2.04.06. The relation between doctrine and life

VI. THE RELATION BETWEEN DOCTRINE AND LIFE.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” — Romans 12:1. object in this paper is to feel for the connection between Christian doctrine and Christian life. The link which unites doctrine and duty in the Christian system is neither an imaginary line nor an iron rod: it is like the Word of God, “ both quick [living] and powerful.” It is like the great artery that joins the heart to the members in a living body — both the channel of life and the bond of union. If that link is severed in the animal, the life departs; there remains neither heart nor members. So in the Christian system, if doctrine and duty are not united, both are dead; there remains neither the sound creed nor the holy life.

Here, then, we shall find a logical argument avd a practical lesson. Inquirers should know the truth on this point, and believers should practise it. A common street cry of the day is, Give us plenty of charity, but none of your dogmas: in other words, Give us plenty of sweet fruit, but don’t bother us with your hidden mysteries about roots and engrafting. For our part, we join heartily in the cry for more fruit; but we are not content to tie oranges with tape on dead branches lighted with small tapers, and dance round them on a winter evening. This may serve to amuse children; but we are grown men, and life is earnest. We too desire plenty of good fruit, and therefore we busy ourselves in making the tree good, and then cherish its roots with all our means and all our might. In the transition from the eleventh to the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the knot is tied that binds together doctrine and duty in a human life. Speaking generally, with the eleventh chapter the apostle concludes his exposition of doctrines, and with the twelfth he begins his inculcation of duties. At the beginning of his great treatise he plunged into the deep things of God, and at Romans 11:33 he emerges from his exploration with a passionate cry of adoring wonder at what he has seen and heard —

“ the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” After relieving his overcharged spirit with that grand anthem which constitutes the close of the doctrinal section, he addresses himself (Romans 11:1) to the business of directing and stimulating an obedient and holy life in believers; and this theme he prosecutes to the close. At the point of contact between the doctrinal and practical divisions of his treatise he defines and exhibits the relations established in the laws of the Eternal between the gifts which flow from God to men, and the service rendered by men to God. Hitherto he has been opening the treasures of the kingdom, and permitting the divine goodness to flow freely into the lap of the needy; but here is the turningpoint: henceforth he will urge that tribute should stream upward, like a column of incense, from man to God. Who hath first given to God, and it shall be given to him again? None. No man first gives to God, and then gets back an equivalent. But though no man gives first to God, all renewed men give to him second; that is, the disciples of Christ, having gotten all from God first and free, then and thereby are constrained to render back to him themselves and all that they possess. This apostle knows human nature too well to expect that men will render fit service to God first and spontaneously. He puts the matter on another footing. He expects that the mercy of God, first freely poured out, will press until it press out and press up whatever the little vessel of a redeemed man contains, in thankofferings to the giving God.

Here is a leaden pipe concealed under the plaster, stretching perpendicularly from the bottom to the top of the house.

What is the use of it? It is placed there as a channel through which water for the supply of the family may flow up to a cistern on the roof. “ Water flow up? Don’t mock us. That would be contrary to its nature. Water flows down, not up. How should it change its nature when it gets into your pipe?” Place your ear near the wall, and listen. What do you hear? “I hear water rushing.” In what direction? “ Upward.” Precisely; water left to itself outside of the pipe, flows down; but water left to itself inside, flows up. “ Why?” Because there it is pressed by the water that flows from the fountain on the mountain’s side. It is the weight of water flowing down that forces this water to flow up.

It is thus that living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, ascend from a human life to God, when that life is in Christ. When a human soul is within the well-ordered covenant, it is constrained, by the pressure of divine mercy flowing through Christ, to rise in responsive love.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye yield yourselves,” etc. The word “therefore “ is the link of connection between doctrine and life.

Here it unites the product to the power. The whole epistle consists of two parts, united together by this word. The first portion is occupied with truth revealed, and the second with obedience rendered; and the truth is in point of fact the force which generates the obedience.

