however plain and simple it may be, increases every day; so that my
soul in partaking of the qualities of her spouse, seems also to partake
of his immensity."--_Madame Guyon_, vie. ii. 4.
And Philo:--
"Having broken the chains by which it (the soul) was formerly bound,
which all the empty anxieties of mortal life fastened round it, and
having led it forth and emancipated it from them, he has stretched, and
extended, and diffused it to such a degree that it reaches even the
extreme boundaries of the universe, and is borne onwards to the
beautiful and glorious sight of the uncreated God."--_Philo_, de
ebrietate, 37.
So in Dr. Cudworth's sermon, which was printed some time ago:--
"When we have cashiered this self-will of ours, which did but shackle
and confine our soules, our wills shall then become truly free, being
widened and enlarged to the extent of God's own will."--_Cudworth_,
Sermon before the House of Commons, p. 21.
"There is a straitnesse, slavery, and narrownesse in all sinne; sinne
crowds and crumples up our souls, which, if they were freely spread
abroad, would be as wide and large as the whole universe. No man is
truly free but he that hath his will enlarged to the extent of God's
own will, by loving whatsoever God loves, and nothing else.... He
enjoys a boundlesse liberty and a boundlesse sweetnesse, according to
his boundlesse love. He enclaspeth the whole world within his
outstretched arms, his soul is as wide as the whole universe, as big as
yesterday, to-day and for ever. Whosoever is once acquainted with this
disposition of spirit, he never desires anything else; and he loves the
'life of God' in himself, dearer than his own life."--_Id._, p. 56.
And finally in the _Imitatio Christi_:--
"They that willingly and freely serve Me shall receive grace for grace.
But he who desires to glory in things out of Me, or to take pleasure in
some private good, shall not be grounded in true joy, nor be enlarged
in his heart, but shall many ways be encumbered and straitened.... And
if heavenly grace enter in and true charity, there will be no envy nor
narrowness of heart, neither will self-love busy itself. For Divine
charity overcometh all things and enlargeth all the powers of the
soul."--_De Imitatione Christi_, iii. 9.
We conclude, then, that self can never measure the length and breadth
of the Divine love, and run in the way of His commandment. We need God
to make us understand God; we must be in union with Him in order to
obey Him. Distances on the earth may be measured by a foot-rule or a
surveyor's chain, but to measure the spaces between the stars we must
have a base-line in the sky. Only by being partakers of the Divine
nature can we live out the Divine life; and no man knoweth the Father
save the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him.
V
HE RESTORETH MY SOUL
"So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord;
Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs.
"He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee.
He saith unto him, Feed My sheep.
"He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?
Peter was grieved because He saith unto him the third time, Lovest thou
Me? And he saith unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest
that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep."--JOHN xxi.
15-17.
The whole story contained in these verses carries us back in thought to
the time when Peter denied the Lord. They contain the first recorded
words which passed between Christ and Peter since the latter had said,
"I know not the man," and the Lord had "turned and looked upon Peter."
He had his special token of lovingkindness at the Resurrection in the
message which the woman brought: "Tell His disciples and Peter," in the
witness given to himself, "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared
to Simon," and in his participation in the blessing when the Lord stood
in the midst and said, "Peace be unto you"; but these are, I think, the
first recorded words addressed directly to Peter.
Peter had professed to be faithful above others; and now the Lord asks
him, "Lovest thou Me more than these?" and the question thrice repeated
can scarcely fail to remind us of the triple denial.
If we consider what must have been the state of Peter's mind after he
had denied the Lord, we shall see that the circumstances recorded
indicate a crisis in his life-history. How the enemy must have come in
like a flood! what desolation of spirit he must have experienced during
those lonely moments that followed the look of the Lord, when he went
out, and wept bitterly! the enemy was come against him in full force,
and legions of evil spirits had arisen to destroy his faith for ever.
One would say to him, "Thou hast sinned against special warnings; the
Lord said to thee particularly that Satan had desired to have thee that
he might sift thee as wheat. A little later on He said, 'Pray that ye
enter not into temptation;' and a sin against special warning is more
than twice a sin; and it was that sin which of all others thou didst
think to be so great that it was impossible for thee to commit it."
Then another spirit would say, "Thou hast sinned against special
promise; for thee the Saviour prayed; but now it is clear that thou
hast outsinned the Mediator's grace and the Intercessor's prayers"; and
at the thought black despair and utter hopelessness would enter his
soul, as if to make it their eternal abode.
Then a third spirit would suggest the thought, "I said, 'I know not the
man!' Dost remember, Peter, how He Himself said, 'I will declare unto
you, that I never knew you;' and again, 'Whosoever denieth Me before
men, him will I also deny before My Father in Heaven!' No word of
Christ shall be broken; yea, thou thyself hast in past time established
thyself on the faithfulness of His truth!"
