Philippians 2

Philippians 2:5-11

CHRIST, THE Philippians 2:5-11THE phrase, Christ, the Incomparable, is extremely popular at present. It has come to be a custom with all liberal theologians, and almost a habit with outright infidels to pay tribute to the character of Jesus. Unitarians, and even atheists, have well-nigh exceeded evangelicals in their laudation of the Man from Nazareth; and the present-day higher critics all say “Amen”, when we pay tribute to Him. Renan said, “In Jesus is condensed all that is good and exalted in all nature.” Thomas Paine remarked, “The morality that He preached has not been exceeded by any.” Disraeli, the Jew, confessed, “Jesus has conquered Europe and changed its name to Christendom.” Rousseau remarked, “If the life and death of Socrates were those of a martyr, the life and death of Jesus were those of a God.” When, therefore, a conservative talks either about the accomplishments or character of Jesus, he will find no liberal theologian, and but few infidels, to oppose him. It is only when we come to the question of His Deity, involving as it does, atonement for sin through sacrifice, cleansing by the shedding of Blood, that they revolt and reveal their real estimate of Christ’s claims.It is a marvelous thing that any man could so live and die as to compel even His enemies to pay tribute to Him; as to force from the lips of the most malignant opponents masterly encomiums, and yet Christ has accomplished that. When Paul penned this Epistle to the Philippians this name was not so popular, and yet, by inspiration he proclaimed its coming power, and, for the moment, turned Prophet, and the civilized of all later centuries consent to the circumstance that he spake truthfully.There are three things he says about this Incomparable One.First of all, God gave to HimAN NAME “Let this mind he in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: “But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:5-9). Did you ever ask yourself the question why God gave to Him “a Name which is above every name”? In how many respects is that an incomparable Name? I shall not attempt to answer that in full, but a few suggestions:He was incomparable in mental ability. Every apocryphal gospel tells remarkable things about the youth of Jesus. The true Gospels mention little of His youth, but when it is touched, His mental abilities are uncovered. At twelve years of age His parents at the feast, in leaving, missed Him.

After they had gone a great way toward home they made the discovery that the Lad was not with them, and went back, “and it came to pass, that after three days they found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.”Again in the Word of God we are told that “He grew”, not only “in stature”, but “in wisdom”, and that is easily accepted as a fact.

The moment His public ministry begins men stand astounded, and even His enemies consent “never man spake like this Man”. On one occasion, when He had finished with the delivery of certain parables, He came into His own country, and taught them in their synagogue, “insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this Man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s Son? is not His mother called Mary? and His brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this Man all these things”?He was a product of no school and yet His speech has given rise to the great schools of the centuries. He was the author of no code of laws, yet His declarations determine the righteousness of all law.

He engaged in no philosophical speculations, yet all philosophers are compelled to sit at His feet. He formulated no distinct system of theology, yet the only theology worthy the attention of men, and calculated to do aught for a sinning, dying world, is that which is in the strictest keeping with His wonderful words.

Truly, as Dr. Robert F. Horton, of the Old World, once said, “Churches and theologies—he might have added, schools] have failed us and confused us, but when Christ speaks from the mount, all is clear.”He was incomparable in mighty accomplishments. Dwight Hillis never said a truer thing, than when he wrote, “Our wonder grows apace when we remember that He wrote no book, no poem, no drama, no philosophy; invented no tool or instrument; fashioned no law or institution; discovered no medicine or remedy; outlined no philosophy of mind or body; contributed nothing to geology or astronomy, but stood at the end of His brief career, doomed and deserted, solitary and silent, utterly helpless, fronting a shameless trial and a pitiless execution. In that hour none so poor as to do Him reverence. And yet could some magician have touched men’s eyes they would have seen that no power in Heaven and no force on earth for majesty and productiveness could equal or match this crowned Sufferer whose name was to be ‘Wonderful’.“The ages have come and gone; let us hasten to confess that the carpenter’s Son hath lifted the gates of empires off their hinges and turned the stream of the centuries out of their channels.

