tihvaxy of t:he theological ^tmimty PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 'd^^v- PRESENTED BY Rufus H. LeFevre ( APR 21 1952 . ^ OfilGAL 1^ The Exalted Lit By BISHOP N. CASTLE, D. D. (Bishop Emeritus) THE OTTERBEIN PRESS Dayton, Ohio 1913 Prei3 of the United Erethren P basKing House W. R. Funk, Agent Da>ton, Ohio INTRODUCTION LIFE'S sunset is nearing and the day of work will soon end. "What thou doest, do quickly," is a whispering voice that speaks from out the growing stillness of this evening hour. The day of heat, and dust, and battle, like the bird of long and wearied flight, is folding its wings for quiet and rest. This is the time for gathering up and putting in order all the affairs of the day, thus closing and ending what must forever remain fixed and changeless. "While the day lasts" is the period for work, for "the night cometh when no man can work." With a view to improving in the best possible way this sunset period, I enter upon the pleasant task of preparing a small work on what I am pleased to entitle ''The Exalted Life." In this little book I hope to crystallize some of the things that have come to me through the years, that have been a help to me, and now by passing them on may also be a help to others. No other feeling or motive should characterize this latest effort than that of deepest candor and highest sincerity. No false lights should glimmer here; no fulsome pretensions mark the footsteps to the nearing sea. Here all is too realistic, fixed, and changeless for anything but the true. The gleaming light from the eternal city that radiates this ending pathway, and the ever growing nearness of the wonders that await the passing of the gate- /34 The Exalted Life way of heaven, preclude all that have the mere form or semblances of the true. The day of ambition and rivalry, if ever here, is now past. No garish light must now shine. The feet must now press the rock of certainty, and not the sedgy quagmire of expediency and doubt. No siren song must charm and win the attention that should be fixed on shores that are set with celestial singers. Who can be lured from the scenes of glory yonder by fhe fading lights along these murky shores? The time for fiction, for day-dreams, for even mere dogma, is now past. It is about time to say "good-by" to kindred, "good- night" to all, and enter that silent slumber where no dreams ever disturb the sleeper, and where the wakening comes not until the day-dawn that is eternal is ushered in. Now, all this cannot but have a silent and un- avoidable influence upon one approaching the vale of the years, and who expects soon to exchange time for eternity. No question of greater impor- tance can confront the human mind than the kind of character and life demanded here in order to make sure of, and be fitted for the life to come. Here no one should be at sea or wrestling with his feet in the air. There are not a few that are honestly perplexed, whose hearts are profoundly stirred, and who are yearning intensely for some positive constructive statements that shall lead to certain well-known conclusions. With a view to aid in planting the feet of the traveler where no yielding sands ever pile their drifts, and to help the voyager on life's treacherous sea to find an Introduction anchor to which he may cling with perfect safety in every storm, is the humble venture of the writer. While there will not be anything new to the clever reader, and nothing critical to scholarly advocates of the higher Christian living in this unpretentious effort, nevertheless, it is the hope of the writer that he may be a help to a large class of certain types of mind, dissatisfied with the conclusions and experiences of the past, who are longing and anx- iously waiting for a better and more assuring day. It is not with the theology, or the fixed dogma of the schools and the theologians that we deal. The scholarly and the critical are of necessity barred. While we may not be able to sustain all that we say by the preciseness of mathematical demonstration, nevertheless the writer hopes to present with a measure of clearness the things in which he puts his own trust and upon which he builds his own religious faith. It is with the things of to-day and of the present life that we want to deal. It is to the modern Christian man and Christian woman that we want to speak and make our appeal. It is to the one that reverently and conscientiously claims to be a follow- er of the Christ, and that is seeking to manifest the life of his Lord to the world ; it is to this honest, in- quiring, anxious one that we come with the study of the question of the life to be lived here and now, in order to the highest usefulness on earth and a final entrance into that city where sin and sorrow never come. In order to the unfolding of this life, the trac- ing of it outward and upward, we must note its The Exalted Life genesis, its beginnig, its character, its scope, and what it contains embryonically. It is the purpose of the writer to avoid the spirit of mere dogmatism, which is often narrow, bigoted, and most intolerant in its judgments of others, and open up a sunHt path that shall be easy for honest, anxious, simple feet to cling to in the pilgrimage to the Holy City. A way, though high and nar- row, that is not difficult to follow, being straight in its course to a sun-blazoned goal, with no ob- scuring clouds to darken it, and no enemies to imperil its travelers. No ravenous beast ever leaves a footprint, or beguiling serpent its trail on this blood-bought, blood-stained way. We approach the advocacy of this way not so much through the channels of philosophy, logic, metaphysics, and theology, as through the medium of the written Word, the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the intuitions of the heart, and the evidential testimony of Christian experience. That the comprehensiveness of the subject and the painful limitations of the writer render the undertaking difficult is freely admitted; but it is in this arena that we must struggle. The open fields lie yonder. Shall we reach them and know their joys? That we must take our stand some- where and look in some direction is readily ad- mitted. This is the task before us. The field is worthy of the most careful and laborious survey. It would be most unwise to be contented with mere furtive glances at its portent, and then turn away to some idle casuistry as the only hope of a pre- pared blissful future. Not so do men struggle for Introduction earthly goals. They do not minimize the difficulties that beset the achievements of any science ; and yet these earthly goals end in the agnostic's hopeless creed, "We do not know." With this creed, border- land is soon reached, and all problems end in un- answerable questions ; yet the scientist struggles on in his effort to reach tangible verities. Elemental substances are handled and compounded; unseen forces are measured, controlled, and utilized. The categories of time and space are wrestled with all in hopes of finding the scope and powers of the physical universe. Now, shall the Christian, the child of grace, a son of God, be less interested, less vigilant, less concerned, about the kingdom he was born into at his second birth — its character, its inhabitants, its duration — than are the men of the world as to the things of time, "the world that passeth away"? If this delightful task shall serve the end of quick- ening and deepening interest in these heavenly things, and shall serve to guide and strengthen bewildered and weary feet in their homeward journey, the highest ambition of the writer has been reached. Perish every other ambition! Let every other goal be blotted out ! This is prepared as the last and somewhat ex- tended message to beloved kindred, to thousands of esteemed friends throughout this country, to a conference of which I am now the oldest living member, and to a church whose teaching, influence, and official support has transformed and sustained, to this latest hour, the life and courage of the writer. The Exalted Life When these hands lie cold and still in the quiet, solemn city; when these lips are sealed in that strange, unutterable silence that reigns unbroken, and when this form lies prone in that oblong where all light and eyes are excluded, may the Holy Spirit whisper some sweet message of his own to the readers of this book. It is with the utmost candor and frankness of admission that the writer would say that he lays no claim to any special originality in the prepara- tion of this work. It has grown out of years of reading and thinking, which have so united and blended in the thoughts of the writer as to now make it impossible to discriminate between what has been contributed by other minds and what has been the result of independent thinking and personal spiritual illumination. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction 3 Chapter I. The Call of the Times 11 Chapter IT, The Necessity and Importance of Ideals 24 Chapter III. What Do With Divine Ideals 31 Chapter IV. Lessons and Blessings of Unrealized Ideals 43 Chapter V. The Hope that Stimulates Action 55 Chapter VI. The Glorious Outlook that Hope Gives 68 Chapter VII. Where Hope and Faith Have Their True Center 81 Chapter VIII. Vision Rightly Focused 95 Chapter IX. The Importance of Being Securely Anchored 109 Chapter X. Dirine Sonship, Its Significance 125 Chapter XI. Regeneration of the New Humanity 138 Chapter XII. Some of the Characteristics of Sonship 152 Chapter XIII. The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality, as Seen in the Believer 166 9 PAGE Chapter XIV. The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual in the Believer 181 Chapter XV. Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer 199 Chapter XVI. Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power in the Believer 219 Chapter XVII. Significance of the Cross in the Life of the Believer. 243 Chapter XVIII. The Divine Method of Discipleship 264 Chapter XIX. The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man... 293 Chapter XX. Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness 323 10 CHAPTER I. The Call of the Times. These are the days when strong men and strong women are in demand in the Christian church. There never was a time when such were not in demand, but certainly never more so than now. Rock-ribbed and rock-built characters are the only ones that can stand in these testing days, these perilous times. Character must be solidified and enriched by the "gold tried in the fire," and be made strong and enduring by becoming ''living stones" built "into a spiritual house" for the oc- cupancy of the Heavenly King. The prophet of old tells of this class in the words, "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever." Here is eleva* tion and security. Daniel Webster's oft repeated remark made to a young man of the legal profession, "There is plenty of room at the top," is very fitting and instructive when applied to the Christian life. Christ's mission to this world was not only to give life, but to give "life more abundantly." This abounding life is health. Weakness shows waning life. Moral and spiritual weakness register a sin- ning life. It is "the righteous that shall hold on its way." It is "the wicked that shall not live out half his days." It is the eagle-Christian that soars to the higher altitudes, where clouds and mists never obscure 11 The Exalted Life the vision, where giant mountains push their shoul- ders through the raging storm, and where the eye sweeps the field of space that is as boundless as a sea without a shore. God has made large use of mountains as symbols and memorials. It was on a mountain that the first sacrifice was offered ; it was on a mountain that the greatest victory of faith was achieved, and where the entrancing vision of the heavenly city was had. It was from a mountain summit that the law thundered its awful tones of affirmative and negative requirements. Mountains have witnessed prayers that have controlled the forces of nature, teachings that are revolutionizing the world, and an interview that brought representatives from two worlds together, making clear the question of immortality and future blessedness. The last place that Jesus' feet touched and hallowed on earth was a mountain summit. What glory gathers around that mountain that is called the "City of God," Mount Zion, typifying the saint's everlasting rest, and the final home of Christ's redeemed ones. These are perilous times, and nothing short of supernatural agencies can hold against the wild seas of iniquity that sweep the shores of earthly life. These agencies are al- ways available to a genuine Christian, Christ is always on board the ship that is headed in the right direction, and no sea was ever wild enough or wind strong enough to sink the ship. He is master of the storm, and at his command, seas of trouble and winds of adversity, so threatening and alarming, at once become agencies of good and 12 The Call of the Times servants of helpfulness. Nights may be dark — and they always will be until Jesus comes — and the oarsmen may grow weary and faint in the struggle with the adverse elements, but when the King Supreme comes the harbor of safety and peace is at once entered. The life that is hid with Christ in God can never be wrecked. Isaiah tells of this security in the words, "He shall dwell on high ; his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks ; his bread shall be given him ; his waters shall be sure." What can be more assuring and comforting than this promised security and this divine supply and sup- port? Most of us live too largely in the lowlands of religious experience, and know nothing, or but Httle of the munition of rocks. Sin is always humbling and debasing; righteous- ness is exalting and ennobling. *'The wicked walk on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men." How in contrast with, and con- firmatory of this are the words of Solomon, "Right- eousness exalteth a nation ; but sin is a reproach to any people." This is the record of the ages, and the experience of universal humanity on one or the other or both of these lines. Sin's course is always downvv^ard, as in the case of the swine into which the cast out demons went. It goes swine- ward. It comes from beneath and carries its vic- tim to the place of its origin. Righteousness is always elevating, exalting, recovering, resulting in a character that is heavenly, divine. Jesus made the contrast when he said, "Ye are from beneath ; I am from above : ye are of this world ; I am not of 13 The Exalted Life this world." Speaking to and of his disciples, he said, "Ye are not of this world, even as I am not." As he was the divine One, the One from above, so they were from above having a life kindred to that of his. This is what set the world's enmity against them. "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Here is a divine cleavage that has marked the course of a pure, spiritual, aggressive church through all the ages. It began in the first family of man, resulting in the first-born of the race killing his own brother. That spirit of enmity spread, widening and deepening through the centuries, un- til it struck the first-born, God's only begotten Son, on Calvary's cross. Here, for the time being, this spirit of enmity spent its awful fury and hellish hate in trying to blot out and forever extinguish this new, divine, heaven-begotten race; but instead of extinction it had a new, a higher beginning than at first. The first man was of the earth, earthy: the second man was the Lord from heaven. The transformed life is to bear likeness to, or resem- blance of the second man, the heavenly, not only in moral and spiritual quality, but also in the treat- ment it receives at the hands of the enemies of that divine life. Can it be otherwise ? Not while the human heart is what it is, and not while Christ's followers bear marked and striking resemblance to him. Jesus plainly taught his disciples this lesson of suffering by saying, "If the world hate you, ye know that it 14 The Call of the Times hated me before it hated you." Then he adds, ''The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake." It is all on my account, be- cause of my character, my life, and your resem- blance to me in these respects that they treat you thus. What a testimonial to the integrity, the purity of life, the nobility of character, is here paid to the followers of Christ. "In my name!" How signifi- cant! It was this name that Peter and the other apostles used so frequently in their ministry, and in their working of miracles, that was so offensive to the authorities of their day. The resemblance was so marked between Christ and his early fol- lowers, that they knew with whom they had asso- ciated. It was on the use of this name that the rulers based their charge against the apostles, and for which they tried to ostracize them, commanding them henceforth not to speak to any man in this name, charging them neither to speak nor teach in the name of Jesus. It is resemblance to this life and teaching in this name that has made the martyrs of the cen- turies of the past. The apostles and early dis- ciples, many of them, went to their end as mar- tyrs. The first three hundred years of Roman history is stained with the blood of martyrs ; but how graciously this name supported these heroes of the cross as they went to the bloody block or the burning stake. Let Roman history speak; let the martyrs of Scotland testify; let the fires of 15 The Exalted Life Smithfield blaze forth their witnessing flames, and no mortal can doubt the fulfillment of Jesus' words to his disciples when he told them of the suffering that awaited them and of the grace that should sus- tain them. Now, can we say that the days of peril are past, and that the church is not in need of such charac- ters as the martyrs of early times? True, such barbarous days have largely gone by, especially in civilized countries, but perilous times are still with us and may well be affirmed of the day in which we live. The tactics have changed. The chopping block, the fagots, the wheel, the knout, and the dungeon, as instruments of torture for the destruction of Christian faith have disappeared as governmental methods. Schools of philosophy, se- ductive creeds, and various humanizing agencies, more or less appealing to human freedom and pop- ular demand, have supplanted the barbarous and heathen methods of early times. To-day it is not so much the destruction of the literal, organized agencies employed in the extension of Christ's kingdom as it is the devitalizing of that spiritual force in these agencies that made them efficient and all-conquering in the early church. There is many a luring Delilah in these days seeking to beguile the church of her Nazarite power. The Sanhedrin had no objection to Peter and John preaching and teaching, only so it was not "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth." That name stood for what they could not brook, and yet "the sweetest name on mortal tongue." It stands for what the world most needs, and what millions of 16 The Call of the Times perishing ones are crying for — salvation. Strange and sad it is that such is the tendency of the human heart that it seeks its own misery and final destruction, instead of its highest good here and endless blessedness hereafter. It hates righteous- ness and loves iniquity. It fairly runs in the way of evil, and its feet are swift to shed blood. It covets the way of sin, the end of which is death. It is greedy of its own ruin. It despises and spurns the "gift of God, which is eternal life." The fellowship of demons is preferred to the fellowship of Christ, and the place of torment to that of Abraham's bosom. This is the day for standing by well verified fundamentals. A ship with its anchor lifted in time of wrecking winds is in awful peril of destruc- tion. Brave, sane defenders of "the faith once de- livered to the saints" are much in demand these days. While great movements are being organ- ized for the extension of the kingdom of God, the peril is that some of these may be so humanized as to put them wholly on the plane of the natural, and that the supernatural will be largely eliminated. This tendency to homogeneity of action may find a graded level too low for unity with the spiritual agencies and forces belonging to, and inherent in the kingdom of God. The craving for the flesh pots of Egypt was Israel's peril. There was a "mixed multitude" among them that "fell a lust- ing," and thus kept up the old desires to a fever heat. They wanted to live on flesh. My! what a diet they craved, among which were cucumbers, melons, onions, and garlics. They fell under a 17 The Exalted Life tide of emotion, and complained that their "souls were dried away," because there was nothing be- fore their eyes but manna. They cried for flesh. Was not manna good ? It came down from heaven, thus typifying Christ, "the bread of life." This mixed multitude was a source of weakness and division of Israel. So now, unconverted church members often exercise a controlling influ- ence in church matters that so neutralizes spiritual agencies that lukewarmness and death prevail where zeal and life ought to have the ascendency. In such a church spiritual things are stale, Christ uninviting, and the clamor is for things pleasing to the flesh — worldly amusements, such as card parties, the theater, and the dance. The demand is for magnificent buildings, an ornate ritual, easy doctrine, and large personal freedom in matters of duty and service. Such persons are good "mix- ers," in their way, but their compound will not stand the test applied by the divine chemist. Every man's work is to be tried of what sort it is, and every man's work shall be made manifest. There can be no intellectual or spiritual jugglery here. There is a day of fire that will reveal the character of the work and the character of the workman. Well may it be asked, "But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he ap- peareth? For he is like a refiner's fire, and fuller's soap." God's workmen are to be "refined as silver is refined, and tried as gold is tried." Not any kind of agencies can do God's work, and not any and every kind of material can be put into his temple of which Jesus Christ is the foundation 18 The Call of the Times and the chief corner stone. In order to build upon Christ there must be an agreement with him in motive and purpose, and affinity of nature. In this connection read II. Corinthians 6:14-18. Here is separation, freedom from any compHcity with evil. The law of separation, is very marked in the Bible. Christ has a yoke for his followers by which they are united in a common purpose, but he has none for uniting opposite characters, whose natures are as adverse as that of a believer and infidel, sin and holiness, light and darkness, Christ and Satan. God makes his people his temple, and says he will dwell in them and walk in them. Does he do this with the ungodly? In order to this fellowship, he says, "Come out from among them and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters." Here is true, divine fatherhood, and the highest type of broth- erhood, but neither is universal. But separation here is not from contact with evil in the world, but from conformity to the evil and a participancy in it. Here Christ becomes the model of his Church. He was "holy, harmless, un- defiled, and separate from sinners," and yet he was ever in contact with them in his effort for their salvation. The Church has been assigned a great work to do, and this work never seemed greater than in the modern world, and in this present age. The current of human thought is rapidly changing, as mighty and mysterious forces are now at work as never before. This is a period of transition, when intellectual storms are raging on all sides, 19 The Exalted Life and there is need of keeping in touch with the liv- ing forces of God's spiritual kingdom, and follow- ing carefuly and prayerfully the way of ascent marked out in his Holy Word. 20 CHAPTER 11. The Necessity and Importance of Ideals If life's mission is to be a success there are two things that must be kept in mind, the ideal and the actual, and then all the ground between the two must be covered by prayer, faith, and vigor- ous effort. To have a goal and then make no effort to reach it would be characteristic of the idiotic and the insane. To the intelligent, conscientious Chris- tian, there must be an object of contemplation, in- spiring, uplifting, and transforming, ever ahead of him. Some time ago, I read of a man who always carried some Greek play with him for reading at leisure times; he became a great Greek scholar — it could not have been otherwise. No chemist is without his laboratory and chem- icals with which to work. No astronomer is with- out his telescope, his field of ebony set with stars. The sculptor must first see his Eve and Greek slave in the rough solid marble before they shine in the gallery of masterpieces, and he must not re- gret the strokes required to bring them there. The great painter must first see his Christ before Pilate and his Madonna with her child before he can transfer them to the canvas. The ideal palace or Colosseum must first rise on the field of vision before the architect draws his line, makes a stroke with the hammer, or wields the saw. So with the inventor, the explorer, and the warrior. Ideals go before actual achievements. 21 The Exalted Life Articles of faith, methods of education, and sys- tems of government are judged and interpreted largely by their ideals. It is so of mechanic arts, municipal government, and home life. Without some central, determining goal, all is a mere jumble of senseless forms. In the case of the individual, this vision of life and its mission usually comes into consciousness during, or even before the adolescent period. From a child Timothy knew the Holy Scriptures and was influenced by them. In the case of the child Jesus this was displayed in a very striking way when he was only twelve years of age. The vision of his work and the Father's will were so all-controlling and commanding that home and kindred were pow- erless to divert him from that wonderful discus- sion in the temple. All great teachers, discoverers, inventors, war- riors, legislators, philosophers, and poets have had vivid dreams in early childhood of their work. God is never slow or behind hand in selecting his work- men. Disobedience may delay the work, but troubled seas will call the fugitive from his slumber. In dealing with the ideal we are not dealing with the fanciful and the imaginary, especially when ap- plied to Christian faith and Christian living. The original of ideal is idea, which represents a real object in the mind to which the ideal relates. Hence, it is something that is, or should be possible of achievement or realization. This makes ideals mas- terful and controlling, especially when dealing with divine verities. As we rise on this field of vision 22 The Necessity and Importance of Ideals human standards largely vanish, and we come into the realm of the "unsearchable." Christianity having its origin in, and its unfolding by a divine nature is of necessity inscrutable to the purely human faculties. The unseen things of God cannot be understood by the Adamic nature. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- cerned." It is for this reason that God began the process of redemption with the rudest and most material- istic representations. These gradually vanished, were supplanted, as the Church grew in knowledge and spiritual apprehension, until literal altars, con- secrated places, and costly temples were regarded as no longer essentials to acceptable worship. This change comes from the new life, the new birth, that puts its subject in commerce with the life of Christ himself, thereby making him a par- taker of the divine nature; thus changing the nat- ural to the spiritual, and making such worship ac- ceptable wherever and whenever offered. This Jesus made very plain to the Samaritan woman in his conversation at Jacob's well when he said, "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusa- lem, worship the Father God is a spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Here the ideal is transferred from the external to the internal, the real, thus making the essential elements of the Christian life to be spiritual. It 23 The Exalted Life is not now Jewish blood, or the blood of animals offered on Jewish altars, but the blood of Christ offered on Calvary's cross applied by faith, that makes a Christian. This must be regarded as a very high and exalted life, God's ideal life for his ancient people. Israel is described as being no less than "the days of heaven upon earth." (Deuteronomy 11:21.) If the literal life of his people in Canaan, when under the law, was to be of such an exalted type, what may we judge the character of the life required under grace to be? Israel's life was ^national, natural, earthly, and yet was to be as the days of heaven, conditioned on diligently keeping the com- mandments. How much more wonderful and real- istic the Christian life ought to be than that of an- cient Israel, now that Christ has come and perfected the life of his people by himself becoming their life, making them partakers of his divine nature. Here we have the supernatural. A life risen with Christ, seated with him in heavenly places, hid- den with him in God, and finally coming with him in glory. (Colossians 3: 1-4; Ephesians 2:6.) But what is life? Who can tell? All life is a hidden, fathomless mystery. It is that strange something that glows on the cheek, sparkles in the eye, thrills in the nerves, throbs in the heart, beats in the pulse, flows in the blood. In a higher sense it kindles in the brain, reigns in the affections, and abounds in the spirit. x\s a force it shimmers in the sunbeam, sparkles in the dew-drop, moans in the winds, thunders in the storm, and trembles in the earthquake. It is manifested all about us in 24 The Necessity and Importance of Ideals the vegetable and animal kingdoms. It is seen in the growing grass, the budding trees, and the wav- ing grain; but all in defiance of our sense, all science, all comprehension, to determine what it is. God only knows what life is. Like the divine life it is hidden. No microscope, however power- ful, nor science, however broad and deep its re- search, can find it. All this is true of what we call natural life. How much more wonderful and mysterious is spir- itual life, the divine life — "God manifested in the flesh." This may well be called the exalted life ; the life that this book is seeking to unfold, mysterious as it is, and apply to the inner and the outer life of Christ's followers. In order to do this in the most practical and efficient way, we have had to study the ideal of this life, separate and apart from the reality, the ex- perimental. This is important as a foundation upon which to build the real. Without an ideal from which to start, and as a goal toward which to go, we are as helpless as a sailor on the ocean without a compass or chart. We have nothing to go by, and hence cannot tell where we are going or whether we are going at all. The divine ideal for man at the beginning was resemblance to himself, in his likeness and in his image. Do our best to grasp the divine meaning as here expressed, we must fall far short of its scope ; but of one thing we may be reasonably sure, and that is, that the divine will for the moral condi- tion of the race was perfect purity; for only in this respect could man resemble his Creator. 'Tn 25 The Exalted Life our image, after our likeness," was the divine sug- gestion before man was created. "In the image of God created he him," is the record after man was created. Image here means likeness, resemblance, representation, and is very striking, as it represents the nature, as children their parents. It is making the otherwise invisible visible. This resemblance was lost when man fell. Now, if this moral state was God's ideal for man before the fall, can he require less after the fall, in his restoration? If less, would it be a restora- tion? If sin was man's ruin, can he be restored without deliverance from that which ruined him? If God could not tolerate sin in Eden, can he tolerate sin out of Eden? That the divine plan was the early recovery of man from this ruin is seen in the provisions made to this end, and in the lives of dis- tinguished characters that followed this early wreck- age. It is written of Enoch that he pleased God, and that he walked with him three hundred years, and then was translated to the heavenly city. If these three things occurred in his life, as the record says, then he must have lived a life of freedom from sin. To walk with God means a life of purity. Noah was perfect in his generation, and Abraham was commanded to walk before God as a perfect man. Now, if these ancient worthies, under a dis- pensation so imperfect in its agencies of recovery from sin, lived in such harmony and fellowship with God, what would be a reasonable expecta- tion in this day of the Son of man ? This is by far the brighter and better day, and would naturally require a life corresponding with the day. 26 The Necessity and Importance of Ideals Now, is there anything h'ke this in the work of the world's redemption? Did not God foresee in Christ what he would and could do with and for fallen humanity? This is verified in Paul's word, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predesti- nate to be conformed to the image of his Son.'* Again, "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." Still more striking are the words, "Who hath called us with an holy call- ing, not according to our works, but ac- cording to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." "According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." In these Scriptures we have the divine ideal for man before the work of redemption actually began ; but in the fullness of time that ideal was verified for us in Jesus Christ, who now, by his life and teaching, becomes the true and real ideal for his followers. Here God's ideal for man becomes actual in the living character. Think of this ideal of whom it is written, "Who did no sin, neither was any guile found in his mouth." "He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." n true, as afiirmed by one of the maxims of all history and reliable philosophy, that no worshiper ever rises higher in a moral and spiritual sense 27 The Exalted Life than the god whom he serves, then what a boundless sweep above all heathen, idolatrous worship, is here set as the goal for the Christian. Tell me, anxious, inquiring soul, where this ideal will lead to, and where and when the final goal will be reached? There are some things we may be sure of here and now, and these should most concern us, among which we note that Christ, in his work of redemption, has removed all the barriers to man's recovery from sin's ruin by him- self paying the penalty of the law. In his assump- tion of human nature he bridged the chasm between God and man; as the head and source of the life of the Church, he becomes its guide and assured perpetuity. His bright and shining life makes the pathway of the just as the glow of the morning, and as light as the cloudless day. He has anni- hilated the distance between earth and heaven, and brought the kingdom of God down among men. There are no dark and shadowy places on the road to the heavenly city, for he is the light. He is the first and the last : "He is all and in all." He was before all things, and by him all things consist." He himself said, "Before Abraham was, I am." He is not only our elder brother, but he is crowned Lord and king. We do not live in a lawless world, where anarchy reigns, nor in a tenantless house, with no one to welcome and care for us. Out of every storm and solitude we may hear his voice from out the darkness saying, as to the disciples of old, "It is I, be not afraid." "He is the head of the body, the Church." He is 28 The Necessity and Importance of Ideals not only Lord of the material creation, but head of the spiritual creation. This makes him supreme in its life and in its power. We do not think of Christ and of this life as simply and only ideal, and stop there. Many honest and candid Christians think of Christ and his teach- ings as simply illusory, and never to become actual and real in the life? This cannot be true if the Bible is true and if Christ is real. This is strik- ingly illustrated in the metaphor of the vine and its branches. Christ said, *T am the vine, ye are the branches." Is the vine real as found in the vineyard? If so, are not the branches just as real? Is not the life that circulates through all a common life? Can any distinction be made, as to the na- ture of the life, between the vine and the branches? The same life that clings in the tendrils, blushes in the clusters, and sparkles in the juice, is the same that is in the vine itself. This life did not originate in the branches, and is not theirs, origin- ally, though it be in them. This life is a unit. There is only one life with all this diversity — one vine, many branches ; one body, yet many members. Christ is not only the ideal of the Christian life, but he is the beginning to the Church, the real life of the Church, and himself the nature of that life. This is clearly seen in the metaphor used. The root is the beginning of the vine, out of which the laby- rinth of branches grow; so of all the flowers that bloom in the meadow, and the trees that enrich the orchard with their fruitage. The nature of the fruit and of the flowers follow the nature of the root. So it is the life of Christ flowing 29 The Exalted Life into our lives that makes us living members of his spiritual body. This ceasing, we lose our fellow- ship with him and at once wither and die. The degrees of fruitfulness depend on the fullness and constancy of this fellowship. This seen in the words, "fruit," "more fruit," "much fruit." The degrees of fruit-bearing depend on the health and growth of the branches. No branch can bear fruit of itself, severed from the vine. "He abideth in mc, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." There comes in this connection one of the sad- dest and most important lessons that the followers of Christ are called upon to study; namely, the helplessness of Christ without the fullest and heart- iest co-operation of his Church with him in the work of the world's redemption. If apart from him we can do nothing, what can he do with no agencies or body through which to work? Of what use is a vine, however good, without branches to bear fruit? What can a general do without sol- diers, or soldiers that do not obey orders? He is utterly helpless. So Christ, who is the "captain of our salvation," without soldiers that will stand with him in the fight of faith, is as helpless as the might- iest general without an army. How sad the thought of making Christ helpless? His cry from Calvary and from heaven is for helpers. What a leader he is, and what a glor- ious warfare he is waging! Should he meet with defeat in the fight because his soldiers will not obey his commands? 30 CHAPTER III. What do with Divine Ideals. As previously indicated, ideals must be for a purpose, and that purpose should be practicable. For God to deal otherwise with his children would be to tantalize them. When he requires a certain character and commands a certain method of living he is not dealing in mockery. When God said to Jerusalem of old, "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: from henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean," he command- ed only the possible. He meant there must be a changed condition. She must put on a vesture becoming her character and her work. Slumbering, weakness, with garments dust-covered, must no longer characterize her life. This condition of ease and consorting with evil must end. They were to *'go from thence, and touch no unclean thing." They that bear the vessels of the Lord were to be clean. Priests under the law had to be a peculiar class of people. The old apparel had to be put away, their bodies undergo ablution for physical cleans- ing, and then adorned with robes befitting their office and work. The same is true, only In a higher sense, under grace. Paul said to Timothy, "Keep thyself pure." 31 The Exalted Life Here the purity is not ceremonial, as under the law, but moral and spiritual. It is not the outer garments, but the inner self, the hidden man of the unrenewed heart that is to be put off. Paul de- scribes the change as being the putting off "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and putting on the new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and holiness." Again Paul says, "Lie not one to another," and assigns as the reason, "seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds ; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," (Colossians 3:9, 10; Ephesians 4:22-24.) Now can we affirm the impossible here, and thus charge God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our elder brother, with gross injustice? No considerate man would require a horse to draw a load that he knew he could not pull. No kind-hearted father would commit a task to a child that he knew he could not perform. Civil authorities are giving consideration to abuses of this kind. What shall we say of the God of infinite wisdom and of bound- less love on this line? Many years ago, I heard a minister of the gospel say that he knew it was his duty to preach, but that he could not do it. If absolutely impossible then it was not duty. All God's calls are through open doors, or doors pos- . sible of opening. Duty never demands the impos- ' sible, plus God. It must be freely admitted that the ideals, or standards, set for human conduct and achievement in the Scriptures are exceedingly high and in some 32 What do with Divine Ideals features and in some aspects unattainable in this life; but the goal is set for our running, and until life is lived and its battles fought, no one can tell how lofty his achievements may be under a divinely inspired calling and purpose, he even keeping alive and in use the promise, *'My grace is sufficient." God has set nothing less than perfect manhood in Christ Jesus, as the goal of faith and hope to the believer. With anything less than this as the aim, there would be contentment with the imperfect, the immature, the unrealized. It is not so in earthly things. The child wants to be a man, the student a scholar, the laborer rewarded. Perpetual child- hood in the home would be a great calamity. So it is in grace. This St. Paul laments when writing to the Plebrews. He says, "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." (Hebrews 5 : 12- 14.) Here is going back to the nursery for a second training, and a second growth out of infancy. How humiliating this would be literally to some great characters if forced by some law of nature, as a penalty for neglect of opportunities, to take their places back in the homes of their infancy, and at the mother's breast, after having filled places of dis- tinguishing honor in both church and state! After growing towards maturity for years, then turn and grow towards dwarf age, back to infancy ! Who can think it? And yet this is the condition that 33 The Exalted Life Paul found in the Church. He said they were un- skillful, that is, they lack experience, they were without any qualification for Christian work. This same class of immature, infantile Christians are brought to view in I. Corinthians 3 : 1-4. Here is the regenerated man; but living under his fleshly propensities, and allowing them a measure of as- cendent rule, he is only a "babe in Christ." He is so largely carnal that only the simplest things of the Spirit can be comprehended, just *'milk." But while there was only infancy on the one hand, there was full manhood, of its character, on the other hand. While in divine things they were weak as little children, in carnal things they were strong and lusty. This was seen in the spirit of envy, strife, and divisions which they stirred up in the Church. Here they were strong. Is there any- thing like this in the Church of to-day? Where does it come from? It is fleshly, and comes from the flesh, and not from the Holy Spirit; for he never divides the body of Christ. He rather uni- fies it and builds it up. Now, the important question, the question of all questions is, how to get out of this condition of weakness, this dwarfage, this spiritual atrophy, into the strength and glory of fullest manhood. This should be carefully studied by all anxious ones. The goal that Paul set for himself is found in Philippians 3 : 12-14. "Mark" here means goal, "high calhng" means upward. Paul's aim was al- ways upward, never downward. This should be the aim of every Christian. Where and when the 34 What do with Divme Ideals end of this divine disclosure may be reached is difficult to determine. "The pathway of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." The view is ever enlarging as one ascends, like climbing to the summit of some great mountain; and more and more life be- comics a victory until the last and final victory is won. "They go from strength to strength." (Psalms 8:5-7.) "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (IL Corinthians 3: 18.) An unveiled face brings a transformation into the di- vine likeness. "And of his fulness have all we re- ceived, and grace for grace." Here grace and glory both multiply in the believer. This multipli- cation follows clearness of vision and ihe strength of faith. It is wonderful how Christ can multiply himself, like he multiplied the loaves and the fishes in the wilderness. This abounding grace displays itself first in the salvation of the sinner, and later in his life and service. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," we have the abounding life of Romans 6; 14, 15. "For sin shall not have dominion over you : for ye are not under law, but under grace." This grace in the renewed heart is a great work- ing force. Paul said it wrought in him mightily. It has in it the spirit of intensity, an unconquerable go. It brings out and puts to work the best there is in a man. It insures success to the one fully yield- ed to it, and works wonders in the line of achieve- 35 The Exalted Life ments and attainments. It makes one unconquer- able and indomitable. Paul said, *'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Then he talks about being ^'strengthened with all might." This is the power our weakened human nature needs and which it must have in order to a noble ascension. Water will run down hill, but it must be forced up hill. One may stumble down hill, but it takes strenuous climbing to get up hill. The law of gravity makes it easy to go downward, but hard to go upward. So morally, nature will carry us downward, but only grace can lift us upward. As ideals are given for realization, they must be worked out zealously and passionately. To do this the divine life must be incorporated into the human for its insp* ration and fashioning. Christ on no ac- count and for no reason must be left out of the reckoning. He alone can give spiritual freedom and enlargement. He becomes the center and fountain out of which all goodness flows. Jesus said, "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things." Here the heart is made the reservoir in which life is stored and out of which issues the very elixir of life or the deadliest poison. It makes a man's heaven or his hell on earth. The life that is mean and low brings everything to its level sooner or later, usually sooner. To the noble minded and exalted in purpose, everything soars and sings. No one can have Christ living and reigning in him without such a life. He car- 36 What do with Divine Ideals' ries the whole range of being upward, sunward, heavenward, The believer's influence, in whose heart the Holy Spirit dwells, becomes a rushing cataract of divine power, sweeping over all bar- riers and covering all the lowlands of evil with its transforming life. Jesus compared it to "rivers of living water." Paul says, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you ; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." (II. Corinthians 9: 8.) However seemingly unattainable to human reason the calls and requirements of God in the line of duty and personal achievement, here we have the divine guarantee of all-sufficient grace for the day, the hour, and the work. "He is able!" Who can measure the divine ability? Let the created worlds, with their suns and systems, answer. Let the mighty and undis- coverable forces of earth answer. The heavens declare His glory; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. (Read the 29th Psalm.) The angels shield their eyes from the smiting of his ineffable glory with their folded wings. David says, "God hath spoken once; twice have I Tieard this, that power belongeth unto God." Jesus said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. This shower of blessings comes first upon the individual believer himself, so that having under all circumstances and on all occasions all personal needs fully met, he may become a shower of blessing to others. How fully this comports with God's promise to his ancient people. (Malachi 3 : 10.) The promise 37 The Exalted Life to them was that if they would prove him by bringing all the tithes into the storehouse, that he would "open the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing that there should not be room enough to receive it." God wants us to prove him and put him to the test. Here is a challenge of faith. He wants to verify his promise to his people. Paul said, "He is able." So here is the question of the divine ability to do as he says. Shall we hold this to be real, or only ideal? H we admit his ability will we also admit his willingness? Is he willing to pour such a flood of grace upon his Church that all capacity for its reception and use would be overwhelmed? not room enough to receive it? As then, so now. God wants his people to prove him. Is this not perfectly sane and safe? You bring the tithes and prove me, was his word. There was no contingency as to time. Prove me now^ to-day, and see "if I will not open to you the win- dows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." How like Pentecost this sounds. How in har- mony with what was spoken by the prophet Joel as quoted by Peter in his sermon at Pentecost. (Acts 2: 16-21.) Here "last days" relates to Israel's his- tory as a nation, and not to the last day of time. In this prophecy God said he would pour his spirit upon "all flesh." This is our day, the Pentecost day of the Church, the Christian dispensation, in contrast with the Jewish dispensation which ended at this time. Was not this prophecy literally fulfilled at Pente- cost? Plad Israel proved God by bringing their 38 What do with Divine Ideals tithes into the storehouse, and ceased as a nation to rob him, they would have shared in this wonderful blessing on this beginning day of the Christian Church ; but, instead, they kept up their fraudulent methods and went into utter wreckage, and became a '"hissing," a ''byword," and a "curse" among all nations. Their crowning act of repudiation was when they rejected God's only Son. "He came unto his own [his own people] and his own received him not." Here the cup of their iniquity was full, and they were broken up and were scattered among all nations. Now, as this prophetic, this ideal life, to Israel, became an actual realization when Christ came and when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, may we not as living members of the Church, belonging as we do to this glorious Church age, reasonably expect to share in the fullness of this life as given in promise and realized at Pente- cost? or will we call it purely idealistic, belong- ing to another and superior age, and having no marked and striking relation to our day? Let us rather prize the richness, the fullness, and the reality of our inheritance by meeting the con- ditions on which it is promised. Are not the con- ditions reasonable and of possible compliance? If so, then who would hesitate for one moment to meet them in the light of the promised blessing? Is not the Church in need of new, quickened, and larger life? Will the reader please stop for a moment, honestly and prayerfully look within, and ask his own heart if it does not need renewed life? Are the days that are gone better than these? Is there 39 The Exalted Life the conscious fellowship with Jesus that there was when younger in years and nearer the beginning of this heavenly life? If so, why? Is the beginning experience better than the advanced? Is immatur- ity better than maturity? Is childhood better than manhood? Is dwarf age better than growth? Is the far country with its famine better than Father's house with its ''bread enough and to spare"? These, more than any others, ought to be the "days of heaven upon earth" to the Church. Christ more than ever ought to be "all and in all" to his people. The multiplication of the Scriptures, the growth of the Church in membership, the enlarged facilities for extending and strengthening the king- dom of God, ought to make this the brightest day the world has ever seen. Things are more real- istic to-day than ever. The days of mere dreams and visions, the apocryphal, are over, and things are moving towards the final consummation. The efforts of the ministry ought now, more than ever, to aim to reduce Christian ideals and profes- sions to actual practice. It ought unquestionably to stand for the deity of Jesus Christ practically applied here and now to the whole of life in the view of the whole of eternity. Unless the Chris- tian theory of life is put into every-day practice, it is a dead letter. The Bible and its teachings must form the basis of life's daily activities. There is need for a new spiritual awakening that will overcome lukewarmness, give new strength and power to the ministry, that will flood the whole Church with a tide of spirituality. This will start new life in the home, resurrect family altars 40 What do with Divine Ideals from the graves of obscurity, set a new spiritual pace in the prayer-meetings and Sunday schools of the Church, convert the contribution of nickels and dimes into dollars, and make the difference be- tween those who are Christians and those who are not, more marked. The danger to-day is misdirected efforts, efforts applied to wrong things and in the wrong direction. Better ecclesiastical legislation, larger membership, better co-operation, a more cultivated ministry, bet- ter and more efficient leadership in official posi- tions, is the clamorous cry of the hour. All these are very important things in the work of the Church ; but the chief need is a genuine spiritual awakening that will flood every avenue of Chris- tian life. Not a reform, but spiritual quickening. This new life will work its own reform. Regener- ation the cure of degeneration. Christ within, rul- ing in an ascendant way, corrects the life without. Tliere must first be involution before there can be evolution. This cannot be done by an invasion of forces. There possibly was never more and better preach- ing, intellectually, than now ; but what about the effect? The Church was never better organized, utilizing all its agencies, never more meet- ings of every kind, and never more efforts to attract the multitudes than now ; but what the result ? Does not the complaint of lukewarmness come from well nigh every direction? that there is a lack of spiritual feeling in the devotional exercise, and that the ministry has declined in its strength and in its convincing and convicting power? That 41 The Exalted Life the preaching is able, learned, interesting, and in- structive, is readily admitted; but where is the old- time affirmation that used to ring out from the pulpits of the fathers? The old Bible and theolog- ical terms, such as ''conviction," "repentance," "con- fession," "regeneration," "sanctification," "adop- tion," "death to sin," have to an extent, in some pulpits become meaningless and discarded terms. Instead of these — for there must be something instead — v^e are having "psychology," "suggestive therapeutics," "social ethics," and kindred subjects. For this condition of things so far as it has obtained, there is but one certain and sure cure; namely, the quickening and deepening of the spirit- ual life by a new inflowing of the Holy Spirit. This will make the ideal real. Well may the cry go up for the Holy Spirit to come from the four winds, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. 42 CHAPTER IV. Lessons and Blessings of Unrealized Ideals. Paul gives utterance to a wonderful mystery in his letter to the Romans (Romans 8:26) when he says, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose." It is with this mystery that we shall largely deal in this chapter. While ideals are given for realization, yet such are the limitations of human reason and human discernment that these ideals may often be misap- plied and misinterpreted in their application to human life. It takes the whole of individual his- tory, with its varied and complex experiences, to make up that mysterious compound that each char- acter finally represents. To the question, "Have you ever been disappointed," the answer would not be difficult to give. The "sack of gold" at the end of the rainbow on the near-by hill has never yet been obtained. The dreams of earlier years as to what one would be and what one would do, es- pecially as to the road leading to these goals, has been realized by but few. Life may have been mapped out and carefully programmed, but how few have followed their own life-plan. If life has been successful, as now looked back upon, it has been so largely in spite of this human planning. How forcible and instructive in this connection the words of the prophet Jeremiah, "O Lord, I know that 43 The Exalted Life the way of man is not in himself ; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." (Jeremiah 10: 23.) Then he cries, *^0 Lord, correct me." Such is the conceit of the human heart that it takes great grace and full submission to the divine will to invite a revision, if not the overthrow of life's plans. To commit our ways unto the Lord, and let him direct our paths, is the only assured way of success in life's mission. The closing days of Paul's life were full of seem- ing confusion, wreckage, and failure. His plans checked, and his surroundings vicious and hostile. His world-wide evangelism ended in a Roman prison ; but hear him, 'T know that this shall turn to my salvation." He knew all would end well, and so it did, but not as any human heart or brain would have planned. Not only did all work well with him, but to the mission of the gospel as well. To the church at Philippi he wrote, 'T would have you understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel." What seemed a hindrance at the first proved a help in the end. The clouds of darkness and persecution brought a shower of blessing. Bondage became liberty, the prison a palace, the dungeon a place of brightest vision. We never know our real strength, or the security of our foundation until tested by the storm. It is the wild winds and the ocean's engulfing billows that make the sailor, and the battle with its car- nage and blood that makes the warrior. We do not know the value of gold that is hidden in the 44 Lessons and Blessings of Unrealized Ideals ore until it is tried in the fire. The counsel to the Laodicean Church is that given to every Christian, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed." Nothing less than the tried, the tested, the real, should satisfy. Our loftiest spiritual visions, and our greatest personal triumphs often come from what seem the utter blight and wreckage of earthly hopes and earthly plans. Abraham's from a pilgrim-life, the life of a stranger; Job's from a dreary landscape, swept bare by Satan's emissaries; Daniel's from a gruesome den of ferocious beasts ; Paul's from his filthy dungeon in Rome; John's from the lonely island in the ^gian Sea; and John Bunyan's from the world-renowned Bedford jail. Now, let us enlarge upon this for a moment. How good it is that the visions of life do not all come at once. They would often be overwhelming to our senses. Some of the ancients fell as dead under the disclosures of the divine character. These disclosures come in harmony with the way life is lived. We live only a moment at a time ; we take only one step at a time; we do only one thing at a time. We cannot live all life in a day. Divine support is given only by the day. ''As thy day, so shall thy strength be." A few examples, as illustrations of unrealized hopes, may be studied with profit in their connec- tion with our subject. To begin with, the life, character, work, and, finally, departure of Moses, Israel's deliverer, lawyer, and leader, may be taken as a striking instance in this illustration. 