PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 240,917 words · 342 reading sections
Strengthened With Might
That indwelling Spirit will be a power for suffering. The parallel passage to this in the twin epistle to the Colossians is--'strengthened with all might unto all patience and long-suffering with gentleness.' Ah, brethren! unless this Divine Spirit were a power for patience and endurance it were no power suited to us p…
725 wordsSECTION 62Strengthened With Might
So it is with us and God. He lets us come into the vaults, as it were, where in piles and masses the ingots of uncoined and uncounted gold are stored and stacked; and He says, 'Take as much as you like to carry.' There is no limit except the riches of His glory. And now, dear friends, remember that this great gift, of…
493 wordsSECTION 63The Indwelling Christ
'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; ye being rooted and grounded in love.'--Eph. iii. 17. We have here the second step of the great staircase by which Paul's fervent desires for his Ephesian friends climbed towards that wonderful summit of his prayers--which is ever approached, never reached,--'that ye mi…
710 wordsSECTION 64The Indwelling Christ
I think that Christian people as a rule do far too little turn their attention to this aspect of the Gospel teaching, and concentrate their thoughts far too much upon that which is unspeakably precious in itself, but does not exhaust all that Christ is to us, viz. the work that He wrought for us upon Calvary; or to tak…
716 wordsSECTION 65The Indwelling Christ
And then the last thought connected with this first part of my subject is that the heart, strengthened by the Spirit, is fitted to be the Temple of the indwelling Christ. How shall we prepare the chamber for such a guest? How shall some poor occupant of some wretched hut by the wayside fit it up for the abode of a prin…
739 wordsSECTION 66The Indwelling Christ
But do not forget that the faith which brings Christ into the spirit must be a faith which works by love, if it is to keep Christ in the spirit. You cannot bring that Lord into your hearts by anything that you do. The man who cleanses his own soul by his own strength, and so expects to draw God into it, has made the mi…
651 wordsSECTION 67Love Unknowable And Known
For, remember that, deepest of all, the words of my text may mean that the Incarnate Personal Love becomes the very soil in which my life is set and blossoms, on which my life is founded. 'Thou, my Life, O let me be Rooted, grafted, built in Thee.' Christ is Love, and Love is Christ. He that is rooted and grounded i…
683 wordsSECTION 68Love Unknowable And Known
There is a knowledge with which love has nothing to do, and it is a knowledge that for many people is quite sufficient. 'Knowledge puffeth up,' says the Apostle; into an unwholesome bubble of self-complacency that will one day be pricked and disappear, but 'love buildeth up'--a steadfast, slowly-rising, solid fabric. T…
864 wordsSECTION 69Love Unknowable And Known
Then notice that there is also here another condition for this deep and blessed knowledge laid down in these words, 'That ye may be able to comprehend _with all saints_.' That is to say, our knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ depends largely on our sanctity. If we are pure we shall know. If we were wholly devoted to…
805 wordsSECTION 70Love Unknowable And Known
And that is so, not because Christianity, being a foolish system, can only address itself to fools; not because Christianity, contradicting wisdom, cannot expect to be received by the wise and the cultured, but because a man's brains have as little to do with his trustful acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a m…
695 wordsSECTION 71Love Unknowable And Known
We have no measure by which we can translate into the terms of our experience, and so bring within the grasp of our minds, what was the depth of the step, which Christ took at the impulse of His love, from the Throne to the Cross. We know not what He forewent; we know not, nor ever shall know, what depths of darkness a…
614 wordsSECTION 72The Paradox Of Love'S Measure
'The breadth, and length, and depth, and height.'--Eph. iii. 18. Of what? There can, I think, be no doubt as to the answer. The next clause is evidently the continuation of the idea begun in that of our text, and it runs: 'And to know the _love of Christ_ which passeth knowledge.' It is the immeasurable measure, then;…
667 wordsSECTION 73The Paradox Of Love'S Measure
This broad love, universal as humanity, and deep as it is broad, is universal because it is individual. You and I have to generalise, as we say, when we try to extend our affections beyond the limits of household and family and personal friends, and the generalising is a sign of weakness and limitation. Nobody can love…
750 wordsSECTION 74The Paradox Of Love'S Measure
There is another measure of the length of the love of Christ. 'Master! How often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?--I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven.' So said the Christ, multiplying perfection into itself twice--two sevens and a ten--in order to express the idea of…
812 wordsSECTION 75The Paradox Of Love'S Measure
'O love! thou bottomless abyss, My sins are swallowed up in thee.' 'I will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.' The depths of Christ's love go down beneath all human necessity, sorrow, suffering, and sin. IV. And lastly, what is the height of the love of Christ? We found that the way to measure the dept…
