Chapter iii concluded
It is a blessed thing to be a “moderate” in this sense. A living calm pervades that soul. A thousand anxieties, and a thousand regrets, incident to the life of self, are spared it. It is at leisure from itself, and therefore free for many a delightful energy and enterprise when God calls it in that direction, as well as ready for imprisonment and apparent inutility when that is His will.
An example in point rises before me. I will name no name, for that would severely pain the “moderate man” I have in view. It is a life overflowingly active of which I am thinking; a mind and will quick to originate, vigorous to execute; a heart large in sympathies and in power of influence. But never, during the observation of years, have I been able to detect in this Christian’s words and works the presence of selffulness. The enterprises of others for God seem to be as interesting to him as his own. The success of his own seems to have no interest apart from that of serviceableness to Christ and His cause. And if failure ever comes it leaves no bitterness, for the effort was out of relation to self.
This is not a very common characteristic of life and work in Christian circles. Alas, how often do we see, perhaps how often we ourselves present, the opposite! Let us put it down plainly before us that this is grievous sin, direct contradiction to the Gospel in its first principles, a most certain antidote to the peace of God which passeth understanding, and a stumbling-block, a scandal, disastrous beyond all our reckoning, in its effects on observers.
Nothing does the world’s microscope discover more keenly than selffulness in a Christian man or woman. Nothing at once baffles its experience and explanation, and attracts its notice and respect, like the genuine selflessness, the yieldingness, of the grace of God. Let ours, then, “be known unto all men”; not paraded and thrown into an attitude, but kept in practice and use in real life, where it can be put to real tests.
And would we read something, in this same verse, of its heavenly secret? It lies before us; “the Lord is near.” He is near, not here in the sense of coming soon, but in that of standing by; in the sense of His presence, and “the secret” of it, around His servant. The very words used here by St Paul occur in this connexion in the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Old Testament, a translation old even in St Paul’s time; “Thou art near (egguV), O Lord.” The thought is of the calm and overshadowing of His recollected and realized Presence; that divine atmosphere in which bitter things, and things narrow with the contractions and distortions of self, must die, and in which all that is sweet and loving lives. “From the provoking of all men, from the strife of tongues,” there is divine protection and concealment there. Let us watch and pray over our recollection of that “nearness,” and we too shall learn, not by direct effort but by derivation through the Holy Spirit from Christ the Fount of Grace, to be “moderates,” with a “moderation known of all men.”
St Paul himself beautifully exemplifies his own words, in the same Epistle, in the first chapter. The “brethren” at Rome who “preached Christ of envy and strife, supposing to add affliction to his bonds,” certainly took a very irritating line of action. And their action tried St Paul. But it did not irritate him. He saw, condemned, and deplored their motives. But he was not angry, he was not “hurt.” On the contrary, he rejoiced. And why? Because, in however circuitous a way, the interests of Jesus Christ were being served. “Christ is being preached, and I therein do rejoice.” The Lord was indeed near to His servant, near in the depths of his soul and will; and “moderation” could not but fill him in that presence.
Christian teacher, Christian worker, Christian partner, parent, student, servant, whosoever you are – “see that you abound in this grace also.” Forget it, and there will be a flaw running across your life and work for your beloved Lord. Remember it, in remembering Him, and you shall glorify Him indeed, and “sow the fruit of righteousness in peace.” So say I to you, so most of all say I to myself, in the name of Jesus Christ.
An example in point rises before me. I will name no name, for that would severely pain the “moderate man” I have in view. It is a life overflowingly active of which I am thinking; a mind and will quick to originate, vigorous to execute; a heart large in sympathies and in power of influence. But never, during the observation of years, have I been able to detect in this Christian’s words and works the presence of selffulness. The enterprises of others for God seem to be as interesting to him as his own. The success of his own seems to have no interest apart from that of serviceableness to Christ and His cause. And if failure ever comes it leaves no bitterness, for the effort was out of relation to self.
This is not a very common characteristic of life and work in Christian circles. Alas, how often do we see, perhaps how often we ourselves present, the opposite! Let us put it down plainly before us that this is grievous sin, direct contradiction to the Gospel in its first principles, a most certain antidote to the peace of God which passeth understanding, and a stumbling-block, a scandal, disastrous beyond all our reckoning, in its effects on observers.
Nothing does the world’s microscope discover more keenly than selffulness in a Christian man or woman. Nothing at once baffles its experience and explanation, and attracts its notice and respect, like the genuine selflessness, the yieldingness, of the grace of God. Let ours, then, “be known unto all men”; not paraded and thrown into an attitude, but kept in practice and use in real life, where it can be put to real tests.
And would we read something, in this same verse, of its heavenly secret? It lies before us; “the Lord is near.” He is near, not here in the sense of coming soon, but in that of standing by; in the sense of His presence, and “the secret” of it, around His servant. The very words used here by St Paul occur in this connexion in the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Old Testament, a translation old even in St Paul’s time; “Thou art near (egguV), O Lord.” The thought is of the calm and overshadowing of His recollected and realized Presence; that divine atmosphere in which bitter things, and things narrow with the contractions and distortions of self, must die, and in which all that is sweet and loving lives. “From the provoking of all men, from the strife of tongues,” there is divine protection and concealment there. Let us watch and pray over our recollection of that “nearness,” and we too shall learn, not by direct effort but by derivation through the Holy Spirit from Christ the Fount of Grace, to be “moderates,” with a “moderation known of all men.”
St Paul himself beautifully exemplifies his own words, in the same Epistle, in the first chapter. The “brethren” at Rome who “preached Christ of envy and strife, supposing to add affliction to his bonds,” certainly took a very irritating line of action. And their action tried St Paul. But it did not irritate him. He saw, condemned, and deplored their motives. But he was not angry, he was not “hurt.” On the contrary, he rejoiced. And why? Because, in however circuitous a way, the interests of Jesus Christ were being served. “Christ is being preached, and I therein do rejoice.” The Lord was indeed near to His servant, near in the depths of his soul and will; and “moderation” could not but fill him in that presence.
Christian teacher, Christian worker, Christian partner, parent, student, servant, whosoever you are – “see that you abound in this grace also.” Forget it, and there will be a flaw running across your life and work for your beloved Lord. Remember it, in remembering Him, and you shall glorify Him indeed, and “sow the fruit of righteousness in peace.” So say I to you, so most of all say I to myself, in the name of Jesus Christ.
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