Sharing His Sufferings

The first edition of this book was entitled **‘ The School of Calvary,” but the Publishers have since discovered that this title had already been given to a book by another author, published some time ago. To avoid confusion with that work, this third impression of Dr. Jowett’s book bears a new name, with the original name as sub-title.

THERE are three cardinal words in the.

passage, “me,” “live,” “Christ.” The middle term “live” is defined in the union of the two extremes. The two carbon electrodes of the arc-lamp are brought into relationship, and the result is a light of brilliant intensity. And these two terms “me” and ‘ Christ” are brought into relationship, and there is revealed “the light of life,” and I become “alive unto God.” The human finds life in union with the divine. Now this is the only contact which justifies the usage of the term “life.” Any other application of the word is illegitimate and degrading. The word ‘‘life” stands defined in the relationship of the apostle’s words. But we

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The School of Calvary

take other extremes and combine them, and

we name the resultant “life.” “For me »“”to live is money.” Me — money! And

we describe the union as “life.”’ We are using a gloriously spacious and wealthy term to label a petty and superficial gratification, which is as transient and uncertain as the ephemera that dance through the feverish hour of a single

summer’s day. ‘For me to live is pleasure!” Me — pleasure! And we describe the union as “life.’; It is a

mere sensation, having no more relationship to life in its reality than the sluggish and ill-defined existence of the amceba has to the large mental and spiritual exercises of the Apostle John.

“She that liveth in pleasure is dead while

she liveth.” ‘For me to live is fame.” Me — fame! And we describe the union as “life.” It is a mere galvanised spasm, and is no more worthy of the regal term “life” than a will-o’-the-wisp is worthy of bearing the name of the sun. Of all these relationships we may employ the

New ‘Testament indictment and say, “Thou hast a name to Jive and art dead.” “© All other combinations fail. By no other fellowships can we produce the resultant. Life is the unique product of a unique union. ‘This is life, to know Jesus.” “For to me éo Jive is Christ.” Such was the rich and ineffable life of the Apostle Paul. Let us turn our thoughts upon it in prayerful meditation.

y+, The first condition of real life is ‘f something to love, and the second ‘condition is something to revere. For a living issue each of the elements is essential. Each deprived of the other is robbed of its dynamic. Neither can lift if the other be absent. Love without reverence becomes a purely carnal sentiment, and resides in the channels.of-the flesh. Reverence without love is like cold moonlight, and will never enrich the heart with the presence of gracious flowers. Love without reverence is a destructive fever; reverence without love is a perpetual frost. True love kneels in rever- — ence; true reverence yearns in love. Each, I say, is essential to the other, and both are needful in the creation of worthy and wealthy life.

Now; where can love and reverence be best begotten? Where can we find the atmosphere most fitted for their creation? Where can we learn to love and revere in such a way that they shall become the spontaneous exercises of the soul? I sometimes take down from my bookshelves a little book of devotion written by a great mystic 300 years ago. I turn to Chapter X. of this book and read its quaint and engaging title: ‘‘ Calvary is the true Academy of love.” If I want a school where love is taught and revealed, I must seek the Academy of Calvary! The teaching is superlatively impressive, and even the dullest scholar makes progress in the school. Let me quote from my much-sought-after devotional guide: ‘‘The death and passion of our Lord is the gentlest, and at the same time the strongest motive which can animate our hearts in this mortal life; and it is quite true that the mystical bees make their most excellent honey in the wounds of the lion of the tribe of Judah, who was killed, shattered and rent on Mount Calvary.” It is a quaint and very suggestive figure. Out of death, which destroys all things, ‘‘has come forth the meat” of our consolation; out of death, which is stronger than all things, “‘ has come forth the sweetness’ of the honey of our love. We are to be like bees,.and we are.to ‘“‘ make our excellent honey” in the wounds of the lion of the tribe of Judah. Or, to return to my writer’s title-figure, we are to go into the Academy of Calvary, which is the all-excelling school of love. And what are we to do when we get there? We are to employ the ministry of meditation. I care not how unpractical the counsel may seem in this busy, hurrying, breathless day. If we men and women are ever to attain unto life and make progress in its ways we have got to find time to go to school and learn. I think one of the cant phrases of our day is the familiar one by which we express our permanent want of time. We repeat it so often that by the very repetition we have deceived ourselves into believing it. It is never the supremely busy men who have got no time. So compact and systematic is the regulation of their day, that, whenever you make a demand upon them, they seem to be able to find additional corners to offer for unselfish service. I find that when I have comparatively little to pack into my portmanteau it seems as full as when I have much. The less we have to pack the more carelessly we pack it, and the portmanteau appears to be full. There is many a man who says he has no time, who proclaims his day to be full, but the fulness is the result of careless packing. I confess, as a minister, that the men to whom I most hopefully look for additional service are the busiest men. They are always willing to squeeze another item into their bulging portmanteau. But, even though our plea were legitimate, if ‘