Much mischief is done in the world by a wanton or ignorant divorce of this divinely united pair. There are two errors, equal and opposite. Those who teach high doctrine, and wink at slippery practice in themselves and others, fall into a pit on the right hand; those who preach up all the charities, and ignore or denounce the truth and the faith that grasps it, fall into a pit on the left. Let not one man say, I have roots, and another, I have fruits.

If you have roots, let us see what fruit they bear; if you would have fruits, cherish the roots whereon they grow.

Beginning his course of practical lessons with the twelfth chapter, this rigidly logical author binds the motive firmly to the act, and the act to the motive. He tells us what we ought to do, and what will induce us to do it. For power to propel his heavy train, he depends on “ the mercies of God,” as these have been set for£h in the preceding portion of the treatise; and the train which by this power he expects to propel is, « Present your bodies a living sacrifice,” etc. The mercies of God constitute the motive force. A consecrated life is the expected result.

Consider carefully now the power employed in constant view of the effect which it is expected to produce. “ I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God.” Up to this point the epistle is occupied with the enunciation, elucidation, and defence of doctrine. The writer started with the set purpose of directing and stimulating human Uf e in the way of holiness and love; yet he expends the greater part of his time and strength in the exposition of abstract dogma. Paul has made no mistake here. Although his aim was to get human hearts and Uves fiUed with love to God and man, he devotes his attention first to truth revealed. This is a scientific operator. He knows what he is about. He is especially skilful in adapting means to ends. To provide the water-power may be a much more lengthened and laborious process than to set the mill agoing; but ’ without the reservoir and its impounded supply, the mill would never go round at alL Paul goes forward with a firm step and a straight course towards his aim in a sanctified and useful human life; but he takes every step on the assumption that a devoted and charitable life cannot be attained, unless the person and work of Christ be made clear to the understanding and accepted with the heart.

Hence the time he has occupied and the pains he has bestowed in exhibiting and commending at the outset a complete theology. A class of men is springing and pressing to the front in our day, who laud charity at the expense of truth. The truth, exterior to the human mind, which God has presented in his Word, they ignore as imnecessary rather than denounce as false. Doctrine, as truth fixed and independent, they seem to think a hindrance rather than a help towards their expected millennium of charity. In their view, a man may indeed become a model of goodness although he believe sincerely all the doctrines of the gospel; but he may reach that blessed state, as quickly and as well although he believe none of them. Their creed is that a man may attain the one grand object of life— practical goodness— equally well with or without belief in the Christian system. That there may be no mistake in the transmission of their opinion, they take care to illustrate it by notable examples.

John Bunyan, who received all the doctrines of the gospel, and Spinoza, who rejected them all, attain equally to the odour of sanctity in this modern church of charity. This representation is publicly made by men who profess the faith, and hold the preferments, and draw the emoluments of the Established Church in England. In order to elevate love, they depress faith. For our convenience, they have compressed the essence of their system into a phrase that is compact and portable — ’’ A grain of charity is worth a ton of dogma.” The maxim is well constructed, and its meaning is by no means obscure. If it were true, I should have no fault to find with it. But, as I have seen a mechanic, after the rule applied to his work gave imequivocal decision in its favour, turning the rule round and trying it the other way, lest some mistake should occur; so, in the important matter before us, it may be of use to express the same maxim in another form, lest any fallacy should be left lurking unobserved in its folds — thus: “ A small stream flowing on the ground is worth acres of clouds careering in the sky.” In this form the maxim is arrant nonsense; but the two forms express an identical meaning, like the opposite terms of an algebraic equation. Wanting clouds above us, there could be no streams, great or small, flowing at our feet -, so, wanting dogma — that is, doctrine revealed by God and received by man — there could be no charity. They scorn dogma, and laud charity — that is, they vilify the clouds, and sing paeans to running streams.

