He chose for Himself disciples who would follow Him in this, forsaking all for direct work in the service of the Kingdom.
For admission to this inner circle of His chosen ones, Christ demanded what He did not from those who only came seeking salvation. They were to share with Him in the work and the glory of the new Kingdom; they must share with Him in the poverty that owns nothing for this world.
From what has been said above it is clear that no law can be laid down.
_It is not a question of law, but of liberty._ But we must understand that word "liberty" aright. Too often Christian liberty is spoken of as our freedom from too great restraint in sacrificing our own will, or the enjoyment of the world. Its real meaning is the very opposite. True love asks to be as free as possible from self and the world to bring its all to G.o.d. Instead of the question, How far am I, as a Christian, free still to do this or the other? the truly free spirit asks, How far am I free to follow Christ to the uttermost? Does the freedom with which Christ hath made us free really give us the liberty, in a love which longs for the closest possible likeness and union with Him--still to forsake all and follow Him? Among the gifts and calling he still dispenses to His church, will there not be some whom by His spirit He still draws in this particular, too, to bear and show forth His image?
Do we not need as much as when He and His apostles were upon earth, men and women to give concrete and practical evidence that the man who literally gives up all of earthly possession because he sets his heart upon the treasure in heaven, can count upon G.o.d to provide for the things of earth?
Is not this, amid the universal confession of worldliness in the church and the Christian life, just the protest that is needed against the so subtle but mighty claim that the world makes upon us? In connection with every church and mission and work of philanthropy the question is asked, "_How is it_ that in Christian countries hundreds of millions are spent on luxuries, with scarce single millions for G.o.d"s work?" Calculations are made as to what could be done if all Christians were only to be moderately liberal. I fear all such argument avails little. Help must come from a different direction. It was of the innermost circle that He had gathered around Himself that Christ asked a poverty as absolute as His own. It is in the innermost circle of G.o.d"s children, among those who make the highest profession of insight into the riches of grace and their entire surrender to it, that we must find the witnesses that His Spirit can still inspire and strengthen to bear His poverty. He has done it, and is doing it. In many a missionary and Salvation Army officer, in many a humble unknown worker, _His Spirit is working out this trait_ of His blessed likeness. In the days we are looking for of deeper revival among G.o.d"s children He will do it still more abundantly.
Blessed are all they who wait for Him, to receive His teaching, to know His mind, and show forth His holy likeness. It is as the first, the inner, circle proves the power of His presence, that the second and the third will feel the influence. Men of moderate means, who may feel no calling to the poor life, will come under the constraining power of the example and feel compelled to sacrifice far more of comfort and enjoyment in Christ"s service than they ever did before. And the rich will have their attention attracted to the danger signals G.o.d has set along their path (Luke xviii. 25, Matt. vi. 19, 21, 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10, 16), and will, by these examples, if they may not themselves share in Christ"s poverty, at least be helped to set their hearts more intensely upon the treasure in heaven--the being rich in faith, rich in good works, rich toward G.o.d--and to know themselves heirs of G.o.d, heirs of the riches of grace, and the riches of glory.
"That ye through His poverty might become rich." HIS POVERTY, not only as an object of our faith, but as a matter of experience and fellowship is the pa.s.sage through which the fullest entrance is gained into his riches. Let us present together some of the aspects we have already pointed out of the blessedness Christ"s poverty and its voluntary fellowship brings.
What an aid to the spiritual life! It helps to throw the soul on G.o.d and the unseen; to realize the absoluteness of His presence and care in the least things of daily life; and is to make trust in G.o.d the actual moving spring of every temporal as well as spiritual interest. And because it is not possible to claim G.o.d"s interposition for every day"s food if a man is not consciously walking in tender and full obedience, it links the soul to G.o.d"s will and way by the closest of ties. The hourly needs of the body, which are so often our greatest hindrance, become wonderful helps in lifting our entire life into communion with G.o.d, and in bringing G.o.d down into everything. It elevates the spirit above the temporal, and teaches us in every state always to be content, always to rejoice and to praise.
What a protest against the spirit of this world. There is nothing the Christian life suffers more from than _the subtle and indescribable worldliness_ that comes from the cares or the possessions of this life.
Through it the G.o.d of this world exercises his hidden but terrible power. This is the Delilah in whose lap the G.o.d-separated Nazarite becomes impotent and sleeps. To waken and shake out of this sleep more than preaching is needed, more than the ordinary Christian liberality, which quite comports with the full enjoyment of all that abundance can supply: there is needed the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that G.o.d enables men, and makes it to them an indescribable blessedness, like their Lord, to give up everything of the earth that they may more fully possess, and prove, and proclaim, the sufficiency of the heavenly riches and the satisfaction they give. The protest against the spirit of this world will become the mightiest proclamation of the kingdom of heaven, the self-evidencing revelation of how heaven can even now take possession.
