YALE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
LIBRARY

Gift of
Library of William D. Murray

THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.
GENESIS. By the REV. W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS, D.D.
In Three Volumes.
Volume I.— Genesis I.-XXV. 10.
Volume II.— Genesis XXV. n-XXXVI. 8.
Volnme III.— Genesis XXXVII.-L.
EXODUS. By the REV. F. B. MEYER, B.A.
Volume I.— Exodus I.-XX. 17.
Volume II.— Exodus XX. 18— XL.
RUTH. By the late REV. SAMUEL COX, D.D.
ESTHER. By the REV. J. ELDER CUMMING, D.D.
THE PSALMS.
By the REV. J. ELDER CUMMING, D.D.
In Three Volumes.
Volume I.— Psalms I.-XLI.
Volume II.— Psalms XLII.-LXXXIX
Volume III.— Psalms XC.-CL.
ROMANS. By the REV. W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS, D.D.
Volume I. — Romans I.-V.
Volume II.— Romans VI.-XI.
EPHESIANS. By the REV. CHARLES BROWN, D.D.
PHILIPPIANS. By the REV. F. B. MEYER, B.A.
I. THESSALONIANS. By the REV. A. R. BUCKLAND, M.A.
II. THESSALONIANS. By the REV. A. R. BUCKLAND, M.A.
I. TIMOTHY. By the REV. T. A. GURNEY, M.A.
II. TIMOTHY. By the BISHOP of DURHAM.
PHILEMON. By the REV. A. H. DRYSDALE, D.D.
HEBREWS. By the BISHOP of DERRY and RAPHOE.
JAMES. By the REV. CHARLES BROWN, D.D.
I. JOHN. By the REV. G. S. BARRETT, .D.D,

THE EPISTLE TO THE
PHILIPPIANS
A DEVOTIONAL COMMENTARY

By
Rev. F. B. MEYER, B.A.

FOURTH IMPRESSION

LONDON
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
4 BOUVERIE STREET and 65 ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD
J9J2

First Edition June 1905.
Second Impression July 1905.
Third Impression April 1906.
Fourth Impression December 1912.

PREFACE
In this Devotional Commentary on the Epistle to
the Philippians, I have not attempted anything of
the merely critical or exegetical; but have en
deavoured honestly to ascertain the meaning of the
Apostle, and to beat out his pure and unalloyed
gold. The most amazing thing which meets one per
petually in the prolonged and deep study of such a
treatise as this, is that those early believers should
have been able to appreciate and digest such
compressed and profound teaching. When we bear
in mind all the explanation, expansion, application,
and enforcement which these apostolic paragraphs
have received in the course of the centuries, and
when, after we have done our best, we are still
conscious that we have by no means plumbed the
depths, or scaled the heights, or explored all the
treasures, we are compelled to feel that the Divine
Fire is burning here, and to take off the shoes from
our feet in acknowledgment that in a pre-eminent
manner, God is here. Every blue crevasse, every far
horizon, every glimpse into a perfect human love, and
every word of God has the same characteristic of
Infinity. 5

Preface
To Dr Moule, the Bishop of Durham, to my friend,
Dr Noble, of Chicago, and to Dr Campbell Morgan,
for suggestions, which I have wrought into the seventh
chapter (pp. 63-71), I desire to express my deep
obligations. It seems to me, if I may be allowed to say so,
that this Book, more completely than any single
one besides, contains the essence of the messages
with which I have been entrusted.
That the Infinite Spirit who inspired may, by
manifesting the Truth, unfold the deep things of God
to all who peruse these pages is the sincere desire
and prayer of the author.
F. B. Meter.

CONTENTS
Preface ...

PASS 5

CHAPTER I. 1, 2.
This Vestibule of the Epistle . 11
CHAPTER I. 3, 4.
Prayer and Intebcession . . , .18
CHAPTER I. 5-11.
Grounds and Pubfoses of Pbayeb . , 26
CHAPTER I. 12-18.
The Furtherance of the Gospel , . 33
CHAPTER I. 19, 20.
Good out of Evil ..... 43
CHAPTER I. 21-26.
Whether to Live or to Die ! . , .52
CHAPTER I. 27-30.
The Manner of Life which Becomes the
Gospel ...... 63
CHAPTER II. 1-4.
The Entwining of Christian Hearts . , 7

Contents PAGE
CHAPTER II. 5-8.
He Emptied Himself ..... 81
CHAPTER II. 9-11.
The Name of Names ..... 92
CHAPTER II. 12, 13.
The Divine Energy in the Heart . . 102
CHAPTER II. 14-16.
Stars to Shine : Voices to Speak . . Ill
CHAPTER II. 17, 18.
The Sacrificial Side of the Christian Life 121
CHAPTER II. 19-30.
Not Sorrow upon Sorrow .... 128
CHAPTER III. 1-3.
The True Circumcision . . . .139
CHAPTER III. 4-9.
Selling all to buy the Pearl . . .150

160

CHAPTER III. 10, 11.
The Soul's Quest ....
CHAPTER III. 12.
Apprehended to Apprehend . 170
8

CHAPTER III. 15, 16.
The Attainments of the Christian Life 186
CHAPTER III. 17-21.
Burgesses of Heaven 197
CHAPTER IV. 1-6.
The Lord is at Hand 207
CHAPTER IV. 7.
The Sentinel of the Heart 216
CHAPTER IV. 8, 9.
The Government of our Thoughts 229
CHAPTER IV. 10-13.
All Things are Possible to Him that Be-
lieveth 238
CHAPTER IV. 14-20.
Filling and Filled 247
CHAPTER IV. 21-23.
Closing Salutations 257

THE VESTIBULE OF THE
EPISTLE Phil. i. 1, 2
Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the
saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and
deacons :
Grace he unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from
the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the tenderest of all the Epistles. There is Phil. i.
no chiding or rebuke. It is suffused throughout I> 2
with words of good cheer, of joy and peace, though
it was written in bonds to which the Apostle makes
frequent reference (i. 7, 13, 14, 16). There is no
trace of despondency or gloom, and though sent
to a Church which he had not seen for five or sir*.
yeai§»- there appeared no necessity for those strictures
and reproofs with which the other Epistles are filled.
If, as is supposed, this Epistle was written at the Date and
beginning of Paul's imprisonment in Rome, we must ^"ep"^^
assign to it the date a.d. 62. It is the beginning of
the precious prison literature of the Church which is
amongst our greatest treasures. It was a persecuted
Apostle writing to a persecuted Church, but his
soul was unfettered and unchoked by prison damp.
Perhaps his hired house in its discomfort would
compare favourably with the gaol at Bedford, which
Bunyan describes as 'a den,' but the Apostle was
11

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. conscious, as Bunyan never was, of the daily clank
h 2 of the chain which accompanied every movement.
The occasion of the writing of this Epistle is clearly
indicated by the references which the Apostle makes.
Philippi stood at the head of the iEgean Sea, about
nine miles from the coast. Its earliest name was the
Fountain City, afterwards it was enlarged by Philip,
the king of Macedonia, and called after himself. It
was the scene of the great battle between Brutus
and Cassius on the one side, and Octavius and
Antony on the other. In commemoration of the
decisive victory of imperialism over republicanism,
Augustus gave it the dignity and privilege of a Roman
colony. It was, in fact, a miniature Rome, hence
its consuls and lictors (Acts xvi. 20). The great
Egnatian Way passed through it ; and as a Roman
colony situated on this great thoroughfare, it
was flourishing and wealthy, though now it is a
desolation, trodden only by the traveller and
shepherd. The Apostle had been brought there in answer to
the vision of the man of Macedonia, but had met
with a poor response. His first sermon was preached
to a few devout Jews, especially women, who, unable
to erect a synagogue, were wont to gather by the
riverside on the Sabbath day. The story of the
opening of Lydia's heart, and the subsequent
formation of a Christian Church, which was favoured
with two visits on the part of the Apostle, is too
well-known to need detailed retelling.
Epaphroditus, whom the Philippians had sent
with then" greeting and pecuniary assistance, had
12

The Vestibule of the Epistle
fallen ill during his stay at Rome, and as the tidings Phil. i.
of this misfortune caused great anxiety to his fellow- 1> 2
disciples, on his recovery the Apostle hastened his
return and entrusted to his care messages of grati
tude and affection ; hurrying him back, that by his
presence he might dissipate the anxiety which had
cast a gloom over the entire Christian community.
It is sufficient to say that this Epistle has received
unmistakable testimony as to its authenticity and
genuineness. It is referred to by Ignatius and
Polycarp, quoted by Clement, Irenasus, and Tertullian,
and bears in its texture abundant evidence of having
issued from the heart and mind of the great Apostle
to the Gentiles. *****
Years before, when quite a youth, Timothy had ' Paul and
been brought to Christ on Paul's first visit to Lystra. 201n^thy*
Having been well instructed by his mother, Eunice, servants of
and his grandmother, Lois, when Christ wasSjjj^
presented as the fulfilment of the Old Testament
by Paul, he received Him with all the ardour of
young manhood. The Apostle ever after considered
him as ' his own son in the faith.' During the seven
following years he grew in knowledge and love, and
on Paul's second visit he was judged capable of
accompanying him, and sharing his hardships and
labours on behalf of the Gospel.
The two names are associated in 2 Corinthians,
Colossians, Philippians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians,
and we can never forget the touching last letter
which the Apostle dictated to him from the Mamer-
tine prison on the eve of martyrdom. It is worthy
13

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. of notice that the Apostle, who will presently refer to
Ji 2 the saints at Philippi, classes himself with Timothy
as the 'bond-slaves of Christ Jesus.' There is no
assumption, no priestly prerogative, no pretentious
ness in this simple designation. Though the Apostle
had much in which he might glory, when he reviewed
the work of his crowded fife, he had so great an
estimate of his Master, Christ, that in His presence
he took the lowhest place; — the bought chattel of
Him who had purchased him, not with corruptible
things, but with His precious Blood. Men would
have little fault to find with the ministers of the
Churches, if they breathed the same spirit of sim
plicity, humility, and abandonment to the will of the
great Master. *****
Saints and ' To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at
Saintship. Philippi, with the bishops (R. V. marg. overseers) and
deacons' The word 'saint' is frequently used by
the Apostle, in the opening words of the Epistles.
In that to the Romans, he describes believers as
' called to be saints.' So in 1 Cor. i. 2, see also Eph.
i. 1 ; Col. i. 2. We are not to infer from this that
they were perfect in character, but that they were set
apart from the world, by the cross of Christ and the
anointing of the Holy Spirit, for high and holy
service in the world. Men use this term of the
departed, and canonise their fellow-believers only
after many years have elapsed since they passed to
the service of the eternal world. But the Apostle
did not hesitate to describe very imperfect men and
women, who needed a large amount of tuition and
14

The Vestibule of the Epistle
admonition, as saints ; thus imputing to them God's Phil. i.
great ideal, as perhaps the UkeUest means of inspiring I, 2
them to deserve the title.
Is not this a true way of deaUng with men ? Do
not be content with rebuking them when they do
wrong, but lay your hand upon their shoulder, and
tell them that you are sure that they are capable of
better things, that the angel lies hidden in the
marble, that the possibility of saintship is deep down
in the soul, in virtue of the regenerating grace of the
Spirit, who is forming Christ within. Thus you will
inspire hope, resolve, high purpose, and the resolute
intention that the character and walk shall not faU
beneath this great word with which God does not
hesitate to designate all who are incorporated in a
Uving union with His Son.
Would you be a saint indeed ? Then live ' in Christ
Jesus ' as your King {Christ), and in Jesus in all the
human relationship of daily life (Jesus). Let Him be
your atmosphere and environment, your protection
from the assaults of evil from without, and the
sweet fragrance which wiU exhale through the inner
sanctuary of your nature, in speech and act.
As to the ' bishops and deacons ' : ' There is now Bishops and
no question,' and this is endorsed by Bishop ElUcott, eacons-
'that in the Holy Scriptures, the two titles of
" bishop " and " presbyter " are applied to the same
person.' For this see Acts xx. 17, 28. Bishop
Lightfoot affirms, ' It is a fact now generally recog
nised by theologians of aU shades of opinion, that in
the language of the New Testament the same officer
in the Church is called indifferently "bishop," or
15

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. " elder," or " presbyter." ' He goes on to say : ' The
r> 2 opinion hazarded by Theodoret, and adopted by
many later writers, that the same officers in the
Church who were first called apostles came after
wards to be designated bishops, is baseless." Accord
ing to this dictum 'a New Testament bishop is a
New Testament presbyter, and New Testament
bishops and presbyters are simply ministers of Jesus
Christ and pastors of churches.'
Dr Moule in his valuable book, Philippian Studies,
says: 'It is important to remember that our word
bishop cannot properly translate the Greek word as
it is used in the New Testament, for it is not used
there as the special title of a superintendent pastor
set over other pastors.' For the office of deacon we
have simply to refer to Acts vi. In the early Church
there were evident ranks of gift, but not of grace.
As believers gathered at the Lord's Table, or Love
Feast, there was no distinction but that of humiUty
and service. AU were redeemed by the same Blood,
stood on the same level ; and each strove to be the
lowliest and humblest of all.

Salutation.

The ' Grace to you and peace from God our Father
sfa'illtiftlnn an^ the Lord Jesus Christ.' Grace was the western,
and Peace the eastern salutation. The Apostle com
bines them. He desired that his absent friends might
know more and more of the free favour of God, of
forgiveness and acceptance, and of the enjoyment
of help and comfort. He would also have them
know that peace which filled his own heart, amid
trials of no ordinary description, and which was
' 16

The Vestibule of the Epistle
bequeathed by the Master, — ' My peace I leave with Phil. i.
you, My peace I give unto you.' ?> 2
Notice how closely he conjoins the Father and the
Redeemer. He did not think that he was robbing
God of His unity or supremacy when he included
our Lord in the same sentence. Though aU his
early training had recognised the Oneness of the
Divine Nature, he had no scruple in adding to God
the Father the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is remarkable to notice also the number of times
in which he mentions the Saviour's name. It occurs
forty times in this Epistle, that is, on an average, in
every two or three verses, but this is characteristic
of the New Testament, and especially of the writings
of this Apostle. He was a slave of Jesus Christ ; he
viewed all saints as Uving, with himself, in Christ ;
his hfe was fuU of Christ ; Christ was his life ; to die
was to depart to be with Him ; his rejoicing was in
Christ Jesus ; and steadfastness was only possible,
as he and his converts stood fast ' in the Lord.' The
Lord was always at hand to him, and because aU
beUevers were in Christ, they could count on God to
supply all their need.
Let us rejoice to know that ' grace and peace ' are
not exhausted, but that they flow down to us stiU in
this remote century, and amid the altered circum
stances of modern Ufe. Christ was, and is, and is
to come. In Him the Church still exists, through
Him she is stiU supplied with grace upon grace,
and unto Him she will be gathered without spot,
or wrinkle, or any such thing.
B 17

II
PRAYER AND INTERCESSION
Phil. i. 3, 4
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request
with joy.
Phil. i. The Epistles of St Paul are fuU of aUusions to his
3i 4 prayers. We might almost call them his prayer-boot
~^e Let us verify that assertion by turning to the Epistles
St Paul. as they come on the pages of the Bible.
Rom. i. 9 : ' God is my witness, whom I serve in
my spirit in the Gospel of His Son, how unceasingly
I make mention of you, always in my prayers making
request,' etc.
1 Cor. i. 4 : 'I thank my God always concerning
you, for the grace of God which was given you in
Christ.' Eph. i. 16: 'I cease not to give thanks for you,
making mention of you in my prayers.'
Eph. in. 14 : ' For this cause I bow my knees unto
the Father.'
Col. i. 3 : ' We give thanks to God, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.'
Col. ii. 1 : 'I would have you know how greatly I
strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as
many as have not seen my face in the flesh.'
18

Prayer and Intercession
1 Thess. i. 2 : 'We give thanks to God always for Phil. i.
you aU, making mention of you in our prayers.' 3> 4
2 Thess. i. 11 : 'To which end we also pray always
for you.'
2 Tim. i. 3 : ' I thank God, . . . how unceasing is
my remembrance of thee.'
Philemon 4 : ' I thank my God always, making
mention of thee in my prayers.'
These texts are sufficient to substantiate the asser
tion that the Epistles of St Paul abound in aUusions
to his prayers on behalf of his converts ; and just as
our Lord Jesus Christ ever Uves to intercede, so
the true pastor, Sunday School teacher, or Christian
friend, should day and night, without ceasing, re
member the saved and unsaved of his charge in
prayer. But there was a special liberty in the Apostle's Prayer : with
prayer, for in verse 4 he says : ' Always in every ^f j*°d
supplication of mine, making my suppUcation with
joy.' Those of us who know what it is to pray,
are famiUar with the alternations that come over
the soul when it waits before God. There are some
tracts and passages in our daily prayer-life which we
tread with difficulty and tears. For those who seem
so obdurate ; for those who appear to have turned
their backs determinedly upon God ; for certain
Churches that appear hopelessly desolate and barren,
we plead with strong crying and tears. We tread
these acres of our prayer-life, with weeping, sowing
seed destined to bear an abundance of harvest fruit.
There are other parts of our daily prayer-life that
are illumined with joy. When we come to pray for
19

Phil.
3,4

Our Private Prayers.

Cultivatethe Habit.

The Epistle to the Philippians
a beloved child, for some kindred spirit, for some
blessed work of God which enjoys the perpetual
dew of His favour, then it is easy to pray, and we
make our supplication and request with joy. We
know exactly what St Paul meant, when he said
that there was a Uberty, a freedom, a gladness in
prayer which suffused his heart as he prayed for the
PhiUppians. * * * * *
Nothing would be better for most of us than a
great revival in our habits of private prayer. We
cannot do as Luther, who was accustomed to say,
' I have so much work to do to-day that I cannot
get through it with less than three hours of prayer ' ;
or as Bishop Andrewes, who regularly set apart five
hours each day for private devotion ; or as Law, the
author of the Serious Call, who was accustomed, as
the clock rang out each third hour, to turn to pro
longed prayer, aUocating to each occasion some special
subject. Our habits of life, and perhaps our methods
of thought, forbid our adopting anything quite so
absorbing and prolonged ; but that we should pray
more, that we should labour in prayer as Epaphras
did, that we should cultivate the art of prayer, is
clear. Habits of prayer need careful cultivation. The
instinct and impulse are with us by the grace of the
Holy Spirit, but we need to cultivate the gracious
inward movements until they become solidified into
an unbending practice.
As far as possible, we should set apart one period
in each day for prayer, and there can be no question
20

Prayer and Intercession
that the morning hour is best. When the body is Phil. i.
fresh from sleep, and before the rush of daily thought, 3, 4
care, and activity invades the mind, ere we hold inter
course with our nearest and dearest, then the bells
ring for matins, and it is wise to heed their call.
'Give Him thy first thoughts
So shalt thou keep
Him company all day
And in Him sleep.'
It is good, also to have an oratory. There should Use an
be, as far as possible, one room and one spot in the Oratory-
room, or one garden path, or a walk over the moor or
beside the sea, where our seasons of private devotion
are spent, and our prayers are wont to be made. The
posture is a secondary matter. Many a heaven-moving
prayer has been uttered whilst the feet have been
plodding along the road, or the hands plying their
toils, or when weakness has chained the body to the
couch. Whilst Paul was floating for a night and a
day in the deep, his soul was as much wrapt in the
spirit of prayer as when he was in a trance in the
temple. A rich man, visited by his pastor, was in sore
distress because when praying during the night he
had not removed his nightcap. His scruples were,
however, allayed by the wise and skilful reply, ' Some
people pray, as Christians mostly do, with their shoes
on and their heads uncovered ; others, like the Jews
and Mohammedans, pray with their heads covered
and their shoes off. Now, I daresay, my friend, when
you prayed, you had not your shoes on ? ' ' No, sir,
I hadn't,' was the eager answer, and the troubled soul
21

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. was comforted. But it would have been better far
3, 4 if it had never been troubled. It is of real service
to have the fixed closet, and the habitual attitude
there ; but it is a great mistake to magnify any of
these accidents and circumstances as though they
were essential.
Seek a Spirit The main point for each of us is to have a spirit
of Prayer. of prayer} g0 tnat tne exercige be not irksome and
tedious, but that the spirit may spring to it with
deUght. We must not, however, wait for the high
tide to rise before we launch forth on the voyage.
If there is not deep water, we must make what use
we can of the shallows. If we cannot step off to the
big ship, we must make for it in the Uttle boat which
draws only a foot or two of water. If the gale is not
blowing to fill our flagging sails, we must make what
use we can of the light breezes that dimple the calm
and lethargic ocean. Good is it when the soul leaps
towards the prayer-hour, as a child to mother, or wife
to husband ; but failing this eager desire, let us pray
because we ought, and because the supreme Lover
of Souls wiU be disappointed if we do not appear
at the trysting-place to keep our appointment.
The ways by which the sluggish soul can be in
cited to pray are various, and hints may be jotted
down here which wiU be useful.
When the hour for prayer arrives, allow time for
staying on the threshold of the temple, to remember
how great God is, how greatly He is to be praised,
how great your needs are. Remember the distance
between you and Him, and be sure that it is fiUed
with love. RecaU the promises that bid you to ap-
22

Prayer and Intercession
proach. Consider all the holy souls that have Phil. i.
entered and are entering those same portals ; and 3, 4
do not forget the many occasions in which the
lowering skies have cleared, the dark clouds have
parted, and weakness has become power during one
brief spell of prayer.
We speciaUy need the aid of the Holy Spirit, who A still
helps our infirmities in prayer. He kindled the spark £reater necd>
of devotion at the first, and knows weU how to fan
it into a flame. It is good to confide in Him, to
confess that you would but cannot pray, that your
desires are languid and your love cool, that the lips
which should be touched with fire are frost-bitten
that the wings which ought to have borne you to
Heaven are clipped. He understands and loves
to be appealed to, and wiU assuredly quicken the
flagging soul until it shall mount up as on eagle
wings, running without wearying, and walking with
out faintness. One look to the Spirit of Prayer will
find Him in the. heart. As our Teacher He begins
to repeat the words of petition, which we Usp after
Him. As our Comforter and Paraclete He stands
beside us, showing us where to aim our petitions,
and steadying our trembling hands. As the Spirit
of Life, he makes us free from the law of sin and
death. 'Felt art Thou, and relieving tears
Fall, nourishing our young resolves ;
Felt art Thou, and our icy fears
The sunny smile of love dissolves.'
It is advisable to use the Bible specially, and Helps to
afterwards some spirit-stirring book, be it memoir rayer-
23

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. or spiritual treatise, to stir up the black hot coals
3> 4 and compel them to break into a heaven-ascending
flame. The story of George Muller, of J ames Gilmour,
or of David Brainerd, the writings of Samuel Ruther
ford, Andrew'Murray and Frances Ridley Havergal,
the poetry of Horatius Bonar and John Keble, are
of perennial use in this direction.
Sometimes it wiU be the confession of recent back
sliding and inconsistency, which have drawn a veil
over the face of Christ ; sometimes the overflowing
of thanksgiving, as you count over your blessings,
one by one ; sometimes the urgency of need to inter
cede for some beloved friend or friends ; but always,
if you look for it, you may discover some wave of
blessed helpfulness, which, flowing up on the shore
of your life, will, as it recedes, afford you an oppor
tunity of passing out with it from the high and dry
stones to the bosom of the heaving ocean.
A Condition One condition of successful prayer must never be
^Successful forgotten. We must believe that God is, and that
He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
The Father is the object of our prayer, through the
mediation of our Lord Jesus, and by the aid of the
Holy Spirit ; but however we conceive of it, whether
the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, is the
prominent object before our thought, we must beUeve
that there is an eye that witnesses our poor endea
vours, an ear that Ustens, a mind that can be im
pressed and affected by our requests. But further,
we need a Uving faith which reckons on the faith
fulness of God, and believes that it has already re
ceived its petitions, when they are founded on specific
24

Prayer and Intercession
promises and evidently prompted by the Holy Spirit. Phil. i.
When we pray, it is not enough merely to speak a 3i 4
long list of requests into the ear of God, it becomes
us to wait after each one, and to receive by an appro
priating act of the soul. It is as though we saw
God take from the shelves of His storehouse the
boon on which we had set our heart, label it with
our name, and put it aside until the precise moment
arrived in which He could bestow it on us without
hurt. But whether it is in our hands or not is of
small matter, because ' we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of Him.' WeU may George
Herbert sing : —
• Oh, what an easy, quick access,
My blessed Lord, art Thou ! how suddenly
May our requests Thine ear invade !
To show that state dislikes not easiness.
If I but lift mine eyes, my suit is made :
Thou canst no more not hear, than Thou canst die.
' Since then these three wait on Thy throne,
Ease, power, and love ; I value prayer so,
That, were I to leave all but one,
Wealth, fame, endowments, virtues, all should go;
I and dear prayer would together dwell,
And quickly gain, for each inch lost, an elL'

25

Ill

Phil. i.
5-« AConsciousness of
Kinship.

THE GROUNDS AND PURPOSES
OF THE PRAYER
Phil. L 5-11
Fob your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now ;
Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ :
Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have
you in my heart ; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the
defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my
grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the
bowels of Jesus Christ.
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment ;
That ye may approve things that are excellent ; that ye may be
sincere and without offence till the day of Christ ;
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus
Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
The ground of his intercession was threefold. First,
it arose from his consciousness of their kinship. We
find this in verse 5 : ' I make suppUcation with joy
for your feUowship.' The Greek word there is going
shares — having in common: — 'I make suppUcation
with joy because of your fellowship in furthering the
Gospel.' (See also verse 7.)
It was the consciousness that those for whom he
prayed were so closely akin to him in their deter
mination and aims, that quickened the wheels of his
supplication. Had they not shown this feUowship
by sending repeatedly to his necessity, as we learn
26

Grounds and Purposes of the Prayer
from the close of this Epistle ? The Philippian Phil. i.
Church, though very poor, had sent again and again 5-n
generous gifts to supply the Apostle's wants, and
this proved that they and he were animated with the
same determination.
But more than this, there was the wireless tele
graphy which bore out to the storm-tossed ship of
his life the prayer and sympathy of his converts.
For us also there are kindred spirits in different
parts of the world, who are able by their prayer to
send vibrations of holy energy into our souls, and
when we pray for such we are able to make supplica
tion with joy.
Secondly, the Apostle recognised that he was in the Living
line of God's purpose. This always makes it easy to with **oi
pray. 'Being confident of this very thing, that He
which began a good work in you wiU perfect it until
the day of Jesus Christ.' He mentions two days in
these verses — * From the first day,' and ' the day of
Jesus Christ,' — and he says that between those two
days, God, who began the work on the first day,
and who will perfect it on the last day, is maintain
ing and building it up step by step.
That first day of our Christian Ufe was due to the
interposition of the grace of God. ' In the beginning
God created.' The longer we Uve, the more sure we
are that the beginning of the good work within must
be attributed to God. No pastor, no mother, no
teacher began it, but in the depth of our heart, by
His Holy Spirit, God laid the first foundation stone
of the new Ufe, and amid aU our sins, failures,
and backsUdings, He has been building up the
27

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. work He commenced, and He cannot leave it.
5-1 1 At Baalbec we find the remains of unfinished
temples which man has abandoned half com
plete ; but nowhere in the universe do we find un
finished worlds, half-made suns left incomplete,
though many in the making. We go into the artist's
studio and find there unfinished pictures covering
large canvas, and suggesting great designs, but which
have been left, either because the genius was not
competent to complete the work, or because paralysis
laid the hand low in death ; but as we go into God's
great workshop we find nothing that bears the mark
of haste or insufficiency of power to finish, and
we are sure that the work which His grace has begun,
the arm of His strength will complete. It is easy to
pray for a soul when you know that God also is at
work perfecting it.
Impelled by Thirdly, His tender affection towards them (w. 7, 8).
Affection. He says : ' I have you in my heart . . . and God is
my witness, how I long after you all in the tender
mercies of Christ Jesus.' The Apostle had got so
1 near the very heart of his Lord that he could hear
its throb, detect its beat, nay, it seemed as though
the tender mercies of Jesus to these Phflippians were
throbbing in his own heart.
Let us Uve like this. You have chttdren in your
schools that greatly trouble you, boys and girls whose
restless and obstinate natures seem to resist every
overture ; men and women meet you daily in your
home-life, whom you cannot love with the love of
natural affection ; but, let every one of us get back
to the heart of Jesus Christ untU it pours its contents
28

Grounds and Purposes of the Prayer
into ours, until we begin to yearn over the lost with Phil. i.
the compassions of Jesus. Before you pass round 5-1*
that unkind story, before you say you wiU never
speak to that man again, before you treat another
with distance and coldness, get back to the heart of
Jesus Christ, until His tender compassions shall fill
yours. Then you can make suppUcation with joy.
* * * * *
He says in verse 9 : ' This I pray, that your love Subject
may abound yet more and more.' The Greek word toe Prayer
is — That your love shall pour over — as the bucket
which stands under a streamlet issuing from a fissure
in the rocks pours over on all sides ; I pray, he says,
that your love may pour over towards each other,
and specially towards God. Oh, that we might know
this and be perfected in love, that there might be
room for nothing more, that this might affect our
whole being ; for, depend upon it, when the love of
God really fills the heart, the accent of the voice, the
movements of our body, the look on the face, the
demeanour, everything is affected. Too often we
show the worried expression, the querulous tone, the
over-strained nervous system, but through aU this the
love ought to pour, carrying away the discontented
gloomy look, so that when we return to our dear
ones at the close of the day, the entire household
may feel that because we have come, sunlight and
the love of God are flooding the house, which during
the day had missed the music of our presence. Let
' your love abound yet more and more.'
'In aU knowledge.' When this love enters a
man's heart he knows. 'Everyone that loveth is
29

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. born of God, and knoweth God.' Words infinitely
5-" deep, but corroborated here, because our Apostle
prays that their love may abound more and more in
all knowledge and discernment. When the fishers
had tossed all night and taken nothing, and the grey
dawn was breaking on the beach, it was the eye of
him that loved which discerned the figure of the
Master standing beside the fire of coals, and John
said to Peter, ' It is the Lord.' If your love abounds
more and more, you wiU not only know, but you wiU
discern, you will be able to detect the traces of the
footsteps of your Lord where other men faU to detect
them, and hear His voice amid the jangling mart
and the hubbub of the city.
*****
Results : The effect of that love wfll be threefold. (1) Dis-
Discrimina- crimination. 'That you may discriminate between
things that differ' (v. 10, marg. R.V.). Such,
without doubt, is the true rendering of the Greek,
and we are reminded of Isaiah's words, which
predict that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon
the Messiah, and make Him ' of quick understanding.'
The margin gives it quick of scent. When one has
been on the ocean for a week, breathing the pure
ozone, it is marveUous how quick one is to detect
poisonous smells. This is weU, and if we were
quicker of scent, and detected the noisome effluvia
which indicate corruption and disease, we should
more certainly be saved from taking the poison into
our systems. A man who has lost the sense of smeU
may go into the midst of disease without knowing
it, but the man who is quick of scent is warned of
30

tion,

Grounds and Purposes of the Prayer
danger. And the soul that loves deeply is marvel- Phil. i.
lously quick to detect anything which may hurt or 5""
offend the loved one. It is so with the nature that
loves God. It discerns, it discriminates, and amid
the darkness or the grey dawn of our life, when
things are so mixed, that they appear like one
another, though really different, the love that loves
God perfectly, discerns, and distinguishes between
things that differ. A man's growth in grace is
indicated by the delicacy of the discrimination that
rules in his Ufe. As he gets nearer God he detects
in himself habits, and practices, ways of behaviour,
and of business, which he once permitted without
seeing evil in them, but now puts aside as unfit, to
foUow only the good. This is the first effect of
perfected love.
(2) Sincerity. ' That you may be sincere and Results :
without offence' (v. 10). Just as the X-rays passing Smcerlt7-
through the limb wiU show at once the fracture,
or the result of some accident, so the X-rays of God's
truth are always searching the heart, and when a
man is living in perfect love, he also lives in perfect
truth, for love and truth are one ; and the man who
Uves in love does not mind meeting the searching rays
of God's truth, which show that he is no hypocrite.
(3) Fruitfulness. It makes us ' full of the fruits Results :
of righteousness which are through Jesus Christ ' Fruitfu'ness.
(v. 11). An orchard is fair to see in the spring
when there is promise of the blossom, but it is fairest
in autumn, when every tree is laden to the ground
with fruit. Let us seek this. The pruning is ever
going on ; the sunshine, and rain ; but the whole
31

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. discipline is making you full of luscious fruit, that
5-11 thirsty souls may come to partake of the ripe fruit of
your life, and turn from you to glorify and praise
God. Be sure that love unites the beUever very
closely with the true Vine, and to be in living unison
with Christ involves that we shaU bear much fruit.
But all this is only 'through Jesus Christ.' Do
not concern yourself so much with the fruit end of
the bough, but with the end of fibrous wood which is
connected with the vine. See to it that you Uve
always in union with Jesus Christ, for without Him,
severed from Him, you can do nothing. Abide in
Him, and let Him abide in you. Let the one agony
of your life be to keep near to Jesus. See to it that
every morning in your prayer you touch Him, that
you meditate on the Bible, that aU day the union is
kept unbroken, so that the living Christ may pour
through you the sap of His own vitality, and fill you
with the fruits of righteousness.
Is this your life ? It may be from to-day. If you
have never become united to Jesus Christ, the Divine
man, you may become so by one look of faith. Then
go forth to bear the fruit of a holy life to the glory of
God, so that your Ufe may praise Him in concert
with the seraphs around His Throne.
' Thy love, Thy joy, Thy peace
Continuously impart
Unto my heart,
Fresh springs that never cease,
But still increase.'

32

IV
THE FURTHERANCE OF THE
GOSPEL
Phil. i. 12-18
But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things
which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance
of the gospel ;
So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and
in all other places ;
And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my
bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife ; and some
also of good will :
The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to
add affliction to my bonds :
But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of
the gospel.
What then ? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence,
or in truth, Christ is preached ; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and
will rejoice.
In Psalm lxxvi., breathing courage and confidence, pnji. j.
which exalts the mighty Sovereign of all and 12-18
magnifies His mighty power, the Psalmist tells us Man's
that the wrath of man shaU be made to praise God. andPGod's
The wicked may plot against God, seeking to injure Power.
His servants and obstruct the progress of His
truth, and within certain limits they may appear to
succeed ; but when they expect to reap the harvest
of their evil machinations, they suddenly find them
selves put to the worse, and God takes aU that they
had meant for the suppression of the Gospel, to
promote its progress and triumph. There areJeSL._
0 33

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. instances establishing this fact more striking than
I2-I8 the story of the Apostle, for the misfortunes which
befeU his human Ufe, and the difficulties over which
he was compelled to make progress, were used by
God to promote the highest interests of that very
Gospel which was so dear to his heart, and for which
he suffered so much.
St Paul's How eagerly he set his heart upon reaching Rome!
ItoRome *n tne ^Pistle *° tne Roman Christians, he teUs them
that he hopes presently that he may see Rome, not
only that he may comfort them and be comforted by
them, but because Rome was the metropolis of the
world. From the golden mile-stone that stood in
the Forum the mighty roads emanated to the far
East and West. What Jerusalem was during the
one week of the Passover, Rome was always. The
statesmen who filled her Senate would be com
missioned to all parts of the known world as consuls
and praetors ; the soldiers who gathered in her
barracks might be despatched to the far Euphrates
on the one hand, or the white cliffs of Britain on the
other. To reach Rome seemed like standing in some
telephonic centre, from which a whisper would
reverberate to the ends of the world.
The Apostle Paul was a great strategist He
knew the value of cities ; they were the head of
waters, into which if seed were dropped the current
would carry it everywhere. Therefore, as he had
spoken in Jerusalem, the heart of Palestine; at
Antioch, the heart of Syria ; at Ephesus, the heart
of Asia Minor ; and at Athens, the heart of Greece,
he was desirous of preaching at Rome also, the heart
34

The Furtherance of the Gospel
of the empire of the world. No doubt he expected Phil, i
to get there as to other places, paying his own 12-18
passage, going freely, and being welcomed by the
little Churches of the saints, which were beginning
to shed their Ught amid the surrounding gloom. But
it was not thus that Paul accomplished his life-
purpose. He came to Rome a prisoner, his passage
paid as a convict by the Roman Government ; and
the hatred of his enemies was the breath of the
Almighty that wafted him to his chosen destination.
Thus, constantly, God aUows men to rage madly
against His Gospel up to a certain point, which may
cause annoyance, inconvenience, and pain, but there
is always a ' thus far and no further,' and the Gospel
proceeds upon the very lines which God from all
eternity had determined.
This wonderful truth, which is capable of almost
endless application, meets with three very remarkable
illustrations in this paragraph.
*****
' My bonds became manifest in Christ throughout Paul's Im-
the whole praetorian guard, and to all the rest ' {^"Iffa*
(v. 13). It would be better translated — to the whole upon the
circle of the imperial life-guards. We are all familiar Soldiers-
with the fact that the Apostle was chained to a
Roman soldier during the entire term of his two
year's imprisonment, the soldier being changed every
six hours. What an exquisite torture this must have
been to a sensitive nature Uke his! Bad enough
never to be alone, but still worse to have to spend
the long hours always in company with a man chosen
from the Roman guard. 35

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. In the Epistles of Ignatius, the good bishop of
12-18 Antioch, who was entrusted to such guards to bring
him from his see at Antioch to be thrown to the wUd
beasts, describes himself as fighting day and night
with ten leopards, who, the more kindness was shown
them, waxed worse and worse. Though we may
well imagine that some of the soldiers chained to
the Apostle may have been quiet and wistful men,
eager to know the truth, yet, quite as Ukely, others
would fiU the room with ribald songs and jokes,
and turn into blasphemous ridicule the words they
heard the Apostle speak to those who came to visit
him. At times the hired room would be thronged with
people, to whom the Apostle spoke words of Ufe ;
and after they withdrew the sentry would sit beside
him, filled with many questionings as to the meaning
of the words which this strange prisoner spoke. At
other times, when all had gone, and especiaUy at
night, when the moonUght shone on the distant
slopes of Soracte, soldier and Apostle would be left
to talk, and in those dark, lonely hours the Apostle
would teU soldier after soldier the story of his own
proud career in early life, of his opposition to Christ,
and his ultimate conversion, and would make it clear
that he was there as a prisoner, not for any crime,
not because he had raised rebeUion or revolt, but
because he believed that He whom the Roman
soldiers had crucified, under Pilate, was the
Son of God and the Saviour of men. As these
tidings spread, and the soldiers talked them over
with one another, the whole guard would become
36

The Furtherance of the Gospel
influenced in sympathy with the meek and gentle Phil. i.
Apostle, who always showed himself so kindly to I2-l8
the men as they shared, however involuntarily, his
imprisonment. How absolutely consistent the Apostle must have The witness
been ! If there had been the least divergence, day °.f f^S0-1?"
or night, from the high standard which he upheld,
his soldier-companion would have caught at it, and
passed it on to others. The fact that so many
became earnest Christians, and that the Word of
Jesus was known far and wide throughout the
praetorian guard, indicates how absolutely consistent
the Apostle's life was. Do you not see how this
applies to your own life? You may be bound to
unsympathetic companions, as the Apostle to his
soldier, as Ignatius to his ten leopards, or as Nicholas
Ridley, afterwards Bishop and martyr, to the bigoted
Roman CathoUc Mayor of Oxford; but by your
meek consistency and purity of life you may win
these for God, and what might therefore have
appeared an obstacle to your growth in grace, and
to the progress of the Gospel, may turn out just the
opposite. See to it that you so live and speak that
it may be so.
*****
' Most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident The Im-
through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to^g^t" "
speak the word of God without fear' (v. 14). That upon _the
is, courage was suppUed them by the striking
example of this noble man. Many who realised
that, notwithstanding his chains and bonds, he was
as enthusiastic hi spreading the Gospel as he had
37

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. been when his life was at his own disposal, and that,
12-18 jjj gp^g 0f eVery difficulty and obstacle, he was stiU
doing so much for the Gospel he loved, were rebuked
for their lack of zeal and said : ' If the Apostle is so
strong and brave and energetic, when there is every
reason for him to slacken and mitigate his energy,
how much more reason there is for us, who have
unrestrained liberty of action, to be unceasing in our
endeavours for that Gospel for which he suffers.'
The man who works for Christ when everything is
against him stirs those up who have no such diffi
culties ; just as he who makes confession for truth
and righteousness, when there are many reasons for
him to hush his voice, incites others to break forth
in confession of Jesus Christ. They who dare to
speak for God, even to death, are the means of
stirring others to heroic defence of the Gospel
Think, for instance, of one of the greatest men that
ever hved in England — a man whose name is almost
forgotten now, but who is immortaUy associated with
the cadence and splendid diction of the Bible —
William Tyndale. It was his avowed purpose that
eveiy plough-boy in England should be able to know
as much of the Bible as the priests. To accomplish
this he appealed to the Bishop of London, but
received no sympathy, and sorrowfully discovered
that England could not hold the translator of the
Bible. He was compelled to flee from England to
Hamburg, from Hamburg to Cologne, from Cologne
to Worms, and finally to Antwerp, where he was
executed as a martyr; but not before he had put
his imprimatur upon the magnificent English of the
38

The Furtherance of the Gospel
Bible, and had invested the Scriptures with priceless Phil. i.
interest for the minds and hearts of those who had I2-l8
watched his noble life, his beneficent career, and his
bloody death, so that out of his ashes there sprang a
hundred, nay, a thousand men, to scatter the Bible
for which he died.
This may also be the case with you who are caUed A Call
to suffer for the Gospel. It may seem as if yourtoyou'
voice were being hushed in blood and tears; but
others are being made bold. Many a young man in
that worldly society or godless counting-house is
saying ' If he dares to stand for God, I too wiU be a
hero ' ; so that the very effect of your example is to
stimulate weaker ones to become confessors and
martyrs for Jesus Christ. Has not this been the
result of the wholesale martyrdoms of Chinese mis
sionaries and converts ?
*****
' Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and The Im-
strife, and some also of goodwiU.' 'What then ? P™""™^ :
Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in upon the
truth, Christ is proclaimed ; and therein I rejoice, l^^&af
yea, and wiU rejoice' (v. 15, 18). There were two Truth.
parties in Rome. The one loved Paul enthusiasti-
caUy, and accepted his teaching ; the other, though
professedly Christian, held by the Temple, the Phari
sees, and the old restrictions of Judaism. They
avowed Christ, but often looked backward to the
Old Covenant, and tried to weave the two together.
Paul's coming aroused these to more earnestness in
promoting their own views of Christianity, but he
said: 'It does not matter, if Christ is preached;
39

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. they do not love me, they do not come to me for
12-18 hehj^ they are doing aU they can to make my Ufe
difficult ; but nevertheless, if my Lord Jesus Christ
is being preached, I am more than thankful.' Per
haps that explains why God has permitted the
various denominations to divide England between
them. Perhaps it is better that it should be so,
because one stirs up the other. It may be that the
efforts of the Nonconformists stir to more activity
the members of the Church of England, and vice
versa. In any case the various doctrines of
Christianity are more likely to be strongly enforced
and maintained, when they underUe the very
existence of a body of Christians, than if they
were held in common by aU.
All through the history of the world God has
taken what seemed to be a hindrance and obstacle,
and, if only His servants were patient and true to
Him, has converted it into a pulpit from which they
could better promulgate the truth. Remember how
Nebuchadnezzar harried the Jews. It seemed as if
the holy city was never again to wield an influence
for good over the world; but the chosen people
were scattered with their Scriptures throughout the
world, and the word of God was magnified much
more than it could have been by their concentra
tion in their own city. The devil stirred up the
Jews to murder Christ, but the grain of wheat
which feU into the ground to die, no more abode
alone, but has covered the world with the harvests
of rich grain. The Emperors persecuted the early
Church, but only drove the disciples everywhere
40

The Furtherance of the Gospel
preaching the Word. King Charles chased the PhiL i.
Puritans out of England, but they landed on Ply- 12-18
mouth Rock, and founded the great Christian
commonwealth across the Atlantic. Out of the
awful Civil War the conditions arose that made it
possible for Abraham Lincoln to free the slave,
and again the wrath of man turned out to further
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
' Careless seems the great Avenger,
History's pages but record
One death-grapple, in the darkness,
'Twixt old systems and the Word.
Truth for ever on the scaffold,
Wrong for ever on the throne ;
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch upon His own.'
So it wiU be in our life. Let us begin to rejoice s0 it may
at difficulties, to rejoice when Satan rages. The be w"* us-
power which is used against us, God will convert
for our good ; only let us always cherish the eager
expectation and hope that Christ may be magnified
in our body, whether by life or by death, whether
by joy or by shame, whether by good fortune or by
misfortune, whether by success or by failure. Christ,
Christ, Christ, the Blessed Christ — not the Bible
alone, not the creed alone, not doctrine alone, but
Christ, Christ, Christ, always Christ manifested in
our body, whether it be by life or by death.
Is Christ dear to you ? Do you live for Him ?
Is the one passion and aim and purpose of your
nature to glorify Him ? Can you say : To me to
41

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. live is Christ, and to die is gain ? Oh, let us from
12-18 to-day begin to Uve for this !
And if you are discouraged and disheartened, be
of good cheer. When you are devoted to Christ,
your very bonds wiU become electric chains through
which the pulsations of energy shaU go to others,
and your very troubles wiU be pulpits from which
you shall preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Storms cannot shipwreck the Gospel ; they waft
it forward. Its foes contrive ingenious devices to
obstruct it, but they awake to discover that all
they had done to hinder is used to help. The fines
of rail and the rolUng stock which the enemy elabo
rated for incursions of hostile intent, are found to
be simply invaluable to bear forward the precious
message of the Gospel they would overthrow. It
wiU be found, doubtless, at the end of all things,
that the beneficent purposes of God have not been
hindered one whit, but promoted and fostered, by
all that has been done to frustrate them. This is
the mystery of God's providence — that, so far from
being set aside by evil, evil helps by furnishing the
material on which the fire of the Gospel feeds, and
flames to the furthest limits of God's universe.

