^ If you plant a rose tree in the shadow of an oleander, the rose tree will die and the oleander will flourish and fatten on its life. The weak succumbs to the strong. The grip of the strangler is upon all feeble plants in field and forest. The same holds true of animal life. Wolves rend in pieces a wounded member of their pack. The lion devours the lamb, and grows stronger by absorbing the strength of the vanquished.
^ The same law holds good in politics as in nature. The Survival of the Fittest has ever been the determining factor in international affairs. The weaker nations have gone down, one by one, devoured by the strong, until in our time there is a concentration of authority in a voracious group known as The Great Powers. War is the process by which their supremacy has been accomplished and is being kept up. " War is heU," said General Sherman ; but what of that ? The monopoly must be maintained. Will you appeal to arbitration ? Arbitration will
ROMANS — 30
466 THE PRIVILEGE OF THE STRONG
work only when war is inexpedient ; that is, when both parties to the controversy are afraid to fight.^
2. In Christ's Kingdom the law is changed. It is no longer the Survival of the Fittest. It is the Survival of the Unfit. This change was not accomplished easily. It came only through pain, Christ Himself had to come into the world as God's protest against the Survival of the Fittest. He, the Fittest, had to die, in order that the unfit might survive. It was for this that He came into the world. It was for this that He emptied Himself of heaven's wealth, that we, through His poverty, might be made rich. It was for this that He climbed up Calvary with our sins upon His breaking heart. " Come down from the cross," they cried, " if thou be the Son of God." It was because He was the Son of God that He could not come down. As the Strong, He must die for the weak. Of all in earth and heaven He was the Fittest; and through His self-denial the unfit must live.
3. Having laid, in His own blood, the foundations of a new dispensation of universal love and helpfulness, Christ sent forth a summons to all like-minded with Himself. Follow me, in the setting up of a kingdom of love in the world — a kingdom in which every man shall minister to the weaker man, in which ye shall find life by losing it and serve God in caring for your fellows.
Our Lord served other people to the point of physical weakness and exhaustion, and even unto death. Our service too frequently ends where blood-letting begins. We stop short of the promise of fertility. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Yes, and the blood of the servant fertilizes the field of his service. " Ye have not yet resisted unto blood ! " And it is just at that point of resistance that we begin to win. It is just when our service becomes costly that it begins to pay. Life becomes contagious when it becomes sacrificial. Our work begins to tell when the workman is content to suffer, when he persists even unto blood. But is it not true that for many of us our service ends just when we reach the bitter cup ? " Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink ? " No, we arq
^ D. J. Burrell,
ROMANS XV. I 467
not able, and when our service becomes bitter we give it up. " From that time " — Calvary in sight — " many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."
^ We may have " all things in common " with Christ ; nay, it is the high sign and seal of fellowship that we do sit with Him at the common board. But here is our frequent mistake, that we regard that table as laden only with welcome provisions, and even with delicate and dainty luxuries. On that table there is the provision of peace, and the provision of joy, and the provision of glory ! And over all the table, from end to end of it, there is the soft and healing light of grace. That is how we think of the table, and, blessed be God ! all these rare provisions are surely to be found at the feast, and we may have all these things " in common " with the Lord. But there is also another cup upon the table, a cup that is very near the Master's hand, a cup which we very frequently forget or ignore. It is a bitter cup, the cup of the Lord's sufferings.
" Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink ? " Are we prepared to have " all things in common " ? We drink the cup of kindness, the overflowing cup of redeeming grace. " Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink ? " Now, it was upon that cup that the aged Apostle fixed his covetous eyes, that cup that was nearest his Saviour's hand, the cup of bitterness and woe. " I have tasted," I think I hear him say, " I have tasted and seen how gracious He is ; I have drunk the cup of His salvation, but I thirst for a deeper communion still; not only the sweet and palatable cup, but that dark and bitter cup would I taste ; that cup whose contents are as blood. I would have ' all things in common.' " ^