His spirit hath leavened all literature; He hath made laws just, governments humane, manners gentle, even cold marble warm; He refined art by new and Divine themes, shaped those cathedrals called ‘frozen prayers’, led scientists to dedicate their books and discoveries to Him, and so glorified an instrument of torture that the very queen among beautiful women seeks to enhance her loveliness by hanging His cross about her neck, while new inventions and institutions seem but letters in His storied speech. Today His birthday, alone, is celebrated by all the nations.

All peoples and tribes claim Him. None hath arisen to dispute His throne. Plato divides honors with Aristotle; Bacon walks arm in arm with Newton; Napoleon does not monopolize the admiration of soldiers. In poetry, music and art, and practical life, universal supremacy is unknown. But Jesus Christ is so opulent in His gifts, so transcendent in His words and works, so unique in His life and death, that He receives universal honors. His Name eclipses other names as the noonday sun obliterates by very excess of light.”He was incomparable in essential character.

In all the days of my life I have never fallen upon an attack of the character of Christ until recently. Rousseau admired it, Paine paid it tribute, Hume honored it, and even our own man, Ingersoll, declared, “For the Man Jesus, I have infinite respect.” Even erratic minds denying the Deity of Christ and deriding the claims of the Church, never had the hardihood to decry His character.

It remained for a modern, to attempt that defamation and exercise that blasphemy. The world for many centuries, so far as it has read the Scriptures at all, has been well-nigh a unit in its exalted judgment of Jesus. In fact, the picture given in the four Gospels is just exactly such as to confirm the basis for Dr. Carnegie Simpson’s claim that no such character could ever have been conceived apart from its actual existence. He quotes J. S.

Mills as having declared, “It is no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical, and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been superadded by the traditions of His followers.” It is no use, because, as Mills adds, “Who among His disciples, or their proselytes” [he might have added, “Who among the poets and dramatists of all the world”] is capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus or of imagining such a life and character? The only way in the world to account for their work is to suppose that they spoke in utter veracity.

They had a model and they copied it faithfully, and because the model was faultless, the reproduction, being faithful, was perfect, also.”This character of Jesus becomes the more resplendent when one remembers the day in which He was born and lived. As another says, “It was an hour when tyranny and crime had gone upon a carnival. It seemed as if despots had determined to leave on earth not one of the gifted children of song, or eloquence, or philosophy, or morals. Julius Caesar, the writer and ruler, had been murdered. Cicero, the orator, had been assassinated. Herod, who ruled over Christ’s city, murdered his two brothers, his wife, Marianne, slew the children of Bethlehem, and, dying, ordered his nobles to be executed, that mourning for the king might be widespread. Yet in such an era, when He saw a thousand wrongs to be achieved, Christ maintained His serenity, and reigned victorious over life’s troubles.” And one might add, He provided a solution for every sorrow and a salvation from every sin.But the Apostle speaks in the next place of A NAMEHe gave“Him a Name which is above every name; that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth”.His triumph in Heaven is complete. Two schools of interpreters—yea, twenty—have attempted the Book of Revelation. But the two great schools are Praeterists and Futurists. The first of these says that most of the things prophesied in the Book of the Revelation have passed already, and the second insists, “Not so; they are all yet to come.” Neither is right! Some of them have transpired and others of them are yet to come to pass. Two thousand years ago John, on the Isle of Patmos, was vouchsafed a vision of the open Heaven.

