A formula, a receipt for Sanctification--can one seriously speak
of this mighty change as if the process were as definite as for
the production of so many volts of electricity?
It is impossible to doubt it. Shall a mechanical experiment
succeed infallibly, and the one vital experiment of humanity remain
a chance? Is corn to grow by method, and character by caprice?
If we cannot calculate to a certainty that the forces of religion
will do their work, then is religion vain. And if we cannot express
the law of these forces in simple words, then is Christianity not
the world's religion, but the world's conundrum.
Where, then, shall one look for such a formula? Where one would
look for any formula--among the text-books. And if we turn to the
text-books of Christianity we shall find a formula for this problem
as clear and precise as any in the mechanical sciences. If this
simple rule, moreover, be but followed fearlessly, it will yield
the result of a perfect character as surely as any result that is
guaranteed by the laws of nature.
The finest expression of this rule in Scripture, or indeed in any
literature, is probably one drawn up and condensed into a single
verse by Paul. You will find it in a letter--the second to the
Corinthians--written by him to some Christian people who, in a city
which was a byword for depravity and licentiousness, were seeking
the higher life. To see the point of the words we must take them
from the immensely improved rendering of the Revised translation,
for the older Version in this case greatly obscures the sense.
They are these:
"We all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of
the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord, the Spirit."
Now observe at the outset the entire contraction of all our previous
efforts, in the simple passive: "WE ARE TRANSFORMED."
We ARE CHANGED, as the Old Version has it--we do not change
ourselves. No man can change himself. Throughout the New Testament
you will find that wherever these moral and spiritual transformations
are described the verbs are in the passive. Presently it will be
pointed out that there is a RATIONALE in this; but meantime do not
toss these words aside as if this passivity denied all human effort
or ignored intelligible law. What is implied for the soul here
is no more than is everywhere claimed for the body. In physiology
the verbs describing the processes of growth are in the passive.
Growth is not voluntary; it takes place, it happens, it is wrought
upon matter. So here. "Ye must be born again"--we cannot be born
ourselves. "Be not conformed to this world, but BE YE TRANSFORMED"--we
are subjects to transforming influence, we do not transform ourselves.
Not more certain is it that it is something outside the thermometer
that produces a change in the thermometer, that it is