599 wordsSECTION 76The Climax Of All Prayer
'That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.'--Eph. iii. 19. The Apostle's many-linked prayer, which we have been considering in successive sermons, has reached its height. It soars to the very Throne of God. There can be nothing above or beyond this wonderful petition. Rather, it might seem as if it were to…
657 wordsSECTION 77The Climax Of All Prayer
For, to quote other words of another of the New Testament teachers, 'Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace,' and to quote words in another part of the same epistle, we may 'all come to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.' High above us, then, and inaccessible though…
672 wordsSECTION 78The Climax Of All Prayer
Well, that is a verbal puzzle, and I answer, yes! The finite can contain the Infinite, if you are talking about two hearts that love, one of them God's and one of them mine. We have got to keep very clear and distinct before our minds the broad, firm line of demarcation between the creature and the Creator, or else we …
828 wordsSECTION 79The Climax Of All Prayer
So, dear brethren, take you this prayer as the standard of your expectations; and oh! take it as we must all take it, as the sharpest of rebukes to our actual attainments in holiness and in likeness to our Master. Set by the side of these wondrous and solemn words--'filled with the fulness of God,' the facts of the liv…
725 wordsSECTION 80Measureless Power And Endless Glory
'Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21. Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.'--Eph. iii. 20, 21. One purpose and blessing of faithful prayer is to enlarge the desires…
784 wordsSECTION 81Measureless Power And Endless Glory
The effect must be proportioned to the cause. And what effect will be adequate as the outcome of such a cause as 'the riches of His glory'? Nothing short of absolute perfectness, the full transmutation of our dark, cold being into the reflected image of His own burning brightness, the ceaseless replenishing of our own …
657 wordsSECTION 82Measureless Power And Endless Glory
What power is that but the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in us? And thus we have the measure, or standard, set forth in terms respectively applying to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. For the first, the riches of His glory; for the second, His Resurrection and Ascension; for the third, His energy working …
808 wordsSECTION 83Measureless Power And Endless Glory
Of course, all this is true, and is meant to apply, only about the inward gifts of God's grace. I need not remind you that, in the outer world of Providence and earthly gifts, prayers and wishes often surpass the answers; that there a deeper wisdom often contradicts our thoughts and a truer kindness refuses our petitio…
681 wordsSECTION 84Measureless Power And Endless Glory
III. The glory that springs from the divine work. 'The glory of God' is the lustre of His own perfect character, the bright sum total of all the blended brilliances that compose His name. When that light is welcomed and adored by men, they are said to 'give glory to God,' and this doxology is at once a prophecy that t…
709 wordsSECTION 85Measureless Power And Endless Glory
And we can only fulfil that high purpose in the measure of our union with Christ. 'In Him' abiding, we manifest God's glory, for in Him abiding we receive God's grace. So long as we are joined to Him, we partake of His life, and our lives become music and praise. The electric current flows from Him through all souls th…
628 wordsSECTION 86The Calling And The Kingdom
'I beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.'--Eph. iv. 1. 'They shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.'--Rev. iii. 4. The estimate formed of a centurion by the elders of the Jews was, 'He is worthy for whom Thou shouldst do this' and in contrast therewith the estimate for…
707 wordsSECTION 87The Calling And The Kingdom
But in another place in this Apostle's writings we read of 'the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' Yes, there, as focussed into one strong voice, all the summonses are concentrated and gathered. For in Jesus Christ we see the possibilities of humanity realised, and we have the pattern of what we ought to be, and are…
822 wordsSECTION 88The Calling And The Kingdom
II. And now, let us turn to the other thought, the Christian heaven and the life that is worthy of it. Some of you, I have no doubt, would think that that was a tremendous heresy if there were not Scriptural words to buttress it. Let us see what it means. My text out of the Revelation says, 'They shall walk with Me in…
769 wordsSECTION 89The Calling And The Kingdom
That is plain, too, from our own nature. We carry ourselves with us wherever we go. The persistence of character, the continuity of personal being, the continuity of memory, the _unobliterable_--if I may coin a word--results upon ourselves of our actions, all these things make it certain that what looks to us a cleft, …
438 wordsSECTION 90The Threefold Unity
'One Lord, one faith, one baptism.'--Eph. iv. 5. The thought of the unity of the Church is very prominent in this epistle. It is difficult for us, amidst our present divisions, to realise how strange and wonderful it then was that a bond should have been found which drew together men of all nations, ranks, and charact…
