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OUR LIFE-DAY. 
 
OUR LIFE-DAY. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON JOHN IX. 4. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. ADOLPH SAPHIR, D.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 “lectures on the epistle to the HEBREWS;” 
 
 “the HIDDEN LIFE;” ETC. 
 
 N£IV YORK: 
 
 * 
 
 ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 
 
 530, BROADWAY. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
library of the 
 
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 NEVv YORK CITY 
 
 F RESEATED BY 
 
 BROADWAY TABERNACL 
 
 ^\riAR 
 
 1944 
 
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 3 51 
 O 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 HE following pages contain Addresses 
 delivered this autumn on Sunday morn- 
 ings to my congregation. They are published in 
 compliance with the desire expressed by many 
 of my hearers. With the exception of a few 
 additional paragraphs, and a slight alteration of 
 arrangement, they appear as they were spoken. 
 May the Lord’s blessing go with them. 
 
 A. S. 
 
 Trinity Presbyterian Church, 
 Notting Hill, 
 
 Dece 77 ibei% 1878 . 
 
1 
 
 
 i 
 
 j 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 4 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE EARTHLY LIFE-DAY OF THE ETERNAL SON 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRIST’s LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER' HI. 
 
 THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST IN THE LIGHT AND LIFE OF 
 THE SPIRIT . . . . . 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE UNITY OF OUR LIFE, AND ITS RELATION TO ETERNITY 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM MORN TO EVE: THE SIX AGES OF MAN 
 
 I. Infancy . . . . . 
 
 II. Childhood . . . . . 
 
 HI. Youth . . . . . . 
 
 IV. Manhood . . . . . 
 
 V. “Towards Evening” . . . . 
 
 VI. Old Age . . . , . . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 51 
 
 76 
 
 107 
 
 II8 
 
 122 
 
 130 
 
 140 
 
 155 
 
 157 
 
 i 
 

 
 ‘‘l MUST WORK 
 
 THE WORKS OF HIM THAT SENT ME, 
 WHILE IT IS DAY : 
 
 THE NIGHT COMETH, 
 
 WHEN NO MAN CAN WORK.” 
 John ix. 4. 
 

 
 m 
 
 ^ - ^ 
 
 OUR LIFE-DAY. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 lEartj&Ig UtR^Jjag of tJ)e Eternal ^on. 
 
 “ I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day : 
 the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am 
 in the world, I am the Light of the world. ix. 4. 
 
 HE practical exhortation which is con- 
 tained in these words is as obvious as it 
 is solemn : Whatsoever thy hand findeth 
 
 to do, do it with thy might ; for there is no work, 
 nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the 
 grave, whither thou goest.” God, who has as- 
 signed to each of us his work, and who has 
 entrusted to each gifts and opportunities, has also 
 fixed the length of time during which the task 
 has to be performed, and the stewardship to be 
 
 * Ecclesiastes ix. 10. 
 
 B 
 
 
 ( 
 
 I 
 
2 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 exercised. Within the limits ordained by Him the 
 work must be done, or it remains for ever un- 
 accomplished. The time for sowing the seed, for 
 laying out our talent on usury, for laying up for 
 ourselves treasure in heaven, is definite ; the night 
 cometh, and with it the termination of our labour. 
 
 All men have felt this, and have spoken of life 
 as short when compared with the magnitude and 
 difficulty of life-work.^ This thought fills us with 
 sadness and humility, while it exhorts to diligence 
 and concentrated persevering energy. But it as- 
 sumes a more solemn significance when we re- 
 member that the life-work is a task imposed by 
 God, who is both the bountiful Giver and the 
 righteous Judge. ‘‘Life is short,” say the Jewish 
 fathers, “the work is great, the Master is urgent.” f 
 The remembrance of God and the prospect of 
 judgment invest the thought of our short life-day 
 with solemnity, and lead conscience and heart to 
 seek divine grace and help ; and thus we find that 
 Israel, viewing' life in the light of divine revela- 
 tion, humbled by the sin - convincing law, and 
 comforted by the promise of redeeming mercy, 
 finds its refuge in God, who is from everlasting 
 to everlasting, the dwelling of His people in all 
 generations. The prayer of Moses, the man of 
 * Ars longa, vita brevis.” t Pirke Aboth. 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Etei'^nal Son, 3 
 
 God, when he thinks of the short and fleeting 
 character of life, is, So teach us to number our 
 days, that we may apply our hearts unto wis- 
 dom.” ^ It is a necessary prayer for all who in 
 the wilderness of time are journeying on to the 
 land of eternity ; for only 'divine grace can teach 
 us this lesson, simple and obvious though it be. 
 For the heart will not apply itself, give itself, 
 discipline itself, unto wisdom, because, taken up, 
 divided, and diverted from the one great centre 
 by the multiform and ever-changing desires and 
 pursuits of earthly and time-things, it forgets the 
 one great and inevitable end to which we hasten 
 — the appearing of our ultimate self, with its 
 finished life-work, before God in eternity. 
 
 Such is the exhortation which, in the words of 
 Christ, appeals with solemn and immediate con- 
 viction to oui heai t and conscience. But J[esus 
 never merely repeats the teaching of human reason, 
 observation, and conscience, or even the demands 
 of the divine law. Every truth announced by Him 
 receives in His words its deepest exposition, and 
 its highest manifestation. He brings out its most 
 profound meaning ; He expands it to its utmost 
 limits ; He traces it to its deepest root. And He 
 not merely as the perfect Prophet fully unfolds 
 
 * Psalm xc. 12. 
 
4 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 all truth, but as the divine Mediator, the Re- 
 deemer, and the Example of His people, He 
 fulfils in Himself all truths and precepts ; thus 
 revealing to us the only source from whence we 
 can derive strength to follow Him, and to obey 
 the word of God. Jesus reveals to us truth, and 
 the only way of our living the truth, by unfolding 
 to us His own inner life, by communicating to us 
 His own experience, and by sending His Spirit 
 into our hearts. All His words point to His 
 priestly and royal office ; for by His death, resur- 
 rection, and the sending of the Comforter, He 
 gives Himself unto His people, and converts all 
 His teaching into giving — His self-manifestation 
 into communication of life and love. 
 
 The words which we are now considering 
 express, as it were, the philosophy of Christ’s life, 
 the rule and method which regulated all His 
 steps and works ; but they also point out the 
 source from which He derived constant and 
 joyous strength in His path, the uninterrupted 
 communion with the Father, out of which pro- 
 ceeded all His actions. We can follow Christ’s 
 example only in Christ’s way ; not merely the 
 walk, but the method of the walk is set before 
 us as our model. Hence by directing your at- 
 tention to the inner life of our Lord, as His 
 
Earthly Life-Day of the Eternal Son. 5 
 
 words reveal it in its deepest root, His union 
 with the Father, I do not wish to divert you 
 from the practical exhortation of His solemn 
 utterance, but rather to point out the only sure 
 foundation on which it is possible for us to build 
 our imitation of His example. 
 
 Although this word of Christ may be considered 
 as the motto and superscription of His whole life, 
 yet the occasion on which it was uttered throws 
 abundant light on its meaning. The Lord and 
 His disciples were deeply impressed when they 
 saw the man which had been born blind."^" He 
 seemed to them a type of human misery and 
 suffering. Both in the minds of the disciples and 
 of our Lord, thought and feeling were stirred by 
 this sad spectacle. The question of the disciples 
 contains elements of truth, which we are apt to 
 overlook in our criticism of its error. Misery 
 cannot be traced to God’s creative goodness, 
 wisdom, and power. The original purpose of 
 Divine love was that human eyes, wonderfully 
 formed to be light-receptive, should behold the light; 
 that the sun, which God created and appointed to 
 be a luminary by day, should bring gladness to 
 man, and make his step sure and joyous. It was 
 natural for the disciples, who knew the law of God, 
 
6 
 
 Ou7^ Life-Day, 
 
 and had been under the teaching of Moses, to 
 connect misery with sin, and to trace suffering to 
 the transgression of God’s precepts. Nor was it 
 contrary to the revealed method of divine provi- 
 dence, or to experience, to imagine that the iniquity 
 of the fathers was visited on the children even' to 
 the third and fourth generation. 
 
 But our Lord not merely corrects the error of 
 the disciples, which reminds us of the false reason- 
 ing of Job’s friends; His whole attitude to the 
 problem of misery is different from theirs. While 
 the disciples looked to the origin and cause of this 
 suffering, our Lord looked forward to its removal 
 and healing. They asked, “Who is to blame 
 Jesus asked, “Who is to save?” The disciples 
 wondered by whose guilt the beautiful work of 
 God had been thus marred.. Jesus saw in this man’s 
 blindness, in all human misery, only the occasion 
 for the manifestation of the healing and restoring, 
 the salvation-works of God. Instead of looking to- 
 wards the dark abyss, out of which sin and misery 
 originate, the Lord’s heart looks to the glory of 
 God, who by redemption exalts fallen man to even 
 higher blessedness than that of creaturely inno- 
 cence. And therefore Jesus feels Llimself under 
 the irresistible necessity, “ I must work the works 
 of Him that sent me.” Jesus looks upon sin, 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Eternal Son. 7 
 
 misery, want, sorrow, death, only that He may 
 bring pardon, healing, abundance, consolation, and 
 life. He came not to judge and to condemn, but 
 to save, to rescue ; not to describe, analyse, and 
 denounce the disease of sin, but to heal it ; not to 
 scrutinize and lament over the world’s iniquity, but 
 to be the Saviour of mankind, the Physician and 
 Restorer, the Shepherd, seeking and saving the 
 lost. The world has had no lack of philosophers 
 and moralists who describe and tabulate with 
 acutest analysis and subtle discrimination moral 
 evil and the misery and suffering of mankind ; 
 there have always been poets who, with profound 
 sensitiveness and with touching pathos, have given 
 expression to all the various discords, sorrows, 
 passions, griefs, and despairs which agitate human 
 hearts and lives and nations ; there have arisen 
 many legislators and theorists who have en- 
 deavoured to cure or to alleviate the sad diseases 
 of society by laws, institutions, and regulations. 
 But the world has seen only one Jesus, “the Lamb 
 of God, which taketh away the sin of the world 
 only One, who came to rescue, to lay down His 
 own life, that the world through Him might be 
 saved. 
 
 I 
 
 Only one Jesus! but this one divine Lord has 
 many representatives, many followers, in whom He 
 
8 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 lives, whom He energizes by His Spirit, and by 
 whom He continues His work of saving, healing, 
 and renewing power. The words of Jesus suggest 
 to us our own task, and furnish us with the key- 
 note of our life. It is the tendency and practice 
 of the natural man to ask, ‘'Whose fault is it.^” 
 whenever he sees disorder and suffering ; it ought 
 to be the tendency and practice of the Christian 
 to ask, “Am I not sent to remedy, to heal, to 
 comfort V He is in the world as Jesus was in the 
 world. When Jesus, in the synagogue of Nazareth, 
 opened the book of the prophet Isaiah, He found 
 the place where the mission of the Christ is de- 
 scribed, and He said, “This day is this Scripture 
 fulfilled in your ears.” What was this mission } 
 It was to bring to the poor the evangel of peace ; 
 to the broken-hearted, healing ; to the captives, 
 deliverance ; to the blind the recovering of sight ; 
 and to the bruised, liberty. The Christian is sent 
 forth by Christ. Jesus manifested His own for- 
 giving love. His own all-conquering and heart- 
 renewing power. The Christian manifests the love 
 of Jesus, which has brought pardon and renewal 
 to his own heart, and with , which he now goes 
 forth to love and to announce divine love to his 
 fellow-man. He exerts the power of Christ, which 
 has subdued his own sin, healed his own disease 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Eternal Son, 9 
 
 and restored his soul to fellowship with God and 
 to strength of obedience ; in the very power of 
 Christ and by the indwelling of Christ’s mind, he 
 loves, helps, restores. While he is in the world, it 
 is his desire to be the witness and the channel of 
 redeeming grace and power. 
 
 Our Lord leads us however still deeper into the 
 inner sanctuary of His life. He does not say, I 
 must save and heal ; I must perform the works 
 which are my delight ; ” although this would have 
 been true. Jesus points out to us that in all His 
 acts, in all words and works of His self-manifestion. 
 He acts in communion with the Father, and in 
 obedience to His will. He reveals to us the one 
 source, from which flow both His labour and His 
 joy — the infinitely sweet and tender, the uninter- 
 rupted communion between Him and the Father. 
 Thus even in His childhood it was an inward 
 necessity with Him to be in the spiritual, heavenly 
 element ; but the way in which He expresses this 
 brings before us not so much Flis own spiritual 
 mind and choice as His abiding near and in the 
 Father. '' Must I not be about the things of my 
 Father V It was His delight to speak to the poor 
 sinful woman, who came to the well of Sychar, of 
 the gift of God, the living water. But when He 
 explains to the disciples why His soul had been so 
 
lO 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 \ 
 
 refreshed that He needed no food for the body, 
 which had been weary and exhausted, He points 
 again to the Father: ^^My meat is to do the will 
 of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” 
 He, who manifested His own glory in every miracle 
 which He performed, explains to His chosen dis- 
 ciples in the night when He spoke to them 
 plainly: ‘‘The Father that dwelleth in Me, He 
 doeth the works.” He, who in all His words and 
 teachings revealed Flimself as the Saviour, the 
 Fountain of Living Water, the Bread of Life, 
 declares, “ I have not spoken of myself ; but the 
 Father which sent Me, He gave Me a command- 
 ment, what I should say, and what I should 
 speak.” ^ 
 
 In no gospel is the divinity of our Lord so 
 clearly and frequently brought before us as in the 
 
 gospel of John ; in no portion of Scripture is such 
 
 / 
 
 constant emphasis laid on the communion between 
 the Father and the Son, and on the subordi- 
 nation of the Son to the Father, in the counsel 
 and work of redemption. This was the joy of 
 Christ ; not merely that He performed the great 
 salvation works, but that He performed them by 
 abiding in His Prather’s love, and by His Father 
 dwelling in Him. This was FI is joy and reward, 
 
 * Luke ii. 49 ; John iv. 33, xiv. 10, 24, xii. 48-50. 
 
Eai^thly Life- Day of the Eternal Son, 1 1 
 
 that the Father loved Him, because He laid down 
 His life for the sheep ; that the Father was 
 glorified and manifested in Him ; that it was the 
 Father s indwelling in Him which was the strength, 
 the animating spirit, of all His works. And thus 
 every word and act of Christ was not merely a 
 manifestation of the Father to the world, but it 
 was also a process of inward communion and 
 
 growth, even as the Lord most simply describes it 
 by saying, “ I live by the Father,” and, ‘‘This is my 
 meaty to do the will of Him that sent me.” 
 
 This perfect communion proceeds from the es- 
 sential and eternal union between the Father and 
 the Son. Here is the great mystery of godliness, 
 God manifest in the flesh. The Lord, the Anointed, 
 who came as the Sent One, and was obedient unto 
 
 death, even the death of the cross, said from all 
 
 / 
 
 eternity, “ Lo, I come to do thy will.” Could Jesus 
 have declared the Father, whom no man hath seen 
 at any time, unless He was “the only-begotten Son, 
 which is in the*Fosom of the Father Could 
 He be the mediator and channel of divine love, 
 unless He could say, “Thou lovedst Me before 
 the foundation of the world”?*]* How could He 
 give unto His sheep eternal life, and keep them in 
 perfect and everlasting safety, unless He and the 
 
 * John i. 1 8. 
 
 THEOLOGICAL 
 
 SEMINARY 
 
12 
 
 Our Life-Day, 
 
 Father are one ? ^ And what is our hope, but 
 that He will bring us unto glory, and present us 
 to His Father, Behold I and the children whom 
 Thou hast given Me”? “I* To believe that Jesus is 
 the Son of God is the Christian’s blessedness and 
 strength. 
 
 If we have thus by the words of our Lord been 
 brought to behold His communion with the 
 Father, rooted in His eternal union with Him, 
 as the source and strength of His life, we have 
 arrived at that point which apparently abstract, 
 doctrinal and mysterious, contains the most prac- 
 tical and comprehensive principle of the Christian 
 life. Apart from Christ we can do nothing ; 
 abiding in Him we bring forth fruit, and glorify 
 the Father. The great question therefore is. What 
 is meant by abiding in Christ ? The Lord ex-' 
 plains to us both the nature and the method of 
 this communion. ^^As the Father hath loved Me, 
 so have I loved you : continue ye in my love. If 
 ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my 
 love ; even as I have kept my Father’s command- 
 ments, and abide in His love.”J We stand then 
 in the same relation to Jesus as the Lord stands 
 
 to His heavenly Father. Jesus sent by the 
 
 / 
 
 * John X. 27-30. t Heb. ii. 13. 
 
 X John XV. 9, 10. 
 
Earthly Life-Day of the Eternal Son, 13 
 
 Father; we sent by the Lord Jesus. Jesus by 
 an inward necessity working the works of Him 
 that sent Him ; we by the power of the Spirit, 
 whom we have received through the glorified 
 humanity of our Lord, constrained and strength- 
 ened to continue the works of Christ, to deliver 
 His message, to manifest His love, to exert His 
 power. Jesus abiding in the Father’s love, en- 
 joying communion with Him, growing in strength, 
 and sustaining and renewing His spiritual life in 
 His very activity and self- manifestation to the 
 world ; we in like manner abiding in Christ, 
 growing more deeply and firmly rooted in Him, 
 and receiving Christ’s joy, so as to make our joy 
 full, by our doing the things which Christ com- < 
 manded us. Christ manifesting the Father ; we 
 manifesting Christ. Jesus the light of the world; 
 we also the light of the world by virtue of Christ 
 dwelling in us. But the sure foundation on which 
 this wonderful union and identity between Christ 
 and us rests is none other than this: Jesus is the 
 only-begotten of the Father. As the Father hath 
 life in Himself, so hath He given the Son to have 
 life in Himself The eternal union between 
 Father, Son and Spirit, and the union of the 
 divine and human natures in the one person of 
 our adorable Saviour Jesus Christ, form the essen- 
 
H 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 tial and immovable foundation of the mystical yet 
 most real union between Christ and the Church. 
 And thus in our daily experience, and for our 
 earthly path, with its duties and trials, we have 
 an eternal and inexhaustible fountain of love and 
 light. It is because Jesus is the true vine, and 
 His Father the husbandman,, that we, who were 
 once dead in trespasses and sins, are now branches 
 which bring forth fruit ; that we are the body, of 
 which Christ is the Head to the glory of the Father. 
 
 The tendency of the present day is to lay stress 
 on what is regarded as practical ; ” that is, what 
 is thought to exert an immediate and powerful • 
 influence on man’s character and conduct. The 
 doctrine of Scripture, the revelation of God and 
 of His counsel — theology in short — is considered 
 as something abstruse and theoretical ; the great 
 and important topic, it is held, is the development 
 of human character, and the true fulfilment of 
 duty in the various relationships of life. The root 
 of this tendency lies very deep, and its spirit is 
 diametrically opposed to that of Scripture — of 
 Jehovahism in the Old, and Christianity in the 
 New Testament. Scripture is '‘practical.” Its 
 aim is, that the man of God should be furnished 
 unto every good work ; that we should be wise 
 unto salvation, and glorify God both now and for 
 
Ea 7 ^thly Life- Day of the Eter^ial Son, 15 
 
 evermore. But as Scripture regards man’s depar- 
 ture from God as the essence of all sin and misery, 
 it declares that in God alone is our remedy and 
 salvation. To know God and Jesus Christ is life 
 eternal. To be brought into communion with the 
 only fountain of life, light, and love, is the only 
 redemption for man. ‘‘I am the Lord thy God,” 
 is the sum and substance of the Old Testament 
 teaching ; and as this is the fundamental truth, so 
 it is all-sufficient. It is the foundation on which 
 all commandments rest ; it is the only source from 
 which men can derive strength to obey divine 
 precepts ; it is the only consolation and hope for 
 sinful and heavy-laden humanity. And in the 
 New Testament God is perfectly revealed. The 
 name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, into which 
 we are baptized, is to us Christians not an abstruse 
 and speculative dogma, but the very element of 
 ' light and love in which we live, the source from 
 which we derive all strength and consolation for 
 our earthly life. The Father’s love to the Son, 
 eternal, infinite, and unchangeable, is our ultimate 
 stay and rest. It is to this inexhaustible treasury 
 that we must retreat in the consciousness of our 
 sin and unworthiness. If we only knew the love 
 which God has to the world, to that which is 
 finite and created, fallen and sinful, we would not 
 
 L 
 
Otci'‘ Life- Day, 
 
 i6 
 
 \ 
 
 know a love which is boundless — we would not 
 know that God is love. God’s love in creation, 
 and God’s love in redemption, have indeed the 
 same source. But God’s love in creation is limited. 
 It is dependent on the obedience of the creature ; 
 it may be obscured, nay it may be changed into 
 wrath, by the sin of man or angel. But the love 
 of redemption is one with the infinite and un- 
 changing love of the Father to the Son. It is out 
 of God’s infinite love within Himself, the love of 
 the Father to the Son, that His redeeming love 
 to the world flowed. It is for this reason that 
 God revealed Himself^ His own eternal love, 
 when He sent Jesus into the world. The 
 promise of eternal life was given to us in Christ 
 Jesus before the world began; and we who 
 believe are loved by the Father as He loved the 
 Son ; and it is this divine love which is now in 
 us. The life which the Christian possesses, and 
 the love which is shed abroad in his heart by the 
 Holy Ghost, are in the strict sense of the word 
 divine ; and this renders the writings of the apostle 
 John so profoundly practical to believers, that he 
 shows unto us in the mystery of the Trinity the 
 perfect objective character of life and love which 
 through faith become ours.^ 
 
 * I Tim. ii. i ; Titus i. 2 ; i John, passim. 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Eternal Son. 1 7 
 
 Learn also that all things pertaining to life and 
 salvation are freely given to us, and that the grace 
 whereby we are to walk in Christ’s footsteps is 
 treasured up in Christ’s fulness. It is not by 
 obeying Christ’s commandments that we can enter 
 into His love. We cannot merit it, or make our- 
 selves worthy of it. It is the free and unspeakable 
 gift of grace. ^‘As the Father hath loved Me, so 
 have I loved you.” Jesus was the infinite, perfect, 
 and adequate object of the Father’s love from all 
 eternity. Jesus, as undertaking in the eternal co- 
 venant our redemption, was the Father’s 'Beloved, 
 and all things were given into His hand. Jesus, 
 the Incarnate Son, glorified the Father by His 
 holy and constant obedience, and the manifesta- 
 tion of perfect service in the filial spirit drew forth 
 continually the Father’s delight. The love of the 
 Father to the Son, as Messiah, most touchingly 
 described in the prophet Isaiah, is still more clearly 
 brought before us in the gospel. The voice from 
 the excellent glory is heard : '' This is my beloved 
 Son, in whom I am well pleased.” It is because 
 the disciples, the men whom the Father hath 
 chosen out of the world, and for whom Christ laid 
 down His life, are beheld by the Father in Christ, 
 that this eternal and infinite love includes also all 
 
 poor and lost sinners. As the Father hath loved 
 
 C 
 
i8 
 
 Otir Life-Day, 
 
 Christ, with this very love and in this very love the 
 Saviour loves us. The Father and the Son are 
 eternally and essentially one. Their oneness is 
 revealed to us in this, that the Father knew the 
 Son, and the Son knew the Father, in the comisel 
 of redemption, viz., that the Son should lay down 
 His life for the sheep. It is therefore the Father’s 
 love to the Son which is the source, strength, and 
 reward of the Son’s love to us.^ 
 
 We must receive this wonderful love of Christ 
 by faith. It is heaven-high above us, it descends 
 as a royal gift. Apart from works, and notwith- 
 standing all our sins, it is bestowed upon us. 
 Before our birth, even before the foundation of 
 the world, it was ours in the mind and heart of 
 our Redeemer-God. If we understand what is 
 implied in God’s salvation — viz., our adoption, and 
 our being glorified together with Christ — we must 
 see at once that its origin can only be in the 
 purpose which the Father purposed in Himself, 
 and that our experience of divine grace is “ accord- 
 ing as He hath chosen us in Christ before the 
 foundation of the world.” Law and gospel are 
 contrasted as creaturely and divine, temporal and 
 eternal, cosmical and heavenly; in Christ Jesus 
 
 * John X. 15, 17; xvii. 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Eternal Son, 19 
 
 divine righteousness, love, and glory are revealed 
 and given unto all who believe. 
 
 But if we wish to abide in this love, Christ 
 teaches us that we must keep His command- 
 ments. And yet He has no other commandment 
 but to abide in Him, to lean on His strength, to 
 live by His word, to rely on His promise, to look 
 unto His example, to fix our heart on Him. Then 
 our life will be a manifestation of Christ’s love and 
 Spirit ; we will show forth His praise, reflect His 
 image, and walk in His ways. As the Son was 
 free and full of joy in His obedience, >as the Son 
 had perfect rest in God while He laboured and 
 toiled, as He continually received strength from 
 the love and indwelling of the Father, so will 
 Christ’s love be an abiding joy to us in our 
 obedience and suffering ; it will be Christ s yoke 
 and Christ s burden, and therefore easy and light. 
 True, we are to serve, and Christ’s disciples are 
 taught to do whatsoever He commanded ; but as 
 Jesus says of the commandment He had received 
 of the Father, know that His commandment is 
 life everlasting;” so the believer whom Jesus 
 sends into the world knows that the grace of Jesus 
 gives and fulfils all His precepts, that of Him is 
 our fruit found. ^ 
 
 * Phil. ii. 13; Hosea xiv. 8. 
 
