Baptist, who clearly realized the distinction on which we are dwelling,
and used it with remarkable nicety, when approached by various classes
of character. When Gentile soldiers came to him, in Roman regimentals,
he merely bade them do violence to no man, and be content with their
wages. When Jews came he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" To his eagle
eye a further dispensation was unveiled to which he alluded when he
said, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."
Similarly they to whom inquirers address themselves should diagnose
their spiritual standing, that they may lovingly and wisely administer
the truth suitable to their condition.
_The dispensation of the Father_ includes those who hope that He has
accepted and forgiven them, but have no clear perception of the atoning
work of Christ; are governed rather by fear than love; tremble beneath
the thunders of Sinai more often than they rejoice at the spectacle of
Calvary; are tossed to and fro between hope and despair; desire the
favor of God, but hesitate to speak confidently of having attained it.
Such are to be found in churches where the Gospel is veiled beneath
heavy curtains of misconception and formalism. In the same class we
might put men like Cornelius, who in every nation fear God and work
righteousness.
_The dispensation of the Son_ includes those who clearly perceive His
Divine nature, and rejoice in His finished propitiation; they know that
they are accepted in the Beloved; they receive His teachings about the
Father; they submit to the rule of life which He has laid down; but
they know comparatively little of the inner life, or of their oneness
with Christ in resurrection and ascension; they understand little of
what the apostle meant by speaking of Christ being formed in the soul;
and like the disciples at Ephesus they know but little of the mission
and in-filling of the Holy Spirit.
_The dispensation of the Holy Spirit_ includes those who have claimed
their share in Pentecost. In their hearts the Paraclete dwells in
sanctifying grace, on their heads He rests in mighty anointing. The
previous class resemble Ruth the gleaner; the latter, Ruth the bride.
The one dwells in Romans vii. and Hebrews iii.; the other in Romans
viii. and Hebrews iv. For those the water has to be drawn from the
well, in these it springs up to everlasting life. Oh to know the
"in-ness" of the Holy Ghost. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you
by the Spirit, unless ye be reprobate!
III. THE SYMPTOMS OF THE INDWELLING.--We must distinguish here, as Dr.
Steele suggests, between what is variable, and what is constant.
_These vary_--(1) The joy of realization, which is sometimes
overpowering in its intensity, at other times like the ebbing tide.
(2) Agony for souls, which would be insupportable if it were permanent.
Christ only asks us to watch in Gethsemane for one hour.
(3) Access in prayer. Sometimes the vision is face to face; at others,
though we grasp as in Jacob's night-wrestle, we cannot behold. Like
Esther, we seem to wait in the ante-chamber. As the lark of which
Jeremy Taylor speaks, we rise against the east wind.
(4) The openings of Scripture. The Bible does not seem to be always
equally interesting. At times it is like the scented letter paper,
smelling of aloes and cassia, bearing the handwriting we love; at
others it resembles the reading book of the blind man, the characters
in which, by constant use, have become almost obliterated, so as hardly
to awake answering thought.
(5) The pressure of temptation. We sometimes think that we are getting
out of the zone of temptation. The pressure is so reduced that we
think we shall never suffer again as we have done. Then, all suddenly,
it bursts upon us, as the fury of the storm, when, after an hour's
cessation, it takes the mariner unawares.
All these symptoms are too variable to be relied upon for a diagnosis
of our spiritual condition, or an evidence of the dispensation to which
we belong.
_These are constant_--(1) The consciousness of being God's. This is to
be distinguished from the outgoing of our faith and love toward God.
At the beginning of our experience we hold Him, but as the Holy Spirit
dwells more fully we realize that we are held by Him. It is not our
love to God, but His love to us; not our faith, but His faithfulness;
not the sheep keeping near the Shepherd, but the Shepherd keeping the
sheep near to Himself. A happy sense steals over the heart, as over
the spouse, "I am my Beloved's, and His desire is toward me."
(2) The supremacy of Jesus in the heart. There is no longer a double
empire of self and Christ, as in the poor Indian who said to the
missionary, "I am two Indians, good and bad"; but there is the
undivided reign of Christ, who has put down all rule and authority and
power--as in the case of Martin Luther, who said, "If any one should
ask of my heart, who dwells here, I should reply, not Martin Luther,
but Christ."
