n6 YET POSSESSING ALL THINGS
great manufactory, and has noted five or six great articles that one shelf contains, but, as he sees the vast accumulation of goods before him, gives up in despair in the effort to complete his work — St. Paul returns to the original sentence with which he began : " All things are yours."
What does this statement of the Apostle mean ?
1. It is worth our while first to recall something of what it does not mean. It does not mean licence, the parody and libel of liberty. It does not mean selfishness, the mind which grasps or which withholds at the dictate of self-will; this is not possession, but theft ; this in its effect is nothing but the hard bondage and poverty of the being. It does not mean the faintest shadow of a slur over moral distinctions — the bad dream that you can be so spiritual as to be, even for one fraction of a moment, emancipated from conscience ; the lying whisper that you shall not surely die of permitted sin, because Christ died for you.
2. It does not mean a relaxation of the Divine rule of self- sacrifice. It is not spoken in order to throw the halo of the Gospel over a life which, professing godliness, is yet secretly, perhaps almost unconsciously, making itself as comfortable as possible for its own sake. It is not spoken to help us to minimize the call to bear the cross, and to serve the Lord in others, while we multiply and magnify excuses for indulgences and enjoyments which, however cultivated and refined, terminate in ourselves. The words are not given us to insinuate that, if we will but say " Lord, Lord," with a certain fervour, we may live as those who think that a man's " life " does " consist in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."
3. But then, most certainly, the words have a meaning, positive and beautiful — " All things are yours." They are spoken indeed to those, and to those only, who are not their own but their Lord's possession; but they do not merely restate that side of truth. They give its contrast and its complement; they turn the shield quite round, to show its other face — and it is another. " You are not your own " ; be sure of that, it is an immovable fact. " All things are yours " ; be sure of that also ; it is meant to carry to you a magnificent message, affirmative, distinctive,
i CORINTHIANS in. 21-23 117
altogether its own. Now as then, now and for ever, the man who belongs to Christ in truth is " a child of God." And his Father will do anything for him. Nothing of his Father's resources shall be grudged to him. Wisdom and love may, and will, sort and sift, and in that sense limit, the things which shall be put actually into the child's hands. But the whole wealth of the great home is his, in the sense that he is the child for whom anything shall be done, on whom no resources are too great to spend. His utmost good is watched for, always and everywhere. His Father delights exceedingly to meet his wishes, and limits the meeting of them only by the interests of the child; and He has made those interests identical with His own.
If Adolphe Monod, great saint, great teacher, great sufferer, lying on a premature couch of anguish and death at Paris, collected in his bedchamber, Sunday by Sunday, a little con- gregation of friends ; Guizot was sometimes of the number. There he addressed them, like Standfast in the Pilgrim's Progress, as from the very waters of the last river, speaking always on his life-long theme, Jesus Christ. The pathetic series of these Adieux a ses Amis et & VEglise was gathered after his death into a volume. Late in its pages comes a discourse with the title ' All in Jesus Christ.' From this let me quote a few sentences: "Be it wisdom, be it light, be it power, be it victory over sin, be it a matter of this world, or of the world to come, all is in Christ. Having Christ, we have all things; bereft of Christ, we have absolutely nothing. All things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Well, then, what is the result for me ? I am poor, it may be. Yet all the fortunes of this world are mine ; for they are Christ's, who Himself is God's, and who could easily give them all to me, with Himself, if they would serve my interests. The whole world, with all its glories, with all its power, belongs to me ; for it belongs to my Father, who will give it me to-morrow, and could give it me to-day, if that were good for me. I am very ill, it may be. Yet health is mine, strength is mine, comfort is mine, a perfect enjoyment of all the blessings of life is mine ; for all this belongs to Christ, who belongs to God, and who disposes of it as He will. If He withholds these things from me to-day, for a fleeting moment, swift as the shuttle in the loom, it is for reasons wholly of His own; it is because these pains and this bitterness conceal a benediction worth more to me than the health so precious, than the comfort so delightful. ... I challenge you to find a thing of which I cannot say : This is my Father's ; therefore it is mine ; if He withholds it to-day, He will