42

GOOD OUT OF EVIL
Phil. i. 19, 20
For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your
prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in
nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always,
so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it he
by life, or by death.
As we have seen, there were two parties in Rome. Phil. i.
The one was devoted to the Apostle, and were doing I0> 20
their best to help him in the preaching of the Gospel The Two
of our Lord. These disciples were imbued with the Parhes-
spirit of their master, and were carried along in the
current of his own devotion. ' In his bonds, and
in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, they
were aU partakers with him of grace.' The work
they did was of good-wUl and of love, because they
knew that he was set for the defence of the Gospel.
The other party refused to accept the Gospel in its
simplicity. They belonged to the Judaising party,
and held that it was necessary for a man to pass
through the ceremonies of the old covenant, in order
to participate in the benefits of the new. Throughout
his life the Apostle was constantly troubled by the
presence of these men, and his stay in Rome seems
to have stirred them up to still greater activity.
They preached Christ of envy and strife, not sincerely,
43

Phil. i.
19,20

Why Paul
Rejoiced.For Christ
was Proclaimed

The Epistle to the Philippians
but of faction, thinking to raise up affliction in his
bonds. But out of this aggravation of his anxieties he
managed to extract a new-found joy, to quote his
own inimitable words, 'What then? only that in
every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ
is proclaimed ; and therein I rejoice, yea, and wiU
rejoice.' When the heart is absolutely right with
God, when God is the one great fact which underUes
aU facts, it is able to elicit joy for every circumstance
in life, as musicians music from the roar of the torrent,
and the rush of the storm.
It is a serious question which each should ask, Is
God the underlying fact in my Ufe ? Do I detect
His presence in every storm, shower, and sunbeam,
in the dark night as weU as in the day, in my losses
and sorrows as well as in my halcyon hours of
summer joy ? To such an one every wind wafts
argosies across the sea laden with blessing, dreaded
evils pass him by without molestation, the very
Judases of life bring cups which have been mixed
by the Father's hand. When God is real to us, and
we receive all things either by His permission or
appointment, we can find occasions for joy where
other men see unmitigated grief, chinks of blue in
the dark sky, and songs in the night.
*****
Paul was glad, first because Christ was proclaimed.
So long as that name was being passed from lip to
lip, and enquiry was excited into aU that it stood for,
and men were beginning to feel after Him, if haply
they might find Him as the Saviour from their sins,
44

Good Out of Evil
and the solution of life's mysteries, he was satisfied. Phil. i.
Better half a loaf than no bread, and better the I0» 20
preaching of Christ from wrong motives than not at
aU. Better Christ pilloried than not lifted up before
the thought of the time. A good man may be glad
when the world's press deals with Christian truth,
even though it be travestied and misrepresented, it
is better thus than that men should lose interest in
Christianity. Nothing is more fatal than apathy
and neglect.
Paul rejoiced because he saw that everything For all would
would turn out right for him. ' I know that this tu™ out
shall turn to my salvation.' There has been a good
deal of controversy as to what he meant by 'salvation.'
Of course he was already fuUy saved, except that his
body bore the marks of humiliation and suffering.
It has been thought by some that he referred to his
hope that his life might be preserved, and that release
from captivity was not far away. In the Epistle to
Phfiemon, which was written from Rome at the time
of the writing of this Epistle, he says, ' Prepare me
also lodging, for I hope that through your prayers I
shaU be granted unto you.' But it seems better to
think that he beUeved that the coming of our Lord
depended upon the extension of the Gospel through
out the known world, and that, therefore, aU the
preaching of the Cross which disseminated the know
ledge of the Gospel, brought nearer that day to which
he so often refers as the day of Christ, when the
topstone should be placed upon the edifice, and com
plete salvation would come, not to him only, but to
all those who loved the appearing. This yields a
45

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. good sense to the passage. He rejoiced in the
I9> 20 preaching of this hostile faction, because it made
Christ better known, and in so far as men knew
and accepted Him, the coming of His Kingdom was
hastened, which meant peace, joy, deUverance, and
perfect life. When that long expected day was
inaugurated, the last remains of sin would be destroyed
in his heart, and the body of his humiUation would
be changed for a body in the likeness of Christ. In
this sense the word 'salvation' is employed else
where — 'He shaU appear the second time without
sin unto salvation.'
How often has God overruled the designs and
deeds of evil men for the glory of His name, the
success of His Kingdom, and the salvation of His
saints. What they mean for evil He turns to good.
The oppression of Pharaoh, as we have seen, secures
the establishment of Israel in their own land. The
persecution of the Sanhedrin forced the early
Christians to become evangeUsts throughout the
empire. The Pope's buU against Luther inaugurated
modern Protestantism. The persecution of the
Stuarts urged the Pilgrim Fathers to lay the founda
tions of the great commonwealth in the United
States. Truth has again and again been brought to
the scaffold, and wrong has swayed the sceptre, but
God is ever standing within the shadow 'keeping
watch upon His own.' Be of good cheer, lift up
your heads, your redemption draweth nigh!
For Christ Paul rejoiced also because Christ was being
Magnified, magnified. The word 'expectation' has in it the
idea of the uplifted head (Luke xxi. 28), the out-
46

Good Out of Evil
stretched neck (Rom. vni. 19). It is as when one Phil. i.
stands on tiptoe, anxiously looking for the advent of *9> 20
an anticipated prosperous issue out of affliction.
The expectation of creation which waits for the
revelation of the sons of God, had its counterpart in
the Apostle's experience as he craned his neck in
intense hope and anticipation that the great purpose
of his Ufe would be realised in the magnifying of the
Lord. Each morning, as he arose, his soul was
stirred with passionate thought and ambition that
the hours should be as full as possible with whatever
might promote the glory of his Master. Whatever
event happened, he always questioned how far it
would enhance men's estimation of the Lord. He
thought comparatively Uttle of what befell himself
in the various incidents of his life, so long as each
one furnished an increment of glory to the Master
who fiUed the entire horizon of his affections.
In the original Greek, their prayer and the supply
of the Holy Spirit are so classed together as to be
practically one. It is as though the Apostle felt
that if only his PhiUppian friends would unite in
earnest intercession, there could be no doubt as to
the response. For them to pray for the Holy Spirit
would be equivalent to his reception of Him. There
are some prayers, concerning the answer to which
we cannot be sure, for they deal with matters which
are outside the promises of God, but wherever we
claim for ourselves or others, things which God has
offered us in Christ, we may be sure that to ask is
to have.
Throughout the Epistles the Apostle is constantly prayer
47 besought.

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil. i.
19, 20

•The
Supply of
the Spirit
of Jesus
Christ.'

asking for the prayers of his fellow disciples.
' Brethren, pray for us,' occurs more than once. He
bids them ' help together by prayer.' In that touch
ing exhortation at the close of the Epistle to the
Romans, he entreats them to strive together in their
prayers for him that he might be deUvered from his
enemies, and might come to them with joy by the will
of God ; and in the Epistle to Ephesus and, probably,
to the other Asiatic churches, he bids the disciples to
pray always with aU prayer and suppUcation in the
Spirit, watching thereunto with aU perseverance and
supplication for all saints, adding significantly, ' and
for me.' It is hardly possible to over-estimate the value
of prayer, when some kindred soul reaUy unites itself
with us, in our temptations, sorrows, and efforts in
the service of Christ. FuU often some special influx
of faith, hope, and courage is due to the fact that
God is moving someone who loves us to strong
entreaty and intercession on our behalf. The angels
visited Sodom, laid their hands on Lot, and led him
forth because Abraham, yonder on the heights, was
pleading with God that if there were ten righteous,
He would not destroy the city, not knowing that
God was more eager to save Sodom than he to pray
for it.
' The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ ' is a
most interesting phrase. The Apostle describes the
Holy Spirit as pre-eminently 'the Spirit of Jesus
Christ.' Elsewhere he speaks of Him ' as the Spirit
of the Son,' ' as the Spirit of Ufe in Christ Jesus,'
' as the Spirit of Jesus.' There is ample warrant for
this. Our Lord was conceived of the Holy Ghost,
48

Good Out of Evil
anointed by the Spirit at the waters of Baptism, Phil. i.
fiUed with the Spirit as He was led up to be x9> 20
tempted, wrought His miracles and spoke His words
in the power of the Holy Spirit, yielded Himself to
the Father in death by the power of the Eternal
Spirit, and was raised from the dead on the third
day by the Spirit of HoUness, who is pre-eminently
the Author of Resurrection Life. During the forty
days, it was ' through the Holy Spirit that He gave
commandment to the apostles whom He had chosen.'
In answer to His intercession, He received the Holy
Spirit in Divine fulness into His risen and exalted
nature, and throughout the Acts He is represented
as communicating the Spirit to those who seek Him
by faith. Throughout this dispensation our Lord is,
so to speak, the depository or storehouse of the
Holy Spirit. It need hardly be said that the Spirit
is equally Eternal and Divine with the Father and
the Son, but during the present age, in the Divine
economy, He is specially communicated through the
nature of the Risen Lord to all members of His
mystical Body, the Church, and works through them
upon the world. We may be thankful, indeed, that
as the blood circulates between the heart and the
most distant member of the body, so does the Spirit
of God unite us with Christ our Master. We are
one with Him ; the very thoughts and emotions that
occupy Him are conveyed to us ; because He lives
we Uve also, by the direct impartation of His Ufe.
The word supply demands our attention. It occurs, « Supply.'
with its kindred verb, several times in the New Testa
ment. It contains a suggestion of the choir or
n 49

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. singing entertainment, which was suppUed on
IQ, 20 public occasions by some wealthy citizen to grace a
triumphal entry, or celebrate some auspicious anni
versary. It stands for the free and spontaneous
furnishing of that which enriches and quickens the
lives of others. It is as though the Apostle felt,
that in answer to the prayer for which he pleaded,
there would be a constant impartation into his
nature of that Divine Spirit whose entrance brings
joy and strength.
It is an important question to ask how far we
know that same Spirit, who enables sufferers to
discover reasons for thankfulness in their afflictions,
Ufts us out of our private tribulation into the great
current of adoration and praise which is ever flowing
towards the Throne of the Lamb, turns anxieties
and privations into fountains of blessing and salva
tion, and inspires the one consuming purpose that
Jesus should be glorified whether by Ufe or death.
How to feel As we read these wonderful paragraphs, and see
*?stPaul how eager the Apostle was for the 'greatening' of
Jesus, we feel the infection of his spirit and long to
be animated by the same passion. There is no way
of catching its fire, except by studying and obeying
the laws on which the Holy Spirit is suppUed to
saints still. Nor is it enough to be acquainted with
the method of operation, we must assiduously obey
them, being sure that the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of
method and order, and that He wiU immediately
respond to the feeblest appeal made for His succour.
Let the poor dweUer beside the Nile make the
smallest channel in the time of flood, and the re-
50

Good Out of Evil
sponsive water wiU forthwith flow into his little Phil. i.
garden plot ; so if by obedience and faith the J9» 20
channel is open towards the Blessed Spirit, there can
be no doubt that He wiU immediately fill the heart
with His abundance; though the glad recipient of
His bounty will not concentrate his thought upon
the Spirit of Jesus Christ, but pass through Him to
Jesus Christ Himself. Just as we do not specially
dweU upon the light which is the medium between
the sun and our earth, but through sunlight live in
contact with the mighty sun and orb of day ; so those
that are fullest of the Holy Spirit are fullest of the
glory of Christ, and are most eager that He should
be magnified in their bodies, whether it be by life or
by death.

61

VI
WHETHER TO LIVE, OR TO
DIE!
Phil. i. 21-26
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour : yet
what I shall choose I wot not.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and
to be with Christ ; which is far better :
Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and con
tinue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith ;
That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for
me by my coming to you again.
Phil. i. Omit the words ' Christ ' and ' gain ' and you are re-
2I*2° minded how very close life and death Ue ; they are
Death" separated only by a comma. Life is the vestibule
of death, and death follows closely upon life. The
little babe is born and dies ; the flower opens and
fades ; the spring seems hardly to have unfurled
herself in summer before the leaves begin to faU;
you clasp the hand of your friend in vigorous life
to-day, to-morrow you hear that he has passed
beyond the confines of our world. Life and death,
the systole and diastole, the beat and throb of the
pulse, the swing of the pendulum hither and thither.
Every man stands where that comma stands, between
life and death ; all men are balancing between the
two. Probably there is not a single man or woman — the
52

Whether to Live or to Die
exceptions, at least, are very rare— that does not at Phil. i.
some time of life count the gain of life against 21-26
death ; and there is the balance on one side or the
other, and sometimes the equilibrium. Now life is
the heavier, and again death. So Hamlet and Paul
may be compared, as representing two classes of men.
There is the one class, represented by Hamlet, who
weigh the evils of life and death ; there are other
men, like St Paul, who weigh the blessings.
Hamlet weighs the sorrows of Ufe, from which
death would reUeve him, against the terrors of death,
from which Ufe delivers him. ' To be, or not to be,
that is the question.' There are the sorrows of Ufe,
the whips and scorns of time, the rich man's pride,
the proud man's contumely ; and as he weighs these
up upon the scale, he thinks that probably it would
be better to die to escape them; but when he
considers what death might bring, what dreams
might come in death's sleep, he turns back to life as
after all to be preferred.
St Paul, on the other hand, is impressed with the
riches of life and death. He does not know which
to choose, because each is so sweet. Life is sweet,
because it is Christ; death is sweet, because it is
more of Christ. And so he balances the one against
the other, and presently exclaims :' I am in a strait
between the two. I do not know which of them to
choose, but on the whole death preponderates, death
is gain, to depart is far better.' So that we have
just these two thoughts — the blessings of life, and
the blessings of death, as regarded by the Apostle
PauL 53

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. ' To me to Uve is Christ.' We may picture the
21-26 Apostle Paul landing on the quay at NeapoUs, the
X,he . , port of Philippi. His dress betokens travel and toU.
Life. Evidently a poor and somewhat insignificant man,
unattended save by two or three as poor as himself.
As he lands upon the busy quay he encounters many
different men. There, for instance, is the merchant
receiving his wares from the Orient, and preparing
them for transit ; he cries : ' To me to Uve is wealth.'
Near him are the men who carry the packages from
the ships to the emporiums of trade, or the great
warehouses — the poor slaves — for them to Uve is
toil and suffering, heavy blows and privations.
Beside stands the philosopher, in his hand the scroll
with the mystic words of wide knowledge, and as he
looks upon the toil of the trader he prides himself
that he lives for a superior aim, as he says : ' To me
to live is knowledge.' Near to the little group is a
soldier, who looks with contempt upon the man of
letters, and cries : ' To me to Uve is fame.' Then the
shadow of Octavius, the mighty emperor, who not
far from PhiUppi won the great battle that gave him
the empire of the known world, seems to rise amongst
the group, crying in awful accents : ' To me to Uve is
empire.' Amid all these voices the affirmation of the
Apostle strikes in : 'To me to live is not wealth, nor
hard work, nor Uterature, nor fame, nor glory, but
Christ. Christ first, last, midst, all in all, and
perpetually Christ.'
Christ— The ^ y°u na(^ a8^e<^ the Apostle just what he meant,
Origin of our he would probably have repUed, as WilUam Tyndale
brings out in his translation, that Christ must be the
54

Whether to Live or to Die
origin of our Ufe. The Day of Pentecost meant that Phil. i.
from that moment, and onward, the Holy Spirit 21-26
should bring the germ of the Christ-life, and sow it
in the soil of our spirits, so that the very nature of
Jesus glorified, transfigured and Divine, might be
sown in the soil of our humanity, as incorruptible
seed, to reproduce in endless succession the growth
of the Christ-life.
Christ must be the essence of our life. As we The Essence
reckon ourselves dead to our own selfish existence, our
Jesus Christ will take its place, so that we may be
able to exclaim with the Apostle : ' I Uve, yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me.'
Christ must also be the model of our life. Every The Model
man works to a model. Consciously or unconsciously, of our Life-
we are always imitating somebody ; and every true
Christian will endeavour, in ever-growing perfectness,
to approximate to the measure of the stature of his
Lord. ' It is enough that the disciple should be as
His master.'
Christ must also be the aim of our life. We The Aim of
desire to make Him known, loved, and revered, that
His wUl may be done on earth as it is done in
Heaven; that others may know Him as we know
Him, love Him as we love Him, live for Him as we
live for Him ; that He may be the crowned King of
men, putting down war and strife, and hastening on
that glorious consummation, for which the Church
prays and creation groans.
Christ must be the solace of our life. Amid all The Solace
the storm, strife, and tumult, there is no cleft where our
the Christian finds safe abiding, but in the riven
55

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil. i. Rock of Ages, in the side of the pierced Christ, in
21-26 the heart of the Redeemer, the doors of which always
stand open, and He is evermore bidding us come to
Him for rest.
The Reward Christ must be the reward of our life. The one
of our Life. rewar(j for every Christian man is to get more of
Christ ; the one crown for eveiy brow is to know
Him better; the one infinite gain that comes for
every labour, every tear, every act of sacrifice, is that
Christ gives Himself, nearer, dearer, better than
ever. This enabled the Apostle, and enables us, to say,
' Life is good ; it is worth Uving.' To Uve down here
for Christ, to live in feUowship with Christ is to
have the key to nature, to beauty, to love, to every
thing that is true and good. Life with all its dark
ness and sorrow is, after aU, a good thing when a
man can say, ' To me to Uve is Christ.'
* * * * *
But 'to die is gain.' What are the blessings to
which death introduces us ? Let us weigh them up.
First, death is a beginning. The world says it is an
end ; Scripture says it is the beginning of an endless
series. Take, for instance, the term employed by the
Apostle Peter. He spake of his exodus, ' his going
out.' As the exodus was the beginning of the
national life of Israel, their going out into freedom,
so death is the exodus of the spirit into the freedom
Death a °f eternity The Apostle Paul speaks of death as a
Birth. birth : 'The first-born from the dead.' It is the emerg
ence of the spirit from the cramped, confined con
ditions of the first stage of its being into its true
56

The Blessings of Deatn.

Whether to Live or to Die
existence. He also speaks, in this passage, of death Phil. i.
as a loosing. 'Having a desire to depart' The 21-26
Greek word there is marvellously beautiful ; it is the
unmooring of a vessel from its anchorage. We some
times sing of the close of life thus :—
' Safe home, safe home in port !
Rent cordage, shattered deck,
Torn sails, provisions short,
And only not a wreck.'
How much truer is the conception suggested by
Tennyson's description of the death of Arthur : —
' So said he, and the barge with oar and sail
Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan,
That, fluting a wild carol ere her death,
Ruffles her pure cold plume and takes the flood,
With swarthy webs.'
Secondly, in death we become free. It is the Death is
freeing of an imprisoned spirit : ' We that are in Freedom.
this tabernacle do groan being burdened, not that we
would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality
might be swaUowed up of Ufe.' It is freedom from
sin, freedom from the limitations of mortality, freedom
from temptation, sorrow, care, and the anticipation
and natural shrinking from death itself.
Thirdly, death teaches us to discover our true selves. Death
You remember Rudyard Kipling's poem about the reveals Self.
ship that thought she was a lump of rivets and iron ;
but after a whfie she was loosed, and glided out to
the ocean to be tested by the storm and the tempest.
But it was only as the winds screamed through her
cordage, and every timber was strained, that she
suddenly discovered that she was a ship. And so we
57

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. do not know what we are, until we are loosed, until
21-26 our nature, which is full of strange yearnings and
discontent, finds its real consummation and bliss in
eternity. In death also the Christian who has lived Christ here
passes through the veil and sees Christ. He is with
Christ in a sense in which we cannot be with Him
here. Here we walk by faith, there by sight, and
we shall see His face, and His name shall be in our
foreheads.
After Death We can have no sympathy with the idea of some
with Christ. pe0ple who suppose that when we die we go into a
kind of swoon, and stop there until the Judgment.
Paul says : ' I shall see Christ, I shall be with Christ ;
for me to live is Christ, to die is gain, for I shaU be
with Christ, which is far better.' To be asleep
would not be far better. If there is in reserve for us
an experience far better than to live with Christ
down here, it cannot be a negation, it must consist in
more of Christ : nothing less would compensate the
soul. When the spirit leaves for a Uttle whfie the
body which has been its humble friend, its companion
and vehicle, laying it aside for a moment to take it
again one day in transfigured beauty, it passes
immediately into the presence of Jesus Christ, where
it knows Him as it is known, and sees Him face to
faec.
And so far This seems something of what Paul meant when
better. ne ggjd that death was gain. There was the begin
ning of the real Ufe ; there was the liberation, the
emancipation of his life, so that it might find itself in
the presence of Christ, and in Christ the recovery of
58

Whether to Live or to Die
aU beloved ones that had gone before. Probably Phil. i.
they are with us now by their sympathy, their 21-26
prayer, their thought of us. But we have to be with
Him before we can be Uterally with them. When
you find Christ you wUl find all your loved ones
again in Him. Bret Harte, in a poem quoted in
this connection by Dr Campbell Morgan, says : —
' As I stand by the Cross, on the lone mountain's crest,
Looking over the ultimate sea,
In the gloom of the mountain a ship lies at rest,
And one sails away from the lea ;
One spreads its white wings on the far-reaching track,
With pennant and sheet flowing free ;
One hides in the shadow with sails laid a-back,
The ship that is waiting for me.
But lo ! in the distance the clouds break away,
The gate's glowing portals I see,
And I hear from the outgoing ship in the bay
The song of the sailors in glee.
So I think of the luminous footprints that bore
The comfort o'er dark Galilee,
And wait for the signal to go to the shore
To the ship that is waiting for me.'
Do you catch that thought ? Two ships lying against
the shore ; one ship speeding out to sea in sunlight,
the other ship waiting. That is your friend who has
gone to Heaven, your wife, your child ; this is your
ship waiting for you. Some day you shaU embark
on that ship, the ship that is waiting for you. Mind
that when that moment comes for loosing the shore-
rope, you are ready.
* * * * *
59

Phil. i.
21-26 The Choice
between the
two.

Life's
Opportunities.

The Privilege of
Suffering.

The Epistle to the Philippians
' Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful
for you.' It is blessed to go when the Gate Beautiful
opens to us, but there are reasons why the balance
of choice may fall for the prolongation of life here.
Granted that we shall know Christ there, yet here we
may know Him as the angels cannot. They have
never been tempted, have never faUen into sin, have
never been solaced and comforted as we have been,
have never continued with Him in aU His trials and
temptations, have never known Him forgiving sin
with unwearied tenderness and pity, and hfting from
the gates of death.
Granted that we may serve Him yonder, yet we
can hardly do such work for Him there as here.
Tears do not need to be wiped in that fair world.
Words of comfort are devoid of meaning. There are
no prodigals to come home, no backsUders to be
restored, no lost sheep to be sought.
It is a good thing also to Uve for Christ here,
because we have the opportunity of suffering for
Him. Only here can we be nailed to His Cross,
bear some of His shame, share our proportion of the
blasphemy which is hurled upon His blessed person,
or be reproached with His reproaches. Shakespeare
makes King Henry say upon the field of Agincourt :
'For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition :
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here.

So surely those who are beyond the reach of the pain
60

Whether to Live or to Die
and trouble of this world,— babes Uke flowers nipped Phil. i.
in early infancy,— wiU for ever be the losers because 21-26
they never had the chance, as we have had, of
standing alongside of Jesus Christ in this great
battle. It is also good to live in this world as long as we The
may, because of the opportunities of helping others. Heipitf e of
When a man thinks it quietly over, however great Others.
his longing it may be, to be gone, he reasons thus with
himself: 'I can do good while I stay. I would like
to be away, but there are downtrodden ones I may
upUft, there are weaklings who want my help, there
are lost ones to be saved, and for their sake I cannot
wish to be gone before my time. Let me remain as
a pilot at his wheel, as the shepherd near his flock,
as a sentry at his post, as long as I can help one
other soul.'
Often there come glimpses of the city ; often there
are love tokens thrown over its walls ; often bunches
of the everlasting flowers fall at our feet ; often there
are quaffs of the water of Ufe; often the heavenly
ones come and walk beside us, and speak of things
in words that we cannot possibly reproduce. There
are high moments in our Ufe when the tide rises,
when the chalice of our joy is full ; but we turn back
from the radiancy of glory, and the joys beyond
compare, glad to abide in the flesh as long as there
is one more lesson to learn, one more errand to fulfil,
one more thirsty soul to refresh, one more backslider
to bring home.
As His Lord did, so His great Apostle turned His
back on the open door of Paradise, descended from
61

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. the Transfiguration Mount, and set His face stead-
21-26 fastly to bear the Cross for a Uttle longer. To abide
in the flesh was manifestly better for these PhiUppian
disciples especiaUy, and indeed for many others in all
the Churches, which Paul had been the means of
founding; and there was borne in upon his mind
the conviction that his willinghood to wait was
accepted. ' Having this confidence,' he said — ' the
confidence that I can help you best by remaining
with you — I know that I shaU abide, and continue
with you all for your progress and joy in the faith,
that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus
Christ for me, by my coming to you again.' Not yet
the final appearance before Nero : not yet the death-
sentence : not yet the beheading beyond the city
gate ! A brief respite would be granted in which he
would be able to pay another and fareweU visit!
One more meeting and parting, one more coming in
and going out, one more Welcome and Good-bye.
So the Lord had chosen for him, and so they
required his help. He was therefore willing to turn
back from the opened Heaven, with the immediate
gain of death, to a few more tears, toils, and conflicts
ere He should reaUse that the time of departure had
really come (2 Tim. iv. 6, 7).

62

VII
THE MANNER OF LIFE WHICH
BECOMES THE GOSPEL
Phil. i. 27-30
Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of
Christ : that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, 1 may
hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind
striving together for the faith of the gospel ;
And in nothing terrified by your adversaries : which is to
them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and
that of God.
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to
believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake ;
Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear
to he in me.
The Apostle had been in suspense ; on the one Phil. i.
hand, the supreme interest of living was that he 27-30
might know and serve Christ ; on the other hand, A t""6 of
to die would be gain because it would usher him into
an existence with wider horizons and opportunities.
Which of the two to choose had thrown him into
difficulty and suspense. FinaUy, however, he had
come to the conclusion, that, in aU probability, the
hour for striking his tent, weighing his anchor, and
departing to be with Christ had not come, and that
he would have still to abide in the flesh, staying at .
his post, maintaining his witness on behalf of the
Gospel, and bearing the burden and weight of the
63

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil. i.
27-30

How to live
meanwhile.

Our 'Con
versation.'

Churches which looked to him as their father. As
far as he was concerned, it was infinitely better to
go to be with Christ, but for the sake of the work
that needed him, he realised that it was more
necessary to remain with his fellow-believers, as
their comrade and helper, so as to promote their
progress in the knowledge of God, and their joy in
believing. He counted, therefore, with almost absolute
certainty that he would return again to Phihppi,
and already he seemed to hear their shouts of
rejoicing as he disembarked at the quay, and was
welcomed by the membership of the Church which
had come down to NeapoUs to greet him. In order
that that glad hour might be a sky without clouds,
that there might be nothing to jar on the greatness
of their mutual gladness, he urged that their con
versation (lit. their citizenship) should be worthy
of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether he came to
see them or was compeUed stiU to be absent, he
might hear good tidings of their steadfastness, unity,
undaunted courage, and wiUingness to suffer.
The word conversation is the rendering of a Greek
word, which is familiar to us in the terms ' poUce,'
' politics,' ' politicians.' Its primary reference is
to cities and city life. The Apostle thought of the
PhiUppian disciples as citizens. They were citizens
of Rome in the first instance, but they were also
citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Later on in
this Epistle he says, 'Our conversation (lit. citizen
ship) is in heaven.' Is not this true of us aU?
Much as we glory in our earthly citizenship, we
64

The Life which becomes the Gospel
have more to glory in when we remember that we Phil. i.
are under a Divine Sovereign, that we owe allegi- 27"30
ance to Heavenly laws, and that we have burgess
rights in the City of God. This, Macaulay tells us,
in his eloquent description of the Puritans, was
their pride and boast, and it may be ours. We
desire a better country, that is, an heavenly, and
beUeve that God has prepared for us a city. We
confess that we are pilgrims and strangers on the
earth, because we greet from afar the Celestial City,
the home of God's elect.
The word, in the course of usage, obtained a
wider significance than citizenship, and refers to the
manner of Ufe which is incumbent on all those, who
by faith have become children of the Jerusalem
which is above. We have daily to live in a manner
which becomes our high calling and great profession.
' That ye stand fast.' It is comparatively easy we must be
to mount up with wings, to run without wearying, Steadfast.
and even to walk without fainting, but the hardest
matter is to stand fast. Not going back, not yield
ing to the pressure of circumstances, not cowering
before the foe, but quietly, resolutely, and de
terminedly holding our ground. This note rings
through the Apostle's writings. 'Having done aU,'
he cries, ' see that ye withstand in the evil day, and
stand' (Eph. vi. 13, 14). In this Epistle, we shaU
find him bidding his brethren 'stand fast in the
Lord' (iv. 1). Evidently, in his judgment, stead
fastness was of supreme importance in the make-up
of character.
It is good to begin, but it is better to keep on
E 65

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. steadily to the end. It is much when the young
27-30 soldier, weU equipped for battle, steps out into the
early dawn, with the Ught shining upon his weapons,
but it is more important far, if, in the late afternoon,
he is found standing in the long thin line, resisting
the perpetual onset of the foe. We are told of
Daniel, that he 'continued' (Dan. i. 21). This,
perhaps, is the greatest tribute to him, that through
decades he did not swerve from his loyalty to God,
or devotion to the high interests which were com
mitted to his charge. The men that are steadfast
in their loyalty to truth, in their prosecution of
duty, in their holding the post assigned to them by
the providence of God, are those which leave the
deepest impres. ion on their contemporaries. It is
not the flash of the meteor which the world reaUy
wants, but the constant radiance of the fixed star.
What though the storm beats in your face, and
every effort is made to dislodge you, though it seems
as if you were forgotten in that lone post of duty,
still stand fast: the whole situation may depend
upon your tenacity of purpose, the campaign may
be decided by your holding your ground without
flinching. If the Master has put you as a Ught on
the cellar stair, never desert that post because it is
lonely and distasteful, and because the opportunity
of service comes rarely. To be found doing your
duty at the unexpected moment, when His footfall
is heard along the corridor, wiU be a reward for
years of patient waiting.
pleseTvlttie 'In 0ne Spirit' ^^ one mind (RV- soul) striving
Spirit of " together (ht. wrestling) for the faith of the Gospel'
Unity. 66

The Life which becomes the Gospel
The idea of the Apostle is derived from the ancient Phil. i.
games, when men might wrestle side by side against 27-30
those of another city or nation. We put each other
in good heart when we stand and strive shoulder to
shoulder. The regiments which are drawn from the
same locaUty, are most likely to give a good account
of themselves in the battle. Every care should be
taken to guard against the outbreak of misunder
standing and jealousy, for these, more than anything
else, wiU induce a spirit of disunion, which is the
sure precursor of failure.
To use the Ulustration of our Lord, the homes that In the
are united are irresistible in their impact upon men, Home-
the household which is divided against itself cannot
stand. So it is with the aUiances, leagues, and
parties of human poUtics ; so it is with the army,
with federations of operatives, or in the adminis
tration of the affairs of state. Directly there are
suspicions, jealousies, envies; so soon as men are
alienated by the spirit of faction and intrigue ;
directly parties are for themselves rather than for
the state; — paralysis ensues.  .
In Church Ufe, it is of course necessary that each In the
should preserve his individuality. Each stone in the Churc,1>
foundation of the New Jerusalem must flash with
its own lustre. Each star must shine with its own
glory ; each ray in the prism must be itself, or the
pure beam of light cannot be produced. The very
glory of our common Church life is in the play
and mutual interaction of different temperaments,
dispositions, and character. A duU uniformity is
much to be feared. 'If the different members of
67

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. each Church were sinular, if aU held the same
27"3° views, all spoke the same words, aU viewed truth
from the same stand-point, they would have no
unity, but would be simply an aggregate of atoms
— the sand pit over again.' But amid aU these
differences there may be a true unity, the different
notes may make one splendid burst of music, the
different regiments may be animated by a common
heroism, the crowd of Medes, Parthians, Elamites,
Mesopotamians, Cretans and Arabians, Jews and
Gentiles, may make one Church, of whom it may
be said 'They continued with one accord in the
temple, and in breaking bread at home.' What
ever we do as members of Christian organisations,
we should lay stress upon the things in which we
are agreed, and refuse to be aUenated over incon
siderable matters, about which we differ.
We must ' In nothing affrighted by the adversaries, which
Courage in *8 *° tnem an evident token of perdition, but to you
the Presence of salvation, and that from God.' The adversaries
Enemies. include the virulent hate of Jews who dogged the
footsteps of the Apostle, and sought to overthrow
his work, and the strong hatred of the Gentiles,
which showed itself in the cruel scourging and
imprisonment to which Paul and SUas had been
subjected ten years before. The origin of the word
translated affrighted, suggests the behaviour of a horse
when it becomes scared, springs aside, or dashes off
wildly. It is an expression of panic and dismay ; as
if one should say, 'It is vain to resist, the enemy
is too strong.'
In point of fact, our adversaries bluster much, but
68

The Life which becomes the Gospel
effect very Uttle. They come near to us, as Goliath Phil. i.
to David, threatening the terrible things that they 27"30
are prepared to perpetrate for our undoing, but
when they discover that we manfully hold our own,
they recoil as the waves from the rocks and cliffs
of the shore. It seems, sometimes, as though the
ocean would prevail, the mighty waves, mountain
high, come towering towards the coast, but within
a moment there is nothing to show for their fury
but a mass of foam. It was so with the Spanish
Armada, when with loud defiance it was hurled
against Elizabeth ; it was so with the long strife
that foUowed the burning of John Huss and Jerome
at Prague, when all Europe arrayed itself against
their foUowers in vain. 'Lo the kings assemble
themselves, they pass away together; they saw it
and then were they amazed; they were dismayed
and were stricken with terror ; trembling took hold
of them there, and pain as of a woman in travail ;
with the east wind Thou breakest the ships of
Tarshish.' Undaunted courage becomes the servant of God. Courage
It shone in the faces of the three young men, who Q^™es
told the king that they would not bow down to servant
his graven image. It inspired the apostles, who
told the Sanhedrin that they must obey God rather
than men. It flamed forth in Luther's lonely stand
against the papacy. ' Be of good comfort, Master
Ridley,' said Latimer, ' and play the man, we shaU
this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in
England, as I trust shall never be put out.' In
these words was evidence of the undaunted courage
69

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. i. which has never failed to animate the martyrs of
27-30 Jesus. It is impossible to ordinary flesh and blood,
but, by faith, we may receive the lion-heart of Him,
who is not only the Lamb as it had been slain, but
the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
We must ' To you it hath been granted in the behalf of
accept Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer
as a Gift in His behalf; having the same conflict which ye
from God. gaw jn me^ an(j now hear to i,e jj, me#' jjow greatly
these words must have encouraged the PhiUppian
Christians ! They realised that the Apostle looked
upon them as fellow soldiers in the same fight as
that in which for a life-time he had been engaged.
Their steadfastness and victory at PhiUppi would
make his own resistance easier, just as his heroism
in Borne sent a thrill of courage and hope into
that far distant city. They were comrades, fellow
soldiers, entrusted with similar responsibility on
behalf of the dear Lord who was leading the
fight.
OurVictories The same thought was in the mind of the Master,
are our when, on the return of the seventy from casting out
a few demons, He said, 'I beheld Satan fallen as
lightning from heaven.' He encouraged them by
reminding them that their victories were His. So is
it always. There is not a single lad at whom shoes
are thrown in the bedroom by his school-feUows,
because he says his prayers beside his bed ; there
is not a girl who brings on herself the derisive
epithets of her fellow factory hands, because she
reads her Testament in the dinner hour ; there is not
a single working man who endures obloquy and
70

The Life which becomes the Gospel
iproach, the hiding of his tools, and exclusion from Phil. i.
le companionship of his fellow workmen, because 27-30
b dares to rebuke their blasphemous and impure
mversation, who is not sharing in that same con-
ict, which is always raging between heaven and
eU. In that conflict suffering is inevitable, but let us Suffering for
are to recognise that suffering for Christ's sake is a js / 'cift. a C
ift. 'It is given to you on behalf of Christ.' He
ltrusts money to some, learning to others, gifts of
jeech and organisation to others, but to some, who
lay weU stand in the inner circle, He gives the
rerogative to suffer. Accept your suffering as a
recious gift from His hand, and dare to believe
lat in and through it aU, you are fiUing up that
hich is behind of His own suffering, for His Body's
ike, which is the Church. You are being admitted
ito His Gethsemane to watch with Him, your
iffering is precious in His sight, and wiU have a
istinct and undoubted effect in hastening the advent
F His Kingdom.

