* Delavan L. Pierson, Arthur T. Pier$cn, 87.
3i6 THE APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION
It is in " the grace that is in Christ Jesus " that we find our strength, and we are assured of its sufficiency for endurance as well as for service, " My grace is sufficient for thee." We are commanded to " grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." These passages all speak of the Divine influence in the soul as the operation of grace, and regard that which has its source in the grace of God as the working power of salvation. Grace pardons the guilty, restores the fallen, delivers the captive, sanctifies the sinner, sustains and perfects the believer. )
Lord, with what courage and delight
I doe each thing,
When Thy least breath sustaines my wing!
I shine and move
Like those above,
And with much gladnesse
Quitting sadnesse,
Make me faire days of every night.^
3. Finally, grace is always associated with our Lord Jesus Christ. For it comes to us only "by Jesus Christ," being manifested in His work for us and then in His treatment of us. Grace — seen in that unspeakable renunciation when He laid aside all that was to be prized, and esteemed it but as something to be surrendered for man's redemption. Grace — seen in His descent, in His life, in His teaching, and in His death. Grace — singing its sweetest strain in the words, " Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Grace — abounding where sin abounded, and seen at its loveliest in His treatment of poor sinners. " By grace ye are saved." But not only does the Apostle pray that such experience of grace might be theirs and ours; there is deeper depth in his desire than that. These words make clear the fact that we may know not only the grace which came by Jesus Christ, but the very "grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." This is not only the grace which imputes His righteousness to us, so that we stand uncondemned before a holy God, but the grace which imparts His very life, so that we walk undefiled before an unholy world. The salvation of God is not merely human life carried up to the highest possible height of development; it is
* Henry Vaughan.
2 COR. xm. 14 317
rather the Divine life carried down to the lowest possible level of condescension. For He Himself who is all grace dwells with him that is of a humble and contrite spirit. "May this wonderful grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, sufficient for every need, be with you," prays the Apostle, " and may it lead you into a knowledge of the love of God."
^ It was at this convention at Indianapolis that he uttered those pithy sayings : " The law says, Do, grace says, Done ; the law says, Do and live, grace says, Live and do ; the Gospel says to the sinner. Gome, it says to the Christian, Go." These sayings soon found an echo in every Association hall in the land. They could readily be expanded into volumes; and they formed a large part of the basis of what in after years was Mr. Moody's working theology.^
Had I the grace to win the grace Of some old man in lore complete,
My face would worship at his face, And I sit lowly at his feet.
Had I the grace to win the grace
Of childhood, loving, shy, apart. The child should find a nearer place,
And teach me resting on my heart.
Had I the grace to win the grace
Of maiden living all above. My soul would trample down the base.
That she might have a man to love.
A grace I had no grace to win
Knocks now at my half open door:
Ah, Lord of glory, come thou in! — Thy grace divine is all, and more.*
IL
The Love of God.
1. However wide the scope of the grace of Christ, and however precious the blessings which it comprehends, the Apostle,
1 W. R. Moody, The Life of Dwight L. Moody, 407.
* G«orge MacDonald, Organ Songs {Poetical Works, i, 312).
3x8 THE APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION
as we see, does not rest in this alone, but proceeds from it to the love of God. And indeed this is, doctrinally and practically, the constant issue of the grace of Christ — it leads on to the love of the Father. There is an erroneous tendency in some men's minds to go no further in their thoughts of salvation than the person of Christ and the grace of Christ. All but this is to them vague and, one might say, almost unreal. But such views are not only defective, and dangerously so ; they are also necessarily erroneous. Neither Christ's Person nor His grace can be understood aright unless He be viewed as sent by the Father, and as the way to the Father. Accordingly, in the text the Apostle immediately reaches out from the grace of Christ to the love of God.
^ The first clause of the Lord's Prayer, of course rightly explained, gives us the ground of what is surely a mighty part of the Gospel — its " first and great commandment," namely, that we have a Father whom we caii love, and are required to love, and to desire to be with Him in Heaven, wherever that may be. And to declare that we have such a loving Father, whose mercy is over all His works, and whose will and law is so lovely and lovable that it is sweeter than honey, and more precious than gold, to those who can " taste " and " see " that the Lord is Good — this, surely, is a most pleasant and glorious good message and spell to bring to men. Supposing this first article of the true Gospel agreed to, how would the blessing that closes the epistles of that Gospel become intelligible and living, instead of dark and dead: "The grace of Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost," the most tender word being that used of the Father ! ^