He saw Jesus in His glorified estate. From Him he received messages for the seven Churches in Asia; and then the Faithful and True Witness turned his attention to the “things which must shortly come to pass”, and among them He granted to him a vision of the war in Heaven. Michael is shown going forth to war with the dragon,“and the dragon fought and his angels; “And prevailed not: neither was their place found any more in Heaven. “And the great dragon was cast down, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. “And I heard a great voice saying in Heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. “And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Revelation 12:7-12). Where Christ is, this arch-fiend cannot reign; he cannot even remain.He will accomplish the supremacy of the earth.“At the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, AND THINGS IN EARTH” O, how that declaration from Paul’s pen fits into the teaching of the Old Testament worthies. The Psalmist, catching a vision of the ages to come, wrote,“He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.“They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust. “The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall render presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. “Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him. “For He will deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper” (Psalms 72:8-12). Daniel, also, you remember, says,“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. “And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a Kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14). This is that of which Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:24-25 :“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. “For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet”. All civilization moves to one end, whether it knows it or not; and all Christianization has one object, whether it be thoroughly apprehended or not, and that is the conquest of Christ in this world, and the making of a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness. And it shall be done! I know the discouragements of the days intervening, and I know how the delays trouble even the dutiful. I know how apostates from the faith filch the place of genuine prophets, and yet I know, on the authority of God’s Word, from prophecies which have already found a fulfilment, that we move directly to this conquering by the Christ! God shall bring it to pass. Some one has said, “The century plant takes a hundred years for root and trunk, but blossoms in a night.

And nations also shall in a day be born into culture and character.” And this same writer says, “And every knee shall bow to the Name that is above every name, and He whom God has lifted to the world’s throne shall, in turn, lift the world to a place beside Him.”His victory over hell will be acknowledged. There are some people who seem to think that hell is to beat Heaven out; that the final victory is to be with the underworld.

The text says not so; “At the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and THINGS UNDER THE EARTH”. I believe Satan and his entire host perfectly understand that fact. To me that is the interpretation of the speech of the devils at the sight of Jesus. They trembled when He drew nigh, begged Him not to torment them “before the time”, as if it were perfectly understood that there was a time fixed when every devil that had ever allied himself with the great Dragon, and become a permanent rebel against the Divine government, should cringe at the mention of His conquering Name, and perish at the touch of His conquering hand. We wonder, after all, if that is not the interpretation of Rev 20:10, where Satan and his associates and all followers, find their fate in the pit, hurled thence by the mighty Son of God. His is a conquering Name! At its mention everything of earth is destined to bow; at its mention every saint and angel of Heaven will fall on the face; and at its mention every devil in hell will fear and flee away; then “every tongue” shall “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.His, then, isA GOD- NAME It would be an interesting study indeed to run the Scriptures through and see in what respects the Name of Jesus glorifies God. O, there are so many! Let me pick out three of these and with that finish.In that Name men are saved from sin. “Thou shalt call His Name, Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins”. There is an eighth wonder in the world today, namely, the denial of sin. The denial of the most evident, the most potent fact of human experience and sane observation—SIN! It is the author of all sorrows; it is the occasion of all doom; it is the call for hell. The whole world is under its blight. Not one noble man has escaped; not one fair woman has gone unscathed.

Discouragement, disease, despair and death lie over the earth like a pall.The Name that is an antidote for sin, the man that can withdraw its sting, is the Name, the Man, that brings to God the greatest glory. In the Orient one of the commonest effects of sin is blindness. Consequently when the disciples of Jesus saw one totally stricken by this affliction they addressed their Master, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents”, The effect upon him is more remote, it has come down a greater distance, “but that the works of God should be made manifest in him”. And Christ healed him, and God was glorified.The blind are everywhere, the lame lie at many gates, the fevered are found under a multitude of roofs, the deaf, the dumb, the demonized. O, how sin has made havoc with the sons of men.

Dwight Hillis spake truly when he said, “Long ago Cleopatra, the daughter of supreme beauty, received sin into her arms, counting it to be an angel of light; but alas, sin broke her heart, and soon she welcomed the viper to her bosom. It was sin that wrecked the palace of David.

