The Secret of a Strong Life
I crossed the ocean on a powerful steamship, which weighed over twenty thousand tons, and pushed her way against wind and waves at the rate of over twenty knots an hour! I could not see the propelling force; that was hidden deep down in the glowing furnaces, heaped constantly with fresh coal.
That illustrates the spiritual life of every strong, healthy, growing Christian; his strength is measured by his inward supply of divine grace. The spiritual force and progress of a growing Christian prove that his life is hid with Christ Jesus. The moving hands on the face of my watch are the evidence of a mainspring. Happy are you if your neighbors who see you every day can know by your outward conduct that your inner life is fed by an unseen Christ. 7
The great Apostle describes this inner life of the true believer as “with Christ in God.” The source of this spiritual life is divine; it begins with the new birth by the Holy Spirit. By a mysterious but very real process the new-born soul’s heart-life is so united to Christ, so dependent on Christ, and so supplied from Christ, that the Apostles describes it as “hid with Christ in God.”
As the root of an apple tree, concealed from the eye, goes down into the soil, feeling its way after earth, food and water, and drawing up nourishment for every limb and leaf, so a truly converted soul learns to go down into Christ for his spiritual nourishment. He learns to find in Christ not only pardon and peace, but power to resist temptation. He learns the sweets of fellowship with his Master; and so close is his intimacy with Christ that in times of trouble or perplexity he has only to put the question, “1-ord, what wilt thou have me do?’“” A genuine and joyous Christian life is such an inner partnership with Jesus that the 8 believer can say, “1 live — yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” This faith is not a mere opinion, nor is it a mere emotion. It is our grip on Christ, and His grip on us. Saving faith means the junction of our souls to Jesus Christ. The mightiest of all spiritual forces is the Christ-faith, because it puts the omnipotent Lord Jesus into our soul as an abiding presence and an almighty power. It was no idle boast, therefore, when Paul exclaimed: “I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.”
Paul knew whom he believed. In the days of my boyhood it used to be said of a person who was converted that he had “experienced religion.” A good phrase that; for a religion that is not a genuine heart experience is not worth the having. The poor weaklings in our churches have had but little or nothing of this experience. They joined the church more than they joined Christ. If they had ever experienced 9 the incoming of Jesus into their hearts, and had experienced a new bnth by the Holy Spirit, they would not so easily topple over into worldlings and money-worshippers and moral cowards — too often into disgraceful defalcations of character. A steamer without coal is a helpless waif on the ocean billows. Empty bags cannot stand upright. It is the terrible experiment of joining a church without any heart-union witJi the Saviour, of trying to live without honest prayer and daily Bible food, of fighting Satan with spears of soft pine instead of the sword of the Spirit — in short, the experiment of trying to pass for a Christian without Jesus Christ — this it is that accounts for so many pitiable weaklmgs on our church rolls. To stand up against all the social currents that set away from God and holiness, to resist the craze for wealth at all hazards, to conquer ileshly appetites, to hold an unruly temper in check, to keep down selfishness, to direct all our plans, all our talents, all our purposes and influence toward the good of others and the
10 honor of our Master, requires more power than any unaided man possesses. It requires Jesus Christ in the soul. Christ’s mastery alone can give us self-mastery, yes, and mastery over the powers of darkness and of hell. This is the secret of a strong and a joyous life.
Such a life is self-evidencing. Although the interior union of a believer to his Redeemer is invisible, yet the results of it are patent to the world. They are seen and read of all men. Just as we know the supply of coal and the power of the unseen engine by the steamer’s speed, so we can estimate the fulness and strength of a man’s piety by his daily life. Our outward lives can never rise above the mward; he who has not Christ in his conscience will not have Christ in his conduct. In a thousand ways does the hidden life with our Master come out before the world. It is manifest in the man of business who measures his goods with a Bible yardstick; in the statesman who would rather lose his election than lose God’s smile; in the citizen who II votes with the eye of his Master on the ballot; in the pastor who cares more for souls than for salary. The mother displays it when she seeks first the kingdom of heaven for her children, and the daughter exhibits it when she would rather watch by a sick mother’s bed than enjoy an evening’s gay festivities. No life is so humble or so obscure but it can shine when Christ shines through it. If Christ is hidden within you, let him not be hidden by you from an observing world. You are to be his witness. The sermon that no sceptic can answer is the sermon of a clean, vigorous, happy and fruitful life.