71

VIII
THE ENTWINING OF
CHRISTIAN HEARTS
Phil. ii. 1-4
If there he therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love,
being of one accord, of one mind.
Let nothing he done through strife or vainglory ; hut in lowliness
of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on
the things of others.
Fellowship is essential to the true development of
Phil. ii. character. Ever since the Creation it has not been
1-4 good for man to be alone. The Swiss Family
Fellowship Robinson was always more interesting to me than
is cssGntisl .
to growth of Robinson Crusoe, because the latter was alone on the
character. island, whilst the former was a famuy group. No
man can be satisfied to Uve by himself. It may be
necessary, but he wiU not attain his fuU growth.
He needs fellowship with those above him, with
those beside him, and with those below him, in
order to attain his full maturity.
Such fellowship must be inward rather than
Such outward. It must be communion rather than com-
kCom-hiP munication > i* must De in spirit and sympathy more
munion. than in outward form. If a man is only conscious
that he is in sympathy with kindred souls he does
not so much mind if they be sUent. If there be at
this moment some noble angel who has been com-
72

The Entwining of Christian Hearts
missioned by the Almighty to undertake a distant Phil. ii.
errand to one of the environs of the universe, and I_4
who at this moment is plying his mighty flight
through ether, intent on executing the purpose of
the Most High, his noble bosom heaving with adora
tion, devotion, and praise, even though his back
should be turned to the metropolis of the universe
from which he has started, in those distant seas of
space, from which no answering angel voice re
sponds to his, and where his voice alone awakens
the echoes with the praise of the Eternal, he prob
ably is not conscious of soUtude, or loneliness, or
isolation, because his heart is beating in sympathy
with the great host of beings he has left behind him.
It is not necessary, therefore, that we should have
outward contact with people to derive the develop
ment of character, which comes from sympathy ; if
the contact is inner and heart to heart, it is enough
for the achieving of the Divine purpose.
This fellowship will best come to us through a It must come
common medium. Of course, there are many cases q^^^"
of affinity in which man is drawn to man, and woman Medium.
to woman, and man to woman, by a sort of inward
attraction and approximation of heart to heart. But
this is not so strong for the most part as their
common adherence to a common interest. There
may be the aggregation of sand-grains, which have
been moistened and compressed until they appear to
cohere, but directly they become dry they disintegrate
and faU apart, atom from atom ; whereas, supposing
a number of grains of iron dust to accumulate around
a common magnet, because the iron attracts them to
73

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. itself it attracts them also to one another, and there
1-4 is no disintegration, but a perpetual welding. So
it is with groups of men. Men may be pressed to
gether from without, whose union is but temporary.
But again, other men may embrace one common
principle, and become compacted into a cohesive
whole. For the most part it is better, therefore, for
us to adhere to one another because of their
adhesion to a common centre or medium.
The Medium This knitting medium may be a common sentiment.
Common "^or ul8taDlCe> take the children of a home — a brother
Sentiment and sister. Their spirits came, God alone knows
whence, but they met together in this common
family circle. The common Ufe of the father, of the
mother, of the dear old ancestral residence, of the
antique furniture, of the garden, or farm, — these
create the common sentiments that yield for those
two a medium of unusual attractiveness. So it is
with two artists. Their common interest in the
beautiful, that they catch bewitching nature in her
shyest moods, that they are students together of the
secrets of creation — these common sentiments wUl
draw them together. They may have met in some little
village, never having known each other before, but
from that week which they spend together, they
become welded by a common sentiment. So it is
with two reformers, men who have come from
different parts of England, who speak different
dialects of English ; they meet in a common council
chamber, hear some great programme unfolded, and
leap to their feet with enthusiastic acclamation.
Then, as they leave the haU by the same staircase,
74

The Entwining of Christian Hearts
talking casually, the two men find themselves drawn Phil. ii.
together ; and from that moment a tie is wrought I_4
between them which will unite them like Cobden and
Bright — brothers for the remainder of their existence.
Higher and better than the adhesion to a sentiment Better still, a
is a common devotion to a person. That is what devotion
made the unity of the Cave of Adullam. David's
foUowers had come from all parts of Israel; they
were, many of them, men of rude and rough char
acter; some were debtors, some outlaws; but as
soon as they reached that spot and gathered around
the magnetic personaUty of David, they became con-
soUdated into a fellowship, before the impact of
which the kingdom of Saul feU. He could not resist
the mighty impulse of that united band of brothers,
that gathered each to the other, because they
gathered around David. And in our own English
story, what made the unity of the Table Round,
which drove out the heathen and righted wrong
throughout the whole country, except the fact that
King Arthur was there, the leader, the prince, the
centre, in whom each of the units found union and
cohesion with every other ?
What is it that makes the British Empire ? Is it
not because distant colonies, countries, cities, and
vast extended territories find their centre of unity
in the personaUty of the Sovereign? In the old
village Ufe of England, the fact that men, women,
and chUdren came for water to the common well,
that stood in the centre of the vfilage green, made
the whole village become one by its common attrac
tion to that moss-grown well. 75

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. It is best of all when that medium is God Himself.
1-4 — God in the person of Christ. You can see that in a
Best of All: mmute, if you have noticed the change that comes
Medium. over a family when religion enters it. Before reUgion
came the father, mother, and children were bound by
a certain bond to each other ; there were no jars, no
jealousy, no strife ; but when a revival comes over
the Church, and the larger number, if not aU, in the
household become truly regenerate, there is a new
depth, a new blessedness in the fanmy Ufe. God is
in the meals, God is in the play and recreation ; the
thought of God persuades and permeates the whole
house. The presence of God gives a new meaning
to every affection, pursuit, engagement, and faculty —
a new wealth and beauty pour into them aU.
Two men may have been drawn to each other by
a common sentiment. After a whfie they become
religious, each begins to love God. They love one
another better, touch one another at deeper points,
become in every way more to one another. Those
two men have taken the bulb of friendship, which
could hardly thrive in the cold atmosphere to which
it was exposed, and have planted it amid the kindly
atmosphere of the love of God, and the poor sickly
plant has unfurled a fragrance and beauty of colour
which had never before been possible. So you see,
however great the drawings we have to one another
on the same and lower platform of common interests
or sentiments towards a given centre, there is no
such fellowship as that which is born in us when
we are , welded together in a common love to
Jesus Christ and a common devotion to the interests
76

The Entwining of Christian Hearts
of His kingdom. This is the basis of closest fellow- Phil. ii.
ship, when our souls are bound together by a strong I_4
deep attachment to God in Christ.
According to this passage there are five bonds of
union and feUowship in the Gospel.
The first bond is the consolation which is in Bonds of
Christ. For consolation let us substitute exhorta- consolation.
tion, or, better still, persuasiveness, so that we might
put it that the first bond of Christian fellowship is
Christ's persuasiveness. That Jesus Christ is inte
rested in every Church fellowship is obvious, but we
do not always realise how much He is always doing
to persuade us to maintain it. Have there not been
times in your Ufe when you have been greatly in
censed, but have reaUsed that there was a voice
speaking within your heart, and a gentle influence
stealing over you, a yearning towards the brother
about whom you had cherished hard and unkind
feeUngs ? That has been the persuasiveness of
Christ. It is He who has besought you to check
that word, to refrain from writing that letter, to
abandon that bitter and offensive way which had
seemed so befitting a method of repaying your
enemy to his face. It was Christ who was per
suading you to drop the weapon from your hand,
and to reach it out in brotherhood, and this because
He was so eager to keep the unity of the Spirit un
broken in the bond of peace.
The second bond is the comfort of love. The The Comfort
Greek word wul bear this rendering— if you know of Love.
the tender cheer that love gives; that is, see to it
77

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. that you maintain the bond of Christian feUowship
*"4 by meeting your feUow Christians with the tender
cheer of love. We aU know what tender cheer is,
when men have been out aU day and tried, almost
beyond endurance. As they come out of the storm,
the depression of their spirit and their health may
have conspired to reduce them to the lowest depth
of darkness — then as the door opens, and they see
the ruddy glow of the fire, and the wife comes to
meet them, and the child is there with its prattle,
for a moment it seems almost worth while having
known the weariness and depression because of the
contrasted cheer that greets them. All around us
in the world are Christian hearts which are losing
faith ; many hands hang down, and knees shake
together. Let us see to it that by the kindly cheer
of a smile, the grasp of a hand, the welcome of a
word, we do something to draw those people into
the inner circle of Christian love.
The Fellow The third bond is the fellowship of the Spirit.
Smritf ^ne wor(* means to share the Spirit, the going in
common with the Spirit. They who Uve near God
know what that fellowship is ; they know that they
are always accompanied; that they are never for
one moment by themselves ; can never enter a room
with the consciousness of vacancy ; can never travel
in an empty car with a sense of isolation and
solitude : there is always the feUowship of the
Spirit. Whatever any one man knows of this
fellowship every other knows. Each Christian
person is conscious of the same Presence, making
evident and obvious to us the same Jesus Christ.
78

The Entwining of Christian Hearts
The same atmosphere is lighted by the same sun ; Phil. ii.
and in proportion as we have feUowship with the I_4
same Spirit we cannot lose our temper with each
other, or be hard, cross, and unkind.
The fourth bond is, ' Bowels of mercies' The old < Bowels of
Greek word stands for humanness aud pity. In the Merc»es.'
former clause we were caUed upon to manifest the
kindly cheer, that welcomes the weary soldier on his re
turn from the campaign, for equals of whose heart-
sorrow we have some inkUng ; but now we are to show
feUowship for our dependants and subordinates, for
the faUen, the weak, the weary, for those whose spirits
cry out in agony. And in acting thus we are doing
what we can to co-operate with Christ in His con
solation, and with the Holy Ghost in His fellowship, to
build up and compact the Church into a living unity.
The fifth bond is one common mind and purpose — A Common
' That ye be Uke-minded, being of one accord and of 5?m* "?d
one mind.' It recalls the sentence in the book of
Chronicles which tells us that every day men came
from aU Israel with one mind to make David king.
So the deepest thought in Christian fellowship, and
that which makes us truly one, is the desire to make
Jesus King, that He may be loved and honoured,
that thousands of souls may bow the knee and con
fess that He is Lord. Oh ! that this were ever the
prominent thought among us.
In such an atmosphere, where all love one another
and Uve for the common object of the glory of Jesus,
three things foUow : —
(1) Party spirit dies. — ' Let nothing be done Three
through strife or partizanship.' One cannot say, I Results-
79

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. am of ApoUos ; another, I am of Cephas ; because
I_4 aU are of Christ.
(2) There is absolute humility. Each thinks the
other better than himself. Why ? Because each looks
upon the best things in another and the worst things
in himself ; and it is only when you compare what
you know yourself to be with what you think others
are, that you become absolutely humble. By com
paring what we sadly deplore in ourselves with what
we admire in others it is not difficult to think every
body better than ourselves. Out of this there comes —
(3) The habit is formed of looking upon other men's
things and not upon our own. We acquire a wide
sympathy. When we know God we begin to see
something of Him in people who have been accus
tomed to very different surroundings from ourselves.
We realise that those who do not belong to our fold
may yet belong to the same flock. When we love
Christ best it is wonderful how soon we discover
Him in people who do not belong to our Church, or
denomination, or system, but who also love Him
best, are hving the same Ufe, and fiUed with the
same spirit. We never relax our loyalty to our
special Church, but we enlarge our sympathy to
embrace the great Church, the Body of Christ
Perhaps you have not yet entered the Ufe of love !
You do not know what the love of God is — your sin
has made you evil and selfish. But if you are willing
to abandon your selfish, sinful Ufe, and kneel at the
foot of the Cross, asking for forgiveness and salva
tion, step by step you wiU enter that experience
which we have been describing, and which is in this
world as an oasis amid wastes of wilderness sand.
80

IX
HE EMPTIED HIMSELF
Phil. ii. 5-8
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus :
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God :
But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men :
And being found in fashion as - man, He humbled Himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
In the whole range of Scripture this paragraph Phil. ii.
stands in almost unapproachable and unexampled 5-8
majesty. There is no passage where the extremes of Majesty a*"1
our Saviour's majesty and humility are brought into combined.
such abrupt connection. Guided by the Spirit of
God, the Apostle opens the golden compasses of his
imagination and faith, and places the one point upon
the supernal Throne of the eternal God, and the
other upon the Cross of shame where Jesus died,
and he shows us the great steps by which Jesus
approached always nearer and nearer to human sin
and need; that, having embraced us in our low
estate, He might carry us back with Himself to the
very bosom of God, and that by identifying Himself
with our sin and sorrow He might ultimately identify
us with the glory which He had with the Father
before the world was. And this wonderful de
scription of His descent to our shame and sorrow
is here cited by the Apostle, that it might be a Uving
F 81

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. impulse and inspiration to ourselves, not to look
5-8 upon our own things, not to hold them with a tight
grasp, but to be wiUing to stoop for others to shame,
sorrow, and spitting; fulfilling God's purpose of
mercy to the world, even as Jesus Christ, who
became the instrument and organ through which
God's redemptive purpose wrought. ' Let this mind
be in you.' Think these thoughts. Never look
exclusively upon your own interests, never count
anything of your own worthy to stand in the way,
but always be prepared to the last point to deny
yourself, that the redemptive purpose of God may
flow through the channel of your Ufe to those that
sorely need His blessed help. It is a wonderful
thing that, day by day, in our poor measure, we may
repeat the purpose and the work of Jesus Christ our
Emmanuel. No rhetoric or metaphor of ours can add to the
splendour of these words, but in the simplest possible
way we will stand on these seven successive slabs of
chrysolite.
Christ in the First, He was in the Form of God. The
Form of Greek word translated "form" means a great deal
more than the external appearance ; it stands for the
essence of God's nature, so that we may say that
Jesus Christ possessed the essence of the Divine
quality and nature from aU eternity. This exactly
agrees with other words of Scripture, as when we
are told, He is ' the image of the invisible God.'
Again, ' Being the effulgence of His glory,' i.e. He
was the outshining beam of the Father's glory ; ' and
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He emptied Himself
the very image of His substance,' i.e. He corresponded Phil. ii.
to the Divine Nature, as a seal to the die. Again, 5-8
' The Word was with God, and the Word was God.'
'All things were made by Him.' And then, as we
overhear that marveUous communion between the
Son and the Father, in John xvii., we notice His
reference to the glory He had with the Father before
the worlds were made, and with which He asks the
Father to glorify Him in His human nature again.
AU these deep words prove that whatever God was
in the uncreated eternity of the past, — the infinite,
the incomprehensible, the aU-holy, and the all-
blessed, — that was Jesus Christ, who was absolutely
one with Him, as spirit and soul are one in the
organisation of our nature.
Secondly, There was no robbery when He it was not
claimed Equality with God. Indeed, as R.V. Robbery-
puts it, it was not a thing to be grasped, because He
was so sure of it. It was conceded to Him univer-
saUy; He counted it no robbery; He thought it
detracted nothing from the Father's infinite glory
when He stood on an equaUty with Him ; and it is
remarkable to notice how in the four courts of
earthly Ufe He prosecuted His claim. There are
four courts for us alL
In the court of His intimates. On the highway Four Courts.
to Csesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples whom
men took Him to be; and Peter cried, 'Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God.' This could
not have meant that the Lord Jesus was the Son as
we are sons. That would have been a meaningless
83

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. response. There was something more than that.
5"8 And Jesus took it to be more, because He said,
' Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
My Father which is in heaven.' In those words He
took to Himself the prerogative of equaUty with God.
You remember how He said afterwards : ' Ye
believe in God,' — give Me the same faith, ' beUeve also
in Me.' He thought it not robbery to receive the
faith that man gives to God. He said significantly :
' My Father and I,' — ' We wiU come and make our
abode with him.' He thought it not robbery to
enter the human soul and to share its occupancy
with the Father. With His intimates He always
spoke of Himself as One with the Father, in an
incomprehensible, mysterious, but essential oneness.
So also in the court of public opinion. He said,
' I and My Father are One,' with an emphasis that
made the Jews catch up stones to cast at Him,
because, being a man, He claimed to be God. And
He also told them that aU men were to honour the
Son even as they honour the Father. He thought it
not robbing God to accept the honour men gave
to Him.
So also in the court of justice. We know how
the priests chaUenged Him, and asked Him to declare
His essential nature, and said, ' Art Thou the Son of ,
the living God?' — using the word son in the sense
the Jews always did use it, as intimating essential
Deity ; and He said, ' Thou sayest that I am : and
hereafter ye shall see the Son of man coming in the
glory of God,' — for He did not think it robbery to
share God'B prerogative and place.
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He emptied Himself
Finally, in the court of death. When death came, Phil. ii.
and He hung upon that cross of agony, He did not 5-8
for a moment retract aU that He had said, but opened
the gate to the dying thief, and assured him that he
would be that day with Him in Paradise, — for He
did not think it robbing God to assume the right of
opening the gates of forgiveness and Ufe.
AU through His earthly Ufe He insisted upon it
that He was God's equal, God's feUow, and that He
was One with the Father.
Thirdly, Hb emptied Himself. This was evi- He emptied
dently by His free wiU and choice. He emptied Himself*
Himself of His glory. As Moses veUed the glory
that shone upon his face, so Emmanuel veiled the
glory that irradiated from His Person. We are told
they need no sun in heaven, because His Presence is
sun. What an effulgence of Ught must have streamed
from Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity,
in those uncreated ages! But when He stepped
down to earth He veiled it, — the Word became flesh
and tabernacled among us, — the Shekinah nature
was shrouded, so that it was not able to penetrate,
save on the Mount of Transfiguration, when, for a
moment, the voluntary act by which Christ hid His
intrinsic splendour was laid aside, and it welled out
in cascades and torrents of bUnding light.
But probably we are specially here taught that He
emptied Himself of the use of His divine attributes.
This is a profound truth which it is necessary to
understand if you would read rightly the lesson of
our Saviour's life. Men have been accustomed to
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil, ii. think that the miracles of Jesus Christ were wrought
5*8 by the putting forth of His intrinsic and original
power as God : that when He hushed the storm, and
the waves crouched like whelps to His feet, — that
when He raised the dead, and Lazarus sheeted with
grave-clothes came forth, — that when He touched
the sight of the blind, and gave eyeballs to those that
had been born without their optics, — that aU this
was done by the forthputting of His own original,
uncreated, and divine power ; whereas a truer under
standing of His nature, specially as disclosed in
the Gospel by St John, shows that He did nothing
' of Himself, but what He saw the Father doing ; that
the words He spoke were not His own words, but as
He heard God speaking He spoke ; that the works
He did were not his own, but the Father's who sent
Him, for when they said on one occasion ' Show us
the Father,' He replied, ' He that hath seen Me hath
seen the Father ; the words I speak to you I speak
not from Myself, but the Father that dweUeth in Me,
He doeth His works.' His human Ufe was one of
faith, even as ours should be : 'As the Uving Father
hath sent Me, and I Uve by the Father, even so he
that eateth Me shall live by Me.' Frequently He
paralleled our experience with His own ; and no
doubt the story of the Vine in which He depicts
our dependence upon Himself, had long been in His
thought as an emblem of His own dependence upon
the Father. He chose to Uve Uke this. He volun
tarily laid aside the exercise of His omnipotence, that
He might receive power from God ; absolutely and
voluntarily forewent the use of attributes that lay all
86

He emptied Himself
around Him, Uke tools within the reach of the skUled Phil. ii.
mechanic, that He might Uve a truly human life, 5-8
weeping our tears, and receiving the plenitude of His
Father's power. *****
Fourthly, He took upon Him the form of a Christ in the
servant. The infinite God, with whom He was f£rr™ °tf. *
One, desired to achieve certain purposes in our world;
and the blessed Christ, the Second Person in the
Trinity, undertook to be the medium and vehicle
through which the Father might express Himself:
and just as the words that issue from our mouth are
impressed with our intelligence — the liquid air around
us yielding itself to the movements of the larynx, so
that what is in our mind is communicated and
conveyed to others as they Usten — so Jesus Christ
became the Word of God, impressed with the thought,
mind, and intention of God, so that the Father was
able, through the yielded nature of the Son, to do,
say, and be everything He desired. Christ was the
perfect expression of the Being of Him whom no
man hath seen, or can see.
It is so absurd, therefore, to divorce Jesus from
the Father. Preachers have made an awful mistake
when they have spoken of the Atonement as though
Jesus intervened to appease the Father, to satisfy
something in God that needed satisfaction before He
could love. On the contrary, the whole Bible sub
stantiates the belief that God was in Christ; and
that what Christ did, God did through Him, and
that the death on the cross was the act of the entire
Deity. What wonder, then, that the Father said,
87

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. ' Behold My Servant whom I have chosen, Mine
5*8 elect, in whom My soul is weU pleased. I wiU put
My Spirit upon Him, and He shaU show judgment
to the Gentiles.' *****
in the Fifthly, He was made in the likeness of
Me^eSS °f MEN' ^e mus* know what the experiences of a
human body are, what childhood and boyhood, and
what it is to pass through the various stages of man
hood. It was needful that He should be as perfectly
united with man as He was perfectly united with
God, so that He might be made a merciful and
faithful High Priest, to make intercession for our
sins — for all these reasons — He did not abhor the
Virgin's womb, but was made man. Let us not fear
too much the mystery and burden of human Ufa
Our Lord and Master has gone this way before us,
and has left a track behind, as they who traverse
the AustraUan bush break twigs or branches along
their route, to serve as a guide to those who foUow.
It is good to be born, that we may have a share in
the nature He has worn.
*****
Christ Sixthly, He died. He need not have died,
to Death because He was sinless ; and death was only the
result of sin. Adam sinned, and so died ; Jesus did
not sin, and therefore needed not to pass through
death's portal. From the Mount of Transfiguration,
He might, had He chosen, have stepped back into
heaven, as Adam might have been caught back to
God, if he had not eaten of the forbidden fruit. Had
our first parents not yielded to temptation, our race
88

He emptied Himself
would still have peopled the world, and would have Phil. ii.
passed away, as, at the Second Advent, those will, 5-8
who are aUve and remain, — suddenly changed, not
seeing death, and their mortality swallowed up of life.
From the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus Christ
could have stepped into heaven, His body passing in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, through its
supreme transfiguration. But, had this been the
case, He would never have made the reparation due
to the holy law which man had broken. And there
fore, with calm deliberation, and with fuU knowledge
of aU that awaited Him, He came down the moun
tain-side, and yielded Himself to death. He laid
down His life at the cross, and bowed His meek
head beneath , death's sceptre. He had power to lay
down His Ufe, as a voluntary gift and sacrifice for
our race ; and He used it. Though Lord of all, He
became obedient to the last dread exaction of human
penalty: and, through death, destroyed him that
had the power of death.
*****
Seventhly, He chose the most degrading and Even,the..,_
¦" m, .Death of the
painful form of death. There were several cross.
methods of death — by decapitation, by the stoppage
of the heart's action, or by drinking poison. The
death of the cross was the death of the slave, the
most shameful and ignominious. Cicero said that it
was far, not only from the bodies but the imagination
of Romans. Therefore, since this death was the most
shameful through the exposure of the person, the
most degrading, the most painful known to man, the
Saviour chose it. He could not have gone any lower.
89

us,

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. One has sometimes imagined how He might
5"° have died — in the home of Bethany, with the
window open towards Jerusalem, Mary wiping the
death-dew from His brow, and Martha waiting on
His every need, whilst Lazarus gave Him a brother's
help. But this could not be the Lord's choice, in
view of the fact that He must taste death for every
man, and be made a curse, and be able to put His
everlasting arms beneath those of His foUowers, who
have died the most excruciating and shameful deaths.
That Mind We must be wiUing to lay aside our ambition and
must be in glory, our thrones of comfort, respect, and power, if
by doing so we may be the better able to succour
others. We must be willing to take the form of
servants, to wash one another's feet, to submit even
to shame and spitting, to misunderstanding and
opprobrium, if we shaU thereby help to lift the
world nearer God. There is no other way of sitting
with Jesus on His throne, no other method by which
we may assist Him, however feebly, in His work of
saving others. There are plenty among us Uke the
two brethren who would sit right and left in the
Kingdom, who will never be able to attain thereto
because they wUl not pay the price of drinking His
cup and being baptised with His baptism. They
wiU not take the low seat, or stoop to the obscure
and unnoticed tasks : they love the honour that
comes from human applause, and the notoriety
which accrues from conspicuous notices in the daily
press. God help and forgive us for yielding to these
insidious temptations, and give us the Spirit of our
Lord, that the same mind may be in us as in Him.
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He emptied Himself
Kepler, when he first turned his telescope to resolve Phil. ii.
the nebulas, said, ' I am thinking over again the 5-8
first thoughts of God ' ; but surely it is given to us
to think still earlier thoughts than those of Creation,
even those which were in the heart of the Lamb who
was slain in the Divine Purpose before the worlds
were framed.

91

X
THE NAME OF NAMES
Phil. u. 9-11
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a
name which is above every name :
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ;
And thai every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Phil. ii. This is the other side of the subject we last con-
9"11 sidered. Then, we contemplated the descent ; now,
A Name ^he ascent: the one, His humiliation; the
above everv
Name. other, the glory to which God hath exalted
Him. We ought to put this passage alongside of
Eph. i. 15-23, where the Apostle asserts that God
displayed in the person of Jesus His mightiest power,
when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at
His own right hand, far above all principaUty and
power, might, and dominion, and every name that is
named, not only in this world, but in that which is
to come. Indeed all through the New Testament the
Father's agency in the exaltation of His Son is
distinctly accentuated; and we are constantly re
minded of the contrast between the action of men,
who with wicked hands crucified and slew Him, and
the action of God, who raised Him from the dead.
There are two interpretations, which are suggested
by the Authorised and Revised Versions. We are
92

The Name of Names
told in the R.V. that God highly exalted Him, and Phil. ii.
gave Him the name which is above every name — the 9-"
emphasis on the definite the; and if we should accept
this rendering, it would convey the meaning that the
infinite God gave to Jesus, His perfected Servant,
His own incommunicable name of Jehovah. The
name which is above every name is manifestly the
name of Jehovah, which the Jews held to be so
sacred that they never mentioned it, never even wrote
it. It is important for us to reaUse that in Jesus
Christ there blend at this moment the perfected
beauty of the Man and the excelling glory of Jehovah
— the glory which He had with the Father before
the world was made. That is so deep and blessed a
truth that we may be quite prepared to admit it is
included in the meaning here, for our Saviour is God.
But after looking carefully into the matter from
every point of view, it seems better to come back to
the conclusion suggested by the Authorised Version —
that the name of Jesus, which was given to Him in
His birth, has been recognised as the highest type of
being in the whole universe, and that this name, or
more especially the nature for which the name stands,
is the loftiest and supreme type of character, which
is highly exalted above all other characters and types
of being. His is the conquering name ; the name The Name
which shaU become victorious ; the name which is ° Jesus•
destined to supremacy — the name of Jesus. It was
given to Him first by the angel Gabriel, when in his
annunciation to the mother he said, 'Thou shalt
conceive and bring forth a son, and shalt caU his
name Jesus.' And when Joseph was considering
93

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. whether or not he should put away Mary, then
9"11 espoused to him but not yet married, the angel of
God, in a dream, told him to take to himself Mary
his wife, because she would bear a son, to whom they
must give the name Jesus. This name of Jesus was
borne by our Lord throughout His earthly Ufe, and
often used by His apostles after His ascension, as the
speU and talisman of victory, when they wrought
miracles in His name. It is repeatedly referred to
in the Epistles, and especiaUy in that to the Hebrews,
and evidently stands for the highest type of being.
In the whole realm of existence this is the name
which is above every name, that at the name of
Jesus, the Saviour, every knee should bow in heaven,
in earth, and in hades.
Here is (1) We obtain instruction. We are famiUar with
Instruction. tne phrase, 'Survival of the fittest;' by which we
understand that amid the shocks and collisions of
creation certain types of creature-life, stronger than
others, broad-shouldered and powerful, have pushed
their way to the front, and have crushed out the
weaker. Amid the strife chronicled by history,
certain races of mankind inevitably go down, whilst
others forge their way to the front and hold positions
of supremacy. SimUarly, in the life of the world
around us, where everything is being searched and
tested to the uttermost by the ordeal of time, probation,
and trial, certain types of character are constantly
being thrust downward, or hurled against the wall
in the impetuous rush, whilst others come easUy to
the front. Thus, perpetually, different types of ideal
and character are acknowledged as supreme.
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The Name of Names
As we look around us, in the great arena of Ufe, Phil. ii.
we are often disposed to imagine that the type of 9""
character represented by power, by the giant's grip,
by sinew and muscle, is the supreme and victorious
one. At other times we are disposed to think that
the type of the scientist and philosopher, the man of
wise thought and penetrating investigation, is the
elect, the ideal type. Again we are disposed to think
that the man of wealth, who by his ingenuity has suc
ceeded in accumulating a fortune or in building up
a great business, exhibits the ideal type. Thus amid
the cross-lights of this world we are greatly perplexed;
for when we turn to the Ufe of Jesus Christ, the
sweet, gentle, self-denying, and forgiving Ufe, which
appeared to be unable to hold its own against the
antagonism and maUce of men, we are apt to conclude
that that type at least is too tender, too gentle, too
retiring and unobtrusive to become the dominant
type. Yes, we exclaim, the race is to the strong, the
sceptre for the wise, the throne for the man of wealth ;
but the cross is for the character that lives to love
and forgive, and save. It is good, therefore, to come
into the sanctuary of God, to leave behind us our
newspapers and novels, the standards of the market
place and the forum, and to submit our minds
beneath the influence of this word which lets in
eternity upon time, which allows the light that plays
around the throne of God to strike in upon us ; and,
as we see things for one brief hour, not from the
standpoint of our feUows, but of the angels — not
judging by the standards of this world, but by those
of the other world into which we so soon shall come
95

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. —we shall find that the dominant type of character
9-11 which is to endure, to last supreme when aU other
types of character, which men have worshipped and
idolised, have passed away as the mists of winter
before the summer, is the name and nature of Jesus
Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of men.
This is what God hath chosen. Here is the
survival of the fittest. Here is the supreme conception
of character. This, this is what eternity enthrones.
This is what dominates angels and demons. The
nature that stoops, loves, forgives, saves ; this is the
ideal type. God hath given Him a name above
every name — Jesus, Saviour.
Here is (2) We get great encouragement. It is of infinite
Encourage- importance to know what God loves best. We are
destined to Uve with Him for ever, to see Him face
to face, and be for ever in His presence. It is of
the highest importance, therefore, to us, to know
what is His chosen ideal, that we may begin to
shape ourselves by it, that we may emulate it, that
we may ourselves seek to be endued by it, so that
hereafter we may be taken to the bosom of God as
His chosen friends and chUdren. If we desire to
know a man we must converse with him, enter his
study, handle and look at his books, and gaze round
the walls at the pictures he has chosen to adorn
them. If we know a man's ideal, we know him. If we
can only get God's ideal, we may know Him.
Where can we find it ? In creation ? — No, not His
deepest. In proverb and prophecy? — No, not His
deepest. In angels exceUing in strength ? — No, not
96

The Name of Names
His deepest. In the perfection of moral character? Phil. ii.
That is nearer, but it is not His deepest. The name 9-"
that is dearest to God is Jesus ; and the character
which is dearest to God is that which bears, forgives,
and loves even to death, that it may save. That
which God sets His heart upon for evermore is
redemptive love, which He glorifies, raising it to the
highest place that heaven affords.
' Ah, we wiU not fear Thee more, our God ! We
have stood under the thunder-peal hurtUng through
the air, and trembled ; we have beheld the Ughtning-
flash revealing our sin and making us cry for shelter ;
we have watched Thy march through history, and
there have been traces of blood and tears behind on
Thy track; and as we look out into the eternal
future our hearts stand still. We are but leaves in
the great forest of existence ; bursting bubbles upon
the mighty ocean of being ; but when we come to see
that Thine ideal is in the Divine Man who died for
us, we fear Thee no more, but approach with the
confidence of a little child ; for if Thou dost love the
Man Christ Jesus, and we love Him too, we can
meet Thee in the Cross with its dying agony.' It is
a great encouragement to know that God's ideal is
the Man who died.
Our God seems sometimes to come near us and
say: 'There is never a soul that stoops, stripping
itself that it may wash the feet of another ; there is
never a soul that sheds tears over the ruin of those
it loves, as Jesus did on the Mount of OUves over
Jerusalem ; there is never a soul that pours out its
life-blood even unto death; there is never a soul
G 97

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. that denies itself to the uttermost, that is not dear
9-1* to Me. I notice it, though the great world passes
by unwitting and careless ; I bend over those who
tread in the earthly pathway trodden by My Son,
My weU beloved ; and though the midnight darkness
may gather over the head, extorting the cry, " My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken ? " I do not
forget, I cannot forsake; and presently, when the
earth has passed away like the shadow of the cloud
upon the hiUs, I wiU gather such, and bear them
upward, taking them to My bosom, and enthroning
them right and left of My Son. He that drinks the
cup which Jesus drank of, and is baptised with the
baptism with which he was baptised, though for
gotten, ignored, crushed and trampled underfoot
by men, shall sit beside the Son of Man in His
kingdom.' Oh, let us take heart, as we think of God's
ideal; let us be encouraged, for now we know
what God is, and that ultimately He wiU vindicate
our work of faith, and labour of love, and patience
of hope.
Here is (3) We get exhortation. The name of Jesus is, then,
Exhortation. dear to God what then ? Let it be your plea, for
it is said that whosoever believeth in that Name
shall receive remission of sins. Convicted sinner,
longing to have a clue to the maze, go at this
moment into the presence of the great God and
plead the name of Jesus. Let your one cry be
founded upon what He was, and is ; and just so
soon as you utter that name, in the spirit of the
name, God accepts, forgives, and saves.
98

The Name of Names
Live in that name — in the temper and character Phil. ii.
of Jesus—day by day ; let His Gospel imbue and 9""
colour your character ; let the imitation of the life q}11-0!7
of Jesus be the one object of your ambition. There
is no other clue to life amid the misery and sorrow
of the world. Sometimes it seems hard to remember
that children laugh, that the sun shines yet, that
the crocuses and snowdrops are preparing to break
through the clods of winter. We live oppressed
beneath the infinite anguish and agony of the world ;
it is so dark, so terrible with its sin and sorrow,
with its overcrowding and drink and passion; and
there is one's own broken life, and aU the mystery
and perplexity of God's dealings. We can find no
clue to it except to follow the ideal of Christ, living
to save; every day by patient and tender forbear
ance making someone happier; lifting the burden
from some shoulder, sending a rift of light into some
darkened heart. There is no other clue for the
difficulty and perplexity of Ufe.
Sunday School teacher, never let the lesson pass speak of
without allowing the Name of Jesus Christ to Cnnst-
mingle with your words, Uke the breath of flowers
in the summer air. Preacher, see to it that that
Name rings through your utterances, your first word
and your last. It is the only spell and talisman of
victory ; it is the one name that will overcome the
power of the devil in temptation, and before which
the evU spirits that beset us in our hours of weak
ness and depression give back. It is the watchword
for those who approach the portals of eternity ; the
talisman of victory in the hour of death.
99

Reverence His Name.

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. As soon as you utter the name of Jesus, you
9-" arrest the Divine ear. Therefore in every prayer,
before you break out into adoration, praise, con
fession, or entreaty, speak in the ear of God that
name. Remember that Jesus said : Whatsoever ye
ask the Father in My Name, in My Nature, accord
ing „to the ideal of My Ufe, He wiU give you. Let
the name of Jesus winnow out of your prayers
everything proud, selfish, and vindictive ; let them
be poured like liquid and gleaming metal into that
precious mould.
Reverence that name. 'In the name of Jesus
every knee shall bow.' ' Let us never utter it with
out the prefix Lord. Let Him be always the Lord
Jesus. If God speaks His name with marked
emphasis, we must treat it with devout reverence.
I greatly shrink from too great famifiarity with the
precious name of our Lord. A man has to be very
near the Great Brother who can caU him "famiharly
by His name.
Confess ' -^nd evei7 tongue confess.' Let us confess that
Him. He is Lord. God the Father has made Him His
ideal type ; make Him your ideal type. God has
just put the sceptre into His hand, do you put the
sceptre into His hand also. God has enthroned
Him, do you enthrone Him too, and to-day look up
and say : ' Henceforth, Blessed Jesus, Thou shalt
be Lord and King ; Lord of my Ufe, King of my
mind and heart ; my Lord and my God.'
And remember that that is the one hope of the
future. That name of Jesus, whispered first by
Gabriel to Mary and to Joseph, spread through a
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The Name of Names
comparatively smaU circle of His immediate foUowers, Phil. ii.
but at Pentecost the Holy Ghost caught it up, and 9-1 1
spoke it in thunder ; and ever since it has been
spreading through the world and through the
universe, and we are yet to see the time when the
loftiest angels shaU bow beneath it, when aU men
shaU own it, and the very demons acknowledge it.
'Jesus I know, and Paul I know,' was the sad
confession of a faUen spirit centuries ago.
This name of our Lord — the last name spoken on
earth, the first name uttered in heaven — the name
that comprehends grace, the name that spells glory,
for He has gone to prepare a place for us. We
have passed the shortest day ; yonder is the spring
and summer of the morning land, and we anticipate
the time when we shall sit with Him ; bearing that
name with Him; and perhaps going forth to all
parts of the universe to teU of it, to kindle hearts
and lives with it, to unfold, as only redeemed men
can, the fuU meaning and significance of the name
Jesus.

101

V XI
THE DIVINE ENERGY IN
THE HEART
Phil. ii. 12, 13
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His
good pleasure.
Phil. ii. This text stands between two remarkable injunc-
I2> *3 tions, the first personal — ' Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling ' ; the second
relative — 'Do aU things without murmurings and
disputings ; that ye may be blameless and harmless,
children of God without rebuke.'
A Personal The personal injunction — ' Work out your own
Injunction, salvation.' There is a sense in which we are saved
from guilt and the wrath of God directly we come
to the Cross ; but there is a sense also in which our
salvation from the power of sin wiU not be complete
until we stand before God in perfect beauty, and in
that sense we have to work it out. God gives us
salvation in the germ, but the growth of the tree of
our Ufe has to elaborate this primal thought. And
we are to do it with ' fear and trembUng,' because
so much is involved for ourselves and for others, for
evermore, if the work is left incomplete. This is the
102

The Divine Energy in the Heart
great aim to which aU other aims must be subservient Phil. ii.
— the accomplishment of our soul's salvation, God 12, 13
and we working together. As the husbandman and
God work together for the harvest, and as the miner
and God work together for the provision of coal in
our homes and factories, so we are to work together
with God for the full accomplishment of His purpose
and our blessedness, in the ultimate salvation of our
souls from every evil ingredient. This is a very deep,
searching, and important work. Are you engaged init?
The relative injunction — your attitude to others, a Relative
'That ye may be harmless,' i.e. that your life shall ^junction.
not injure another ; blameless, i.e. that no one should
have any proper blame to attach to you; without
rebuke, i.e. in the sight of God. And this, not in
heaven, but in the midst of ' a crooked and perverse
generation.' A traveller in Japan was surprised to
find a country given up to arctic winter, in which,
nevertheless, there is the abundant tropical growth
of oranges and bamboos. He was surprised,
whilst the winds were sweeping across the snowy,
icy plains of Japan, to find all these tropical plants,
which he could only account for by the fact that the
country had been volcanic, and that the hidden fire
stiU burnt under the soil, so that, whilst winter reigns
in the climate, summer reigns in the heart of the
earth, and therefore the tropical plants are able to
thrive. And we, in the midst of a very frigid, arctic
world, a rebelUous generation, are caUed to Uve the
tropical life of eternity, to be blameless, harmless,
and without rebuke. A man may say to himself,
It is impossible for me to realise those two injunc-
103

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil. ii.
12,13

Six Dominant
Notes.