What entrance it will give into the image and likeness of Jesus. We adore our Lord in the form of a servant, and worship Him in it as the most perfect possible manifestation of a G.o.dlike Humility and Love. His poverty was _an integral and essential part_ of that form of a servant in which He dwelt. In all ages the love of some has given them no rest in the desire to attain the closest possible conformity to the blessed Lord. In Him the outer and inner were in such living harmony that the connection was not accidental; the one was the only perfect and fit expression of the other. In the body of Christ there are great diversities of gifts; the whole body is not eye, or ear, or tongue. So there are some who have the calling and gift to manifest this trait of His image, and for the sake of their brethren and the world, keep alive the memory of this too much neglected part of the ever blessed Incarnation. Blessed they whom His Holy Spirit makes the representatives of this His wondrous grace that, though He was rich, He became poor.
What a power then this poverty of Christ becomes to make others rich. It is through His poverty we become rich. _His poverty in His people brings the same blessing._ In the church, many who do not feel the calling, or who in G.o.d"s providence are not allowed to follow their desire for it, will be stirred and strengthened by the sight. When some witness testifies to the blessedness of entire conformity, others who are not called to this path will feel urged, in the midst of the property they possess and retain, to seek for as near an approach in spirit as is allowed them. Christian giving will not only be more liberal in amount, but more liberal in spirit, in the readiness and cheerfulness in the forethought and the actual self-sacrifice by which it will be animated.
Through their poverty, too, through Christ"s poverty in them, many shall be made rich. Just as a specialist devotes himself to some limited branch of (say) medical science, and all profit by the exclusiveness of his researches, so through these, too, who love and live in and make manifest the poverty of our Lord, the church becomes all the richer.
Through them the poverty of Christ gets a place in many hearts where it was not known, and it is seen how this was part of His overcoming the world, and how it may be a part of our victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
I have said that all have not the same calling. How are we to know what our calling is? We may so easily allow ignorance or prejudice, self-indulgence or worldliness, human wisdom or unbelief to sway us, to keep us from the simplicity of the perfect heart, and to blind us to the full light of G.o.d"s perfect will. Let us see where the position is in which perfect safety will be found, and where we may confidently count upon the Divine guidance and approval.
Not long ago I stood by the bedside of a dying servant of G.o.d, Rev. Geo.
Ferguson, the princ.i.p.al of our Mission Inst.i.tute. He told me how he had been meditating on a text that had come in the course of his preparation for his Mission cla.s.s: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." As he thought, it was as if one said to him, "_White as snow_, do you know what that is?" His answer was, "No, Lord, Thou only knowest, I do not." And then the question came, "_White as snow_, can you attain that?--can you make yourself that?" "No, Lord, I cannot; but Thou canst." And, again, he was asked, "Are you willing that I should do it?" "Yes, Lord, by Thy grace I am willing Thou shouldest do all Thou canst."
The three questions just suggest what our duty is. The heavenly poverty of Jesus Christ--do you know what it is? What it is in Him, in His disciples and in Paul, in His saints in later days? What it would be in you? Let the answer be, "No, Lord, Thou knowest." This is what we need first and most of all. If G.o.d were to open our eyes to see the spiritual glory of our Lord in His poverty, in _His entire renunciation_ of every thing of worldly comfort or self-pleasing; if we saw the Divine glory of which it is the expression; if we knew how infinitely beautiful it was to all the holy angels, how infinitely well-pleasing to the Father, we should then only in some little degree be able to say whether it was something we ought to desire and imitate. If we saw the heavenliness and the measure of the likeness to our Lord it would bring into our life, we should say, "I have spoken of what I knew not--Oh, that G.o.d would show me His glory in this too: "_for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich_"!" Before you judge of it, pray by the Holy Spirit to know it.
Then comes the second question. "Can you attain it? Can you, in the likeness of Jesus, give up everything in the world for G.o.d and your fellowmen, and find your joy in the heavenly riches and the blessedness of dependence upon G.o.d alone?" "No, Lord, I cannot; but Thou canst work." Come and gaze upon the Son of G.o.d and worship as you think. It was G.o.d that made Him what He was, and that G.o.d can, by His mighty power, work in me His Divine likeness. Ask G.o.d to reveal by His Spirit, what the poverty of Jesus is, and then to work in you as much of it as you can bear. Be sure of this, _the deeper your entrance into His poverty_, the richer you are.
And if the last question comes to search the heart--"Are you willing for it?"--then, surely, your answer will be ready: "By Thy grace, I am!" You may see no way out of all the complications of your life. You may dread bringing upon yourself sacrifices and trials you could not bear. Be not afraid: you surely cannot fear giving yourself up to G.o.d"s perfect love to work out His perfect will. For all He really means you to do He will most surely give light and strength. The Throne of Riches and Honor and Glory to which the Lamb has been exalted is surely proof enough that there is no surer way for us to riches and honor than through His poverty. The soul that in simplicity yields to the leading of the Lord will find that the fellowship of His suffering brings even here the fellowship of His glory: "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."