20 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 There is another feature in this saying of Christ 
 
 % 
 
 which claims our attention, as it seems almost 
 unparalleled in the gospel narrative. Perhaps no 
 other words bring before us the life of our Lord in 
 an aspect so human. Nowhere does He present 
 His life on earth so completely on a level with 
 ours, speaking of it, as we speak of ours, as a 
 short, limited period, as a day, hastening on to the 
 inevitable termination, the night. He views Him- 
 self here, as it were, as a human day labourer. In 
 everything, sin excepted. He became like unto His 
 brethren; and of the man Christ Jesus it may be 
 said, according to the Lord’s own expression, 
 ‘‘ Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour 
 until the evening.”^ 
 
 It is not without difficulty that we enter into 
 this view. We know that Jesus was born in the 
 fulness of time, and that then the dayspring from 
 on high visited the world through the tender mercy 
 of our God ; but we never think of this com- 
 mencement of His earthly history, without remem- 
 bering that He came forth from the Father, and 
 that He is the true and eternal Light, uncreated 
 and before the world began. We know' that He 
 died upon the cross, and that after He had cried 
 with a loud voice, He gave up the ghost. But we 
 
 * Psalm civ. 23. 
 
Earthly Life-Day of the Eternal Son, 2 1 
 
 never think or speak of His death without adding 
 triumphantly, Yea rather, that is risen again. He 
 was dead ; behold. He is alive for evermore.” It is 
 to the suffering Lord, whose life is offered for sin, 
 that the promise was made and fulfilled, ‘^He shall 
 see His seed. He shall prolong His days, and the 
 pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 
 Who can declare His generation ” Death is so 
 little the termination of His work, that it may 
 rather be viewed as the culminating-point of His 
 life and obedience, and the starting-point of His 
 high priestly and royal activity. His love and 
 His work continued even amidst the bitter suffer- 
 ings of His cross. He prayed for His enemies. 
 He opened the kingdom of heaven to the sinner 
 who turned to Him in faith. He remembered the 
 loneliness of His mother and commended her 
 to His loved disciple. His death was itself the 
 greatest work ever accomplished, the greatest 
 work which He Himself ever accomplished ; it 
 was tiu obedience by which everlasting righteous- 
 ness was brought in, by which death was swal- 
 lowed up in victory, Satan conquered, and life 
 eternal secured to all the children of the New 
 Covenant. Christ’s death was the most perfect 
 and glorious revelation of God, of His character 
 and of His everlasting and hidden counsel. The 
 
22 
 
 OtLT Life- Day, 
 
 work of Jesus as the prophet, the revealer of God, 
 received its highest and deepest fulfilment on the 
 cross. Here it is that the Only-begotten of the 
 Father declares the name of God perfectly, reveals 
 most fully the glory of God, and manifests depths 
 of divine love and mercy, holiness and truth, which 
 even angels had not known before.'^' 
 
 \ 
 
 The Lord always looked forward to His death 
 as His great work ; He regarded it not as the end, 
 but the beginning, as well as the true source of 
 His true and never-ending influence and reign. 
 While other men look upon death as the limit and 
 , termination of their work, Jesus from the very 
 commencement of His ministry looks forward to 
 the cross as the goal ; and while continually direct- 
 ing His disciples to this great event, longs for the 
 accomplishment of His baptism, and announces 
 that from this mysterious elevation He will draw 
 all men unto Himself.f 
 
 And after His death on the cross, and the 
 rest of His body in the grave, when Fie had 
 spoiled and triumphed over principalities and 
 powers, the resurrection morn was the begin- 
 ning of His glorious and unceasing activity. Since 
 that day He has constantly appeared unto His 
 
 * Isaiah liii. ; John xvii. i. 
 t John xii. 32; ii. 18-21. 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Eternal Son, 23 
 
 disciples, influenced them by His Spirit, nay, done 
 greater works by them than He performed on 
 earth. Without intermission He has interceded 
 on behalf of His Church, while according to His 
 promise He has been with His people all the days 
 of the age, present in their assemblies, in their 
 homes, and in their hearts, guiding, sustaining, 
 teaching, and strengthening ^thern in all their 
 duties, trials, and sorrows. Nor is this all His 
 work ; for the government of the whole world is 
 on His shoulders, and unto the incarnate Son of 
 God, the Lamb that was slain, is given all power 
 and rule in heaven and on earth. 
 
 When we think of this, we feel all the more 
 both the condescending grace and the special 
 purpose of the Lord’s words : I must work the 
 
 works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the 
 night cometh, when no man can work. As long 
 as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 
 Jesus presents Himself here as our example. He 
 speaks of His life as a mission, a task, which had 
 to be fulfilled within the limits of the time assigned 
 by the Father. He thus assures us of His perfect 
 sympathy with us in the view which we must take 
 of our life-work, and of our short time for fulfilling 
 it, while He lays open to our eyes the inmost 
 motive-power of His own life, the secret of His 
 
24 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 sustained and perfect obedience, the wonderful 
 combination of the filial and joyous Spirit with 
 that of service and absolute obedience. 
 
 Our view is more specially concentrated on the 
 years of His ministry. How short is this period ; 
 a little while only the Light was in the world ; 
 the Bridegroom with the disciples. Yet how 
 inexhaustible is the life of these three years. Who 
 can measure the depth and breadth and length 
 and height of the words and works which this 
 short space of time comprised ? 
 
 From the day that after His baptism and victory 
 in the wilderness He went forth into Galilee, teach- 
 ing in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel 
 of the kingdom, healing all manner of sicknesses 
 and diseases, until that night when He said to 
 the Father in the presence of His disciples, “ And 
 now I am no more in the world, and I come 
 to Thee,” how marvellous was His life and tes- 
 timony. Think of His ministry in Galilee and 
 Judea; of His manifestations of grace and con- 
 solation to the poor and needy ; of His training 
 of the apostles, the chosen messengers appointed 
 to teach the whole world. Think of that brief life, 
 which was the perfect, the ultimate revelation of 
 the Father, the all-sided presentation of the divine 
 law, the embodiment of all true obedience. 
 
Ea 7 ^thly Life-Day of the Eternal Son, 25 
 
 Throughout all centuries the Church of God will 
 behold in Jesus, as He lived on earth, the counte- 
 nance of the Father, the glory of the Only-begotten. 
 His words and acts, nay, every feature recorded in 
 the gospel narrative, will prove full of heavenly 
 instruction, infallible guidance, and abiding conso- 
 lation. Here we have what is divine and absolutely 
 perfect brought out, revealed, and embodied in all 
 that is sinlessly human. Three years unveil to us 
 that which is highest and deepest, and this in all 
 the extension and ramifications of our human life 
 and relationships. Of this inexhaustible life Jesus 
 gives us the inner principle, and in such con- 
 descending humility that we may be encouraged 
 by His perfect sympathy, and learn of Him the 
 method of divine love in our short life-day. He 
 speaks to us as our fellow-pilgrim. He enters into 
 the feeling which regards the fragrant morning of 
 our childhood, and the bright, vigorous hours of our 
 youth, aiid the full, matured work of our manhood, 
 as passing away quickly, and which looks forward 
 to evening and the setting sun as the end of all 
 our earthly labour. Jesus also says, ^‘The night 
 cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am 
 in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 
 
 The night cometh. It is an absolute certainty. 
 The night cometh as the termination of our 
 
26 
 
 Our Life-Day, 
 
 earthly life-day and work. It is true that to the 
 believer the night will bring peaceful rest. He 
 falls asleep in Jesus. He enters into a state which 
 is “ far better.” But it is true of the Christian, as 
 well as of all men, that with the day’s close all 
 labour is at an end ; and that as death finds us 
 and our task, so we remain. When we appear 
 before the judgment-seat of Christ we shall receive 
 the things done in our body. Our reward will be 
 for testimony, suffering, and service here on earth. 
 The seedtime is over when we are called away 
 from this life. It imparts to our present life an 
 unspeakable solemnity ; it endows it with an in- 
 finite preciousness and value. And while at first 
 sight we may feel overpowered by the thought of 
 the short space given to us for our labour, and in- 
 clined to feverish haste and to impatient self-made 
 work, a truer insight will teach us that as the 
 approach of the night is altogether beyond our 
 calculation and control, so it behoves us, with 
 calmest faith and implicit surrender of our own 
 will, to look upon each day’s work and each day’s 
 trial, as portioned out to us by divine wisdom and 
 love. How much of false zeal, self-chosen work, 
 and self- appointed times, is there in our own 
 private and in our public Christian life. We run 
 before we are sent ; we choose the kind of useful- 
 
 I 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Etei^nal Son, 27 
 
 ness and work for which we fancy we have incli- 
 nation and adaptation ; we select the times and 
 method of accomplishing our task. We pursue 
 with spurious zeal and self-sustained energy aims 
 of our own choice ; we hurry impatiently our own 
 souls and those of others, and are satisfied with 
 forced results, till experience teaches us, to our 
 deep humiliation, that grace also has its nature 
 and law, and that in God’s work ^Gt is not of him 
 that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God 
 that showeth mercy.” 
 
 There is another and more excellent way. We 
 are '^created in Christ Jesus unto good works, 
 which God hath before ordained that we should 
 walk in them.” We have not to make our path ; 
 the eternal wisdom of God has appointed it for us. 
 We have not to seek it, but it runs past our very 
 door ; the fatherly providence and guidance of our 
 Lord brings it close to us day by day. It is God’s 
 way, and not our own ; we have only to follow 
 Jesus, and to bring our will into subjection to the 
 will of God. This method requires humility, and 
 a constant surrender of our reason and will. It is 
 easier to select a difficult task, and say to the 
 Lord, I would like to do this,” than to ask, 
 What wilt Thou have me to do V It is trying to 
 our pride, and to what we imagine our highest and 
 
28 
 
 Our Life-Day, 
 
 best feelings, when the day which we have hoped 
 to devote to some labour is in God’s providence 
 filled with duties or sufferings which prevent our 
 purposed activity. But it is the only true method 
 of life which secures real and abundant work, and 
 the peaceful consciousness that we are pleasing 
 our Master, that we are relying on His help and 
 blessing, and that we can cast the burden of our 
 weakness, our fears, our errors, and our sins upon 
 our loving and all-merciful Saviour.* 
 
 God can never mislead us. Though this be our 
 last day on earth, we can make no better use of it 
 than by fulfilling this day’s task, by enduring 
 patiently this day’s trials, by showing a Christlike, 
 loving spirit to our household, and to all with 
 whom this day we are brought into contact. It is 
 in this that the example of Jesus instructs us. 
 Our Lord had no artificial and complicated path 
 of life. Although He knew His time on earth 
 would be short. He was in no feverish haste ; but 
 in calmness and with a steady rhythm He went 
 through His work, and to His retreats of quiet 
 and prayer. Day by day He was guided by His 
 heavenly Father. He listened to the Father’s 
 voice. It woke Him early in the morning, and on 
 Him He waited all .the day. His soul was con- 
 * Eph. ii. lo ; John xxii. 22 ; Acts ix. 6 . 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Eternal Son, 29 
 
 tinually filled with a holy fire, a burning zeal to 
 fulfil His ministry, to do the will of the Father 
 that sent Him. But so entirely were all His foot- 
 steps guided by the Father, and so exclusively 
 was His desire to glorify the Father and to finish 
 His work, that His life was calm and even'; that 
 all His words and works, and all the pauses in His 
 work, were in accordance with the leadings of 
 Providence, and hence no outward observer could 
 see the constant strain and concentrated energy of 
 His soul. He could not be hurried into any action 
 by human calculation and the counsel of worldly 
 wisdom. When His brethren advised Him to go 
 up to the feast, the Lord pointed out, as one 
 feature of the worldly mind, ''Your time is alway 
 ready.” For they who do their own work and seek 
 their own glory are also the masters and disposers 
 of their time. But Jesus had "His time,” and He 
 knew when it was come. It was the P'ather s 
 voice to which He responded, " Father, the hour is 
 come.” Our Lord did every thing in the right 
 hour. He filled full every day given to Him. He 
 did only one thing, and in that one thing all 
 things — He abode in the Fathers love.^ 
 
 If we follow Jesus, we also shall be summoned 
 
 * Isa. 1. 5 ; Ps. XXV. 5 ; Luke xii. 49, 50 ; John vii. 3-8 ; 
 xii. 23 ; xvii. i. 
 
30 
 
 Oitr Life-Day. 
 
 hence only when our work is accomplished. 
 “ The night cometh ” to the faithful disciple when 
 the heavenly all-wise and all-merciful Master con- 
 siders the work done, and the race run. Let 
 this assurance keep us in quiet and peaceful 
 humility. Let not imagination dishonour the 
 wisdom of God by fancying other circumstances' 
 and spheres of labour in which we could be more 
 useful. Let not self-will question the perfect will 
 of God, and the excellence of the mission on 
 which He has sent us. Let us not be burdened 
 with anxious care. Let us not be fettered by time- 
 limited, unworthy aims. Let not the doubtful 
 to-morrow, but the sure and blessed eternity, give 
 hope to your heart, and strength and steadiness 
 to your steps. Rejoice in to-day, God’s loving 
 gift, and look upon it as the time to work, to obey, 
 to suffer, to grow in grace, and to praise the Lord 
 in the land of this our earthly pilgrimage. Beyond 
 the night is the bright morning of an everlasting 
 harvest of perfect rest, of unmingled thanksgiving 
 and adoration. In this prospect every day may be 
 full of life and of work pleasing to God, and an 
 everlasting possession. But no day without Christ. 
 It is not night when He is near ; and it is not day 
 when He is absent. And without Christ means 
 simply apart from Christ. Let not even good 
 
Earthly Life- Day of the Eternal Son. *31 
 
 words and good works please us, unless they be 
 uttered, unless they be done, by Christ dwelling in 
 us. ''My Father doth all things in Me,” saith 
 Christ. This was Christ’s comfort, and to feel 
 Christ do all in ^the soul is the comfort of every 
 one that truly believeth on Him. 
 
 \ 
 
 
i 
 
 / ! 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 jffbe of ©Stiffs Hife. g 
 
 “ I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day : ■ 
 
 the nifjht cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am 
 in the world, I am the Light of the world.” yohn ix. 4. ' 
 
 N these words of our Lord we find the | 
 
 expression of several peculiarities which 
 characterised His life on earth. 
 
 I. The life of our Lord Jesus was the only com- ; 
 
 plete human life which ever appeared. Our lives ^ 
 
 are but fragments; the life of Jesus was a perfect 1 
 
 and glorious whole. He is the only One who ^ 
 
 could say with absolute truth, at the end of His ] 
 
 earthly course, His life-day, have finished the ^ 
 
 work which thou gavest Me to do.” He was the 
 only One who had perfectly fulfilled the divine , 
 
 task assigned to Him, leaving nothing undone 
 or incomplete ; who had also done nothing, ex- i 
 
 cept what was included in that work, and in 
 harmony with its spirit and scope. He was the 
 
 .1 
 
Five Characteristics of Christ's Life. 33 
 
 perfect servant of God, who, looking back on His 
 day of service, knew that He had done the will 
 of God— that will only, and that will completely. 
 The universe never heard from human lips the 
 words, “It is finished,” as Jesus uttered them 
 before He gave up the ghost and died.* 
 
 Jesus is the only One who truly lived the 
 human, life from beginning to end. All other 
 lives and life-works are rather attempts than 
 achievements. By reason of our constant errors 
 and sins, of our weakness and impurity, our at- 
 tempt is full of failure. We have frequently to 
 retrace our steps, to undo as far as possible our 
 work, to endure with bitter though vain regret 
 the evil consequences and effects of the irrepara- 
 ble past. But in the walk of Jesus there was 
 no hesitation, no faltering, no pause; He 'never 
 stumbled. He never mistook the path. He never 
 lost time by neglecting the opportunity. He never 
 lost strength by not recognising the right and 
 fi^od-appointed hour. He was like the sun, whose 
 going forth is from the end of the heaven, and 
 his circuit unto the ends of it.” The path of this 
 just Man was like the shining light, which shineth 
 more and more unto the perfect day. All His 
 steps were light and love. He filled full the 
 
 * John xvii. 4 ; xix. 30. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 Otu'’ Life-Day, 
 
 measure of life and life-work which the Fathei 
 had given to Him. He walked in the good 
 works which God had before ordained for Him 
 with the joyous alacrity of the bridegroom com- 
 ine out of his chamber, and the eager and 
 vigorous energy of a strong man who runs a 
 race. With perfect calmness, and with absolute 
 peaceful certainty. He went on from strength to 
 strength. In Him we behold the blessed Man 
 of whom it is written, He shall be like a tree 
 that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; 
 his leaf also shall not wither ; and whatsoever 
 
 he doeth shall prosper.”^ 
 
 The reason why the life of Jesus was perfect 
 and complete was because His heart was united 
 to glorify His Father. He was not like us, two- 
 souled, double-minded ; in Him there was only 
 one centre and fountain — divine love. Hence the 
 issues of life were pure and living streams, clear, 
 full, and strong, gladdening and fertilizing the 
 fields through which they ran their course. It was 
 the singleness of His aim that rendered His life 
 so full, so manifold, so united. It was the perfect 
 heart that produced the perfect and complete 
 
 life.t 
 
 * Psalm xix. 4-6 ; Prov. iv. 18 ; Psalm i. 3. 
 
 f bi^pvxpiSf Jam6S i. 8 j Prov. iv. 23* 
 

 
 Five Characteristics of Chinsfs Life, 35 
 
 The apostle Paul was perhaps more truly the 
 follower of the Lord Jesus than any other disciple. 
 He says unto us, Be ye followers of me, even 
 ss I am of the Lord.” Though we have only one 
 Master, and only one absolute and perfect model, 
 even Christ, yet divine grace, in condescension to 
 our human weakness and our craving for human 
 • fellowship, may have appointed the life of the 
 apostle Paul to be a special pattern to Christians, 
 as we know his conversion is mercifully intended 
 to be a pattern of divine grace and power, for 
 the instruction and encouragement of all sinners. 
 After Jesus appeared to him, and revealed Himself 
 to his heart, the apostle seems never to have 
 looked back, but to have pressed on, with intense 
 concentration of purpose and marvellous singleness 
 of heart, toward the mark of the high calling of 
 God in Christ Jesus.” It was because he could 
 say, One thing I do,” that his life was so rich 
 and steadfast, his labours so abundant, his testi- 
 mony so faithful, continuous, and many-sided. 
 Hence when the time of his departure was at 
 hand he was able to say, have finished my 
 course.” Yet how different is the disciple from 
 the Master! Por Paul had been once imperious, 
 and only the grace of the Lord, which was abun- 
 dant, and brought him life and faith, transplanted 
 
1 
 
 ^6 Our Life-Day. 
 
 him into the kingdom of God. Paul had con- 
 stantly to fight, to crucify the old man, and to 
 experience that though he was spiritually-minded, 
 there was another law in his members. When 
 Paul exclaimed, “ I have finished my course,” he 
 added no doubt inwardly, “Yet not I ; it is by grace, 
 it is Christ in me.” J esus is the only Perfect One , 
 and from His earliest childhood day was linked to 
 day by filial love and obedience to the Pather. 
 
 2. In the life of J esus we see the perfect liberty of 
 the Son in obedience and service. Here we behold 
 the perfect unity of liberty and necessity. I 
 must” seems to us a hard word while we regard 
 liberty our dearest and sweetest possession. It is 
 because we do not fully understand what is meant 
 by love that we find it difficult to see liberty and 
 necessity in their essential and inseparable con- 
 nection. But unto Jesus “I must” was identical 
 with “ It is my delight.” He knew not the bond- 
 age of choice arising from a doubtful mind and a 
 divided heart, from a will separate from the will of 
 God, and at variance with His law. God’s law was 
 written on His heart; it was hidden there as His 
 most precious, inviolable, and cherished treasure. 
 As a child He said— wonderful expression in the 
 mouth of a child ; but there was no foolishness, 
 * Phil. iii. 13 , I4 5 2 Tim. iv. 6-8. 
 
Five Characteristics of Christ’s Life. 37 
 
 no waywardness, no opposition of self-asserting’ 
 choice in that young heart — ''I must be about 
 my Father’s business.” '‘I must do the works 
 of Him that sent Me” was the language of the 
 Prophet of Galilee during His whole ministry. 
 He showed His disciples that He must go unto 
 Jerusalem, and suffer many things, and be crucified. 
 He looked forward to His cross and death as the 
 things that must be, that the Scripture be fulfilled. 
 But this will to which Pie bowed was the Father’s 
 will ; the necessity which He felt was rooted in 
 the communion of life and love, which subsisted 
 between the Father and the Son, and which was 
 His joy and His strength. To obey the Father, 
 and that by the Father’s indwelling in Him, v/as 
 the nourishment of Christ’s life ; it was His very 
 delight* 
 
 Here also is our true liberty, I must work 
 the works of Him that sent Me.” We once ex- 
 perienced the bondage of another necessity when 
 we were sold under sin j when the world was an 
 irresistible magnet, and yet known to be an alien 
 and hostile power ; when our will was enslaved, 
 and therefore a self-will. 
 
 As Martin Luther quaintly puts it : Thou wilt 
 
 say, But has not God given us a free-will.? To 
 * Luke ii. 49 ; xxii. 37 ; Matt. xxv. 54. 
 
38 
 
 Oiir Life-Day, 
 
 which I answer, Why then wilt thou make it a 
 self-will, and not allow it to remain free ? If thou 
 doest with thy will what pleases thee, it is no 
 longer free, but thy own. God has not given to 
 any one a self-will ; this comes from Satan and 
 Adam’s fall. They turned their free-will, which 
 they received from God, into a will of their own. 
 For this is a free-will which wills nothing of its 
 own, but looks only to God’s will, whereby it re- 
 mains free, and is caught and fettered by nothing. 
 Thus it is in heaven, and we pray that it may be 
 thus on earth.” 
 
 We deceived ourselves for a time when, resisting 
 the power of sin in our own strength, we fancied 
 it was of him that willeth and runneth. But after 
 the grace of God renewed our hearts and set free 
 our will by the constraining power of Christ’s love, 
 we beean to understand that the service of God is 
 perfect freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is 
 there is liberty. God works in us both to will and 
 to do of His good pleasure. The new man de- 
 lights in the law of God. Though sin still dwells 
 in us, yet are we not in the flesh, but in the spirit ; 
 for the Spirit of God dwelleth in us. It is said of 
 the Christian, in this his aspect of his spiritual 
 regenerate condition: “Whosoever is born of God 
 doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in 
 
Five Characteidstics of Clunst's Life, 39 
 
 him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of 
 God.”* But we have still the conflict with sin. We 
 have still the daily task of crucifying the old man, 
 of mortifying the members which are on earth. 
 There is still within us the bondage of our self- 
 will ; and our constant struggle is to stand fast in 
 the liberty with which Christ has made us free. 
 In heaven we shall have fully attained the adop- 
 tion, and possess the glorious liberty of the chil- 
 dren of God. There sin will be an impossibility, 
 holiness a necessity ; for in perfect love liberty 
 and necessity are united. Conformed to the image 
 of God’s own Son, we shall then be the children 
 of God, serving God with body, soul, and spirit, 
 no foreign element marring our nature and striving 
 against our will.*!* 
 
 How strong and invincible, how calm and rich, 
 is Jesus in this simple consciousness: “1 must 
 work the works of Him that sent me, while it is 
 day.” He is poor, yet He is free from care and 
 irradiated with brightest serenity. He is sur- 
 rounded by enemies and has no human protection, 
 but He feels perfectly safe; and while His dis- 
 ciples remember that the Jews sought to kill Him, 
 the Lord is only guided by the Spirit, by the 
 
 * Jer. xxxi. 33; i John iii. 9. 
 
 t Phil. iii. 21 ; I John iii. 2 ; Rom. viii. 29, 30. 
 
40 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 desire to fulfil the Father’s work.* He is Lord of 
 all. In royal dignity and liberty, He who had not 
 where to lay His head, dwelt on earth — the Son 
 of God, the Son of man, the rightful heir.*!* In the 
 service of God all things were His. He must 
 work the works of the Father, and who can hinder 
 or stay Him } No human power or sin ; not even 
 the gates of hell. ^‘ Behold, I cast out devils, and 
 I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third 
 day I shall be perfected.”! 
 
 If we follow Jesus we shall experience that “I 
 must,” instead of being a chain which fetters us, is 
 a royal crown on our head ; that seeking first 
 God’s kingdom and His righteousness, all other 
 things are added to us ; that He who sends us 
 forth is our defence, though we be as sheep among 
 wolves ; that in all our weakness we are strong, 
 and can overcome all difficulties, and in all our 
 poverty we can make many rich. 
 
 3. Notice the wonderful union in Jesus of love 
 to God and love to man. There is only one Love. 
 Love to God and love to man are united in their 
 origin and their nature. They form one river 
 flowing out of the eternal love of God. If we 
 truly love God, we love man. We cannot love 
 
 * John xi. 8-10. t Compare Matt. xvii. 24-27. 
 
 J Luke xiii. 32. 
 
* 
 
 Five Characteristics of Christ's Life, 41 
 
 man aright unless we first love the Father. We 
 find it difficult to combine harmoniously the two 
 aspects of love. In our love to God there is so 
 great an admixture of selfishness, self-will and 
 self-seeking. In our love to man there is so much 
 that is not spiritual, heavenly or eternal. Some 
 of us find it easier to ascend to God with the 
 wings of adoration and joyous contemplation, than 
 to descend on the self-same ladder to our neigh- 
 bour in the spirit, and with the service, of forgiving, 
 comforting, and helping love. But in Jesus there 
 was only one, deep, pure, divine love. ‘ When 
 He healed the sick and opened the eyes of the 
 blind, when He fed the multitude, when He cast 
 out devils, when He taught the disciples, and 
 blessed the little children, He was doing the works 
 the Father had given Him to do. He beheld the 
 countenance of the Father, and enjoyed com- 
 munion with Him. When He prayed, and when 
 He was alone with God, He felt the wants, the 
 dangers, the sorrows of all His people, and His 
 love continually rested on them. He was never 
 alone, for the Father was always with Flim ; He 
 was always alone, for He did all things heartily as 
 unto the Father ; He always dwelt in the secret 
 place of the Most High, and all He said and did 
 was an abiding in the Father’s love.^ 
 
 John iii. 13 ; viii. i6 ; xvi. 32; Luke xxii. 32. 
 
