The Spirit as a Harbinger
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” — ROMANS viii. 10,
“HE test of being in Christ is not the body but the Spirit. Paul says that after Christ has entered into a man the body nay for a time remain dead; in. other words, ‘he bad outward habits of the past may not at snce die. But he says that even amidst this outward barrenness there shall be already a herald of the spring; the body may be dead but the Spirit shall be alive. What does he mean? He means that the earliest part of us is our aspirations. Our desires come before our deeds. They are what the swallows are to the summer — its harbingers. They do not accompany the fruit but they predict its coming. They are the songs of the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem. While yet the outer scene is wrapt in night, while yet the visible Christ is lying in a manger, they utter the prophecy of the approaching age of gold, K “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to the children of men.”
O Thou divine Christ, give me the evidence that Thou art in me. My earliest sense of Thy presence in my heart must be my admiration of Thy beauty. My love of Thee must precede my imitation of Thee. Let me not be dismayed though my body should for some time remain dead after my aspirations have become alive. Thy foliage is earlier than Thy fruit; Thy summer is in advance of Thine autumn; Thy loveliness is seen before Thy law. I am a partaker of Thy Spirit before I am a member of Thy body; I admire Thee sooner than I can follow Thee. I know that Thy sacred year is not complete without the autumn; I know that Thy foliage is useless without the fruit. But though the dawn would be useless without the day, it is the prelude to the day. Even so is it with the dawn of Thy Spirit within me. There is still darkness all around; the actions are impure; the body is dead. But the aspiration is already up in the sky; the hope is already aloft in the heart; the ideal is already reigning in the air, and therefore I know assuredly that the reality is not far away. When my spirit aspires after righteousness it is because in me Thy Spirit ef righteousness is alive.