It was sin that ruined the genius of Solomon. It was sin that stole the purple from Alcibiades and gave him instead the robe of a slave. It was sin that, serpent like, crawled over the threshold of the palaces in Rome and left its slime within court and banqueting hall. Sin was the flame which blackened the Doge’s palace in Venice. Sin was the earthquake that toppled down the treasure houses of Florence. For Bacon sin was a worm in the bud of his heart.

For Byron sin was moth and rust that consumed the mind. For Shelley, sin was a Vandal that grew by the rapine and murder of the poet’s soul.”We are told that when the work of excavation was done in the streets, and the houses of Pompeii were uncovered, and the gathered treasures in bronze and marble and ivories and mosaics were assembled in a museum, not one single object of them all had escaped some form of injury.

The Winged Mercury had arms and legs broken, the white forehead of Venus had a black stain, every precious tablet was cracked to a greater or less degree, while the very rolls found in Pliny’s tomb had their writings too faded to read. This is only a type of the havoc sin has made in men. The chief products of the Divine Artist, broken, scarred, stained, are we all. And Christ came to replace, to heal, to cleanse, to save. No wonder the men who looked upon Him in the old day when He both recovered the sick and forgave the sinner, glorified God, saying, “We never saw it on this fashion”. O, His is a God-glorifying Name!He glorifies God by transforming the saved. His work is not that of reformation only; it involves transformation.“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren”. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Henry Drummond in his matchless booklet, “The Greatest Thing in the World”, speaks wonderfully of this transformation, accomplished while we behold the face of the transfigured Christ, and looking on Him, grow like Him in character. Horace Stanton says, “In the gallery of the Vatican at Rome, said to contain of art more genuine treasures than any other on the earth, there hangs a work which stands not only supreme above those others there; but, by the consenting judgment of three centuries and a half, at the head of all the oil paintings in the world—the Transfiguration by Raphael. It was in the noonday of his life that he began it, and the sublimest conceptions of that peerless spirit are here displayed. A genius of amazing brilliancy, in imagination never yet surpassed, but tender, sensitive, and reverential, was portraying that single scene when the Saviour was manifested to the disciples in His future celestial light, the only time that earthly eyes had yet seen Him in His glory. And, as the artist bent his might upon it, the splendid vision rose, in drawing, grouping, and dramatic power, a work unequalled. It is called the grandest picture ever limner wrought.

But, as the last lines were almost done, God called Raphael. And, over his shadowy bier, they hung this picture; its colors still wet upon the canvas, the last work of that lifeless hand. What a funeral was this—that graceful figure covered with the painter’s cloak, the throng of mourners kneeling weeping there; but over all, the breathing beauty and immortal radiance of that Heavenly scene, which showed the luster of the Transfigured Christ.”As Raphael in art, so we in spirit, speech and life, may delineate the transfiguration of our Lord.And, at our death, the luster of Christ—crowned and regnant—shall fall on us, to give each his proper splendor. For, “as there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, though many stars may draw their radiance from that one central sun; so Christ’s glory shall be chiefest, and each of us will have a proper share, all unlike one another, though we all shall be like Him”.Yet once more, God receives glory in that Christ is Lord over death and the grave. He is our hope of a resurrection. When Lazarus lay dead and was revived—the great New Testament type of the resurrection of the saints—Jesus said to Martha,“Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? “Then they took away the stone. * * And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. “And I knew that Thou hearest Me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. “And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth?” and the glory of God was revealed.Ah, men, He is the Lord of life out of death; of victory over the grave. In His Name saints shall conquer against the last enemy, and troop up in bodies incorruptible, powerful, glorious, spiritual. I have attempted at times, in speaking of the resurrection, to tell my auditors something of what the resurrection body will be. It was an impossible proposition! The most physically perfect Man the world ever saw was Jesus on the day of the crucifixion—in His prime at thirty-three years of age, uncorrupted by sin, untouched by any infirmity of body, soul or spirit; and in that body, risen from the dead, one finds the model in the likeness of which all saints shall come forth.Stanton tells us that “in the museums of Europe, you see statues of Antinous, that young man of antiquity who was noted for his symmetry and grace. There is the Apollo Belvidere, an artist’s sublime conception of the Godlike form.

