The Epistle to the Philippians The Saints of God (for All Saints' Eve) Phi 1:1 To-morrow is the day of All Saints. For quite a thousand years the churches of the West have given the first of November to this great commemoration, illuminating the declining and darkening year with the spiritual splendour of the thought of these exalted multitudes who have outsoared our shadows into the light of God. For it is with the holy ones departed that the festival, beyond a doubt, was primarily from the first concerned. It contemplated the saints in that reference of the word which is often its distinctive reference in the Bible, as where the Old Testament seer beholds 'the Lord our God coming, and all the saints with him,' and where the Christian Apostle hails the same supreme prospect in its clearer and more articulate glory, 'the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, with all His saints'. That reference passed into current language and normal use, as we find it largely illustrated in Shakespeare for example and in Milton. And so the noble Collect of our Book, a prayer of the. Reformation age, lifts us up to remember and to emulate the immortals; 'Grant that we may follow Thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living'. I. Let us remember that the word saint, when we follow it through the Bible, above all through the New Testament, by no means most frequently connects itself with the holy dead in 'those heavenly habitations,' where (to use the words of the tenderest supplication of the Prayer Book) 'the souls of them that sleep in the Lord Jesus enjoy perpetual rest and felicity'. Rather the word gravitates by Scriptural usage towards the seen and the temporal for its setting. By a saint the Apostle commonly means a being altogether, as to conditions and surroundings, like ourselves. We read of 'poor saints,' who need pecuniary relief by church collections, of 'saints' whose feet, tired and bemired with travel, the pious widow washes; 'saints' resident and busy in town and city life, saints of Rome, and specially of Caesar's household, saints of Colossae, of Thessalonica, and, as in the text, saints of Philippi. Not the Garden of God was the place of life for the latter, but the Roman military town, with its vices and superstitions, and its angry rabble, its shops and market, its courthouse, and its inner prison. One of these Philippian saints was a merchant-woman, another was governor of the gaol, another a recent victim of demoniacal possession, still very likely the chattel of the slave-owner. Yet to this whole company St. Paul gives without reserve the glorious name. There and then, in the thick of their Philippian life, they were all the saints of God. II. 'The saints who are at Philippi,' the ἅγιοι there. What does the word ἅγιος mean? Taking together its etymology and its use, we find it conveying a blended and elevating notion of religious awe, and of a Divine ownership. Kindred to ἅγος , it casts round its bearer the solemn halo or aura of a mysterious presence, a contact with the Eternal. The invisible world has touched the man, and sympathised with him, and breathed itself into him. God has called him, and drawn him near, into a personal connexion. Then, also, ἅγιος , by its usage, as well as in the light of the Hebrew word which in Scripture it represents, lends itself to the thought of separation, of detachment, to an ownership sovereign and supreme. The Lord has not only spoken to the man, but has annexed him. The person not only worships, but belongs. The presence around him and above him imposes an absolute claim upon him. It bids him live no longer to himself but to his God, to his Redeemer, Who has bought him, to his Sanctifier, Who occupies his soul. III. Thus interpreted, the word saint, as in its other and heavenly reference, is indeed a great word and uplifting. It carries in it the powers of the world invisible, and the grandeur of the fact that the redeemed man's life is lived always and in the whole of it within the possessing hands of God. No lower significance satisfies the truth of the designation. Nothing can be more wide of that truth than to explain saint as a conventional synonym for the baptised Christian and no more. To be sure, it is applied impartially to all the baptised; the Apostle here indicates by it evidently the whole membership of the missionary Church. But this he does, as James Mozley long ago convincingly reasoned, not as if the word saint admitted into itself a secondary and inferior sense, a sense, as Pearson puts it, of 'outward vocation and charitable presumption'. Rather the 'presumption' of the usage is that the people addressed are all what they all are called, that they are Christians indeed to a man and to a woman, that they are redeemed beings who have all responded to their redemption, that they have all felt, in fact, the power of the Eternal Presence, and its overawing love, that without exception they have yielded themselves to the Divine Possessor, and are appropriated to Him. Yet meanwhile the word, thus exacting and exalted, is no remote and intangible term of an imaginative devotion. The Apostle means by it manifestly, as we have seen, something which can live, and labour, and suffer, in the common walk of life. He applies it without an effort to their modern mortal lives. Such homely saintship, as we know, was the traditional habit of the primeval Church. Some seventy years later than the date of our text, it was the strange sunlight of a celestial life shed upon the common path, which moved the soul of Aristides and prompted his appeal to Antonine. In his wonderful sketch of the Christians of the second century I find no allusion whatever to ascetic rigours and seclusions, nor again to supernatural displays, to unknown tongues, and sudden healing miracles. But the observer stood awed and magnetically attracted before the people, who without pretension, without self-consciousness, but with the large facility of a new nature, were always true, and always pure, and always kind in ordinary intercourse, glad and thankful before their God. In everything, faultlessly faithful in each relative duty of life, ready every day for a happy death, by nature or by martyrdom. The apostolic succession of the saints is the same still in its idea, and it can be the same still in its realisation. 'The saints of God, their conflict past!' It is good for us to salute them, some of them dear unspeakably to ourselves, gathered together in their glorious rest on high. But they all were first the saints of some Philippi here below as we are called to be today. They were all once true men and true women hallowed by the Eternal Presence here, and separated and surrendered here to the possession and the uses of their King. Bishop H. C. G. Moule, Church Family Newspaper, 5th November, 1909. The Courtesy Born of Jesus Phi 1:1-2 How beautiful is the conjunction of the aged Apostle and the young disciple in sacred league and covenant! I wonder how much each owed to the other in the ministry of the Spirit? How far was it Timothy's ministry to keep the old man young, and to warm his soul continually with the kindling influence of youthful enthusiasm? It is a gracious remembrance, that, in these latter days of limitation and suspicion, Paul could drink at the fountain of a young man's love. He had the inexpressible privilege of scenting the perfumes of love's springtime, and feasting upon the first sweet fruits in the garden of a young and grace-filled soul. Beautiful must have been their companionship youth revering age, and age having no contempt or suspicion of youth, but each ministering to the other of the flowers and fruits of his own season. 'Paul and Timothy.' It is the union of springtime and autumn; of enthusiasm and experience; of impulse and wisdom; of tender hope and quiet and rich assurance. I. Servants of Jesus Christ. The early Apostles gloried in exhibiting the brand-marks of their Lord. Here, in this letter, the first thing the Apostle shows us is the mark of the branding A little while ago I was present at a sheep-shearing in the very heart of the Highlands, and I noticed that when the heavy, burdensome fleece had been shorn from the affrighted sheep, the liberated beast was branded with the owner's initials and went bounding away, prominently exhibiting these signs of its owner's name. And Paul and Timothy had been delivered from a heavy burden: the vesture of oppressive habits had been removed by the power of a crucified Lord, and on their emancipated lives they bore the marks of their owner the 'brands' of the Lord Jesus. Whose I am. They belonged to Him who had redeemed them with a heavy price, and they counted it to be their glory, and their crown of rejoicing, that they were not their own, but the branded 'bond-servants' of the Lord Jesus Christ. II. To all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi. The saints are reared in unlikely neighbourhoods. It was at Philippi that the multitude was so hostile and violent. It was at Philippi that Paul had 'many stripes' laid upon him, and that he was 'thrust into prison,' and his feet 'made fast in the stocks'. One would have thought that in this fierce persecution the little Church would have been destroyed, and that in these scorching antagonisms the early, tender leaves of Christian faith and hope would have withered away. But 'He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains' even in those unlikely places and He reared His saints amid the threatening decimations of Philippi. For let it be remembered that, though Philippi was the sphere of their living, it did not provide the rootage of their life. The saints were 'at Philippi,' but they were 'in Christ Jesus,' and that is the secret of their endurance 'when the sun was up' and the hot beams of hostility blazed upon their unoffending heads. III. With the Bishops and Deacons. 'Honour to whom honour is due.' These men had done the work of collecting the help which had been sent to the needy Apostle, and they must receive special and generous recognition. St. Paul was a prince of courtesy. Courtesy is not the creation of effort, it is the product of grace: it is born, not made. Paul was born of grace, and therefore he was gracious, and instinctively his courtesy fitted itself to all the changing requirements of the day. IV. Grace to You. Behind graciousness was grace, and the courtesy broadened into a prayer for the supreme gift. Get grace, and all gifts are gained. Grace is the bountiful mother of all the graces. V. And Peace. Where grace abides peace will dwell. They are inseparable companions. Grace is the native element in which all our powers awake and work in happy service. Now peace is not the absence of movement: it is the absence of friction. The real symbol of peace is not to be found in some secluded motionless mountain tarn, but in the majestic progress of some quiet brimming river. Peace is not symbolised in the death chamber, but in the rhythmic, smooth movements of the engine-house. When grace reigns, man moves in God in perfect unison, man co-operates with man in fellowship without strain, and 'all that is within us praise and bless' God's 'holy name'. When grace reigns, life loses all its 'strain and stress,' and, in the absence of friction, 'all things work together for good'. J. H. Jowett, The High Galling, p. 1. References. I. 1 Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 46. I. 2. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 65. I. 3. W. Wynn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 338. I. 3-5. W. Baird, The Hallowing of our Common Life, p. 84. I. 3-7 Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvi. No. 2154. I. 3-8. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 9. I. 5, 6. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 139. I. 6. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 872. J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays after Trinity, p. 308. Spurgeon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 133. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p. 274. A. Connell, Scottish Review, vol. iii. p. 161. I. 7. Bishop Creighton, University and Other Sermons, p. 124. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 343. 1. 9. H. P. Liddon, Sermons Preached on Special Occasions, p. 286. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 328. I. 9, 10. T. Arnold, Christian Life: Its Hopes, p. 208. I. 9-11. Bishop Westcott, Village Sermons, p. 289. I. 9-14. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 17. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 206. The More Excellent Way Phi 1:10 In this very remarkable prayer, St. Paul is guided by a conception of Christianity as it really is, and he is expressing successive aspects of the world into which it introduces men. The text describes one such aspect, and an extremely important one, viz., the approvals of a life, its unforced choices, instinctive preferences, and habitual consents. There are a thousand little points of manner, speech, thought, and action, in which both of two possible courses are justifiable, but one is the finer course, and belongs to the things which are excellent. This prayer is for a type of character founded upon the habitual choice of such things. I. Obviously this first of all requires appreciation to know what one desires and to desire rightly. If it be important to learn how to say No, it is still more important to learn how to say Yes, and to say it emphatically. For, even in so unsatisfactory a world as this, there are some things which are excellent things that are 'true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report'. There is a certain number of such things round about us all. Some people are turning over large heaps of them, to find the unpleasant things below, but that does not alter the fact. If your world of thought and choice is ugly and second-rate, that is neither God's fault nor the world's. It is your own fault, who have approved these things for emphasis. The world is strewn with the good gifts of God. 'Here is God's plenty,' as Dryden says of Chaucer: and the opulence of the world is the heartening message of many others who have found 'power each side, perfection every turn'. It is a great and wise thing to look around us with chaste desire and loving eye, and to see and appreciate the choicest excellence. II. Yet appreciation must be balanced with criticism, for in a world like this there is a very manifest limit to approval, and criticism, no less than appreciation, is a distinctively Christian duty. Marius the Epicurean recognised in his Christian friend, 'some inward standard of distinction, selection, refusal, amid the various elements of the fervid and corrupt life' around them. Even in literature, as Pater elsewhere insists, the choicest work depends upon the art of cutting off surplusage; and all finest things, like the diamond, gain their beauty by sacrifice of precious dust. 'Excellence is not common and abundant,' says Matthew Arnold, 'whoever talks of excellence as common and abundant is on the way to lose all right standard of excellence.' III. Thus Christian character also involves selection, not only of obvious right in contrast with wrong, but of the finest kind of right and that which is fittest for the special occasion. To reject open immorality and to accept all the rest without discrimination, is respectability, the religion of the Pharisees. But every respectable Pharisee proves the truth of the saying that 'the good is the enemy of the best'. There is a scale of fineness among things respectable, and Christ insists that we shall not be content with a second-best, though it be good. In this way He has produced a special type of man, more delicately sensitive in choices than the rest. Such men, whose spirit habitually dwells among the highest things, show a rare spiritual culture, an exclusiveness, an aristocracy of spirit, which partly explains Christ's insistence on the narrow way and the straight gate, and the few that find it. Yet that is not so true as it seems. Instincts may be acquired and tastes rectified within a lifetime. These are the last results of certain ways of dealing with life which are open to all. Those who live worthily among plain and ordinary issues, who train their minds to think accurately and dispassionately, who keep their eyes open and gain experience of the world, come in the end to a spontaneous and immediate discernment of the lower and the higher ways. John Kelman, Ephemera Eternitatis, p. 104. References. I. 10. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 206. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 67. J. Kelman, Scottish Review, vol. iii. p. 243. I. 12. L. D. Bevan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 283. I. 12-14. D. J. Weller, ibid. vol. 1. p. 52. I. 12-20. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 211. I. 14-18. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 107. I. 15-18. J. C. Lees, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 36. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 467. I. 15-19. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 25. I. 18. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 370; Ibid. vol. xix. No. 1139. Magnifying Christ Phi 1:20 You have in those words a picture, a portrait of a minister of Jesus Christ. You have a portrait of St. Paul drawn by the hands of Paul himself. As he dictates the words, he is hardly thinking of himself at all. He is just opening his heart after his manner to those whom he loved in the Church at Philippi, and he tells them what they know well enough, that his earnest expectation and hope was that in nothing he should be ashamed, but that, as always, so now also Christ should be magnified in his body, whether it were by life or by death. Was St. Paul's expectation realised, or was his confidence ultimately disappointed? Did he fail in that position in which God had put him, or did he actually and really magnify Jesus Christ his Lord in his body whether by life or by death? I. St. Paul's Confidence justified. I would have you notice first of all that St. Paul's confidence, his expectation, of which he speaks here, was tested, and tested to the uttermost. St. Paul never knew from one day to another which would be his last. That prison door might any moment open, and the executioner enter who would take him to a shameful punishment, a public execution, and I ask you to think again what that must have meant to St. Paul. He faces the alternatives here in this letter. He looks at life and he looks at death. He puts them both into his scales and weighs them. He looks at death. It meant the cessation of all that pain and travail, all that persecution, these bonds and imprisonment. It meant deliverance from that party at Rome and similar parties elsewhere. This on the negative side. Positively, it meant to be with Jesus Christ; and St. Paul, as you see in this letter, is just glancing in at the gate of heaven, and as he does so the whole soul of the man goes out in these words, 'I desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better'. And then he looks at life; and what did life mean? I have said life meant a continuance of all that he was going on with day by day, and year by year. He could hardly suffer more, but he was not likely to suffer less, and that to St. Paul meant life at its best. Do not forget that. St. Paul would not exchange that life for any other that man could give him in the world. As he looks at these two things, life and death, each is so excellent that he says, 'I am in a strait betwixt two'. 'I know not which to choose.' And then, as he thinks of the needs of the little Philippian Church, and when he remembers how essential he is as yet for their guidance and help, he says, 'I am confident that I shall abide in the flesh for your sakes, and I am content that it should be so.' Is not this wonderful? I ask you to think of this living man with our temptations, our weaknesses, and our trials, and far more, and I ask you to think how he met them as we have it depicted here. St. Paul's confidence was not misplaced, St. Paul's expectation was not disappointed. II. St. Paul's Secret. Now as to his secret. Remember, this is the picture in our text, not merely of an Apostle, but of every Christian man and woman. To you he would say, as he said to one of the Churches, 'Be ye Ambassador for Him'. You and I want to know, we who call ourselves Christians, what St. Paul's secret was, and you have it here in the words adjoining my text, 'To me to live is Christ'. These words may be peculiarly useful to any of us. There are a great many persons in Christian England who do not see why they personally need what is termed conversion. They do not see, when they look at their own lives, that there is any particular difference between themselves and some who profess to have been truly born again and brought into the service of Christ. Their lives are respectable, their conduct is upright, their standards are Christian, they do not see that there is any particular need of change. These words of the Apostle may be a test to one and to another. Will you say them in your heart as I speak them, 'To live is '. What word will you put in there? Remember the alternative of Christ is self. Let me ask you again to say these words in your hearts, and to put in what actually represents the main ambition of your life, 'To me to live is ' Now you know where you are. I can imagine one saying something like this, 'Yes, but I want to be honest; I do not want to be a hypocrite. If I take Jesus Christ as the New Testament bids me, I am not sure that I shall continue, and I do not want to fail.' Did St Paul fail? We have good reason for knowing that he did not. He never did fail, and his behaviour in these trying conditions was his witness to these soldiers day by day, and they knew and felt the power of it. III. Can there be any Higher Ambition? Whether you be a minister of Jesus Christ like St. Paul, or whether you be what we term a layman man or woman can there be any higher ambition in life than this set before us, now to magnify Christ in our bodies, whether by life or by death? 'Magnify Christ,' you say. 'How can I magnify Him Who is infinitely great?' You cannot make Christ any greater than He is, but you can magnify Him, your life may become a magnifying lens, and men shall look at Jesus Christ through your conduct as they looked at Jesus Christ through the conduct of his servant St. Paul. You may make Him appear infinitely greater than He does in the eyes of the men and women who live at home with you, whom you meet in your business and in your social circle. 'My earnest expectation and my hope is,' said the Apostle 'that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.' The Christian Idea of Death Phi 1:21 I think the text would read more strongly if we were to omit that intruded 'is' in both cases. Let us delete this intrusive verb, and look at the text in this naked English: 'For me to live Christ, and to die gain'. That is nobler poetry, that is a better scansion of the poem. O Death, thy sting? Strike out the 'where is'. Grave, thy victory? It is a giant's taunt, and terrific and derisive challenge and rebuke. I. A most curious mind is this of the Apostle Paul. He thinks aloud whilst he is apparently only writing with his hand or with the hand of another man. This is a monologue, this is the soul overheard, caught in its most secret and sacred whispers; what a privilege that we may hear the greatest soul that ever lived in the Christian Church talking! 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain:'I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ that is what I want, it is far better nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you; I know that; I am in a strait betwixt the two; to die might be gain, not to me, a poor dying man, but to the cause. Some promote the cause by dying for it; it was so Christ lifted up His cross, until its magnitude turned the firmament into a cloud, and its glory abashed the sun. We think our work is done when we die; probably in this matter, as in many other matters, we are quite wrong; it may be that by dying in harness, being brave to the last, and working the furrow only half-way through or wholly through, we are doing more by dying than we could do by living. Let our ignorance hold its breath, let our impiety dismiss its crude and often blasphemous dreams and anticipations, and let God have His own way in His own Church among His own people. It might be a cowardly thing to desire to die if by dying we mean getting out of it, shaking it off, having nothing more to do with it, with its anxiety and its burdensomeness and its agony; that would be cowardice, and we should put Christ to a blushing shame if we talked so and yet professed to be the followers of His cross. To die may be the greatest contribution we can make to the faith which we have endeavoured to express in words, and which now we must in one gigantic final effort endeavour to express in sacrifice. II. The religion of Christ is a grand religion to die in. It is so fearless, it is familiar with the spirit of eternity; it has grown the soul into a reverent familiarity with things big as infinity and glorious as incarnated light. This is the sign of our growth, that the things which once affrighted us now exercise upon us all the subtle power and fascination of a charm or spiritual enchantment. Once we feared to look upon a dead body; in the England that I can remember the poor dead flesh was set in a dark room, with a few dim-lighted candles just to mitigate the darkness; and there were watchers, people who sat up all night near the dead or near the chamber where the dead was coffined; everything was in a sad, hopeless hush; few dare go near the dead. We have not so learned the Christ; the death-chamber has been turned into the centre of the house, the only bright spot in the whole habitation. What may we not learn from that image of triumph and that image of rest? That is the natural fruition of true faith in Christ, who 'both died, and rose,' as if the dying and the rising were part of the same act, hardly a pause between the going and the coming, the departing and the return. So the literature of experience has undergone a new punctuation. III. Christian death is full of brightness that living eyes cannot see, and full of hope that this poor, struggling, hesitating, self-contradicting experience of ours cannot adequately spell or interpret as one interprets who has the gift of telling what a dream is. We must he very careful therefore how we interpret the experience of those who die. Blessed are they that die in the Lord; for they rest, and their interpretation follows them, and we, too late, see meanings in things we did not understand and in actions which we were ignorantly inclined to resent. When we know all we shall forgive all and ask that all may be forgiven. The history of Christian dying would be the most thrilling history in literature. But it cannot be written, we can only see a verse or a chapter here and there, and from these broken fragments we may infer somewhat of the dignity and the lustfulness and the triumph of dying in Christ Weep for yourselves, do not weep for the Christian dying. It is quite right for you to weep, because you are still in the body, you are still environed by the world, the flesh, and the devil, your nerves are exposed to rough winds and to touches that have no gentleness in them; cry, relieving your misery by the rivers of your grief, but do not grieve for those who have gone. They are not the authors of misery, they are the inspirers of wisdom and confidence and hope. Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. III. p. 146. The Secret of St. Paul's Life Phi 1:21 What was the secret of St Paul's life, that secret which made him the greatest of all missionaries to the Gentile world? We have not to go far in our search, for he himself has revealed it in the words of my text The secret of St Paul's life was the power and the presence of a living Christ I. Christ in Life. We are Christians in proportion as we possess the spirit of Christ, in proportion as we identify ourselves with Him, in proportion as we are able to say, with something of the bold, transcendent phrase of St. Paul, 'To me to live is Christ'. With St. Paul this was no mere exaggeration or figure of speech. He had so far lost himself in Christ that he had made a practical surrender of his own personality. You know, in the ordinary affairs of life, how a man will become so absorbed in a great love, a great ambition, a great art, that he can pay no real heed to anything else. His very self seems merged in the idea or the person that has thus entranced him. It was so, and more than so, with St Paul and Jesus Christ. The old Paul with all his interest, hopes, enthusiasms, and ideals had practically ceased to exist. 'I live no longer,' he says. The old Paul was dead, and in his place had arisen not a new Paul, but, as he elsewhere expresses it, 'Christ liveth in me'. The thought of Christ, the service of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the judgment and presence of Christ, these have become the one supreme, overpowering, all-pervading, dominating fact in the Apostle's consciousness of life. He draws the fact of all his real existence, of all his higher being, all that made him what he now was, simply from the life which Christ Himself inspired, and which could not last one hour without Him. II. The Power of Growth. life has the power of growth or expansion. A dead thing, such as a crystal, may change under chemical laws, but it cannot be said to grow. Growth means a vital and organic change; it is never seen, therefore, except where there is life. The converse is equally true, that wherever you find life you find also growth, or expansion. The plant shows its life by its development. Apply that to the Christian's life within the soul, and you will find that you have a very practical test of its reality. The spiritual life, like life in other forms, has this expansive power, this quality of growth. If we would understand the value of our own Christianity, we cannot do better than look into our hearts and compare what we are today with what we used to me. Are our faces turned to the sunrise or to the twilight? Are we hoping, struggling, aspiring; are we alive in Christ? III. The Power of Resistance. Then, again, life has the power of resistance. Every creature that lives is beset by all sorts of powerful forces that seem to aim at destruction. Life has even been defined as the 'successful resistance of death'. And the more vigorous a life is, the more numerous and the more terrible, often, are its enemies. And so we, if we have this life of Christ within us, must cultivate this power of resistance. We shall have to resist selfish desires, we shall have to resist the spirit of the world. We have to resist self because we have, as Christians, a higher law than that of self to walk by, and because self is a very subtle being, very ready to lead us astray even under the pretence of having good intentions, even under the pretence of doing God's service. 'I have written to you, young men,' says St. John, 'because you are strong,' and he goes on to explain why they are strong. 'Because ye have overcome the wicked one.' That is the secret of greater strength: resistance to the thoughts and pleasures and seductions of the world. IV. The Power of Production. And, then, all life has the power of production. The plant realises the end of its existence by turning to flowers and fruit. Flowers and fruit of a true, noble, unselfish nature are the inevitable results of the Christ-life in the soul. He Himself has said it in one word: 'The tree is known by its fruit' known to be vigorous, known to be growing or decaying, known to be dying or dead. Show by the earnestness with which you labour to overcome your besetting sin, and struggle for truth and for virtue, that your repentance is real, that you are sincere when you claim for yourself this great name of Christian. Spiritual life must be productive as well as progressive and strong. It must grow, it must resist, it must bear fruit, and, glorifying our Father Who is in heaven, we shall realise Who it is that lives in us and by Whom and in Whom we live. The Christian Metamorphosis Phi 1:21 This text describes the Christian metamorphosis, that complete subjection to Christ, involved in discipleship, which displaces, as it were, the original Ego, and puts Him in its place, ranging under Him all the activities which it formerly ruled. 'To me to live is Christ,' says the Apostle. So completely was his whole life taken up and concerned with his Lord, so entirely was it dictated and determined by Him, that it really was Christ's life. To bring out the nature of this life a little more clearly, there are one or two things to be noticed regarding it. I. First of all, St. Paul was indebted to Christ for it. If he traced it back he found it went no farther than his journey to Damascus. Wherever he went behind that, even by a step, Christ was not to be found. Now, the question is, how are you to account for so sudden and total a change? For as to its suddenness no one can doubt. Then few, I suppose, will dispute the completeness of the change. St Paul was indebted for the life he lived, not to any happy combination of circumstances, nor to the sudden awaking into energy of any dormant element in his nature, but to Christ Himself, with whom for the first time it had come into direct and open contact, and from whom it took its new and triumphant departure. Nothing can communicate life but a living person neither sacraments, nor worship, nor any orthodoxy, however pure. Are you, then, indebted for your life to Christ? What has been the use of His death upon the cross so far as you are concerned? II. When St. Paul said: 'To me to live is Christ,' he meant that Christ was not only the beginning and perennial source of his life, but also its terminus and goal. Christ in His perfect manhood was that into which he would grow. And so it is with every Christian's life. Christ is what it naturally tends to become. We may know whether our life has come from Christ by seeing whether or not it is making towards Him. 'To die is gain.'... If to us to live is Christ there need be no fear that death will deprive us of anything which we really prize. For it is not Christ that dies, nor the life we have received from Him; but only that in which it resides, its temporary tabernacle and home. In short, death will lead to the perfection of our identity with Him, bringing about the end of that which is here begun. But remember that all this is only on the supposition that to us now to live is Christ. C. Motnet, The Great Alternative and other Sermons, p. 53. References. I. 21. Spurgeon, Semons, vol. iii. No. 146. R. J. Campbell. New Theology Sermons, p. 1. J. Martineau, Endeavours After the Christian Life, p. 277. R. E. Bartlett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 342. W. P. Balfern, Lessons from Jesus, p. 321. H. Drummond, The Ideal Life, p. 107. A. L. N., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 119. W. C. Wheeler, Sermons and Addresses, p. 1. W. B. Selbie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 328. J. W. Houchin, The Vision of God, p. 149. A. E. Hutchinson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 77. A. P. Stanley, Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 71. A. W. Williamson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 390. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 102. I. 21-24. C. Bradley, The Christian Life, p. 317. I. 21-25. A. Maclaren, Epositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 219. I. 21-26. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 32. How to Be in a Strait Phi 1:23 When St. Paul wrote this Epistle to the Philippians, he was in prison, and in a strait betwixt two between the desire for fellowship with Christ in sufferings while doing God's work here, on the one hand, and fellowship with Christ in the glory which shall be revealed, on the other. But St. Paul was not the only one who is in a strait. Many are conscious of being so; but not like Paul. Was the great Apostle of the Gentiles weary of His service? No. 'And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me' (2 Corinthians 12:9 ). I. What, then, did He mean? Did he think it was necessary to depart in order to have Christ with him? Oh, no. The word which is here translated 'depart' is a peculiar word, and it only occurs in one other place in the New Testament, in Luke 12:36 , where it is translated return from the wedding. The allusion is to a ship leaving one coast to make for another on the return voyage, taking up its anchor, loosing its hold, and setting sail for the opposite shore. It describes the position of a man standing upon such a ship looking out to the brighter shore and longing for the ship's cable to be let go, and the anchor taken up, that he may go home. It is 'far better'. II. What was it Paul Wanted? More of his Christ; to see Him as He is; not as he saw Him here, 'through a glass, darkly'; he wanted to know as he was known, to know all about his precious Christ, to be with Him without interruption from within or without; to see the hands that were pierced; the brow that was crowned with thorns for him; to hear the voice that had once said, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?' III. What was the Ground of St. Paul's Assurance? For he had not one particle, not a shadow of warrant which may not be the portion of any child of God. He tells us; 'I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day'. (2 Timothy 1:12 ). Marcus Rainsford, The Fulness of God, p. 174. A Strait Betwixt Two Phi 1:23 I. The first thing to be especially marked is the way in which the Apostle regarded death, the death of the body, the passing away of the spirit. As a great gain, a blessing, a thing to be coveted. There are not many Christian people who have found their work in the world, who are beloved and loving, who feel Paul's desire. Death is still, in perhaps the majority of cases, regarded as a calamity, a time of unrelieved gloom, and it is to be feared that we have lost the conception of death which prevailed among the early Christians, and very often concerning those who have gone from us we sorrow even as do others who have no hope. II. The happy conception of death which Paul cherished, so happy that his soul had a desire and a longing for it, is to be traced to his conception of that which lay beyond. There are two considerations which make death unwelcome to us. One is the enjoyments we have here, the other is the uncertainty of what the future contains; we dread the mysterious, we people an unknown land with tenors. There was nothing negative about Paul's conception; it was not to be out of the hurly-burly, away from sorrow, disappointment, strife, care. It was to be with Christ. What appeared entirely clear to Paul was that it was not a matter of speculation, but of revelation. Death was going to Christ; it was not a departure merely, it was an arrival. III. It is clear that if departure means being with Christ, all Christian life should be a preparation for it, a progress towards Christ, a discipline to fit us to be with Christ; we have to learn to talk with Him, to be like Him, to be made fit to dwell with Him, to learn the habits of His life. IV. And another thing becomes clear from this passage, viz., that no joy that any of us may experience in the way of going to Christ can for a moment be compared with the joy of being with Him. V. Finally, it has become clear through our meditation that everything depends on our relationship to Christ. Charles Brown, Light and Life, p. 205. Phi 1:23 Principal Rainy said on this passage: 'The prospect of departing in God's good time, to us unknown, should be a great and bright hope before us the refuge of our hearts in trouble, the retreat into which we go when we would soothe and cheer our souls, a great element of the cheerfulness and patience of our lives while we assure ourselves that the best of all we find here is by and by to give place to that which is far better.' Dr. Rainy also said: 'Do not make dying a separate thing from living; let the one and the other be continuous parts of one unbroken fellowship with Christ, so that you may die at last departing to that which is far better, on the selfsame principles and grounds on which you have gone about any day's or any hour's avocations.' Phi 1:23 When Luther was living at the Wartburg, and suffering from ill-health, Melanchthon wrote from Wittenberg to Spalatin (July, 1521): 'One anxiety remains, with regard to his health. I fear lest he should wear himself out with grief of mind, not for his own sake, but for ours, that is to say, for the Church. For I am not wholly ignorant of what he suffers. You know with what anxious care we must preserve the frail vessel which holds such a treasure. Should we lose him, I doubt not that God's wrath would be implacable. Through him a lamp has been kindled in Israel. If that were to go out, what other hope would remain for us? So leave nothing undone that you may find out what treatment is best in his case, and how help may be given not to him only, but to us also yes, to us alone. For I know how he desires to depart and to be with Christ.... O would that with this worthless life of mine I could purchase the life of him than whom the world today holds no diviner being.' Corpus Reformatorum, vol. 1. cols. 417, 418. De. Dods wrote in 1863 to his sister Marcia: 'I was reading in one of the Puritans (you mind Goodwin) on Sunday and came upon this: "Death parts two old friends (body and soul) but it joins two better friends, the soul and Christ"'. Early Letters, p. 291. Geiler of Kaysersberg quoted the words ' cupio dissolvi ' as one of the proofs of spiritual progress. 'If a little bird,' he said, 'is kept captive in a room, it stretches out its little neck when it comes near a window, and would like to escape.... If the window is opened even a little, it finds a way to slip out.' When Archbishop Laud was on the scaffold, Sir John Clotworthy asked him what special text of Scripture he found most comfortable. He replied, ' Cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo '. 'A good desire,' answered the knight, who added, 'there must be a foundation for that desire and assurance.' Laud rejoined, 'No man can express it, it is to be found within'. 'The Archbishop's last prayer,' says Dr. Stoughton, 'is the most beautiful thing connected with his history, and reminds us of Shakespeare's words: Nothing in life Became him like the leaving it'. 'Lord, I am coming as fast as I can, I know I must pass through the Shadow of Death before I can come to see Thee, but it is but umbra mortis, a mere shadow of death, a little darkness upon Nature, but Thou, by Thy merits and passion, hast broke through the jaws of death; so Lord, receive my soul, and have mercy upon me, and bless this kingdom in peace and plenty, and with brotherly love and charity, that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them, for Jesus Christ's sake, if it be Thy will.' References. I. 23. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 274, and vol. xix. No. 1136. R. Higinbotham, Sermons, p. 1. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. pp. 302, 447. I. 27. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi. No. 640. J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii. p. 67. F. B. Woodward, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 207. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 409. F. B. Woodward, Selected Sermons, p. 92. W. Jay, Penny Pulpit, No. 1708, p. 703. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 337. Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. pp. 85, 548. I. 27, 28. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 342. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 38. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 233. I. 28. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 365. I. 29, 30. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 43. II. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 348. II. 1-4. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 244. II. 1-11. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 125. II. 3. J. S. Boone, Sermons, p. 245. J. H. Jowett, From Strength to Strength, p. 3. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 283. II. 3, 4. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 56. Against Controversy Phi 2:3-5 There are two great notes in St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians: I. The Note of Joy. The first the note of joy: 'Rejoice,' he is always crying, and this is the more noble because, as you remember, he wrote as a prisoner and as one in chains. And the point reminds us once more that no chain can ever fetter the free spirit: Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage. Even so one thinks of Bunyan with his body indeed in Bedford gaol, and with his spirit in the House Beautiful, or treading the Delectable Mountains, for in spite of circumstances he finds more in Christ to make him glad than in the world to make him sad. II. The Note of Love. And, secondly, there is the note of love. There is no Epistle in which the fire of love burns more brightly. We can see quite early that it is an anxious love that he has for his Philippian converts. The serious faults he notes in some other Churches are absent here. He commends their faith and purity and charity; and yet even here it is not all perfect: he has heard of discord and differences; he has noted the growth of party spirit and personal rivalry. We have sometimes seen something of this sort in the Modern Church, and indeed this warning of St. Paul's may very well save us from the common danger of idealising the past. There are still some who speak as if there were a time when all Christians loved one another in the golden ages of the Church, but little by little we are compelled to learn that there never was a golden age of the Church. Perhaps there is no more dangerous infidelity than that which is always looking to the past: that infidelity which denies the presence and power of the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier, and which in the present day never looks for the voice of God. If the virtues of the early Church are to be found today, so in other forms we find those weaknesses which once grieved the hearts of the Apostles. III. A Warning Note. Here is one instance before us now; the forming of the Church of Philippi in the presence of the elements of personal self-assertion and party spirit. St. Paul urges on the converts as a remedy for this the cultivation of the spirit of humility. 'Let nothing be done in the spirit of strife or vainglory,' he says. It is, I think, beyond dispute that we are in need of some such warning. There are not wanting certain signs of the rekindling of party spirit. The English Church, in spite of the service she has done for the nation, has been vexed and troubled by matters of little importance. I do not say they are of no importance, for every matter which affects the worship of Almighty God must be of some importance. The Founder of Christianity declared the heart of all good lay in the worship of God in spirit and in truth. IV. A Plea for Comprehensiveness. I would at this time entreat you as individuals and as a body to use and exercise all your influence to preserve the comprehensiveness of the English Church. By that I do not mean the lax tolerance of all opinion, for a Church without a creed would be a Church ready to perish. I mean rather that spirit which will consist of loyalty to the great central truths of our religion, but which is still anxious to allow a wide latitude in what we might call inferential theology. The English Church stands by and in certain eternal verities. Her faith is expressed in the ancient baptism, but there are a large number of questions in which differences of opinion and practice are inevitable, and must be tolerated. So it may be well for us to take and hear the words of the Apostle: 'Let nothing be done in strife or vainglory'. He exhorts us to that lowliness of mind so far removed from party spirit and self-assertion. There are two things which will help us here: (a) Religion will present itself in different fashions to different classes of minds. St. Paul, St. John, and St. James held the same faith, but hardly in the same fashion, and through all the centuries of Christian history we are told how different men adopted different attitudes of mind towards faith. (b) We must consider the incompleteness of our knowledge. Human knowledge widens every year, and the more it widens the more it brings home to us our ignorance. A few centuries ago it might have been said that a single man might know all that there was to know. It is different now. We live in an age of specialists! One man studies stars, another insects. We are only at the beginning of many studies which must more or less affect religion. Take the case of the study of the myths and religions of the world. Only now is the archaeologist really revealing the treasures of the past. No doubt it does seem easy at times to take a strong line it seems bolder and more courageous than to look all round a question but surely the spirit of self-assertion is singularly unbecoming in us who are the little children of the day. Christian Altruism Phi 2:4 It is necessary to fix our attention, to begin with, on one little word the little words are often of great importance 'also'. You are not to neglect your own things, you are not to despise them. There are two possibilities open to us. The first is that of our thinking that other people's affairs are more important and more interesting than our own. That is one extreme to be avoided, and it is indicated by this word 'also'. The opposite and more probable danger for most of us is that of becoming entirely and exclusively absorbed in our own things, of imagining that they are the only things worthy of serious and sympathetic consideration, so that we never seriously contemplate the affairs of other people, but fall into that thoroughly unchristian and detestable spirit of 'Every man for himself,' which mars the beauty and strength of life. So we will remember that little conjunction 'also,' and remember that no one is fit to take care of his neighbours until he has learned to take care of himself; and then, having fixed that idea in our minds, we will go on to emphasise the apostolic injunction, 'Every man * also'. * I. And first let us begin with the Church, which is where the writer began. There are two dangers arising out of Christian work in the Church. The one is, that when one undertakes a certain piece of work, he should be left to struggle alone with his difficulties, without sympathy from those in whose name he undertakes it. The other is that he should think that his work is the only important work, and that his fellow-Christians whose sympathies are not warmly exercised in his particular office are not Christian workers, they are scarcely Christians at all, or worthy to be called members of the Church. It is necessary to feel that no work is unimportant to be depreciated, none to be allowed to lapse into slovenliness, for if it be, the whole body will suffer. II. If you look at the context you will judge that 'things' may include the excellences and the trials of others. You can picture instantly how undesirable a companion, how useless a member of society, that person must be who is principally occupied in contemplating his own virtues or his own trials and who cannot be brought to exercise his imagination for an hour upon the virtues and trials of his neighbours. III. You might also apply this injunction to the convictions and tastes of others. It is vitally important for the goodwill and usefulness of a community that we should realise that other people have these as well as ourselves. IV. I would venture to apply the principle of the text to our home relations. We can never have the harmony of the Christian home unless this precept be practised, and if the home is not Christian the Church can never truly be. V. And I would go a step further, and cast the light of this precept upon our commercial relations, as employees and employers, and I think you may safely say that if a man is not a Christian in these relations he is not a Christian at all. Charles Brown, Light and Life, p. 167. Looking on the Other Side Phi 2:4 That is a fine piece of advice if we take it in the right way. Read it as St. Paul intended, and it is one of the wisest and noblest things we can do. It was what our Lord Jesus Christ was always doing, and what every person does who shows any likeness to Jesus Christ. I. We are to endeavour as far as we can to look at things with our brother's eyes as well as with our own. It is not always easy. We all look at things from a different point of view; we all see them in a different light. Still we may, by taking a little kindly trouble, get some fair understanding of our brother's thoughts and feelings. Nine-tenths of our quarrels and disputes would be prevented, or they would be speedily healed, if we took as much pains to read our brother's view of the question as we do to insist upon our own. How much more considerate we should be, how much more lenient in our judgments, if we tried to understand the circumstances of others, their difficulties, their temptations, as we understand our own. II. Further, we are advised to do this for the sake of our own happiness, cheerfulness, and peace of mind. The most unhappy people you can find are those who move and live and have their being in the little world of their own troubles and grievances. They talk and feel as if there were no sorrows like unto theirs. And it is just because they take no interest in other people's sorrows, because they do not care to think of them or know of them. Yet all around them, perhaps in the very next house, hearts are breaking with a grief compared with which theirs is but child's play. We must have pities, sympathies, and affections which go out on every side, hearts that compassionate the wretched, hands eager to help the needy, hearts that bleed for human wrongs, hands which are always ready to soothe human pain. J. G. Greenhough, The Cross and the Dice-Box, p. 263. Otherness Phi 2:4 Otherness is simply altruism translated into the vernacular. The Apostle does not endeavour to wind us up to that height of fantastic sentiment where a man shall be concerned alone with the things of other people and of no concern whatever about his own. When a man proposes to help his neighbour and yet cannot take care of himself then it is a spectacle for gods and men. I. And now when I plead for otherness I would plead that you take an interest in the affairs of other people because they are your own affairs. A word about that man who is sometimes very difficult to deal with and sometimes very discouraging. 