42 
 
 Ou7^ Life- Day, 
 
 Hence that marvellous peculiarity of Jesus, that 
 He stood alone, isolated from all men, not under- 
 stood by any one, even as He was perfectly 
 unfettered by human opinion, counsel, and expec- 
 tations. He waited only upon God. He was from 
 above. This we can see in all His life ; and 
 therefore was He the Light of the world, the Only- 
 begotten of the Father, who is in the bosom of 
 the Father. But He is also the Son of man. He 
 loved man as Himself; and therefore was He the 
 Light of the world. 
 
 Jesus Himself is the most luminous commentary 
 on His own most beautiful saying concerning the 
 two great commandments. Love to God comes 
 first ; love to man comes second, and yet is 
 equal to the first. If we are in loving communion 
 with Christ, our very dependence on Him, and 
 loyalty to Him, as our one Master, will give us 
 true liberty and inward independence from men 
 and the world. Jesus came to minister; but He 
 was Lord of all. And in like manner the Christian 
 is, as Luther says, lord of all things by faith, and a 
 servant of all in love. As we become strong in 
 love, and learn to serve the brethren, and to regard 
 our life as a life of ministry to Christ’s disciples, as 
 we become less selfish, so we become also less 
 dependent on man, and look more exclusively to 
 
Five Characteristics of Christ's Life, 43 
 
 Christ for guidance, approbation, encouragement, 
 and reward. Our love to God becomes more 
 intense, and yet the circle of our love to men 
 enlarges. We live more alone and in secret with 
 God, and yet we are more willing to spend and be 
 spent for others. 
 
 We learn also from Jesus the essential connec- 
 tion between prayer and work ; between our inner 
 meditation and our outward activity. “ I must 
 worki' says our Lord ; the light cannot but shine. 
 The true blessedness of the disciple is in hearing 
 and doing the word.^ 
 
 Christians must never forget that the predo- 
 minant characteristic of their love on earth must 
 be activity, the keeping His commandments. 
 From time to time the Master calls us to rest 
 awhile ; we receive glimpses and foretastes of 
 heavenly peace ; but the purpose of God generally 
 is, that by such exceptional seasons we may be 
 strengthened to undertake new duties and new 
 labours. Jesus descended from the Mount of 
 Transfiguration, and met the sufferings and miseries 
 
 of the world with healing power. 
 
 ✓ 
 
 4. Jesus regarded His whole life as a mission. 
 He spoke of Himself as one sent. He teaches on 
 all occasions that He came to do the Father’s will. 
 
 * Matt. vii. 24 ; John xiii. xvii. 4. 
 
44 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 He views His whole life from this one point. It is 
 His Father’s will that Jesus should heal the broken- 
 hearted, and declare glad tidings to the poor. It 
 is His Father’s will that Jesus should lay down 
 His life for the sheep. It is the Father’s will that 
 whosoever believeth in the Son should have ever- 
 lasting life, and that Jesus should raise him up at' 
 the last day.^ There is a latent feeling in some as 
 if the love and tenderness of Jesus were His in an 
 exclusive sense, or at least in a higher degree than 
 in the Father. We forget that when we behold 
 Jesus forgiving the sinner, and receiving him with 
 most tender compassion, when we behold Jesus 
 permitting the woman to kiss His feet, we see the 
 Father in Him — we see Him working the works 
 which the Father gave Him to do. Jesus spoke 
 and acted always as the Sent One, the Revelation 
 and Representative of the Father ; and it was this 
 relationship continually realised, which was His 
 strength and His joy. How bold and convincing is 
 the expression of the apostle Paul : God com- 
 
 mendeth His love toward us, in that, while we 
 were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We behold 
 
 the Father’s compassion in the tears of Jesus, and 
 
 \ 
 
 the Father’s love in the blood of the Lamb. And 
 thus when we approach God through Christ, we 
 
 * J ohn X. 17, 18; vi. 39, 40, 
 
Five Chai^acteristics of Chrisf s Life, 45 
 
 appeal not merely to the work of Christ and to 
 the love of Christ, we appeal not merely to Christ 
 our righteousness, and to the grace of our Saviour, 
 but we remind the Father of His own love which 
 gave His Son ; we appeal to the Father’s love ; 
 we rest in the plea, For Thy name’s sake.” Our 
 ultimate foundation is, I and the Father are one.” 
 But as Jesus was sent^ so it is likewise true that 
 He came. It was His own free and sovereign will 
 and good pleasure that He emptied Himself, that 
 He became poor, that He took hold of the seed of 
 Abraham, that He became Messiah, the Surety 
 and Head of His people. His whole life on earth 
 
 springs from the eternal love which in the cove- 
 
 / 
 
 nant of grace moved the Son to the stupendous 
 self- surrender which the apostle Paul describes 
 in Phil. ii. 5“H* He came forth from the Father, 
 even from of old, and from everlasting ; and this 
 voluntary coming of the Only-begotten invests 
 
 I 
 
 His mission, His obedience unto death, with an 
 infinite value and a transcendent glory. Here is 
 our strong refuge, and our immovable rock : Jesus 
 one with the Father ; Jesus obedient to the Father. 
 And here is the deepest meaning of Christ’s ex- 
 ample : Let this mind be in you, which was also 
 
 in Christ Jesus,” who humbled Himself, laying 
 aside His glory and condescending to our low 
 
46 
 
 Ottr Life- Day, 
 
 estate; who became a servant, and took upon Him 
 our burden, that the Father might be glorified in 
 our salvation.* 
 
 There is no more solemn and comprehensive 
 view of the Christian’s life than that it is a mission. 
 Christ sends us into the world as the Father sent 
 Him. Christ, to fulfil the Father’s mission, had to 
 descend to the lowest depth of our misery; we, 
 to fulfil Christ’s mission, must by His very self- 
 sacrifice be elevated to the height of union and 
 communion with the risen Lord at the right hand 
 of God. What unspeakable dignity is given to 
 us, to be Christ’s messengers, representatives, 
 servants ; to be the channels of His light, love, 
 and' power ! And if in this mission, raised to 
 Christ in the heavenly places, we have also to 
 learn the fellowship of His sufferings, and to 
 endure reproach for His name’s sake, let us rejoice 
 and give thanks that it is given to us on the behalf 
 of Christ to suffer for His sake.f 
 
 5. Lastly, I would notice the persevering loyalty 
 and the abounding fulness of Christ’s life. The 
 thought of the approaching night sometimes 
 exerts a paralysing influence on man’s energy and 
 activity. It tempts us to anticipate our rest or to 
 relax our effort. It often damps our enthusiasm. 
 
 * Phil. ii. 5. t Phil. i. 29; iii. 10. 
 
Five Characteristics of Christ's Life, 47 
 
 We are inclined to think that we have laboured 
 enough, and that we can add no more to our 
 service, or to fear that our strength, our material, 
 our opportunity, is exhausted. But Jesus was 
 faithful to the end. As He approached the last 
 sufferings in Jerusalem, His love and His zeal 
 burned only with the greater intensity and bright- 
 ness. To the very last, in His warnings to Judas, 
 in His final addresses to the Jews, in the good 
 confession which He confessed before Pontius 
 Pilate, in His words to the daughters of Jerusalem, 
 in His patient and silent suffering, and in the 
 seven words from the cross — He fulfilled His 
 ministry ; He was faithful — the perfect Servant 
 of God. 
 
 His love to His disciples was never more 
 severely tested than during His last days. He 
 never faltered. He never relaxed His faithful, 
 anxious care of the men whom the Father had 
 given Him to keep. He prayed for the disciples, 
 anticipating the hour of temptation. On that night 
 in which He was betrayed, and in which all the 
 disciples were offended because of Him, Jesus 
 manifested His love more fully than ever. He 
 called them friends ; He spoke to them of the 
 love with which they are loved, of the vital union 
 between the true vine and the branches ; He insti- 
 
48 
 
 Otir Life- Day, 
 
 tuted the memorial of His dying love ; He prayed 
 for them to His heavenly Father. In that prayer 
 Jesus clings with the same love to the Father and 
 to the disciples ; and by the wonderful words, I 
 in them, and Thou in Me,” He places believers in 
 a position of glory, to which we can scarcely lift 
 the eyes of our hearts. In the garden of Geth- 
 semane He longed for the presence and sympathy 
 of His disciples. When the evening came He pro- 
 tected them with the solicitude of a mother, so 
 that no evil came near them. On His way to the 
 judgment His merciful love looked upon Peter, 
 and melted him to tears. No sorrow, pain, or trial 
 could hinder Him from entering into the sorrow 
 and need of others, or interrupt the outflowing of 
 His love. He prayed on the cross for His enemies ; 
 He opened paradise to the robber, who appealed 
 to His mercy; He remembered the desolateness 
 of His mother Mary, and the affection of His 
 favoured apostle. To the last moment He loved, 
 to the last moment He was the Light of the 
 world, until He entered into the three hours 
 of darkness, when He wrought out atonement, 
 and was made sin for us. The love which has no 
 end, and which was stronger than death, is the 
 love which had no beginning, eternal and divine, 
 which has its origin in itself. It flows through the 
 
Five Characteristics of Christ’s Life. 49 
 
 channel of Christ’s humanity. As He loved, He 
 loved to the end. To the very last moment He 
 glorified the Father, and declared His name. 
 
 As the loyalty of Jesus was perfect, enduring to 
 the end, so the measure of His obedience and 
 work was without limit. Jesus never asked, “ How 
 often must I forgive, heal, bless He went about 
 doing good. Only some of His marvellous works 
 are recorded in the gospels. They give us the 
 impi ession of incessant toil and labour, of constant 
 and overflowing beneficence, of continued and 
 abundant activity. In the gospel of Mark especi- 
 ally this aspect of Christ’s life is brought before us. 
 d he n ord stiaightway, ^immediately,” occuns 
 very frequently. Here is presented to us the 
 picture of a rapid and constant succession of 
 labours. The works of Christ, as recorded in the 
 gospel - narratives, are great in number and in 
 variety. Tut they are only samples, selected by 
 divine wisdom as representative works, in which 
 His character, office, and salvation - power are 
 manifested.- The evangelist John tells u.s, “There 
 are also many other things which Jesus did, the 
 which, if they should be written every one, I .sup- 
 po.se that even the world itself could not contain 
 the books that should be written.”^ In what liMit 
 
 o 
 
 * John xxi. 25. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 are we to view these innumerable works of which 
 no record remains? Why did Jesus perform them ? 
 Sirriply because He was the Light of the world, 
 and could not but shine forth with healing and 
 peace ; simply because He was love, because the 
 Father dwelt in Him, because He said, “I must 
 work the works of Him that sent Me. As long as 
 I am in the world, I am the Light of the world. 
 In this also we are called to follow Jesus. He is 
 Lord, and we are His servants ; He is infinitely 
 great, and we are but little. But to the least of 
 us the exhortation is addressed, “ Be thou faithful 
 unto death “ Occupy till I come ; work while— 
 as long as— it is day.” And to each one of us some 
 peculiar talent is entrusted. We can be, we can 
 do, we can suffer — something, and in some way, in 
 which no other person can take our place. 
 
 As Jesus was the Light of the world, so are we 
 in our measure and in our sphere. And in this 
 mission or task there is no pause ; as long as we 
 are in the world it remains. There is no measure 
 that we can say, “It is enough.” The only measure 
 is the daily opportunity appealing to the heart, out 
 of which are the issues of life. Only let our heart 
 be loving, and it will be like the measure Jesus 
 describes, “ Good measure, pressed down, and 
 shaken together, and running over.” 
 
' • 
 
 n,".> 
 
 CHAPTER III. A 
 
 ©xample of ©i&rist tn tfte Htgfit anb UtR • t 
 of tf)0 spirit. • {: 
 
 ■ 4 
 
 i ; 
 
 I am tlie Light of the world .” — John viii. 12. 
 
 E have dwelt on some characteristic features * 
 
 of our Lord’s life. They are only a few | 
 
 drops from the ocean of light and love. 
 
 In the life of Jesus there are not merely single 
 moments and incidents which are beautiful ; all is 
 beautiful and perfect. We do not dwell so much 
 on single features of His countenance, but, behold- S 
 
 ing Him, we see that He is fairer than the sons of | 
 
 men. | 
 
 Jesus is the Light of the world ] and as He com- 
 manded His disciples to let their light shine before 
 men in such a manner that men may see their 
 good works, and glorify the Father in heaven, who 
 is the real but unseen fountain of their life, so 
 Jesus Himself is to all mankind the manifestation 
 
52 
 
 Our Life-Day 
 
 of light ; and even they who do not know who 
 this Son of man is, acknowledge and feel the 
 singular, the unique perfection and beauty of Jesus. 
 In illustration of this remark, I would remind the 
 reader of the oft-quoted observation of Rousseau, 
 “that if Jesus had not really lived, the conception 
 of such a character, as drawn in the narrative of the 
 gospel, would itself be a miracle, a psychological 
 problem, difficult to solve.’’ The inventor, he says, 
 would be greater than the hero himself Jesus 
 stands in history, but He is the miracle of history. 
 Compare also the view of a great poet . Theie 
 appeared once upon earth an Individual, who by 
 moral omnipotence only conquered far off ages, 
 and founded an eternity of His own ; who shone 
 and attracted like a sun ; who moved nations and 
 centuries round the eternal and universal Centre. 
 It is the quiet Spirit whom we call Jesus Christ. 
 If He was, there is Providence, or He Himself is 
 that Providence. Only gentle teaching and dying 
 were the notes whereby this higher Orpheus tamed 
 human beasts and turned rocks into cities. He, 
 the purest among the mighty, the mightiest among 
 the pure, lifted with His pierced hand empires out 
 of their grooves, the stream of centuries out of its 
 bed, and is still the Lord of the ages.” 
 
 * Jean Paul Richter. 
 
The Example of Christ, 
 
 53 
 
 Every reader of the gospel narrative must be 
 impressed with the perfect harmony and unity of 
 Christ’s life. Thought and feeling, the inward life 
 of contemplation and prayer, and the outward life 
 of teaching and activity, are one. His life is but 
 the manifestation of Himself. In all His words 
 and works He stands before us with transparent 
 clearness. We behold throughout the one Jesus, 
 the Holy One of Israel. In Him we find strength 
 and gentleness, meekness and zeal, wisdom and 
 simplicity, courage and patience, indomitable pur- 
 pose, inflexible firmness, and the most delicate 
 sensitiveness — all masculine and all feminine excel- 
 lencies perfectly blended, and that not by any 
 effort, but as the outflow of one deep, central 
 fountain of perfect holiness and uninterrupted 
 communion with the Father. In Him we see the 
 fulfilment of all God’s commandments, the perfect 
 realization of the divine idea of man. The 
 temple is grand and vast We see in Him the 
 most marvellous variety and fulness of gifts, 
 but the whole is filled with divine glory, with 
 the Spirit in His sevenfold plenitude. All human 
 feelings are in Him in so far as they are pure. 
 Sometimes we see Him in childlike calmness 
 and security — still and serene like a cloudless 
 sky ; sometimes burdened with thoughts of pro- 
 
54 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 roundest solemnity and sadness. Now He is 
 placid, and the difficulties of His path and the 
 opposition of men seem to make no impression on 
 the strong rock ; at other times He is most sensi- 
 tive, feeling most keenly the latent hatred of His 
 enemies ; and in tears, and in words of burning 
 indignation, the overwhelmed heart finds relief. 
 He knows moments of joy, which, in the presence 
 of His disciples, bursts forth in thanksgiving to 
 the Father. Again He is exceeding sorrowful, and 
 says to His three favoured disciples, “Tarry ye 
 here, and v/atch with me.’^ But at all times He is 
 the same Jesus, abiding in the love of the Father. 
 In solitude, in the circle of His disciples, in His 
 teaching of the multitudes, in His dealings with 
 the broken-hearted sinner and with the self- 
 righteous scribes and Pharisees, in His tempta- 
 tions and sufferings. He presents to us the unity 
 and harmony of perfect light, of perfect love. 
 
 We behold in Jesus not merely sinless, but 
 perfect, all - sided, all - comprehensive humanity, 
 tested by every kind of temptation' and suffering. 
 In the midst of the contradiction of sinners which 
 He had to endure, the temptations of Satan and 
 the world by which He was assailed, and the 
 sorrow and agony which He had to bear, the per- 
 fection and strength of His love shone forth only 
 
The Example of Christ. 55 
 
 with greater glory and more intense brilliancy, 
 Jesus, and Jesus only, is “the Man,” the representa- 
 tive of all humanity, the Son of man ; and there- 
 fore He belongs to no nation or century, to no age 
 or sex, to no peculiar calling and temperament. 
 He is the Light of the world, the centre and 
 magnet to draw all men unto Himself; He is the' 
 only One who can give out of His own fulness 
 rest unto all who are weary, who is the all- 
 sufficient guide, lover, and model of mankind. 
 
 Yet this is merely the outer view of the per- 
 fection of Christ. The Lord is in one sense 
 intelligible and attractive to all men. The light 
 shines forth. But when we behold the man Christ 
 Jesus, we see Him, not merely a man, sinless and 
 perfect, but the Son of man. The question He 
 Himself, His very humanity, puts to us is, “ Who 
 is the Son of man And the answer which we 
 give, taught by the Father, is, “ He is the Son of 
 God.” And because (not although) He is the Son 
 of God, He is the Son of man. Only David’s 
 Lord can be the promised Son of David ; only 
 man’s Lord can be the Son of man. Jesus is not 
 merely a member, but the Head of humanity, and 
 that because He is the Only-begotten of the 
 Father. No other solution can be given of this 
 miracle of history, of “ Pele ” the Wonderful ; no 
 
56 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 other explanation reaches the depth and height of 
 this true Jacob’s ladder ; the very humanity and 
 
 example of Jesus can only be comprehended in 
 this light. 
 
 It has often been said that the life of Christ 
 ceases to be an example to us when we regard the 
 Saviour as the incarnate Son of God, and that 
 His perfect purity and obedience would appeal 
 more powerfully and effectually to our hearts, 
 rousing our consciences and energising our wills, 
 if we viewed Him as merely man. 
 
 In answer to this objection it might suffice to 
 point out two facts, (i.) The true and real human- 
 ity of our Lord. He became like us in all things, 
 sin excepted. In body, soul, and spirit He was 
 man. He knew hunger and thirst, fatigue and 
 exhaustion ; He felt bodily pain and anguish. In 
 thought and feeling He was true man. His temp- 
 tations and conflicts were real. He gained the 
 victory ; not without pain, for He suffered being 
 tempted ; not without the putting forth of all 
 His energy in faith, and by the remembrance of 
 God’s word. (2.) His was true human growth and 
 development. The child Jesus grew not merely 
 in stature, but in wisdom, and in favour with 
 God and man. Christ, though the Son of God, 
 learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 
 
The Example of Christ, 57 
 
 He grew up before God, and to His Father’s 
 delight. 
 
 Christ is therefore a real and perfect example to 
 believers. We are called to walk as He walked in 
 this world of sin, temptation, and suffering. The 
 apostles, who constantly dwell on His divinity, 
 bring before us the features of Christ’s walk and 
 obedience, and call upon us to walk in His foot- 
 steps, and to arm ourselves with the same mind. 
 But their injunctions would be impracticable if 
 Jesus was only perfect man. 
 
 For what sinful and fallen man needs is not 
 man, however perfect, but God. He needs light, 
 life, and love; and light, life, and love are divine, 
 and can only come from above. The gift of God 
 is His own Son. It is because Jesus is Light of 
 light, the Son in the bosom of the Father, that He 
 is the adequate, perfect, and ultimate revealer of 
 God, the true and faithful Witness. No man 
 knoweth the Father but the Son. It is only 
 because Jesus is the eternal life, which was with 
 the Father, that He is the source of life to all 
 whom He quickens. The Word was made flesh, 
 not that we might see the glory and perfection of 
 humanity, (and how could sinful humanity bring 
 forth that which is holy.^) but that we should see 
 the glory of the only-begotten God. The world 
 
 ✓ 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 seeing Jesus, exclaims, ''Ecce Homo.” The divine 
 superscription and message is, “Say unto the cities 
 of Judah, Behold your God D 
 
 Again ; we need not a repetition of the law, 
 however perfect and glorious that exemplification 
 of the law may be. Jesus is the embodiment of the 
 divine law of love to God and man. This however 
 only reveals our sin and confirms our condemna- 
 tion. But the mission of Jesus lies in another and 
 infinitely higher sphere. If a law could have been 
 given which could give life, so the apostle Paul 
 argued, Christ need not have come. We needed a 
 new source of life, a second Adam, another root 
 and beginning, so that transplanted into Him we 
 might bring forth fruit unto God in newness of 
 life. And this second Adam, though one with us, 
 is not of us. He is the Lord from heaven. The 
 child born unto us, the Son given > unto us, is 
 Immanuel, the mighty God. Jesus came not to 
 restore us unto man’s original condition of crea- 
 turely innocence, not to reinstate us into the posi- 
 tion of the conditional covenant of law.' He is 
 God's righteousness for man. He came to give 
 unto us the adoption of sons ; to bring us into 
 union with Himself, the true Vine, the Son of 
 God. He died for us, and for us rose again, that 
 He might- be the quickening Spirit. He sends 
 
The Example of Christ, 
 
 59 
 
 the Holy Ghost into our hearts, He gives us His 
 own peace and joy, He works in us, and finally we 
 are to be glorified together with Him. Divine 
 righteousness, life, and glory are given to us in 
 Christ Jesus. They could not be given to us by 
 Him unless He is the Son of God ; they could not 
 actually be imparted to us except through the 
 channel of His glorified humanity. It is only 
 when we know the Son of God, the atoning death 
 on the cross, and the glory of the heavenly High 
 Priest, that we understand the meaning and realise 
 the power of His example. And in the light of 
 Christ’s divinity we behold humanity invested with 
 a dignity and glory of which we had no conception 
 apart from the incarnation. 
 
 Our glory in and with Christ' our being con- 
 formed to the image of His Son — this was the 
 eternal thought of God. In the first creation and 
 in the dispensation of law we see the same idea 
 shadowed forth, but not realised by reason of the 
 creature’s fallen and sinful condition. Man was 
 created in the image of God. In the law given 
 to sinful man everything was based upon the 
 revelation of God : “ I am the Lord thy God.” 
 “ I am the Lord ” was the reason of all precepts 
 of humanity, of all kindliness and mercy to the 
 poor and the blind, the weak and the helpless. 
 

 6o Ou7^ Life- Day. 
 
 Israel was to be godly and God-like. “I am 
 holy ; be ye also holy.” The standard as well as 
 the remedy for man was not in humanity, but in 
 God. In like manner Jesus commands men to 
 love their enemies, to be forgiving and generous, 
 not as the ideal of humanity, but that they may be 
 the children of their Father which is in heaven. 
 Unless man has a standard and source of ri^ht- 
 eousness above himself, he falls below himself — 
 he is less than man. If Jesus was only perfect 
 man, the Jehovahism of the Old Testament would 
 be infinitely higher than Christianity. But J esus 
 is Jehovah, the fountain of living water. He is the 
 incarnate Son of God, and gives unto us eternal 
 life. He lifts us, who were lost sheep, high above 
 the earthly pastures into His home, where we are 
 
 loved with the infinite love which the Father had 
 
 / 
 
 to Him. He condescends to make us members of 
 His body; He promises to appoint unto us a king- 
 dom, and to make us sharers of His glory; He 
 has raised us above the holy angels who never 
 fell, and we are called the Bride of the Lamb. 
 
 We read of our Lord, that, knowing that the 
 Father had given all things into His hands, and 
 that He was come from God and went to God, 
 He rose and washed His disciples’ feet. In the 
 full consciousness of His glory, Jesus shows forth 
 
The Example of CIi7Et, 6i 
 
 His humility and love in ministering unto His 
 disciples. In like manner it is because we know 
 Jesus as our righteousness, life, and glory; because 
 we know Him as He is now, exalted at the right 
 hand of God, our Representative and High Priest ; 
 and because we hope to see Him, and to be like 
 Him, that Christ in His whole earthly life is our 
 manna; that we dwell on all His words and works ; 
 that we are exhorted to walk in love, as Christ 
 also hath loved us. We return to the study of the 
 Gospels in the light of the Pentecostal Epistles. 
 Our position, attitude, and hope being heavenly, 
 because Christ is in heaven, we are now called to 
 walk in Christ’s footsteps, and Christ Himself, by 
 His Spirit, is the life and strength, as well as the 
 light and standard of our walk. 
 
 Let us endeavour to place the same truth before 
 the reader from the experimental point of view. 
 We read of Jesus in the gospel narrative. We are 
 impressed with the beauty and loveliness of His 
 words and acts ; we recognise in Him perfect 
 purity and love. When we think of the man 
 Christ Jesus, our first feeling is one of delight 
 and joyous astonishment. Wc rejoice that Jesus 
 belongs to our race, that such a perfect man lived 
 on earth ; we feel thankful that humanity has thus 
 been represented and exalted. 
 
62 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 But soon this joyous feeling gives way to one 
 ' of sadness. When the example of Christ, the 
 perfection of humanity, is presented to men that 
 they may imitate and follow Him ; when they are 
 called to ascend the same lofty height, as if Jesus 
 was the product, the efflorescence of our race, and 
 as if there was in us also the same divine life and 
 love, which only needs development, how utterly 
 shallow and unprofitable does such teaching 
 appear to the earnest and humble soul. For 
 when we behold Jesus, the Son of man, and hear 
 the testimony of the Father that He is well 
 pleased in Him, we feel that we are not like Jesus, 
 and that the holy and loving Father cannot be 
 delighted with our hearts and lives. The image 
 of Jesus wrings from our soul the exclamation : 
 “ Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O 
 Lord !” When we think of Jesus, we see the 
 perfect illustration of David’s word : “ Behold, 
 thou desirest truth in the inward parts : and in 
 the hidden part thou shalt make me to know 
 wisdom.” When we think of ourselves, we feel 
 the truth of David’s confession in the same psalm : 
 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did 
 my mother conceive me.” ^ Jesus was spiritually 
 minded; we are carnally minded. Jesus was from 
 
 * Psalm li. 5, 6. 
 
i 
 
 The Example of Christ. 63 
 
 above; we are of the earth; earthy. Jesus was 
 good; but standing alone and viewing all men, 
 even in their best aspect — their parental be- 
 nevolence, He says to us all : ‘'Ye who are evil.” 
 The sight of the man Christ Jesus rouses within 
 us the consciousness of guilt, of sinfulness, and 
 of our utter inability to be like Him. Can we 
 ever be forgiven, and be brought into fellowship 
 with the peace of Jesus Can we ever be 
 renewed, so as to be brought into fellowship with 
 the mind of Jesus.? Can we ever receive a new 
 spirit, a new source of life, so as to be brought 
 into fellowship with the life of Jesus .? 
 