There is an aspect of childishness in the methods at present in fashion for undermining evangelical faith. When I was a little child I thought the clouds were accumulations of smoke from the chimneys. I also thought that, whUe the barren atmosphere above our heads was filled with stacks of dry thick smoke, the earth beneath our feet was rich and beneficent, seeing that from its bowels spring up all the waters that feed the rivers and fill the sea. Foolish chUd! The clouds are the storehouses in which the water is laid up, ready to be poured on the earth. From these treasures the wells obtain all their supply. We have streams on the ground because we have clouds in the sky. As the clouds create the rivers, the love of Christ exhibited in the gospel causes streams of charity to circulate in human life. The Bible teaches this, and history proves it. “ God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” This is a dogma; and before that dogma came, how much charity was in the world? Our latest reformers, I suppose, came easily by their discoveries. I am not aware that they have passed through any preparatory agonies, like those which Luther endured at Erfurth. Your philosophic regenerator of the world dispenses with a long search and a hard battle. When he brings forward for my acceptance his savoury dish, like poor old blind Isaac, when his slippery son presented the forged venison, I am disposed to ask, “ How hast thou found it so quickly, my son?” Ah, it is easy for those who have never been deeply exercised about sin to denounce dogma and cry up charity in its stead; but whence shall I obtain charity if I abjure truth? “ Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” The Apostle John got his charity from the bosom of the Master whereon he lay. Where do the modern apostles obtain theirs? How can you move the world if you have nothing but the world to lean your lever on? The Scriptures present the case of a man who was as free of dogma as the most advanced Secularist could desire, and who was notwithstanding wofully lacking in charity.

“ What is truth?” said Pilate; and he did not wait for an answer, for he had made up his mind that no answer could be given. Pilate was not burdened with a ton, with even an ounce, of dogma; yet he crucified Christ — crucified Christ, believing and confessing him innocent — that he might save his own skin, endangered by the accusations of the Jewish priests at the court of Rome.

Those who, in this age, lead the crusade against dogma, are forward to profess the utmost reverence for the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. But he did not despise dogma.

“ Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Nothing more completely and abstractly dogmatical can be found in all the creeds of the Church than that short and fervid exclamation of Peter in answer to the Master’s articulate demand for a confession of his faith upon the point. And how did the Master receive it? He not only acquiesced in the doctrine and the expression of it by his servant, but, departing in some measure from his usual habit of calm, unimpassioned speech, he broke into an elevated and exultant commendation: “ Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Let men keep congenial company, and let things be called by their right names.

Either doctrine — truth revealed by God and accepted by man — either doctrine is decisive and fimdamental for the salvation of sinners and the regeneration of the world, or Jesus Christ was a weakling. Tou must make your choice. The divinity of Christ, as confessed by Peter, is a dogma, for that dogma Jesus witnessed; for that dogma Jesus died. For it was because he made himself the Son of God that the Jewish priesthood hunted him down. Did he give his life for a dogma that is divine and necessary to the salvation of siimers. or did he fling his life away by a mistake?

Men must make their choice. Those who are not for Christ are against him.

If you do not receive Jesus Christ as God your Redeemer, you cannot have him as the beautiful example of a perfect humanity. He claimed to be divine, and died in support of the claim. Therefore, if he be not the true God, he must be a false man. Thus the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures has presciently rendered it impossible for modern Secularists to reject the great dogma of the gospel, and yet retain the life of Jesus as the highest pattern of human character. Both or none: Christ cannot be so divided. The word “ therefore,” destitute of any moral character in itself, and deriving all its importance from the things which it unites, is like the steel point set on a strong foundation which constitutes the fulcrum of the balance. To one extremity of the beam is fixed, by a long plummet-line, a consecrated benevolent human life; but that life itself lies unseen in the dark at the bottom of a deep well, a possibility only as yet, and not an actual entity. No human arm has power to bring it up and set it in motion — power to bring it into being. Here is a skilful engineer, who has undertaken the task. What is he doing? We expected that he would stand at the well’s mouth, and draw with all his might by the depending line, in the hope of drawing up that precious Charity from the deep. But no; he is busy at the opposite extremity of the beam. He is making fast to it some immense weight. Who is he, and what is the burden that he is zealously tying to the beam; and what does he expect to get by his pains? The operator, diminutive in bodily presence, but mighty in spirit, is the Apostle of the Gentiles; the weight that he is making fast to the beam is nothing less than the Tnerdes of God as they are exhibited in Christ, — all the love of God; nay, God himself, who is love. He has fastened it now, and he stands back — does not put a hand to the work in its second stage. What follows? They come! they come! the deeds of Charity — they ascend like clouds to the sky, at once an incense rising up to heaven, and a mighty stream of beneficence rolling along its channel on the surface of the earth, and converting the desert into a garden.