'Why,' says this man, 'should I trouble with the affairs of my neighbour? I receive no help; I do not see why I should give help.' No help? Did no man lend a hand to you when you were beginning business? 'Well, there was one.' Think of the people who have helped you; think of the people who have encouraged you, and pass it on, for you have been dependent on other men's things. Ah! we are all tied up together in this mysterious unity of human life, and I charge you therefore to regard the things of the man next you because they are your own things. II. Look on the things of this man next you because your things are better. What of the hundreds of people who are decent and hard-working, but who have very poor homes, hardly any pleasure, a narrow horizon, and a heavy burden of care? What of them? Yes! And what of the hundreds who are not more amiable than other people, and not harder working than other people, who have got ample homes, endless pleasures, luxuries more than are good for them, and, what is better, all abroad an open horizon? What of them? If that man has the better things so notoriously, and this man the poorer things so undeniably, then is it not according to the highest law that this man here hold his better things in wise and charitable trust for the man who is the poorer? That at any rate is practical. III. We should have regard of the things of other people because if we have our own things they will be a great deal sweeter to us. IV. Think of the things of other people because One thought of our things. This argument is written in the lives of philanthropists and saints, the lives of our own homes, the lives of Christian friends, but it issues in resplendent and eternal character from the cross of Jesus Christ. John Watson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 265. References. II. 4. A. H. Moncur Sime, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 85. W. J. Hills, Sermons and Addresses, p. 149. Baptist Times and Freeman, vol. liv. p. 431. J. 6. Simpson, C hristus Crucifixus, p. 3. II. 4, 5. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 12. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 282. R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 112. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 142. The Meekness of the Cross Phi 2:4 I. Christian humility is not an alternative to greatness of soul. It is a protest against the limitations by which it is too often hedged. The spirit, aware of its high capacities, but scarce daring to trust itself, seeks command of manifold resources whereby it may manipulate the world for the benefit of mankind. 'What is the use,' said Cecil Rhodes in one of his published speeches, 'what is the use of having big ideas if you have not the cash to carry them out?' That is the way in which the man who knows his power expresses the requirement of an adequate opportunity in terms intelligible to the average mind. Give me the sphere appropriate to my personal powers and I will use it, not for the purpose of vulgar acquisition, but for the accomplishment of a great task, for the realisation of a magnificent idea. This is the spirit that year by year is filling, with the best intelligence which the country can command, all those posts and offices of public service in which men may gratify the noble ambition of working for the common weal with benefit to the State and credit to themselves. But what if Christ should apply to any such the supreme test, 'Sell all that thou hast,' what then would be the answer? You would be perfect then renounce the opportunity. You seek a real adventure forgo your vantage-ground of wealth, station, official responsibility; take up your cross and follow Me.' How many would be ready to court the tragedy which such a choice would all but inevitably bring? II. Humility was not first brought to the birth in the stable at Bethlehem, nor was the cross the earliest throne where it received the crown. Its reign was already from of old when the morning stars sang together. It was as the sword in the hand of St. Michael when Lucifer was thrust down from heaven. It is the spirit in which from creation's earliest dawn the Divine finger has wakened all things into life; the spirit in which a bounteous Providence, beholding the things that are in heaven and earth, has crowned the year with His goodness; the spirit in which the Father has wistfully sought the love and friendship of His children. Humility is not the creation of God's hand. It lives in the beating of His heart. As He loves so He humbles Himself. And the death of His Son was no benefaction with which, out of the riches of an infinite liberality, He endowed the poor, but the offering with which He pressed His suit upon a reluctant people, saying to each one of us, 'My son, give Me thy heart'. III. This is the consideration which gives to humility its true dignity and value in the character of the Christian man. It is for this reason that many of the definitions or, we had better say, descriptions by which men endeavour to express it fall infinitely short of its true proportions. It is doubtless true that 'God is in heaven and thou upon earth,' and that therefore it becomes the children of men to refrain their souls and keep them low. But just as many a man will talk bravely of the rights of property who is yet careful to add that 'Of course, we are only stewards,' so the infinite distance which separates the creature from the Creator may encourage other than repress a spirit which is the reverse of humility in the narrower sphere where comparison is not impossible, but inevitable. Nor can that lay claim to rank as a Christian virtue which depends for its realisation upon the chasm that separates human personality from Divine. Rather may it be expected to flourish among those who say that God is great and Mohammed is His prophet. If it be true that, as the Hebrew prophet bids us, we are to walk humbly with our God, or as the Christian Apostle puts it, to humble ourselves beneath His mighty hand, we must seek the principle of this self-abasement elsewhere than in the infinite distance which separates our little lives from His august Eternity. Humility, like every aspect of the character that is truly and properly Christian, must find its spring no less than its goal in the character of God. For it is from Him that Christ comes forth, as it is to Him that He returns. J. G. Simpson, Christus Crucifixus, p. 3. The Mind of Christ Phi 2:5 St. Paul tells us that we ought to have the mind of Jesus Christ; to think as He did, to have something of His Spirit and feeling, at all times. But especially should we desire to understand and share that mind at this time, when His cross and Passion fill our thoughts. We cannot believe in the cross, we cannot understand it, without having something of the Spirit which led to the cross. I. The mind of Jesus Christ, as St. Paul speaks of it here, was His Infinite Compassion and His Infinite Humility. (1) His Infinite Compassion. We want no one to tell us the fact that sin is in the world, and that it brings on men unhappiness and ruin in every shape; we want no one to tell us what sickness is, and pain and weakness; what it is to have great hopes, and see them fail; and that, though there is much happiness blended with our sorrow, there comes at last one thing that there is no getting rid of a man must die. Such is man's condition, and, to make it worse, he tears himself and others, and makes all more miserable, by his sins, his selfishness, cruelty, greediness, and wrong-dealing a condition which, without the hope and salvation brought by Jesus Christ, is indeed dark and dreadful. Truly says the Apostle, 'There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved'. His name opens to us hopes beyond all thought. Take away that name, and there is nothing left. This condition of man He knew, and He looked down on us, and had compassion on us. He beheld us in all our sorrows and sins and He loved us. He, perfect in Holiness, in Glory, He beheld our suffering life, and His heart yearned towards us. He Himself would be our Deliverer. There was a sacrifice to be made; a great price to be paid; great pain to be suffered. But the sorrows and evils of the world filled His thoughts, and over against them He set His Infinite Compassion. But there was something more in the mind of Christ. (2) His Infinite Humility. This leads us to think at once of the nature of His coming among us: His humiliation; what He came to do; how He was received; His sufferings and sacrifice; and His victory. He, the Everlasting God, left the Throne of His Glory in heaven and came down that He might live with men, and live with them not as their earthly king; not to rule, but to minister; to live with us as our Brother; born among us only to be poor and to suffer; and He humbled Himself even to the death on the cross. And why? (a) Because the sins of men had made life hopeless, and without remedy. He came to heal the diseases of the soul, to take away sin, to reclaim men. He came to bring the great remedy, because sinners had provoked God's righteousness, and brought such danger on the world. And (b) How did His creatures receive Him? 'He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.' This was the great refusal and rejection. He met with 'the daily contradiction of sinners,' and at last He, the Judge of all men, the Sinless and True, submitted to stand before the judgment-seat of fools and hypocrites, to have sentence passed on His claims by blind and wicked judges, charged with blasphemy by His own high priests. Thus He submitted to the fate of any ordinary just man, unjustly accused. We can only partly measure what such humiliation means. II. This was the mind of Jesus, with which He wrought out that sacrifice by which our sins have been taken away, by which the hope of eternal bliss has been opened out amid the perplexities and sorrows of this mortal life. The sacrifice began when He came to share our nature, it went on all through His tempted life, and it was completed when He cried 'It is finished,' and bowed His Head, and gave up the ghost. 'Wherefore God also hath given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.' The Mind of Christ Phi 2:5 The historic Christ is for us the power of God and the wisdom of God. There have been numberless books written on this subject in the last few years. Has any fresh light been thrown upon it? The character of Christ in some ways is better known to us than to the Christians who lived before the labours of modern New Testament scholars. Let me call attention to two or three salient points which to me have become clearer as the result of reading some of these recent studies. I. We have been too much inclined to Picture our Saviour as before all Things Calm, serene, and gentle. The conventional face of Christ in art expresses benign dignity and little else, but there are several indications in the Gospels that His was a strongly emotional and deeply stirred nature. His family, St. Mark tells us, said He was beside Himself. The Spirit drove Him into the wilderness, surely under the influence of intense agitation. The agony in the Garden of Gethsemane was the result of a tremendous inward struggle. The calm, the serenity, the dignity and sweet reasonableness, were all there, but beneath the surface glowed fires of which we may not guess the tremendous energy. He must have impressed those who met Him with a sense of awful power under restraint. His disciples were constrained to treat Him with utter reverence. No one ever dared to pity Him. Only twice do we read of advice being offered Him, and on each occasion the dearly-loved counsellors, His mother and St Peter, received a withering rebuke; and yet this awe-inspiring personality was full of gentleness and tenderness for the sick, the sorry, and the sinful. This union of strength and tenderness must have given the character of Jesus a unique charm and attractiveness. II. What was the Source of this Temper, so wonderfully compounded of Strength and Sweetness? The Gospels answer this question very plainly. It was the unique intensity with which our Saviour realised the presence of God, the perfect spontaneousness of His life in the eternal world. With what simple and natural love and confidence He lifted up His heart to His heavenly Father and communed with Him day and night! How this life in God's presence turned all His joy into thanksgiving and all His pain into submission! St Paul, who entered the secret of His life and teaching as few if any have done, puts into maxims the mind of Christ 'Pray without ceasing.' 'In everything give thanks.' 'Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' If He felt the burden of civilisation in that comparatively simple state of society, what would He have said to us? Would He not have advised us earnestly to try a simpler life for our souls' health? 'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?' III. The Sins which our Lord hated were Three hypocrisy, selfishness, and worldliness. The hypocrite, or actor, is one whose outward conduct is not the true expression of his heart and soul, and the hypocrite ends in deceiving himself. The double heart makes the double head. Want of sympathy is a cardinal sin in Christianity as it is in no other religion. When St Augustine said that he desired to know nothing save God and his own soul, he was misled by his love of rhetoric into stating, in epigrammatic form, a view of religion which, though not ignoble, is precisely not that of the religion of Christ. If the world contained only God and self there would be no Christianity. Lastly, worldliness is based on a radically wrong standard of values. The world that is to say, human society, as it organises itself apart from God assigns tasks and pays wages which have no necessary connection with the work which God intends us to do, or the reward which He intends us to receive. References. II. 5. J. M. Neale, Readings for the Aged (4th Series), p. 83. F. B. Meyer, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 318. G. Bellett, Parochial Sermons, p. 240. F. St John Corbett, The Preacher's Year, p. 67. R. W. Church, Village Sermons, p. 77. W. M. Sinclair, Difficulties of our Day, p. 123. C. Kingsley, The Good News of God, p. 302. R. J. Wardell, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 34. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. i. p. 187. II. 5-7. J. W. Burgon, Servants of Scripture, p. 112. Our Example Phi 2:5-8 These words are the most sublime, the most important, perhaps, in the writings of St Paul indeed, I had almost said in all Scripture. For they reveal to us with singular distinctness the foundation truth of the Christian religion the incarnation. They tell us Who it was that became incarnate, and what His incarnation involved. They carry us up to the very heights of His glory as God, they carry us down to the depths of His humiliation as Man; and they propose for our example nothing less than Christ in all His fulness as God and Man. I. The passage has been called the ladder of our Lord's humiliation, since it describes the steps by which He descended to the lowest depths of human need, in His work of redeeming our fallen race. There are clearly three stages or steps indicated by the finite verbs with which the other clauses of the sentence are grouped. (1) In regard to the first stage of the ladder. 'He emptied Himself,' we find associated with the verb 'emptied Himself' two clauses. 'He took upon Him the form of a servant,' and 'He was made in the likeness of man'. We have, therefore, in this first stage of the ladder a statement that the incarnation was an 'emptying' and this emptying is explained as being equivalent to the taking of the form of a servant and becoming man. (2) The second stage speaks of a further humiliation, that being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself He not only assumed human nature, but accepted the penalty which belonged to fallen nature. (3) The third and last stage of the ladder is found in the clause,' He became obedient, even to the death of the cross'. That is, that having chosen to die, of all the modes of death possible, He accepted that which was most painful, most humiliating. II. How wonderful is the power and pathos of the story of our Lord's death! St. Paul tells us that He Who assumed human nature was God What marvellous condescension! It is not only that the just suffers for the unjust; it is not only that the sufferer Himself is sinless, but He is God! III. What is the lesson we are to learn from it? It is summed up in the Collect for today, in which we pray that we may follow the example of our Lord's humility and of His patience. IV. Now we are able to understand the injunction with which St. Paul begins the passage, 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus'. What did He surrender? (1) His rights. (2) His liberty. And then again, in His sacrifice He chose the hardest way. And we, when we realise that a duty must be done, how often we choose the easiest way. A. G. Mortimer, Lenten Preaching, p. 63. References. II. 6-8. P. T. Forsyth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 276. C. H. Robinson, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 340. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 253. II. 5-11. J. N. Bennie, The Eternal Life, p. 68. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 62. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. pp. 161, 241. II. 6. H. Woodcock, Sermon Outlines (1st Series), p. 121. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 368; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ii. pp. 82, 248. II. 6-8. R. W. Hiley, A Year's Sermons, vol. i. p. 178. The Form of a Servant Phi 2:7 I. In order that we may be followers of Christ, and that our life and character should be like His, we must freely surrender our wills to God. If you read the Gospels there are two convictions that infallibly impose themselves upon you. (1) The first of these is that none has ever loved man so wisely and faithfully as Christ Ingratitude did not repel Him, nor cold and pitiless scorn freeze the fountains of His pity. (2) How was it Jesus loved, and loved so loyally to the end? It was because He was doing the will of His Father who sent Him, a will that He knew could never be defeated, and would rise triumphant from its apparent wreck. And so it must be with all who would truly wear the form of a servant. II. We must wear the form of a servant always and everywhere. Christ never laid it aside from the moment He assumed it at Bethlehem till He had said 'It is finished'. So it ought to be with us. Worship is the highest act of service. Yet to be genuine it must be the crown and expression of a life of obedience. But how often we renounce and refuse the form of a servant! We like to assume it in some things, and to discard it in others. But they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. It is no longer ours to question or dispute, to murmur or rebel. III. The strength of service lies in our sonship. We saw that the spring of Christ's enthusiasm lay in His relation to God. So also our service must rest on filial fellowship with God. If it be not sustained and upheld by this it is rendered in our own strength, and is simply the assertion of our self-will. Moreover it will lack what alone can make it truly acceptable to God. For it will lack freedom, and be burdened with the spirit of bondage, or inspired by a pride that will strip it of the character of service and change it into the form of a favour. Nor, on the other hand, will it be profitable to men, for though it may relieve their surface wants, and dry their tears for a time, it will not stanch their deepest wounds nor carry with it the power of an endless life. C. Moinet, The Great Alternative and other Sermons, p. 201. References. II. 7. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 278. II, 7, 8. Ibid. vol. x. p. 36. II. 7-9. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, p. 75. II. 8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2281. S. H. Fleming, Fifteen-minute Sermons for the People, p. 1. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 30; ibid. (5th Series), vol. viii. p. 156. II. 8, 9. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. i. p. 144. II. 9. H. S. Holland, Vital Values, p. 13. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 297; ibid. (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 248. II. 9, 10. J. G. Greenhough, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 314. H. S. Holland, ibid. vol. lxvii. p. 1. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. pp. 138, 139. II. 9-11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 101. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 249. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 260. II. 10, 11. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 420. II. 11. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. v. p. 45. Phi 2:12 William Blake said to a student who came to him for advice: 'Do you work in fear and trembling?' 'Indeed I do, sir,' ' Then you'll do, ' was the reply. Reference. II. 12. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. pp. 99, 119. Deliverance From the Power of Sin Phi 2:12-13 I. 'Work out your own salvation.' There is a sense in which salvation is finished. There is another sense in which it is in process. Finished by Christ when He died, and yet in process by the Holy Ghost in our heart. (1) Remember that sin is a parasite. The day will come when I shall stand up before my God without a trace or freckle of sin. (2) God comes into your heart to take your side against the parasite sin. (3) Remember further that His purpose is to deliver from the power of sin. The guilt is gone, but the power remains, and He can only deliver from this gradually. Today you see things to be wrong which five years ago you permitted, and five years from today you will see things wrong which you now permit. Evidently the work is progressive. (4) We may be saved from known sin but not from temptation. II. Work out what God works in. 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you.' How careful you ought to be! Be very fearful lest by a word or act of yours you spoil and thwart and put back God's work in your life. God in you will work to will, and then God in you will work to do what He wills. He does not work to make you feel, because feeling ends in smoke so often. God does not work in you to think, because you think and think again. But God works in you to will. That is, there rises up in your heart a desire which becomes at last a purpose to be free. No one knows it, no one guesses it; but in your soul there rises up the will. The willing and the doing are from Him, and by faith you look to Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. F. B. Meyer, The Soul's Ascent, p. 107. References. II. 12. W. Smith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 116. A. Shepherd, The Gospel and Social Questions, p. 25. J. C. Lees, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 27. R. J. Wardell, Preacher's Magazine vol. xix. p. 77. Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 102. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 1003. II. 12, 13. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 68. J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 221. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 342. D. E. Irons, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 398. J. M. Whiton, Summer Sermons, p. 177. J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, pt. i. p. 313. R. Allen, The Words of Christ, p. 203. F. B. Woodward, Sermons (1st Series), p. 1. W. C. Smith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 364. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No. 820. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 268. II. 14-16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No. 472. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 74. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 281. II. 16. Ex ositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 203. II. 16-18. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 287. II. 17. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. i. p. 139. II. 17, 18. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 81. Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 81. II. 19-24. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 86. II. 19-24. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 295. Phi 2:20-21 When we are most earnest ourselves, we are surest to feel the lack of earnestness in others; sincerity stirred to its depths will tolerate nothing less. It then becomes a new test of a companion. So a weak solution may not reveal a poison when a strong one will. James Lane Allen. References. II. 21. W. H. Evans, Sermons for the Church's Year, p. 282. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 276. II. 22. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 227; ibid. vol. vi. p. 86. Epaphras: 'A Heart At Leisure From Itself' Phi 2:26 * ; Colossians 4:12 * The identification of Epaphroditus mentioned in the Epistle to the Philippians with Epaphras the minister to the Colossians is precarious. The names are the same, but there is difficulty in supposing that one person is meant. Still, put together, the descriptions make up a harmonious and singularly beautiful type of Christian character of 'a heart at leisure from itself. In Philippians, Epaphras is represented as sorrowful even to agony, because his friends had heard of his illness. He had been sick sick almost to death but he would fain have had no one burdened by his trouble. In Colossians we have the servant of Christ always striving for the saints in prayer, that they may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. This was a heart of gold. I. Few examples are more timely than that of Epaphras in his unwillingness to have his sickness published abroad. Of all trouble, it is perhaps true that it is best even for ourselves not to speak much of it. This is so true of the greater griefs that an almost certain gauge of the depth to which pain has sunk is the measure of its repression. The more real the pain, the greater is the anxiety the world should ignore it. Only inexperienced sufferers are voluble. Those familiar with the secrets of anguish are silent. They do their best to hide from the outer world the consciousness, the memory, and the expectation of their suffering. They make much of alleviations, and eagerly welcome whatever soothes and distracts. They know that expression reacts upon emotion, and makes the burden heavier. This is even truer about lesser sorrows. The mortifications of wounded vanity make a more or less appreciable element in the discipline of life, and they are always intensified by being proclaimed. Even while he suffers, one may doubt whether there is any just cause for pain, and the memory of the slight or disappointment fades away if it is not cherished. Once tell it, and it becomes objective, with an independent existence a living minister of misery. II. But in the mind of Epaphras there was a nobler feeling. He knew that the Philippians were hardly bearing up under the weight of their own sorrows. Life was difficult to them as to him, and its troubles were perhaps, growing day by day. With the generosity of a great nature, he believed that they loved him well that his illness would sadden them deeply and it lay with a double weight on his heart because it had burdened theirs. The 'importunate canvass for sympathy' often wears affection out, and sufferers die unlamented because they have exhausted the resources of compassion. Nor even should the claim be urged through looks that are silent pleas for pity; as far as possible, Christians must divest themselves even of the air of sorrow. We read in Marie Bashkirtseff's life that when she heard she was attacked by consumption, she exclaimed, 'Is it I? O God! I! I!! I!!!' Many will remember Robert Hall's words on recovering from a keen paroxysm of anguish, 'But I have not complained, have I, sir? No, and I will not complain.' III. For we have a hiding-place, a refuge, in One whose patience we can never tire, whose sympathy never fails. Epaphras is found 'always striving in prayer'. Perhaps our faithlessness is shown in nothing so much as in the current limitations of Scriptural teaching on prayer. We are to go to God with all 'Pour out your hearts before Him, ye people'. There we are to begin, and we shall end with Christ He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, and the issue was peace. God loves so well to hear us that it is almost a treachery to Him that we should go with our trials to any other. He knows that we must have sympathy lively and complete. But is not His sympathy the sympathy of God in Christ sufficient for us? The true guerdon of pain faithfully borne is the assurance that it has put God to trial that we can now be sure of His grace that He has given the victory to what in us is higher and diviner and that, having done this, He will bring us through all that awaits us, and not see us cast away. This is the witness of exercised spirits. They have entered an abiding serenity, for they know that there is that in them which has survived the worst that time can do, and which must conquer at the last. IV. Epaphras could not have prayed with such tender warmth unless he had sought directly to bless and help his friends. Prayer is a suggesting grace, and it is answered often by guidance to him who offers it. We are not only forbidden to burden others needlessly; we are to be kind. There are people who make conscientious provision for those who depend on them, by unceasing toil and much sacrifice. That is not enough; the heart must be refreshed. Lacordaire wrote: 'Above all other things be kind. Kindness is the one thing through which we can the most resemble God and the most disarm men. Kindness in mutual relations is the principal charm of life.' What are we doing to increase the innocent happiness of others, to gladden the weary, to lift the worn spirit from the dust? Every day we should resolve to do something were it but to speak a wo, d or write a letter to bring some brightness into another's life. W. Robertson Nicoll, Ten-Minute Sermons, p. 11. References. II. 25. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 92. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 158; ibid. (6th Series), vol. i. p. 132; ibid. vol. iii. p. 235. II. 25-30. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 305. II. 29, 30. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 100. III. 1. Ibid. p. 106. III. 1-3. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scrip-ture Philippians, p. 311. III. 2, 3. Ibid. p. 112. III. 2. Christianity in Daily Conduct, p. 293. Beware of the Dogs Phi 3:2-3 The text enshrines the presentation of a contrast on one side dark, forbidding, and revolting; on the other side radiant and alluring, 'Beware of the dogs: beware of the evil workers; beware of the concision'. What is all this but a solemn and urgent warning against externalism, against all dependence upon outward ordinance and form? What are the marks of true religion? Paul enumerates three, and they appear to me to be full and all-sufficient. I. The first characteristic of true religion is worship. Yes, but what kind of worship? 'Worship in the Spirit.' Not a ceremonial act, not the curbing of the flesh, not the eating of a wafer. These may be the signs and symbols of worship; they do not constitute the worship itself. Worship is in the spirit I know the kind of service which was observed in Paul's temple. 'We give thanks without ceasing.' 'We pray without ceasing.' 'I am poured out upon the altar.' Thanksgiving! Supplication! Sacrifice! This is the nature of true religion. II. The second characteristic of true religion is exultation. 'We glory,' we rejoice, we boast! 'We glory in Christ Jesus.' In Him we find our crown of rejoicing. In Him we make our boast. Not in forms; not in ordinances; not in privileged exclusiveness; not in remote descent, and in distinguished succession; we glory, directly and immediately in Christ Jesus our Lord. 'God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' When anything else is exalted to the throne of glory, the spaciousness of religious life is contracted, and the soul is imprisoned in a carnal bondage. III. The third mark of true religion is spiritual assurance. 'We have confidence, but not in the flesh.' But where shall we gain our confidence? Back in the Christ! 'We know that our sins are forgiven us for His name's sake.' Our confidence is born out of our fellowship with the Lord. J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, p. 36. References. III. 4-8. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 321. III. 4-17 . Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 288. III. 6. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 301. III. 7. N. Smyth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 40. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 382. The Good the Enemy of the Best Phi 3:7-8 What things? What are the things that he estimates as loss birth, lineage, rank, education, social standing, even moral attainment, the very things that men usually count precious, and some of which they pursue with greedy desire? These are the things which the Apostle says he counts but rubbish, that he may win Christ, and be found in Him. These things are good in themselves; the difficulty is that unless kept in their proper places, and rightly estimated at their own value, especially as compared with the incomparable blessings of the kingdom of Christ, these good things may become the enemy of what is better, yea, even of that best knowing Christ and being found in Him. That is the Apostle's thought, and to it attention cannot be too closely given. The good may be, and often is, the enemy of the best, as the French proverb puts it. I. Let us see How it Applies. First, in regard to the great and fundamental truth of the New Birth. Even a careless reader of the New Testament cannot miss the fact that to be a Christian means passing somehow through a great experience and having a great soul's history. Now, in regard to this great truth in the world, and especially in the Christian Church of today, among Christian families, and in nominally Christian circles, how often is the good permitted to become the enemy of the best. Respectability, good breeding, education, culture, the influence of a good home, social status are permitted to take the place of the thrilling experience of personal knowledge of Christ, and many seem to think that among people so born and reared such a thing as conversion is unnecessary. Men forget to put first things first. II. Weakness in the Church. This great truth is just as applicable to the Christian life and to Christian people. How many are content with laying the foundation instead of rearing the temple of a devoted and holy life, how many are satisfied with striking the first blow instead of winning the battle, how many are satisfied to show bud instead of bringing forth fruit! Contentment with present experience is permitted to be the enemy of the greater things that God has prepared for all those that love Him. III. The Problems of Life. This great truth is just as applicable, and certainly it may be very helpful when we apply it to the varied experiences of life. A burden of woe is the undertone of all the world's joy. May not the meaning of it be this, that God the Father, who has a purpose in every life, does not and will not permit the good to become the enemy of the best It is good to have child or husband, to be rich in the good things which God gives; it is better to cherish them when we have them, and even to think of them with fond memory when they are gone; but there is a best, and our Father wants us to have that too. D. L. Ritchie, Peace the Umpire and other Sermons, p. 110. References. III. 7, 8. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p. 278. III. 7-9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1357. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 118. St. Paul's Sacrifices Phi 3:8 I. These words of St Paul seem very definite when we begin to think about them. They appear to contain an allusion to some definite circumstance in his past life, of which we hear nothing, or next to nothing, elsewhere. What loss had St Paul suffered? Let us try to put together all that we know or can infer about Paul's position in life before his conversion. We know, for instance, that he was a Roman citizen, and this fact alone tells us a good deal. He speaks of this with pride, saying he is a citizen of no mean city. And this citizenship implies that his family had been long settled in Tarsus, and probably that members of it served the office of magistrate. What we know, too, about St Paul's education, his being sent to Jerusalem apparently for the express purpose of being taught by Gamaliel, tends also to prove that his family was well-to-do. How comes it, then, that during the greater part of his apostolic career he is evidently a poor man? The conclusion is irresistible; St. Paul must have been disowned by his family. He had become one of those of whom our Lord speaks, who had left home, and brethren, and father, and mother, and lands for His name. St Paul's family, we are reminded in this chapter, was of pure Jewish descent. There must have been great rejoicing in the home at Tarsus when the news came of Paul's zealous persecution of the new sect. All the greater, therefore, must have been the shock of the news of his conversion. Perhaps the final rupture did not take place immediately. Not long after his conversion St. Paul went back to Tarsus, and seems to have stayed there for several years. We learn from the Epistle to the Galatians that he preached the faith there, so that his relations with his family during that time must, to say the least, have been strained and painful; but when he finally decided to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles the estrangement must have been complete. It was impossible for a strict Pharisee to condone such an offence as that The only member of the family of whom we hear definitely was Paul's nephew, his sister's son, who betrayed the conspiracy of the Jews to murder Paul after his arrest at Jerusalem. The Jews evidently believed that any member of St Paul's family would be willing to go any length in order to stop his preaching. Not long after this there is evidence that St. Paul must have been in possession of some means. By appealing to Caesar he would probably have incurred expense. He could not have lived in the hired house at Rome without private means. Whether there had been a reconciliation, or whether on his father's death some portion of the estate naturally and unavoidably devolved on him, we have no means of knowing. St. Paul counted these things as refuse provided that he might gain Christ. II. The delicate reticence of St. Paul about these money matters gives us a high idea of the refinement of his nature. It is only on indirect evidence that we are able to trace the allusion involved in the words of the text. St. Paul stands, in this respect, on a far higher level than St Peter. He does not remind his Lord of the sacrifices he has made. He does not say with St Peter, 'Lord, we have left all and followed Thee'. Still less does he incur the imputation which St Peter does not altogether escape, of trying to bargain with Christ when he says, 'What shall we have therefore?' St. Paul feels a generous and lofty disdain for these socalled losses and sacrifices. They were not a loss; they were gain, since they led to Christ. Even the breach with his family is regarded by him in this spirit, and yet we cannot doubt that his sensitive nature felt it acutely. The Jews attached great importance to the Fifth Commandment, and St. Paul tells us that as to the righteousness which is in the law he had been found blameless. Like St. Francis of Assisi in similar circumstances, he probably did not resist his father's will until it was clear to him that compliance would be a sin. III. Christianity does not make any appeal to the mass of mankind to sell all that they have and follow Christ. It is only in exceptional cases that this appeal is made, and sometimes those to whom the suggestion comes cannot rise to the height of this counsel of perfection. Like the young man with great possessions, they go away sorrowful. Yet if one reads the obituary notices in the newspapers, it is almost startling, I think to see how many men and women nowadays do give up their fortune, their lifetime, sometimes even their life itself, to the service of Christ and the good of their fellowmen. Little is known of their lives by the world at large, but they have heard their Master's call, and have left all and followed Him. These are the chosen few, spiritual natures, gifted with an exceptional enthusiasm. To the mass of men the appeal which Christianity makes is something different. It bids us do our duty, follow our conscience, take our stand on our moral and religious principles without counting the cost. We must be ready with St. Paul to suffer the loss of all things for the sake of Christ we must be ready, I mean, to risk losing much that we value for the sake of what we hold sacred. The man of high principle differs from the unprincipled man in that he would do this unhesitatingly. The perfect Christian differs from the imperfect Christian in that he would do it willingly and gladly for the sake of the love that he bears to Christ. We are not, I dare say, called upon to give up our inheritance or to break entirely with those nearest and dearest to us, as was St. Paul; but, none the less, the claim which Christianity makes on our religious life is an exacting one. References. III. 8. Bishop, Creighton, The Heritage of the Spirit, p. 91. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i. p. 28. W. M. Sinclair, Words from St. Paul's (2nd Series), p. 138. Reuen Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 137. C. S. Horne, The Soul's Awakening, p. 191. J. H. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 241. III. 9. W. Robertson Nicoll, Ten Minute Sermons, p. 109. H. W. Webb-Peploe, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 389. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 186; ibid. vol. viii. p. 81; ibid. (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 135; ibid. vol. vii. p. 281; ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 367. The Power of Christ's Resurrection Phi 3:10 What is the sense of this word 'power'? There is no room for mistake as to its general import. By the power of a fact we mean the bearing, the consequences, as distinct from the existence of the fact; we mean the inferences which may be drawn from it, or the influence which it will naturally exert. I. The power of the Resurrection is to be seen first of all in a Christian's thought. It is the fundamental fact which satisfies him of the absolute truth of the religion of Christ. Now here, first, it is abundantly clear that the Apostles felt certain of their facts. They did not merely whisper in assemblies of the faithful that Jesus was risen, as a private topic of comfort for Christian souls; they carried their bold assertion of the Resurrection before tribunals, which were filled by their keen, bitter, and contemptuous enemies, and challenged them to gainsay it if they could. If, after the fashion of modern times, the ruling Sadducees had appointed a scientific commission to investigate the matter, nobody would have been better pleased than the Apostles. They had nothing to lose, they had everything to gain, by a thorough searching inquiry. 'We have not followed,' one of them wrote in after years, 'cunningly devised fables,' 'we cannot,' they said a few weeks after the event 'we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard'. They trusted their senses sufficiently to believe One who revealed to them a world higher and greater than the world of sense; and in doing this, certainly, they could say with the Psalmist, that He had 'set their feet upon the rock, and ordered their goings, and had put a new song in their mouth, even a thanksgiving unto our God'. For them the Resurrection warranted the truth of Christ's mission, the truth of Christianity. All that Christ had said, all that He had promised and foretold, was raised by it to the high level of undisputed certainty. With the mighty power of such a miracle, so certified, impelling and sustaining them, they went forward, they could not but go forward, to win the attention, the acquiescence, the faith of men in the truths which it attested. What became of them personally it mattered not If they succeeded, it would be in the strength of the risen Jesus. If they failed, the mighty risen One would yet succeed. There it was, ever before them, the imperious, the invigorating fact that He had broken forth from His grave as He said He would; and it only remained for them, as it remains for us at this hour, to do justice to the evidential power of His Resurrection. St. Paul maintains the Resurrection of Christ to be so bound up with Christianity, that to deny it is not simply to cut its most important incident right out of the heart of the Christian creed, but that it is to part with Christianity as a whole. 'If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.' 