 Marvellous is the Scripture answer to these ques- 
 tions ; marvellous both in substance and in its 
 simplicity and unity. 
 
 Jesus, the Son of man, the servant of God, the 
 beloved of the Father, is the Father’s gift to poor 
 sinful humanity. In the second part of the pro- 
 phecy of Isaiah we find a strange combination of 
 rebuke and consolation, of severe declaration of 
 Israel’s utter sin and helplessness, and heart - 
 touching assurances of the divine favour and com- 
 passion. God tells His people that they are full 
 of sin and ingratitude, that all His attempts to 
 raise them have failed, that their hearts are full 
 of idolatry, that Israel has destroyed itself But 
 
 / 
 
64 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 when Israel had thus failed as a nation to be God’s 
 witness and servant in whom He can be glorified, 
 God finds One who is in truth His servant, His 
 elect, in whom His soul delighteth ; One who in 
 perfect, filial love is wholly devoted to His fear 
 and service, who fully declares His name, who is 
 anointed with the Spirit, and brings judgment unto 
 victory by His meekness. God describes the per- 
 fection of this His servant. His faithfulness unto 
 death, His sufferings borne without murmuring, 
 and with most complete surrender to God’s will. 
 He expresses His love to this perfect One, His 
 delight in Him, His perfect satisfaction with His 
 work, and with His suffering. He dwells with joy 
 on the reward which He will give unto Him for 
 His obedience, and on the glory which shall follow 
 His humiliation. - 
 
 Now unto unfaithful and disobedient Israel God 
 says : “ This glorious One, in whom I delight, 
 behold, I will give Him unto you ; I will look 
 upon Him as Israel, and I will look upon Israel 
 as represented in Him. He is My covenant with 
 you.” He on whom the infinite love and delight of 
 God rest, and whose obedience and suffering are 
 infinitely pleasing to God, who declared perfectly 
 God’s name, and fulfilled His will. He is the gift 
 of God to us ; so that He is now our Lord and 
 
The Example of Christ. 65 
 
 our representative. Now we understand what is 
 implied in the joyous song, “Unto us a child is 
 born, unto us a Son is given.”* Jesus is God’s un- 
 speakable gift. He grew up before the Father, and 
 the Father alone could fully understand the beaut)' 
 of the life of Jesus; He alone could fathom the 
 depth of the love with which Jesus loved. God 
 beheld Jesus in His perfection, the only righteous 
 One, in whose heart was God’s law. God beheld 
 the perfect obedience, victorious over all tempta- 
 tion, and loyal in all suffering. It was the Father’s 
 great delight, and will remain most precious to 
 Him through all eternity. And this, His beloved 
 Son, the Fathei gives unto us. As the righteous 
 servant spoken of in Isaiah represented Israel 
 before God, so we who accept the wonderful gift 
 are regarded by God in Jesus. 
 
 Christ walked in love, and gave Himself an 
 offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smellin<^ 
 savour; God says it was for us; and the Father 
 regards us now in Him with perfect satisfaction. 
 The life and perfection of Jesus are not to witness 
 against us, but for us. God sent Him, not to con- 
 demn us, but to save us ; not to banish us into the 
 depths of our guilt and sinfulness, but to elevate 
 us into that home which He calls “My Fathers 
 
 * Isaiah xlii. 6; ix. 6; Iv. 4. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 house,” and in which we are to find our holy and 
 peaceful abode. 
 
 But while this general declaration of the loving 
 purpose of God in the gift and mission of Jesus 
 kindles within us hope, it is only in the cross of 
 Christ that we can see clearly the method of our 
 acceptance, salvation, and renewal. If Jesus had 
 only lived, we should possess only the record of 
 His life, but not His life itself. He gave us His 
 life when He poured out His soul unto death, 
 when He shed His blood for the remission of 
 sins. True, God gave His Son from eternity; at 
 Bethlehem ; during the years of Christ’s ministry ; 
 but the actual giving of the Son was when the 
 Father gave Him up, when He made Him who 
 knew no sin to be sin for us. It is only by the 
 death of Jesus that the Lord becomes Jehovah- 
 Tsidkenu. The glorious links “ together with 
 Christ ” begin only on the cross. There the Shep- 
 herd has found the lost sheep, never to be separated 
 from it. We do not read that we were born 
 together with Christ at Bethlehem, or tempted to- 
 gether with Christ in the wilderness. The meeting- 
 place of Christ and the sinner is on Calvary. We 
 have been crucified together, buried together, and 
 raised together with Christ ; we are seated together 
 with Him in heavenly places. When the poor and 
 
I 
 
 The Example of Christ, 
 
 needy sinner comes to Jesus as the Saviour, all 
 the three questions are solved together. We have 
 redemption in Christ, even the forgiveness of sins ; 
 
 at forj^iveness we possess righteousness 
 apart from works. When God forgives us all the 
 transgressions of His law for Christ’s sake, He 
 regards us as having fulfilled all the law in the 
 same Christ;* and we are the righteousness of 
 God in Him. And in the forgiveness of sins God 
 renews the heart and sends forth the Spirit of His 
 Son. We become thus partakers of the peace, the 
 JTiind, and the life of Christ. When we believe in 
 Jesus, we are justified, we are renewed, we are 
 filled with the Spirit. It is this self-same faith in 
 the Lord our Righteousness by which we are 
 throughout our earthly life sanctified and kept 
 ' unto the perfect salvation. 
 
 The following Scriptures bring before us the 
 simplicity of God’s method. 
 
 The expression of the highest Christian life i.s, 
 in the words of the apostle Paul, “ I have been 
 crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not 
 I, but Christ liveth in me.” No higher experience 
 or attainment is possible for us. Separated from 
 his guilt, from the world, and from his sinful self, 
 by the cross of Jesus, the apostle knows that the 
 
 * Augustine. 
 
 I 
 
68 
 
 Our Life-Day. 
 
 Son of God Himself dwells in his heart, and that 
 He is the source and strength, as well as the object 
 and joy, of his life. As he has been brought into 
 death, so he has also been quickened by the Spirit 
 of the risen Saviour, the second Adam. But how 
 is Paul able to say this of himself.^ It is by faith. 
 But by what faith 1 By that same elementary 
 faith by which he first appropriated Jesus as his 
 righteousness, and by no other. “ For the life 
 which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the 
 Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for 
 me. ^ 
 
 Jesus dwells in our hearts by faith.” This is 
 the most beautiful and attractive description of 
 the Christian condition. The Lord was once a 
 stranger to us; then we heard His voice, and saw 
 His glory ; then, perhaps after many doubts and 
 struggles, we were brought to submit ourselves to 
 the righteousness of God, and to receive the grace 
 which bringeth salvation to the chief of sinners. 
 But now Jesus has made His abode with us. 
 According to His gracious promise, Jesus is now 
 permanently and continuously dwelling in our 
 heart with His peace. His love, and with all 
 the treasures of His grace. And how is this ? 
 By faith. By what faith ? Certainly not by faith 
 
 * Gal. ii. 20, 21. 
 

 
 
 •■■■' i 
 
 
 - - • ' . '■ ' • * ' \ .' 
 
 T/ie Example of Christ. 69 
 
 in Christ in 7is^ but by faith in Christ for us ; by 
 that self-same fundamental faith in Jesus, crucified 
 for sinners, and raised again, by which we were 
 first accepted and justified ; by that initial faith 
 through which grace saved us. 
 
 The description of his attitude which the apostle 
 Paul gives in the epistle to the Philippians is also 
 full of instruction. He acknowledges that he has 
 not yet already attained, either were already 
 perfect.” He was pressing forward ^Howard the 
 mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus.” The perfection which stood before 
 his heart was above, heavenly and future. It will 
 be reached by us when Christ shall appear, and 
 change the bodies of our humiliation, that they 
 may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. 
 Then shall we bear the image of the heavenly ; 
 then shall we be like Him, for we shall see Him 
 as He is. Our perfection is given us when we are 
 glorified together with Christ ; when the end of 
 our predestination is attained, and we are con- 
 formed to the image of His Son. 
 
 To be content with any other perfection, with 
 any (imagined) annihilation or cleansing of the 
 flesh, is contrary to the word of God, leading 
 to self-deception, and beguiling us from the sim- 
 plicity of the gospel. While we are on earth sin 
 
 .1 
 
70 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 is in us ; the flesh warreth against the Spirit, the 
 Canaanite is always in the land. We are not like 
 Jesus, who, although tempted in all things as we 
 are, was yet without, sin — in whom there was no 
 principle of enmity against God and His holy 
 will ' But although our perfection is above in 
 Christ, the knowledge of Christ and our faith in 
 Him influence us in our walk below. Although 
 our perfection is future, at the coming of our 
 Saviour, the hope of being like Christ influences 
 us at present ; for every one that hath this hope 
 purifleth himself, even as Christ is pure. Our 
 conscience is purged from dead works by the 
 blood of Christ, and thereby we are enabled to 
 serve God. Though we know that we are in the 
 flesh, we are not to walk after the flesh ; but 
 because the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us, we 
 are spiritually-minded, and flght the good flght of 
 faith."^ 
 
 What then is the apostle’s striving while he 
 looks forward to the perfection in body, soul, and 
 spirit at Christ’s coming ? It is to cast away 
 continually his own righteousness, which is of the 
 law, that he may win Christ, and be found in Him, 
 having the righteousness which is through the 
 faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God 
 * I John iii. 2 ; Rom. viii. 9, 10. 
 
The Example of Chiast. 
 
 71 
 
 by faith. He was therefore continually looking to 
 that very Jesus for 71s ^ our righteousness, to whom 
 he looked at his conversion. And it was by the 
 exercise of this faith that he grew in the know- 
 ledge of Christ, and of the power of His resurrec- 
 tion and the fellowship of His sufferings, being 
 made conformable unto His death, while the hope 
 of the resurrection of the just animated and 
 strengthened him to run the race set before him.^' 
 
 I 
 
 When Christians feel that their spiritual life is 
 languid, that they have left their first love, and 
 that they are not overcoming sin and the world, 
 they are tempted to look for some new starting- 
 point, and imagine that they need some other 
 kind of faith than that first faith which rested in 
 Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and acceptance 
 with the Father. But ''other foundation can no 
 man lay than that is laid.” God says that among 
 His people none will say, "I am sick,”f for they 
 shall all have forgiveness of sin. Why then do we, 
 when we are weak, seek any other remedy 1 
 
 Wherever forgiveness of sin is, Luther often 
 said, there is life and blessedness. It is our expe- 
 rience that whenever we have a vivid sense of our 
 pardon, the heart is full of peace and love, the 
 spirit feels strong, joyous, and of good courage ; 
 
 * Phil. iii. 8-21. t Isaiah xxxiii. 24. 
 
72 
 
 Ou7^ Life- Day 
 
 we are humble, tender, and compassionate ; we 
 look forward with hope to the future, and engage 
 in our work with liberty and cheerful energy. We 
 feel the presence of the indwelling Spirit, and a 
 sweet sense of the Father’s loVe, and of Jesus as 
 our own Lord and Saviour. If this be true, then, 
 whenever we are weak, gloomy, desponding, mur- 
 muring against God’s leadings, disinclined to do 
 the work before us, is it not because there is some 
 obscuration of that central point, the forgiveness of 
 sins? The reason may be that we deem some 
 
 sins small and unimportant, and do not confess 
 
 / 
 
 them before the Lord ; we do not bring them into 
 the light of the throne of grace, we do not condemn 
 ourselves before God, and therefore we carry, as it 
 were, the burden of these sins, and their shadow 
 darkens our heart. When we make no progress 
 in our Christian path, when the spiritual life is sick 
 and feeble, it is to the central point we must turn, 
 Clu'ist for us. There alone can we find renewal of 
 repentance, of godly sorrow, of love, of joy, and 
 of strength. Sin need not drive us away from 
 the throne of grace ; but the grace which pardons 
 our sin drives us from the love and bondage of 
 sin. 
 
 We have redemption in Christ; redemption is 
 a comprehensive word, including deliverance from 
 
The Example of CJiJ'ist, 
 
 73 
 
 all our enemies, and yet the apostle explains it by 
 adding, the forgiveness of sins.* 
 
 God is the source of all good ; and the know- 
 ledge of God and of Jesus Christ is eternal life. 
 But this is the knowledge of the Father and of 
 the Son, to behold in Christ crucified that God is 
 love. In this God is manifested, that Christ is the 
 propitiation for our sins. Hence to study in our 
 hearts this article of the remission of sins, is to 
 acquaint ourselves with God. 
 
 The difficulty which the apostle Paul seems to 
 have felt with all his congregations, was to 
 convince them of the perfection of Christ, and of 
 the all-sufficiency, simplicity, and comprehensive- 
 ness of the gospel of grace. Our tendency is first 
 to lower Christ, and then to feel the necessity for 
 something in addition to this self-made conception 
 of the Saviour. “ Come to Jesus,” is the first mes- 
 sage to the sinner ; it continues to be the divine 
 message to the believer. Jesus is our righteous- 
 ness, our life, and the hope of glory. Our great 
 and lifelong task is to abide in ‘‘the simplicity that 
 is into Christ!' 
 
 In' humble and joyous faith in the Lord Jesus, 
 in whom we are complete, let us contemplate His 
 whole life on earth ; let us listen to His word : “ I 
 * Eph. i. 7. t 2 Cor. xi. 3 (original). 
 
74 
 
 Our Life- Day 
 
 must work the works of Him that sent Me, as long 
 as it is day.” Only they who have been reconciled 
 to God by Christ’s death can be saved by His 
 life ; only they who have been begotten again by 
 His resurrection, can follow His example. In the 
 outer circle of Christendom, the real essence and 
 nature of Christianity is not known. Christianity, 
 as opposed to the spirit of the world, as contrasted 
 with the preparatory and intermediate dispensa- 
 tion of the old covenant, does not consist in 
 opinions and principles ; it is ' the life which, 
 through the blood of Christ and the indwelling of 
 the Holy Ghost, is given unto all who believe in 
 Jesus. This is what the apostles always put 
 before their congregations. Hence they never 
 speak of Christianity, of principles, of endeavours, 
 but of Christ, who for us died and rose again ; 
 who hath brought us all spiritual blessings, gifts, 
 and powers ; who dwelleth in our hearts by faith ; 
 by whom strengthening us we can do all things ; 
 and who shall finally present us unblameable in 
 body, soul, and spirit, before the Father. The 
 grace of God bringeth salvation, and in this grace 
 we stand. 
 
 When we think of apostolic Christianity, do we 
 not sometimes feel as if we had not begun yet to 
 be Christians — as if we were still, so to speak, the 
 
 I 
 
The Example of CJu'ist. 
 
 75 
 
 disciples of John the Baptist, and had not yet re- 
 ceived the Spirit? Let us then again, and daily, 
 lift up our eyes to the Lord, and behold Jesus at 
 the right hand of God, in whom we have the 
 Father s love, and from whom we receive the Holy 
 Ghost. Let us, born again as we are of incor- 
 ruptible seed, be daily renewed in our mind ; let 
 us learn Christ. The example of Christ is given 
 unto believers that they may constantly and sted- 
 fastly study it ; that they may daily, with full 
 purpose, walk in His footsteps. As we rest in the 
 promises, and give thanks for the position which 
 grace has assigned to us, so it is ours to put on the 
 Lord Jesus day by day, to appropriate by prayer 
 and meditation, in watchfulness and , self-restraint, 
 the words of Christ. His words include all the 
 teaching of His earthly walk. Only they are true 
 branches in Christ who are disciples, that is learners, 
 who patiently and earnestly listen to the Master, 
 and obey His commandments ; who exercise them- 
 selves unto godliness, and accept meekly the cor- 
 rection of His Spirit and the chastening of His 
 hand. If we have received the Spirit our life-long 
 study and delight will be the example of Jesus, as 
 it is recorded in the gospels. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 2Snttg of our anb its Inflation 
 to CBternttg. 
 
 “ While it is day : the night cometh, when no man can work.” 
 
 yohn ix. 4. 
 
 UMAN life has been illustrated in Scrip- 
 ture by numerous and various metaphors. 
 Viewing it in its beauty and organic de- 
 velopment, as well as in its frailty, Scripture sees 
 the type of human life in the flower of the held, 
 which to-day flourisheth, and to-morrow “ the wind 
 passeth over it and it is gone ; and the place 
 thereof shall know it no more.” Moses, the servant 
 of God, watching the unsubstantial and unproht- 
 able character of much of our life, noticing during 
 the long journeying through the wilderness how 
 many days' and weeks passed away in mere exis- 
 tence, calls life a sleep and ''a tale that is told.” 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Etei^nity. 77 
 
 Looking at the busy plans and projects of man, 
 formed with as great ease and hopefulness as 
 they are rapidly disappointed, the epistle of James 
 speaks of life as “ a vapour, that appeareth for a 
 little time and then vanisheth away.”^' 
 
 Again, life is likened to a pilgrimage ; on which 
 God’s people go from strength to strength,” until 
 at last they appear before Him in Zion. Our 
 Saviour likens it to a twofold road ; and while 
 the wide gate has ushered many, without any 
 thought or effort, into the broad road, which 
 leadeth unto destruction, the Lord calls upon men 
 to enter in at the strait gate, and to join the few 
 who are journeying unto eternal blessedness. J- 
 Again, life is compared with a warfare ; for man 
 is constantly in conflict with difficulties, with 
 enemies and hostile influences ; or, still sadder, he 
 is at enmity with God, resisting His dealings and 
 forsaking with great effort his own mercies. J 
 Hence the apostle speaks of a good or beautiful 
 fight, that of faith, in which all are conquerors and 
 crowned with unfading glory. He speaks also of 
 a race in which no impure and selfish ambition is 
 the motive or sustaining power, but love to the 
 
 * Ps. ciii. 15, 16 ; xc. 9 ; James iv. 14. 
 
 t Ps. Ixxxiv. 7; Matt. vii. 13, 14. 
 
 X Jonah ii. 8. 
 
! 
 
 78 Oitr Life- Day, 
 
 Lord who has called us, and in which we strive 
 “ for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
 Jesus.” 
 
 But of all illustrations the comparison of human 
 life with a day seems the most beautiful, because 
 in the simplest, yet most accurate and touching 
 manner, it describes not merely life, but also the 
 consciousness of life ; not merely the outward 
 changes and developments, but also the inward 
 ■ feelings with which we pass through our earthly 
 course.]- The metaphor describes both the objective 
 and subjective aspect of life. The early morning 
 is not merely like childhood, but it recalls the 
 feeling we had as children ; and when we review in 
 imagination the various aspects of the day from 
 morn to even, we are reminded not merely of 
 the characteristic events and occupations, but also 
 of the characteristic tone and feeling of the various 
 ages of man. The morning, mysterious, fragrant, 
 and full of promise ; the early hours of the day, 
 bright, strong, capacious ; the fulness of light and 
 
 * I Tim. vi. 12 ; Heb. xii. i, 2. 
 
 t The ancient Egyptians have a symbolic narrative com- 
 bining the life-path of man and the day-path of the sun. 
 
 The sun completes his course by appearing in the heavens 
 while it is day, first as a child, then as a youth, and at last 
 as an old man.”— -E bers', ALgypten iind Moses, 
 
 I 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eternity, 79 
 
 warmth, vigour and energy, of midday ; the 
 cheerful and fruit-bearing hours of the afternoon ; 
 the subtle, scarcely perceptible, change when it is 
 towards evening ; the calm and solemn evening — 
 all this is easily translated into the various phases 
 of our life-consciousness. From childhood to old 
 age is like a day ; and we pass through the various 
 feelings of morning, noon, and evening. And at 
 last comes the night. Who does not understand 
 and feel the force of the petition — 
 
 Teach me to live that I mav dread 
 
 The grave as little as my bed.” 
 
 Our life is like a day. Mysterious is the day- 
 spring from which it took its rise ; full of awe and 
 darkness seems the night to which it hastens ; and 
 the short hours between appear full of sorrow and 
 hardship. “ I know not whence I came, I know 
 not whither I go, I know not how I can be so 
 cheerful,” was the inscription on one tombstone, 
 and the secret language of thousands of wayfarers. 
 The ancients were oppressed with the sense of 
 
 human misery. The problems of life, with its 
 
 \ 
 
 conflicts and sorrows, its partings and losses, its 
 short-lived smiles and joys, and the long-enduring 
 and corroding effects of grief and disappointment, 
 form the burden of their meditations and com- 
 
 I 
 
8o 
 
 Otir Life-Day. 
 
 plaints."^* In Scripture also God allows men, and 
 even His saints, to express all the sad, bitter, 
 and overwhelming feelings of the heart in the 
 midst of the trials and dark labyrinthine paths of 
 life. In the book of Job, in the writings of the 
 royal preacher, in the Psalms, and in the Lamenta- 
 tions of Jeremiah, this aspect of life is most fully 
 described. God permits us to look into the very 
 hearts of His saints. The thoughts and feelings 
 which in their sore trial and anguish overwhelm 
 their souls, leading them close to the borders of the 
 land of unbelief and despair ; the questions and 
 doubts which rise in their minds, and which they 
 cannot bury, but, in the intensity of their grief and 
 of their real clinging to God, must express in His 
 presence ; the sorrow which refuses to be com- 
 forted, and seems to be an inexhaustible fountain 
 of tears — all this is brought before us in language 
 so sincere and strong that we can at first sight 
 scarcely distinguish it from the sadness of the 
 
 * Homer speaks of man as the most miserable being on 
 earth, whom the gods appointed to live a life of sighs. 
 {Iliad., xvii. 446 ; xxiv. 525.) Another ancient sentence says 
 men were created out of the tears of the gods. The remark, 
 that the best thing for man would be never to be born, the 
 next best thing to die as quickly as possible, became almost 
 proverbial. (Occurs also in Soph. CEd. Col.) Man is but the 
 shadow of a dream, says Pindar. 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eteimity, 8i 
 
 world, which has no hope. Scripture records these 
 deep soul-trials for our consolation and encourage- 
 ment, lest we think it a strange thing when we fall 
 into divers temptations, or fear that murmuring 
 and dejection such as ours can never be forgiven 
 and healed by divine grace. 
 
 But neither Israel nor the Church of Christ look 
 upon life with despondency, or in any other 
 light than that of thanksgiving and praise. It 
 is because we believe in redemption that we 
 are able to thank God for our creation. It is 
 because we look forward to the glory of eternity, 
 and because we possess the means of grace, that 
 our life -day, though full of trouble and sorrow, 
 discipline and conflict, is also full of light and 
 strength. In the love of God, which spared not 
 His own Son, we have the pledge of His Fatherly 
 providence guiding our steps, and making all 
 things work together for good. In the constant 
 experience that God hears our voice and suppli- 
 cation we renew our joyous resolution, “I will call 
 upon Him as long as I live.’' The end, we know, 
 is life everlasting, and the whole path is irradiated 
 by our hope. The children of God never meet in 
 the presence of God without praise. There is a 
 deep under-current of joy and gladness in their 
 
 souls; they make melody in their hearts. Although 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 Jacob in one sense mourns, Few and evil have 
 been the days of my pilgrimage,’' the same patriarch 
 confesses, “ I am not worthy of the least of Thy 
 mercies;” nor did the hope disappoint him which 
 he cherished all his life, and which on his death-bed 
 interrupted, as his deepest pent-up feeling, his in- 
 spired predictions, '' I have earnestly waited for 
 Thy salvation.” ^ 
 
 But there is yet another source of strength and 
 consolation, of gladness and heartsease, to us Chris- 
 tians, children of the new covenant. In this our 
 day-path, in this our day-labour, we have the 
 presence of Jesus, our Immanuel. We rejoice that 
 He passed through infancy and childhood, that He 
 knew the life of youth and manhood, that He 
 sanctified every age, and that He made every part 
 of the path luminous. As He left us a perfect 
 example, so He possesses now perfect and all- 
 developed sympathy with us in work and in rest, 
 in sorrow and in joy, in temptation and in suffering, 
 in loneliness and in the fellowship with man. It is 
 the sympathy and the spiritual presence of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ which vitalises to us all that is 
 recorded of Him and His walk on earth ; so that 
 it is to us nourishing bread and cheering wine, 
 that it shines on our path and makes our steps 
 
 * Gen. xlvii. 9; xlix, 18. 
 
Out Life : its Relatiou to Ete7^7iity, 83 
 
 safe, that thereby we have communion with the 
 man Christ Jesus, and feel that He is actually 
 living and walking with us day by day. It is out 
 of this living treasury of His earthly experience 
 He has given us this word also: must work 
 
 the works of Him that sent Me, as long as it is 
 day.” 
 
 The life of Jesus was indeed a perfect day ; His 
 path was that of the Just One, shining more and 
 more, and His sunset was full of unspeakable 
 glory. Our life is fragmentary ; and that is one of 
 the most painful feelings of the disciple, that in 
 his life there is so much failure. Grace has won 
 but scanty triumphs j many lovely flowers and 
 promising buds have seen no fulfilment, and 
 matured in no fruit j numerous, heavy, and irrepa- 
 rable are the sins of omission j many sins, errors, 
 and self-chosen paths, have injured and impover- 
 ished his life. And yet in all this the Christian is 
 upheld by faith in God. Among all nations there 
 has been a deep-seated belief in an overruling" 
 
 o 
 
 providence. Among the ancients, providence ap- 
 peared more in the form of necessity; a hidden 
 yet ruling righteousness and all-adjusting power. 
 Among modern nations, even the most superficial 
 knowledge of scripture has confirmed and enno- 
 bled this idea. 
 