45 The Exalted Life After freeing the people from the bondage of Egypt; leading them through "that great and ter- rible wilderness" ; patiently brooking their oft re- peated revolts and outcries of discontent; acting as a daysman between them and an offended God; stimulating their faith and courage in times of ad- versity — himself never losing faith in them or dis- pairing of them — he finally came to that marvelous end, a lone man on the summit of a great moun- tain, where he died. Think of what he refused — a home in a kingly palace; think of what he chose instead — ''affliction with the people of God'"; ana, finally, think of his estimate of things, the "re- proach of Christ" — mark you, ''Christ" — "greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." What must have been his feelings, viewed from the standpoint of the human, after all this career of suffering, to be denied entrance into the land he had so steadfastly believed in, and toward which he had led the people for all the years since they left Eg}Apt? The people entered the land of prom- ise after his death, under the leadership of another; a land that they might never have seen, but for him. He deserves to be classed among the martyrs of old, giving his life for the public good. The re- ward he won for others was denied the winner himself. He saw the land from his mountain sum- mit, the entrance to which he was never permitted to enjoy. It was a long journey from the Nile to Nebo, in- volving great trials, hard work, and intense suffer- ing, all for the good of others. Hundreds of years passed between the promise of this land and its 46 Lessons and Blessings of Unrealized Ideals realization, but his faith never wavered. The record says, "By faith" he did all these things. "If the promise tarries, faith waits." Was this non-possession of the land by Moses a defeat? By no means. Denied the literal, he entered the spiritual, the heavenly. God always compen- sates for our disappointments, our losses, T)y giving a greater good than that which he takes away. He gave to Moses the heavenly, the divine, instead of the earthly. Was not his death a triumph? Who would not like to depart this life as he did? It was not from old age, from sickness, from feebleness, or ineffi- ciency. It was by a divine order. "He died accord- ing to the word of the Lord." The Lord first showed him all the land, told him of the covenant that he had made with Abraham and his seed, and then said, "I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither." So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab. Then was not his burial a glorious event? So far as we know there was no human undertaker, sexton, pallbearers, or attendants. God and the angels had charge of this burial. Human hands were too foul to handle his body or dig his grave. The angels from heaven attended that funeral ser- vice. What an honor to have such a burial ! Did any earthly king ever so depart? No friend or kindred ever visited that cemetery and looked on that grave. The pilgrims of the ages, and modern travelers to the Oriental countries have never been able to locate that grave and do 47 The Exalted Life honor to its dead. It is unknown, but still cared for, for "God keeps watch over his own." Why was Moses not permitted to enter the prom- ised land? may be asked. Here no one may pre- sume to know all about the divine will and the divine purposes. This we know: He sinned at Kadesh in smiting the rock. He exalted himself. (Numbers 20:10.) li this smiting in any way represents Christ's crucifixion, then we see the offense. Paul refers to Christ as that rock (I. Corinthians 10:4), who, being once crucified, need not to be crucified again. "He died once for all." Then Moses represented a dispensation that could not perfect things — the law. The "law made nothing perfect." Grace is a covenant of perfection ; it represents an accomplished, a completed redemp- tion in Christ, who tasted death once for all. Not only for all humanity, but for all time. In further illustration of this thought of the subject let us take the life of Abraham. He had Canaan by promise, but he never literally inherited or possessed it. He lived as a stranger and as a pilgrim in this very land. He sojourned in it as a strange country. The history says, "God gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on : yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession." (Acts 7: 5.) He had to buy a tomb to bury Sarah in ; so he had only a few feet of earth in the land of promise, and these by purchase. Isaac had but little in it; Jacob died in a foreign country, and his descendants found war, labor, and imrest. Paul speaking of this says, "If Joshua had given them rest, then would he not 48 Lessons and Blessings of Unrealized Ideals afterward have spoken of another day." Speaking of them again, and in a more general way he says, "These all died in faith, not having received the promise." Now, what about life, and what about its ideals? Is all life illusory, a cheat and a delusion, and must all end in non-possession? What does it all mean? What are some of its lessons? In the two instances named, Moses and Abraham, the promise seemed never literally realized. They died, as it is said of all the heroes of faith, "not having re- ceived the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." In the lives of these ancient pilgrims we have a principle well verified in the experience of thou- sands and millions since their day. Abraham looked for another city, one with sure foundations, and so confessed that he was an alien and a stranger on the earth. Here is the true test and development of faith. Unfulfilled and unrealized promises are the divine school in which and where faith is proven and strengthened. On earth, things are ever changing and fading. "Here we have no continuing city." There is a brighter day ahead. A whole eternity of value and expectation looms on the field of vis- ion. With all life's changes, to the Christian it is not a deception. Canaan was not a delusion, but an illusion. It led the Israelites on to something greater and better. Only the temporal would serve as a beginning. The spiritual comes later. "How- belt, that is not first which is spiritual, but that 49 The Exalted Life which is natural ; and afterward that which is spir- itual." (I. Corinthians 15:46.) The training and discipline of the wilderness was a leading on to, and a preparation for the higher, the spiritual, the kingdom within. God's rewards are always larger and better than that for which we work. Earthly environment cannot long be the home and be suited to one that has a heavenly nature and a heavenly life within him. Such a life soon puts him into pilgrimage and in pursuit of the heavenly city. We are ever outgrowing our en- vironments; manhood puts away childhood. Let us follow the historical a little farther, se- lecting one illustration from the New Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament is farther removed from us, more symbolical than the New, and hence might not, on this account, be as commanding in its force of teaching. When Paul was on his way to Rome, Trophimus, an associate of Paul's in his missionary work, was with him, and doubtless wanted to go with him and minister to him in his afflictions; but he got no farther in his journey than Miletus, where he was stricken with sickness, and where Paul had to leave him. Here the light of his life, historically, went out and never appears again. Instead of going on to Rome he had to languish on a bed of sickness, and from this drop out of view. How in contrast such an experience to that of active, aggressive work in the field of Christian evangelism. Here we have the picture of thousands of zeal- ous Christians. How many a mother longs to be well so that she may serve and do the best for the 50 Lessons and Blessings of Unrealized Ideals welfare of her children. How many a wife laments that she has fallen a helpless invalid on the hands of her husband, to whom she wants to be a help- meet. Many a minister sits in his solitary chair at home when his mind roams over the fields he has traveled, his heart yearning for the opportmiity of once more standing on that mount of transfigura- tion and sharing in the joy that comes from such an association. There are many like Trophimus among us to-day, halted in their journey by afflic- tion, whose ideals, to them, have vanished in mist, and their holiest schemes dissolved before their vision. Now, is there any relief, any interpretation that will bring comfort in all this? Let us see. First. Our seeming failures are often our great- est successes. What is called and what often seems a success to some people, ends in utter ruin. Pov- erty is the safeguard of many a man's religion. If prospered he would forsake the Lord. Poverty, as such, is never desirable. The road of real safety and happiness lies between the two, poverty and riches. Here the prayer of Agur is instructive: ''Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me ; lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, 'Who is the Lord?' or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." (Proverbs 30:8, 9.) Ministers can be named that were once great soul-winners, but becoming elated over their suc- cess, to-day are resting high and dry on the shelv- ing rocks, waiting for some tide to carry them some- where, they know not whither. 51 The Exalted Life That there are many honest workers, or would- be workers, in the Lord's vineyard so bound by cir- cumstances, so encumbered in one way and an- other that they know not what to do, must be freely admitted; but it is well for us to remember that sometimes our restraints enable us to do more for the Lord than we could or would do with the most enlarged freedom. Are we willing, like John Bun- yan and John the Baptist, to go to the prison for Christ's sake? Will we take our place with Troph- imus, and linger by the way? Second. God accepts the honest wish for the deed that would have been done, but for want of ability or the opportunity was never performed. There are divine ideals that are ever leading us on- ward, but always outmeasuring us. If not, would we not be very small in our achievements? There are gifts we should like to make, love we should like to bestow, evils we should like to remove, but are never quite able to measure up to our enlarged desires. It is possible to miss the opportunity of doing anything, because waiting to do some great thing. We must do the thing that is at hand, that we can do, and not wait for the thing we most like to do. The sin of the man with one talent was in not using it. The spirit of doing will go far to- ward making us doers, and the spirit that is kingly and queenly will go far toward making us these in character. Such a spirit will convert a cottage into a palace, and a workshop into an art gallery. Paul says, *'For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." (11. Corinth- 52 Lessons and Blessings of Unrealized Ideals ians 8: 12.) Outward limitations do not gauge or determine the real character. Men can be better or worse than the outward appearance. "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart," Great deeds are often done by the most quiet and unpretentious in spirit. The self -con- ceited never do much. *Tt is the lame that take the prey." The genuine strong are not aware of their strength. The humble woman of Jesus' day stands, by his measurement of her gift, ahead of all the Carnegies and Rockefellers of this day. Love measures the intention of the effort. The little child's effort, though poor and blundering, is taken for its intention. It may be a failure, but the parent loves it all the more ardently for the unsuc- cessful effort. It tried, it was heart-broken over the outcome, but it meant well. How strikingly this is illustrated in the life of David. He was denied the honor of building *'an house for the name of the Lord" because he was a man of blood ; but the Lord saith unto him, "Thou didst well that it was in thine heart." Here God commended the attitude of David's heart. But with all the dwarfage, the feebleness and failure of life's efforts, who can tell the glory and richness of the reward that awaits the honest in- tention of God's workmen? The queen of Sheba exclaimed, when she saw the glory of Solomon. "The half has not been told." What will be the exclamation of the glorified saints when they shall "see the King in his beauty!" Let Paul tell it; "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have en- 53 The Exalted Life tered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." It is not within the range of human wisdom to discover these spiritual verities. Let us catch the spirit of proph- ecy on this line. ''For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." (Isaiah 64:4.) Oh, the folly of trying to tell it all ! If we can tell it all then we have not a very full fountain. 54 CHAPTER V. The Hope that Stimulates Action. There is a view of human life that seems utter- ly hopeless. The woman of Tekoah, called "a wise woman," gave utterance to words that are most solemn and may well be laid to heart, when she said, *'For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again." When Moses was giving direction to the Israelites in their pilgrimage to the land of promise, he gave them the solemn admonition, "Ye shall henceforth return no more that way." They were to go over the road but once. Da3^s once lived, opportunities once given and passed, never return. Doors close behind us never to open again. We are always entering upon new periods of time, and always fronting new experi- ences. W^e may observe anniversary days and thus keep the recurrence of past events fresh in memory, but the events themselves are never repeated. How easy it is to drop one of the threads of opportunit}^ and one of the chords of being, and thus lose the rhythm of life and character forever. We are told of the wife of an English ambassador, during a splendid pageant in Berlin, that unfortu- nately unfastened the necklace that she was wear- ing, and lost in the street a highly prized pearl. It was trampled into the mud. It might possibly have been found if timely and serious search had been 55 The Exalted Life made for it; but the grand procession must hurry along, and a place in the rank was of more value than the lost pearl. They did not return by the same way, and so the treasure was never recovered. How like this many a one has lost the pearl of great price, never being able to go over the ground again with new decisions and new opportunities. The hurry and ceaseless rush of the years do not allow of a moment's delay. The decision we make should be made with such wisdom that all future life can be based on it and controlled by it. Often one lone, single decision settles everything both for time and for eternity. It may have taken but a moment to make the decision, but what a moment! How valuable that hour upon the wise improvement of which an eternity of blessedness depends ! How easy to let it drift by and lose all. While the gates of grace swing open to all, it is at an infinite cost, and so they cannot remain open long. We read of a door found closed by belated ones. We may sigh to be carried back to youth again ; but this can never be. Our feet walk the sands of time but once. This is true of all, whether of the old or of the young. The wheels of time never reverse their motion. We may trace the footsteps of those that have preceded us to the shore of that wide unrimmed sea, and see their last footprint half washed away, but we can never go back and trace our own footsteps. How many lamentations have gone up when, and because too late. Tweed, the great political leader of New York, said, as he stood in the shadow of life's evening, "My life has been a failure." An 56 The Hope that Stimulates Action honest confession, but of what avail? Sir Walter Scott, when old and feeble, was wheeled by his daughter to his desk for the purpose of writing. The pen was put in his hand, but his hand was too stiff and clumsy to wield it. In this moment of disap- pointment and failure he said, "Wheel me back to my bed ; there is nothing left for poor Sir W^alter but the grave!" The two aspects of life, hopefulness and hope- lessness, with their varying influences on human conduct, are clearly designated in the Scriptures. Job, in the early period of his testing said : "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope." "When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return." David said : "My days are like a shadow that declineth ; and I am withered like the grass." "As for man, his days are as grass,- as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it and it is gone ; and the place thereof shall know it no more." "Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away." "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.'* These Scriptures present the earthly side of life, the dark, the grim, the lonely, the tenantless, and the terminal. It is Job's lament: "O remember that my life is wind ; mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more ; thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more." 57 The Exalted Life Here a man's place is personified, and is repre- sented as refusing to longer continue his acquain- tance. Like the passing of a ship on the sea, or the bird cleaving the air with its wings, no trace of their passing is left. How in contrast these instances given in the Scriptures with other in- stances where hope kindles the fires of desire and expectation into a quenchless flame. The ancient Israelites were exhorted as "prisoners of hope" to turn to the stronghold. They were to live in joyous anticipation of better days. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion ; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem ; behold thy King cometh unto thee." Paul was de- lighted to profess in the presence of his enemies his hope in the resurrection of the dead. He writes to the Romans that hope never disappoints, never puts to shame those having reached standing grace in the justified life. God is the author of hope, that is, he inspires hope, and Paul's wish for the Chris- tians at Rome was that they might be filled, even to abounding, with this grace. But one of the strongest utterances of Paul is found in Hebrews 6:17-20. Here God is repre- sented as binding himself with an oath, to make doubly sure his promise of safety to those that flee to him "for refuge," and to this end, "lay hold upon the hope set before them," which hope, he says "we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." The figure here is a very striking and instructive one, especially to mariners and to persons having large experience in traveling on the ocean. What 58 The Hope that Stimulates Action is the secret of a ship's safety in time of storm on an angry sea? She is drifting before a swaying typhoon towards a rockbound coast, or a projecting headland, to strike either of which would be certain destruction. She has no power to withstand the wild winds and the raging sea whose jaws are adrip with foaming wrath. There is only one thing to do — to drop her anchor and wait for the abating of the winds and the calmin.o: of the sea. What a wonderful sight is a ship buffeted by the sea, rocking and rolling and plunging as if in a rage to free itself from its tethered condition. Winds and waves combine to make her destruction sure. For the moment she seems as helpless as a lamb in the jaws of a lion; just a helpless plaything for the giant elements that sport with her seeming helpless- ness. Now she careens and seems helplessly prone as the crest of the weaves goes over her ; but she rises in queenly beauty and smiles in the face of the mon- ster with which she is grappling. Again, as you watch, you see her plunging beneath a giant breaker, and for a moment she is lost to sight, but soon emerges to view with an ascending bound as defiant of the storm as the rocks of Gibraltar. What at the first seemed helpless and hopeless defeat, is now turned into triumphant victory. Winds and waves may do their worst; but this proud queen of the ocean will meet them fearlessly, and gaily and giddily toss her head to the storm, and defiantly hold her place in spite of their rage. Now what is the secret of all this calm, confident, hopeful attitude? It is found in the fact that that ship has a strong hold, not on the waters, nor 59 The Exalted Life on anything that the waters support, but on the very foundation of the sea itself, that on which the ocean rests, the rocks immovable and everlasting. Here the ship is safe, although she cannot escape from the wild winds, the buffeting billows, and this ever restless sea. For a time she must cling to the unseen until conditions change, when she may continue her voyage. How exactly this fits the Christian's life in his pilgrimage through the years to that beautiful harbor beyond the sea! Earthly life, even to the Christian, is changeful, restless — ^because that is ever shifting over which she goes — tempest-tossed and dangerous. Treacherous seas, counter cur- rents of air and ocean, often confusing to the most skillful mariner, make the anchor the only instru- ment of safety. This large use made of the anchor by mariners at sea makes Paul's use of it to illustrate the Chris- tian's hope very impressive and instructive. He makes hope both an act and an object. As an act it lays hold of the unseen and the unattained. He says : **We are saved by hope ; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" No one hopes for what he al- ready has in possession. As an object it is that on which the human spirit lays hold in time of dis- tress. Thus Christ is represented as ''the hope set before us," and also as having entered for us "within the veil," which hope Paul says, 'Sve have as a present possession." Here we have not only the risen and the glorified Christ on whom the be- liever lays hold by faith, but we have also the 60 The Hope that Stimulates Action grasp, the hope, that makes Christ a verity now, an assurance of all the future blessedness promised in the Word. In this twofold relationship, the one is Christ, the other is the hold that the believer has on him; the one is the trusted, the other is the trust; the one is the refuge, the other is the entering into the se- curity it gives ; the one is the forerunner, the other is that which reaches within the veil as the anchor within the sea. An anchor is useless without something that is reliable to hold to. It was for this purpose that God in dealing with Abraham, bound himself with an oath. He would make things sure, and so pledged his faithfulness, his very life; "as true as I live." If an oath with men is an end of all doubt, putting matters beyond all dispute, what ought God's oath do by way of encouragement to his people? To what a marvelous elevation above all doubt, and to what unquestioning certainty, this oath raised the promises of God ! In the light of this certainty is it any marvel that St. Paul asks : "What if some did not believe? Shall their unbe- lief make the faith of God without effect?" By his oath God took matters into his own hands and put all doubt, as to the final issue, to an end. God's immutability and his oath certainly make good an- chorage, good security for the navigator of a wind- swept sea. Ought not God's character, added to which is his oath, settle all questions of doubt? Is God truthful? Can his promises be relied on? It is said that it is impossible for God to lie. If he can, then he ceases to be God. Did not Abraham 61 The Exalted Life trust him, and in the most difficult and hazardous of all trials? Did not God prove himself worthy of all confidence to his ancient people? With whom has he ever proven false? Who that trusted him has failed? "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever." How much are we in need of having these veri- ties emphasized in the modern, the present-day Church. In view of what God has done to make good his promises to his people, is it at all strange that the want of faith is pronounced sin? What child of God can help shuddering at the thought of making him a liar, when it is said that he "can- not lie"? This awful charge is committed by every unbelieving soul. John says, "He that believeth not God has made him a liar." If God has not a good moral character, what- ever his wisdom or his omnipotence, then we are all on a wild unknown sea, drifting and whirling and plunging onward towards oblivion's deepest and darkest night. Can any one with this Bible in his hand, and a living experience in his heart, believe this for one moment? Then let us have done, once for all, with despoiling the divine character of its infinite nobility and trustworthiness. W^ho can think of thus defaming God, putting him on a level with the devil, who is a liar, and then offering prayer to him? Who does this? "He that believeth not God." After God has so solemnly affirmed his character, and verified it to his peoples through all the centuries, can it be possible that one of his children will doubt his word? It is possible to 62 The Hope that Stimulates Action unconsciously drop into a morbid criticalness, and demand of infinite wisdom reasons for some of his providential dealings. Simple faith will do away with all this curious introspection and leave all life's affairs to God, and then wait, or as Moses, ''endure, as seeing him who is invisible." Is not the moral character of God a sure resting place for the child of faith? Can he not afford to wait patiently for him, knowing that he will incline his ear and hear, and in due time will come to relieve and reward? Abraham waited and was rewarded, and this ought to confirm the promises of God unto us. If he, in the very beginning of the world's history, could trust God even to the restoring of life to the dead, how easy it ought to be for us modern Christians to rest upon the divine Word, and the unchangeableness of the divine character. Here cast anchor and wait. This hope is for a specific purpose and end, it is for the soul, the spiritual nature of man. The soul hereby becomes allied to God, and has the security of the immutable, the eternal. This hope, holding the life of the believer is as secure as God himself. It is as secure as Christ's own 'life. St. Paul gives this security in the words, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." David could sing of this security in the words, ''As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever." With God as the depository and Christ as the depositary, who or what can harm the trusting, be- lieving soul? Temporal things may be changeful 63 The Exalted Life — property, friends, health, and even life itself — may drift away, and no earthly power be able to stay them; but not so with the souFs values; Christ holds them. He is able to keep that which we have committed unto him until the final day. But will this hope make its possessor immune to temptation, to trials, to awful conflicts, and varied experiences on the voyage? Surely not. God's people are tested people, like reliable anchors. No anchor is trustworthy until put to the test by gov- ernmental methods and verified by a governmental seal. This of necessity is very important and ser- ious work. Here vast treasures as well as human life are at stake. One wants to know, before he commits such values to this instrument, that it will not fail in the very time of need. So with the Christian. What is the value of an untried, untested hope? Every hope ought to be submitted to proper tests for approval. These tests ought to be invited instead of resisted and rejected. "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you ?" It should not be thought of as being strange, nor as a casualty, but as a part of that discipline to which God, our Father, sub- jects his children. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." (Hebrews 13 : S-IL) Not only will God's children share in common with the world's people in the ills that belong to earthly life, but they will often suffer in ways and 64 The Hope that Stimulates Action to an extent that the ungodly know nothing about. This became a trial to David. He said : "My feet were almost gone ; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." He says, "They are not in trouble as other men" ; they are not "plagued like other men ; their eyes stand out with fatness ; they have more than heart could wish." Then he adds : "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning." This view of things often becomes a trial to some of God's children, and like David, "too painful" for them; but when they, like he did, go into the sanctuary, then another and a different vision comes to them. He said, "I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places : thou castedst them down into destruction." In another place David gives his observation : 'T have seen the wicked in great power, and spread- ing himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, lo, he was not ; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." How like a ship without an anchor, or an un- reliable anchor, when on the sea in a raging storm. One moment it is in view and might be sup- posed safe for a time, but in another moment its bow is plunging beneath a mountain-billow and it disappears forever from view. The ship that is securely anchored, while safe, may experience buffetings, heavings, and tossings, that a drifting ship, one that goes with the tide, 65 The Exalted Life does not know. The one seems to drift softly and easily on the surface, and is more comfortable and enjoyable than the anchored one; but when the projecting rocks or the reefy shore is reached, and the awful crash comes, the smoothness, softness, and easy-going, are at an end. It was so with the Titanic. So sin has its pleasures, and for the time being may be sweet to the taste, but this is only for a season, and when past is bitter as wormwood and gall. The contrast: "The wicked shall be driven away in his iniquity ; but the righteous hath hope in his death." *'The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life." An anchored ship is always headed in the right direction for safety. No difference which way the wind blows, or how often it may shift in a given time, it will always face the storm and the on- rushing billows. She can only do this by the aid of the anchor. Unanchored, the ship cannot face the foe, but is at the fury of the winds and the waves. This is exactly the way it is in the Christian life. Those whose hopes are anchored in Jesus as the Rock will always be headed in the right direction for their eternal safety. The severer the storm and the fiercer the battle, the braver they are and the firmer they stand. "We are saved by hope" — saved not only eternally, but saved here and now in the hour of temptation. This hope is described as being "both sure and steadfast." "Sure," because it does not break. It comes from a new, a restored life, and hence is called a "lively (living) hope," 66 The Hope that Stimulates Action and relates the believer "to an inheritance incor- ruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for those who through faith are kept by the power of God unto final salvation." It is "steadfast" because it fastens the believer to the Rock of Ages, "that cannot be removed, but abideth forever." But while sure and steadfast the life is the more active because of this. The Christ is a risen, a living Christ, and the hope is quickened, a living hope, and so must influence action to a marvelous degree. No life allied to Christ can be inactive in the things pertaining to his kingdom. This divine force in its action (not character) is like leaven in the meal, it goes through and transforms the meal from inertness to life. So the believer becomes more and more like the life he is identified with. Faith bridging over the chasm between hope and the things hoped for, makes unseen things seem very realistic to the believer. It is seeing the invisible. St. John makes this very forcible in its application when he says, "And every one that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Here is an u;irealized ideal and the effort to reach it. (I. John 3: 1-3.) 67 CHAPTER VI. The Glorious Outlook that Hope Gives. While hope is anticipative and must wait for full realization, faith comes in as a cable to bind the believer to the spiritually real, thereby enabling him to hold fellowship with God — to "practice the presence" of Christ — and thus to know the fullness of joy and peace that flows" from the vision that faith gives of him. Faith has a wonderful power of vision. It en- abled Abraham to look through the mist of two thousand years and see Christ's day. "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad." The heroes of faith in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, "died in faith, not having received the promises, but they saw them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." Here faith brought conviction to that degree of certainty that they are said to have embraced the promises. Faith so substantiated the promises to these pilgrims that they became as real to them as a check on the most reliable bank in the hands of a business man. What a vast amount of business is done in the commercial world by the use of checks. A genuine check on a reliable bank, in the hand of a well veri- fied bearer, is good in any part of the business world. Distance cannot annul it; oceans cannot obstruct it. The mails will carry it over land and sea; even electricity becomes its messenger and 68 The Glorious Outlook that Hope Gives serves its purpose, flashing the message that brings financial aid in the crisis hour. All this is clone on the line of trust, on the line of business integrity. What a blessing to the business world ! Let this mutual faith, this common trust be broken, and universal wreckage ensues. Our own country has experienced at different times in its history, in a slight degree, the embarrassment re- sulting from such a break. All the peace and prosperity of this country rests on the stability and the integrity of our Government. Enterprises, individual and corporate, are entered into covering long periods of time for their consummation, all on the faith exercised in the ability and integrity of our institutions. Now if the people of the world, and even Chris- tian people can draw so largely on their faith in temporal things, in earthly powers, and be kept in such peace and assurance in matters future and unattained, what ought to be said of the power of the Christian's faith in the unseen and unrealized verities of the kingdom of God? Has not God given guarantees enough to settle all questions of doubt? Has he not kept all his covenants with his Church? Has he not verified all his promises to the believer? Let the history of the ages answer; search the Scriptures and see, for they testify of him. He has not only given these promises, which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, but he has given an earnest, a surety by giving us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of future blessings." (H. Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; also Ephesians 1:13, 14.) 69 The Exalted Life Here the Holy Spirit is the seal of a finished work, of true ownership, and of security of pos- session. This makes the grieving of the Holy Spirit offensive to God and most perilous to the believer. ''Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." (Ephesians 4: 30.) This assurance through the Word and the inner consciousness by the Holy Spirit, is one of the greatest sources of joy to the believer, and one of the strongest agencies that he has with which to fight the agencies of evil, the powers of darkness. How strong and assuring the words of Isaiah, "And the work of righteousness shall be peace ; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." (Isaiah 32:17). Jude says that God's people are ''preserved in Jesus Christ." (Verse 1.) What a protection, what a security, is here guaran- teed to the believer ! He is here and now in possession of a salvation — though not as yet fully consummated — in which, through faith in the finished work of Christ, he will be eternally kept. But in order to be thus kept, safe-guarded from evil, there must be the continued exercise of faith. Faith is not an act once done and ended forever. It has its beginning, but it ought to have no ending in the probationary life. Jesus expressed this con- tinuity of relationship by the word "abide." This cannot be except by the maintenance of a constant living faith. It must also be a life of freedom from known sinning, a life given to no interests into which Christ cannot be brought, and living no life in which he cannot share. There must be no ex- 70 The Glorious Outlook that Hope Gives elusion of Christ from his own possession, his own temple. It is to those that receive him to whom he makes known the mysteries of his kingdom. These mysteries are ever unfolding to the Spirit-guided and Spirit-visioned. The deeper things of God's kingdom are often revealed by what may be called "crises" ; but al- ways on an ascending scale. The horror of dark- ness fell upon Abraham before the lamp of the Lord appeared. Isaiah had his wonderful vision in the temple, smiting him with conviction for his uncleanness, before the cleansing fire was applied by the angelic messenger. Jeremiah pleaded that he was but a child and that he could not speak, until the Lord's hand touched his mouth. He said, "the word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." When Daniel heard the "voice between the banks of Ulai," and was made familiar with the vision that he had in Shushan, he said, "And I, Daniel fainted and was sick certain days ; afterwards I rose up, and did the king's business." At a later time, when standing on the bank of the river Hiddekel, he had such a vision of the divine glory that he said there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength." Here was "a man greatly beloved," the purest and noblest of his day, that had all his goodness turned into corruption when a new fresh glory of the Lord came to him. So John, the beloved disciple, when he had the wonderful vision of the glorified Christ, "fell at 71 The Exalted Life his feet as dead" ; Paul said of himself that he had not yet apprehended all that God had for him in Christ Jesus, but that he was pressing "on to the goal, to gain the prize of that heavenward call which God gave him through Christ Jesus." New visions of Christ and his saving power set new goals for faith and hope. Otherwise we would come to a deadlevel, a deadlock, in the soul's progress. Christ is ever revealing and multiplying himself in and through his people. As they be- hold his glory they are "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Christ here becomes more and more a present living reality, transforming the whole character into resemblance to himself. Here God's promises are substantiated, and things future and unseen become real, "the substance of things hoped for." Later this hope will be changed to sight, then shall we have done with the imperfect. "For now we see through a glass, [in a mirror] darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." Now is dimness, incompleteness, then, clearness, perfect- ness. Toward that goal hope must ever be headed and pressing, and like a trained athlete run with patience the race set before it. This principle char- acterized Jesus himself, the forerunner of our faith, ''\\^ho, for the glory that was set before him, en- dured the cross, despising the shame." (Hebrews 12:2.) Here Jesus becomes our example, and, as runners, we must keep our eyes ever on him. Not furtive glances, but as a fixed habit of life. This looking 72 The Glorious Outlook that Hope Gives is essential to right running. In all things essen- tial to our salvation Jesus went before us, and our looking to him ought to mean the strength of his abiding presence with us. We may often ask about departed friends, as to whether they are near us and whether they know what we are doing. Here we get no answer. Not so concerning Jesus, for he is ever with us. "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age." ''I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." "As thy day, so shall thy strength be." For the "joy set before him" Jesus endured the cross with its shame. He was confident of final victory and a joyful destiny. He occupied his time and his heart with the things the Father had set before him to do, and so never became en- tangled with the things of time and sense. He al- ways had respect for, and loyalty to the divine will. It was his meat and his drink to do it. All God's children are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. It is this heavenly hope that makes them aliens here; and how can it be otherwise, when they are born from above, and have their citizen- ship in heaven? How can earthly things find as- cendant control in a spiritual mind and a heart homed with Christ in God? How can low, trifling, and foolish things enter and possess a soul that has its affections set on things above, having risen with Christ from the dead? It is only when hope has lost its power that this can ever be. In view of the exalted character of this life here, and its glorious consummation in the world to come — all of which is now held in hope — Paul 73 The Exalted Life delivers his charge to Christians, beseeching them by the mercies of God, that they present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God. This sweeping consecration is urged and empha- sized on the ground of these bodies being destined to final conformity to the image of Jesus, and hence should undergo a certain transformation here. If such a glorious destiny awaits these bodies of ours in the resurrection state, there ought to be a break, a separation in their affinity with, and their allegiance to the things of the world. Paul would say, Do not have your fashioning after this world, but, as sons of God, have your fashioning above and beyond this world. You are now to die to this world, be separated from it, so put your bodies, all that belongs to them on the altar of separation, and henceforth live in conformity to that life of which God's will is the good and perfect rule. This done, then the works of Galatians 5:: 19-21, will cease, and the fruits of Galatians 5 : 22-24, will begin. Nothing but crucifixion will bring this wonderful change. The designation between the two is most striking, and ought to be appealing and instructive to all — the one repelling, the other inviting, the one has its works, the other his fruits, the one all bad, the other all good. Who would not like to have these fruits growing and abounding in his life? "Love, joy, peace," as the inner condition; "long- suffering, gentleness, goodness," as the outward condition, manward; faith, meekness, temperance, the condition Godward. What a beautiful, sym- metrical, Christ-like life these nine graces repre- sent, and how far they put their possessor on the 74 The Glorious Outlook that Hope Gives road to the life that may well be called the heavenly life. It is this transfiguration into Christ's image that constitutes the goal of earthly attainment, so forcibly stated by Paul when he says, "I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" ; and again, "For me to live is Christ." Can there be a hope more inspiring as an incen- tive, and higher in its aim than this transmutation of the human nature into the divine? Paul gives this incentive in II. Corinthians 7:1, where he says, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." "These promises," as used here, may relate to the whole realm of future, heavenly blessedness, and so could not have any other influence on the present, earthly life than its purification. Can a living, active, assuring hope of being raised from the dead in Christ's likeness, of being presented to him in glory, of being forever at home with him in heaven, of belonging to the family of God, and of meeting all the deeds done in the body at the judg- ment seat of Christ, be other than quickening and sanctifying in its effect? How earthly passions, unholy ambitions, and all sinful tendencies wither and die in the heart where this hope lives ! They cannot live together and blend any more than oil and water, or fire and water. They are alien and destructive. Such a hope must have harmony and consistency with what it binds and leads its possessor to. Paul calls it "the hope which is laid up in heaven," and 75 The Exalted Life the consequent influence on the heart and life of the behever must be of a heavenly character. It must pull toward its source and origin, and in influence be like the world from which it comes and to which it leads. The transforming power of this hope is seen in Paul's letter to the Colossians where he tells them that they died in Christ, that their life is hidden with him, and that when he appears, they will ap- pear with him in glory. "Therefore," he says, ''mor- tify," put to death, "all that is earthly in you." Here is an efifort to conform, as far as possible, the present earthly life to that that shall be revealed when Christ, who is our life appears on earth again. It is an effort to be now and here like that completed life. Now, whatever the achievements of the past may have been, there is ever a goal ahead leading on to greater triumphs in the line of our heavenly calling. The goal that is reached to-day is not the end of hope, if the life is an aggressive one, but rather the beginning of a broader and brighter hope. Life is not yet finished, but terribly unfinished. Completeness embraces both quality and quan- tity. The quality must have the closest attention and the most persistent effort. The gold must be refined and made free from dross. Life may be long or it may be short, it may have large or small accomplishments; but in either case it must be of the right material, of the right character. Such a life can be given back to God who gave it at any time as a finished life — qualitatively complete. 76 The Glorious Outlook tliat Hope Gives Jesus gave his life back to his Father at thirty- three years, saying as he did it, "I have glorified thee on the earth ; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." The last words that Jesus uttered on the cross were, "It is finished." What a sweet and blessed way to die ! Work all done, and done as given and now nothing to do but depart. It may be that the accomplishment did not measure up to the end desired; but if it has been the work given, and if the v/orkman can say, I have done my best, it will be met with, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." But to reach a goal there must be the most per- sistent climbing. The outlook will be broadened with every league upward. Away and beyond life's open threshold stretches the rising uplands, the as- cending foothills, and the towering mountains. Life's outlook is often too narrow and circum- scribed, its energies wasted on trifles, and satisfac- tion found with things too common, earthly, and sensual. This restricted vision is often the source of much trouble in religious faith and practice. It can easily make cranks and fanatics, narrow creeds and sectarian bigots. The higher we ascend, the broader our horizon, the clearer the vision, and the deeper and the diviner the life. How glorious to stand on some Mt. Nebo or Pisgah height and survey the promised inheritance ! Who can have such visions without wishing to advance? Life moves in the direction of its ten- dencies, and if these are noble then in a graded ascent. There is no place on a mountain road for a traveler to stop, no permanent inn at the half- 77 The Exalted Life way place. He must either go on up to the summit, or retrograde to the starting place. As previously stated, one hope realized becomes the starting point for another of larger and greater promise. From every ascending point of view reached, there comes a vision of a new ascent, whose top, in 'turn, is but the starting point for another advance, and so on indefinitely ; one ad- vance shading into or losing itself in another. This makes life ever cumulative, ever carrying what we are or what we are ever becoming. The work is ever continuous. First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear; but the full corn was in the blade, as the blade is in the full corn. This is the way of nature; so the way of grace. So it is in human life and experience. All our yesterdays are our to-days. We carry what we have been, what we have done, and what we have learned, with us ; and all that we may use in all the higher stages of life what we acquired in the lower. To gather material and have large accumulations, in a material way and in an intellectual sense, is not enough. This material must be put to good account; something must be built out of it. Not only must we get ready to do something, but we must do it. Otherwise we can never be a constructive force in the kingdom of God. This was the trouble with the man that had but one talent. It v/as good and valuable, but he did not use it. It was taken from him and given to the 78 The Glorious Outlook that Hope Gives one with ten talents, to the one that had used what was given to him. There is a place in the kingdom of God where every man may work out the good that is in him. The power of every man is in the right use of what he is in himself, and of what has been committed to him, whether little or much. The real value of every man is the use he makes of himself and of what he has, in the interest of humanity and in the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. Here we may rightly estimate values, and the first thing to consider on this line is one's own life- value. Life is not simply a means to an end. Every life has a goal and an end in itself, but which does not end with itself. Because Csssar lived the Roman Empire swept through centuries of history. Because Jesus was born, lived, was cruci- fied, and rose from the dead, millions live the life eternal. Martin Luther was born and pro- claimed justification by faith, and the reformation of Protestantism broke the slumber of the middle ages. George Fox was born, and the Friends' Church blesses the world. John Wesley was born, and Methodism belts the world with a girdle of light. Philip William Otterbein was born, and United Brethrenism crossed the American Conti- nent, and has entered some of the darkest lands beyond the seas. Here we have the value of a life illustrated, not only in itself and for itself, but also in its relation to total humanity, and thus to the progress of the world. In this respect who can tell the value of great leaders in church and state? The 79 The Exalted Life value of the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, the fathers, the reformers, and modern leaders in science, literature, art, and civil and religious lib- erty, who can tell ? The call of Jesus to-day, as in the days of his flesh is, "Follow me." Christ's claims are para- mount, and obedience must be instant and absolute. "There must be no bribing of conscience with ex- cuses." The price of this divine companionship must be paid, and paid at once. Waiting to bury the dead ; departing to say good-by to friends ; and a backward, diverting look may find Jesus gone. What a loss, both for time and eternity! What a glorious future awaits the Christian believer ! The ancients died "not receiving the promises." The Christian has Christ as his life now and here, and then all the unseen thnigs of which the Bible speaks, faith gives him the sub- stance of them, so that life is framed and lived on the certainty of their reality. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." 80 CHAPTER VII. Where Hope and Faith Have Their True Center. Christ is the condensation of all the divine per- fections. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell." These Scrip- tures are bewildering to our human senses. That all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in a human form in the person of Christ, is cer- tainly the mystery of all mysteries. "Great is the mystery of godliness ; God was manifest in the flesh." Despite all that has been said and written on this subject of the divine incarnation, it still remains a mystery, and will doubtless remain a mystery through all eternity. The angels have been desir- ous to understand it, "to look into it," but have not been able. Much has been revealed, more than we are able to comprehend, but supernatural elements still remain despite it all. This the puzzle and bane of Unitarianism. In view of the twofold relationship that Jesus holds, that of God and man, is it any wonder that the Scriptures attach the importance they do to the study of his life and character, and to faith in his death and resurrection, as important and es- sential elements in the work of personal salva- tion? He is, or should be the supreme object of study upon the part of his Church. The voice of prophecy was largely to call attention to him 81 The Exalted Life as the coming Messiah. Spirit-led and Spirit- guided ones at the time of his birth wisely discerned the signs that betokened his arrival, and at once sought him out. The ministry of John the Baptist was for the purpose of preparing the way for him, and to make him known to the people. The press and the cry of the multitudes during the period of his earthly ministry were, "We would see Jesus." The manner of his death was significant on this line, being lifted up by and on the cross. This put him into prominent view, as he himself had previously said — "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Before he left this world he arranged for the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a witness unto all people. Then he declared himself to be "the light of the world," and addressing the multitude he said, "While you still have the light, believe in the light, that you may be sons of the light." These Scriptures, with many others that might be given, put Jesus into view as the one and only object of faith and hope for a lost world. Peter, speaking of Jesus in his address to the Sanhedrin after Pentecost said, "Neither is there salvation in any other : for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." It was in this name that the lame man was no longer lame. Since that day millions have been healed and saved, and each, with David, can sing, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." Why this song of tri- umph? Let another part of the song answer: "His 82 Where Hope and Faith Have Then' True Center name vShall endure forever; his name shall be con- tinued as long as the sun ; and men shall be blessed in him ; all nations shall call him blessed ; blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and amen." How like the glorious magnificat of Mary, the mother of Jesus, (Luke 1:46-55) and the song of the angelic choir in the gallery of the firmament, ''Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." How like Paul's exalta- tion of Jesus after his resurrection from the dead, describing him as seated at his Father's right hand : "In the heavenly places, far above all prin- cipality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come ; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all tilings to the church, which is his body, the ful- ness of him that filleth all in all." (Ephesians 1 : 20- 23.) What a gift to the Church when Christ was made its supreme head, and what a glory to the Church when it was made his body ! How vital and glorious this relationship ! Can any relation- ship be more intimate than this? What is there in it that ought to bring the blush of shame to the cheek of a member of this body except a feeling of unworthiness to be a part of such a wonderful organism? Surely the body can never be ashamed of its head, the saved of their Savior. "Jesus, and shall it ever be A mortal man ashamed of thee? Ashamed of thee, whom angels praise. Whose glories shine through endless days? 83 The Exalted Life "Ashamed of Jesus! sooner far Let evening blush to own a star; He sheds the beams of light divine O'er this benighted soul of mine. "Ashamed of Jesus! that dear friend, On whom my hopes of heaven depend? No! when I blush be this my shame, That I no more revere his name. "Ashamed of Jesus! Yes, I may, When I've no guilt to wash away, No tear to wipe, no good to crave, No fear to quell, no spul to save." How beautiful this poem, and how forcibly it ex- presses the feeling of every living member of Christ's body, the Church. Every member of this body ought to glory in the cross, and count it all joy to bear it after him who first endured it for them. Paul invoked the divine interdiction of his glorying in anything but the cross, saying, ''God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Galatians 6:14.) While the cross is an instrument of death, it is also an agent of life. It freed Paul from the power of his old environment and put him into a new environment. He no longer responded to the world ; he v/as dead to it. His response was to the things of another world and another life. The cross of Christ did it, and on that account he is now glorying in it. How strange this seems in this materialistic and largely sensuous age. The great battle to-day is between conformity to the world — this modern, pleasure-loving, sporting world — and loyalty to the meek and humble life of the Nazarene ; but can he live in us, imparting his life to us, like the sap in 84 Where Hope and Faith Have Then' Trne Center the vine is imparted to the branches, and we be different from what Paul was in our glorying? Will it not be the cross with us as it was with him ? Will not Christ be himself in us as he was himself in Paul? There are not two Christs, but one; there are not two crosses, but one. These are change- less. The world may change, time may change, customs may change, even the Church may change, but Christ never. He is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Here is stability of character, something that can be trusted and relied on through all the ages. His word is dependable, his promises sure, and his re- sources inexhaustible. Disappointment can never come to an intelligent, well founded, divinely in-" spired hope. Jesus through the cross gives humanity a new, fresh start on the way to eternal life. Man's first start was in the fairest and brightest Eden that poets could picture or artists paint ; but the cross opens up a way to a life that baffles and puts to shame the efforts of all the Miltons, and all the Raphaels to even adequately hint at its transcendent glories. *'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." This life is preeminently a supernatural life, and only Christ's life in us will enable us to live it. With him as our strength we can go all the way that he maps out for our feet to tread in. 'T can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me," was Paul's shout of victory. Christ always matches his requirements with his own promised 85 The Exalted Life strength. He never requires a service that he does not give the strength to perform. Hence Paul's "all things." All the resources of the Chris- tian life are found in Christ. Then why be dead? He is our life. Then why be comfortless, orphans? He is our comforter. Then why be stranded for want of power? He is our strength. Jesus is saying to us as he did to his disciples of old, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." This world, the kingdom of grace, and the Church, the organized body of Christ, are all in his hands ; he is the supreme authority during this Christian dispensation, this church-age. Why, then, may not Christians lift up their heads and face their work and the future in the spirit of triumph? He is our life; we live with his life, we are strong with his strength, we are wise with his wisdom, we are to be more than conquerors through him that loved us. Paul, in Hebrews 12:2, gives Jesus his true place in the life of faith, and the believer his real atti- tude in relation to Jesus as his leader and perfect example in faith. He makes Jesus the originator, leader, and perfecter of faith, and then fixes the eyes of all believers on him as their pattern and their hope. In the preceding chapter, Paul is calling the mus- ter-roll of the Christian ages, the heroes of faith, some of whom he calls by name. He first gives the only and best definition of faith found in the Scriptures, the true sphere of faith, and then in- dividual instances of its triumph. It ought often to be read and carefully and prayerfully studied by present-day Christians. 86 Where Hope and Faith Have Their True Center But the real incentives to action as runners, wrestlers, and fighters are found in this twelfth chapter. Here the believer is seen in the arena, the heroes of faith that have fought and won are seen in the amphitheater, crowding the gal- laries, tier to tier, to the denseness of a radiant cloud. They are both witnesses and spectators. Charming and exerting and entrancing as is this vision, and great and numerous as is the throng -that lines the race course, there is another form that the parting clouds reveal, standing clear and distinct in his personality, whose brightness and attractiveness far exceed all other objects of sight. Here the clouds fairly melt away, as on the l^.Iount of Transfiguration, and only one form, transcend- ently glorious appears. It is on that form that Paul would focus the eyes of the whole world, especially the Christian world. We can carry our heads down so low and so long as never to see the sun. If we are not to see, why do we need eyes? Why does the eagle need wings if it is not to soar and fly? Why ears, unless we use them for hearing. Jesus tells about those that have ears to hear, but do not hear, and eyes to see, but see not. What a uni- verse of beauty fades away when the eyes grow dim, and what a world of rhythmic glory dies away when the ears grow dull ! It was for the want of the right use of these functions that both Jesus and the apostles complained. Jesus said, "Having ears ye hear not," and Paul said to the Jewish Christians that he had "many things to say" to them of Christ, "and liard to be uttered," as- 87 The Exalted Life signing as the reason for the difficulty, the "dull- ness of their hearing." It is very difficult to inter- est a deaf and blind person in things depending on the eye and ear for their power to interest. I write only what has been a frequent repetition these days when I give expression to the great need of the Church, and of individual members having a new fresh vision of the Christ. "Where there is no vision," Solomon says, "the people perish." Every remarkable epoch in the Church's history, distinguished for soul winning and constructive power, has come as the result of an enlarged, open vision of one "like unto the Son of man." John while on the Isle of Patmos made large use of the organs of hearing and seeing. He often gives utterance to the expressions, "I heard a voice," and "I beheld," "I looked, and, lo!" The counsel to each of the seven churches was to give heed to what the Spirit said — "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." This shows what a large use the Church should make, and must make of the Holy Spirit during this dispensation of grace, if it would accomplish its heaven-appointed mission. The revelations that the Spirit can make to one separated unto the vision, as John was on the lonely Isle, are over- whelming to the senses. Moses had to have his face covered with the divine hand when Jehovah passed by. The voice that John heard was like the sound of a trumpet and reverberating thunder, and when he had the vision of one "like unto the Son of man," he said, "I fell at his feet as dead." 88 Where Hope and Faith Have Their True Center Mark what he says as the occasion of this vision, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." This was the secret of this vision. Paul says, "Looking unto Jesus." But this must not be simply and only a vacant stare, for that never sees anything. A man that has eyes and wants to see something can do so, and I take it that a man that wants a vision can have it. As said in another place, Abraham saw Christ's day and was glad. So it may always be to a hungry eye. These visions always do something for the subject of them. It gave Moses endurance. It made Isaiah willing, it made Jeremiah wish that his head were waters, tender hearted. It put Ezekiel into the valley of dry bones to prophecy. It made Daniel sick and faint, then he rose up and "did the King's business." It made Saul say, "Who art thou?" learning, he at once started for the field of conflict and the eternal city. Ah ! something will be doing when this vision comes. All true and great evangelists have been men whose hearts, like the band of men that went out with Saul, "have been touched." This is true in the case of Luther, Wesley, Zinzendorf, Ed- wards, Finney, Moody, and Payton, and Fulton in China. Wlien God's call comes to his true child- ren, they cannot stay. There is no power in earth or hell that can hold them. It is only when they have cooled down and cooled off that they can stay. To know what true life is, true spirituality, a burning quenchless fire, is to have the mind stayed on Jesus. He is still in the conflict and in the race, and our spiritual attitude is well expressed 89 The Exalted Life by the act, "Looking unto Jesus," a continuous exercise. So it must not be with a weary, languid, sleepy gaze, with eyes half closed as in the early stages of slumber. It must be with a wide, gladsome, all- enraptured vision. Something like Simeon and Anna in the temple, blind Bartimeus with restored sight, and Saul on the road to Damascus. There are the very best of reasons why the Christian should have the iixed habit of looking unto Jesus, some of which we do well to consider. First. Because he is the "author of faith." He is so named by the apostle. This makes him the leader, pjince, captain, or as Paul puts it elsewhere, "forerunner of his people." As our leader we must keep him as the object of thought, and never once think of growing weary of thinking of him. As the first to live a life of perfect and unbroken faith, he becomes the only reliable object and true ex- ample and pattern of faith. Is faith a life of perfect dependence on God ? Then Jesus lived that life. He said "I live by the Father." Is faith the source and channel of communion with God? Then Jesus lived in that sweet, abiding fellowship. Hear his words : "The Father hath not left me alone." "I and my Father are one." Is faith the the substance of things hoped for? Who realized this more than Jesus? "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right-hand of the throne of God?" So, whatever view we take of the Christian life, Christ is its true pattern, and to live it we must 90 Where Hope and Faith Have Then' True Center follow him. True, our human vision, in its low- est sense cannot follow him ; so in a physical sense he is invisible to us ; and yet we may have that strange experience that Paul describes as the Christ, "Whom having not seen, we love." How strange that love, which usually depends so largely on cor- poreal vision for its existence and perpetuity, should swing into such exuberance over a man that died nearly nineteen centuries ago, and whom his lovers have neve rseen corporeally, and yet they shout in the face of all the mists and shadows, "We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor," and then press on toward their own coronation. The sight is most transforming. It is brighter than the face of any angel. It is said of him on the Mount of Transfiguration that "his face did shine as the sun." John says of him in the book of Revelation, that "his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." Paul speaking of his con- version says, "I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me." That light was Jesus whom Paul persecuted. Second. We should look to Jesus because he is the "finisher, the perfecter of faith." He is not only the author, the beginner, but he is also the completer of faith. This makes Jesus the totality — the whole, "the beginning and the end, the first and the last," the all and in all — in the plan of salvation. Christ is the one lone winner, the only one that has always triumphed, with whom no one could or can be compared in these respects. How natural 91 The Exalted Life then for his Church to look to him as its leader and example because of this preeminence. Faith and hope are so intimately and closely re- lated in the definition given of faith that it is diffi- cult to keep them from blending in thought, and so sometimes from being used interchangeably. This is largely the method used in this chapter, as will be seen as we advance to its close. The an- chor and the cable literally are so relatetd to each other that one is entirely useless without the other. The ship in a storm depends upon their united strength for its safety. Neither one without the other can save it. So with a building. There must first be a foun- dation. No man can build up in the air, unless he builds simply an "air-castle." Then there must be added to the foundation the superstructure, or it can never be a finished piece of work, and can never be utilized as a dwelling. It is the building that is well founded and well built that stands when the winds blow, the rain descends, and the floods come. If ever a man needs protection, security, it is in the time of storm. Why build at all unless for such a time? Anything will do in the time of calm; but days of evil are the days to provide for. Jesus makes hearing (believing) and doing the indestruc- tible in character building. Two perils confront the professed followers of Christ: There is the danger of believing in a nominal way, and then not verifying the faith in and by the life. Believe, but do not do. Then there is the doing, profession- ally, without the verifying of the profession by a living faith. 