Christ in Everything
Revelation iii. 12 v.
“He shall go no more out.”
Is there then to be no more liberty? Is the penalty of my conquest to be my own captivity? Am I to be imprisoned within the golden gate that my own victory has opened? Not so; you can go where you like; the world shall be yours. Why, then, is it said, “He shall go no more out “? Simply because there shall be no more anything outside; the whole universe shall be enclosed in Christ. You shall never get beyond your walls; but your walls shall enfold creation. You shall never escape from God’s presence; but you shall find God’s presence everywhere. The tree of knowledge shall be no longer forbidden; the tree of life shall be no longer barred. You shall walk to the limits of earth, and find it an Eden. The Cross of Christ shall be in every street; the altar of sacrifice shall be in every pleasure. There shall be nothing secular to you, nothing worldly, nothing frivolous. You will not need to fly from the old scenes into the sanctuary; the old scenes shall themselves be the sanctuary. You will not need to shut joxiy door on the world when you go up to pray; the world shall itself be your house of prayer. You shall worship when you work; you shall pray when you practise; you shall love when you labour. Your ledger shall be a book of devotion; you shall be at Church on ‘Change. Your social call shall be a ministrant visit — a healing of present wounds. The songs you sing shall all be sacred songs — not from their subject, but from their motive; you will sing to make glad. The days yrou spend shall all be Sabbath days; you shall not cease from work, but you shall cease from worry. The pastimes you enjoy shall all be sacrificial pastimes — the sympathy with another’s joy. You will be found in many a scene beneath you, many a surmounted pleasure. You will learn that joy as well as sadness was made for the Cross of Jesus. You shall throw yourself into the interest of others — interest which perhaps has long since faded from your ascending day. You shall bring trifling things within the gates of gold by the very act of bending to them. The feast of Cana is a trifle to you; but it is something to somebody. If you can throw yourself into that lower experience, you have put Christ in Cana. If you can remember that the trifle of to-day was the treasure of yesterday, and see your brother’s world in the light of long you may dwell in the things of time, and not go out from Jesus.