84 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 ''There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, 
 
 Rough-hew them how we will." 
 
 Were this saying quoted a million times, unless a 
 million times experience made a new application 
 of this truth } 
 
 But on the territory of revelation we see clearly 
 light. When we are brought into the sanctuary, 
 the thoughts and difficulties which perplexed and 
 well-nigh overwhelmed us find their consoling 
 solution. God knows our path even in the midst 
 of our confused wanderings. As we pray, “ Guide 
 us with thy counsel,” we add the certain and 
 all-blessed end — '‘and receive us to glory.” Not- 
 withstanding all our sins and errors. He brings us 
 to our desired haven. Israel is chastened, but 
 led by infinite wisdom and mercy ; for He heals 
 their backslidings. The wickedness of Joseph’s 
 brethren is overruled for their salvation. Our 
 folly, our waywardness, our continual retrograde 
 movements, our sinfulness, cannot frustrate His 
 wisdom, mercy, patience, and love. He is God, 
 and His glory will ultimately shine forth in 
 the full and abundant salvation of His people. 
 Each child of God will have his own name ; the 
 result of all his earthly experience, and divine 
 education. 
 
 In deep humility and in reverent trustfulness 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eternity. 85 
 
 the Old Testament language is: ‘‘I know that it 
 is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” ^ 
 And again : Thou hast taught me from my 
 
 youth .... I will yet praise thee more and more.”*|* 
 And when Jesus came, He declared the Father- 
 name of God. He, the only-begotten from all 
 eternity ; He, the first-begotten of the dead, the 
 firstborn among many brethren, now leads us to 
 His God and our God, to His Father and our 
 hather. When He speaks of the future. He says : 
 
 In My Father’s house are many mansions and 
 His Father’s house is also ours, where He prepares 
 a place for us. If we confess Him before men. 
 He will also confess us before His heavenly 
 Father. He promises us that during this earthly 
 
 life His Father will watch over us, and shelter us 
 
 # 
 
 under His protecting care ; even as for the sake 
 
 / 
 
 of man our Father cares for the sparrows, and not 
 one of them can fall to the ground without His 
 will.:]: 
 
 The high point of view from which the New 
 Testament regards the comforting doctrine of pro- 
 vidence is, that we are purchased with Christ’s 
 blood, and identified with Him now as sons of 
 
 * Jeremiah x. 23. f Psalm Ixxi. 17, 14. 
 
 + Matt. X. 29, 32. Compare '‘your Father” and ''my 
 Father.” 
 
86 
 
 Our Life-Day, 
 
 God and heirs of glory, and on our way to heaven. 
 Shall not God with Christ give us all things, and 
 in this only complete the work and purpose of 
 grace 1 
 
 In this highest light all the apostolic teaching 
 places the comforting truth, ‘‘He careth for you.’' 
 Our whole life is viewed under the aspect of 
 sanctification ; of leading us heavenward ; of fur- 
 nishing us unto every good work, and sustaining 
 us in every conflict ; of performing in us the good 
 work which grace has begun, and bringing us 
 faultless into the presence of His glory. The 
 chain which begins in predestination and ends in 
 glory cannot be broken. Whom He justified He 
 also glorified. Between these two links lies the 
 all-wise and merciful guidance of our steps during 
 our earthly pilgrimage.^ 
 
 If the Old Testament saint, on the same basis of 
 eternal and unchangeable, sovereign and almighty 
 love, was able to say, “ The Lord will perfect that 
 which concerneth me : thy mercy, O Lord, en- 
 dureth for ever : forsake not the works of Thine 
 own hands ” *[* — with what fuller clearness and 
 jpyousness can the new covenant children say, 
 “ We know that all things work together for good 
 
 * Romans viii. 30, compare with i Peter i. 3-9. 
 
 t Psalm cxxxviii. 8. 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eternity, 87 
 
 to them that love God, to them who are the called 
 according to His purpose.”^ 
 
 The life of God’s people is thus, notwithstanding 
 all their sins and errors, made a unity by the love 
 of our Saviour- God. Look at the records of 
 Scripture which we possess of some lives, traced 
 from their very early morning to the night. How 
 brief, simple, clear, and loving the God-appointed 
 course seems to us now; how tardy, enigmatic, 
 difficult, and trying it appeared to them as they 
 journeyed onwards. Think of Samuel, the last of 
 the judges and the first of the prophets. What 
 a long, continuous, useful, laborious life was his ! 
 The burden of the nation rested upon him ; for 
 many years he was the father and ruler of the 
 people. Through him the word of God came 
 unto Israel ; he established the school of the 
 prophets. The same servant of God who as a 
 child had announced to Eli the impending judg- 
 ment, anointed David, the son of Jesse, according 
 to God’s command. During all these years of 
 meditation, work, and service, Samuel walked 
 with God — a man of fervent prayer and priestly 
 intercession, a man of earnest faith and burning 
 love. In answer to his prayer thunder and 
 rain came down in the midst of the wheat har- 
 
 * Romans viii. 28. 
 
88 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 vest ; for his was the prayer of faith, the prayer 
 of one who lived in communion with God, and 
 belonged to the true Israel who prevail with the 
 Lord. Strong as his faith was his love. The 
 nation’s ingratitude could never quench the fire 
 of his loving intercession. '‘God forbid that I 
 should cease to pray for you.” Samuel’s life is 
 like a long noble river, and we can trace it to its 
 very source. Samuel was yet a tender youth 
 when all Israel, even from Dan to Beersheba, 
 perceived that God was with him, and that he was 
 established to be a prophet of the Lord, and that 
 God did let none of his words fall to the ground. 
 It was the revelation of God in that memorable 
 night, when in the silent sanctuary he heard the 
 mysterious voice which was the beginning of 
 Samuel’s prophetic life. Still further back we see 
 him in Shiloh ministering "before the Lord, being 
 a child, girded with a linen ephod,” spending a few 
 bright, quiet years in the service of the sanctuary, 
 and under the training of Eli. On the well-known 
 and longed-for day we see Hannah appear with 
 her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice, bringing 
 a little coat, with her motherly benediction and 
 kisses. Nay, even before Samuel had opened his 
 eyes to the light of the world, his whole life and 
 ministry had been the subject of Hannah’s earnest 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eternity. 89 
 
 supplication, and of God’s loving and gracious 
 promise. 
 
 Look again at the life of John the Baptist. It 
 lies before us from its very commencement to the 
 end. How perfect, yet how brief; how sad, and 
 yet how glorious it was. He was a man sent from 
 God, chosen to be the forerunner of the Most 
 High ; the child of many prayers, announced by 
 the angel Gabriel ; sanctified by the Holy Ghost 
 even from his mother’s womb. The morning hours 
 of a father’s faithful teaching, and a mother’s 
 tenderness ; a few years of meditation in the word 
 of God in the wilderness ; a few years of bright and 
 burning testimony, like the sun in mid-day splen- 
 dour ; and the death of a martyr — such was the 
 short, but glorious day of this chosen one, this 
 highly-favoured messenger of the King ! 
 
 While in the case of Samuel and the Baptist 
 the unity of life appears most strikingly in the 
 continuity of their spiritual life from its commence- 
 ment, the life of the apostle Paul presents a some- 
 what different aspect. When he looks back on his 
 past life he is able to view the long course of his 
 discipleship, his ministry, his apostolic work, and 
 his Christian fight, as one. But though the previous 
 part of his earthly life was in unbelief, and without 
 the knowledge of Christ, spent even in persecuting 
 
90 Our Life- Day, 
 
 I 
 
 the Church, the apostle, who ever confesses and 
 laments his past sin, yet looks on his whole past 
 life as under the guidance and power of divine 
 love. Going back to his very birth, and to his 
 descent from Israel, he says, ‘'It pleased God, who 
 separated me from my mother’s womb, and called 
 
 me by His grace and again, “God, whom I 
 
 / 
 
 serve from my forefathers with pure conscience.” 
 We can also trace the divine wisdom preparing 
 the apostle for his great work by his experience as 
 a Pharisee, and arranging the events of his youth, 
 his education, and his Roman citizenship, so as 
 especially to fit him for his subsequent grand 
 mission. In many other saints we can trace this 
 unity of the Lord’s dealings with them, even 
 before they knew Him. This is true not only of 
 men like the apostle Paul and Luther, but of every 
 child of God. Divine grace makes the life of His 
 children one day. He loved us before we knew 
 Him. Out of the uncreated eternal light we hear 
 a voice, “ I have loved thee with everlasting love ; 
 therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” 
 Not all who are born into this world are per- 
 mitted to live the whole day of life. Night comes 
 often before evening, nay, even earlier. Abruptly, 
 and to us mysteriously, the brief morning hours are 
 * Gal. i. 15. t 2 Tim. i. 3. 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eternity. 91 
 
 terminated by the advent of death. Yet the life 
 of God’s children is always perfect and complete. 
 So we have seen it in the case of John the Baptist; 
 so it was with the proto-martyr Stephen, in whose 
 angelic countenance all that is lovely in human life 
 shone forth — the transparent simplicity of child- 
 hood, the ideal ardour of youth, the heroism and 
 strength of manhood, and the reflective calmness 
 and mercifulness of old age. How many thousands 
 of children stand before the throne of God, called 
 away in the early morning to the land of rest. 
 Infants, who have scarcely seen the light of our 
 sun, now behold the more glorious light of eternity; 
 they who have but uttered the cry of feebleness 
 and pain, sing now glory to God and to the Lamb ; 
 they who have only felt without understanding it 
 the affection of earthly parents, are now drinking 
 from the river of divine love. Foremost among 
 them we behold the babes of Bethlehem, who offered 
 their tiny bosoms to shield the infant Jesus, and 
 instead of Him received the mortal wound. They 
 rest now in the bosom of Jesus. To them was given 
 the rest of Paradise, though they had scarcely 
 known the land of banishment, and after the briefest 
 conflict they are crowned with the martyr’s crown.^' 
 
 * O parvuli beati, modo nati, nondum tentati, nondum 
 luctati, jam coronati. — Augustine. 
 
92 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 The death of infants brings before us in a solemn 
 and impressive manner the depth of our fall; it 
 reminds us how sin having entered into the world, 
 death has come to all the branches, and even the 
 most tender buds. But it is as if the tender love 
 of our heavenly Father intended to make death 
 less awful and painful to us by associating with it 
 little infants, whom for the sake of the second 
 Adam and in the divine garment of His righteous- 
 ness He transplants into His paradise. They will 
 be in heaven members of the mystical body of 
 Christ. Theirs is not angelic innocence and 
 purity. Christ is their righteousness. Their robes 
 also are made white in the Blood of the Lamb. 
 Linked to us by the sweet and sacred tie which 
 God the Creator has established, and by the bond 
 of a special affection, they will present an aspect 
 of divine grace and of the glory of Christ and His 
 work which no other human beings or angels can 
 manifest. They will in a peculiar manner show 
 forth the wonders of redeeming grace and of the 
 Spirit’s power. And then shall we look upon 
 
 I 
 
 their earthly life as complete ; and they also shall 
 belong to the saints of God, who can say, The 
 Lord hath perfected that which concerneth me.” 
 
 In the light of the eternal love of God we 
 behold the unity of the life of His children; in 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eternity, 93 
 
 the light of the relation which subsists between 
 our present and our everlasting existence the 
 solemnity of our life-day. 
 
 Our life-day is short ; but viewed in the light of 
 eternity, it possesses an intensive depth, and cannot 
 be measured by the length of its duration. Unless 
 eternity was written on the heart of man he would 
 have no consciousness of the brevity of his life, or 
 mourn over its limits and fetters. The very misery 
 of man bespeaks the grandeur which he has lost. 
 However ‘Tar inland'’ he may be, and however 
 determined to shut out the thought of a Hereafter- 
 eternity — he cannot divest even the present life 
 of its spiritual, eternal, and solemn character. In 
 every human affection, in tears and in smiles, in 
 the beauty of nature around us, in all our thoughts, 
 when we are most truly communing with ourselves 
 
 I 
 
 God meets us, and we are reminded that we are 
 His offspring. How true is the testimony of the 
 German poet: “ When man under the clouds of life 
 casts from him his fortune, because he thinks it of 
 less value than his heart, he is as blessed and 
 great as the beatified spirits above. And we are 
 worthy of a holier earth, because the view of sacri- 
 fice elevates instead of depressing us, and we shed 
 burning tears, not out of pity, but out of pro- 
 foundest, holiest, love and joy.” We are fallen and 
 
94 
 
 Our Life- Day 
 
 in bondage, but we cannot lower our nature, our 
 dignity, our inalienable birthright ; our nature is to 
 live with God, for Him and in Him, and hence for 
 evermore. 
 
 And who of us, in his inmost heart, would 
 willingly consent to be but the creature of Time, 
 and to disappear after the brief day of our earthly 
 existence ? Are we so satisfied with the broken 
 cisterns, which can hold no water, that we can 
 utterly forget the fountain of eternal life ? Are we 
 so satisfied with the fare which is earned with toil 
 and degrading bondage in the strange country 
 that we have no longing for the native land of our 
 spirits ? Are we ready to sell the birthright of 
 our immortality for the enjoyment of even Time’s 
 noblest gift t 
 
 Yet even if we succeeded in dehumanizing our- 
 selves, and were content with a mere earthly 
 intellectual existence, apart from God and without 
 the hope of eternity, we cannot find the land in 
 which it is always afternoon ; we cannot stay the 
 settine sun ; and the true character of our life and 
 destiny must at last be revealed to us with irre- 
 sistible clearness. 
 
 Eternity is before us. At present it is only by 
 an effort of the imagination, or, in the case of the 
 Christian, by the exercise of faith, that we realise 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eternity, 95 
 
 the spiritual and everlasting world. Of those 
 divine realities which are unseen and hoped for, 
 faith is the substance and evidence. To the un- 
 believer it seems very vague ; to the Christian 
 even it seems sometimes very far off. But how 
 often have we experienced, on a smaller scale, that 
 what at one time seemed a distant object of imagi- 
 nation, hope, or fear — at last came into actual 
 existence ! Then we say it is,’' and it is the 
 past which appears a dream and a shadow. In 
 like manner, when our life-day is past, when the 
 night cometh, then eternity will be no longer 
 merely imagined or dimly anticipated by faith, 
 but the actual consciousness and experience of 
 the soul. 
 
 Our life-day, however, does not merely precede 
 our eternity. It is connected with eternity by the 
 more inward and solemn sequence of seed-time 
 and harvest, of germ and maturity. As our life is 
 one, and forms an unity, so its result is stereotyped 
 at death for evermore. Out of our life-day is born 
 our everlasting blessedness or misery, our ever- 
 lasting fellowship with God and conformity with 
 Christ, or our everlasting separation from God 
 and the light of His countenance. On earth, and 
 here only, can we sow. ‘',He that soweth to his 
 flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he 
 
 ✓ 
 
I 
 
 ■i 
 
 96 Our Life- Day. 
 
 that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap 
 life everlasting.” * 
 
 It is this tremendous and everlasting issue which 
 is decided by our acceptance or rejection of the \ 
 
 gospel, and which remains fixed at the time of our 
 death. Thus our blessed Lord Himself preached 
 the joyous yet awful gospel, and thus He com- 
 missioned His messengers to set before men the 
 only way of salvation. “ He that believeth on the I 
 
 Son hath everlasting life : and he that believeth not j 
 
 the Son ... the wrath of God abideth on him.” j 
 
 Christ’s own solemn warnings, in which He exhorts j 
 
 us to make even the most painful sacrifice of a right 
 hand and a right arm, are based on the awful and 
 the fixed ultimate destiny of those who reject His 
 love and authority.f As throughout His ministry, 
 so, if possible, with greater solemnity in His 
 closing words on Olivet. Who can evade the 
 plain meaning of His majestic words, “ Then shall 
 He say also unto them on the left hand. Depart 
 from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared 
 for the devil and his angels.?” or who can dis- 
 turb the fearful equality of duration implied in i 
 
 His concluding sentence: “And these shall go 
 into everlasting punishment : but the righteous 
 
 * Galatians vi. 8. 
 
 t John iii. 36 ; Matthew v. 29, 30. i 
 
 ■ 
 
s 
 
 Our Life: its Relation to Eternity, 97 
 
 into life eternal”?^' And when the apostles and 
 their followers brought the divine message to men, 
 they were impressed and well-nigh overwhelmed 
 with the alternative which was thus through them 
 placed before immortal souls — eternal life or ever- 
 lasting death. 
 
 This is so clearly the tenor of the New Testa- 
 ment, as indeed it was also the doctrine of the 
 01d,t and so little dependent on single expres- 
 sions, that all Christendom has given forth the 
 solemn message. 
 
 Some speculative minds, and among them some 
 very devout and loving ones, have in all ages 
 of the Church endeavoured to reach beyond what 
 is written, or to explain the statements of Scripture 
 so as to either teach the ultimate restoration of all, 
 or the annihilation of the wicked. But Scripture 
 holds out no prospect of the gospel being preached 
 in the next world, and if preached, of its being 
 accompanied with renewing power. It addresses 
 itself simply to the hearers of the gospel, and 
 
 * Matt. XXV. 12, 30, 41, 46. The same word aidoviov used 
 in both cases. 
 
 t In the New Testament the manifestation of Christ 
 
 brought with it much clearer and fuller disclosures of eternal 
 
 life and death, of the world of angels, and of Satan. But 
 
 the germ of the doctrine spoken of is in many passages, 
 
 such as Ps. i. 4 ; xi. 6, 7 ; Dan. xii. 2, 3 ; Mai. iii. 17 ; iv. i. 
 
 / 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 places before them blessedness and glory in words 
 of the brightest and loftiest character, or anguish 
 and darkness in terms strong and appalling. 
 Jesus speaks of those who are cast out, even though 
 they belonged to the household of God ; but 
 neither He nor His apostles ever say that any 
 shall be brought in again and restored out of that 
 ''outer darkness,” where there is "weeping and 
 gnashing of teeth.” ^ The apostle Paul speaks of 
 those who obey not the gospel of our Lord, that 
 they “shall be punished with everlasting destruc- 
 tion from the presence of the Lord.” And in the 
 last page of the Apocalypse, the furthest glimpse 
 vouchsafed unto us into the ages to come, is there 
 a single ray of hope held out for the unbelievers 
 who have been judged, or a single word to en- 
 courage the idea that the judgment of God is not 
 final, and that the two classes remain distinct and 
 separate for ever, the just and the unjust, the 
 purified ones and those who are defiled with sin 1 
 In the same chapter which describes the glories of 
 the New Jerusalem, and the eternal joy of the 
 saints who inherit all things, we read that all that 
 . do iniquity “ have their part ” (fearful antithesis to 
 the inheritance) “in the lake which burneth with 
 fire and brimstone : which is the second death.” 
 
 * Matt. viii. ii, 12. 
 
Oui^ Life: its Relation to Eteiniity, 99 
 
 The same inspired words which reveal to us the 
 blessedness of the redeemed, bring before us the 
 dark and ultimate destiny of those that are 
 “without.”’^ If we accept the testimony of Scrip- 
 ture, there is a conclusion of history ; there is a 
 judgment, beyond which there is no change ; after 
 which there is neither the conversion nor the 
 annihilation of immortal spirits, but the endless 
 continuance of the second death. 
 
 There are many analogies in our human life and 
 experience which bring before us the thought, that 
 a point of time arrives in which dangers, remedies, 
 opportunities, which were possible, accessible, and 
 effective, are beyond all reach. Why may the 
 Bible statements concerning the future irreversible 
 sentence, '‘Too late, too late,” not be founded in 
 the very nature, of things, as well as the character 
 and will of God The great theosoph Bohme 
 says : “ Here in this life the soul- is in the balance, 
 and can be born again in love ; when the beam is 
 broken, the soul is in her own land, in lier ground- 
 element ” {Princlpio). 
 
 Speculations beyond and apart from, as well 
 as contrary to. Scripture (though by God’s grace 
 they may not injure materially some of their 
 authors), exert a most injurious influence on the 
 * 2 Thess. i. 9 ; Rev. xxi. 8 ; xxii. 11-15. 
 
lOO 
 
 
 
 
 
 Otc7'‘ Life- Day, 
 
 great mass of mankind. These are only too willing 
 to accept anything that will blunt the edge of the 
 gospel message, and furnish them with excuses 
 ( however illogical ) for negligence and delay. 
 Such views cannot fail to affect the very cha- 
 racter of the gospel message itself — the views 
 which we hold of God, of sin, of the death of 
 Christ. Nor, it is to be feared, do even orthodox 
 Christians and Christian ministers altogether es- 
 cape the weakening influence of the prevalence of 
 such opinions. We breathe the atmosphere and 
 unless we are on our guard we are affected by it. 
 
 It is impossible for us to speak with too pro- 
 found humility or too great tenderness. But if 
 we remember from what Christ has saved us, 
 even from everlasting ruin, {and was not this our 
 consciousness at our conversion?) and if we truly love 
 the souls of men, we shall not be influenced by the 
 shallow criticism which would banish the presenta- 
 tion of the wrath of God and everlasting misery 
 from our teaching and from our evangelistic 
 addresses. He who loved as never man loved, 
 who wept over Jerusalem, who died on the cross, 
 has Himself given us the example, as well as the 
 commission, to lay before men life and death. 
 
 If such is the connection between life and 
 eternity, and if the night may set in at any 
 
 1 
 
Our Life: its Relation to Eternity, loi 
 
 moment in childhood, in youth, or at any part 
 of our subsequent course, how blessed is it that 
 the grace of God can bring unto us salvation at 
 all times and at any time — that from early morn 
 to the eleventh hour* the Lord calls us to enter 
 into His kingdom, and into the service of love 
 which is crowned with an everlasting reward. God 
 is able to renew the infant heart, and His Holy 
 Spirit, in a way which we cannot comprehend, can 
 graft infants into the true vine, so that in death 
 they fall asleep in Jesus. In earliest childhood 
 the voice of the Good Shepherd is heard — “ Suffer 
 little children to come unto Me ” — and the Saviour 
 reveals Hi.s love to tender lambs, and is delighted 
 with their hosannahs. God often calls young men 
 by His grace, and enables them to make the great 
 choice ; and instead of going away sorrowful, they 
 gladly receive the word, and with full purpose of 
 heart cleave unto the Lord, and become strong to 
 overcome the wicked one. The hardening influ- 
 
 * A centurion under the Emperor Hadrian became in 
 his old age a believer in Christ. He then retired from 
 the Imperial Court, and lived in quietness for seven years. 
 The following is the touching epitaph he wrote for himself : 
 
 Hie jacet Similis, cujus aetas multorum annorum fecit, 
 ipse septum duntaxat vixit annos.” (Here lies Similis, who 
 reached an age of many years, and yet lived only seven 
 years.) 
 
U 111 11,(14 11 
 
 
 
 ► 7 -’r- 
 
 102 ' 0217 ^ Life- Day, 
 
 ence of the world and of long habits, and the 
 death-like security and unimpressionable ease 
 which characterize man’s later years, cannot resist 
 the merciful power of the Holy Ghost when He 
 touches heart and conscience, and reveals the 
 Father’s love and the Saviour’s grace. And even 
 after a long Christless life, and while the sun is 
 already setting, the outstretched arms of Jesus 
 are full of pity and compassion, and His word is 
 heard, ‘‘To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise,” 
 Jesus is the lover of men, for He is the Son of 
 God who loved the world. Jesus is the light, and 
 when we come to Him, our true life and our ever- 
 lasting day commence. Jesus is the door; and at 
 any time, at any stage of our path, we may enter. 
 Immediately we enter in our past guilt is forgiven, 
 and a new beginning of thought, feeling, will, 
 and energy is born within us. Then the path of 
 life is before us. Seek not to walk on the narrow 
 path before you have entered in at the strait 
 gate ; out of the old heart cannot *come the new 
 life, and in the strange country we cannot earn or 
 procure the best robe, the ring of adoption, and 
 the shoes in which we run the way of God’s com- 
 mandments. Christ is before us wherever we are : 
 in our old sinful and unhappy condition, whether 
 our past course was short or long, He is before us, 
 
ij 
 
 Our Life: its Relation to Eternity. 103 
 
 the Door ; the end of the times of ignorance — 
 
 God’s wisdom ; the end of the works of the law — 
 the righteousness of God ; the end of our troubled 
 and hardened conscience — perfect acceptance and 
 peace ; the end of our selfish and worldly life — \ 
 
 sanctification. Only enter in, and the old things 
 have passed away. Behold all things have become 
 new. J 
 
 If we have entered in, then let us work the j 
 
 works of Him that sent us while it is day. Great ; 
 
 is the reward which, of His abundant grace, God n 
 
 ‘I 
 
 will give us for all labour, suffering, patience ; for ;j 
 
 every ministry of love to the brethren, to afflicted |j 
 
 humanity ; for all loyal testimony and service. ;; 
 
 We may convert, even now, everything into a 
 divine reward. The things which we are accus- 
 tomed to view as full of sorrow, privation, and ,j 
 
 difficulty, may be turned into sources of joy, 
 strength, and riches. If in affliction we learn faith, p 
 
 humility, patience, we obtain blessings which :■ 
 
 endure for ever. The trial, which seems to be 
 fiery, burns only fetters of sin and worldliness ; it 
 takes nothing from our true self, but only adds ' n 
 
 i 
 
 health, strength, and beauty, which can never fade. 
 
 Have we experienced the injustice, ingratitude, 
 faithlessness, or hatred of men } they cannot truly 
 injure us as long as we do the will' of God ; nay. 
 
