The obedience that is promised in these words is not the obedience of
action only, but it is the bowing down of the heart. And for us
Christian men there is neither peace nor nobleness in our lives, except
in the measure in which the will of Jesus Christ and our wills are
accurately conterminous and identical. Wheresoever the two coincide,
there is strength for us; wheresoever they diverge, there are weakness
and certain ruin. These two wills ought to be like two of Euclid's
triangles, or other geometric figures, the one laid upon the other, and
each line and curve and angle accurately corresponding and coinciding,
so that the two cover precisely the same ground.
Christ's will my will; that is religion. And you and I are Christians
just in the measure in which that coincidence of wills is true about
us, and not one hair's-breadth further, for all our professions.
Wheresoever my will diverges from Christ, in that particular I am not
His man; and 'Christian' simply means 'Christ's man.' I belong to Him
when I think as He does, love as He does, will as He does, accept His
commandment as the law of my life, His pattern as my example, His
providence as sufficient and as good. Where we thus yield ourselves to
Him, there we are strong, and so far, and only so far, have we a right
to say that we are the King's servants at all.
This absolute submission we do render to one another when our hearts
are touched; and the fact that men can and do give it--husbands to
wives, wives to husbands, children to parents, friends to one
another--the fact that there is the capacity for that giving of one's
self away, lodged deep in our nature, tells us what we are meant to do
with it. 'Whose image and superscription hath it?' Was it meant that we
should thus live in slavish submission even to the dearest loved ones?
Surely not; for that is the destruction of individuality. No, but it
was meant that we should lay our wills down at Christ's feet and say,
'Not my will, but Thine,' and Thine mine because I have made it mine by
love. Then there is rest, and then we have solved the secret of the
world, and are what our Lord would have us to be. Oh! do not our
relations to our dear ones, with all that infinite power of
self-sacrifice that our love brings with it, rebuke the partial extent
of our surrender to our Master? and may we not be ashamed when we
contrast the joy that we feel in giving up to those that we love, and
the reluctance with which, too often, we obey the Master's
commandments, and the long years of repining and murmuring before we
'submit,' as we call it, which too often means accept His providences
as inevitable, though not as welcome? To be 'ready to do whatsoever my
Lord the King shall choose,' believing that His choice is wisdom and
kindness for us, and His commandments a blessing and a gift, is the
attitude and temper for us all. Is there any other attitude to Jesus
Christ which corresponds to our relation to Him, to what He has done
for us, to what we say that He is to us? He has the right to us,
because He has given us Himself. He asks nothing from us but that of
which He has already set us the example. 'He gave Himself for us, as
the Apostle says with emphasis that is often unnoticed. 'He _gave
Himself_ for us' that He might '_purchase us_ for _Himself_.' He who
would possess another must impart Himself, and love, that yields a
whole man to the loved one, only springs when the loved one mutually
yields her whole heart. The King does not command from above, but He
comes down amongst us, and He says, 'I gave Myself for thee; what
givest thou to Me?' O brethren, let us answer with that brave,
chivalrous old Gittite:--'As the Lord liveth, and as my Lord the King
liveth, surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in
death or life, even there also will Thy servant be.'
II. Then notice again, still sticking to our story, that this yielding
up of will, if it is worth anything, will become the more intense and
fervent when surrounded by rebels.
All Israel, with that poor feather-headed, vain Absalom, were on the
one side, and David and these foreigners were on the other. Years of
quiet uneventful life would never have brought out such magnificent
heroism of devotion and self-surrender, as was crowded into that one
moment of loyalty asserted in the face of triumphant rebels and
traitors.
In like manner, the more Christ's reign is set at nought by the people
about us, and the less they recognise the blessedness and the duty of
submission to Him, the more strong and unmistakable should be the
utterance of our loyalty. We should grasp His hand tighter by reason of
the storms that may rage round about us. And if we dwell amongst those
who, in any measure, deny or neglect His merciful dominion, let us see
to it that we all the more hoist our colours at our doors, and stand by
them when they are hoisted, that nobody may mistake under which King we
serve.