92 Where Hope and Faith Have Their True Center Jesus taught the danger of divorcing these in the life, in his sermon on the mount. (Matthew 7:21-27.) There is great danger of church-people, kingdom-of-heaven-people, relying too strongly and hopefully on the profession they make — belonging to church, being baptized, having a good creed, re- specting sacramental occasions, being officially ac- tive in the church — without having the conscious indwelling of the Holy Spirit. What was the trouble with the second class named in the parable of the ten virgins? They were all classed as vir- gins, all had lamps, all went forth to meet the bridegroom, all slept while the v/edding was de- layed, all heard the midnight cry, all arose, all trimmed their lamps; but — what? One thing lack- ing — only one thing — upon the part of the unfor- tunate five. They found in this crisis hour that they had neglected or forgotten to take oil with them. ''The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps." This one thing, oil and no oil, dis- tinguished them as beino;" wise and foolish. This one thing broke their fellowship at this wedding. The record says, ''The bridegroom came ; and they that were ready went in with him to the mar- riage ; and the door was shut." "Afterward !" Ah ! that awful word, "afterward." Too late to make amends for their carelessness ! They prayed — those "other virgins," all so good up to this time — "say- ing, Lord, Lord, open to us." The answer was, "I know you not." One thing lacking — oil. Lamps gone out and no oil to replenish them. Now, docs this relate to church people? Jesus says, "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be lik- 93 The Exalted Life ened," and then gives these ten virgins as the illus- tration. This certainly means kingdom-of-heaven people, and — if so, it is full of instructive warn- ing to all Christians of every generation. *'Watch," is the word for the times, and never more needed than now. It is so easy to mistake the false for the true, the sham for the real, and error for the truth. There is one thing that can settle the ques- tion of the certainty of our inheritance, and that is the possession of the Holy Spirit. Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. This lacking, as in the case of the virgins, all might as well be lacking, for all finally turns on this. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Romans 8:9.) To such Jesus says, "I know you not." "Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you." That is, I never, with all your pro- fession, acknowledged you to be mine. This is the serious question for Christian people to consider at this time. Is Christ acknowledging us now? Is he owning me now? Do I know that I am his by unquestioning evidences? This all ought to know, "The Lord knoweth them that are his," and he will keep them in the awful wreckage that is coming. He is making up his jewels, and will gather them by and by. He kept Abraham and Sarah, Noah and his family, and the Hebrews, as a nation, in times of great wickedness and fearful judgments. So he will always keep his own, those whose lives are hid with him in God, whose hopes are centered and anchored in him, and who are waiting in glorious expectation of his final coming. 94 CHAPTER Vni. Vision Rightly Focused. In the preceding chapter the effort was to show Christ as the great center and the ground, the foundation of all faith and hope. In this chapter the main thought will be to show the importance of a clear, unobstructed vision of him. Holding to Paul's words in Hebrews, ''looking," we have the true idea of how to make the largest use and to get the greatest possible good out of the promises. As Christ alone can make the promises available to his followers, it is of first and greatest importance how we look at him. To see is an involuntary act, not necessarily un- der the control of the will ; but to look, or looking, in the sense of this text, is a voluntary act. It is gazing away or off from other things, or things in general, in order to see some special thing. Hence, to see Jesus implies or imposes the duty of shutting out other and contrary things from the gaze. This is no more than is demanded and observed in other objects of sight and pursuit. Science will not reward a vagabond of a student. There must be singleness of aim, and concentration of effort. No vagrant followers will find any reward here. It is the man that puts all there is of him, day and night, into his effort that can finally shout, "Eureka !" Here is where the scientist finds great use for the 95 The Exalted Life spectrum, the speculum, the microscope, the sun- glass, and the telescope. They magnify objects, concentrate and also enlarge the vision. Paul would say you cannot see everything if you would see Jesus. There must be concentration of vision. In order to this there is much that must be shut out. There must be both exclusion and seclusion. Here we have the true philosophy of a door as used in the Scriptures. Jesus said when you enter your closet, ''Shut to the door." Do not let the whole wide world on you 2:aze, il you would see "thy Father." Of himself, he said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." This figure is his urgent cry to be let in. He wants to swing the heart and the brain of man into higher and better relations than the earthly. Then he denominated himself as the door saying, 'T am the door." By this entrance you will find green pas- ture fields and quiet waters. You will also find great liberty, "go in and out," never any unwhole- some restraints. With Christ as the door, how safeguarded his sheep ! Nothing can pass that door that will harm them. "Nothing can pluck them out of his hands" ; and as the Father is greater than he, "nothing can pluck them out of his Father's hands." Looking unto Jesus implies that we turn avv^ay our faces from even the cloud of witnesses, the heroes of faith, the departed saints, as primary ob- jects of vision, and put him first and highest of all. These last may stimulate and encourage us, but they have no power to produce the divine life in us, and no power of grace to sustain us. 96 Vision Rightly Focused Even the living, those about us, must not get between us and Christ. The Hving can do much for us, and we need their sympathy and friendship ; but our souls need more than lies in the power of any mortal to give. The racer must get his eyes off the crowd, as he rushes by toward the goal. He must see only one thing. The shout and roar of the multitude may stimulate to increased action, but he must have the power of winning in himself. So with the spiritual athlete. He must be so trained and nourished by divine agencies that he can run with patience the race set before him. Paul says, "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?" So run that ye may obtain. Then he names some things to be observed if the mastery is to be obtained, among them is to be temperate, or exer- cise self-restraint in all things. Writing of him- self more especially he says, 'T so run, not as un- certainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest by any means, when I have preached unto others, I myself should be a castaway." (I. Corinthians 9:26, 27.) Paul is here writing of service and not salva- tion, and he wished to have such self-control, such discipline, as in no way to hazard the divine ap- proval, "Well done, thou good and faithful serv- ant." He was a boxer, but he did not buffet the air; it was himself, his body that he buffeted. He was, as a little girl said one time, trying to "keep his soul on top." He was giving the spiritual the ascendency over the sensual. To do this required 97 The Exalted Life the straight well aimed blows of a trained pugilist. There must be no quarter shown in the fight, no flag of truce flung to the breeze, no compromise for the sake of peace. It must be a fight to the finish, a fight to the death. But, while life is a battle, and the enemies are the mightiest and most overwhelming that the hu- man spirit ever encountered — "the world, the flesh, and the devil" — there is One still mightier, who has met and vanquished every foe, and who promises that his followers shall be more than conquerors through him. It is possible, in the midst of these conflicts, to look too much at the difficulties of life, and so, in a measure, become blinded to the promised, and al- ways available aid. It was so with Elisha's serv- ant. He saw only the enemy, with "his horses and chariots" ; but when the Lord opened his eyes in answer to prayer, he saw that "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." He found it just as he had been told by Elisha, that "they that be with us are more than they that be with them." How many things we can see that are against us when we have only the human vision. Antici- pation, especially of evil, is usually wide-eyed. It can see a whole world of giants, mountains, and walled cities, like the spies of old. They said, "We be not able to go against the people ; for they are stronger than we." Furthermore, they said, "We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Then all Israel went into a frenzy of grief. They mourned and cried and wept, 98 Vision Rightly Focused and said, ''Would God that we had died in Egypt; or would God that we had died in this wilderness." They went into rebellion. This is the language of hopelessness and unbelief. Hear the men of faith and hope talk. Caleb and Joshua said : *'The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceed- ing good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land that floweth with milk and honey." The divine answer to this people came in the line of their talk. God said to Moses, "Say unto them, as truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you." They were taken at their word, and were turned back into the wilderness for forty years of wander- ing until all perished, except Caleb and Joshua, that were in the enumeration for military pur- poses when they left Egypt. *'As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you," are very significant words. God takes his people according to their faith, and faith is usually determined or indicated by the way they talk. Faith says, we can, and we will, and it does. It talks success and succeeds. Unbelief talks fail- ure and defeat. It says we never can, we never shall, and it never does. Jesus said to the blind men : "Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord." Then he said, "According to your faith be it unto you." Their eyes were opened. Unbelief magnifies the difficulties and minimizes the advantages, the helps, while faith magnifies 99 The Exalted Life (not exaggerates) the helps and minimizes the hin- drances. Unbelief puts up giants and walled cities against human might, while faith puts up against all these earthly powers the Almighty. The unbelieving spies said we are not able, and they were right. The two men of faith said we are abundantly able, and they were right. Where the difference? The one party took God into the reckoning, the other party left him out. Taking Jesus into account, ''looking unto him," is to supplant darkness with light, weakness with might, despair with hope, and turn defeat into victory. Anticipating trouble, imagining and ex- aggerating difficulties, is weakening to faith and the sure road to defeat. "He that observeth the winds shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." If Peter had kept his eyes on Jesus he would have known little of the winds or the boisterous sea. His feet would have gone on a sea of glass ; it would have been a pave- ment of rock beneath his feet. It is just so with our trials. When we come to the place the hills and the mountains have dis- appeared, and nothing but an even plane stretches away at our feet. All that Jesus has to do is but to speak to the stormy sea, and at once, as Bishop Weaver once said, ''the winds will fold their wings in peace, and the wild waves sneak away as if afraid to lash themselves on the rock-bound shore." It is looking down that makes the timid climber afraid. He must look up and on. If we are going up as our final destiny we never desire to come 100 Vision Rightly Focused down. Our fears should be on the line of de- scent instead of on the line of ascent. We need not fear an exalted life, for that is the life we are called to live. Paul said, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," It is a call upward ; the goal is upward ; all the divine agencies and impulses are upward in their tendencies, and we must keep our gaze upward, as the disciples did at the foot and on the summit of Mount Olivet, where Jesus vanished from their sight. The attitude of these disciples is the attitude, or should be, of the Church until he returns. Think how fixed their attitude : "And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood before them in white apparel which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? this same Jesus^ which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:10, 11.) These disciples looked steadfastly, and the angels said unto them, "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" How Jesus must have pulled and held their vision until that cloud received him out of sight ! How hard it must have been to turn away from that entrancing scene ! How easy it ought to be to look upward now that Jesus has ascended ! Representatively he has taken his whole Church up with him. He is not without his body. He is its life; all its members died in him, and are risen in him, positionally, and now only wait his return to have all made actual that is now a life of hope. 101 The Exalted Life Christ has redeemed the lost inheritance and has the title deed to deliver to every member of the di- vine family. Like Boaz bought back Ruth's lost inheritance and restored it to her, so Jesus has re- deemed the inheritance lost in the first representa- tive head of the race, and will restore it to all that will accept it as a gift. There was no one that could restore the inheritance to Ruth but Boaz, her kindred. So there is no one but Jesus can restore this inheritance. When John saw the hopelessness rep- resented by the seven-sealed book he wept. No one "in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon," was the record that broke his heart. In the midst of his grief hope came, "Weep not ; behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath pre- vailed to open the book, and to loose the seals there- of." As John beheld, the lion became a lamb, ap- pearing as a sacrifice, and at once took the book from the hand of him that sat upon the throne. Here the whole scene changed. The twenty-four elders fell before the lamb, each touching harpstrings that were silent, and opening golden bowls of rarest perfume, and filling the air with vibrant tones, the sweetest that mortal ears ever heard, and ladening the breath of winds with the richest odors ever inhaled. Silence could no longer reign. A glori- ous anthem was sung, called "a new song, saving, Thou are worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof : for thou wast slain, and hast re- deemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and 102 Vision Rightly Focused hast made us nnto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth." Here we have the celebration of the restored inheritance; but as John listens the enthusiasm spreads and the music grows. There is another order or class of beings catching up the strain and joining in the anthem. He says, "And I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts [creatures] and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ; saying with a loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb that vv^as slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." And still the anthem grows until it takes in "every crea- ture which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them." Jesus, the Lamb of God, our Savior, our Lord and Master, has the eyes of all worlds fixed on him, and he is the center and object of all praise, as seen in the description above. Can it be that he is more to the angels in heaven, and that they can sing sweeter anthems to him than those for whom he gave his life, and who have been re- deemed from sin's awful ruin by his blood? Is there any object of earthly beauty or earthly value that can take his place in the heart, in the home, and in the life of his followers? If there is, of such a one he would say, "He is not worthy of me." Father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even life itself must be subordinate to Jesus. 103 The Exalted Life In Matthews 12 : 47-50, Jesus establishes a new family relationship, founded on faith instead of blood relationship, and conditioned on "whosoever will do the will of his Father." Here natural affection is to be surrendered to love for Christ, and in the comparison is to be so subordinated as to be expressed by the word "hate." This is not the passion or emotion of hatred, but love in a less or subordinate degree, simply less love. This is well expressed by the words of Jesus when he says, "He that loveth father or mother, son or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me." The same idea is expressed in the Savior's words to Simon Peter, "Lovest thous me more than these?" The teaching is that Christ must be supreme in our affections, and be first in his claims on our time and life-interests. Can it or should it be other- wise? Is it possible for us to give him a subordi- nate place in what we are or in what we have ? Can he, must he ever fade from our vision, when the cry of the heart's deepest hunger is for him ? But in order to see him we must not only turn our faces from the "cloud of witnesses," the living that are about us, and the difficulties, the rough- ness of the way, but we must not look too much at ourselves. Groaning over our personal weak- nesses, unless as penitents, is not a very stimulat- ing and edifying exercise. Self is a very dark, obscuring cloud, and the eyes must be turned away from it to Jesus. There is everything in him to stimulate faith and courage. What help and hope was there to a leper looking at himself? Every gaze would only deepen his gloom and fill him with 104 Vision Rightly Focused the utmost despair. It was Jesus that he needed to see, and it was to him that one cried saying, "Lord [Master] if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." The response, quickly made was, "I will; be thou clean." It was done. Jesus always an- swers in the line of the personal difficulty. This leper's difficulty was in reference to the divine will — *Tf thou wilt." It was not the divine power that was questioned, for he said, "Thou canst." Take the case of the man that brought his son to Jesus for healing. The disciples had tried and failed, and now the man came to Jesus saying, "If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Note the answer given, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that be- lieveth." The man said to Jesus, "If thou canst do." Jesus said to him "If thou canst believe." Here the question was as to the divine ability. Jesus said, I have the power, have you the faith? The father of the child cried out, and said with tears, "Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief." How graciously and tenderly our Lord meets our difficulties if we only look to him. He gave Zacchaeus, the little man, a chance to see him by stopping under the very tree he had climbed into for this purpose. "He sought to see Jesus who he was," and he saw him, for Jesus said, "Zac- chaeus, make haste and come down : for to-day I must abide at thy house." He did as Jesus told him. "He made haste and came down, and re- ceived him joyfully." It always pays to do as Jesus says. When lie says, "Be quick," there must be instant action. The 105 The Exalted Life mulberr}^ tree, in this instance, soon lost its little man, for he got down quickly. Joy reigned in the shadow of that tree and in the home of this com- missioner of taxes on this eventful day. Jesus was there. He always brings joy. The belated, doubting Thomas, when told by the other disciples that they had seen the Lord said, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Cruel demand ! Would he open these wounds afresh ? The others believed, why could not he? This query presses to-day. Many critics rise up and sharply condemn others for not accepting all that breadth of the supernatural that they claim their faith so readily and easily covers. Faith has its gradations, from no faith to all faith, and as such distinguishes individual believers in the line of their living and in the line of their work. Paul, in giving instruction to the Christians in Rome touching service, and the exercise of cer- tain gifts, said that it was to be done "according to the proportion of faith." In another place he counsels them to think soberly, not to become in- toxicated over their gifts, but to measure them- selves, as individuals, by the amount of faith allot- ted to each. (Romans 12:3-6.) In some respects this is very sane advice for these days. The very thing that Christianity has relied on so largely through all the centuries for its verification, can become one of the most fatal snares to the progress of the Church ; namely, the supernatural. Never 106 Vision Rightly Focused were satanic agencies more active and destructive to genuine faith than now. These things better not be rehearsed, except possibly as warnings to the unwary. We- covet the marvelous, the wonderful, the supernatural. In the case of Thomas, Jesus granted him his demands, saying, as he did so, "Be not faithless, but believing." The sight was overwhelming. He exclaimed, "My Lord and my God !" Jesus attribu- ted faith in this instance to seeing, and then pro- nounced a blessing on all that believe without see- ing. The real trend of spirituality is from the outer to the inner life ; from the occular to the occult. A religion built on the physical senses is a house built on the sand, and will not stand in the day of storm. So we must Iiave our eyes away from ourselves and fixed on Jesus. "Look- ing unto Jesus" — this will transform us into his image ; it will make us forget ourselves. We are told that, when Coleridge stood before Mount Blanc, that he forgot hunger, exhaustion, pain it- self, and with eyes dim and suffused with tears, the poet thought only of that sight sublime. How like the sight of Jesus to the Christian! His cross is transforming the world, though standing on the far- off hills of Judea. The vision of him must mean larger communion and fellowship between him and his disciples, and thus result in something being held in common between them. The disciple may be lower but not unlike his Master. To the de- gree that he understands him and appropriates his life he duplicates that life. If Herschel was right when he said, "The astronomer thinks out 107 The Exalted Life God's thoughts after him"; and if Agassiz was right when he exclaimed, "The geologist moves along paths worn deeply by the divine footprints," then surely man must, living after and out of that life be in a measure a duplication of it. If not, what does being a partaker of the divine nature imply ? With a divine heredity, and such an environ- ment as that "cloud of witnesses" that Paul de- scribes in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews, can it be that a life on a level lower than the one that that vision reveals can be satisfying to the heart hungering for righteousness, and meet the appro- bation of Him who said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect?" This perfection is well expressed by the words, "Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stat- ure of the fulness of Christ." (Ephesians 4: 12, 13.) Here is maturity in godliness, perfect spirit- ual manhood, the size of full, matured manhood. "No more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." 108 CHAPTER IX. The Importance of Being Securely Anchored. The passing days are the brightest days that the world has ever seen. Nature is yielding up her secrets to the pioneers of thought as never before. On every hand are the evidences — some of them fairly startling — of world-wide progress. The ocean, earth, and air are alive with evidences of man's discoveries and explorations. The words of prophecy are being verified as never before. "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be in- creased." The kingdom of God is being extended among all nations, and is having a controlling power among the nations hitherto unprecedented. There is more of Christ in the world in this than in any preceding age. He is more in civilization, in legislation, in literature, in history, in chronology, in geography, in architecture, in painting, in sculp- ture, in theology, in poetry, in song, and in the hearts and souls of more men and women and child- ren than ever before. Christ is coming more and more into possession of his inheritance and of his right to rule among men. To rule is his right, and this right he will finally claim which none will dispute. But with all these glorious achievements of the past, and this glorious outlook for the future, there never was more need of Christians giving earnest heed to St. Paul's appeal, "Cast not away there- fore your confidence which hath great recompense 109 The Exalted Life of reward." (Hebrews 10:35.) It is easy for some persons, when under stress of trials, to give up their confidence, their courage, and thus discount all that God has done for them, and espouse some of the greatest errors that characterize the present- day movements. How many good people have thus been wrecked, lost their testimony, thrown away the gifts and the graces of the spirit, and have "only the apples of Sodom instead." The commands and warnings of the Scriptures indicate danger. We are commanded to "hold fast that we have," "to strengthen the things which re- main," "to add to our faith," and "to endure unto the end." Many people are looking for wonders — want to be wonders themselves, instead of letting Christ keep his name, "wonderful — and for miracles, demonstrations, rather than for the living God as revealed in Christ Jesus. These are days of re- ligious tramps, that are not, and do not want to be responsible to any church organization for their conduct or their teaching. These people profess to have wonderful revelations from God, and pro- fess to be called to start some new religious move- ment in this day of the Church's apostasy — as they are pleased to call it — and thereby save the king- dom of God from being utterly overthrown. They invite and cultivate the spectacular, the sign and wonder quality of their religion, as proof of its genuineness, and thereby sometimes change a church or hall into a spectatorium. There seems to be almost no end to the multi- plication of religious fakes, a kind of asceticism, 110 The Importance of Being Securely Anchored that is more or less appealing to a certain class given to psychical phenomena, and a strange emo- tionalism that sweeps its victims into the grossest errors and the most absurd and ridiculous prac- tices, sometimes ending in the asylum or in suicide. Recently there came to notice the following from Evangelist Scoville, wrtten from Bridgeport, Con- necticut; "There is a great sorrow often filling my heart when I see how Satan has come into some of the little flocks as an angel of light, and has deceived many and some he has destroyed. I was in a meeting some time ago when there was a woman crawling around the floor, and snapping and barking like a mad dog, and they said she was filled with the Holy Ghost, and they were most of them very intent in listening to receive a message from God through her. A dear sister, who was once a very devoted Christian, and a member of the Methodist Church, attended these meetings, be- came so distracted and beside herself ,that 'she destroyed her Bible. Another became so violently insane that she was taken to an institution where she died in a few days." These are sad and sickening things, and most painful to chronicle. But the relief is that this is not the work of the Holy Spirit, and does not rep- resent the life of Jesus Christ in the believer. The very opposite is true. Paul in his greeting to Tim- othy said, "God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." These delusions come from unsafe, mistaken, and, sometim.es, deluded leaders ; men that for one reason and another have fallen out with the church 111 The Exalted Life of their choice — whose agencies were first owned in their conversion, and that gave them a credible standing among men — and became its revilers and if possible destroyers. The effort of these leaders is to get hold of a class of humble, honest, zealous people, who want to live the best life that is known, and get them to believe that they are not right, that their re- ligion is spurious, and now that new light has come there is something niuch truer and better than the old. They are persuaded to throw away the old and accept the new, of which they are the only qualified exponents. What havoc has been wrought on this line! How many local churches have been ruptured, their harmony destroyed, their members made aliens and bitter enemies of each other, all ac- cepting such leadership finally reining up under a false, a bogus religion. How many days and weeks and even months have been spent by individuals in crying for power, for some remarkable demonstra- tion, the smiting of some thunderbolt, the bestow- ment of some marvelous gift, like speaking with tongues, and when these physical demonstrations appear, accept them at once as discrediting all previ- ous experiences, and verifying all the new as being the only genuine. How many have reined up in utter failure on this line, having not found what they sought for, and as a consequence have renounced all faith in Christianity and become mental, moral, and phy- sical wrecks. A pitiful picture to paint; but in harmony with many scriptural warnings, to which 112 The Importance of Being Securely Anchored honest, anxious, modern Christians do well to take heed, "as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." What is sadder than the wrecking and ruining of a sane, safe, joyous, religious experience? This havoc of religious life, this- fanatical cry for dem- onstrations, has been spreading to an alarming de- gree. May we hope that the worst is past? This might well be the cry and the prayer; but there is a word that says, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." Here we have spiritual jugglery, wily imposters, doing the work of Satan. Under their leadership things go from bad to worse. The de- ception is mutual. They not only deceive others, but their own deception increases as they go for- ward. The ruin finally becomes general, over- taking both the leader and his followers. Jesus gives warning of these days in the twenty- fourth chapter of Matthew. He says, "And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many." "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of m.any shall wax cold." In this connection I would not be understood as speaking against spiritual progress, but as one that loves the Church and desires her future welfare, I give warning. It re- quires only a casual survey of the field to see the importance of not giving heed to seductive teachers. On this line Dowieism can speak in Chicago, Illi- nois ; the tongues movement in Los Angeles, Cali- fornia; the "Pillar of Fire" movement in Denver, Colorado; the Creffield tragedy — "Holyrollerism" — in Seattle, Washington ; Ryanism in Salem, Oregon, 113 The Exalted Life and Frank W. Sanford— called ''Eli jab" by bis followers, tbe "Holy Gbost and Us" movement, near Lisbon Falls, Maine. Out of some of tbese bave come awful tragedies, all in tbe name of tbe bigbest type of living; but in fact in many instances the lowest. As tbe result of lionest delusion — possibly true in most cases at tbe beginning — tbere are wrecked bomes, loss of life, murder, imprisonments, starvation, wrecking disappointments, and tbe utter overthrow of a once genuine faitb and a blessed Christian experience. Because of these things I bave personally become utterly at variance with a lax, namby-pamby sort of church adherence. I also bave become shy of that class of religious teachers and leaders that dis- avow church membership, and for this reason call themselves broad and liberal, and ready to work with, and for any religious organization. I have usually found them very free to denounce tbe churches, to decry church relationship, and church creeds. They forget that the Church is where they came from professionally and officially, and but for the existence of what they are so free to de- nounce, they would not have a chance to export their latest and newest dogma. I have also ob- served that such independent leaders can spread their special propaganda, throw a society and com- munity into deepest ferment, divide and split a church into fragments that was hitherto living in peace and barmon}^ and then get up and go away in a spirit of great triumph over tbe work done, and leave tbe pastor and church membership to fight it out. Aud a fight it is! But who wants what is 114 The Importance of Being Securely Anchored left when it is all over with? It could hardly be reported on as favorably as a coroner's jury re- ported on a man that was blown up in a mill, which read, "He was a man of excellent parts." The Church, as an organism, meets a great divine purpose in its existence, and its unity and harmony should be conserved in ever}^ way possible of divine approval. There will be differences in many ways, but these need not necessarily occa- sion division. In the family circle we may see the Church in embryo. In the Old Testament the Church began in the family of Abraham. In the New Testament it began in the new family re- lationship which Jesus established as given in Mat- thew 12:49, 50. Here God is the Father (St. John 1: 13) and all who are born of him are bap- tized by the Holy Spirit into one body. (I. Cor- inthians 12:13.) In verse 27, Paul says, *'Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in partic- ular." In Ephesians 3: 14, 15, he calls the Church universal, all God's people, a family, saying, "For this purpose I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family [every family] in heaven and earth is named." Now, as a family, it may well represent all ages, from the youngest to the most advanced in years ; also all stages of development, physical, mental, moral, and spiritual, ranging from the babe to the first-born. No wise, sane and safe leader and teacher in religious tenets can decry the utility of church organizations. This may be over done, or under done, or fraudulently done, but this would be only 115 The Exalted Life an abuse of a good thing and a wise method. To do away with church organization would be to discredit all human organization. It would strike down and blot out the family relation, the oldest and best of all organizations. This relation was established in Eden, and is one of the only two institutions that survived the wreck and ruin of the fall — the family and the Sabbath. Organization was the divine ideal for the race at the beginning, and that ideal has been maintained through all the centuries. This is vv^ell expressed by the psalmist, "God setteth the solitary in fami- lies ; that is, he breaks solitude with society. He puts the lonely one into fellowship with others. This is the highest ideal for the race. The family is the basis, the very cornerstone of both church and state. It is the great and mighty conserva- tion of racial purity and racial perpetuity. Do away with the family and everything goes into social sludge. To do away with church organization is to put it on a level with the destruction of marriage re- lation and the family. It would be to inaugurate a system of free-love, blotting out all disregard of social propriety, and becoming unduly familiar, indelicate, or immodest. What condition of things would obtain in society if such sentiments were to become prevalent and influential ? That this social leaven is spreading is very apparent as seen in the laxness of the marriage bonds and divorce legisla- tion. The most fraudulent shams are enacted on these lines — marriage and divorce. 116 The Importance of Being Securely Anchored Now, is there anything like this in the teaching that would do away with church organizations, denominationalism, and allow a kind of free-and- easy system to obtain ? a kind of free-love sys- tem in religious matters? Has not something like this protruded its head above the ecclesiastical sea in recent days and whispered its desire to be heard and to have a place in the great religious arena? Such is a recent occurrence in the city of Chicago. This strange cult would do away with the family, and would have a strange religious affinity take its place, and on this high and exalted plane of living generate a new race, holy by natural generation! The same is true, I am told, at Benton Harbor, Michigan, where the "House of David'' is being established. H this is not the doctrine of demons where will you find it? This is to do away with spiritual regeneration, and substitute natural generation in its stead, only on this higher plane of spiritual affinity. Paul's warning to Timothy, giving him some of the characteristics of the latter times, may well be taken as timely admonition for our day touching the subject of marriage. He says to Timothy, "That in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spir- its, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypoc- risy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry." (L Timothy 4:1-3.) Here forbidding to marry is put among the doctrines of devils. As previously stated, if the family can be blotted out, away goes everything that is good. The family as an organization must 117 The Exalted Life be kept up, and its purity safeguarded, or all goes into absolute ruin. God has put it in and made it a part of this probationary life in order to pre- serve the whole world from overthrow. It was the family organization that gave this world a second probation, or a new start after the judgment flood. All the future was centered in that family. It was the whole of humanity when in the ark. So God has always taken great care of the family, for out of it all goodness and individual greatness comes. Now, as the family must be kept as a distinct human organization — though divine in its origin — and not be blotted out and lose itself in a con- glomerate or heterogeneous mass of humanity, so the militant Church, in order to conserve its purity and power, and become an agent of conquest, must conform itself to some rules and regulations, and have some center of authoritative appeal. It may be said that Christ is the head and source of appeal, and so he is, but we now and here "have this treasure in earthen vessels," and so there must of necessity be a measure of conformity to this earthly sphere. Wq cannot be all heavenly here. We must wait until we reach the heavenly state for such a perfect consummation. Take the family as the illustration again. The family must be earthly while it is here. I do not mean sensually earthly in the bad use of that word, but it must live in the sphere of flesh and blood while it maintains its earthly existence. There are a class of people that have the notion that in order to be pure they must ignore the most 118 The Importance of Being Securely Anchored sacred function of marriage, the production of off-spring. I knew a case of that kind. I was in the home once or tw^ice on a brief item of business. The wife of the house, with a lady com- panion she kept with her, spent much of their time, both day and night, in prayer. The husband spent most of the time down in the city at his work. He stayed most of the time down in the city, as his home was not a home to him. These things were told to me by the person that owned the house; so it is not a phantasm. Now, both of these people wanted to be good. The wife wanted to be the purest type of Christian character ; but what a delusion, to ignore the divine order in creation in order to live a Hfe of purity. Here is the snare of the enemy. If he cannot break down the marriage relation and have all things common, then he will annul it, if possible, by creat- ing the conviction that the highest type of purity can be reached only by living, though married, as a celibate. Let it be noted that this relation can never become so spiritual as to do away with the flesh. This can obtain in heaven only; for there "they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." But here there is a union of flesh, which union is by the divine order. 'Tor this cause" — because male and female — "shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife : and they tw^ain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh." Now, as the family has its earthly sphere, and must in a sense be separate and distinct from everv 119 The Exalted Life Other family in order to its unity and its highest good, so the mihtant Church must have for its unity and most effective service an independent, or- ganic, constructive existence. It would be unlike anything else in the world if it did not have. Then you may say, You would not have all or- ganizations blended into one organic whole? No; not any more than I would have all families merged into one family, or all the States of this Union merged into one State. Here diversity is the secret of unity. Put a dozen families into one house, and let them try to live together and maintain their independence and distinctive principles, and unity will soon be at an end. But put them under sepa- rate roofs, with alleys, and lanes between, and they may always be good neighbors. So with the militant Church. There may be many divisions, organically, like there is in a great army, and yet the most perfect unity and the most effi- cient service. One chief commander, but many sub- alterns. The cry upon the part of independent, anti- church leaders is for more power. A very proper and scriptural cry; but in order to this they advo- cate withdrawal from the Church; classing the churches as all fallen and apostate, and all that would be right must come out of them. Oh, the delusion! How many, once warm and devoted members of the Church are to-day living in spirit- ual anarchy, hating and bitterly denouncing what they once so ardently loved; displaying a spirit so utterly unlike the character of the dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. They now display the 120 The Importance of Being Securely Anchored beak and talons of the eagle. They would tear every church into fragments, as previously stated in this chapter, and scatter all that they have done to the winds. Is the motive a good one ? or is it be- cause they have failed, become jealous, because en- vious, deluded, and have cast away their confidence? I read of a minister — and he is only one of many — that said he had been deceived, and that he was now seeking the Holy Ghost. When asked how he would know when he got the Holy Ghost he replied that he would know it by speaking in tongues. To what was that man's faith anchored? H churches, as organizations, are all wrong, and only this small company, so peculiarly at va- riance wath them, are the only ones that are right, then what a hopeless view of the Christian world they must have, and what a prodigious task they have on their hands to get things right! What a dark view of Christ's work after nineteen hundred years of battle, and what a success is accorded to Satan for the way he has held the field through the centuries ! Who believes it ? Why did not Caleb and Joshua leave the Church because of its unbelief and rebellion, and go into Canaan at once? Why stay with that defeated, re- jected, wandering church for forty years? What would have happened to Israel if they had not stayed with them? Later though it was, they led this wandering host into the land of promise. What a blessed thing that these two men did not take the stand of "come-outers," and thus defeat, so far as we can see, the divine scheme for Israel's redemption. They were God's people, and God's 121 The Exalted Life men stayed with them to lead and guide them to final victory. What will these hasty, desultory movements amount to, compared with centuries of organized church life, with all the discipline and experience of these centuries ? I do not wish to be understood as questioning the motives of those leading in these independent movements, but the wisdom. If the Holy Spirit is leading the movements, then why the sad disasters that in so many instances attend them? What enterprise can be carried forward success- fully without organization, concentration, and dis- cipline? How could the cause of missions, educa- tion, and other great church enterprises be car- ried forward without systematic co-operation? What would these sporadic, independent movements do but for the field of opportunity that the organ- ized churches that are already in the field furnish them? Here are church buildings with large or- ganized memberships that furnish an open door of opportunity for those that seem to have little conviction for the salvation of those outside of the churches; and in order to succeed in the endeavor to build up out of this material there must be the exploiting of some new doctrine, or some phase of the supernatural — some gift, some physical demonstrations, or some wonderful vision — that will be startling and awe-inspiring to those whose religious experience is confined to, and that operates through their self-consciousness, the soul. Here is the field and realm of danger. Here the emotions play sa.d havoc with the faith and re- 122 The Importance of Being Securely Anchored ligioiis experience of many. They transfer their faith from God and his Word to their feehngs, and to signs and wonders. They build out of material that is as incapable of standing the tests as the wood, hay, and stubble is of standing the test of the purging fire. Now, what should be the attitude of Christians, of the churches in general toward these questionable movements? I cannot give a better answer than that given by Mr. Spurgeon some twenty-five years ago: 'Tt now becomes a serious question how far those v/ho abide b}- the faith once delivered to the saints should fraternize with those who have turned aside to another gospel. Christian love has its claims, and divisions are to be shunned as grievous evils ; but how far are we justified in being in confeder- acy with those who are departing from the faith ? "With steadfast faith let us take our places; not in anger, nor in the spirit of suspicion or division, but in watchfulness and resolve. Let us not pre- tend to a fellowship which we do not feel, or hide convictions which are burning our hearts. The times are perilous and the responsibility of every individual believer is a burden which we must bear or prove a traitor." These are days when Christians especially Christian ministers, should stand by the fundamen- tal truths emphasized by a number of ministers in Brooklyn, New York; namely, "The preexis- tence, virgin birth, and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; his substantial atonement, bodily resur- rection and personal visible return ; the personality 123 The Exalted Life and ministry of the Holy Spirit, the inspiration and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, and the urgency of world-wide evangelization." 124 CHAPTER X. The Divine Sonship, Its Significance. As Dr. G. Campbell Morgan said in Dayton, Ohio, a few years ago, the next great battle to be fought will be over the divine sonship. The battle is already raging, and Christian people that want to be right must look to their anchorage. When whole denominations deny the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is well for orthodox churches to take heed that they be not deceived. Recently one of the professors in one of our universities, head of the department of English literature, gave public utterance, as reported, to the following: 'Tf Christ was not a man, as we are, then God, who was his Father is not our Father, in the same sense. Observe that Jesus taught us to pray to our Father, but not to his Father. Everywhere he teaches you that God is our Father ; nowhere does he set any limitation to that, or give the phrase any special or unusual meaning. Christ bids us be perfect; but we cannot, we are only men." Hear it again: *'*God is our Father, with whom we should have the same unity that Christ had." Once again : ''This doctrine that Christ was a God, and the only begotten Son of God, the Father, will leave us fatherless, orphans, or perhaps worse, stepchildren of a stern stepfather, and cer- tain of harsh dealings at his hands, except his own son be prevailed on to intercede for us." 125 The Exalted Life To me these words sound blasphemous, for they degrade both Christ and his Father. Some of these writers and teachers on the deity of Christ defame both Christ and his mother by making Christ illegitimate and his mother dissolute. In dealing with the subject, the greatest possible perspicuity is desirable; but with all the light possible of obtain- ment, it must be admitted that great mystery still veils it; but does this make it false and unworthy of acceptance? If so, then we must pity the man that is born of woman, the child that has to grow, the man that has to eat food, drink water, breathe air, home electricity in his body, carry a heart- pump to distribute his blood to prolong his life; even the scholar that turns his eye within to scan his own life, and then without to the heavens above, if, in order to life and happiness, he must solve all the mysteries connected with these things. In this connection will the reader please read the thirty-eighth chapter of Job, for an answer to ob- jectors to truth on the ground of mysteries. Everything on the line of man's recovery from sin here and his final endless blessedness in the hereafter, hinges on the nature, character, and work of Jesus Christ, our Lord. If Jesus was anything less than he said he was, then he was a deceiver, and the whole scheme of redemption falls through, and we are of all men the most miserable. That Jesus was human all admit, and so no defense of the statement is needed in this con- nection. The scriptural statement is, "The Word was made flesh." This is accepted; but Christ was divine — human. Man is only human, and cannot 126 The Divine Sonship, Its Significance be anything else until made a partaker of the divine nature. Even the first man, the head of the race, was classed as earthly. *'The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven." (I. Corinthians 15:47-50.) Is there not a very marked difiference in origin? The first man is of the earth; the second man is the Lord from heaven. The one has an earthly designation, noth- ing more ; the other has both the earthly and a heavenly, called "the Lord from heaven." The first is called "natural" ; that "afterward" is called "spiritual." This designation is kept up in the de- scendants of each. "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly," Paul makes this distinction very marked when he says, "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." In these Scriptures the two heads of the two orders of humanity are made so marked in their distinction, the one from the other, that there seems no grounds for questioning the superiority of the one over the other. The one man, the other divine- man ; the one had his origin and being on the earth only, the other had his being in both heaven and on earth, and belonging to both. Hear what Jesus says of himself : "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." "He that cometh down from above is above all ; he that is of the earth is earthly." This perfectly matches Paul's description as given above, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own 127 The Exalted Life will, but the will of him that sent me." Again : ''If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also ; and henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." *'Ye call me Master and Lord ; and ye say well ; for so I am." Once more, "Ye are from beneath ; I am from above ; ye are of this world ; I am not of this world." Speaking of his disciples he said, "They are not of this world, even as I am not of the world." Here Jesus reveals a new race, a new order of humanity, having a heavenly origin and thus ally- ing them with himself; and for this purpose he prayed for their separation and purification. The dual-nature of Christ, human and divine, is clearly indicated in the names given to him in the Scriptures. When he was born he was named "Jesus." This was his human name, and clearly in- dicated his mission as Savior, "for he shall save his people from their sins !" The second name by wdiich he is called is "Christ." He was so called by the woman of Samaria, and Jesus confirmed it in his reply to her. The woman said, "I know that the Messiah cometh, which is called Christ; v/hen he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he." This name means the anointed one, the same as Messiah, as used by Daniel, ninth chapter and twenty-sixth verse. This name connects him with the priestly and prophetic offices, and so may be regarded as his official name, putting him on a plane higher than the merely human. 128 The Divine Sonsliip, Its Significance The third name is "Lord," his divine name, and connects him with the work of creation. 'Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." (Hebrews 1 : 10.) John says, ''All things were made by him; and without him was not any- thing made that was made." Before passing to further note Christ's pre- existence, it is worthy of a moment's pause to note the number of times that the name "Jesus" is used more than the name "Christ." Jesus, the human name, is used some six hundred and seventy times, while Christ, the official appellation, is used only or about three hundred times. Then these names are used interchangeably, Christ Jesus, and Jesus Christ, but not nearly as often as singly. The number of times that the name "Lord" is used, as applied to Jesus, is very difficult to determine, as it is so often used interchangeably with God, the Father, and runs into the thousands numerically. Now, as to the preexistence of Christ, it is well worth our thought to note what he says of this himself. In John 8: 58, he says, "Before Abraham was, I am." Note, he does not say. Before Abraham was, I was ; but I am. This takes us back to Exo- dus 3 : 14, where God in addressing Moses, and tell- ing him what to say to Pharaoh, said, "I AM hath sent me." This is expressed in Colossians 2 : 9, "In him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." In John 10:30, Jesus says, "I and my Father are one." In this connection turn to John 14 : 7-10. Here Jesus asserts that "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." 129 The Exalted Life Here we of necessity are confronted with the mystery of the trinity — three persons in one — three persons in action, but only one in being. This three- fold personality is strikingly illustrated when Jesus was baptized. (Luke 3:21, 22.) Here Jesus was the subject, the Holy Spirit, the anointer, came down, and God, the Father, by a voice from heaven commended Jesus as "his beloved Son." Here are the three modes of action and manifestation, but only one being. We have in man what writers have been pleased to characterize as a trinity — body, soul, and spirit. The body may die, as it will ; the mind be wrecked, as it sometimes is, and the spirit go to God, who gave it. The body is not the man; the soul is not the man ; the spirit is not the man ; but together they make the man. One being, in action manifold. It must be readily granted that the revelation of God in his son Jesus Christ, as given in the New Testament, is the mystery of all mysteries. It is expressed as a mystery in the Scriptures. "Great is the mystery of godliness ; God manifest in the flesh." Here we have the divine-human God and man a verity. As previously stated, the humanity of Jesus is ad- mitted, so there need be no time given to its con- sideration. He was very man. He had a human birth. He had a human body, he grew, ate, slept; was weary, died, was buried, was resurrected, and ascended to heaven, all in bodily, physical mani- festations. Then he had both soul and spirit, for we read of his being troubled in soul, and of his commending his spirit to his Father when dying on 130 The Divine Sonship, Its Significance the cross. So he was a perfect man, having body, soul, and spirit. But was he divine? The Scriptures must be our source of appeal. In John 1:1, 3, we have the most unquestioning evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ. 'Tn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In the fourteenth verse of this same chapter we read, "And the Word" — which in verse one is called God — "was made flesh, and dwelt among us." "Word" as used here is very significant. It is the expression of something. With us we use writ- ing to symbolize sound; so that instead of ex- pressing a thought by sound we express it by written characters. This mode of expression borders more on the literal, the materialistic. While writing symbolizes sound, sound in turn symbolizes thought, the nearest approach that is possible to the spiritualistic conception. Now, as thought can be known only by some sign or symbol, so the divine nature and character, being spiritual, can be revealed only by some di- vinely designated mode of instrument chosen for that purpose. This thought is made clear in I. John 1:1, where we read, "That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life." This life, John goes on to show, "was manifested." Could there be any better description given of the divine one, as revealed in Christ, than is here given? Thoughts must take form. Jesus gave form and expression to God, the Father. 131 The Exalted Life This same character is spoken of by John in Rev- elation 19: 13, where he says, "And he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood : and his name is called The Word of God." Here is the world's Redeemer clothed in a robe of the color of which proclaims his character and his mission to all the worlds. His vesture tells who he is. He is followed by armies, mounted on white horses, and clothed in fine linen, white and pure. These soldiers wore the white because he whom they followed wore the red. Would any other colored horses than white have been becoming to these armies ? Nothing but white will do when following this ''King of kings, and Lord of lords." In further designation of this divine character who was the embodiment of the perfections and the "collective thought of God," we read that he was "the power of God and the wisdom of God." "It pleased the Father that in him should all ful- ness dwell." "In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." His preexistence, his eternity, is expressed in the words, "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." Then the worlds were made by him. "All things were created by Jesus Christ." (Ephesians 3:9.) Paul, in his letter to the Philippians says, "Let this mind be in you, which v/as also in Christ Jesus : who be- ing in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Jesus prayed, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world 132 The Divine Sonship, Its Significance was." Then Christ existed before the earth was created. In the first chapter of Hebrews, Christ's pre- existence and his supremacy are stated in the clear- est and strongest language. He is called God's ''Son," ''heir of all things," "maker of the worlds," "the brightness' of the divine glory," "the express image" (substance) of the divine person, "uphold- ing all things by the word of his power," "made better than the angels," called "first-begotten," "an- gels to worship him." To his own Son the Father said, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." Again, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." The foregoing Scriptures plainly indicate the character of Christ, his revelation of God, the Father, and his work in the world's redemption. Christ was not only the manifestation of God on earth, but he was God, and doing God's work on earth. This his disciples were slow to apprehend, as seen in the case of Philip; but, it was not be- cause the manifestations were not sufficiently clear, but because of the slowness and dullness of their hearts. That Christ is more than human is well verified by the mighty revolutions that his life and teach- ing have wrought among the nations where they have gone. Where is there a power less than divine, that could have wrought the changes that are so marked in all lands where the gospel mes- sage has been carried? Think of the millions of lives that it has changed and made new, and all as 133 The Exalted Life the result of the spreading of the Hfe and teachings of this one strange character. Could all this pro- ceed from a mere man? Is there nothing convinc- ing and appealing in the personal, conscious, inner experience of these millions? How can this man, if only a man, come into the life of another, and so recreate that life as to make him a new creature? Paul says, '*If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new." Again he says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." This Paul calls a mystery, and so it is, and here is one of the evidences of its divineness. Can a mere man so take possession of another as to make that other his abiding place, and by so abiding become or im- part to him this wonderful hope, called "the hope of glory"? Can a man make anything higher than himself? God is a spirit, and so he can come and abide in the human spirit; but how can Christ so abide if he is only human? Did he not say, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him and he with me" ? But how can he if he is not, as God, a spirit? It is on this plane of fellowship with Christ, in a spiritual sense, that the wonderful transforma- tion in the world, among various nationalities, and the millions of individuals, have obtained and been carried forward. Without this contact with Christ, this transfusion and transmutation of his divine life into the human life, these changes would never have been known. The world would have swept 134 The Divine Sonship, Its Significance on through the centuries, going from bad to worse, like a Niagara Falls, or a desolating flood. Here in the birth and life of Jesus we have the beginning of a new order of humanity, a new race, a divine family, the spiritual family of God. The spirit- that was in Jesus, the iirst-born, the head of the family, is to be the family temper and life. It was to be the mark of kinship. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Then note how Christ teaches the great lesson of how he becomes the very life of his people. The hungry multitude was about him, and it was a question with the disciples as to how they were to be fed. Jesus answered the question, and then lifted their thoughts to a higher need, spir- itual hunger, and gave himself as the pro- vision for it saying, 'T am the bread of life." If we become physically what we live on, then what do we become when we live on ''the bread of God which cometh down from heaven," as Jesus called himself? Paul expresses this wonderful transform- ation when he says, "I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Again he says, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." As the foods that are gathered from the grain fields, the pasture fields, the orchards, the vineyards, the gardens, and the rivers and the seas, become by a strange and mysterious transmutation, our life physically, so by faith Jesus becomes to us spiritually what these foods become physically, our life. As the food becomes me, by my living on it, so Jesus becomes me, by my living on him; but could 135 The Exalted Life this be true if he were only human? Jesus said, "He that eateth me, he shall live by me." As it was said, "Who can forgive sins but God?" so it may be said, "Who can give life but God?" Jesus said, "I came that they might have life." He forgave sins, saying, "Go, sin no more." He had power on earth to forgive sins, and verified it by the miracles that he wrought. His purpose in coming into the world was to do away with sin, and to destroy the works of the devil. John says, "He was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin." Could there be manifestation without preexistence, and could there be preexistence with- out God? Jesus Christ was God manifested, or God incarnate. Paul says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." (H. Corinthi- ans 5 : 19.) John calls Jesus the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelation 13:8.) These Scriptures so unify God and Christ, and so confirm the preexistence of Christ, that no reasoning can break or destroy the unity of their personality — one in being, in action manifold. Now, the Scriptures ranging through this chapter, with the great lesson touching the divine sonship that they so clearly teach, prepare the way for the multiplication of the divine family by the new birth or personal regeneration. As previously stated, God, by the birth of Jesus, begins a new order of humanity, establishes a new family relationship. The first family was estab- lished in Eden, under law. This family failed and was lost. The head of that family was created, and was sinless, but fell. Now God, the Father, starts 136 The Divine Sonship, Its Significance another family, a spiritual family, of which Jesus is the head, the eldest son. This family begins with a sinless head, as did the first, but did not, like the first, lose the inheritance and doom the family to ruin and failure. The head of this family was born, not created. In Romans 8 : 29, Jesus is called "the first-born among many brethren." This puts Christ in a very unique relation to the Church. Paul in Colossians 1 : 15-18 calls Jesus "the first-born of every crea- ture," and then says that "by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in the earth ... all things were created by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist . . . who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead." In Hebrews 12: 23, the Church is called the "Church of the first-born," and in Isaiah 9 : 6, he is called "a child born," a "son given," and his name is given as "Wonderful," "Counselor," "The Mighty God," "The Everlasting Father," "The Prince of Peace." Think of this wonderful blending of power and relationship in one being — child, son, God, "all and in all," "full of grace and truth." 137 CHAPTER XL Regeneration of the New Humanity. There are two orders or classes of humanity in- dicated in the Scriptures, designated and distin- guished as "flesh" and ''spirit," or the "natural" and the "spiritual" man. The one is born after the flesh, and minds the things of the flesh. The oth- er is born after the Spirit, and so minds the things of the Spirit. In the nature of things it cannot be otherwise than this way. Each of these lives has its own trend, like the fountain that is bitter or sweet, or the tree that is good or bad. These op- posite natures can have issues only in harmony with their natures. When John says, "Now are we the sons of God," he designates a royal family, one of royal birth and blood. All its members are princes. True, the world may regard them as traveling incognito, under an assumed title, and class them as among the "offscouring of the earth," but notwithstanding this they are journeying to a far-famed city, where they are to be crowned as kings. Their day of glory will be by and by. "They shall shine as the stars forever and ever." They are not only to be crowned as kings, but they are to sit with Christ on his throne. How can it be that the once fallen, ruined, corrupted, and debased, can finally be so exalted? This all clearly comes as the result of a change of nature ; "being made partakers of the di- vine nature." 138 Regeneration of the New Humanity Nothing short of the divine character itself suf- ficed as a type of this Hfe at the beginning. "Let us make man in our image, and let him have do- minion," were God's final thoughts for man at the first. True, the crown has fallen from the brow of royalty, and a once noble and princely character has gone into the direst surf dom ; but God has been pleased to reveal his "first-born" as the second head of the race, and thus restore the character so in- gloriously lost. In John 3 : 16, Jesus is called God's "only begot- ten Son," and in I. John 3:1, we read of "sons of God." How, it may be asked, can this be ? While it is plainly taught in the Scriptures that there is a common ground of fellowship between Christ and his Church, there is a preeminence given him over all created things. "It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell," and "that in all things he might have the preeminence." God has "put all things under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." So there is a sense, as indicated in these Scrip- tures, in which, preeminently, there is one only Son of God — the God-man. By way of this dis- tinction he is "the only begotten Son." He is the "eternal Son; his life is ageless and timeless." Jesus was God's son by nature, this makes his son- ship peculiar. All other sonship is founded on moral likeness, obtained by the new birth; hence only those having tliat likeness can be properly called the sons of God. 139 The Exalted Life In the genealogy given by Luke, Adam is called "the son of God," and rightly so as his creative son. How can we become sons now ? Not as Adam was. That sonship was lost through the fall, and it has never been restored. Man, to be restored to son- ship, must have a new beginning, be born again, have a spiritual generation. Some may ask how this can be. Jesus taught Nicodemus the absolute necessity of this change in life, but he did not tell him how it was done. He simply said that in order to see (experience and enjoy) and enter into the kingdom of God, he must be born of the Spirit. We become sons of God, figuratively, as we be- come by birth sons of men, sons of the first Adam. The way we came to be flesh was by birth; so Jesus taught Nicodemus. This birth is the door into the physical life. There is no other way into the kingdom of nature. In sorrow we must admit that we were poorly or badly born. We all came from a fallen parentage, a fallen ancestry. We were all ''conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity." This sad inheritance we cannot help. We had nothing to say as to where or how we would be born, or whether we would be born at all ; but how- ever, we may have been born, circumstantially, we all agree as to the moral nature. We all started with a bad heart. Who has not found this out to his certain sorrow? Air, food, climate, water, country, and race, make no very marked difference. We all started wrong. Our trouble is centrally located, in the heart. Men do not have to get old in order to become criminals. The inmates of our jails and our prisons are, in a great majority of 140 Regeneration of the New Humanity cases, young men. So the disturbers of the peace on our streets and in our churches are of this youthful class. Now, how can this natural, evil tendency be changed? Born bad we were, after iithe flesh. There is only one way, a new, fresh start by a birth from above — there is no other way to get into the kingdom of God ; there is no other way into the divine family, to be sons of God, than by a spiritual birth. As we entered the physical world by birth, so by birth we must enter the spiritual world, or kingdom. Below this kingdom of grace stand four other kingdoms, the mineral, the vege- table, the animal, and the rational (mind and soul) kingdom ; then comes the spiritual, the kingdom of God. To become sons of God we must enter this kingdom. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." There is the highest philosophy in this divine requirement. We must have or be of the nature of the world that we live in. We could not live in this physical world if we were not of its nature. God's requirements are not arbitrary, but founded on highest reason. We cannot see until we have eyes. Who can tell the colors in the rainbow, the color of the clouds, of the sky, of the plants and of the flowers when blind? The natural man, the Bible says, does not discern spiritual things. In order to this discernment there must be a nature that belongs to, and is like the spiritual. It is not arbitrary, but wholly a question of capacity, of fitness, of likeness or affinity of natures. There must be a change of standing — a change from the 141 The Exalted Life old to the new, from the carnal to the spiritual, from the first Adam to the second Adam. Here Christ is the typical life, and the fashioning must be after this divine image. Just as by natural generation we bear the image of the earthly, so by regeneration we come to bear the image of the heavenly. This wonderful change comes as the result of having this new, Christ-life begotten within us by the Holy Spirit. Here is divine conception. If *'lust can conceive," and James says it can (James 1:15), and "bring forth sin," then the Spirit can conceive and bring forth righteousness. Here we have the true theory of evolution, having first invo- lution — ''Christ our life." Then this change does not come, as some are wont to think, as the result of culture or training or self-reformation. John tells us what it does not come from (John 1 : 13) : First. It is ''not of blood," that is, it is not an inheritance. The grace of life does not come through natural generation. Parents, however good, cannot transmit the life they received by faith. At the first, Adam begat a son in his own likeness. It has been so of his descendants ever since. Solo- mon, the wise man, had only one son and he was a fool. His father could transmit only what was natural to him, not what he acquired. Second. Nor does it come "of the will of the flesh." This cuts out all self-regeneration. Here comes in the beguiling snare of morality. "I will reform," says the sinner, "and become a moral, up- right man." Let him try it, and see if he can be 142 Regeneration of the New Hum^anity come anything else or more than an artificial char- acter. He may be a *'bonney social bouquet," but it is home-made, artificial, and hence cannot pass as genuine. Can a clock that is going wrong by ten minutes every twenty-four hours, be corrected simply by turning the hands on the dial-plate ? The trouble is not with the hands. They are honest hands. They tell out to the eye of the beholder the trouble that is concealed within. Something must be done on the inside, at the center of the clock, and when that is properly adjusted the han^s will report the correct time as the hours and the days go by. What wise fruit grower would think of changing the fruit on a bad tree by pulling the fruit off in the autumn time and throwing it away? He would know that that tree would bear the same kind of fruit the next autumn. The fruit was not to blame for being bad, it was honest fruit. It could not help itself, it had nothing to do with its quality or nature. If different fruit is to be grown that tree must have its nature changed, there must be some grafting done. The tree is wrong inside. The fruit must have another source, a good source, from which to grow before it can be good. What man would attempt to change the nature of the water in his well, that was ruining the health of his family, by simply putting in a new pump, with a silver stock and a golden spout ? The trouble is not with the pump, or with the family, it is with the water itself. It must be changed, and bringing it through a channel made of the costliest jewels would not remedy the evil. Something must be 143 The Exalted Life done with the water or with the source from which it comes. Third. "Nor of the will of man." This change does not come from being well-born, nor from any moral, or mental, or physical energy exercised by the individual, neither does it come from any collective force from many individuals. No church, however strong and sound its creed, or numerous and solemn its sacraments, can produce this change that makes a "new creature" out of an ol(i one. If all the churches in Christendom were to unite in one ecclesiastical federation, and bring all their power of brain and hnirl to bear on one poor, penitent, weeping sinner, they could not change him into a saint. He would still be the Ethiopian with his color and the leopard with his spots. What folly in the face of sound philosophy and good scriptural teaching, to base the new birth on water baptism, and then more especially on a cer- tain mode of administering it. If that that is be- gotten partakes of the nature of that of which it is born, then what can we say of one that is self- begotten, or ecclesiastically begotten? Now, as in the case of the disordered clock, the bad fruit, and the impure water, so here the trouble is with the individual himself. He cannot develop what is not in him. If the fountain is bad so is the stream, if the tree is bad so is the fruit, and if the heart is bad so is the life. Environment, however good, cannot remedy the evil. Put a sick man on a bed of eider-down, environ it with curtains of damask, and in the most 144 Regeneration of the New Humanity palatial residence and he will writhe with pain and pass to his grave. The trouble is in him and not in his surroundings. One man is in misery and hopeless despair living in a royal residence, while another will shout and sing within the walls of a grimy prison. Fourth. Now, if this wonderful change cannot come on any of the lines named above — "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man" — then on what line does it come? John says that God gives the power, privilege, or author- ity, "to become the sons of God." How? By birth. Of whom? "Of God." Here we have a divine heredity, which accounts for all that may and can be said of these heavenly citizens. But what a moral, more especially spiritual gulf there is between the old and the new life ! It is as wide as that between life and death, holiness and sin, God and Satan — and, in its final issue, as heaven and hell. Now, as "sons of God" there must be a re- semblance between God, as Father, and his children. This ought to settle that question of universal fatherhood about which we are hearing so much these days. There are two lines of humanity, each having a different fatherhood, and designated and distinguished as "flesh" and "spirit," "carnal" and "spiritual." It is true that in the earthly origin, at the beginning of the human race, God was the creator of universal humanity, because Adam was the whole of humanity when he was made. But was that state and relationship maintained, and has it come down to us through the centuries? Did 145 TDhe Exalted Life God maintain the same relationship to man after the fall that he did before? Was man still God's moral and spiritual child? If so, what did the sen- tence of death mean? Had it any meaning? If death means destruction, separation, how did it take effect and what its effect? Did it sunder relationship, and if so in what sense? Did Adam still hold his relationship as ''son of God" after the fall? If so, what did the fall do in changing the relationship? If a son, was he still an heir? If so, what did he forfeit? Then, where does the serpent, the devil, come in in this ruin? God said, "Thou shalt die," Satan said, "Thou shalt not surely die." Did not man die? God said, "in the day thou eatest thereof." Was this not spiritual death, separation from God? If so, was sonship still maintained? Then, where does Christ come in in the plan of restoration? He was the promised seed, and was to recover the lost relationship. What was that relationship? Does it not imply and embrace sonship? If sonship, which implies fatherhood, sur- vived the wreck of the fall, then how was it necessary for God to have another son to begin another family, established and based on spiritual birth and adoption? Then again, how can there be two heads unless there are two lines of moral humanity? Adam is the federal head of the fallen humanity; Jesus Christ is the living head of redeemed and saved humanity. Now is there not a marked difference between the two? Is God the Father of the one the same as he is of the other? If so, how, in what 146 Regeneration of the New Humanity sense? What constitutes the kinship between God and fallen humanity? He is holy, consequently "separate from sinners." All the descendants of Adam were "conceived in sin and shapen in iniq- uity." Can they in this moral condition have re- lationship and fellowship with God as Father and sons? The position of the writer is that there is a spiritual fatherhood and a true spiritual brother- hood, but that neither of these is universal. The spiritual brotherhood is composed of all that have been "begotten again." As Peter says, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for- ever." (I. Peter 1 : 23.) Now what fellowship can there be between those that are born of the Spirit and those that are born after the flesh — "conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity"? What fellowship was there between these two as seen and repre- sented in Abraham's family? Paul makes this plain. He says, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." He goes on to say, "But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." (Galatians 4:28, 29.) John makes this distinction very plain when he says, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth [lives in] not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (in the wicked one). (I. John 5: 18, 19.) Again John says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin [live sinfully] ; for his 147 The Exalted Life seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (I. John 3:9.) Here the very nature of God dwells within the believer, hence he cannot practice sin or be living a sinful life. In the tenth verse of this same chapter, John says, "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil : whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." Here the two classes — "children of God," "children of the devil" — the one living in the practice of righteousness, having the divine nature as its source; the other living in the practice of sin, having the devil or evil na- ture as its source — for "he was a sinner from the beginning," and "he that committeth sin is of the devil." Hear Jesus as he addresses the scribes and Phar- isees on a very important occasion, on this very question of fatherhood: "If God were your Father, ye would love me . . ye are of your father the devil . . he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:37-44.) Here Jesus clearly designates the nature as being false, and the life per consequence must agree therewith; hence the life was false, a lie. Not a lie told but a lie lived — the Hfe itself a lie. Jesus would say, "I am the truth," hence I speak what I am, the truth. You are a lie, because your father is that, and hence you speak what you are. The individual will be servant of what he is and of 148 Regeneration of the New Hunianity what he does. "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." In contrast with this we have the words, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Again, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." In this great controversy in the eighth chapter of St. John, Jesus makes a distinction between Abra- ham's seed and Abraham's children. He admits the one, but does not admit the other. "I know that ye are Abraham's seed." The claim made was that "Abraham is our father." Note the reply that Jesus gave to this : "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham." Abraham never did what you are trying to do, "kill me," hence you are not his children. Here the two posterities of Abraham are clearly noted and contrasted. "The Israelitish people and the Ishmaelites" are classed as the seed of Abra- ham. Now comes the children of God, the posterity of faith. "They are not all Israel," says Paul, "which are of Israel : neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children ; but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called." That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the child- ren of God. (Romans 8:6-8.) How then is he their Father? In Galatians 3 : 6-9, Paul designates those that are the children of Abraham, and consequently share the blessings that come in the line of faith and spiritual sonship. He says, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for right- eousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." Now 149 The Exalted Life note the sweeping statement in the eighth verse: ''And the scripture, forseeing that God would justify the heathen [Gentiles] through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful [believing] Abraham." But only the believing ones. This thought lias been followed and elabor- ated at greater length than was at first intended; but in some way, wisely or unwisely, it grew in importance and magnitude as the grounds of evi- dence were being surveyed. Now for a brief purview of the chapter : 1. The elements or ground of original sonship, which sonship was creative, were lost through the fall, man died; the divine image, moral likeness, was effaced. 2. Through the promise of a Savior in order to reestablish and conserve through the intervening centuries the unity of the human and the divine, God selected a certain individual, a certain family, and finally a certain nation, in and through which he could work. Here fatherhood was established; but in "a patriotic and national sense." In harmony with this we read, 'T am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born." (Jeremiah 1:9.) Isaiah says, Jehovah is our Father: he is the pot- ter and we are the clay. (Isaiah 64: 8.) Here we have the idea of creation, as in Acts 17:29, where man is called — not by inspiration but by Athenian poets — the "offspring," the creative work of God. Here we have nothing about fatherhood. 150 Regeneration of the New Humanity 3. We have fatherhood and sonship in the New Testament, based on faith, and the new birth. Some of the characteristics of this relationship will be noted in the ensuing chapter. In Genesis 3: 15,- we have the first promise, and the beginning of the new race— "Abel, Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and Jesus, the Christ." In no instance have we univer- sal fatherhood and universal brotherhood in the New Testament sense. 151 CHAPTER XII. Some of the Characteristics of Sonship. Some may not be able to recall with the precise- ness of the almanac the exact day, nor with the clock the exact hour when the new birth occurred as a conscious experience; but the fact of its occurrence is not less true or less important on this account. There may be grounds for temptations and for Satan's assailments because of this, es- pecially in the light of very vivid and striking ex- periences as related by others; but all honest, per- severing ones that are anxious to be right, will find their "path as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." So far as evidence is concerned, it is only a question of perseverance. God can and will make himself known to his own. "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." (Hosea 6:3.) 1. The event, when and however occurring, is a joyous one. It was a "happy day when Jesus washed our sins away," and must ever remain in our memory. The day and place of our natural birth has wonderful power to stir sensibilities, and the years never seem long and heavy enough to deaden us to it. When old and stricken in years joyous pilgrimages to the homes of childhood are often made where sweet sylvan-toned voices from 152 Some of the Characteristics of Sonship out the past fill all with most redolent memories. Who is there that does not like to go back to the scenes of childhood, to that place where that won- derful event occurred that brought into this world a member and a representative of the kingdom of God? What festivity reigned in that home, how- ever humble it may have been! Now, if this event of our natural birth was so joyous as to be held and cherished in memory through the passing years, how much more precious and sacred and joyous ought the memory of our spiritual birth to be! That "happy day that fixed our choice" for Jesus and for heaven ought, of all days, to be the most joyous and the sweetest in memory. If when the cornerstone of creation was laid, it was celebrated by "the morning stars singing together, and all the sons [angels] of God shouting for joy," what ought the music to be when a lost soul, an alien from God, has the kingdom of God brought in to him, and he enters, by spiritual birth, the family of God? Is it any wonder that there is "joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth"? (Luke 15: 10.) Jesus always brings joy when he comes. Zac- cheus received him joyfully. Did any one ever receive him otherwise? He brought joy to both heaven and earth when he was only a babe in Bethlehem. There was joy in the temple when Spirit-guided ones saw and recognized him. The people shouted for joy when he was in his humble but triumphant march into Jerusalem. The little children shouted for joy when he cleansed the tem- ple of its profaners. Many w^ere made glad under 153 The Exalted Life his ministry of love and grace when he was among men. After the tragedy of the cross, and the con- quest of death, he gladdened his disciples by ap- pearing in their midst and showing them his hands and his side. "Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord." Then when Jesus went away into heaven he poured a floodtide of glory and blessing upon this fallen world by what he said and by what he did. Note these last things : He sent the promise of his Father, the Holy Spirit, upon his disciples ; he led them out and blessed them ; in their sight he was carried up into heaven; they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, "and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God, Amen." Then when Jesus went away, he left a kingdom, the constituent elements of which ought to set this world fairly wild to enter it. It consists of "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Who would not like to live under the sway of such government? Everybody upright, all living at peace, the one with the other, and all happy filled with joy. Now, all this rich inheritance here, and all that richer inheritance promised hereafter, depends on our sonship. There can be no sonship without a spiritual birth, and there can be no inheritance with- out belonging to the divine family. "If children, then heirs," not only can there be no inheritance, but there can be no fellowship without the impar- tation of this divine nature. "What fellowship has Christ with Belial?" There must be kindred life between father and son. It was so between 154 Some of the Characteristics of Sonship Christ and his Father, and it must be so between God and those that are born of him. Was not this what Jesus prayed for? "That they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may be- lieve that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one : I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." (John 17:21-23.) Note that this unity is typed after the unity of Jesus and his Father, "That they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me." Again, "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." Here we have the communication of life and nature. The same life that was in Christ was in his disciples, for he says, "I in them, and thou in me." As the nature of the Father was in the Son, so that same nature is carried by Christ into those whom the Father had "given him out of the world." There is another thought in this connection worthy of consideration. Where there is the communica- tion of life and nature there will also be the spirit of reciprocity. How can a life derived from God be other than kindred, and how can it unfold itself in its possessor except in likeness to the one that gave it? Love will respond to love; life will be given for life. Self will be denied and the cross will be taken, and all this that the disciples might have fulfilled in him that for which Jesus prayed. That they might have "my joy fulfilled in themselves." 155 The Exalted Life I am sure no one can rightly estimate and ap- preciate the privilege and the joy of this transfer from and out of the earthly family to this heavenly family. The name at once goes on the family rec- ord above, on the ''Lamb's Book of Life." Jesus made this, and not the casting out of devils, the main occasion for the joy of his disciples, "that their names were written in heaven." This is the joy of the prodigal at home, of the convict and the felon delivered by pardon from his prison cell ; and of a long-oppressed slave and captive set free. The half has never been told. 2. There will be the child-feeling, the filial feel- ing. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." This instinct in the natural is not more marked than in the spiritual child; but do we al- ways think and speak of him as becom'eth sons ? Do we not rather think of him as law-giver, judge, al- mighty sovereign, and a God of vengeance, rather than as Father? He is all these, but Father is the child, the family name. The world that lieth in wickedness speak of him by the harsh and re- vengeful epithets, but never with the inner con- sciousness of his being Father. Only his own child- ren can speak of him after this manner. Christ always honored him as Father, using the name some fifteen times in his Sermon on the Mount. He talked about his watching the sparrow's fall, of his feeding the birds, of his clothing the lilies, and of his numbering the hairs of our heads. He tells us of his larger willingness over any earthly father to do good to his children. "How much 156 Some of the Characteristics of Sonship more," are the words which he uses in the compari- son. In John 10 : 29, he tells of his Father holding all his children in his hand, and, by reason of this, of their absolute safety. **No man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands." 3. There will be the family temper. John says (I. John 4: 7, 8) : "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God ; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Again, "He that loveth God loveth his brother also." Language is strong at this place and in this connection : "He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." "H a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." We have it still stronger, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." These words tell in the strongest possible way the importance of love among Christians, and the awful crime of the opposite temper obtaining. He that professes to love God, and then carries hatred in his heart, is branded by the spirit of inspiration as a liar. Still worse, he is classed as a murderer. Such a man is lost, whatever and however his pro- fession may be to the contrary. Christ cannot live in such a heart nor with such a character. He is a murderer, and hence cannot have eternal life abiding in him. Oh, that God's sons would weigh well these words in the light of the awful character they give to the one that "hateth his brother." It was this feel- ing that incited to the first murder on record. It is of this feeling that murder comes. This kind of 157 The Exalted Life Spirit belongs to the devil and his children, not to the sons of God. Law says murder is an act, a deed done. Christ says it is a temper. Just as adultery may be in the desire only, so murder may be in the spirit of hatred only. Love never works any ill to a neigh- bor, and a neighbor is any one we can help, any one in need. The spectacle of a divided family is a sad one. I have heard of brothers in the same family not recognizing one another for years. I read of two sisters that lived in almost a life-long separation, and they the only surviving members of the family. I heard of a husband and wife, living under the same roof, that did not exchange words for a long time. How cruel and unnatural this all seems ! Wc never seem quite able to get used to it, and are never able to approve and commend the course. It might be better for some people — for this present world and their present peace — if wide continents and mighty seas divided them. A Confederate colonel is reported to have said, "Nothing my brother could do would ever make me refuse to speak to him." This shows the power of kindred feeling, and really represents the world's standard of love for the fam- ily. This being true, can the standard for the divine, the heavenly family, where the Holy Spirit is its life and its prevailing atmosphere, be lower? Let us as Christians not be deceived here. We may pro- fess that we have no enmity, but at the same time consciously or unconsciously, prefer the other side of the street in the city, or the seat across the aisle in the church. At least it is very natural and 158 Some of the Characteiistics of Sonship very easy to be quite formal and professional in our greetings to certain persons, and the very oppo- site to other persons not any better, if as good. Why? Jesus makes love the test of discipleship, and says, "By this shall all men know that ye are my dis- ciples, if ye have love one to another." Is there anything sweeter and more beautiful in hu- man relations — in wedded life, in family life, in the community and in society — than love? Where is there a bond that is stronger, that will stand as great a strain, as this? Now, if love means so much on the earthly plane and in human afifairs, what ought it to mean on the higher, the heavenly plane, where the very nature of God, who is love, is the basis of the life, the possession of which constitutes each individual a member of this divine household of faith? If love is world-convincing, as the very essence of our Father's nature stands above all miraculous gifts and human achievements, where will we individuals stand when weighed in the balance? The new commandment is, "That ye love one another, as I have loved you." Jesus, in his love for his dis- ciples, puts them on an equality with, if not even before his own mother. 4. There will be a family resemblance. In Romans 8 : 29, Paul says, "We are to be con- formed to the image of his Son." There is a law running through all creation, "that like begets like." This was true in the beginning of the race. "Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that 159 The Exalted Life which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Jesus does not say that it is Hke spirit, but that it is spirit. In I. Corinthians 11:7, Paul says that man "is the image and glory of God." When the divine nature is begotten within, it cannot be otherwise than that the beauty and glory of that nature will be imaged in and through the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit fixes the seal on the possession. Paul says, 'The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." Again he says, "God sealed us, and hath given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts." The early disciples were recognized as followers of Jesus because of their resemblance to him. The fruit must be of the nature of the vine, and Jesus is the vine. The divine life always to the divine likeness. 5. There will be family character. There will be exalted living. The mind of Christ will be all- masterful and directing here. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." To have the mind of another reveals real identity. It is to have his way of feeling, and doing, and living. To have the mind of Christ must work a great re- semblance to him in character. That mind will work out a pattern for our conduct, and will fashion us after his divine image. Rooted and grounded in God and not in alien soil, how can we grow other than into the divine likeness? There is no tend- ency sinward in that life that gives sonship. What shall we do then ? Give up in despair by yielding to the feeling that one can never live this Hfe, and thus keep on lapsing into sin? If Christ rules in a heart, 160 Some of the Characteristics of Sonship the very opposite feeling will obtain and stimulate the feeling of hope and zealous activity in the opposite direction. The divine nature never sins, whether in us or in Christ, and when that nature becomes our life, as Paul said it was his, we are at an end with sin- ning. "For me to live is Christ," is a very different life from for me to live is self. Self is the sin- ning life, Christ is the unsinning life. When we become a son of God our life must be and is very different from what it was before. If different, how different? Certainly in that of the moral life.' It cannot be what it was before. The whole moral atmosphere is changed. If "he that committeth sin is of the devil," (I. John 3:8,) then can God's sons live that kind of a life and still maintain the divine character? John says that God's sons do not sin,, and if they do, what, then, is the moral difference between the two classes named? Is there not, in fact, a mighty contrast? The one is born from above, and belongs to another world. He has his citizenship in heaven. The othei is from beneath, and belongs to this world which is enmity against God. The one is unhappy in pure and clean society ; the other is miserable and unhappy in sinful en- vironments. A pure nature shrinks and recoils from sm as from a deadly poison. The one has differ- ent blood in him, and blood and birth tell. Sin and sonship cannot be bound up in the same life. When Jesus becomes our life and helper, then right doing becomes easy, and wrong doing becomes hard and difficult; so difficult as to be expressed by the word "cannot." When "the law of the spirit of 161 The Exalted Life life" is within and ruling, then it is easy to over- come the "law of sin and death." Let every child of God take sides with the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Christ is stronger than the "world, the flesh, and the devil." "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." 6. God's sons will be devoted to their Father's interests beyond anything else. This devotion is seen in the elder brother of this family when he was only twelve years of age, in the words, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" These words addressed to his earthly parents sound as though he was already throwing off his obliga- tion to them. How early this divine conviction came into play in his life! His Father's business was the only business that he had on earth. It was "his meat and his drink to do the will of his Father." What business has any of God's sons on earth aside from that will ? Jesus makes the kingdom of God first in importance in all earthly pursuits. As previously stated, this kingdom can be entered only by the new birth, and when so entered the things and the interests of that kingdom become primal in importance and claim. This world be- comes first with the man that has no higher birth than that of the flesh; but when one is begotten by the Holy Spirit, and enters this new and heavenly relationship, then everything swings, or should, to a new center of attraction, and comes under a new, divine commandery. 162 Some of the Characteristics of Sonship This interest in the things of the divine kingdom is but natural to its spiritual adherents. What do strangers and aliens care for a man's property? It is the son that has the solicitude and devotion to the father's interest, for he is the heir. God has a cause on earth, and his children, like the Elder Brother, will be enlisted for its welfare. The cry still comes, as of old, "Son, go work to-day in my vineyard." The great Landlord is in need of work- men, and never more so than now. 7. There will be the home feeling, the longing to be at home. One said of old, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest." Simeon said, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Many weary, anxious ones are waiting for orders to come home. The orders will come by and by. Then everything will be dropped, and, Elijah-like, the chariot will be entered for the home journey. We are all gliding toward that city, and every passing day but brings us nearer to it. Already some of the heavenly odors are being wafted to us. We are told that cattle, when long at sea, and coming near enough to land to get a scent of the clover fields, seem fairly frenzied with delight. Christo- pher Columbus, the great discoverer, knew that he was getting near to land when a branch of a tree with a bird's nest on it, came drifting by his vessel. So there come signs to God's children that they are getting near home, the heavenly home. In some strangely happy way the world loses its attractions and its material hold on the pilgrim to the celestial 163 The Exalted Life city, and a deep, quiet, sweet longing comes into the soul to join the company that have already entered that city. Reader, are you going there ? Then be ready. 8. There will be a desire to keep up a constant communion with home. There must not be any long break here. The windows must be kept open toward this heavenly Jerusalem. Jesus kept in close touch with the Father and home. When for only one moment his Father's face was veiled from him on the cross, it was more than his sensi- tive spirit could endure in silence. He cried out in anguish, *'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" We should grow alarmed if long intervals pass without our hearing from home. How word and letters from friends absent from home help to keep up the connection and some way bridge and shorten the distance between. There is a wireless connection between the child here and the home yonder. How sweet the message that is whispered in times of need, loneliness, and sorrow ! Reader, do you get communications from hom&? If so, how often, and when last? 9. There will be a conscious assurance of the certainty of the inheritance. How many peo- ple these days want to become rich. Some hope to inherit a fortune when the old folks are dead. Then some want to marry rich. Well, here is a chance on both lines. That poor young lawyer that married the wealthy Miss Van- derbilt did well in an earthly sense, at least. He 164 Some of the Characteristics of Sonship marries his millions that marries a good wife, though she may be poor in earthly goods. Now for a moment think of what he who is espoused to Christ gains. He marries all that Christ is heir to. Paul says, *lf ye be Christ's, then are ye heirs." Again, "If a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Heir of God! Who can comprehend it? Then again, "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." What is Christ's heirship? Paul tells us in Hebrews 1 : 2, that God hath appointed him heir of all things." John says. "The Father loveth the son, and hath given all things into his hands." Who can measure the inheritance? We have an earnest of the inheritance here in the sealing of the Spirit. There will be no failure in probating the will ; there is no power that can contest it. Paul says, "All things are yours, and ye are Christs' and Christ is Gods." 10. As sons we may be sure of a joyous, glad welcome. We have the welcome given in the words, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Some one will be at the beautiful gates to give a glorious welcome. Who may it be? When the president of a Christian college was dying in Kentucky, just as he was breathing his last, he looked up with a flash of joy in his eyes and cried out, "My wife!" and fell asleep. 165 CHAPTER XIII. The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality, AS Seen in the Believer. The writer is well aware that he here enters one of the most difficult and critical fields of thought in all the realm of human exposition and human ex- perience. Few, if any, students of God's Word have approached this question as found in the seventh chapter of Romans without feeling a sense of personal insufficiency to make clear to devout readers the true relation of the ''flesh" and the "spirit" as found in this chapter. It has puzzled the profoundest theological writers, been the source of bitter controversy among ministers and church members, often resulting in alienations and divis- ions that have been sad and reproachful to the Church of Christ. This is to be greatly regretted, and is one of the strongest practical proofs that there is something still remaining in the composite life of the regenerate that is most degenerate in its tendency, as seen in I. Corinthians 3 : 1-4. In the first eight chapters of Romans, we have a wonderful condensation of contrasted subjects, such as the mortal body, the flesh, the mind, eternal life, law, grace, sin, death; Adam's disobedience, Christ's obedience, the old man, the new man, all of a very fundamental character, and of the ut- most interest to every Christian believer that wants to be right in heart and life. 166 The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality But with all the intricate perplexities that con- front the student and exegete of scriptural teach- ings, it must be that there is a safe and sane interpretation that can be given to this portion of the Word. If not, then why written ? Was it not, with other portions of the Scriptures, written for our learning? Being so fundamentally related to the highest living and experience of the Christian believer, surely it must have its basis in fact and and not in fiction. To be frank with ourselves and honest in our purpose in the study of this question, may we not find a sly and critical evasion of the real issue at stake? To one that wants to be right at any cost, and that is willing to look himself square in the face as revealed in the divine mirror, the mist of self-conceit and self-security will give way to a clear and open vision. Is this not clearly indicated in the seventh and eighth chapters of Romans? Paul was living, as he often affirms in his writings, a godly life as a Jew, but when he was converted new light came upon the law— under which he had been living according to the letter— and he now saw as he had not seen before its spiritual content. He now perceived that the "law was spiritual." This he had never seen before, and could not see while in his natural state. This experience of Paul reveals a fundamental pnnciple in the life of Christians in general. There is one phase of the law, the highest and most com- manding, that is hidden from view and cannot be of any conscious and convincing force to the indi- vidual until there comes into that individual a life 167 The Exalted Life that in nature and character is in correspondence with this phase of the law; namely, spiritual. This is made very plain in I. Corinthians 2 : 14, where Paul says, 'The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are fool- ishness unto him ; neither can he know them, be- cause they are spiritually discerned." The law of God, like his Word, has a spiritual as well as a literal meaning, both of which we deal with. When the life is on no higher plane than that of the letter, which relates specifically to the outward life, there may be no sense of guilt or condemna- tion; but when the higher, the spiritual import of the law is revealed, then legal justification is at an end. Paul makes this plain when he says, "I was alive without the law once ['newness of spirit,' in con- trast with 'the oldness of the letter'] ; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died." (Romans 7:9.) Here the apostle came under the dispensation of the Spirit, and now his nature and service must be spiritual ; his worship must be with the heart and not with the lips only. He must now live a new, an inward life, and not an outward one only, as he had been doing as a Pharisee. Jesus makes this very plain when addressing the Pharisees. A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and in doing so Jesus violated the traditional custom by sitting down to meat with un- washed hands. This caused the Pharisee to marvel, and was made the occasion of teaching a great lesson. Jesus said, "Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the plater; but 168 The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality your inward part is full of ravening and wicked- ness." (Luke 11 : 39.) In Matthew 23 : 28, this is made very forcible. "Ye outwardly appear right- eous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (See verses 25, 26, and 27 of this same chapter.) These are searching words, as all Christ's words are, and are well worth considering in this con- nection. Paul being a Pharisee of the Pharisees, as he says, "the son of a Pharisee," "after the most straitest [strictest] sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." Hear him again as he qualifies the flesh : "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more : circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an He- brew of the Hebrews ; as touching the law, a Phari- see ; concerning zeal, persecuting the church ; touch- ing the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." (Philippians 3:3-6.) Here we have a very striking definition of a form of legal righteousness with which Paul doubt- less had to wrestle. He was consecrated by cir- cumcision, was of Israelitish blood, of one of the most tender and exalted tribal relations, and was a descendant of the greatest nation (the only religious nation up to Christ's advent) known to history. As a religionist he belonged to the fore- most — the most popular and influential — class of 169 The Exalted Life his day, and distinguished himself for religious zeal and blamelessness of life. Who can think for a moment that it was not one of the fiercest and most strenuous battles that Paul had to fight? Who can measure its scope and the depth of agony involved in sundering all this re- lationship to kindred, church, training, and the hope of future greatness and glory, all based on centuries of religious history, all evolved from di- vine covenants and promises? It meant to throw off the bonds and covenants that had grown to be more sacred and dear than even life itself, and with his back turned on it all, at once face another way. But Paul met the issue bravely and unhesitat- ingly. He says : ''What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung [refuse], that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteous- ness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." (Philippians 3:7-9.) To his own righteousness and that of his kindred, which was of the law, Paul had to die. He says that we were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, and for the reason that we might be re- leased from it in order to union with another. (Romans 7:4.) Here Paul got a new vision of righteousness, that which was deeper and higher than the letter of the law. The latter he had kept and lived by for years ; 170 The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality but now he saw that another had taken his place under this phase of the law, had tasted death for him that he might thereby be delivered from the penalty of the law, that being dead wherein he was held, he might now serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:6.) Here he saw that the works of the law, as a means of salvation, were made good by one that had fulfilled the law's demands, and thereby made the way possible for one to be saved without the deeds of the law ; namely, by grace. This form of life was largely veiled, and yet all the time being revealed by the law, so that the ideal life in the Old Testament was very crude and imperfect, "for the law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope," a living hope. Here we have the two covenants, the imperfect and the periect, in contrast, the one now displacing or annulling the other. These covenants are desig- nated as carnal and spiritual, the one relating more especially to the outward, the fleshly life, while the other relates specifically to the inward, the spiritual life. The Tews were God's people nationally, his na- tional Israel, called his son, (Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1; 13:9-13,) and so were under covenants and laws relating to their temporal life and tem- poral welfare. It might be well to trace this thought for a moment, as given in the Scriptures, for the fuller illucidation of the two phases of life in men- tion, ihe carnal and the spiritual. God's first covenant was with Adam, and was for universal dominion. (Genesis 1 : 26; Psalm 8: 4-8.) 171 The Exalted Life As the sign and seal of this kingly dominion and the completed work of creation, God instituted the Sab- bath. Here the earth was man's kingdom, and in it he was humanly supreme. This was a temporal do- minion, though as yet in an unfallen world. The second covenant was with Noah, and was for the protection of the material world from an- other judgment flood. (Genesis 9: 9-10.) Here the token was the rainbow. Man failed under con- science, which was the law of the race after the fall, and this dispensation ended in the utter destruc- tion of everything outside of the ark. The third covenant was with Abraham, and re- lated to both temporal and spiritual blessing. For the temporal see Genesis 13: 14-17; 15: 18; 24:35. For the spiritual blessings see Genesis 15:6; John 8 : 56. The sign and seal of this covenant was cir- cumcision. To Abraham and to his national poster- ity it was literal ; but to those that are "of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all," it is spiritual, of the heart. (Romans 2:28,29.) The fourth covenant was with Moses, relating specifically to obedience, and hence was a cove- nant of works, of law. (Exodus 23:22-25.) As the covenant with Abraham was one of faith, the covenant with Moses naturally follows in the or- der — works following faith — it was first believe, and then express this belief in action. The sign of this covenant was the ark, called the ark of the covenant. This ark was made the receptacle of the law, the golden pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. (Exodus 25:16-22.) Elsewhere, (Hebrews 9:4), we are told of the contents of the 172 The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality ark, all of which made it a very sacred memorial to the children of Israel— God's mercy-seat, the law, wilderness food, and a budding rod— as well as typical of what was to come at the end of the Old Testament dispensation. The fifth covenant was with David, and relates to kingship— a throne, a scepter, a crown, and royal descendants. (II. Samuel 7:12-29.) The sign and seal of this covenant was the building of a temple, the most wonderful building ever erected on the earth, and well typified the spiritual temple of God as represented by Christ's body, his Church. The Holy Spirit is now building a habitation for God out of believers. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, etc." (I. Peter 2: 5.) The sixth and final covenant that we note is that made with the Church, and relates specifically to Christ's return to this earth to close up the gospel age. This return was told to the disciples by an angel, saying: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1 : 11.) Jesus himself said, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself." (John 14:3-7.) The sign here is the Lord's Supper, which is to be observed as a memorial until his return, "for as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." (I. Corinthians 11 : 26. ) Here Calvary and the return of Jesus bound and span the Church-age, the gospel dispensation, which events are to be kept alive in the memory of the Church by the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 173 The Exalted Life How important its observance ! Do Christians so consider it? Now, the writer has traced these covenants through in this brief and summary way for the purpose, if possible, of making the contrast the more striking between the old and the new, the carnal and the spiritual, as revealed more specially and specifically in the New Testament life in con- trast with that of the Old Testament, The one, the Old, was of necessity, owing to the moral and spiritual distance existing between God and man, characterized as carnal, earthly, fleshly. Paul makes the characterization very strong in the words, **Who is made, not after the law of a carnal com- mandment, but after the power of an endless life." (Hebrew 7:16.) Here the contrast is between the Aaronic priesthood, which made nothing perfect, and Christ who *'was made surety for a better, a perfect convenant." (Hebrews 7:22.) "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh : that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:3, 4.) Speaking of the first tabernacle Paul calls it a "worthy sanctuary which," he says, "was a figure for the time then present, in which were oflfered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience." Why? Because it consisted "only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal 174 The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality ordinances, imposed on them until the time of ref- ormation." (Hebrews 9: 10.) By ''reformation," Paul evidently refers to the new order, or the setting things right, or after a more perfect order; the contrast being between the old covenant which could not take away sin, or the consciousness of sin, and the new covenant which purifies from all moral and spiritual defilement by the blood of Christ. This cannot be expressed in a better or clearer way than in the language of Scripture itself. ''For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image [sub- stance] of the things, can never with those sacri- fices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in these sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second." (Hebrews 10:1-4,9.) This language of the Apostle Paul seems al- most the language of severity. Elsewhere the law is called the law of a carnal commandment, and it was set aside because of its unprofitableness in ac- complishing man's final redemption. Time had put the marks of age upon it, by reason of which it was ready to vanish away. Here was the want of abiding reality. It was more of the nature of a shad- ow than a real substance. It could renew the remem- brance of sin but it could not take it away. It left 175 The Exalted Life the worshiper all his life-time subject to bondage from fear of death and from being under the rudi- ments of the world. In Christ there is perfect freedom from fear, for this love casteth out all fear. He puts sin away by his incoming righteousness; he writes the law in the heart and not on tables of stone; it was the letter that was written on stone, it is the spirit- principle, and the power of obedience and of an endless life that is written in the heart. It was this that made Paul "delight in the law of God after the inward man." The Spirit was in the law; but it is now in the man, and working through the spir- itual faculties against his embodied condition brought on the war that was waging "in his mem- bers." He was the sould arbiter between the con- tending forces, and must decide with which party he will ally himself for final victory. Here is the field for Christian ithought and honest heart decision. A member of Christ's body, a branch of the divine vine; but are there no de- fects in this individual member, and is there no shortage in the fruit bearing? If so, why? Is there any defect in the head, or any lack of fruit-produc- ing qualities in the vine? Is the member perfectly fulfilling his functions in the body, and is the branch bearing its "much fruit" ? Christ in the believer is indeed a perfect worker, but is the agent in whom and through whom he wcirks a perfect instrument of service? So yielded as to be always usable? There is no question as to the divine sufficiency in Christ for every need of fallen man, but this 176 The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality is not always made available by the believer as in- tended. Hence the failures that mark the career of so many Christians, and the torturing pain and the moan of shame resulting therefrom. There can be no question about the penalty of sin being put away by Christ's death ; but the main, practical, experimental question with the believer, is the de- gree of his appropriation of Christ's life as a means of deliverance from, and the defense against sin in his own life. There is no hope whatsoever for the sinner under the law. His only hope is in the nullification of its penalty, and an acquired righteousness that frees him from the claims of the law. This twofold benefit is secured to him only in Christ. On the side of law Christ's right- eousness IS imputed to him, but on the side of grace it is imparted to him, so that in form and in fact, both judicially and experimentally, he has his stand- ing with his risen Lord ; but only on the ground of his accepting it by faith. This word "imputed" occurs quite frequently in both the Old and New Testaments. It occurs some seven times in the fourth chapter of Romans and covers not only the ground of law, but of grace as well. Hence, Paul says, that it was not written for those under the law only, ''but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our ofifenses, and was raised again for our justification." (Romans 4:24, 25.) This achievement that was first only a reckoning must be made actual and real in the life and ex- perience of the believer, or else, so far as he 177 The Exalted Life is concerned, Christ died in vain. Christ as cer- tainly stands for our redemption as Adam stands for our ruin ; but the one is ours by unavoidable inheritance, while the other is made ours by per- sonal choice. Christ does not take us from under moral law .^o that we are no longer in its sphere ; but he does through his death deliver us from its curse, and then by his life empower us to live in harmony with revealed law. Paul makes this very plain when he says, ''But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid." (Gala- tians 2: 17.) Xaw ministers death because it reveals sin, the penalty of which is death. Christ ministers life aiid righteousness, so that all that have union with him cannot be living in the practice of sin and still claim justification. Here justification is made a very high state of living, and he who claims this standing in Christ and at the same time practices sin, dishonors and de- fames the life of Christ. Christ's mission is to de- liver from sin and not to encourage and promote sin. The law ministers death, Christ ministers life, so these two can never work together in the same individual to the promotion of his justifica- tion and final salvation. This was the struggle, we repeat, in the early stage of Paul's life as a Jewish believer, and in some measure characterizes the experience of every earnest Christian, especially in the early stages of that experience. . Paul was what might be called 178 The Dual Nature, Carnality and Spirituality a Jewish Christian, and belongs to an ancient and, until his day, the only religious stock that could claim to be of divine origin and approval. This, in contrast with the new, the spiritual, was called carnal. This is noted in Hebrews 7 : 16, where we read of "the law of a carnal commandment," and again chapters nine and ten, where we read of "carnal ordinances." Now, living as he did under this order of things, his life was typed after them, and hence could not be judged by anything higher than the system r.nder which he lived. It was under this system that he claimed to be alive. "I was alive without the law once ; but when the commandments came, sin revived and I died." The consciousness of spiritual law brought consciousness of sin. Then the battle opened between what is called the carnal and the spiritual life. It was a fight between law- forces, the "law of God after the inward man," the heart-life, and the law reigning in the mem- bers, "my members," Paul calls it, resulting in cap- tivity. Here the forces of evil, environing the new life, is called a law, because of its oft controlling power in the life. "Members," as used here, is a very strong expression, indicating as it does, not only the extent of this force, but also their being agencies and instruments of sin. Here is a wide field for thought and a strong rrgency for prayer and a complete surrender of this citadel of sin to be transformed into a temple of God. Christ within, but with no suitable instru- ments with which to work, and no suitable dwelling m which to live, what can he do? 179 The Exalted Life It is the unit or oneness of man's life and not a dual nature that Christ wants in which to live and through which to work. To one of the seven churches he said, ''I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot." In the Old Testament it was, "Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve" ; in the New Testa- ment it is, ''Choose what ye will be." There must be some determining principle in the life that gives it a moral classification, either for good or for evil, and then there must be a definite choice be- tween the two. Here the power of the will in de- termining sin to the individual is seen. Perception of sin there may be, but still no condemnation. The same may be true of righteousness. It may delight the imagination, and may be a very charm to the individual, and still not be an actual possession. There may be an intense longing, as in the case of Paul, to do right, it may even be easy to will to do right, but to carry out that which in action is not al- ways easy. This "other law," having its location and action in the earthly nature, is the cause of the strife and the oft-repeated failures. This will be further considered in the ensuing chapter. 