Access and Separation
“The first duty is to attach oneself; detachment comes afterwards. ‘The chrysalis covering in which the butterfly was prisoned only breaks and falls away when the insect’s wings have grown — it is by opening that these burst their melancholy integuments. We only begin to detach ourselves from the world when we have learned to know something of a better. ‘Till then we are but capable of disappointment and weariness, which are not detachment.” — Alexander Vined.
HERE are two Advocates appointed to us, for the maintenance of our two-fold life — Christ on the throne, and the Spirit in our hearts. “If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous” is the declaration of Scripture concerning the one; “I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Advocate that he may abide with you forever even the Spirit of Truth” + is the promise of Christ concerning the other. The work of Christ for us is still going on in heaven where “he ever liveth to make intercession.” And this last saying, from the Epistle to the Hebrews, describes exactly what he is now doing for us above, viz. living for us, and interceeding for us.
Does not the scripture declare that being “reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life?” t This refers to His risen and glorified life.
* John2:1. t John 14: 16, (Marginal R. V.) Romans; 10.
Our being is so linked with His, our salvation and peace are so entirely centered in His person that for Christ to live is for us to live. Hence His blessed saying, when referring to His departure out of the world; ‘“Because I live ye shall live also.” * And hence also that other saying of Scripture addressed to those who are dead and risen with Christ. “Your life ts hid with Christ tn God.” As by the death of Christ on the cross our sins were put away, our condemnation removed and our justification perfectly accomplished, so now: by the life of Christ upon the throne our spiritual growth is maintained and the work of our sanctification carried on. Meanwhile as our great High Priest within the veil, He is interceding for us;- and His intercession is but the reiteration of His atonement, a perpetual appeal to the merit of His sacrifice and death. How significant, that He who on the cross was “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world” is now “in the midst of the throne a Lamb standing as though tt had been slain.” + Amazing words, which would tell us that the marks of His passion, the memorials of His vicarious death are still visible on His person
* John 14: 19 t Rev. 5; 6, R. V.
and that while He intercedes for us they utter their pathetic plea to God who is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Such is the ministry which our Advocate with the Father is continuing for us on the throne.
The other Advocate is meantime perfecting his work in our hearts; and the two ministries exactly correspond. The Comforter within is upholding and developing the inward divine life; “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit ts life because of righteousness.’* He is also continuing an inward intercession according with the outward one; “The Spirit himself maketh intercesston for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Such is the double advocacy by which our two-fold life is carried on.
And observe more particularly, how each of these ministries exactly supplements the other.
The love of the Father in giving his Son to be a propitiation for our sins, is the truth which is proclaimed from every wound on our exalted Saviour’s person: and here we are to turn for the assurance of our acceptance. The moment we get taken up
* Rom. 8: 10, + Rom, 8: 26 with our own love, as evidenced in our inward consciousness we shall fall into darkness. God’s love, as set forth in the slain Lamb upon the throne, is the only resting place for our faith. But this is not all; for our comfort and sanctification He also gives us his love within us, as it is written; “Because the love of God ts shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.”* Again, if any challenge our justification, we turn at once and confidently to the cross where that justification was accomplished, and to the throne where it is now maintained; and we say — “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? J/2 zs Christ that died, yea rather, that ts risen again, who zs even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ + But while our justification was purchased solely by Christ’s death for us, our sanctification is to be effected by Christ’s death in us. And this is carried on by that other Advocate; “But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live.” §
And yet once more if we would be assured of our bodily resurrection, we look at once to Him whom God has raised from the dead and set at His own
* Rom. v: 5. t+ Rom. 8: 34 § Rom, 8: 13.
right hand. If He, the First fruits be there, we shall be there also, in a body fashioned like the body of his glory. But this consummation also is made dependent on the inworking of the Comforter; “Jf the Spirit of Him that vatsed up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies dy Hts Spirit that dwelleth in you.”* Now Christ’s presence at the Father’s right hand, and His ministry in the Holy of Holies above, constitute the ground of our access there; and this blessed fact of our privilege to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus is the truth with which the Epistle to the Hebrews is especially occupied. Indeed Christ’s exaltation to the Father’s throne is counted as our presence and residence there, and we find it so set forth in the epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians and Philippians. But is it not plain that access carries with it the opposite idea of separation; that drawing near to God involves a withdrawing from fellowship with an evil world? The fact that Christ is at the right hand of the Father, and that we are one with Him in his exaltation, gives us our reckoning-point by which to fix
* Rom, 8: 11.
our relation to this world. The paradox of Lady Powerscourt that “the Christian is not one who is looking up from earth to heaven, but one who is looking down from heaven to earth,” can be comprehended in this light. If “our citizenship is in heaven” * we are spiritually disfranchised of the world, and are bound to confess that “we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” This last saying, however, is only true of believers, the “partakers of the heavenly calling.” When our Lord is speaking to the unbelieving Jews he says, “Ye ave from beneath, 1 am from above; ye are of this world, 1am not of this world.” But when He speaks to His own disciples, to those who have been “born from above,” he says, “Ye ave not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” $ And in like manner when we read that God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” § the inference is clear concerning our earthward state. To be seated together with Christ, unseats us from the throne of earthly ambition, and makes us content to forego its crowns and prizes and rewards; just as Jesus said after speaking of the kings of the
* Phil. 3: 20 ¢t John 8: 23. tJohn 15: 19. § Eph. 2: 6.
