^ As a Methodist I have never dealt much with the favourite
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Keswick doctrine of the sinner's identification with Christ in His death and resurrection. But on Good Friday I preached upon it — " One died for all, therefore all died," etc. As I was meditating on the subject, afttr I had preached, I saw with the vividness of a lightning flash, that it was my present personal privilege to reckon myself one with Christ in His risen life. In the same moment I knew that it was real — the world, the flesh, and the devil under my feet, I could have shouted for joy. The blessed freedom and the near access to God through Christ remain with me still. I suppose that my experience was somewhat similar to that of Dr. Dale when he had as clear a perception of the truth that Christ lives. How simple is the way of faith, and how simple is faith itself ! ^
IV.
A Mission.
"That I might preach him among the Gentiles."
1. St. Paul recognized at once his obligation to be a witness for Christ. " That I might preach him." We are saved for service. Our receipts make our debt. We are not absolute owners, we are responsible trustees. " As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." The men who had learned directly of Christ never regarded their spiritual gifts save in this aspect. They never once supposed that the heavenly light had been kindled in them solely for their own glory, that the Divine treasure had been bestowed upon them simply for their own enrichment, and that for their own sakes alone they had been singled out for a benefit so vast, a mercy so wonderful, a salvation so grand and complete. How could they suppose that, unless Calvary had developed in them the Pharisee's pride or the miser's greed? How could they entertain that thought, unless they had been plunged in a blinding maelstrom of intolerable self-conceit? What had they done to deserve this signal grace and the pro- motion from rude fishermen to companionship with the King of kings? No, they knew that the Divine love which had fixed itself on them was felt as fully and as freely towards the whole
^ John Brash : Memorials a/nd Correspondence, 102.
344 THE INNER REVELATION
human race, and that the light had shone on their hearts first that through them the illumination might spread everywhere. It was not their own. It was the most sacred and responsible of trusts. It belonged to all men. To withhold it would be to rob men of what God had made their right. It would even be to deny and forfeit their own calling. " Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel." And everyone feels this who has truly under- stood and rejoiced in God's great gift. If it has not yet pene- trated and suffused the hearts of all Christians, it is because selfish human elements have counteracted the workings of the Divine, and because man's littleness has brought God's great thought down to the measure of the market and the shop.
^ What marvellous writing that of Paul is ! There is a depth of meaning in it which seems unfathomable. Oh ! for more of that man's spirit, his love, his faith, and above all his dauntless intrepidity for Christ. What a hero he was ! What a splendid specimen of humanity ! I am selfish enough to love him all the more because " his bodily presence was weak and his speech con- temptible " ; and yet no man ever did more for Christ and for Christ's world.^
^ Dr. McLaren of Manchester writing to his friend Shields to thank him for a copy of his Paul which the artist had sent to him says : " Thank you for your noble ' Paul ' (what do you call him saint for ?). I think you have never done a truer embodi- ment of a great soul. The wasted eagerness, the weakness re- inforced by supernatural strength, are magnificently rendered. I wish every lazy, smooth-haired and smooth-souled preacher had a copy of it hanging in his * study ' to flame down rebukes at him. I have had him framed to hang in mine, and you through him will spur me often." *
2. St. Paul's mission was wider than he at first dreamed. "'Among the Gentiles." Naturally his soul turned towards his own people with ardent desire. Was he not an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin ; and could he be in- different to the needs of his brethren according to the flesh? Surely it would not be difficult to unfold the meaning of the sacred symbolism through which their forefathers had been disci- plined in those very wastes. That the rock was Christ ; that the
1 Dr. MacQregor of St. Cuthberts, 120.
' E. Mills, Life and Letters of Frederic Shields, 331.
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water which flowed over the sands foreshadowed His mission to the world ; that the law given from Sinai had been fulfilled and re-edited in the holy life of Jesus of Nazareth ; that the sacrifices offered on those sands had pointed to the death of the cross ; and that the fire which burned in the bush had also shone on His face — to teach all this and much more, and to lead his people from the desert wastes of Pharisaism to the heavenly places of which Canaan was the type, was the hope and longing of his heart. What work could be more congenial to his tastes and attitudes than this ?