It is a wonderfully blessed thing to be able to say, "I have found
an object which perfectly satisfies my heart— I have found Christ
It is a wonderfully blessed
thing to be able to say, "I have found an object which perfectly satisfies
my heart— I have found Christ." It is this which gives true elevation
above the world. It renders us thoroughly independent of the resources upon
which the unconverted heart ever relies. It gives settled rest. It
imparts a calmness and quietness to the spirit which the world cannot
comprehend. The poor votary of the world may think the life of the true
Christian a very slow, dull, stupid affair indeed. He may marvel how such an
one can manage to get on without what he calls amusement, recreation, and
pleasure:no theaters, no balls or parties, no concerts, no cards, races or
clubs.
To deprive the unconverted man
of such things would almost drive him to despair or lunacy; but the Christian
does not want such things and would not have them. They would be a perfect
weariness to him. We speak, of course, of the true Christian, of one who is not
merely a Christian in name, but in reality. Alas! alas! many profess to be
Christians and take very high ground in their profession, who are,
nevertheless, to be found mixed up in all the vain and frivolous pursuits of
the men of this world. They may be seen at the communion-table on the Lord’s
day and at a theater or a concert on Monday. They may be found assaying to take
part in some one or other of the many branches of Christian work on Sunday, and
during the week you may see them in the ballroom, at the races, or some such
scene of folly and vanity.
It is very evident that such
persons know nothing of Christ as an object for the heart. Indeed, it is very
questionable how any one with a single spark of divine life in the soul can
find pleasure in the wretched pursuits of a godless world. The true and earnest
Christian turns away from such things—turns away instinctively; and this, not
merely because of the positive wrong and evil of them—though most surely he feels
them to be wrong and evil—but because he has no taste for them, and because he
has found something infinitely superior, something which perfectly satisfies
all the desires of the new nature. Could we imagine an angel from heaven taking
pleasure at a ball, a theater, or a racecourse? The bare thought is supremely
ridiculous. All such scenes are perfectly foreign to a heavenly being.
And what is a Christian? He is a
heavenly man; he is a partaker of the divine nature. He is dead to the world,
dead to sin; alive to God. He has not a single link with the world:
he belongs to heaven. He is no more of the world than Christ his Lord. Could
Christ take part in the amusements, gaieties, and follies of the world? The
very idea were blasphemy. Well, then, what of the Christian? Is he to be found
where his Lord could not be? Can he consistently take part in things which he
knows in his heart are contrary to Christ? Can he go into places and scenes and
circumstances in which, he must admit, his Saviour and Lord can take no part?
Can he go and have fellowship with a world which hates the One to whom he
professes to owe everything?
It may perhaps seem to some of
our readers that we are taking too high ground. We would ask such what ground
we are to take—surely, Christian ground, if we are Christians. Well, then, if
we are to take Christian ground, how are we to know what that ground really is?
Assuredly, from the New Testament. And what does it teach? Does it afford any
warrant for the Christian to mix himself, in any shape or form, with the
amusements and vain pursuits of this present evil world? Let us hearken to the
weighty words of our blessed Lord in John 17. Let us hear from His lips the
truth as to our portion, our position, and our path in this world. He says, addressing
the Father, "I have given them Thy Word; and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not
that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep
them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through Thy truth:Thy Word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into
the world, even so have I also sent them into the world" (vv. 14-18).
Is it possible to conceive a
closer measure of identification than that set before us in these words? Twice
in this brief passage, our Lord declares that we are not of the world, even as
He is not. What has our blessed Lord to do with the world? Nothing. The world
has utterly rejected Him and cast Him out. It nailed Him to a shameful cross,
between two malefactors. The world lies as fully and as freshly under the
charge of all this as though the act of the crucifixion took place yesterday,
at the very center of civilization, and with the unanimous consent of all.
There is not so much as a single moral link between Christ and the world. Yea,
the world is stained with His murder and will have to answer to God for the
crime.
How solemn is this! What a
serious consideration for Christians! We are passing through a world that
crucified our Lord and Master, and He declares that we are not of that world,
even as He is not of it. Hence it follows that in so far as we have any
fellowship with the world, we are false to Christ. What should we think of a
wife who could sit and laugh and joke with a set of men who had murdered her
husband? Yet this is precisely what professing Christians do when they mix
themselves up with this present evil world, and make themselves part and parcel
of it.
It will perhaps be asked, "What
are we to do? Are we to go out of the world?" By no means. Our Lord
expressly says, "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the
world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil." In it but not of
it, is the true principle for the Christian. To use a figure, the Christian in
the world is like a diver. He is in the midst of an element which would destroy
him, were he not protected from its action and sustained by unbroken
communication with the scene above.
And what is the Christian to do
in the world? What is his mission? Here it is:"As Thou has sent Me into
the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." And again in
John 20:21, "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you."
Such is the Christian’s mission.
He is not to shut himself within the walls of a monastery or convent.
Christianity does not consist of joining a brotherhood or a sisterhood. Nothing
of the kind. We are called to move up and down in the varied relations of life
and to act in our divinely; appointed spheres, to the glory of God. It is not a
question of what we are doing, but of how we do it. All depends upon the object
which governs our hearts. If Christ be the commanding and absorbing object of
the heart, all will be right; if He be not, nothing is right. Two persons may
sit down at the same table to eat:the one eats to gratify his appetite; the
other eats to the glory of God—eats simply to keep his body in proper working
order as God’s vessel, the temple of the Holy Ghost, the instrument for
Christ’s service.
So in everything. It is our
sweet privilege to set the Lord always before us. He is our model. As He was
sent into the world, so are we. What did He come to do? To glorify God. How did
He live? By the Father. "As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by
the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me" (John 6:57).
This makes it all so simple.
Christ is the standard and touchstone for everything. It is no longer a
question of mere right and wrong according to human rules; it is simply a
question of what is worthy of Christ. Would He do this or that? Would He go
here or there? "He left us an example, that we should follow His steps";
and most assuredly we should not go where we cannot trace His blessed
footsteps. If we go hither and thither to please ourselves, we are not treading
in His steps, and we cannot expect to enjoy His blessed presence.
Christian reader, here lies the
real secret of the whole matter. The grand question is just this:Is Christ my
one object? What am I living for? Can I say, "The life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself
for me"? Nothing less than this is worthy of a Christian. It is a poor miserable
thing to be content with being saved and then to go on with the world and live
for self-pleasing and self-interest— to accept salvation as the fruit of
Christ’s toil and passion and then live at a distance from Him. What should we
think of a child who cared only about the good things provided by his father’s
hand and never sought his father’s company—yea, preferred the company of
strangers? We should justly despise him; but how much more despicable is the
Christian who owes his present and his eternal all to the work of Christ and
yet is content to live at a cold distance from His blessed Person, caring not
for the furtherance of His cause—the promotion of His glory!