In Frankfort you visit Dannecker’s famous group of statuary, ‘Ariadne on the Panther’. It is in a building especially erected for it.

There is the lithe and agile beast. Upon his back the beauteous maiden sits. The drapery half reveals, and half conceals her fine proportions. The expression on her face is most sweet. The crimson curtains, which surround the alcove, mellow the light, so that she almost seems to live. The group is mounted on a revolving pedestal. And, as it turns, you survey it from every side—matchless in its perfect beauty. The Antinous shows the ideal mould of man; the Ariadne the ideal form of woman.

But who shall prove that, in the coming world, yea in the Millennium of this world, every man and every woman will not be as beautiful of face and figure as the Antinous and the Ariadne? Those Greek statues were largely representations of the living figures seen in the gymnasia. They were illustrations of the superb physiques of the actual persons of that day. Modern statues are largely copied from them. But surely the figures of the glorified children of God in the New Jerusalem, will be as beautiful as were those of the children of men in ancient Greece”.“This is the first resurrection. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years”. It is a glorious prospect, and God Himself, is glorified in the sure promise of Christ’s victory over death and the grave, and He will be in its final and unspeakable realization.

Philippians 2:12-16

A PASTOR S APPEAL Philippians 2:12-16PAUL was a Pastor-Evangelist. With some of the Churches which he established he remained as long as three years; with others, a brief time. But he retained a pastoral oversight over them all, and his Letters to them are not so much the appeals of an evangelist as the counsels and appeals of a pastor. His was the Pastor’s heart! That is strongly evident in the text of this morning.Permit a threefold suggestion in exposition of these words: The Obedient Life, The Unblemished Life, and The Brilliant Life.THE LIFEAs I understand the Apostle he makes, in verses 12 and 13, an appeal for obedience independent of human leadership; an obedience inspired by the Holy Spirit; an obedience directed by the Divine pleasure.The Apostle’s appeal for an obedience independent of human leadership.“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” The presence of the great Apostle with the people of Philippi can better be imagined than described. It is a fact of human history that the majority of men are, in no small measure, what some giant has made them. Paul, in spite of his pigmy frame, was a Colossus in the Church, a commander indeed. Obedient conduct on the part of the army of the Lord was more easy and more certain when he appeared as a Captain in its midst. The Apostle was desirous, however, that obedience should be equally effective in his absence. His endeavor was to get them to look past him to their greater Captain and Leader, even Christ!

It was his endeavor, to get them to realize that while he might be regarded by them as a leader in the Church he was not the leader of the Church. That office was reserved to the Son of God, who was at once their Saviour and the Head of the Church. Truly, we are not to lean to our “own understanding”, nor yet, upon the arm of another, who is as mortal as ourselves; but, rather, are we to look directly to Him, who, by a perfect obedience to the Father’s will, is at once our example and our sufficient strength.Our obedience is to be inspired by His indwelling Spirit. Hence the injunction of the Apostle:“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. “For it is God which Worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure”. There are many people who approach Christianity from the standpoint of duty; and who seem to feel that its regnant word is “Do.” No; Christianity is not a command, but rather, an inspiration! The man who does, that he may be redeemed, has missed the mark; but where the Spirit of God is within, one walks in the way. William George Jordan says: “Duty is forced like a pump: love is spontaneous like a fountain; duty is prescribed and formal; it is part of the red tape of life. It is good enough as a beginning; it is poor as a finality.”Paul takes the same position. Read his thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, the greatest disquisition on love extant. He declares that a man may do his entire duty, and even exceed it.