Ask those great lovers who have done and suffered most for men — who have taken up their abode in dungeons in order to soothe the spirits and relieve the wants of the wretched inmates — who have braved pestilential climates to Christianize and civilize the long-degraded negro; ask the whole band of flesh-and-blood angels who, by sacrificing themselves, have sought to heal the sores of humanity, what motive urged them on and held them up. They will answer with a voice like the sound of many waters. The love of Christ conatraineth us. Those who have done most of the charity that has told on the ills of life do not think, and do not say, that this fruit grows as well on all doctrines. or no doctrines, as on the truth of the gospeL They tell US that the force which sent them into the field and kept them there was the mercy of God in Christ, pardoning their sin and sealing them as children. They are bought with a price, and therefore they glorify God in their lives. In the scheme of doctrine set forth in the first half of the epistle, we behold the reservoir where the power is stored; and in the opening verses of the second section the engineer opens the sluice, so that the whole force of the treasured waters may flow out on human life, and impel it onward in active benevolence. Let the memory of God’s goodness, in the unspeakable gift, bear down upon our hearts, as the volume of a river bears down upon a mill-wheel, until its accumulating weight overcome the inertia of an earthly mind, and the interlacing entanglements of a pleasure-seeking society, so sending the life spinning round in an endless circle of work to abate the sins and sorrows of the world. The mercies of God being the power that sends out the product, the product so sent consists of two distinct yet vitally connected parts, as soul and body in the natural life. These are, devotion in spirit to God our Saviour, and substantial kindness to man our brother. The constituents of a true devotion are, a living sacrifice and a reasonable service. Whatever is rendered in sacrifice to God is rendered whole. The phraseology is in a high degree typical, but by reference to the Old Testament institutions it is easily understood. The distinguishing features of the New Testament sacrifice are, that it is the offerer’s own body, not the body of a substitute; and that it is presented not dead but living. It is not a carcass laid on the altar to be burned; it is a life devoted to God Love is the fire that consumes the sacrifice; and in this case, too, the fire came down from heaven* The body is specially demanded as an offering: the body is for the Lord; it bears the mark of his hand. We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Stand in awe and sin not: give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Your body is another Bible: read it with reverence. Its precepts, like those of the Decalogue, are written by the finger of (Jod. Show me, not a penny, but a man; for this is the only coin which the great King will accept as tribute. Whose image and superscription hath he? God’s. Bender therefore unto God the thing that is God’s. As the sacrifice is living, the service is reasonable — rational. It is not the arbitrary though loving command addressed by a father to his infant son-burn the fat upon the altar — that he may be trained to habits of unquestioning obedience; it is rather the work prescribed by the father to an adult son — a work which the son understands, and a purpose in which he intelligently acquiesces. The burning of incense, practised in the Bomish community for ages, and now resumed by those who should have known better, is not a reasonable service. It is a going back from the attainments of the gospel to the beggarly elements of a past dispensation. The second constituent of Christian duty is reciprocal justice and kindness between man and man, like the harmony and helpfulness which the Creator has established between the several members of a living body. Mark how the hand comes to the defence of the eye in its weakness; and how the eye with its sight, and from its elevated position, keeps watch for the welfare of the lowly, blind, but laborious and useful foot. The mutual helpfulness of these members is absolutely perfect. Such should be the charity between brother and brother of God’s family on earth; such it shall be when all the sons and daughters are assembled in the many mansions of the heavenly home. In the remaining portion of the epistle Paul labours with all his might to stimulate practical charity — in one place reducing the whole law to one precept, to one word — love. After devoting so much attention to the roots, he will not neglect to gather the fruit. After so much care in obtaining the power, he looks sharply to the product, lest it should turn out that he had laboured in vain.

