ROMANS XII. I 217
The reason why we should glorify God in our bodies is that we were bought with a price. " Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you ? " What a marvellous thought, that God is living in the world to-day in the bodies of Christians ! But of all passages there is none more striking than our text. St. Paul has been devoting eleven chapters to the ex- position of the story of the sin of man, the atonement of Christ, and all the blessings that follow. These eleven chapters are perhaps the noblest theological argument ever written. He then sums them all up, coming out of theory into practice, by saying, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present," not, as we should probably have expected, " your souls," or " your intellects," but " your bodies a living sacrifice."
^ In 1899 a very important addition was made to our store of early liturgical documents by the publication of the Sacra- mentary of Bishop Serapion, which dates from 350 A.D. The work consists of thirty prayers such as a Bishop would be likely to use. Of these the first six and the last twelve have to do with the celebration of the Eucharist; the remainder relate to Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, and Burial. "Life is a remarkable note of the collection," and it is life in the fullest sense of the word. In the opening Offertory prayer we find the words, " We beseech thee, make us living men." At the invocation of the Word upon the elements, " Make all who communicate to receive a medicine of life for the healing of any sickness." In "the prayer for those who have suffered," "Grant health and soundness, and cheerfulness and all advancement of soul and body." And in the final Benediction, "Let the communion of the Body and Blood go with this people. Let their bodies be living bodies, and their souls be clean souls." Provision is also made for special prayer for the sick, and for the blessing of oils and waters for their benefit, and in these connexions we find Buch expressions as the following : " Be propitious, Master ; assist and heal all that are sick. Eebuke the sicknesses." "Grant them to be counted worthy of health." "Make them to have perfect health of body and soul." "Grant healing power upon these creatures that every power and every evil spirit and every sickness may depart." It need scarcely be said that all these references to bodily wants are set in a context which is marked by the simplest and most ardent spiritual devotion. The physical is never allowed to usurp the first place. But it is never forgotten. The early Christians believed that the Life which was offered to
2i8 THE BODY FOR GOD
them in fellowship with their Lord was to extend to every part of their constitution, to " spirit and soul and body." ^
Let us not always say,
"Spite of this flesh to-day, I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole."
As the bird wings and sings,
Let us cry, "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul." ^
2. What, now, is to be the manner of the offering ? The name that used to be applied to the burnt-offering was a very significant one. It meant the thing that went up — " that which ascends " ; it never came down. So our offering is to be offered to God, and never taken back. This is brought out by the word used for "present." It really means that the thing is to be done once for all.
(1) To "present" or to "yield" is to cease to resist. That there may be a resistance, even in those who have been quickened by the Spirit, to the will of God, no believer who knows anything of his own heart can deny. This resistance is one of the main hindrances to the exercise of faith. It was so with Jacob at Peniel. " And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." This passage in Jacob's history has a parallel in the life of many a child of God. How many can trace a similar crisis in God's dealings with them !
^ It is the law in public and political life. A man entering the President's cabinet, as a secretary of some department, sur- renders any divergent views he may have to those of his chief. With the largest freedom of thought that must always be where there are strong men, there must of necessity be one dominant will if the administration is to be a powerful one. It is the law of commercial life. The man entering the employ of a bank, a manufacturing concern, a corporation of any sort, in whatever capacity, enters to do the will of somebody else. Always there must be one dominant will if there is to be power and success.'
(2) But yielding means also ceasing to withhold. " My son, give me thine heart." In other words, let God have full possession, not only of the spirit and the soul, but of all your physical powers. Yield every member up to Him.