_His High Nature_.
But if, on the human side, our Redeemer's origin and circumstances were of
the humblest, and we are thus enabled to see His humanity, as it were face
to face, there was united with it the Divine nature; so that as our
_Doctrines_ say, "He is truly and properly God, and He is truly and
properly man." Many mysteries meet by the side of that manger, some of
them to remain mysteries, so far as human understanding can grapple with
things, till God Himself reveals them to our stronger vision in the world
to come. But, blessed be God, some, things that we cannot compass with our
mental powers are very grateful to our hearts.
How Thou canst love me as I am,
Yet be the God Thou art,
Is darkness to my intellect,
But sunshine to my heart.
And we to whom the Living Christ has spoken the word of life and liberty,
although we may not now fully comprehend this great wonder of all
wonders--God manifest in the flesh--and may not be able effectively to
make it plain to others, we cannot for ourselves doubt its central
truth--_that_ GOD _dwelt with man_.
Here was, indeed, a perfect union of two spirits. There was the suffering
and obedient spirit of the true _man_; there was the unchanging and
Holy Spirit of the true God. It was a union--it was a unity. It was God in
man--it was man in God. A being of infinite might and perfect moral
beauty, sent forth from the bosom of the Father; and yet a being of lowly
and sensitive tenderness, having roots in our poor human nature, tempted
in all points like as we are, and touched with the feeling of all our
infirmities.
Is it not to something of the same kind we are called? Is not every true
Salvation Army Officer designed by God to be also (not, of course, in the
same degree, but still up to the measure of his own capacity and of his
Master's will) a dual, or two-fold creature, with associations and roots
and attachments in all that is human, and yet with the divine life, the
divine spirit, divine love, divine zeal, divine power, divine fire united
with him and dwelling in him?
The perfect man would have been a great marvel, a great teacher, a great
prophet; but without the God he could never have been the perfect Saviour.
The Divine, without the human, would have been an awe-inspiring fact, a
spectacle of holiness too great for human eyes; but He could not have been
a Saviour. If it were possible for us to conceive the one without the
other we should certainly not find a JESUS in either.
And so, your merely _human_ Officer, no matter how pure, how strong,
how thoughtful, how clever, how industrious, will fail, and ever fail. And
even so the Officer who is lost in visionary seeking after the Divine
alone, to the neglect of action, of duty, of law, of self-denial, of the
common conflicts and contracts of the man, will equally fail, and always
fail. It is the man we want. The MAN--but the man born of the SPIRIT. The
MAN--but the man full of the HOLY GHOST. The MAN--but the man with
PENTECOST blazing in his head and heart and soul.
Comrade, what are you? Are you striving to be a prophet without possessing
the spirit of the prophets? Are you trying to be a priest without the
priestly baptism? Are you labouring to be a king without the Divine
anointing? Beware!