If one travels on the continent, one can see (I think it is at Avignon) the ruins of the ancient Roman aqueduct; but the Rhine and the rest of the rivers of G.o.d flow on still, full of water.
Let names and sects and parties fall, That Jesus may be all in all.
As we learn to live the life of dependence upon the Lord, we must not be surprised if a great deal of our early theology drops off: it does not always sit down with us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Instead of Solomon"s pools and aqueducts there is given to us a pure river of water of life, gleaming as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of G.o.d and of the Lamb; and I think we may say of those who receive the life of G.o.d in this immediate and wonderful manner, that "not even Solomon, in all his glory, was so well supplied as one of these."
Finally, we may say, that the Life is one of absolute dependence, and is conditioned on the sovereignty of G.o.d and of the Lamb. Grace and the Holy Ghost are the portions of the dependent soul: they only flow from the throne of G.o.d and of the Lamb. I am amazed to find how much of true religion may be resolved into that one word "dependence." I can remember the time when I could not enter into the Psalm, "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters, nor in things too high for me"; nor sing the verse, "I would be treated as a child, and guided where I go." Now it is, I hope, different. Moreover, we are sure that this spirit of dependence is one of the main features of the angelic life; we cannot imagine it otherwise; for the source of the river is the throne.
We sang in our hymn the lines--
I know Thou hast my heart, And I have heaven;
but we can only sing the second line where we have said or sung the first.
IV
HEART ENLARGEMENT
"I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shall enlarge my heart."--Ps. cxix. 32.
If we were to study the names of the different sects and parties that make up the "Ishmael" of G.o.d, we should find them to be singularly unsuggestive of such a thing as the existence of a spiritual life; nor could we easily infer from the nomenclature of so-called Christendom that "there is a spirit in man, and that the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding." Now, this is a very curious fact; for one would have expected that about the first thing suggested by the appellations of Christian bodies would have been some phase or other of the inward life.
But we are not going to spend our time to-night in discussing sects, or deploring their divisions, although we cannot altogether refrain regret when we contemplate the seamless robe of Christ rent into more than twain, and dabbled in blood worse than Joseph"s coat was when his father said, "Some evil beast hath devoured him"; and although it does seem to us sometimes, as we contemplate the havoc of schisms and strife of sects, as if some convulsion from beneath had shaken down the towers of the New Jerusalem, and streams from the nether fires had coursed down the channels of the river of life. What we want to do is to think a little about the true Broad Church; not that branch of Christianity which commonly goes under the name, and which makes one of the instances referred to of the unsuitableness of names applied to religious schools and parties, but the spiritual Broad Church, which is the church of enlarged hearts. The school we want to belong to is the school of spiritual free-thinkers, who are at liberty to learn all that G.o.d has to teach them. The true Broad Church is that in which an enlarged obedience to G.o.d"s commandments is brought about by an enlarged experience of His love; and His commandments and His love are both of them exceeding broad.
All true spiritual life must widen the soul; the more we live with Jesus, the more impossible will it be for any of us to be narrow. Our littleness takes refuge with G.o.d, and His greatness makes its abode with us; we bring Him our unworthiness and He imparts to us His righteousness; we offer to Him our hearts barren of sympathy and deficient in affection, and presently we find the love of G.o.d shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given to us.
Thus, when acquainted with G.o.d we cannot be really narrow; they might as well call the Lord Jesus Christ narrow. We want to be as broad in our sympathies and in our views as He was; and neither broader nor narrower.
True spiritual life will widen the soul in its _possessions_, its _perceptions_, its _will_, and its _love_; it will extend our powers of _having_, of _knowing_, of _willing_, and of _loving_; and, in one or other of these four, most of our life is included.
(1) How very little we possess, both in outward and inward things.
This is one of the points in which we are disposed to agree with the saying that the circ.u.mference of our circle is very near to the centre.
We can grasp very little. Our hands are small and the world is large.
"Tell me how I can make my broad acres more broad," is the request of the rich man. "Tell me how I can make my narrow holding less narrow,"
is the cry of the poor. But a life in G.o.d makes us rich, for "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 are yours; and ye are Christ"s; and Christ is G.o.d"s." "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake and the Gospel"s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life."
