Like the winds of the sea are the waves of fate, As we voyage along through life;
'Tis the set of the soul which decides the goal, And not the calm or the strife.
II.
The Consecration.
'* I beseech you therefore, brethren, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God."
It is not often that the idea of sacrifice is associated with th« thought of mercy. We commonly view it as one of the obstacles to our belief in God's mercy. In all religions but one, men sacrifice to God when they think His mercy turned away ; they sacrifice to avert His anger, to restore His smile. But there is one religion which inverts the order — the religion of Christ. All other faiths say, "Sacrifice that ye may win God's favour"; Christianity says, " Win God's favour that ye may sacrifice." All other faiths make sacrifice the root ; Christianity makes sacrifice the flower.
It is the sacrifice of the body that St. Paul calls for. Let us look first at sacrifice, and secondly at the sacrifice of the body.
i. Sacrifice.
1. " Making sacrifices." — We often speak of making sacrifices for Christ. That expression is not in the Bible. On the contrary, it rather runs against the true view of the subject — for it seems to limit sacrifice to particular acts, whereas the whole life is the sacrifice.
^ Was there ever a time when there were so many home-made Christians as there are to-day, man-made, church-made Christians ? Who does not know the recipe ? Tie up the hands and say : " Sir, you must not do that." Tie up the feet and say : " You must not go to such and such places — at least, when you are at home." Gag the mouth, blind the eyes, stop the ears, and there is your
ROMANS XII. I 209
Christian : a creature with his heart hungering for the world as fiercely as ever, and whose only evidence of any earnestness is in a constant discussion as to whether there is any harm in a score of questionable or unquestionable things that he desires, and in the sincerity of his complaint that they are forbidden.^
^ Dr. Stewart of Lovedale, his biographer tells us, could not endure the idea that missionaries were to be pitied for the sacrifices they made. A member of his staff says : " One incident will live in my memory for all time. It occurred in the course of a brief address he gave once at the weekly staff prayer-meeting in the large hall at Lovedale. Something that he had heard or read moved him to speak of the so-called sacrifices which men made when entering the mission-field. He flamed up at the idea, and spoke with a burning torrent of words which showed us — just for the moment — the liquid fires of devotion which he hid behind his reserve. As I write I can see, as though it were yesterday, that tall form swaying with noble passion: Sacrifice! What man or woman could speak of sacrifice in the face of Calvary? What happiness or ambition or refinement had any one 'given up ' in the service of humanity to compare with the great sacrifice of Him who 'emptied himself and . . . took upon himself the form of a servant ' ? It made some of us feel rather ashamed of our heroics, for we knew that if ever a man since Livingstone had a right to speak like that it was Dr. Stewart." ^
^ Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter ? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought ! it is em- phatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a forgoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.^
^ People who make real sacrifices are never able to calculate self -complacently the good the said sacrifices are doing them ; just as people who really grieve are unable at the time to philosophize about the good effects of grief.*
2. True sacrifice. — Have you ever seen a forester cutting down a great tree ? It falls to earth, never to rise again ; there will be
* M. G. Pearse. ^ Stewart of Lovedale, 176.
* David Livingstone. * F. "W. Robertson, Life and Letters, 435. ROMANS — 14
210 THE BODY FOR GOD
no more shade or beauty, no more glory of summer green or autumn gold. Is the tree wasted ? No, it is sacrificed. One day a brave ship sails the seas; to build it the tree was sacrificed. One day God's church rises towards heaven; to form the roof the tree was sacrificed. Have you ever seen men quarrying stone ? It is torn out of the quarry, and split and shattered, and carved and cut, and chiselled and hammered ; one day we see the walls of a stately cathedral, and there is the stone which was sacrificed. You watch a sculptor carving the marble ; the white fragments fall thickly, the marble wastes, but the beautiful image grows ; it is not waste, but sacrifice. Was Mary's ointment wasted ? No, the world has been sweeter for it ever since. Was Gordon's life wasted when he died at Khartoum, or Nelson's when he fell at Trafalgar? Many a devoted missionary, many brave men and delicate women have died of fever and savage torture, and the world says, To what purpose was this waste? But thelfs was a sacrifice to win souls. To some people the crucifixion of our Master seems a waste of life ; to the Church it is the great sacrifice, which taketh away the sins of the world. " He that loseth his life shall find it."