You in your places of business, you young men in your warehouses, and
all of us in our several spheres, have to come across many people who
have no share in our loyalty and offer no allegiance to our King. That
is the reason for intenser loyalty on our part. Never you mind what
others say or do; do not take your orders from them. Better be with the
handful that rally round David than with the crowds that run after
Absalom! Better be amongst the few that are faithful than amongst the
multitudes that depart! Dare to be singular, if it comes to that; and
at all events remember that your relationship to your Master is a thing
that concerns Him and you chiefly, and that you are not to take the
pattern of your loyalty, nor the orders for your lives, from any lips
but His own.
Hush all other voices that would command, and hush them that you may
listen to Him. It is always difficult enough for Christian men to
ascertain, in perplexed circumstances, the clear path of duty; but it
is impossible if, along with His voice, we let the buzz of the crowd be
audible in our ears. There is only one way by which we can hear what
our 'Lord the King appoints,' and that is by making a great stillness
in our souls, and neither letting our own yelping inclinations give
tongue, nor the babble of men round us, and their notions of life and
of what is right, have influence upon us, but waiting to hear what God
the Lord, speaking in Christ the King, has to say to us. And, remember,
the more rebels there are, the more need for us to be conspicuously
loyal to our King.
III. Again, this complete yielding of ourselves in practical obedience
and heart submission to command merits and providences is to be
maintained, whatsoever it may lead to in the way of privation and
difficulty.
It was no holiday vow, made upon some parade day, that these brave
foreigners were bringing to their king now, but it meant 'we are ready
to suffer, starve, fight, lose everything, die if need be, to be true
to thee.' And the very thought of the impending danger elevated the
men's consciousness, and made heroes out of very common people. And
perhaps that is the best effect of our difficulties and sorrows, that
they strike fire sometimes (if they are rightly accepted and used) out
of what seems to be only dead, lumpish matter, and many a Christian
shoots up into a stature of greatness and nobleness in his sorrow, who
was but a very commonplace creature when all things went well with him.
That is the kind of obedience that Christ delights to accept, obedience
that is ready for anything, and does not wait to make sure that there
is no danger of forfeiting a whole skin and a quiet life, before it
vows itself to service. Are we only to be 'fair-weather Christians,' or
are we to be prepared for all the trials and sufferings that may befall
us? A Christianity that does not bring any worldly penalties along with
it is not worth much. Christians of Christ's pattern have generally to
give up something for their Christianity. They give up nothing that it
is not gain to lose, nothing that they are not better without, but they
have to surrender much in which other people find great enjoyment, and
which their weaker selves would delight in too. Are you ready, my
brother, for that? 'Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving
against sin.' The old days of heroism and martyrdom are done with, as
far as we are concerned, whatever may lie in the future. But do we make
willingly and gladly the surrenders and the self-abnegations that are
demanded by our loyalty to our Master? Have we ever learned to say
about any line of action that our poor, lower nature grasps at, and our
higher, enlightened by communion with Jesus Christ, forbids: 'So did
not I because of the fear of the Lord'? We can talk about following
Christ's footsteps; do you think that if we had stood where these rude
soldiers stood, or had anything as dark in prospect, as the price of
our faithfulness to our King, as they had as the price of faithfulness
to theirs, there would have rung from our lips the utterly sincere vow
that sprang joyously from theirs: 'Behold Thy servants, ready to do
whatever our Lord the King shall appoint'?
IV. A final thought, which travels beyond my text, is that such
thorough-going obedience, irrespective of consequences, is the secret
of all blessedness.
'Great peace have they which love Thy law': the peace of conscience;
the peace of ceasing from that which is our worst enemy, self-will; the
peace of self-surrender; the peace of feeling ''Tis His to command;
'tis mine to obey'; the peace of casting the whole settling of the
campaign on the King's shoulders, and of finding our duty restricted to
tramping along with cheery heart on the path that He has appointed.
That is worth having. Oh! if we could cease from self and lay our wills
down before Him, then we should be quiet. The tranquil heart is the
heart which has the law of Christ within it, and the true delight of
life belongs to those who truly say, 'I delight to do Thy will.' So
yielding, so obeying, so submitting, so surrendering one's self, life
becomes quiet, and strong, and sweet. And, if I might so turn the story
that we have been considering, the faithful soldiers who have been true
to the King when His throne was contested, will march with laurelled
heads in His triumphant train when He comes back after His final and
complete victory, and reign with Him in the true City of Peace, where
His will shall be perfectly done by loving hearts, and all His servants
shall be kings.