809 wordsSECTION 91The Threefold Unity
That 'saving faith' is the same in all Christians, however different they may be in condition and character and general outlook and opinion upon many points of Christian knowledge. The things on which they differ are on the surface, and sometimes by reason of their divergencies Christians stand like frowning cliffs tha…
532 wordsSECTION 92'The Measure Of Grace'
'But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.'--Eph. iv. 7 (R.V.). The Apostle here makes a swift transition from the thought of the unity of the Church to the variety of gifts to the individual. 'Each' is contrasted with 'all.' The Father who stands in so blessed and gr…
770 wordsSECTION 93'The Measure Of Grace'
Christ is the giver. He has 'power over the Spirit of Holiness' and as the Evangelist has said in his comment on our Lord's great words, when 'He stood and cried,' 'If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink,' 'This spake He of the Spirit which they that believed on Him were to receive.' We cannot pierce into the…
720 wordsSECTION 94'The Measure Of Grace'
The gift has in itself no limit short of participation in the likeness of Christ. In another place in this letter the measure of that might which is the guarantee of Christian hope is set forth with an abundance of expression which might almost sound as an unmeaning accumulation of synonyms, as being 'according to the …
920 wordsSECTION 95'The Measure Of Grace'
Not less surely will the recognition that the form and amount of the grace of God, which is possessed by each, is determined by the faith of each, lead to tolerance of the diversity of gifts. We have received our own proper gift of God, that which the strength and purity of our faith is capable of possessing, and it is…
465 wordsSECTION 96The Goal Of Progress
'Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.'--Eph. iv. 13 (R.V.). The thought of the unity of the Church is much in the Apostle's mind in this epistle. It is set forth in many places by his t…
1,008 wordsSECTION 97The Goal Of Progress
But our text points us to another form of unity--the oneness of the knowledge of the Son of God. The Apostle uses an emphatic term which is very familiar on his lips to designate this knowledge. It means not a mere intellectual apprehension, but a profound and vital acquaintance, dependent indeed upon faith, and reali…
713 wordsSECTION 98The Goal Of Progress
But the Apostle speaks of 'a perfect man' in the singular and not of 'men' in the plural, as he has already described the result of the union of Jew and Gentile as being the making 'of twain one new man.' This remarkable expression sets forth, in the strongest terms, the vital unity which connects all members of the on…
796 wordsSECTION 99Christ Our Lesson And Our Teacher
'But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught in Him.'--Eph. iv. 20, 21. The Apostle has been describing in very severe terms the godlessness and corruption of heathenism. He reckons on the assent of the Ephesian Christians when he paints the society in which they lived as …
724 wordsSECTION 100Christ Our Lesson And Our Teacher
I have already suggested that the underlying truth which warrants the first of them is that Jesus Christ's relation to His message and revelation is altogether different from that of other teachers to what they have to communicate to the world. Of course we all know that, in regard to the wider sphere of religious and …
685 wordsSECTION 101Christ Our Lesson And Our Teacher
'If so be that ye have _heard_ Him.' As I said, these Ephesian Christians, far away in Asia Minor, with seas and years between them and the plains of Galilee and the Cross of Calvary, are yet regarded by the Apostle as having listened to Jesus Christ. We, far away down the ages, and in another corner of the world, as r…
680 wordsSECTION 102Christ Our Lesson And Our Teacher
But all that I have to say at present is that, if we would keep ourselves, by faith, by love, by meditation, by aspiration, by the submission of the will, and by practical obedience, in Jesus Christ, enclosed in Him as it were--then, and then only, should we learn His lesson, and then, and then only, should we hear Him…
813 wordsSECTION 103A Dark Picture And A Bright Hope
'That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.'--Eph. iv. 22. If a doctor knows that he can cure a disease he can afford to give full weight to its gravest symptoms. If he knows he cannot he is sorely tempted to say it is of slight importance, and…
726 wordsSECTION 104A Dark Picture And A Bright Hope
The first of the characteristics, then, of this sinful self, to which I wish to point for a moment is, that every Christless life, whatsoever the superficial differences in it, is really a life shaped according to and under the influence of _passionate desires_. You see I venture to alter one word of my text, and that …
719 wordsSECTION 105A Dark Picture And A Bright Hope
And you say, 'Well, if it is so, what harm is it? Did not God make me with these desires, and am not I meant to gratify them?' Yes, certainly. The harm of it is, first of all, this, that it is an inversion of the true order. The passionate desires about which I am speaking, be they for money, be they for fame, or be th…