We must look well to our helm as we traverse this ocean of life, where we can feel no bottom and see no shore — we must handle well our helm, lest we miss our harbour-home»

Such seems to be the counsel given for the guidance of life to those who count that all religion and all duty lie in subjective care and diligence, while they ignore, as unattainable or useless, all objective revealed truth. But careful management of the helm, though necessary, is not enough on our voyage. By it alone we cannot bring our ship safe to land. We must look to the lights in heaven. The seaman does not look to the stars instead of handling his helm. This would be as great folly as to handle his helm vigorously and never look to the stars. Not this one nor that one, to the neglect of the other. Both, and each in its own place: the stars, to show us the path in which we ought to go; and the helm, to keep us in the path which the stars have shown to be right. Not turn to the contemplation of dogma, instead of labouring in the works of charity; but looking to the truth as the light which shows us the way of life, and walking in that way with all diligence.

It is interesting to notice how the spiritual instincts of the Lord’s immediate followers led them in the right way, at a time when their intellectual comprehension of the gospel was very defective. On one occasion the Master taught the twelve a lesson on this subject — charity — which seemed to them very hard. The point in hand was the forgiving of injuries, and how far it could or should be carried. “ Master/’ they inquired, “ how often shall a man sin against me, and I forgive him? Seven times?” That, they thought, was as great a stretch of loving forbearance with a neighbour as could reasonably be required of any man. But what is the word of the Lord in this case? “I say not unto thee, till seven times, but until seventy times seven.” That is, he refused to set any limit to the charity of his disciples. Charity in his Church must be like the atmosphere wrapped round the world — no mountain-top can pierce through it to touch another element beyond.

Charity shall surround life so high and so deep that all life shall float in it always, as the globe of earth in the circumfluent air. The poor men were taken aback by this great demand.

It cut their breath. They had been educated in a narrow school, and could not at first take in the conception of a love that should know no other limit than the life and capacity of the lover. But on recovering from their first surprise, and becoming aware of their own short-coming, a true instinct directed them to the source of supply.

Then the disciples said unto the Lord, “ Increase our faiths Faith! O ye simple Galileans, it is not in faith that ye come short; it is in charity! How foolish, at such a moment, to give chase to the ignis fatuus of dlqgrma, when it is life that you need — more of love in your life! If our secxilar philosophers had been there, such would have been their patronizmg reproof of those simple, unlettered fishermen. But the fishermen, taught of the Spirit, possessed a sounder philosophy as well as a truer religion than their modem reprovers. I could imagine that Peter, in such circumstances, would have stood up as spokesman for the whole college, and made short work with the logic of the Secularists. Although blind, like old Jacob, to objects outside, like him Peter was endowed with an inner light. When Joseph brought his two sons to the patriarch for his blessing, he led them forward so that the elder should stand opposite the right hand of his grandfather, and the younger opposite the left. But Jacob crossed his hands in bestowing the blessing, so as to lay the right hand on the head of the younger child. When Joseph interfered to correct what he supposed to be a mistake, his father persisted in his own plan, saying, “ I know it, my son; I know it.” He guided his hands wittingly. So would the simple but courageous fisherman answer the philosophic Joseph of our day — “ I know it, my son; I know it.” He guided his lips wittingly, when, in lack of charity, he prayed for faith; for faith is the only efficient of charity. He would fain yield himself a living sacrifice for behoof of his fellows; but if he is ever impelled forward in this arduous course, he will be impelled, as Paul teaches, by the mercies of GkxL The instincts of the new creature in Peter taught him that if he should ever do more in forgiving love for his neighbours, he must get more through faith from his Lord. A miller, while he watches the operations of his mill, observes that the machineiy is moving slower and slower, and that at last it stands altogether stilL On searching for the cause, he discovers that some small hard pebbles have insinuated themselves between the millstones, first impeding the celerity of their motion, and then stopping it altogether. What will the miller do? Put in his hand and try to remove the obstruction? No; he is not such a fool. He goes quietly to a comer of the mill, and touches a simple wooden lever that protrudes at that spot through the wall. What is the miller doing there? He is letting on more water: impelled by more weight of water, the millstones easily overcome the obstacle, and go forward on their course. The demand of unlimited forgiving was the obstacle that stuck on the heart of those poor Galileans, and brought its beating to a stand; and they wisely applied for a greater gush of the impelling power — more faith. When the circulation of the spiritual life was impeded by that hard ingredient, they gasped for a widening of the channel through which the mercies of God flow from the covenant to the needy. More faith meant getting more of forgiving grace from God to their own souls; and they knew that when the vessel was full, it would flow over. The best of the argument, as well as of the sentiment, remains with the fishermen.