(3) Peace, which looks out upon the future without alarm, because so
sure that Christ will do His very best in every day that lies hidden
beneath the haze of the future; which forbears to press its will too
vehemently, or proffer its request too eagerly, because so absolutely
certain that Jesus will secure the highest happiness possible,
consistently with His glory and our usefulness to men.
(4) Love. When the Spirit of God really dwells within, there is a
baptism of love which evinces itself not only in the household, and to
those naturally lovable, but goes out to all the world, and embraces in
its tenderness such as have no natural traits of beauty. Thus the soft
waters of the Southern Ocean lap against unsightly rocks and stretches
of bare shingle.
Where love reigns in the inner chamber of the soul, doors do not slam,
bells are not jerked violently, soft tones modulate the speech, gentle
steps tread the highways of the world, bent on the beautiful work of
the messengers of peace, and the very atmosphere of the life is warm
and sunny as an aureole. There is no doubt of the indwelling Spirit
where there is this outgoing love.
(5) Deliverance from the love and power of sin, so that it becomes
growingly distasteful, and the soul turns with loathing from the
carrion on which it once fed contentedly. This begets a sense of
purity, robed in which the soul claims kinship to the white-robed
saints of the presence-chamber, and reaches out toward the blessedness
of the pure in heart who see God. There is still a positive rain of
smut and filth in the world around; there is a recognition of the evil
tendencies of the self-life, which will assert themselves unless
graciously restrained; but triumphing above all is the purity of the
indwelling Lord, who Himself becomes in us the quality for which holy
souls eagerly long.
XI
Three Paradoxes
"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."
"The world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me."
"Because I live, ye shall live also."--JOHN xiv. 18, 19.
The Bible and Christian life are full of paradoxes. Paul loved to
enumerate them; they abound also in the discourses of our Lord. Here
are three.
The Master had declared His purpose of leaving His apostles and friends
and returning to His Father: but in the same breath He says, "I will
not leave you desolate; I come to you."
Again, He had forewarned them that He would be hidden from them; yet
now He tells them that they would still behold Him.
Further, with growing emphasis and clearness, He had unfolded His
approaching death by the cruel Roman method of the cross; yet He claims
the timeless life of an ever-present tense and insists that their life
will depend on His.
Absent, yet present; hidden, yet visible; dying, yet living and
life-giving--such are the paradoxes of this paragraph in His marvellous
farewell discourse; and they reveal three facts of which we may live in
perpetual cognizance.
I. WE MAY ENJOY THE PERPETUAL RECOGNITION OF THE ADVENT OF CHRIST.--"I
will not leave you orphans, or desolate, I come unto you" (R. V.).
Note the majesty of those last words; they are worthy of Deity; He
speaks as though He were always drawing nigh those He loves: "I come
unto you."
_Christ is always present, yet He comes._--The Creator had been always
immanent in His universe, but He came in each creative act; the
Lawgiver had been ever-present in the Church in the wilderness, but He
came down on Sinai, and His glory lit up the peaks of sandstone rock;
the Deliverer was never for a moment absent from the side of the
Shepherd-King, but in answer to His cry for help He came down riding
upon a cherub, flying on the wings Of wind; the Holy Spirit had been in
the world from the earliest days of prayer and inspired speech, but He
came down from the throne to sit on each bowed head in lambent flame.
So Christ is with us all the days, yet He comes. He will come at last
to receive His own to Himself, and to judge the world; but He comes in
dark and lonely hours that we may not be desolate.
"For warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is He;
And faith has yet its Olivet
And love its Galilee.
The heeling of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again."
_He comes when we need Him most._--When the storm is high, and the
water is pouring into the boat; when the house is empty because the
life that made it home has fled; when Jericho has to be attacked on the
morrow, and the Jordan crossed; when lover and friend stand aloof; when
light is fading before dimming eyes, and names and faces elude the
grasp of the aged mind; when the last coal is turning to grey ash; when
the rush of the river is heard in the valley below--Jesus says, I come.
