The Way and Work of Life
“Looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.” — John i: 36.
Beholding Christ as the Lamb of God is the Way of Life.
Not a Creed. — Creeds, as expressions of our faith, are good enough in their place, but the man who makes a creed take the place of Christ is like the patient who eats the prescription while he rejects the medicine. There is as much difference between Christ and a creed as there is between a man and his biography. Creeds, like baskets, may hold luscious fruit; and we would not dispense with the baskets, but as an article of diet baskets are not good. We need vessels to hold water, but the vessels themselves will not quench our thirst.
Not the Church. — The church is for saved people; the way of life is God’s door into it. After we have beheld the Lamb of God, we should join the church; but no sadder mistake can be made than to regard the church as the ark of safety, the city of refuge for the soul. There is a vast difference between a post and a tree. Those who enter the church, that they may be saved thereby, are like posts without life, planted in the earth. Time rots them, and they fall down; while those who enter the church, because they have been saved, are like trees full of life, planted by the river of water, whose leaf shall not wither.
Not Ordinances. — Ordinances are the symbols of truth. The Lord’s Supper is the shadow of Christ, the Lamb. Baptism is a picture of the burial and resurrection of our Lord. But looking at a picture of food does not satisfy hunger; looking at a picture of water does not quench thirst.
Not an Experience. — Beholding the Lamb of God gives an experience; as a result we have love, hope, and all the Christian graces, but these are the fruits of the Spirit, and not the object of our faith. They are good proofs that we are saved, but, looking to the work of the Spirit in us should not displace the work of Christ for us.
The Spirit and Jesus are no rivals. The Spirit v mid have us look away from Himself to the Lamb of God whom He delights, while He hides Himself, to hold before the eyes of all.
Not beholding Christ as merely a Teacher, Pliilantliropist, or Example. — It is popular in some quarters nowadays to exalt the life of Christ at the expense of His death. It is the religion of Cain, with his fruits and flowers, without the blood. It is an attempt to cover over the offence of the cross with the attributes of the man Christ Jesus. It is an exaltation of the man at the expense of the Lamb. I would be second to none in praising the perfection of the character of Christ, and in desiring to grow into His full stature; but, in order that we may be like Him, we must first get rid of sin that has defaced our characters, and “without the shedding of blood there is no remission,” Calvary is the alphabet of Christianity. We must start at the cross, if we would reach the crown. Grasping for the crown, while we ignore the cross, is a sort of pious theft.
The Work of Life is to make one’s Personality a Voice proclaiming the Way of Life.
The people asked John, “Who are you?” His reply was, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Not, I have a voice, although he had one strong enough doubtless to preach to twenty thousand people in the open air, but he said, “I am the voice;” my whole personality, all that is meant by “John the Baptist,” is a voice crying in the desert “Make straight the way of the Lord.” Our work in life, after we have beheld the Lamb of God, is to be a John the Baptist calling men to the Christ. We should in all our relations voice the saying, “Behold the Lamb of God.” Now the practical question is, How can we do this? In four ways.
1. By oar Words. — The man who is a voice of God will use the voice he has for God. Those of us who hear God will speak His word, and our ability to speak will depend upon our ability to hear. When a man loses his hearing, he loses his speech. The deaf are always dumb, and the man who fails to hear God as he speaks in Revelation will not speak for God. We who have heard Him should speak forth the hope that is in us.
Our business is “by all means to save some.” We may do other things, but they are incidentals. As you walk down the corridor of the Astor House toward the restaurant, you will see standing in the door a man who never looks into your face; he always looks at your shoes. That man’s business is to black shoes, and I have never seen him look into the face of a guest. His one thought is about the condition of the shoes. A life-insurance agent told me that he never saw a respectable man who did not suggest to him a policy. His business was to get policies. Every person we meet should suggest salvation. Is he a Christian? Can I speak a word now that may change his life? Such a man was John Wesley, and his followers have to a large extent drunk in his spirit. Wesley was robbed once by a highwayman, and, as he handed to him his scanty purse, he said, “Sir, you may some time repent of this, and if you ever do, remember, The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin.” Several years afterwards a man took Wesley by the hand as he came out of church and said, “Do you remember the time you were robbed in a certain place?” “Yes,” said Wesley, “I shall never forget that.” “Well, I was the man that robbed you, and the words you spoke to me made me a Christian and an honest man.” I have not heard whether or not he returned the money to Wesley; he ought to have done so, if he did not; but the point I wrish to make is, that Wesley was Christian enough to think more of saving that man’s soul than of keeping his purse.