782 wordsSECTION 106A Dark Picture And A Bright Hope
That just points to the truth of all such life being hollow and profitless. If regard be had to the whole scope of our nature and necessities, and to the true aim of life as deduced therefrom, nothing is more certain than that no man will get the satisfaction that his ruling passions promise him, by indulging them. It …
732 wordsSECTION 107A Dark Picture And A Bright Hope
And the truth that underlies that awful representation is the familiar one to which I have already referred in another connection, that, by the very laws of our nature, by the plain necessities of the case, all our moral qualities, be they good or bad, tend to increase by exercise. In whatever direction we move, the ra…
678 wordsSECTION 108A Dark Picture And A Bright Hope
Moralists may preach, 'Unless above himself he can erect himself, how mean a thing is man'; but all the preaching in the world is of no avail. The task is an impossibility. The stream cannot rise above its source, nor be purified in its flow if bitter waters come from the fountain. 'Who can bring a clean thing out of a…
787 wordsSECTION 109The New Man
'And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.'--Eph. iv. 24. We had occasion to remark in a former sermon that Paul regards this and the preceding clauses as the summing up of 'the truth in Jesus'; or, in other words, he considers the radical transformation and renova…
879 wordsSECTION 110The New Man
All slighter notions of the need and more superficial diagnoses of the disease lead to a treatment with palliatives which never touch the true seat of the mischief, The poison flowers may be plucked, but the roots live on. It is useless to build dykes to keep out the wild waters. Somewhere or other they will find a way…
933 wordsSECTION 111The New Man
So, then, let me pause here for a moment to urge you to take these thoughts as a very sharp and salutary test. You call yourselves Christian people. The purpose of your Christianity is your growth and perfecting in simple purity, and devotion to, and dependence on, our loving Father. Our religion is nothing unless it l…
773 wordsSECTION 112The New Man
But besides this reference to the original creation of man, there is another reason for the representation of the new nature as being a work of divine creative power. It is in order to give the most emphatic expression possible to the truth that we do not make our righteousness for ourselves, but receive it as from Him…
764 wordsSECTION 113The New Man
And one word about the manner, the effort as set forth here; twofold, as I have already pointed out--a negative and positive. We are not concerned here with the relations of these amongst themselves, but I may remark that there is no growth in holiness possible without the constant accompanying process of excision and …
767 wordsSECTION 114The New Man
So let us learn how impossible are righteousness and holiness, morality and religion in men, unless they flow from this source. It is the truth that sanctifies. It is the Spirit who wields that truth who sanctifies. It is Christ who sends the Spirit who sanctifies. But, brethren, beyond the range of this light is only …
429 wordsSECTION 115Grieving The Spirit
'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.'--Eph. iv. 30. The miracle of Christianity is the Incarnation. It is not a link in a chain, but a new beginning, the entrance into the cosmic order of a Divine Power. The sequel of Bethlehem and Calvary and Olivet is the upper room …
674 wordsSECTION 116Grieving The Spirit
Now, brethren, I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that practically the average orthodox believer believes in a duality, and not a Trinity, in the divine nature. I do not care about the scholastic words, but what I would insist upon is that the course of Christian thinking has been roughly this. First of all, i…
800 wordsSECTION 117Grieving The Spirit
Now, I pray you to think of how different that is from all other notions of inspiration that the world has ever known, and how different it is from a great many ideas that have had influence within the Christian Church. People say there are not any miracles now, and say we are worse off than when there used to be. That…
745 wordsSECTION 118Grieving The Spirit
What extinguishes it? Look at the catalogue of sins that lie side by side with this exhortation of my text! They are all small matters--bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil-speaking, malice, stealing, lying, and the like; very 'homely' transgressions, if I may so say. Yes, and if you pile enough of them upon the spa…
439 wordsSECTION 119God'S Imitators
'Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children'--Eph. v. 1. The Revised Version gives a more literal and more energetic rendering of this verse by reading, 'Be ye, therefore, _imitators_ of God, _as beloved_ children.' It is the only place in the Bible where that bold word 'imitate' is applied to the Christian re…
797 wordsSECTION 120God'S Imitators
And that is the pattern for us. That thought is not a subject to be decorated with tawdry finery of eloquence, or to be dealt with as if it were a sentimental prettiness very fit to be spoken of, but impossible to be practised. It is the duty of every Christian man and woman, and they have not done their duty unless th…
704 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.