He may offer his body to be burned, and yet prove himself an unprofitable servant, if he lacks that compulsive spirit of love. The truth is that apart from that spirit we cannot please God. Our endeavors are as filthy rags. Every virtue possessed, every victory won, every thought of holiness are His alone. This same Apostle later wrote, of himself,“By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me”. There is a difference about a labor inspired by the indwelling Spirit of God and one resulting from mere human strength. A man who can come into the atmosphere of the former always recognizes its superior altitude; there is another and better aroma about it all. It is said that there is a church in Alaska built by the Indians, that perpetually exhales a fragrance, as if the finest incense were being burned within its walls. The odor comes from the wood of the giant arbor vine, of which the church is built, and this aroma will last as long as the edifice stands. So those works, indicted by the Spirit of God, are in fragrant obedience, and the world without inhales the sweet breath and is brought to believe in the God whose Spirit indwells believers!Then, according to the Apostle, this obedience is to be directed by the Divine pleasure.“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure”. The true child consults the father’s will; and the genuine Christian longs to know God’s pleasure. The great men of the earth, reckoned from a religious standpoint, have become such by obedience to the Divine will, rather than from any or all other circumstances combined. We have not forgotten the report made of Mr. Moody, that having heard one wonder what the Lord could do with a man who was absolutely surrendered to Him, responded, “I will be that man.”A writer tells of being at a camp meeting and hearing a tall, spare man preach on the text, “I was not disobedient unto the Heavenly vision”.It was a remarkable characterization of Paul the Apostle, with especial emphasis on the obedience which seemed to be the dominant trait in his life. The preacher was in a large sense an embodiment of his theme. Long years before he had heard a voice calling him to the dark regions of the world, and he went alone and single-handed, preaching the Gospel to the Kaffirs and other heathen peoples.

It is said that he won over seven thousand persons to the Cross of Christ. One word seemed to sum up the teaching he wished to put into the hearts of his great congregation.

He would rise to his full height, over six feet, and cry in a strange, shrill voice, “Obedience! Obedience! Obedience!” till it stormed the hearts of the hearers. Although that great man passed on some years since, that sharp voice rings again down through the years “Obedience! Obedience! Obedience!” It was the substance of the Gospel that old man preached; it is still the heart of any gospel that is worth preaching.Oft these words of Bishop William Taylor—for it was he—sounded into the ears, and at times when the message was most needed. And the spirit that made mighty, Moody—the evangelist, and William Taylor—the marvelous missionary, is the very same that has accounted for every mighty evangelist the centuries have known, and every missionary who has carried light into darkened lands; and for that matter, it is the spirit that can help the humblest to become valiant servants for the Most High.But this Pastor-Evangelist passes from the Obedient Life toTHE LIFE It instantly occurs to one that there is the closest possible relation between the obedient life and the unblemished life. But there are some suggestions in the Apostle’s words here which too seldom occur to us.The first is: The unblemished life is characterized by no needless controversy.“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: “That ye may he blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke”. The impression sometimes prevails that the problem of life is to keep one’s self unspotted from the world. Perhaps a greater problem still is to keep one’s self from spotting others. If we had to take our choice between the scandalized and the scandalizer, we would unhesitatingly accept the position of the former as against that of the latter! Defilement is not always from without! James, in his Epistle, says:“Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of heir (James 3:3-6). That is a somewhat serious indictment! Truly, the unspotted man, and the unblemished man, is the man whose tongue is tempered by the indwelling Spirit of God; and his mouth, one which is no longer full of deadly poison, but is one from which there cometh forth blessing and not cursing.It is said that Phillips Brooks was one day visiting in a family and picked up the little girl, of whom he was very fond, and she told him of some childish grievance and concluded her story with the words, “It made me real cross.” “Cross, cross.” the Bishop exclaimed, “I shouldn’t suppose you ever got cross.” “Wouldn’t you be cross,” replied the child, “if anybody treated you so?” “I don’t know whether I would or not,” said the Bishop. “Perhaps I would, if it would do me any good.” “Did it make you feel any better?” “No,” the little one answered hesitatingly. “Then,” said the Bishop, “I don’t see any reason for being cross.” “Murmurings and disputings” have not added a vast deal to the world’s progress, and still less to its happiness. The simple truth is that that mastery which seals the lips, even when there is pain and rage in the soul, is the mastery akin to that which Christ evinced all through life.There are some people who think that if they are struck, they must cry out. Christ did not. It may not be an absolute necessity that we should so do. It is told to her eternal credit that Disraeli’s wife, going with him on that great day when he was to face his antagonist, Gladstone, in a debate that would determine the action of the English Parliament, and in no small measure Disraeli’s future standing, sat in the gallery, and with calm face beamed upon him from the moment he opened his lips until he had finished the last word; when the fact was, that as she alighted from the carriage, the bungling servant closed its door upon her finger and crushed it.