It is in the hour of desolation, when Lazarus has been in the grave
four days already, that the glad tidings are whispered in the ear of
the mourner, "The Master is come." "I will not leave you orphans," He
said, "I come unto you." Oh, blessed orphanhood, it were well to be
bereaved, to have such comforting!
_He pays surprise visits._--He does not always wait to be invited; but
sometimes, when we lie sleeping with wakeful hearts, we hear His gentle
voice calling to us, "Arise, My love, and come away." Then as we lift
the door-latch, our hand drops with the sweet-smelling myrrh which
betrays His presence. How often when we have been losing ground,
getting lukewarm and worldly, we have suddenly been made aware of His
reviving presence, and He has said, I come. He comes, as the
wood-anemones and snowdrops (the most fragile and tender flowerets of
spring) penetrate the hard ground to announce that the winter is over
and gone, and that the time of the singing of birds is come.
_It is well to put ourselves in His way._--There are certain beaten
tracks well-worn by His feet, and if we would meet Him we must frequent
their neighborhood. Olivet, where He used to pray; Calvary, where He
died; Joseph's garden, where He rose, are dear to Him yet. When we
pray or meditate; when we commemorate His dying love at the memorial
feast; when we realize our union with Him in death and resurrection;
when we open our hearts to the breathing of the Holy Spirit--we put
ourselves in His way, and are more likely to encounter Him when He
comes. "To them that look for Him shall He appear." "Behold the
Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him"--but take the path by which
He is sure to travel. Be in the upper room, with the rest of the
disciples, so that you may not, like Thomas, miss Him when He comes.
_His footsteps are noiseless._--It is said of old, "Thy footsteps are
not known," therefore we need not be surprised if He steal in upon us
as a thief in the night, or as spring over the wolds. There is no
blare of trumpet or voice of herald; we cannot say, Lo here, or Lo
there; when the King comes there is no outward show; "He does not
strive, nor cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the
street."
"He entered not by the eyes," says St. Bernard, "for His presence was
not marked by color; nor by the ears, for there was no sound; nor by
the touch, for He was impalpable. How then did I know that He was
present? Because He was a quickening power. As soon as He entered He
awoke my slumbering soul. He moved and pierced my heart, which before
was stony, hard, and sick. He began also to pluck up and destroy, to
build and plant, to freshen the inner drought, to enlighten the
darkness, to open the prison-house, to make the crooked straight and
the rough smooth; so that my heart could bless the Lord with all that
was within me."
Oh, lonely, desolate soul, open thy door to Him; wait not on the alert
to detect His entrance, only believe that He is there; and presently,
and before ever thou art aware, thou wilt find a new fragrance
distilling through the heart-chamber, a new power throbbing in thy
pulse.
II. WE MAY ENJOY THE PERPETUAL RECOGNITION OF THE PRESENCE OF
CHRIST.--"The world beholdeth Me no more, but ye behold Me." Nothing
makes men so humble and yet so strong as the vision of Christ.
_It induces humility._--When Isaiah beheld His glory more resplendent
than the sheen of the sapphire throne, he cried that he was undone;
when Peter caught the first flash of His miraculous power gleaming
across the waves of Galilee, just when the fish were struggling in the
full net, he besought Him to depart, because he felt himself a sinful
man; and when John saw Him on the Isle of Patmos, he fell at His feet
as dead, though, surely, if any of the apostles could have faced Him
unabashed, it had been he.
This is specially noticeable in the Book of Job. Few books are so
misunderstood. It is supposed to contain the description of the
victory of Job's patience; in reality it delineates its testing and
failure. It shows how he who was perfect, according to the measure of
his light, broke down in the fiery ordeal to which he was exposed; and
finally was forced to cry, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the
ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent,
in dust and ashes."
Wouldst thou be humble, wouldst thou know thyself a worm and no man,
wouldst thou see that thou art verily undone, defiled, and helpless?
Then ask the blessed Spirit to reveal Jesus in all His matchless beauty
and holiness, eliciting the confession that thou are the least of
saints and the chief of sinners. This is no forced estimate, when we
take into account the opportunities we have missed, the gifts we have
misused, the time we have wasted, the light which we have resisted, the
love which we have requited with neglect.