Again would come the thought, "By thy words shalt thou be justified,
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned; and of every idle word that
men shall speak they shall give an account in the day of judgment--how
much more then for a _deliberate_ word, affirmed, and reaffirmed, and
affirmed again."
It was as if a judgment-seat were already set up in his soul, and the
spirits were pleading him outside mercy; not one would speak in his
behalf. Even the promises and the threatenings were against him; the
first saying, we strengthened him; and the second, we warned him. Then
some voices would testify against him on a side where one would think
nothing would have been said, "Thou hast injured the faith; thou hast
weakened the brethren; thou hast been infidel against love, and for
such there is no repentance; thou hast sold thy Lord at a cheaper rate
than Judas!"
"Dost thou remember, Peter, that tree which the Lord cursed, because,
when He had a right to expect fruit from it, it bore none? Was there
ever a time when the Master expected so much from thee as this? and now
He has come, and found 'nothing but leaves.'"
Then, perhaps, one ray of hope would gleam into his darkened soul--"But
the Lord did pray for me, and He never prayed in vain. He said,
Father, I know that Thou hearest Me always; and He prayed for me."
And then the spirits would answer, "But the Lord prayed for thee that
thy faith might not fail, and _it has failed_; where now is the power
of the Lord's prayer? And if that has failed what remains for thee
unless it be a certain fearful looking-for of judgment. If even He who
said, 'Father, I thank Thee that Thou hearest Me always,' has been
refused in His petition; even God is against thee, and the stars in
their courses rule thee down, Simon, son of Jonas."
Another bitter shaft enters his heart: "Dost thou remember, Peter, how
the Lord said of His own followers, 'I have kept them in Thy name, and
none of them is lost but the son of perdition'? Thou hast not only
made vain the Lord's prayers, but denied the Lord's faith, and caused
Him to appear before heaven and earth as a false witness. Would He
speak like that now, if He were beginning His intercessory prayer
again? Would He not have to say, 'None of them is lost, except the
Sons of Perdition, the Denier and the Betrayer'? So that even Christ's
words failed to meet his case."
"And now, Peter, the high priest is asking Him of His disciples and His
doctrines; what thoughts must be in His mind about thee when He takes
up His testimony concerning those for whom He has lavished His life!
The question will wring His heart anew into great drops of blood."
"Moreover, thou hast sinned against the strongest light and the highest
privilege; it was given to thee to be with Him at the most solemn and
sacred times: thou wast with Him at the transfiguration in the Holy
Mount; and if ever heaven could strengthen earth, thou shouldst have
been a strong man. Thou wast with Him at times of special Power, when
only two or three were privileged to see the grace and glory flow down
upon the suffering and the dying. Will not the greatness of thy
privilege be the greatness of thy condemnation? He always chose thee
to be with Him in special times when He went apart for prayer: to whom
much is given, of them will much be required. Oh! how hast thou
fallen!" and the spirits away in the darkness would say, "Thou art
become even as one of us."
Then he would remember how in his own family, almost in his own flesh,
he had received special mercy; and that work of healing would rise up
to condemn him. Sin against mercy is sin without mercy; a thousand
times thou art condemned, having sinned against such light and
privilege and grace.
Then some spirits would whisper, "Dost thou remember how when many were
leaving the Lord, because His doctrines were hard to receive and His
steps hard to follow, He asked the question, 'Will ye also go away?'
Who was it that answered so readily, 'Lord, to whom shall we go?'
Would it not have been better to have denied Him at the first than to
have waited till the light had grown as clear as it has been, and to
have deserted Him when He needed thee most? Better to have denied Him
then, when evidence was feeble, than to disown Him, known as thou hast
been privileged to know Him!"
We are not told one word about what Peter did or where he went, except
that he went out weeping. When the morning came and they were leading
Jesus away to crucifixion, John was there, but no mention is made of
Peter. And yet I think I know where he went, and can see him taking
his way across the brook, which so lately he had crossed with Jesus, to
the garden of olive-trees. He would say to himself, "Here is the place
where the Lord came and found me sleeping"; and "Here He said to me,
'Pray, pray, that ye enter not into temptation.'" Going a little
farther, he would come to the place where the Master Himself had
prayed. He would kneel and pray there too; in the place where there
were still lying on the ground great drops of blood, the earth still
wet with the strange sorrow of the Lamb. There, in his despair, he
would kneel; and yet even in his despair would be turned towards God.
His heart would be turned, even when he thought it never would be
turned again; he would be there, without comfort, and yet God
comforting him. Maybe, for him, too, there were strengthening angelic
ministries; for there are more of these heavenly messengers with us
than we think. Perhaps some words of ancient promise might be brought
to his mind by God, as he was kneeling there; such as, "My soul
cleaveth unto the dust, quicken Thou me according to Thy word!" "A
bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench,
till He bring forth judgment into victory." "He restoreth my soul, He
leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." But
whatever means were adopted, we believe that God was with
him--comforting, restoring, saving, strengthening him. All this
prepares us for the scene by the Lake.
