C ,'^^.X Jntttt X\\t Stbrarg of lpqupatl|pb by I|tm to tl|p library of J^rlnrpton S^lipolo^tral g>fmtnary BV 4501 .S55 1912 Simpson, A. B. Life more abundantly Life More Abundantly A. B. SIMPSON CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUB. CO. 692 EIGHTH AVENUE NEW YORK COPYRIGHT 1912 CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PUBLISHING CO. INTRODUCTION. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John x : lo >T^HAT is life? It is not hard to tell what ^^ life does, but what life is no human definition has yet satisfactorily explained. The lowest form of organic life in the vegetable kingdom marks the beginning of a new world in nature. The tiny moss on the summit of the mighty mountain, if it could speak and think, might say, 'T am greater than this mountain, because I have organic life. The mountain is an inert mass. I spring from a living seed. I grow by a vital process. I drink in nourishment from the air around me and the soil beneath me. I bear my little bud and blossom and leave behind me a living seed which will propa- gate my kind and give to me through my fruit a perennial life. I live." Introduction The smallest insect on the topmost branches of that magnificent palmtree can look down with just pride on the vegetable kingdom and say, "I am greater than this palm and all the flowers and forests of this land, for I have animal life. I am con- scious of my existence and this palmtree is not. If it were cut down, it would not know it, but I know the joy of living and the pain of suffering. In a still higher sense I live." The little child can look up at the mam- moth elephant or the noble horse and say, "You could destroy me by the faintest ef- fort, but I am greater than you, for I have intellectual life, I have human life, I have immortal life, I have a life which can be edu- cated until I shall master the elephant and all the strength and cunning of the animal world and assert my lordship over the whole realm of nature. In a still higher sense I live." The most humble and uncultured saint, perhaps a poor black man just converted in the jungles of Africa, or a lowly laborer, toiling in some factory or mine, can look in the face of the most brilliant human genius who knows not God in personal faith and Introduction fellowship, and say, "I live in a higher world than you, for I have spiritual life, I have eternal life, I have a life that death cannot destroy and sin cannot defile and judgment cannot dismay, and eternal ages can never end. I have everlasting life." And yet once more I see a saint of God arise and testify to a yet higher life than all this. "I have been crucified with Christ," he cries, "nevertheless I live." And then as even this new life which Christ has given fails to fully satisfy him, I hear him cry yet once more, "Not I, but Christ which liv- eth 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." "I have not only spiritual life, everlasting life, the life of the heaven born soul, but I have divine life, I have the Christ life, I have God Himself to live within me." Beloved, was this what the Master meant when He said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly"? Have you that life, and have you that life more abundantly? If you were born to perish like the brute, Introduction you might be content with the lower forms of life, but as a child of immortality and and heir of grace and glory, are you mak- ing the most of life? First Day THE TRUE PURPOSE OF LIFE "The time is short: it remaineth, that they that use this world, be as not abusing it." i Cor. vii: 29, 31- ^T^HAT is the supreme significance of ^"^ life? Is it a pleasant pastime, or is it a solemn probation, a swiftly passing springtime from whose wise sowing the harvests of time and eternity are to be reaped? There is the human side, the beau- ty, the joy, the romance, the sunshine and the bloom ; but there is the seriousness of life's conflicts, death's tragedy and eternity's mighty issues. No man can make the most of life until he has looked all these things in the face and learned the highest meaning of the old motto, "Dum vivimus, vivamus." " 'Live while you live,' the epicure would say, 'And seize the pleasures of the present day.' 'Live while you live,' the sacred preacher cries, Life More Abundantly 'And give to God each moment as it flies.' Lord, in our view, let both united be. We live in pleasure while we live to Thee.' An old writer compares the worldling to a child sitting on the branches of a fruitful tree, growing over an abyss and thought- lessly eating the fruit, while two worms called Day and Night, were slowly eating through the branch, until it suddenly fell and plunged him in the abyss. No man or woman can safely give his supreme atten- tion to earthly things until his eternal inter- ests are insured. The people that are wasting the spring- time of life in thoughtless pleasure may well be compared to the crew of a ship- wrecked vessel who were thrown upon a fer- tile island and only succeeded in saving their cargo of wheat and bringing it ashore. The wise ones suggested that they should plant it in the fertile soil and assure them- selves of future supplies, but as they were about to engage in this wise prevision and provision, one of the company returned from an excursion over the hills with the report that he had found a gold mine of inexhausti- The True Purpose of Life 9 ble wealth. Immediately they all started for the mine and spent the summer in amass- ing enormous fortunes meanwhile feeding upon the wheat which they should have planted. Suddenly, the winds of autumn began to blow and they awoke with a start to find their food supply well nigh