It is now time, however, that we should turn to the other side, and gather there a very needful lesson for Christians ere we close. We have been showing that it is faith accepting the mercies of God that produces a devout and charitable life; but what shall we say of those who have faith, or seem to have it, and yet lack charity?

Here a very interesting question arises. Want of faith, it is granted, among evangelical Christians, is followed by want of goodness, as a blighting of the root destroys the stem and branches of a tree. But does the converse also hold good Will a languid life weaken. faith, and an entire cessation of Chxistian activity make shipwreck of the faith? As a metaphysical speculation, we do not touch this question; hut on its practical side a useful warning may he given. Of all trees it may be said, destroy the root, and the stem will wither; but you cannot predicate of all trees that the destruction of the stem in turn destroys the root. Many trees when cut down to the ground retain life and grow great again. But some speciespines, for example— die outright when the main stem is severed. Here lies a sharp reproof for all who bear Christ’s name. True it is that your faith in Christ is the root which sustains the tree of your active life, and insures its fruitfulness; but true it is also that, like the pines, if from any cause the life cease to act, the faith, or what seemed faith, will rot away under ground. It was in this manner that Hymenseus and Alexander fell away. They first lost the good conscience; then and therefore they made shipwreck of the faith. They gave way in the sphere of duty, and then dogma melted away from their hearts. (1 Timothy 1:19.) The stem of the tree was cut off or withered, and the root rotted in the ground.

Thus, as the roots nourish the tree, and the growth of the tree in turn keeps the roots living, so is it with the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. While faith, by drawing from the fulness of Christ, makes a fruitful life; reciprocally, the exercise of all the charities mightily increases even the faith from which they sprang.

While, on one side, the necessity of the day is to maintain the faith as the fountain and root of practical goodness in the life; on the other side, especially for all within the Church, the. necessity of the day is to lead and exhibit a life corresponding to the faith it grows upon. Here it is safe to join full cry with the Secularists — more charity — charity in its largest sense, a self-sacrificing, brother-saving love, that, counts nothing alien which belongs to man, and spares nothing to make the world purer and happier. A pure, holy, loving, active, effective life, — this is the first, And the second, and the third requisite for the regeneration of the world. It is quite true that those who bear Christ’s name fail to walk in his steps; and to this defect it is owing that so little of the desert has yet been converted into a garden. It is life, it is love, it is living sacrifices that are wanted; this is the cure for the sores of humanity. But how shall we get that life of mighty doing and suffering charity, which we confess is lacking, and which, if we had it, would flow like a stream over the world and heal its barrenness? How and where shall we obtain this heaven”born charity?

Enter into thy closet, and shut the door, and seek it there. Seek, and ye shall find. Copy literally the simple request of the amazed disciples. Say unto the Lord, Increase our faith. That means that your very soul should open to Christ, and accept him as all your salvation. It is not to have a faith printed in your creed-book about one Jesus; it is to clasp him to your heart as your Redeemer, your Friend, your Portion. It is to taste and see that he is good, and to bear about with you the dying of the Lord Jesus. This will be a force suflScient to impel all your life forward, so as to please God and benefit your brother. “ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.” Unfortunately, we must look to the sovereign Lord God for a baptism of the Spirit, greater than that of the Pentecost, to produce a revival that will nsher in the glory of the latter day; but mediately and instnimentally that revival will come through the mebcies of Gk)D, manifested to the world in the incarnation and Sacrifice of the eternal Son, accepted, realized, and f elt, in new and greatly increased intensity by the members of the Christian Church. THE END.