This must have struck Peter as very like another passage in the
intercourse between him and Jesus. Strange scene! we are back in
Galilee; we experience again a night of fruitless toil. This was my
place of consecration at the first; and these nets, which I borrow now,
were then my own; and it was in the morning that the Lord was standing
on the beach, as He did even now.
There is no mere repetition in this story: to a soul in Peter's case
the one impossible thing would be that he should ever regain the place
from whence he fell. And the Lord was going to convince him, by means
of these similar circumstances and the miraculous draught of great
fishes, that there was for him, even for him, such a thing as a fresh
start; and that he should not mourn because there was "no returning
upon his former track." When the boat had been brought to land, the
Lord questioned Peter, not saying, "Thou didst deny Me," but "Dost thou
love Me?" and finally repeats in his ears the old word with which He
moved him to tread the heavenly way at the first--"Follow thou Me."
There were now no boats or nets which Peter could leave for the Lord,
but the whole drama of consecration is acted over again. "Follow Me,
Peter; what thou hast missed shall yet be given thee; formerly there
was a point beyond which thou couldst not follow Me; but now thou shalt
tread in My footsteps, even to the cross which thou didst fear at the
first, and to the shame from which erewhile thy soul recoiled."
"Another shall carry thee whither thou wouldest not: this spake He,
signifying by what death he should glorify God."
VI
ADDITION AND MULTIPLICATION
"He that lacketh these things is blind and short-sighted, and hath
forgotten that he was purged from his old sins."--2 PETER i. 9.
The chapter from which these verses are taken describes two
arithmetical processes, the working out of one of which belongs to us,
and of the other to our Father in heaven. The first is an addition
sum: "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to
knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience
godliness; and to godliness brotherly-kindness; and to
brotherly-kindness love." Writing down the figures of the sum, and
computing the total, we have it set out fair and clear,--"Ye shall
never fall." The other is God's multiplication sum:
"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of
Jesus our Lord"; and the result of the working comes out,--"Ye shall be
made partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that
is in the world through lust." I suppose it means that if we are
willing to go on at an arithmetical progression, God would work in us
at a geometrical one; and so, patiently persisting in holiness, and
hungering after righteousness, we shall be in heaven before we know
where we are.
But such passages trouble some folk who don't like to think that a
Christian has anything to do in the matter of his own salvation; who
say "It is finished" over a work that is only begun in them, and "Jesus
paid it all," when a voice within is saying, "How much owest thou unto
thy Lord?" or, perhaps, if they do not put it quite so strongly as
that, they are, to say the least, gravely suspicious of the existence
of a creaturely activity in the spiritual life.
Let us settle, then, in the beginning, that God never requires us to
exercise ourselves to win His favour, nor calls us to work for One in
whom we have no faith. He never says, "Add to your darkness grace; and
to grace mercy; and to mercy peace." That would be impossible; for
grace, mercy, and peace are experienced in the Divine operation; and it
is because we have so received them that we are able to fulfil the
commandments given to us. God sets us this sum to work, but He gives
us a clean slate on which to work it; He cleanses that inward tablet on
which we have been working out quite a different sum, whose total is
given in the words,--"The wages of sin is death"; He purifies it, that
there may be written thereon the steps and the summation of the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, some one will say, "Does
every one have to go through a process of development of virtues such
as is indicated in this epistle, and must every one have them all, and
produce them in the same order? May we not develop just a few of them,
by a sort of spiritual selection, as flowers have their own colours,
and the creatures their own forms and features?" To this we answer
(i.) that if you are to be a saint, as God has called you to be, you
must have the qualifications and nature of a saint; (ii.) we ought not
to recoil from this sum, as if the casting of the figures were
necessarily a long process. No, not long! how long does it take one to
reach love? Why, we commonly use the expression "falling in love"; and
when the heart is awakened to the sense of the universal presence of
the Father, it is not difficult to love men for His sake. As for the
virtues, we must have them all. Shall we imagine an impatient saint,
called to follow Him who when reviled, reviled not again; an ignorant
saint, a partaker of Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge; an intemperate saint, to follow Him who was living at a
cheaper rate, for a man, than the foxes or the fowls; an unloving
saint! into whose heart have been breathed the words, "Love is the
fulfilling of the law," or, which is the same thing, "Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth"? Yes, we
must have them all. What, will you complain, like little children,
because your Teacher has been giving you too many rows to add up? will
you say, "Lord, you overrate my powers; you think too highly of the
grace that you have given me; I know you, that you are a hard man, an
austere man"?
Does it matter in what order we ascend our virtue-scale? Not at all.
