TJ We can be only in the present, but not in the present without a past, nor in the present without a future. We need a present stretching from an eternal past to an eternal future. In Jehovah alone is such a past, present, and future found (Ps. xc. 1, 2). Jehovah hath created the heavens and the earth. We are here, and here as an integral part of them. " Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion : bless the Lord, 0 my soul." We are connected in that verse with all places of His dominion — everything, everywhere, my soul. Yet the foundations of our being, of our eternity, are in God — our possibility in His omnipotence— our futurition in the purpose of His will, as our actuality in our generic creation, and our individuality from Him who calls the generations from the beginning. So of men — so of our salvation, omnipotence, purpose, creation in Christ. There's something there that 111 no' spin out ; it could be spun out into a long thread.1
2. " Things to come" — The dim, vague future shall be for each of us like some sunlit ocean stretching shoreless to the horizon ; every little ripple flashing with its own bright sunshine, and all bearing us onwards to the great Throne that stands on the sea of glass mingled with fire.
(1) All the future that hope anticipates or fear apprehends
1 J. Walker of Carnwath, Essays, Sermons, and Memoir, 818. 3 " Rabbi " Duncan, in Memoir of John Duncan, 498.
i CORINTHIANS in. 21-23 135
is ours, and we can safely leave it with Him. We are like a cathedral that has been building through ages ; the scaffolding is round about it, obscuring its beauty and symmetry, but essential to the erection of the towering spires. But, when the whole thing is completed, the scaffolding will be torn down and burnt up, and the grand building will appear in perfection.
(2) The Hebrew youth who, eager and buoyant, full of joyous young life and aspiration, left his father's home to seek his brethren in the distant pasture-lands, had no dream of " things to come " for him — no dream of his sale as a bondsman, of his exile, of Potiphar's house, of the false accusation, of the fetters and the dungeon, of the hope deferred and the sudden release, of the unexpected exaltation, of the reunion to his family in circum- stances baffling all human calculation, and fraught with a history so grand, with an influence stretching down through all time and abroad over all lands. Not in his wildest imaginings did that future of wonders ever open up before him. But as you see the roll of his destiny unwind, as event follows event in the marvellous career, you recognize how truly all that came to him was his, and for his sake — chastening, sifting, humbling, purifying, preparing him alike for an earthly or a heavenly future. So is it for us all, if we are truly of the seed of Jacob.
^J To-morrow is the Gorgon ; a man must only see it mirrored in the shining shield of yesterday. If he sees it directly he is turned to stone. This has been the fate of all those who have really seen fate and futurity as clear and inevitable. The Calvinists, with their perfect creed of predestination, were turned to stone; the modern sociological scientists (with their excruciating Eugenics) are turned to stone. The only difference is that the Puritans make dignified, and the Eugenists somewhat amusing, statues.1
T| The man who believes in God and in His loving providence need not darken his days by fretful cares and dread of evil to come. Believing in God's purpose of love with him, he knows that the future cannot bring anything contrary to that. If there are any trials and sorrows in that time to come, he knows that the Father's grace is sufficient for him through them all. If there are temptations, he knows he will not be tempted above what he can bear. His times are in God's hands. If his days are to be long, the more time to worship and to witness. If they
1 Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World.
136 YET POSSESSING ALL THINGS
are to be few, the greater need to redeem the time now. If they are to" be lived through much tribulation with darkness and storm, with a long stretch through the valley of the shadow, the Shepherd of his soul is ever with him. He will ask to see the heart of good in every evil that touches his life, the joy that slumbers in every pain, and in the hour of the final passion will commit his soul to God.1
■fl " Why wilt thou be concerned beyond to-day," asks Luther, " and take upon thyself the misfortunes of two days ? " Put thus, with Luther's sanctified common sense, it is foolish from any point of view, but it is more than foolish from the point of view of faith.*
II.
Ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
All things are yours, says St. Paul — with one exception. That exception is a very startling one. All things are ours — but ourselves ! That is really what the Apostle means when he says, " All are yours, and ye are Christ's." And in this matter we are in precisely the same position as the Lord Jesus Christ. While all things are His, He is not His own any more than we are. " All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." There is no one in this universe his own but God the Father. He is the only absolute Being ; all the rest of us belong to some one else. Christ is God's and we are Christ's. Christ belongs to God by right of generation. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." We belong to Christ by right of purchase. " Ye are not your own ; for ye were bought with a price."