2. By our Business. — Every man’s business should be a voice proclaiming Christ. It cannot be such, if it is a bad business; and, however good in itself, if it is conducted on bad principles, it is never the voice of God. A gentleman telegraphed to a friend asking what a certain man was worth. The reply was, “His note is worth a million dollars, but his word is not worth a cent.” You will not be surprised to learn that, before very long, his note was as worthless as his word. That man’s business went to wreck, because it was not founded “upon principles of honesty. “What are you doing there?” asked a neighbor, as he came into the shop where a Christian blacksmith with strong arm was beating the white iron upon the anvil and making the sparks fly in every direction. “I am preaching the gospel to the regions beyond,” he replied, as he continued to swing his heavy hammer. His was a holy calling; the ring of his hammer was as sweet to God as an angel’s harp, and that smoky shanty was a palace in which God delighted. So every man’s business may be made a voice proclaiming the Lamb of God. 3. By our Money. — Princess Eugenie, of Sweden, soM her diamonds, that she might build a home for incurables. On one of her visits to the home she met a wicked, sick woman, to whom she talked about Christ. She told the matron on leaving that she hoped special attention would be given to that poor creature, for the Princess was anxious that before she died she should become a Christian. One days he found the invalid with bright face, because her heart was radiant with hope, and, as she took her by the hand, the tears gathered in her sunken eyes. The Princess said to her husband on returning to the palace, “I saw the glitter of my diamonds to-day in the tears of penitence.”
“But,” you say, “I am no princess with diamonds for sale.” A newsboy was run over in New York a few weeks ago by a vehicle, and carried, mangled in body, to the hospital. As soon as his mother came in, he pointed to his little vest lying upon a chair, and said, “Mother, there are four cents in my pocket that I got for selling papers before I wTas hurt; I made them for you. Don’t forget to take them.” That boy’s spirit of ministry to his mother is as bright as the glitter of Eugenie’s diamonds. The two-fifths of a cent that the poor widow put into the treasury may, in the view of angels, have a brighter flash than all the diamonds of earth, for they have the brilliancy of trust and consecration.
4. By our Character. — Above all things, our character must be a voice proclaiming the Lamb of God. Our words spoken, printed and written, our business, our money, will not atone for the lack of a clear Christian character. “What we need,” says some one, “is not more men, but more man.” The manifestation of Christian character is the crying need in this age and all ages. I saw two portraits in the National Art Gallery ‘in London, under one of which was the title “A Man,” under the other “A Woman.” They were meant to express the artist’s ideal of manhood and womanhood, and, as I gazed upon them, I thought it is better to be a man than a king, a true woman than a queen.
After the battle of Lutzen, in which Gustavus Adolphus was slain in the hour of victory, all Stockholm and the other cities of Swreden were in mourning. The representatives gathered from far and near, in order to consider what now should be done. There was talk about a Venetian Republic, and some said that Swreden should be given to the King of Poland, who was a cousin of Adolphus; but Oxenstiern, the Grand Chancellor, stood before the assembly and said, “Let there be no talk of a Venetian Republic, or Polish kings, for we have in our midst the heir of the great Gustavus, his little girl, who is six years of age.” Larson, a peasant representative, replied abruptly, “How do we know, Oxenstiern, that this is not a trick of yours, to cheat us out of our rights? We have never seen this heir. We do not know that Gustavus has a child.” “Wait a minute,” replied Oxenstiern, “and I will show you.”
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He soon brought into the room Christina, the little six-year-old daughter of the king, and lifting her up, placed her in the throne, where only rulers of Sweden were allowed to sit. Larson pressed his way up close, gazed for a moment into her face, and then, turning around to the assembly, said, “Brethren, I see in the countenance of this child the features of the great Gustavus. Look at her nose, her eyes, her chin: she is the child of our king.” “Yes,” replied Oxenstiern, “and she has the heart of a soldier, for I saw her clapping her hands and shouting at the booming of the cannon;” and by acclamation she wras proclaimed, girl that she was, “Christina, King of Sweden.” The world presses very close up to us, ‘scans our every feature, and, if they see in our moral and spiritual make-up the lineaments of the character of Jesus Christ, they wTill proclaim us children of the King; but if they fail to perceive that we are like Him, they will deny our claim and pronounce us pretenders.
The way of life is to behold the Lamb of God: the work of life is to make ourselves and all we have a voice proclaiming Christ to others.