An addition sum comes to the same thing whether you put it 2 + 3 or 3 +
2. For myself, I would like to begin the addition from the bottom row,
starting with love; but it does not matter, so that all the figures are
included. The Apostle goes on to speak of the effect of such a chain
of experience upon the perceptive powers of the soul; he who has these
things, well; his eye shall see the King in His beauty and the land of
far distances; he who has them not, he is blind and short-sighted; or,
as Luther and the Vulgate render it, is blind, and gropes with his
hands. Spiritual short-sightedness is the result of the neglect of the
pursuit of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. An
indistinct vision may result from one of two causes: a fault in the
eye, or an obstruction in the atmosphere. If you cannot make out a
distant object while other people can, they will say to you, "How
short-sighted you are!" but if no one can discern it, the probability
is that something external has made vision impossible. Now, in the
things of God, it is almost always the first defect that mars our
perception; and the main reason why "eye hath not seen" is in our own
nature, and not because God has not prepared nor revealed such things
for our perception. To them that love Him, He reveals; wherefore let
us add to kindness love, and we shall know. There are many things to
which we are blind, because we have not practised ourselves in looking
for them, nor do we know in what direction to look. I remember, when
in the Isle of Arran, watching through a mist for the coming of the
steamer from Glasgow; our landlady found it long before we could detect
it, because she was more used to the quest; her eyes were keener, and
she knew the direction in which to look. And the soul that ardently
believes and hopes, knows well how to lift up its eyes to the hills
from whence its help shall come, and to discern the help when it
appears.
There are some people who seem ignorant of the fact that God has given
them spiritual faculties suited to the observation of spiritual
realities. They are like folks who, if they were put down ten miles
from home on a clear night, would never be able to tell you on which
side of the sky the sun would rise; because they never exercised their
powers in the observation of the way the skies go round. And not only
may we discern spiritual realities, but more than that, it is written
that the pure in heart shall see God. For God has not given up
revealing Himself to men yet; but this is an age in which, while there
are many who know Him a little, there are few who know Him much. He
spake to the fathers. He is speaking still. Enoch was not the last of
whom it should be said, "He walked with God, he pleased God"; Isaiah
not the only one who could say, "I beheld the Lord sitting on a throne
high and lifted up"; Paul not the only one who should be privileged
with rapture to the third heaven; George Fox not the only one to whom
it was given to say, "I was come up, through the naming sword, into the
Paradise of God." Many there are who have known "the Most High God no
vision, nor that One who rose again."
God, who at sundry times, in manners many,
Spake to the fathers and is speaking still,
Eager to find if ever, or if any
Souls will obey and hearken to His
Who that one moment has the least descried Him,
Dimly and faintly, hidden and afar,
Doth not despise all excellence beside Him,
Pleasures and powers that are not and that are.
Aye, amid all men bear himself thereafter,
Smit with a solemn and a sweet surprise,
Dumb to their scorn and turning on their laughter
Only the dominance of earnest eyes.
Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest
Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny;
Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.
Yes! things that were seen of old may be seen again; voices that spake
to prophets and seers be revived in the innermost soul of God's
faithful children; God is not dead; the Lord Jesus has not been raised
from the grave to be placed in an inaccessible limbo, far from the
sight of believing eyes: the Holy Spirit still speaks, as of old time,
by holy men; He has not left the world yet, He dwelleth with you, He
shall be in you.
Suppose I were to say to you that if you were to go down to Hastings
you would be able to see the French coast clearly and distinctly, you
would say, "Impossible even to the longest-sighted person; it is more
than fifty miles away"; and yet, as you may see in the Philosophical
Transactions for 1798, the coast of France was so visible, without a
telescope, from Calais to St. Vallery, with the fishing-boats, and the
colour of the houses clearly perceived. When you hear this, you say,
"Well, if it is in the Philosophical Transactions, it must be true, and
if it happened once, it may happen again." Good enough reasoning; and
the Scriptures are the Spiritual Transactions, the record of God's
dealings with and revealings to men of old time. If they are true, He
has unveiled the hidden mysteries not once or twice to waiting souls;
and what He has done, He not only may do again, but will do, wherever
He finds a truly humble heart in which to work and rest. If He stood
by Paul, saying, "Fear not," just as really and maybe as evidently will
He stand by you: If He guided him in his work, restraining him from
preaching here, and calling him to service there, He will give you also
leadings just as certain and maybe as distinct. But, do you say, "Are
we then to seek for signs and wonders, to fast and pray, ardently
longing for the Divine revelation, until the vision dawns?" I do not
say so; but rather add unto your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to
patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to
brotherly kindness love: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall,
and an entrance shall be abundantly ministered unto you into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
VII
A CONFERENCE ON DEATH
"And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and
Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of His exodus which He should
accomplish at Jerusalem."--LUKE ix. 30, 31.