"All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come."
"All things are yours"-"ye are Christ's"- "Christ is God's" (i Cor. 3:21-23). Study the inventory of your possessions! The servants of Christ are given you of God to be your help and comfort. Cherish them well; they are Christ's bequest to the Church, given for the edification of His body, for the work of the gospel; they are the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Though given to you, they are responsible to their Lord and Master, to whom they must give an account of their stewardship.
Pray for them, care for them, view them as the love-gift of Christ to you; help them with your carnal things to minister spiritual things (i Cor. 9:11).
The world is yours. Every part of the globe is your possession, for it is the material world which is here meant, the "kosmos," "the beautifully arranged habitable earth"-not the debased moral system of which John bids us beware, with its lusts of the eye, the flesh, and the mind; it is that world which God pronounced good at first, and which, in virtue of Christ's death, shall yet be purified and reconciled; for "things on the earth, and things in the heavens " shall witness to the triumph of the Lamb (Col. i:20).
The inheritance now defiled by sin shall declare, in the time of restitution of all things, during the glorious millennial age, how the Creator and Heir has claimed the right of redemption, and wrested the prey from the mighty.
Some tried, suffering saint may say, "If the world is really mine, how is it that I not only do not pos-sess a foot in it, but am often bare of the very necessaries of life ?"
Before answering that question, let us inquire in what way is the world yours ? It is because "ye are Christ's." He is the true and rightful Heir; has claimed the right of redemption, and wrested the prey from the mighty.
Some tried, suffering saint may say, "If the world is really mine, how is that I not only do not possess a foot in it, but am often bare of the very necessaries of life?"
Before answering that question, let us inquire in what way is the world yours? It is because "ye are
Christ's."He is the true and rightful Heir; all things are destined for Him. The title-deeds are His. The Father has expressed His love to the Son by putting all things into His hand (John 3:35). The hand pierced on Calvary not only holds the sheep He purchased, but the possessions they are to enjoy. All things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were not only created by Him, but in-tended for Him. He came once to claim His rights, but the world-the moral world-rejected Him. He has accepted their rejection (for the time being), and lingers in long-suffering grace ere He subdues by
power what He has already purchased by blood.
Our Saviour, our Lord, is kept out of His own earth. He had no place to lay His head when here, He has not a foot in possession today. He is denied His title as "purchaser" of the inheritance, just as He was refused when seeking His rights as Son of Man; but He will claim His property. The Son of Man shall yet have dominion over land and sea; the terrestrial and the celestial are His; it is not merely this measurable globe which belongs to Him, but the entire universe, the unseen and seen worlds which deck the starry heavens-all are His; for " He is God's." He is not merely the heir of this world, but the heir of God; and how vast are God's possessions! It is as joint heirs with Christ we are to share the glorious inheritance which fadeth not away.
Tell me, would you care to have the world without Christ ? Would you like to possess it in its polluted state ? It is purchased, but not redeemed; bought, not reconciled; pledged, but not possessed. The inheritance must be purified, all things which of end and them which do iniquity purged out, ere its rightful Lord shall take to Himself His glorious power, and reign.
Meanwhile the Christian may literally have nothing, while possessing all things-the world be his, while poor and penniless. His is a joint-heirship; he cannot occupy except in conjunction with the true and rightful Heir; hence the anomaly-an her to untold wealth lacking the very necessaries of life! Why ?Because the world has rejected the rightful Heir-Christ has been cast out of His own world What true heart, knowing Christ's rejection by the "moral world," will not identify himself with Him in that rejection ?The natural world is truly ours because we are Christ's, and it is with Him that God has freely given us "all things"; and until He puts His foot on land and sea, and claims His rights, we contentedly share His rejection. But not only is the world ours, but-
Life is ours, In the midst of a scene of moral and physical death we have life-divine life as a present possession as well as a future hope!
Death is ours. The king of terrors, with his sting gone, his power broken, is no longer a dreaded foe, but a kind friend, to conduct us where sin and sorrow, pain and tears, are forever wiped away. Death, to a Christian, is like the opening of the door to a caged lark-the means by which his wings are free to soar into his native air. It is the captive freed; the exile's way to his own land; the banished restored to the family circle.
Yes, death is indeed ours, for it will take us to home and happiness, to joys unceasing, pleasures unending-to the abode of the Redeemer and the redeemed, the glorious courts, the paradise of God, with its living fountains, its tree of life with its ever-new fruits.
It will conduct us to the Father's house, to that home where the First-born has gone and prepared a place for the many sons; where, together with Him, and together with them, we shall spend a blissful and endless eternity.
Things now existing and things not yet apparent all belong to us. Who shall compute our wealth ? If it is a profitless speculation, entailing present misery and eternal loss, to gain the whole world and lose our own souls, what a profitable thing it is to turn to Jesus, and get not only present happiness- even if with persecutions-but untold wealth in an eternal future! The millionaires are robbed of their wealth by death, the Christian is introduced to his by death; he came into this world bare of everything, he goes out of it possessor of everything. Who would not be a Christian ?
But if we are not yet in possession of our wealth, we have the assurance that the unseen hand of God controls and orders every step of our pathway, and turns the most untoward events into ministry of blessing.
"All things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8 :28)-the dark as well as the
bright, the sorrowful as well as the joyous. The house of mourning is thus made better than the house of feasting; the most untoward events become the occasion of a fresh discovery of God's goodness; even our follies are overruled for good, and our very distresses draw out God's resources, for with God all things are possible. Yes, our God is the God of impossibilities:no matter is too hard, no difficulty is too great, for Him. It is when matters are, humanly, hopeless, God can manifestly declare Himself. In an Indian village a converted native stood alone for Christ. One Lord's day morning his heathen neighbors warned him the locusts were coming, and told him to bring out a long stick, in order to beat them off the patches of corn and stop their devastations. He replied, "It is the Lord's day; I cannot come." "Then you must starve," they answered, '' for we will not look after your corn."
He quietly shut the door and spent the day in prayer to God. Early Monday morning he sallied forth. The locusts had swept every green thing off the earth; the verdant fields were no more; every patch was bare and desolate, except that of the man who had looked to God.
My informant was thirty miles away when the news reached her of God's intervention. She said, "It seemed such an impossibility, that I would not believe it; so I traversed the distance, saw the man, saw the patch of corn, and all around desolation; so I can vouch for the accuracy of the statement."
What a witness for God this man was! The heathen thus had demonstrated the reality of the true God, and it did indeed work for good.
Yes, with God all things are possible, and all things work together for good, although it may not be manifest how this is at all times, and especially when plans are frustrated, hopes disappointed, health gone, wealth flown, and all is dark and sorrowful; and when painful days and weary, sleepless nights follow each other in constant succession, then faith's anchor must be made fast, and we must cling to the assurance that even these things have hidden blessings for us. God is good, always good, ever working for the saints He loves, and the hand which chastens is controlled by the affection of the heart and the wisdom of the mind.
Let us imitate a godly man we know, whose wife was unconverted, and made his life bitter. "Ah," said he, "at such times there is only one chair in the house I can rest in, and I always go there for refuge." " What is that ?" "Rom. 8:28-'All things work together for good to them that love God.' "
Shall we, tried fellow-believer, seek to rest there ? If the "all things" we have in title are not ours in possession, we can at least be assured of this-that all is being ordered and controlled for our real good, and when the way is ended we shall say, "He led us by a right way to our city of habitation."
H. N.