gone. They began eagerly to plant the remaining seed, but it rotted in the furrows and they were left to die of starvation, surrounded by millions and billions of worthless gold. Dear friend are you wasting life's supreme opportunity like them, and some day will you hear the blasts of life's autumn moaning over your despairing deathbed, "The har- vest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved"? No wise man will go to sleep, knowing that the insurance on his property has lapsed without immediately renewing it. And no sane mortal will ven- ture to leave his soul without that divine in- surance of which he can say *T know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." Second Day LOSING ONE'S LIFE "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?" Mark viii : 36. XT is acknowledged by scholars that the word "soul" here means life. But the life of which the Lord was speaking was much more than mere animal existence. The Lord Himself has taught us that "life is more than meat" and that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Life means all the possibilities of human destiny both for this life and that which is to come. It is possible to lose one's life in this great and momentous sense. It is possible to miss all the high and glorious things for which exist- ence has been given us, and to be flung aside like a ghastly wreck on the shores of despair, while the wild waves murmur over Losing One's Life ii the pitiful ruin, "It were good for that man, if he had never been born." Better that all the ships of all the seas were wrecked; better that some splendid city should sink in an earthquake ; better that the world itself should be dissolved in some terrestrial cataclysm, than that one immortal soul should thus be lost. The Word of God is overshadowed with some lurid phrases and figures that hint at such catastrophes. When Jesus spake of men, He said they were lost. When He revealed the Father's love in sending His Son, it was that they might not perish. This text ends with a ter- rible expression, "a castaway," and the most loving heart that ever throbbed said of one man that "it were better he had never been born." The Greek word for sin literally means to miss the mark. It is the picture of a lost life, a soul that has missed the way, made shipwreck of existence, perverted its pow- ers, abused its opportunities and irretriev- ably and eternally perished. But our Master's words suggest that no- body can finally wreck a human soul but the man himself. Sin, even the unpardonable sin 12 Life More Abundantly is an act of willfulness and recklessness in spite of all the restraint of divine love and grace, and ruined souls shall forever realize that they have lost themselves and been guilty of spiritual and eternal suicide. The great peril of men and women is that they do not realize the sacredness and solemnity of life. They treat it as a pleas- ant holiday rather than a great probation and a supreme opportunity. Oh, that God would impress upon every reader of these lines the solemnity of having only one life to live and that life fraught with all the possibilities of endless joy or misery. "Not many lives have we, but one. One, only one, How precious should that one life ever be, That narrow span." But our text suggests a second question which sheds the light of hope upon the dark vision of human danger and sin. "What shall a man give in exchange for his life?" If he has lost it, is there any ransom by which it may be recovered? The Master gave His life to answer that Losing One's Life 13 tremendous question. Our life was lost, but we have been redeemed, not with cor- ruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. And now He gives us back our lost life and with it His grace to keep that sacred trust from ever again becoming for- feited. John Newton, of England, when a wicked sailor was brought to Christ by an awful dream. One night as he swung in his ham- mock on the Adriatic after a day of drunk- enness and debauchery, he dreamed that he was standing upon the deck of his ship, holding in his hand a beautiful ring of in- estimable value. Suddenly, a demon form appeared before him and dared him to drop it into the sea. Recklessly he accepted the challenge and flung away his priceless jewel. And the Devil danced for joy and told him he had lost his soul, while all along the Ad- riatic shore the mountains were lurid with the lightning flames which portended the judgment he had just defied. He was filled with consternation and despair. Suddenly, the Lord Jesus stood beside him and asked him if he wished his precious treasure restored. He eagerly begged His 14 Life More Abundantly help and mercy. The Saviour plunged into the wild and stormy sea, and at length emerged and reached the deck, holding in His hand the precious jewel, but bearing upon His face the traces of agony and con- flict. John Newton threw himself at His feet and reached out his hand for the pre- cious ring. But the Master held it back and said, "You have thrown away your soul once, and at infinite cost I have redeemed it. I will not again trust it to your keeping, but will guard your treasure for you, and it will be awaiting you at the gate of heaven." The English sailor awoke from his dream to give his life to God and to live for the salva- tion of his fellowmen. So have we been lost and saved. Let us trust Him to keep that which we have committed to His trust. Third Day COMING SHORT "Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest any of you should seem to come short of it." Hebrews iv : i. l^s^O lose one's life utterly and irretrieva- ^^ bly is indeed a catastrophe. But to miss the mark