_It produces strength._--See that man of God prone on the floor of his
chamber, shedding bitter tears of godly sorrow, not forgiving himself,
albeit that he knows himself forgiven; bowing his head as a bulrush,
crying that he is helpless, broken, and at the end of himself--Will he
be able to stand as a rock against the beat of temptation, and the
assault of the foe? Yes, verily, for the same presence which is a
source of humility in private, will inspire to great deeds of faith and
heroism when he is called to stand in the breach or lead the assault.
It is this vision of the present Lord that, in every age of the Church,
has made sufferers strong. "The Lord is on my right hand, I shall not
be moved," said one. "The Lord stood by me, and strengthened me," said
another. In many a dark day of suffering and persecution; in the
catacombs; in the dens and caves where Waldenses hid; on the hillsides
where the Covenanters met to pray; in the beleaguered cities of the
Netherlands; in prison and at the stake--God's saints have looked to
Him, and been lightened, and their faces have not been ashamed.
"Behold," said the first martyr, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son
of Man standing on the right hand of God."
Oh for more of the open vision of Jesus, ministered to us by the
gracious Spirit! Would that His words were oftener verified in our
experience: "Ye behold Me!" He is always with us; and if only our
eyes were not holden, we should behold Him with the quick perception of
the heart. Indeed, the race can only be rightly run by those who have
learned the blessed secret of looking off unto Him. "We see Jesus."
It is a most salutary habit to say often, when one is alone, "Thou art
near, O Lord." "Behold, the Lord is in this place." We may not at
first realize the truth of what we are saying. His presence may be
veiled, as the forms of mountains swathed in morning cloud. But as we
persist in our quest, putting away from us all that would grieve Him,
and cultivating the attitude of pure devotion, we shall become aware of
a Divine presence which shall be more to us than a voice speaking from
out the Infinite.
III. WE MAY ENJOY THE PERPETUAL RECOGNITION OF THE LIVING
CHRIST.--"Because I live, ye shall live also." There are many
life-verses in this Gospel which shine like stars in the firmament of
Scripture. Amongst them, in the first chapter, that, in the Word as
manifested to men, was _life_; and in the fifth chapter, that, "as the
Father had life in Himself He gave to the Son to have life also in
Himself." The Father is the fountain of life. Eternal life is ever
rising up in His infinite Being with perennial vigor; and all things
living, from the tiny humming-birds in the tropical forest to the
strongest archangel beside the sapphire throne, derive their being from
Him. Thus we have seen ferns around a fountain, nourishing their
fronds on its spray. All things owe their existence and continued
being to the unmeasured life, which has been from all eternity
treasured up in God, and is ever flowing out from God.
This life was Christ's, in the mystery of the eternal Trinity, before
the worlds were made; but it was necessary that He should receive it
into His human nature, so as to become the reservoir and storehouse
from which all who were one with Him might receive grace on grace. "I
am come," He said, "that they might have life, and that they might have
it more abundantly." This life dwelt in Him during His earthly
ministry, though comparatively few availed themselves of it; His death
set it abroach for all the world; the smitten rock yielded streams of
living water; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit; from His
throne He proclaimed Himself as He that liveth, though He became dead,
and is alive forevermore.
_We live by His life._--Our life is as dependent upon Him as a babe's
on its mother. Could ought happen to Him, we should instantly feel the
effect. Long before He succumbed, we must. We have no independent,
self-derived, or self-sustained life. Apart from Him we wither.
_We live in His life._--The tiny streamlet of our being has joined His,
is merged in it, and flows on together with it, to the great ocean of
eternity. To us to live is Christ, both here and hereafter. Our aims
and purposes are merged in His; we are enriched in all that enriches
Him; gladdened by all that promotes His happiness and glory; made more
than conquerors through our oneness with Him, in the victory that has
overcome the world.
_We live because He lives in us._--At the moment of regeneration He
came to indwell. He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath life
hath the Son. It has pleased God to reveal His Son in us. We have
found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, and we
have found Him in our hearts. Where dwellest Thou? we asked Him; and
He replied, Come and see; and He manifested Himself as having become to
us the inward principle of an endless life. Christ dwells deep in our
heart, and we are beginning to comprehend the immensity of the Divine
love of which He is the exponent.
