teaching of Calvin. But it seems to me best to reserve the term Arminianism for the actual teaching of Arminius which was formulated by the Remonstrants. And this teaching asserts clearly the distinctive doctrines of the Gospel. The Synod of Dort condemned the tenets of the Lect. XXX] CHRISTIAN LIFE 275 Remonstrants ; and formulated five Heads of Doctrine, in opposition to them, and in general, though not complete, agreement with the teaching of Calvin. From these I quote, under the first head of Predestination, Art. I : "As all men have sinned in Adam, lie under the curse, and are obnoxious to eternal death, God would have done no injustice by leaving them all to perish, and delivering them over to condemnation on account of sin." Also Art. 6 : " That some receive the gift of faith from God, and others do not receive it, proceeds from God's eternal decree : ' for known to God are all His works from the beginning of the world:' Acts XV. 18, Eph. i. II. According to which decree He graciously softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and inclines them to believe ; while He leaves the non-elect, in His just judgment, to their own wickedness and obduracy." Yet, with happy incon- sistency, under the second head Art. 6 reads : " Whereas many who are called by the Gospel do not repent nor believe in Christ but perish in unbelief; this is not owing to any defect or insufficiency in the sacrifice offered by Christ upon the cross but is wholly to be imputed to themselves." Art. 17 of the Anglican Church, and the Westminster Confession of Faith, reveal the influence in England and Scotland of Calvin's teaching. But in these docu- ments its harsher features are modified. Through the preaching of Wesley and the influence of the Methodist revival the teaching of Arminius, as embodied in the Remonstrant Articles, has obtained wide 276 THE DIVINE-HUMAN [Part IV acceptance in England and America. The Arminian modification of the teaching of Calvin is the belief, more or less clearly held, of nearly all the religious writers of the present day. So Blunt, Dictionary of Sects, etc., art. Arminimis, says, " In still more recent times, the dreadful dogma of Calvinism respecting Predestination and Election has been held by com- paratively few persons, at least in the Church of England, and the doctrine of Universal Redemption, for which Arminius chiefly contended, is not disputed by any Theologians of importance." Also Canon Perry in The Students English ChurcJi History, Third Period, p. 88, writes : " It is hardly possible to exaggerate the debt which the Church of England owes to John Wesley in respect of his teaching on absolute decrees, particular redemption, final perseverance, and the other doctrines involved in the Calvinistic controversy. Had it not been for the consistent opposition which he maintained to these views, and the .strenuous battle fought by him and his assistants against them, the cause of spiritual religion in the Church of England might have been inseparably connected with an antinomian system, which impeaches the moral attributes of the Deity as much as it excludes the proper place of righteousness in man." Of the two great factors of the Christian life men- tioned above, Augustine and Calvin held firmly the first and chief, viz. that all good in man is a work of God and an accomplishment of His eternal purpose. But this great truth obscured, in their minds, the com- plementary truth that the actual result of these divine Lect. XXX] CHRISTIAN LIFE 277 influences is altogether conditioned by man's free self-surrender to them. The former truth was held as firmly by Arminius and Wesley as by Calvin. But these later teachers added to it the complementary doctrine of man's freedom to accept or refuse salvation, which Calvin rejected, but which is necessary to preserve the former doctrine from serious perversion. LECTURE XXXI THE ETERNAL REALISATION WE have now traced in outline the salvation of man from sin and ruin, his introduction into the favour and family of God, and the nature, relations, and growth of the new life of the adopted sons of God, as these are depicted in the New Testament. We found all men guilty of past transgression, held fast by present bondage to sin which they were powerless to break, and exposed to future punishment. But we heard the voice of Christ proclaiming pardon and a new life of liberty for all who should put their trust in Him. We also learned that, in order to harmonise with His own justice the justification of those whom the Law justly condemned, God gave up His Son to die. And we learned that, to His adopted sons, He gives the Spirit of His Son to be in them the animating principle of a new life of unreserved devotion to God like the life of Christ. We found also that this salvation from sin and this new life in Christ involve victory over all hostile influences from without or within us, and a profound peace which no human or infrahuman power can disturb. This salvation, we found to be, from beginning to 278 Lect. XXXI] THE ETERNAL REALISATION 279 completion, a work of Him who made man and the universe. But we found also that it was in every step conditioned by man's self-surrender to the purpose and work of God. Just as in human life spirit and flesh touch and inter-penetrate each other at every point, so is the new life in Christ, to the fullest extent, both divine and human. From the nature of God as reflected in human nature, we inferred that whatever God does in time is an accom- plishment of a deliberate purpose in the mind of God before time began. And so closely related are the salvation of each individual, the historic development of the Kingdom of God among men both before and after Christ, and the material universe, that we cannot doubt that all these are mutually related and essential parts of one comprehensive and eternal purpose. In other words, matter and motion were created and the universe and our planet were evolved in order that this last, surrounded by the universe of stars, might become a platform for human life, an environment fitted for the moral and spiritual education of men. This eternal purpose has been to a certain extent accomplished. All around us is the material universe, the beautiful temporary home of the human family of God. In the happy experience of the servants of Christ we see a great salvation wrought by God, and in the Church of Christ, in its various branches, imperfect yet rising, we see the broad foundations of the eternal Kingdom of God. This present accomplishment is a sure pledge of a still 28o THE ETERNAL REALISATION [Part IV more glorious accomplishment to come. For, although manifestly divine, it is manifestly imperfect. The material universe is subject to decay. Upon all that lives is written the doom of death. And this decay and death limit the development of life. Moreover the things which are seen can never satisfy the deep yearning of the heart of man. If what we see is all that exists and will exist, then is either the creative purpose or its realisation imperfect. The present realisation is un- worthy of a Creator possessing infinite resources and wisdom, and moved by infinite love. Still more conspicuously imperfect are Christian men and Churches and nations as we see them around us to- day. Superior as they are to all that is non-Christian, in all that constitutes human excellence, they fall far below the ideal presented by Christ. If the present realisation of that ideal be all that will be, then is the purpose for which the eternal Son became man only in small part attained. For He came to save the world and to draw all men to Himself. Along with this imperfection, we notice, in all ages and before history began, indisputable marks of sustained progress. We see it in the progressive adaptation of our planet to be the home of life ; and still more clearly in the development of life from its lowliest forms up to the appearance of man. We notice the general progress of civilisation. We observe also, in ancient Israel and to some extent in other nations, advance in a more spiritual conception of God and in juster views of man's duty to God. Still more conspicuous is the progress of the Lect. XXXI] THE ETERNAL REALISATION 281 Christian nations. The disgraceful contentions of some of the early Councils of the Church would be impossible now. No one can compare the state of Europe to-day with what it was a hundred years ago without gratitude for the change. In spite of many defects, and possibly occasional retrogression in certain details, the history of the Christian nations, especially during the last four centuries, has been marked by unmistakable advance, material, intellectual, and spiritual. Progress is evidently the law of the universe and the will and purpose of its Creator. This widespread progress, taken in connection with the imperfection still clinging to whatever exists around us, opens a sure prospect of progress still to come. The various social forces, and the guiding Hand divine, which have brought us to what we are, are still operating in the world and still guiding its destinies. A review of the history of the Church justifies a hope that a time will come when the ancient forms of error which still hold in bondage portions of our race will disappear, and when to a measure hitherto unknown Christ will reign in the hearts of men and in the social life of the world. But whatever progress may be in store for the present order of things, that order itself bears marks of imper- fection which seem to foretell its dissolution. Modern Science has done much to alleviate suffering and some- thing to lengthen life. But it gives no promise of complete removal of suffering and death. And these are strangely incongruous to the dignity of those who are children of a Father in heaven. 282 THE ETERNAL REALISATION [Part IV It may be replied that the faithful servants of Christ will escape by death from all the ills which pertain to the present life. But such escape is a rending asunder of elements, spirit and flesh, whose union is a conspicuous and wonderful feature of life in all its visible forms, and evidently a part of the creative purpose of God. We ask eagerly whether our beautiful world is for ever to be a vale of tears and an abode of death. The writers of the New Testament, as we shall see in another volume, looked forward to the return of Christ from heaven to earth, to put an end for ever to the reign of sorrow and death, to close the present order of nature, to create a new earth and heaven never to be soiled by sin or darkened by sorrow or overshadowed by death, and to set up an eternal Kingdom in which every citizen will share the royalty of his Lord. This glorious City of God will be the final and com- plete realisation of the creative and redemptive purpose of God. Before the world was, that purpose stood, as definite and perfect thought, before the Eye of God. It was the ultimate goal of all other purposes of God. The creation of the world and of man, the mission of the Son of God, and the founding and development of the Church of Christ, were but steps leading up to its realisation. And in its foreseen realisation, the Mind of God, Creator and Redeemer, found from eternity, and will for ever find, its complete satisfaction. Every stone of that City will be laid by the Hand of God in accordance with a divine plan And it will be a work of man as truly as of God. Indeed, that it might Lect. XXXI] THE ETERNAL REALISATION 283 be such, the Creator Son became Man, in order that as Man He might redeem both man and the material world. And the Son, in this great work, associated with Himself His adopted brethren of the human race. They share His work, that they may share His joy. To what extent they do so, depends upon themselves. But even man's refusal to co-operate was foreseen by God and taken up into His purpose. Consequently, although it will exclude the individual from the blessings designed for him by God, it cannot prevent the accomplishment of the purpose of God. Thus the universe and human life in it began with an eternal thought in the mind of an intelligent and almighty and all-loving Creator : it will find its con- summation in the complete and eternal realisation of that thought. The present universe and human life and history as we know them are the transition from the eternal thought to the eternal realisation. In that transition we are permitted and compelled to take part. What our part is to be, depends entirely upon ourselves. And upon our part in the process now going on, depends our place in the realisation. PART V THE REVELATION OF GOD IN THE NEW LIIE IN CHRIST LECTURE XXXII GOD OUR FATHER THE salvation of man and the new life in Christ which we have now traced in outline from their ultimate source in the eternal thought of God up to their partial realisation in the present experience of the servants of Christ, are, as wrought by God, a revelation of His nature ; a revelation verifying and supplementing that already found in the material universe and in the moral sense and the ordinary social life of men. This fuller revelation demands further attention. In the visible world, we found, clearly impressed, foot- prints of an intelligent Creator. And in the inborn moral sense, and in the manifest sequence of action and retribution, we found proof that the Maker of men has marked out a moral path along which He would have them go and in which path only they can attain their 284 Lect. XXXII] GOD OUR FATHER 285 highest welfare. In the visible creation we see the resour«es of the Creator : and in the phenomena of the moral life we hear the voice of a righteous Lawgiver who