God'sPersonality.

tions ; but our text lies between them and says, Do
not despair, do not abandon hope of being harmless,
blameless, and without rebuke, for God wiU assume
the responsibility of making you obedient to His own
ideal — ' It is God which worketh in you both to wiU
and to work, for His good pleasure.' Work out what
He works in.
Now this subUme text strikes six dominant notes :
God's Personality — ' it is God ' ; God's Immanence
— ' in you ' ; God's Energy — ' worketh in you ' ;
God's MoraUty — He works in you ' to wiU ' ; God's
Efficiency — He works in you ' to work ' ; God's ulti
mate Satisfaction — ' for His own good pleasure.'
*****
God's Personality. — ' It is God that — ' Take
away it, and transpose the other words — God is. Or
if you Uke to strike out the word is, you leave the one
great word God. And God is the answer to every
question of the mind, to every trembling perturbation
of the heart, to every weakness of appetite, and to
every strong hurricane of temptation. The soul, the
lonely individual soul, not knowing whence it has
come, knowing almost as little whither it goes, con
fronting the question of weakness and sin and death
and eternity, and the deep, deep problem of moral
evfi, can only answer every complaint by the one
aU-sufficient, all-comprehending monosyUable God.
This is our one sheet-anchor — God made us, God
knew our constitution, God knew our environment,
God knew our temptation, the temptations that
would assaU us, and yet God redeemed us to Him
self, and made us His own by the blood of Christ
104

The Divine Energy in the Heart
Now, if He be a Being of perfect benevolence, He Phil. ii.
cannot have done so much without assuming to I2, 13
Himself the responsibiUty of realising the object of
the tears, longings, and prayers, which He has put
by His own hand within our nature ; and, therefore,
we must throw back on Him the responsibiUty (we
doing our part), of making us blameless, harmless,
and unrebukable before Him.
*****
God's Immanence. — Distinguish between justifica- God's
tion and sanctification. In justification, which is an Immanence.
instantaneous act upon the part of God, as soon as
the soul of man trusts Christ, God imputes to man
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, so that he stands
before God, in Christ, accepted and beloved. But if
that were aU it would resemble those curious Eastern
processions where they marshal all the beggars of the
market-place, and fling over their shoulders white or
purple dresses embroidered with gold, so that the
procession is composed of a number of the raggedest,
dirtiest, laziest men in the kingdom, who look for an
hour respectable. And if justification were all, God
would simply throw white robes upon us. But our
hearts would fester ; and, therefore, having justified
us by an instantaneous act of His grace, He under- ..
takes our sanctification by His immanence (from the ;
Latin word in and maneo to remain).
Deeper than the body, deeper than the soul with
inteUect, imagination, and volition, Ues the spirit,
and into the spirit of man the Spirit of God comes, -
bringing the germ of the nature of the risen Christ,
so that the Holy Spirit reproduces it within us.
105

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. This is the immanence of God ; and this is the
I2» 13 distinctive peculiarity of our holy reUgion — that God
can be in us, not robbing us of individuaUtj, but side
by side with it, clothing Himself with it, so that just
as He was in Isaiah, but Isaiah greatly differs from
Jeremiah, just as He was in John, but John was
an altogether different man from Peter, so God enters
: the human spirit, and, without robbing us of our
power of volition, individuaUty, or personality, He
waits within, longing to burst through every restraint,
and to reveal Himself through us in all the beauty and
glory of His nature. Hide yourself, and let God work
through you His own perfect ideal.
* * * * *
God's God's Energy. — He works. He is not an absentee
Energy. jn creation ; He is not an absentee in providence ; He
1 is not an absentee in the spirit of man ; but He works
so unobtrusively that we do not always reaUse the
mighty forces which are at work within us. Froude
and Carlyle, in Carlyle's house, had a conversation
one day about God's work, and Froude said that
God's work in history was Uke His work in nature,
modest, quiet, and unobtrusive. Carlyle repUed
sadly and solemnly — for it was a day of one of his
darker moods — "Ah, but, Froude, God seems to do
so little ! " — as though he expected that God would
resemble a world - conqueror, whose personaUty is
always attracting attention.
If you had been present during creation, as MUton
puts it, you might only have heard flute-like music.
You would not have heard the voice that said, Light
be 1 or that bade the waters give place. You would
106

The Divine Energy in the Heart
not have seen the mighty hands moulding the earth. Phil. ii.
All would have been done by natural processes, so I2, 13
simply, so ordinarily, you would hardly have recog
nised the greatness of the Creator.
And so in our heart. 0 son of man, thou hast not
reaUsed it, that aU through these years the infinite
God has been imprisoned in thy spirit ; and thy tears,
thy sighs, thy regrets, thy yearnings, the rejuvenation
of thy conscience, which thou hast so often affronted
and injured, — prove that the Holy, mighty, and loving
God is within thy spirit, fretting against the evil as
John Howard fretted against the evils of the lazaretto
and the prison, longing to make thy heart pure and
sweet, if only thou wilt yield to Him.
The Divine Morality. — He works in us to wilV^^
That is, He does not treat us like a machine, HeJD>vine
deals with us as moral agents who can say yes and^
no. He is not going to compel us to be saints, He
is not going to force us to be holy. If thoiiwUk
He much more wiUs, and thou dost will becausTHe
wiUed before. The wUl of God wants to take thee up
into itself, as the wind that breathes over a city waits
to catch up the smoke from a thousand chimney-pots,
and waft it on its bosom through the heavens.
You may always know when God is willing within
you — first, by a holy discontent with yourself. You
are dissatisfied with all that you have ever done, and
been. Secondly, you aspire ; you see above you the
snow-capped peaks, and your heart longs to cUmb
and to stand there. Thirdly, these are followed by
the appreciation of the possibiUty of your being
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. blameless and harmless and without rebuke. If
I2> *3 a man refuses to believe that he can be a saint,
he never will become one. If a man says, I cannot
hope to be more than conqueror, God Himself cannot
save him. When the Spirit of God is within you,
there rises up a consciousness that you have the
capacity for the highest possible attainments, because
you were made and redeemed in the image of God,
and because the germ of the Christ-nature has been
sown in your spirit. Two men go through a picture-
gallery. Each sees the same masterpiece. One
says, I cannot imagine how that can be done. The
other man says, I also am a painter. That second
man is capable of producing a picture which also
shall outlive. You must beUeve that you can be a
saint, even you. You must dare to beUeve it, because
the Christ -germ is sown in your character, and
because God is working in you to wiU and to do.
Fourthly, the determination, I will There should
be a moment in the history of us aU when each shaU
say — Cost what it may, I wUl not yield again; I
will arise to be what God wants to make me ; I wiU
yield myself to Him; I wiU reckon myself to be
dead indeed unto sin, and aUve unto God through
Jesus Christ ; I wUl yield myself to the power that
worketh in me. Discontent, aspiration, appreciation
of the possibiUties of saintliness, and resolve.
The wiU of God is working in you to-day. Cannot
you take those four steps ? Are you going back to
Uve the old self-indulgent Ufe ? If so, these words wiU
be a curse to you, for nothing injures the soul so much
as to know the truth and yet fall back into the ditch.
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The Divine Energy in the Heart
***** Phil. ii.
' He Works to Work.'— Does God allow babes 12, 13
to want milk, and then, in the eternal ordering of p0^ Work
things, not provide milk? Does not the longing of °
the Uttle child argue that somewhere, presumably in
the mother's breast, there is the supply? Do the
swaUows begin to gather around the eaves of our
houses, longing for a sunny cUme, and is there no
such realm of sunshine to be reached over land and
sea ? Do the young lions in the winter roar for food,
that God does not furnish ? Do you think that God
is going to give us this discontent with ourselves,
this yearning after Himself, and is going to mock
us? That would be the work of a devil. If you
hold that God is good and loving and holy, your
very aspirations are a proof that He who works in
you to will, is prepared to work in you to do. But,
till now, we have done so much by our own resolu
tions, that we have shut His doing out. If only we
would relinquish our efforts after sanctification, as
once we relinquished those after justification, and if
we said to Him : ' Great God, work out Thine own
ideal in my poor weak nature,' He would will and
He would work. God's morality and God's efficiency
are co-equal. *****
God's Satisfaction. — ' For His good pleasure.' God's
When He made the world, He said it was very Satisfacti°n-
good ; then sin came, and selfishness ; and the dull
dark ages passed, tiU Jesus came, who opened His
nature to the Father, though He were the Son of
God. The mystery of the Incarnation lies in this :
109

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. our Lord gave up the exercise of His inherent deity
I2i x3 as the Son of God, and became dependent on the
Father, and the Father wrought perfectly through
the yielded nature of the Son. Oh, ponder this!
The Father wrought perfectly in the yielded nature
of Jesus, and the result was summed up in the cry,
'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.' In some such manner it is possible to walk
worthy of God unto aU pleasing. It is possible to
have this testimony, even in our mortal Ufe, that we
have pleased God. At the end of every day, as we
lie down to sleep — we may hear the whisper of
God's voice saying, 'Dear chUd, I am pleased with
you.' But you can only have it by aUowing Him in
silence, in solitude, in obedience, to work in you, to
will and to do of His own good pleasure.
An Appeal Will you begin now ? He may be working in you
to you. t0 confess to that feUow-Christian that you were
unkind in your speech or act. Work it out. He
may be working in you to give up that Une of
business about which you have been doubtful lately.
Give it up. He may be working in you to be
sweeter in your home, and gentler in your speech.
Begin. He may be working in you to alter your
relations with some with whom you have dealings
that are not as they should be. Alter them. This
very day let God begin to speak, and work and
will ; and then work out what He works in. God
wiU not work apart from you, but He wants to work
through you. Let Him. Yield to Him, and let this
be the day when you shaU begin to live in the power
of the mighty Indwelling One.
110

XII
STARS TO SHINE : VOICES
TO SPEAK
Phil. ii. 14-16
Do all things without murmurings and disputings :
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, with
out rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among
whom ye shine as lights in the world :
Holding forth the word of life ; that I may rejoice in the day of
Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
Whenever we review the past, our souls are filled Phil. ii.
with gratitude to God for all the wonderful way that 14-16
He has led us ; but, as we thank Him, we are filled Retrospect.
with a sorrowful and infinite regret, and we cannot
forget, amid the many mercies we recaU, the story of
our repeated failure and shortcoming. Yet, mingling
with gratitude and sorrow are hope, resolve, and the
decision that the past shall be buried by the past,
and that we wiU step forward to an entirely new Ufe
of prayer, consecration, and devotion. These three
words — thankfulness, confession, and resolve — surely
characterise the feelings of all intelligent and thought
ful persons, who by regeneration, through the Holy
Spirit applying the Word of Truth, and by adoption
into the family of God, have been dissociated from
this sinful and adulterous generation, and are
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. reckoned among the children of the resurrection,
14-16 heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
In this paragraph we are brought face to face with
the Divine ideal — an ideal which, alas ! we have too
Uttle realised, but which henceforth shaU be realised
with new hope. We discover, also, the infinite
sources of power which we have not always realised
— that God works in us. We are also taught to set
ourselves, with new persistency, to the working out
of that which God is working in.

Our Ideal
as the
Children of
God.
The Negative
Side.

If you wUl foUow out the paragraph step by step,
link by Unk, you will see that there is the negative
and the positive side. There is, first, the negative
side. ' Do all things without murmurings and dis
putings, that ye may be the sons of God, without
rebuke,' or, as the R.V. puts it, more accurately,
without blemish. To be without blemish is per-
petuaUy held up as the supreme ideal of the Christian
life. ' He chose us in Him before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy and without
blemish before Him in love.' ' That it (the Church)
should be holy and without blemish.' 'To present
you holy and without blemish.' The Lamb of God
was without blemish, and we are caUed to be the
same. There is the more necessity that we should
rise to the level of our high calling, because our lives
are cast into the midst of a community of distorted
vision and oblique ways — 'a crooked and perverse
generation.' This description of society is as true
to-day as it ever was. Whether we look at poUtical
or social life, the newspapers or the streets, the tone
112

Stars to Shine: Voices to Speak
of conversation in the drawing-rooms or on ocean Phil. ii.
steamers, everything vindicates the adjectives of the x4-i6
Apostle. The prime method of being without blemish is to
do aU things 'without murmurings and disputings.'
Do not aUow yourselves to fall into discontented
moods, and do not indulge in bitter conflict with
others. Murmurings stand for all sorts of iU-
concealed, half-checked, and half-uttered complaints.
They are the low grumblings of a man who is
swayed inwardly by impatient thoughts and hard
feeUngs. Disputings are murmurings come to the
surface, and breaking out into captious and angry
discussions. Keep the heart and the tongue right by
the grace of God, and you wiU be blameless and
harmless, the sons of God, without blemish.
Blamelessness is faultlessness, stainlessness — cor
rectness in aU the externals of life, as Zacharias and
Elisabeth were, who walked in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Harmlessness
refers to the essential purity, simphcity, and sincerity,
which should characterise aU followers of Christ,
because there is no admixture of evU thoughts or
desires in their aims or conduct.
Secondly, there is the positive side. Phillips Our Ideal :
Brooks says : ' It is the sincere and deep conviction side.
of my soul, that if the Christian faith does not
culminate and complete itself in the effort to make
itself known to aU the world, that faith appears to
me to be a thoroughly unreal and insignificant thing,
destitute of power for a single Ufe, and incapable of
being convincingly proved to be true.' He says also;
H 113

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. 'Always the enlargement of the faith brings the
I4_I6 endearment of the faith ; and to give the Saviour to
others makes Him more thoroughly our own.'
Shine as Such thoughts were in the Apostle's heart when
Stars. fle urge(j jjjg converts to shine and hold forth the
word of Life. (1) If they were Christians at aU,
they must be stars shining amid the darkness of the
world. The image before his mind was that of a
new star floating into sight, taking its place among
the consteUations of the skies, and shedding forth its
beams, so as to reproduce its own luminosity as
widely as possible, though with the stiUness which
has no audible voice or language. Here is the con
sistency and beauty of a holy soul, endeavouring to
pass on its nature to other souls, that they too may
be Ught in the Lord.
As we look out on nature, we find that the object
for which every flower spreads its colour and per
fume is to attract the bee, so that it may propagate
its kind. The flower must reproduce itself, or show
itself unworthy of the Gardener who produced it not
for itself alone. Every living thing exists to pass on
its nature ; and surely the Christian soul cannot be
content unless it has sent itself forward into other
lives and coming generations.
One of the most interesting studies is that of induc
tive electricity. When two wires he side by side, and
a stream of electricity is sent through the one, a faint
vibration and reproduction of it wUl be perceived in
the other. It is in this way that, on the long lines
of American travel, you are able to telegraph from
your moving train to the city you are nearing. The
114

Stars to Shine: Voices to Speak
wires along the track are sympathetic with the trans- Phil. ii.
mitter on the train. For the same reason, when H-i6
speaking through the telephone, one can hear the
murmur of other wires. It is not that they really
touch, but they are deeply sympathetic.
There is something like this in our influence upon Our
other souls. There are induced currents for good or 0£fl"tehnecre
bad. You, as a child of God, cannot come in con- Souls.
tact with other men who belong to this crooked and
perverse generation, without starting within them
the vibrations of your own holiness, the yearning for
something better than they are, the appetite, the
hunger and thirst, after the unseen and the eternal,
the condemnation of their sin, and the creation
within them of the vibrations and waves of desire to
be other than they are. It is also true that you
cannot come in contact with a bad man, whose mind
is steeped in vice, and whose Ufe is full of base and
disgraceful actions, without a corresponding current
being induced in yourself. We are always, for good
or bad, affecting those who are in close contact with
us, and this altogether apart from our volition, and
simply by the strength of our character.
Hence it is that Richter, the great German
thinker, says: 'If thou knowest how every black
thought of thine, and every jealous thought, takes
root outside of thee, and goes on for half a century
pushing and boring its healing or poisonous roots
through the earth, ah, how carefully wouldst thou
grow, how carefully wouldst thou choose and think ! '
And Bishop Huntingdon is on the same line when
he says: 'There is some nameless influence going
115

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. out from the very least conscious thing in God's
14-16 creation, which alters and shapes in its measure
every man, woman, and chfid within its influence.'
A great It is almost terrible to live with these thoughts
Responsi- pressing on one's heart — that one can never speak a
word, never transact a piece of business, that one's
face is never seen lighted up with the radiance of
God, or clouded and despondent, without it being
made harder or easier for other men to Uve a good
life. Every one of us, every day, resembles Jero
boam, the son of Nebat, who made other men sin ;
or we are lifting other men into the Ught, and peace,
and joy of God. No man liveth to himself, and no
man dieth to himself; but the Ufe of every one is
telUng upon an increasing number of mankind.
What a solemn responsibiUty it is to Uve ! What
infinite regret should oppress our souls at the
thought that we have flung shadows over so many
lives which God meant to be happy ; that we have put
so many stumbling-blocks in people's ways to whom
God meant that we should offer stepping-stones ; that
our life has been for the shame and sorrow rather than
for the uplifting and comfort of those around us !
Ours can never be sunshine, the intrinsic Ught of
the sun. At the most we shaU never be able to
diffuse more than the borrowed Ught of the star;
but this is something, and we may shine amid the
dark night which has rested on mankind ever since
the sun went down on Calvary in blood-red skies.
Ere long the dawn wiU break on the sky, and we
shall become invisible amid the radiance of the '
coming Lord. .fj
116

Stars to Shine: Voices to Speak
(2) Besides being a star, we must be a voice ; we are Phil. ii.
to hold forth the word of Life. We cannot hold *4-i6
forth the word without words. It is our duty to voices to
speak to those in our immediate circle, that there speak for
may be no regret at the end of life. This wonderful
gift of human speech, the most marvellous faculty
with which any one of us is endowed, must be used
to pass on the word of the Kingdom. Lay yourself
before God, and your mouth in the very dust, and
ask that the Holy Spirit may take your lips, and set
them on fire for Himself, that you may be able not
only to shine with the mild radiance of a stainless
and beautiful character, but that you may utter the
word of Life to those who have never given heed to
it. Surely the contemplation of such an ideal must
fiU us with infinite regret. As we go over item after
item, we see that there is not one trait to which we
can lay claim without considerable misgiving. We
are not without blemish ! We have not refrained
from murmurings and disputings ! We have not
been blameless and harmless ! As we catch sight of
God's ideal, we abhor ourselves. As we hear the
perfect music, we lament our own discordant notes.
As we see the solemn troops and sweet societies of
'Heaven, we reaUse how coarse and unrefined our
manners are. There cannot be an evening in our
life in which, as we review the day, we do not require
the precious Blood of Christ.
* * * * *
The past is gone, never to be recaUed ; and if we The Power
are to trust our resolutions, we must certainly and by which
inevitably faU again. But our text says that God is rendered
y\ij possible.

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. in us ; that God, who makes the universe His home,
14-16 has come to dwell in our hearts, not as a stranger
who tarries for a night, but as an abiding, indweUing
guest; and that our God is in us to will and to
work of His own good pleasure. We have often
been conscious of it. Have there not often been
within us induced currents of Divine electricity,
promptings and inspirations to unselfishness, purity,
and devotion, which, alas! we have too often
resisted? Ponder again the wondrous message!
God works in us to will. He does not overpower
our will, or treat us as automata which He can
move at His choice. He approaches us as inteUi-
gent beings, who may refuse, as they may accept and
yield. At the most He can only suggest certain Unes
of conduct, but it is left to us to say whether we will
make them our own or not. Do you not sometimes
feel rising up within you a great desire, a yearning, a
drawing, a purpose to be other than you are ? Ah !
this is God working in you to wish and will. Be
very thankful, because you know that God is taking
pains with your character, only be sure to let Him
have your eager and complete response.
God works in us to work. God never works in us
to will without empowering us to perform that to '
which He prompts. He has with Him a sufficiency
of power equivalent to our necessity, and if we wiU
turn to Him for it, He will enable us to carry out
every prompting of His will. We may not remember
the moment when He entered; we may not have
heard the sound of His feet along the passage-way
of our heart ; He may have stolen in on the morn-
118

Stars to Shine: Voices to Speak
ing Ught, in the waft of the wind, or on the fragrance Phil. ii.
of flowers — but He is in thy soul and mine. He is I4-i6
come to take our side against sin. The Father waits
to make the child Uke Himself, first by prompting
him to wiU good things, and then by energising him
to do the things He wiUs. That is our hope ; and
our only hope for the coming days, that they may be
better than the past, is the recognition that our ideal
is God's for us, and He waits to make it a Uving fact.
Is there anything in Ufe or heart which has Our Duty to
of late caused you solicitude ? Have you been w°r^ °ut
doubtful about a certain Une of conduct? Has works in.
something which you did in the past arisen
and made you feel that you ought to make
restitution and reparation? Is there some one
habit, a method of life, an inner idol, an un
opened cupboard, which has not been consecrated
absolutely to Him ? Do you realise that there is the
constant pressure by Another than yourself dealing
with it ? Do you hear the thud of the engine deep
down in your soul ; the movement of the piston that
sends the quiver of the vibration through the whole
of your being ? Be very thankful, for God is come
to fight the evil of your nature, as a mother sets
herself beside her chUd to fight the disease which is
sapping his life.
But God's efforts on our behalf will be abortive
unless we work out what He works in. If He wiUs
in us to break with some evfl habit, we must wiU the
same. "Our wiU must yield to His, as the skiff to the
stream that bears it on its current. If He bids us
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Trembling.

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. take up our bed and walk, we must dare to beUeve
J4_I6 that we can do it, and avaiUng ourselves of His
might, we must spring to our feet. If He sends us
on His divine errands, we must not be rebellious nor
hold ourselves back. Our salvation Ues in achieving
deUverance from every form of sin, and it is only by
degrees that we learn aU that sin is, and become
emancipated from its dominion and love.
With Fear Let us do this ' with fear and trembUng.' If an
nvL,t.i;...* Ulustrious artist spends a morning with one of his
students, helping him to finish some picture at which
he has been working hard but unsuccessfuUy, the
young man does not fear the artist, but trembles lest
he may not make the best possible use of his kind
ness. So, my soul, when the great God comes to
thee, and says, 'I am going to save thee from thy
sins,' thou must take good heed to garner up aU His
gracious help with miserly care, fuU of anxiety lest
thou shouldest fail to avail thyself of the least trust,
the smaUest prompting. He wiU do His work
effectually and thoroughly ; let Him have fuU scope,
and thou shalt be more than satisfied.
Oh, Thou who workest through the universe, who
fulfillest Thine own high purpose, so that seraphs,
angels, and aU holy beings are infiUed by Thee, come
to-day and fiU us, infill our whole nature, then spirit,
soul, and body shaU be impenetrated by Thine energy,
and shaU realise Thine ideal 1

120

XIII
THE SACRIFICIAL SIDE OF
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Phil. ii. 17, 18
Yea, and if I he offered upon the sacrifice and service of your
faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.
Again the Apostle refers to the 'day of Christ.' Phil. ii.
He was constantly anticipating the coming of the 17, 18
Lord. His early Epistles specially abound in refer
ences to that event which would bring to light the
hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the
counsels of all hearts, so that each man should have
his praise from God. He spoke of his being alive
and remaining unto the coming of the Saviour, and
as anticipating that his mortality would be swallowed
up of life. Often, amid his imprisonment, he must
have Ustened for the sounding of the trumpet of
God, and the songs which accompanied his returning
Lord. Invariably he so lived and laboured, that
whenever that day came, whether to close his earthly
Ufe or afterwards, he might receive the reward, which
would be to him what the crown of amaranth was
to the successful competitor in the games.
*****
Paul's incessant fear was that he might run or Paul's great
labour in vain. There are many expressions of it. Fear-
In one place he expresses the fear lest aU the work
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. which he had built upon the foundation, which God
J7> *8 had previously laid, should be burned up, and he
should suffer loss ; in another he gives utterance to
the dread lest he should be a castaway (or rejected)
as one who had no right to the prize ; here, he uses
the words ' in vain ' as though some mistake on his
part should obUterate aU the results of the work,
which he had laboriously sought to achieve for his
Lord.
How is it A very solemn inquiry is suggested to us aU. Are
with us? . . • o a ii.- • o
we running in vam ? Are we labouring m vain ?
Life is full of running to and fro, and incessant
labour, but we may gravely ask whether at the end
there wiU be aught to show commensurate with the
energy we have expended. So many days are Uved
in vain ! So many books are written in vain ! So
many sermons preached in vain ! So many phflan-
thropic activities expended in vain !
A Condition It is, however, certain that before any service that
we do for God or man is likely to be of lasting and
permanent benefit, it must be saturated with our
heart's blood. That which costs us nothing wiU not
benefit others. If there is no expenditure of tears
and prayer, if that love, of which the Apostle speaks
in another place, which costs, is wanting, we may
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, may
know all mysteries and all knowledge, may bestow
all our goods to feed the poor, but it wiU profit
nothing. Let us rather seek to be poured forth as a
libation than to do much without feeUng the least
travail of soul. As the fertility of Egypt in any year
is in direct proportion to the height that the waters
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of Success.

The Sacrificial Side of Christian Life
of the NUe measure on the Nilometer, so the amount Phil. ii.
of our real fruitfulness in the world is gauged by the x7» 18
expenditure of our spiritual force.
It was because Moses was prepared to be blotted
from the Book of God for his people that he carried
them for forty years through the desert, and deposited
them on the very borders of the Promised Land. It
was because Jesus wept over Jerusalem that He was
able to send a Pentecost on the gmlty city. It was
because Paul was prepared to be accursed for his
brethren according to the flesh, that he was able to
turn so many from darkness to Ught, and from the
power of Satan unto God. It is when Zion travails
that she brings forth her children. No heart pangs,
no spiritual seed.
The Christian Ufe should be a sacrifice. Where The Call for
faith in Christ is a reaUty, it wiU lead not simply to a Sacrlfice-
life service, which becomes a Uturgy, but also to
sacrifice. ' I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God to present your bodies a Uving sacrifice,
holy, well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable
service.' There is only one sacrifice which can take away
sin, and which was offered once for all. ' When He
had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever He sat down
on the right hand of God ' : ' By one offering He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified.' But the
whole Church of God is called to follow the Master's
steps in the sacrifice of her Ufe for men. She must
fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ ;
she must be prepared to suffer with Him ; she must
surrender the joy that is set before her of ease, and
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. luxury, and earthly power, in order that she may go
l7> 18 out to her Lord without the camp, bearing His
reproach. He is the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world, and by His one sufficient
sacrifice has opened the way into peace, but there is
a sacrifice of what the world deems choicest and best
in order that the highest interest of men should be
better served, which is the peculiar prerogative, not
only of the Church of Christ collectively, but of each
individual soul.
Have we Is there sacrifice in your Ufe and mine ? I knew,
Sacrifice? ^or mstance> °f *ne case or" a y°ung girl, who promised
her mother upon her dying bed, that she would not
accept an offer of marriage untU she had seen the
younger children weU started in Ufe, and had per
formed the last offices for her father. I do not here
comment upon the unwisdom of a mother exacting
such a pledge from her child, but only cite the fact.
As a result, when, three years after her mother's
death, Love looked into the window of that girl's
soul, and one who was altogether suitable for her
asked her to be his wife, she felt bound to refuse,
and nobly stood by her charge until the whole fannly
passed out of her care into homes of their own. It
was a supreme relinquishment of all that a woman
holds dearest, but how noble it was !
Is not sacrifice of this sort constantly being de
manded of us, have we not all to turn from the doors
that stand wide open on our mountains of trans
figuration, in order to descend into the vaUey, where
the cross of self-denial stands with wide-open arms,
awaiting us ? Whenever such is the case, our faith
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The Sacrificial Side of Christian Life
is working out in sacrifice, our obedience to the will Phil. ii.
of God is enabling us to surrender all things, that we l7> J8
may more efficiently do the high work of Jesus for
others. We may weU doubt whether we are true
foUowers of the Crucified, or have entered into any
true experience of His religion, unless there is the
trace of the Cross somewhere, whether known to
men, or known only to Christ.
When a deluded man set himself up as the Christ
of to-day, the indignant crowd that gathered around
the doors of his church demanded that he should show
them his hands, meaning that if he were the Christ,
the marks of the nails would certainly be apparent.
It was a just request. People know well enough
that Christ stands for sacrifice, and that His followers
can expect no better treatment than He experienced.
And again we may put the question to ourselves :
Does our faith cost us anything, and is our service to
man and God often sealed by blood ?
The Apostle was willing to yield his life's blood Pa"' ready
as a libation. Moses said, 'He that offereth his
oblation must offer wine for the drink offering, the
fourth part of an hin shall he prepare with the
burnt offering or for the sacrifice, for each lamb'
(Numbers xv. 5). This was doubtless in the Apostle's
mind when he spoke of being poured out as a drink
offering upon the sacrifice and service of their faith.
(See R.V. margin.)
What unity there was between his sufferings in
Rome and theirs in Philippi ! It seemed to him as
though they had reached a common altar, and were
engaged in one common act of devotion. Not only
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. did their faith lead them to considerable sacrifice
J7> 18 in order to supply his needs, but it was Ukely to
extort a still greater surrender, even of Ufe itself
in the defence of the truth ; but in that same cause
it was not improbable that sooner or later he would
have to shed his blood. There was indeed an if in
the case. '7/1 am offered,' etc., but whilst Nero
was on the throne, and the hatred of the Jews so
virulent, there was little hope that he would escape.
The prospect, however, did not fiU him with
dread. On the contrary, he anticipated it as though
it were a marriage. The thought that he was con
summating the faith and service of the Philippians,
who had first learnt to love God through his
ministry, was a cause of infinite delight.
The Joy of It was thus that the martyrs pressed to the
scaffold and stake, rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer for Christ's name. So great was
the enthusiasm in the early days, that the Church
authorities had to pubUsh edicts, prohibiting the
Christians of their time from hazarding their lives,
or throwing them needlessly away. When once the
soul has caught sight of the true significance of Ufe,
and has learnt the privilege which is within its
reach, of identifying itself with the Son of God in
His great act of Redemption, a similar glow of joy
begins to cast its radiance over passages of Ufe that
hitherto had been dark and forbidding. The joy of
the Lord becomes a source of altogether new
strength. Partnership with Jesus in the redemption
of the world, opens the door to partnership in those
fountains of blessedness that rise within His soul,
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The Sacrificial Side of Christian Life
and to which He referred, when He said, ' Your Phil. ii.
heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh from J7> 18
you ' : ' These things have I said unto you that My
joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be
fuU.'

127

XIV
'NOT SORROW UPON SORROW
Phil, ii 19-30
But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto
you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.
For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally oare for your
state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.
But yo know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father,
he hath served with me in the gospel.
Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see
how it will go with me.
But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.
Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my
brother, and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your
messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because
that ye had heard that he had been sick.
For indeed he was sick nigh unto death : but God had mercy on
him ; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have
sorrow upon sorrow.
I sent him therefore the more carefully, that, when ye see him
again, ye may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness ; and hold
such in reputation :
Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not
regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.
Phil. ii. The Bible is so Divine because it is so human.
19-30 This chapter began with the sorrows of the Son of
God ; it ends with the sorrow of His Apostle ; and
the Holy Spirit does not deem it incongruous to
deal first with the wonderful condescension of our
blessed Master from the supernal Throne to the
Cross of shame, and then to turn back to what
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Not Sorrow upon Sorrow
was transacting in a human breast, of hope and Phil. ii.
fear, of sorrow and joy, on the banks of the muddy I9"30
Tiber. So, beloved, however great God is, and
however vast the range and circumference of His
interests, there is not one tear that you shed, one
sorrow that you feel, that is not of exceeding
importance and care to Him. The Great God,
who, in the Person of His Son, stooped from the
Throne to the Cross, and is now exalted above
all conception, yet thinks of His prisoner in the
hired house at Rome, and sees to it that the
pressure of sorrow shall not be too great for the
deUcate machinery of his fraU heart to sustain.
The Facts as here Stated. — The PhiUppian
Church ; the Apostle Paul ; Timothy ; Epaphroditus ;
God. (1) The Church at Philippi (w. 25, 30). For ten The Church
years the Christians there had not assisted the at ^'"PP'-
Apostle; not that they had forgotten him, but
because they had had no opportunity. He was in
circumstances where they could not reach him. It
might have been supposed that they had forgotten,
but such love as theirs never forgets. It may not
be able to furnish assistance, but it still burns on
the altar of the heart.
Be loyal to your love; whatever else you forget
in the world, never forget the claims of friendship.
Let love be cherished above all other treasures.
Trust each other's love, and when there is no
sign or token, still beUeve that your friend is loyal,
and only awaiting the moment when his* help
may reveal an undying, unaltering affection. The
I 129

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. Philippians were only waiting until the time came,
*9~3P the time when they could help best. Give a man
bread when he is hungry, drink when he is thirsty,
and clothes when he is naked ; watch your moment.
Ah, if we would but watch the timely moment,
when some spirit is failing, when hope threatens to
expire, when heart and soul faint, and would strike
in then, how many desperate deeds we should arrest,
and how many heart-broken ones we should en
courage to face with fresh hope the difficulty and
responsibiUty of life! Be true to your friends;
trust your friends ; redeem the opportunity.
The (2) The Apostle Paul. He could preach, but he
Apostle."6 was a handcuffed prisoner; and in that dreary
apartment, from which he looked out wearily upon
liberty, he was often lonely. He had sent every
body away whom he could trust, except Timothy
and Epaphroditus. But he was extremely anxious
about the welfare of his PhiUppian friends ; and he
knew that they were equaUy anxious about him :
he gave up, therefore, the one man of aU others
who was dear to him — Timothy — and sent him
to bring word about their state, and that they might
be comforted in knowing about his. Because the
PhUippians were so true in their love to him, he
counted no sacrifice too great to show his love to
them. The man who lives nearest God is always
nearest his fellows, and he who is most sensitive
towards God is most sensitive towards man, and
will rather go without his dearest and nearest, to
show how much he is prepared to do to sympathise
with and help others. Be always willing to sacrifice
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Not Sorrow upon Sorrow
your Timothies if you may give a ray of comfort to Phil. ii.
the distant friends at Philippi. r9"30
(3) Timoilvy. Timothy loved Paul as a child his The Helper,
father (v. 22, R.V.). He had been delicately reared ; Timothy-
his constitution was weak, so much so that the
Apostle even advised him to take a little wine for
his often infirmities ; and perhaps he was too sensi
tive to stand against strong opposition and dislike.
But, with all this, he was a man of rare sweetness
of disposition and grace of character. He had great
faith in the Lord Jesus, and was staunch and
loyal to his friend. Probably his love to Paul
strengthened his character, and the demand that
Paul made on him brought out his noblest and best,
so that young Timothy grew to be a hero under
the touch of love. What a wonderful power love
is — the right kind of love! There is a selfish,
hurtful, harmful love that enervates and injures its
objects; there is another, an unselfish love, that
draws out the best and noblest, making the timid
strong and brave, and eliciting the hero that had
lain buried in the soul. Timothy would therefore
be sent to PhiUppi, as soon as the Apostle knew
how his trial would turn out; and probably the
Apostle would closely follow him (w. 23, 24).
(4) Epaphroditus. The Apostle speaks of « My
Epaphroditus, who was to carry this Epistle, as the Brother."
minister and apostle from Philippi, because he had
brought the gifts of Philippi over sea and land.
He describes him also, with exquisite delicacy, as
My brother. There is no kinship so close as that
brotherhood into which a common love to God
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. brings two men. ' My brother, my feUow-worker,
z9"30 my feUow-soldier ' (v. 25, R.V.). Epaphroditus was
a man of much less gift than Paul, yet Paul seemed
to forget the disparity and speaks of him as his
equal — my fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, because
to work for Christ, and to fight side by side in the
ranks of Christ's Gospel, must bring soul close to soul.
Epaphro- Epaphroditus is probably referred to as Epaphras
Suppliant. *n ^°^ *V- *2> an^ there we learn that he laboured
fervently in prayer, that the distant Churches might
be perfect in all the wiU of God. The word used
of this good man's prayer, is agonise; he agonised
as a gladiator in an amphitheatre, or an athlete in
an arena. He was so intense in his intercession for
his brethren in the faith, that it seemed as though
his very veins stood out as whipcord, and his whole
soul was knit into an agony. This simple man
prayed so earnestly that Paul said he was like a
gladiator wrestling in the amphitheatre. He had
fallen sick; perhaps he had taken Roman -fever
when diving down into some of the worst parts of
Rome to look after lost men, who, Uke Onesimus,
had gone astray, and in one of these terrible dens
of infamy, where the air was heavy with disease and
impurity, this good man Epaphroditus was taken
Ul (v. 30). When tidings came to the Apostle, they,
nearly broke his heart, because he feared that his friend
would die, and he be unable to visit him or to help.
Epaphroditus was, however, spared, but in his con
valescence was sore troubled, because, somehow, the
PhUippians had come to hear of his sickness, and
would naturally be filled with profound anxiety
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Not Sorrow upon Sorrow
about it. So delicate is love in its sensitiveness. Phil. ii.
It is a difficult question to decide how much love 19-30
ought to tell the loved one. You might have
supposed Epaphroditus ought to tell, and would be
glad to tell, his Philippian friends. But he thought
otherwise. He felt that they had trouble and
responsibiUty and anguish enough, and he did not
want to add one additional burden to those who were
afready weighted to the ground.
Perhaps it is wise, when we are so far away from Reticence
those we love that they cannot possibly help us, to *Pd .
keep back something of the pain and sorrow through
which we are going ; but with those whom we are
meeting day by day we should not be reticent, for
reticence is often the death-blow of love. The only
thing about which we do well to be reticent to our
intimate friends is when we have been slighted or
injured. Under such circumstances it is good not
to speak, because, maybe, we shall magnify the slight
into an actual wrong, whilst if we do not speak about
it we shall forget it.
In other things it is well to be frank. Confidence
is the native air of love. Those words of Lord
Bacon's, in his inimitable essay upon Friendship,
are perfectly true. 'We know,' he says, 'that
diseases of stoppings and suffocations are most
dangerous to the body ; and it is not much otherwise
in the mind. You may take sarza to open the Uver,
steel to open the spleen, flower of sulphur for the
lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no receipt
openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you
may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions,
133

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. counsels, and whatever lieth upon the heart to
19-30 oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession.'
We must admire Epaphroditus, whose love was so
sensitive that he said : ' They cannot help me ; if
they were near enough to nurse me I would teU them,
but they are too far away.' But when he knew that
tidings of his Ulness, but not of his convalescence, had
reached them, the news almost caused a relapse.
God's Care. (5) God. St Paul Uved in a very atmosphere of
love. Think of it. All around, the world lay in hate,
malice, and envy ; but in that hired room in Rome
there was the intense focus-point of love. In the midst
of winter all around, there was summer in that hired
house. In the midst of the dark night of heathenism
there was the one beautiful spot of heavenly Ufe.
The PhUippian gifts were all about the place,
showing they had not forgotten him. So far from
forgetting them, the Apostle was thinking of sending
Timothy, though it seemed Uke tearing a part of
himself away. Timothy was, also, as intent on
serving him as a child a father, and daring to share
his bonds and shame. In addition, there was
Epaphroditus anxious because the Philippians were
anxious, and distressed beyond measure because he
added to their grief. There was a perfect hothouse
of love — palms, fruits, and flowers in a tropical atmo
sphere amid the wintry cUmate. And out of all that
there came this blessed faith in God that He would
not add sorrow to sorrow. Paul said to himself:
' I am quite sure God is just like man, only better.
I am quite sure that God is as thoughtful and
sensitive as we are about one another. I would not
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Not Sorrow upon Sorrow
let Epaphroditus die, unless there were some urgent Phil. ii.
reason to the contrary ; if I could spare a servant of I9"30
mine sorrow I would.' He argued from the love of
which he was personaUy conscious to the love above
him, and said : God is Uke a father, mother, brother,
sister, friend, aU in one. The most tender, gentle,
sensitive being in the whole universe is God, and
He wiU not add sorrow to sorrow. There must be
sorrow, that I may learn to sympathise with sorrow,
that my heart may be open towards aU who suffer ;
but there wiU be no needless adding of sorrow to
sorrow. What a noble conception is presented to
us here of how human love lifts man to understand ,
the Divine love ! We argue from the human to the
Divine : ' How much more shaU your heavenly Father
give good things to them that ask Him.' He will
not overdrive His flock ; nor give us more than we
can bear ; nor add one drop of needless grief to our
heart's burden. * * * * *
We mat Draw Three Conclusions. — First, Christ and
that Christ recognises human friendships. Love is 5"™^^:
the one thing that makes life worth Uving. One has
said : ' I would rather be condemned to be led out
and hung, if I knew one human soul would love me
for a week beforehand and honour me afterwards,
than Uve half a century to be nothing to any living
creature.' That Ufe is richest which has most true
friends ; that Ufe is most worth Uving which is
surrounded by the truest and tenderest hearts. But
do we prize human love enough? Do we requite
it as we should ? Are we not too careless of these
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. pearls of spiritual wealth? Do we not break the
I9"3° necklace and loose the pearls too recklessly? Are
there not people in our own home-circle who, if they
were to die this week, would haunt our memory
with infinite regret ? ' George,' she said, ' I was a
foolish girl, but I always loved you.' But the
kisses that poured from the husband's Ups were too
late to arrest the death, and undo the lovelessness
of his treatment of the one whom he promised to
love with aU his heart ;„ and he must suffer always
afterwards the gnawing of a constant sorrow.
How eminently careful we ought to be to be loyal
to love ; to be sensitive not needlessly to hurt, and
never to fall beneath the high standard put by Jesus
Christ in his loyalty to Mary, Martha, and Lazarus,
and the rest. Jesus Christ recognises human love.
Lacordaire, the great French preacher, said, ' Above
all things, be kind. Kindness is the one thing in which
we most resemble God and help men. Kindness in
mutual relations is the principal charm of Ufe.' It
would, perhaps, be better to use the word love instead
of kindness ; for kindness is often mere phfianthropy,
whereas love is of God. Christ honours friendship.
God as our Secondly, we may dare to impute to God the
Friend. feelings that we impute to our dearest friend.
'That I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.'
Some people are always asking the question, Do
you love God? It is far better to dweU on the
assurance that God loves you. It is a far more
important thing to reckon that God loves you, than
for you to try to love God. It is no wonder that
people abstain from our places of worship, and go
136

