Wind and Sail

“Let us go on unto perfection.” — HEs. vi. 1.

Sucu is the Authorised Version of the Apostle’s words. But a literal translation would be given in this phrase: ‘ Let us be borne on unto perfection,” and the difference is profoundly significant. The one leaves us too much in the nakedness of our own effort; the other introduces the friendly co-operative might of the eternal God. One leaves us faint in endeavour; the other inspires us with all-sufficient resource. One engages our attention to the oars; the other reminds us of a favourable wind. The one emphasises works, and the other emphasises grace. The latter calls us to put ourselves in certain preparatory conditions, ee 220 Wind and Sail

and the great trade-winds of God will do the rest. We shall be “borne on unto perfection.”’

Now our religious life too frequently dwells in the earlier version, and it is lacking in Serenity and inspiration. Our religion becomes an extra piece of baggage which we have to carry instead of being an extra power to make our burden light. It weights us with impedimenta instead of endowing us with wings. We are in the atmosphere of commandments, and the beatitudes are ignored, We live in the severe house of the law when we might live in the radiant home of grace. Our statutes do not break Into songs. We give more evidence of struggle than we do of new and glorious fellowship. We do not impress the world as though we had received strange and secret additions to our strength. We are not like a sailing boat which has just been caught in the sweep of a friendly wind and is being borne along joyfully to its desired haven.

And yet it is this evidence of a heavenly

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trade-wind which is our most arresting witness for the Lord. We are no good unless we manifest superior resource. If we are Just as overdone as the children of the world, just as full of labour in hard rowing, just as easily exhausted, we offer no recommendation for our faith. Our witness is to be found in the reality of a mystic current, in the breath of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. We must make it plain to the world that there is more wind in our sails, more water in our mill-stream, more engine-power in our machinery. Our witness must be in “the demonstration of the power of the Spirit.” And to this end we must lay hold of the passive as well as the active aspects of the Apostle’s word; we must not only ‘0 on,’ we must be “borne on unto perfection.”? We must be “strengthened in the grace which is in Christ J esus.” eee 222 The Pattern in the Mount