will recompense every man according to his action. These results of our observation were confirmed by the great facts of the Gospel of Christ. For we found complete historical proof that these broad principles of Natural Theology were frequently asserted by Him and underlay His entire teaching ; that He claimed to teach as one occupying an intimate and unique relation to God ; and that in proof of this claim He was raised from the dead. We also found proof that the moral and religious influence of Christ had changed for good the entire course of human history and life. The testimony of the Conqueror of death and the Saviour of the world, we could not dispute. We therefore joyfully accepted His word as complete confirmation of our own inferences touching the existence and nature of God. These inferences have now received further con- firmation, or rather absolute verification, in the actual experience of the servants of Christ. For they who believe in Him have found, in proportion to the confi- dence with w^hich they accept and obey His teaching, an inward moral power raising and strengthening their own moral sense, enabling them more and more to obey its commands, and thus raising their whole life. In days gone by, they trembled under the condemnation of a judge enthroned within from w^hose judgment was neither appeal nor escape. The same judge now bears witness, in spite of much felt imperfection, to a sustained 286 GOD OUR FATHER [Part V growth of all that in them which is noblest and best. And this growth, being in harmony with that which they know to be the supreme law of their nature, is to them a decisive proof of the truth of the Gospel they have believed. This moral growth is, as a wide experience proves, conditioned by belief in an intelligent Ruler of the world, the Enemy of all that the moral sense condemns and the Friend of all that it approves. This faith in God we find to be day by day a source of highest blessing. This result of faith attests the reality of Him in whom His people trust ; and in whom trusting they receive that which is better to them than all earthly good. For, unless their faith be an apprehension of reality, then are the noblest elements of human life, and life itself, unreal. Thus the daily experience of the servants of Christ reveals to them a presence as real, and infinitely greater, than the presence of their fellows around. In this sense, the New Life in Christ is a revelation, to those who possess it, and in some measure to those who observe them, of an unseen Creator and Ruler and Friend. It is personal intercourse with God. The Gospel of Christ, as thus verified, not only con- firms, but greatly enlarges, the earlier revelation of God in nature. A conspicuous element of the teaching of Christ and of the entire New Testament is that God is our Father. Indisputably, He who claimed to be Himself the Son of God, and vindicated His claim by victory over death, taught His disciples, as sons of God, to think of God as their Father. This term involves an Lect. XXXII] GOD OUR FATHER 287 analogy ; and makes every form of fatherly excellence among men to be a mirror reflecting, amid human imperfection, the infinite nature of God. It reveals in God a father's heart which, in virtue of His relation to us as the Source of our being, loves and yearns for His children on earth ; and it assures us that, from His infinite resources. He will provide for, and guide, and protect us. It places us in a happy relation to the Creator and Ruler of the universe very dimly perceived until the appearance of Christ ; and thus places the universe itself, as our Father's house, in a new relation to us. In that Father's love, the love of Him who holds all things in His hands, His people rest. Involved in the fatherhood of God, and a very definite and conspicuous element of the teaching of the New Testament about God is His Love to man. This love finds conspicuous manifestation in the gift of His Son to die for man. So John iii. 16: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son ; " an ex- position of the foregoing statement that " the Son of Man must needs be lifted up." Also i John iv. 10 : " herein is love, not that we loved Him but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins." Similarly Rom. v. 8 : " God commends His own love toward us that, while we were still sinners, Christ died on our behalf." And Eph. ii. 4: "God, being rich in mercy, because of His much love with which He loved us . . . made us alive together with Christ." In two of these passages, the proof of God's love is placed in the intimate relation of Christ to God as 30 288 GOD OUR FATHER [Part V His only-begotten Son. So also Rom. viii. 32 : " He that spared not His own Son but graciously gave Him up for us all." We have already seen {ThrougJi Clirist to God, pp. 215, 216) that the term Soji of God notes an essential relation between two eternal Persons. That on behalf of men created in time God gave up to suffering and death the Companion of His own eternity, is, as the above passages assert, a supreme proof of His love to man. Thus the teaching of Christ and the Apostles about His relation to God is an essential element of the revelation in Christ of the infinite love of God. For the costliness of the means of salvation is a measure of the love which prompted it. And, apart from this eternal relation of the Father and the Son, we cannot conceive so costly a proof of divine love. The above teaching finds its culmination in i John iv. 8, 16, where, in connection with the love manifested in the mission of the Son, the writer uses twice the remarkable words GOD IS Love. These words give to Love a unique place among the moral attributes of God as the one quality worthy to be spoken of as a full account of the highest element of the nature of God. We never read that God is righteousness or truth or holiness. These are only partial elements included in the all-embracing attribute of love. To be unrighteous or untruthful, is to be unloving. Moreover, not every act of God springs from His righteousness or His truth. But every act or work of God is an outflow of infinite love. Even creation is such. God created man in order that in him He might have a created object Lect. XXXIIJ GOD OUR FATHER 289 worthy of His utmost love. And He created man foreseeing that his creation would lead, in consequence of his foreseen fall, to the death of the Son of God. Deliberately to create man, under such circumstances, is a manifestation of the love of God the most wonder- ful we can conceive. Love is then the central attribute of God. The other moral attributes are but the same attribute looked at from various limited points of view. The natural attributes describe the infinite resources at the disposal of infinite love. These resources, love needs for its full manifestation. In God we have infinite love prompting and controlling every thought, word, and action, and armed with infinite knowledge and wisdom and power. This gives us a conception of God the loftiest and the most attractive we can conceive. We see in Him an intelligent and self-determining Being, with unlimited resources, the Source of whatever in the universe is good, calling into existence other intelligent and self- determining beings, finite copies of Himself ; and using all His resources to do them good. His wisdom we see in the many-sided purpose of salvation and in its wonderful adaptation to the needs of mankind ; His supernatural power in the resurrection of Christ and in the salvation of men through Christ. And all this knowledge of God we oue to Him who claimed to be the Only-begotten Son of God. A still earlier revelation of the wisdom and resources and patience of God, we see in the material world and in its fitness for the higher life of man for which it was created to be the platform. 290 GOD OUR FATHER [Part V Another attribute given to God in the Bible, and in ancient literature peculiar to the Bible, now demands attention, viz. the HOLINESS of God. It is mentioned in the New Testament only in John xvii. ii, where Christ accosts God as " holy Father ; " Heb. xii. lO, "that we may partake His holiness ;" i Peter i. 15, 16, " according as He that called you is holy, also yourselves be holy in all behaviour, because it is written, Ye shall be holy because I am holy," quoted from Lev. xi. 44 ; Rev. iv. 8, " holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty," repeated from Isa. vi. 3. Notice also i Peter iii. 15, " Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord." In Lev. xi. 44, xix. 2, xx. 26, xxi. 8 God declares solemnly that He is Himself holy ; and on the ground of His own holiness commands the people to sanctify themselves and to be holy. In two of these passages, the holiness of God is given as a reason for abstaining from unclean food ; a third has reference to the holiness of the priests ; and another is a warning to honour parents, to keep the Sabbath, and to turn from idolatry. In Lev. x. 3 God declares, " in those who are near to Me, I will be sanctified, and in the presence of all the people I will be glorified ;" similarly, Num. xx. 12, xxvii. 14, Deut. xxxii. 51. The holiness of God is conspicuous in the Book of Psalms : and in the Book of Isaiah (chs. i. 4, v. 19, xli. 14, etc.) we have the phrase " the Holy One of Israel." It is impossible to give to the word holy in these passages, where it is used as an attribute of God, any meaning radically different from that which it has Lect. XXXII] GOD OUR FATHER 291 throughout the Old Testament when applied to the various holy objects of the Old Covenant. Inevitably ancient Israel would think of God as standing in re- lation to the holy things and men they saw around them. They would do this the more readily because all the holy objects stood in special relation to God. In order therefore to understand the holiness of God as understood by the writers of the Old Testament, we ask, What do the sacred things of the Mosaic Covenant teach us about God ? What definite element in His nature do they reveal ? The answer is not far to seek. Moses, Aaron, and Israel, as they encamped around the Sacred Tent, had thoughts of God very different from their thoughts in earlier days. He was now the Great Being who had claimed from Aaron a peculiar and exclusive and life- long service. This claim must have created an era in Aaron's conception of God. By predicating of Himself the word holy already applied to the objects claimed for Himself, God announced that this claim was no mere casual event in sacred history, but was an outflow and expression of His own inmost nature, of a definite element in God Himself. God was now to Israel the God of the Altar, the Tabernacle, the Priesthood, the Sacrifices, and the Sabbath. The holiness of God is that element of His nature of which these are visible exponents. In Lect. XIV. we noticed that in the New Testament the word holy is a frequent designation of the servants of Christ. This places the New Life in Christ in relation 292 GOD OUR FATHER [Part V to the holy objects of the Old Covenant. By calling themselves holy, they recognised that God had claimed them to be exclusively His own, in order that He might be henceforth the one aim of their every purpose and effort. Consequently, in the New Testament, the holy objects of the Mosaic ritual are patterns in symbolic outline of the Christian life. The servants of Christ are a temple, a priesthood ; and their bodies a living sacrifice. And the significance of this symbolic lan- guage, and indeed the purpose for which the symbols were instituted of old, are expounded in many passages, e.g. 2 Cor. v. 1 5, in which we are taught that God designs us to live a life of which He is the constant aim. As thus claimed by God, all Christians are holy. Un- faithfulness in them is sacrilege, robbery of God. This teaching, embodied in the word holy, conveys to us a new and very solemn conception of God. We think of Him now as the great Being who has claimed us and all we have and are to be exclusively His own. And, when we read that He who has sanctified us in Christ is Himself holy, we learn that this claim flows from His inmost nature, that in virtue of His own mode of existence He can do no other than claim to be the sole possessor of whatever He has created, and the sole aim of the entire activity of all His intelligent creatures. Just so, creation is an outflow of the inmost nature of God : for He can do no other than create. That all things are both from Him and for Him, is absolute and eternal truth. In order to reveal to men this element of His nature, Lect. XXXII] GOD OUR FATHER 293 God claimed for Himself, in the infancy of our race, the various holy objects of the Old Covenant. This claim was embodied in the word holy. And this word God assumed as a description of Himself, thus making the sacred objects exponents of Himself. In Christ, God claims that all His servants render to Him their body, soul, and spirit, their possessions and powers, to be used for Him as the one aim of their entire being. And, noting that this claim is no mere incident in the divine procedure, but is a revelation of God Himself, in a few passages God is Himself called holy. In virtue of His holiness, God is the enemy of all sin. For all sin is disloyalty to Him, and robs Him of that which He cannot but claim. And in proportion as we are holy shall we be sharers of this divine hostility to sin. Thus the holiness of God involves, though it is much more than. His purity. We may therefore think of the Holiness of God as the essential element of His nature which moved Him to claim, under the Old Covenant, the sacred objects of the Mosaic ritual ; and which moves Him to claim the unreserved devotion of all those whom in Christ He rescues from sin. This is a definite element in the nature of God, and is suggested at once by the definite and conspicuous attribute of Holiness given to Him frequently in the Old Testament and occasionally in the New. It is a counterpart to that element in His nature which prompted Him to create. He is the Beginning and the End. The holiness of God stands, as do all His attributes. 