Not Sorrow upon Sorrow
away into sin and worldUness, because the Church Phil. ii.
has insisted so constantly that they must love God, !9-30
and they cannot ; whereas if the Church would tell
people that God loves them, and that they may abso
lutely reckon on His love, there would be an attraction
in the message which would draw them to the Saviour.
In God's love they may always dare to impute the
very delicacy and tenderness which Paul felt towards
PhiUppi,orEpaphroditustowardshisfellow-Christians. ' And so beside the silent sea
I wait the muffled oar :
No harm from Him can come to me
On ocean or on shore.
1 1 know not where His islands lift
Their f ronded palms in air ;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.'
Always know and believe in the love of God.
God is Love ; and he that dwelleth in love dweUeth
in God, and God in him.
Thirdly, the love of God, when it is believed in, influence of
makes us very sensitive to other people. We have ^dLove of
our blessed human friendships. From these we rise
to conceive of God, and from God we come back to
love all men. As with waterfalls, the water drop
ping from a great height scatters a spray, which
makes the stones and boulders array themselves
in verdure ; so the love of God, falling upon our
hearts, wiU make us very tender towards our fellow-
Christians and all men. We must love the suffer
ing and the lost, the loveless and implacable, with
something of the love that fiUs the heart of God,
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. ii. and which never fails. From individuals we rise
I9"30 to God, from God we return to individuals, and
from individuals we go forth to the great world.
Love is the only clue to the mysteries of life. As
one grows older and knows more, one is more
absolutely appaUed at the mysteries of sin, and
pain, and evil, and there is no clue but to believe
that God loves, and that in our turn we must love.
St John says : ' Herein is love made perfect that
we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment.'
When the worlds crash to ruin, when the universe
is in the throes of dissolution, and the eternal
certainties are revealed, the only thing which wiU
make the soul strong and unmoved wUl be the
sense that the eternal God has loved it in Christ,
and that it has sought to Uve a life of tender holy
love, which it wfil continue to live for evermore.
If you do not love God, or are not conscious that
God loves you, what have you to make you bold
in the Day of Judgment? But here stands the
Christ Who loves you, Who in love came to die
for you, Who by the Spirit is knocking at the
door of your heart, Who is pouring out to you
a very torrent of love. Have you been disloyal to
it ? Have you tried its patience to the uttermost?
Have you repaid it as OtheUo did the loving
devotion of Desdemona? Ah, wiU not your heU
be your remorse, that you thus refused the love of God
in Christ? God help you. BeUeve that God loves you
in Christ, and go forth to live a Ufe of perfect love,
not causing sorrow upon sorrow, either to Him who
loves you so unutterably, or to any other Uving soul.
138

XV
THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION
Phil. hi. 1-3
Finally, my hrethren, rejoice in the Lord, To write the same
things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit,
and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
There is a difference of opinion amongst scholars as Phil. iii.
to the precise meaning of the Apostle when he wrote 1-3
this word ' Finally.' Bishop Lightfoot, for instance,
supposes thathe hadalreadysaid all that he intended to
say, and was bringing his letter to a close. In that case
we should accept the alternative rendering, Farewell !
which is suggested in the margin for Rejoice. This
would justify the paraphrase: 'And now, my
brethren, I must wish you farewell. Rejoice in the
Lord.' It is better, however, to hold that though Finally
indicates that the Apostle is approaching the end of
the Epistle, it is not necessarily a very near approach.,
(See 1 Thes. iv. 1 ; 2 Thes. iii. 1.) In this case we
might adopt the following paraphrase: 'My letter
draws to its close. Its key-note has been the duty
of joy, and it shall be so to the end.'
Three Christian duties are enjoined in this brief
paragraph : We are to rejoice in the Lord ; we are
139

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. to beware ; and we are to examine ourselves that we
I_3 be of the true circumcision.
*****
Christian The Dutt of Christian Joy. — The Joy, which
J°T- is the fruit of the Holy Spirit's work in the heart,
coming next to Love, and before Peace, in the
enumeration given by the Apostle in GaL v. 22. is
unlike anything which is produced from the natural
soil of the heart. It is altogether pecuUar to the
regenerate soul. It differs from the overflowing
good spirits of perfect health, for it persists amid
weakness and pain ; it differs from mirthful merri
ment, with its ' quips and cranks,' for it persists in
dark hours as well as bright; it differs from mere
happiness, for it persists amid the loss of aU things.
Those who have seen it reflected on the face of God's
children will bear witness to the unearthly beauty of
expression which it generates. Of this there is a
beautiful story told by Dr TrumbuU, who describes
' What a boy saw in the face of Adoniram Judson.'
One evening, he saw a stranger arrive by train in his
native town, whose appearance greatly attracted him.
He had never seen such a Ught on a human face
before, and at last it dawned upon him that the man
was the great missionary, with whose picture he was
familiar. He hurried to summon his own minister,
and the little lad was soon forgotten as the two feU
into deep conversation ; but . the boy circled about
them, steadfastly looking on that face. Until the
day he died, he was accustomed to speak of its
beautiful Ught that shone Uke the sun. That surely
was the reflection of this inner joy.
140

The True Circumcision
In the American version of Psalm xxxiv. 5, we Phil. iii.
read, 'They looked unto Him and were radiant.' I_3
The ' solar look ' is a well-known expression for the J1"5.' ?olar
smile that shone on the face of Rowlands of Llangeitho;
and Margaret FuUer in her diary says, 'Emerson
came into our house this morning with a sunbeam in
his face.' Nothing more certainly indicates that we
have feUowship with God than the radiance of that
joy in our step, bearing, and look. The joy of the
Lord arises from leaving aU our burdens at His feet ;
from beUeving that He has forgiven the past as
absolutely as the tide obliterates children's writing
in the sand ; that nothing can come which He does
not appoint or permit ; that He is doing all things as
wisely and kindly as possible ; that in Him we have
been lifted out of the realm of sin, sorrow, and death
into a region of Divine light and love ; that we have
already commenced the eternal life, and that before
us for ever, there is a feUowship with Him so
rapturous and exalting that human language can
only describe it as unspeakable.
It is a duty for us to cultivate this joy. We must A Thing
steadfastly arrest any tendency to murmur and jPjj? yated
complain; to find fault with God's dealings; or to
seek to elicit sympathy. We must as much resist
the temptation to depression and melancholy as we
would to any form of sin. We must insist on
watching the one patch of blue in the dark sky, sure
that presently it wiU overspread the Heavens. We
must rest upon the promises of God in certain faith
that He wiU triumph gloriously, and that the future
wiU absolutely vindicate the long story of human
141

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. pain. We must cultivate a cheery optimism, and an
I_3 undaunted hope. We must resolve to imitate him,
of whom the poet sings, that he —
'Never turned his back, but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would
triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake.'
Rejoicing in Moreover, we are to rejoice "in the Lord.' 'In
the Lord. His presence is fulness of joy, and at His right hand
there are pleasures for evermore.' We need not
relegate the fulfilment of these sweet words to the
far future, but now and here, as we live in feUowship
with Him, we shall discover that Christ's presence,
made real to us by the Holy Spirit, is the 'deep,
sweet well of joy.' We may not be able to rejoice
in our circumstances, friends, or prospects, but we
can always rejoice in Jesus Christ, whose Nature is
the key to the understanding and unlocking of all
mysteries, the Well-spring of hope, the Day-star in
our hearts, tiU ' the morning breaks and the shadows
flee away.'
It is not difficult to be bright and gay amongst
comparative strangers and friends, but often those
who are at their best in the social circle, are depressed
and taciturn with the immediate inmates of their
homes. Does not the wife sometimes shyly confess
to herself the wish that her husband might shed the
same genial warmth on the breakfast-table, when
they are together, as he did on the social circle of
the previous evening ? But surely, if there is one
142

The True Circumcision
company in aU the world where one should over Phil. iii.
abound with joy, it is among those to whom our face I_3
is as the sun. If it is clouded, shadows fall on all
things, if it shines with unobscured beauty, aU things
partake of a new radiancy.
' Thou shalt rejoice in aU the good which the Lord Do not be
thy God giveth thee'; 'Every creature of God i8 afraid of Joy.
good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received
with thanksgiving.' God is always putting into our
Uves bright and blessed things to be used for Him.
Do not think it necessary to introduce thorns to your
roses, and clouds for the unflecked blue sky. God
loves to see His chUdren glad, and so long as you are
able to look up from the joy that fills your heart to
Him who gave it, connecting the gift with the
Giver, there is no reason why you should not drink
to the fuU every cup of blessing which He places in
your hand.
We shaU hear the Apostle returning to this
injunction in iv. 4. To quote his own words, 'To
write the same things to you, to me indeed is not
irksome, but for you it is safe.' Apparently, he was
constantly exhorting them to Christian joy, he was
repeating the advice he had often given, laying stress
where he had often laid it, with him it was ' precept
upon precept, line upon line,' and the teacher who
reaffirms and repeats is sure to win in the end.
The Duty op Taking Heed. — He adds, The Duty of
'Beware of dogs.' Amongst the Ancients, dogsj^^S
stood as representatives of certain human quaUties. Beware of
For the Greek, they stood for ferocity, impudence, Dogs'
greediness; for the Jew, for degradation andunclean-
143

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. ness. In the Apocalypse the term is appUed to those
I_3 who are destitute of moral quaUfications for entering
the New Jerusalem — 'Without are the dogs, and the
sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the idolaters, and
everyone that loveth and maketh a Ue.' Every
traveller in the East knows how herds of dogs prowl
through the streets, each pack holding its own street
against all comers; they have neither homes nor
owners, feeding on the refuse of the streets, quarrelling
amongst themselves, and attacking the passers-by.
We are bidden, therefore, to beware of men of a
quarrelsome and contentious spirit, who under the
, guise of reUgion hide impure and unclean things;
and who are not only defiled, but defiling in their
\ influence. If, in our circle of friends, there is one
whose influence lowers the tone of our own Ufe, who
j suggests and arouses thoughts and desires that tend
\ to the gratification of the flesh, the tendency of
whose conversation is towards the kitchen of our
! lower nature, rather than to the observatory of our
\ spirit Ufe, it is our duty to be carefuUy on our guard,
) and, if possible, to break off from famiUarity and
even acquaintance.
And of Evil 'Beware of evil workers.' These are not quite the
Workers. same as evfi doers. They are not set upon doing aU
the harm they can in the world, but are fanatical,
unbalanced, and unable to distinguish between a part
and the whole, magnifying some microscopical point
in Christianity until it blinds the eye to the symmetry,
proportion, and beauty of Heaven's glorious scheme.
These people are the 'Cranks' of our Churches;
they introduce fads and hobbies; they exaggerate
144

The True Circumcision
the importance of trifles ; they catch up every new Phil. iii.
theory and vagary, and foUow it to the detriment of *-3
truth and love.
It is impossible to exaggerate the harm that these
people do, or the desirabiUty of keeping clear of
them, they are the pests of every Christian com
munity they enter; and their influence over young
and unwary spirits is in a high degree pernicious.
The Apostle teUs us that when we speak, we must
observe the 'proportion of faith.' No exhortation
could be more necessary, and whenever any person
makes a hobby of one special aspect of the Gospel,
always agitating that one point, exaggerating it, and
concentrating upon it an amount of attention that
should be evenly diffused over the entire system of
truth, let us beware, for such an one, intentionally or
not, is an evil worker.
Beware of the concision. These years of the The
Apostle's Ufe were greatly embittered by the an- Conasion"
tagonism of the Judaising teachers who dogged his
steps. They did not deny that Jesus was the
Messiah, or that His Gospel was the power of God
unto salvation, but they insisted that the Gentile
converts could only come to the fulness of Gospel
privUege through the Law of Moses; they urged
that Gentiles must become Jews before they could
be Christians ; they asserted that if the new converts
were not circumcised after the manner of Moses,
they could not be saved (Acts xv. 1). Throughout
his whole career, the Apostle offered the most
strenuous opposition to these men and their teaching.
He went so far as to say that they were traitors to
K 145

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. the highest traditions of the past, and that the rite
I-3 they insisted on, under such circumstances, and when
viewed as a condition of salvation by the Blood of
Christ, was only a mutilation and cutting of the
flesh. It was not circumcision in the true, deep
sense of the term. The distinction lies between the
words concision and circumcision, the one 'a cutting,'
the other a sacred rite.
Un- Similarly, in our own time, we must beware of
authorised those who say that men must pass through certain
outward rites before they can be saved. StiU
amongst us are to be found teachers and writers,
the purport of whose words certainly is that, in
addition to faith in our Lord, there must be certain
acts of obedience to the institutions of the Church.
They demand baptism, attendance at the confessional,
and strict obedience to fasts, mortifications, and acts
of self-denial, as conditions of salvation. Against
all these we must be steadfastly on our guard,
because they obscure and belittle the Gospel, and
divert men's thoughts from Him who is the only way
to the Father.
It is specially difficult to be on our guard against
these false teachers, because they approach us under
the guise of earnestness, sympathy, and reUgious
sentiment. It is not so difficult to watch against
the outwardly profane and rebeUious, but the most
wary may be snared by the specious appeals of those
who seem more religious than themselves. It was
therefore that the Apostle feared, in his time, lest by
any means, as the serpent begmled Eve with his
subtlety, so the minds of his converts should be
146

The True Circumcision
corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ Phil. iii.
(2 Cor. xi. 3). It is when Satan comes to us as an I_3
angel of Ught that he is most to be dreaded.
The Duty op Self - Examination. — The Examine
analogue of circumcision in the Christian dispensa- Yourselves-
tion is clearly not Baptism, but a 'putting off the
body of the sins of the flesh.' We must be circum
cised in the ' circumcision of Christ,' i.e. in the
cutting away of all the energy of our self-Ufe, the
placing the grave of Jesus between ourselves and
the past, and the rising with Him into a realm of
liberty and victory, to which He passed by the door
of Resurrection (Col. ii. 11, 12).
Specifically, the Apostle gives us the three notes
of the true circumcision, by possessing which, we
show ourselves to be the true descendants of
Abraham, and in the true line of spiritual heredity
and blessing; 'For he is not a Jew which is one
outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is
outward in the flesh ; but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly ; the circumcision is that of the heart, in
the spirit and not in the letter ; whose praise is not
of men but of God' (Rom. ii. 28, 29).
Do we belong to this holy category ? Are the ^ourh-
three credentials on which the Apostle insists evident Right ?
in us? Do we worship God in the spirit? The
word translated worship means first to do servant's
work, then to do religious service, and sometimes
priestly duty. Do we understand what it is to live
in the temple of worship, performing every duty as
to the Lord ? Is our worship, whether in pubUc or
private, mechanical in outward posture and routine,
147

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil. i-3

in.

in

Is our
ConfidenceRight?

Jake Parsons.

or do we know what it is to worship the Father
spirit and in truth,' and ' to be in the Spirit on the
Lord's Day ? ' Do we glory {exult) in Christ Jesus ?
Is He our boast and pride ? Is foUowing Him our
highest ideal? Is the pursuit of His 'Well-done'
our loftiest endeavour?
Are we amongst those who put no confidence in the
flesh ? AU through the Epistles the flesh stands for
self — the self that seeks to justify itself, that en
deavours to sanctify itself, that is always fussuy
endeavouring to win men for God, but has never
learned to be submerged beneath the mighty tide
and current of God's Spirit. If your religious Ufe is
one of self- effort and self-complacency, you must
stand back"; it is not for you to handle the priceless
pearl ; your eyes cannot detect its superlative beauty,
exceUence, and worth. But let all humble souls,
who have nothing in which to glory, save the Cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who put no confidence
in themselves, but wholly rest upon the unmerited
grace of God, lift up their faces with exceeding great
joy. These are the true children of Abraham.
Do we rejoice in Christ Jesus? Dr James H.
Taylor wrote some years ago of the curious old
New England character named Jake Parsons. ' The
change in his life was notorious, so significant and
revolutionary had it been. He lay down to sleep
one night an absolutely drunken, worthless wretch,
having weU-nigh lost his power of speech through
his dissipation, loved only by the fragment of the
family that was left to him. He woke up the next
morning an absolutely changed man. For nearly
148

The True Circumcision
forty years after that, he lived a life without blemish Phil. iii.
or spot. Eight years after the change, someone I_3
asked him what had produced it. This is the
explanation he gave: "That night, Jesus Christ
appeared in my sleep. His face, as I saw it, seemed
so pure, so lovely, so friendly to me that when I
awoke I forgot my old vices, and so loved my Saviour
that I could not displease Him. He did not speak
to me, He only looked at me ; but His look told me
that there was hope for me, that I could be forgiven,
that I could be purified. I looked at Him, and cried
Uke a chfid; I felt that I was a vfie, miserable,
wicked wretch, filthier than a dunghill. I cannot
teU how I felt. When I looked at Him I was too
happy to be afraid ; but when I looked at myself I
was too afraid to be happy. I forgot aU about rum
and tobacco, I was thinking so much about Christ,
so pure, so lovely, so beautiful, so friendly." '
One who knew him well, so Dr Taylor said,
wrote: 'For thirty-five years he lived a blameless
Ufe, beloved by everybody. On a fine summer
morning, my friend writes, the glorious old new
creature would crawl out of doors, and seating
himself on the grassy bank in front of his humble
home, turning his sightless face to the sun to feel
its warmth, would say: "The door opened into
heaven just a little crack. I shaU know Him.
He will look just so." So he lived until he fell
asleep in Jesus.' God give us grace that till the
eternal joy overtakes us as a flood we may Uve in
the joy of a simUar vision. 149

XVI
SELLING ALL TO BUY THE
PEARL
Phil. iii. 4-9
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other
man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I
more :
Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe
of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews ; as touching the law, a
Pharisee ;
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church ; touching the righteous
ness which is in the law, blameless.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for
Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things hit loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them hut dung, that
I may win Christ,
And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, butthat which is through th%JFaith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith :
Phil. iii. In one of His most exquisite parables, our Saviour
4-9 depicted a man leaving his house in the morning
The Pearl of with a heavy bag of gold, and makmg his way to
the market-place, where pearl-sellers displayed the
precious ocean gems. He was seeking goodly
pearls, and passed from stall to stall with the eye
and touch of the connoisseur ; but from each stall he
turned away, dissatisfied. At last he approached one
of the seUers, and saw before him on the tray the
most exquisite, perfect, and transparent pearl that
150

Selling All to Buy the Pearl
his eyes had ever lit on. Asking the price, he dis- Phil. iii.
covered that it would take all the pearls he had 4-9
bought, and aU the gold in his pouch, to procure it.
On starting, he had meant to get the pearls and
keep his house and estate, but he learnt that to win
that he must sell even these; and so pearls and
gold, home and heritage, were aU gladly parted with,
that that one most priceless jewel might be his own.
And always afterwards, when the purchase was con
cluded, though he was homeless and solitary, the
fact that he had got that pearl more than com
pensated him ; he counted all things else but loss.
When our Lord spoke that marvellously beautiful
parable, He must have had Saul of Tarsus in His
eye — a man with a rich religious nature, capable of
an infinite hunger after God, who passed from one
stall to another amid the religions of the world, seek
ing for the best. But finaUy, when he came where
the gem of heaven and earth and sea, the pearl of
great price, lay, translucent and glistening, he gladly
sacrificed aU he possessed to win it; and in this
marveUous paragraph he tells us that he counted all
things else as loss and refuse compared with Jesus
Christ. Oh, that we may understand the superlative
excellence of Jesus, and turn from everything that
would divide our heart with Him!
Notice how the Apostle uses the Powek
of Contrast. — There are many ways by which we
set forth the value of any possession. We may
speak of its rarity ; dfiaie upon its quahty ; or we
may set it in contrast with things that men value. Let
us look upon these contrasts, so enhancing ' the Pearl'
151

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. (1) He contrasted ' the excellency of the knowledge
4"9 of Christ Jesus ' with the ancient and holy system
The Know- 0j> Judaism. The Apostle speaks of Judaism with
Christ and profound reverence and affection. His was not a
the Practice profane and irreverent soul, that could speak ruthless
words about the holy system which, for so many
centuries, had satisfied his forefathers, and which, in
his own early Ufe, had been so treasured and dear.
He never could forget that the architecture* of
Judaism had been given by God on Sinai's Mount ;
that the ritualism of the Tabernacle had been
wrought out in the laboratory of the Divine mind ;
that the breath of God had quivered upon the Ups of
its prophets, and His fire burnt upon the hearts of
its seers. He never could forget the generations
of holy souls which in Judaism had found their
solace, their inspiration, and their comfort; and
therefore, with reverent, loving, and tender words,
he spoke about that hoary system. What though
the Ught of evening was now shining upon the hills
of Zion ! What though, ere long, Jerusalem itself
must lie beneath the foot of the invader ! StiU
Judaism was dear to him. But contrasted with
Jesus Christ, and with that new view of God that
Jesus Christ had brought, in which the veU was torn
away, and the soul stood face to face with incarnate
Deity, Judaism with aU its sacred sanctions was but
so much loss.
Christ and (2) He contrasted the knowledge of Christ, next,
Grace"16111*1 w^ ^ w*r*Me °f sacramental efficacy. He mentions,
first, the sacrament of circumcision. He says :
'Circumcision was administered to me, not in
152

Selling All to Buy the Pearl
mature Ufe, as to a Gentile proselyte, but in my Phil. iii.
infancy. On the eighth day I received the initial 4*9
rite, the badge of the Jew, the seal of the covenant.'
He made much of it. It is right that we should
make much of the holy sacraments of our religion.
Chiefest amongst our reUgious memories, treasured
with unfeigned delight, are certain great moments
when we have sat at the Table of our Lord with His
saints, and have feasted high, whilst the tide of holy
joy has borne us beyond the shores of earthly deUght,
to the very bosom of our Saviour. Sacraments have
meant much to us, but how much to others ! Paul
said : Though I value beyond compare the sacra
ments of Judaism, what are these compared to the
living Christ ? They are but the empty grave from
which He has gone forth ; they are but the cerements
of the tomb, whilst the Uving Christ passes along
the Easter path.
(3) He contrasted the knowledge of the Lord with Christ and
high pedigree. To have been circumcised was much, High Birth.
but even if he had been the child of a Jewish
proselyte he would have been circumcised the eighth
day. It did not prove that he had the pure blood of
Abraham flowing through his veins ; therefore he
says : ' I was born a Hebrew ; mine was the stock
of Israel, the prince with God ; I was of the tribe of
Benjamin, from which Saul came, the first king of
Israel ; and which, amid the general faithlessness,
clung still to Judah in maintaining the Temple rites.
Moreover, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews ; no Gentile
blood had ever intermingled in our family.' How
good some count it to be able to trace back their
153

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil.
4-9

m.

Christ in
Contrast
with Pharisaism.

pedigree to the Normans, or to the Saxons who
preceded the Conquest. Some such pride might
have been the Apostle's. He looked upon Rome,
and Babylon, and Greece, but knew his descent lay
further back than any. They might boast their
splendour, but he came of the man who crossed the
Euphrates, and settled in Palestine as the friend of
God. In him flowed the blood of Moses, who dared
behold God face to face ; of Joshua, who bade the
sun stand stiU ; of Jeremiah and the prophets. But
he cries : Compared to Christ, it is nothing. The
soul that has won Him is related to a higher family ;
has received the title of a nobler lineage ; is linked,
not with the fathers of saintly piety, but to the ever
lasting Father, the eternal God, through Jesus Christ,
the great Brother Man, who has Ufted man into
union with God. Compared with Him, high lineage
and ancient pedigree are but dross.
(4) He contrasted the knowledge of Clirist with his
membership in a noble order of men. Before Agrippa
he said : ' I lived a Pharisee' ; and before the Council
he cried : ' I am a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee.'
He here boasts it again — ' As touching the lawa Phari
see.' The Pharisee in our time has come to be looked
upon as the embodiment of pride, arrogance, and super-
ciUous contempt and scorn; but away back in the
history of Israel the Pharisees stood for the purest,
strictest morality. They were the maintainers of the
Law amid the indifference of then time. They
opposed the great parties of the courtly Herodians and
of the sceptical Sadducees. What if they made their
phylacteries broad ! It showed that they reverenced
154

Selling All to Buy the Pearl
the very text of the Word of God. What though Phil. iii.
they buUt the tombs of the prophets ! At least they 4"9
had reverence for the great past. What though they
flaunted an outward piety ! At least there was the
outward recognition of God. There was much to
condemn, but they stood for the unity of the God
head, the resurrection of the Hereafter, and the
strictest interpretation of the law. But Paul said
that all this was as nothing to him now ; he was
prepared to be cast out by the Pharisees, to become
an outcast and an aUen, and be treated as the off-
scouring of all things. To have Christ was an infinite
compensation, which made all the rest seem but loss.
(5) He contrasted the knowledge of Christ with his Christ in
own great reputation — ' As touching zeal, persecuting Contrast
the Church.' Everybody knew how devoted he was Reputation.
to Judaism, and how intent in uprooting Christianity.
Breathing fire and sword, he swept like a tornado
through Palestine. The disciples trembled when he
came near any city in which they were gathered, for
there was every fear that he would drag them before
the Councils and commit them to prison. In many
cases he ruthlessly stamped out the infant church in
blood. There was nothing he would not do, so
relentless, so merciless, so unsparing. And with aU
this, he was building up such a reputation as would
have given him prominence in all aftertime in his
fatherland and amongst his fellow-countrymen. It
is not a small thing for a young man of thirty to
build up a reputation like that, because it means
high marriage, power, wealth and prestige. It means
everything that a man cares for and seeks ; but when
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. Paul stood, with everything of this world alluring
4*9 him on the one hand, and with Christ on the other
caUing him to the cross, torture, isolation, poverty,
and everything the flesh of man hates, he said : I am
married to Christ, and in Him am married to suffering,
sorrow, and loss ; but I look on it as a man who has
made a good bargain — for I have won the Pearl, Christ
Christ in (6) He contrasted the knowledge of Christ with the
Contrast satisfaction of blameless character — ' As touching
Personal the righteousness which is in the law, found blame-
Upnghtness. jegs<' There is a tribunal always in session, a tribunal
before which we are all constantly being tried ; and
we ourselves often sit upon that tribunal to try those
above us, on our level, and beneath us. But in our
quiet hours we leave that judgment-seat, and apply
to ourselves the standards which we have been
applying to our fellows. At such times we cannot
but notice how, compared with many around us, our
own character appears blameless and flawless.
Thank God, we say, after we have been consider
ing the case of the drunkard, the miser, or the
dissipated, we are not as they are. And as we
apply to ourselves the standard beneath which so
many of our fellows have been condemned, we are
disposed to take to ourselves considerable credit. ' I
go to church, I pay my subscriptions, I do not drink,
I do not indulge the flesh, I keep my tongue in
control; my dearest and nearest cannot accuse me
of being anything but a loving, tender man; my
life is blameless.' Thereupon we conclude that we
are right.
These are the people that it is hardest to win for
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Selling All to Buy the Pearl
Christ. They are enclosed and encased within the Phil. iii.
armour of their self-righteousness ; they are so com- 4-9
placent that when the strongest sermons are levelled
against congregations they shelter themselves beneath
their armour-plate, and say : The sermon is good for
others, but it cannot mean us. When a man wakes
up suddenly to see that in God's sight all that counts
for nothing; when Christ comes to him and casts
the X-rays upon his inner life; when he sees the
glory of the Great White Throne compared with the
linen he has been washing for years with such
arduous punctiliousness ; when he sees that what he
thought to be white and clean is only as filthy as
rags to the Son of God, there comes the greatest
fight of his Ufe. Many a man would be prepared to
give up his church, to renounce his sacraments, to
step out from his high family, with its pedigree, and
from the blamelessness of his earlier life; many a
man would be prepared to sacrifice his reputation for
earnestness : but when it comes to saying that his
righteousness is but filthy rags ; that the boat he has
been constructing wiU not carry him across the
mighty deluge of waters; that the tower he has
built upon the reef wiU not resist the autumn storm,
in counting even his blamelessness as loss and dross —
yea as dung — then there comes the greatest fight.
(7) He contrasted the knowledge of God's Righteous- Contrasted
ness which is by faith, with his own righteousness, ne^ eous"
which was of the law. In the Epistle to the Romans
the Apostle clearly describes the righteousness, which
is of the law, ' That the man which doeth these things
shaU live by them ' (Rom. x. 5). The doing of the
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. things prescribed by the Law in the heart, or the
4"9 Law on the Tables of Stone, has occupied the minds
and governed the activities of legalists and ritualists
from the beginning of the world. It was this that
prompted Luther to fastings and scourgings, beneath
which his body was reduced to an extremity, and
that encouraged Bunyan to hope that an outward
reformation would satisfy the outcry of his conscience.
But such men have always found their efforts un-
avaiUng. However zealous they may be in going
about to estabUsh their own righteousness, men
discover that what has seemed a white and flaw
less robe is only as filthy rags, in the searching light
of the great white throne.
But the Righteousness which is ' of God,' because
it was designed by His wisdom, and is offered by
His unmerited grace, requires no 'going about.'
There is no need to say, 'Who shaU ascend unto
heaven,' or ' Who shall descend into the deep.' ' The
word of faith is nigh thee.' Its one condition is the
open hand of a faith, that takes what the risen
saviour offers. Just as soon as the soul trusts Him —
not merely beUeving about, but in Him, — in that
moment it is clothed upon with the Righteousness of
Christ, wrought out by His perfect obedience unto
death, which is 'unto all and upon aU them that
believe' (Rom. in. 22). It is only necessary to
abandon our own righteousness to gain Christ and
His righteousness. We cannot have both. But
when we have resolved to drop the one, that we
may take the other; in making the choice, we
suddenly find ourselves in Him, and arrayed in the
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Selling All to Buy the Pearl
beauteous dress, Who was made sin for us that we Phil. iii.
might be made the Righteousness of God (2 Cor. 4"9
v. 21).
Have you come to Him ? The time is coming when
you will have to be found somewhere. The Apostle
says, 'That I may he found in Him.' You will have
to be found by the swirling tides of sorrow, by some
supreme temptation, by the final test of death ; you
wiU have to be found in the Judgment; you will
have to be found in the dissolution of the Heavens
and the Earth. When God comes to find you,
where wiU you be found ? In the cardboard of your
own goodness, or in the completed Righteousness of
Jesus Christ, which He wrought out on the Cross in
tears and blood, and which is yours directly you look
with penitent trust towards Him ? God grant that
when you are found, it may be with the Pearl of
great price in your hand, and with the Righteousness
of Jesus Christ upon your soul !

159

XVII
THE SOUL'S QUEST
Phil. iii. 10, 11
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings, heing made conformable unto His
death ;
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the
dead.
Phil. iii. The Apostle in these wonderful verses twice uses
10, n the word Resurrection ; and surely we must interpret
it by his weU-known teaching, in which he speaks of
Christ's Resurrection as primarily affecting spiritual
experience. In Romans vi. and Colossians u. and
hi., he is not deaUng with the resurrection of the
body, but with that entrance into a higher state of
thought and experience which centres around the
risen Lord.
Paul and the It is impossible to suppose that the Apostle had
ofTh rrBCd°n any ^0UD* ^ *° *ne resurrection of his body, whether
at the coming of the Lord or afterwards. Surely it
could never have entered into his mind that any
excellence in Christian attainment could affect his
sharing with the saints in the first resurrection, when
suddenly, 'in the twinkling of an eye,' the great
transformation will come to those who are alive and
remain, whilst resurrection wiU come to those who
have faUen asleep. The fact that he belonged to
Christ, was a member of His mystical Body, and
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The Soul's Quest
had given evidence of the depth and sincerity of his Phil. iii.
conversion, was enough to secure his enjoyment in I0» ri
the privUeges of the first resurrection, altogether
apart from the renunciations which he had described
in the foregoing paragraph. Clearly then, the resur
rection of the verses before us has to do with the
Ufe hidden with Christ in God, in whom we died
indeed unto the world and sin, and are aUve unto
God through Jesus Christ.
We have already seen that Paul was willing to
' count aU things but loss for the exceUency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.' Here he
strikes that note again, and says that he counts aU
things but loss if only he may win Christ. In one
of his quaint poems, Quarles teUs us how he loves
the earth, the air, the sea, and the heavens. He
calls them 'the spangled suburbs of the celestial
city' ; but they cannot give him a satisfaction in
which he can rest, and he has to strike through aU
these outward facts and forms to arrive at God and
see them in Him.
• In having all things, and not Thee, what have 1 1
Not having Thee, what have my labours got ?
Let me enjoy but Thee, what further crave I?
And having Thee alone what have I not?
I wish nor sea, nor land, nor would I be
Possessed of heaven, if heaven unpossessed Thee.'
Such thoughts must have been in the Apostle's mind,
enabling him to make nothing of his losses, and every
thing of his gains, when he turned from the world,
its joys and hopes, its reUgion and righteousness, to
Jesus Christ — 'his exceeding Joy.'
L 161

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. Let us consider the soul's quest for the personal
I0» JI Christ; for the power of His Resurrection; for the
fellowship of His sufferings ; for the Ukeness of His
risen glory.
The Soul's ' That I may know Him.' We cannot be put off
Personal" the by a doctrine about Christ, or by the Book which
Christ. from end to end speaks of Christ, or with a hearsay
or second-rate knowledge of Christ, we need to
press through all these ante-rooms, passing from one
to another, to stand in the personal presence of the
Living Saviour. This is the prerogative of aU holy
souls ; they are permitted not simply to know about
Him, but to know Him, not only to read of His
exceUency and beauty in the Book that is fragrant
with the myrrh, aloes, and cassia of His presence,
but to have feUowship with the Apostles, who saw,
heard, beheld, and handled the Word of Life.
This is the heart and essence of Christianity.
Other reUgions are content with ornate rites, an
elaborate priesthood, an intricate system of doctrine
and regulations, but the Christian, taught by the
Holy Spirit, refuses to rest in any of these, and in
comparison with the Master counts them as so much
refuse. We may know Him personaUy, intimately, face to
face. Christ does not Uve back in the centuries, nor
amid the clouds of heaven : He is near us, with us,
compassing our path and our lying down, and ac
quainted with aU our ways. But we cannot know
Him in this mortal life except through the illumina
tion and teaching of the Holy Spirit. Let us ask
Him to shed His clear beams on the face of Jesus,
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The Soul's Quest
so that it shall haunt our day-dreams and our Phil. iii.
nights. 10, II
We should never rest until we know Him as we We must not"
know our friend, and are able to read without speech ^ unta we
the movements of His soul. We should know by a Him.',
quick intuition what wfil please and what wiU hurt
His pure and holy nature. We should know where
to find Him ; should be famiUar with His modes of
thought and methods of action ; should understand
and identify ourselves with His goings forth, as, day
by day, He goes through the world healing a
saving. What a difference there is between the
knowledge which the man in the street has of some
public character and that which is vouchsafed to the
inner circle of his home ; and we must surely know
Christ, not as a stranger who turns in to visit for the
night, or as the exalted King of men, — there must be
the inner knowledge as of those whom He counts
His own famiUar friends, whom He trusts with His
secrets, who eat with Him of His bread (Psalm
xU. 9).
To know Christ in the storm of battle ; to know
Him in the vaUey of shadow ; to know Him when
the solar Ught irradiates our faces, or when they are
darkened with disappointment and sorrow ; to know
the sweetness of his dealing with bruised reeds and
smoking flax ; to know the tenderness of His sym
pathy and the strength of His right hand — aU this
involves many varieties of experience on our part,
but each of them, Uke the facets of a diamond, wUl
reflect the prismatic beauty of His glory from a new
angle. 163

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. The Risen Christ is fuU of all authority and power.
10, n we remember the two mountains of His Ufe, — the
The Soul's one aj. tne beginning, the other at the end. On the
Power of first, Satan offered Him the authority and glory of
rectiReSUr" *ne wor^> ^ on^y He would perform one act of homage,
and so evade the experiences of the Cross and grave.
It was as though he said, ' Son of God, if Thou wilt
do homage to me, Thou needest not sweat the bloody
sweat of Gethsemane, or undergo the scourging of
Gabbatha, or the shame of Calvary.' But the Lord
would not heed the suggestion, but descended the
rugged vaUey path, passed by way of the Cross to the
glory ; and was therefore able on the other mountain
— that of the Ascension — to say 'AU power (authority)
is given to Me in heaven and upon earth.'
Addressing the beloved apostle, some years after,
Jesus said, ' I am the First and the Last, and the
Living One,' there was His Life in its perennial and
Divine fountain, — ' I became dead, and behold, I am
alive for evermore,' there was His Life in its vic
tory over death, — ' and have the keys of death and
the unseen world,' there is Life regnant over aU the
unseen spaces and powers. As the waters of a
river, passing through various soils, take up into
themselves the quaUty of each, so the Ufe of Christ
in its human aspect, passing through the successive
scenes of His earthly ministry, acquired quaUties
with which it stands possessed for ever. Listen to
His glorious words — ' Be of good cheer, I have
overcome ..." 'To him that overcometh wiU I
give to sit with Me in My throne, as I also over
came and sat down with My Father in His throne.'
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The Soul's Quest
What power emanates from the Risen Christ ! He Phil. iii.
is the Divine storage of eternal and solar forces. ' In I0» IX
Him aU fulness dweUs.' An electric battery just £ow£r from
charged, is not fuUer of dynamic energy than Christ Lord.
is of aeonial and resurrection power ; and directly the
soul is united to Him by a Uving faith, it is as when
we touch a battery with our hand, and its stored
forces begin to thriU our body. This is what the
Apostle meant when he spoke about the ' power of
His Resurrection.' He meant that to the believing
soul, the power of the Ufe which resides in Christ
pours into the receptive spirit, forthwith it rises from
the grave of passion in which it had been imprisoned,
escapes from the bondage of corruption by which it
was held, and goes forth into the glorious liberty of
the sons of God. Just as the Christ could not be
holden by the bands of death, so the soul which
trusts Him is emancipated, enthused, raised into an
altogether new atmosphere, breathes the ozone of
eternity, is thrilled by the powers of the unseen, and
meets all appeals from the lower world with an
abundance of Ufe, which is impervious to disease,
infirmity, and temptation. Just as a reaUy healthy
Ufe may pass through microbes of disease, which
would effect the overthrow of less vigorous and
buoyant health, so the soul which is infilled with
the Resurrection power of Christ, is more than a
conqueror in the midst of the most virulent tempta
tion, whether arising from its own heredity or the
combined power of the pit.

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The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil. iii.
10, II
The Quest of
the Soul for
the Fellow
ship of
Christ's
Sufferings.

Conditions
of the Risen
Life.

Notice the Apostle's order. He does not put the
fellowship of Christ's sufferings as the first thing
which the soul must seek ; he does not expect that
we should go about the world making death and the
grave our main goal and object. His doctrine is
healthier far. He says, Seek to know the Risen
Lord, open your hearts to Him that the power of
His resurrection life may enter and infiU, and in the
fulness of your joy you wiU not stay to count the
cost of having feUowship with His sufferings. The
experience of suffering wiU, so to speak, be forgotten
in the radiancy of your exultation. As the pain of
the woman in travail is forgotten amid the joy of
bearing a child into the world, so wiU the keenest
suffering seem but a pin-prick compared with the
eternal weight of glory.
Often Christian people go through the world with
a lugubrious expression on the face, much as some
ancient ascetic would have done, as though looking
for their graves. It is far better to tread the path
ways of Ufe, seeking to know the power of the Risen
Life, for when that is within, it counts all things but
loss, and even death a gain.
It is inevitable that if we are to know much of
Christ's Resurrection, and in proportion as we know
it, we shall drink of the cup of His sufferings. Every
step further into the Risen Life wUl involve some
deeper and more poignant pang of pain. Men wiU
misunderstand us, as they misunderstood Him, men
will drop away from us and leave us alone, as they
left Him, we shall be compeUed to stand in the
piUory of hatred and rejection. To be received by
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The Soul's Quest
Christ into His secret, wiU necessarily secure our Phil. iii.
exclusion from the familiar intercourse of the world ; I0» Ir
to stand with Him in the height, wfll have its
counterpart in our being thrust down into the
depth ; to have feUowship under the open heaven of
God, with the voice of the Father, and the descend
ing Dove, wiU certainly involve the being driven into
the wilderness to meet the fuU brunt of temptation.
But the soul that reaUy loves Christ wiU not shrink
from the ordeal, it wUl be glad to enter into His
sufferings, because it realises that to know these is
to know Him, and that the very distance into which
the meteor is driven in the darkness, is in proportion
to the close proximity and length of its feUowship
with the sun that attracts it into its inner circle.
Baxter said in this connection : ' A cheap religion
is not usually accompanied with any notable degree
of comfort. Although the person be a sincere-hearted
Christian, he cannot have much peace or joy. A
confirmed Christian is one that taketh self-denial for
one half of his religion.' How true this is ! and it is
absolutely certain that you may judge your heights
by your depths, and gauge the amount of Resurrec
tion Power which is within you by the depths of
your sympathy with, and understanding of, the Cross
of Christ. You may doubt indeed if you have been
admitted into the fulness of the one, unless you have
gone down into the depths of the other.
The Risen Life involves the recognition of aU The Soul's
human interests, the loving reciprocity of friendship the Attain-
and comradeship, the fulfilment of all the duties that £^*r0™£n
devolve upon us, though performing them all from Life.
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. another standpoint. The Risen Lord caUed Mary by
I0> ** the famiUar name, sat in the social circle with the
beloved band of His apostles, went forth to minister
to their physical needs, — as on the morning when
He prepared fish and bread for them, — stood up
from His throne in vivid sympathy with the martyr
who was being stoned to his death, and came to
encourage the disciple who wrought in the mines of
Patmos. But there was a difference in it aU. He
came from another sphere to succour them. So it
wiU be with us ; the Resurrection Ufe does not mean
that we are indifferent to any human tie or caU, but
that we have laid hold of a new source of power by
which it may be fulfiUed. Our life is no longer fitful,
with the spasmodic energy of our own impulse, but
fed from the perennial fountains of Christ's Ufe.
Because He Uves we Uve also; His Ufe constrains
us ; His Spirit fills us ; we are already in the heaverdies
even as He was (John in. 13).
We utilise the forces of a higher plane of being
than that which other men can utilise. Discoverers,
from Archimedes to Edison, may use the physical
forces of the unseen. Christian science may employ
its psychical forces, but we touch those spiritual
forces which are resident in the Holy Spirit, and
with which the nature of the Risen Lord is replete.
Just as there is a distinction between the civilised
man and the savage, because the former is able to
use those mighty energies of which the untutored
child of nature knows nothing, so there is a great
difference between the man who has entered into
the power of Christ's Resurrection and other men.
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The Soul's Quest
As electricity is a higher form of power than that Phil. iii.
of water or gas, so the Christian who lives in union I0> XI
with the Risen Christ is able to exert a higher
form of power than others. He knows the secrets
of God, and obeys the laws of a Ufe which is far
removed from that which he used to Uve. Through
death to his self-life, he has commenced to use the
power of the Eternal Word, ' Who was, and is, and
is to come.'

