Christ the Life
“Tam the life.” — John 14: 6.
LIFE begins small and develops gradually. There is in the acorn an embryo tree. After it is planted, it grows so little each day that you can hardly perceive it; but, in process of time, it becomes a giant oak.
Such is the law of nature and of grace. Minerva, springing full-armed from the brain of Jupiter, isa myth; nothing like it in fact. That which reaches maturity soon is usually not worth much. A mushroom springs up in a night and the ephemera grows old in a day; one is a well-nigh worthless plant, the other a worthless animal. There are plants called annuals, which mature in a year and die; others called biennials, which mature in two years. Man is an ETERNAL, and, for his full and complete development, time and eternity may be required. As Christ grew from an infant, so, as Christians, we must begin as babes, and grow in grace and knowledge. The kingdom of heaven is asa grain of mustard seed, and not a keg of powder. Christianity itself began small and gradually permeated society and the world. Let us not despise the day of small things. Small things are prophetic of great things. Little grace predicts great glory; a little faith and love is an earnest of mountain-moying faith and all-consuming affection. a Fhe
One kind of life, however, never develops into another kind. We hear much of lower animal life developing into higher life. Itisamyth. The lower life in plant and animal remains the lower life, and most especially is that true of spiritual life. You need not expect that this sinful nature, earthly and corrupt, will be, by a process of training, developed into a higher spiritual being. ‘“Ye must be born again.” “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Life moves. Machinery is moved. Life has that within itself which causes motion. Too many professing Christians are mere machines; they are moved upon. External forces of example and urging impel them to actions which resemble Christian living. I have seen a miniature clock of Strasburg, from the top of which the Apostles in wood or wax walked out one by one as the clock struck twelve. They looked like real men; they moved like men. Their movement was caused by external forces. There are so many who look like Christians; they act somewhat like Christians; but examine them closely, and you find that the movement does not proceed from the inward life. If we are filled with Christ, we have a life that moves; we are active amid lethargy; we are self-denying amid luxury; we are bold and spiritual amid worldly taunts and worldly pleasures. Little life will cause little movement. We measure life by movement. The oyster has a little life, but so much encumbrance of shell that he cannot move, except as drifted by the wave. Some Christians, with their little life, have so much encumbrance of worldly cares, worldly associations and worldly plans, that their little life fails to move them to activity.
Everything moves along the line of its own individuality. The life of the bird moves in flying; of the fish in swimming; of the horse in walking or racing; of man in the erect posture. Christ, the life within us, moves us along the line of each individual capacity. Can you teach? This life may move yon to that. Have you special capacity for money-making? Let the life of Christ in you move you in that direction. Make money for him, Whatever your capacity, mental, spiritual or physical, Christ will move you in some direction to work for him.
Life is an absorbent. Living things are sure to appropriate much of that by which they are surrounded. The tree drinks in the gases; our bodies appropriate the air; trees and bodies take in the light, the heat, the moisture, and make them a part of themselves. The quality of that which is appropriated depends upon the kind of life which appropriates it. Vegetables absorb what would kill men. Man selects the best food. Now, as we go still higher and reach the spiritual life, we expect that it will demand a purer food still. Yes! Nothing short of heaven’s manna can satisfy the soul. The man who, like the rich fool in the parable, would lay up food for his soul in earthly barns, is demented; our souls cannot live upon food which supports the body. Christ is the life of the soul, His is the highest and purest life in earth or heaven. If then we would absorb only what is good and pure and lovely, let us be filled with this Christ-life.
But life is also expulsive. Some men can live in malarial districts, even breathe the coal gases of underground mines, and yet have good health. Their vitality is so great that they repel the poisonous influences about them. The way to keep out the bad is to fill ourselves with the good.
The evil spirit, which departed out of the man, returned and found the house swept and garnished; no wonder he took in seven spirits worge than himself and revelled. Empty lives and empty hearts are inviting places for devils to enter. The man who merely casts the bad from his outward life is sweeping his house and garnishing it for the reception of devils. Now if he would have a strong expulsive life; that which can be in the world avid not of it; that which can live by the bogs and morasses of sin; that which can come in contact with all kinds of evil without absorbing it; let him keep full of Christ. He moved amid the worst of men, but his vitality cast off their sins; his goodness fiowed to them without receiving in return any of their badness,
Let me warn you, however, against presumption. Do not imagine that your spiritual life is so strong that you have no cause for fear; that you can move in worldly circles, be companions with the bad, frequent places where there is only evil, and yet repel their influence and be unhurt? Beware! presumption goeth before a fall. The secret of your strength is in the realization of your weakness. The strength of the life within you is the consciousness that you have no strength except in Christ; and even if your spiritual vitality is strong enough to thus expose yourself without harm; your influence may lead the weaker to certain ruin, The moderate drinking of John B. Gough’s father made his son a drunkard. Your body may not be hurt by sitting in a draught; but your child may do the same and die of.pneumonia. “If eating meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no more flesh while’ the world stands.”
Life beautifies. The Desert of Sahara is unattractive, because ‘it lacks life. In what striking contrast is the oasis, where are trees, flowers, verdure and men; and as this unseen, subtle thing called life in the physical world beautifies it, paints its flowers, clothes its landscapes, so Christ, the life of the soul, gives it moral beauty. True, in autumn, the forest leaves are most beautiful in decay; but it is the life in them that paints their beauty; take away all life,and you have the sear, unsightly leaf; and the beauty of the Christian character in the decline of life, when the spring and the summer have passed, and the autumn is come, and the winter is near, is the beauty of a living faith and hope and love. Christ within us insures this moral beauty through all seasons.
Life gravitates upward. The very mole and worm must come up occasionally to the light. The plant in the cellar struggles toward the sun. Though lower life does not develop into higher, yet all life reaches up, and the higher the life the greater this upward tendency. This highest of all life, which we have in Christ Jesus, gravitates toward heaven. The boy may not see his kitein the distance, but he knows it is there, because he can feel the pull of the string. The astronomer knows that a heavenly body is approaching, because he sees that other bodies are attracted by it, though it be out of sight.
There is in the City of Dresden a picture of the Madonna. It is placed in the Cathedral before an altar of incense. Every face in the picture is looking outward and upward, as if toward some invisible object where the incense is ascending. The poet’s fancy was to make it picture worshipping souls — their gratitude, their faith, their praises ascending with the incense up to the invisible Father. This life, Christ Jesus within us, is like that picture; it gazes upward; it looks beyond anything within ourselves; it sees the invisible.