2.J4 GOD OUR FATHER [Part V in close relation to His central attribute of love. God's love prompts Him to claim our unreserved devotion, because such devotion is, as we learned in Lect. XV., a condition of man's highest well-being. For God to tolerate disloyalty in His intelligent creatures, would be unkind to them. The holiness of God is but His love looked at from the point of view of intelligent creatures capable of an aim in life. Indeed the scantiness of reference to the holiness of God in the New Testament, in contrast to its prominence in the Old, is due probably to the more limited attri- bute being overshadowed by the new and wonderful revelation in Christ of the great central attribute of love. To sum up. Beyond and above the visible universe with all it contains, lifeless, living, and rational, we see clearly manifested in His works an intelligent and self- determining Being, the righteous and all-knowing and all-powerful Source and Ruler of whatever good exists. His one purpose is the highest good of whatever He has made. This purpose He pursues with unerring wisdom in the selection of ends and means. Since intelligent creatures need a guide and aim in life higher than themselves, He has given Himself and His purpose of blessing to be their one aim, thus giving to their life unity and worth, in order that thus, by pursuing a goal higher than themselves men may daily rise towards God and thus attain their highest well-being. As loving all men and therefore treating them impartially, God is righteous. And, as Himself essential reality. Lect. XXXII] GOD OUR FATHER 295 as speaking and acting ever in harmony with reality, and as fulfilling ever His own promises, God is true and faithful. This fuller revelation of our Father in heaven, which at once claims for Him our reverent homage and our love, and gives us peace, we owe to the birth, works, teaching, death, and resurrection of the Son of God ; and to the inward enlightenment of the Spirit of God given to those who believe the words of Christ. Thus through the historic facts of the Incarnate Son and the abiding inward presence of the Spirit of God, God our Father has manifested, and ever reveals, Himself to man. LECTURE XXXIII THE SON OF GOD ALREADY we have found complete historical proof {Thruugh ChiHst to God, pp. 215-300) that Jesus of Nazareth claimed unique superiority to all men and unique nearness to God. This claim we found to imply- that the Son shares the infinity and the eternity of the Father ; we noticed also that it involves a conception of God unheard-of till the time of Christ, but since His day the deep conviction of almost all His followers, viz. that in God there is, not one solitary Person only, but eternal companionship and love of Father and Son. This conception of God, we traced to the lips of Him who was raised from the dead, to the Author of the great religious impulse which has changed for good the entire course of human life from apparently inevitable ruin to sustained progress. In this volume we have traced the great spiritual and moral benefit of this distinctively Christian conception of God. For, the proof of God's love to man afforded by the death of Christ has its root and force in the unique relation of Christ to God as the Son of God. It was " His Only-begotten Son " whom " God gave, in order 296 Lect. XXXIII] THE SON OF GOD 297 that all who believe in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life." The relation of the Sufferer to God reveals the infinite cost of man's salvation, a cost fore- seen and purposed from eternity. But for the existence of One infinitely nearer to God than those for whom He died, this wonderful manifestation of love would have been, so far as we can conceive, impossible. It would be unfair to infer from the foregoing that man's sin was needful for full manifestation of God's love to man. But, as matter of fact, in the death of Christ that love was manifested to a degree otherwise inconceivable by us ; and, of this manifestation of God's love, the eternal relation of the Son to the Father is an essential element. How the love of God would have been manifested had not man sinned, is beyond our knowledge. The love of God thus manifested in Christ has spiritual and moral power. Thousands, in all ages, have said " we love, because He first loved us." All human love to God is but a reflection of His love to man. And, to love God, is the first and great commandment. The love to God and to Christ thus evoked becomes a main- spring of devotion to Christ and to God. " The love of Christ constrains us : " and, when we know that " He died in order that they who live may live no longer for themselves but for Him who on their behalf died and rose," we cannot refuse to Him the devotion He claims. Moreover, the love of Christ for fallen man kindles in His servants a like compassion. Their love to Him puts them under the mighty influence of His example. 298 THE SON OF GOD [Part V Moved by that example, thousands have lived lives of heroic sacrifice in order to rescue those for whom their Master died. In other words, the love of Christ mani- fested in His death makes easy the devotion He claims. We have seen in Lect. XXXH. that love is the central and all-embracing attribute of God. To reveal the love of God, is to reveal His inmost essence. God moulds the moral nature of man into a likeness of Himself by revealing Himself to man. He does this, in a measure otherwise impossible, through the self- sacrifice of the eternal Son, as manifested in His death upon the cross to save man. We notice also that every revelation of God, ana indeed the entire activity of God, are through the agency of the Son. Through Him (John i. 3, Col. i. 16) God made the universe, and thus manifested Himself as Creator. Through Him, and especially through the historic facts of His human life, God has made a still fuller manifestation of Himself as the God of love. Thus is the Son the eternal link between God and whatever is other than God. A mere unipersonal God leaves an infinite gulf between Him and His creatures. In the eternal Son, eternal as God is eternal, yet personally distinct from the Father, that gulf is spanned. And the Gospel of Christ, which reveals to man the eternal Son, places man and creation in a new and blessed relation to God. Another link, not eternal but created, yet occupying a unique relation to God, is the human body of the Incar- nate Son. In this sacred body, the eternal Son took Lect. XXXIII] THE SON OF GOD 299 visible and historic form before the eyes of men ; and the conception of the Son took definite form in the mind of man. The historic facts of the Son incarnate reveal His eternal nature, and are thus channels of spiritual power in the hearts of men. We are able, in the historic memory of our race, to bend over the manger in which He slept, to listen to His words of wisdom, to wonder at His works of power and mercy, to bow in silence before the cross on which He died, and with rapturous joy to look into Hisempty grave and on the face of the Risen Lord. In these facts we see, in concrete form, the obedience of the Son to the Father, His unreserved devotion to the work for which the Father sent Him into the world, and the in- finite love of God to man. The eternal Son, thus manifested in human form, becomes the visible Guide of human life, and the most powerful stimulus to walk in His steps. So powerful was the influence of these facts upon the mind of Paul, and so real and intimate was His inter- course with Christ, that they became part of His own experience. Upon the cross of Christ, Paul himself had died, and with Him had risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God. No stronger proof than this could be given of the wonderful effect upon the thought and heart of Paul of the manifestation of the Son of God in the facts of His human life. Thus in the eternal Son, manifested in human flesh and blood, the unseen God manifested Himself to man. The picture of the Incarnate Son given in the four Gospels presents to us in Him, not only a human body of flesh and blood, exposed as are our bodies to hunger. 300 THE SON OF GOD [Part V pain, sickness, and death, but also a finite human spirit, intelligent and moral, capable of thought, purpose, joy, sorrow, and moral earnestness and effort. This finite intelligence we detect in the growth in wisdom of the Sacred Boy, and in the ignorance of Christ, even at the close of His life, of the day of His return. And it is implied in Heb. ii. ly : "it behoved Him in all things to be made like His brethren." Without such created and human spirit, the human nature of Christ would be imperfect ; as would be His example for us. This human nature of Christ must have been an exact counterpart, created and finite and human, to the divine nature of the Son of God ; but distinct from it as the creature is distinct from the Creator. In proportion as the purpose of God is accomplished in u^will our spirit become like the human spirit of the incarnate Son. To sum up. In the God-Man we see (i) an eterna Person distinct from, and derived from, the Father, yet sharing with Him to the full all divine attributes ; (2) a created human spirit, sinless and perfect, an exact human counterpart to the eternal nature of the Son of God ; and (3) a created human body under the inherited doom of death. This conception of Christ modifies, as we have seen, our entire conception of God. And, as we have seen, the short life among men of this divine- human Person has changed for good the whole course of human life and history, and will raise to the glory of heaven and to the likeness of the Son of God all those who accept the message of salvation which He brought into the world. LECTURE XXXIV THE SPIRIT OF GOD ANOTHER essential element of the divine nature, revealed in some measure even under the Old Covenant, but revealed with special fulness by Christ and in the New Life in Christ, is THE SPIRIT OF GOD, a divine counterpart, operating in the heart and inner life of men, to the eternal Son of God manifested in human flesh and blood before the eyes of men and on the open page of history. In Lectures IX. and XVI. we have already studied the work, and in some measure the nature, of the Spirit of God. These studies, we will now review and complete. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God occupies a conspicuous place. At the creation, above the chaos of the as yet unformed world, we see Him brooding. Himself the Source and animating Principle of the order and life that are to be. At the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the Spirit of God is said to have been given to Bezaleel and others, to enable them with divine wisdom to make a suitable temporary dwelling place for the God of Israel. Thus men were 301 302 THE SPIRIT OF GOD [Part V endowed with a skill above their own, and became in this sacred work the hand of God. In Samson again we see Him giving to the arm of a man superhuman power, and making him to be the arm of God. " The sweet Psalmist of Israel" declares, "the Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and His word was in my tongue." And in the Old Testament and again in the New, we find the prophets speaking under a special influence of the same Spirit of God. In all these places we find the Spirit of God exercising the various attributes of God, bringing them to bear on man by direct inward contact and thus making man to be an organ of divine activity. That Christ would baptize with Spirit, was con- spicuously announced by John. And upon Christ at His Baptism descended the Spirit of God in bodily form like a dove. In various terms the Holy Spirit was promised by Christ as a conspicuous feature of the new era He was about to inaugurate. That era began with a wonderful outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Paul and other writers of the New Testament teach plainly that the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe the Gospel of Christ, to be in them the animating Principle of a new life like that of Christ Practically, throughout the Bible, the Spirit of God is the Bearer of the presence and activity of God. Where the Spirit is, there is God, putting forth divine powers in the heart of man and making man to be an instrument of the self-manifestation of God. In the New Testament, we find other teaching Lect. XXXIV] THE SPIRIT OF GOD 303 shedding further h"ght on the nature of the Spirit of God. On the evening of His betrayal, our Lord says, as recorded in John xiv. 16, "I will request the Father and He will give you another Paraclete that He may be with you for ever, the Spirit of the Truth, which the world cannot receive, because it beholds it not, nor recognises. But ye recognise it, because it abides with you and is (or shall be) with you." (The Greek pronouns here, where expressed, are neuter, agreeing with the word Spirit, which is neuter : but this grammatical agreement does not determine the personality or im- personality of the Spirit The word transliterated Paraclete is masculine). Similar language is found in V. 26 : " But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and will bring to your