Without a word, she whipped her handkerchief out and bound it about the finger and walked at the side of the great Beaconsfield into the House of Parliament, took her place in the gallery, never having reported the accident lest it might distract him from his speech. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind”. The “blameless life” is not a “murmuring” life, nor a life devoted to “vain disputations”.The blameless life reveals a conduct indicative of the child of God. Hence the Apostle’s words:“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke”. Here again, however, let no man make a mistake! Paul was not one of those soft souls, who yielded his ground for the sake of undesirable peace; and certainly he was not one of those garrulous souls who could talk eloquently, but could not walk in accord with his own counsel. We know from his Epistle to the Romans that he believed the life in Christ to be fittingly expressed by one’s walk before God, hence the significance of baptism to him:“Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”. A little later, in the same Epistle, he writes again:“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk riot after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. Eloquence is a good thing; but the world has always been in need, and is now, of feet that are more eloquent than tongues: and of a walk more Godly than talk. I have read somewhere the Chinese legend which tells of the three great religious teachers of the celestial empire holding a sorrowful conference in their heavenly abode, looking with profound regret upon the degeneracy of their people, and mourning that their life work seemed so entirely a failure. At last they determined to return to earth in order to find some suitable missionary whom they could send forth as a reformer. They came in their wanderings to an old man sitting as a guardian to a fountain. He talked to them so wisely and so earnestly of the great concerns which they had at heart that they concluded unanimously that he was the very man for whom they were seeking. But when they proposed the mission to him he replied: “Only the upper portion of my body is of flesh and blood; the lower portion is of stone.

I can talk about virtue and good works, but I cannot rise from my seat to perform any righteous acts.” That man sitting there by the fountain with clear head, but with stone legs, should be a warning to all Christians. Such people are to be found in life as well as legend. In the Scriptures that knowledge which is acceptable to God is ever linked with true service.”“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” (Colossians 2:6). “This is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, that, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it” (2 John 1:6). This unblemished life is to be lived in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. There are many people who are making excuse for not becoming Christians, namely, they are so surrounded and associated that Christianity is not possible. Poor excuse! God never promised any child of His to put him down in easy circumstances. So long as Satan dwells in the world it must be the fate of every believer to dwell in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Monasticism is not Christianity; in truth, it is very doubtful if it is even morality.We have a chapter in our volume “The Evolution of the Kingdom”, on the “Signs of the Times.” Some people, who have no sympathy with the Biblical subject, want to dilate upon “the Spirit of the Times,” and even ministers are sometimes telling their brethren that they must keep pace with it.

The Scriptures instruct after another manner. The true Christian must for ever be out of harmony with the spirit of the times. As A. C. Dixon once said, “Vox populi” is often “Vox diabolic”. The man who walks with God must make up his mind even to submit to the jeers of the thoughtless crowd; be pained by its profanity, shocked by its sins, yet never be turned aside from the Christian course by its suggestions.