'If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins; then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.' Deny the Resurrection, and Christianity collapses altogether, as certainly as does an arch when its keystone is removed; and in place of the Conqueror of death and the Redeemer of souls, there remains only a Jewish rabbi, whose story has been curiously encrusted with legend, and some of whose sayings are still undoubtedly entitled to attention. But conversely, admit the Resurrection, and you must confess the Creed. In admitting the truth of the Resurrection, you make an admission which, if you are a thinking man, must govern, colour, impregnate your whole thought, must make faith intellectually easy, and doubt unwelcome. For the Resurrection guarantees the absolute truth of Christ's teaching and mission; it converts His death into the transient preliminary of an eternal triumph; it leads on to the Ascension and the Perpetual Intercession in heaven; it is the warrant that He will come to judgment. II. But it is in the conduct of the Christian, in his moral and spiritual life, that the power of the Resurrection may chiefly be felt. This was the main scope of the Apostle's prayer. He had no doubt about the truth of the Gospel. But to know the risen Christ in his own heart and will this was a field wherein boundless improvement was possible, even for St. Paul; it was a field of improvement, moreover, in which, on this side the grave, perfect satisfaction was unattainable. What, then, are the necessary conditions of an effective moral power, of a power which shall stimulate and control feeling, resolution, action? There are, I apprehend, two main conditions which must be satisfied by any such power; and which are satisfied, and that amply, by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1) In the first place, it opens out before the eye of the soul its one adequate aim in all action and in all endurance; that is to say, a union of the whole man with God, extending through the vast perspectives of a boundless eternity. (2) But the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ also satisfies the second condition of an effective moral power; it assures to us the continuous presence of help from on high. To have revealed a future life to us in our unaided weakness would have been to abandon us to despair; but, as it is, the revelation of our eternal home is also the assurance of our being enabled, if we are willing, to secure it. H. P. Liddon. The Resurrection and Personal Experience Phi 3:10 I. The Apostle implies in these words that the Lord's Resurrection was the channel through which power was conveyed for the redemption of His people from the condemnation of sin. And this was to be an experience of ever-growing depth and certainty. Its energies were to effect the release of believing disciples from the impending threats of the law. Cross and blood, thorn-crown and furrowed flesh from which life has sped, could never assure rebels of the grace of the great God whose laws have been despised. But the Resurrection is a witness that Divine favour is bestowed again upon the new humanity, of which Jesus was the beginning, the type, and the living advocate. II. The Apostle thought of Christ's Resurrection as the centre from which the new manifestations of a Divine life in man derived their animating and upholding forces. The death of the Holy One of God was only a part of the satisfaction made for the sinful race. The putting right of those who had got woefully wrong must be completed by vital processes emanating from the indwelling presence of the risen Lord. III. The Apostle Paul thought also of the power of the Resurrection as a triumphant counteractive to the perils and death-risks of a hostile world. If we make proof of the Resurrection power which justifies from sin and renews into righteousness, we shall have fresh assurances against hazard and death. Water has no power to generate electrical energy as it lies in the still, tideless Jake, the sluggish river which moves placidly through a flowered landscape, or in the dikes and canals of Holland, the land of tulips and dairy farms. The engineer puts his turbines and his dynamos where torrents come thundering through the frowning chasms and rushing out of the gloomy valleys. And the power of the Resurrection, the glory of its unknown forces, its mystic possibilities are not always known in the quiet scenes of life and amidst its pastoral serenities. It is through stress and danger, through turmoil and conflict that the glory of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead manifests itself afresh. IV. The Apostle regards those processes of grace and providence which issue from the glorified humanity of the Lord, to repel the evils of the earthly lot, as reaching their climax in the believer's victory over the ravage and terror of death. The power of the Resurrection working within and around us ought to nerve with the fortitude of an unflinching faith and change the associations of the tomb. He who is alive to all the influences emanating from the person of the risen Lord loses his dread of the unknown hereafter, and his tears for the departed are disburdened of selfish repining and despair. Paul's Strange Ambition Phi 3:10 The Apostle Paul is expressing here the intense longing of his heart. It is a little bit of spiritual autobiography. He uncovers his secret desires to the Philippian Christians, opens the chamber of his inner life, and we see what is working there. You often wonder what is moving in some prominent personality, what is the secret and predominating purpose of his life. It is well to turn that curious inquiry in upon ourselves. Supposing every man's heart were unveiled, and this were a kind of Palace of Truth, one wonders what would be discovered as the ruling passion of each man's life with one to be rich, with another to have some sort of position, with another to be approved and loved, with another to get pleasure, with another to be useful, or to be free from some besetting sin. Would there be any one who would confess to this peculiar passion of Paul? We would all like to know the peace of Christ, the joy and comfort of Christ, His thankful trust in the father's love. We would some of us brace ourselves to bear some shadow of His experience of suffering, if it pleased God to lay it upon us, but to long for it is quite another thing. A bold, brave spirit must his be, who can pray and long to share the sufferings of Christ. Can we understand the feeling out of which this desire sprang? And can we see the reasonableness of the desire, and whether it is a desire that ought to be in us and cherished by us? Let us see. I. First, as to the feeling out of which this desire sprang; if we can see that, we shall see the reasonableness of it. And indeed it is very easy to see; it shines out and breaks out in all the words and writings of Paul. It was his intense and consuming love for Christ, a love reverent, worshipful, grateful, the love of one who felt that Christ had done everything for him, and was more to him than all the glory of the world. At any moment he would not only have suffered anything, he would have died for the love that he bore to Christ; and he never lost it, as some of us do, it never abated in its fervour, it grew more and more intense as life went on. And inasmuch as Christ was still reviled and mocked among men in the days of Paul, as He still grieved over the sins and follies of the sons of men, and still carried their sins upon His heart, we can understand how out of his vast love for the Lord, Paul longed for fellowship in His sufferings. II. Further, we can understand the longing of the Apostle, if we remember what caused the sufferings of Christ. It was the sin and misery of the world; and what he longed for was that he might feel towards the sin and misery of men as Christ felt towards it. We are not fit to deal with the sin of our fellowmen until we can share the feeling of Christ as He wept over Jerusalem. Charles Brown, Light and Life, p. 63. ** The Power of Christ's Resurrection ( for Easter ) Phi 3:10 ** The thought of the Resurrection is with us still, and what can be more appropriate for a few thoughts this morning than our text? The power of His Resurrection! What is that? Who can fathom the depth of those mysterious words? I. Power over Temptation and Sin. The power of His Resurrection means a steady rise over temptation and sin. In some parts of England on Easter Day they have a strange but beautiful superstition that the bright sun dances for very joy, and surely we may excuse that superstition when we remember that on Easter Day we begin to know something of the power of His Resurrection. II. Power over Conscience. The Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has a wonderful power over conscience. If Christ had died, and only died, we should have been grateful for the unparalleled sacrifice; but it would end there. There are many men who would teach us and tell us that the character of Christ was beautiful and sublime that He was an Apostle, the flower of perfect humanity, and that there, suspended on the cross, He represents to all ages a witness of all human goodness and self-sacrifice. If Christ died upon the cross merely to exemplify human goodness, He has no power to heal our consciences, to give us rest and peace. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ teaches us that the sacrifice which was made by the Lord on Calvary has been accepted by God, so that Jesus Christ did not merely die as the exemplar of all that was human and good, He died there as the Passover offering for the sins of the world; and so, when we stand before His open grave we see that this conscience of ours can be healed, because the sacrifice that Christ made upon Calvary has been accepted by God. The Resurrection is, as it were, the letter which tells us that God is willing to forgive the past because the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has been accepted. III. A Life Worth Living. There are some who talk in sombre tones about life being 'short'. They say, 'I am weary to-night, and I feel that my life will soon be at an end'. Again, when people become very old they feel that they are in the way of other people. These old people say, 'I shall not be sorry when my time comes to go away'; but when the time does come they do not want to die, they are going to have a good struggle for life. But what is there in this world to live for if there is no resurrection or no salvation? When, however, you realise that there is a resurrection, life is not hopeless; then we see that life is worth living. IV. Even Life for Evermore. This morning, look once again into the empty tomb of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He has risen from the dead. We have strange ideas of death! We think of it in quite a wrong way; but the resurrection shows us that death is a phase of life, and not an abrupt close of life. Death is merely a passage, and we pass into the other world to live for ever and ever. In that other life there will be ample leisure. All the good we have sown in our hearts in this world will develop through the long days of eternity. There will be by-and-by a reunion of body, soul, and spirit, and our life will be carried on in that other world under conditions of perfection and glory. Do you remember in the story of the Resurrection that we are told there was an angel standing at the head of the place where the body of Jesus lay? We are told that he was a young man, and what do we learn from that? Simply that angels must be hundreds and hundreds of years old, and yet he is spoken of as a 'young man'. We learn from this fact that when we get to that other world we shall never grow old, or be weary, or carry about care; but in that other world there will be youthful perfection and an enthusiasm which will never be killed. Easter has a number of thoughts for each one of us. Some of us lay flowers on the graves of those who have been dear to us; but our thoughts should not be sad all the sadness should go when we think of the day of resurrection. References. III. 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x. No. 552, and vol. xxxv. No. 2080. J. A. Davies, Sermons by Welshmen, p. 308. C. D. Bell, The Power of God, p. 96. E. Griffith Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 120. R. W. Hiley, A Year's Sermons, vol. iii. p. 145. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 213. J. T. Bramston, Fratribus, pp. 141, 149. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. vi. p. 1. Bishop Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 129. G. Campbell Morgan, The Bible and the Gross, p. 79. W. Robertson Nicoll, Ten Minute Sermons, p. 118. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 121; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 236. III. 10, 11. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii. pp. 160, 173, 187. A. B. Davidson, Waiting Upon God, p. 277. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 124. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 336. III. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2315. F. W. Farrar, Truths to Live By, p. 352. R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 207. J. H. Jowett, The Examiner, 17th May, 1906, p. 478. C. Cuthbert Hall, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxii. p. 12. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 415; ibid. (5th Series), vol. v. p. 34. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 348. III. 12-14 J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 130. Spiritual Concentration Phi 3:13 If it were asked what, under God's grace, was the secret of St Paul's power his power of writing, his power of preaching, his power of argument I should not hesitate to say, concentration. He had singularly attained the habit of taking a distinct aim, and then making everything bear to that 'one' desired point No one is ever very great, very useful, very happy, who has not this quality in his character. Let me strongly here urge upon every one, as a general rule especially the young to cultivate concentration. Have a work to do know what it is and do it Know your end, and keep to it Fix your aim steadily, and then bring your whole being to the attainment of that end. Decision is energy; energy is power; power is confidence; and confidence is success. If you fail in anything, the probability is that it was not for want of ability, but simply because there was not sufficient 'oneness' in your mind about it, and therefore not sufficient decision which nothing but 'oneness' gives. Life, with most of us, loses its' oneness' just because its aims are too many. I. The Supremacy of Christianity. What a mere insignificance are all things else besides! What else I do how I dress, how I fare, how I eat, how I drink, how I get on, what people think of me, what this world is to me what a mere trifle! What is it compared for a single moment with my soul and my eternity, the gospel of my salvation, the consent of God to all I ask and all I have, and that judgment to which I am to be summoned? Yet, are men living are you living as if these things were so? Religion takes its place, and where? It ranges one in a hundred, one in ten, one in two. And where is its place? What is it? A very quiet, commonplace thing, and very plain, very diluted, with a great deal of routine in it. It has its decencies and you are here. It has its properties and you are here. It has its degrees of interest and feeling. But if you measure by earnestness, and compare the intensity we put into religion with the intensity we throw into other things, is it one in two, is it one in ten, is it one in a hundred? II. The Work of Grace in a Man's Heart should be the Happiest of all Things. It is the only thing that ever gives to man any real satisfaction in the world. It gives peace; and in this sense it is easy and light It becomes easy and light by the joyous ness of that elastic spirit which bears man up. But to get this heart of ours this dull, stubborn, wicked heart, changed, and to love God, and to please God, and to get to heaven, is very hard work. And unless you go to it intently, and embracingly, and determinately, you will not do it I know it is the work of the Holy Ghost in a man, without which no man can desire or take one step. But, nevertheless, to be a Christian is a hard work. It demands all a man's power his intellect, his memory, his judgment, his affections, his courage. It will tax them to the uttermost. It is a struggle and a battle; and at the very best it has to be fought not only in the visible, but invisible world. It is a work not to be done in a given period, but a work lifelong. All other enterprises the approbation of the world, the achievements of instruction, the accumulation of business are nothing in comparison with it. 'The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.' 'Many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.' It is done by whole-heartededness. It is only done by positive striving, by that spirit which goes to it honouringly, reservedly, as to the highest work that is ever given man to do. 'This one thing I do.' III. God Must See His own Reflection in Your Soul. Now, God is 'one'. God was 'one' when He came to the great work of your salvation. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in all their threefold office. He brought His whole power, His whole love, His whole wisdom, His whole justice, to effect your redemption. Therefore, God must see the 'oneness' of the way in which you deal with your redemption. Phi 3:13 Miss Caroline Fox gives the following note of a conversation with Sterling. 'Thorwaldsen was one of the greatest geniuses and clearest intellects in Europe. When engaged over his Vulcan, one of his friends said to him, "Now, you must be satisfied with this production". "Alas," said the artist, "I am." "Why should you regret it?" asked his friend. "Because I must be going down-hill when I find my works equal to my aspirations."' 'An ingenious artist of our own time,' says Hazlitt ( Table-Talk, 'On the Past and Future'), 'has been heard to declare that if ever the Devil got him into his clutches, he would set him to copy his own pictures. Thus the secure self-complacent retrospect to what is done is nothing, while the anxious, uneasy looking forward to what is to come is everything. We are afraid to dwell on the past, lest it should retard our future progress; the indulgence of ease is fatal to excellence.' References. III. 13. H. H. Henson, Godly Union and Concord, p. 30. G. H. Morrison, Scottish Review, vol. ii. p. 25. P. Wyatt, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 342. T. F. Crosse, Sermons, p. 193. J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, pp. 278, 291. J. M, Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii. p. 180. R. Flint, Sermons and Addresses, p. 123. H. C. Beeching, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xiv. p. 112. F. E. Gardiner, ibid. vol. xv. p. 112. Perfect But Not Perfected Phi 3:13-14 Let us examine the elements that constitute the criterion of Christian perfection as here laid down. I. First of all, Christian perfection has done with the past, 'Forgetting those things which are behind'. What does the Apostle mean by forgetting the past? If you carefully consider the chapter, you will discover the thought connection which the Apostle has in his mind. He has been telling the Philippians what he has sacrificed for the sake of the knowledge of Jesus Christ But now he is able to say: Whatever pangs I then endured, however my heart may then have bled for the past, now I stand above it. I have forgotten it. And so he implies that for the Philippian converts also the same criterion holds good. And we also must apply the criterion to ourselves. Has that from which we have escaped any power now to make us halt on our way? If we can stand this test then we have attained to a strength and power of Christian life which is called in the New Testament Christian perfection. II. Christian perfection according to the Apostle reaches forth into a higher goal in the future. There are some people that define Christian perfection in this life as a rounded and complete thing, as the reaching of the goal; the very thing Paul declared he had not attained. Such a conception must of necessity lead to self-complacency, and close the vision of a higher goal in the present life. But that is not the meaning of this passage. According to Paul, as many as be perfect have the vision of a far away goal. Christian perfection, according to this criterion, is that stage of life that realises most intensely its imperfection. Observe that this attitude involves a certainty of mind with respect to future glory. No man ever did well in the present if he had no vision of the future. III. We note that Christian perfection recognises its ground, its goal, and its inspiration in Jesus Christ 'I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' (1) 'In Christ Jesus.' The Apostle knows of nothing beyond that limit (2) 'The high calling.' 'The high calling 'is called in the Epistle to the Hebrews 'the heavenly calling'. The phrase implies that this calling comes from, and leads to, the highest sphere to which man can attain. (3) Then the passage leads us in the last place to the Christian anticipation of a perfected life in a fuller and completer sense, when the goal shall be reached, and the prize shall be obtained. John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. III. p. 193. Forgetting the Things Behind Phi 3:13-14 To apprehend is to lay hold of; and what is that of which St. Paul does not account himself to have laid hold of? He that had been so tried by temptations, he that had so suffered for the name of Christ, he that had laboured more abundantly than the rest of the Apostles, even he did not feel that he had done enough for his own salvation. I. 'Forgetting the things that are behind.' We have fallen into sin, again and again and again, when we thought to do good. As the same St Paul says evil was present with us. What then? We are to forget all that, so far as it may discourage us; we are to keep it out of our sight, so far as it may hinder us from running with patience the race that is set before us. What should we say to any general, who, when speaking to his men, were to say, 'Remember, soldiers, that you were beaten at such a time, that you lost courage at such a time, that the enemy stole a march upon you at such a time?' Would he not rather say, 'Remember, soldiers, that then you conquered, that then you did such and such a valiant action, that then your praise was in all mouths?' And if they had suffered a great defeat, he would say, 'It is true that at such a time you failed, but then there were such and such reasons for it; we have put all that to rights; and now we shall go on in the certain assurance of victory'. II. But those words of St. Paul's are true in another sense. That of which I have already spoken rather belongs to God's true servants, who may fall sometimes, but who are fighting His battles still. This is for those who are idle, who are careless, who think that heaven may be gained with less than all their heart and all their strength. 'Why am I always to be struggling? I remember when I was much worse than I am now. I have done a great deal. I have done enough. You cannot expect me always to be trying, always to be persevering.' And I should answer, 'But I do expect you to be always trying. But you must persevere to the end. Forget everything that you have done. Now begin anew. As they say, make a fresh start. Imagine that this were the very beginning of your Christian life. Set out again and try as hard as if you had never tried before.' III. 'I press towards the mark.' The great mark, the one mark, the mark which we always ought to have before our eyes, the prize to which we are called. Ought not we who really believe that there is such a kingdom, that there is such a crown, that there are such companions, that there is such a reward, to be ashamed that we care for the little troubles and vexations of this world? Ought not anyone who is going home to be ashamed if he made much of the troubles of the journey, heat, or dust, or crowd? J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, vol. II. p. 163. The Marks of a Christian Phi 3:13-14 I wish to enumerate some of the marks of Christian progress. I. Faith. 'We live,' says Wordsworth, 'by hope, by admiration, and by love.' We also live by faith; but faith without hope, admiration, and love would be nothing more than a cold corpse. II. Self-sacrifice. The value of our faith is measured by our self-sacrifice. This mark of Christian progress is seen not only in what it takes up but what it gives up. III. Self-control. Remember the power for good or evil of the tongue. Church Family Newspaper, vol. xiv. p. 464. References. III. 13, 14. R. Flint, Sermons and Addresses, p. 1. J. G. Greenhough, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 92. H. P. Liddon, Sermons on Some Words of St. Paul, p. 246. H. S. Seekings, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xvii. p. 466. J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 371. A. Maclaren, The Wearied Christ, p. 158. H. P. Liddon, University Sermons, p. 28. J. M. Neale, Readings for the Aged (3rd Series), p. 218. C. D. Bell, The Saintly Calling, p. 183. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (3rd Series), p. 129. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1114. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 359. III. 14. B. J. Snell, The All-Enfolding Love, p. 49. J. W. Boulding, Sermons, p. 41. R. Allen, The Words of Christ, p. 285. III. 15. Archbishop Maclagan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 216. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 369. III. 15, 16. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 137. III. 16. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 381. III. 17. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 122. III. 17-19. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 143; Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 259. Phi 3:18 The artist, except when he rises to the height of a Blake, does not get beyond irritation and annoyance; the philosopher smites them with cold sarcasm; the moralist, or he whom in the narrower sense we call religious, assails them by turns with solemn denunciation and pathetic entreaty. This last alone, when it crosses his mind, and he realises for a moment what is to him so incredible, that there are those who 'mind earthly things,' says it * 'even weeping.' * Sir John Seeley, Natural Religion (pt. 2 Chronicles 1 ). References. III. 18. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1691, p. 567. III. 18, 19. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 102, and vol. xliv. No. 2553. J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays After Trinity, p. 352. III. 19. J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays After Trinity, p. 363. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. pp. 24, 35, 138, 210; ibid. vol. ii. pp. 66, 295, 382; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 190. Heaven Phi 3:20 What is heaven? That is a question to which the Church can give a partial, though as yet necessarily an incomplete, answer. It is manifest that the Church must depend upon the revelation of her Divine Founder Himself. For heaven lies beyond the range of human intuitions or discoveries. 'No man hath seen God at any time;' and no man hath seen heaven. I. We turn, then, to the words of Jesus Christ. And here it is important to remark that, when He spoke of heaven, He was careful to use such language as is figurative or analogical. It is impossible in human words to give an exact account of a supernatural existence. Yet human words must be employed, and such as will convey the best idea which the audience is capable of apprehending. The words of our Lord relating to heaven need to be accepted under the limiting condition that 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man' the things of heaven; and that revelation of them is not literal, but spiritual. But while it is true that our Lord's words respecting heaven must be regarded as adumbrations of an inexpressible and inconceivable reality, it is not impossible to draw certain inferences from His teaching and from His life. (1) Thus He taught, beyond doubt, the existence of heaven. He did not prove it; He took it for granted. To Him, as to all who have learnt the secret of the Gospel, the life of earth is the shadow, the life of heaven is the substance; the one is transient, the other is real, enduring, absolute, true. (2) Jesus Christ then taught the reality of heaven; and, in His teaching, He spoke of it with complete knowledge, with complete certainty. He professed and claimed to know all about heaven. As being the Son of God, as having descended to earth from God, He could, if He would, afford to mankind a full revelation of the celestial city, wherein His Father dwelt. 'No man hath seen God at any time; the only Begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.' This is the substance of His revelation. (3) Whether it was His will or not to reveal the character of heaven, He declared explicitly that it was within His power to reveal it. 