1 R, F. Horton- » Phillips Brooka.
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and selfish and small, then, lo ! God will give you your desire, and send leanness withal into your soul. You have none of the eagerness and generosity of desire which belong to the really blessed. " Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." ^
^ The old historian, Diodorus, tells of a fire in the Pyrenees which burned off the forests and penetrated the soil until a stream of pure silver gushed forth and ran down the mountain-side. This is manifest fable. But there will be a more marvellous story to tell when the fire of God's Spirit begins to burn in the hearts of His people.2
^ A missionary explained how he came to enter the missionary field : " In coming home one night, driving across the west prairie, I saw my little boy hurrying to meet me ; the grass was high on the prairie, and suddenly he dropped out of sight. I thought he was playing, and was simply hiding from me ; but he did not appear as I expected he would. Then the thought flashed upon my mind, ' There's an old well there, and he has fallen in.' I hurried up to him, reached down into the well and hf ted him out ; and as he looked up in my face, what do you think he said ? * 0, papa, why didn't you hurry ? ' Those words never left me, they kept ringing in my ears until God put a new and deeper meaning into them, and bade me think of others who are lost, of souls without God and without hope in this world ; and the message came to me as a message from the heavenly Father : ' Go, and work in my name ' ; and then from that vast throng, a pitiful, despairing cry rolled into my soul as I accepted God's call: ' 0, why don't you hurry ? '" ^
Time greatly short, 0 time so briefly long. Yea, time sole battleground of right and wrong: Art thou a time for sport And for a song ? *
5. A Work of Patience, — "To preach the gospel to the whole creation." This is a work of patience. We need the patience which dominated the spirit of St. Paul so that he could write : " Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church " (Col. i. 24).
1 Bishop Gore. * D. J. Burrell.
* A. P. Hodgson. * Ohristina G. Rossetti.
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And we can find a still greater example of patience — the patience of Jesus, portrayed by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews : " Now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God he should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings " (Heb. ii. 8-10).
*|j When they kindle the festival lamps round the dome of St. Peter's at Eome, there is first a twinkling spot here and there, and gradually they multiply till they outline the whole in an unbroken ring of light. So " one by one " men will enter the Kingdom, till at last " every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." ^
So mine are these new fruitings rich. The simple to the common brings ; I keep the youth of souls who pitch Their joy in this old heart of things ;
Who feel the Coming young as aye, Thrice hopeful on the ground we plough; . Alive for life, awake to die; One voice to cheer the seedling Now.
Full lasting is the song, though he, The singer passes ; lasting too, For souls not lent in usury, The rapture of the forward view.^
IIL
The Scope of the Commission.
Its scope will depend upon the meaning we put into the word " gospel." " Go ye and preach the gospel."
i. The Gospel.
1. What is this " Gospel " of " Good News " which we are to preach to the whole creation ? We may find the answer in
* A. Maclaren. » George Meredith.
488 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
the word " Atonement." Tiie Atonement of Christ culminated in His Eesurrection and Ascension. The whole teaching of St. Paul turned round " Christ crucified, and the power of his resurrection." " He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things " (Eph. iv. 10). It is this "power" that is able to transform men's lives — this is the Gospel which the Church is still called upon to preach to the heathen.
2. Perhaps our age unduly magnifies — and yet is it possible to magnify ? — the love of God manifested in the great propitiation of Christ's death. We must hold both, God's righteousness — for what is God without righteousness? — and His love — for what is God without love for a world of sinners ? There is the propitiation which sets forth hope. We cannot reconcile them, we often say ; we cannot see how the same act of the Saviour can exhibit both sides of the Divine char- acter. Perhaps we cannot. St. Paul and St. John could; they could see no inconsistency. There is no opposition ; they are two sides of the same shield ; we can do without neither, we need both equally, for God must be to us the supreme name for righteousness, just as He must be the supreme name for the love without which there would have been no redemp- tion, no atonement for a lost world. We know it is some- times said that the Eastern branch of the Church dwelt rather upon the Incarnation, and the Western upon the Eedemption. But that may be pushed too far. The fact is, and we rejoice to think that it is a fact, that the whole Church, in every age, has been substantially one in the way in which it has held the central doctrine of the faith. On that doctrine there is no division ; there is perfect unity in the Church.