and just come short of achieving and attaining is a tragedy of un- speakable pathos. One of the saddest pictures of the Old Testament is the story of the people that escaped from Egypt, crossed the Jordan and began their march toward the Promised Land, but at the very gates of Canaan failed to enter in. They came to the gates of Canaan, But they never entered in; They came to the very threshold, But they perished in their sin. i6 Life More Abundantly Two men attempt to leap across a chasm. The one misses the perilous venture by a yard ; the other by half an inch ; but both are lost. Two men enter a competitive exami- nation, on which their future destiny and honor depend. The one completely fails, the other just misses; but the sadder of the two failures is the last. How solemn is the warning, "Let us therefore fear lest a prom- ise being left us of entering into His rest any of you should seem to come short of it." Here are two engines. The boilers are both filled with water, but in one the fur- nace is cold and the fires are out. In the other the water is hot, the coal is burning, and the temperature is away up above 200 degrees ; but both trains are standing still. That boiler must rise to 212 degrees before the piston moves and the train can leave the station. It is the fulness of blessing that counts. It is the temperature of the heart that tells. It is the one broken link that makes the whole chain utterly useless and dangerous. It is the last step that counts, and the last half hour that wins. There is a promise left us of entering intq Coming Short 17 His rest. That promise has been repeated many times and in many forms. It is a promise large and glorious, a promise of victory over sin, Satan and the world, and of all the possibilities of grace and glory. But its fulfilment is dependent at every step upon our response and our faithfulness. There is a peace that passeth all understand- ing, but the condition must be met, "Be careful for nothing." There is a "rest" unto our souls that we may find, but again the condition is, "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me." There is a "great peace" that "nothing can ofifend," but it is given to them that love His law. We may be kept in "per- fect peace," but our mind must be stayed on Him. There is a rest that remaineth for the people of God, but it is only they who be- lieve that enter into rest. Are we meeting these conditions? Are we standing on the ground of faith and taking the place of blessing, or are we COMING SHORT? Fourth Day ETERNAL LIFE "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." John x : 28. >J^E find the Lord Jesus speaking of eter- ^^^ nal life. Many persons have an idea that this refers exckisively to our future existence and is a promise of salvation after death. Is this not a narrow and false con- ception? The life which Christ gives is a kind of life which begins now, but belongs to the higher realm of eternal things. There is a striking passage in Ecclesiastes, "He hath put eternity in their heart." God lives in eternity and there is a section of eternity in every human soul. We are too big for this earthly sphere and have outreachings and needs that belong to the eternal realm. When God saves a man, He puts into him His own life and brings him into touch Eternal Life 19 with a new world of spiritual and eternal realities. "This is life eternal," the Lord Jesus tells us, "that ye may know Him, the living and true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent." Eternal life, therefore, means restoration to the favor and fellowship of God and the creation within us of a new spiritual life, qualified to maintain communion with Him. In a word, it brings us a heavenborn life, that experience which is described technical- ly as regeneration. We become partakers of the divine nature and the sons of God, not by adoption, but by heavenly birth. This is the special gift of the Lord Jesus to those who receive Him. "As many as received Him to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which v/ere born not of the flesh, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The writer was once called to visit a dy- ing boy who had no conception of religion. He had only a few hours to live and it was a difficult problem to know how without alarming him, to bring conviction to his soul. He had no sense of sin and thought 20 Life More Abundantly he had been so good a boy that he would be all right in the next world. Suddenly he called the lad's attention to a canary of which he seemed fond, and startled him by asking if they were intimate friends and talked together much about things. The lad was amazed and almost thought his visi- tor had lost his mind. "Why," he an- swered, "how could we talk together? He could not understand me, he has only the mind of a bird." Instantly the application was made. "Suppose you should find your- self in heaven to-morrow, would you be able to enjoy the companionship of Christ and the saints of God who are there any more than that canary can understand you? You need to have the mind of God put into you, just as much as that bird would need a hu- man mind to understand you." The simple illustration brought conviction of his need of a new divine life, and after a little simple teaching and earnest prayer, the light broke, the Lord Jesus came, the life of God touched his dead soul and before the next morning had dawned, he had passed triumphantly to the home above. Beloved friend, have you received eternal life, the gift of God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord? Fifth Day SPIRITUAL LIFE "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom. viii :2. ^