 
104 Our Life- Day. 
 
 they cannot help being our benefactors, enriching 
 us with heavenly treasure, if we forgive their 
 trespasses and, in communion with Jesus, do the 
 Christlike work of loving them and praying for 
 them. Let us learn from our Lord Jesus, to 
 whom all He experienced on earth became only 
 material and nourishment of His divine love-fire. 
 When Pharisees murmured. He in reply uttered 
 the most touching and tender parables of the 
 divine joy in receiving sinners. When men cruci- 
 fied Him, His all-forgiving, all-enduring love 
 shone forth only with greater brightness. Nothing 
 can affect the purity, the kindliness, the generosity 
 of the light ; nothing can defile, dim, or extinguish 
 the fire of love. One who had great sufferings, 
 and for many long years, was able to say : “ Our 
 light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh 
 for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
 glory.”* That which seems to work only injury; 
 pain to the body, sadness to the soul, hindrance to 
 our usefulness ; in reality, and seen by faith, works 
 for us our everlasting blessedness. Say no longer 
 of your trials and hardships, of your losses and 
 disappointments, of your sickness and infirmity : 
 “ All these things are against me ; ” but rather 
 reckon them among the all things which work 
 
 * 2 Cor. iv. 17. 
 
Om^ Life: its Relation to Eternity, 105 
 
 together for good unto you who love God. Our 
 sufferings are our eternal ornaments ; what we 
 give away, our everlasting possession ; our thorns, 
 never-fading flowers. 
 
 In the false and garish light of the world, health 
 and wealth, the honour which cometh from man, 
 earthly wisdom and wit, prosperity and influence, 
 are the only things which are seen to be bright 
 and beautiful. But God looks upon the broken 
 and contrite heart, the meek and the quiet spirit, 
 faith and joy in His beloved Son, crucifixion of 
 the flesh, and the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings ; 
 these appear to Him beautiful, and are His 
 delight. And it is in the school of suffering that 
 we learn the wisdom which is from above ; it is in 
 the furnace of affliction that our faith is tried, that 
 it may be found unto praise, and honour, and 
 glory. If you feel “it is towards evening, and the 
 day is far spent,” only constrain Jesus to abide 
 with you ; and when He makes Himself known, 
 when He enters the heart and holds there the 
 supper with His downcast disciple, your youth, 
 your glowing affections, your joyous hopefulness, 
 will be renewed, and you will be able to say: “The 
 Lord is risen again,” and go on your way rejoicing. 
 
 “ The night cometh.” In the mouth of the Lord 
 Jesus these words had a peculiar significance. The 
 
io6 
 
 (9^/r Life- Day. 
 
 night which came to Jesus was the result of our 
 sin, the fruit of our disobedience; it was, the hour 
 and power of darkness. His love to us was willing 
 to enter even into this night. Jesus died ; believers 
 only fall asleep. Jesus was made sin for us; nay, 
 He was made a curse, and entered into the agony 
 of the three hours, when God hid from Him His 
 countenance. Believers do not see death ; for the 
 sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is 
 the law ; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the 
 victory.” Let us therefore not be afraid of the 
 night ; let us work in Christ and for Christ while 
 it is day. This is the solemnity, the unique im- 
 portance of our life-day, that it stands in immediate 
 connection with that day, when the Lord, the 
 righteous Judge, will give the crown, the reward 
 for labour, to all His disciples. The apostle Paul 
 looked from the hour of his departure, when he 
 finished his course, having kept the faith, to the 
 appearing of our Lord. He looked past the 
 intervening period. It has no relation to his 
 ultimate reward. The night which comes to be- 
 lievers is rest, but rest in communion with Christ ; 
 it is sleep, but sleep in Jesus. They rest from 
 their labours, waiting for the resurrection morning, 
 when Christ shall appear, and they with Him.‘^ 
 
 * John viii. 51 ; i Cor. xv. 55-57; 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. 
 
I 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 V 
 
 J^rom iiTlom to ^bc: tt)e ^t'x ^ges of Jttan. 
 
 “While it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” 
 
 John ix. 4. 
 
 T is the glory of man that he is utterly 
 dependent on God. Apart from God 
 human life is unintelligible and wretched. 
 We are not able to understand ourselves. Our 
 whole existence is a dark problem, bewildering and 
 oppressive, until, beholding ourselves in the mirror 
 of God, we say, in the full presence of the most 
 High : Thou, God, seest me.” The only light 
 
 which brings light and peace to us is the personal 
 living God, the all-seeing and all-loving One, ^‘in 
 whom we live, and move, and have our being.” 
 Know thyself” is the counsel of wisdom from 
 the most ancient days. We do not know ourselves, 
 and this ignorance is, our misery; but this is our 
 
 
 \ 
 
 a 
 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
io8 
 
 Ou7^ Life- Day, 
 
 all-sufficient consolation, that, an enigma to our- 
 selves, we are perfectly known of God. 
 
 In one of the most wonderful psalms of David 
 (Psalm cxxxix) this thought is expressed with the 
 singular power and impressiveness which charac- 
 terise this portion of the inspired word. The 
 psalmist realises God’s omnipresence and omni- 
 science as concentrated upon himself — O Lord, 
 Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou 
 knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. Thou 
 understandest my thought afar off. Thou com- 
 passest my path and my lying down, and art 
 acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a 
 word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest 
 it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and 
 before, and laid thine hand upon me.” In this 
 vivid sense of the depth as well as the breadth 
 of God’s omnipresence and omniscience David 
 feels himself enclosed by the knowledge and pre- 
 sence of Him who is the infinite source and 
 sovereign author of all created spirits. As God is 
 the only One who has a perfect, all-comprehensive 
 knowledge of our present ways and thoughts, and 
 the inmost springs of our being, so it is He to 
 whom were known the very beginnings of our 
 existence, whose wisdom, power, and goodness 
 were glorified in the mysterious and hidden com- 
 
From Morn to Eve, 
 
 109 
 
 mencement of our earthly life, and who determined 
 beforehand our whole path. “ For thou hast 
 possessed my reins : Thou hast covered me in my 
 mother’s womb. I will praise Thee ; for I am fear- 
 fully and wonderfully made;... and that my soul 
 knoweth right well. My substance was not hid 
 from Thee, when I was made in ' secret, and 
 curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 
 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being un- 
 perfect ; and in Thy book all my members were 
 written, which in continuance were fashioned, when 
 as yet there was none of them.” 
 
 Such knowledge, he confesses, is too wonderful 
 for him ; it is so high he cannot attain unto it. 
 But as it is high, so it is full of comfort. The 
 omniscient eye, to which he is perfectly known 
 and transparent, the omnipotent hand, which has 
 formed him from his very origin, belong to Him 
 who is love, and who leads us in the way everlast- 
 ing.^' It humbles us, but it also elevates us, that it 
 is God who sent us into this world, who alone fixes 
 the time when we are to depart, that all our times 
 are in His hand, that all our springs are in Him. 
 We are always as helpless and as dependent on 
 Him as in the hour of our birth and the hour of 
 our death ; for He is God. 
 
 * Psalm cxxxix. 24. 
 
I lO 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 We may think it a very common-place truth, 
 and one of which we need scarcely to be reminded, 
 “ It is God that hath made us, and not we our- 
 selves;”^ and yet it is this simple but fundamental 
 truth which by the grace of God’s Spirit can, alone 
 give us the victory over the multiform enemy with 
 which we have to contend, our self-will. Only 
 when we remember that God is our sovereign 
 Creator can we successfully resist the assertion of 
 our self-will, our self-dependence, which is the root 
 of all our sins, whether it manifest itself as pride, 
 or gloomy discontent, or despondency, or the love 
 of pleasure. And when we have learned to bow 
 before the Lord as God, then out of this know- 
 ledge of the sovereignty of God our Creator, peace 
 and consolation will flow into our hearts. Because 
 we are the work of His hands. He will never 
 forsake us, but perfect that which concern eth us ; 
 for His mercy endureth for ever. Because we 
 know that He is God, that it is He who hath 
 made us, and not we ourselves, we “ serve the Lord 
 with gladness, and come before His presence with 
 singing . . . we are His people, and the sheep of 
 His pasture.” t He is near us, with us, in us. As 
 our hearts lie open before Him, all our wants and 
 sorrows, our difficulties and infirmities, our sins' 
 + Psalm c. 3. * Psalm c. 2, 3. 
 
1 1 1 
 
 From Alorn io Eve. 
 
 and failures appeal to His all-powerful love, and 
 there is nothing in us which is not accessible to 
 His mercy and might. “ I am thine.” This is the 
 language of humility ; it is the all-prevailing plea 
 of the child of God, and the never-failing conso- 
 lation in time of trouble and distress. We are 
 the object of His electing love, the work of His 
 
 almighty and allwise hands, the triumph of His 
 redeeming grace. And ultimately we shall stand 
 before Him, the perfect embodiment and fulfilment 
 of His eternal thought and purpose, when we 
 shall be conformed to the image of His Son, and 
 glorified together with Christ shall, as the first- 
 fruits of His creature, show forth His manifold 
 wisdom and power.* 
 
 There is no period of our existence in which we 
 are not precious in His sight, as there is none in 
 which we are not utterly dependent on His good- 
 
 a 
 
 ness and care. We readily acknowledge the frailty 
 and helplessness of infancy and of childhood ; but 
 
 we are equally, and in some respects growingly, 
 dependent on God in our youth and manhood, in 
 the evening hours of life, and in the last hours and 
 moments of our earthly pilgrimage. The humble 
 soul rejoices in this dependence, even as the all- 
 generous God delights in being our shelter, our 
 
 * Rom. viii. 29 ; James i. 18. O 
 
 0-^ UNION 
 
 THEOLOGICAL 
 SEMINARY 
 
 yob^ 
 
 
 4 
 
1 12 Our Life-Day, 
 
 strength, and our everlasting home. God, who is 
 our only help, who is nearer to us than we are to 
 ourselves, regards us ever with the deepest and 
 most loving interest. No mother watches all the 
 manifestations of the child’s growth and develop- 
 ment with more tender love ; no gardener looks 
 with kindlier care and delight on his flowers and 
 plants from the very commencement of their exis- 
 tence, than God watches our infancy and childhood, 
 our youth, and the years of our maturity and 
 strength, and the days which, to the outward 
 observer, seems days of declining life and of decay,' 
 but which to God are days of inward renewal and 
 of hastening to the ultimate glory. 
 
 This thought is full of comfort. But we need 
 this comfort ; for not merely do we depend all the 
 days of our life on divine power and goodness; 
 we also depend on His forgiving, renewing, and 
 sanctifying grace; because there is no age in which 
 sin is not around and within us. We bring sin with 
 us into the world. However we may explain the 
 awful mystery, we cannot deny the fact that we 
 are all born in sin, and that there is within us, 
 from our very birth, the germ of that gigantic 
 evil — enmity against God. In our infancy sin is 
 quiescent, and it seems difficult to believe that in 
 the tender and beautiful flower there is already 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
I 
 
 From Morm to Eve. 1 1 3 
 
 the hateful germ. Yet before we are able to 
 express our thoughts and feelings in words, our 
 features and actions betray the motions of self- 
 will, of impatience, of jealousy.^ Childhood is com- 
 paratively pure and innocent ; sin still slumbers, 
 but still it is there. It shows itself in many 
 grievous ways ; foolishness is bound up in the 
 heart of a child. Parents and teachers can see in 
 the microcosm of the child’s heart, as it manifests 
 itself in the child’s ways, much which justly excites 
 their grave anxiety, and merits their true sorrow 
 and displeasure. Childhood merges into youth, 
 and then follow the earnest, sober, and laborious 
 years of manhood, and the still more solemn and 
 thoughtful years of old age. But though the form 
 of sin changes, though the lust of the flesh, the 
 lust of the eye, and the pride of life, the love 
 of pleasure, ambition, avarice, may belong to 
 various stages of our life, sin itself, in its God- 
 opposed nature, remains the same — remains ever 
 within us. And sin is a most fearful evil. Alas ! 
 we are so used to the thought and fact that sin is 
 in us all the days of our life, that we do but rarely 
 get a glimpse of its true character ; that but rarely 
 the sight of sin sends as it were an electric shock 
 of pain and self-abhorrence through our souls. 
 
 * Augustine, Confess. /. 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
Ozcr Life-Day, 
 
 1 14 
 
 How used we are to have that fire burning within 
 us, which is radically connected with the fire of 
 hell and the everlasting depths. How little alarmed 
 do we feel that sin is harboured by our souls ; that 
 loathsome leprosy, that corroding disease, that in- 
 exorable cancer, sin, which is regarded by the holy 
 angels with unspeakable dismay and horror, which 
 calls forth wrath in the bosom of infinite love, 
 which is the source, and only source, of all misery 
 both in this world and that which is to come. 
 And to sin we get used ! It causes us but rarely 
 alarm ; we shed but few tears over it ; and when 
 we discover it in our hearts, and in our lives, we 
 feel but little and short-lived grief. Sin is in us 
 all the days of our life. What would become of 
 us if divine mercy was not with us from our birth 
 to our death 
 
 And as sin is within us, it is always around us. 
 We are not like Jesus, whose heart was hermetically 
 closed against all evil, so that the world and the 
 temptations of Satan could not touch Him, or for 
 a moment cause His will to vibrate in the God- 
 opposed direction. Too readily do we inhale as 
 fragrance the poisonous atmosphere ; too easily do 
 we allow the tempter to fill our imagination with 
 his beautiful phantasmagoria, our reason with his 
 sophistical dialectics, and our heart with doubt of 
 
From Morn to Eve. 1 1 5 
 
 God’s truth and God’s love. From this inward 
 defeat to outward transgression of God’s com- 
 mandment is but an easy step. Satan, the great 
 adversary, one of whose stratagems is to make 
 both world and church forget his existence, and 
 become ignorant of his methods, is our tempter 
 throughout life. Think of His cruelty, that he 
 does not spare the tender child. He regards 
 neither the beauty and frailty of childhood, nor 
 the sweet prayers of a mother and the earnest 
 affection of a father, nor the loving presence of the 
 watchers, the holy angels, nor the special tender- 
 ness and guarding eye of the heavenly Father. 
 Satan seeks to fan the sinful spark in the child’s 
 soul, and like a very wolf endeavours to destroy the 
 little lambs. And think of Satan’s perseverance 
 and persistence. He despairs not of the dying 
 saint ; and when he is not able to tempt him with 
 thoughts and imaginations of evil, he tries to 
 divert him from God and Christ by the thought 
 of self-righteousness and self-complacency. 
 
 Are we from infancy to death dependent on 
 God’s goodness and power on account of our 
 weakness } how much more are we dependent on 
 God’s grace on account of our sinfulness and 
 spiritual danger ! 
 
 But God is rich in mercy towards all. He is 
 
Our Life- Day. 
 
 1 16 
 
 able to renew and to inhabit by His Spirit the 
 infant. He sanctified John the Baptist even from 
 the womb. Jesus can touch the little ones whom 
 as yet He cannot teach ; He can transplant them 
 into the kingdom of God; He can make these 
 tender yet sinful branches of the Adam - tree 
 members of His mystical body. God is able to 
 incline the hearts of young children to hear the 
 Good Shepherd’s voice, so that they may come 
 unto Him, to be folded in His arms. In our 
 youth, when temptation is strongest, God can 
 constrain us by the love of Christ, and filled with 
 humility and faith young men have the word 
 of God abiding in them, and overcome the wicked 
 one.* The grace of God can visit us in our 
 manhood, when the world is too much with us, 
 and we have settled down in the habit of a 
 Christless existence. The grace of God which 
 bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, 
 from the babe to the man, who on the very 
 threshold of the grave utters the petition, “ Lord, 
 remember Thou me !” 
 
 How full of comfort are these truths, when we 
 think of the problem of life. Let me conclude 
 these general remarks by reminding you again of 
 the crowning consolation. Adam was sent into 
 
 * I John ii. 13 , 14- 
 
 1 
 
From Morn to Eve, 
 
 117 
 
 the world in the form of ripe and fully-developed 
 manhood; but when the Son of God undertook 
 and condescended to redeem mankind, He did 
 not abhor the virgin’s womb.” He went through 
 human life in all its phases. He lived as an 
 
 infant, a child, a youth, and through the years of 
 
 \ 
 
 mature manhood, to sanctify every age, and to be 
 an example to all.* He has presented unto His 
 Father, who in Him is also our Father, the whole 
 of human life from its mysterious commencement 
 to its termination in death, and throughout this 
 life only that which is pleasing to the holy' God ; 
 and if we believe in Jesus we are represented in 
 Him, and every phase of our life, every part of 
 our path, is consecrated by the perfection of the 
 incarnate Son. 
 
 When we remember all these things we can 
 look upon human life with thankfulness, with 
 humble trust, nay, with adoring joy. Notwith- 
 standing the many afflictions, trials, sorrows; the 
 problems which we cannot solve in this valley, 
 but which await their full solution in the bright 
 hereafter ; though there are many tears which 
 even God does not wipe from our eyes until we 
 are before His throne, yet can we thank God for 
 our creation, yet can we rejoice that we belong to 
 * An oft-quoted remark of Irenaeus. 
 
Our Life-Day. 
 
 1 18 
 
 humanity; that unto us a child was born, a Son 
 was given ; that the Word was made flesh, and 
 dwelt among us ; that in our nature He glorified 
 the Father ; that in our exalted Lord dwelleth 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily. We rejoice 
 that we belong to the many sons whom the 
 Captain of our salvation is leading to glory; we 
 rejoice that we are joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, 
 and that throughout all ages we shall remember 
 the wondrous story of His incarnation and birth, 
 of His childhood and baptism, of His obedience 
 and death on the cross — “the perfect life-day of 
 the eternal Son.”, 
 
 I. INFANCY. 
 
 ( 
 
 David often thinks of the helpless years of in- 
 fancy ; nay, of the hour of his birth, and how God 
 was then the strength and help of his mother. He 
 reminds himself of this in the dark days of afflic- 
 tion, sorrow, and trial. In that most solemn psalm 
 which found its fulfilment in the cry of our Lord 
 Jesus on the cross, David says : “But thou art He 
 that took me out of the womb : thou didst make 
 me be in safety when I was upon my mother’s 
 breasts.” Is it not good for us also to remember 
 the wonderful and spontaneous goodness of our 
 God, before we even knew our helplessness, and 
 
were able to send a prayer or a sigh to His 
 heavenly throne? His infinite love, self-moved, 
 looked down upon us with compassion and tender- b 
 
 ness. Let us think of it with gratitude, and derive 
 from it hope and encouragement. However help- 
 less and weak we may become again, the strong ; 
 
 arms of everlasting love are ever ready to guard, 
 nurse, and help that which is utterly feeble. 
 
 He who was our help will be the same faithful 
 Creator to the end. When we meet anyone who 
 says to us, ‘Wou may not remember me, but I knew 
 you when you were a little child ; I was your 
 father’s and mother’s friend ; I have often played 
 with you when you were yet in your mother’s 
 arms,” does not our heart warm to him ? and can 
 we ever fear any evil from his hands ? Such was 
 the appeal of David to God, the God of his infancy, 
 the God of his mother : I am thy servant, the 
 
 son of thy handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds.” 
 
 And to this feeling God Himself appeals, when 
 He encourages Isaac, by saying that He was the 
 God of his father; and Jacob, that He was the God 
 of his father Isaac and of his father Abraham.^ 
 
 But infancy is not merely the object of God’s 
 tender and loving care, it is also the object of His 
 marvellous wisdom and power. We do not re- 
 
 * Ps. xxii. 9, cxvi. i6 ; Gen. xxv. 3., xxviii. 13. 
 
 
120 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 member the days of our infancy, and the life which 
 our immortal spirit lived then is altogether hidden 
 from us. If some angel were to tell us what then 
 passed within the sanctuary of our soul, we should 
 perhaps understand it as little as our memory can 
 recall anything belonging to the dawn of our life. 
 Well may we believe the apostle's declaration, '‘It 
 doth not yet appear what we shall be,” when our 
 infancy is so incomprehensible to us.* Parents also 
 who watched us with intense and constant affec- 
 tion could only observe what is outward ; but their 
 eye could not penetrate into the inner life. But 
 God beheld and knew the life within. When the 
 daughter of Pharaoh opened the little ark of bul- 
 rushes, and beheld that tiny babe, whose tear-filled 
 eyes were scarcely able to bear the light of day, 
 and whose feeble arms appealed for help, all the 
 powers of mind which afterwards characterised 
 Moses, the man of God, were already in existence 
 in that tender child. All those mental gifts, all 
 those Avonderful powers of the soul and spirit, were 
 already there which manifested themselves after- 
 wards in the man who brought Israel out of 
 Egypt, and through whom God gave His law and 
 covenant to His people. There was nothing 
 added afterwards, there was only development. 
 
 * J. H. Newman. 
 
 / 
 
From Morn to Eve, 
 
 I2I 
 
 Before the power of reasoning manifests itself 
 reason exists ; before volition shows itself there is 
 the will And, as we experience subsequently, 
 God Himself has implanted within us eternal 
 mother-ideas — primary, axiomatic, fundamental — 
 which cannot and need not be proved, from which 
 we constantly start, and into which we constantly 
 recede, to bring out what we need and seek. The 
 image of God, in which we are created, is stamped 
 on our soul from its commencement. God sees in 
 the infant all that the germ contains. 
 
 Still more wonderful is it to think that God is 
 able to enter into this apparently inaccessible shrine, 
 and that the Holy Ghost can influence the infant 
 spirit. What that direct sanctifying influence is 
 we cannot imagine, as we know of scarcely any 
 other influence except that of teaching and per- 
 suasion, indirect influence through the avenues of 
 thought and affection. The eternal life of which 
 infants partake who are called from earth to the 
 immediate beholding of God’s countenance must 
 to some extent have commenced here on earth. 
 Hidden to the eye of man, and inaccessible even 
 to his thought, the Spirit of God has brought the 
 light and life of God, has brought Christ to the 
 infant soul. 
 
122 
 
 Our Life-Day, 
 
 II. CHILDHOOD. 
 
 The infant develops into the child. Self-con- 
 sciousness dawns; the thoughtful and self-conscious 
 spirit begins to manifest itself in utterance, the child 
 speaks. Language, that rubicon which no lower 
 animal ever crosses, reveals the dignity of one 
 only a little lower than the angels.* We admire 
 the stupendous works of creation. The glorious 
 heavens, the work of God’s fingers ; the sun, the 
 moon, and the stars, which He has ordained ; all 
 the marvellous works of God — as beautiful to-day 
 as they were the moment of their birth. We see 
 God’s skill and power in the majestic mountains 
 and rocks, and still more in the plant - world, the 
 flowers and trees ; but what is this all, compared 
 with the marvel of a babe’s first utterance } Out 
 of the mouth of babes God has ordained praise 
 for Himself. Man is the centre of God’s creation, 
 the link between spirit and nature; he is member 
 of a race, and partakes thus of the life of nature, is 
 subject to its laws, and apparently like the lower 
 animals ; and he belongs also to the spirit world, 
 he possesses an individual spirit, he is created 
 in God’s image, and to find life in communion 
 
 * Psalm viii. 
 
From Mo7m to Eve, 
 
 123 
 
 with the Father in heaven. It is for this reason 
 that we feel God so near, when we watch the first 
 dawn of self-conscious life in the child ; that with 
 reverence and in joy we welcome the little brother- 
 pilgrim to our God-given inheritance — eternity. 
 
 There is in all of us a feeling of reverence and 
 affection towards the days of our childhood. But 
 it is only Christ who has taught mankind to 
 understand its true meaning and exquisite beauty ; 
 even as He only restores to us the childlike 
 spirit, and will ultimately grant us the fulfilment 
 and perfection of which childhood is an emblem 
 and prophetic intimation. Antiquity did not truly 
 appreciate childhood. When man had departed 
 from the Father’s house, and in that spirit of 
 self-dependence^ which is the root of all sin 
 and misery had gone into a far country, he lost 
 the true, profound, and exquisitely sweet mean- 
 ing of child-life. Not knowing the true nature 
 of humility, and complete yet joyous subordi- 
 nation to another will, childhood was viewed 
 chiefly as a very imperfect phase which was 
 necessary in order to reach manly strength and 
 wisdom; but which in itself had no substantial 
 value, which formed no ever-abiding treasure, and 
 which contained no emblem and lesson for our 
 
 * avTapK€La, 
 
124 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 whole life. It was Jesus who taught us what 
 is meant by God in children. Jesus was the first 
 who set a child in the midst of the disciples as an 
 emblem of the heavenly, spiritual mind. Once 
 the great thought was uttered by the Holy Child 
 of God, the Wisdom from above, the conscience 
 and heart instinctively received it as a true and 
 beautiful revelation. Now we know what is meant 
 by ‘^childlike." ^ , 
 
 In bringing before us the mind of little children, 
 our Lord avails Himself of a principle in our 
 nature which makes us regard our childhood with 
 tenderness, and at the same time He makes it 
 easy for most of us to observe the characteristics 
 of the true believer. The simplicity, the un- 
 assuming guilelessness, the unconscious humility, 
 the peaceful contentedness with the present, the 
 sweet docility, which does not think it strange, or 
 irksome, or degrading, to be continually instructed, 
 moulded, corrected, but receives counsel and re- 
 buke with an open and loving heart — who has not 
 noticed these lovely features of childhood ? The 
 constant influence of a superior mind, instead of 
 raising a wall of separation, or infusing a spirit of 
 bitterness, becomes rather a link of sweet and 
 tender affection, which subsequent years cannot 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 3 ; xix. 14. 
 
From Morn to Eve. 
 
 I 
 
 break or enfeeble. From a child learn the spirit 
 of discipleship. 
 
 A child is earnest. With all its playfulness 
 childhood is characterized by deep solemnity^ 
 Children are ready to believe things unseen, and 
 eager to hear about God. They listen with awe 
 and reverence; they find it easy to believe in prayer; 
 they look for immediate obedience to God’s precepts. 
 