memory all things which I have said to you." Similarly, ch. xv. 26, " When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of the Truth, which goes forth from the Father, He will bear witness about Me." Also ch. xvi. 7, " It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away the Paraclete will not come to you ; but if I go I will send Him to you. And, when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, etc." And in vv. 13, 14: "When He comes, the Spirit of the Truths He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak from Himself, but so many things as He hears He will speak ; and He will announce to you the things coming. He will glorify 21 304 THE SPIRIT OF GOD [Part V Me ; because of Mine He will take and will announce to you." Very conspicuous in these passages are the repetition and accumulation of the same titles given to the Spirit, and the teaching that the Spirit whom Christ will send will be a more effective substitute for the Master Himself who is about to leave His disciples. The Greek word translated paraclete denotes, etymo- logically, one called to our side, especially one called as a helper. It is occasionally used in classical Greek and by Philo ; always apparently in the sense of one who pleads before a judge. It has an exact equivalent, both in form and use, in the Latin word advocatus. In this sense it is used in the one other place in which it occurs in the New Testament, I John ii. I, "we have an advocate with the Father." In the passages before us, however, the idea of pleading is absent ; an advocate is not in any way suggested, except so far as the promised Paraclete will help us in our conflict by convicting of sin our adversary the world. His chief work is (John xiv. 26) to teach, and to bring to memory the words of Christ, and (ch. XV. 26) to bear witness about Christ. This connection of thought seems to compel us to fall back on the more general sense of helper^ one called to our side to render assistance in any need. But I am not aware that the word is found in this general sense in classical Greek. On the other hand, in Rom. viii. 26 the Spirit is represented as helping saints by pleading on their behalf. Apparently, the Spirit pleads for them by Lect. XXXIV] THE SPIRIT OF GOD 305 pleading in them, i.e. by stimulating and guiding their own prayers. In the passages now before us the Spirit is clearly represented as a helper : and the associations of the word suggest, though the suggestion is not supported by the context, that He renders help like that of an advocate who represents a man in a court of law. The title Spirit of the Truth suggests that the promised Paraclete is the animating and life-giving principle of the realities revealed by God to man, and especially of the teaching of Christ ; that the Gospel is the organ used by the Spirit ; and that to the Gospel the Spirit gives vitality and power. In close harmony with this, we read in Eph. vi. 17 of " the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." In John xiv. 18, Christ speaks of the coming of the Paraclete as His own return to His bereaved disciples: " I will not leave you orphans ; I will come to you." Similarly, in Rom. viii. 9 Paul speaks of the ** Spirit of Christ " as the actual presence of Christ in His people. This implies that, just as, in Old and New Testaments, the Spirit of God is a Bearer of the actual presence of God in the hearts of men, so the Spirit of God is also the actual presence of Christ in the hearts of His disciples. This is confirmed by other passages which speak of Christ as dwelling in His people : e.g. Gal. ii. 20, "Christ lives in me;" Eph. iii. 17, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts." Already we have seen that in Jesus of Nazareth was manifested to men an eternal and infinite Person distinct 3o6 THE SPIRIT OF GOD [Part V from, and subordinate to, the Father, the divine agent of whatever the Father does outwardly and visibly. We have now heard this Second divine Person, speaking as a man among men yet about to leave His followers, promising to them another Helper to abide with them for ever. This promise suggests at once that this other Helper is also a distinct Person ; and that consequently in the Godhead are, not two, but three, divine Persons. This suggestion receives important confirmation in John xvi. 13, 14. In conspicuous apposition to the neuter form to Uvevfia tt)? aKrjOeia^, the masculine pro- noun iK€Lvo<;, which is repeated in v. 14 without any masculine term requiring it, arrests our attention. Still more important is the assertion " He will not speak from Himself, but so many things as He shall hear shall He speak." The Spirit is here represented as listening to the voice of Another and as speaking only what from that Other He hears. This attention to the words of another implies in the Spirit a Person distinct from Him to whom He listens. For, without two Persons there can be no listening of one to another. And that the Spirit speaks only what He hears, implies subordination to Him whose words He re-echoes. This verse therefore implies a Person distinct from the Father and the Son. That He is elsewhere called frequently the Spirit of God, and that His presence will be better for the disciples than the bodily presence of Christ, imply clearly that this distinct Person is also divine. The only explanation of the passages before us is that in the Godhead are, as Persons distinct from the Father, Lect. XXXIV] THE SPIRIT OF GOD 307 not only an eternal Son but an eternal Spirit. Other- wise these serious words of Christ would be practically meaningless. Had we only the Old Testament we might suppose that the term Spirit of God is only a circumlocution for God operating upon men from within in a manner corresponding to, though infinitely higher than, that in which the human spirit animates human flesh. But in these words of Christ we have much more than a cir- cumlocution for God. For we cannot conceive the Father listening to another and speaking only what He hears. The Spirit of God is therefore a Person distinct from, and subordinate to, the Father. And, as another Helper, He is conspicuously distinct from the Son. Yet He stands in closest relation to both Father and Son. The presence of the Spirit is the presence of the Father : and, armed with the powers of the Father, He works out in men the Father's will. His presence in men is also the presence of the Son. Thus in the one Spirit dwell- ing in the hearts ot the thousands of the servants of Christ are present in them three divine Persons. The similar and subordinate relation of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son finds expression in the teaching that the Spirit is given and sent by the Father and by the Son. Compare John xiv. 15, "the Father will give you another Helper," and v. 26, "the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in My name ; " with ch. XV. 26, " whom I will send to you from the Father." In the Epistles of Paul, it finds expression in the promiscuous and equivalent use of the term Spirit of jo8 THE SPIRIT OF GOD [Part V God and the terms Sp'r/t of Christ, Spirit of His Son. As an example I may quote Rom. viii. 9, where the " Spirit of God " and the " Spirit of Christ " are evidently equivalent. Compare also "the Spirit of God" in Rom. viii. 14 with "the Spirit of His Son" in the same connection in Gal. iv. 6. That the Spirit is a Person distinct from the Father, IS suggested or implied in Rom. viii. 26 : " the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with unspeakable groanings. But He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because according to the will of God He (or It) makes intercession on behalf of saints." Intercession can be real only between two or more persons. That the Spirit pleads for the people of God, implies that the Spirit is a Person distinct from the Father. In i Cor. xii. 4-6 we have the Spirit of God conspicuously co-ordinated with the Son and the Father : " varieties of gifts there are, but the same Spirit ; and varieties of ministries, but the same Lord ; and varieties of effects wrought out, but the same God who works all things in all." Indisputably the Father and the Son are distinct Persons. And it is much more congruous to have co-ordinated with them a third divine Person than some circumlocution for, or attribute of, the Father. This is further supported by z^. 1 1 : " all these things works the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one individually as He wishes." In a totally different document, we find in Matt, xxviii. 19 a third name associated with the Father and the Son : " baptising them for the name of the Father Lect. XXXIV] THE SPIRIT OF GOD 309 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This colloca- tion and the passages quoted above leave no room for doubt that we have here three divine Persons. The precise relation of the Spirit to the Father is veiled in mystery. But the analogy of the Son suggests irresistibly that the nature of the Spirit, like that of the Son, is an outflow of the nature of the Father. We notice however that the title Son and the filial relation involved therein are strictly reserved for the Second Person, " the Only-begotten Son." This implies that the mode of derivation of the Spirit from the Father differs in kind from that of the Son. In what the difference consists, we cannot comprehend. The only passage bearing on this subject is John xv. 26: " who goes forth from the presence of the Father." This may refer either to the essential derivation of the Spirit from the Father or to the historic going forth of the Spirit just promised : " whom I will send to you from the presence of the Father." In the one case, the promise of Christ is placed in relation to an abiding habit of the Spirit ; in the other case, to His essential relation to the Father. But, since we cannot doubt that every abiding action of the Spirit is an outflow of His essence, this uncertainty does not lessen the value of this passage as illustrating the relation of the Spirit to the Father. We may therefore infer with perfect confidence that, like the Son, the Spirit of God also is an eternal Stream from the eternal Fountain, a Stream going forth, in virtue of the mode of His existence, from God into the hearts of men. 3IO THE SPIRIT OF GOD [Part V In my earlier volume, Lect. XXXII., I proved that an overwhelming majority of the followers of Christ in all ages and nations have bowed before Christ as the Eternal Son of God ; and I quoted in proof of this remarkable agreement a creed accepted formally or virtually by nearly all Christians. With equal unanimity they have received the Spirit of God as a Person distinct from the Father and Son yet sharing with them to the full all divine attributes. In the creed put forth by the Council at Nicaea in A.D. 325, the only reference to the Spirit is, " and I believe in the Holy Spirit." This article was expanded at the Second General Council held at Constantinople in A.D. 381, in the creed now commonly known as the Nicene, which is accepted and recited in all the older Churches, into the following form : " and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and the Life-Giver, (to Kvpiov Kal to ^mottolov,) who goes forth from the Father, who with Father and Son is together worshipped and together glorified, who spoke through the prophets." The conspicuous words, togetJier-wor- shipped and together-glorified recognise the Spirit as occupying a place beside the Father and Son as a distinct object of worship. And this has been and is the faith of practically all who bow before Christ as divine. It is almost universally admitted that if there are two, there are three, divine Persons. In the West, apparently first in Spain, to the words " who goes forth from the Father," was added " and from the Son," in l^dAXn filioque. This addition is a legitimate inference from Jon xv. 26, " whom I will send from Lect. XXXIV] THE SPIRIT OF GOD 311 the Father." But it is no part of the original creed. The added word became a matter of contention between the Eastern and Western Churches. It is worthy of note that the personahty of the Spirit is very much less conspicuous in the New Testament than is that of the Father and the Son. It is somewhat obscured by the neuter form of the Greek word for Spirit, the usual title of this mysterious Third among the divine Three. In grammatical agreement with this neuter substantive, neuter pronouns are always used, except in the remarkable case already noted in John xvi. 13, 14. The English revisers have, for theological reasons, altered in Rom. viii. 16 "the Spirit itself" into "the Spirit himself." But this change has no ground in the original text. This neuter form, though it somewhat obscures, is quite consistent with, the personality of the Spirit. Moreover, it throws into relief the masculine forms used in John xvi. 13, 14 in close connection with language implying clearly the distinct personality of the Spirit. Perhaps there is spiritual significance in this com- parative concealment of the Spirit of God. We notice that in the pages of Holy Scripture, written under His special influence, the Holy Spirit ever hides His own personality in order that every eye may be fixed upon the Son. To this comparative self-effacement, the real personality of the Spirit gives meaning. For in it He becomes our Pattern and Companion, as none but a person can be. In proportion as we are led by Him shall we hide our personality behind the glory of the 312 THE SPIRIT OF GOD [Part V Son of God. If the Spirit were but an impersonal influence going forth from the Father and the Son and leading