'In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.' It is remarkable, then, that our Lord should have observed in all His teaching so great a reticence in speaking of heaven. Heaven was clearly one of those subjects upon which it was impossible for Him to tell, as a Man to men, all He knew. (4) There is, however, a manifest intention not to exaggerate the awfulness of the invisible world. It may be said of Jesus Christ that, while He laid a powerful emphasis on the reality and significance of that world, He intended it to be a hope, a solace, a motive to holiness, and not to exercise a paralysing influence upon human action, as was the case in the year a.d. 1000, when the anticipation of the world's end as imminent impoverished and impaired human action. The will of God is that we should prepare ourselves in this life for the next, not that we should sacrifice this life and its endeavours as though they were practically worthless. II. Among the lessons of Christ's teaching upon heaven there are two which seem to stand out in relief He taught that the enjoyment of the heavenly life depended upon character and conduct in this life; and also, that the access to the heavenly life lay in the method and revelation of His hid Gospel. It is not in man to merit heaven. III. Heaven is not a place, or a period, but a state. Is it possible to understand that existence? The soul of man is the seat of personality or identity; and it is the soul which is immortal and enters heaven. But, if we know what it is that is immortal, we may hope to know what it is that the immortal being is capable of being or doing. The intellectual, moral, and spiritual faculties of man continue eternally. No merely negative conception of heaven can be just. To regard it simply as a state of immunity from sin and sorrow and suffering is to mistake its character altogether. The death of saints is an emancipation from limiting conditions. It is a progress and exaltation. It is the entrance into a sublime existence, into the perfect state and perfect exercise of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual faculties in a word, into heaven. IV. It is asked by many an anxious, yearning heart if they who have known and loved on earth will regain such mutual knowledge in eternity? Can it be doubted that this knowledge will be theirs? Continuity, it has been said, is by death broken; identity remains; personality survives the grave. And if it be so, then it may be permitted to hope nay, indeed, to believe intensely that in heaven we shall enjoy the society of those who have been nearest and dearest upon earth. We shall know them, and they us. We shall live with them in full and free communion; we shall participate in their joy, their gratitude, their adoration; the saddest of all earthly fears, the fear of separation, will be wanting. There will be no more parting for ever. Bishop Welldon. The Earthly and the Heavenly Citizenship Phi 3:20 'Conversation' in this passage, as indeed the Revised Version shows, means 'citizenship'; and so to take it is the only way of entering fully into the strong and solemn purport of St. Paul's words. For he knew what citizenship was. He was himself, as he says, 'a citizen of no mean city,' but not of Tarsus only; he was a citizen of the Roman Empire, the greatest confederation of races and peoples which the world had ever known until the British Empire attained its pre-eminent position; he was the inheritor of an imperial franchise so august that an English statesman, speaking on a memorable occasion in the House of Commons, could find no better emblem of the safety and the dignity guaranteed to all subjects of the late Queen by their British citizenship than the ancient phrase consecrated to the ears and the hearts of all citizens of Rome, Civis Romanus Sum . I. The Christian possesses a double franchise a franchise of earth, and a franchise of heaven. But these are not incompatible, nor even separable. St. Paul knows nothing of the modern conventional distinction between the secular and the sacred sides of human life. In his eyes the State may be less sacred, but it is not less truly sacred, than the Church. He would almost as soon allow that the State has no concern with religion as that the Church has no concern with civic duty or social reform. Whatever may be the equitable relation of different religious bodies living side by side in the same political community, it would, I think, seem to him a paradox to maintain that, at a time when the State is interested, as it never was before, in the amelioration of the physical and moral conditions under which the mass of the people, in the great cities especially, live, it should deliberately discard the most efficacious and energetic of all motives to philanthropy religion, or the love of God, which is the one unfailing warrant for the love of man. II. A good citizen, and still more a good Christian, is not two beings, but one. There is no possibility of dividing his life into water-tight compartments. He is not a religious man in church and an irreligious man outside. He cannot be honourable in public life if in private he is fraudulent or untrustworthy. It is for this reason that the people have been led in recent years by a sound and sure instinct to demand of their public men throughout the constituencies an obedience to those moral laws upon which all societies and communities ultimately depend. They have silently argued that a statesman or a politician cannot make a worse beginning of elevating his fellow-citizens than by debasing himself. Men are tempted to essay the task of making others better; but the one infallible service which they can render the State is to make themselves better. Political schools, parties, administrations, cabinets, rise and fall, and it is often difficult to appraise the good or the evil they have done; but there is no one, not the poorest or humblest citizen, who may not, if he will, enrich the State with the treasure which is most enduring and ennobling his own sincere, honest, upright, virtuous Christian life. III. We all need to be raised day by day, in thought and character, from the citizenship of earth to the citizenship of heaven. We need to live more and more not as worldly men and women, whose souls are bounded by the range of mere temporal and terrestrial aspirations, but as the citizens of an eternal commonwealth, the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, redeemed and consecrated by the Passion of the Saviour Jesus Christ. So, but so only, shall we live on earth the life of heaven; so shall we lift the society in which we move to ourselves, by lifting ourselves to God. The Church and Social Questions Phi 3:20 Among all the changes which have come over religious and theological teaching within living memory none seems to me so momentous as the acute secularising of the Christian hope, as shown by the practical disappearance of 'the other world' from the sermons and writings of those who are most in touch with the thoughts and aspirations of our contemporaries. You may look through a whole book of modern sermons and find hardly a reference to what used to be called the Four Last Things, except perhaps in a rhetorical peroration at the end of a discourse. The modern clergyman certainly need not be afraid of being nicknamed a 'Sky-pilot'. The New Jerusalem which fills his thoughts is a revolutionised London. As for the old appeals to hopes and fears beyond the grave the scheme of government by rewards and punishments on which Bishop Butler dilates they are gone. Our generation will not listen to them. 'Give us something to help us here and now,' is the cry. 'Tell us how to remedy social evils, and especially how to reduce the amount of physical suffering. Show us how the toiling masses may be made more comfortable. Listen to what the working-man is saying, and you will find that he wants no cheques upon the bank of heaven. No; he is saying, like Jacob, 'If God will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, then shall the Lord be my God'. Show the poor fellow that this is exactly what the Church wishes to do for him; explain to him that now at last, after eighteen centuries, we are beginning to understand what Christianity really means that it is an engine of social reform, a crusade against unfair distribution: and the Church may yet justify her existence.' I. Now, whether you sympathise with this sort of language or not, you must admit that the change is a momentous one. The Gospel has never been so preached before. From the time of the first martyrs to our own day the Christian has always felt that this world is not his home. His eyes have been fixed on the curtain which hangs between us and the Beyond, through which, as he believed, stream forth broken rays of a purer light than ever came from the sun. In all the changes and chances of mortal life he has looked for the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He has enriched his mental pictures of this glorious home with all the fairest and noblest images that he could find in the world of time and space, and he has prayed every day that he may at last be admitted to the never-ending companionship of saints and angels in that eternal world, and to the beatific vision of God Himself, Whom those only can see who have been made like Him in holiness. And along with these hopes he has been haunted by the horror of perpetual exile from the presence of God a doom so dreadful that not even by recalling all the ingenuities of human cruelty can we realise one tithe of the suffering that the soul must endure when it knows what it has lost. However pictured, the eternal world has been hitherto for Christians the real world. II. What was the message of Jesus Christ to mankind? How did he judge human life, and how would He have us judge it? We have been told to distinguish between judgments of fact and judgments of value. The two cannot, indeed, be held apart, for a fact which has no value is not even a fact, but an unrelated and meaningless accident, if such a thing were possible, and assuredly that which has no existence has also no value. But the distinction is sometimes useful, and we may apply it here by saying that the revelation of Jesus Christ was a revaluation of human life based on certain eternal objective facts. The essence of Christianity is a transvaluation of all values in the light of our Divine sonship and heavenly citizenship. The first Christians were accused of turning the world upside down; and this is just what the teaching of Christ does, if the average man sees the world right side up. The things that are seen are temporal, fugitive, relatively unreal; the things that are not seen are eternal, real in their changeless activity and inexhaustible fulness of meaning. Our Saviour lived Himself in the presence of these timeless realities; He was 'in heaven,' as St. John seems to say, even after He 'came down' to earth; He communed continually with His Heavenly Father; every joy was for Him a thanksgiving, every wish a prayer. And, so living, He knew that the only thing that matters in this world is the life or soul, which is here on its trial, passing through its earthly pilgrimage towards weal or woe. III. Jesus Christ's standard of value His transvaluation of all values in the light of our Divine sonship and heavenly citizenship is the standard for all Christians. Give yourselves time to think and pray. Ask God to show you what things are really valuable and worth striving for, and what things are not. Bring your whole scheme of life into His presence. Try hard and earnestly to make the eternal world real to you. It will never be real to you unless you try hard to see it The spiritual eye needs training and exercise as much as the physical organ. Creatures who live in the dark end by losing their eyes. And do not live softly. Luxury is bad from every point of view. Learn to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The cross has to be borne by all of us, and, believe me, it is only the thought of our heavenly home, where Christ has gone before to prepare a place for us, that can make that yoke easy ana that burden light. W. R. Inge, The Guardian, 18th Nov. 1908. The Heavenly Citizenship Phi 3:20-21 There are many important truths which concern us all contained in these words of St. Paul. Just notice what we have in these words. I. Heaven is where Christ is. First it is implied that there is a heaven, 'for our conversation is in heaven'. It is clearly stated that Christ dwells in that heaven, wherever it may be. It may be, as the scientists tell us, above or below; but wherever it is these words plainly state that Christ is there. This Apostle tells us we are to look for Him from heaven. That was what St. Paul said to the Philippians if he were here he would say the same to you, he would say we are to look for Jesus Christ from heaven. You know whether in your daily life, in your work and play as Christian men and women, you are looking for the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. II. The Purpose of our Looking. And then we are told in the words of the text what is the purpose of our looking for Him. When we look for a person we expect him to come to us, and so, if the Philippians were looking for the Lord Jesus Christ, they would have a certain purpose in view. The purpose is stated here. It is to change our vile or worthless bodies, our poor corruptible bodies, of which St. Paul spoke in 1 Corinthians xv. It is to change these bodies of ours, or transform them so as to alter their character altogether, not to take away their identity, but to make a real change a change that will make them like unto the glorious body of our Lord. His glorious body is His resurrected body. III. The Power of His Appearing. Then we are told of the power which is one of the most important points in this passage, 'The working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself. Now take this passage in connection with what we read in 1 Corinthians xv., where we are told that the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, so that when we talk of death, or when we pass a cemetery or place where the dead are laid, we should be very solemn indeed. I take it that by the last enemy is also meant the worst enemy, and I think you will all agree that death is an awful enemy indeed. He levels all, whatever their class may be the statesman, the philanthropist, the actor, the sailor, the soldier. 'Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority, and power.' There shall be no more grieving, no more crying; both God and the Lamb shall be in that new place which is created for us after the enemies are destroyed, and 'His servants shall serve Him'. There shall be no light needed there, the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever. There is to be a new state of things. It is that men shall be so spiritualised in some marvellous way filled with the Spirit of God, filled even more deeply than the Apostles were on the day of Pentecost Man will receive his life from God Himself, because his life will be the new life of Jesus Christ flowing into all the redeemed, and they will be united by Him to God the Father. In this thought death loseth its bitterness, for sin is destroyed, so that it will never be possible for another fall of man to take place, because there will be no more possibility of sin, no more temptations, none of those trials to which man is subjected in this present world. Man's vile body shall be assimilated to the body of Jesus Christ by an irresistible power. And the purpose of all this is that God may be all in all. God the Father is to predominate; and so we can see that the manhood or womanhood that we possess in this world will all be subjected to God the Father. And can we wish it to be subjected to anyone else? Can you desire anyone to have perfect power over you except that God Who has made you, that God Who takes care of you and loves you, and Who has assigned you a place in this world, and promised to have a place prepared for you in heaven? Can you commit yourselves in life or death to anyone with such faith as to God the Father? May that God take care of us, may He Who gave us existence here find us a far happier life hereafter, and bring us to that blessed place where Christ Himself is, and where He shall be all in all. References. III. 20. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No. 476. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 149. J. B. Scott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 220. E. Bersier, Sermons in Paris, p. 255. R. F. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 273. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (2nd Series), p. 132. W. M. Sinclair, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 181. Basil Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 334. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 149. Expositor (7th Serie3), vol. v. p. 503. III. 20, 21. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 973; vol. xxxiii. No. 1959. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. i. p. 235. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 400. R. W. Church, Village Sermons (3rd Series), p. 141. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 153. III. 21. Bishop Creighton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 307. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 145; ibid. vol. x. p. 105; ibid. (5th Series), vol. i. p. 180; ibid. vol. ii. p. 135; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 114. IV. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiii. No. 1959. J. H. Jowett, The High Galling, p. 156. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 1. Euodia and Syntyche Phi 4:2 This is a dual biography in a nutshell. These persons are nowhere else referred to. The outline is faint enough; yet on thoughtful consideration it reveals not a few interesting facts. I. The persons here mentioned were women. They were members of the Philippian Church, which is often spoken of as a 'woman's church'. It is frequently said by way of criticism that two-thirds of the members of the entire Christian Church are of the gentler sex. But shall the fact be regarded as a reflection on the character of the church? Before we leap to that conclusion, let us yoke with it another fact; to wit, seven-eighths of the inmates of our prisons and penitentiaries are men. A fair deduction from both these premises can place no discredit upon the Church for her preponderance of female membership. Indeed, it speaks eloquently for her thoughtfulness and purity of character. II. We are given to understand that Euodia and Syntyche were good women. There is much in a name. Euodia means 'fragrance'; Syntyche means 'happiness'. We are informed that they were 'labourers in the Gospel'. We have a further intimation as to the character of Euodia and Syntyche in the statement that their names were written 'in the Book of Life'. III. These good women were not of one mind. IV. The quarrel was about a trifle. We infer this from the fact that Paul asked for no investigation of their case. Indeed, the whole affair would appear to have been much ado about nothing. It may have originated in a bit of gossip, a flash of temper, or an inadvertent word. Is it not true that most disagreements have a slight origin? We should find it difficult to account for most of our likes and dislikes; and as for our bitter disagreements, it would be quite impossible to justify them. V. It would appear that both women were to blame. This may be inferred from their having an equal interest in the message: 'I beseech Euodia, and beseech Syntyche'. It takes two to make a quarrel. VI. The results of this quarrel were far-reaching. It has come down through nineteen hundred years. VII. We do not know that Euodia and Syntyche were ever reconciled on earth. The women who were parties to this Philippian quarrel are generic types. And the practical application is plain. If there are bitternesses to be healed or differences to compose, let us not wait until the shadows enfold us. D. J. Burrell, The Gospel of Certainty, p. 73. Phi 4:2 'It has been justly observed,' says Dr. Johnson in The Rambler (99), 'that discord generally operates in little things; it is inflamed to its utmost vehemence by contrariety of tests, oftener than of principles.' References. IV. 2. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 46. IV. 2, 3. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 162. Phi 4:3 In his Specimen Days in America, describing the cases of the soldiers he visited in hospital during the Civil War, Walt Whitman writes: 'No formal general's report, nor book in library, nor column in the paper, embalms the bravest, north or south, east or west Unnamed, unknown, remain and still remain, the bravest soldiers.' References. IV. 3. S. K. Hocking, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 102. J. G. Greenhough, ibid. vol. liii. p. 264. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 11. Phi 4:4 Dr. Marcus Dods wrote at the age of twenty-six to his sister Marcia: 'If you are going to send texts I'll send you one that will last you all the year and more χαίρετε , Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice: then notice the connections on to the end of the paragraph'. Early Letters, p. 165 (see also p. 257). ** Equanimity ( Christmas ) Phi 4:4 ** In other parts of Scripture the prospect of Christ's coming is made a reason for solemn fear and awe, and a call for watching and prayer, but in the verses connected with the text a distinct view of the Christian character is set before us, and distinct duties urged on us. 'The Lord is at hand,' and what then? why, if so, we must 'rejoice in the Lord'; we must be conspicuous for 'moderation'; we must be 'careful for nothing'; we must seek from God's bounty, and not from man, whatever we need; we must abound in 'thanksgiving'; and we must cherish, or rather we must pray for, and we shall receive from above, 'the peace of God which passeth all understanding,' to 'keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus'. Now this is a view of the Christian character definite and complete enough to admit of commenting on, and it may be useful to show that the thought of Christ's coming not only leads to fear, but to a calm and cheerful frame of mind. I. Nothing perhaps is more remarkable than that an Apostle a man of toil and blood, a man combating with powers unseen, and a spectacle for men and Angels, and much more that St. Paul, a man whose natural temper was so zealous, so severe, and so vehement I say, nothing is more striking and significant than that St. Paul should have given us this view of what a Christian should be. It would be nothing wonderful, it is nothing wonderful, that writers in a day like this should speak of peace, quiet, sobriety, and cheerfulness, as being the tone of mind that becomes a Christian; but considering that St. Paul was by birth a Jew, and by education a Pharisee; that he wrote at a time when, if at any time, Christians were in lively and incessant agitation of mind; when persecution and rumours of persecution abounded; when all things seemed in commotion around them; when there was nothing fixed; when there were no churches to soothe them, no course of worship to sober them, no homes to refresh them; and, again, considering that the Gospel is full of high and noble, and what may be called even romantic, principles and motives, and deep mysteries; and, further, considering the very topic which the Apostle combines with his admonitions is that awful subject, the coming of Christ; it is well worthy of notice that, in such a time, under such a covenant, and with such a prospect, he should draw a picture of the Christian character as free from excitement and effort, as full of repose, as still and as equable, as if the great Apostle wrote in some monastery of the desert or some country parsonage. Here surely is the finger of God; here is the evidence of supernatural influences, making the mind of man independent of circumstances! This is the thought that first suggests itself; and the second is this, how deep and refined is the true Christian spirit! how difficult to enter into, how vast to embrace, how impossible to exhaust! Who would expect such composure and equanimity from the fervent Apostle of the Gentiles? We know St. Paul could do great things; could suffer and achieve, could preach and confess, could be high and could be low; but we might have thought that all this was the limit and the perfection of the Christian temper, as he viewed it; and that no room was left him for the feelings which the text and following verses lead us to ascribe to him. And yet he who 'laboured more abundantly than all' his brethren, is also a pattern of simplicity, meekness, cheerfulness, thankfulness, and serenity of mind. II. It is observable, too, that it was foretold as the peculiarity of Gospel times by the Prophet Isaiah: 'The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. And My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.' 'But this I say, brethren, the time is short.' What matters it what we eat, what we drink, how we are clothed, where we lodge, what is thought of us, what becomes of us, since we are not at home? It is felt every day, even as regards this world, that when we leave home for a while we are unsettled. This, then, is the kind of feeling which a belief in Christ's coming will create within us. It is not worth while establishing ourselves here; it is not worth while spending time and thought on such an object. We shall hardly have got settled when we shall have to move. 