It is as the leaven silently and gradually leavens the whole lump that the continual sight of a Saviour affects the entire
* Chu and Lo, Two Chinese Pastors.
» Edith H. Divall, A Believer's Best, 74.
2 COR. III. 1 8 99
character. Sanctification is a gradual work: it is going on all through life : it is not done, at least ordinarily, by great leaps ; — as it is insensibly that the character deteriorates in bad company ; as it is by imperceptible degrees that the strength is diminished in a relaxing climate or increased in a bracing one ; so it is by a process insensible but sure that always looking at our Saviour makes us grow like Him.
It is just the things which make the greatest change on us that work most imperceptibly. What a difference between the frail old man on the verge of the grave and the rosy little boy he used to be ! And yet, though advancing hours made the difference, who could trace the change each hour made ? And the influences which affect our character most are those which sink in, not those which come with a sudden shock.
^ The Associate Presbytery, in the middle of the eighteenth century, appointed the Eev. Ebenezer and Ealph Erskine, and James Fisher to draw up a commentary on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the explanations being in the form of questions and answers. A few of these may be quoted : —
" Why are the saints said to be built up in holiness ? — Because the work of sanctification, like a building, is gradually carried on towards perfection at death.
" How doth the Spirit make the reading and preaching of the word an effectual means of building up the saints in holiness ? — By giving them in the glass of the word such clear and repeated discoveries of the glory of Christ, as thereby they are more and more transformed into the same image with Him.
" How doth He by means of these ordinances build them up in comfort ? — By conveying with power unto their souls the great and precious promises which contain all the grounds of real and lasting comfort.
" Through what instrument is it that the Spirit makes these means effectual for building up the saints in holiness and comfort ? — It is through faith.
" What instrumentality has faith, in the hands of the Spirit, for building up the saints in holiness and comfort ? — It rests upon God's faithful word for the promoting of both — 'The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.' " ^
3. The transformation is not accomplished by beholding, but while we behold ; it does not depend on the vividness with which
^ D. C. A. Agnew.
loo TRANSFORMED BY BEHOLDING
we can imagine the past, but on the present power of Christ working in us. We are transformed " even as from (or by) the Lord the Spirit." The result is such as befits the operation of such a power. We are changed into the image of Him from whom it proceeds.
Left to ourselves, we might look at Christ for ever, yet never come to resemble Him at all. And we might even sincerely admire His character as a matter of sentiment without being drawn to imitate it. If we want to find perhaps the most eloquent panegyric that ever was spoken by uninspired lips upon the moral loveliness of our Saviour's character, we may find it in the writings of an avowed infidel, who utterly rejected Him. The sight of Christ draws all its efficacy to affect the character from the working of the Holy Ghost. He is the Sanctifier ; the means of grace and holiness are nothing without Him. Where His presence was wanting, men have listened week by week to the faithful preaching of the Word; have read the Bible till every word of it was familiar ; have seen, as far as the natural man can see, the glory of God made manifest in the Saviour ; and the natural tear has sometimes started at the thought of Him who is fairer than the sons of men, and altogether lovely ; but in a little time the impression wore away, and left the heart less likely to be im- pressed again. And it will be just so with us, unless we pray daily and earnestly for the presence in our hearts of the great Sanctifier, Enlightener, and Comforter.
Set even the life of Christ Himself in all its beauty before you as a monument of perfection erected in a distant past, and, while it may touch you with a moral suasion which is all its own, it will leave you still unlike it, battling with a weary sense of inability to do more than struggle to conform to what it was. But once realize that the " image " of Jesus is a personal life which may permeate your being with its present power, and the Spirit of Jesus will " quicken your mortal body," that you also may " walk in newness of life." John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist, has given memorable expression to this truth in these words : " God has provided the truth of Divine revelation. But besides this outward revelation, there is also an inward impression of it, which is in a more special manner attributed to God. God alone can so shine upon our glossy understandings as to beget in them