169

XVIII
APPREHENDED TO APPREHEND
Phil. hi. 12
Not as though I had already attained, either were already per
fect : but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Phil. iii. Wb may compare these words with those which
12 the Apostle uttered in the presence of Agrippa:
' Wherefore, 0 king Agrippa, I was not disobedient
unto the heavenly vision.' That vision included his
appointment to be a minister and a witness of aU
the things which he had seen, and of those in which
fresh revelations were to be made, the promise of
deliverance from the people and the Gentiles, and the
prevision of the marveUous results that would accrue
from his testimony to the Gentiles (Acts xxvi.16-18).
With these words to help us we can better under
stand the purport of this striking phrase.
Paulappre- PAUL REALISED THAT HIS CONVERSION HAD
Christ Jesus. BEEN HIS apprehension BY God. — To hear some
men speak you would suppose that the initiative in
their religious Ufe had come from themselves, that
the first approaches towards God emanated from
their own hearts, that they were independent of
Him until they voluntarily put themselves within
the range of His care and help. Nothing could be
further from the truth. As well might the flower
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Apprehended to Apprehend
speak of discovering the sunshine and turning its Phil. iii.
face thitherwards. The initiative of the reUgious I2
Ufe does not come from man but from God. The
first steps in reconciliation are not on our side
but on His. If we seek God it is only because He
has been seeking us from early childhood, and has
contrived the span of our Ufe and the location of our
home with special reference to our feeUng after Him
and finding Him (Acts xvn. 26, 27).
When a man turns to God, the first thing he God's Love
realises is that throughout the wild wanderings of realised in
his youth, and amid all the fret and war of his
manhood, even when he has been most stubborn
and rebeUious, God's love has never ceased to seek
him. The true comparison for the soul is not
that it is immured in dark gaUeries and cata
combs, out of which it presently seeks to escape,
but that God comes into the intricacies of its
rebeUion and wandering, caUing tenderly and
earnestly, awakening it from its stupefaction, shed
ding on fast-closed eyes beams of light to startle the
drowsy sleeper, and eUciting by every method in his
power a quick response. We love because we were
first loved; we seek because we were sought; we
leave our far country, not only because hunger
impels, but because frequent missives from our
Father's house tell us that He cannot be at rest
until we are again seated at His table.
Paul reaUsed that from his earUest hour, God had As it was by
been about his path and his ways. When he was Paul-
circumcised the eighth day, when he was brought up
as a son of the law, when he was engaged in perse-
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The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. cuting the Church, when he was working out for
12 himself a righteousness in which to stand the
searching inspection of the great White Throne,
in and through aU the Spirit of God had been
near, teaching, admonishing, and stimulating his
quest for the Pearl of great price. FinaUy, he
recognised that on the day, ever memorable, of
his journey to Damascus, the love of God in
the Person of Christ had apprehended or seized
upon him.
After all, is not this conversion? We grasp the
hand of Christ because He has grasped ours, we are
apprehended to live after the highest and noblest
ideals because His hand has been laid upon us in
arrest.
When Christ ' That I may apprehend that for which also I was
us^tls for a apprehended by Christ Jesus.' When God brings us
Great to Himself, it is to realise some lofty ideal on which
He has set His heart. In some cases, the eye
beholds, as Moses did in vision, the tabernacle which
it is to build, it stands in clearly defined outfines,
with every knop and tassel, every curtain and fringe,
every pillar and hook perfectly designed. In other
cases, the pattern is only revealed step by step and
day by day. Each morning the Spirit of God
presents to us in the circumstances of our Ufe, and
in the impulse of our heart, some new item in the
great conception, and caUs on us to fulfil it, — thus
the temple groweth into a dwelUng place for the
Eternal. Whichever method God may adopt with you,
whether in the early morning of Ufe you stand upon the
172

Apprehended to Apprehend
mountain and see the completed plan, or your eyes Phil. iii.
are holden so that you are permitted to see it only I2
by piecemeal, yet be sure that there was a great
thought in His heart when He drew you out of the
horrible pit and from the miry clay, and set your
feet upon a rock, and estabhshed your goings.
In aU Ufe there ought to be the human response to We must not
the Divine caU. We do not become saints against refuse it0 .
sporcn end
our wiU or in violation to our free agency. We that for
must be workers together with God, working out whi<* Christ
what He works in. We must first see something of us.
the goal to which our steps are to be directed, and
then we must mount up with wings as eagles, run
without being weary, walk without being faint. It
is possible for each of us to turn our backs upon the
heavenly vision, shut our ears to the Divine caU, and
take the downward course. The poet Dante caps
his description of the rich young man who went
away sorrowful, by calling it The Great Refusal.
Herod and PUate, Felix and Agrippa, all refused to
apprehend that for which they were apprehended,
and their course has been foUowed by myriads.
There is a modern instance in the biography of The Case of
John Stuart MUl, aptly quoted by Dr W. M. Taylor gjg stuart
in this connection. These are his words : ' I was in
a duU state of nerves, such as everybody is occasion-
aUy Uable to, unsusceptible to enjoyment or pleasure-
able excitement — one of those moods when what
is pleasure at other times becomes insipid or
indifferent — the state, I should think, in which con
verts to Methodism usuaUy are, when smitten by
their first conviction of sin. In this frame of mind it
173

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. occurred to me to put the question directly to myself:
12 "Suppose that all your objects in Ufe were realised ; that
all the changes that you are looking forward to could
be completely effected at this very instant, would this
be a great joy and happiness to you ? " and an irre
pressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, No.
At this my heart sank within me ; the whole founda
tion on which my Ufe was constructed feU down, aU
my happiness was to have been found in the continual
pursuit of this end, the end that ceased to charm,
and how could there ever again be any interest
in the means ? I seemed to have nothing left to Uve
for.' But, when earthly projects feU down, did not
the Lord draw near, laying on him His arresting
hand, and beseeching him to adopt a more stable
foundation for his life ? And is it not clear that he
too made a great and deliberate refusal to feel after
God if haply he might find Him, who is not far from
any one of us ?
We must not ' Not as though I had already attained, either were
with° a*6"4 already perfect.' And again, ' Brethren, I count not
Partial myself to have apprehended.' As Paul looked at the
inmen . resuy. 0f j^ wor]£) tne large cities which had become
permeated with Christian truth, the flourishing
Churches which looked to him as their founder, the
Epistles which he had written, and the commanding
influence of his spoken words, surely he might have
counted himself to have apprehended. He did not
do so because as he drew nearer to the attainment of
God's ideal, some new phase opened, as when we are
climbing the hfils, and having reached the vantage-
ground on which our eyes have been set during hours
174

Apprehended to Apprehend
of arduous toU, we see another height rising beyond. Phil. iii.
The more the glory shone on the face of Moses, I2
the quicker he was to veil it from view; the
higher the soul rises into likeness with Christ, the
deeper its humiUty. When we see what Christ is in
the glory of His Person, and in the greatness of His
love, we feel that our own attainments are as molehills
to Alps.
A friend discovered Thorwaldsen in tears, and on
asking why the distinguished sculptor was giving way
to depression, he received this reply, ' Look at that
statue. I have realised my ideal, and therefore fear
that I have reached the high-water mark of my
profession. When a man is satisfied, he ceases to
grow.' "TFls also said that Tennyson was seventeen years
in writing 'In Memoriam.' He wrote the Uttle
song 'Come into the Garden, Maud' fifty times
before he gave it to the public. The wife of a
distinguished painter said, ' I never saw my husband
satisfied with one of his productions.' Thus self-
dissatisfaction lies at the root of our noblest
achievements. There is no condition of growth in the Divine Ufe
so necessary as a deep sense of dissatisfaction for the
past. Let us admit that we have not attained to that
identification with the Death of Christ, with His
Resurrection, or with the gift of Pentecost, to that
deliverance from the power of sin, and that con
formity to His perfect image to which we have been
caUed with a heavenly calling. Even if we are kept
from known and outward sin, how much shortcoming
175

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. there is in our hearts. If we have ceased doing the
things that we ought not to do, alas for us, there are
so many things that we faU to do.
Paul not He knew Him whom he had beUeved, and therefore
though he6 ne s&^> ' I Press on toward the goal.' Depression,
had not fully which makes us slacken our steps, is fromjielpw,
appre en e . gin^ty'wliich niakes us more eager to attain
God's purpose, is from above. Never yield' to 'dis
couragement, never sit down face to face with
failure or imperfection as though these were a
necessary part of your life. God can forgive failure,
but He cannot forgive those who Abandon theirjngh
quest, and aUow their hands to hang down and their
knees to fail. Grasp the banner again, young soldier,
and rush forward into the fight. Let past failure
be an incentive to more commanding achievements.
Remember that Christ is always just in front ; His
grace is sufficient ; dare to claim the fulfilment of
His own promise, ' My grace is sufficient for thee.'
It seems as though these words of Paul are
characteristic of his eager spirit through aU the ages.
Not only did he press on through obloquy and
reproach, through imprisonment and threatened
death; but from the exceUent glory into which he
has passed, we seem to hear those same clarion
notes, ' I press on.' Pressing on in the knowledge
of God, pressing on in high and noble service,
pressing on only a few steps behind the Lamb as
He goes ever conquering and to conquer, pressing
on until the puUing down of all rule and authority
and power has been accomplished, and God has
become all in all. 176

XIX
'ONWARDS AND UPWARDS'
Phil. iu. 13, 14
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended ; hut
this one thing / do, forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus.
That word calling frequently occurs in the Epistles Phil. iii.
— ' Ye see your calling brethren, how that not many 13, 14
wise, not many mighty, are called.' And again, The Divine
' That ye may know what is the hope of His - !

-the hope to which He caUs you. And again,
'Who hath called us with a holy calUng.' And
again, 'Partakers of a heavenly calling.' And
again, ' Ye were called in one hope of your
calling' — to which we have been caUed in the
unity of the Spirit. The wireless telegraphy of
God's Spirit is ever bringing the Divine call to
every soul. It is circling around you in the
tremulous vibrating air. If only your ears were
attuned to it, you would detect the low sweet
voice of God, nearer, clearer, stronger, intenser,
more thrilling, more eager. The voice of God calls,
caUs you. *****
To what goal does God beckon us, with the prize The Glory
gUttering in the sunUght above it, held before us by *? whic.h

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. the pierced Hand? What is God's goal and mark?
!3> *4 The Apostle, in his early life, was bent on becoming
a Rabban, one of the elders of the people, the chief
of the Pharisee party. He was fiUed with ideals
and hopes, which he had long revolved in his eager
mind ; but as his palfrey bore him towards Damascus,
suddenly he beheld an ideal, presented to him in
the person of Jesus of Nazareth, before which aU
the former ones paled in their beauty, as the
morning star pales before the sunrise. He saw the
hollowness of being merely a Pharisee; the for-
maUty, the externaUsm, the inadequacy of the desire
which had hitherto inspired his nature. Forth
with he became inspired with a new purpose, and
set himself to aim at the spotless loveliness, the
ideal of strength, sweetness, might, mercy, purity
and gentleness combined in the character of
Jesus, so that from that moment he cried, 'I
surrender everything; my hopes, aims, ambitions,
ideals — I cast them all away, as a man casts dross,
and till I die, it shaU be my passionate desire to
realise in my own character, day by day, something
of the beauty and glory which I have seen upon the
face of the Man of Nazareth. This one thing I do :
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God.'
God's Call God's voice is caUing you to-day to that, to be Uke
you" Jesus ; to know Him, to love Him better, to resemble
Him more completely, to strike off from your character
a Uttle more of the encompassing stone, and to bring
out some new Une and lineament of the perfect
statue. '
178

'Onwards and Upwards'
It is a high calling because it comes from above, Phil. iii.
from God ; the conception of it has emanated from I3) 14
His heart. It is a high calling because it is worthy JJisa Hi&h
of God. It is a high calUng because it is so much
above the ideals of men. Men strive to get money,
forg^tting_tiiatthere are no pockets in a shT^djlieek]
for pleasure, forgeffing tEaTtEe pleasures of thfilvorld
are Uke the snow upon the river, ' a moment white,
then gone for ever ' ; strive after fame and supremacy,
forgetting that there must come a moment when their
remains wiU Ue beneath the paU on which the crown
and sceptre of empire rest, to be assumed by
another. When once the eye has caught sight of
this vision, it is attracted by a light above the
brightness of the sun of wealth, above the bright
ness of the sun of fame, above the brightness of
the sun of rank, above the brightness of the sun
of worldly power. The lofty ideal gUstens before
each of us of becoming Uke our Master, knowing
Him, feeling the power and fascination of His
resurrection, tasting the feUowship of His suffer
ings, and being conformed to Him in His death,
rising day by day higher and nearer to Him in
His royal beauty, the Divine Man, God's ideal for
us all.
It is also a high calUng because always above our a Calling
highest aspirations. How touching is that story .D0Ye °ur
told already of the great sculptor, who, after years
of work, achieved a statue so perfectly fashioned
that he could discover no line that needed to be
retouched, no feature that needed to be remodelled.
It stood there in absolute beauty, and a friend found
179

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. him in tears beside it, as he said, 'I shall never do any-
*3> x4 thing better than that, it is the consummation of my
ideal.' Thank God, we may foUow after the perfect
beauty of Christ for untold ages, but shaU never be
found weeping because there are no more worlds
to conquer. There wiU always be a new Alp
rising above Alp, a beautiful and more beautiful
conception calUng us to leave that which we have
already attained.
A Calling And then this is a high calling because it
summons us summ°HS us to where Christ sits at the right hand
Heaven- of God. It compels us to look upward, and set
our affections upon things above, not in things on
the earth. ' Alas,' you say, ' it is too great for me ;
remember what I am, poor dust and ashes, fuU of
failure and infirmity ; I have so often tried and
succumbed ; there can be no possible hope for me to
reaUse it ; it is but a mockery to incite me to
this great quest.' But remember, Paul started from
a lower level than yours ; he was a blasphemer, and
had trampled under foot the Blood of Jesus.
Remember also that this high calling is ' in Christ,'
and if you are in Christ, you have got your foot upon
the first rung of the ladder, upon the first step of the
staircase. It is 'in Christ' You cannot be in
Christ without having Christ in you ; and God
has put the Spirit of His Son within you that
you may evolve what is involved. God has con
signed to your keeping His Beloved, that hour by
hour you may strike away that which is of self and
sin, that the beauty of Jesus Christ may become
more conspicuous before the eyes of men.
180

'Onwards and Upwards'
***** Phil. iii.
(1) ' This one thing I do.' The Apostle says we *3> *4
must be discontented with what we have attained, ^°^j ^ .
and intent on the one goal which lies before us. None Realised.
of us can doubt that success in Ufe is not attained
by genius, but plodding industry. A man may be
swift as Asahel, of fleetest foot, but if he does not set
his mind upon a distinct goal he wiU be outstripped
by a man of slower foot, but more resolute purpose.
It is not the hare that runs and sleeps, but the
tortoise that plods on towards a determined point
that wins the race. It is so in business, in art, in
war, and in love.
Many men are born into the world who are clever Abundant
at a number of things, but succeed in nothing. There Help"
are others who concentrate their minds upon one
thing and succeed, though they have not half the
genius of their competitors. And 'the one thing'
we must set our minds upon, and pursue with un
remitting diUgence, is God's ideal presented to us in
Jesus Christ. And it is good to know that every
incident in life may be made to conduce to our high
purpose. As the bee will get honey from a thousand
different flowers, so we can accumulate the honey of
a holy character from eveiy flower in the garden
of our life. Every circumstance may be pressed
into our service for the attainment of a more Christ-
Uke character.
The votary of pleasure must sometimes retire from
the giddy whirl of amusement, to recruit exhausted
energies. A London season only lasts for two or
three months, and then the fashionable world must
181

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. go to the country, or the seaside resort, to recuperate.
I3> *4 The business man who never gets relief from its
pressure will be unable to hold his own against com
mercial competition. So with the student ; he works
up for the examination, straining every nerve for it,
and then lays aside his studies and goes off to
mountain or shore.
Are our But everything in Ufe may help you to be Uke
stances co- Christ ! In your moments of soUtude you wiU most
operating ? easily make headway ; but the hours of conflict and
temptation will be the times in which you wiU be
able to achieve most of the likeness of Christ. When
you lose the harvest of your toils ; when the tongue
of slander detracts from your good name ; when you
have to bear, day after day, the scornful and averted
look of your feUows ; when all your Ufe is overcast by
the shadow of death, and you have no more heart to
live ; in days of discouragement and disappointment
spent in the solitude of your chamber ; in days when
you sit in the darkened room, where the beloved one
is slowly passing from your embrace, and the precious
Ufe is ebbing from the heart drop by drop — in all
these times, when you are made aware of something
which is not as sweet, or beautiful, as it might be,
you may take the opportunity of becoming more
perfectly fashioned towards the Ukeness of your
Lord. The men who do one thing in the world are bound
to succeed. Remember the story of the greatest of
orators, Demosthenes, who set himself resolutely to
cure a defect in his speech, by speaking, with pebbles
in his mouth, against the roar of the sea. Men
182

'Onwards and Upwards'
who are able to bend themselves upon one thing must Phil. iii.
be successful in its achievement. Oh, that we may x3> 14
say : 'Come weal, come woe, prosperity or disap
pointment, sunshine or shadow, we will never rest,
day nor night, but press towards the mark of increas
ing Ukeness to Christ, that men may be reminded in
us of Him ! '
(2) If we would press on, we must learn to forget. The Duty of
We are aU tempted to Uve in the past, to look up at For£etting.
the fading laurels which we have gained, as though
they could never be equaUed or surpassed ; to say,
' We shall never do anything so good as that again,
never be able to reach quite so high, or reaUse quite
so much ; to paint so fair a picture, to execute so
beautiful a statue.' This is fatal. Never rest upon
your past attainments ; forget them. Forget the
rapture of your first communion ; the earUest ad
dresses and sermons, which you used to feed and
rest upon ; the trophies which attended your earUest
efforts ; do not quote these things as your highest ;
do not look back, lest, Uke Lot's wife, you be petrified,
and unable to advance.
Forget the innocence of your chUdhood. Do not
Bay with Hood —
'I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,'
and end by lamenting that you were nearer heaven
when a boy than you are now. Innocence is good,
but purity is better. The breath oTaTchUd's sleepls
fragrant and soft; but give~me tiie"3eepslumber of
ihe man who rests after "a well-fought fields ~Not
— 183

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil. iii.
13,14
No morbid
dwelling on
the Sinful
Past.

Remember
God's Pardon.

untempted innocence, but the strength which comes
of victorious conflict should be our aim.
And do not dwell upon past sin. When a new
boy comes to the phUanthropist, a boy who has
seen and known sin enough to blight his Ufe
for ever, the wise phUanthropist says, 'My boy, I
want you to forget the past.' He fits him out with
new clothes, and tries to wipe out the memory of the
degrading sins in which he has played a part. And
the boy breaks from his past, and steps up into an
entirely new Ufe under that fostering care.
There may be things in our past of which we are
ashamed, which might haunt us, which might cut the
sinews of our strength. But if we have handed them
over to God in confession and faith, He has put them
away and forgotten them. Forget them, and,
leaving the past attainments, the innocence of
chUdhood, and the sin which has vitiated and
blackened your record, reach forward to realise the
beauty of Jesus. Do not be content with anything
less. But it is important never to aUow the imperfect
and second-best to pass unconfessed. Too often we
have done it, whispering : ' Yes, I have faUed, let it
pass ' ; instead of confessing to God and man, and
crying : ' Never more ; I will be ChristUke, I will be
pure with the purity of Jesus, I wUl be tender, sweet,
and gentle as Christ was. My God, I hear Thee
calling ; I hear Thee calling, I wiU arise ; Excelsior.
excelsior, I wUl cUmb. Never a day shaU pass that
does not see some added beauty of Christ to my
heart and life, through the power of Thy Holy
Spirit.' 184

'Onwards and Upwards'
'I press toward the mark for the prize.' What? Phil. iii.
Heaven ? No, Heaven has been won by the merits J3» *4
of the Lord Jesus. A throne ? A crown ? No, for Xhere is a
Prize
these are the gifts of free grace. What, then, is the
prize? God calls us to the goal, but there is a prize
beyond and in addition to the goal. What ? Blessed
ness ! To be ChristUke is to be blessed. When we
have overcome some temptation there has been such
a sense of blessedness. When we have gone through
some awful hour of trial, and have come out unsoUed
and unscathed, there has been such a rapture in our
souls. When we have stepped up to higher things
on our dead selves, there has been such peace.
Do you know it ? When you have accomplished
something you did not think you could do; when
you have made some sacrifice you thought you never
could achieve ; when you have done a noble thing —
you have not thought about the nobUity or loveliness
of it, but there has been a deUghtful inner conscious
ness. One hardly knows what to caU it. Bloom !
The bloom of the flower ! The Ught on the cloud !
The hue of health on the face ! The kiss of God !
The ' WeU done, good and faithful servant ! ' That
is worth Uving for. This prize may be won here, and
not yonder only. Every night after a day spent like
this it seems as though God puts into our hearts, as
we Ue down upon our pUlow to sleep, a jewel, which
is part of our prize, and the accumulation of the
jewels wUl make the feUcity of Paradise.

185

XX
THE ATTAINMENTS OF THE
CHRISTIAN LIFE
Phil, iii 15, 16.
Let us therefore, as many as he perfect, be thus minded : and
if in any thing ye he otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this
unto you.
Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by
the same rule, let us mind {he same thing.
Phil. iii. These words suggest, that there is a great difference
r5» J° in the attainments of Christian people ; and in
endeavouring to bring this home, so that any who
are laggard and sluggard may be quickened in the
path of hoUness, we may regard this chapter as
falling naturally into a suite of some seven apartments,
each of which leads to another, as in so many of the
picturesque and princely homes of England. May
God's Spirit help us to discover in which room we
are already, and having discovered it, to press on to
the next.
The ' Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel,
Room."18' °f *ne tr*De °f Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews ; as
touching the law, a Pharisee ; as touching zeal,
persecuting the Church ; as touching the righteous
ness which is in the law, found blameless. Howbeit
what things were gain to me, these have I counted
loss for Christ ' (w. 5-7). In the grey Ught of the
dawn, we see the young Pharisee, decked out in aU
186

The Attainments of the Christian Life
the paraphemaUa of the dress of his order. His are Phil. iii.
the phylacteries, his the broad borders covered with I5» *6
texts, his the sacred cord as son of the law, over
these the garment of zeal, and over this again a robe
that seems spotless — ' the righteousness of the law,'
in which he accounts himself to be blameless. Around
the room are burnished mirrors, and as he considers
his array in the grey Ught he imagines himself to be
highly commendable and likely to stand a good
chance, not only in this world, but in the next. He
can only think these things, because the light is so
dim. Were it brighter, he would descry blemishes
in his fairest robes.
Bunyan weU describes such a man in his picture The Two
of Ignorance. You may remember how the two £*lms-
older pilgrims talked to the brisk youth as he walked
beside them. They asked, 'How wiU you fare at
the gate?'
'I shall fare as well as other people,' was the
reply. ' What have you to show that wUl cause the gate
to open, when you come to it ? ' they inquired.
' I know my Lord's wiU ; I have been a good liver
aU my Ufe ; I pay every man his own ; I pray con
stantly and fast ; I pay and give alms ; my heart is
a good heart ; I wUl never believe that it is as bad
as you say.'
In his Grace Abounding John Bunyan still further Bunyan's
describes this condition : — Experience.
' Now,' he says after his outward amendment, ' I
was become godly ; now I was become a right honest
man. Though as yet I was nothing but a poor
187

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. painted hypocrite, yet I was proud of my godliness.
I5> I0 I betook me to my Bible, and began to take great
pleasure in reading, but especially with the historical
part thereof; for as for Paul's Epistles, and such
like Scriptures, I could not away with them, being
as yet ignorant either of the corruptions of my nature
or of the want and worth of Jesus Christ to save us.'
'The new birth did never enter into my mind;
neither knew I the comfort of the word and promise,
nor the deceitfulness and treachery of my own
wicked heart. As for secret thoughts, I took no
notice of them.'
Legal Whilst we stand gazing into this room, the grey
Righteous- light grows into the morning, and beneath its beams
aside. the young Pharisee, beholding himself in the mirrors
around, flings off first the blameless robe of his legal
righteousness, then strips off his zeal, then casts
away his Pharisaic dress, puts aside his reUance upon
the ordinances of Hebrewism. After stripping off
one thing after another, as the revealing Ught shows
how utterly suUied and blemished his robes are, he
tramples them beneath his feet, and counts them as
refuse and loss. He is horrified to think that if he
had not known the light which came from the risen
Lord, he might have gone forward to face the Great
White Throne, and only then have discovered his
mistake. Have you entered this room? Have you stood
beneath the Ught of God tiU you abhorred yourself?
Have you come to see, with St Augustine, that the
works in which you have been priding yourself are
'splendid sins?' Do you realise that, apart from
188

The Attainments of the Christian Life
the righteousness of Jesus Christ, your righteousness Phil. iii.
is as filthy rags ? Oh, soul, thou wilt be as certainly I5» *6
lost as Ignorance was, who was carried to hell from
the very gate of heaven, unless thou too standest in
the reveaUng Ught of God, to show thee the in
sufficiency of anything and everything apart from a
simple dependence upon the righteousness of His
Son. ' And be found in Him, not having a righteousness The Robing
of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that oom'
which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith ' (v. 9). ' One day,' says
Bunyan, 'as I was passing into the field, and that
too with some fear dashed on my conscience, fearing
lest yet aU was not right, suddenly, this sentence fell
upon my soul, "Thy righteousness is in Heaven,"
and methought withal, I saw with the eyes of my
soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand : there was my
righteousness ; . . . I also saw, moreover, that it
was not my good frame of heart that made my
righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame of heart
that made my righteousness worse ; for my righteous
ness was Jesus Christ Himself, " The same yesterday,
to-day, and for ever." '
In this, the robing room, the soul which had been
stripped of all dependence upon itself, its frames, its
feelings, its good desires, its alms, its prayers, its
baptism, its conversion, its church membership, —
and having put aU these beneath its feet, receives
from the hand of God a perfected righteousness, the
righteousness which is from God by faith, a robe
which the fingers of Christ have woven, a justification
189

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. which His blood has purchased, and which His hand
J5> *6 bestows to the open hand of faith.
Hast thou realised this ? Hast thou attained unto
this ? Art thou standing arrayed in this ? — for in
death, and judgment, and eternity, nothing wiU avaU
thee but to be clothed in the perfect spotless
righteousness of Christ, who was made sin for us,
though He knew no sin, that we might be made the
Righteousness of God in Him.
The Room of 'That I may know Him, and the power of His
Feu'owshiD resurrection, an<l *ne feUowship of His sufferings,
with Jesus, becoming conformed unto TTi« death' (v. 10). As
we look into that chamber, we find that hard by the
entrance is a deep grave-Uke aperture. It looks as
though a tomb had been hoUowed out in the stone
floor ; beyond is a table on which the bread and wine
commemorate the body and blood of Christ ; against
the wall a rough and heavy cross is planted ; affixed
to the wall are a scourge, and a crown of thorns.
The room, therefore, might seem forbidding, were it
not that a celestial Ught shines fuU upon the thorn-
crown, and whilst we look, it seems as though it were
gleaming with jewels, as though the topaz, jasper,
carbuncle, and aU manner of precious stones had been
caught amid the thorns, and become woven into its
texture. Every day the true-hearted soul must enter
that room. We must never reaUy get beyond it in this
Ufe. It must constantly be our resort, that we may
know Christ and the power of His Resurrection.
The order of this verse appears to stand in the
reverse direction to our experience. It begins with
knowing Him ; then it passes to the power of His
190

The Attainments of the Christian Life
resurrection, then to the fellowship of His sufferings, Phil. iii.
and lastly, to conformableness with His death. J5i r6
With many, the reverse is the way by which they F°5.fo r1*^6
are led. That is, they begin by being 'conformable Death.
to His death.' Do you know what it is to lie down
in that grave of Christ, tUl the voices of the world's
tumult and the throb of passion subside, till you
reaUse how little this world is, and how much
eternity? Have you attained to this? Have you
become conformed unto His death ? What was that
death? In its judicial aspect, an atonement for
human sin ; but looking at it from the human and
personal side it was the bringing of every natural
desire into absolute subjection to the Will and Law
of God — the desire to live, the desire for love, the
desire for popular adulation, and human friendship.
From the earUest of His recorded temptations, our
Lord made this the rule of His Life. He would not
gratify the natural appetite of hunger until He was
certain of being in the Une of His Father's Will.
This is what the Cross means, and this involved
Calvary. If, then, our Master would not make
stones of the desert bread, to feed His natural
hunger, because the Father had not bade Him eat,
we may not yield, even to what seems natural, untU
our Father says we may. And if we carry out that
principle of subordinating everything to the wiU of
the Father, we shaU certainly come to the Cross, and
out of the Cross comes the diadem of victory. You
conform to His death, you eat of His flesh, you
drink of His blood, and then pass on to know the
power of His resurrection. 191

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. But as we have seen, the reverse is also true, and
J5i J6 happy are they who have experienced it. They begin
by knowing Jesus in the most intimate and blessed
fellowship, and almost without realising it they are
led on to realise that they are walking with Him,
not in the energy of their own nature, but in the
powers of His Resurrection. The Spirit of Holiness,
who raised their Lord from the dead, is doing the
same for them, they experience the mighty energies that
emanate from the risen Saviour, and in His strength
walk on their high places. But in doing so, they are
brought in contact with the virulent hatred of their
feUows. As men hated the Master of the House, they
hate those of His household. The fuH tide of human
opposition surges up against them, as an adverse cur
rent which breaks in clouds of spray on the undaunted
progress of an ocean steamer. Presently the beast that
ascendeth out of the bottomless abyss makes war
against them, and overcomes and kills them, and then-
dead bodies lie in the street of the great city, which
spirituaUy is caUed Sodom and Egypt, where also
their Lord was crucified ; but after three days and
an half the Spirit of Life from God enters into them,
and they stand upon their feet, and they hear a great
voice from heaven saying unto them, 'Come up
hither.' (See Rev. xi. 6-12.) They know the feUow
ship of Christ's sufferings, and are made conformable
unto His death, but they attain to His Resurrection.
They drink of His cup, and are baptised with His
Baptism, and so come to sit on His Throne.
The Room ' Brethren, I count not myself yet to have appre-
Endefvour nended '> Dut one tnmS l d°, forgetting the things
192

The Attainments of the Christian Life
which are behind, and stretching forward to the things Phil. iii.
which are before, I press on toward the goal, unto I5> J6
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus '
(w. 13, 14). In this room are various pictures of
Alpine ascents, photographs of the high summits
which other souls have scaled. Around are the
prizes that have been won in the arena by successful
conflict. On every side are the marks of achieve
ment; and in the midst of the room, unfurled as
though it were soon to be grasped and borne forth,
is a banner with the ' strange device,' Excelsior 1
Everything, therefore, that betokens past achieve
ment is accounted but as the stepping-stone to still
further effort. The soul leaves behind it as a mere
memory, the things which it has attained, however
great and beautiful in themselves, because some
higher ascent caUs to it. Is this the attitude of
your soul?
Have you learnt to forget ? Are you Uving upon Have you
your past attempts, their faUure, or success, for any forgotten
of these wiU cut the sinews of your strength ? You
must forget even your sins, God forgets them, saying,
Try again. You must forget your innocence, the
innocence of your childhood ; purity tried by fire is
better. You must forget, also, your realised ideals.
You must forget things which have become dear to
you, but which have hindered you, clinging to you as
barnacles to the bottom of the great steamer, hinder
ing its progress. You must forget aU that, and from
this day must confess that you have not attained,
that you are not perfected, but are going to climb to
the rare heights of Christ-Ukeness ; always doing
V 193

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. what Christ would do, if He were in your place;
x5> I0 always taking as the sufficient question of your Ufe,
'What would Jesus do if He were situated as
I am?'
The Room ' Many walk, of whom I told you often, and now
of Compas- te\\ vou even weeping, that they are the enemies of
the Cross of Christ; whose end is perdition, whose
god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame'
(w. 18, 19). There is a tear bottle here, in which
the tears of Christ were caught once, though long
since they have been transmuted into the pearls that
glisten in His crown. But that tear bottle is there
for the tears of those disciples who have learnt His
compassion ; for as the Redeemer wept, so do His
redeemed weep stiU, and say, even weeping, of
others, ' They are the enemies of the Cross of Christ'
May that compassion, like a fountain, send the tears
in rills from our eyes. God forbid that we should
Uve in such a world as this, without weeping over
the enemies of the Cross ; and it should be borne in
wind that the enemies of the Cross, here referred to,
are not those who have rejected Christ, but those
who once professed Christianity, and had the creed
and reputation of godUness, but in their heart of
hearts, and in their hves, have denied the Lord that
bought them.
The Room of ' Our citizenship is in Heaven ; from whence also
Hope.0**"* we wait for a Saviour> the Lord Jesus Christ ' (v- 20)-
This room has a window looking East ; and it is so
situated that it is hardly possible to descry the river ;
for the view lies across the river, to a fair and beauti
ful horizon ; and the soul which has passed through
194

The Attainments of the Christian Life
the earUer stages, stands with eye fixed, and every Phil. iii.
nerve and muscle strained, looking for the dawn, l5> J6
whUst the morning star shines clear in the sky. ' We
look for a Saviour.' It is the saved soul that waits
for the Saviour. We are saved from the wrath of
God ; we are being saved day by day from the power
of sin ; but, oh, we long for Him who shaU appear
the second time, without sin, unto salvation !
' Who shall fashion anew the body of our humilia- The Room of
tion, that it may be conformed to the body of His Anttapation
glory, according to the working whereby He is able
even to subject aU things unto Himself (v. 21). To
subject. Look at this. He who, in the second
chapter was subjected, in this chapter subjects.
You must be subjected before you oan subject.
(1) We confidently anticipate the moment when
the body of our humiUation, which has so often
Umited and hindered us in our work, which has
hungered and thirsted, fainted and grown weary,
whose eyes have failed, whose knees have faltered,
and hands hung down, shall exchange its corruption
for incorruption, its mortality for immortaUty, being
transfigured into the likeness of the body of His
glory — ethereal, vigorous, incapable of fatigue but a
perfected instrument for a perfected nature.
(2) We anticipate much more than that. Death,
thou shalt be subdued. Grave, thou shalt be sub
dued. Sin, sorrow, pain, evU, ye shaU be subdued.
The Lord comes to subdue you as we confidently
expect. This room enshrines masterpieces of art,
commemorating the great past. That picture is of
the overthrow of Pharaoh ; and that of the destruc-
195

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. tion of Midian ; and that of the defeat of those
iSi 16 mighty Assyrian hosts which menaced Hezekiah;
and here are the cross and empty grave — symbols of
the victory of the Son of God over the world, the
flesh, and the deviL Yes ! He shall overcome ; it is
His right. He shaU subject aU things unto Himself;
it is the Father's promise. The kingdoms of this
world shaU become the kingdoms of our God, and of
His Christ, and He shaU reign for ever. Let us
hasten unto the coming of that day of God !