men back to bow to the Son and the Father, there would be no moral worth in this self-abnegation. It would be, in a sense, only mechanical. But when we know that the Spirit is Himself a Person, as distinct from the Father and the Son as we are, yet infinitely greater than all human personality, His action becomes our pattern. And in our self-sacrifice and in all that we do, and in our joys and sorrows, He becomes, not only our Guide but our divine Companion. This example of self-effacement, the Son cannot set. For His work requires that He attract every eye to Himself as an object of their worship and trust and love. Thus, in the Godhead, in the love and beneficence of the Father, in the obedience and self-sacrifice and devotion of the Son, and in the unobtrusive activity of the Spirit, we have a perfect pattern for every human excellence. This com- plete pattern, we could not have were not the Spirit of God a Person distinct from the Father and the Son. The word Spirit is frequently used, e.g. Gal. v. i6, vi. 8, Rom. viii. 26, as a sufficiently distinctive title of this Third divine Person, even as compared with the Father and the Son, who are also essentially Spirit. This title is specially appropriate for that Person of the Godhead who comes into actual contact with our spirit as the immediate inward Source of our higher life, and the moving Principle of our thoughts, words, acts. The attribute holy, which also belongs in the highest sense to the Father and the Son, is given specially to the Spirit ; Lect. XXXIV] THE SPIRIT OF GOD 3^3 because God is the one aim of the influence He con- stantly exerts. Every moment He comes forth from the Father that He may lead us back to the Father. All realised human holiness is the mind of the Spirit of God breathed into those to whom He is the soul of their soul and the life of their life. Hence the frequent term Holy Spirit. God's work in man preparatory to justification (see Lect. VI.) is never in the Bible expressly attributed to the Holy Spirit. Yet, as the divine Agent of all that God works in man, we cannot doubt that through Him God leads men, as we read in Rom. ii. 4, John vi. 44, 65, to repentance and to Christ. The absence of any mention of the Holy Spirit as the Author of repentance may perhaps be explained as a reservation of the word Spirit for this Third Person w^hen acting as spirit, i.e. as a living influence moving and animating men from within. On those not yet justified He may be said to act only from without. The Hand of God is upon them : but the life-giving Breath of God is not yet within them. LECTURE XXXV THE ETERNAL THREE IN ONE. ALREADY {Through Christ to God, Lect. V.) we have seen the conspicuous and unique superiority of the Christian nations to all others ; that to them, in this age of wonderful progress, is limited all sustained progress, outside them being only stagnation and decay ; and that this monopoly of sustained progress must be attributed to their Christianity, as the only element common to the Christian nations. We have also found, in human history and literature, abundant and decisive evidence that this superiority is due to a unique spiritual impulse given to human thought and life by Jesus of Nazareth. The unique and wonderful effects of this impulse, surpassing far every other influence exerted by man upon man, reveal its superhuman source. We have found decisive documentary evidence that the Author of this world-transforming influence spoke frequently and conspicuously about a Father in heaven, the intelligent and righteous and loving Creator and Ruler of man and of the universe. This clear teaching about an intelligent and righteous Creator and Ruler, absolutely distinct from and superior to Lect. XXXV] THE ETERNAL THREE IN ONE 315 the world created and ruled by Him, is in complete harmony with the unanimous and emphatic teaching of the various writers of the Old Testament : but it stands in conspicuous contrast to the teaching of all other ancient popular religions. We also found {Through Christ to God, Lect. XXXIII.) abundant evidence that, while accepting and enforcing the strict monotheism of His nation, Jesus gave to it a modification unheard of till His day, except in faintest outline in the Old Testament. In contrast to the Jews who in all ages have held fast the oneness of God, and to the followers of Mohammed who, without claiming any historical manifestations of God or cherishing any bright hopes of future deliverance, yet hold fast the doctrine of one God and of retribution beyond the grave, the great mass of the followers of Christ have in all ages asserted that in the eternal and intelligent and righteous Source and Ruler of the universe are three divine Persons. And this remarkable modification of the monotheism of the Old Testament, we traced by decisive documentary evidence to the Author of the great moral and religious impulse which has changed for good the entire course of human life. This great change in man's conception of God, Christ brought about, not directly by abstract teaching about the nature of God, but by claiming for Himself a unique relation to God involving His own pre-existence with God in eternity and His participation in the infinity of God. We found a man among men speaking of Him- self as the Only-begotten Son of God, as the coming 3i6 THE ETERNAL [Part V Judge of the world, and accepted by the two most conspicuous writers of the New Testament as the Creator of the universe; yet ever distinguishing Himself from God as a son is distinguished from his father, and as loved by the Father before the foundation of the world. We have just found in the New Testament other teaching, not abundant or conspicuous, but, as it seems to me, decisive, implying a third element in the nature of God, a Person distinct from the Father and the Son. And this teaching, thus understood, has been accepted in all ages by nearly all who have held the divinity of Christ. We have also seen {Through Christ to God, Lect. XXIX.) that the teaching of the New Testament implies that the entire life and being of the Son are derived from, and devoted to, the Father, an infinite Stream flowing back in full volume to its infinite Source. A similar derivation and subordination, analogy compels us to attribute to the Spirit. Indeed the teaching examined in our last lecture seems to imply that the Spirit is subordinate both to the Father and the Son. In this essential subordination of the Son and Spirit to the Father lies the essential unity of the Godhead. That this somewhat complicated conception of three divine Persons in one God, a conception held fast in all ages by nearly all the followers of Christ, is due to Jesus of Nazareth, is an assured result of our theological research. In the above outline, I have used the \.QYn\s person and personal. These terms, as commonly understood, con- Lect. XXXV] THREE IN ONE 317 vey the ideas of intelligence and moral character, this last involving self-determination ; and all that dis- tinguishes men from animals. To speak of God as a Person, is to say that that which distinguishes men from animals has a higher counterpart in Him. To speak of three Persons in the Godhead, and of the Son and Spirit as personally distinct from the Father, is to say that between Them is a distinction analogous to, and therefore infinitely higher than, that which distinguishes man from man. This analogy between the relation of the Father to the Son and that of man to man is asserted by Christ in John xvii. 22, "in order that they may be one, as We are One." And it justifies the use of the term personal distinction as applied to the Father and Son. At the same time, all use of human relation- ships to describe the nature of God, even of those used in the New Testament, is liable, owing to the infinite difference between God and man, to serious misunder- standing. Yet, only by using these analogies and terms founded upon them, can man apprehend, and have intelligent intercourse with, God. We know Him only by those elements in man which are akin to God. We therefore need not scruple to accept the historical phraseology of the Church and to speak of One God in Three Persons, and of the divine and human natures in the One Person of the God-Man. In Lect. XXX n. we saw that the New Testament gives unique and conspicuous prominence to an attri- bute of God about which not much is said in the Old -Testament, viz. the love of God. And we saw that this 3i8 THE ETERNAL [Part V fuller manifestation of the nature of God took place in the historic fact of the death of Christ, viewed in the light of the Gospel. Moreover, both in the Epistles of Paul and in the writings attributed to the Apostle John the proof of the love of God involved in the death of Christ is traced to the essential relation of Christ to God. So Rom. V. 8, " God gives proof of His own love toward us that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us ; compared with v. lo, " reconciled to God through the death of His Son," and with ch. viii. 32, " He spared not His own Son, and for us all gave Him up." Similarly John iii. 16, " God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son in order that every one that believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life ; " and I John iv. 9, 10, " In this was manifested the love of God in our case; that His Only-begotten Son God sent into the world, in order that we may live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that Himself loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins." In this manifestation of the love of God, an essential element is the unique relation of Christ to God, a relation infinitely closer than any relation possible between a creature and his Creator. This eternal relation within the Godhead reveals the infinite cost of man's salva- tion, and thus reveals the greatness of the love which prompted a redemption so costly. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity, which, as we have seen, is implied in claims proved to have been made by Christ, affords a proof of the love of God impossible in a unipersonal God. And this is one chief practical significance of that doctrine. Lect. XXXV] THREE IN ONE 319 It may be objected that the above argument implies that man's sin was needful for his full development, on the ground that apart from his sin the death of Christ would have been needless, and therefore the wonderful manifestation of the love of God therein given would not have been made, or, in other words, that we owe to man's sin this surpassing manifestation of God. Doubtless, for the full manifestation of God to man it was needful that God should enter into closest relation to man : and perhaps for this end it was needful that a divine Person should assume human form in order that human life and thought might be permeated with life divine. In consequence of man's sin, this manifestation of God in human form brought infinite pain to the incarnate Son. Had not man sinned, this manifestation would have involved neither death nor suffering. In any case, the actual and historic revelation of God to man in Christ would have been impossible had there been no divine Person other than the Father. How, in the absence of any need for the expiatory death of Christ on the cross, God could have given an equal proof of His love to man, passes human thought. But we cannot doubt that a Creator whose nature is infinite love was able to reveal that love to His creatures in such measure as they can bear ; and that of such revelation the chief Agent can be no other than the eternal Word. Already in Lect. XVIII. we have seen that Christ is the supreme example of human life. This example receives its chief force and value from the teaching ol 22 320 THE ETERNAL [Part V Christ about His own dignity and His relation to God. Even apart from His divine dignity, we are greatly moved by His unchanging and self-sacrificing devotion to the work of salvation committed to Him by God. Even as a man, He claims our profoundest respect. But when we know that He who thus walked humbly along a path marked out for Him by God from the manger to the cross, never for a moment roused to resentment by the persistent malice and plots of His enemies, but speaking only to comfort and bless, is Himself the Creator and Judge even of His enemies, our respect is raised to loftiest adoration. In the presence of such grandeur, veiled in guise so lowly, yet in its lowliest guise conscious of its dignity, what- ever in us is best bows with silent awe. Henceforth any sacrifice made by man sinks into insignificance beside the stupendous self-devotion of the eternal Son. In Him we see an example before which all others pale. And this supreme and all-potent example we owe to the teaching of Christ and His Apostles about the dignity of the Son of God, teaching involving as we have seen, the doctrine of One God in Three Persons which found expression in the Nicene Creed. In Lect. XVI. we saw that this manifestation of God in Christ and the example of Christ's obedience to God and devotion to the good of man are brought to bear on us by the agency of the Holy Spirit, who takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us by opening our hearts to understand the signi- ficance of the historic facts of His life and death and Lect. XXXV] THREE IN ONE 321 resurrection. Thus in the spiritual life of men are active all Three Persons of the Godhead. The Father is the ultimate Source of all good. From Him spring the universe and man : and the Kingdom of God, built up out of saved humanity, is an accomplishment of His purpose. " To us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things : " I Cor. viii. 6. Moreover, whatever God does outwardly and visibly, before the eyes of His creatures, within historic times or before history began, He does through the agency of the eternal Son, the divine Person whose special function is to give to the thought of God utterance and realisation. " To us there is One Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him." Whatever God does inwardly in the heart of man He does through the agency of the Holy Spirit, who opens our eyes to behold the work of the Son and thus reveals to us that which has been manifested in the Son. " No one can say, Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit : " i Cor. xii. 3. It is now evident that, just as God created the world through the agency of the Son and the Spirit, so through them He now comes near and reveals Himself to His intelligent creatures. Thus within the Godhead are avenues of God's self-manifestation, and of approach of God to man and of man to God. But between a unipersonal God and His creatures would be an infinite gulf across which they could scarcely hear His voice or see His face. He would be little more than a distant abstraction. And such is God to-day to most who 322 THE ETERNAL THREE IN ONE [Part V deny the divinity of Christ. They are further from God than are the Psalmists of the Old Testament. For Israel's intercourse with God was greatly strengthened by hopes of a fuller revelation to come. But to thousands of busy men and women to-day the vision of the eternal Son incarnate for their salvation, and the felt presence in their hearts of a divine Helper personally distinct from the Father into whose presence He leads them and from the Son whose face He reveals to them, afford an intercourse with God to them otherwise impossible and inconceivable. That this doctrine of the Trinity is consistent with the unity of God, is verified by the experience of the servants of Christ. In their spiritual life is no rivalry of different deities. To them, the Father and the Son and the Spirit, each reigning alone in His own sphere yet in perfect harmony, the function of Each Person supplementing that of the Others, are, but one God. And in the essential oneness of these three divine Persons, myriads of worshippers find, and will find in still higher measure, their own unity. LECTURE XXXVI ANGELS, GOOD AND BAD IN all ages and races, the thought of man has peopled the immense interval between the greatest of sinful men and the Eternal First Cause with beings greater than man yet less than God. This deeply-rooted and often distorted conception, both Old and New Testa- ments accept and confirm and purify. The Hebrew word rendered angel is used in i Sam. xix. II, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, and elsewhere frequently for persons sent with a message or to do special work. In the Greek version it is almost always rendered by the Greek original of our word angel, which denotes in classic Greek one who brings a message or news, a sense somewhat narrower than that of its Hebrew equivalent. It is frequently found in the New Testament bearing the full significance of the Hebrew word. In Matt. xi. 10, Mark i. 2, Luke vii. 27, it is used for John the Baptist, as the herald sent to prepare the way for Christ. In Luke vii. 24, it denotes messengers sent by John to question Christ ; and, in ch. ix. 52, disciples sent by Christ to prepare for His arrival in a Samaritan village. Elsewhere in the New Testament and frequently in the 323 324 ANGELS [Part V Old, the word denotes superhuman messengers sent by God to do His work on earth. In Gen. xvi. 7-1 1, 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, 17 and frequently in the Old Testament, and in the Synoptist Gospels and in the Book of Acts, we find the term angelcf JeJwvaJi, of Gody of the Lord, for the appearance of a superhuman person sent by God to make announcement to men, to save, or to punish. That in several cases in the Old Testament the angel was not at first recognised as such, proves that he appeared in ordinary human form. A very interesting case is given in Gen. xviii. 2, where Abraham saw three men and invited them to take refreshment. In z/. 3 he addresses one of the three in the singular number, recognising him apparently as the leader. In vv. 20, 21 Jehovah speaks of the sin of Sodom and announces His purpose to go down and see whether it is as He has heard. We then read in v. 22 : " the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom ; and Abraham continued standing before Jehovah." In ch. xix. i we find two angels arriving at Sodom. This suggests irresistibly that one of the three had remained with Abraham, and that with him Abraham pleaded for Sodom. The two men tell Lot, in V. 13, that Jehovah has sent them to destroy the city. But, like Abraham the day before. Lot addresses, in vv. 19, 21, 22, one of the two angels in the singular number and prays to him only, thus recognising the one addressed either as superior, or as specially com- missioned to himself It has been suggested that the " angel of Jehovah " Lect. XXXVI] GOOD AND BAD ^2$ either always or in some cases, was the uncreated Son of God ; and this has been given as an explanation of the divine authority with which the angels sometimes speak. Indeed the angel of Jehovah has been appealed to in proof of the existence of a divine Person other than the Father. But this argument is seriously weakened by the fact that both Abraham and Lot pay special deference to one angel, but evidently not to the same angel. It is further weakened by the total silence of the New Testament about this identification ; and by the frequent use of the term " angel of the Lord " in the New Testament in places in which it can refer only to a created angel. It is disproved by the teaching of Paul in Gal. iii. 19 that the Law was "ordained by the agency of angels ; " and by the long argument summed up in Heb. ii. 2, " if the word spoken through angels proved stcdfast, and every transgression and dis- obedience received just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation . . . spoken through the Lord ? " For this argument implies that the angels who gave the Law are inferior to Christ. Apparently, in Old and New Testaments, angels are created superhuman messengers through whom God spoke to men and worked out His purposes among them. That they sometimes bore apparently human form, was an anticipation of the fuller manifestation afterwards given by the Lord of angels in actual human flesh and blood. In Gen. iii. 24 we read of cherubs guarding with sword of flame the tree of life. And in Ezek. i. 5-25 3^6 ANGELS [Part V we read of four living creatures, each with four faces and four wings : and in ch. x. 1-22 we again meet the same four living creatures, who are now spoken of as cherubs. Similar mysterious beings are again mentioned in Rev. iv. 6-8, as standing around the throne of God. Their cry " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty " recalls that of the Seraphs in Isa. vi. 3. We have here apparently another order of heavenly beings, not sent to earth on errands of mercy or anger but abiding around the throne of God in heaven or guarding His presence on earth. In Dan. vii. 16, x. 18 we find an angel-interpreter who instructs the prophet. In ch. viii. 13-26 one holy one bids another to interpret a vision : and the other, who is called Gabriel, does so. In ch. ix. 21 "the man, Gabriel " bears to Daniel, while he prays, a special revelation. Similarly in Rev. xix. 9, 10, xxii. 8, 9, an angel shows to John "things which must needs be quickly." Yet he refuses worship on the ground that he is but a fellow-servant. In Dan. x. 13 we read of'' Michael, one of the first princes," in z;. 21 of "Michael, your prince," in ch. xii. i of " Michael, the great prince which stands for the sons of thy people;" and in ch. x. 13, 20 of the princes of Persia and of Greece. These must be angel-princes ; and were apparently in special charge of Israel, Persia, and Greece. In remarkable agreement with this, but in a totally different connection, we read in Matt, xviii. 10, " their angels do ever see the face of My Father in heaven." In Dan. xii. i, Michael is placed in special Lect. XXXVI] GOOD AND BAD 327 relation to the general resurrection ; in close agreement with I Thess. iv. 16, "the Lord Himself with a shout, with a voice of an archangel, and with trumpet of God, will come down from heaven ; and the dead in Christ will rise." Also in Jude 9 we read of " Michael the archangel;" and in Rev. xii. 7 of "Michael and his angels making war against the dragon." The term prmce^ rendered in the Lxx. apywy, evidently reappears in the first syllable of the word arcJiangel. These passages describe, even among those whom we may call ministering angels, in distinction from those who abide before the throne, a distinction of ranks. In Dan. X. 13, Michael is only one of the chief princes : but in ch. xii. i, and in the New Testament, he seems to hold a place of unique dignity. Successive ranks of angels seem to be indicated in Rom. viii. 38, " neither angels, nor principalities ; " in Eph. i. 21, "all principality and authority and power and lordship;" in Col. i. 16, "thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities ; " and in I Peter iii. 22, "angels and authorities and powers." The word ap-xai, r&nde^re^d principalities, again recalls the ding^X-princes, or archangels. In Matt. xiii. 41, we see the Son of Man giving commands to angels as His servants. From Heb. i. 4 we learn that He is greater than they ; and from Col. i. 16, 17 that He is earlier than they, and that in, through, and for Him they were created. The transitory glimpses of angels given in these passages are of great interest. In them we see intelli- 328 ANGELS [Part V gent creatures raised far above the weakness and sin of man on earth, and earlier than our race, yet children of our Father in heaven, created by and for the Son of God, our Lord and theirs, obeying and worshipping Him, yet ministering to the needs of us their brethren on earth. That they, so much greater and earlier than we, in their successive ranks bow to our Lord, reveals the infinite greatness of Him who was " born before every creature " and was " raised beyond and above all princi- pality and authority and power and lordship and every name named not only in this age but also in the coming one." In I Chron, xxi. I we read that "there stood up an adversary against Israel and provoked David to number Israel." In Job i. 6 we read that " the sons of God came in to present themselves before Jehovah, and the adver- sary came in among them." This "adversary" smote Job both in his estate and body. In Zech. iii. 17, "the adversary" stands at the right hand of the angel of Jehovah " to be adverse to him." In the New Testament the Hebrew word Satan which I have rendered adversary is frequently used as a proper name of a supreme enemy of God and man. Equally frequent as an equivalent name of the same great enemy is the Greek original of our word Devils meaning accuser or slandere7\ (Cp. 2 Tim, iii. 3, Titus ii. 3.) In Matt. xiii. 19, 38, Eph. vi. 16, i John ii. 13, 14, v. 18, 19, etc., he is called " the wicked one ;" in John xii. 31, (xiv. 30,) xvi. II, "the prince of this world;" and in Lect. XXXVI] GOOD AND BAD 329 2 Cor. iv. 4 he bears the significant title " the god of this age." In all the various writers of the New Testa- ment we find mention of one awful personality ever hostile to God and to His work among men. He is the source of immediate inward spiritual influences tending to lead men away from God. So Luke viii. 12, "then comes the Devil and takes the word from their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved ; " and ch. xxii. 3, " Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot." In Luke xiii. 16, as in Job ii. 7, bodily ailment is attributed to him. With Satan are associated other evil spirits, subord- inate allies in his evil work. So Matt. xxv. 41, "the Devil and his angels ; " Rev. xii. 7, " the dragon and his angels." We read frequently in the Gospels, and in I Cor. X. 20, 21, James ii. 19, of defnons, who are evidently evil spirits. In Eph. ii. 2, we read of the prince of the authority of the air, of the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience." This iriiplies a spiritual influence subordinate to the prince of evil. Similarly, in ch. vi. 1 1, 12 we read of "the wiles of the Devil," and of conflict with " the principalities, with the authorities, with the world-rulers of this darkness, with the spiritualities of wickedness in the heavenlies." This last passage suggests various ranks of superhuman foes analogous to the successive ranks of good angels. The above passages and many others similar imply that behind and beneath the various evil influences around us are personal opponents of God and man using these influences to work out their own deadly 3^)0 ANGELS [Part V purposes ; and that behind all these, directing their activity and giving to it a hostile unity, is one mys- terious enemy, the changeless antagonist of all that is good. This realm of evil, acting under its chief, is an awful counterpart to the realm of good, material and immaterial, impersonal and personal, controlled by, and working out the purposes of, God. That evil in man stands in relation to unseen persons and a person mightier than man, is in complete harmony with its superhuman power and with the abnormal unity under- lying its infinite diversity. These indications of the presence of personal spiritual enemies give to the Christian life the tremendous reality of a personal struggle against superhuman