 Again, a child is frank and confiding. It is calm, 
 and free from care and anxiety ; joyous in thanks- 
 giving ; humble without effort ; ready to treat all 
 human beings with affection, resting in the known 
 love of parents and teachers. 
 
 Childhood has a peculiarly spiritual and real 
 character. As yet time and strength are not 
 occupied with the distractions of earthly work 
 and worldly influences. The will also, with its dis- 
 turbing motions, seeking to assert self as a centre, 
 is as yet comparatively quiet, and mind and heart 
 are free and open to receive impressions and to 
 respond to truth and love. At leisure from himself 
 the child is willing to learn, to see, and to hear. 
 Everything in childhood has the . character of 
 education ; all that is done, and all that happens, 
 goes to the formation of the future or inner man. 
 Parents and teachers are continually directing, 
 rebuking, moulding ; the whole life is under rule, 
 
126 
 
 Ou7^ Life- Day. 
 
 guidance, and restraint. But the one constant 
 object is the child himself^ his character, his present 
 and future welfare. The whole day, with its lessons 
 and recreations, is devoted to the true and real 
 interests of the child. The child is treated with 
 true love, with true humanity, not as a means to 
 an end, but as the sacred and precious object itself. 
 We shrink from the utterance of a single word, or 
 even from manifesting a look, that could disturb 
 the purity of the child, or in any way injure its 
 spiritual growth. And so children lead a most 
 real and true life before God ; sheltered from the 
 artificial and unprofitable world of unrealities, 
 as well as from the mechanical toil and hollow 
 ambition with which we have subsequently to 
 contend. Hence among our most beautiful and 
 fragrant recollections we treasure in after-life the 
 
 o 
 
 solemn, real, and peaceful school-days of our 
 childhood. 
 
 God, in holy Scripture, gives a very important 
 place to children. When He brings His people out 
 of Egypt He remembers especially the little ones. 
 In all the laws and statutes which He gave through 
 His servant Moses God seems to have almost more 
 regard to the children than to the grown-up people. 
 With great frequency and earnestness He exhorts 
 the fathers to teach His precepts and command- 
 
From Morn to Eve. 
 
 127 
 
 ments to their children, and by daily conversation 
 to impress them on the receptive minds of their 
 little ones. In ordaining the beautiful festivals 
 God pictures the family circle, and the thoughtful 
 little faces, with their eager questions in that spirit 
 of virgin-wonder which God has given to child- 
 hood, and provides the answers which are to be 
 remembered and repeated from generation to 
 generation. When God entered into covenant with 
 Abraham He remembered the whole household. 
 When the law was read before all people,"] God 
 commanded the children also to be gathered, and 
 makes special mention of the children of the 
 stranger “ within thy gates . . . and that their child- 
 ren, which have not known anything, may hear, and 
 learn to fear the Lord your God.” * Thus Joshua 
 read the law before all the congregation, “ with the 
 women, and all the little ones.”f When Jesus 
 sends His messengers. He sends them not merely 
 to the individual, but to the whole family. “Peace 
 be to this house,” is their salutation, and their 
 message : “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” J 
 
 God, who loves children, holds constant inter- 
 course with children. He influences their minds 
 
 ♦ Deut. xxxi. 12, 13. + Josh. viii. 35. 
 
 + Luke X. 5 ; Acts xvi. 31. 
 

 ■N : ;■ t 
 
 I '• 
 
 V 
 
 r-\ 
 
 128 Our Life-Day. 
 
 \ 
 
 and hearts continually, even as He watches over 
 their bodies. Look back on your own childhood. 
 Examine the deepest, the most fundamental im- 
 pressions which you have received, the profound 
 thoughts and feelings to which you are always 
 brought back. Holiness, love, eternity, the Father 
 in heaven — these great thoughts, too great, vast, 
 and deep for words, live in you now as they first 
 awoke within your heart in your childhood. You 
 can almost recall the child’s feeling, as these 
 thoughts were first realised and uttered. Do we 
 not receive in childhood the true idea of repen- 
 tance, of the sweetness of repentance, when, after 
 the hard and miserable hours of self-will, dis- 
 obedience, and isolation, the child, with mingled 
 sorrow and hope, self-condemnation and yearning 
 affection, returns to the father, and is humbled 
 and elevated by his forgiving and restoring love.^^ 
 Did not God then teach us in parable that 
 it is a bitter thing to depart from Him, but truly 
 a sweet and blessed thing to return unto the Lord 
 
 our God ; for unto Him belong mercies and for- 
 
 \ 
 
 pfiven esses ? 
 
 o 
 
 But the Lord often leads children, not merely 
 into the sanctuary, but into the holy of holies. 
 The child’s heart, which has often been filled 
 with solemn reverence, with joyous gratitude, with 
 
From Morn to Eve, 
 
 129 
 
 trembling adoration, with tender love, may yet, 
 like little Samuel, surrounded with sacred emblems 
 and prepared by divine teaching, never have heard 
 the voice of God, the direct, personal, saving call 
 of the Lord. But at last the hour approaches ; 
 the Holy Ghost enlightens the mind and touches 
 the heart ; the presence of God is felt ; the love of 
 Jesus, who died for the flock, brings true peace, 
 and another lamb is within the fold of the Good 
 Shepherd. The divine Friend of children on His 
 heavenly throne delights in their Hosannah. He 
 is able to feed the lambs, to reveal Himself unto 
 their hearts, to teach them from their earliest days 
 heavenly wisdom. And many a long life-day of 
 service and testimony has commenced in the very 
 first hours of morning. 
 
 The impression that children who are brought 
 early to the knowledge and love of Christ are 
 soon called away from this life, is not founded 
 on extensive observation. From the Scripture 
 biographies, and from Church history, it appears 
 that many who received the grace of God in 
 childhood, served God and laboured for Christ 
 during a long life, and thus gave full evidence of 
 the reality of their early conversion. We must not 
 doubt the genuineness of a child’s Christian faith ; 
 
 but we must bear in mind that as the child 
 
 K 
 
I 
 
 130 Life- Day, 
 
 develops it needs instruction, guidance, warning. 
 The central knowledge and love of God need to 
 be deepened, as mental power develops and the 
 whole circle of life enlarges. There are 'many- 
 spiritual dangers and diseases to be guarded 
 
 against ; above all, there is much need of constant, 
 
 \ 
 
 wholesome, and varied spiritual nourishment. 
 
 III. YOUTH. 
 
 Childhood merges into youth. Even though we 
 have as children come to know God, youth is the 
 age when we must make again, and with fuller 
 knowledge and purpose, the great choice.^ It is a 
 crisis. Our mental and physical powers develop ; 
 our own individuality manifests itself, with its 
 peculiar gifts and aspirations ; the world opens 
 before us in all its manifold beauty, and with its 
 various calls to exertion. We ask ourselves, “ What 
 is to be my life, my task, my happiness } We seek 
 also the object on which to centre our affection. 
 
 All nations have recognised the great impor- 
 tance of youth. They have regarded youth as the 
 most solemn and momentous age of life. The 
 story of Hercules and the choice between pleasure 
 
 ^ Compare my “ Conversion, Illustrated by Examples 
 recorded in the Bible.” Timothy, chap. vi. 
 
 I 
 
From Morii to Eve. 
 
 131 
 
 and virtue, expresses the sentiment of all mankind. 
 But we possess more than earthly wisdom and 
 experience ; to us is given God’s own word, that it 
 may be a light on our path. Throughout Scripture 
 there is special instruction for the young. In the 
 Proverbs of Solomon, the unsurpassed guide-book 
 of youth, the simplicity of childhood, fearing and 
 loving the Lord, is beheld developing into wisdom, 
 prudence, understanding, in the manifold tempta- 
 tions and relationships of life. 
 
 The young need guidance ; for in the multitude 
 of new thoughts, impulses, and prospects, they 
 become confused and perplexed. God invites us 
 to ask Him to be the guide of our youth. They 
 need not merely the guidance of wisdom, but the 
 constraining influence of divine love ; for sin and 
 the world possess peculiar power and fascination 
 for the young. The Lord is able not only to teach 
 but to touch the heart, and to guide into the way 
 everlasting. 
 
 The second thing specially needed in youth is a 
 purifying and cleansing power. Sin, which slum- 
 bered in infancy, which was quiescent in childhood, 
 now asserts itself with great strength ; for the 
 simple reason that now the self-consciousness is 
 intense, and sin in its root is the assertion of selj\ 
 in whatever form, be it in pride, ambition, the love 
 
 I 
 
132 
 
 Ou7'^ Life- Day, 
 
 of pleasure, or any other of the myriad manifesta- 
 tions it assumes. “ Wherewithal shall a young man 
 cleanse his way.^” is the question of the psalmist. 
 And the answer points to the word of life — By 
 taking heed thereto according to thy word.”^ The 
 conscience must be first purified and set free by 
 faith in Christ, our atonement ; and the heart must 
 be continually influenced by faith, by looking unto 
 Jesus, by beholding the things unseen and eternal. 
 
 Youth longs above all for love. God has given 
 to us earthly love, that we may be drawn by it 
 to Himself, and to that only one and indivisible 
 divine love. In the love of the creature, apart 
 from God, we can never find rest for our heart. 
 
 Something every heart is loving ; 
 
 If not Jesus, none can rest.” 
 
 The only object of the soul’s love is God Him- 
 self Youth finds happiness only then when it can 
 appropriate the words of the psalmist : “ With my 
 heart do I love thee, O Lord, my strength.” The 
 disciple whom Jesus loves rests on the bosom of 
 eternal love and blessedness. Our hearts are made 
 for God, and are never at peace till we come to 
 Him. 
 
 Youth stands on the cross-road between pleasant 
 
 * Psalm cxix. 9. 
 
 t Psalm xviii., original. 
 
134 
 
 Otu" Life- Day, 
 
 voluntary sacrifice to be numbered among the 
 persecuted race. And in this choice between 
 worldly ambition and happiness, and suffering and 
 shame, what was it that gave the decision ? It 
 was nothing else but the reproach of Christ. It 
 was the bleeding Lamb of God, Beholding the 
 cause of God’s truth and people suffering in 
 a world of idolatry, sin, and cruelty, Moses 
 esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches 
 than the treasures of Egypt. And thus is it with 
 every one who is truly brought to God. It is true 
 he sees the recompence of the reward, the ever- 
 lasting blessedness, the unfading crown. But that 
 which attracts him immediately and with most 
 direct power is Christ crucified. He says, ‘^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.” He thanks God 
 who has counted him worthy to be identified with 
 the poor and afflicted people of the Son of God, 
 Blessed are the young who, beholding Christ 
 crucified, despised and rejected of men, do not go 
 away sorrowful, but gladly obey His call to take 
 up the cross, to follow Him in humility, and to 
 walk in the narrow way. The fellowship of Christ’s 
 sufferings will bring with it peace and joy such as 
 the world cannot know, and while they are delivered 
 
I* 
 
 From Morn' to Eve. 135 
 
 from this present evil age, they possess the dignity 
 
 of the citizens of heaven. 
 
 It has been remarked, that as in the two youthful 
 fip'ures, Achilles and Alexander, the one standing 
 at the entrance, the other at the end of Grecian his- 
 tory, is mirrored the nature and life of the Hellenic 
 people ; so we behold at the commencement and 
 at the end of the history of the Jewish theocracy 
 two young men, in whom the spirit of the true 
 Israelite is manifested with peculiar power and 
 attractiveness — Joseph in Egypt, and Daniel in 
 Babylon. Both passed through severe afflictions, 
 trial, and temptation in tender youth ; both were 
 witnesses for the true God, and representatives of 
 the chosen race at heathen courts ; both were 
 blameless in their pure walk, and by their elevated 
 character and irreproachable conduct commended 
 and adorned the doctrine of the gospel ; both were 
 endowed with wonderful insight and wisdom, and 
 exemplified the prophetic character of Israel, the 
 messengers of the divine, heaven-sent interpreta- 
 tion of the dreams and problems which the most 
 renowned sages of heathenism could not under- 
 stand. What illustrations do these two young 
 men afford of integrity, single-heartedness, purity ; 
 of self-restraint and courage; of strength and 
 of meekness ; of high purpose, lofty intellect. 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 136 Our L ife-Day, 
 
 and of childlike humility. Such and other noble 
 and precious qualities are seen in them, and all 
 proceeding from one centre — they walked with 
 God. This is the explanation of their character 
 and life. Godliness is their distinguishing feature. 
 Joseph feared God from his childhood ; the 
 ungodly ways of his brothers grieved him, and 
 the tender boy was attracted with peculiar power 
 by his aged father, who honoured Jehovah. Zeal 
 for the honour and righteousness of the chosen 
 family filled his young heart. What many years 
 after he said of himself — I fear God ’ — was his 
 motto from the very commencement. A deep 
 and constant sense of the presence of the holy and 
 loving Covenant- God characterises, him from his 
 youth. ' When tempted by sin, he thinks of God, 
 and gains the victory. The thought of God 
 enables him to bear patiently his imprisonment, 
 and to fulfil his duties cheerfully and kindly. The 
 thought of God keeps from him pride and self- 
 trust, and invests his bearing before Pharaoh with 
 dignified and beautiful humility. He remembered 
 God at all times, and, as Stephen says in his last 
 address, “ God was with him.” 
 
 The same godliness we see in Daniel. His 
 faith in God was strong. Though Jerusalem was 
 destroyed, and the chosen people were led into 
 
From Morn to Eve, 
 
 137 
 
 captivity, he believed in God and trusted in His 
 word. No bitter disappointment and gloomy 
 doubt weakened his joyous loyalty to Jehovah 
 and His commandments. He had to exchange 
 the dignity of a prince with a subordinate posi- 
 tion. Tempted to conformity with the world, he 
 purposed in his heart not to defile himself by 
 transgressing the law of Moses. And while he 
 thus retained the spirit of Jerusalem at Baby- 
 lon’s court, his decision and strength of charac- 
 ter were combined with such sweetness and 
 winning ingenuousness, thaf God brought him 
 into favour and tender love with the prince of 
 eunuchs. Add to this, that in all matters of 
 wisdom and understanding he excelled all the 
 magicians and astrologers of the realm. But 
 although possessed of a lofty intellect, and of a 
 mind profound and speculative, he was not led 
 astray by philosophy, falsely so called, or beguiled 
 from the simplicity of revealed truth. The wis- 
 dom of earth did not weaken or alter his faith 
 in the God in heaven “who revealeth secrets.” 
 Such were Joseph and Daniel; they lived long 
 and eventful lives, and their “ old age was as 
 their youth.”* 
 
 But among the young men mentioned in Scrip- 
 * Deuteronomy xxxiii. 25 (Vulgate and Luther). 
 
I 
 
 138 Our L ife-Day. 
 
 ture there is perhaps none who combines so many 
 noble qualities as David. In secret, when no 
 human eye was near, on the plains of Bethlehem 
 the son of Jesse meditated on the sacred narratives 
 which he had heard and read from his childhood, 
 till faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
 became the animating principle of his life ^ and the 
 strength of his soul. This faith was the victory 
 which overcame the bear and the lion ; and the 
 presence of God became his shield and his sword. 
 Throughout life God was his refuge and strength. 
 The kindliness and tender affection which he felt 
 to his flock remained ever in his heart, and in his 
 old age he still feels towards his people as his poor 
 sheep, whose sufferings are more than he can bear. 
 
 The contemplation of nature and the knowledge 
 and love of the God of Israel filled his soul with 
 melody ; and of David in his youth we read that 
 he played on his harp, even as we read of David at 
 the end of his life, and as ever since he is remem- 
 bered among God’s people, ^^the anointed of the 
 God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel.” 
 (2 Samuel xxiii. i.) Such heart-faith, tenderness, 
 poetic inspiration, and spirit of melody we find in 
 him, combined with valour, heroic courage, and 
 prudence. The enthusiastic applause of Israel did 
 not elate him ; and the position which the anoin- 
 
t 
 
 From Morn to Eve, 139 
 
 ting of Samuel gave him did not disturb his quiet, 
 patient, and modest bearing. He was noble and 
 generous in his conduct towards Saul. How 
 patient was he when the fulfilment of the promise 
 was delayed, when instead of the throne he had 
 constant danger and hardship, when his master, 
 who had at one time put all that he had into his 
 hand, sought his life. All these long years he 
 “ mastered his heart ; he was still ; ” he kept his 
 hands clean, and his lips guileless ; he was loyal 
 throughout. Whence this elevation of character 
 
 I 
 
 and sustained nobility As David himself tells 
 us in his Psalms, it was by faith, by his constant 
 communion with God, by his seeking counsel from 
 the Lord, and delighting himself in God as his 
 God. He lifted up his soul to God at all times, and 
 thus he was able to add to his many great virtues 
 an overflowing thankfulness, and a triumphant joy 
 in the God of his salvation. How difficult is it 
 for us, when in safety and comfort, to say what 
 David said in times of keenest suffering and 
 greatest danger : The Lord is my rock, and my 
 
 fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength, 
 in whom I will trust.” And again, ‘H will bless 
 the I.ord at all times ; His praise shall continually 
 be in my mouth.”, 
 
 Youth, in all its peculiar beauty and strength, 
 
140 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 has never found such an exponent as David — a 
 brighter specimen of youthful idealism, poetic 
 elevation, intuitive insight, chivalry, self-restraint, 
 simplicity and unconsciousness, meekness and 
 high-toned generosity. The hidden source of 
 David’s greatness was his faith in God. “Thou 
 hast taught me from my youth,” was his confes- 
 sion in his old age. His delight was in the law of 
 the Lord, and he meditated on it day and night. 
 It was the beauty of God that shone upon him. 
 
 III. MANHOOD. 
 
 » > 
 
 God plants us in families. Marriage, instituted 
 in Paradise, and anew consecrated and irradiated 
 with typical glory at the feast of Cana, brings 
 before us the great mystery of Christ and the 
 Church. God blesses us with earthly love and 
 communion ; He gladdens our hearts and dis- 
 ciplines our souls by the sympathy and com- 
 panionship of one united with us wholly and for 
 life, in joy and sorrow, in work and rest, in all the 
 various experiences of our pilgrimage. God puts 
 upon us the dignity of fatherhood and of mother- 
 hood, places part of His own crown upon our 
 heads, and anoints us prophets, priests, and kings 
 in our homes. The great Lord of the harvest 
 
From Morn to Eve. 
 
 141 
 
 assigns to us our work, and gives us time and 
 opportunity to develop our energies and to exer- 
 cise the gifts entrusted to our stewardship. He 
 sends the sunshine of prosperity. He chastens us 
 also with affliction. He deals with us in His 
 wisdom and love. Life becomes fuller and broader, 
 and we attain greater strength and skill. 
 
 But what is the object of our life ? Why does 
 God not transplant us at once into the higher 
 sanctuary ? We are to be His witnesses ; we are 
 to glorify Him; we are also to attain to spiritual 
 manhood and maturity ; and lastly, we are to 
 exert the power of Christian influence on those 
 around us. It is just at this period of our life that 
 our danger is to sink into spiritual languor and 
 routine. We are apt to forget that, while not 
 slothful in business, we must also be fervent in 
 spirit. Our intellectual and social life expands, our 
 interests multiply, our activities increase; but as the 
 streams become more numerous is the fountain 
 kept pure and strong We read of one in Scripture 
 who is indeed a model for men in the zenith of 
 strength and usefulness. Daniel was the greatest 
 man, after the king, in one of the most powerful 
 empires which the world has ever seen. Out of 
 one hundred and twenty men who were chosen 
 to be rulers, three were elected “presidents.” 
 
142 
 
 Our Life- Day 
 
 Of these three Daniel was the first. Nay, the 
 king would willingly have made him first in the 
 whole monarchy, so wonderful was Daniel’s wis- 
 dom, influence, and dignity. What a burden must 
 have weighed incessantly upon his mind ! The 
 conflicting interests of many nationalities, the 
 complex machinery of a state so vast and im- 
 portant, must have Teen a heavy burden of 
 responsibility, and the object of ceaseless activity 
 and toil. Although he was a foreigner, and his 
 religion despised in the land and at the court, 
 although he had no friends, and many envious 
 and jealous detractors, yet all had to acknowledge 
 that there was an excellent spirit in him."^ What 
 did they mean by an excellent spirit ? Not the 
 deep feelings of devotion, the inner principle of 
 o-odliiiess, the enlightened views of Scripture truth. 
 
 7 o 
 
 All this was a region unknown to them. But 
 what they could see, and could not fail to observe, 
 was what Jesus calls his “good works”— his 
 integrity, his honour, his diligence, his loyalty, his 
 justice, his candour, his kindliness, his benevolence, 
 his wisdom, his patience, his self-control. What a 
 man is brought before us here ! Not a recluse, 
 not a contemplative disciple, to whom has been 
 granted the quiet life of solitude and prayer, but a 
 
 * Daniel vi. 3, 4. 
 
From Morn to Eve. 
 
 H3 
 
 man foremost in all the difficult problems of the 
 
 state, overwhelmed with labour and responsibility, 
 
 watched by all, and surrounded by perplexities 
 
 and temptations. Yet the testimony of all is, that 
 
 there is an excellent spirit in him. Look now at 
 
 the source of his goodness and greatness. Look at 
 
 the rock on which the beautiful building is reared. 
 
 Look at the unseen fire which daily renews the 
 
 bright flame. Daniel was a man of prayer. He 
 
 made time for reading the Scripture, and for offer- 
 * 
 
 ing supplications unto God. Three times a dav he 
 felt it necessary, he felt it delightful, to retire from 
 work unto direct communion with the Father in 
 heaven. We read of John, the beloved' disciple, 
 that he leaned on the bosom of Jesus. But John 
 was pre-eminently called to the contemplative life. 
 We may think that our worldly and varied em- 
 ployments do not permit us to regard him as our 
 model. But is it not as true of Daniel, the states- 
 man, as it is of John, that he was the di.sciple 
 whom Jehovah loved, and who leaned on Jehovah’s 
 arm 1 
 
 The development of our spiritual and our natural 
 life ought in .some respects to coincide. The 
 spiritual man, like every living organism, has his 
 growth and development. The new man is born of 
 incorruptible seed and by the word of truth. His 
 
144 
 
 Our Life-Day 
 
 life is perfect at his birth, and subsequently nothing 
 can be added to it. But he needs growth ; gifts 
 and powers have to be developed and exercised. 
 This is not merely an organic process, but also a 
 spiritual life ; it involves our labour and diligence, 
 it employs our will and affections, and it is con- 
 nected with our ultimate character and reward. 
 
 The apostle Paul speaks thus of two stages of 
 the Christian life — the childish and the manly. 
 The apostle John mentions also young men, and 
 notices their strength and their victory over the 
 wicked one. ^ It is evident that the fundamental 
 characteristics of the children of God remain the 
 same throughout ; nay, that it is desirable to retain 
 the peculiar characteristics of each age in that 
 which succeeds it. But growth is an indispensable 
 condition of health, and the Christian' is to become 
 ''perfect;” that is, mature; to remain a child in 
 malice, in understanding to become a man. The 
 simplicity, the receptive joy, the first love of 
 Christian childhood, can only remain true and 
 genuine if we advance in knowledge, in the exer- 
 cise of our gifts, in the active use of the grace 
 bestowed on us. We must as Christians also pass 
 from childhood and its peaceful schoolroom into 
 the rough, laborious, and earnest school of life ; 
 
 * 2 Cor. iii. ; Heb. v. 12-14; i John ii. 12-14. 
 
145 
 
 \ 
 
 From Momt to Eve. 
 
 faith must be tested ; love must be exercised ; and 
 
 the various sides of the Christian character must 
 
 find their development. As youth in the natural 
 
 life is a transition period — restless, full of new 
 
 energies, as yet inharmonious, and seeking their 
 
 ruler ; full of zeal, which needs discipline ; of self- 
 
 reliance, which needs chastening; on the other 
 
 side, ideal, generous, full of courage and devotion 
 
 ¥ 
 
 — so we have also in the spiritual life a period 
 when we are strong, enterprising, ardent ; when, 
 like Peter, we promise never to deny the Master ; 
 when we gird ourselves, and go where it seems 
 good to us. Yet may we at this stage be per- 
 mitted to do some valiant things. God may 
 honour our loyalty, our courage, our overflowing 
 zeal and love to the souls of men. But there is 
 the stage of manhood. There are some Christians 
 who are men in knowledge of God and of His 
 revelation, in experience of prayer, in humility 
 and self-distrust, in patience, and in self-denying 
 love. They are men also in this respect, that they 
 have by prayer and practice so appropriated the 
 gifts of God bestowed on them individually that 
 their Christian character has been formed. Such 
 Christians have power to teach, to influence, and 
 to mould others. They are fathers, and in the 
 
 gospel they beget children ; they are spiritual, not 
 
 L 
 
146 Our Life-Day. 
 
 easily shaken or moved, but possessing discern- 
 ment, and able to endure temptation * 
 
 Now when we have reached natural, we ought 
 also to have attained to spiritual manhood ; to a 
 fuller knowledge and confirmed conviction of 
 divine truth ; to deeper insight into our own 
 hearts, and to a more sustained trust in Christ ; to 
 greater skill in our conflict with sin and against 
 the devices (methods) of the adversary ; to greater 
 fruitfulness in good works, and to more patient 
 and helpful love towards our fellow-Christians and 
 all men. 
 
 Christian maturity shows itself in knowledge. We 
 are to be men in understanding. The apostolic 
 prayer is, that believers may be filled with the 
 spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge 
 of God. We are to ‘'go on unto perfection.” 
 We have received the unction from above, from 
 the Holy One, and therefore possess the power to 
 know all things, f It is through the truth that the 
 Father sanctifies us. Growth in the knowledge of 
 Jesus Christ is the necessary manifestation of life. 
 This knowledge increases not merely in compass, 
 but in depth ; it assumes the character of intense 
 
 * I Cor. xii. 8-10, iv. 15 ; Philemon 10 ; Heb. v. 14. 
 
 t I John ii. 20 ; Eph. i. 17 ; Col. i. 9 ; ^ Cor* ^iv. 20 ; 
 Heb. vi. I. 
 
