If our previous remarks are true, they give us material for judging
how far the counsels of some very popular moral teachers should be
followed. It is a very old advice, 'know thyself; and it is a very
modern one that
'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control
Lead life to sovereign power.'
But if these counsels are taken absolutely and without reference to
Christ and His work, they are 'counsels of despair,' demanding what we
cannot give, and promising what they cannot bestow. When we know
Christ, we shall know ourselves; when He is the self of ourselves,
then, and only then, shall we reverence and can we control the inner
man. The city of Mansoul will then be defended when 'the peace of God
keeps our hearts and minds in Jesus.'
He who submits himself to Christ is lord of himself as none else are.
He has a light within which teaches him what is sin. He has a love
within which puts out the flame of temptation, as the sun does a coal
fire. He has a motive to resist; he has power for resistance; he has
hope in resisting. Only thus are the walls broken down rebuilded. And
as Christ builds our city on firmer foundations, He will appear in His
glory, and will 'lay the windows in agates, and all thy borders in
precious stones.' The sure way to bring our ruined earth, 'without
form and void,' into a cosmos of light and beauty, is to open our
spirit for the Spirit of God to 'brood upon the face of the waters.'
Otherwise the attempts to rule over our own spirit will surely fail;
but if we let Christ rule over our spirit, then it will rule itself.
But let us ever remember that he who thus submits to Christ, and can
truly say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in _me_,' still
needs defence. The strife does not thereby cease; the enemies still
swarm; sin is not removed. There will be war to the end, and war for
ever; but He will 'keep our heads in the day of battle'; and though
often we may be driven from the walls, and outposts may be lost, and
gaping breaches made, yet the citadel shall be safe. If only we see to
it that '_He_ is the glory in the midst of us,' He will be 'a
wall of fire round about us.' Our nature as it may be in Christ is a
walled city as needing defence, and as possessing the defence which it
needs.
III. The city defenceless, and needing no defence; that is, human
nature as it will be hereafter.
'The gates shall not be shut day nor night,' for 'every thing that
defileth' is without. We know but little of that future, what we know
will, surely, be theirs who here have been 'guarded by the power of
God, through faith, unto salvation.' That salvation will bring with it
the end for the need of guardianship; though it leaves untouched the
blessed dependence, we shall stand secure when it is impossible to
fall. And that impossibility will be realised, partly, as we know,
from change in surroundings, partly from the dropping away of flesh,
partly from the entire harmony of our souls with the will of God. Our
ignorance of that future is great, but our knowledge of it is greater,
and our certainty of it is greatest of all.
This is what we may become. Dear friends! toil no longer at the
endless, hopeless task of ruling those turbulent souls of yours; you
can never rebuild the walls already fallen. Give up toiling to attain
calmness, peace, self-command. Let Christ do all for you, and let Him
in to dwell in you and be all to you. Builded on the true Rock, we
shall stand stately and safe amid the din of war. He will watch over
us and dwell in us, and we shall be as 'a city set on a hill,'
impregnable, a virgin city. So may it be with each of us while strife
shall last, and hereafter we may quietly hope to be as a city without
walls, and needing none; for they that hated us shall be far away, for
between us and them is 'a great gulf fixed,' so that they cannot cross
it to disturb us any more; and we shall dwell in the city of God, of
which the name is Salem, the city of peace, whose King is Himself, its
Defender and its Rock, its Fortress and its high Tower.