'Be careful for nothing,' St. Paul says, or, as St. Peter, 'casting all your care upon Him,' or, as He Himself, 'Take no thought' or care 'for the morrow, for the morrow will take thought for the things of itself'. This of course is the state of mind which is directly consequent on the belief, that 'the Lord is at hand'. Who would care for any loss or gain today, if he knew for certain that Christ would show Himself tomorrow? no one. Well, then, the true Christian feels as he would feel, did he know for certain that Christ would be here tomorrow. III. The Christian has a deep, silent, hidden peace, which the world sees not, like some well in a retired and shady place, difficult of access. He is the greater part of his time by himself, and when he is in solitude, that is his real state. What he is when left to himself and to his God, that is his true life. He can bear himself; he can (as it were) joy in himself, for it is the grace of God within him, it is the presence of the Eternal Comforter, in which he joys. He can bear, he finds it pleasant, to be with himself at all times, 'never less alone than when alone'. He can lay his head on his pillow at night, and own in God's sight, with overflowing heart, that he wants nothing, that he 'is full and abounds,' that God has been all things to him, and that nothing is not his which God could give him. More thankfulness, more holiness, more of heaven he needs indeed, but the thought that he can have more is not a thought of trouble, but of joy. It does not interfere with his peace to know that he may grow nearer God. Such is the Christian's peace, when, with a single heart and the Cross in his eye, he addresses and commends himself to Him with whom the night is as clear as the day. St Paul says that 'the peace of God shall keep our hearts and minds. By 'keep' is meant 'guard,' or 'garrison,' our hearts; so as to keep out enemies. And he says, our 'hearts and minds' in contrast to what the world sees of us. Many hard things may be said of the Christian, and done against him, but he has a secret preservative or charm, and minds them not. J. H. Newman. References. IV. 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xli. No. 2405. B. J. Snell, The Virtue of Gladness, p. 73. W. H. Evans, Sermons far the Church's Year, p. 15. J. T. Bramston, Fratribus, p. 66. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 168. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 21. IV. 4-7. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons in Outline, p. 221. The Golden Mean Phi 4:5 'Your moderation,' forbearance, conciliatoriness, yieldingness. I. Note this admonition as it applies to matters of faith. The Apostle designed to put the Philippians on their guard against treating coldly or harshly those of another creed; the text is a warning against bigotry and dogmatism. The danger was lest they should exhibit an intolerant spirit in dealing with their unconverted neighbours. This admonition is by no means out of date; the modern Christian needs to give it most prayerful consideration, for he also is in danger of haughtiness and exclusiveness. (1) There is a pride of orthodoxy. (2) There is the pride of denominationalism. II. The admonition of the text applies to matters of character. We are tempted to judge our brethren harshly; some of them are not like us in certain particulars, and we conclude that they are inferior in wisdom or devotion. (1) We must beware how we deal offensively with any whom we may imagine to be inferior to ourselves. (2) And let us be careful lest we grieve those who are different from ourselves. III. This admonition applies to matters of conduct We are to display our reasonableness in daily life, and not severely to judge our fellows. It is not always easy to say what is exactly right and fitting to be done; we must, therefore, watch against illiberality and painful dogmatism. 'Reasonableness of dealing, not strictness of legal right, but consideration for one another,' is the lesson of the text and the high duty of the Christian life. The earth itself is not a rigid body; it yields to stress, it displays a certain plasticity for which the astronomer allows; and such is the character of living goodness. Just as the mighty ocean softly adjusts itself to all the articulations of the shore without any sacrifice of majesty; as the rock-ribbed earth is tremblingly sensitive, yielding to stress whilst delicately true to its orbit; so the strong, sincere, pure soul has a quick sense of the essential and non-essential is ready within well-understood lines to give and take, and so preserves that aspect of ease and beauty which belongs to whatever is strong and free. W. L. Watkinson, Themes for Hours of Meditation, p. 113. References. IV. 5. W. M. Sinclair, Christ and Our Times, p. 231. R. W. Hiley. A Year's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 346. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher's Year, p. 7. W. H. Evans, Short Sermons for the Seasons, p. 20. J. Keble, Sermons or Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 391. J. Jefferis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 403. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 174. IV. 6. Ibid. p. 180. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1469. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 31. Man's Care Conquered By God's Peace Phi 4:6-7 Let us see whether this exhortation against anxiety is as impracticable and visionary as some assume it to be; whether, on the contrary, it is not one of the wisest and kindest precepts God ever gave to His children; whether fuller obedience to it would not relieve us of our burdens and wipe away our tears, giving smiles in the place of sadness and peace in the midst of storms. I. In distinguishing between various kinds of care, there are some which are evidently right, others as evidently wrong, and some which require thought before we can determine whether they are lawful or unlawful. (1) It is clear that some cares are perfectly justifiable. The injunction to pray about them implies this, and our obedience to Divine precepts necessitates them. (2) There are some cares which are as certainly wrong, because they flow from an evil source which taints them. Envy, suspicion, ambition, consciousness of guilt, pride, ill-temper may originate them and often do. (3) But, besides these, there are cares about which it is by no means easy to say whether they are lawful or unlawful. Can we find any touchstone to which we can bring a doubtful care, to test whether it be right or wrong? I think we can, and that it lies before us in my text, where we are pointed to prayer. Any care you can confidently pray about is lawful. (4) But some cares, lawful enough in themselves, become unlawful through their excess. II. To let in the light of heaven on anxieties and cares in other words, to pray over them is to expel the evils in them. (1) Those evils are manifold. Even the body suffers from over-anxiety, as sleepless nights, a careworn face, and shattered nerves often testify. Our mental faculties are affected too. (2) How is this to be averted? We want a power put within us which will drive out the strong man armed, being stronger than he. And this is brought in by prayer. III. The effect of obedience to this precept is set forth in the words: 'And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. This peace is not a passive possession but an active power which 'keeps the heart'; or, as Paul says to the Colossians, 'rules the heart'. A. Rowland, Open Windows and other Sermons, p. 130. References. IV. 6, 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xl. No. 2351. J. A. Beet, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 273. E. Armitage, ibid. vol. xlviii. p. 149. Phi 4:7 In the letters of J. M. Neale, an account is given of the death of the Rev. Charles Simeon. It is from the pen of Mr. Cams. 'I went in to him after chapel this morning, and he was then lying with his eyes closed. I thought he was asleep, but after standing there a little while he put out his hand to me. I said, 'The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your heart and mind'. He said nothing. I said again, 'They washed their robes, dear sir, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb; therefore they are before the throne of God'. 'I have, I have!' he said. 'I have washed my robes in the Blood of the Lamb; they are clean, quite clean I know it.' He shut his eyes for a few minutes, and when he again opened them I said, 'Well, dear sir, you will soon comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye may He tried to raise himself, and said, after his quick manner, 'Stop! stop! you don't understand a bit about that text; don't go on with it I won't hear it I shall understand it soon!' After a little while he said, 'Forty years ago I blessed God because I met one man in the street who spoke to me, and, oh, what a change there is now'! References. IV. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv. No. 180 and vol. xxiv. No. 1397. Bishop Creighton. University and other Sermons, p. 1. T. Arnold, Christian Life: Its Hopes, p. 238. Archbishop Benson, Living Theology, p. 211. E. J. Boyce, Parochial Sermons, p. 188. Phillips Brooks, The Law of Growth, p. 219. T. Binney, King's Weigh-House Chapel Sermons (2nd Series), p. 79, 94, 106, 121. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 186. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 39. Protected Thoughts Phi 4:7-8 In the Christian life the thought-realm is the seat of the greatest difficulty with which a man is confronted. Our thoughts are so elusive, so difficult to control, and so entirely independent of any known law, that to order them arightly seems an impossibility. It is characteristic of the Gospel that such a difficulty is not ignored, but is honestly faced and frankly dealt with. It proposes a solution of the problem of the thought-life the worth of which can only be known by personal test, and the man who would know the fulness of the Evangel must seek the fulfilment of its promises here. Indeed, in its ultimate analysis the adequacy of the Gospel as a scheme of salvation depends upon its power in this hidden realm of our being, for our thoughts are by far the largest parts of our lives. We think far more than we speak or act, and it is a matter of common experience that our thoughts are the springs of both speech and action. I. The power of thought is the strongest force in the life of any one of us, as witness its annihilation of distance and time, and its disregard of circumstances. Our holiest moments are often invaded by our un-holiest imaginations, and uncontrolled thought at such times makes vivid to us things long since past. On this account it is that thought manifests its greatest strength as an avenue of temptation. Our temptations come to us mainly by our thoughts, which gather strength in this respect from their own past victories. II. The fact, that our thoughts have a direct and powerful influence upon others is an added emphasis upon the necessity of our endeavouring to apprehend the fulness of Christ's salvation in this respect. It is quite impossible to disregard what is now known as the power of thought-communication and transference, a misapprehension of which has led not a few into a regular cult of thought-power, from which a right understanding of the Gospel in its fulness would have saved them. Now we may understand something of its reality and influence by looking at it inversely. We all know the power of thoughtlessness and the strength which it has to wound and to hurt. We all know that nothing cuts us so deeply as thoughtless treatment on the part of those from whom we expected something better. And by introversion we may understand something also of the influence of holy, pure, and loving thought. III. Along with the creation of personal self-discovery, the Gospel proclaims an inward emancipation, promising to the surrendered heart a guardianship of thought which liberates from moral bondage, and a communication of power which brings 'every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ'. And these words are not expressive of an unattainable ideal, spoken to mock us with the sense of shortcoming which they create, but are rather a call to us to enter into the joy of our Lord. The Gospel does not call us to a life of mere passivity, which would be, to say the least, of but questionable morality. We are to co-operate with Him, and it is always within our own power to keep ourselves in the love of God. Hence it is that the Gospel imposes a rigid self-discipline with regard to thoughts, and lays upon us the responsibility for thought-selection. Assuming that we have learned our own helplessness, that we have yielded ourselves to the Lord, and are now relying upon His promise to undertake the responsibility of guarding our hearts and our thoughts, it enjoins 'Whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, of good report think on these things'. Christ does not supersede our own activities but rather strengthens them, and to us is committed the task of crowding out the evil by the good, always in reliance upon His imparted strength. J. Stuart Holden, The Pre-Eminent Lord, p. 181. Right Thoughts Phi 4:8 St. Paul here tells the beloved Philippians what things to think of, what to value, what to practise in their lives; if they do this, he says that the 'God of Peace' will certainly be with them. Let us look at the things which he suggests for their meditation and practice a little more closely. I. Whatsoever Things are True. The word has a fuller and deeper meaning in the Bible than it now has. Truth with us means the opposite of falsity in speech, but in Scripture it means the opposite of all unreality, all sham. St. Paul bids them think habitually of all that is real; on the substance, not on the shadow; on the eternal, not on the transitory; on God, not on the world. 'Whatsoever things are real' God, the Soul, Eternity, the Gospel of Jesus Christ 'think on these things.' II. Whatsoever Things are Honest. The word in the original means 'noble,' 'grave,' 'reverend,' 'seemly'. It is an exhortation to dignity of thought as opposite to meanness of thought. It invites to the gravity of self-respect. Nothing becomes too bad for men who have lost their self-respect. Why is this sea of life strewn with hopeless wrecks? Could the unmanly man, the unwomanly woman, have sunk to such depths of loathsome degradation if they had ever thought of whatsoever things are honest? There are no words of counsel more deep-reaching than these, especially to young men and women. III. Whatsoever Things are Just. Justice is one of the most elementary of human duties, and one of the rarest. Try to be, what so few are, habitually fair. IV. Whatsoever Things are Pure. Ah! that this warning might reach the heart of every one of you, and inspire you with the resolve to banish from your minds everything that defileth. Impure thoughts encouraged lead inevitably to fatal deeds and blasted lives. V. Whatsoever Things are Lovely. Winning and attractive thoughts that live and are radiant in the light. If you think of such things, the baser and viler will have no charm for you. Try then, above all, 'the expulsive power of good affections'. Empty by filling empty of what is mean and impure by filling with what is noble and lovely. VI. Whatsoever Things are of Good Report. The world delights in whatsoever things are of ill report base stories, vile innuendoes, evil surmisings, scandalous hints; it revels in envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. If you would be noble, if you would be a Christian man, have nothing to do with such things. VII. Then, if there be any Virtue, and if there be any Praise, think on these Things. The words do not imply the least doubt that there is virtue, and that there is praise, but they mean, whatever virtue and praise there be, think on these. There is no nobler character than the man who knows the awful reverence which is due from himself to his own soul; who loveth the thing that is just and doeth that which is lawful and right, in singleness of heart; who keeps the temple of his soul pure and bright with the presence of the Holy One; who hates all that is ignoble and loves his neighbour as himself. What has such a man to fear? The eternal forces are with him. His heart, his hope, his treasure, are beyond the grave; and ever and anon he is permitted to see the heavens open, and 'the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man'. Dean Farrar. What to Think About Phi 4:8 'Think on these things.' 'These things' constitute the prescribed liberty of Christian manhood. They are a kind of inventory of the mental furnishings of the Christian life. And I think everybody will readily grant that the furnishings are not cheap and stingy, not bare and monotonous, but liberal and varied, graceful and refined. Now let me review these glorious possibilities, this authorised dominion in Christian freedom of thought. I. Whatsoever Things are True. True, not simply veracious. The word 'true' is not used by the Apostle as we use it in a court of law, when we enjoin a witness to 'speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth'. The things described in a police court as true are usually ugly and repulsive; truth is always beautiful. Truth in a police court is correspondence with fact. Truth as used in the New Testament is correspondence with God. An unclean story may be accurate; an unclean story can never be true. A story is true when in very substance it shares the likeness of Him who is the truth. Veracity accurately describes a happening, truth describes a particular happening. We are therefore enjoined not to think about merely accurate things, but about accurate things which unveil the face of God. II. Whatsoever Things are Honourable. Things that are worthy of honour, worthy of reverence, the august and the venerable. The Authorised Version uses the old English word 'honest,' which is suggestive of gravity, seemliness, dignity. There is a certain fine stateliness in the word, recalling the impressive grandeur of a cathedral pile. Whatsoever things make the character of men and women to resemble the imposing proportions of a cathedral, 'think on these things'. III. Whatsoever Things are Just. And yet our word 'just' does not convey the Apostle's mind and meaning. Justice can be very cold and steely, like the justice of a Shylock. It may mean only superficial exactitude as between man and man. But to be really just is to be right with God. No man is really just until he is adjusted to his Maker. Whatsoever things satisfy the standards of the Almighty, 'think on these things'. IV. Whatsoever Things are Pure. But to be pure is to be more than just. It is to be stainless, blameless, and unblemished. V. Whatsoever Things are Lovely. We are to bring the amiable and the lovable within the circle of our regard. John Calvin gives the meaning as 'morally agreeable and pleasant. I am glad that juicy word came from the lips of that austere prophet. Dr. Matheson tells of a young woman who came to him in great distress over her failure to fulfil the religious duties of life. He was aware that at this very time she was living a life of sacrificial devotion to a blind father. 'I asked if this service of hers was not a religious duty. She answered, "Oh no, it cannot be, because that brings me such joy, and it is the delight of my heart to serve my father".' It is a most common and perilous mistake. There are tens of thousands of duties and liberties which are juicy and delicious, and they are the portion of those who sit down at the Lord's feast. VI. Whatsoever Things are of Good Report. Not merely things that are well reported of, but things which themselves have a fine voice, things that are fair speaking, and therefore gracious, winsome, winning, and attractive. And then, as though he were afraid that the vast enclosure was not yet wide enough, and that some fair and beautiful thing might still be outside its comprehensive pale, the Apostle adds still more inclusive terms, and says, ' If there be any virtue' whatever is merely excellent; ' and if there be any praise,' whatever is in any degree commendable take account of them, bring them within the circle of your commendation and delight, 'think on these things'. Fasten your eyes upon the lovely wheresoever the lovely may be found. J. H. Jowett, The High Galling, p. 192. Time to Think Phi 4:8 This age has been called an age of growth, and so in many ways it is growth of empire, of commerce, of wealth, of population, and an improvement in physique. But what of spiritual growth? There is a growth in organisations, in spiritual activities, in spiritual fuss, but this is only the scaffolding; the building itself grows but little. What is the remedy? We find it in the first word of our text, 'Think'. I. Get Time to Think. It is more necessary than many realise; it is indeed absolutely necessary, for without time to think our spiritual life cannot grow. We hear too much of the voice of man. Get time to hear the voice of God. II. Acquire the Habit of Thinking. The mind quickly forms habits just as the body does, and if those habits are habits of idleness or day-dreams or vanity, the mind will soon become useless for thinking. Discipline your mind! Keep still and think. Think deeply, and so become deep. Think regularly, and so acquire the habit of thinking. III. What shall we Think? It is a good thing to drive out wrong and impure thoughts from our hearts we must do so; but unless we obtain good thoughts to fill their place the evil thoughts will return with sevenfold force. What, then, shall we think? 'Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, if there be any virtue, any praise, think on these things.' That is the great remedy for our lack of spiritual growth. The scaffolding is here; let us build up the spiritual building. The Regulation of Thoughts Phi 4:8 What a vast and varied domain there is spread out before man in which his thought may expatiate! Have we not in this itself an intimation of our immortality? It has been said that 'art is long, and life is short'. The truth is that life is long too, as long as art long even to infinity. He who has given the eternal faculties and the eternal longing will also give the eternal life. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.' A man can never be better than his thoughts. Everything good and everything evil originates in thought. And herein we are greatly helped or hindered, as the case may be, by the power of habit. What you want is carefully painfully, if necessary to cultivate the habit of choosing those things which are good and pure and honourable and lovely and of good report. It may be a slow process, but it is a sure one, if only, by the grace of God, you persevere. For you must remember that interest in a particular subject is, to a very large extent, a matter of habit. Bearing in mind that what is necessary is not simply a good resolution such as one might make at the close of a sermon, or in one of his better moods, but a steady and persevering course of training and culture, let us see more precisely what it is we have to do. I. The first thing clearly is to select that which is good (as opposed to that which is evil) to think about. Here comes in the weighty truth that 'to the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled'. It is not so much the things at which we look as the way in which we look at them, which makes the great difference. II. Not only, however, is it our duty to select that which is good as opposed to that which is bad, but to choose that which is best in preference to that which is inferior, to think about. God made us to soar. He has given us atmosphere enough to soar in, and heaven enough to soar to; and it is a shame that so many of us should be content to think such paltry thoughts as we do. There is one theme which is loftier and more inspiring than all others, which we neglect at the peril of all that is highest and best, and most hopeful in us the great theme of the Gospel 'Jesus Christ and Him crucified'. III. While the greatest theme of all which can engage our attention is the truth as it is in Jesus, there is no disposition to narrow the range of our thinking. There is only one thing narrow in Christianity, and that is the gate the entrance. J. M. Gibson, A Strong City, p. 165. The Discipline of Thought Phi 4:8 When we speak of unseen things, we commonly refer to things that are eternal. We associate the unseen with the world beyond the veil, where the angels of God, innumerable, are around the throne. But the world of thought, of feeling, of passion, and of desire that world still baffles the finest powers of vision: as surely as there is an unseen heaven above us, there is an unseen universe within. I wish, then, to turn to the world within. I believe that most of us give far too little heed to what I might call the discipline of thought First, I shall speak on the vital need there is of governing our thoughts. Next, on how the Gospel helps man to this government. I. First, then, on the government of our thoughts and at the outset I would recognise the difficulty of it. I question if there is a harder task in all the world than that of bringing our thoughts into subjection to our will. And yet there are one or two considerations I can bring before you, that will show you how, in the whole circle of self-mastery, there is nothing more vital than the mastery of thought (1) Think, for example, how much of our happiness our common happiness depends on thought. Our common happiness does not hang on what we view. Our common happinesss hangs on our point of view. Largely, it is not things themselves; it is our thoughts about them, that constitute the gentle art of being happy. (2) Again, how much of our unconscious influence lies in our thoughts. That very suggestive and spiritual writer, Maeterlinck, puts the matter in his own poetic way. He says: 'Though you assume the face of a saint, a hero, or a martyr, the eye of the passing child will not greet you with the same unapproachable smile if there lurk within you an evil thought'. (3) There is only one other consideration I would mention, and that is the power of thought in our temptations. In the government of thought in the power to bring thought to heel lies one of our greatest moral safeguards against sin. II. How does the Gospel help us to govern our thoughts? To some of you the mastery of thought may seem impossible it is never viewed as impossible in Scripture, and the secret of that Gospel-power lies in the three great words light, love, life. (1) Think first of light as a power for thought-mastery. In twilight or darkness what sad thoughts come thronging which the glory of sunlight instantly dispels. The glory of Christ is that by His life and death He has shed a light where before there was only darkness. The light of Christ, for the man who lives in it, is an untold help in the government of thought (2) Then think of love is it not one mark of love that our thoughts always follow in its train? (3) Then think of life are not our thoughts affected by the largeness and abundance of our life? Christ's great tide of life, like the tide of the sea that covers up the mudbanks, is the greatest power in the moral world for submerging every base and bitter thought. G. H. Morrison, The Unlighted Lustre, p. 1. Things That Are Lovely Phi 4:8 And 'these things' constitute the prescribed liberty of Christian manhood. They are a sort of inventory of the mental furnishings of the Christian life. If we are to find our mental furnishings among things that are lovely, where shall we make our explorations? We can find them in humanity, in nature, and in God as revealed to us of Jesus Christ our Lord. I. Turn, then, to humanity, and whatsoever things are lovely think on these things. And do not be surprised if I counsel you to begin with yourselves. Steadily seek and contemplate the true and the gracious, and the better side of your own self. Do you imagine that this will foster self-conceit? It will only nourish a healthy self-respect In the most barren wastes of life solitary blooms are blowing. They may be weak and fragile and sickly, but 'think on these things'. And we must busy ourselves in diligently seeking hidden beauties in the lives of others. It is a very chivalrous and manly guest, and it receives a rich reward. II. And turn to nature, and 'whatsoever things are lovely think on these things'. We need to 'get back to the land' in more senses than the political one of which we are so helpfully hearing today. We want to get back to its poetic significance, its mystic interpretations, its subtle influences upon the spirit by its ministry of light, and shade, and colour, and fragrance, its delicate graces, and its awful austerity. We need a refreshed communion with God's beautiful world. It is a most neglected side of modern education. III. And lastly and surely firstly, too turn to the Lord Jesus, and contemplate 'the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely'. Is it not relevant counsel to our age to advise men to sometimes lay down their apparatus of criticism, and just bask in the contemplation of the moral glory of our Lord? I am not disparaging criticism, but I am advising that criticism be not allowed to suffocate devotion. I once saw an eminent professor of physics who was so intent upon watching the disturbance effected in a cup of coffee by allowing the bowl of his spoon to rest upon it that he took no breakfast at all! It is possible to be so occupied with critical problems concerning the Bread of Life that we altogether forget to eat. And so I say it is well at times, and very frequently too, to lay all critical questions on one side, and just absorbently contemplate the spiritual glory of our Redeemer. J. H. Jowett, The British Congregationalist, p. 252. References. IV. 8. F. W. Farrar, Everyday Christian Life, p. 46. H. Howard, The Raiment of the Soul, p. 44. T. Sadler, Sunday Thoughts, p. 139. W. J. Hocking, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 59. F. W. Farrar, ibid. vol. xlviii. pp. 49, 52. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 291. A. L. Lilley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 202. Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 564. R. J. Drummond, Faith's Certainties, p. 215. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 437; ibid. (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 147. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 48. Phi 4:9 There may be something more finely sensitive in the modern humour that tends more and more to withdraw a man's personality from the lessons he inculcates, or the cause that he has espoused; but there is a loss herewith of wholesome responsibility; and when we find in the works of Knox, as in the Epistles of Paul, the man himself standing nakedly forward, courting and anticipating criticism, putting his character, as it were, in pledge for the sincerity of his doctrine, we had best waive the question of delicacy, and make our acknowledgment for a lesson of courage, not unnecessary in these days of anonymous criticism, and much light, otherwise unattainable, in the spirit in which great movements were initiated and carried forward. R. L. Stevenson, in * Men and Books. * References. IV. 9. J. H. Jowett, The High Galling, p. 198. IV. 10. Expositor (5th Series), vol. viii. p. 409; ibid. vol. x. p. 196. IV. 10-14. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 58. IV. 10-23. W. C. Smith, Scottish Review, vol. vi. p. 248. IV. 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 320. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 122. H. P. Liddon, Sermons on Some Words of St. Paul, p. 262. J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays After Trinity, p. 86. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 204. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 285. Concurrent Adaptation Phi 4:11-12 True life with serene acquiescence accommodates itself to things as they are, and, whilst still pursuing its highest ideals, finds in its surroundings the conditions of its unfolding and satisfaction. All inward irritation and revolt on the score of circumstance mean so much defect of life. I. Note the wide range of the Apostle's experience. We are naturally curious as to the history of a teacher who declares that he has found the secret of perennial content. If the circumstances of such a man were narrow and monotonous, if his life were cloistered and uneventful, we should not be greatly impressed by his avowal; he who is to witness with effect on this subject must have a history. This the Apostle had. He had ranged all climes from the south to the north pole of human circumstance and sentiment. He assures us, however, that no change found him unprepared. From none did he shrink, and by none did he suffer loss. Those who have not mastered the secret of adjusting themselves to the incidence of the perpetual unsettlements of life are liable to suffer terribly in spirit and faith, temper and character. II. Mark the process by which the Apostle arrived at this perfect contentment. Whatever may be the aspect of his lot to the carnal eye, he accepts it with gratitude and expectation: 'I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me'. How, then, is the Christian thoroughly reconciled to a life which occasions the natural man such deep discomfort, and which involves him in dire peril? (1) Christ restores the inner harmony of our nature upon which the interpretation of the outer world depends. In the sovereign power of redeeming and sanctifying grace the conscience is sprinkled from guilt, the passions are purified, the heart glows with love, the will is sceptred, and with peace, patience, and power dwelling within there is no longer any reason or temptation to quarrel with things outside. (2) By rendering us self-sufficing, Christ renders us largely independent of the outer world. To the natural man the world of circumstance is the whole of life. But he who lives in the Spirit, and walks in the Spirit, has an altogether different conception of the place and power of circumstance. He knows of another world than that which meets the carnal eye of a kingdom within him having marvellous interests, treasures, dignities, sciences, and delights of its own. Within his own heart he carries the summer, the fountain, the nightingale, and the rose, therefore the palace does not mock nor the prison paralyse. (3) By strengthening us in the inner man Christ makes us masters of circumstance. W. L. Watkinson, Themes for Hours of Meditation, p. 72. Reference. IV. 11, 12. E. Armitage, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 202. Phi 4:11-13 Oliver Cromwell, a few days after the death of his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Claypole, 'called for his Bible, and desired an honourable and godly person there (with others) present to read to him Phi 4:11-13 "Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things, through Christ which strengtheneth me," which read, saith he: to use his own word, "This Scripture did once save my life, when my eldest son died, which went as a dagger to my heart, indeed it did". And then, repeating the words of the text himself, declared his then thoughts to this purpose, reading the tenth and eleventh verses of Paul's contentation, and submission to the will of God in all conditions (said he): "'Tis true, Paul, you have learned this, and attained to this measure of grace: but what shall I do? Ah, poor creature, it is a hard lesson for me to take out! I find it so!" But reading on to the thirteenth verse, where Paul saith, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me" then faith began to work, and his heart to find support and comfort, and he said thus to himself: "He that was Paul's Christ is my Christ too," and so drew water out of the wells of salvation, Christ in the covenant of grace.' Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity. Carlyle, Heroes (v.). Acclimatisation of Character Phi 4:12-13 I. The vicissitudes of our life, especially when they are sudden and unexpected, are always attended by serious peril. Artificial acclimatisation in Nature is possible only when effected with great care, and even then it is often followed by disappointment. Said a tourist to a famous Swiss guide: 'You have been in all weathers, and all changes of weather'. 'The changes are worse than the weather,' replied the guide. The alternations of circumstance and experience in human life are repeatedly more dangerous to faith and principle than the most trying settled conditions to which time and habit have reconciled us. II. And this ordeal of change was never more incessant and sharp than it is today. In the simple times of the past things were more stereotyped and existence more sluggish than we now know them to be. Every hour we see and feel the ebb and flow of things, and without swift handling of the helm we may easily make shipwreck. III. Yet this acclimatisation of character is happily possible, as we learn from our text. With a patience and skill that science cannot rival, with subtle and inexhaustible resources, Nature effects marvellous acclimatisations in plants and flowers, creating in regions intermediate between hot and cold climates a profuse vegetation of a tropical character which can, nevertheless, sustain almost an arctic severity. Grace effects much the same thing for human nature. 'I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me'. What is entirely impossible in artificial acclimatisation is effected by Nature; and that which is unattainable in character through any artifice of our own becomes delightfully actual and experimental through the grace of Christ In a high and sincere spirituality of life we attain perfect liberty touching the outside world, drawing wisdom and blessing from all surroundings and sensations, as the bee sips honey from flowers of all shapes and colours. W. L. Watkinson, Inspiration in Common Life, p. 108. The Power of the Cross Phi 4:13 'Crucified with Christ' Such is the language in which the author of the Epistle to the Philippians elsewhere describes his relation to Calvary. But is there any life which, unless we are admitted to its secret history, seems less like crucifixion than the career of the stout Apostle Paul? There is no paleness in its presentation. Its hours are crowded with glorious life. It is romantic, adventurous, and vivid. If happiness indeed consist in the unimpeded exercise of function there is abundance of this quality in the missionary journeys which the Acts records. St. Paul is perhaps the most vigorous, efficient, self-realising character in the pages of the New Testament He who bids the Christian imitate the humility of Him who took upon Him the form of a slave is himself one of the world's masters. He would withstand you to the face as soon as look at you. He knows his mind and carries through his purpose. No doubt he was impatient of dull wits, and was, it may be, too ready to call the tiresome unbeliever a fool, the priestly bully a whited wall. None can deny him the honour of the strong man, who leaves his mark, creates ideals, and makes history. 'I can do all things' seems to portray the man more faithfully than 'I am crucified'. His missionary journeys rival in interest the travels of Odysseus. They impress us by the fulness of their experience rather than by the greatness of their self-sacrifice. The strong man delights in dangers, in hair-breadth escapes, in critical situations. The adventurous lad who first hears the celebrated catalogue of Pauline perils hardly pities the man who encountered them. These are all in the day's work of him who would earn the reward of efficiency. I. The Christian, then, according to the type which is presented to us in the New Testament, is the man that can do all things, or, to borrow a striking phrase from the Lord's own teaching, who through faith can remove mountains. The characteristic note of the Gospel is not sacrifice but salvation. 'In hoc signo vinces' is the legend inscribed upon the banner of the cross. Calvary is the symbol not of renunciation but of life. It is very easy to get a distorted view of the real message which the Gospel brings to human needs if we go for our ideals outside the range of the Apostolic Church, if we seek for the pattern of Christian manhood whether in mediaeval or modern times. We need not hesitate to acknowledge the witness of the saints in every age to the manifoldness of Christ if we look rather to the New Testament for the due proportions of Christian discipleship. The gospel of the cross was no apotheosis of pain, but the proclamation of power. It presents to our gaze a spectacle of Divine tenderness only because it is the message of victorious life. And for St Paul it is the Gospel which is the fixed thing in Christianity; the inviolable unchangeable centre of authority; the standard presentation of the fact of Christ which gives unity, cohesion, and solidity to all the riches of wisdom and knowledge which are hid in Him. II. In Jesus pain is transmuted into power, only because to Him is given all authority in heaven and in earth, and in His hands He bears the keys of hell. In Him we behold no servile submission of the creature to the Law of the God who made it He is Himself the very son and substance of the Everlasting Will, enthroning the humanity which He assumes, manifested as the goal and destiny of all creation. How near to every age and to each human life He seems how near and yet how far! As, when some traveller among the mountains has climbed the shoulder of a westward hill and almost thinks his journey at an end, the scene expands; the perspective widens; ridge behind ridge, alp behind alp, peak behind peak appears, rising in stairs and terraces to meet the horizon now almost lost in dreamy distances of dazzling light; so Christ the end of human life becomes a vaster Christ the nearer we attain. But with God all things are possible. This is no formal acknowledgment of an omnipotence which, if it have concrete existence, is a fact too general and remote to have any real bearing upon the practical concerns of life, but a great experience which has made men strong. 'Ye shall receive power' was the form in which the risen Master renewed the promise of an energising influence, an inward presence, a controlling Personality, which entering into His elect should make them sons of God. 'Repent ye and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins,' such was the burthen of St. Peter's witness on the Day of Pentecost, 'and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'. J. G. Simpson, C hristus Crucifixus, p. 25. Phi 4:13 Cardinal Vaughan wrote in the spring of 1882: 'I am fifty years old. It is said that no man becomes a saint after fifty. I am determined to give no peace to myself or to my Holy Patrons, or indeed to our dear Lord Himself. By prayer even this miracle can be performed, and a dry, hard, stupid old stick like me can reach great sanctity in eo qui me confortat . St. Francis of Sales died at fifty-six: St. Francis of Assisi, Xavier, and St. Charles were dead and saints about ten years earlier. What a grace to have spatium paenitentiae . I am determined to use the remaining time better than the last, God helping.' J. G. Snead-Cox, Life of Cardinal Vaughan, vol. 1. p. 452. References. IV. 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 346. J. B. Lightfoot, Cambridge Sermons, p. 317. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. i. p. 400. F. A. Noble, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 162. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 122. J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 410. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling , p. 210. J. G. Simpson, Christus Crucifixus, p. 25. IV. 14. Ibid. p. 216. Phi 4:15 Nothing is harder to manage, on either side, than the sense of an obligation conferred or received. Morley's, Life of Cobden (ch. 1.). The law of benefit is a difficult channel, which requires careful sailing or rude boats. Emerson. References. IV. 15. Expositor (5th Series), vol. viii. pp. 122, 135; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 371. IV. 16. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. x. p. 333. IV. 17. Bishop Westcott, The Incarnation and Common Life, p. 195. IV. 18. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 194. IV. 19. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1712. H. J. Bevis, Sermons, p. 131. IV. 19, 20. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 222. IV. 20-23. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Philippians, p. 74. The Saints of Caesar's Household Phi 4:22 It is the chiefly upon which I want to lav the stress that the warmest and most loving salutation should have come from the unlikeliest place. St. Paul is sending a letter to the Church at Philippi. He sits in all the rude discomforts of a prison, writing amidst much difficulty, secured by a coupling chain to a soldier. Is this life wasted? He is preaching in this prison to a greater congregation than could ever be gathered in the market place or on Mars' Hill. At that hour, when time seemed to stand still, he was preaching to all the ages. And this day this word is ours because Paul was in prison. But of this ministry in the dungeon the fruit was not only afar off in the future, * it was immediate. * I. Let us think of those of whom St. Paul writes, 'the saints of Caesar's household' certainly the last place to which we should go to look for saints. Rome at that time was the most unlikely place in the world to look for a saint. No language could utter the depth of abomination to which it had sunk. And of all its people the most miserable was the lot of the slave. So many of these were there that they could only be kept in subjection by the most terrible severity. To complete it all they were slaves in Caesar's household. This Caesar was Nero a very monster in iniquity. Here it is, then, where the example and influence of this monster had poisoned the very atmosphere within the walls of Nero's palace that a little company of his own slaves gather in loving fellowship around Paul the prisoner, and send their loving greeting to the Church at Philippi. II. To us, too, the saints of Caesar's household send their greetings. (1) There are those whose position seems to make Christianity a difficulty they may think sometimes, perhaps, almost an impossibility. My brother, my sister, these saints of Caesar's household salute you. What think you would they count those hindrances of which you make so much? (2) And yet again, others shrink in fear of themselves. Surely, again, these saints of Caesar's household salute you! (8) Does it seem to some that their sphere is so little, so narrow, so lowly, that there is no room for any service for God? Again the saints of Caesar's household salute you. M. G. Pearse, The Gentleness of Jesus, p. 125. Saints in the Household of Caesar Phi 4:22 There are few contrasts so startling as that which is suggested by this Epistle to the Philippians. We read our pagan history and we read our Bible, but it is not often that the two come so close together and that the lines of both histories touch for one moment to separate again. Here we have for the first time that union of sacred and profane history. Here seems to commence that long struggle between the religion of Christ and the Empire of Rome, which ended by establishing the Gospel upon the ruins of the Eternal City. Here we read of Philippi, the advanced guard of the ambition of Macedonian kings, but now the seat of a Christian Church. Philippi, on whose battlefield the future of the world was decided just a hundred years before, now sending Epaphroditus to bear comfort and help to the Apostle in his Roman prison. Everything seems to point to the same contrast between the inspired word of Christian advice as written in this Epistle and the Roman Praetorian command, between the purity and piety of the writer and that golden palace of sin and shame outside the walls of which he wrote, between the preaching of St. Paul, Apostle of Christ, and Nero, Emperor of Rome, tyrant, matricide, and anti-Christ. There, for two years, as we know, waiting for his trial, the Apostle abode, and thither came many of his friends, Timotheus, Luke, Aristarehus, Marcus, Demas their names are familiar to the whole Christian world; but who are these of whom the text speaks, 'saints of Caesar's household'? We do not know. The Bible is silent. The history of the world has passed them over, the history of the Church knows them not. By chance, indeed, in the dark recesses of the Catacombs, amid the quaint symbols of the hope of immortality, their names may even now be deciphered, but beyond that we know them not. I. Christians under Adverse Circumstances. It is about them that I would fain say to you just two words. One is that if we can conceive of any place in the world more unlikely than another at that day in which to find a Christian man it was Nero's palace. If we had been asked where we should expect to hear of a Christian in Rome, Nero's gilded palace would be the very last place which would be mentioned. A friend of Paul, a follower of Jesus Christ in that palace of bastard art, and lust, and murder! What sins he must have witnessed, what temptations must have beset his path, what responsibility, what difficulties, I had almost said what impossibilities, in the way of a Christian life. Well, then, the encouragement to us is this, that, if there, then anywhere it is possible to be a follower of our Blessed Lord. The encouragement is, that there must surely be no difficulties of life, no post of duty, no situation of temptation, in which a Christian man, by the grace of God, may not work his life unharmed. All may learn by this example the sufficiency of the Grace of God to sustain and strengthen them in the most adverse circumstances. II. Our Real Danger. The world in which we live, our domestic, professional, social, political world, it is to us Caesar's household. We have to live there, work there, wait there for our Blessed Master, and, though of course superficially the world has changed, there is no arena, there is no garment of flaming pitch, there is no fierce cry, of 'Christians to the lions!' nothing that could tempt to apostasy in our case, or offer excuse to weak human nature to compromise with sin and infidelity, yet our dangers are no less real. The world is, after all, though softer and gentler, no less dangerous to Christian men, because day by day they are brought in contact with those who neither serve nor know our Divine Master, and then zeal in duty brings its own temptation, earthly labour has its own peril. Our fees are really not so much the foes that we find in the world, but the foe we bear about with us wherever we go. But a heart right with God, a mind directed by His Spirit, a habit of dependence on His grace and of prayer, a habit of close walking with our Lord and Saviour, these will keep a man safe anywhere, and the more difficult it is to make profession of faith in our own individual circumstances, so much the more distinct and decided by the grace of God may that profession be. III. Never Despair of Finding Good Men Anywhere. Moreover, I think that from these unknown saints in Caesar's household we may all of us, men and women, learn a lesson of charity, never to despair of finding good men anywhere. God sees not as we see, sufficient if He knows His own, and will one day bring them into the light. Depend upon it there will be many in heaven whom we did not expect to meet For God's servants are often hidden sometimes from pure unobtrusiveness, sometimes from a shrinking fear lest they should after profession fall and bring dishonour on the cause, sometimes again from circumstances which have not brought out their character before those with whom they live. But let us comfort ourselves with the assurance that God knows them and will declare them one day. We ourselves are blind and err in our judgment, and we have no right to pass sentence on one another. Let it be enough for us that our heavenly Father allots to all His children the post that they are to take in life, and when the pressure is too strong or the temptation too great for their strength, then the same loving Father will assuredly call them from it, or if not then, He can by His grace sustain them in it and hold up their goings that they slip not, for if there could be saints in the golden palace of Nero it is incongruous and illogical to suppose that there is any post of earthly duty or difficulty or temptation to which we could be subjected, in which we could plead that it is impossible to do right. References. IV. 22. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 234. J. Tolefree Parr, The White Life, p. 106. J. Thew, Broken Ideals, p. 97. IV. 23. J. H. Jowett, The High Calling, p. 239.