180 CHAPTER XIV. The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual IN THE Believer. We may think and talk about battlefields, and may condense into one sweeping vision all the blood and carnage of these fields through all the ages, but when it is done we have only a faint hint of the struggle and blood that a ransomed and tri- umphant soul has cost in winning the goal of eter- nal blessedness. The nature of the struggle, the character of the contestants, and the interest involved, outmeasure and outweigh all earthly achievements and all tem- poral gains. Here are eternal values that shall live and last when time has closed its books and stars and suns have faded out in eternal night. "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof ; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." The human heart is the great moral battlefield of the world. In a generic sense the heart stands for the whole moral nature, and is the home of all the good and the evil of that nature. In a sense it is the moral ego of the man, and yet it may have various forms of manifestation and activity. It stands for both unity and variety, which makes it exceedingly complex in the Scriptures. It covers the ground of the intellect, the emotions, and the will. Solomon says that "out of the heart are the issues of life.'' Jesus says, "Out of the heart pro- 181 The Exalted Life ceedeth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornica- tion, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies." (Mat- thew 15: 19.) 'These," he says "defile the man." In this connection read Galatians 5:19-21. Here are seventeen of the foulest things that the human imagination could ever conceive of, all the works of the flesh. Now put with these the four addi- tional ones that Jesus names — ''evil thoughts, thefts, false witnesses, and blasphemies" — and we have twenty-one works to blacken human charac- ter. Note that these are all "works," not "fruits." These are the things that are being enacted to-day in human life, not one of which the individual wants done to himself. And yet these things are lived and worked out in the lives of millions of human beings. Who can think of it? Reader, stop and reflect on these things for a moment, and then ask yourself whether you want to live such a life as is here described, or live in a community or city made up of such characters, or in a world where these things have the ascendant rule. It is utterly un- thinkable. These all come of the flesh, are the doings of the flesh. How different the character produced by the Holy Spirit, the fruit that is borne by the one in whom he dwells and rules. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentle- ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ; against which there is no law." (Galatians 5:22, 23.) These nine graces present a real and truly beau- tiful portrait of Christ, and from him, as the root and vine, are these to be reproduced in the life of his followers ; and when in full ascendancy are to so 182 The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual supplant and annul the works of the flesh that the believer can say with Paul, "I live, and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." But before this profes- sion can be truthfully made, there must be the "crucifixion with Christ," the reckoning with the "old man." Between these two goals — God and Satan, holi- ness and sin, life and death, heaven and hell — man stands as a real definite personality. This person- ality, very marked and distinct in the seventh chap- ter of Romans, which must not be regarded as a myth, an allegory, or a mere figure of speech, "a hyperbole of Oriental rhetoric," but as a fixed and definite reality. Marriage and widowhood, the relation of husband and wife, and the severance of this relationship by death, as given in this chapter are fixed realities both in Scripture and human ex- perience. Marriage is unity; death severs this unity, so that what is impossible and improper be- fore death, becomes possible and proper after death. (Romans 7: 1-3.) Paul here teaches that the right- eousness by law and the righteousness which is by faith cannot inhere in the same individual at the same time. This is classed as adultery, and de- bauches the moral life. It is an effort to establish two modes of living and two sources of righteous- ness. This gave Paul his deep concern for the Roman Christians, of whom he says, "for they be- ing ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Romans 10:3, 4.) 183 The Exalted Life One's ''own righteousness" is an effort to work out under law a character that only Christ can give. It is well estabHshed in the Scriptures that God will not accept or approve of any other char- acter than that which comes through acceptance of, and union with his son. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- tion." (I. Corinthians 1 : 30.) It is well to note the personality of Paul in this conflict with sin and the old nature. He says : ''I had not known sin," "I had not known lust," "I was alive," **sin revived, and I died." "Sin deceived me, and slew me." "I am carnal, sold under sin," "That which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not ; but what I hate, that do I. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." "For the good that I would I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that do I." "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me I find a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I de- light in the law of God after the inward man." "But T see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." These somewhat extended quotations have been made for the purpose of personifying the strife of the two natures — the old Adamic nature, and the new, divine nature, received through regenera- tion — as found in, and confessed to by Paul. It is worth while for the reader to note that this personality, represented by "I" and "me," oc- 1S4 The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual curs over forty times in this chapter which em- braces only twenty-five verses. This indicates the intensity of the struggle to be right, and easily re- minds one of the prayer of David : ''Search me, O God, and know my heart : try me, and know my thoughts : and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalms 129:23, 24.) Again, "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart." (Psalms 26:2.) Still more forcible is the Fifty-first Psalm, the psalm of penitence. The divine scrutiny is here invited, and the in- most recesses of the heart are laid bare. David was ready for the testing ordeal of the smelting fires, for he wanted to be pure as gold. The in- herent and inherited sinfulness of the heart as dis- closed to him revealed the depth of the requirements of God's law. In Paul's case the more clearly the law revealed, and the more intensely conscience realized sin, the more clearly rises before him the divine ideal for man under grace. Truth within, and outward con- formity to, and correspondence with that truth, be- came the abounding and passionate desire of his heart. Seeing it to be otherwise with him he cries, "O wretched man that I am !" Having this new and more clearly spiritual mani- festation of the life in Christ as against or aside from that which he had been living while under the law, he turns with all the fervor of his soul to its discernment and possession. He now saw the weakness of trying to mingle grace with law, for as the means of salvation the one annuls the other. 185 The Exalted Life To preach the law makes grace void; "for if righteousness comes through the law, then there was no need for Christ to die." No wonder that he says, "O foolish Galatians!" Only one thing he wanted to know of them: "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:1-3.) The word "flesh" in this connection, covers a wide realm. It is not simply the material, the animal life of man, but all that this life relates man to as a controlling influence and agency in the building and maintenance of character. Who can comprehend the sweep of this environment? All the relationships that we hold to the material world — all the social, civic, ethical, and religious — are here focused and functioned. On the right or wrong use of these relations depends all that makes for man's weal or woe. Here we register what we are; for these forces, in their sphere, are most pregnant and commanding. "The deeds done in the body," in all rational life, settle future destiny. The growth and progress in the spiritual life de- pends on freedom from the controlling power of the earthly senses. There is ever a parasitic tendency in these senses, and until they are made fully sub- servient to the divine will, spiritual grovvth will be a feeble and sickly one. These earthly senses furnish a poor atmosphere in which to grow the fruits of the spirit. The flesh always moves to- ward the lower ranges of thought and life. What- ever may be the degree of culture, however adorned 186 The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual and girded by human philosophy, and what- ever semblance there may be of religion on this line of flesh and blood, these must be superseded by a higher, a more spiritual, holier relationship than these can produce. There must be no ad- hering, abiding, controlling conference with that of which Paul affirms there is no good — the flesh. Between these two contending forces, the carnal and the spiritual, the character, usefulness, and des- tiny of men and women are fought out. The great- est danger of the times is the grading down of the character of the conflict and of its weapons to such a compromising level that spiritual weapons can be of little or no use. Especially when all this is in the face of Paul's authentication in II. Corinth- ians 10 : 3, 4, where he says, "For though we walk in th« flesh, we do not war after the flesh : For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal." When the human faculties are dominated by the flesh, are fleshly, they can never conquer sin and Satan. We cannot fight the devil with his own weapons, for he is not at war with himself. Jesus says, "If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself ; how then shall his kingdom stand?" He affirmed that it was by the Spirit of God that he exercised demons and not by confederation with them. (Mat- thew 12:27-30.) The flesh is Satan's vantage ground, and because of its earthliness he makes his appeal through its senses. He nourishes it in a thousand ways and keeps it alive to evil. It was through the physical senses, the will yielding to them, that Eden was lost and the world ruined. A conference with evil 187 The Exalted Life led to a consort with evil. Satan was too wiley for even Edenic reason and innocence. Here the eye was the fatal avenue through which the ruin was wrought. Food, pleasure, and wisdom, were the luring sights that were flashed on its canvas (retina), and as a result man went from the sweet- est home earth ever knew into a pandemonium that human reason has never been able to fathom or poetic genius to describe. The same wiley attack that was made on the first Adam was also made on the second Adam. Here, as at first, the appeal was made through the physical senses to the human and not the divine side of Christ. The forty days and forty nights of fasting ended in hunger, and the appeal was made to this hunger. The devil said to him, If you are God's son, transform these stones into loaves of bread, and thus break this fast. The second attack was a challenge to exploit his divinity by a leap from a wing of the temple, trusting him- self to the guardianship of angels. The third and final test was that of accepting world rulership at Satan's hands. In all these attacks Christ was more than con- queror. Adam falling, lost all ; Christ, being more than a match for the devil, secured victory for all his followers in the hour of their temptation and in the grapple with the last enemy. Now, for the purpose of making all this prac- tical, and thus turning it to account on the line of the weakness, the peril of Christ's followers, let us note the harmony between these assailments and I. John 2:15, 16, where we read: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If 188 The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." Ti?e real aim and end of life is communion with God, as Father, and with Jesus Christ as our Savior. This is well expressed by St. Augustine, "O God thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee." Sin breaks this communion and separates from God, the fountain of living waters, and man substitutes instead the broken cistern that can hold no water. Sin is an awful reality. There is a kind of scholastic tendency these days that may question this; but all human history affirms it. Sin is nut n substance, and does not add to or subtract from the material universe ; is it not an attribute or essential element of man, yet it is a positive reality, and not merely, as some hold, a negation. In char- acter sin is selfish, it is lawless, it is destructive, it is enslaving. The natural and inevitable conse- quences of sin are guilt, depravity, bondage, and if persisted in, death. Definite sin and its effects as fully and plainly as we can, it is still a great mystery. Paul says sin works "in our members," it "lusts," "it is decep- tive," it is "active," it "wars," it "kills"; but who can tell how? It is a germ from the original stock of the race, and whenever it has a chance it will grow and bring forth its awful wages. It is the leaven in the lump of humanity, and, if permitted, will work its corruption through every part. Sin is awful in its destruction. It can put the highest 189 The Exalted Life sainthood into the deepest degradation. It can put the purest womanhood in the midst of the accusing, sensuous rabble, it can put a l<:ing on a theocratic throne into deepest shame, disgrace, and humilia- tion. Who can read the tragic story of Samson with- out a sense of fear and trembling? He was conse- crated to purity, sobriety, and as the preacher and leader of Israel, by a Nazarite vow. As a sign of his distinction his locks were to remain unshorn. Against all this note the power of carnality in his case. There was a woman by the name of Delilah — her very name signifying weakness — that proved his overthrow. She was beautiful, fasci- nating, wiley, wicked. Samson was wise, conse- crated, a Nazarite of great faith, and possessed of collossal strength, and yet went down before this vixen of the Philistines. He went out to slay the hosts of evil, but his power was gone. What, in all history, is more pathetic than the closing days of Samson? He forsook his vows, in a moment of weakness he forgot his God, was' captured by the enemy and subjected to the most unthinkable taunts and tortures. His eyes were put out ; then he was harnessed like a mule and hitched to a mill in his prisonhouse, and made to grind day after day. What a sad and sorrowful picture is here painted ! But it is only one of many, and should be a warning to all that think they stand to take heed lest they, too, like Samson, come to grind in the mills of the gods. This was a time and place for retrospection, reflection, and introspection. The work of restor- 190 The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual ation began at once. Loss of eyes, fetters of brass, prison walls, and bestial labor did not pre- vent his hair from growing again. How wonderful the power of recovering grace for a fallen world, and for individuals, who, like Samson, have fallen into sin ! The day of recovery is always near at hand. Only a little time and the sign of the Nazar- ite character made its appearance. "The hair of his head began to grow again." The day of fes- tivity, the Philistine holiday is at hand, when Sam- son must make sport for the autocrats of the city, and for the thousands of men and women that were gathered together on this occasion. This was the day of restoration and victory for Samson. The awful carnival is at an end. All hearts were merry, but in a moment the thunderbolt of power smote the gay and giddy throng and the pall of death's night hung over the scene. That v/onderful prayer went up to God for strength. ''Only this once," he said, and the ''slain at this his death were more than he slew in his life." Here is a lesson for all days ; but for none more than for us in these days of rush, turmoil, strife, and sensual vice. We are having our "juvenile delinquencies," "juvenile judges," and "juvenile courts," all in the hope of meeting increasing emer- gencies, and establishing a better condition of things. But is there not a serious need of considering adult and parental delinquencies? Chief Justice Russell of the New York court of special sessions says, "Three quarters of all the cases that crowd the calendars of the children's courts In New York are the result of improper guardianship." This 191 The Exalted Life is true in many of the great cities of our country. Here are the garish lights, the recruiting sergeants, the luring and tempting outposts spreading the drag- nets of evil and gathering into dens of vice thou- sands from the homes of thoughtless and unsus- pecting parents. These pitfalls and snares are appalling. The best boy and the best girl in the world may be ruined by such bad companionship as here found. Courts of justice, penitentiaries, and ruined homes can speak on this line. Every jail, every reform school, and every other place of correction sounds the v^arning and gives the alarm. Are we hearing and heeding? The more outward things — ''the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" — are kept living, active, and controlling, the more the things within, the life and graces of the Spirit, weaken and decay. Gan- grene within the physical body means certain death ; but not more certain, — and not nearly so sad and momentous the results — than the death of things that die within. Oh, the peril to the Christian that allows the outward senses to control and thereby destroy the inner life ! Here there is no sure anchorage. The spirit of the world is ever shifting, altering, eluding. In one age it is barbarous, in another idolatrous, in another it is love of conflict, in another, love of philosophy, and still in another wealth, love of money, as in our day. The world has never had such a universal, controlling power as it has to-day. The future Vv^elfare is sacrificed for the present and lower pleasures. The future birthright is exchanged for the mess of pottage. 192 The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual The impulses from without play against the forces from within, resulting in degraded morals, wrecked health, and a defeated and ruined life. These are the days of novels, romances, and plays, many of them veiled in the most graceful and seductive imagery. Here the mind is poisoned and the imag- ination inflamed with a fire that may never be quenched. Here the intoxication of the senses may be worse and more fatal than that of wine. The world must never have first place with the Christian if he would live the triumphant life. His affections must be set elsewhere, *'on things above, and not on things on the earth." "Whosoever is born of God, overcometh the world." Paul said, "be not conformed to this world." Jesus said, "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own." The apostle said to the Gentiles, "In time past ye walked according to the course of this world, the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedience." Here the word "world" has a broad and varied meaning. It stands for the spirit, the tone, the temper, the voice of the populace. Conformity to this world can never obtain with the sons of God. Being born from above they must live in the sphere of the world of their nativity. Their true citizenship is in heaven; for though living in this world, they are not of it. Here it is the spirit of the life and not the environment that decides the character of the life. It is not the "flesh" nor the "eye," nor the "life," but the "lust" and "pride" of these that determines the origin and relationship 193 The Exalted Life — "not of the Father, but of the world." (I. John 2:15-17.) On the Hne of the questionable, there must be no consorting or compromising. Christ's bride must keep herself pure or she cannot enter into the bride- chamber with the bridegroom. There must be no forgetting of the bridal ornaments or the bridal attire. She must be "clothed with the garments of salvation, and be covered with the robe of right- eousness." She must be "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." In order to this, there must be no flirting, coquetting, or consorting with evil. To do this is spiritual adultery. To dally with the pleasures of sin, and to yield to the desires that are fleshly, is to bring on a condition, spiritual- ly, akin to that of jealousy between husband and wife, only, many fold worse. True marriage admits of only two parties to the sacred union. No third party can be admitted if purity of life is to be maintained. To that third party it is both seclusive and inclusive. Union with Christ excludes the possibility of living fraternally with the present world-system — of which Satan is the god, called "the god of this world," which is always ethically bad — and at the same time main- tain fellowship with him. This is what James characterizes as adultery. He says, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the ene- my of God." Then he gives us this further state- ment, "The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy." (James 4:4, 5.) 194 The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual This last quotation is rendered somewhat vari- ous by different exegetes, as follows : "The Spirit that dwelleth in us jealously desireth us." Again, "That Spirit which he made to dwell in us yearneth for us even unto jealous envy." Still again, "Doth the Spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envy?". (R. V.) It would seem from the renderings, as well as from other Scriptures, that Christ — or God for his son — "jealously desireth his Church altogether for himself." In harmony with this Paul says, "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy; for I have espoused you unto one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." (II. Cor- inthians 11:2.) Here divine jealousy revealed it- self in Paul, for having betrothed the Church at Corinth to one husband, and that husband being Christ, he wanted to present it to him a pure bride, without spot or blemish; but he had fears that it might turn out with them just as it did with Eve, that through the subtlety of the enemy they might have their minds corrupted, and thereby lose the love, loyalty, and purity due from them to Christ. God said to his ancient Israel that he was "mar- ried unto them," that he was "an husband unto them" ; but in spite of this, or in defiance of it, they forsook him. Hear the cry, like that of a broken-hearted husband, "Turn, O backsliding children" ; "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." "Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy ways?" (Jere- miah 2:36; 3:14, 22.) 19 5 . . — The Exalted Life Why should a soul ever grow restless when in fellowship with Christ? Why displeased with such a choice? Why this worldly infatuation? Why this eagerness to consort with evil? Can the bride of Christ, "like a courtesan looking out for para- mours," spend her time in gadding about to find satisfaction in a life of separation from God, and in the love and pleasures of a fallen world? May we not well lament the number of spiritual "gad- abouts" that characterize our day and times? A class of restless, feverish, fashion-mongers, always hunting for something new on which to feed their senses. All those that make God their portion and that walk in fellowship with Jesus, need not gad about to find the wellsprings of joy, for they carry the "fountain of living waters" within them, "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." So the woman at the well found it, going away with a well of water instead of only a pitcher. Christ is the most intense lover that the world or the Church has ever known. He can brook the grossest insults, exercise the greatest patience, pity in the most royal way, stoop to the lowest moral brute, and "forgive to the uttermost." Out of love for sinners he gave his life. "God commend- eth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Paul says that it was out of love that he gave himself for the Church. (Ephesians 5:25-27.) He gave himself to re- deem the Church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, and all "that he might present it unto himself a glorious church, without a spot or wrinkle or any such thing." 196 The Influence of the Carnal on the Spiritual What a glorious thing when Christ comes to make the presentation of this Church to himself as his bride, if she has "made herself ready" by "ar- raying herself in fine linen, clean and white." (Rev- elation 19:7, 8.) Here we have manifested the righteousness of God in contrast with self-righteousness which is of the law. This was Paul's great battle as a legalist. Touching the "righteousness which is in the law" he claimed that he was "blameless." But all this righteousness went to the garbage heap that he might be found in Christ, "not having his own righteousness, which is of the law," but instead, "that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." (Phil- ippians 3:8, 9.) To throw all this away, and die to all that seemed such a noble past, was no easy thing to do. Paul characterizes this as being noth- ing less than death by crucifixion. He says, "I am crucified with Christ." The only way to escape sin's consequences is to change races, dying to one, the carnal, and living the other, the spiritual. To attempt to live in the sphere of both, the carnal and the spiritual alternating as varying occasions may serve to quicken the one or the other, is to live the life of the "wretched man." To live the crucified life is to give Christ the controlling power, to live after the higher law, "the spirit of the life in Christ Jesus." In this life the Holy Spirit can and must dwell, must abide continually — as in John 7 : 38, 39 — then the life will be abundant and abounding as the flowing of "rivers of living waters." 197 The Exalted Life This chapter covers a wider and more varied field of thought than was contemplated at its be- ginning, which must be accounted for on the ground of the importance and scope of the theme as it appeared to the writer as he advanced in the study of it. 198 CHAPTER XV. Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer. As Adam was the whole of humanity in its ruin, so Christ is the whole of humanity in its provi- sional redemption. Christ, for righteousness, is the very antithesis of Adam who stands for sin and unrighteousness. If the first Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, is it at all strange that those that are begotten of God, born of him, should be partakers of his nature and bear his moral image? Peter says that it was for this very purpose that we have "given unto us exceed- ing great and precious promises; that by these ye miight be partakers of the divine nature, hav- ing escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (II. Peter 1:4.) Paul, in Hebrews 12:10, gives as the reason for divine chastening, "that we might be partakers of his holiness." In Hebrews 3: 14, the believer is "made a partaker of Christ," and in chapter six, verse four, he is "made a partaker of the Holy Ghost." These Scriptures not only settle the fact of the divine begetting, but also of the nature of that begetting; born of God and thus made a partaker of his nature. Now as these two representative heads are in direct contrast, so the creations that they represent must be in contrast. Through the one death passed upon all; through the other life is offered to all. "Flesh" and "spirt" are the 199 The Exalted Life contrasting words, revealing the human and the divine, the earthly and heavenly, the character of each resulting in a service in harmony with existing identity. If the identity is with Chrst then the strife must be against the world, the flesh, and the devil; but if with the original head of the race, then enmity against God and all goodness will char- acterize the struggle. If the unit in the life is in sin, then the multiple will be in harmony with this unit ; but if Christ is the unit then the multiple will be in harmony with him. He will multiply his life in the believer and in the world like the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies, death re- sulting in a greater harvest. It is as a unit that Christ dies, a "single grain" ; but as a multiple he lives, "bringing forth much fruit." (St. John 12:24.) Now it is Christ as the perfect unit of life in the believer that results in his marvelous achieve- ments under grace, and that determines the meas- ure of his moral and spiritual perfection — to put it in the language of the orthodox creeds — his Chris- tian perfection. The whole original creation, including man as the crowning glory of that creation, having been marred like the clay in the potter's hand, had to be made over, refashioned, renewed, and restored, in order to become a vessel unto honor. This rep- resentatively and provisionally was done by and in Christ. For man's sake, he became not only the marred vessel, but also the divine potter. This the marvel and astonishment of all beholders ; for it is written of him that "his visage was so marred 200 Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." (Isaiah 52: 14.) In order to reveal Christ as a unit in man's re- demption, let us see what a picture is given of him and his sufferings in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah! Let us look on it for a moment: He had no beauty to make him desirable; he was despised, rejected, sorrowful, familiar with grief, an object of shame, and without esteem, loaded with sorrow, and in all this adjudged as suffering divine ven- geance ; but it was for others that he was wounded, bruised, chastened. The world's iniquity was all laid on him ; he was oppressed and afflicted ; yet uttered no complaint, but went as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep to be shorn of its robe of purity. He went under the tyranny of law as a criminal, and suffered the loss of his life by the most cruel execution. He was classed with the wicked, with the felons, and was given a convict's grave. His very soul was made a sin-offering. He carried the world's guilt to the cross, was classed with transgressors, and all this that he might win the goal of eternal life for a guilty and perishing world. In this picture we have the event of all history, the mysterious problem of all human philosophy, and also a true test of a genuine faith. Judged out- wardly and circumstantially — ^by the treatment re- ceived at the hands of the established authorities of his day — there was never such odium, contumely, shame, and charges of wicked alliances, piled upon any man as were set to the discredit of Jesus. 201 The Exalted Life Can we think of it being otherwise when we con- sider the substitutionary character of his work? Whose sin? whose marriage? whose grief? whose sorrows? whose transgressions? whose iniquities? whose chastenings? whose wanderings? whose sickness? Whose guilt, and whose judgment did he bear ? It was ours ; the world's ; for on him was laid "the iniquity of us all." Oh, for a thousand tongues to tell it! Think of not only the original sin, with all that it means, but of all the collected sin and the guilt of the ages being laid on the innocent One and borne by him! Then think of this all condensing in one life in the "man of sorrows," and he bearing its awful weight alone. Is it any wonder that he was in an agony and sorrowful even unto death, and that his sweat became great drops of blood? But for the ministry of an angel he might never have reached the cross, but would have died in the garden. It may be that this was the cup — death in the garden and not on the cross — ^against which he prayed, and from which his Father grant- ed relief by sending an angel to strengthen him. He wanted to reach the cross, for it was by that lifting up that he would draw all men unto him. It was his humiliation, but it is the Christian's only glory. Paul wanted to be denied all other causes of glory- ing save in the cross by which he underwent the double crucifixion, he unto the world and the world unto him. In this scheme of redemption this suffering of the "man of sorrows" has a special place and his death a divine meaning. Christ's sufferings were not 202 Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer only vicarious but redemptive; for the "chastise- ment of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed." It was in our stead that he took the consequences of sin, that we might there- by be freed from them. Whatever may have been the effect of Christ's death on the Jewish nation as seen in prophecy and revealed in types and shadows, to the Chris- tian it becomes a great fact as an experience in his inner life and consciousness. Sin could never have been seen in its true light, its heinousness, nor could the mystery of the greatness of God's love be manifested to the believer, if it were not for its penalty being met voluntarily by an innocent party ; one in no way implicated in the offense. How this compassion of God's only Son ought to melt the heart of stone, and change it to a heart of flesh, to remember that he suffered this shame and ignominy for us, and all by choice and out of the great love wherewith he loved us ! Here the critical and captious voice of justice must be silent. It is by love and by choice that Jesus steps into the place of another and bears sin's consequences. It was in no sense arbitrary. It was by one that sin reigned ; it is by one that grace now reigns. It was by one that judgment came ; it is by one that justification now clears from many offenses. It was by one that death reigned ; it is by one that life now reigns. It was by one that many were made sinners; it is by one's obedi- ence that many shall be made righteous ; and all this by choice, and not by compulsion. The law's entrance multiplied the offense many fold ; but grace 203 The Exalted Li£e far transcends the blight and curse of the law by reigning "through the righteousness of one unto eternal life." Here one is set over against one, and yet on behalf of that one. The tyranny of law, of prison, and of judgment, was accepted by the innocent One that the guilty might go free. Now, instead of this being arbitrary and unjust, as stated, it is classed as a service rendered by a servant for the good of others. "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:11.) This service was rendered by the yielding up of life. His life was taken, he was cut off out of the land of the living; and yet he said, "I lay down my life." As a servant he took our infirmities, and so bore our sicknesses. Jesus not only fulfilled the cere- monial law, but he met the claims of the highest law known to men, the law above all human laws, the law that God only could enact, the moral law, and thereby made it possible for guilty man to come back to, and have fellowship with God. He not only cleared man's guilt under the law, but he also made it possible for man to live in harmony with that law. Here was Paul's struggle under the law. Being weak through the flesh he could not keep it. Christ was not yet the unit of his life. He was in a dual state or attitude toward the things of the Spirit. James describes this state as one of vascil- lation, instability. (James 1:8.) Solomon tells us of the opposite to this. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own un- 204 Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer derstanding." (Proverbs 3:5.) It was for this unit of life that Paul prayed. It is only the whole Christ that can cover the wreckage and the utter ruin of man's nature, and make him a whole man. In I. Thessalonians 5 : 23, 24, Paul puts the whole man under the power of recovering grace. He says : *'The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame- less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." In order to man's complete recovery from this ruin which sin has wrought in him, the whole ground of that ruin must be covered by Sinai and Calvary. Law must precede and prepare the way for grace. Man must first see and feel his ruined condition before he can become a subject of recov- ering grace. It is the sick that need the physician ; it is only the sinner that can be called to repentance. It is by the law that sin is made known. (Romans 3:20.) Outward sin is made known by the letter of the law, inward sin by the spirit of the law, or the spiritual nature of the law. It is in this sense that Paul affirms **that the law is spiritual," and that the service rendered, to be spiritual, must be in the "newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter." Many honest Christians do not see the spiritual nature or character of sin until the spiritual phase of the law reveals it. With them sin is seen only in the act. The motions and desires in the heart toward sin, which never come into act, are not held to be sin. It is only when these desires are viewed 205 The Exalted Life in the light of the spiritual nature of the law that these come to be known as sin. It is here that Paul said, "I had not known sin, but by the law." When he qualifies the sin in this case he classifies it as desire, saying, "I had not known lust, except the law had said. Thou shalt not covet." He here perceived the exceeding spiritual- ity of God's law, and although it extorted the cry of wretchedness, yet he said, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man." He goes farther and says, ''With the mind I myself serve the law of God." It is not enough to approve of the law, to consent to the law and to delight in the law; but the law must become all-commanding in the life and controlling in the service. The whole vent and drift of the life must go in the way that this phase of the law directs. Paul says, 'T myself" thus serve the law. Any deviation from this comes from another source than this personal ego. "It is not I" ; it comes from the law which I now see to be reigning in my members, and it is against this that I war and from which I seek deliverance. From this I take it that Paul did not seek to excuse himself from the guilt of sin; for he con- fesses to its existence and puts up a strong pro- test against it. He bewails its existence and groans for relief. He cries for help outside of himself, and apart from law. The law had wrought his ruin, putting him where Christ was put as his substitute under the law; but in this moment of despair the light of the twofold character of Christ's work flashed upon him, and he for the first time saw that he died to the law's effects when Christ died under 206 Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believei* the law, that he might now take his place with the risen Christ in absolute freedom from sin and death. It is no longer, ''O wretched man that I am," but ''I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The old body of death, the personification of sin under the law, is now no longer to reign. Duality has ended in a blessed and triumphant unity with Christ. Sin no longer has its dwelling within, and the law cannot now work its ruin ; for Christ Jesus has become the shield, the fortification, the city of refuge, that perfectly shelters and homes the once sin-buffetted man. There is now no con- sorting with the flesh; the walk being after the Spirit. Grace and not law, the new and not the old nature, the Holy Spirit and not the flesh, now rule and control the life. (Romans 8:1, 2.) It is justification and not condemnation, sanc- tification and not corruption — as under the law — that constitute the state and character of the life now lived as a gracious privilege. The weakness of flesh under the law is supplanted by the all-con- quering power of grace in Christ Jesus, so that the life is no longer in the "likeness of sinful flesh," but in the "newness of Spirit." Here the man of Sinai — an utter failure — loses himself in the man of Calvary. He apprehends Christ for all that God has made him to be to the believer — "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." This is made still stronger in the words, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the right- eousness of God in him." (II. Corinthians 5:21.) Can words be stronger than these, and is there any 207 The Exalted Life ground of sin or salvation that they do not cover? Christ was made what he was that we might be- come the righteousness of God in him. Mark! "Become the righteousness of God." Is it not wonderful that One who never knew sin should be made to be sin, so that all that come to abide in him might become thereby the righteousness of God? In the light of these Scrip- tures, what does Christ stand for? Is he not the unit of salvation to the believer, and is not this salvation to be as complete in its realization by the believer, as it is in its provisional scope? If not, why the provision? Surely God has not performed a work of superero- gation in redeeming man, by subjecting his only Son to needless service, suffering, and sacrifice! If he has not, then that salvation is to be made available in its completeness by the one accepting it, or else God is dishonored and Christ has suffered in vain, "died in vain." Paul said to the Colossians that they were com- plete in Christ. (Colossians 2:10.) Just as the Godhead dwelt in Christ in all its fullness, so Christ brings the fullness of the Godhead into all that have received the circumcision of the Spirit, thereby put- ting away the sins of the flesh and making the union with himself complete. If complete in him what can be added? If the ''old man" was crucified with Christ — the "body of sin" and the body of this death put on the cross — then what remains to be done to complete this completed work to and in the believer, except his putting to his own personal credit the price paid on the cross for his redemp- 208 Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer tion? This takes him from under the law, so that he can never again be held accountable for sin's debt, it having been canceled by his Elder Brother giving his own life for him. But to make this fully- available and always effective, he must now remem- ber that he is no longer his own ; that he belongs to another by right of purchase, and that he is now to "glorify God in his body, and in his spirit, which are God's." But in order to do this he must keep his body yielded as "the temple of the Holy Ghost," and hold this Elder Brother ever as his advocate, so that in the event of his sinning he will have his case taken care of "with the Father." (I. John 2:1.) Christ as the unit of life in the believer means much more than the average Christian compre- hends and perceives until brought under the light of the Word and tested by an actual, living experi- ence. For many reasons it is much easier to grade this life downward than upward. The upward is only easy when Christ is given his full and rightful place in the heart; or when one can say with Paul, "For me to live is Christ." Christ, to such a one, is much more than this world can yield with all its untold treasures of learning, of material wealth, of power and pleasure. Christ put before everything else means a very heaven upon earth. Who has ever been a loser that put him and the kingdom of God first as the object of life's pursuit and posses- sions? Francis Xavier, trained in the University of Paris, brilliant, attractive, and popular, occupy- ing a distinguished chair of philosophy, got a vision 209 The Exalted Life of Jesus and eternal verity, and at once gave up his professorship, with all that it meant, for a life of suffering, self-sacrifice and poverty. To- day his life speaks to the hearts of thousands of devoted Christians in words that thrill and bum with the most fervent zeal and the highest and truest courage and devotion. When Christ becomes the center and object of life there is nothing too great to give up to and for him, and nothing too hard to undertake at his command. Literary fame, worldly honor, am- bition for power, home and country, friends and kindred, ease and pleasure, and very self itself, are all gladly poured out as an offering to him. The alabaster box is broken and the precious ointment poured on his head with tears of gladness. No one can give Jesus first place and be the poorer for it. "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred-fold, now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecution; and in the world to come, eternal Hfe." (Mark 10:29, 30.) Here we have a wonderful exchange. This method of exchange ought to find a larger and more ready practice among Christian pilgrims. No one can travel abroad in foreign countries without con- forming to this law. How much more this becomes true and necessary with travelers to the heavenly country. Earth's commodities must be exchanged for what will pass when entering eternity. There the natural will not be accepted; nothing but the 210 Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer spiritual will be current in the "city beyond death's sea." The natural must be changed into the spirit- ual, into a "better and more enduring substance," or the "world to come" will never be entered. Flesh and blood can never enter the kingdom of God. "Except ye be converted, and become as little child- ren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3.) The kingdom being spiritual only those having a nature corresponding with its nature can enter it. Only the spirit-born can be citizens of that kingdom, and all earthly treasures should be transmuted into the principles and es- sence of that kingdom if they are to abide the fires that are to try every man's work of what sort it is. How glorious this principle of exchange! We give up the earthly — and yet it is ours for use — for the heavenly. We exchange sin for holiness, death for life, time for eternity, self for Christ. Think of this wonderful substitution ! Not only did Christ die for us, but his very life is to take the place of our life, so that we henceforth are to live with his life. No room for self, now that Christ fills it all. "Not I, but Christ," is the triumphant ex- clamation of St. Paul. Here there can never be any great loss ; none finally. We are not only Christ's inheritance, "his inheritance in the saints," but he is also our inheritance by the new birth, our life. Can we ever lose it ? "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea- ture shall be able to separate us from the love of 211 The Exalted Life God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38,39.) What a sweep of forces and agencies are here put in aUgnment against the believer's security! No kind of suffering or loss, even of life itself, can separate from the love of God. Death, life, kingly powers, angelic forces, nothing in time, noth- ing in space, nor any created thing can break this union. Why? Because it is the very life of Christ that is pitted against these forces. He has con- quered Satan, demons, death, and the grave. He carries at his girdle the keys of "hell and of death." He has all power both in heaven and on earth committed to him; and as it is his life that we live, what power or loss need we fear? Who should hesitate for one moment to trans- fer all to the use and keeping of this power? It is the only power that can transform the life and rule the conduct, so as to make life worth living. The need of the hour is for Christians to have their eyes focused on Jesus, "looking unto him." Why should the cry of hundreds and thousands of young people be for entertainments, amusements, — for the dance, card parties, concerts, picture shows, theaters — instead of "we would see Jesus"? Can these change the character and transform the life? Christ can entertain angels; how much more ought men and wom.en that want to be saved from sin and be fitted for heaven be drawn to, and at- tracted by him. The elevation, the morality of the whole world depends upon what Christ is and what he becomes to the world by its acceptance of him. With the eyes turned upon self, and away 212 ' Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer from Jesus means the loss of life's mission, life's values, and finally of life itself. No life is worth living, or worthily lived, aside from Christ, whatever its achievements may have been. Christ as the unit of life in the believer will solve the problem that is now painfully troubling and distracting the various divisions of the militant Church on the line of confederation, or organic unity. In the early history of the Church, in apos- tolic times, this unity was complete. "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in pray- ers." (Acts 2:42.) Here we have the secret of this unit. Here the Church, the body of Christ, which is to be his representative on earth during the gospel age, was organized. The same power, the Holy Spirit, of which Christ was begotten, his Church was also begotten, and is named *'the church of the first- born." (Hebrews 12:23.) The same power that descended upon Christ at his baptism fell upon the Church at Pentecost. Paul makes this unity very strong when he says, ''For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one spirit." (I. Cor- inthians 12: 13.) Corporately the Church is made the temple of God. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (I. Corinthians 3: 16.) Again, the secret of this unity is seen not only in the character of the life being the same in each and all, but also in the stedfast adherence and devo- 213 The Exalted Life tion of the Church to the teachings of the apostles. First of importance on this Hne is a true, faithful, courageous, and consecrated ministry. The minis- ter must be a man that can be counted on and relied on as one standing "in Christ's stead." He must be loyal to Christ and his teachings, and unswerving to the law of God. He must teach the things of the Spirit through, and imder the authority of the Word, and not be swayed by secular, social, or political motives. He must be the man for the hour, what- ever that hour may be or may mean. To make this teaching effective and safe- guarding, there must be loyalty to it upon the part of the Church. This done, there will be something of apostolic times repeated in the twentieth cen- tury church. "And all that believed were to- gether, and had all things common," is the record of the early Church. How forcibly Paul puts this in his letter to the Ephesians when he says, "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." (Ephesians 4: 4, 5, 6.) Here are seven units blending in one glorious compound of spiritual life, all in one common Lord. How eager Christians ought to be to maintain this unit of life, even to the hazard of some long- established and cherished dogma. It may not al- wa3^s be easy to do ; for divergent forces are ever at work to break this harmony and thereby disrupt the body; but it cannot be done, for the life is a common life — "one body, one spirit, one hope, one 214 Clirist as the Unit of Life in the Believer Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all." If the various members of this body were to live in the continual conservation and consciousness of this one life that is to pervade all its members, no fatal cism could possibly occur. It is true that organically the Church, like the human body, is an earthen vessel, and hence has weaknesses corresponding to its earthliness ; but these need never result in its dishonor and despolia- tion any more than in the case of the physical body itself. These very weaknesses, penetrated and con- trolled by the love and the graces of the divine na- ture, bring more glory to God and attract a wider attention than if made through some loftier and more worthy class of beings. It was for this very reason that Paul gloried in his infirmities. He did not want to glory in any of the beauty and excellency of his own life; for he knew that by right it all belonged to Christ. Here the glory, beauty and power of the Church is seen when it puts Christ as its head, lives by his life, and wears as its vesture the robe of his righteousness, then it stands as the true representa- tive of its risen and ascended Lord, and becomes thereby his faithful and available witness on earth. Perfect unity with Christ through the Holy Spir- it is the great source and secret of the unity for the body of the Church. Here no human or earthly barriers can intrude and obstruct the fellowship, for it is in and with the Holy Spirit. All the mem- bers of this body having the spirit of sonship, there- by become ''an habitation [a dwelling place] of God through the Spirit." (Ephesians 2:22.) The 215 The Exalted Life Holy Spirit takes up his abode in the regenerated spirit and makes it his special shrine, in and from which he carries out his purifying and unifying work in the soul and body of the individual believer, and then through this agency to the whole body of believers. Here we have a unity that is worth while, that is abiding and eternal. Paul puts this clearly and strongly when he says, "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" ; that is, one with him in spirit. (I. Corinthians 6: 17.) This is the unity of the Trinity, the unity that Jesus prayed might obtain in his Church. Let us stop and listen to this prayer of all prayers, "That they all may be one; as thou. Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me,. that they may be made perfect in one." (John 17:21- 23.) Can one listen to this prayer without a bowed head, a blushing face, and a humbled heart, when he views the registrations of useless and senseless strife, contentions and divisions that characterize the followers and representatives of this Man of Nazareth? In the light of this prayer, and in the face of the unity of the Church, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, how can so many diversified organi- zations be maintained at such a needless expense of men and means ? Can it be said that "we are la- borers together with God, that we are God's hus- bandry, that we are God's building"? 216 Christ as the Unit of Life in the Believer How Paul deplored and denounced these divisions in the Church at Corinth, and how forcible his statements and his reasoning in the case! In stat- ing the cause of the division, he gives a very con- mon one as seen in the modern churches ; the land- ing and following of favorite leaders. "Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul ; and I of Apollos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ." What a deplorable condition to put Christ in, pitting these men against him and rending him in pieces ! Well does the apostle ask these factions : "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ?" What searching questions to put to the professed followers of Jesus! Why could not all have selected Christ as their leader? Why rend his body as the rabble wanted to rend his seamless robe on Calvary ? Who are we, says Paul, but "ministers by whom ye be- lieved"? We have only done the planting and the watering, and in this we are one. It is God that caused the growth. Here there is no ground for rivalry, for every one shall receive his own reward according to the work that he has done. "There- fore," he says, "let no man glory in men; for all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." (I. Corinthians 3:21-23.) As we stand in utter amazement, fairly bewild- ered and speechless in the presence of this weeping vision, can we think of any ground on which to plant the envious, partisan, schismatic, and sec- 217 The Exalted Life tarian foot? Paul has gathered up everything in the range of the spiritual and the material universe — all the things of both time and eternity — and put them as the Church's inheritance in Christ. "All are yours !" In this wonderful inventory, it may be proper to say, the apostle has made one exception, and that one, of all else, is usually claimed as the unques- tioned right of personal possession. If there is anything that one has the inherent right to possess, use, control, and do with it as he pleases, it is him- self. "And ye are Christ's," are the disposing and deposing words that annul all personal rights in the case and assign all to Christ. 218 CHAPTER XVI. Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power in the Believer. When Christ enters the heart as "the power of God and the wisdom of God" two very marked effects, though in direct contrast, obtain in the ex- perience and Hfe of the believer. This is well ex- pressed by the Lord in his commission and instruc- tions to Jeremiah when he said, "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." (Jeremiah 1 : 10.) When God wants to change a people or a nation he first changes the agencies and forces of evil with the weapons of righteousness and truth. The forces of sin are always in possession of the field until overthrown and expelled. The world, the flesh, and the devil are everywhere confederated against Christ and his Church, and with these forces we as individuals have to contend. Primar- ily Satan is the power, and these others things are used instrumentally to accomplish his purposes of ruin. This composite of evil no man can wrestle with in hope of victory. It is very certain that St. Paul did not underrate the power of Satan when he says, "For we wrestle not [only] against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 219 The Exalted Life against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6: 12.) In the face of such forces can we be astounded • — as we often are and must be — at the awful wreckage that is going on everywhere in the world? Who can estimate the extent or fix a limit to this ruin? Here are the direst despotisms, coUossal empires, strong with millenniums of growing his- tory and untold spiritual agencies in the heavenlies working against Christ and man's highest good. How modem, broad, and cultured (so called) thought can bar a personal devil from its creed, in the face of the sin and woe — the world's tragedy written in tears and blood — witnessed on every hand, no thoughtful, honest mind can determine. These things are here fixed and awful realities. He that does not hear the blare of the trumpet of Satan's cohorts must be deaf, and he that does not see the symbol of evil in fullest display on every hand must be blind. Saint Peter warns the Church to be sober and vigilant, assigning as the reason that their ''adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." H there ever was a time when Christians needed self-control, and to stand firm and steadfast against Satan, it is now. His wiles are too subtle and lur- ing in these days of culture and refinement for hu- man power and wisdom to grapple with. We have to reckon with this force, with all its strength and skill, and ought to take it seriously to heart. Satan is the very hierarchy of the world of evil, and reigns and rules in the very heavenlies. Many things in the world around us — and even in the Church — 220 Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power testify to the presence and power of this enemy of all righteousness. Man unaided by divine grace is the victim of forces of evil that are appalling. The relations that he sustains to the world and all about him seem the most fateful. On the human side failure seems written well nigh everywhere. Look at the record : failures in business, failures in money, failures in affection, failures in character, failures in anticipations, failures in health, all finally ending in death and the grave. In how many closets gruesome skeletons grin and stare, and on the trail of how many lives the fiendish ghost of some murderous sin comes dancing out of the shadowy past, driving its victim into the very frenzy of despair? Who has not failed in some ways? Where is human charity and forgiveness? Who is a brother? Now, dark as this picture is, it could be painted in darker colors and still be true. But the ques- tion of all questions comes and pleads for an answer. Is there no brighter view, no higher hope, no better goal to human life than the one given? To answer these questions is the main object of this chapter. But I want to answer in such a way as to be easily understood, and also to be so scrip- turally and experimentally vindicated tliat there may be no hazard to any soul that follows the path marked out. There never was a time, possibly, when ministers and religious teachers needed to be more on their guard and more certain of the soundness of their doctrine than in these days. John gives the warning by saying, ''Believe not 221 The Exalted Life every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God." Many are being deceived by giving heed to se- ducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Honest and earnest people when largely given to emotionalism, may be unwittingly led to surrender themselves to evil spirits when they think they are surrendering to the Holy Spirit. This is especially true when there are marvelous demonstrations attending re- ligious exercises. Satan is always on hand seeking to counterfeit the true. When it is to his interest, he will withstand the agencies of the truth in open opposition, as in the case of Elymas the sorcerer as given in Acts 13 : 6-13. When, on the other hand, it is to his interest to commend the agencies of truth, he will do that as in the case given in Acts 16:16-18. In the first case it was a man that withstood Paul and Barnabas, seeking to keep a prominent official of the country from embracing the faith. In the second case it was a woman that Satan was using, but in a very different way from the first. Here it is commendation. ''These men are the servants of the most high God, which show us the way of salvation." This was kept up for many days. Now could anything be more truthful or commendatory of the apostles than these words, uttered by this woman? And yet they were the words of an evil spirit. How wily Satan is ! When he wants to oppose or use violence, he will put on masculinity, but when he wants to beguile and lure he will masquerade in the feminine costume. Sa- tan is always after the mind and the body, as his agents of activity and use ; for with these surren- 222 Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power dered to him he can practice all manner of deception and work all kinds of counterfeits at will. With the senses and the emotional nature in full con- trol, he can be an angel of light or a demon of darkness. He can give thrills of joy and streams of life through the psychic nature, when under his command, that will be most gratifying to those that crave and seek the emotional as proof of their acceptance with God and their high standing in grace. On this line we have some of the most abnormal experiences ; experiences most discredit- able to sound reason and contrary to the character of God, who is a God of order and not a God of confusion. When the emotional system is aroused to an abnormal degree it is easy for the enemy to take advantage of this intoxication of the senses, making the possessor believe that it is all divine, and that he must have more and more of this glorious experience. Let such a one watch the wiles of Satan, and be guided by Ephesians 5 : 18, Romans 6:11, and James 4:7. This wonderful book, the Bible, is the only safe and reliable guide for weary feet treading in a path that to human knowledge and forecast is al- ways coming from the profoundest obscurity. One act incited and guided by this book is worth many thrills of feeling. The character and value of impressions are determined by their expression, by what they lead one to be and to do. Here we have divine evolution. Christ within is the secret of Christ without. Christ becomes the law determin- ing the character of the life of his followers. This is as fixed as any law in nature, when yielded to 223 The Exalted Life and lived in agreement with. It is as fixed and unerring as the laws of vegetable and animal life, only higher, and conserving of interests that are eternal. Now as my thought has been one largely of law, and as God is the God of law and works out his plans in nature and in grace under and through the agencies of law, I take this opportunity of unfolding and applying in a still larger and more definite way this law-principle in its two-fold ac- tion in the development of Christian life and char- acter. The law that is now under consideration is preeminently and exclusively spiritual. It is the law to which St. Paul ascribes his victory after his helpless and hopeless struggle in the seventh chapter of Romans. He comes out of that awful battle saying, *'For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2.) His experience now covers the whole realm of law, both in the old and the new — the Jewish and the Christian — dispensation. Here life is found at its worst and at its, best — the self-determining and the Christ-determining goals. The one life ending in hopeless defeat; the other in triumphant vic- tory. The one having its weights and besetments ; the other with shackles all broken so runs as to obtain. Under the one law, sin and death reigned ; under the other, righteousness and life reigned. Here Paul got away from the dual life and came into the completed life in Christ Jesus, where Christ was the unit of his life. Until this state of oneness with Christ, this wholeness of life in Christ is 224 Cbriet a» tlie ConstiaiGtive and Expulsive Power reached, there will be bafflings, unavoidable weak- 'nessscs, uncertainty, up-and-down experiences, that often result in the cry of wretchedness. I want to candidly ask the reader, at this stage, if he believes that there is no better appeal that Christ can make to a sin-cursed race than that made through "the law of sin and death"? If not, what about this other law, called "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" ? Both are God's laws, and will fulfill the divine purpose in their enactment and use. If the one works to man's ruin, his over- throw, will not the other as certainly work to his recovery? If Jesus went under the law of sin and death in man's stead, and by his quickening or res- urrection from the dead became the law of the spirit of life to man, then he has bridged the awful chasm between sin and salvation, thereby making the gulf passable to all that accept him as their deliverer. Christ, as God's only son, being also human, puts saved humanity at its highest and best ; being the revelation of what it is to be here, and what it shall be hereafter. Christ is the climax the acme of the divine nature and its perfections, and toward this goal God's sons are ever in a progressive ascent. The real achievement of faith is to put this ideal into realization. The gulf between the highest possible attainments in grace and present experience ought always to be narrowing until that state is reached which Paul designates as "a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Galatians 4: 13.) Here is full manhood. The adolescent period in grace is passed and maturity is reached. 