And Madame Guyon says, "Have I not infinitely more than a hundredfold, in so entire a possession as Thou my Lord hast taken of me, in that unshaken firmness which Thou givest me in my sufferings, in a perfect tranquillity in the midst of a furious tempest that a.s.sails me on every side, in an unspeakable joy, enlargedness, and liberty which I enjoy in a most strait and rigorous captivity?"
(2) How trifling is our knowledge! Yet fewer people will a.s.sent to the lack of knowledge, for many think they know a good deal. As in the times of Socrates, it is only the wise man who knows he knows nothing.
And yet how little we know! We know but little of things in this world, with all our sciences and study, and we know much less about G.o.d, and glory, and immortality, and the spirits which live outside the tent of this mortal flesh, or of any of those things which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard." And with all our books of theology and treatises on spiritual life, we are almost obliged to say that "all is less than nothing and vanity." But we believe that for those whom G.o.d enlarges, there is an unspeakable increase in the perceptive powers of the soul: they are taught things that no one else knows anything about, and that are hidden from the wise and prudent. There is knowledge for the simple and lowly ones; for those who, in the spiritual strength they have derived from G.o.d, run in the way of His commandments.
Looking into the Father"s face, and into the Saviour"s heart, the soul can say, "This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." And with the knowledge there comes the aspiration that we, "being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints," and to beseech for all souls, "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which pa.s.seth knowledge." And again it is said, "Ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things." Is this a little knowledge? All things are possible to you in possession and in perception.
(3) How little is our _will-power_. We often want to do right, and the force of habits or of grooves is too strong for us. We have not enough momentum to carry us out or enough moral force to deny the past and to a.s.sert the future. Constantly rises up in judgment the days that have been; and when looking at the blessed vision of G.o.d of the days that shall be, the past rises up and says, "It is not for you"; and we have not power to deny this, and to believe in G.o.d that He will work all the good pleasure of His will in us. It seems almost impossible for us ever to become saints. When we get to understand a little about righteousness and holiness, we do feel utterly inadequate to choose such a righteousness, or to compel ourselves to live out such a holiness.
The only remedy is the Divine enlargement of heart which comes from the visitation of the Spirit. We carry our brokenness to G.o.d; we put our helpless will at His feet, and He energises it, and sends us back from the altar-steps, or from the glory where we have met with Him, able to say, "I _delight_ to do _Thy_ will, O my G.o.d."
And although for each one of us there will be a Gethsemane, "a place of tears," as there was for the Master, yet we shall come through with our will unbroken, because it will be the will of G.o.d strong within us.
(4) How small is our capacity for loving or forgiving. Many think they have capacity for an infinite love, and would be able to exhibit it if they could find a worthy object. But I believe our love is a strictly measurable quant.i.ty, and dependent on the state of grace we are in.
Only those who have the Spirit within them, energising them, can truly love at all. Again, we fall at the Lord"s feet, and tell Him we have no power even to be civil to some people, much less to love them; scarcely power to put up the weapons of revenge against some; and even to those whom, like the publicans and Pharisees and sinners, we love because they love us, we have not been able to make an adequate return for the love they have lavished upon us. Then G.o.d teaches us that there lies in Him the power of enlarging the human affections, and He enlarges our hearts that we, "being rooted and grounded in love,"--not only in the experimental realisation of His love to us, but also in the experimental living out of our love to Him, and to all that He has made and given us,--are able to "run the way of His commandments." For that is His new commandment, "that we love one another." Our practical state will depend on the enlarging of our hearts. We talk of large-hearted people, but they are not so by nature in the sense G.o.d wishes. It needs a Divine operation and a definite Divine experience to enable us to live out the law of the New Testament.
Thus to _do_ more, we must first of all _be_ more. This is the Gospel way all through. G.o.d never teaches us that we are to _do_ and afterwards to _be_. What preachers tell you about dead works means simply that it is a mistake for us to try to do before we have learned to be. You may see a little child trying to lift a heavy weight, and you tell it that it must wait till its muscles are stronger: it must wait till it has _become_. This was the way at the beginning in conversion: "dead works" means that in us there does not dwell force or power to lift the great weight of the commandment or righteousness of G.o.d; hence they are useless or stupid works. When you find in your heart your inability to fulfil the Divine commandment, and have not the strength and power you want, though all day trying to lift the heavy weight, you come to G.o.d and say, "It is plain that, as I am, I cannot live out this righteousness, and I come for a new life to live it out.