personal antagonists. This is finely brought out in Eph. vi. 1I-17. But He who has called us to the fight has armed us for it ; and makes us in all things more than conquerors. Since whatever exists has been created by God through the Son, we infer with certainty that Satan and his angels are creatures of God. If so, they have fallen : and this suggests a probation in which they failed. This is taught in Jude 6, " angels which kept not their own principality," i.e. place of pre-eminence. So 2 Peter ii. 4, " God spared not angels when they sinned." For them is reserved punishment : Jude 6, Matt. xxv. 41. That some superhuman beings have fallen, suggests that all have had probation. If so, the holy angels have been victorious where others have failed. We may therefore look upon those happy spirits, whose joy is to help us their younger brethren, as having themselves Lect. XXXVI] GOOD AND BAD 331 experienced the fierceness of conflict, and now as victors helping us who are still in the heat of battle. On the other hand, they who in that conflict have failed are using their powers to destroy others. In other words, the teaching before us implies that the influence of one upon another, for good or evil, so conspicuous a feature of human life on earth, extends beyond the limits of our race ; and that the moral conflict raging all around us is part of a conflict wider than the great world in which we live and the race to which we belong. LECTURE XXXVII MAN A T REST IN GOD TTTE will now review the results attained in this ' ^ second volume of lectures, and in some measure the practical results attained in the two volumes in which I have discussed the THEOLOGY OF PERSONAL Religion. We have found complete proof that man is an off- spring of a Father in heaven, created in order that in him eternal love may have an object worthy of Itself, an object to be enriched with the infinite wealth of God ; and that he was endowed with intelligence in order that man may know God, and with free determination in order that man may choose God as the supreme Object of his love and the goal of his entire activity. On this intelli- gent and free self-devotion to God, was made contingent the highest well-being of man. From this divinely-given goal and aim of our being, we have all turned away. We chose instead, as the aim of life, the fleeting things around ; and in pursuit of them we transgressed the limits marked out for us by our Creator. We thus fell under His frown, and exposed ourselves to the penalty threatened against sin. At the 333 Lect. XXXVII] MAN AT REST IN GOD 333 same time we became helpless victims of the objects we had chosen instead of God to be the aim of our life ; and we fell a prey to the degrading bondage of sin. Thus, by turning away from the path marked out for us by God, we wandered into a path leading inevitably to ruin. Of this frown of God, of this degrading bondage, and of this impending ruin, men are more or less conscious. A monitor enthroned within claims obedience to its commands : and we know that its voice is the voice of our Creator and Judge. These commands secured at once our approval as right and good ; and evoked resolves and attempts, more or less earnest and sustained, to obey them. But these efforts only revealed to us more or less clearly and painfully the helplessness of our bondage and the completeness of our ruin. The only alternative open to us w^as ineffectual beating against the bars of our prison or the deadly sleep of spiritual insensibility. While thus we lay in helpless ruin, there came to us, from one who claimed the homage of whatever in us is noblest and best, a promise of pardon for past sin, of deliverance from the present power of sin, of restoration to the family of God, and of the Spirit of God to be in us the animating Source of a new life of obedience to God. These glad tidings of salvation, we traced to the lips of the Author of a great religious impulse which has turned back the whole course of human life and history from stagnation and decay to sustained progress. We learned from Him and from His im- mediate followers that this great salvation was brought 334 MAN AT REST [Part V about by His own death on the cross. We learned also that He claimed to be in a unique sense the Son of God ; and that in proof of this claim He came forth living from the grave in which He had lain dead. This promise of salvation, so wonderfully confirmed, we ventured to believe. The costliness of the sacrifice revealed to us the earnestness of the purpose of Him who, to save man, Himself became Man and gave up Himself to death for man's sin. And the power which rescued from corruption, and restored to life, the body which lay dead in the grave assured us not only that Christ has authority to pardon sin but that He is able to raise us from the moral corruption of spiritual death. We therefore ventured to accept His proclamation of pardon and His promise of spiritual restoration. By so doing, we entered the number of the forgiven. And the proclamation of pardon for all who believe became to us, through our own faith, an announce- ment of our own personal forgiveness. Our faith was at once confirmed by an inward power over sin such as we had never before experienced. Moreover, moved by a new inspiration, we became conscious of a relationship to God not recognised before ; and, lost orphans as till then we had been, we found ourselves children of a loving Father and God. In this new knowledge of God, our intelligence, created by divine Intelligence in order that it may know its Creator, attained a satisfaction not enjoyed before. The new Spirit put within us became the animating principle of a new life, gave to us new faculties, and raised us into a new spiritual world. Lect. XXXVII] IN GOD 335 Thus our adoption into the family of God was confirmed by a new birth into a new Hfe and a new world. Christ claimed, for Himself and for the advancement of His Kingdom, the unreserved devotion of those whom He saves. To this claim, the love manifested on His cross gave the force of an irresistible appeal. Moreover His work of saving the perishing and of building up, out of the fragments of lost humanity, a glorious and eternal Kingdom of God, aroused in us loyal enthusiasm. We accepted it as the one aim of our life. And this aim, thus adopted, gave satisfaction to our intelligence, and to our life unity and worth. We felt that the Master who claimed our devotion, and the object for which He claimed it, were worthy of all, and more than all, we had to give. And, moved by compassion for the victims of sin, and by the love manifested on the cross of Christ, we laid ourselves, our powers, possessions, influence, and life upon the altar already consecrated by the blood of Christ, with deep gratitude that we were permitted to join our worthless gift to His great sacrifice. In spite of this consecration, we soon found that the battle with sin was not yet over. Our inborn evil nature and the accumulated results of past indulgence in sin reasserted themselves, and strove hard to regain their lost dominion, and threatened to thwart our earnest purpose. We looked for help to Him who had promised to save ; and we ventured to expect it. To our joy and gratitude, an unseen Hand gave to us a deliverance we had not known before. We found our- selves protected by the impenetrable armour of God. 23 336 MAN AT REST [Part V This victory, however, we found to be conditioned by, and proportionate to, our faith. Whenever we wandered from our refuge, we at once became vulnerable, and fell back into bondage and sin. But even for this sad case provision was made : " if any one sin, we have an Advocate with the Father." We returned again as we came at first, and found in Christ pardon and liberation. Thus our whole spiritual life is wrought in us by God, but is conditioned by faith in Christ. Christ lives in us ; and we live in faith. The whole of life was now changed. The principles of morality which we had long recognised as the Law of God, but which had been only an external and constraining power, became an inward light guiding our feet safely amid the moral perils around. It became the voice and wisdom of that Spirit of God who had breathed into us new life and power. In this changed position of the moral Law, whose authority we dared not dispute even in our deep sin, now enthroned in the joyful homage of our hearts, we found additional confirmation of the Gospel which announced our forgiveness. Our environment was also changed. Our bodies, no longer a throne of sin, have become living stones of the temple of God. Our fellow-men, whose smile we once courted, and before whose frown we trembled, are now objects of Christian love and of efforts to bless. Our fellow-Christians are to us an abiding joy and strength. We are no longer at the mercy or mercilessness of the mysterious and irresistible forces of nature : for we have learned that they are in the hands of our Father in Lect. XXXVII] IN GOD 337 heaven, and are working out His purposes of blessing to us. Thus in Christ is a New Creation : the old things have passed away ; they have become new. This New Life, like all other normal life, is marked by growth. The experiences of the service of Christ develop wisdom. Our daily intercourse with God in Christ affords increasing knowledge of God, of Christ, of His purpose to save, and of the way in which we may best advance it. This increasing knowledge, revealing with greater clearness the infinite love of God to us and to all men, increases our love to God and the earnestness of our purpose to save those for whom Christ died. Every act of obedience makes obedience more easy : and every work for God makes work for God more delightful. Thus in a faith ever broadening and strengthening in its grasp of the promises of God, in a wisdom daily penetrating further into the mysteries and counsels of God, and in a love to God ever kindling into a brighter flame, the servant of Christ notes in himself the marks of spiritual progress. As helps for spiritual growth, God has provided definite means of grace. Among these, private prayer holds a unique place as a mode of personal approach to, and contact with, God, and a means of spiritual nourish- ment available for every one at every moment. To this may be added personal study of the historical revelations of God to man recorded in Holy Scripture. Other definite channels have been ordained by God in the social life of the Church, e.g. the preaching of the Gospel, the symbolic rites of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, 338 MAN AT REST [Part V united prayer and spiritual conversation, and co-operation in various kinds of work for the souls and bodies of men. These have in all ages been means of untold blessing. They are the spiritual endowments of the Church of Christ, the company of His professed followers. Apart from them, the spiritual life would lack its needful shelter and nourishment. The Church has been in all ages and by divine appointment, amid much imperfection and sometimes deep corruption, the earthly home of the family of God in which the spiritual life has been guarded and developed ; and the divinely-ordained agency for carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth. This great topic will be the subject of my next volume. In the manner expounded above, and by these means, personal religion attains or may attain a certain degree of completeness. We have seen man, fallen from God and fallen under bondage to sin, now set free and restored to life-giving communion with God, to inward peace, and to harmony with his environment. But, though complete in its measure, this salvation is yet incomplete. For the servants of Christ are not yet set entirely free from the curse pronounced against sin ; and the real grandeur of their position is still in great measure veiled. We wait for the triumphant unveiling of the sons of God. Those living on earth are exposed to inward spiritual conflict ; many of them, to the assault of bad men, to bodily and mental pain. Others, while delivered from conflict and pain, are but fugitive spirits exiled from the world which God created to be Lect. XXXVII] IN GOD 339 their home. For their complete victory over evil, and for the final and perfect glory, we wait for the foot- step of our returning Lord, who will transfigure the body of our humiliation conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working of His ability to subdue all things to Himself This consummation, the necessary completion of the work already begun in the hearts of the servants of Christ, will be the subject of a fourth volume of these lectures. At the beginning of my earlier volume, I spoke of Religion as " such conception of the Unseen as makes for righteousness." We can now supplement this general definition of all religion by a specific description of the religion taught by Christ. This last may be summed up as LOYALTY TO Christ and to His Kingdom. For such loyalty to Him implies a definite CONCEPTION of Christ and God, whom we have NEVER SEEN : and this conception, more than any other known to us, MAKES FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. The transition from the general definition given before and the specific description now given has been brought about, in part by the revelation of God in nature, but chiefly by the historic revelations given under the Old Covenant and especially in Christ. By these means, our conception of the unseen has become knowledge of a Father in heaven, the intelligent and righteous Creator and Ruler of the universe and of man, who so loved us that He gave His eternal Son to become Man, to die