From Mo7m to Eve, 
 
 147 
 
 conviction. In this respect mature Christians form 
 a strong" contrast to a peculiarity of our present 
 age. A keen observer thus describes this feature 
 of our day: ''A weak generation feels it pleasant 
 to be waved to and fro by every wind of doctrine ; 
 a childish and effeminate race deems it an advan- 
 tage to have no fixed conviction, and would find it 
 tiresome to continue with life-long loyalty in the 
 one truth, and to find peace in the one thought.” 
 It is constant change — the intellectual activity and 
 excitement in the search after truth, and not truth 
 itself which is their great object. Hence words, 
 brilliant and subtle dialectics, negative doubts, and 
 attacks on old opinions afford the nutriment of 
 many minds. This tendency affects even Chris- 
 tians; but God has revealed to us by His Spirit 
 Himself and the spiritual realities of His heavenly 
 kingdom. We know the things freely given to us 
 of God.* Jesus is the Truth. And the Spirit, 
 whom we have received, leads us into the whole 
 truth, according to the Saviour’s promise. It does 
 not become the Christian, with Christ his light, 
 with the Holy Ghost his teacher, with Scripture 
 his manual, to speak as the children of the age, 
 who possess opinions, but not truth ; who, seek- 
 ing to establish a wisdom of their own, have 
 
 * I Cor. ii. 12. 
 
148 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 not submitted themselves to the wisdom of God. 
 But to be established in the truth is the charac- 
 teristic of Christian manhood, the result of dili- 
 gent, earnest, and conscientious study of God’s 
 word. 
 
 Connected with this knowledge and inward 
 conviction is liberty and independence, in grow- 
 ing dependence on the one Master, and in the 
 deepened sense of our responsibility to Him. The 
 full-grown Christian is thankful to all brethren, 
 teachers, ministries ; but he is very jealous not to 
 be moulded and influenced except by God’s Spirit. 
 He dreads superficial thoughts and words. He is 
 on his guard against the tyranny of fashion, of 
 majorities, of success, even in the Christian world. 
 He strives against the love of praise, and studies 
 to walk with God, to live always in secret, and to 
 speak and act out of faith. * 
 
 Christian maturity has a deep experience of 
 Christ’s death and resurrection. All true conver- 
 sion has this experience in germ. Our old man 
 has been crucified with Christ ; resurrection -life 
 has been given to us by the risen Saviour ; but 
 we know, we feel, we experience it with greater 
 distinctness, with keener self-condemnation, and 
 with fuller joy. Our growth is, as it were, a 
 
 * Matt, xxiii. 8; i Cor. vii. 23. 
 
i 
 
 Fro 7 n Morn to Eve. 149 
 
 growth out of and away from the old man : we 
 have no confidence in the flesh, but a firmer 
 reliance on Christ, more assured joy and more 
 active and resolute drawing on the inexhaustible 
 resources in Him. 
 
 More active drawing on the resources in Christ ; 
 for Christian maturity is earnestly occupied with 
 the task, the work, the opportunity given by 
 Christ. Christ is our life and strength, in order 
 that we may follow Him as true disciples — that 
 we may work for Him in His vineyard. Christ 
 is our righteousness above ; but it is also written, 
 ‘‘ He that doeth righteousness is righteous.” Christ 
 is our best robe ; but it is also written, that we 
 must put off the old man, and put on the Lord 
 Jesus.* The Christian is a learner, and all learners 
 must use diligence ; they must practise, they must 
 submit to discipline, they must not be discouraged 
 by failure, they must not yield to sloth and de- 
 spondency. As the Christian grows into Christ 
 he regards the work in his own heart and life the 
 most important. He takes heed first to himself, 
 and then to teaching. He realises that the first 
 object is to save himself, and that only then he 
 can think of saving and helping others, f As the 
 
 * I John iii. 7 ; Eph. iv. 24 ; Rom. xiii. 14. 
 
 t I Tim. iv. 16; Matt. vii. 5. 
 
Our Life-Day, 
 
 150 
 
 self-righteous are anxious and jealous to realise 
 their standard, so the Christ-righteous are anxious 
 and energetic to work the works of Christ, and 
 to walk even as Christ walked. And here they 
 experience, that as all things come from the heart, 
 so all things return to the heart. They therefore 
 take heed to their words and acts, lest the heart 
 be defiled and disturbed. They learn faithfulness 
 in earthly things, that spiritual and true treasures 
 may be entrusted to them. Christian maturity 
 expresses itself in a greater importance attached 
 to the cultivation of our own garden ; to the secret 
 life of prayer, meditation, and self-restraint ; to the 
 faithful performance of duty ; to the lowly obe- 
 dience of the well - known commandments and 
 precepts, and that for the very reason that the 
 Christian’s great object is to win Christ, and to 
 be found in Him ; to fulfil the Master’s command, 
 “Occupy till I come;” and to be useful to the 
 Church and world. 
 
 The Christian thus “gives all diligence, to add 
 to his faith virtue ; and to virtue knowledge ; and 
 to knowledge temperance ; and to temperance 
 patience ; and to patience godliness ; and to god- 
 liness brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kind- 
 ness charity;” and thus he is “neither barren nor 
 unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
 
From Morn to Eve, 15 1 
 
 Christ.” * For as these things are the fruit of the 
 Spirit, and can only appear where there is the 
 saving knowledge of the Lord, so they all confirm 
 and deepen us in our inward spiritual communion 
 with Christ. The man of God is always on his 
 guard against a false quietism. He rests in the 
 grace of God, but in order to live and work by it ; 
 he relies on the promises, but in order to test them 
 in the duties and trials of life ; he beholds with 
 open face the glory of the Lord, that he may be 
 transformed by His Spirit. The word of God thus ~ 
 becomes really his ; f it fulfils its purpose, ‘‘ that 
 the man of God may be perfect, throughly fur- 
 nished unto all good works.” 
 
 There is at the same time the definite and 
 resolute conflict with his sin. We are to lay aside 
 all guile and malice, all uncharitableness and evil 
 speakings and hypocrisies ; to put away the old 
 leaven, to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of 
 naughtiness. The epistles speak as categorically 
 as the law, both in positive and negative com- 
 mandments ; and yet they are, not legal, for they 
 address the spiritual man, in whom God works to 
 will and to do. It is necessary that he be so 
 
 * 2 Peter i. 5-8. 
 
 t ‘‘A man’s property consists of good things, which he can 
 skilfully Ruskin. 
 
152 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 addressed, and it is part of the Christian’s more 
 mature wisdom that he acknowledges the necessity 
 and feels thankful for the exhortations. 
 
 Yet with all this activity the Christian does not 
 make his sanctification the object of his contem- 
 plation. His rest is always in Jesus. He does not 
 look to Jesus as He is reflected in his heart, 
 character, and walk, but , to Jesus Himself, the 
 Lamb that was slain for us, our righteousness 
 and advocate, our life and glory. If we do not 
 rest in Jesus, in whom the Father sees us perfect, 
 we rest in our own attainment of godliness and in 
 the testimony of our own conscience. He that 
 sets up his sanctification to look at, as an old 
 author remarks, sets up the greatest idol, which 
 will ultimately strengthen his fears and doubts, 
 though at first it may soothe his feelings and 
 please his imagination."^ Experience teaches us 
 the subtle danger of this temptation ; and we 
 look again simply and exclusively unto Christ. 
 For in this activity, in this striving according to 
 His working, which worketh in us mightily, there 
 is not merely rest in Jesus, but amidst our con- 
 scious failures and the constant presence of sin we 
 are upheld by Hope of our ultimate deliverance, of 
 our complete redemption, of our future glory. We • 
 
 * Compare my “ Hebrews,” vol. i. p. i6o, &c. 
 
From Morn to Eve. 
 
 153 
 
 are saved by hope, and not in the complacent 
 beholding of our progress. 
 
 The bond of perfectness is love. Walk in love 
 is the most comprehensive rule. Love is the ful- 
 filling of the law. Love never ceaseth, and will 
 be our eternal blessedness when our knowledge 
 and strength will be perfect. In proportion as we 
 love, we have made progress in the school and 
 service of Christ. The spiritual men, who are no 
 longer babes, feel the pre-eminence of love, and 
 endeavour to hold fast the unity of the Spirit in 
 the bond of peace.* 
 
 Our education is in the hands of our heavenly 
 bather. His great object is the health and pros- 
 perity of our inner man ; His end is to conform 
 us to the image of Christ, to bring us to glory. 
 Affliction is one of the most important methods 
 in the divine school.' We must, according^ to a 
 necessary law, through much tribulation enter into 
 the kingdom of God. All children are partakers 
 of chastisement. Many and manifold are our 
 afflictions and trials. God knows and reaches the 
 hidden point where we are most sensitive; He 
 lays bare to us our subtle idolatry ; He confounds 
 our secret pride and self-confidence ; He removes 
 from our eye goals and rewards of our own choice; 
 
 * I Cor. iii. 3 ; xiii, ; Eph. iv. 3. 
 
154 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 He tries our faith by sufferings and disappoint- 
 ments for which we can discover no cause or 
 object. We learn patience, we become inwardly 
 humble, and wonder how we have had so little of 
 the meekness and long-suffering of Christ towards 
 others. 
 
 In the school of affliction as we grow in grace 
 so the consciousness of our weakness and of our 
 sinfulness increases, and we descend into the valley 
 of humiliation. And yet we do not give up hope ; 
 nay, we become strong in faith, and our peace is 
 more fully established ; for we learn now to sepa- 
 rate between flesh and spirit, between nature and 
 grace, and to look unto the Lord, our never-failing 
 Saviour. We see now clearly that the fountain of 
 our life is not within us, not even in the new man, 
 but that it is above, in Christ ; that we are poor, 
 nay, entirely empty, and not able to meet even the 
 smallest demand on our patience, love, or faith ; 
 but that our Lord in heaven is rich, and that we 
 can take out of His fulness and grace for grace. 
 Christ, what He is and what He possesses : this is 
 our portion ; this is the substratum of our exis- 
 tence, and the ever-ready supply to meet all our 
 circumstances. We are complete in Him ; that is, 
 though all below is empty, dry, and exhausted, 
 in Him is the all-sufficient grace, the abundant 
 
From Morn to Eve. 
 
 155 
 
 and blessed fountain ; it is in Him^ but it is for 
 us. 
 
 Above all, in their deepest trials and sufferings 
 God’s children — and the most experienced most — 
 cling to the faithful saying, worthy of all accepta- 
 tion, to Christ Jesus, who came into the world to 
 save sinners. When all within is cold and parched 
 up, when the feeling of our sin and unworthiness 
 oppresses our hearts, when, like Job, we behold 
 anew that we are vile, then Christ, crucified for 
 our offences and raised for our justification, is our 
 only — but our all-sufficient — stay and trust. 
 
 In the formation of the Christian character there 
 is thus much labour, conflict, and sorrow. But the 
 Lord is always with us ; and He grants unto us 
 peace, strength, and fruitfulness. May our prayer 
 be : Let the beauty of the Lord our God be 
 
 upon us : and establish Thou the work of our 
 hands.” ^ 
 
 V. TOWARDS EVENING. 
 
 The transition from one age of life to another 
 is never abrupt. It comes gradually and almost 
 imperceptibly. We know that it has come, but 
 not when it set in. There is a point in mature 
 manhood when there is a transition, the beginning 
 
 * Ps. xc. 17. 
 
156 Our L if e-Day, 
 
 of the descent. The simplest indication of it is 
 when the thought awakes vividly within us — we 
 have finished more than the half of our journey, 
 we shall not be as long in the world as we have 
 been already. In childhood, in youth, in early 
 manhood, life lies before us like a large unbounded 
 plain, or like a high mountain ; but when we come 
 to the summit a new prospect opens before us, a 
 downward path leading to the ocean of death and 
 eternity. Then we understand what the disciples 
 felt on their way to Emmaus, when they said : It 
 
 is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” 
 
 A greater seriousness and stillness takes hold of 
 our spirits. We are more inclined to commune 
 with ourselves. We are more anxious to be, than 
 to seem. Many have been our disappointments, 
 chiefly with ourselves. We begin to ask ourselves 
 how we have kept that which was committed to 
 us.”^ We feel that we have possessed less strength 
 than we thought, less devotedness, loyalty, perse- 
 verance. Many flow’^ers of promise have vanished 
 and brought forth no fruit. Many tasks have been 
 left unaccomplished, many opportunities remained 
 neglected or misused. Much that cannot be 
 remedied passes before our mind and weighs down 
 our hearts. We are tempted to be weary, and to 
 
 * I Tim. vi. 20. 
 
From Morn to Eve, 
 
 157 
 
 yield to despondency. Let us rouse ourselves, and 
 hear the call to be steadfast, and to persevere to 
 the end. This our sad experience may become a 
 source of blessing. When we are chastened and 
 truly humbled, when we have found ho>v weak we 
 are and how little we have done, God may prolong 
 our days, and use us more than ever as instru- 
 ments of His grace and power. Jesus said : 
 “ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of 
 the world.” The day-labourer has no right to 
 conclude his work until the master summons him. 
 God will also supply all needful grace and strength. 
 The Lord may be keeping the best wine to the 
 last ; and it may be true of us also : 
 
 “ Ever the richest, tenderest glow 
 Sets round the autumnal sun.” 
 
 VI. OLD AGE. 
 
 Lastly comes old age. It ought to be the most 
 beautiful season of our life, combining all the 
 valuable elements of our past. 
 
 Old age is venerable. God Himself is called 
 the Ancient of Days, and He commanded the 
 children of Israel to show reverence to the old, 
 to rise before the hoary head, and to honour the 
 face of the old man.* Now the character is matured. 
 
 * Lev. xix. 32. 
 
158 Our Life-Day. 
 
 The results of our experience, of our thought and 
 information, have been winnowed, and have formed 
 themselves into a condensed treasury of terse and 
 lucid wisdom. Old age is venerable, because it 
 reminds us of eternity. Childhood and youth, and 
 even manhood, remind us of the rapid flight of 
 Time. In them we look forward to the quiet 
 years of our old age. But when old age has 
 actually come, we look forward to eternity. Soon 
 will the aged man be ushered into the eternal 
 world, and be initiated into its mysteries. In 
 youth and manhood there is also constant change 
 and activity. The quiet and calmness of old age 
 brings before us the everlasting, unchanging Pre- 
 sent. 
 
 Scripture does not conceal the infirmities and 
 troubles of old age. Its gloomy aspects are 
 brought before us with graphic power in the last 
 chapter of Ecclesiastes. Scripture does not deny 
 that in one view we say of our last years, “ I have 
 no pleasure in them.” But how full and glorious 
 is Scripture’s description of the perennial youth, 
 peace, strength, and joy of God’s children! In 
 the very psalm which describes man as a frail 
 flower of the field, David praises the Lord, who 
 renews our youth as the eagle. God is the God 
 of the aged. Even to old age, to hoar hairs, will 
 
From Morn to Eve, 
 
 159 
 
 I carry you ; I will bear ; I will deliver you * The 
 righteous shall flourish as the palm tree, and bring 
 forth fruit in old age. The apostle Paul confesses 
 that our old man perishes visibly and daily; but 
 he adds, the inner man is renewed day by day.f 
 So then for the inner man there is no old age, 
 no decay, no downward descent. He possesses 
 youthful vitality. Only children and young people 
 grow day by day. Thus is it with the Christian. 
 In old age his inner man grows in peace, in light, 
 in strength. The outer world becomes dim ; but 
 the spiritual and eternal world more distinct. 
 Knowledge grows fuller ; he comprehends the 
 length and breadth, and height and depth ; he be- 
 holds more clearly the city which hath foundations. 
 His meditations discover wonder upon wonder. 
 Endless are the objects of interest. Fathers know 
 Him who is from the beginning. Christ, who has 
 been their teacher for years, recapitulates as it 
 were all the glorious lessons of the past with 
 greater simplicity and comprehensiveness. Christ 
 Himself is seen in greater fulness and glory. As 
 knowledge expands, adoration also becomes more 
 profound. 
 
 The life of the affections also is in youthful 
 vigour. Now the self-asserting will is more quiet ; 
 
 * Isa. xlvi. 4. t 2 Cor. iv. 16. 
 
i6o 
 
 Our Life- Day, 
 
 we think no longer of our name, of our task, of 
 our portion of the Church, but the grand old 
 petitions of our dear ‘‘Our Father” — Thy name be 
 hallowed. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done 
 in earth, as it is in heaven — ascend from our souls 
 with childlike simplicity. We love all Christians ; 
 we rejoice in every progress of God’s work ; we 
 give thanks for those that have departed in peace, 
 and we look forward with glowing hearts to the 
 time when the glory of the Lord shall fill the 
 whole earth. Who has not seen old Christians, 
 such as I describe, loving children of God, loyal 
 disciples of Christ, full of affection to Christ’s 
 people, and of goodwill towards all men } 
 
 It is the charm of youth that it is the age of 
 hope. The world lies before it. But even in this, 
 old age has the brightness of youth ; for the lively 
 hope of our eternal inheritance is then felt as never 
 before. May it not be the special task of old age 
 to enter more fully into the spirit of hope, one of 
 the three fundamental graces, which perhaps is 
 practically not considered as frequently and ear- 
 nestly as faith and love } “ Rejoicing in hope ” is 
 
 the attitude of the aged Christian. We remember 
 the beautiful description which Bunyan gives in 
 his Pilgriins Progress of the land of Beulah! 
 How transparent and true to faith is the language 
 
From Morn to Eve, 
 
 i6i 
 
 of symbolic imagery. '' The air of this country is 
 very sweet and pleasant. Every day the flowers 
 appear in the earth, and the voice of the turtle is 
 heard in the land. Here they were within sight of 
 the city they were going to ; also here met them 
 some of the inhabitants thereof ; for in this land 
 the shining ones commonly walked, because it was 
 upon the borders of heaven. In this land also the 
 contract between the Bridegroom and Bride was 
 renewed. Here they heard voices from the city, 
 loud voices, saying, ' Say ye to the daughter of 
 Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh ; behold. His 
 reward is with Him.’ ” 
 
 f 
 
 God has assigned unto old age a special testi- 
 mony. Only the aged can confirm their testimony 
 by the impressive preface, “I have been young, 
 and now am old.” The words of Paul the aged 
 come with great power and with touching pathos. 
 John, the beloved disciple, writes in his old age. 
 The wisdom, simplicity, and tenderness of his 
 teaching are the result of long years of com- 
 munion with God. We feel as if the venerable 
 apostle was still carried into the assembly of the 
 saints, and as if we heard his voice — ‘‘ Children, 
 love one another.” 
 
 Is it not delightful to think of the aged servants 
 
 of God who were permitted to work and witness 
 
 M 
 
From Morn to Eve. 
 
 163 
 
 we time-bound beings look at it lengthwise, and 
 it appears to us very long and protracted ; but 
 God looks at it breadthwise, and it appears to 
 Him but a moment.” We also shall at last reach 
 the mountain -height from which the whole as- 
 cending path with its many windings shall be 
 seen. “ It doth not yet appear what we shall 
 be,” said even the highly-favoured Seer of the 
 new covenant ; and we must all confess with that 
 eminent servant of God who meditated much on 
 the Saints’ Everlasting Rest : My knowledge of 
 
 that life is small.” But the Scripture reveals to us 
 sufficiently the nature of our future blessedness, to 
 enable us to form a true estimate of earthly life, 
 and to experience the purifying as well as con- 
 soling character of Christian hope. 
 
 We behold the widest diversity in the great 
 multitude which no man can number. Both 
 young men and maidens, old men and children, 
 gathered from among all nations and kindreds, 
 praise the Lord and serve Him day and night in 
 His heavenly sanctuary. But much more strik- 
 ing than their diversity is their oneness ; they 
 form one family, and present the same glorious 
 appearance. In a world where all is bright and 
 pure, among the holy and perfect angels, the 
 cherubim and seraphim, the redeemed from among 
 
164 Our Life- Day, 
 
 men shine forth with a transcendant whiteness. 
 
 What are these which ^ are arrayed in white 
 robes How bright these glorious spirits shine! 
 They are not angels, but the sinners of Adam’s 
 race saved by the Son of God. They are Christ’s. 
 They ''have washed their robes, and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb.” They stand 
 now before God and the Lamb because the blood 
 of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleansed them 
 from all sin, and redeemed them to be a kingdom 
 of priests. By Christ they entered, and in Christ 
 they stand. And as Christ is their righteousness, 
 so He is also their life. Christ is not merely upon 
 them, but in them. They resemble the Lord 
 Jesus in His love. They bear the image of the 
 heavenly, the second Adam. They are pure and 
 spotless, the sons of God. Their very bodies are 
 like Christ’s glorious body. Their earthly suffer- 
 ings and trials only identify them with their 
 Saviour. Jesus, who became in all things like 
 unto them, sin excepted, that He might suffer 
 and die in their stead, has now made them in all 
 things like unto Himself, except His incommu- 
 nicable divinity. He is their Lord, their Head, 
 their adorable Shepherd ; He is the Lamb that is 
 worthy of divine honour, and they are the Lamb’s 
 wife. Christ is all — their righteousness, their life, 
 
From Morn to Eve, 165 
 
 their joy ; from Him, in Him, and with Him they 
 receive all things to the glory of the Father. 
 
 t 
 
 This, then, ought to be our life-long aim and 
 desire, to win Christ, that we may be found in 
 Him, having the righteousness which is of God, 
 and that we may live the life of faith and bring 
 forth the fruits of the Spirit. 
 
 Justification and sanctification are given unto 
 us the moment we believe in Jesus, because Christ 
 is then ours. We are then accepted in Christ ; we 
 are also renewed by the Spirit of God and grafted 
 into the living Vine. But all our subsequent life 
 we are occupied with justification and sanctifica- 
 tion ; with the former pre-eminently ; for it is the 
 source and strength of our spiritual life. We must 
 learn daily what is implied by coming to God 
 through Jesus, in His name, by faith in His blood. 
 We are often brought into the lowest hell, and 
 emptied of all our believing and rejoicing, to learn 
 again that salvation is by grace. It is by our daily 
 repentance towards God and faith in the Lord 
 Jesus that we livCy that we resist and overcome 
 sin, that we walk in the footsteps of our Master. 
 
 Let us then cling to our Lord Jesus Christ. We 
 live on what He is and what He has for us. And 
 let us measure all earthly trials, sorrows, joys, 
 possessions, attainments, by their relation to our 
 
i66 
 
 Our Life- Day. 
 
 true life, blessedness and riches. One thing let us 
 desire and seek after, that through eternity we 
 may be before God in Christ and like Christ ; that 
 at present we may learn of Jesus, who is meek and 
 lowly in heart ; that we may be rich in heavenly 
 treasure, in the knowledge of God, in faith, in 
 patience, in humility, in love ; and that we may be 
 faithful stewards and servants, loyal to our divine 
 Head. And while it is day let us work the 
 works of Christ who sent us. While there are 
 still poor and needy, lonely and sorrowful, tempted 
 and struggling ones ; while there is still the going 
 forth of the good Shepherd, seeking to save the 
 lost and to restore the wayward, let us be Christ’s 
 representatives, messengers, channels. Let us not 
 be weary in well-doing ; let us always abound in 
 the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that 
 our labour is not in vain in the Lord.^ 
 
 While it is day !” The night cometh when no 
 man can work. The night cometh when none can 
 enter in at the strait gate ; when the message is 
 no longer sent to us:, ^^This is the work of God, 
 that ye believe in Him whom He hath sent.” Is 
 this not a solemn thought to those who are still 
 without Christ ? It is not the preacher, it is 
 not a peculiar school of theology, it is God Himself 
 * I Cor. XV. 58 (notice connection). 
 
B3 
 
 From Morn to Eve, 167 
 
 who limiteth the day, and saith : ‘^To-day if ye 
 will hear His voice harden not your hearts.” 
 When the night cometh it brings deliverance from 
 all evil to the Christian ; but what does it bring to 
 the Christless man } Does death free him from 
 the love and power of sin ? or from its guilt and 
 condemnation } It is not death, but Christ, who 
 is the Saviour ; it is not by dying, but by be- 
 lieving in Jesus, that we are pardoned and re- 
 newed. Does death deliver him from misery and 
 pain } Death only reveals the true condition of 
 the soul ; and the rich man, we read, lifted up his 
 eyes in Hades, being in torments. The only thing 
 from which death separates the Christless man for 
 ever is the influence of divine grace. The Father 
 will no longer say to him, Return unto Me.” The 
 voice of the gentle Shepherd will no more go 
 forth, ‘‘ Come unto Me,” The Holy Ghost will no 
 longer witness of God’s salvation. Sin remains ; 
 sorrow remains ; God is lost. Look at the Chris- 
 tian. When he dies he is delivered from sin. 
 Christ had already delivered him from the guilt 
 and the dominion of sin ; now he is delivered also 
 from its presence. Without spot, or blemish, or 
 wrinkle, free from all sin and conflict, the child 
 of God is presented unBlameable before God’s 
 throne. When the Christian dies he is delivered 
 
 J 
 
Otcr Life-Day, 
 
 i68 
 
 from all pain and suffering. He is carried by the 
 angels into the bosom of perfect love and peace. 
 In the land whither he goes there is no more 
 sorrow nor crying; ‘Hhey shall hunger no more, 
 nor thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on 
 them, nor any heat.” But Jesus will be theirs. 
 They shall see Him as He is. They shall know, 
 even as they are known. They shall say, as they 
 were never able to say on earth, “ God is my sure 
 portion, and my exceeding great reward.” 
 
 “ There shall be no night there ; and they need 
 no candle, neither light of the sun ; for the glory 
 of the Lord doth lighten the city, and the Lamb 
 is the light thereof.” 
 
 Let us not neglect so great salvation while it 
 is day. WHILE IT IS Day! 
 
 ■ UNION 
 THEOLOGICAL 
 SEMINARY 
 
 I 
 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 JOHN F. SHAW AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C,