225 The Exalted Life Paul confessed unto a measure of non-attain- ment saying, I am not "already perfect" ; counting that he had not yet apprehended all that Christ had apprehended him for; but he said I am "reaching forth," and I am "pressing toward the mark." This should be the stimulus and the ambition of every child of grace, not stopping short of the realiza- tion of what he was intended to be in Christ Jesus. Who can judge of man's capacity for goodness with Christ in him as its source and its measure? Son- ship ought to fill one with such a sense of moral dignity and true worth that he can never more feel that he is keyed to failure. Jesus uttered words of great assurance when he said, "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (St. John 10: 28.) What a feeble, sickly sentimentalism prevails with many people on the question of ability to hold out if the Christian life were espoused. Even Chris- tians sometimes shrink from strong affirmations on this line. This "law of sin and death," like a Niag- ara, sweeps them with its relentless tide, and they fear that they may some day fall by the hand of the enemy. This fear has kept many from making an open avowal of their faith; it has chilled the ardor of many timid ones, and made utter cowards out of millions. Personally, I like to cherish the thought that there is nothing so certain of final victory as this life in Christ. God's laws are not failures. Test them and see if they do not work as intended. Does not the law of sin and death work? If it does, then this other law, "the law of the Spirit of life 226 Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power in Christ Jesus," the mightier law, will also work to the end and purpose intended; namely, giving freedom "from the law of sin and death." There are a number of elements or forces named by the apostle as uniting in this work of recovery that we may well consider. If we watch the trend of divine teaching in unfolding the plan of human redemption through the ages, we shall see how all the teaching has been focused on one great central goal — redemption from sin. The first faint gleam of light that shot athwart the darkness of a hope- less world was the promised seed. (Genesis 3 : 15.) Beginning with Abel we trace the gradually grow- ing light through Seth, the second seed, and then on through Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, to Jesus, the Christ, "the light of the world." Then mark again how the light grows through the various epochs of the worlds history. Beginning with conscience — a very dim and uncer- tain light — we pass through the dispensations of promise and law, to grace, the open door of mercy to a fallen world, and eternal life as a gift to sinning ones. To be a little more specific in this graded manifes- tation and life, there are three features that it may be well to note. ( 1 ) God as seen in the sphere of law, managing the judicial affairs of the world. (2) Christ as seen in the sphere of grace, meeting and canceling all the claims of the law. (3) The Holy Spirit in the sphere of power, making real as an experience, the work and life of Jesus in the believer. Here the Holy Spirit covers the whole field of experimental redemption. Just as 227 The Exalted Life the law of sin and death covered the whole field of moral ruin, so here the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus covers the whole field of moral and spiritual recovery from this ruin. The Holy Spirit makes real what before was only judicially true. Here the whole Godhead is coupled with man's redemption. This eighth chapter of Romans ought to be called the chapter on the Holy Spirit, as it deals so largely with the work of the Spirit in and for the believer. It covers the whole realm from the beginning of spiritual life to the transformation, the redemption of the physical body. Note the work of the Spirit: It gives life; it is "the Spirit of life." It rules the life, the conduct; "walk after the Spirit." It in- spires the thinking, "mind the things of the Spirit." It fills the mind with peace; "it is life and peace." It takes one out of the sphere of the flesh ; "not in the flesh — if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." It determines the question of discipleship ; "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." It puts the spiritual into ascendant rule; "the Spirit is life because of righteousness." It is life-giving to the physical body; "shall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Note that it is not the corruptible body that is already dead that is quickened.) It is also death-dealing to the sin tendencies of the flesh; "if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." It is proof of sonship; "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." It is the spirit of kinship; "the spirit of adoption." It gives unquestionable as- 22S Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power surance of heirship ; "the Spirit himself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God." He stimulates, guides, and controls all true praying. (See Romans 8:26, 27, for the verifica- tion of this.) Not all praying is acceptable to God. We read of prayers that are despisable and abominable. Then we read of prayers that are pleasing to God and ascend as sweet odors before him. It is said of Cornelius that his prayer was heard and that his alms were had in remembrance. When the praying is done in the Holy Spirit we can never pray amiss. It is more the divine One do- ing the praying than the individual. The human faculties are taken possession of and the praying is done through them, and cannot be other than in harmony with the divine will. In the light of this Scripture what shall we say of the thousands and millions of unanswered prayers that must be in evidence throughout the Church? What a sad comment on the believer's infirmities, for which he does not seek the Spirit's help. "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities." Now as the Holy Spirit is "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" we can readily see which way the believer is headed when Spirit-guided and Spirit-empowered. When one is in partnership with Christ, and walking with him, he must go the way he is going. "Because I live, ye shall live also," condenses all that Christ is meant to be to his people ; Christ is not only the way and the truth, but he is also the life. This life embraces two great thoughts ; namely, emancipation from moral evil, 229 The Exalted Life and a fuller life and experience in Christ Jesus. Here we have both the destructive and the construc- tive in the building of Christian character. This law of life has wonderful power to overcome and cast out the forces of evil. How wonderfully this life unfolds and enlarges, as previously noted, when we read the gospel message as reported by St. John. It begins with life, Christ himself being the life. "In him was life." Then this life obtains in the human soul by regeneration. This beginning life is designated by the term "babes in Christ," and is unfolded in the third chapter by St. John. Its indwelling character is seen in the message of Jesus to the woman at the well, called a well of water within. Later in this message Christ is called the living bread that nourishes this life. Still later, in the seventh of John, it becomes overflowing rivers, called "rivers of living water." Finally, in chapters 14-17, it is presented in all its fullness and maturity as an experience, and as an abiding life, of which Christ is the source and never failing sup- ply. Here we have the secret of growth, of enlarge- ment, of spiritual conquest, the incoming of a new life-source. While Christ was born of woman, and thus human, he was not of Adam's fallen seed, for he did not inherit a fallen nature. He was without sin, was sinless, and hence could not con- tribute to sin in the life of his followers. His whole nature is a contribution to holiness. Wherever this life flows, death and sin are put away. Like the river in Ezekiel's vision, "everything shall live whither the river cometh." It is further said of 230 Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power this river that ''upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed : it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine " (Ezekiel 47:12.) How strikingly similar this description to that given in the last chapter of the book of Revelation. "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month : and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Reve- lation 22: 1, 2.) Are these not marvelous visions of gospel times, of days in which we are now living, the achieve- ments of which multiply as time advances? What began in a period of great dimness and obscurity of vision issues in a day so bright that no sun is need- ed to give light, and what was seen to come forth from under the steps or doorsill of a remote sanctu- ary ends in a city the glory of which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man to conceive." Now all the glory of the conception, inception, progress, and frnal consummation of these visions of man's restoration to his lost Eden must be as- cribed to the wisdom, the love, and the power of God as revealed in Christ Jesus. All the glory of 231 The Exalted liife the first Eden, which was committed to the first Adam to be kept by him for himself and his race being lost, was committed to the second Adam for recovery and added glory. This is now being won- derfully consummated. For nearly two thousand years Jesus has held the field of opportunity and recovery for man, himself leading the way of achievement and victory. He not only taught the perfect life, but he lived it himself. He not only taught his disciples the life that ought to be, but he also promised the needed power to make such a life possible. He has even put himself, as **the wisdom of God, and the power of God," at man's disposal. Can anything more than this be done ? Think of it! The wisdom of God is yours. Do we want to know how to build a perfect character? Here is infinite wisdom at our command. Do we want pow- er to carry out our plans for character building? Here Omnipotence responds to our needs. To make these available, as needed, God has made Christ both his wisdom and his power to his people. What a marvelous surrender of himself to igno- rance and weakness, and all so easy of avail — made his Son to be these to all that will accept him. Not only is Christ in his own life, in his character, and in his work, the very highest expression of the wisdom and the power of God, but mark, he is this also in the life and character of his followers. How wonderful that such a life as Christ' lived and such power as he had in transforming character is put at the disposal of his disciples and can by them be made available in their own transformation! 232 Christ as the Constructive and Expulsiye Power Now all this, to the believer, is made possible through the gospel. This was the occasion of Paul's glorying in the cross, and of his boldness in the espousal of the gospel as the only means of salva- tion. He qualifies it as being the very power of God unto salvation. (Romans 1 : 16.) True, as I have heard it said, this gospel is sim- ply good news, a message about the Christ and not the Christ himself. Here we confront one of the perils of the times. It is so easy to preach about Christ and yet not preach him. The gospel may be used as a vessel — most attractive in its artistic beauty and display as a vessel — but empty, having nothing in it. Of what use is a vessel, however costly in its material and fashioning, if it bears nothing in it of use in meeting human needs? It is just like the "broken cistern that can hold no water." The gospel is only the empty vessel if it does not carry Christ in it. What would the commission have amounted to if Christ had not been the very soul and life of it? It would have been no higher or better than paganism. The secret of the trans- forming power of truth in the lives of millions of men and women is that Christ is the truth. Jesus put this in a very definite way when he said, "I am the truth." And again when he said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. . .for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." (John 6:53-56.) This teaching was mysterious and offensive to the nmltitude, and even to some of the disciples, all 233 The Exalted Life understanding the meaning in too literal a way. Then Jesus qualifies the meaning as being spiritual, telling them that here was life and spirit in his words, saying "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are Hfe." Here we strike the very acme of Christ's teach- ing. He said, "I am that bread of life" ; "I am the living bread which came down from heaven" ; "my flesh and my blood are meat and drink" ; expressions all so contradictory to human reason and so repul- sive to refined taste. But the grossness of this literalism vanishes when we associate it with the scene at the last supper. Here Jesus called the bread his body and the wine his blood. Here the actual, veritable life of Christ was to pass into the lives of his disciples and he thereby becomes their life, is the teaching. This was a plain but a very strange announcement of his death and of his resur- rection. Animal and vegetable life to become food — be transmitted into the life of another — must undergo the transformation of death; must die to live again. This was the great lesson that Jesus taught his disciples. "I die that thou mayest live." It was only by dying and living again that he could be made available as their life; be appropriated by the soul just as really as food is appropriated by the body. In order to promote growth, all life must lay hold of extraneous substances and transmit them into itself. Each kind of life has this strange power of changing the same substance into the kind of life peculiar to its own. This is true of all the various forms of plant and animal life. One 234 Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power form of life may be the most noxious and deadly, while another may be the most constructive and life-giving. All this is true in the spiritual life. Just as all fruits and vegetables and all animal life, when eaten and digested, become the life of the body, so he that has fellowship with Christ through faith, has the Christ-life changed into his life, or possibly better, his life changed into the Christ-life, so he can say with Paul, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." To live in Christ, there must be a clear percep- tion of him, he must enter the mind and take pos- session of the thought-life in such a way that every thought shall be brought into captivity to the obe- dience of Christ. (II. Corinthians 10:5.) Christ must hold all the mental and moral faculties in bondage to himself. A life of faith never dulls- or deadens the intellectual faculties. Faith and reason are never in conflict; the one does not in- crease at the expense of the other. Faith often goes where reason cannot go; but it is because it is higher than reason, and not that it is contrary to reason. We cannot go very far in any direction until reason has reached its horizon. Then is when we must couple up with higher reason, the divine. Reason soon loses itself in the symbols that Jesus uses to represent himself as the life of his people. Reason said, ''How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus said, "He that eateth me, even he shall Hve by me." But reason asks. How? Jesus bases his own life on the divine life, saying, "I live by the father" ; so ye must live by me, "by my words, 235 The Exalted Life they are truth and they are life." These words, this truth, must be digested by faith, and thereby con- verted into the real substance of Christ's life in the believer. Just as all articles of food taken into the body are converted into blood, and then by the heart distributed to every part of the body for its growth and constant replenishing, so all that Christ is in his atoning sacrifice, his shed blood, and his resurrection life, is made available by faith and the quickening of the Holy Spirit in the believer, as his life. Just as nothing can become our life physically until it **has passed into blood," so nothing of Christ can be ours, become our life, until there is an ap- propriation of it as actually and as really as that of partaking of physical nourishment by eating and drinking. Christ must not be simply a composite or a deposit in the life of the believer, but he must be the unit of his life, his completed life. In order to be this he must be assimilated. The Father pre- pared him for this assimilation by making him flesh. ''Christ, the Word, was made flesh." In him God and truth became spiritually nutritive, and hence life-giving. As all vegetable and animal life passes through death in order to be turned into blood as a life-agent, so Jesus taught his disciples at this last supper that his death was to be their life, and must be so held in memory by his Church until his return. Here we have kinship of the highest order, blood relationship with Jesus our Lord, and through him relationship with God the Father. Paul makes this fellowship very striking and forcible when he says, 'The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the 236 Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread." (I. Corinthians 10:16.) What a mutual relation is pictured! All are made to share in the one blood and one body, and so become one body because partakers of that one bread, which is Christ. Here Christ lives again ; reproduces and reincarnates himself in the life of his Church. This being true what kind of a life must his Church live, be expected to live, if living in his stead and living a life co-ordinate with his? Here is godlikeness, a life transformed into the divine. This transformation is ever going on in its heavenly character, so that more and more the home of the Spirit is among the things that are pure and holy. When these are absent the pilgrim and or- phaned feeling take possession of the individual. When Christ enters the life, two forces are at once in action, as in the chapter of conflicts, the seventh of Romans. Until Christ comes in the "strong man armed keepeth his palace." But when he, the stronger one, "comes upon him, and over- comes him, he takes from him all his armor wherein he trusted," and thrusts him out. How very im- portant it is that we make this teaching real, as real as life, for it is life. Satan, the strong man, is real, sin is real, life is real, death is real. Who can ques- tion this? Just as real, and more wonderfully so, is Christ, the Lord, who comes into our lives to make all things new, to be at home in us and to be one with us, just as he and his Father are one 237 The Exalted Life with each other. When our Hfe is given to Christ and then is replaced by his Hfe, the consciousness of this fact becomes more real than our own life was, for it is ever merging into the divine. From this time onward, the life is ever soaring heaven- ward. The power of this uplifted life is drawing, like the law of gravitation, towards the things that are above, and earthly things are losing their power more and more to control and pull the life down- ward. With this divine life in the ascendency, from which the spiritual and moral life is now evolved by growth from this original seed, which is Christ, there is an ever increasing vital activity in this now component life. Since writing the above concern- ing Christ giving his flesh as meat and his blood as drink, there came into my hand a little booklet called, "The Book of the Century Society," in which the writer makes some statements that give added force to the symbol used. Speaking of the destructive and constructive changes going on in our bodies — getting rid of the dead cell matter and the rebuilding of the living tissues — he says: "Of our bodies it is absolutely true that, 'in life we are in death.' The cell gets its building material from the blood. If the blood is pure and free from humors, the body cannot help but be built in perfect health." He goes on to say, "Perfect health is the exact balance between the destruction of cell-tissue by the activities of the body and mind, and con- struction of cell-tissue by the activity inherent in the remaining living cells, which have the won- derful power of reproducing themselves." 2SS Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power How strikingly this represents Christ in his work of grace as carried on in the beHever. Redemption as wrought out in Christ is a completed work — "Ye are complete in him" — but to the believer this work is ever going on as this redemption is made over to him and consummated in him. Here the life in Christ is ever enlarging, growing stronger, while the self-life is dwarfing and growing weaker. Just as there is a daily renewal in the divine life, so there is a daily dying to the self-life. Death severs the relation with the old life, so that it is no longer to have control, and thereby opens the way for union with the new life, the risen Christ. There is now another and different force in command, and the trend is upward instead of downward, lifeward instead of deathward, heavenward instead of earth- ward. Life from now on has a new and higher motive, which more and more influences its activities. Like a ship sailing the seas, having a force within that drives it against both wind and tide, so the life that is linked with Christ can stem the tide of the law of sin and death and finally anchor in the har- bor of eternal peace and safety. The law of sin and death, like gravity, may exist, but the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus gives freedom from it. Dr. A. T. Pierson says, "Gravity, while never ceasing, can be overcome. A man may be in a balloon and fastened firmly to the earth, but the moment he cuts the cable that holds him down he finds another force operating and carrying him aloft in spite of himself, and the higher he rises the weaker becomes the earth pull." 239 The Exalted Life How wonderMly transforming and uplifting the life of the all-conquering Christ! A degenerate life may turn the world into a hell and the life into a demon, but the regenerate life can change the world into a heaven and the demon into a son of God. How helpless man is when under the forces of evil, but how all-masterful when there comes into him that wonderful worker and under- takes for him. Hear Paul's description in the words, "For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philip- pians 2:13.) God through Christ is the perfect master of sin in the believer. Here is not only the will to do right, but also the power. God is the mighty worker, and there is nothing too hard for him. A perfect partnership with him solves the question of spiritual conquest and spiritual attain- ment. Paul says, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; so that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work." (H. Corinthians 9:8.) Let every timid, trembling soul anchor to this immovable rock, "God is able." He keeps the world moving, the sun shining, the storms obedient to his power, so that nothing occurs in the heaven above or on the earth beneath but is in har- mony with his sovereign will. Surely, then, he can work his gracious purposes in the narrow limits of a poor, trusting soul. Note the wonderful sweep of this power in its gracious proAasions for showering all kinds of blessings upon his Church. "All grace," "al- ways," "all sufficiency," "in all things," "may 240 Christ as the Constructive and Expulsive Power abound to every good work." Here are four "alls" and two "abounds," and all guaranteed by the divine ability. Grace first abounds — goes over all bar- riers — to the individual, and then is to abound, through him to others. Is there any room here for sin or excuse for a famishing heart? Can there be any plea of want of ability for right living, and for meeting divine requirements when infinite power is pledged to supply every need? Who can excuse himself for failure in the face of such a promise. Reader, can you? Stop and think. Christ is sin's sure destruction. Home him in the heart, and give him full control, and sin can never enter. Sin is a foreign element in such a life, and can never be homed in the divine will and nature. While we may not be sinless as Christ, we can nevertheless be freed from its being and power. With "sin blotted out," and we a "new creation" in Christ Jesus, there is a new law of gravitation in force, and the life is now being lifted to the plane of the supernatural, the divine. While our bodies may still ally us to the earthly sphere, our spiritual citizenship is in heaven, and it now becomes our true environment. "The law of sin and death" has lost its tendency in the life, and "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" is ever lifting the soul out of the natural into the supernatural. Joseph went down into Egypt, but he rose above Eg}^pt. Daniel did not have to eat the king's meat or drink of his wine. While we live in the world we may be not of the world. Christ was not of the world though living in it. Jesus lived the separated life, and so must his disciples ^1 The Exalted Life if they would have him live in and with them. He is the same Jesus that he was when on earth, and is still inviting his people to come aside with him and rest. 242 CHAPTER XVII. The Significance of the Cross in the Life of the Believer. We now come to one of the most tragic, mys- terious, tender, and yet significant chapters in the whole scheme and history of human redemption — the cross of Christ. Around this cross the bloodiest battles have been fought; some religious polemics have wielded the keenest and sliarpest swords against it, and in- fidelity has poured its most foul and scurrilous epi- thets upon it. In early times Roman armies and Grecian philosophy were marshaled and arrayed against it. It brooked political power of the most collossal character, resisted systems of paganism with centuries of history behind them, and con- fronted the coldest and deadliest ecclesiasticism of all the ages. Religious and political debauchery reigned. The whole world, with individual excep- tions, breathed and gave out the foulest moral odor. All flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth, and consequently lived in a cesspool of vice. In the midst of this condition of things the cross came into view, which Paul proclaimed, to both Jews and Gentiles, as being both "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (I. Corinthians 1 : 22-24.) To the one it was a stumbling-block, and to the other foolishness. 243 The Exalted Life Now we may well ask whether the time in which we live is wholly different from that now distant day? Have we not in a measure gone back to the days of Greece and Rome in our attitude to- ward the cross? It is so easy in these days of en- lightenment, of intellectual and physical culture, to substitute for the cross that which cannot save. These substitutes are claiming and capturing the attention and interest of public life to that degree that it has become a serious question with devoted ministers and consecrated laymen how to keep the interest of modern church life on a par with worldly culture and worldy amusements, sometimes even among Christian people. Even on the Sabbath, the special day for religious teaching and the pro- motion of the spiritual life, the churches are often painfully neglected for worldly amusements or care- less ease. With many it is not merely a matter of indifference or diversions, but of contempt and open hostility, characterizing it as a "religion of the shambles.'' Paul encountered such a class in his day, over which his heart was broken. He says, "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." (Philippians 3: 18.) There is much preaching these days — splendid, earnest, learned, eloquent — about Christ, even of Christ himself, his character and his life, but not Christ crucified. It was Christ crucified and risen that transformed Saul into Paul, and made him the greatest preacher the world has ever known. The cross was always his rallying cry and the oc- 244 The Significance of the Cross in the Life casion of his glorying. His attitude toward the cross decided the character of his life and his re- ligion. How any man, in view of what the cross stands for in human redemption, can be indifferent to, or an enemy of it is a question that stands without an answer. How any one can cherish a hope of final salvation and then discredit the cross and live a life and pursue a course of conduct that arrays him aganist the only hope of deliverance from sin is a mystery awaiting solution. Christ crucified stands for Christianity ; it is its very soul and life. How flagrant this feeling of enmity must be when it is against the very instru- ment and procuring cause of man's salvation ! Without the cross there is no hope of salvation. Everything centers here ; this is the rock on which all hope of future blessedness is built. It is the one message of power in all true evangelism, and has been the rallying cry of every living Church through all the ages. Christ crucified was the theme of the first preacher on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Church, resulting in about three thousand souls being added to the number of believers. It was Calvary that opened the way for the descent of the Spirit, without which no Church can be living and efficient. The cross must precede life and power. On this line all great awakening and all genuine revivals come. The cry, "Back to Calvar}M" ought to ring out from every church in all lands. It is the cross, not scholastic training, not highest civilization, not national reformations, not ances- 245 The Exalted Life tral religions, that is to save the world. It is the source of individual triumph over sin, and makes for man's highest glory in this and in the world to come. Paul wanted nothing else in which to glory. (Galatians 6: 14.) The cross holds a significant place in the world's liistory, both ancient and modern. It was the gib- bet of the ancients, and the symbol of religious conquest. It is not an invention of modern times; for in a sense it is coeval with time's earliest morn- ing ; for Christ, as a Lamb, was virtually slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13: 8.) A writer says, ''The cross has always had a mys- terious significance. We are told that the cliff- dwellers of southern Colorado display the constant use of the cross in their constructions. When the Spaniards came to Peru and Mexico they found the inhabitants reverencing the cross, and claiming that they received it from an early civilization. In an- cient India, Phoenecia, Babylon, and Egypt, the cross was honored whole millenniums before Christ came." As an emblem the cross has always had a strangle and sacred significance. While it is the symbol of death, it is also the sign and source of life and se- curity. It was doubtless the sign of the cross on the forehead of the pious inhabitants of Jeru- salem that saved them in the time of the great slaughter (Ezekiel 9:4). It is said that the Jews in Egypt roasted the Paschal lamb on a cross-shaped instrument, and that the blood on the doorposts and lintels of the houses outlined a cross. This being true it is easy to see how, through all the 246 The Significance of the Cross in the Life past and among the various peoples and races, the cross has stood as a most significant symbol of redemption. There are two phases in which the cross must be viewed. In the one phase it is very hideous and repulsive, and most shocking to human sensibilities. This found its largest and fullest expression in the crucifixion of Christ. There is nothing like it in all history. He crossed the river of the nether world and passed through the awful shades of that Stygian night in which demons revel and rage. The most appalling gloom that fell was not the vanish- ing of the mid-day sun, but the momentary hiding of his Father's face. Here the law had its full force. There was no pity, no mercy, no deliverance. The sin of all the ages condensed upon his soul, and he paid the awful penalty. "He tasted death for every man." This was very hell itself. He is dead! His face hangs on his bosom in grave stillness. The very heavens are fairly startled by the sight. The earth is in a convulsion, and the dead are appalled in their graves and start into life again. The very bowels of the earth were rent with pain, and the whole solar system covered its face with the mantle of mourning. That same system of which man was a part in his creation, and that suffered as the result of his sin, now goes into awful throes of sympathetic agony when the whole load of sin and guilt is laid on the One that came to recover man from his ruin. Creation itself groaned and travailed in pain at this awful scene. Now, why was all this? It was for and because of man's sin. Paul says, "For I 247 The Exalted Life delivered first of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures." (I. Corinthians 15:3.) Science does not need the cross because it denies the existence of sin. The denial of sin is the denial of the cross which is sin's only cure. Nothing can conquer sin and what it bought, which is physical, spiritual, and eternal, but the cross. Was the cross cruel, shameful, odious? It could not be otherwise as sin's conqueror, standing as it does for the deceit- fulness and heinousness of sin. It is the revela- tion of the meaning of sin ; it is the divine definition of sin. Any one looking at that cross can see the awfulness of sin ; what it cost to save man from it. But while its cruelty makes one shudder, it is also radiant with the glorious light of grace and hope. Shameful cross ! Yes, but at its foot, the guilty, sin-polluted, sin-paralyzed soul finds redemp- tion and the beginning of a new life. In view of what sin has done, and what recovery from it has cost in tears, sweat, and blood, how can it ever be inviting to, and loved by a human soul? It took the life of our best friend, and by the most cruel and barbarous method. Could the wife of President McKinley take the murderer of her husband into her home and extend to him all the amenities belonging to social and kindred life? Could the children of a loving mother take the man that brutally outraged and murdered that mother into their affections and fellowship, and treat him as a friend? The very thought is per- fectly abhorrent. 248 The Significance of the Cross in the Life Plow much more abhorrent is sin as seen in the light of the cross. Think of the awful havoc sin has wrought in the world ! It has been the cause of broken hearts, revolting sicknesses, flow- ing tears, cruel wars, and bloodshed, and devastating floods and famines. It has opened the door to every saloon, public house, brothel, and gambling den that is corrupting and ruining millions of men and women to-day. Sin's entrance brought death with all its melancholy. It has dug every grave, made every coflin, sung every dirge, and started every hearse on its dolorous way. The whole world is groaning under the v/eary, crushing weight of sin, and yet it is invited, cherished, and loved. How can this be? Reader, look upon a ruined world, look upon what sin has done to you, and then look away to the tragedy of Calvary, and answer. Sin has wrought such collossal ruin and cost heaven such an infinite price, that it would seem utterly impossible for a human heart to love and home it within. Peter writes of its cost when he says, "For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold ; but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot." (I. Peter 1 : 18, 19.) What an appeal this cross presents for a conse- crated and holy life ! A young lady In our greatest city stood gazing, as the story goes, on Tintoretto's picture of the crucifixion. While thus looking, she finally burst into tears saying, "If he suffered all that for me, I want to live for him." 249 The Exalted Life Here at the cross we have the end of sin. "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23.) Christ paid it. "He by the grace of God tasted death for every man." Dr. Denny says in his book entitled "The Death of Christ" : "He who came to bear our sin must also die our death. Death is the word that sums up the whole liability of man in relation to sin, and therefore when Christ came to give himself for our sins, he did it by dying." Then Jesus died the sinner's death. He met death and hell with all their agencies and powers of evil. He trod the wine-press alone; and of the people there were none with him. We have considered this darker side of the cross to illustrate the awfulness of sin — what sin is and what sin means — for which it stands as the expo- nent and the penalty. Law and sin end at the cross ; grace and righteousness begin there. Where the one ends the other begins. For Christ the cross meant all that sin, law, death, and eternal ruin mean; for the believer it means grace, holiness, life, unspeakable and eternal blessedness. The lan- guage of the cross, as a means of recovery from sin, is all that God's love stands for, all that free- dom from sin means, and all that glory that Paul says, "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." The cross is the open door to, and the pledge of the realization of these hidden and prepared things. This brings us now to the bright side of the cross, what it means to the one that accepts it as his only plea and hope. It is the only way back to 250 The Significance of the Cross in the Life God's favor and paternal love. Paul says that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." (II. Corinthians 5:19.) ''Without the shedding of blood there is no remission." (Hebrew 9:22.) He is the sin bearer. "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness : by whose stripes ye were healed." (I. Peter 2:24.) Now if Christ bore our sins substitutionally, then all that receive him are freed from sin. It is the work of faith to lay sin where God laid it, on Christ. "He laid on him the iniquity of us all." He bore our sin that we might not bear them. When the claims of divine justice have been met, there God can be just in justifying the believer. The integ- rity of God's throne has been fully maintained by the transaction on Calvary. "Hear the voice of Jesus say, Verily thou hast nothing to pay, All has been put to my account, I have paid the full amount. "Nothing to pay! Yes, nothing to pay, Jesus has cleared all the debt away, Blotted it out with his bleeding hand. Free and forgiven and loved you stand." In the light of the finished work on Calvary how strikingly appropriate and significant the last words heard from the cross, "It is finished." If finished, what is there left for us to do but to accept what Christ completed and so announced? "It is finished." "What a wonderful Savior!" Now, some one may be ready to say that as a theory this is very fine; but how far is it true and 251 The Exalted Life available in experience, in actual life? To this important question let us give careful and prayerful consideration. Here at the cross man's lapsed powers are re- stored. It is man's recovery from physical and moral ruin. The cry of the soul, in its deepest sense, is for deliverance from sin and death. The cross is the answer to this cry. To explain the mystery of the atonement is impossible; but to accept its benefits without explanation is possible. We cannot explain the divine existence, but we can and must believe in it. Not only is God him- self incomprehensible to finite wisdom, but every- thing that he does. The flowers in the garden, the fruits in the fields, and the sands on the seashore, are inexplicable. Scientists have carried us beyond the minutest visible particle to the molecule, from the molecule to the atom, and from the atom to the electron, or the electrum, whatever that may mean. Here we are in the depths of the unseen. As a cer- tain writer has said : "Who can comprehend how three hundred millions of atoms can lie in a row, side by side, within the length of an inch? Is this far enough into the unseen ? But now we are taught that even this atom itself is invisible, that in it are found electrons which are a thousand million times smaller than the atom. Now, can any one tell us where we are at? Can you say, I believe in science because I can understand it? The fact is, no human theory can measure the mighty things of God." In the face of these mysteries can any one ex- cuse himself from the obligation of accepting the 252 The Significance of the Cross in the Life scriptural facts about sin and salvation on the grounds of mystery? Here are facts that cannot be questioned, for they have been demonstrated in millions of lives. The proof is found in what it has done and is doing. It is changing lives, com- munities, and nations. It iis not a power that works outside the individual and that leaves him un- changed; but a power that works within and trans- forms the life. It is a regenerative principle, turn- ing sinners into saints. It turns the corrupt and sinful nature of man into pureness, and puts Christ into him as the ruling passion and power of his life. And, strange and unreasonable as it may seem, all this is done by dying. Who would ever have thought of such a method? Here it is, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Mystery! you say. Yes, but millions have been marshaled under this name, and millions are to-day marching under the banner of blood and shouting, "Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory." When will the Church grow tired of singing, "All hail the power of Jesus' name," "Rock of Ages, cleft for me," and that still more wonderful hymn, "When I survey the wondrous cross"? This method of the cross, of dying, is the real method of living when applied to the transforma- tion of character. Christ had to die for sin to make the way of deliverance possible to the sinner ; but now the sinner must himself die to sin in order to escape its consequences, and thus avail himself of this provisional deliverance in Christ. 253 The Exalted Life How can this be? There is only one way, and that way is the cross, "Life for life/* The Savior makes this very clear in John 12 : 24, 25, which is first applied to himself, and then to his followers. He calls his crucifixion his glorification saying, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." After using the bold and striking figures found in this chapter the evangelist says, "This he said, signifying what death he should die." Christ's earthly existence covered an exis- tence that was heavenly and divine. This had to be put off by dying; be planted in the field of re- demption in order to be the basis and source of future, multiplied existence. He was the single grain when planted, but to-day five hundred mil- lion or more of living disciples attest the truthful- ness and multiplicity of that one life. When Christ went to the cross, his true disciples could have been numbered by a few score. To-day he is fast be- coming the desire of all nations. Take the familiar figure, a single grain of wheat. To grow, it must be sown, planted in the groimd; but in growing, it must lose its present form, pass under the law of decay, of death. That coarse, husky casement that imprisons the germ life must disappear in order to future productiveness. In other words, it must die in order to live ; must perpetuate and propagate itself through destruc- tion. The present form must undergo decay, must perish in order to reappear in another and more glorious form — the blade, the stalk, the ear, and the full corn in the ear. 254 The Significance of the Cross in the Life The principle laid down, illustrated, and applied by the use of this figure is most striking and illumi- nating. Christ's death was his real and larger life, the lower life being supplanted by the higher, the earthly by the heavenly, the human by the divine. ''Here the higher form of life comes through the utter loss and destruction of the lower, and all this to be made possible and available of repe- tition in the life and experience of every believer. Life for life was what the law demanded, and our Savior paid it. He went into the grave and was numbered among the dead. Here law ended, and so far was triumphant. But like the grain of wheat, he died to live again. Omnipotent power raised him anew from the dead, and thereby made him the first fruits of all them which sleep in Jesus. On this risen life the law has no claim, and over this life it can have no rule. It is a new, strange life, and now belongs to a wholly different realm, the realm of grace. The law stopped at death and the grave, ending in hopeless ruin. Grace began at this awful crisis by breaking down the bars and gates of death and hell, and flooded the prison vaults with the light of hope and immortality. He rose for our justification." "It is God that justi- fieth. Who is he that condemneth?" "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" (Ro- mans 8: 33, 34.) Now the great, practical, and all-important ques- tion with every believer and follower of Christ is, as to how far his death and resurrection may be made available in changing the sin-state into a 255 The Exalted Life State of justification, and the sin-nature into one of lioliness. This question should be studied with great care and with deepest concern upon the part of every Christian. To-day the whole world stands agog at the experimental demonstrations now being made in this country by Dr. F. F. Friedmann for the cure of tuberculosis. Thousands of patients are await- ing results, and hundred are obtrusively crowding around him for immediate relief. To delay, with such an immediate end pending, is most serious to the victim of such a terrible disease. Immediate help is the cry. If this prospective remedy is arousing such a world-wide interest and kindling hope in so many hearts, how much more should sin's cure, offered so freely in Christ Jesus, challenge the deepest interest upon the part of every one that wants to escape its consequences. There is but one cure for sin, and that is Cal- vary. "Christ suffered for us," "was made sin for us," "was wounded," "bruised," "chastened for us," "was stricken for us," "bore our sins," "died for us," "is the propitiation for our sins," "made a curse," "made a sacrifice for us," "given as a ransom for us," "tasted death for every man," and all that we "might be healed," be "washed from our sins in his own blood," and "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." In the light of these Scriptures is there any- thing more to be done to cancel the debt? How glorious the thought that the debt made by another, the human father of the race, that unavoidably 256 The Sigfnificance of the Cross in the Life fell upon his offspring, was all wiped out, blotted from the book of the warden of justice, so that freedom from all guiltless sin now obtains. Here ancestral sin is taken care of by the atonement, and the birth from God, from above, starts the very opposite life from that of the birth from Adam, and so issues in a life kindred to Christ, which is "holy, harmless, and separate from sinners." The question of the atonement settles the ques- tion of individual deliverance from sin, and obtain- ment, and attainment in holiness. One thing we may be sure of, and that is that we cannot trifle with the atonement It is too serious to trifle with. It was not made just to cover sin and to excuse sin. Grace is not furnished for sin's multiplication or perpetuity, but for deliverance from it. (Romans 6:1, 2.) The atonement represents our death-state to sin ; (verse three) put "into his death." "Buried with him into death; risen in the likeness of his resur- rection to a new life" (verses four and five). This death and quickening to a new life, our state, ju- dicially, under the atonement (verses six, seven, and eight). If we would honor the atonement, what Christ has done for us, we must credit ourselves, legally, by faith, with its full benefit. (This seen in verses eleven, twelve, and thirteen.) By this reck- oning one believer transfers himself from the realm of law to the realm of grace, and henceforth is dealt with on entirely different grounds from what he was before. Law has now lost its control through death, and life in Christ has the ascendant 257 The Exalted Life rule. The curse of sin is canceled and the guilty declared innocent. "He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification." Not only is the guilt of sin removed, but the dominion of sin broken by our coming into the power of the risen Hfe of Christ. Hear Paul's tri- umphant exclamation : "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Romans 5:9, 10.) Here reconciliation is a guarantee of salvation. Past guilt being expiated clears the way for the perfecting of the work of grace in the heart and life of the believer. Hear Paul on this enlarge- ment : "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." (Romans 6:6, 7.) Can anything be plainer and more direct on the line of deliverance from sin than these words of the apostle ? Where' is the "old man when cruci- fied," and "the body of sin," sin's stronghold, when "destroyed"? Shall we make Christ's death a verity, a reality, and then when applied to man morally and spiritually, only a delusion, all unreal? This would be to make the whole scheme of salva- tion a fiction, the Bible a fable, and Christ an im- postor. This might well be the attitude of atheism, but can it be of Christian theism? Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension have in a significant sense become the standard of 258 The Significance of the Cross in the Life achievement for his followers. Paul, speaking on Christ's being seated "in the heavenlies," says, **Of the same power that it hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus." In the light of this teaching is there anything too hard for God to do or faith to achieve? Whatever Christ was in his earthly relation and life, the Christ of the Christian's faith is the now risen and highly exalted Christ. He is not now known after the flesh but after the spirit. The apostle says : "Yea, though I have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know I him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." Now as Christ is, so are we. "As is the heavenly so also are they that are heavenly." Is not this a highly exalted life to which Christ has opened the way? He himself is there. It is a new realm in which to live. Paul says that "we are come unto the heavenly Jerusalem, to an in- numerable company of angels, to the general assem- bly and church of the first-born, which are writ- ten in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." What a radiant life to live ! A new and divine per- sonality has come down from heaven to earth, and is now incarnate in men and women, and thereby lifting their life from the earthly sphere to the heavenly. Christ is now to be as real to the spirit- ual consciousness of his disciples as he was to their physical senses when he was living with them on 259 The Exalted Life earth. Then they lived with him on the earthly plane, but now they are so one with him that they are to repeat, relive, all that is imitable in his life and walk only on this higher plane which Paul describes in the words, "Henceforth I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Surely this must be an all-conquering and a con- tinuously triumphant life. With such a relation- ship, when can there be any room for sin, any excuse for weakness, failure, and defeat? Hear the tri- umphant shout of one who knew what this identity with Christ meant: "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." "Thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ Jesus." Surely sin had no part in Christ's life, and how can it in ours if he is our life and rules in our life? While we may not be sinless as he was, we may nevertheless be freed by him from the power of sin, from sin's reign in our lives. If not, then what does the new birth, the new start in life mean? What does the prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God," mean if not a creation like the first? Man originally was not created in sin, and it was such a work as this that David wanted done in him. He wanted a heart unqualifiedly new. The new, divine nature in man never sins. If sin is committed it must come from some other source. We can never make "Christ the minister of sin." So when the nature of Christ comes into the believer, and the life lived is after that 260 The Significance of the Cross in the Life nature, sin is no longer the practice of that life. Here the "cannot sin" of St. John becomes strik- ingly true. (I. John 3:9.) The "seed," the new life, abiding in the heart, which has been created "clean," cannot give out into the life what is not now in it. This can no more be true than that a fountain can send forth both salt and sweet water at the same time. A fig tree cannot bear olives, or a vine figs. This new law in grace is as unerring as this law in nature. Like produces like. Flesh and spirit each (as Jesus taught Nicodemus) pro- ducing its kind. Just what one sows, that is what he will reap. Now, in closing this chapter, we confront a seri- ous question, and one that presses hard for a clear and assuring answer. That is, How can one live such a life as that described above and which is so often affirmed in the Scriptures as being the only life that is pleasing to God here, and that has the promise of eternal life hereafter? To this answer let us devote the most careful and prayer- ful consideration. (1) The past sins of the believer are all "blotted out," and he is freed from the moral consequences of his sins, as the word "forgiveness" signifies. (2) This forgiveness does not always avert the evil consequent on the violation of God's laws in natural or physical life. One may suffer decline in health and die a premature death, though forgiven and freed from sin. (3) The claims of justice were met at Calvary, and that is where mercy stands to welcome the sinner. Here every question is answered and every promise fulfilled. Can Christ be a Savior if he does not save? Are 261 The Exalted Life God's promises trust-worthy if they are not kept? In the Hght of the cross and God's integrity can the penitent, beHeving sinner, however vile, be disowned and turned away condemned? If all the sin and guilt of the whole of humanity through all the ages, except the sin against the Holy Spirit, were piled on one single, lone sinner would it be too much for God's love and Calvary's cross to deal with in righteousness? (Hebrews 7:25.) (4) The cross covers the whole realm of sin, whether in the nature or in the life. The cross opens the way for the new, heavenly beginning. This is made very clear in the discourse of Jesus to Nicodemus, in the third chapter of St. John, where the "lifting up of the Son of man" is associated with regenera- tion, or the birth from above. Here the new, second birth is put in contrast with the old, first birth, the spiritual against the fleshly, regeneration facing in the opposite direction from degeneration, the birth from God in antithesis with that from Adam. Birth being the beginning, the origin of life, always im- plying parentage, must of necessity imply ancestral vergency. Hence if the birth from Adam means a sinful, a corrupt nature, must not the birth from God imply the opposite, a nature of purity, of holi- ness? Is not the one birth as broad as the other? The one from above as broad as the one from be- low? If the new birth implies a change of king- doms, and citizenship in heaven, then it must mean a wonderful transformation of the earthly life into that of the heavenly. At this point we very naturally and wisely confront the question of degrees of life, and the 262 The Sigiiidcance of the Cioss in the Life maintenance of a healthy, continuous growth to- ward maturity, a ''perfect man in Christ Jesus." Here, as previously stated and oft repeated, we con- front the all-decisive battlefield. In the natural world all life has a struggle for existence. This has been true ever since the wreck in Eden. But even this struggle is not without its advantages. It often lays the foundation for a healthy development. In the life of man this struggle has a dual effect; for it is not only destructive, but it is also con- structive. Everywhere the stronger force holds (he sway. In the conflict for character, that side wins which can throw into the scale the greatest moral and spiritual force in the conflict. Just as in the order of creation, everything going from the lower to the higher, from the inorganic to the organic; so here man is ever ascending, if living in God's order, from the human to the di- vine, the imperfect to the perfect. The Christ-life is ever an inflowing life, and is gauged upon the part of the believer by the measure of his intelli- gent surrender to Christ. It is the measure of his life in tis that determines the measure of our life in him. The fully surrendered life is the normal condition of God's sons. Self-denial and cross- bearing determine how fully we are living for Christ, and how fully his life is our life. "For me to live is Christ." CHAPTER XVIII. The Divine Method of Discipleship. Jesus does not open up any easy road, on the human side, to discipleship. He would have every one of his followers to count the cost, like a wise- master-builder, before beginning the life that is to be patterned after his own. Here no one may, or need be deceived. There is no flattery or luring charms employed to beguile or ensnare unwary feet, and yet the brightest goal that ever charmed the human heart is set before the gaze of human, aspiring eyes. Paul would make Jesus the cynosure of all eyes. He says, "Looking unto Jesus." (Hebrews 12:2.) In the preceding chapter, Paul is calling the "mus- ter-roll of the ages," the heroes of faith. In this twelfth chapter he is giving the incentives to ac- tion as runners, wrestlers, and fighters. Here the Church in the new dispensation is in the arena, in the contest; the ancients are in the amphitheater as witnesses, crowding the galleries to the dense- ness of a radiant cloud. They are both spectators and witnesses. But charming, exciting, and en- trancing as is this vision, and great and numerous as is the throng that lines the race course, there is another sight that the parting clouds reveal, a divine personage, standing clear and distinct in his personality, whose brightness far outshines all else, upon whom Paul would focus all eyes. Here the 264 The Divine Method of Discipleship obscuring cloud melts away, and like as on the Mount of Transfiguration, only one form appears, Jesus the Christ. There is much being said these days about the Church, and especially ministers, having a new, fresh vision of Christ. Certainly a very essential thing, for Solomon says, ''Where there is no vision the people perish." Without this new and constant- ly growing conception of Christ and his work, things will narrow down to the most restricted and straightened boundaries. It will be ''my fruits and my goods," instead of, "for me to live is Christ." All life will be planned on this narrow, selfish plane instead of being planned after that divine or- der of living and service that is as broad as the world and as long as the ages. The great object of looking to Christ, and hav- ing a growing conception of him and his teaching, is to have a plan for living. Life without a plan means wreckage and final ruin. It is like a ship at sea without a chart, a compass, pilot, or a des- tination. If we would be eagle-Christians we must lift our heads, spread the wings of faith, and soar and fly. The eagle's flight and home are toward the sun. We may carry our heads so low as not to see the sun, though shining full-orbed. Looking unto Jesus is not mere furtive glances at him. This will not do. To be the pattern of our life, he must be our habitual contemplation. "We all, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (I. Corinthians 3: 18.) 