196

XXI
BURGESSES OF HEAVEN
Phil. Ui. 17-21
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which
walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
(For many walk, of whom I have told you often,, and now tell
you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ :
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose
glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we look for
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ :
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is
able even to snbdue all things unto Himself.
The Greek word translated conversation is, as we Phil. iii.
saw in i. 27, the root from which we derive our 17-21
word politics, poUtician, policeman, and such Uke;
and the true rendering in each case should be citizen
ship. In the earUer passage it might be rendered :
' Be true citizens of God's commonwealth — let your
life befit your high calling to be burgesses of the
New Jerusalem'; and in this passage it might be
rendered : ' Your city home is in heaven.'
The same thought pervades the Scriptures. 'Now
they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly'
(Heb. xi. 16). 'The city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God ' (v. 10). Even the
patriarchs descried and greeted from afar the palaces
of that heavenly city. And the inspired writer takes
up the same attitude when he says : ' Here we have
no continuing city, but we seek one to come.'
197

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. *****
17-21 If we would resemble the saints of past days we
Our Citizen- must conceive of our citizenship as being in Heaven.
Heaven. That a man should be a citizen of a city, but Uve in
a foreign country, is not an unusual circumstance.
In these days when men are scattered so widely over
the world, many of the citizens of London are to be
found in India, Burmah, and AustraUa, on a visit for
temporary purposes; and so the anomaly is often
presented of men being strangers in the place where
they are resident, but most at home in the city from
which they are absent.
What is true of the pilgrim-Ufe was pre-eminently
true of Jesus Christ, who said of Himself, ' He that
came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in
heaven,' as though during His earthly life He recog
nised that His citizenship in His Father's cityremained
unimpaired, and that residence for thirty years amongst
men did not naturalise Him as a citizen of earth.
In the collect for Advent Sunday we are told that
the Son of God came to visit us in great humiUty ;
and four times over in the Gospels the Lord's Ufe on
earth is described as a visit. All the time He was
amongst men, He was a citizen of that city, therefore
He lay in a borrowed manger ; His body was de
posited in a borrowed grave ; He had not where to
lay His head ; and when every man went to his own
home, He went to the Mount of OUves. Throughout
His life He was a pilgrim and foreigner as all the
fathers were.
Like •^n<^ what is true of Jesus Christ should be true of
Master, like every Christian. As Lady Powerscourt puts it : ' The
Man. 198

Burgesses of Heaven
Christian is not a man who, standing on earth, looks Phil. iii.
up to heaven ; but who, being in heaven, looks down *7-2l
upon earth, and throughout his Ufe he recognises that
he is a foreigner indeed.' And this very aspect of
the Christian will bring him into conflict with the
men of this world, for when he says in his Master's
words : ' I am not of this world, I am from above,
ye are from beneath,' they gnash their teeth at him,
and cast him out, as the citizens of Vanity Fair did
Christian and his companion. One of the Puritans
sweetly says : ' It cannot be expected that the men
of this world can ever understand the Christian Ufe,
because they have never been in the City from which
he haUs, and therefore are altogether ignorant of its
manner of Ufe and mode of speech.' The world is
unable to recognise us, because our language, speech,
dress, manner, and method of life are altogether
dhTerent from that which is in vogue in its society. If
unconverted men lay their hands upon your shoulders
to haU you as one of themselves, begin to question
in your own heart whether you are truly Uving as one
of the citizens of the New Jerusalem.
*****
In a memorable moment, when the Apostle had This Citizen.
been deUvered from his foes, he asserted his right to S^'P is a ,
. . in Matter 01
be interrogated without scourging, on the ground of Birthright.
his being a Roman citizen. The chief captain was
immediately informed and hastened to his side. 'A
Roman ? With great price I obtained this right ! '
'Ah!' the Apostle said, 'but I was freeborn, my
birth earned with it the right of citizenship.' Yes,
and the residence of a thousand years in Heaven
199

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. would not make us more certainly citizens of the New
I7*2l Jerusalem, than we are at this moment, if we are
born from above. Grant that we stiU live on this side
of the veil which hides the transient from the enduring,
the temporal from the eternal, the seen from the
unseen, yet, so soon as we are regenerate of the Holy
Spirit, in the first moment of our new Ufe, we become
enroUed in the list of burgesses, we have the franchise
of the New Jerusalem given to us, our names are
entered upon its directory. Though as yet we have
not taken up the right, and entered into the enjoy
ment of aU that awaits us, we have, nevertheless, the
right to enter in through the gate into the city. This
may not help you much now, but, I pray you, meditate
on it for a few moments daily, and you wUl find it
becoming a growing force to withdraw you from the
things of this world, and to attach you to the things
of the other world ; you wiU come to reckon that
you must set your affection on that city to which you
belong, that you must lay up your treasures there
where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and that you
must regulate your conduct by the regulations that
rule in that city. Every regenerate person, by the
fact of the new birth, has obtained the franchise of
the City of God.
*****
To belong to Athens was the glory of Greece, and though the
shouldbe a smaller states and cities were in perpetual conflict,
Matter of every Greek was proud of her peerless beauty and
Pride? culture. The citizen of Rome, traveUing afar, bore
himself as a stronger, prouder man, because he could
say, ' I am a Roman.' And if we could reaUy see
200

Burgesses of Heaven
things as they are, and disentangle ourselves from Phil. iii.
the net of the material, there is nothing of which we I7"21
should be more proud, than to belong to that great
commonwealth which includes aU pure and holy souls
of every age, and which shall stand when aU cities
and politics, all thrones and empires have disappeared,
as the foam on the wave that bears it.
Men speak of Rome as the eternal city. She has
no right to that title. There is only one eternal
city, because its foundations cannot be impaired by
revolution or change ; because its walls are founded
on God's eternal covenant of truth ; and because aU
its laws and regulations are based upon the principles
of eternal truth. From out of those city gates
proceed the angels to all parts of the universe, but
they return to it, as the metropoUs of Ufe. Thither
the kings and princes of science, of Uterature, of
music, of art bring their treasures. The saints of
every age find their home there. Her Ught is
brighter than the sun's ; there is no temple because
God is her Temple ; her river is the Holy Spirit of
God ; her flowers are of amaranth ; her streets are
of gold ; her walls of jasper ; her gates of pearl ;
God Himself is her architect and King. Who may
not be rightly proud to belong to such a city ! The
Goths who conquered the Roman Empire for God
broke upon it Uke an avalanche from another world;
and because they were so utterly indifferent to its
attractions, they were easUy able to overcome it.
Who can overcome the world, but those who have
our faith — the faith which detaches from this world,
because it attaches us to the unseen and eternal, in
201

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. God and His Christ? The Church of God wUl
17-21 never be able to conquer the world so long as she
is part of it, but only as she comes on the world
from the sphere above it, with the impulse and
impetus of those who believe that their city lies
beyond the stars.
We are to The Apostle says that there were men in that time
oflt W y wno Pr°fesse(i the Cross, but who were ' enemies of
the Cross.' Neither Paine nor Voltaire ever in
flicted such awful havoc on the religion of Jesus
Christ as those false professors who have borne His
name, but been destitute of His grace and power.
Such men, the Apostle says, mind earthly things.
They were made to face God Uke kings, but they are
always rooting in the earth Uke swine ; their ambitions
are Umited by the horizon of time and sense. They
glory in things of which they ought to be ashamed ;
appetite is their God, and destruction their end.
A story is told of a man of wealth who was taking
his friend round his magnificent mansion, in which a
spacious chamber was dedicated to be a chapel.
The visitor, who thought of little else than good
living, on entering the chapel, said : ' What a mag
nificent kitchen this would make.' Whereupon his
host replied : ' You are mistaken, this is not a
kitchen ; when I have made my belly my God, then
I will make my chapel my kitchen, but not before.'
How many men there are whose one thought is set
on eating and drinking, and the gratification of
sensual appetite. There is no chapel in their Ufe,
it is all kitchen. 202

Burgesses of Heaven
***** Phn iiL
That word whence, by the peculiar construction of 17-21
the Greek, does not refer to the heavens, but to the We must
city gate. It is a very tender and fragrant thought upon the
that whilst transacting our business on the lowlands City Gates'
of earth, we may ever keep our eye on the city gate
into which He entered, whom we love, and through
which He will most certainly come again as a
Saviour. 'Whence, also, we look for the Saviour,'
'He shall come the second time without sin unto
salvation.' In these dark and dreadful days the
Church needs to turn with unceasing hope towards
the Second Advent. Oh! when will those pearly
gates open ! When wUl that cavalcade issue forth !
When through the dim haze wiU the Lord come,
riding upon His white horse, and followed by the
army of Heaven. Come quickly, come quickly, 0
Saviour of men, Who by Thy first coming didst put
away our sin, and by Thy second coming will put
the crown on the work of salvation by raising and
changing our mortal body!
In the old version we read our vile body. When Our Vile
Archbishop Whately was dying, he asked his Body-
chaplain to read to him. The chaplain took up this
paragraph reading it as it stands in the A.V.
'Stop,' said the Archbishop, 'not "vile body," if
you please, but body of our humiliation.' The
body is not vile in the ordinary significance of the
word, because Jesus bore it, because His blood
purchased it, because the Spirit makes it His
Temple, and because it has been so often the
medium by which holy impressions have gone forth
203

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. to others. Not vile ; but the body of our humilia-
I7-21 tion, because it cramps, confines, and Umits us; it
needs sleep and food ; it retains in its very organism
the impression of past sins ; it is a clanking chain,
that holds us down when we would fain rise, so
that one understands something of what chained
eagles feel, when they fret against the iron bars of
their cage, and pine to soar on outspread pinions to
the sun.
'The body of our humiUation,' but it shaU be
transfigured. It shaU rise from its dust, and shaU
be changed in a moment, in the twinkUng of an
eye, into the Ukeness of 'the body of His glory.'
We stand upon the transfiguration mount, and be
hold the body of His glory. We wait with Mary at
the open grave, and see the body of His glory.
FinaUy, from the Ascension Mount, we foUow the
body of His glory, and behold it, shining as the sun.
It seems impossible to believe that one day we shall
be like Him, and that our mortal shaU be radiant
with immortality Uke His.
How shall it How shaU these things be ? There is but one
be? answer. 'By the working whereby he is able to
subdue all things unto Himself.' Say this over
and over again. When the devU is strong, when
passion rages, when you cannot be the man you
would, when it seems as though the world were
hopelessly corrupt and the wrongs of time refuse to
be adjusted, repeat these words to yourself, as a sweet
refrain : ' The power by which He is able to subdue
aU things unto Himself.' Oh, take to Thyself Thy
great power and reign ! Begin now with obdurate
204

Burgesses of Heaven
wills, with proud and evU hearts, with indomitable Phil. iii.
pride, with passion and lust. Subdue these, O I7"21
Christ, and cause us to be transfigured in the spirit,
that wlulst in the body of humiliation, we may live
worthUy of our citizenship, and ultimately rise to
the life immortal.
It is said that as the cattle, which may have been Thejoy of
greatly demoraUsed by the tossing of the vessel and the doming.
the discomfort of their quarters, draw near land, at the
end of a tedious voyage, and scent the breeze, which
comes over the ship laden with the fragrance of the
clover, the effect is immediate, they begin to revive,
and toss their heads as though they were keenly
conscious that the voyage was almost over, and that
the farmliar pasture - lands were within reach. So
should we look with reviving hope for the coming
of Christ, who wiU put down aU rule and authority
and power, wUl subdue all things to Himself, and
complete our salvation which begins with the for
giveness and deUverance from the curse, which
proceeds to the ever deepening emancipation from
the power of corruption, and which will end when
this body of humiUation is delivered from the last
remains and traces of the faU, and raised in the
perfect beauty of the everlasting morning.
Is it wonderful that in the first verse of the
foUowing chapter, the Apostle turns to the Philippians
as his ' beloved and longed for brethren,' and bids
them stand fast? The vision and hope of future
glory, when these mortal bodies shall be conformed
to the Body of the glory of our Risen Lord, and
when the privUeges of our heavenly citizenship shaU
205

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iii. be fuUy reaUsed, were surely enough to hold them
J7"2i steady as the anchor holds the ship. By aU the
promises that had been made to them, by aU the
hopes they cherished, by all the glory which was
already flushing the horizon, he urged them to stand
fast in the Lord, watching that they should not lose
their reward, and waiting untU the fulness of the
times should bring in the fulness of their redemption.

206

XXII
'THE LORD IS AT HAND.'
Phil. iv. 1-6.
Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my
joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyehe, that they be of the
same mind in the Lord.
And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women
which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and
with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of
life. .Rejoice in the Lord alway : and again I say, Rejoice.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at
hand. Be careful for nothing ; but in every thing by prayer and sup
plication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto
God.That has generally been thought to indicate the Phil. iv.
Apostle's belief in the Lord's imminent advent, which, 1-6
as we know, was a prevalent motive with the early Paul and the
Church. If a missionary left his native land, and Advent
crossed the ocean with the Evangel, as the burnished
mirror of the water shone with the path of the
sunbeams, it seemed to him that at any moment,
down those sunbeams, the Lord might come. When
the primitive Christian said good-bye to his feUow-
Christian, it was without too great a pang of regret,
because they expected soon to meet in the presence
of Christ. Every tremor in the air, every catastrophe,
every political change appeared to them like the first
207

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. note of the archangel's trumpet, Uke the footfaU
1-6 of the coming Prince. This consciousness of the
imminent advent was a mighty lever, by which to
lift the whole state of thought and feeling in the
early Church to those higher levels, the best and
most glorious levels, which the Church of God has
ever attained.
But for one or two reasons such does not appear
to be the meaning here. First, the Greek word does
not lend itself to that significance. The better
rendering undoubtedly would be 'the Lord is near.'
Secondly, at the end of the third chapter, the Apostle
had been dilating upon the expectant attitude in
which we wait for the Saviour, and it would be
hardly compatible with that to find him immediately
saying, The Lord is here. Thirdly, it is interesting
to notice that the Apostle's anticipation of the advent
of Christ was, as the years passed, largely affected by
his growing conception of the nearness of Christ, so
that all Ufe was to be Uved 'in Him.' He never
gave up his hope of the advent, but he became
gloriously influenced by the larger thought that aU
life must be ensphered in Christ.
Whilst inditing this paragraph he became suddenly
overshadowed with the consciousness that the Lord
The Lord Jesus Christ was UteraUy present in his hired room,
nearer to him than the sentry, nearer to him than
Epaphroditus, nearer to him than Timothy, his
beloved son, and he burst out with this exclamation,
which his amanuensis at once wove into the fabric
of the Epistle : ' The Lord is near ; He is with me
in my room, and He is with you in PhiUppi ; and we
208

ever near.

The Lord is at Hand
are aU included and encircled in the golden fence of Phil. iv.
His presence.' 1-6
There is a similar instance of this in Ps. cxix.,
where the holy author stays in the midst of the royal
sweep of his work, and cries: "Thou art near, 0
God.' We all know times Uke that. We have been
walking in the midst of some beautiful landscape,
the river rushing past, flowers dipping their cups
silently into its brink, the gentle air moving through
the quivering leaves above, the insect Ufe humming
its varied music, and all nature suffused with the smile
of the sun. Then, aU suddenly, there has been borne
in on us the consciousness of a spiritual presence ;
we have felt a breath on our faces, a thriU in our
hearts, and, behold, He who came to John on the
Isle of Patmos has come to us ; and, lo, the radiant
glory of Christ has exceUed that of the sun. ' Thou
art near, O God ; the Lord is near.'
In the church, when saying your prayers mechani- To everyone
caUy, falling in with the murmur of repetition as
you have done a thousand times, standing Ustlessly
listening to the people singing, or joining with them
without much heart; sitting apparently intent on
the words of the minister whUst your thoughts have
been far away on your business or pleasure, suddenly
there has been as it were the music of golden bells,
and you have reaUsed that the old promise was being
fulfilled : 'There am I in the midst.' Without open
ing the door, without the sound of a footfall, the
Lord Jesus has gUded into the shut apartment of
your nature, and you have said, ' The Lord is near.'
What a mighty power a presence is to some of The Power
209 of Presence.

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. us! To a man, the presence of a pure and noble
I*6 woman has often put a cool hand upon a fevered
forehead, stayed the throb of passion, and called him
back to sanity and manhood. And to a woman how
much there is in the presence of her husband, lover,
brother, or friend! How strong and calm she
becomes when she is made conscious of that pres
ence ! With some of us there is the radiant vision
given by memory of a beloved parent, of the sainted
minister of our childhood, or of the servant of God
whose fragrant biography we have read. How many
of us have been calmed, quieted, and restrained by
the presence through memory and recoUection of
someone whom we have loved and lost! How
pathetic it was when our late beloved Queen in
dying caUed thrice, ' Albert, Albert, Albert ! ' How
certainly those words revealed the presence in which
she had lived ! Probably there are many men and
women whose Uves are Uved in the consciousness of
the presence of the Angel of their PUgrimage. How
often we have been restrained from things we are
glad we never did, and words we are thankful we
never said, by the thought that the angels were at
hand, and we knew that they would blush, that their
holy natures would be hurt, unless we were strong,
gentle, and pure.
But, oh ! if every one of us would Uve, not in the
presence of the beloved wife or noble woman; of
the strong, brave husband ; of the holy memory, or
of the peerless angel, but in the presence of the Lord
Jesus, saying perpetually to ourselves, ' The Lord is
near, the Lord is at hand,' there is not one of us that
210

The Lord is at Hand
would not spring up into an altogether new Ufe, as Phil. iv.
flowers do when from the arctic they are removed to J"6
the tropic soil, and instead of being environed by
frost become the nurslings of the sunny air. If every
one of us could do as the late Mr Spurgeon did, who
said that he did not recollect spending a quarter of
an hour without the distinct thought of the presence
of Christ, life would become ever so much better,
brighter, and stronger than it is.
The presence of Jesus Christ is brought home to The
us by the Holy Ghost, who is the Spirit of Remem- Christ!06 °
brance, making Him real, recalUng our wandering
thoughtSj and concentrating them on Him until He
stands out luminous and kingly in our Ufe. That is
Christianity. With too many the Christian rehgion
consists in living back in the past. They linger in
Gethsemane rather than in Joseph's garden, with its
empty grave. This is the life of the Roman CathoUc,
or of those who have been nursed in Protestant
schools of thought, but have never learnt the meaning
of the Lord's Ascension. But true Christianity does
not postpone the presence of Christ to the future, or
recall it from the past, but Uves in the sense that He
is. Hence the Gospel by St John contains such
recurring phrases as : I am the Vine ; I am the Good
Shepherd; I am the Door; I am the Resurrection
and the Life. Christ lives in the present tense, and
blessed is the soul that has learnt that lesson.
The whole of this paragraph (verses 1-7) crystallises
around this thought.
Verse 1 : Steadfastness. The man who is back- Steadfast-
wards and foiwards, mercurial, easily up to boiling ness-
211

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. point, and as soon down to zero, who is on the hooks
x"6 and off ten times a week, now Uke a seraph flashing
with zeal, now like a snail crawUng in lethargy, who
is everything by fits and starts and nothing long, wiU
not have a happy Christian experience, nor wiU his
influence tell in the Church or on the world. He
may be a genius, but he will be a meteor dying in
the dark. It is better to have for a friend and
fellow- worker a man of less brilhance and with fewer
ideas, who will be occupied by one thought, and
give it regular and patient expression. In life, as in
war, it is not the man that makes brilliant dashes,
but he who can pursue a plan of strategy, week after
week, that succeeds.
In the Lord. The source of stability is to stand fast in the Lord.
Our only hope of stabiUty is in union with 'the
Rock.' There is a sculpture in Spain of the Crucifixion,
which is the only one of the kind. A fierce Ught
falls on it from a hidden window. One hand is
naUed to the Cross, the other is stretched out. The
story is that lovers plighted their troth there, and
afterwards, when the man was faithless, the woman
came back to plead her case beneath the Cross, and
the hand disengaged itself, and stretched towards
her, whilst a voice said : 'I was witness.' Probably,
however, the old sculptor meant that if one hand is
nailed to the Cross in atonement, the other hand is
quick to help ; and if you want help to be stable,
you wiU find a very present help in the thought that
He is near.
Like- Verses 2, 3: Be of the same mind. These two
mindeu-ness. «1J

The Lord is at Hand
women, Euodia and Syntyche, had fallen out ; two Phil. iv.
women of whom the Apostle says : ' They laboured I_6
with me in the Gospel,' and the Greek word is — they
agonised by my side. What a tribute to women!
All through the centuries they have wrought beside
their ministers. Compute what the churches owe to
women. Many of them must have been disbanded
if holy women had not bound them together by their
presence and their prayer. Think of all the children
Uke Chrysostom — ' golden-mouthed ' — who have been
reared by Christian mothers ; of all the hymns in our
hymn-books we owe to women. But Euodia and
Syntyche had fallen out. They were of different
dispositions, and could not understand each other.
They had been made on a different plan. Paul knew
that neither Clement nor his fellow-labourers could
put them right, but that if those two women came
into the presence of Jesus they would find it easy to
be of one mind. In the presence of the sun hard
icicles flow together.
Verse 4 : Rejoice always. When your chUdren Rejoicing.
are around you, and when cripe is on your knocker ;
when your books show a good profit on the year's
trading, and when your best schemes have miscarried;
'Rejoice always.' Amid your tears keep a trustful,
restful, joyful heart, not rejoicing in your gifts, in
your successes, in your friends, but in Him — rejoice
in the Lord, in the presence of the Lord, for He is
always there. The secret of perennial joy is in the
realised companionship of the Redeemer.
Verse 5 : Moderation. The Revised Version says Forbearance.
forbearance. We should say in modern English
213

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. sweet reasonableness. Luther, in his translation,
I_6 renders it yieldingness. Of course, we can never
yield principle ; we can never yield to men who are
doing the devil's work in the world ; but a good
many have edges and corners which concern tempera
ment rather than principle, and we who know them
ought to yield, just as the boat in descending a very
narrow streamlet has to take the course of the
stream. It is easy to bear all, to endure all, to beUeve
all, when the overshadowing presence of the Lord
Jesus is realised.
Garrisoned Verse 7 : The peace of God, which passeth all
in Christ. understanding, shall guard your hearts and your
thoughts in Christ Jesus. It is only in the presence
of Christ that this peace becomes ours.
Worried and anxious with the fluctuation of stock
and share markets, his employes and subordinates
trying him ; the master unreasonable ; affairs in a
tangle; a man comes home from his day's work
feeling thoroughly out of heart. His wife meets him
at the door, her face calm and restful; there is a
sense of peace and serenity, like the scent of flowers,
in the room where she had been awaiting him. She
knows that the frost has gathered about him, as the
frost gathered on the Majestic one winter day when
it came into New York harbour, after battling with
the Atlantic. She ministers to his needs, and
presently elicits, without seeming to do it, the story
of the day. Without reaUsing the change which is
transpiring, he poure his confidences into her ear, and
as he does so, the thaw sets in, his heart softens, and
by-and-by it seems as though the white-robed Angel
214

The Lord is at Hand
of Peace passes from her heart to his to keep its Phil. iv.
affections and thoughts. We all know something I-6
Uke that ; and that is the idea of the Apostle, to live
in the presence of Jesus, and to turn to Him from
every anxiety and worry, so as to aUow His presence
to saturate and soothe the soul.
The Lord is at hand. Say it when you need to be
stable. Say it when Euodia has quarrelled with
Syntyche. Say it when your joy threatens to fail.
Say it when you are irritated and think there is no
reason you should yield so persistently to another.
Say it when you are worried and anxious. Until
you come into that presence many things wiU seem
impossible, which beneath the light of those deep
tender eyes wUl become easy as newly mown lawns
to tired feet.
Are you one to whom the presence of Jesus is
dreadful? Then Heaven can be no place for you,
where He is Lord. Bring your strong will to Him ;
ask Him to break or bend it ; give yourself to Him,
and ask the Holy Spirit that from this moment, in
temptation, in sin, when torn with conviction, when
smarting with pain, in perplexity, in death, and in
judgment, the one thought of your life may be that
the Lord is at hand.

215

XXIII

Phil iv.
7TheApostles' Campaign.

Conditions
of Warfare.

THE SENTINEL OF THE
HEART
. Phil. iv. 7
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall
keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
In the course of our Lord's instructions to His
Apostles, in which He appointed their route, and
gave them their commission, He did not hesitate to
teU them of the unfriendly reception with which the
world would receive their ministry. They would be
as sheep amid wolves; would be deUvered up to
councils, and scourged in synagogues ; would be
brought before governors and kings ; would be hated
of aU men for His name's sake; would be driven
from city to city ; would be caUed upon to lay down
their Uves — very rough and unfriendly would be the
response of men to the ministry that meant only
good. He did not hesitate also to strip them of aU
needless encumbrance. They were to carry no purse
and no money ; they were not to provide a scrip in
which to place the victuals that kindly hands might
offer them ; they were to be content with one coat,
not even reserving a second against wear and tear or
inclement weather; they were to refuse the heavy
216

The Sentinel of the Heart
boots shod with metal which the Roman soldiers had Phil. iv.
introduced into the country, and to be content with 7
simple sandals; they were to be satisfied with the
pilgrim's staff, if they happened to possess it — other
wise they were not to endeavour to procure one;
they were to start out in fellowship with God, whose
workmen they were, sure that He would at least
supply them with food. Like the soldiers of whom
the Apostle speaks, they were not to encumber
themselves with baggage. Their movements were to
be unimpeded, their hearts free from all anxious
thought and care, their faith in perpetual exercise in
Him who had called them to work in His great
harvest field.
On arriving at any new town or village, the Welcome or
Gospel messengers were to ask of the first group nwecome-
they met the names and residences of any who were
known throughout the place as generous and weU-
disposed ; to such they were to make application for
hospitaUty during their brief sojourn in the place.
On reaching the threshold of the house, they were to
utter, with something more than a formal greeting,
the Eastern benediction, 'Peace be to this house.'
They were then to wait, carefully noting the result.
It might be that no ' son of peace ' would be found
within the doors ; no calm, quiet face would welcome
them with a smUe; no heart at leisure from itself
would be able to answer them back with words of
peace ; but instead, there would be the scowl, the
cold and formal manner, the evident antipathy.
On the other hand, the ' son of peace ' might be Welcomed
discovered within that household— the householder ^oaol A
217 Peace' was.

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. himself, or his wife, or Uttle chUd, or someone more
7 obscure amongst the servants. There would be an
instant welcome from that soul, which was in Uving
aflinity with the greeting of peace ; and this would
at once indicate that such a house was the pre
destined home in which the heralds of the Gospel of
Peace should stay, eating and drinking such things
as were set before them, untU they departed to fulfil
their commission elsewhere. How simple, primitive,
and beautiful the whole arrangement was, and how
Oriental !
The meeting between the Apostles, commissioned
to bear with them the peace of Christ, and the ' son
of peace,' fulfilling in some Hebrew home an obscure
life, on whom the benediction of a larger peace than
he had ever known would henceforth rest, suggests
that there are two kinds of peace in the world — that
of Christ and that of man, that which comes from
above and that which is elaborated through the
process of human thought and prudence, the one
that passes understanding and the other that is
within the limits of understanding. It may be, that
from this moment, the peace that passeth under
standing shall come in to abide in hearts which up
till now have been content with something less than
God's best. It may be, that some wiU understand,
as never before, what Jesus meant when He said :
' My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth,
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled.'
Who is there that does not long for His peace ? Who
does not desire to have something better than the
peace with which the world contents itself?
218

The Sentinel of the Heart
In many a Jewish home this type of character Phil. iv.
could be found ; — men who owned their vineyard, or 7
gathered the berries of their olives, enjoyed the ™e Peace
comfort of their modest patrimony, were happily understood
married, and rejoiced in the fifial affection of their
chUdren. They supported the local synagogue,
stood well with their neighbours and friends, gave
generously to the poor, and did not fail to attend the
great annual feasts at Jerusalem. Their Ufe flowed
through the years easUy and pleasantly, like a river
gliding between its banks in the verdant plains —
such men might be called 'sons of peace.' Their
houses would be open to the entertainment of
strangers; their manner would be suave and pleasant ;
there would be no grudging on their table, no stinting
of their gifts ; they would have no foes, but would bask
in the sunshine of universal favour. Like Job, such
men would look forward to dying in their nest, to
passing from the town or vUlage where they had
spent their happy days to rest in Abraham's bosom.
Surely, however, the peace of such characters is not
of the highest type. The comfort and prosperity of
their lives are largely dependent on the substantial
buUdings and ample provision which they have made
for themselves.
Are there not many men of to-day like these ? Modem
They are comfortably provided for, have a balance at Para,lels-
their bankers', are possessed of good health and good
spirits, are happily wedded, the parents of noble
children, and surrounded by everything that can
promote the weU-being and prosperity of Ufe; and
surely the conditions and foundations of such peace
219

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil.
7

iv.

SomeGrounds of
Peace.

ButUncertain
Grounds.

are well within the limits of anyone's understanding.
They look round their Uves to see any possible source
of trouble or annoyance that may be menacing them,
and having discovered it, they do their best to pro
vide against it. They go round the house of their
life to see how far it is secure against tempests and
flood, and wherever they discover a weak spot they
use their best endeavour to strengthen it, and having
done all, they retire to the interior and rest in peace,
in fancied security against whatever storm may
arise. The peace of one man arises from the fact that he
has managed to secure a competence, or to accumu
late a Uttle balance in the bank ; his peace of mind,
as he looks forward upon old age, is due to the fact
that there is something to secure him against want.
Another accounts himself safe because he is allied
with rich friends, or enjoys good health, or is held in
high social esteem, and he comforts himself in view
of any contingency by saying : ' My friends wiU help
me through ; the momentum of my Ufe wiU carry me
over these rapids ; I have done so much for others,
surely they will stand by me when my evU day
arrives.' Yet another finds his peace in some system
of thought which he has elaborated, and in virtue of
which he holds himself ready to answer any puzzling
question that may be addressed to him. What
ever controversy may be hurthng through the
world, he feels it cannot come near him, so care-
fuUy has he wrought out his system as a waU of
defence. All these men are 'sons of peace.' They have
220

The Sentinel of the Heart
peace which can be easUy understood. They are not Phil. iv.
in trouble as other men, not plagued as other men ; 7
from year to year the stream of their life flows evenly
forward. They have homes, incomes, abounding
vigour, high spirits, happy family relations, and
perhaps some faith in God as their Father and
Redeemer ; but it is easy to see the foundations upon
which the superstructure of their peace rests. It is
very pleasant and innocent, but there is always a
serious liability of its being disturbed. As someone
suggests, it reminds one of Robinson Crusoe when he
first landed upon his island. He built his hut, reared
his stockade, planted his cornfield, penned in his goats,
primed his gun, but he knew nothing of the land that
lay beyond the thin fringe of trees which skirted the
shore, and at any moment, from the unknown terri
tory beyond, a horde of cannibals, or herds of wild
beasts, might sweep down upon the spot which he
had selected for his home. His peace was limited,
and was always Uable to be suddenly broken. It is
not enough for us to have the peace which arises
from earthly conditions, and the possession of good
things. There is a deeper, sweeter peace, which the
Apostle describes as passing aU understanding ; and
our Lord refers to it when He says : ' My peace I
give, not as the world giveth.'
This was the peace of Christ and His Apostles. The Peace
There was nothing to account for it. Not theirs the under-PaSSeS
settled home ; not theirs the wife and child ; not standing.
theirs the provision against the future ; not theirs a
universal love and welcome ; not theirs the prospect
of a serene old age, surrounded by troops of friends.
221

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. It seemed as though they were sent forth as men
7 doomed to death, and made a spectacle to the world,
and to angels, and to men. But notwithstanding aU,
there was a peace which was absolutely independent
of external conditions, whether of joy or sorrow. Is
it not evident that the quaUty of their peace was
infinitely higher than that which we have dis
cussed? It had heights and depths, breadths and
lengths, that passed the understanding of ordinary
men. Imagine an apostle coming to such a home as we
have described — coming out of the storm of some
terrible persecution, coming as a fugitive from a
distant city, coming as Paul came to Athens from
Beroea, and yet with the peace of God upon the face,
the light of heaven shining in the eye, betraying the
restful and calm demeanour of the tranquil soul.
Would not the ' son of peace ' who had carefully
hedged himself around with every earthly barrier
against discomfort and tribulation, realise that there
was a Divine quaUty in the peace which kept the
heart and mind of his visitor ?
To return to the illustration already employed.
Such peace may be weU compared to the coming of
ambassadors from the interior of the country on
which the poor shipwrecked mariner has landed, to
teU him that beyond the line of trees that guard the
coast there is a friendly Emperor, that the country is
Christian, that the people are hospitable, that there
is awaiting him the goodwUl of those with whom his
lot would henceforth be cast. These Apostles of
Christ, who breathed His peace, did not fear the
222

The Sentinel of the Heart
unknown, since it was weU known to Him ; did not Phil. iv.
fear the future, for it was present to Him ; were not 7
startled at the change in circumstances, since their
peace did not depend upon external things, but upon
Him who is First and Last, and who guaranteed the
supply of aU need.
' Christ is our Peace.' ' He has made peace by This Peace
the Blood of His Cross.' He has come to us with ^ workPof"
the tidings that God is reconciled, and desires that Christ.
we should be reconcUed with Him ; He breaks
down our stubborn rebelUon, and brings us into
harmony with the Father's will ; changes the heart
of stone into the heart of flesh ; teaches us that our
salvation does not depend on what we are to feel,
but on the over-abounding love of God ; convinces
us that He who has done so much for our salvation
wUl not forget the body, with aU its varied need,
and opens up to us the heart of the Father, so true
and tender, so set upon our help, that within its
Umits all fulness dwells, pledged to our supply.
AU through the agitating scenes of our Lord's pe^cehy,at
arrest and death, He bore Himself as one in whose dwelt in the
heart the peace of God reigned in unbroken calm. Heart of
He said : ' These things have I spoken unto you,
that in Me ye may have peace. In the world ye
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world.' Spat upon, mocked, scourged,
crucified, He never for a single moment lost His
kingUness of mien. In the midst of the excitement
in the garden, when being led forth as a felon, He
was able to work a miracle on the ear of Malchus ;
and when standing before Pilate, the royalty of His
223

The Epistle to the Philippians

This Peace
is intended
to keep our
Hearts and
Thoughts.

Phil. iv. manhood was so apparent, that the governor was con-
7 vinced that He had done nothing amiss, and became
His advocate. My peace He said, and says. The
peace that fiUed His heart is His gift to aU that are
united with Him by a Uving faith.
The word keep is the term for sentry duty. It
is as though the peace of God, Uke some sentinel
angel, went to and fro before the portal of our
inner Ufe, keeping back all intruders who would
break in upon the purity of our affections, or the
integrity of our thoughts. How often we have been
flurried and agitated! How suddenly things have
broken in upon us which have rocked the waters
of the inner lake to storm ! How frequently the
fever of the world has entered, for want of a dis
infecting barrier, to raise the pulses of our souls to
fever heat ! But aU this may be prevented when
the peace that passeth understanding keeps us.
Conditions of The conditions of receiving this peace are three-
Reception, fold. Be anxious for nothing. 'Anxiety ' comes from
the same root as anger, and refers to the physical
act of choking. Worry chokes the Ufe of faith ; it
does not help us to meet our dUficulties ; so far from
this it unfits us, for our mind is too flurried to think
clearly and carefuUy, our hand trembles too much
to perform the deUcate operation. Therefore, the
perpetual injunction of the New Testament to the
chUdren of God, is, as Jesus puts it, 'Take no
anxious thought.' We must watch against it as
against any other temptation ; we must resist the
first intimation of the overshadowing bUght of
care ; we must turn from to-morrow's threatened
224

The Sentinel of the Heart
difficulty to the face of God who is ' the same Phil. iv.
yesterday, to-day, and forever.' He wUl be there, 7
and He wiU be for judgment when we have to sit
in judgment and give our decisions as certainly as
He wiU be for strength when we have to turn the
battle from the gate.
We are to be anxious about nothing, however
great or trivial. The storm that threatens to engulf
the house of our life, and the gnawing of the
tiny mouse in the. ceUar; the bankruptcy which
may sweep away the accumulation of years, and
the few coins that we may have mislaid ! Nothing
in the whole range of our life should give us
anxiety because there is nothing which is not within
the circumference of God's care, nothing which gives
us annoyance is too smaU for the notice of our
Heavenly Father, who has a cure for every afiment,
a foU for every weapon of the adversary.
In everything by prayer and suppUcation let your Be prayerful
requests be made known unto God. Prayer is more thmg. very"
general, suppUcation more specific. Whenever the
least shadow of care threatens our Ufe we should
go at once to our knees, and in the silence of
private prayer hand over the burden and responsi
biUty to our Infinite and AU-wise Father. We have
to make ' our requests known. Not that He will
always give us what we ask, but wUl read into
our prayers the meaning that we would put in
them, were we as weU informed as He is of what
is best. There need not be undue urgency or
excitement, or the play of profound emotion; in
quietness and confidence wiU be our strength, the
p 225

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. least whisper will enter into the depths of God's
7 nature, the tiniest tremor of our heart wUl be
noticed, the least as weU as the greatest of our
demands wUl be met.
Be thankful Go over the mercies of the past. Count your
forAnything. DiessjngS ; remember all the way which the Lord
your God has led you; see how His loving-kind
ness has been encompassing your path and your
lying down, your going out to service and your
coming in to rest through long years. Has there
not been a plan in your life? Are you not con
scious of a Divine purpose? Do you not realise
that the hand of the Potter has been moulding
you into a vessel for His use? Is not the sweet
reasonableness of many mysteries that once puzzled
you beginning to reveal itself? Have you not a
clue to the maze ? As you stand on the eminence
of the years, can you not see that the path by
which you have come through the vaUey is the
directest and safest? How much we have to be
thankful for, how often we have been stayed on
the very brink of ruin, how marvellously we have
been withdrawn from the doing or saying that
which would have shattered our usefulness! Oh
my heart, take the harp from the wUlows, and
commence where thou wUt to praise thy God ; and
as the song of praise begins to steal up in faltering
notes at first, but with ever more certainty and
thankfulness, the clouds will break, the chink of
blue sky wUl widen until the whole vault of heaven
is clear, and the peace of God Uke a pure, strong,
beautiful angel will descend to act as sentry to the
226

The Sentinel of the Heart
heart and mind, — to the heart, keeping out unholy Phil. iv.
affection, and to the mind, checking the entrance of 7
rebelUous, restless, and distracting thoughts.
Those that have this peace can unlock its stores The
for others. It is as though, like Rebekah of old, Bfepeicei0n
they draw from deep wells, and are able to wet
the Ups of thirsty travellers from the overflowing
of their buckets. Their presence calms, soothes, and
quiets the restless and perturbed spirit. No such
nurses for the sick room, no such confidants in
hours of anxiety, no such strong and wise advisers
in perplexity ! The hand of the priest or minister
can be stretched out to invoke upon the congregation
the peace of God, but the people may go away uncom-
forted ; whilst one quiet heart, which has drunk
deep into the peace of Christ, radiates it forth
with the velocity and virtue of the newly discovered
metal radium.
Of course, such peace needs a quiet and sympa
thetic heart, able to appreciate and respond. As in
wireless telegraphy, the instrument at the receiving
must be in perfect harmony with that at the trans
mitting station ; so there must be some knowledge
of peace, some yearning desire for it, some recipro
city, if the Divine peace is to find entrance. The
' son of peace ' receives the higher, purer quaUty
which the apostle of peace brings. God ever says
to these souls, 'Ye shaU see greater things than
these.' If He has given the nether, He wiU add the
upper springs also.
But there are cases in which this reciprocity is with
held. ' Your peace shall return to you again,' The
227

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. salutation to peace excites the frown, the refusal, the
7 chUUng reply — what then ! Is it lost ? Nay, verily,
it comes back to the heart from which it origi
nated. The peace comes back to roost, as the
dove to Noah's ark when the patriarch put forth
his hand and took her in to himself; or as the
waves dashing against the sea wall, and unable to
effect an entrance through its stony barrier, return
their unspent force to the heart of mother-ocean
from which they sprang. Thus does the peace
which we would communicate to others, but they
wiU not receive, come back to our own hearts.
Nothing is lost in this world which is done for
God, and no word spoken for Him can be in vain.
With infinite care He causes us to be enriched by
the beneficence we intend for others, but which they
wUl not receive.

228

XXIV
THE GOVERNMENT OF OUR
THOUGHTS Phil. iv. 8, 9
Finally, hrethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of
good report ; if there he any virtue, and if there he any praise,
think on these things.
Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and
heard, and seen in me, do : and the God of peace shall be with
you.
We last spoke about the peaci, of God which, like a Phil. iv.
white-robed sentry, keeps the heart with its affec- 8, 9
tions, and thoughts, with all their busy and some- pi1*^011 of
times too promiscuous crowd. We have now to
speak about the God of peace ; and blessed though
the peace of God may be, to have the God from
whose nature peace emanates is infinitely preferable.
One main constituent of our text is the word think ;
another the word do.
Thinking and doing are the conditions on which
the God of peace wiU tarry in the heart. To think
rightly, and to do rightly — these will bring the
blessed dove of heaven to brood in the nest of your
souL Almost everything in life depends on the
thoughts, as the forest Ues in the acorn, and Scrip
ture itself lays stress upon this. The wise man says :
'Keep thy heart with all dUigence ; for out of it are
the issues of life;' and, again, we have it: 'As a
man thinketh in his heart so is he.' In this context
229

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. we notice that the peace of God is to keep our
°> 9 thoughts ; and, again, our text says : ' Think on
these things.' The control of your thought, the
government of your mind, this is aU important for
three reasons.
Thinking (1) Because thinking about things prepares you
and Doing. jQr fo^g fneniw if y0U allow a matter to revolve in
your mind, if you turn it over and over and consider
it from every aspect, and dweU upon it, it becomes
comparatively easy to do it. It is as though the
thoughts lay down the tram Unes, upon which
presently the car of action proceeds. The thoughts
lay the wires which presently convey the message.
No doubt many of you have again and again ex
perienced this, that when you have come to some
great crisis in your life, you have passed through it
with perfect ease, because you had so often rehearsed
the matter. When you came to act, it was as though
you had passed through the experience before, your
thought had so entirely prepared you for it. It is of
the utmost importance therefore that you take care
what you think, because thought is the precursor,
herald, and forerunner of action.
Thought and (2) Thought is also important, because it has a
Character. rej%gX effect upon the whole character. As you think,
so you are almost without knowing it. Wordsworth
refers to this ; he says : —
' We live by admiration, love, and hope ;
As these are well and wisely fixed,
In dignity of being we ascend.'
If a man cherishes bad thoughts, almost unwit-
230

The Government of our Thoughts
tingly he deteriorates ; he cannot help it. There is a Phil. iv.
profound philosophy in Rom. i, where it says that 8, 9
because they refused to retain God in their minds,
but cherished their vUe lusts, God gave them up to
their passions to defile themselves. If a man is
perpetually cherishing unholy, impure, and untrue
thoughts, he wiU become an unholy, impure, and
untrue man. Our character takes on the complexion
and hue of our inward thinking. If a man is ever
cherishing noble thoughts, he cannot help becoming
noble ; if he is generous in his thought, he wUl be in
his act ; if he is loving and tender in his thought, he
wUl be loving and tender in his bearing. Thoughts
are the looms in the wonderful machinery of the
inner Ufe, which are running day and night, and
weaving the garments in which the soul shall be
arrayed. If you wUl care for your thoughts, the
thought wUl mould character reflexively and uncon
sciously. (3) Thought affects us because we naturally pursue Thought and
our ideals. Columbus, after long thinking, came to Ideals-
the conclusion that the earth was round, and that
conviction determined him to launch his Uttle boat
and steer westward. Washington thought that
government must be based on universal suffrage and
free vote of the people, and this led to the formation
of the United States. WUberforce thought that
every man was equaUy free in the sight of God,
created and redeemed to be responsible to God only,
apart from the holding of his fellow-man. Young
men and women may read these words in whom
great thoughts are formulating themselves, and if
231

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. they are not to be mere enthusiasts, mere weak
8, 9 dreamers, the time must come when they wUl yoke
the car of their thought to the star of their ideal, and
presently a life wiU tower up before their fellows that
shaU leave a definite impression for blessing upon the
race. If you are to be any more than a dreamer and
enthusiast, young friend, your thought must, sooner
or later, take shape in your industry and energy, even
in the sweat of your brow, and the suffering of
martyrdom.
Thought It is a remarkable touch in John Bunyan's de-
oftenun- scription of Ignorance, as he walks beside the two
elder pilgrims, that he says : 'My heart is as good as
any man's heart ' — and adds, ' As to my thoughts,
I take no notice of them.' Probably there are
scores of people who take no notice of their
thoughts. They leave the castle gate of their soul
perfectly open for any intruder that may wish to
enter, either from heaven or hell ; and so it befalls
that the thoughts of the world, of vanity, of im
purity, thoughts which are inspired by demons, but
which are arrayed in the garb of respectable citizens,
pour into the great gateway of the soul, filUng the
courtyard with their tumultuous uproar. Without
discrimination, thought, or care on their part, they
aUow themselves to be occupied and possessed with
thoughts of which they have every reason to be
ashamed ; they teem in and out, and do just as they
will. This is the reason why you sometimes find
your heart filled with passion; it is because Guy
Fawkes has entered in disguise with his fellow-
conspirators, and under long flowing robes has intro-
232

The Government of our Thoughts
duced explosives. This is why our hearts become Phil. iv.
filled with hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, 8> 9
with thoughts against God, and against our fellows.
We do not watch the great courtyard gate.
Think carefuUy, think reverently, says the Apostle ; Think
take care how you think. We might almost say you reverently'
can Uve as you like, if you are only careful how you
think. At the great dock gates they wiU feel down
the casual labourers before permitting them to enter
the great warehouse, and again when they come out.
We are told that in some of the great hospitals they
wUl search the visitors, especiaUy on Sunday after
noon, lest they should introduce deleterious food,
which might neutralise the physicians' treatment.
When there was the dynamite scare in London, how
carefully the policemen examined everybody who
had business in the House of Commons, lest a bomb
might be introduced. If only we had a scrutator
standing at the door of our heart to examine every
thought as it entered; nay, if we could have there
the Angel Ithuriel, of whom Milton speaks, and the
touch of whose spear showed that the devil lurked
in the toad that squatted by Eve's ear and whispered
her his secret, how often in what seems a respectable
thought entering the courtyard gate we should dis
cover a traitor, who had come from the very pit to
set our heart on fire with sin.
It would appear that to arrest the tide of evil The
thoughts that threatens us is what St Paul means Thoughts.
when he says he is crucified with Christ. When newly
converted there is nothing that we suffer from so
much as the coUision between the intrusion of those
233

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. thoughts and the new divine principle, which has
8> 9 entered us. Just for a few hours watch carefuUy at
the gateway of your hearts, and see if it be not
sometimes almost an agony to exclude those which
you must suspect. In beginning to do this, many
would learn, perhaps for the first time, what the
Cross of Christ means. It might bring the very
perspiration to your forehead, in the awful conflict
against certain fascinating thoughts, so winsome, so
bright, so attractive, that offer themselves with the
most insinuating grace. In earUer days, when one's
standard was not quite so high, when one was less
aware of the insidious temptation that lurks in the
most graceful and attractive thoughts, one would
have permitted them to enter, but now how great a
fight goes on at the great gate of the soul, not only
against bold bad thoughts, but against the more
pleasing and seductive ones.
* * ' * * *
But supposing we were left merely with this con
stant watching and antagonising of evU thoughts, Ufe
would be almost intolerable. Remember, therefore,
that not the negative only but the positive, not
destruction only but construction, is the law of the
Christian Ufe. Not the grave of Christ, but the
resurrection power, is our hope ; and hence St. Paul
says, ' Think on these things ' — and he gives you six
standards of thoughts.
Think on the ' Whatsoever things are true.' Keep out of your
True. mind the false, but admit the true, because every
life, every government, aU politics, all business, aU
great commercial undertakings, all books and systems,
234

The Government of our Thoughts
which are not founded upon truth crumble sooner or Phil. iv.
later. If you could visit this world in the future, 8t 9
you would find that the falsehoods which now stalk
across its arena, and seem as strong as thistles in
spring, wiU have passed away. Consider things that
are true.
'Whatsoever things are honourable.' The word On the
in the Greek is grave — reverent— respect-compeUing Honourable.
—everything which is respectable, which makes for
itself a court of respect. Exclude from your mind
aU that is dishonourable, and admit only what is
worthy of God.
' Whatsoever things are just.' Be absolutely just on the
to other people in your estimate, in giving them their Just-
dues. If they be above you, criticise them justly ; if
on your level, deal with them as you would wish
them to deal with you ; if beneath you, be just.
Everything unjust in speech or habit prohibit ; every
thing which is just foster.
' Whatsoever things are pure.' Here is the fight On the
for a young man's life, to arrest the impure, however Pure-
bedizened and bedecked, and to admit into his heart
only that which is perfectly pure, pure as the Uly, as
God's ether, as the Ught.
' Whatsoever things are lovely.' That conduct on the
which is consistent with 1 Cor. xiii., which proceeds Lovely.
from the heart of love and thaws the ice of selfishness,
which has accumulated upon others.
' Whatsoever things are of good report.' Like the And on the
elders who obtained a good report; like Mary, of^nin^sof
whom Jesus said, ' She hath done what she could ; ' Report.
like the man with his ten talents, to whom the Lord
235

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. said, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.' Any-
8> 9 thing, the Apostle says, which is virtuous, and any
thing which wins praise of God or man, think on
these things.
Let these six sisters stand at the gateway of your
soul, and chaUenge every thought as it offers itself,
admitting only those thoughts which approve them
selves as true, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.
O God, let these six angels come into our souls, and
from now until we meet Thee, let us give the entire
control of our nature up to their serene, strong,
wholesome restraint, that all that is inconsistent with
them may be abashed, and everything which is
consistent with them admitted to infiU and dweU
within us.
A High You say the ideal is high. Yes, but listen ; we
Ideal. must beUeve that each of these attributes was won
by Christ for us all — won by Him. They were native
to Him, but they were won because He pursued
them through temptation. He kept them as His
own, face to face with the most terrific temptations
ever presented to a moral being. Having endured
all, He died, rose, and bore to God's right hand a
humanity in which these things were eternal and
inherent. Thence he sent down the Holy Spirit
to reproduce His risen humanity in every one who
believes.
But attain- Faith is the power with which we receive through
Faith y *ne -^°ty Ghost the nature of Jesus Christ into our
hearts; so that instead of talking about justice, purity,
and self-restraint as so many abstract qualities, we
speak about Him in whom those attributes are in-
236

The Government of our Thoughts
carnated. By faith we receive Him, and having Phil. iv.
received Him, we receive them. Let the Holy Spirit 81 9
reproduce Him.
Just now we said, Let those six sisters stand at
the gateway and test all our thoughts. But it is better
to say, Let Jesus Christ stand at the gateway and
test them, because He can not only test but roll back
the tide of evU thought, as easily as He could make
Niagara leap back, did He choose. It is mere
stoicism and stoical plulosophy to say : Watch your
thoughts. It is Christian philosophy to say : Let
Christ keep your thoughts, testing them, hurling
back the evU, and filling the soul with His glorious
presence. This is the secret of the indweUing presence of the
God of Peace. He abides where the heart is kept
free from evil thoughts, and filled with the Spirit of
the Son. ' The God of Peace shall be with you.'