Let us draw on this life more confidently, availing ourselves of it
perpetually in all our time of need--in all time of our sickness and of
our wealth, in adversity and prosperity, in the hour of mortal anguish
and the day of judgment; and finding what we could not do or bear or
encounter, Jesus can do and bear and meet in and through us, to the
Father's eternal glory.
"Lord Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me,
And all things else recede."
XII
Many Mansions for God
"If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him;
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."--JOHN xiv. 23.
The Immanence of God! That God should be willing to make His home
_with_ man is much; but that He should be willing to come in--to
indwell, occupy, and possess our nature--this is incomprehensible to
the intellect, though it may be received and rejoiced in by the heart.
This is no subject for light and thoughtless speech. We touch on the
profoundest mysteries of the Being of the Infinite, and the capacity of
human nature. Be reverent, O my soul, in the consideration of such a
theme, and take the shoes from off thy feet, for the Bush burns with
fire!
It was owing to the question of Jude, that the universal application of
our Master's words is so clear. A day or two before, our Lord had
entered Jerusalem amid the enthusiasm of the crowds, and the disciples
fondly thought the long-expected time had arrived when He would
manifest Himself to the world as the Messiah. "This is the beginning
of the Messianic reign," said each apostle in his secret heart, as the
great procession passed over the shoulder of Olivet; and each began to
wonder what special post would be allotted to him in the new empire
that seemed so close at hand. These nascent hopes, however, had been
rudely dissipated by our Lord's declaration that the world was to see
Him no more, accompanied by the promise, "But ye see Me."
The apostles therefore were inclined to think that in some special form
the manifestations of His grace and glory would be confined to them.
Hence Jude's question, "What is come to pass, Master, that Thou wilt
manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" Jesus answered in
effect, "Think not that thou and thy fellows are to have the exclusive
right of beholding and communing with Me. What I offer to you is open
to all who believe, love, and obey. The gate which I throw open shall
stand wide for all who choose to enter. The veil shall be rent, that
any who fulfill the spiritual conditions may see the light, and hear
the voice, and stand in the inner court. If a _man_ love Me . . ."
Note those emphatic words, "a man,"--any man; thou and I.
I. THE DIVINE IMMANENCE.--"We will make our abode." The word "abode"
is here a translation of the Greek word which is rendered "mansions" in
a former part of this chapter. "We will make our _mansion_ with Him."
God is willing to become the mansion of the soul that believes in
Christ, but asks in return that such a one should prepare a
guest-chamber, and become a mansion in which He may dwell. As He
steals with noiseless tread into the loving, believing heart, I hear
Him say, "This is My rest forever; here will I dwell, for I have
desired it."
(1) _It is the Immanence of the Father._--Consider who this is of whom
the Saviour speaks. The infinite God! Time with all its ages is but
the flash of a moment in His eternity! Space, "beyond the soar of
angel wings," is but a corner in His dwelling-place; matter, with its
ponderous mass, but the light dust that will not affect the level of
the scale! The mighty sun, which is the centre of all worlds, but a
mote floating in the beam of His being! All the gathered wisdom of
man, stored in the libraries of the world, but as a glow-worm's spark
compared with the meridian light of His wisdom! O souls of men,
consider how marvellous that such a One, whom the heavens cannot
contain, who overflows their limits, asking for room that He may dwell,
will yet become the resident of our nature!
_Its motive is Love._--"The Father will love him." This is wonderful!
The more so as we are told that His love toward us is identical with
that which He has toward our Lord. Speaking of those who shall believe
through His apostles' words, Jesus said, "That the world may know that
Thou lovest them even as Thou lovest Me." That God should condescend
to think about our planet, which is as a leaf in the forest of being!
That He should deign to regard mankind, who, in size at least, are less
than a colony of ants that may have built their home at the foot of the
Himalaya! That He should pity our race! This were much. But that He
should _love_ the world, that He should _love_ individuals belonging to
our race, that He should love them with the love He has toward the
Only-begotten--we could not have believed this unless we had been
assured by the lips of infallible Truth. But the supreme revelation
which towers above the rest, like some great banyan tree amid the
slender growth of the Indian forest, is that the Creator should indwell
and find a mansion in the heart of His creatures.