265 The Exalted I^ife It is not enough to simply see Jesus. This may be done involuntarily, and out of idle curiosity; but to look is a voluntary act, and means gazing away and off from other things, things in general, to see some special object. So, in order to see Jesus, we must shut out other and contrary things from our gaze, if we would see him only. The vision must be shut up to him alone, and like an ardent lover look steadfastly into his face. Not with a hasty languid glance of a couple of minutes in the morn- ing, and with a still more abbreviated, drowsy gaze at night, and then think that he wall reveal himself. It must be a long, fixed gaze. He will not think it rude in us to so do. He has commanded us to "look," and for so doing offers the reward of eternal life. Jesus will never disdain or scorn an upturned face. Looking to him we are sure of the prize. The longer we gaze at him the thinner the clouds grow, the brighter the skies become, and the day finally becomes **as one of the days of the Son of man upon earth." This looking unto Jesus and studying his life is the only real basis of true discipleship. This leads us more specifically to this divine relationship and life which we wish to now consider. Jesus laid down the principle and test of discipleship in the words, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23.) He had just given utterance to the words that must have been very hard for his disciples to hear. He had been telling them of his rejection, death, and 266 The Divine Method of Discipleshlp resurrection. He told them that he was going to his triumph by the way of the cross. For this Peter rebuked him. He then turns and applies this way that he was going, as the test of Christian discipleship in all ages. He tells them that it is the saved life that is lost, and that it is the lost life that is saved. ''For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." (Verse 24.) In this twenty-third verse we have a summary of the essentials of Christian character and life-re- nunciation of self, daily cross-bearing, and follow- ing this divine leader. While these requirements are clearly distinct from each other, yet they are most closely related in establishing and building up Chris- tian discipleship. They are so co-related that no one of these precepts can be considered apart from the others without detraction and loss from the sum total. While each may be regarded as a pivot and test of discipleship, yet all must be taken together to form a perfect unit in the life founded upon, and modeled after the life of Christ. The first in the order of this trinity of require- ments is that of self-denial. ''Let him deny him- self." This is the first and all-inclusive step in the life of grace. This being true, how it becomes every one that wishes to become a disciple of the Lord Jesus to consider well the scope and meaning of this first step. Errors at beginnings are most fatal ; often resulting in doom. What is self-denial? What is it to deny self, in the sense in which our Lord enjoins it? With- out a clear conception of it, how can it be practiced 267 Th© Exalted Lifo in harmony with the divine meaning? Vague ideas of its meaning will lead to gross if not fatal errors in practice. This word "self-denial" covers a wide range of meaning, and represents a force, in the moral realm, that is all-determining in Chris- tian character and practice. This is the pivot on which future usefulness and final destiny turn. "Sin," "self," and "Satan" are words that well de- scribe the graded descent in evil, ending in eternal separation from God. Self stands for ruin; Christ for recovery from this ruin ; and the choice must be made between these two. Self and Christ are sug- gestive of two centers, the one to be turned from and the other to be turned to. It is turning one's self away from one's self; the rejecting of self as the desire of self. Christ says, "If you would turn toward me, you must turn away from yourself; if you would accept me you must renounce yourself; if you would live for me, you must cease to live for yourself." It is an utter abandonment of self. This does not mean the conquest of self, the overcoming of self, involving the constant battling with self; but the turning away from self, the ceasing to live for self, the practical ignoring of self, disavowing any further relationship with self; an avowal that the life of self is no longer claimant. It is forgetting one's self because of some absorbing interest out- side of self. Much of what passes for self-denial is nothing more than self-nursing or self-seeking. Profes- sional athletes may become very abstemious in personal habits in order to win in some contest. So 26S The Divine Method of Discipleship in the acquisition of wealth, attainment of knowl- edge, or the pursuit of honor and fame, great privations may be endured for the purpose of gain- ing the enviable goal. But all this, in the highest sense, is not self- denial, denying self to self. Self is still the center of living and being. Self must be turned away from as the main object of existence if Christ is to be **all and in all." One who gives first place to self, to his own interests, either material or spiritual, may travel to the ends of the earth, and pinch himself in the sorest way by self-privations, and yet in the truest sense be living only for him- self. As a certain writer has well said, "Not what he does nor what he refuses to do, but the aim of his life, toward self or away from self, settles the question whether or not that man lives a life of true self-denial." When self is denied there will be no parlying with God for better or easier places of service. Not what seems the best and highest personal interest, but what the Master desires and commands will have highest thought and best endeavor. The call may lead to afflictions, necessities, to distresses; to prisons, to stripes and stonings; to journeyings oft- en ; to perils in the sea ; to perils of robbery ; to perils in the city; to perils in the wilderness; to perils among false brethren; to travails and watch- ings ; to hunger and thirst and fastings ; to cold and nakedness; but if the self-denial is complete what does it matter to the individual only so he is where he for whom he lives wants him? Whatever the 269 The Exalted Life condition and the circumstances of life, with all his heart he can say, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know also how to abound : in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in want. I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me." True self-denial is living out of and away from self, and living in and being homed with Christ in God. In order to simplify and illustrate this life of self-denial, I want to light a few tapers along the way, borrowed from practical life. The first is that from domestic life, the relation of huband and wife. This life has its beginning-period, like as in the life of Jacob and Rachel. It often begins in the most fortuitous way, like seeing a charming and kindling face, or hearing some things that fill the heart with admiration, and begets a feeling of unity of mind and heart. Later, on more intimate acquaintance, there springs up a conscious aiTection which results in a challenge for a life-relation. Think how much depends on this challenge and its final consummation upon the part of the one ; it means the giving up a home around which gathers the sweetest of memories, and leaving kindred that are as dear as life itself, to enter a maternal home that is crude in its construction, and to live in the most sacred relationship with one that only a few months ago was an alien and an utter stranger. Was it hard to do? No; it was the delight of Hfe; and yet it was the gift of one's self, of one's life, for better, for worse, for wasting or for 270 The Divine Method of Discipleship bloom, and all to a frail, untried, unknown man. The surrender was absolute, and yet so hazardous. How often disappointed love has resulted in sui- cide because of not being permitted or able to make this surrender to the object of love. How little was known at the time what this sur- render meant! It is all joyous now, and the path is one of flowers and the morning sky is burnished with gold ; but as the days multiply and years come, things change. Little was known at the first what it meant to be a wife or a husband. By and by sickness comes, the rose fades from the cheek, strength declines, and a helpless invalid has taken the place of a once hale and cheerful wife. Can the husband now say that I never agreed to this? Can he throw off his obligations as a husband and prove untrue to his marriage vows now that a change has come? No, he agreed to all back yonder on his wedding day. li he understood himself he agreed to love and cherish the one of his choice until the curtains of night are drawn and she lays down in that dreamless sleep which we call death. What a surrender to make, and what a party to surrender to! Now, if all this can be done on the human plane, and in matters of such great contingency, how much easier and how much more inviting this sur- render to Jesus ought to be to every anxious, needy soul! The relation of huband and wife well rep- resents the relationship between Christ and his Church. He came all the way from heaven to seek a bride. We must say that he came to a poor world and to the most dissolute characters to get one. 271 The Exalted Life What would we think of a prince, the son of a king and entitled to a throne leaving all the distinguished ladies of the realm, passing them all by, and com- ing down to a sin-sodden Magdalene, veiled in her sliame, sitting by the wayside, and making love to her and inviting her to sit with him on the throne as queen ? Would not the whole kingdom be smitten with horror, and cry against such a prosti- tution of the nation? How infinitely greater was the condescension of Jesus when he came down from the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, and took the sinners place under the law, and suffered the humiliation and death that was due to him in order to redeem him? Paul puts this in a very forcible way when he says : *'For scarcely for a righteous man will one die : yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.- But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," (Romans 5:7, 8.) No added proof of love is needed here. The giving of life for an enemy leaves no doubt as to the love of the giver. Of all the wooers that ever appealed to the human heart, Jesus is the most charming and lovable. Angels veil their eyes with their wings as a shield from the brilliancy of his face. When John saw him on the Isle of Patmos, after he had been in heaven about fifty years, he was prostrated by the effulgence of his form. He says, "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead." (Revelation 1 : 17.) The three disciples were overwhelmed with his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration, where 272 The Divine Method of Discipleship *^his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the Hght." In the Song of Solomon we have a mysterious and incomprehensible description of the heavenly Bride- groom and his bride, the beauty of which will ac- count for the extended quotation that follows. Hear the heart cry for the absent One : "My beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone : my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him ; I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love." This passionate night-searcher found no sympathy or help from the police and city war- dens ; but, contrarywise, clubs and larceny. Then she appealed to the women of the city for help, and in reply got the coldest rebuff. They said: ''What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?" Then comes the bride's answer; but who can fathom it or comprehend it? Was ever such an- other picture thrown upon canvas, or lingual de- scription given? Only the most ardent and gifted lover could clothe her suitor with such a celestial robe : "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of wa- ters, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks 273 The Exalted Life are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers : his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with beryl his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet : yea, he is altogether love- ly. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." (Solomon 5:6-16.) What a testimony to personal loveliness and beauty ! Was it hard for such a bride to give her- self to such a charming lover? And is it at all strange that there was awakened in the daughters of Jerusalem a desire to join her in seeking him? They said, "Whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee." Hear the answer, **My beloved has gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." Now all this is the passionate cry of Christ's true bride. She wants to be with him, and can never be satisfied until she is in his company. It is equally true, only in a higher sense, that Christ is longing for, and constantly seeking the compan- ionship of his bride. She is the purchaser of his blood, and by his blood is to be made ready for the great wedding feast, when he will take her into the heavenly guest chamber. John says, "He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." The Church is to be "a glorious Church." She is glorious in her founder, glorious in her antiquity, glorious in her heavenly mission, glorious in her conquests, glorious in her unity, and glorious in her heavenly character. It is when she "looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, and clear as the 274 The Dhdne Method of Discipleship sun," that she is to be "terrible as an army with banners." When the Church has prepared herself, "adorned as a bride for her husband," Christ will come to re- ceive her unto himself. Events are marshaling in order to this great event. What a blessed thing if all the virgins keep their lamps trimmed, oil in their vessels with their lamps, and thus be ready for the midnight cry, "Behold, the bridegroom Cometh !" Now ought it be hard to make Christ the center, the object, the aim of life, instead of self? Rather ought not the offer of such an exchange be most welcome? One may be ready to say, "Oh, I am so weak, so unworthy, just nothing." Then why not give up nothing for something? To give up self for Christ is to give up bondage for freedom, Satan for Jesus, sin for holiness, death for life, filthy rags for a robe of righteousness, a shack for a palace, and earth for heaven. Ought it be hard to give up the wages of sin for the gift of eternal life? Who would not exchange sickness for health, and the company of the lost for the company of the saved? Reader, won't you? We now take another very striking illustration of this life of self-denial — that of a soldier. The mili- tant life is one of self-surrender, and is so dis- solute as to leave the soldier dead to every other will except that of his commander's. From the moment he enlists in the army he belongs to his country and is under his country's control. Fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, or one million of soldiers are marshaled, through subalterns, under 275 The Exalted Life one will. As an individual the true soldier has no choice as to where he shall be garrisoned, when go on bivouac, who shall be his commander, nor how he shall spend his time. He has no choice as to what division of the army he shall belong, when he shall advance or retreat; the place or length of encampment, nor the method or hour of battle. He cannot dictate times of peace or of war; it is his to receive and execute orders, however dangerous to life, repugnant to feelings, or adverse to per- sonal choice. Self, home, friends, business, and even life itself are all put into the surrender for one's country. Long, weary marches, hunger and thirst, cold and heat; unsheltered, sleepless nights; sickness and wounds, hospitals and prisons, loss of limbs and life, are all brooked and braved that freedom may be maintained. What illustrious examples of conse- crated heroism adorn the pages of history, both ancient and modern. Who that has ever read that little tale from French history has not felt his heart beat quickened ? I quote it : It was when the army of Italy was crossing the Alps, on that famous expedition with which all adventurous history rings, that a nameless drummer-boy was swept from the ranks by a falling avalanche. He was carried into a deep hollow, covered with never dissolving ice and snow. It occurred that he was not seriously hurt by the sudden and awful plunge. He at once climbed up to the top of the great mass of ice, and waved his hand to show that he was still alive. Along the narrow, giddy heights, two hundred feet above him, the advancing army wearily filed on. 276 The Divine Method of Discipleship With his drum still hanging at his neck, he at once began to beat the military calls and charges to which he had been trained. Every stroke of the tattoo, reiveille, the advance, the charge, in the clear, frosty air, went to the ear and heart of every soldier. Time went on, but he patiently kept his drumsticks flying. As the path up the mountain zigzagged, in order to ascend the im- mense acclivity, there would be times when the whole army would vanish from his sight, then re- turn again, but each time farther up the steep. Still, clear and echoing floated up that familiar, rat- tling drumbeat on the ears of the advancing and vanishing army. Hardy veterans there were, who wept as the hours passed ; for they knew they were leaving the poor drummer-boy behind. No com- rade came to his rescue. The emperor had decided to leave him where he was. What was one poor drummer-boy to the army of Napoleon Boneparte? It was not long until this brave lad so understood it. He at once doubled his activity. He vigorously plied his arms to keep his life impulse warm. Far up the bright ridge he saw the vanishing columns grow dimmer. Then, brave in the midst of absolute despair, he suddenly changed the brisk relief-call he had been beating, to a strain sadder and of a deeper meaning. He paused a few moments, then began to beat a funeral march. They all heard those sober strokes of death as they thrilled on the cold air, but could give no heed or relief. Finally, courageous endurance made a heroic surrender, and then the tired boy, as his last act, decently composed his limbs on the snowy bank to die, with the ice for 277 The Exalted Life his pillow, the frost for his shroud, and the falling snow for his covering. How every father of a son at home yearned over this brave lad as he heard the drum-beat growing fainter and fainter until it was stilled forever. IIow he thought this lost boy might have been his own, as his slender, frozen body lay by his silent drum. Only a child ! you may say : but if yours or mine, how valuable ! The drum-beat of souls calling for help resound in many lands ; but who hears, or hearing, heeds? Who, like the true soldier, will count all things but loss for the excellency of Christ Jesus our Lord? Who will present his body a liv- ing sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto the Lord ? Noth- ing less will do, nothing less will be considered reasonable service. Once more, as an illustration of self-denial, let us take the life of a member of a monastic order, a monk. Here the life is more strenuous, if pos- sible, than that of the soldier. The soldier is con- trolled more especially in his outward life, physical activities, by the regime peculiar to military life, while in the case of members of a monastic order they surrender time, money, faith, conscience, all. The most absolute censorship is maintained over all their faith, their teaching, and their doing. They are, apparently ''like a dead body" in the hands of their superior. Now how much more real than all this ought to be the life lived for, and devoted to Christ. The motto of every such one should be: 'T die daily." "For thy sake we are killed all the day long." 278 The Divine Method of Discipleship Feeble-minded sympathy once implored Paul to safe-guard himself. Hear his courageous answer: **What mean ye to weep and break my heart? For I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus." Is there not a great lack of apostolic courage and zeal among us Christians of this day? How un- willing many ministers are to undergo hardships and risks in saving souls. "We are afraid to wear out early." Whitefield is reported to have said, *'I am immortal till my work is done." After all, what is life, what is health, what is ease, what is honor, what is wealth, what are all worldly gains, compared with living for Christ? Souls are perish- ing for whom he died, and will his ministers and his Church trifle with such infinite values? The breaking out of some contagious disease will make us cowards and drive us from the very field of our calling; when for wealth and human glory the storms of India, the miasmas of the tropics, wild beasts and savages, the Goths and Yahoos, earth- quakes and living volcanoes are dared and braved. What if we perish, lay down our lives for Christ? Is that not what we agreed to when we enlisted under his leadership and entered his service? We read of some recluses in a Franciscan convent being summoned to the aid of the sick and the dying, when an epidemic was raging in a city. Each was allotted his place and duty, and went forth without hesitation or reserve. On the return, each was to ring a bell, if able, to announce that all was well. If that monitory bell was silent at sunset, then it was known that this comrade had fallen, and another 279 The Exalted Life monk was sent to take his place and continue the work of relief. When the plague was finally stayed, it was found that twenty-four brave, unshrinking men had paid the price of their devotion with their lives. Who can tell how many lives these lives had saved from suffering and death? It was life for life. This is just what Christ wants of every one of his followers. He wants every life given to him, for his investment and use. He can keep it for the highest and best purposes, and for the largest re- sults and the greatest rewards. Should there, ought there be any hesitancy in making this transfer, and this exchange of self for Christ? In other words, changing the center from self to Christ? We now come to consider the next step in the order of discipleship, as given by Jesus, the taking up of the cross. The cross, in a generic sense, stands for Chris- tianity; preeminently for the Christian religion. To the Christian it covers the realm of doctrine, duty, and suffering. It is the great meeting-place of Christ and his followers. It involves a life of suffering and of service. It stands for the death of sin, and so must be taken as the hope and de- liverance from sin. The cross is the real test of true discipleship. Without it there can be no fol- lowing of Christ whatever may be the profession to the contrary. Jesus makes this very emphatic in the tests that he lays down in Luke 14 : 26, 27, 33, where he uses the word "cannoV in relation to kin- dred, the cross, and all earthly possessions. In the twenty-seventh verse he says, "And whosoever doth 280 The Divine Method of Discipleship not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Here there is no room for parlying or quibbling He knows the terms and conditions on which one can enter into relationship with him, become his disciple. Earliest in this, and most fundamental on the line of doctrine, one of the things for which the cross stands, is that acceptance of the new, di- vine nature. This is all determining and inclusive. No other nature can bear this cross. They are so related to each other, that it is as impossible to separate them in the development of Christian character as to join law and grace, sin and holi- ness in such a character. "The carnar mind is enmity against God : for it is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Man by nature "is dead in trespasses and in sins," and so is a child "of the wicked one." There are but two spiritual king- doms in this world, and those that are not the sub- jects of the one, are of necessity subjects of the other; and those that have not, by regeneration, been translated out of the "kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son," are still un- der the reign of the Prince of Darkness. God can- not build up his kingdom on earth without a change of nature in its subjects. This change is designated as "life from the dead," and as a "new creation," and it is impossible for such a change to occur without being manifested in the life. Can the life of spring follow the death of winter, and still all be as cold and sterile as before? Can day follow night and there be no evidence of change? Could 281 The Exalted Life the dead Lazarus come forth from his grave and still there be no manifestation of life? Can a soul dead in sin be quickened to life by the Holy Spirit and be just as before? Can a soul pass from death to life, from darkness to light, from sickness to health, from sorrow to joy, and from Satan to God, and not know it? It is utterly unthinkable, irra- tional, impossible. Can all these changes occur and yet none of the peculiarities that belong to this new life, this changed nature, be manifested in the conduct, in the course of living? There is something that distinguishes Christians from the great mass of humanity. They are to be a "peculiar people, zeal- ous of good works." Christ did not die to redeem us just to make us like other people. We are that any way; by nature we are just like other people. If this is not true, then our religion is worthless, and our profession of it is as "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." This cross, whatever it may mean to the individual Christian, must be taken up. "Let him take up his cross." It is worth while for us to pause for a moment to inquire as to what the ex- pression, "take up" means? Who can take up the cross, and what is it to take it up? What I mean is this : Can an unrenewed, unregenerate life, be a cross-bearing life? If "the carnal mind is enmity against God," as Paul says, and if "to be carnally minded is death," can such a moral and spiritual condition be in harmony with what the cross sig- nifies and what it stands for? Certainly the cross is related to, and stands for the very opposite to that 282 The Divine Method of Discipleship of enmity and death, or Paul never could have gloried in it. This being true, the question is very naturally raised whether any one can take up the cross who has not been born again, and thus passed into spiritual kinship and fellowship with Christ? If Christ's death on the cross constitutes the very essence of Christianity, and if the cross denotes the new, divine life in man, can the unregenerate spirit stand in any other attitude to the cross than that of enmity? Paul affirmed of many persons at Philippi, professing to be Christians, that they were really enemies of the religion which they pro- fessed. He says, *'For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." (Philippians 3 : 18.) So it is possible to be a mem- ber of the Church, and make a glowing profession of religion, and yet be an enemy of the cross. This makes it very important- that we individually know, beyond a doubt, whether we are real Chris- tians, or only making a profession of religion. To use the cross in this way and for this purpose is blasphemous. It is too sacred, and stands for what is too divine to be turned to the use and account of hypocrisy. In the truest s,ense such foul hands cannot touch it, nor such spurious tongues profess it. It is the divine altar on which Jesus offered up himself for sin, and consequently must forever remain holy. There are certain things that must be classed as being at variance with the life that the cross stands for and what it is intended to promote. First and chief among these is an unrenewed heart. The 283 The Exalted Life heart unchanged is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Such a heart is against the cross. The practice of known sin is a life at vari- ance with the cross. It ruined Achan and Judas. David said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." In this connection may be classed all questionable business relations and transactions. Possibly there never was a time in the history of the commercial world more danger- ous than the present time. Thousands of Christian men have cultivated a commercialized instead of a Christian conscience; following business methods and standards instead of the golden rule. Biblical ethics have a slight hold on many business men, though church adherents, that are in the marts of fashion and wealth, the boom of towns and cities, and the exploitation of mines and landed estates. Conscience is given a lone, silent seat in a dark, un- discovered corner, while its professed godfather goes into the commercial arena to fight for the prize, using all the tricks known to the coterie that are in the business. All questionable deals are simply dubbed as belonging to good business methods, the tricks of trade, and are thus passed over. Where is the cross here? Worldly affairs have the as- cendency. As Paul says, "they mind earthly things." How different from having "the conversation in heaven." The question of taking up the cross is decided by the character and the will of the individual. As previously implied, no one can take up the cross that has not a renewed nature. There must be an identity with the kingdom of God, must be sons 284 The Divine Method of Discipleship of God, in order to a oneness with what the cross stands for. Then we only really take up what we choose, what we will. If we perform our duties and assume our responsibilities protestingly or even heroically, if against our wills, we have not done it as unto the Lord. "If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land." (Isaiah 1 : 19.) "If there be first a willing mind, it is ac- cep'ted according to that a man hath, and not accord- ing to that he hath not." (II. Corinthians 8: 12.) Paul admits the force of his calling, and then adds, "If I do this willingly, I have a reward." (I. Corinthians 9: 17.) He tells Timothy to take the oversight and fed the flock of God, not by constraint but willingly. So, then, it is only what is done, and what is suffered, willingly, upon the part of the followers of Jesus, that they will be credited with as cross- bearings, taking up their cross. Then we have a clear indication of personal con- viction as to what each one is to do, what his life work is to be. It is ''his cross." How much need there is of definite teaching and clear convic- tioTis on this line in the Church to-day. What a conglomerate, heterogeneous mass of moral and in- tellectual material the militant Church represents, that is largely useless for want of some directing agency. How many official misfits, and how much wasted time and energy, and consequent failure in results, are observable on every hand. Surely this was not so intended at the beginning, or the Holy Spirit would never have been sent to guide the Church into all truth and to distribute spiritual 285 The Exalted Life gifts according to his own choosing, ''dividing to every man severally as he wills." The Church, as God's temple and as the body of Christ, must certainly have a wise masterbuilder. Paul says, ''For we are laborers together with God : ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's build- ing." (I. Corinthians 3:9.) Paul says of himself that he was equipped with grace "as a wise master- builder." In writing to the Ephesians he tells them that they belong to the household of God, and are a part of that "building fitly framed together," and that "groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Ephesians 2: 19-22.) It needs only a casual survey of the history of the early Church to see how largely the Holy Spirit took charge of the work and directed all the various agencies that were employed. In all matters of grave and serious importance the direc- tion of the Holy Spirit was specifically sought by the Church. The disciples associated themselves with the Spirit in their councils, he being the chief one in directing their work. In the great council at Jerusalem, when serious questions were to be considered that were vitally related to the unity of the Church, we have the remarkable words as given in the preamble of their action : "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things." (Acts 15:28.) Here we have the concurrent judgment of both the Holy Spirit and the Church when in council together touching the perpetuity of a certain ordi- 2S6 The Divine Method of Discipleship nance in the Church. Is this not one of the most important passages in the New Testament? It gives the object for which the Holy Spirit was sent into the world ; namely, to be the guide of the Church. But is the Church recognizing this honor, and availing herself of this divine leadership as she should, and as it was intended at the beginning? If not, what a discredit to herself, what a loss in her power of effective service; and what an offense to the divine -giver and grief to the One sent. There is a definite place for every worker in the Church, and each one ought to have a definite conviction that he is in the line of his calling; then his work will be spiritual, whether he is a preacher in the pulpit, a professor in the college, a steward in the church, a carpenter at his bench, a tiller of the soil, or a matron in the home. There is a word in the Old Testament that says, "Abide ye every man in his place." The New Testament says, "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called." The reason assigned for this is, "Ye are bought with a price; be not ye therefore the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God." (I. Corinth- ians 7:20-24.) I have quoted these Scriptures to confirm the statement that the Holy Spirit should be honored as the guide of the members of the body of Christ, and for this purpose should be sought as the great leader and teacher in all matters pertaining to life and godliness. Otherwise, how shall each individ- ual member of the divine family know what his cross is, and whether he is bearing it, taking it up? 287 The Exalted Life If appealed to for an assuring word on this line, how many professing Christians could give a clear and unquestioning answer as to the certainty of their being where, and doing what God wants them ? Reader, to the question, "Do you know your cross?" What is your answer? He that does not know what his cross is, has none, and hence is not bearing any cross. To bear his cross the believer must know what it is. Is it a matter of such indifference that it is not worth while to set- tle it, and hence go on without a cross that can be claimed as a personal privilege and a guarantee of eternal life? As only that can be our cross as a duty which we take as an act of our own will, under and in harmony with the divine will, everything not so taken is excluded from our cross-bearing. Paul's thorn in the flesh did not become his cross as long as he was resisting it by prayer. It was only when under the fuller light of the divine will that he accepted it as one among the many crosses that he had to bear, exclaiming, ''Most gladly there- fore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (II. Cor- inthians 12:9.) In the tenth verse of this same chapter he enlarges on his acquiescence and glory- ing, saying, ''Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmi- ties, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." He went to such an extent in this triumph in his affections that he said, "I am become a fool in glorying." 288 The Divine Metliod of Discipleship How in a very new and forcible way the writer, while thinking over this trumph of Paul, was struck with the thought of the transformation of a thorn into a crown, a trial into a triumph, weakness into strength, infirmities into pleasure ! The cross was there with all its shame, humiliation, disgrace, torture, and distress, but as soon as yielded to, ac- cepted, taken up, it vanished in the will of God, dis- appearing as a cross and reappearing as a pleasure. But, before this transformation could occur it had to be put under the divine will for final disposi- tion. The cross may be viewed in two phases or as- pects, those within and those without. The one within vanishes as soon as there is perfect conform- ity to, and harmony with the divine will. What was a medium of suffering and death becomes a medium of pleasure and larger life. Crosses without may last as long as time lasts, but those within cease as soon as the divine will becomes the supreme au- thority in the life. God's will is always right, and any inward variation from it must be wrong. To say from the heart, "Thy will be done," ends an- tagonism. Whatever the cross is, in any given case, it is not greater than God's grace. *'My grace is suf- ficient for thee," is the promise. Let us never cease to sing. "Must Jesus bear the cross alone, And all the world go free? No, there is a cross for every one, And there's a cross for me." 289 The Exalted Life The final condition in this life of discipleship, as given in the text so often quoted, is following Jesus — this completes this wonderful trinity of requirements — self-renunciation, cross-bearing, and following this divine leader. We need think only for a moment to see the necessity and the beauty of this order. With the self-life dead, and with a form of service, that of bearing a cross, which means the continuity of this death, how absolute the necessity for a leader ! Now that self is turned away from, and a new, complex, and hitherto untrodden pathway over which to go, how important the leadership of one that knows the way and has gone over it himself. This leads us very naturally to the thought of the necessity and importance of humanizing the divine. W^hile religion is divine, it is still the most human thing in the world. God clothed himself with flesh, "was manifested in the flesh"; Christ was made "a. partaker of flesh and blood," was "put to death in the flesh," and all that we might thereby be brought into fellowship with the divine, both in the character of the life lived, and in the method of living, of practicing it. There are two methods of teaching this life that trend in the direction of the false and impracticable. The one is the grading down of this life to a point so low as to cut out the supernatural, and put it wholly on the plane of the humanly ethical. This is the drift of some of the teachings on psychology, putting all on the line of training, of development. The other is putting this life on so exalted a plane as to largely do away with the human element, and 290 The Divine Method of Discipleship thus create a standard so divine as to make it impossible of realization in practice. Now both of these elements meet in, and are re- vealed through Christ, who was both human and divine. The Word was made flesh, and thus com- passed the very elements that made human leader- ship possible out of one that was divine. Divinity was put under the restraints and limitations of the human in order to make possible this fellowship of the human with the divine. Jesus was full of both divinity and humanity, and so restores, to all that accept him, the relationship of divine father- hood and spiritual sonship. No one can receive Jesus without becoming, thereby, a son of God, and becoming such he is put under divine guardianship and guidance. Here the family relationship is es- tablished, and training and discipline must obtain. While the relationship is divine, it is not so divine as to do away with the human. Both are blinded, as in the case of Jesus the Christ, and must work together as long as life lasts. The one couples the human soul with the divine, the other couples hu- man souls with one another, and so enters into the social and constructive life of the world. This establishes the divine brotherhood of man, the only true brotherhood that can exist in this gospel age. To "follow me" is the whole of the Christian life in two words. To follow Christ is to walk in a luminous way. He is the light of the world. He said, *'He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness; but shall have the light of life." He is our example, his word is a lamp unto our feet, and the Holy Spirit our guide and strength. "Where 291 The Exalted Life he leads I will follow," settles all questions of duty and final destiny. Jesus said, "If any man sen^e me, let him follow me. And where I am, there shall also my servant be." What a blessed thing to remember, and to al- ways remember, ''that we [ye] are complete in him." Disappointed progress may here find com- fort and hope. God's temple is not yet finished, but it is being advanced day by day, if we are "workers together with him." "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord : his going forth is prepared as the morn- ing; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." (Hosea 6: 3.) 292 CHAPTER XIX. The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man. There are many beautiful and striking metaphors in the Scriptures for illustrating and enforcing the changes consequent on taking up the Christian life, the changed life from the old to the new. This is set forth by Paul in his letter to the Colos- sians. (Colossians 3:1-16.) Possibly there is no plainer and no more prac- tical illustration of the transformed life given in the Bible than the one in this chapter. The terms and figures used are strikingly antithetical, and for this reason are all the more forcible and convincing. Heaven and earth, life and death, old man and new man, with the characteristics of each, are put in marked contrast. An empty grave testifies to a risen life. "Ye were raised together with Christ," are the words of the apostle. To be raised with Christ, there must be a death with him, which Paul affirms in the third verse of this chapter, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God," which fact accounts for the precept given in the first verse, "Seek those things v/hich are above." Here we have an intimate relationship of the believer with Christ in his death and resurrection. This is a strong union, bound by four cables that no power, outside of the individual, can break, and we may well wonder if he can, namely: "death with 293 The Exalted Life Christ," "resurrected with Christ," "Hfe hid with Christ in God," and "Christ himself the life." This union marks the cessation of one life, the old, and the beginning of another, the new, desig- nated as a death and a resurrection, both resulting through faith in Christ, who is the channel through which life comes from God, who is called the foun- tain of life. Separation from this source of life is death, and is just as unavoidable as the death of the body when separated from the human spirit. There may be an abounding physical life, a strong intellectual and emotional life, while the highest, the spiritual nature is dead, because having no con- sciousness of God. This consciousness is reached only through Christ, and, hence, csnnot exist apart from him who is both the resurrection and the life. There is force in Paul's words, "If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above." It cannot be otherwise than that the life that came from above at the first, and then after accomplishing man's redemption, through his own death and resurrection, and returning to the heaven- lies, should have a controlling influence and power over the lives of his followers. This is especially true when he is their very life down here, and that life the same that Paul says God "raised from the dead, and seated at his own right hand in the heavenly places, and hath put all thinp:s under his feet, and hath given him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." (Ephesians 1 : 20-23.) 294 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man Christ's resurrection may be viewed in three as- pects, confirming the divinity of his mission, a guar- antee of our resurrection, and the pattern of the new, risen life of his followers. Paul says we died with Christ; affirms his resurrection from the dead, and then says, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:8- 11.) Here we have the analogy between the con- quest of death, and the moral and spiritual change wrought in the believer, resulting in death to the self-life; as in the case of the woman at the well, and Saul the deadly foe of the early Church. How many since that day, profligates, libertines, drunkards, murderers, have found it life from the dead, when this life-force takes possession and controls so that sin can no longer reign. This in- flowing life is sin's conqueror. It must be, or it would not be like the life of him who came to set us free from sin. It would not be like the life that is set over on that side of the grave where sin is not being committed — the new Eden of grace, en- tered and safeguarded by the new, heavenly birth- right, which is the unsinning life. In the best and truest sense this risen life with Christ puts its possessor into an entirely different order of things from that which obtains in the life of the world, so that, as Jesus says, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Hear his prayer, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." (John 17: 15, 16.) 295 The Exalted Life This prayer is confirmatory of the life that Chris- tians are expected to live during this church-age, living, as Christ lived, a life unrelated to this world- system. This life grounded on *'the resurrection of Jesus Christ from tjie dead, and our being risen with him to a new life, so links us to him that we may triumphantly exclaim with Paul, *T can do all things in him that strengtheneth me." We must remember that we are not linked to Christ as the one crucified when he was in weakness, but as the one risen and now living in the sphere of infinite power. As like begets like, and as every cause has its corresponding efifect, it is but reasonable to expect that there will be a measure, at last, of cor- respondence between the outward and the inward life. And as Christ is the inward life, that from which the outward flows, there must of necessity be a marked resemblance between Jesus and his follow- ers. This was clearly seen in the early Church, as in the case of Peter and John. They were judged to have been with Jesus and learned of him. John uses very strong words when he says, "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he (Jesus) is, so are we in this world.'' (I. John 4: 16, 17.) That there will be some specks and flaws, some imperfect deeds and hasty words, some shadings of the flesh and sense, while living in these bodies, carrying this perfect treasure in these earthen ves- sels, may very reasonably be expected. But these 296 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man need not become sin to us. Sin comes from an en- lightened will at variance with God. The unavoid- able is not sin. All sin is the transgression of law; but all transgression of law is not sin. In this sense who is he that liveth and does not in- vade law in some form or in some sense? "Who is he that liveth and sinneth not?" But this form of sinning is taken care of by the atonement. "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." (Romans 4:7.) Technically, law may be transgressed in many ways, entailing suffering, but not guilt. Overwork, excessive study, exposure to heat and cold, drink- ing impure water, eating infectious foods, taking poisonous medicines, and breathing impure air, any one or all of which may work direful results, even taking life itself; but the individual may be morally guiltless because done unavoidably or in ignorance. We cannot stop breathing because we have come into a region of infectious air. Poisons, in the guise of wholesome food, may be taken that prove fatal to life, which, if knowingly and intentionally done would have been suicidal. God will always respect law ; but he will shield innocence, as in the case of children, the simple-minded, and all unavoidable ignorance from the moral effects of such viola- tions. There will always be a goal ahead of us, as long as normal conditions obtain in the physical, mental, and spiritual life. The vision that we have of Christ will ever be broadening and brightening until the twilight ends in the perfect day. With the pursuit of things above, where Christ sitteth, 297 The Exalted Life and with the ''mind set on things above, not on things on the earth/' it cannot be otherwise. John says, "Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (I. John 3:1-3.) We are God's sons now; but what we shall be is yet to be revealed. But one thing, and that is the all sufficient thing, is promised, and that is, that when it is revealed, whatsoever it may be, we shall be like Jesus ; for we shall see him as he is. To begin the Christian life as "sons of God" is to begin on a very high and exalted plane, involving a responsibility as to method of living that no one can be indifferent to, or careless of provisional helps. "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked." (I. John 2:6.) Here is a challenge to a life that may well make us stop and think before making a loud, glowmg, unqualified profession. I would not be understood as decrying a definite, reliable, satisfactory scriptural profession ; but I would be understood as saying, in these days of sensual intoxication, that a scroll, a truthful painting of the life lived in the seclusion of the heart, be thrown before the gaze of both the doer and the judge of the doing for inspection, to see if there is any unreality between the outward profession and the inward life. Is this not safe, viewed in the light of Christian candor and the hope set at the end of the great life- walk of pil- grims to the heavenly city? INIark! it is "he that 298 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man saith he abideth in him," that is bound to this imi- tative walk. Here is a divine ideal humanized as a standard of living, and thus set as an example in the moral and spiritual life of God's sons. In this connection it is well to remember that this is not a fanciful or freakish ideal ; but authentic, because living. Christ said, ''Follow me." This means life resemblance. It means a personal con- tact, a life-touch of the One of whom it is said, "He is pure," "he is righteous," "in him is no sin," and "he is the propitiation for our sins." This fol- lowing Christ, walking as he walked, relates to all life's activities, inward and outward. In this sense we may walk while outwardly we are motionless. The suffering on the cross was a part of Christ's walk. There is a mystical as well as a literal, out- ward walk. Let us note how strikingly true this is between Christ and his followers. Was, he born of the flesh? So we are born of the Spirit. Was he life? So we walk with him in newness of life. Did he give up his life on the cross? So we are cruci- fied with him. Was he buried? So we are buried with him. Was he raised from the dead? So we are risen, quickened with him. Has he ascended on high? "He hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:5, 6.) Here a once sin-sodden, sin-burdened, sin-ruined soul is transformed by the transfusion of a new life, the life-blood of God's only begotten son, and thus made to sit with him in heavenly places. Is it any wonder that such a changed life, and the hope that it begets of final and complete conform- 299 The Exalted Life ity to this {glorified life as now seen in the risen and highly exalted one, should find expression in a continuous effort to be like it by purifying itself? "Every one that hath this hope in him purificth himself, even as he is pure." Here we have co-operation, the human working with the divine. No one can be pure that does not so will and so work. It is God that does the cleans- ing; but there must be full conformity to the divine order of living. ''Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord, is the requirement made of his work- men. At this point I want to note two very definite but antithetical requirements in the development of Christian life and character. The first relates to the putting off of certain characteristics that can in no way be related to the life that is patterned after Christ. Paul first speaks of certain things that must be put off, before this new, divine, heavenly vesture can be put on. By reason of their death and resurrection in Christ, the Colossian Christians were exhorted to conform their outward life to the hidden Christ within, in order to reveal him as the manifested Christ. This "new man" must take the place of the "old man," and so must be robed in an attire expres- sive of change of character. The great achievement of Christian living is to give Christ a chance to reveal himself in and through his followers to the world. Jesus said of himself that he was the light of the world. He said the same thing of his disciples, and then com- manded them to let their light so shine before men, 300 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man that they might see their good works, and thereby be led to glorify their Father which is in heaven. A sound creed is a good thing to hang the Church's teachings on, safe and sane teachings are very il- luminating and convincing; but the life lived, the outward conduct of those professing relationship with the body of Christ, his Church, is most con- vincing, being beyond the reach and power of all human logic to deal with. When Paul wanted a vindication for himself and his work he turned to his converts, saying, "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men." Here is a letter that everybody can read and understand. Paul declares this letter to be the epistle of Christ, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the liv- ing God. Here authorship is clearly identified. Read these lines if you want to know who wrote this epistle. There is only one that can write such an epistle. In character and form it is inimitable. This is the epistle read of all men. It is open and most challenging to human reason and to human prejudice. The conduct of Christians will be read with an avidity and criticalness, by an ungodly world, with which the reading of the Bible by the average Church member will not compare. How all-impor- tant, then, these living examples of Christian life and doctrine, in these days when the necessity is so great for the distinction between truth and error, right and wrong, being made so clear as to allow of no deception. Possibly the methods of error were never more subtle than now. Even God's very elect are in danger of deception. There arc 301 The Exalted Life multitudes of honest, studious readers and believers in the Word of God that are not able to wisely apply it when face to face with the subtle workings of sataniic agencies. Fatal snares and pitfalls abound on all sides. Chief among these is New Thought, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Millennial Dawnism, and Christian Science. All these profess to accept the Bible, but so pervert its teaching as to make it an agent of, and a pathway to destruc- tion. On this line, the outward expression of the life within as seen in the conduct and habits that obtain, are most determining as to the character of that life. The old man has his deeds, which in nature are just like himself, and must be feloniously dealt with. The old man is the fountain head from which this black, foul, and ugly stream flows. The stream can never be better than that from which it issues. This fountain has many outgoing tribu- taries, designated as "members," all of which must meet with destruction. The classification issuing from this fountain, "fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness." These cover the wide realm of impure desire and the open field of gross activity. Here passion, desire, appetite and look, exercise their very enchanting and bewitching influence on the animal nature. These evil tenden- cies must be put to death, "mortified." In addi- tion there are certain practices that must cease, be put off, such as "anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy communication." All sin may be charac- terized as either earthly, sensual, or devilish. Some 302 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man sins are earthly, giving supreme place to material things; making a god of this world, which is idolatry. Other sins are more largely sensual, living a life of the senses, living to gratify the appetites and lusts of the flesh and the soul. And still other sins are devilish, of which malice may be taken as being the most distinguishing. It is as frigid as the north pole, as clear as crystal, as iiery as sul- phuric acid, and as explosive as dynamite. It is surely devilish. We now come more especially to the puttings on. This is the brighter and the more joyous as- pect of this transformation. It is leaving the side of wreckage, ruin, shame, and despair, for the one recovery, a glorious and joyous hope. It is putting off the old for the new. How glad and delightful this exchange of the old sin-soiled robe for one of purity and whiteness ought to be — the "filthy gar- ments" for the "robe of righteousness." Here the picture changes from the darkest ebony to' the brightness of the purest light; from the darkest midnight to the radiance of a cloudless noonday. It is easily noticeable in reading Paul's descrip- tion of the modes of living here depicted that the one far outmeasures the other, not only in charac- ter and quality, which must be true, but in the measure, the aggregate of the acquired in lieu of the surrendered. In other words, the puttings on are in excess of the puttings off, the recovery great- er than the loss, redemption than the ruin, regener- ation than degeneration, salvation than sin. The plaster is larger than the sore. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." 