Gentiles exercising lordship, “du ye shall not be so.” This is what we mean in saying that access implies separation.
No doubt this truth is especially distasteful to this generation — a generation bent, as few have been, on reconciling the claims of religion with those of pleasure, and thus solving the problem of ‘making the best of both worlds.” Would that our eyes were really open to what is passing! To dissuade Christians from going to the theatre would be very tame advice in these days, when the theatre with rapid strides is pushing itself into the church. To tell the disciples of Jesus to “love not the world neither the things that are in the world,’ would seem a very mild dissuasion and almost unkind when the world has come to such friendly terms with the church, that it willingly lends all its machinery of entertainment and art and amusement to make the gospel more attractive. It is with no spirit of surly ascetism that we speak; it is rather with a tearful, grieved and foreboding dread as to where this practice of a naturalized christianity and a worldly consecration may bring us. At all events the truest remedy is to be found in a strenuous and stubborn non-conformity to the world on the part of Christians. With the most unshaken conviction, we believe that the church can only make headway, in this world, by being loyal to her heavenly calling. Towards Ritualism her cry must be “nota rag of Popery;” towards Rationalism “not a vestige of whatsoever is not of faith;” and towards Secularism “nota shred of the garment spotted by the flesh.” The Bride of Christ can only give a true and powerful testimony in this world as she is found clothed with her own proper vesture even the “fine linen clean and white, which is the righteousness of the
saints.”
But this rigid separation from the world must be attended with the most persistent, zealous, untiring going into the world, to seek and to save that which was lost. For the same Lord who tells us that we are not of the world even as He is not of the world, makes known to us how the Father sent Him wto the world, and then adds ‘‘ As my Father hath sent me, so sendI you.” The other corollary of this high doctrine — ah! who can believe it without reserve, or receive it without shrinking — “Because ye are not of this world ¢herefore the world hateth you?” It is just as true as when Christ first uttered it — this promise of the word’s malediction which carries the pledge of the Saviour’s benediction. That we do not see this contrariety manifested, as in the beginning, is not altogether because the world’s enmity has been assuaged, but because the church’s non-conformity has been tempered and subdued. Settle it in your mind, oh! believer, that if you should be privileged to walk with God like Enoch, you would have to part company with such as have set their affections on the earth; and not content merely to walk apart from you they would have many hard speeches to make against you; and if you should be favored to be “greatly beloved” of the Lord, as Daniel was, your portion might be to be greatly hated by those of your generation. This we say with no morbid greed for persecution, but because it is so written. Persecution indeed like everything else which the Lord has blessed and sanctified, has been counterfeited by his great enemy; and many a man who glories in tribulation is really glorying in his own shame, his fancied crown of martrydom being only a fool’s cap, which signalizes his preéminent self-deception. The Ritualist setting up in the church his half-heathen ceremonials and complaining of the discipline that sets him aside from his ministry; the Rationalist crucifying the faith of Christ with the nails of his unsanctified logic, and then, because God’s true servants hold off from him, counting it persecution. — What have these to do with wearing the crown of Christ’s rejection? “But if ye do well and suffer for it;” — “if any man suffer as a Christian,’ — “if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye.’’* And this is the promised portion of all such as will live godly in Christ Jesus. How many of us have this title and testimony to our consecration? Certainly, if we are faithful, it will never be wholly wanting in “this present evil world.” The offence of the cross has not ceased; and one who really lives Christ crucified will be quite as likely to feel the sharp thrust of persecution, as one who preaches Christ crucified.
There was a minister of Christ, who died in the early part of this century, who exerted an extraordinary influence for good upon his generation, especially in awakening a spirit of self-sacrifice and consecration in other ministers. One who knew him intimately declares, and italicises the statement that “dy the mere force of evangelical truth
*: Peter 11: 14, ete
and holiness, exhibited during fifty or sixty years, and not by great talents and extraordinary powers of judgment or particular attainments in academtcal learning, God gave him this wide and blessed influence over the age in which he lived.” * And yet we know of no one in recent times who had such a bitter portion of persecution wrung out to him, or who had such exquisite torture inflicted upon fine and tender sensibilities as this holy and evangelical preacher, Charles Simeon of Cambridge. While avoiding severity in his preaching, he poured forth from that University pulpit the tenderest and most persuasive strains of evangelical truth, that could anywhere be heard in that day. Without fear, without wavering and without qualification he preached the cross and lived the cross. But as he passed through the streets, he was hissed and hooted; bricks and stones, accompanied with every offensive epithet were hurled at him from college windows, and his services in the church were conconstantly disturbed by angry rioters. Yet none of these things moved him. Hear how his sorrowful heart was once solaced in his overwhelming trials.