The School of Calvary

our time were crowded, if the portmanteau were packed, if we cannot find a corner. of the day for meditation in the school of Christ, then we must take something out and make room for it. I think if we search our bags we shall find many and many a rag which takes up space, but which is of very little worth, and which might very safely be banished. But if even all the contents were valuables, even assuming that they were pearls, the Master has declared that the secret of progressive living is to sacrifice the pearl of inferior value for the pearl of transcendent worth. Even assuming that the newspaper is not a rag, but a jewel, I do not think it wise to cram so many into the bag that there is no room for the book of Revelation, the title-deeds of ‘‘the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” No, if we mean truly to “live,” we have got to find time for the highest of all exercises, meditation upon the eternal things of God. We have to go to Calvary, the academy of love, and reverently 17 B contemplate the unveilings of redemptive grace. How many of the men in our congregations ever open their Bibles for private meditation from Monday morning to Saturday night? We give ourselves no opportunity. Love and reverence are not the uncertain products of chance. They are the sure and stately product of thought. If our thought be steadily directed love and reverence will follow in its train. Let us go then into the school of Calvary, with eyes and ears alert and quickened, that we may see and hear. We shall get into the secret places of the Most High, and we shall behold the marvellous unveilings of Infinite Love. We shall hear that wondrous evangel that Pascal heard, and which melted his heart, and hallowed all his years: ‘I love thee more ardently than thou hast loved thy sin.” I cannot describe the tremendous impact which that sentence makes upon my life. I know how I have loved my sin. I know how I have clung to it. I know how I have yearned after it. I know what illicit pleasure I have found in it. I know how I have pursued it at any cost. And, now, in the school of Calvary, my Master takes up this, my so strenuous and over-whelming passion for sin, and contrasts it disparagingly with His passion for me: “J love thee more than thou hast loved thy sin.” If in some quiet moment that grand evangel swept through our souls in heavenly strains we should fall in love with the Lover, and our love would imply our entrance into eternal life. And as for reverence — no man can go softly and thoughtfully into the school of Calvary without falling upon his knees. He is awed by what he sees as well as by what he hears. ‘ They gave Him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall, and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink.” ‘And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads.” ‘‘ Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” “Now, from the sixth hour there was darkness over the land, until the ninth hour.” ‘*My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” ‘‘ And when He had 19 B 2 cried again with a loud voice, He yielded up the ghost.” I say, go into that school — quietly, privately, and you will soon be on your knees! The old mystic is right — Calvary is the academy in which we may learn reverence and love. We are wooed by the vision into surrender and spiritual fellowship, and through the gracious ministries of purification and illumination we pass into perfected union with the Lord. Love and reverence for the Highest are the conditions of true life, and in love and reverence for the Lord we attain unto eternal life, and become partakers of the Divine nature. ‘I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me.” ‘‘ For to me #o dive is Christ.”

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