'T came that 303 The Exalted Life they might have Hfe, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10.) The Eden restored is to be greater than the Eden lost. We are to be "more than conquerors through him that loved us." Jesus is more than a match for Satan, and all who accept Christ, and make him their life, will have a life and an achievement greater than the first Adam lost. The image restored will be greater than the image in which man was created, because it is in the very essence, the very substance of God himself. Man at the first was created *'a little lower than the angels," and for the purpose of redeeming man, Christ took his place on that human plane ; but in his essential, substantial exist- ence, he was higher than the angels, the very divine One : Paul speaking of this and of him says, "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express im- age of his person [substance], and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtanied a more excellent name than they." (Hebrews 1 : 3, 4.) In the eighth verse of this chapter, Christ is called God. "But unto the son he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." In Hebrews 2 : 9, 10, 11, the purpose of Christ's humiliation is fully expressed, and also the exalted unity between him- self and God's sons : "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one." Man in his creation was in the sphere of, and re- lated to the earthly ; but in his final restoration he passes into the wholly spiritual, even his body 304 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man is to be spiritualized, so that nothing of the material creation is to inhere in his being. Man in passing into the new life from the old is like winter passing into spring and summer. Everything flows and floods into new, abounding life. Christ "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." It abounds above all that we can ask. Then it abounds above all that we can think. Then, finally, it abounds exceeding abundantly above all asking or thinking, and all is guaranteed by the divine ability, "God is able." It outmeasures all asking, it transcends all thinking, and then passes into the abundantly above all mental and spiritual capacities to grasp or comprehend. The peace that he gives "passeth all understanding." The joy that he imparts is "unspeakable and full of glory." God has a wonderful way of rewarding his child- ren for every effort they put forth to be like his son. Every noble thought of the mind goes to the enriching of the heart. The character of the think- ing determines the drift of the moral life. Thought creates sentiment in harmony with itself, which sentiment strengthens with the multiplicity and con- tinuity of the thinking. This ought to be well con- sidered by every Christian. It is evidently the reason for Paul's exhortation to set the mind on things above. This will carry the whole inner life upward. It is the real secret of heart-culture. There is nothing in those serene and heavenly heights to debase and debauch the life. To be healthy and strong we must climb the mountain heights and live where the pure winds ever blow. 305 The Exalted Life There no poisonous breath ever sweeps, and no nightshade ever sheds its noxious odors. No wreck- age, no broken hearts, no tempting devil, up there. No hunger, no thirst, no sickness, no flowing tears in that heavenly city. It ought not be hard to ''set the mind on things above." All the chief attrac- tions are there. Christ is there, and he is ''the chief- est among ten thousand : yea, he is altogether love- ly." In his resurrection and ascension he carried the life and the hope of his whole Church up with him into the heavenlies. The departed saints of all the ages are there, and this includes our kindred that departed years ago, that died in the Lord. Our own life is there now, "hid with Christ in God." How this ought to wean us away from the things on the earth. This his reappearance and our associa- tion with him in that appearance, ought to be ever alluring and attractive beyond all earthly things. He is safeguarding the life of his saints during all tribulations through which they must pass, so that none of them may be finally lost. Jesus told his Father in that wonderful prayer in the seventeenth chapter of St. John, that he had kept all that had been committed unto him, and that none had been lost except "the son of perdi- tion." He prayed for Peter that his faith might be equal to the wiles of Satan, that it might not fail. This marvelous attraction from above, resulting in a daily renewing of the mind and the transform- ing of the life, is the fitness for our appearance with Christ when he returns. Paul says, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also 306 The Costiiiiie and Custom Becoming the New j\ian appear with him in glory." Until then we must keep ourselves arrayed in a vesture corresponding to what is required of the new man, "the elect of God, holy and beloved." Let us now note the various parts, or pieces, of this divine pattern to be worn on earth by those morally and spiritually alive in Christ. While they are grouped together and closely related to each other as parts of a grand whole, yet each has a distinct setting in the description given and must be so considered in cultivation and prac- tice. The first, in the order as given, is "hozvels of mercies.'' This may v»-ell be understood to mean a heart of tenderness, pity, compassion. How much need there is of such a heart in order to rep- resent the life and the Spirit of Christ. As our high priest, he is touched with the feelings of our infirmites. If he were not, where would be hope for any of us? Having been made sin for us, and because he himself is true man, he is able to sympathize with sin-weakened and sin-wrecked hu- manity. By his sufferings, his prayers, tears, and temptations, he is able to absolve the sorrowing, sin-stricken, repentant sinner. We all need such a high priest; and there is also the need of such a spirit of compassion from and between his followers. With sin on every hand, and with personal weakness increasing and multi- plying, it is not always easy to "put on" this sym- pathetic spirit, and wear it on all occasions and display it in the face of all the obstructions that tend to hinder its free outflow. There are sins that 307 the Exalted Lifie are so flagrant, defiant, demon-like, that no ordi- nary spirit, however well purposed, can withstand. It is only when we make another's sorrows, mis- fortunes, and sins ours, that we can exercise real tact and true sympathy in dealing out the help that will be the binding up of wounds and the heal- ing of hearts that are broken. The expression, "bowels of mercies," is a very strong and significant figure. It is expressive of a generative, conservative, constructive, and distribu- tive force, and is most controlling in the physical economy. So the spirit of pity is to be abounding in its exercise, putting under its sway every avenue of thought and every agent of outward expression to the end and object of helpful ministry. The next in the order is "kindness." No one can estimate the power of this part of the outward adorning of the Christian character. If we take up the real significance and force of this word and apply it to the use and end aimed at, it will be most illuminating and helpful. It embraces the idea of kinship, of relationship, of family ties. So it means "put on the spirit of relationship." How easy it is to exercise this spirit toward a brother, a sister, or father and mother. If the family relationship is normal it is a delight to exer- cise this grace in its broadest and fullest sense. There is no room too good in the home, no bed too costly or too rare, no table too delicately or sumptuously spread, to give to the use and comfort of kindred. Then how easy it is to excuse the faults and failings, even the sins that corrupt the life and debase the character of a brother or of 308 The Costume and Custom Becomiing the New Man a child. There is no journey too long to take, no cold too severe to endure, no storm too wild to face, and no danger too great to hazard, if for the comfort and life of a loved one. So, put on the spirit of kinship, and then the exercise of kindness will be easy. If this is true in the human relationship, in the merely earthly life, how much mo*-e real and forcible it ought to be in the divine, the heavenly relationship. The merely earthly relationship is only for time, and must end where this life ends; but the spiritual is eternal and will last during the age of the ages. Then, all earthly ties are weak, being earthly, the heavenly have the strength of the divine, and so ought to be easier to cultivate and harder to sunder. Jesus taught the superiority of the one over the other when he made the love for earthly kindred subordinate to love for him. '*He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me." The next in the order is humility, ''humbleness of mind." This is the very foundation grace on which to build or ground the exercise of all the graces in our personal intercourse with others. It is our attitude more especially manward. Literal- ly, it puts one very close to the ground, indicating his earthly origin and relationship. Being of the earth, earthly, there is little occasion for boasting as to origin or personal achievements. It must be granted in this connection that lowly-mindedness is not blindness to, or an underestimation of real personal merit, or the ability to achieve world- famed results. To be humble, one does not have to discount his own ability to be or to do. Talents 309 The Exalted Life should be estimated, prized, and improved. Not to do so is to do like the 'Svicked and slothful servant" that hid his lord's monty in the earth, and then had to reckon for the trust empty-handed. There is a kind of professed humility that is as wide of the mark, and as different from the real, as night is from day, as sickness is from health. It is a kind of self -deprecation, abnegation of abil- ity, discounting all personal merit, posing in an ab- normal attire, and decrying all styles of dress except the one, and of that one the most adherent supporter and defender. It is possible for one to be vain over one's plainness and simplicity, and ever proud of one's humility. When one poses in a certain style of dress sim- ply for display, or to attract public attention, we may well nominate that one as a fashionmonger, and in no way related to that method of adorning described by Peter in the words, "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel ; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornaments of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." (I. Peter 3:3, 4.) What is hidden in the heart will usually find ex- pression outwardly in the life, and so in a sense may be regarded as a profession. A meek and quiet spirit will not seek manifestation in sensual dis- play. It will avoid public attraction and attention. The real beauty of attire is that which is so simple and neat, in both its cost and its make-up, as not to challenge the inspections of captious eyes. Really 310 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man SO free from verging on the extremes of either sim- plicity or display that no one knows, in a given case the habitude of the individual. This should be the method adopted by the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. What, after all, has mortal man to be proud of? Born with a debased nature, "conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity," more helpless in his beginning- life than the swine in the mire or the dog at his feet. Homes in the heart the foulest impulses which, when worked out in the life, issue in a char- acter allied to that of demons. In physical ex- posure and condition, can be ''clothed with worms and clods of dust," skin be "broken, and become lothsome," with days passing "swifter than a weav- er's shuttle, and spent without hope." On this line one of old exclaimed, "I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, thou art my mother, and my sister." (Job 17:14.) We shall all at last "lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover us." Can such a mortal man be proud? As far as the natural and earthly life is con- cerned, there is nothing to stimulate and encour- age a vain demeanor. The beggar and the million- aire both are alike. It may be said of each, "what hast thou that thou hast not received?" Equally true of each as to moral standing. Both have sinned and stand condemned before the judgment seat of God. The chief and most appealing reason for putting on the grace of humility is that this is one of the very marked and distinguishing qualities that adorned the life of Jesus. He said of himself 3X1 The Exalted Life that he was "meek and lowly in heart." If he, "King of kings, and Lord of lords," was thus lowly for our fellowship with him and as our ex- ample, how can we be imitators of him in any other than a like spirit? "He resisteth the proud; but he giveth grace to the humble." "Though the Lord is high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off." (Psalms 138: 6.) "He hateth a proud look." "A proud heart is an abomination to the Lord." "A proud heart is sin." These Scriptures are all-conclusive, and must be reckoned with by those that profess to follow the Man of Nazareth. Another adornment that must be put on is ''meek- ness.'' This grace is more especially the Christian's attitude Godward. It is the sweet, quiet, peaceable, teachable spirit. It stands as the opposite of a bluffy, grouty, cynical, warlike, unteachable spirit. This is the grace that is set to win in the kingdom of God, and to establish an empire unlike any other in the world. This weapon is not carnal ; but it must be confessed to be mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. Worldly force, the strong and merciless arm of war, is the world's agent of conquest. It is the self-assertive, the strong- willed, the "roughrider," that is dubbed the success- ful man ; while the meek man is classed as effem- inate, mild, yielding to every adverse current; with no stamina, no backbone, nothing to say in self- defense, a sort of characterless jelly-fish. Such is the world's estimate of a meek and quiet life, and yet Jesus pronounced a blessing upon it and made its possessors heritors of the earth. In 312 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man Christ's life it was a ruling principle. He conld have marshaled the legions of angels in his de- fense; but ''as a lamb he was lead to the slaughter; as a sheep is dumb before her shearers, so he opened not his mouth." *'He answered not a word" when reviled and spit upon. But to-day he is the true king of millions of hearts, whose deepest affections are given to him. He is the mightiest among all kings, and his domin- ion is an everlasting dominion, and of his king- dom there shall be no end. "There is meekness that is mere weakness," as a certain writer has said ; but this is not so of Christ's. A man may be meek, but he can have muscle, fiber, brain, will, push, grit, abounding energy, all in usQ for noble, worthy, unselfish ends. He will not override weakness, crush rivals in business, be indifferent to the rights of others, nor live in dis- regard of what is honest, honorable, high, and holy. Is it any wonder that Paul put this grace among the things that were to adorn the lives of the early Christians? Is it not strange that all of the fol- lowers of Jesus are not deeply anxious to put it on and passionately fond of wearing it? So the writer asks himself. What an adornment to the individual life! What a sweet atmosphere for the home ! What a force in the social life of the Church ! We now consider another part of this attire that is to be worn, "longsuffering." Here we come to a grace that must extend, be prolonged and endured. It means suffer long, and then suffer some more, theii extend it indefinitely. It must not soon wear 313 The Exalted Life out. It must ever be multiplying and increasing as the occasion and the needs demand. If meekness endures without complaining or resistance, this grace is to hold out against long continued griev- ance, temptations, and sufferings, without yielding to the spirit of resentment or harshness. How in harmony with all this is the "charity that suffereth long, and yet is kind." It "is not easily provoked." "It beareth all things — and endureth all things." It is like the patient, weary watcher at the bed- side of sickness, seemingly never able to suffer or do enough for the object of devotion. It is like the loving mother who wishes she might have had one more night of sleepless vigilance to prove her love for the one that is gone. It is like the first Chris- tian martyr, Stephen, while being stoned to death, crying with a loud voice, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." It is like Jesus when suffering on the cross saying, "Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do." Finally, we come to the very practical, the exer- cise of the last two virtues in mention, forbearance, and forgiveness. "Forbearing one another and for- giving one another." Here one assumes the burden of a wrong and carries it away from the occasion that gave rise to it, and thus puts it into oblivion, like the scapegoat that was sent into the wilderness. Here no violence, like taking life, is to be used. This, coupled with forgiveness, is putting away, and that forever, all enmity and malice from the heart. That there may be occasions for differences and just grounds for complaints, owing to human weak- 314 The Costume aiid Custom Becoming -the New Man nesses, must be admitted. The remedy here, in the face of admitted and well verified wrongs, is that of forgiveness. This is especially true when at- tended by confession and repentance. On this line Jesus gives warning and counsel. He said to his disciples, "Take heed to yourselves : If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him ; and if he re- pent, forgive him, And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt for- give him." (Luke 17: 3, 4.) As to the manner and character of this forgive- ness, Christ himself is our pattern. "Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye," are Paul's words. Much of human forgiveness is superficial, tenta- tive, conditional. For the moment it passes for forgiveness ; but on a new offense, or a repeti- tion of the old, the former grudge returns and is held as if never forgiven. A dying man forgave his neighbor for a certain offense on the condition that if he died it was to be regarded as settled, but if he got well the old spite was to stand. This is not the instruction that Jesus gave on forgiveness, nor like the pattern he set ; it is not the way he forgave us. He not only forgives, but he forgets the sins that are forgiven. Of course, God cannot forget; but he does not remember the sin against the one that is forgiven. wSins forgiven are treated as if never committed. David prayed. "Re- member not the sins of my youth, nor my trans- gressions." "Remember not against us former iniquities." The Lord said to Isaiah, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine 315 The Exalted Life own sake, and will not remember thy sins." (Isaiah 43:25.) This is the divine method of forgiveness, and it should be ours. We now come to the most essential part of this metaphor, that on which every other article in this attire depends, and without which it would not be perfect, and that is love. "And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfect- ness." This bond, band, or girdle, put on, around, and over all, is essential to keep all the other arti- cles in their places, and tlius strengthen and unify all into a perfect whole, "a perfect man in Christ Jesus," Deeds may be done, words may be spoken, sufifering endured, sacrifices made, and even kind- ness shown, that primarily do not issue from a heart of love, and so have no guarantee of contin- uance. This beautiful girdle keeps everything in order, constituting a beautiful symmetry of figure, a graceful composure in spirit and manner, and thus makes all into a harmonious completeness of Christian character. Christian love is not a wild emotionalism. It does not go into outward spasms, a fair frenzy of physi- cal manifestations. That kind of love belongs more really to the carnal than to the divine side of life. It is shallow, fragmentary, easily excited, and easily allayed. It easily and suddenly goes into the ple- thoric or into scantiness, just as conditions or oc- casions change and determine. Divine love is not so. It is quiet, deep, abiding. "It doth not be- have itself unseemly, is not easily provoked, bear- clh all things, endureth all things, never faileth." 316 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man Of the three abiding graces, faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest. The secret of this marvelous Christian life and character is, first put on this new man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then by 'daily effort, through all the years, put on the clothing that belongs to that life, the graces of the Holy Spirits x'^nd now, finally, to conserve all this life and to keep it ever abounding, there are two "lets" that must be observed. "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." What is the peace of God? If we turn to the fourteenth chapter of St. John, we will find an en- larged and quite full expression of it. Jesus was soon to be under the shadow of the olive trees in Gethsemane, and this foreboding filled the hearts of the disciples with deep sorrow. To relieve them in this hour of their grief he said, "Let not your hearts be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in me." In the event of his departure, he told them that another comforter would be sent them, and that he would abide with them forever; even the spirit of truth. To further comfort them he says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give un- to you : not as tiie world giveth, give I unto you." What a rich legacy to leave to these grief -stricken, orphaned disciples. He called it "my peace," but he gave it to them. "In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but in me ye shall have peace." It was the Holy Spirit that was to communicate and make perpetual this peace. This is well sym- bolized by the form in which the Holy Spirit made 317 The Exalted Life his appearance in the world. In the days of Noah, when the waters were being assuaged, it was a dove that brought the symbol of peace, the olive leaf. The raven went out never to return. It could home itself in a world of corruption, and live off the de- caying and putrifying carcasses that everywhere covered the face of the earth. Not so with the pure, sensitive dove. It came back into the ark for a resting-place until the purified earth furnished it with a home. When Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit de- scended like a dove and lighted upon him. Until this the Holy Spirit had no permanent resting-place Like the homeless dove it came and went. But when Jesus, God's only Son, entered upon his work, this divine messenger joined him, and became his guide, leader, and teacher. As man, Jesus commit- ted himself to this leadership, and empowered by him wrought his wonderful works, and enlightened by him taught as no doctor of the law ever taught, and spake as never man spake. When Jesus went away into the heavens, he sent the Holy Spirit into the world to organize the Church, which was to be his body, and to empower the Church for its work in the world's redemption. Pentecost was the crowning day as the beginning of that work. The symbols here were those of power, "a. rushing mighty wind," and "cloven tongues like as of fire." This was the inauguration day of the Holy Spirit as the executive of the Godhead, and Peter, to whom the keys for the opening of the kingdom to both Jews and Gentiles were committed, delivered the 318 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man inaugural address. Here the Holy Spirit filled the scene, and made the day the archetype, as to spirit- ual power, of all the days that were to follow. While the Holy Spirit is the spirit of power in the Church, he is nevertheless the spirit of peace, ''the peace of God." Paul uses the little word "let," as though it might in some way be restrained or hindered in its controlling power. It certainly is just as natural for this divine agent to distribute his influence through the affections as for the vine to distribute the sap through its branches, and this will be done unless the union between the two is weak- ened or broken. The more tender and sensitive the spirit of fellowship that obtains between two parties, the easier to grieve or offend. The eagle is haughty, lordly, and dictatorial, but the dove is mild and gentle, and must so be treated. What a safeguarding of the life and conduct we have in this gentle monitor in the heart, who is always seeking to influence and control the inward tendencies and the outward demeanor in harmony with the One whose life we profess. When per- plexities arise in the heart, when conflicting influ- ences pull at the sensibilities, and when questionable lines of conduct arise for decision and adjustment, how blessedly helpful this divine director and arbi- trator, in such a time of need. Pauls words, ''Grieve not the Holy Spirit," shows how sensitive he is, and how we ought to avoid giving offense to such a guardian and protector of our life in Christ. When we find that our peace is broken, our communion interrupted, there should be a halt in the way we are going, the steps re- 319 The Exalted Life traced, lest the peril become fatal. ''Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." The final thought to be considered in this chap- ter is the indwelling Word. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." It is very ap- parent that the association between the Holy Spirit and the Word is very close and intimate. It can- not be otherwise when we remember that the Word is the gift of the Spirit. Paul makes this very clear and strong in his letter to Timothy. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (II. Timothy 3:16, 17.) Of Timothy it is said, that from a child he had known the holy Scriptures. Jesus says, "Search the scrip- tures.... for they are they which testify of me." How important, in the times of error and heresy, that special heed be given to this divine injunction. "Searcli the scriptures," is the word. The Bereans did this as a daily liabit. They wanted to know the truth, and so they searched diligently. Just as the Holy Spirit is to rule in the heart, so the Word of God is to dwell in the heart. It is not enough to simply memorize the Scriptures, to get an intellectual grasp of them, important as this is. They must enter into the heart, the affections, the will, and occupy and control them. The Bible is preeminently a heart-book. Its deepest reading and understanding is there, with the heart. Any other grasp of it is too shallow, too superficial. It must be hidden in the heart, in order to trans- 320 The Costume and Custom Becoming the New Man form the life and safeguard it against sinning. David said, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." There is great need in these days of so many com- ments on the Scriptures, so many lesson-helps in the Sabbath schools, of guarding the place that the Bible ought to have in study, lest it be forced into a second place, instead of holding first place as is its right. In some respects the Word of God has a poor chance to hold its place in this day of "making many books," and the multiplication of papers and maga- zines. The parable of the sower is illustrative and illuminating at this point. What the seed wanted was a chance. In this it got only one in every four. The cares of the world and the lust of other things, entering into the life, choked the seed. If the Church is going to stand against the commercialism of these days, and the many other adverse currents that are sweeping onward like a Niagara, she must he built on a foundation as solid and indestructible as Christ himself, that against which the very coun- cils of hell itself cannot prevail. Truth must be kept at full tide, "richly." In order to do this it must be meditated upon day and night, then the life will be "like a goodly tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in due season ; whose leaf shall not wither." The very soul and life of this Word must go into the heart of men and women, and become the blood and meat on which they live and from which they grow. Milk v i]l do for a period; but childhood must be exchanged for manhood, and only the 321 The Exalted Life deeper things of the Word of God can bring about this change. The individual that lets this Word "dwell in him richly in all wisdom," can finally say as one did of old, "I have more understanding than all my teach- ers, for thy testimonies are my meditation." 322 CHAPTER XX. Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness. Some three years ago, I was asked by a student in college, in a public congregation, the question: "What are we supposed to understand by sancti- fication ?" I took the occasion to answer the ques- tion in a public way, and as that answer embraces quite largely what I want to say on the subject in the closing chapter of this book, I draw quite largely from it for the benefit of persons who may be personally and curiously interested in the answer. Possibly no one item in the Church's creed or dogma, has elicited and awakened more thought, without provoking open discussion, than this ques- tion of sanctification. I take it that the doctrine is so universally believed as a Bible doctrine by all denominations, and that it is regarded so sacred and vital in Christian character that it is ap- proached much as Moses was commanded to ap- proach the burning bush, in the spirit of the most sacred awe. Shoes put off because ground is holy ground. This doctrine must not be regarded as belonging to any single individual, or any certain class ot teachers as having any divine right to propagate and promulgate it aside from all others, and therefore must defend u as a [crsonal, proprietary claim. Differences of opinion may obtain on this, as on any other Bible doctrine, as to its meaning and ap- 323 The Exalted Iiife plication to human life, which may not and need not affect it as fundamentally related to the Chris- tian's creed. Sanctification is a vital Bible doctrine, and is the inheritance of all God's people. No individual and no church has a monopoly on the grace, or a patent on how to get it. No one, and no organiza- tion can get a "corner on it," and thus claim to be the sole dispensers of it as a doctrine. We might as well attempt to organize a monopoly for con- trolling and dispensing the air, the rain, the light, or electricity. These are freely given to all that will rightly relate themselves to and use them. So the life and grace of Jesus Christ are freely given to all, each individual receiving and appropriating just that amount which his enlightment, capacity, and faith make him capable of; that for which he has an intelligent conviction. In order to all this we must consider that for which the whole scheme of salvation stands, that for which Jesus died, and that from which we must seek to be delivered ; namely, sin. As the question of sin has been so largely and variously dealt with in previous chapters, as an act, as a ^tate, and as a natvu . I pass to the S[»ecific consideration of sanctification as related to holiness. As I have come to understand the words "sancti- fication'' and "holiness" they are often used concord- antly, having a similar meaning. Like holy and isoliress, so saint, sanctify, rnd sanctificat'on, aic largely correspondent in meaning, and so may often be transposed in their use without any violence as to the meaning. But as these two words are used 324 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness SO often in the Scriptures in a relation, or in a con- nection with persons and things that in themselves are so very different, it is but reasonable to make some discrimination between the strength of the words as often applied. Holiness must be regarded, in its fuller and deeper meaning and application, rather as a state, resulting from sanctification as an act, in which act both human and divine agencies meet. This doctrine of sanctification runs through the whole Bible, and as a doctrine and a life is like a thread of gold, only enlarging and brightening as we trace it through the symbolical and ritualistic to the veritable and actual in the teachings of Christ and in the life of his followers. In order to the greatest possible clearness, I want to follow this gradation upward, keeping the special emphasis on this one word, ''sanctification." No individual, no living church can divorce this subject from an accredited creed, or be indifferent to its teachings and its practice in the life. It be- gins as early as in the second chapter of Genesis, and deepens and broadens as we advance. Instead of lessening, it increases until like Ezekiel's stream, it becomes a river to swim in, and that cannot be crossed. It is ever carrying toward and into the life revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the holy one of God. It will be noticeable to the reader that the word "holy" does not occur in the first book of the Bible, and that the word "sanctify" occurs only once, and that in relation to the Sabbath, which was to be consecrated, set apart from all other days, for a 325 The Exalted Life certain purpose and to a certain use. The word "holy" occurs for the first time in Exodus 3 : 5, when Moses stood in the presence of the flaming bush, and was restrained from coming near to it, and was commanded to put his shoes from ofif his feet because the ground on which he stood was holy ground. Here God began his covenant with his peo- ple, and at once began to impress them with the character of that covenant. This ground was sacred because of its relation to God, and so could not be trodden by any except those duly prepared and allowed to do so by divine permission. In Exodus 12 : 16, we have a holy convocation. This meeting was divorced from all secular pur- poses, and to be observed wholly unto the Lord. Then in Exodus 13:2, all the first-born were to be given or separated unto the Lord. In Numbers 3 : 12, 13, the Levites were to be taken instead of the first-born, and were to be the Lord's. In Deu- teronomy 15 : 19, the firstlings of the flocks were to be sanctified unto Jehovah. In Exodus 19 : 6, Israel was to be unto the Lord "a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." Exodus 19 : 23, Mount Sinai was to be sanctified unto the Lord, and thus become "a holy mount." The tabernacle, with all its vessels, was to be holy. Then there was to be the "most holy," "the holy of holies." Very significant in this connection is the altar, which was to be sancti- fied. For this purpose seven days were to be spent in making an atonement for it, after which it was called "an altar most holy; whatsoever touched the altar shall be holy." (Exodus 29:37.) This altar was the altar of separation. Everything put 326 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness Upon it henceforth belonged to the Lord, and so was called holy. Aaron, his sons, and their clothes were holy. (Exodus 29:21.) House, fields, ani- mals, tithes, etc., were holy. (Read in this con- nection the twenty-seventh chapter of Leviticus.) In Deuteronomy 7 \6, we have a most compre- hensive statement as to God's ancient people ; he says, "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God : the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. Above all people that are upon the face of the earth." Now all this con- secration, or sanctification, originated in God ; but so far as it is related to man, it involved the action of the human will, and so far as the will is concerned in it, the priests and the people were required to sanctify themselves. (Exodus 19 : 22 ; Leviticus 11 : 44; 27: 14.) In Leviticus 21 : 8, God declares him- self holy, and for this reason required the people to sanctify themselves. We must regard the sense in which these words apply to God and to man as having a wide differ- ence. God was seeking to establish his claim to the people and to their possessions, and by this bring them into fellowship with himself and thereby put them on a plane of living that "was above the heath- en nations that were around them ; making them a peculiar people, whose God was the Lord. This devotion to God could not be otherwise than re- deeming in its effect on the life of the nation, and thus prepare them for conserving and carrying for- ward the principles that were to prepare the way for the coming of God's only son. Out of this prepared people came the patriarchs, the divine 327 The Exalted Life theocracy, the prophets, the only true religion in the world, and the one divine character that was to be the mother of our Lord. How could all this have obtained but for this people who were prepared ? The gradation, according to the divine plan, has ever been upward from the beginning. At the first God set one day in the midst of the days as a hallowed, a sacred day. So we have never had a Sabbath, as God gave it, but what it was of this character. The Jews never had a tabernacle, a priest, a temple, a sacrifice, an altar, a utensil, as God ordered, that was not, by reason of its conse- cration, holy. As we continue our study through the later books of the Old Testament, we will find the tide of divine instruction ever on the increase, and the tide of life rising to a higher and a broader plane. When Joshua, the successor of Moses, and the greatest mil- itary leader of his day and age, took command of Israel, and was preparing to put them beyond that mighty river of separation, the river Jordan, he said to them, ''Sanctify yourselves : for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders among you." (Joshua 3:5.) In Joshua 24* 19, he says, "He is an holy God; he is a jealous God, he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins." The close relation- ship between him and his people was such that he could not tolerate or endure a rival. As in the New Testament, so here. "He that is not for me is against me ;" "ye cannot serve God and mam- mon." God would have his people stand in a pe- culiar and special relation to him, as his own, and 328 Sanctification ns the Antecedent of Holiness so could not "gad about," serving this god and that god as seemed good to them. Here we have a symbolic reflection of that inward life that could not be clearly seen until the appear- ance of him ''who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." (Hebrews 7:26.) In a fuller and a more realistic sense this brighter day, whenever it may come and whatever it may mean, is set forth in Zechariah 14:20, 21: "In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, holiness unto the lord; and the pots in the Lord's house shall t)e IfRe the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jeru- salem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts ; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein : and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." This quotation is only one, a sample, of the hundreds of times the word is used in the Old Tes- tament to indicate the close relation that rational and irrational creatures sustain to the Lord. When applied to God's people they indicate the mutual relationship that exists, that they should be dis- tinctively his, and that in a special manner he would belong to them, was their God. This indicates the character of Old Testament holiness, being more especially objective than subjective. When life and its possessions are formally, by an intelligent action of the will, surrendered to God, for his occupancy and use, this may be called subjective holiness. It is by this yielding all to God, separating all unto him 329 The Exalted Life in thought and in deed, that he is sanctified in the heart of his people. When we come to the study of this subject in the New Testament, the symboHc becomes more realistic, the objective becomes more the subjective, the neg- ative more the positive, the outward and physical more the inward and spiritual, of the heart. Our conception of this subject increases as our percep- tion of God and the greatness of his claims in- crease. To his ancient people he spoke his claims in the voice of thunder: but now in tones of love from Calvary's cross, and in the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Then it was from a voice without; now it is from a life and influence within, in the very inmost chamber of the soul. How in contrast the character of offerings put on the altar of atonement by the people under the law, and the one God provided and offered up in the person of his son! The offerings at their best under the law were but carnal; "but the lamb that God provided and gave as an offering and as the price of the world's redemption was without spot, or blemish, or any such thing." Before his incar- nation, he was announced as the embodiment of holiness. (Luke 1 : 35.) He was so confessed by both demons and his disciples. Called *'the Holy One of God," and "Son of the living God." (Mark 1:24; John 6:69.) He declared himself sanctified by the Father, and that for the sake of his disciples he sanctified himself. (John 10:36, and 17:19.) Here the Mosaic ritual was perfectly imperson- ated, not only in standing, but in actual life. He 330 Sanctlflcation as the Antecedent of Holiness said of himself, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." (John 4 : 34.) "I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (See verse 30, and chapter 6:38; 17:4.) Perfection did not find its realization in the ritual of the Mosaic covenant; but it did in the spirit, intelligence, and devotion of God's only son. His body was an holy temple. (John 2:21.) His body a holy sacrifice. (Hebrews 10: 10, 14, 20.) He himself a holy priest. (Hebrews 3:1; 10:19.) Is it any wonder that he was called the ''Holy One of God"? John, the forerunner of Jesus, stands as a type of holiness under the law. There was an austerity in his manner of doing and living that was greatly in contrast with the toiling, social intercourse, hu- man hospitality, and plain method of living, that characterized the life of Jesus. He was one with the people in their sufferings and business affairs. This is doubtless the reason why the common peo- ple heard him gladly. While this is true, we must note that through all his intercourse with the people, he was separate from sinners. All sin and sinning runs counter to God's will, and as Jesus in all things was in harmony with the divine char- acter, He lived in absolute separation from all sin. It could not be otherwise, as he was God's son, and as he came to save the sinner from his sins. We now come to the great practical question, the question of all questions, as relating to the fol- lowers of Christ ; namely, sanctification as embodied in the New Testament and in the Church of Christ 331 The Exalted Life which is designated as his body, his temple, and therefore holy. In this connection it is noticeable that all the members of that body are called saints, sanctified, holy persons. This stands in marked con- trast with II. Chronicles 23 : 6, *'But let none come into the house of the Lord, save the priests, and they that minister of the Levites ; they shall go in for they are holy" ; but in beautiful harmony with the prophecy of Daniel, chapter 7 : 18, 22, 25, 27, which the reader will please read. These Scriptures give us a view of the people of God as they were then seen, and as they should be in future time. It seems quite evident from the wide use of the term "saint" in the New Testament, that there are different degrees of meaning, or degrees of empha- sis to be put upon the word, the force of which must depend on its cognate meaning. A saint, therefore, may be like the Corinthians, "babes in Christ, and yet carnal." (I. Corinthians 3:1.) "Sanctified in Christ Jesus," and hence called saints. (I. Corinthians 1:2.) "Sanctified in Christ Jesus," and yet "babes in Christ," clearly indicate a state of immaturity, and also what they were re- quired to be in practice by reason of this divine relationship. As saints, it was their privilege to live a life very different from the one that was ob- taining among them. Not to do this was very dis- honoring and contrary to their calling, which was holy, and utterly unlike the One that gave them this standing and the promised grace to live in harmony with it. To bear the name "saint," like the name "Chris- tian," is to carry a title that no one by right can con- 332 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness fer but Christ, and no one but a son of God can con- sistently profess. From the New Testament point of view, sanctification in and through Christ is to be a personal, spiritual realization, covering the whole ground of Church-life, and of each individual mem- ber, with all related things, all places, all possessions, and all periods of time. "Ye are not your own ; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (I. Corinthians 6: 19, 20.) Ceremonial sanctifica- tion under the old covenant related more especially to certain persons, certain things, and certain per- iods of time. But now it has a broader and deeper meaning, and is set as a standard of personal, ac- tual, and absolute devotion to God. This is clearly seen in the following Scriptures : ''There is differ- ence also between a wife and a virgin. The un- married woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit." (I. Corinthians 7:34.) In Ephesians 1:4, we are chosen "that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." In chapter 5 : 26, 27, the Church is "sanctified, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." (Colossians 1:21, 22.) "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly." (I. Thessalonians 5: 23.) "Follow after holiness." (Hebrew 12:14.) 333 The Exalted Life "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." (I. Peter 1: 15.) Now couple with these the following Scriptures: Romans 6:11, 19; 14:7; 11. Corinthians 5:15; 3:23; 6 :19. In all these passages the idea is clearly revealed that the life to be lived is complete deliverance from sin, a life of holiness, and all the powers of that life are to be devoted to the working out of the divine will and purposes in the advancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. This is clearly seen in Romans 12: 1, 2. This is the yielded, the surrendered life to God, as seen also in Romans 6:13. There can be no doubt as to completeness of the surrender re- quired. It is the whole man, body, soul, and spirit, with all that he has, and for all time. Before pass- ing on to the further consideration of this subject, let us take a condensed view of the field already cov- ered. We have seen that holiness belongs to God, is an attribute of the divine nature; that it was re- vealed in flesh and blood, in human nature, in the person of Jesus Christ ; that the spirit of God, being holy, is carrying on this glorious work of holiness in the hearts and lives of God's people, his adopted children. All this being true, then the Father to whom we pray, "Hallowed be thy name," is holy; the Christ that we follow is holy; the spirit that quickens and guides us is holy; the Bible that we study, being the word of this life, is holy; the tem- ple that we belong to and are a part of is holy ; the way over and through which we go is holy, called the "highway of holiness," the heaven to which we are going is holy, called the "holy city" and all 334 Sanctiiication as the Antecedent of Holiness the inhabitants of that city are holy. Now, in the light of all this can there be any question as to the character of the life that we are called to live? Let us answer this question to conscience and to our God. So far, this question has been largely considered in its relation to things not directly related to sin, to things of which sin cannot be affirmed, the tab- ernacle and the temple, with their fixtures, such as the altar, the gold, and the sacrifices. We now wish to consider it as more directly related to man, the victim, the subject and agent of sin. This brings us in contact with the mightiest force that God and man ever had to deal with. The greatness of divine power, the infiniteness of divine wisdom, and the incomprehensibleness of divine love are here re- vealed as nowhere else in the divine character and activities. After the fall of Adam, all the agencies of heaven became tributary to man's recovery from the ruin of this fall ; all creation went into very birth pangs to be delivered from its blighting curse, to be ''delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God!" (Romans 8:21, 22.) The awfulness of sin is seen in the cost of re- covery from it. So it is not a trifling thing to be a sinner. As a moral force it is opposed to both God and man, and is the only thing that can de- feat the divine purposes and thereby work man's final ruin. God does not have pleasure in the death of any ; but wills that all men everywhere should be saved. Sin tends to frustrate this purpose, and therefore must be overcome by a deliverance from 335 The Exalted Life it. Deliverance from sin is an absolute necessity, if God is to be glorified in life here and heaven ob- tained hereafter. There can be no question as to its imperativeness. It is the will of God for us. "For this is the will of God, even your sanctifica- tion." (I. Thessalonians 4:3.) In chapter 5:23, Paul prayed for its realization m the Church, and in Hebrews 12: 14, it is made the absolute condi- tion of fellowship with God. It is to this life that we are called. "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." (I. Thessalonians 4:7.) To despise this call is to despise him that made it. One thing at this point should be well considered by all, and that is, that we shall have to reckon with these scriptural requirements and the facts involved in them. They will stand, whatever may be our changing and shifting opinions as individuals. Change these facts — who can? We may avow our disbelief in them ; modify and change them to suit our creed and the life that we want to live, but they stand unchanged. Professors may be false to their profession of this life; may even become apostates from God; but this in no way annuls or discredits the teachings of the Bible on this subject. "But what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make-the faith of God without effect? let God be true, but every man a liar." Moral purity is the goal set for the individual Christian, and no life can be normally what God intended it to be without it. Without this purity, holiness can never obtain. 336 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness This brings us to the question as to how it may be obtained, or how can we become holy? This question, in view of our inborn corruption, fed and strengthened by years spent in the practice of sin, is very momentous indeed. Here human reason and human philosophy are utterly helpless to answer. The whole process is on a plane higher than human reason. *'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." (Jeremiah 13:23.) The work is wholly supernatural, and so divine instruction and divine agencies must be sought and obtained. Here we en- counter human theories and human creeds that we are more or less liable to read in the Bible, and so fix a mold for shaping every character, a stand- ard for determining every experience, and a certain Shibboleth for testing every profession as to its genuineness. And, unless these are fully measured up to, there is often a presumptive human umpire on hand that may feel called upon to pronounce upon the genuineness of the work, and the character of the life lived, and all in the face of Paul's words : "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up : for God is able to make him stand." (Romans 14:4.) Now, if we are not al- lowed to judge another in outward, visible things, in ceremonial observances, how much less in matters pertaining to the heart, which only God seeth. Whether we live or whether we die, both are unto the Lord; we are his in either case. "We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and every 337 l:he Exalted Life one of us shall give account of himself to God." (Romans 14:7, 8, 10, 12.) Paul says, touching human judgment as compared with the divine : "But it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself ; yet am I not hereby justified : but he that judgeth me is the Lord." (I. Corinthians 4:3, 4.) Here Paul attaches but little importance to hu- man judgment, or to a human tribunal, even to his own judgment. Even though he knew nothing against himself, yet this did not prove him innocent. He says the Lord is my judge. Therefore do not prejudge, but vv^ait until the Lord comes. How important it is that we give heed to this personal experience and counsel of Paul touching individual life and experience, least we assume the place of a judge in matter that we cannot know, and hence cannot render a safe and reliable verdict. The Lord can live with, and excuse things in per- sons that we frail mortals cannot tolerate at all. Even the apostles would have commanded fire from heaven to consume those that were adjudged as ene- mies. But Jesus told them that they did not know the spirit that they were of ; the spirit of the dispen- sation in which they were now living. Now, as to how we reach this state of grace. There are certain goals, or sub-goals, on the way to the final goal that, for the largest possible perspicu- ity, must be considered. All these are more or less closely related, the one to the other, so that they form an integral part of a completed whole. On this ascending pathway from the lowland of moral 338 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness life, the plane of common, unrenewed humanity, we have justification, regeneration, sanctification, and holiness ; each preceding the other in the order named, and each forming an essential part of, and merging into what follows. While each may be regarded in a sense as a crisis in human experience, yet they are so closely related to each other and form so vital a part of the completed work of restoration from sin, that they cannot be so segre- gated as to be utterly independent, one of the other. To do this would be to break the atonement, which covers all sin, and the oneness of Christ's life, which is given in its fullness to the believer, into mere remnants of what is an indivisible whole. While there are degrees in the obtainment and at- tainment of this life in Christ, upon the part of the believer, yet it is a part of one grand whole which, in moral character, is always the same. Is the repentant sinner justified? That is his standing in Christ before the law. Is he regenerated or born again ? This is Christ coming into him, as his new, beginning life. Is he sanctified? This is Christ taking charge of his life and separating it from all worldly, sinful practices. For this he sanctified himself, and for this God made him the sanctifica- tion of his people ; but this must be done by a full surrender. (Romans 12: 1, 2.) Finally, is he made holy? This is done by a complete identification of the sin-tendency in man, with Christ on the cross. Here Christ becomes all and in all. Justified in Christ, life in Christ, sanctified in Christ, holy in Christ. All self gone and he the only living and reigning one. *T am crucified with Christ; never- 339 The Exalted Life theless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Galatians 2: 20.) What kind of a life is this? A holy life. It cannot be anything else but holy and be Christ's life. But we must make a discrim- ination between the indwelling Christ and that, or the one in which he dwells. When one is regener- ated, granted a new beginning, born again, born from above, he thereby becomes a son of God, and in this sense is a partaker of the divine nature, which is holy. It was for this purpose that exceeding great and precious promises were given, ''that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature." (II. Peter 1:4.) Whoever has the indwelling Christ has holiness, for he is holy. But this may obtain when that within which he dwells is not yet wholly conformed to his nature and life. When Jesus was begotten in this world at the first it was among enemies, and for his safety his parents had to flee with him into Egypt. So when he is begotten by the Holy Spirit in the heart of the penitent believer, he is begotten among moral and spiritual enemies. Then the war begins. It takes time to transform the whole nature of man into the likeness and fullness of this new, divine life. He comes in for that purpose, to make a new creature in Christ Jesus. Man has a trinity of life, body, soul, and spirit, all of which Christ seeks to bring under his control and make subservient to his will and his work. Many things obtain in the body, as habits, that may not be changed in a day, or a year, or even in a whole lifetime. Then still more fixed are the evil principles that inhere in the soul, the seat of the 340 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness affections, desires, emotions, and will, and that exercise such a determining influence on the life and its activities that it may take years of study, prayer, and consecration to overcome and utterly displace them, so that the soul may be blameless and harmless in the sight of God. Then higher than all is the spirit, the immortal, the indestructible part of man, that which more especially allies him to God and eternal things, and is to be in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and to which and with which the Holy Spirit bears witness of sonship. (Romans 8:16.) Now all this intricate, interacting, interlocking, corelated life is to be brough into complete moral and spiritual harmony with God, and thus be "pre- served blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." This is what Christ comes into the human spirit to do, and which he will do if he has the full co-operation of the human will. It is on this line that we can account for the graded life of the indi- vidual, and consequently that of the Church. The human will, through intelligence and by divine grace, must decide which division or section of this tripartite life shall have first place in the affections, and be in ascendant rule. H the physical nature is predominant, and its desires and appetites gratified, then the life can be very low. It can consist largely in eating and drinking, sports and plays, cards and dances, and revelings in many ways. This kind of a life is on the lowest grade. On this plane there are gradations, running from the life of the degen- erate to the life of the respectable and popular, questionable only in some things. In this last list 341 The Exalted Iiife many Christians may be enrolled. Carnal propen- sities, in many things, have control. Again, if the higher conceptions of life obtain, and the intellectual and ethical are given full sway, then the banquet will be spread on this line, and everything that will contribute to the joy of thought and feeling will be supreme. Here fiction, litera- ture, science, art, and philosophy, have their univer- sities, temples, and coliseums. Here mighty brains revel in fields set with jewels and lighted with suns and stars. All this on the intellectual plane. The highest of all is the realm of the spirit. This is where God dwells supreme, and where he can speak in eternal silence. Here he says, "Be still, and know that I am God." It was in a still small voice that Elijah heard him speak. It is in the stillness that power reigns. Here the Holy Spirit dwells, and in the silence of thought carries forward his work of unifying, purifying, and re- newing until the whole life is restored to a com- pleted temple in the Lord. This is the spiritual life in its supremacy. It is the life that is the outflow of Christ's life, with no obstructions from within. No adverse will, God now does the willing ; no cherished sin homed in the heart, for the heart is created anew ; no yielding of the members as ''instruments of unrighteousness unto sin," for they have been presented to God as "a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable." I want to emphasize the thought so constantly and persistently held to in this chapter that this life is a holy life because a sanctified life. Jesus was sanctified by the Father; then he sanctified 342 Sanctiiication as the Antecedent of Holiness himself, as he says, for the purpose that his disciple might be sanctified. Jesus was kept dead to every- thing but his Father's will by the divine nature that dwelt in him. His humanity was offered up on the altar of divinity, and so was always kept in har- mony with that will, doing always the things that pleased the one that sent him. This the secret of the believer, death to sin, the presence of the Holy Spirit keeping him in spiritual contact with Christ, who is the death of sin. Many hold and teach, and honestly so, that the carnal nature, our inheritance from Adam, is put away by cleansing, meaning by sanctification. The writer so held in his earlier min- istry; but on a more thorough investigation has come to accept what seems the more reasonable and scriptural view ; namely, that w^hat is meant by the "old man," "the carnal nature," and "indwelling sin," is put away by what Paul calls "death," which term occurs some sixteen times in the sixth chapter of Romans. Here Paul associates death directly with sin and the old man, saying "that our old man is crucified," and "he that is dead is freed from sin." (Romans 6:6, 7.) Not only the old man himself, our corrupt human nature, is put to death, but also his ways, his doings are put away. Paul says, "That ye put off the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the de- ceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind ; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." ( Ephesians 4 : 22-24. ) Now, can anything be stronger and plainer than this? Here we put off 343 The Exalted Life both the old man and his ways, as we described so elaborately in the preceding chapter. I think the reader will find it difficult to prove that this old man is cleansed away, sanctified away, as so often stated by writers and preachers on this subject. Try it and see. It is not difficult to prove his death, and that this was accomplished on the cross when Jesus "tasted death lor every man." This is the way that Paul professed that it was done in his case, and the way he taught that it was done. Let me ask, if we put away the theory as to how it is done, what is the difference as to the re- sult, if to get rid of the ''sin principle," as it is called, as the one essential thing in order to holi- ness? If I may be allowed an item of personal ex- perience, I 'Would say that Romans 6:11 was the crisis of triumph in my ov/n case. I was told by the Word and the Spirit what to do and I did it. The thought of cleansing at this point never came to me. It was freedom by death that I wanted and I got it. I read in the sixth verse of this chapter what v/as done with that old man, and the purpose for which it was done, and then told in the eleventh verse what I must do in order to avail myself of what Christ had done for me long ago. To me this is the plainest, the simplest, and the most scriptural view of this subject. I simply took what Christ did for me, and thus made it real in my experience. Christ was the altar on which I offered myself up to God, and that altar did its work and made me acceptable to God by separating me from my sin. Is this not scriptural? Did I not do right in 344 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness obeying it? Did I not honor Christ and his death by so doing? Is not this in the truest sense sanctification? It is the sanctification that was incarnated in God^s only son, and is of a twofold character, separation from all sin, and separation wholly unto God. The human nature of Christ was fully taken up into his divine nature and he was thus kept wholly dead unto sin and constantly alive unto God. He lived the crucified life. His death on the material cross on Calvary was the open and outward sign or mani- festation of his inward, spiritual crucifixion, which was constant and perfect through all his earthly life. He carried the cross in him, and by this he was enabled to live in perfect harmony with the divine will. The human was completely lost in the divine, so perfect was the union between the two, the Fath- er and son. If deliverance from the "old man" is by death, crucifixion, which seems clearly the teachings of the New Testament on this subject, then where and how does sanctification occur ? Paul makes this plain when he says that our old man was crucified that the ''body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we might not serve sin." The body is sin's instrument, its stronghold, and if we would be free from its control, its power, must be broken. For this reason and for this purpose it must be "yielded," be "presented a living sacrifice unto God." Then transformation begins at once by the renew- ing of the mind. The trend of thinking changes from the earthly to the heavenly, where the mind is now set and centered. Earthly-mindedness gives 345 The Exalted Life place to heavenly-mindedness. The walk is now no more after the flesh, but after the spirit. As sanctification finds its lowest, ouiward expres- sion in the act of consecration, of a personal yield- ing of all to God, there is still a deeper and more spiritual meaning that it has that must not be over- looked. As soon as self has really died through crucifixion with Christ, then the work of renewing commences in the soul and the body of the believer. Until this, the thinking has been largely wrong and by this the character has been stained and the whole soul tainted with the morally evil. As sanc- tification finds its first expression in the material- istic and the non-ethical, it now ascends through the ritualistic and the moral up to the spiritual, having holiness as its final goal. It is both outward and inward, physical and spiritual ; ending in a qualita- tive and completed life in Christ. It has its sub- goals, infancy, childhood, and matured manhood. In I. Corinthians 3:1, it is ''babes in Christ"; in Ephesians 5 : 14, it is "children, tossed to and fro," and in the thirteenth verse of this same chapter it is "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stat- ure of the fulness of Christ." The cleansing which sanctification works relates more especially to the use that is made of the will, the afi^eciions, the emotions, the passions, and all mental activities, separating them from all evil tendencies and associations, and making them meet for the Master's use. Paul in writing to Timothy expresses this in a very forcible way. Speaking of ceremonial cleansing, and then applying it to the household of faith he says, "If a man therefore 346 Sanctiiication as the Antecedent of Holiness purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work." (II. Timothy 2:21.) This preparation for work is more especially in the sphere of sanctification, and hence a large use is made of the altar both in the old and the new dispensation. The literal altar vanishes in the New Testament but a more sacred, more elevated, more transforming, more purifying, and more life-giving altar is made use of, the Lord Jesus himself. Jesus said it is *'the altar that sanctifieth the gift." (Mat- thew 23: 19.) It imparts its character to the wor- shiper. Paul says, ''They which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar." (I. Corinthians 9: 13.) In Hebrews 13 : 10-13, we have a guarded altar, which only they that go forth with Jesus to the place of death are made the rightful partakers. To the Christian, Jesus stands in the double re- lation of death and life, the cross and the altar. They both meet in him. We die with him and we live with him. Paul says, "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." "Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." (Romans 6: 5, 6, 7.) Here the whole domain of sin is covered by the death of Christ. There is no sin that is not atoned for, and all that we might be delivered from its dominion. Now, what must we do? Put ourselves where we are put in Christ Jesus ; make this good in our 347 The Exalted Life experience that he has made available for us by his' death; make actual in our life what he has made possible by the cross and the altar. If we cannot do this, then what shall we do with I. Peter 1: 15, 16? **As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Be ye holy ; for I am holy." Here the will plays a supreme part. For sin, as an act, is preeminently an act of the will, and so determines the moral quality, when enlightened of the act. It also determines the degree of availabil- ity of the provisional means for man's deliverance form sin. *'Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." *'He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." To know the right and then refuse to do it is sin. Lust can- not conceive until it has influenced choice. Sin is often in the intention, not always in the act. It may never go beyond the thought and the desire of the heart. Sin is not impersonal. It at- taches itself to some intelligent being and becomes a part of him, and he is dealt with as sin. Individ- ual enlightenment determines sin's turpitude, so that a given act in one individual may be very different from that same act in another. Jesus said, "If ye were blind, ye had no sin." He that knew his Master's will, and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes." In I. John 1 : 8, 9, 10, we have sin in its twofold form, as a unit, and as a multiple. "If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful 348 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness and just to forgive, and to cleanse us from all un- righteousness." Here we have sin in the nature, and sin in the life. But no difference in how many forms sin exists, nor to what extent it has multi- plied in the life, Christ is able to save to the utter- most, all that come unto God by him." "The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin." The three fundamental things to be emphasized on the line of a completed salvation are : Separation from sin, separation unto God, separation in Christ. These constitute the foundation on which to build this wonderful life. The agents to be used : I. The truth, the Word of God. (1) Able to save the soul. (James 1 : 21.) (2) Makes perfect. (II. Timothy 3: 16, 17.) (3) Makes wise unto sal- vation. (II. Timothy 3:15.) (4) Begets faith. "Faith cometh by hearing; hearing by the word of God." (5) It is spirit and life. So Jesus said, "My words, they are spirit and they are Hfe." (6) Gives freedom. "The truth shall make you free." (7) Makes clean. "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (8) Keeps from sinning. "Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." II. The Blood. "Jesus also, that he might sanc- tify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." (Hebrews 13:12.) "The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin." (I. John 1:7.) III. The Holy Spirit. "Being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." (Romans 15: 16.) So sanctification is the work of three divine per- sons, God, himself, being the source of power and 349 The Exalted Life the fountain head from which the heaHng streams issue. "It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." "If the son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." In Romans 1 : 3, the Holy Spirit is called "the Spirit of holiness." The Scriptures give us, as above, (Christ being the Word) the trinity of workers in the deliverance of man from sin. There are other agents, but these are primary, and must be relied on to do the wok. After all that has been written it may be asked, "How are we to reach this state of grace?" 1. Make a definite, full, and complete surrender of body, soul, and spirit to God as a living sac- rifice, as directed in Romans 12:1. 2. Break forever in your plans and purposes with all sin. No one that is still willing to commit sin can make this surrender, and so can never reach this state. He that committeth sin is classed with the devil, "is of the devil." "He that is born of God doth not commit sin," is not living in the prac- tice of sin. Here we have the two childhoods man- ifested, one of the devil, the other sons of God. 3. Give Christ full credit for what he has done in his crucifixion, his death and his resurrection. Put yourself where God in Christ has put you, dead to sin and alive to God. "Reckon (count) ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11.) This is giving Jesus full credit for what he has done, which is to glorify him. What is it to be dead to sin in the sense of this text? It is not deliverance from temptation, 350 Sanctification as the Antecedent of Holiness or from the sensations of earthly desires, but un- responsiveness to whatever is evil and sinful in them. It is only when desire has influenced action on the line of evil that sin is conceived. Jesus did not respond to Satan's evil suggestions. When the hand does not respond to the will it is dead to the will. So of the eye to light, the ear to sound, and the will to sin. Reader, will you live such a life? It means much to do it. What will it mean not to ? 351 / V BX9878.5 .C35 The exalted life. Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00044 8177