* Bishop Wilson.
It is a melting story, told in his old age, and it is most instructive in its lessons. He says: *
‘‘When the early disciples were persecuted and brought before kings and governors for Christ’s sake, he declared that it should turn to them for a testimony. So it will be; the world will mock and trample on you, a man will come and slap you on your face. You will rub your face and say ‘This is strange work, I like it not sir’ — ‘Never mind,’ I say. ‘This is your evidence; it turns to you for a testimony.’ If you were of the world the world would love its own; but now ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you!
Many years ago when I was an object of much contempt and derision in the University, I strolled forth one day, buffeted and afflicted, with my little Testament in my hand. I prayed earnestly to my God that He would comfort me with some cordial from His word, and that, on opening the book, I might find some text which should sustain me. I thought I would turn to the epistles where I should most easily find some precious promise; but my book was upside down, so, without intending it, I opened on the gospels. The first text which caught my eye was this, ‘ Zhey found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear his cross.’ You know Simon is the same name
* Memoirs p, 473.
ae
as Simeon. What a word of instruction was here — what a blessed hint for my encouragement. To have the cross laid upon me, that I might bear it after Jesus — what a privilege! It was enough. Now I could leap and sing for joy, as one whom Jesus was honouring with a participation in His sufferings. And when I read ¢hat, I said, ‘ Lord lay it on me, lay it on me; I will gladly bear the cross for Thy sake.’ And I henceforth bound persecution as a wreath of glory
round my brow!”
And yet when did ever one have fellowship with Christ’s sufferings, without also having part, even here, in his joy? While the thorns of persecution were sorely wounding him, Simeon was able like his Master to see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. For it was during these years of trial, that God gave him Henry Martyn, among others, as the fruit of his toil and patient endurance. Henry Martyn! ah! how his much sorrowing heart rested in its love when it turned to this devoted missionary! Is there anywhere to be found a more exquisite instance of the — we will not say romance — but pathos of Christian affection, than in that story of his reception of the portrait of his beloved Henry, whose living face he was to see no more? This is his description of the scene: “I had, after it was opened at the India House, gone to see the picture, and notwithstanding all that had been said respecting it to prepare my mind, I was so overpowered by the sight, that I could not bear to look upon it, but turned away and went to a distance, covering my face, and, in spite of every effort to the contrary, crying aloud with anguish. E
was with me; and all the bystanders said to her, “That I suppose is his father.” zs father, indeed, in a sense that none of them knew; and this was the son whom he had “begotten in his bonds.” Blessed are they who, like Simeon are content to forego wife and children and houses and lands for Christ’s sake, that they may look upon spiritual children and say, “for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”
We insist that the words of our Lord hold true in all ages of the church; “Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” The power of persecution changes indeed with each generation. In the barbarous age, it finds expression in the stake and thumbscrew; in the refined and cultivated age it manifests itself in the form of envenomed speech, or silent and sullen antipathy. But whatever the form, the fact will be inevitable. The measure of our separation from the world, must always be the measure of the world’s intolerance. ‘The age of persecution past!” Possibly, if the age of worldly conformity is here. If the hem of the believer’s garment gets unravelled by easy compliance, it will soon be woven up with that of the worldling, and then there will be no antagonism. It is the rending of garments that uncovers deformities; drawing into closer union with Christ, results in withdrawing from the things in which the flesh delights, and so in judging ourselves, we condemn others. Indeed every advance in holiness casts a reflection on prevailing worldliness. Hence the enmity. ‘And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, azd his brother’s righteous.”
We urge none to bid for persecution; but with the heart of Christ, we beseech Christians to strive for unworldliness of life. ‘The Cross of Christ condemns me to be a saint,” wrote one. Would that we all believed it! Christ died that we might live, but not unto ourselves; He suffered that He
might reconcile us unto God, — but not unto this present evil world.
Our power is in our separateness from the world, not in our affiliation with it. ‘ Why are so few, from the world, joining the church?” was asked the other day. ‘ Because so many in the church are joining the world,” it was answered. Explanation enough! Nothing is gained by alliance with unconverted men; everything depends upon our close communion with our risen Lord. Consecration to Christ must precede contact with men, or we shall be drawn away from Him instead of drawing men to Him. The Holy Ghost said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul;” and the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near jozx thyself to this chariot.” The first command precedes the other, in the divine order. God would have us set apart to Him, in order that we may with safety and strength, go forth to bless others.
O blessed two-fold life to which He has called us! In heaven and yet on earth; seated with Him in the heavenlies, and sitting down with publicans and sinners to tell them of Him who died to save them! We are as He was, who while His feet were standing on the earth, sore and weary from their search after the lost, and hastening on to be nailed to the cross for our redemption, yet spoke of himself as the “Son of man who is zz heaven.’ Let us strive to be one with Him alike in His exaltation and in his humiliation. And to this end, let us heed that double exhortation given us in Scripture, “Let us draw near.. having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,” and “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp: bearing His reproach.”