^ At the foot of the Capitoline Hill the ancient triumph divided. Some of the captives were led off to the dark precincts of the Tullianum, where they were put to death. Others were reserved to live. The same fragrance was associated with the perishing on the one hand and the saved on the other. Thus it is in all gospel preaching and holy living. The sun that melts wax hardens clay ; the light that bleaches linen tans the hands which expose it ; the cloud is the light to Israel, and darkness to Egypt. Those who have life are helped to intenser life, and those who lack it are only driven to further excesses of sin. To one we are the savour of life unto life, to the other of death unto death.^
2. The message, which is the sweet perfume of Christ to both classes, becomes in the one case life tending unto life, and in the other death tending unto death. That is to say, things are to us what we are to them. Opposite effects follow the same cause. The gospel that blesses some condemns others. The gospel has this peculiarity — that it touches the deepest point in our nature, and affects our character more profoundly than anything else can. It does not deal with passing phases of our life merely, or with the accidents of our environment : it bears directly upon our eternal welfare. It speaks with a clear, authoritative voice,
^ F. B. Meyer, Paul, 78.
2 COR. II. 14-16 59
resolving its whole message into one supreme ofifer whose terms can hardly be misunderstood. And as every truth carries with it a certain authority just because it is truth; and the authority becomes more distinct the higher the truth is ; so in the gospel — which is the highest truth of all, corresponding most entirely to the sum of human needs, and thus attesting the oneness of its origin with that of the humanity which it has come to redeem — so in the gospel, there is felt to be an authority, unique of its kind, and its rejection is marked with the deepest dye of guilt.
(1) "To the one we are the savour of life unto life." The ministry of the grace of God in Christ is the breathing forth of a spiritual essence fragrant with life. It has the power of life, of the sweetness of life, of the joy of life, of the beauty of life. As ministers of " the Word of the truth of the Gospel," " as truth is in Jesus," we are sowers of living seed which grows from life to life; from life quickened to life raised up; from life liberating itself from the bondage of death, cleansing itself and putting on its beautiful garments — as summer life frees itself from its winter imprisonment — to life free, fully clothed, putting forth its blossoms and breathing out fragrance; from life weighted and restricted by its " foundations in the dust " to life which has put off all weight, free to rise in its own living vessel, and that vessel eternal in the heavens — from life to life, life natural to life spiritual.
The gospel is a perfume tending unto life, because its success- ful progress tends to the strengthening and developing and enlarging of the Christian life — " that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Conversion is a daily, hourly thing. It is the " continuous revelation of sin met by the continuous revelation of Christ." Is not this the deep pathos of life, that within each of us is going on direst contest between the sin-principle and the Christ-principle ? Thus it is that Christ for us is " life unto life." The more life, the more it creates. The more of Christ, the more of life ; the more of life, the more of love.
I will go to that fair Life, the flower of lives; I will prove the infinite pity and love which shine From each recorded word of Him who once Was human, yet Divine.
6o THE TRIUMPH OF THE VANQUISHED
Oh, pure sweet life, crowned by a godlike death ; Oh, tender healing hand; oh, words that give Rest to the weary, solace to the sad, And bid the hopeless live!
Oh, pity, spurning not the penitent thief; Oh, wisdom stooping to the little child ; Oh, infinite purity, taking thought for lives By sinful stains defiled!^
(2) " To the other the savour of death unto death." St. Paul felt acutely that he could not be the minister of the word of life to men without increasing their responsibility and aggravating the condemnation of those who rejected it, who, comparatively, might have had no sin if this light of life had not shone upon them, but who now would have no cloak for their sin. For, in proportion to its quickening power of life in those who receive it, does it work death in those who refuse to accept it. Just as the balmy, life-giving breezes of spring bring life to the constitution- ally sound, but death to those radically diseased, so is it with the gospel. To some it is life to hear it, to others death ; to the one the sweet breath of life, to the other the odour of death — " of death unto death," the death of indifference unto the death of obduracy ; the death of hopelessness unto the death of despair.