That is indeed the unblemished life.With his usual logic, the Apostle passes from the Obedient Life to the Unblemished Life, and from the Unblemished Life toTHE LIFE “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; “Holding forth the Word of Life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain”. The darkened world depends upon the Christian life for light. That is a fine tribute that was paid John the Baptist: ((He was a burning and a shining light”. He will for ever then, stand out as an ensample to believers who should be reminded of their appointment as “lights in the world”; who would give literal obedience to the injunction spoken of God by Isaiah’s lips, to the Israel of the Old Testament, and for that matter, to the Israel of the New:“Arise, shine; for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising” (Isaiah 60:1-3). I clipped from my scrap-book a little poem which makes its own appeal to the individual, and ought to make an effective one:“Don’t waste your time in longing, For bright impossible things. Don’t sit supinely yearning, For the swiftness of angel wings. Don’t spurn to be a rush-light, Because you are not a star. But brighten some bit of darkness, By shining just where you are. “There is need of the tiniest candle, As well as the garish sun; The humblest deed is ennobled, When it is worthily done; You may never be called to brighten The darkened regions afar; So, by day, your mission, By shining just where you are. “Just where you are my brother, Just where God bids you stand; Though down in the deepest shadow, Instead of the sunlit land; You may carry a brightness with you, That no gloom or darkness can mar; For the light of the Christ-like spirit Will be shining wherever you are.” Such a life can look to the Word alone for its light. Hence Paul’s words: “Holding forth the Word of Life”. The longer I live the more profoundly am I impressed with that great fact. One morning, years since, in our ministers’ meeting, we had Dr. F , then of Andover, give a brief and brilliant address, the logic of which was as lame as the language was chaste. He told us the church of the present day was a discredited institution, and that its dying condition was in part due to its ancient theology; and he told us, eloquently enough, to adopt the modern view and march on.Andover did that with a vengeance, and she perished in her folly of having departed from “the faith which was once delivered”.

Finally she presented to the world the pitiful sight of an institution splendidly equipped with buildings, endowed with a million dollars, her every chair filled with a notable theologian, and her student halls and class rooms deserted. She debated awhile between a necessary burial and affiliation with Harvard University; and finally concluded that by the help of this notable school she might longer maintain her existence. And yet, the very man who saw the new theology sink that ship of learning, and knows its paralysis in the pulpit he occupies, is so slow to learn, that he still pleads with his brethren to depart from the faith once for all delivered and flounder with him and his fellows in a quagmire of unbelief.Finally, “Holding forth the Word of Life”. In that fact, and in that alone, has any man occasion to rejoice; any pastor to conclude that he has “not run in vain, neither laboured in vain”.The longer one lives, the more widely one is permitted to observe, the more fully is he persuaded that the hope of the future is in “the faith which was once delivered” and the obligation of every church is one and the same, namely, that she hold forth the “Word of Life” and find in the souls of men the faith of the Gospel of the Son of God.“I stood and watched my ships go out, Each one by one unmooring free, And the time the quiet harbor filled With the flood tide from the sea. “The first that sailed, her name was Joy, She spread a smooth white ample sail, And eastward drove, with bending spars, Before the singing gale. “The next that sailed, her name was Hope, No cargo in her hold she bore, Thinking to find in western lands, Of merchandise a store. “The next that sailed, her name was Love, She showed a red flag at the mast, A flag as red as blood she showed, And toward the south sped fast. “The last that sailed, her name was Faith, Slowly she took her passage forth, Tacked, and lay to; at last she steered, A straight course for the north. “My gallant ships, they sailed away, Over the shimmering summer sea, I stood at watch for many a day, But only one came back to me. “For Joy was caught by Pirate Pain, Hope ran upon a hidden reef, And Love took fire and foundered fast In whelming seas of grief. “Faith came at last, storm-beat and torn, But recompensed me all my loss, For as a cargo safe she brought A crown linked to a cross.”