237

XXV
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO
HIM THAT BELIEVETH
Phil. iv. 10-13
Bur I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your
care of me hath nourished again ; wherein ye were also careful, but
ye lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in respect of want : for I have learned, in what
soever state I am, therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound :
every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and
to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Phil. iv. For ten years the PhiUppian Church had been unable
10-13 to send material aid to its beloved founder. It was
not because his love for them, or theirs to him had
cooled, but they had lacked opportunity. Previously,
his friends had contributed, even beyond their power,
to aid him in reUeving the need of their poorer
brethren in Judea. In addition to this, they had
sent, ' once and again,' to reUeve his personal wants.
Then for some time their help had ceased; but
just recently, in his sore destitution during his
Roman imprisonment, their love for him had flamed
out in generous bounty, and they had sent by Epa
phroditus, substantial proof that their care for him
had flourished again.
Bound: This was a matter of great satisfaction to the
with Joy. much-tried Apostle. It touched his generous nature ;
it was an evidence that the love he so greatly prized,
238

All Things are Possible
was as fresh and strong as ever. It seemed to him Phil. iv.
that the Master Himself was gratified with the sacri- 10-13
fices they had made ; but he hastened to add, that
they must not for a moment suppose that he was
dependent upon outward gifts for contentment and
peace. His secret of happiness was not in circum
stances, but in his peace of heart ; he would not admit
that his joy was lessened when his circumstances
were more straitened, and enhanced when they
brimmed with comfort. His serenity lay beyond
the range of storms, in Christ. The secret of the
Lord was with him, the high mountains of God's
protection defended from ruffling alarm the lake of
the inner life, he possessed the white stone, with the
name written on it. He wanted them to understand
that he did not for a moment reflect on their long
sUence, or speak in respect of want, for he had
'learned in whatsoever state he was, therewith to
be content.'
It has been said, that contentment produces in Contentment
some measure aU the effects which the alchemist thlsWorldof
usually ascribes to the phUosopher's stone ; and if Fluctuation.
it does not bring riches, it achieves the same object
by banishing the desire for them. How true this is.
We become rich either by possessing the abundance
of this world, or by losing our desire for it, by
abounding in everything, or by being content to
have nothing; and surely of the two conditions,
in such a changeful world as this, the latter is
both safer and happier.
The world is constantly compared to the sea, with
its fluctuation of tide, its alternation of storm and
239

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. calm. We are reminded by Isaiah of ' the troubled
10-13 sea which cannot rest,' and unhappy are they whose
all is embarked upon this troublous scene, having no
fixity of tenure, no stabifity of possession, but driven
by the wild winds of change, and often of panic.
To have little and to be content with it, is better far
than to have great riches invested in the Stock
Exchange, where a man may be a miUionaire to-day
and a pauper to-morrow. WeU may the Apostle, in
another and later Epistle, speak of ' uncertain riches,'
and urge the disciples not to trust in them, but in
the Living God 'who gives richly aU things to
enjoy.' Often, in human experience, the mountains
are carried into the heart of the seas, the waters roar
and are troubled, and the rocks are shaken by the
swelling waters ; but how good it is at such times to
frequent the banks of the river, whose streams make
glad the city of God, and whose placid upper waters
reflect the jasper of God's throne ! To be indepen
dent of circumstances, to set them at defiance, to
be as happy when hungry as when fiUed, to be
at rest when suffering need as when abounding, to
resemble the compass which is so swung as to be
unaffected by the motion of the ship, to have the
jewel of a Divine peace which the thieving hands of
anxiety and care cannot touch, surely, only thus can
we discover the gleam of a Ufe which is no longer at
the mercy of the elements, but resembles the shaft of
Ught which penetrates the murky cloud, and strikes
through the storm itself, but is too ethereal to be
disturbed by the rush of the wind or the dash of the
foaming breaker. 240

All Things are Possible
Where shall we find it ? Where barns are fuU of Phil. iv.
grain, and the sheds of cattle ? Where mansions I0'l3
overlook miles of parkland and landscape ? Where Such
the feet sink ankle-deep in the rich pUes of the isTfteneTt6"
carpets, and upholsterers have done their utmost to [ountd where
furnish the rooms with dazzUng elegance ; where the expected.
murmur of the outer world hardly enters, and where
distracting care has no twig on which to perch?
Not there. When human life is surrounded by every
circumstance of comfort and luxury, it is very often
fuUest of ennui, complaining and discontent !
The causes for it may be ignoble and superficial —
that some other beauty outshines, that some other
house is more splendidly furnished, that some other
Ufe attracts more notoriety, that there is a touch of
frost in the air to-day, or a degree or two more of
heat. If we would find content, let us go to homes
where women are crippled with rheumatism, or
dying of cancer, where comforts are few, where long
hours of loneliness are not broken by the intrusion
of friendly faces, where the pittance of pubUc charity
hardly suffices for necessary need, to say nothing of
comfort, it is there that contentment reveals itself
like a shy flower. How often in the homes of the
wealthy one has missed it, to find it in the homes of
the poor ! How often it is wanting where health is
buoyant, to be discovered where disease is wearing
out the strength ! So it was with the Apostle, who
was in the saddest part of his career. Bound to the
Roman soldier, enclosed in some narrow apartment,
in touch with only a few friends who made an effort
Q 241

The Epistle to the Philippians

Phil. iv.
ro-13

Contentment
pre-eminently a
Christian Grace.

Paul's Con
tentmentwas not
complacencywith himself

to discover him, away from the happy scenes of
earlier years, and anticipating Nero's bar, he breaks
out into these glorious expressions of equanimity.
He had learned how to be abased in the vaUey of
shadow, he wore the flower heartsease in his button
hole. The idea of it has been always present to the
minds of men, but the power by which the ideal
could be realised has been lacking. For instance,
Cicero who wrote volumes of incitement to courage
and manly virtue, when he was driven into exile,
though it was by no means onerous, wearied his
friends with puerUe and unmanly murmurings. It
was the same with Seneca, whose books are fuU of
stoic endurance and superiority to suffering, but as
soon as he was exUed from Rome, he filled the air
with abject complaints, and was not ashamed to faU
at the feet of a worthless freedman to induce him to
procure a revocation of his exile and permission to
return from Sardinia to the metropolis.
How different was the great Apostle! Though
deprived of every comfort, and cast as a lonely man
on the shores of the great strange metropolis, with
every movement of his hand clanking a fetter, and
nothing before him but the lion's mouth or the
sword, he speaks serenely of contentment.
In the previous chapter, he tells us that he had
not attained, but was following after. He refused
to be content with what he had already accomplished
for himself or others, his whole soul was on fire to
apprehend more absolutely that for which Christ
had apprehended him, but whilst he could not be
242

All Things are Possible
content with the spiritual attainment or service, he Phil. iv.
was absolutely content with the circumstances of his I0"I3
lot. Looking up into the face of Jesus, he confessed
his discontent; looking around at the prison, the
gaoler, and the future, since these were aU contained
in the wiU of God for him, he was absolutely
satisfied, because infinite love had permitted them.
He longed that men might be turned from dark- Nor indiffer-
ness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. 1^4 of the
He could never be content until his Master was the world around
enthroned Bang of the world; and strove with
unabating determination, according to the working
of the mighty Spirit of God, ' to present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus.' His eager spirit partici
pated in the very travail of Christ for His body's
sake, the Church. He was willing to be accursed
for his brethren, the unbelieving Jews. But amid
all this, he was content with the poor raft on which
he was navigating the stormy seas. It was enough
for him that God had wUled his circumstances, and
that Christ was his partner and friend. His was
the spirit of the Psalmist, when he said, 'Whom
have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none on
earth beside Thee ? My heart and flesh faileth, but
God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for
ever.' Just as our Lord ' learned obedience by the things Paul had
that He suffered,' so the Apostle acquired the habit ^rt.n 6
of contentment by practising it. He had schooled
himself, by constantly applying the Cross of Jesus
to his ambitions, his murmurings, his tendency to
complain. He had accustomed himself to dwell
243

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. upon the bright side of things, to lay more stress
10-13 upon what he had than upon what he lacked. It
was the habit of his Ufe to take his lot from God, to
look upon it as iUumined by perfect wisdom and
perfect love. He refused to listen to the dark and
sinister suggestions flung into his soul by the tempter.
Yes, we can do a great deal to elaborate the faculty
of contentment ; the germ of it is in our hearts by
the grace of God, but the flower and fruit demand
our constant heed.
Three Con- All is of God, and God is good. Every wind
ditions for blows from the quarter of His love, every storm
Content- wafts us nearer the harbour, every cup, though
Tvw t Presente<i by the hand of Judas, is mixed by the
live in the Father of our spirits. It is not possible for
Will of God. a man ^0 ke thrust by his brethren in the pit,
unless God permit it, and therefore we may say
with Joseph, ' It was not you that sent me hither,
but God.' Habituate yourself, oh Christian soul, to
believe that not only what God appoints but what
He permits, is in the sphere of His will ! It is His
wiU for you to be fuU to-day or to be empty to
morrow ; to abound to-day or to be abased to
morrow ; He has a reason, though He may not teU
it, and because you know that the reason satisfies
Him, you may be content.
(2) We must Jesus Christ is sufficient. The greater our lack,
asthe com-St tne larger our suPply. 'To them that have no
plement of might He increaseth strength.' To the ignorant He
our ee . jg wjS(jomj ^0 ^ne unholy sanctification, to the en
slaved redemption. His miracles manifested the
supply of His royal nature to the need around Him ;
244

All Things are Possible
His purity cleansed the polluted flesh of the leper ; Phil. iv.
His life poured into the Arteries of death ; His I°-I3
strength made good the helplessness of the paralysed.
Receive from Christ 'grace upon grace,' and look
upon the emptiness and need of your spirit as the
greater reason why you should claim aU from Him.
The prophet Isaiah says, that ' they that wait (3) We must
upon the Lord change their strength : (Isa. xl. 31, {^Christ**8
A. V. margin). They begin life with the strength of Strength.
young manhood, which boasts that it is weU able to
realise its dreams with its natural vigour, but as Ufe
goes on they tire and faint, the youths faint and are
weary, the young men utterly fall. Then it is that
they learn to avail themselves of the strength of the
Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the
earth, ' Who fainteth not, neither is weary.' Moses
no longer trusts in the blow of his maUed fist, but
by faith feeds his soul from the fountains of omni
potence ; Peter no longer vaunts his abUity to foUow
Christ even to death, but receives the power and
anointing of the Holy Ghost, and becomes bold as a
Uon ; Paul no longer speaks of his Pharisaic ancestry,
and all the qualities which he had counted so much
gain, but is content to be weak with Christ, that
with Christ he may receive and depend upon the
power of God. This change must come to us all.
Whatever our need, we must turn for its supply to
the fulness of God in Christ. As we keep open the
avenue of our soul to our Lord, He will pour His
strength into our nerveless and helpless nature.
Nay, He wUl not merely give us His strength, but
wUl be in us the power of God unto salvation. We
245

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. need not simply the strength of Christ, but Christ
10-13 who gives strength, that we may be able to say with
the Apostle, ' I can do all things ' — whether it is to
live or die, whether it is to be abased or abound,
whether it is to be full or empty — ' through Chiist
that strengtheneth me.'
Practice these three conditions, and you wiU learn,
perhaps in dark hours of trial, and on the hard
benches of the school of affliction, the art of con
tentment which shall enrich your life more than if
the mines of Ophir were unlocked for your wealth.

246

XXVI
FILLING AND FILLED
Phil. iv. 14-20
Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate
with my affliction.
Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the
gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated
with me as concerning giving and receiving, hut ye only.
For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my
necessity. Not because I desire a gift : but I desire fruit that may abound
to your account.
But I have all, and abound : I am full, having received of
Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a
sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.
But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus.
Now unto God and our Father he glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Apostle had already made it clear, that though Phil. iv.
for a long interval he had received nothing from the I4'20
PhiUppian Church, he did not complain, but realised
that there were sufficient reasons which accounted
for the cessation of their gifts. He did not deny
that he had been straitened in outward circum
stances, but he had been content because he dis
cerned the wiU of God in every dispensation, and
was able to do aU things in union with the Living
Christ. He had found that his legitimate necessities
had been met, and that God had dealt with him as
with Elijah, to whom the feathered fowl, and the
247

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. slender resources of the widow of Zarephath, minis-
14-20 tered daily provision. He rejoiced, however, that
his friends had been able to send again to his
necessity, not for his sake alone, but for theirs,
It was not that he sought for a gift, but for fruit
that might be reckoned to their account.
The Gift and ^° Church had done for Paul what the PhiUppian
its Return. Church had. In the early days they had sent once
and again to minister to his need ; and now their
present, forwarded by the hand of Epaphroditus,
redounded stiU further to their credit. It was ' an
odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, weU-
pleasing to God.' How could he repay them for
the gifts they had sent when they were able, and for
the desire to send when they were not. It was
clear that he must always be hopelessly in debt to
them so far as material suppUes were concerned, but
he could pray and make intercession on their behalf,
and remind the Master that aU kindness shown to
the servant imposed an honourable obUgation on the
Master, and out of aU this arose the assurance that
his ' God would fulfil every need of theirs according
to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.'
' F Ifil ' ^° *ranslate the Greek word as R. V. does by fulfil
connects this verse with the preceding one, and
brings out the designed and beautiful harmony. The
Apostle was filled because he had received from
Epaphroditus the gifts of his friends, and now God
would fulfil their need. What they had done in the
lower sphere for him would be repeated in a higher
sphere by God. The measure with which they had
meted out their stores for the imprisoned Apostle
248

Filling and Filled
would be returned to them brimming to the full, not Phil. iv.
with the supplies for physical need, but with the 14-20
eternal and unsearchable riches of heaven, which are
in Christ Jesus.
This is a constant law of God's world. ' Give, and Give and
it shaU be given unto you : good measure, pressed Receive-
down, shaken together, running over, shall be given
into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you again.' Lend your boat for
a whole afternoon to Christ that it may be His float
ing pulpit, and He wiU return it to you laden with
fish. Place your upper room at His disposal for a
single meal, and He will fill it and the whole house
with the Holy Spirit of Pentecost. Place in His
hands your barley loaves and fish, and He wiU not
only satisfy your hunger, but add twelve baskets fuU
of fragments. The Philippians sent three or four
presents to a suffering and much needing servant of
God, and from that moment they might reckon that
every need of theirs would be supplied. Such small
acts on our part are recompensed with such vast
returns. We scratch the surface of the soU and
insert our few Uttle seeds, and within a few months
the acreage is covered by a prolific harvest in which
a hundredfold is given for every grain which we
seemed to throw away.
God refuses to be in debt to any man. He takes God's
into His exchequer the accounts of all outlay made u|turn t0
by His stewards for the relief of need and distress,
and He repays with interest. When the Good
Samaritan was leaving the village inn, on the morn
ing after the memorable rescue of the wounded
249

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. traveUer, he said to the host, ' Take care of him,
14-20 and what thou spendest more, when I come again,
I wiU repay.' Evidently, he was weU-known on the
road, he had often been at that inn before, and had
estabUshed his character by honourable and generous
treatment. They knew that his word was his bond,
and that whatever was expended in reason would
secure an ungrudging repayment. And if this be
true of man how much more of God. He hands over
to us cases in which He is deeply interested, saying
as He does so, ' Take care of these, expend what
is necessary, and I wUl repay.' May we not
reckon on God for this? According to our faith
it wUl be to us.
But give Whenever, therefore, we feel impeUed to make
cheerfully, provision for others, let us do it as unto God, not
simply out of human pity, but from a deep sense of
obligation to our Heavenly Father, let us do it
gladly, freely, generously. 'God loveth a cheerful
giver.' Three things wUl happen — (1) We shaU
send a thrill of gratitude into some weary and faint
ing soul, encouraging it to hope in God because it
has found that its hope in man has not been mis
placed. (2) The odour of the act wiU be fragrant
as it steals upward to mingle with the adoration and
service of Heaven. There is no longer need to offer
propitiatory sacrifices, for they have been done away
in view of the sacrifice made by our Lord when He
once offered Himself without sin unto God, but there
is room in the Christian dispensation for the sacrifice
of praise (Heb. xiii. 15), for the Uving sacrifice of
ourselves (Rom. xii. 1), and for the acceptable
250

Filling and Filled
sacrifices of Christian beneficence which, as this Phil. iv.
paragraph tells us, are well-pleasing to God. (3) 14-20
We may also reckon that He will fill to the brim the
measure with which we have meted out for others,
and take it as a certainty that He will fulfil every
need according to His riches. If our measure was
fiUed with sand grains, He wiU return it fiUed with
gold dust ; if it was filled with pebbles, He wiU hand
it back replete with diamonds ; if it contained neces
saries for the physical life, He will restore it brimming
over with spiritual riches.
It may be answered that many who have given Charity
lavishly for God's cause have afterwards come to succeeded b
penury and need, and their benefactions seem to
have been lost like argosies that go down at sea. In
any case, there has been no return to brighten the
straitened circumstances of declining years. Three
answers may be given. First, it may be that the gifts
were not rendered with a single eye for the glory of
God, but for some lower motives of display, ostenta
tion, or self-advertisement ; therefore, they had their
reward. They were done to be seen of men, they
received the recognition and applause of men, and
God refused to recognise any obligation for further
recompense. Secondly, it is necessary, before these laws of the
spiritual world operate on our behalf, that we should
definitely and by faith appropriate them. There is
no promise which does not require to be claimed.
As the angel of electricity will not step forth to
Ulumine our rooms unless we turn the switch when
we pass through the door, so we must not complain
251

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. that the laws of the spiritual world do not bring us
14-20 neip unless by faith we appropriate their service.
Whenever, therefore, we expend alms for the relief of
need, let us definitely put our money into God's bags,
which wax not old : we should specificaUy lay up
treasure in heaven, we should pay our money, so to
speak, into the bank of His faithfulness, and reckon
that there wiU be a definite return. It may be taken
as an axiom that in this world there is a return for
every gift that we lay on the altar of self-sacrifice —
not of reward but of free grace. We must not make
the gift in order to get the reward, but having made
the gift in the name of Christ, and for the fulfilment
of His redemptive purpose, we may certainly beheve
that in ways that we may not be able to define God
will supply all our need.
Thirdly, it should be borne in mind that though there
may be apparent straitness, there may be a wealth of
content, a gold mine of peace and joy, the precious
stones of spiritual grace, which correspond to the
riches in glory of which the Apostle speaks. When
life was young, they gave of their temporal things,
and now as the evening shades gather, God gives
them not temporaUties but spirituaUties. They sowed
carnal things and reap spiritual ones (1 Cor. ix. 11).
God's ' AU your need.' From the moment that we draw
our first breath in this world to the last sigh of
expiring life, we are full of needs. The babe has its
cradle needs, and the patriarch those that arise from
the wearing out of his faculties, and his growing
dependence on others. The body has physical need,
the mind its hunger for truth, the heart its insatiable
252

Return.

Filling and Filled
longing for love, the spirit for spiritual sustenance Phil. iv.
and quickening. Our human nature is one great I4"20
bundle of need, it is always crying aloud for satis
faction ; and as civiUsation advances, the variety and
multipUcity of our need is ever on the increase.
We must distinguish between our needs and our Needs and
desires. It is possible to want a good many things Desires.
which we do not need. We often want things which
it would injure us greatly to have. Paul wanted to
be delivered from his thorn, but his real need was for
more grace. We want a great many things which it
is not possible for our Heavenly Father to give us,
except to the great detriment of our best life. There
is no promise that God shall supply all our desires or
wishes, there is a certainty that He will fulfil all our
need. Some may read these words whose needs are
clamant, — the need for guidance, for help against
temptation, for the quickening of languishing de
votional life, the need for daily bread or employment.
Let all such take this to their heart for their comfort
that God wiU supply aU their need. ' My God shaU
fulfil every need of yours.'
' In Him are all the treasures of wisdom and know- Christ is
ledge hidden.' ' It pleased the Father that in Him J^wer to
should aU the fulness dweU.' ' In Him dweUeth all our Need.
the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' The Divine-
Human nature of Christ is replete with every possible
supply for His people. ' He fiUeth all in aU.' Those
that trust Him can say, as the Apostle did of the
PhiUppian gifts, ' I have aU things and abound; I am
filled having received from Christ the things that
253

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. came from God, and which were treasured in Him for
14-20 mv enrichment and thanksgiving.' The teaching of
the Apostle is full of this thought, as when he says,
'I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace
of God which was given you in Christ Jesus ; that in
everything ye were enriched in Him '' (1 Cor. L 4, 5),
and again, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ'
(Eph. i. 3). Peter also affirms the same thought.
' Grace to you, and peace be multiplied in the know
ledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord ; seeing that His
Divine power hath granted unto us aU things that
pertain unto Ufe and godliness ' (2 Peter i. 2, 3).
Christ is the complement (i.e., the completement)
of every soul. Just as the dark face of the moon
taken with her first crescent of light makes a complete
circle, so the unseen Redeemer together with our
infinite need makes a complete man after God's
stature. The greater our deficiency the larger His
supply.
The Prime The prime necessity, however, is that we should
reckon it is so, and avail ourselves of all the treasures
that are prepared for our use in our Risen Lord.
Too often we act as if we had to meet the demands
of life from our own limited exchequer, instead of be
lieving that we have been taken into partnership with
the Son of God, and can at any moment draw upon
His all-sufficiency. What would you think if a clerk,
who was sent to a distant land to open a branch of
some great business firm, were to seek to meet the
expenses out of his own limited salary, when the head
254

Filling and Filled
of the firm had told him to draw upon his credit to Phil. iv.
any extent which he deemed necessaiy ? But we 14-20
make the same mistake when we meet the caUs of
Ufe apart from the boundless wealth which is placed
to our credit in Jesus.
A story is told by Dr Richard Newton of an old
and poverty-stricken Indian, who many years ago
made his way into a Western settlement in search of
food to keep him from starving. A bright coloured
ribbon was seen around his neck, from which there
hung a smaU, dirty pouch. On being asked what it
was, he said it was a charm given him in his younger
days. He opened it, and took out a worn and
crumpled paper, which he handed to the person
making the inspection. It proved, on examination,
to be a regular discharge from the federal army,
signed by George Washington himself, and entitling
him to a pension for life. Here was a man with a
promise duly signed, which if presented in the right
place would have secured him ample provision, yet
he was wandering about hungry, helpless, and forlorn,
and begging bread to keep him from starving. What
a picture of many Christians who are in need of every
thing when they might be rich and full ! Perhaps
their own life has not been generous, certainly their
faith has never put in its claim to God's great bank
of promise.
Let us remember that we are deaUng with a We deal
Father. 'Now unto our God and Father be the™*^
glory for ever.' The Father's eye is on His children,
and a Father's hand is stretched out to their reUef.
Let us be of good cheer. Two sparrows are sold for
255

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. a farthing, but five for two farthings, that is, sparrows
I4"20 are so cheap that one can be thrown into the bargain,
but that odd sparrow cannot faU to the ground with
out the notice of the Father. Surely we are of more
value than many sparrows, and we may count on
Him with absolute certainty. Nowhere in the world
does He make birds, fish, young hons, or babes,
without supplying the food which He has taught
them to require. He cannot do worse by us ; we
dare not think that He has implanted needs which
He is unable and unwiUing to meet Only let us
make Him our confidant, going through Ufe with
a free-handed generosity that gives, and with an
absolute trust which takes, making our requests
known unto Him, and receiving the fulfilment of
every need, out of which shall arise to Him who
loves us, cares for us, and sustains us, glory unto
the ages of the ages.

256

XXVII
CLOSING SALUTATIONS
Phil. iv. 21-23
Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are
With me greet you.
All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's house
hold. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ he with you all. Amen.
^ It was written to the Philippians from Rome by Epaphroditus.
Probably, at this point, the Apostle took in hand pjjji jv
the style with which his amanuensis had been 21-23
rapidly penning his glowing thoughts, that in the
clumsy letters, to which he refers in the Epistle
of Galatians (vi. 11), probably due to his defective
eyesight, he might append his autograph.
' Salute every saint in Christ Jesus.' There were The
many distinctions between the disciples in that dis- Universality
tant city. Some who professed a lofty spirituality, Greetings.
but lacked the spirit of loving concord ; some who
were tinctured with the pharisaic disputations of
his own earlier days; and some who were able
to appreciate the deepest teachings of the nature
of Christ which human words can unfold. It was
enough, however, that they were in Christ Jesus,
that He had accepted them, and that already they
were separated from the corruption that is in
the world through lust, and were set apart for the
glorious purpose of the Son of God, and therefore,
B 257

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. their faithful friend was able to include them all
21"23 in his tender salutation.
How good it is when Christian love enables us to
rise above sectarian strife, and the misunderstandings
which are generated by the differences of our tempera
ment and education, so that we are able to view each
other as common members of the Body, and contigu
ous branches of the Vine, praying for each other, and
prepared to communicate grace by word and act.
Let us salute every saint, whether belonging to our
own Church, or to some other. It is enough to know
that they with us are partakers of the grace of God,
and if He loves, there must be something lovable
upon which our hearts can fasten.
*****
Paul's There is no trace of the priest in these simple
1 y* words Having sent his own personal greetings,
he hastens to class with himself his coUeagues, as
Timothy and Mark, or his traveUing companions,
as Luke and Silas, or prominent beUevers who
dwelt in Rome, and had the right of entrance into
his hired room. They were brethren more or less
unknown, but the Apostle recognised that they had
as much right to salute the saints in PhiUppi as he
had, and he hastened to strengthen his own message
by the inclusion of their good-wiU.
It is interesting to notice how fond the Apostle
was of having others with him in his Christian work.
Their fellowship gave him strength and comfort.
Probably, he entered into the Spirit of the Master,
who sent His disciples out two and two. Some
times, he alUed himself with Barnabas, at other
258

Closing Salutations
times with SUas, at other times with Mark. The Phil. iv.
opening words of this Epistle show how closely he 2I"23
was associated with Timothy, 'his own son in the
faith.' Two are better than one. It is a matter
of great encouragement and strength when some
kindred soul is united with us in any service.
* * * * *
'AU the saints salute you.' The Apostle first The
salutes for himself; then he associates the brethren weafthaf'
that were with him ; and now his voice seems to Christian
have stirred a large circle of consenting hearts, and e-
from them aU a torrent of tender affection sets in
towards the PhUippian Church. There is every
probabiUty that the saints who here send greeting
are those who themselves had been greeted and
mentioned by name in Romans xvi. Bishop Light-
foot, in an essay on this passage which is fuU of
interest, has pointed out that many of the names
mentioned by Paul in the last chapter of his letter
to the Romans are identical with the names de
ciphered in sepulchral inscriptions, and known to
have had a place in the Imperial household. Of
these he specifies AmpUatus, ApeUes, Stachys,
Rufus and Hermes, and the two women, Tryphaena
and Tryphosa. These were almost certainly included
in 'all the saints.'
Thus this Epistle, so full of love, seems like a
shuttle to have shot between these far removed
centres of Christian Ufe, uniting each to the other.
Epaphroditus had brought a sweet savour of PhUippi
unto Rome, now this letter carries the fragrance of
Roman Christianity to Philippi. It is thus that the
259

The Epistle to the Philippians
Phil. iv. Churches in all ages have exchanged words and
21-23 actions of Christian courtesy.
*****
The ' Especially them that are of Caesar's household.'
Saints rphg great commentator already referred to, has
specially dis- shown that the household of Caesar was a term
tinguished. embracing a vast number of persons, not only
in Rome, but in the provinces, all of whom were
either actual or former slaves of the Emperor, and
filled every possible description of office. There is
every reason to believe that this term included
household slaves who were in immediate attendance
upon the Emperor; soldiers who through being
attached to the prisoner had been constrained to
hear the story of salvation, and yielded to the
claims of Jesus : and perhaps beyond, there was
a still wider circle of senators and knights, men of
intellectual power and large wealth, who composed
the Imperial retinue and court. The household of
Caesar was constituted by a vast concourse, many of
whom were the agents of murders, bitter cruelties,
and licentious intrigues, but large numbers of whom
were men of upright character, who found it possible,
amid such surroundings as those of Nero's palace, to
be simple followers of Jesus. It is as possible to be
a Christian in a royal court as in a slum, in a
fashionable circle as amongst peasants and labourers,
amongst rulers as amongst the poor and destitute.
Character may be independent of circumstances.
Joseph may pursue his life of purity amid the cor
ruption of Egypt, and Daniel his life of prayer amid
the idolatry of Babylon. 260

Closing Salutations
Circumstances may differ ; in some cases they are Phil. iv.
more, whilst in others they are less favourable to 2I_23
the growth of Christian character, but Christianity
is indigenous to all cUmates, and will flourish on any
soU. It is Uke the corn plant which grows alike
upon the aUuvial soil of the Nile Delta, and the
broad expanse of Western prairies.
It speaks much for the earnestness of individual
workers in those early days, when there were no
great conventions, nor many eloquent and com
manding preachers, that such vast multitudes of
believers were being gathered in every part of the
known world through the individual effort of those
who, like the first apostles, could say, ' Come and see.'
' The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your The Final
spirit.' The Epistle begins with grace (v. 2) and Benediction.
with grace it ends. It is impossible to define all
that is meant by this comprehensive prayer. IUumi-
nation for the soul, love for the heart, strength for
the mind, purity for the character, help in every time
of need, direction in all perplexity and difficulty — aU
these are included in the word grace. It was im
possible for the Apostle to know in detail aU that
his friends might be passing through amid the
temptations and perils of Philippi, but he wished
that always and everywhere, they might be conscious
that the grace of the Lord Jesus beset them behind
and before, encompassed their going out and coming
in, enwrapped them in their lying down and rising
up, canopied them with skies opening Godward, and
was their shield and their exceeding great reward.
261

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" Miss Hesba Stretton writes simply, sincerely, toucbingly,
and her way of putting old and familiar truths may reach
her hearers as the words of others have not done." — The Chris
tian World.
"This should be a very useful book for any who wish to get
an explanation and exposition of the Parables in clear and
simple language." — Manchester Courier.

LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

A Handbook to Old Testament Hebrew.
Containing an Elementary Grammar of the Language, with Reading
Lessons, Notes on many Scripture Passages, and Copious
Exercises. Edited by SAMUEL G. GREEN, D.D.
Author of " A Handbook to the Grammar of the Greek Testament.'
Demy 8vo, 332 pages. Cloth gilt, bevelled boards, 10s. 6d.
THE CHIEF RABBI (Dr. Hermann Adler).— "The grammar
has been carefully prepared, and it will prove a useful aid to
students of the Sacred Language,"
Dr. DRIVER (Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford) says :—
" It appears to me to be well planned and very practical."
THE PROFESSOR OF HEBREW at Edinburgh University
says : — *' It will prove a real boon to beginners."
A Handbook to the Grammar of the
Greek Testament.
Together with a Complete Vocabulary, and an Examination of the
Chief New Testament Synonyms. Illustrated by numerous
Examples and Comments.
By SAMUEL G. GREEN, D.D.
Revised and Improved Edition. Demy 8vo. 604 pages.
Cloth boards, 7s. 6d.
This well-known handbook, which has passed through several
editions, has now been completely revised, additions and modifica
tions appearing on almost every page. Constant reference is made
to the revised New Testament of 1881, and more especially to the
Greek text of Drs. Westcott and Hort.
Analytical Concordance to the Bible.
Arranged on an entirely new plan. Containing about 311,000
references, subdivided under the Greek and Hebrew originals,
with the literal meaning and pronounciation of each. Designed
for the simplest reader of the English Bible. By Robert
Young, LL.D., author of "A New Translation of the Bible "
and "A New Concordance to the Greek New Testament,"
etc. Seventh Edition. Revised throughout by William B.
Stephenson, B.D. (Edin.). With Index Lexicons to the Old
and New Testaments, being a guide to parallel passages, and a
complete list of Scripture Proper Names, showing their proper
pronunciation. 1 Demy 4to. Substantially bound in cloth,
2 is. ; half-morocco, 25s.
This work is in no sense an edition of Cruden or of any similar
work in existence.

LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

TAMATE
The Life and Adventures of a Christian Hero.
By the late RICHARD LOVETT, M.A.
With 2 Maps and 15 full-page Illustrations. Large crown 8vo, cloth
gilt, 3s. 6d.
" Every boy and girl ought to possess ii . . . a vivid and inspiring
narrative."— British Weekly.
" Tamate emerges from these pages a picturesque personality, with
the halo of true romance about him . . . Mr. Lovett pictures the man
as boys love to have tbeir heroes pictured ... A book which boys
will relish and adults will enjoy." — Christian World.
"Not all the ingenuity which is spent on the making of blood
curdling tales could devise anything so strange, so terrible as the
scenes in which Tamate bore his part, a part of unfailing courage and
cheerfulness. He was another Ulysses, shrinking from no danger,
but with a presence of Good Counsel always at his side." — Speatator.
PIONEERING IN NEW GUINEA
By JAMES CHALMERS.
Revised Edition. With 7 Illustrations, large crown 8vo, cloth gilt,
3s. 6d.
" We do not remember to have ever read a more interesting descrip
tion of a savage people." — Glasgow Herald.
" The work is an admirable one, designed and carried out with skill
and judgment. The illustrations form a prominent feature among the
many attractions of a book deserving the most careful perusal and
consideration." — Morning Post.
WORK AND ADVENTURE IN NEW
GUINEA
By JAMES CHALMERS.
New Editiea, With 7 Illustrations, large crown 8vo, cloth gilt,
3s. 6d.
This work describes seven years of work along the South-Eastern
coast of New Guinea. Mr. Chalmers knew more of this country than
any other European. He spoke the native languages, and his
missionary journeys gave him much knowledge of native habits, Sea.
He always travelled unarmed, and was several times in imminent peril.
The work abounds in interesting and thrilling incidents.
" An admirable sketch of life and work in New Guinea, where the
triumphs of Christianity are most indisputably shown. . . . The book
Is one of very general interest, and should find readers in all ranks."—*
Yorkshire Post.
Lomdom : THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

•JAMES LEGO*
Missionary and Scholar.
By his Daughter. HELEN EDITH LEGGE.
With Photogravure Portrait and twenty-two other Illustrations. Largs
crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
There is not a dry page in this most fascinating Biography."—
Dundee Courier.
" It is an interesting book and a valuable contribution to the history
of Chinese missions." — Athenaeum.
"A story well worth telling, and sure to find many appreciative
readers." — Christian World.
THOMAS WAKEFIELD
Missionary and Geographical Pioneer In East
Equatorial Africa,
By E. S. WAKEFIELD.
Second Edition. With Portrait and 10 other Illustrations. Large
crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 3s. 6d.
" From beginning to end the work is of absorbing interest." — The
Christian. " No one with a love for the foreign missionary cause will read this
book without a feeling of profound thankfulness for such a devoted
worker. We most heartily commend the work to readers of all ages."
— Methodist Times.
" The story is romantic, adventurous, exciting, pathetic, and tragic
by turns." — Daily News.
. " The information conveyed, the vivid descriptions given, and the
heroic life portrayed, all in a style singularly appropriate and
suggestive, make the book delightful reading." — Yorkshire
Observer.
HENRY MARTYN
Saint and Scholar.
First Modern Missionary to the Mohammedans,
By GEORGE SMITH, CLE., LL.D.,
Author of " Life of William Carey," "Life of Alexander Duff," etc.
With a Photogravure Portrait and 9 full-page Illustrations, 580 pages.
Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6s.
" Dr. Smith fills up with healthy human detail what before lay in
bare outline. We have here a Martyn who can talk, laugh, and fall
in love like other people, but who, while relating himself wholesomely
in this way to the rest of his fellows, in what was special to his charac
ter and work, still rises to heights that pierce the heavens." — Christian
World. "The author knows his subject well, has arranged his materials skil
fully, and carries the reader pleasantly along to the end."— Spectator
LOHDOS : THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,

POPULAR PENNY MISSIONARY BI0GRAPHIE8.
32 pages, with Illustrations, crown 8vo, paper cover, Id. each.

JAMES CHALMER8 OF NEW GUINEA
Prepared by W. GRINTON BERRY, M.A.
James Chalmers spent the greater part of his missionary life amongst
the fierce cannibals of New Guinea, and his experiences and the
many adventures recorded here show the indomitable spirit which he

-'* The Daily News in reviewing James Chalmers' Biography, says : —
" It is the best missionary biography that has appeared during the last
twenty years. ... It is full of thrills, tremulous with pathos, glowing
In passion, sublime in its tragic ending."
GRIFFITH JOHN OF CHINA
Prepared by W. GRINTON BERRY. M.A.
Griffith John has spent over fifty years in spreading the Gospel la
China. He is still labouring in that field, and with greater enthusiasm
than ever.
The Christian World says : — " No one can read this story without
being inwardly refreshed. The mere adventure side of it is stirring to
a degree. It reveals a Pauline daring and endurance."
JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA
Prepared by W. GRINTON BERRY. M.A.
James Gilmour spent his life in a country where he experienced
much hardship and had many exciting adventures, and where he
found it difficult to make any lasting impression upon the people.
The Times In reviewing James Gilmour's Biography, says : — " Not
only deeply interesting as a record of missionary labour, but teems
with characteristic sketches of Chinese manners, customs, and
scenery."
DAVID LIVINGSTONE
By Professor W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.
Livingstone's name has become immortalized by his indefatigable
and highly successful labours as explorer in and missionary to the dark
continent of Africa.
London : THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

YALE UNIVERSITY L

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