for man, and to rise from the dead, in order to rescue man from ruin and to build up the rescued ones into an eternal and glorious 340 MAN AT REST IN GOD [Part V Kingdom of God ; and who now day by day sends forth His Spirit to be in them the animating principle of a life Hke that of Christ. We have found by actual and abundant experience that this conception of One whom we have never seen makes for righteousness. For it both gives clearness and authority to our moral sense and prompts and enables us to do what it commands. As a conception of the unseen resting upon abundant and decisive evidence, and as a stimulus to right doing, the most effective we can conceive, it is the highest form of religion known to man. And, as we have seen, the nations which profess this religion have a practical monopoly of all that is best on earth. Many indications attest that, before two or three generations have passed, whatever religion there is in the world, z.e. whatever conception of the Unseen making for righteousness, will be associated with homage to Christ. These external benefits of Christianity, and the infinitely greater inward and spiritual blessings which it conveys to those who embrace it, in proportion as they embrace it, and its spreading sway, are complete proof that this conception rests on objective reality. On that reality, thus re- vealed, we rest securely. In our darkness we have seen the Day-star rising. And already the Day is dawning. Towards that dawning Light, we turn our feet. Amid the darkness and dangers around, it reveals to us a path of safety, and cheers us on our way. The path is encompassed by foes ; but an unseen Hand protects us. And before us, far off yet full in view, are the open gates of our Father's house in heaven. GENERAL INDEX Abba, Father Abraham's Covenant with God Adoption Angel of Jehovah Angels . Angels, Fallen Arminians, the Arminius, Teaching of . Assurance of Salvation . Athletic Contests of Greece . Augustine, Prayer of Augustine's Reproof and Grace, quoted .... Babes in Christ Baptism . . .84, Bezaleel. . . .66, Bible, a Means of Grace Blunt's Dicaonary of Sects, quoted Body, the Human Book of Life, the Calvin's Institutes, quoted Cherubs Children of God . Christ, Divinity of. Church of Christ, the Creation of Matter Death, Spiritual . Demons . • Devil, the . ; PAGE 69 53tT 324 323 330 274 273 75tt" i99f 146 271 212 217 144 217 276 5f 248 270 325 52 316 229 250 2of 3^9 328 PAGE Dort, Synod of , , . 274 Faith i48ff Fall of Man .... 28 Fatherhood of God . . 286 Filioque . . . "310 Flesh 8f Foreknowledge of God . . 245 Freedom, Human . . . 255ff Geological Remains of Man . 33 Growth in the New Life . 2o8ff Heirs of God . . . 55f Hereditary Depravity . . 30 Hezekiah's Prayer . , , 218 Holiness of Christ . . .110 Holiness of God . . . 290 Holiness of the Spirit of God 312 Huxley's Zay ■^^^'wc'wj, quoted 259 Intercession of Christ . . 226 Intercession of the Spirit 227, 308 John the Baptist . . .112 Justification .... 48 Kadesh 100 Korah 117 Law, Antagonism of Paul to the 187 Law of God . . . . i82ff Levitical Ritual . , .125 Life, Origin of . . .251 Love of God to Man . 135, 287 Love to God . . , .132 542 GENERAL INDEX PAGE PAGE Michael, the An<;el-prince 326 Repentance . . 47 Mill's Logic, quoted . 257 Saints . . 116 , 118 Moral Sense, the . iif Samson . . 66 144 Natural Depravity 25 Sanctificatit)n . . 95ff Natural Law in Relation U Sanctifying Faith . . 153 Prayer 225 Satan . . . 328 Nazarite, the . . 106 Sin in Believers . . i75ff Necessity, Doctrine of . 258 Sin, Nature of . • 43-45 Nicene Creed 310 Sons of God . . 5off Objective Holiness 99 Spencer's Synth it ic Philo- Paul's Requests for Prayer 220 sophy, quoted . 259 Paraclete, the 303f Spencer's Psychology, quoted . 259 Perry's English Church His Spirit, Nature of . , . 5 tory, quoted 276 Spirit of Adoption . . . 63ff Perseverance of Believers 204ff Spirit of the Truth , 305^ Personality of God 317 Subjective Holiness . . 100 Personality of the Spirit 306-8 Supper of the Lord . 217 Prayer .... . 2l8ff Trinity, the . 32if Preaching the Gospel . 215 Wesley's Teaching on P.e Jes- Predestination . 247 tination . 275 ,277 Procession of the Spirit . 309 Westminster Confession of Religion, Definition of . 339 Faith . , , 275 Remonstrant Articles quoted 273 Witness of the Spirit . . 73ff INDEX TO THE PRINCIPAL PASSAGES OF HOLY SCRIPTURE REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME OLD TESTAMENT Genesis xxix. I 99 Deuteronon[y i. 26 . 162 xxix. 21 9^ iv. I, etc. . 56 i. 26-28 . 58 xxix. 37 97f vi. 4f . 132 i.29 . . 122 xxix. 44 99 vii. 6 . 98 ii. 3 • 97 XXX. 29 97f XV. 19. 95 ii- 7 • 9, 15, 5 8, 142 XXX. 32 98 xxiii. 17 100 ii. 17 . 28 xxxi. 2f 66 XXX. 6. 146 iii. 24 . . 325 xxxi. 14 97 iv. 20, 22 . 33 xxxii. 11-14 218 JO....L'A ix. 3 . . 122 xxxiii. 23 . 218 iii. 5 . . lOI xiv. 7 . 100 xl. 9-13 • . 99 V. 15 • lOI XV. 3, 4, 8 . 56 vi. 19 . lOI xvi. 7-1 1 . 324 XX. 7 . I oof xvi. 14 100 Leviticus xviii. 2, 3, 2j 22 324 ii. 3 • 97 Judges xix. I, 13, 19-22 324 vi. 18 . . 98 xiii. 25 66 XX. I . 100 X. 3 . 290 xiv. 5f 66 xxxviii. 21 . . 100 xi. 44 . . 10 0, 290 xvii. 3 lOI 1. 12 . . 193 xi. 45 . 96 xix. 18 . 134 I Samuel Exodus xix. 24 . 98 xix. 11-21 . 323 iii. 5 . 94 XX. 26 . 96 iv. 22f 51, 55 xxvii. 9-21, 28f . 98 2 Samuel xiii, 2, T2 . 95 xxvii. 14 . . 100 vii. 14 51 xix. 6 . • 95 xxiii. if 66 xix. 14 xix. 22 . 99 . ICO Numbers xxiv. i6f 324 xix. 23 97 iii. I2f 95, 99 2 Kings XX. 8, II . 9 7, 100 vi. 5, 8, 20 . . 98 iv. 9 . 102 XX. II . 99 viii. i6f . . 95 XXV. 8 • 97 xiii. 26 . 100 I Chronicles xxvi. 33 . . 97 xvi. 3, 5, 10 • "7 vi. 72 . . 100 xxuii. 41 , . 99 xvi. 38 . 98 xxi. I . . 328 343 344 INDEX TO PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE PAGE 2 Chronicles Ixxxix. 5, 7 PAGE lOI xxviii. l3 . PAGE 104 xxiii. 6 102, 117 cvi. 16 lOI xxxvi. 25 146 Nehemiah cxix. 97, 105 187 Daniel xi. I . 108 Isaiah. i. 4 . 290 vii. 16 vii. 18, 22, 25, 27 326 Joi; iv. 3 . 102 102 , "7 11 : : 50. lOI 328 vi. 3 . . 290 xxix. 10 326 267 ix. 21 . X. 13, 18, 20f 326 326 ii. 7 . 329 xxxvii. 14-35 218 xii. I . 326 V. I . , XV. 14 . lOI 27 Iviii. 13 Ixii. 12 97 102 HOSEA XV. 15 . lOI i. 10 . 51 xxxviii. 7 . 50 J F REM I AH Psalms i. 5 . 109 Joel ii. 28f 146 xvi. 3 . . lOI EZEKIEL xxxiv. 9 lOI i. 5-25 325 Zechariah li. 4f . . li. 7, 10 . • 26 H7 n, I, 2 x. 1-22 67 326 iii 17 • . • XI v. 20f 328 102 NEJF TESTAMENT Matthew i. 21 . 175 iii. II . 65 iv. 5 . 108 iv. 21 . 210 V. 9, 44f • 53 V. 16, 45 . 58 vi. 9-13 219 vi. 24-34 . 192 vii. 7 . 219 ix. 22, 29 . 152 X. 20 . 65 xi. 10 . 323 xi. 29 . 164 xiii. 19, 38 . 328 xiii. 41 327 xvi. 17 9 xviii. 10 326 xix. 28 170 xxi. 22 152 xxii. 38 132 xxii. 39 134 xxiii. 17, 19 . 108 xxiv. 15 108 XXV. 41 . 329f xxvii. 53 . 108 xxviii. 19 . 308 Mark xiii. 16 329 i. 2 323 xiii. 24 198 i. 24 no XV. II, 24 . 58 v. 41 69 XX. 36 53 vi. 20 109. 112 xxii. 3 329 vii. 34 69 ix. 23 . 152 John xi. 22 153 i. 3, 10, 17 . 161 xi. 23f 222 i. 12 . . 52, 60, 83 xi. 25 58 i. 13 . 85 xiv. 36 69, 218 i- 26, 33 . 84 XV. 34 69 ii. 21 . III xvi. 15 215 iii. 3-8 iii. 5 . 84 . 88 Luke iii. 5r . . 27 i- 35 no iii. 16 . 287 i. 70 109 iii. 17. 161 ii. 22-2 4 • 182 iii. 36 . . 21 ii. 23 108 iv 34 . III vi. 12 218 V. 19. 30 . III vi. 36 58 V. 24 . 21,81 vii. 24 27 . 323 V. 36 . . 73 viii. 12 329 V. 40 . 264 ix. 26 109 vi. 38 . . III ix. 52 323 VI. 44 . 264 xi. 2 219 VI. 44f 40 xi. 13 . 14 3. 219 vi. 56 . 166 INDEX TO PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE 345 PAGE PAGE PAGE vi. 69 . I 10 xiv. 3. 17 . • 73 viii. 3f . .184 vii. 38. . 15 1. 153 XV. 8 . • 73 viii. 4 . 8 viii. 32-36 . . 19 XV. 9 . . 177 viii. 8 . 22, 41 viii. 43 • 53 xvii. 28f • 57 viii. 9 . . 305 viii. 44 . 28 XX. 32. . 56 viii. 10 144, 165 ix. 3 . . 193 xxi. 28 . 108 viii. 12-14 . 71 X. 25 . . 73 xxii. 16 . 88 viii. 12-17 . 75 X. 28 . 206 xxviii. 25 . 67 viii. 13 8,179 X. 36 . . no viii. 14 . 210 XI. 4 . 193 Romans viii. 14-16 . 72 xii. 31 . 1^2)!. i. 4 . . .no viii. 14-16, 19, 21 52 xiii. 15 163 i. 7 . • "5 viii. 15 53, 69, 227 xiv. 6 . 161 i. n . . 210 viii. 15-18 . 76 xiv. I3f 219 i. 24, 26. 28 . 18 viii. 16 . 66, 73 xiv. 15, 26 . 307 ii. 1-29 . 82 viii. 17 . 55, 168 xiv. i6f &5 ii. 4 . 40, 42 viii. 18 . . 204 xiv. 16, 26 . 303 ii. 15 . 73, i«2 viii. 19 . .55 xiv. 18 305 ii. 26f • 41 viii. 19-23 . . 35 xiv. 20 167 iii. 19 . 23, 182 viii. 23 . .54 XV. 1-8 166 iii. 20 . 9 viii. 26 227, 304, 308 XV. 4f . 167 iii. 24 . . 165 viii. 27 . -115 XV. 6 . . 206 iii. 25 . • 32 viii. 28 134, 192, 245 XV. 7 . . 21 9, 223 V. I-II . 76 viii. 29 . 50, 245 XV. 10, 12 . 164 V. I, 2, II. 12-21 . 161 viii. 29, 35, 38f. . 192 XV. 26 . 303, 30 7, 309f V. 2 . . 49, 204 viii. 32 . 288, 318 xvi. 7 . 303 V. 5 . 69, 77, 133 viii. 34 . . 226 xvi. II 328 V. 8 . 70, 133. 287 viii. 37 . . 20of xvi. I3f .30 3, 305 V. 8, 10 . . 318 viii. 38 . 207, 327 xvi. 24 219 V. 12, 15-19 . 27ff ix. I . . .73 xvii. 4 III V. 12-19 • • 32 ix. 6-13 . . 247 xvii. II 290 vi. 2-11 . . 170 ix. 8 . . .52 xvii. 19 .11 0, 141 vi. 2, lof . .176 ix. 18 . . . 268 xvii. 21 168 vi. 6 . . . 175 ix. 26 . . .51 xvii. 21-23 . 166 vi. 6, 12, 17, 19, 20 17 X. 14 . . . 215 xvii. 22 317 vi. 10 . Ill, 163 x. 17 . , . 265 xvii. 24 169 vi. II . 150, 163, 165, xi. 8 . . . 267 , 175 xi. 20-23 . . 205 Acts vi. II, 19 . . 120 xii. I . . iiof, 209 i. 5 . . 143 vi. 14 . . 183 xii. 13. . . 115 ii. 14-36 . 245 vi. 39 . . 165 xiv. 6, 14 . . 123 ii. 17 . 9 vii. 1-4 18 xiv. 7 . . .120 iii 14 . no vii. 4 . , 170. i83f XV. 3 . . .Ill iii. 21 . 109 vii. 7 . . 182 XV. 25f, 32. . 115 iv. 24 . 228 vii. 7f . 184 XV. 3of . . 220 iv. 27 . no vii. 14 . 186 xvi. 2 . . .115 vi. 13 . . 108 vii. 14-25 . 18, 39, 64 xvi. 25 . . 246 viu. 33 108 vii. 23 8, 202 X. 15 . . 122 viii. 1-16 . 82 I Corinthians X. 22 . 109 viii. 2 . . 186 i. 2 . . .115 X- 44, 47 . 74 viii. 2, 4, 9, I3f • 143 i. 18 . . . 216 xi. 15 . 74 viii. 2-16 . 64 ii. 7 . . 246 346 INDEX TO PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE PAGE PAGE PAGE ii. II . . 66 iii. 21, 23 • 24 Philippians iii. i6. . 121 iii. 26 . 51,63 i. 6 . 14 I, 204, 211 iii. 23 . III, 120 iii. 26f . 60 i. 9-11 . 211 iv. 15 . . 88 iii. 26-iv. 7 . 82 ii. 4-8 . . 162 vi. 9f . . 185 iii. 29 . • 55 ii. 12 . . 198 vi. 19 . . I20f iv. 5 • • . 63 ii. \2{ . 141. 201 vii. 14. . 121 iv. 6 52f, 63, 68f, 227 ii. 15 . . 52 vii. 34. . ii9f iv. 7 . 52, 55 iii. 12 . . 212 viii. 6 . 160, 321 iv. 21 . . 182 iii. 12-14 . 199 ix. 20f . 186 V. i6f 8, 64, 179 iii. 21 . . 163 ix. 23-27 199, 206 V. 16. 18, 22 . 142 X. 1-12 . 206 V. 16-26 71 82 COLOSSIANS X. 17 . . 229 V. i6-vi. 10 • X. 20f . 329 V. 19-21 . 185 i. i6f . • ^f xi. I . . 162 V. 22 . . 64 i. 20 . . 161 xii. 3 . . 321 vi. 14 . . 170 i. 28 . . 216 xii. 4-6, 1 1 . 308 vi. 15 . . 142 i. 29 . . 201 xii. 28. . 216 ii. 11 f, 20 . 170 XV. 2lf 28, 32 EPHh SIANS ii. 12 . • 151 XV. 44 . 28 i. 4 . 119, 246 ii. 13 . 20, 171 XV. 57 . . 200f i. 5 • 53,89 ii. 14 . . 24 xvi. 21 . 134 i. 9 . . 246 iii. I . . 170 i. I3f • 65,89 iii. 24 . . 56 2 CoRir ;thians i. 13, 19 i. 14, 18 . 149 . 56 iv. 3f, 12 . 220 1. II . . 220 i. 16-23 . 220 I ThESSALONIANS i. 12 . • f i. I9f . . 142 i. 3. 12 iii. 10 . . 210 i. 22 . . . 65 i. 21 . . 327 . 209, 211 iii. 6 . . 24 ii. 1-3. 5 20 iv. 16 . . 327 . ii9f, 209 iv.4 . V.7 . . 329 . 149 ii. 2 . ii. 3 . . 329 V. 23 . V. 13-17 V. 15 . ■ 135 . 120 li. 4 . ii.5f . . 287 169, 171 2 THESSALONIANS V. 17 . 14 2, 165, 197 ii. 10 . . 142 i- 3 • . 210 V. 18 . . 161 ii. 13. 2of . 165 ii. 13 . . 150 v. 21 . . 113 iii. 4-6 • 247 iii. If . . 220 vii. I . . 176, 209 iii. 14-19 212, 220 viii. 9 . . 162 iii. 17. 150* 305 I Timothy Gala riANS iv. II . iv. I3f iv. 19 . . 216 . 212 . 19 ii. 14 . iv. 4 . V. 6 . . 28 . 122 20 ii. 16 . ii. 19 . 51 . 183 iv. 24 . iv. 30 . . 142 vi. 12 . . 199 ii. 20 . 13 3, 144. 149, V- 5 • . 56 153,1^ )6, 170, 305 V. 27 . . 119 2 Timothy ii. 24 . . 170 vi. I if . 329 i.9f . . 248 iii. 2f . . 64, 142 vi. 11-17 . 330 i. 12 . . 153 iii. 4 . . 149 vi. 12 . . 200 ii. 3f . . 200 iii. 8 . . . 51 vi. 16 . 150, 202 ii. 12 . . 170 iii. I3f . . 142 vi. 17 . . 305 iv. 8 . 199 iii. 19 . . . 32s vi. I9f . 220 iv. 18 . . . 204 INDEX TO PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE 347 PAGE PAGE PAGE Titus ii. 5 . . .56 iii. 14 . • 79 ii. 14 . . . 177 ii. 8-12 . . 187 iii. 24 . 79, 167 iii. 5 . . .88 ii. 19 . . 329 IV. 4 . 167, 201 iii. 7 . . .56 iv. 8, 16 . . 288 I Pr TER iv. 9 . . 161 Philemon i-3 . . 86 iv. 9f . 133. 318 18 . . .29 1. 4 56 iv. 10 . . 287 i- 5 • 15 I. 177 iv. I2f 80, 167 Hebrews i. II 67 iv. 15 . . 167 i. 2 . . 56, 161 !-i5^ 119 iv. 16 . m^ 167 1.4 . . 327 1. i5f 290 iv. 19, 21 • 134 i. 14 . . 56 i. 21 161 v. I . . 61 ii. 2 . . 325 i. 23 87 v. I, 2 . 86 ii. 4 . . 74 ii- 5 161 v.4f . . 201 ii. 10 . . 161 ii. 5. 9 121 v. I4f . 223 ii. 10-12 . 56 ii. 21-24 163 ii. 17 . . 300 iii. 15 . 290 JlTT>F. iii. I . iii. 2 . III, 116 . Ill iii. I7f iii. 22 . 163 327 6 . * 9 • 330 . 327 iv, 9 . . 121 iv. I . 163 V. 12-14 . 213 v.8f . 200 vi. 10 . . 116 Revelation vi. I If, 18 . 151 I John ii. 7, II, 17 26 . 200 vii. 25. 161, 226 i. 7, 9- . . 177 iii. 7 . . no ix. 14 . in, 177 ii. I . . 304 iii. 21 . . 169 X. 10 . . Ill ii. 6 . 164, 166 iv. 6-8 . 326 X. 15 . • 74 ii. 12 . • 79 iv. 8 . . 290 xi. . 151 ii. 12-14 . 213 V. 8 . . 116 xii. 7f. . . 56 ii. I3f . 200. viii. 3f . 116 xii. 10 . 290 ii. 20 . . no xii. 7 . . 327. 329 xii. 14 .-119 ii. 29 . . 8s xii. II . 200f xiii. 15, 21 . 161 ii. 29-iii. 24 . 82 xiii. 8 . . 248 iii. I, 2, 8 . 85 XV. 2 . . 200 James iii. I, 9f 1^2 xvii. 8. . 248 i. 5f . . . 222 iii. 6 . 166, 181 xxi. 7 . . 200 i. 18 . . . 87 iii. 9 86 xxi. 8 . . 207 ^*^ Date Due A^o ^'^^2-i s' ^smpvm w ; 1 1 , ^ i Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 01004 0832 -,iai,i / >'' .-;•'■-:'*' ,'v--): •i,m