I must have Thine own strength." Then we understand our Lord"s saying, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of G.o.d."
You have lived this out in some way since you were converted; but you have not realised enough the more blessed life; you know a little of walking in the way, but running in the way brings you face to face with something outside your strength and power. It is no use to try and do work which needs a stronger man, unless we can become stronger men.
Many make a mistake here; they are trying to live out holiness before they have got the heart-enlarging. But it is no use our trying to be holy, until G.o.d makes us holy. We try to take the first part of the verse alone, and then we break down. "My heart breaks down: I can never be a runner." You are trying to live out His commandments, without having the visitation of the enlarged heart; you must get on to definite dealings with G.o.d for a visitation of the Spirit; when He has come, you will have the strength and peace of G.o.d with you. It seems to me painfully sad to hear people sorrowing: "I know it is my privilege, but I cannot make it real; and although one can sometimes do little acts of mercy, or even attain to humble acts of faith, the life does not flow on naturally and simply." And _it will not_, unless you have an experience at the back coming out of His visitation.
To do more we must be more; get a new master, be a new man; get a new experience, and you will be a new Christian.
All writers who have spoken of the advanced spiritual life have taught that there is an enlargement of the soul, and they use the strongest language possible.
So we find Madame Guyon saying:--
"This vastness or enlargedness which is not bounded by anything, however plain and simple it may be, increases every day; so that my soul in partaking of the qualities of her spouse, seems also to partake of his immensity."--_Madame Guyon_, vie. ii. 4.
And Philo:--
"Having broken the chains by which it (the soul) was formerly bound, which all the empty anxieties of mortal life fastened round it, and having led it forth and emanc.i.p.ated it from them, he has stretched, and extended, and diffused it to such a degree that it reaches even the extreme boundaries of the universe, and is borne onwards to the beautiful and glorious sight of the uncreated G.o.d."--_Philo_, de ebrietate, 37.
So in Dr. Cudworth"s sermon, which was printed some time ago:--
"When we have cashiered this self-will of ours, which did but shackle and confine our soules, our wills shall then become truly free, being widened and enlarged to the extent of G.o.d"s own will."--_Cudworth_, Sermon before the House of Commons, p. 21.
"There is a straitnesse, slavery, and narrownesse in all sinne; sinne crowds and crumples up our souls, which, if they were freely spread abroad, would be as wide and large as the whole universe. No man is truly free but he that hath his will enlarged to the extent of G.o.d"s own will, by loving whatsoever G.o.d loves, and nothing else.... He enjoys a boundlesse liberty and a boundlesse sweetnesse, according to his boundlesse love. He enclaspeth the whole world within his outstretched arms, his soul is as wide as the whole universe, as big as yesterday, to-day and for ever. Whosoever is once acquainted with this disposition of spirit, he never desires anything else; and he loves the "life of G.o.d" in himself, dearer than his own life."--_Id._, p. 56.
And finally in the _Imitatio Christi_:--
"They that willingly and freely serve Me shall receive grace for grace.
But he who desires to glory in things out of Me, or to take pleasure in some private good, shall not be grounded in true joy, nor be enlarged in his heart, but shall many ways be enc.u.mbered and straitened.... And if heavenly grace enter in and true charity, there will be no envy nor narrowness of heart, neither will self-love busy itself. For Divine charity overcometh all things and enlargeth all the powers of the soul."--_De Imitatione Christi_, iii. 9.
We conclude, then, that self can never measure the length and breadth of the Divine love, and run in the way of His commandment. We need G.o.d to make us understand G.o.d; we must be in union with Him in order to obey Him. Distances on the earth may be measured by a foot-rule or a surveyor"s chain, but to measure the s.p.a.ces between the stars we must have a base-line in the sky. Only by being partakers of the Divine nature can we live out the Divine life; and no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him.
V
HE RESTORETH MY SOUL