Lord, in my spirit, one by one Thou dost repeat the wonders done At Thy creative work begun.
When first I came from out the night, The earliest sense that woke was sight, And Thou didst say, "Let there be light."
I saw pass by Thy shining car ; I had no thought of near or far; I tried to catch the bright day-star.
But when I found my strength was spent The air with infant cries I rent, And met therein my firmament, —
* W. J. Dawson, The Divine Challenge, 118. EPH.-COL. — 4
50 GOD'S WORKMANSHIP
I learned that distance vast divides The river in the sky that glides From ebb and flow of earthly tides.
Then grew I up from eve to morn, With each beginning newly born, Leaving each former stage forlorn.
First, as a plant of field I grew, Unmindful of the winds that blew, Unconscious that I nothing knew.
Next, with the cattle on the plain, Bird of the air, fish of the main, I rose to sense of joy and pain.
Then woke the spirit of the man, With laws to bind, with hopes to fan, With powers to say " I ought," " I can."
One stage remains to make me blest, The brightest, loveliest, and the best; My bosom must become Thy rest.
In vain from peak to peak I go, If on the summit of pure snow I cannot Thy communion know.
For bird of air and fish of sea The earth was made a rest to be; I came to be a rest to Thee.
Creation's Spirit most doth move. And mightiest on the waters prove, When life has found a home for Love.*
^ George Matheson, Sacred Songs, 155.
The Commonwealth of Christ.
Literature.
Beeching (H. C), The Apostles' Creed, 83,
Bellett (J. C), in Sermons for the People, i. 104.
Boyd (A. K. H.), Sermons and Stray Papers, 198.
Fleming (S. H.), Fifteen- Minute Sermons for the People, 122.
Greenhough (J. G.), Christian Festivals and Anniversaries, 158.
Hort (F. J. A.), Village Sermons in Outline, 102.
Jones (J. D.), Things Most Surely Believed, 166,
Pulsford (J.), Clirist and His Seed, 81,
Smith (J. H.), Healing Leaves, 407.
Stuart (E. A.), in Sermons for the People, New Ser., i. 86.
Westcott (B. F.), Christian Aspects of Life, 102.
Christian World Pulpit, Ixv. 397 (Percival).
Church of England Pulpit, xliii. 269 (Terry).
Churchman's Pulpit : St. Andrew, St. Thomas, xiv. 48 ; All Saints,
XV. 410, National Preacher, xl. 51 (Smith),
59
The Commonwealth of Christ.
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow- citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. — Eph. ii. 19.
1. These words were addressed to Christians of Gentile birth who had been brought out of the darkness of paganism into Gospel light. The Apostle reminds them that in the days of their ignorance they had no part in God's promises or in the hope of Israel. They were separated by a great wall from the elect people. The Jews were God's household, and the Gentiles were outside. But now the cross of Jesus has broken down the dividing wall and brought Jew and Gentile together. The Heavenly light shines equally on the faces of both. Faith makes all races of one kin and kind. We are all alike fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God.
2. St. Paul had to labour strenuously and continuously
against Jewish exclusiveness. The last thing that the Jews
would think of was to admit the Gentiles to equal rights with
themselves. One has smiled, rather sadly, to see men whose
desperate eagerness to keep hold of some small privilege they
had got was even exceeded by their desperate terror lest anybody
else should get hold of anything like it. Now St. Paul set
himself to put this selfish and jealous littleness down. So far,
he has quite succeeded. For though human beings do yet try
to keep worldly advantage and privilege to themselves, excluding
others, it is ages since any professed Christian thought to keep
God's grace or Christ's mercy so. Everybody knows that there
is no more certain mark of really being within the Fold than
the earnest desire that all we know and care for should be
brought into it likewise. No Christian can even be imagined
as desiring to keep this great possession to himself, or as grudging
any human being his entrance. We have the believer's feeling
53
54 THE COMMONWEALTH OF CHRIST
on this matter in memorable words once spoken by him who wrote this Epistle — words which, when and where they were said, combined well the grace which comes of high culture with the heartiness of Christian kindhness — "I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds,"
^ I heard Dr. Alexander Whyte, of Edinburgh, speak recently about the great Puritans John Owen and Thomas Goodwin. He bade us read them ; he told us of his own debt to them. " Thomas Goodwin and John Owen, and Kichard Baxter and Matthew Henry, they are all upon my shelves. But not they alone ! Side by side with the Puritans stand the works of great Catholics and great Anglicans. It is not with the Puritans alone I hold fellow- ship ; I hold fellowship also with those other Christians between whom and the Puritans there seemed to be a great gulf fixed. I hold fellowship with Augustine, and pour out my soul in the words of his Confessions. I hold fellowship with A Kempis, while he teaches me the Imitatio Christi. I hold fellowship with William Law while he addresses to me his Serious Call, and with Jeremy Taylor while he discourses about IIoIt/ Living and Rely Dying. I hold fellowship with Newman and with Eobertson, as I read their sermons — two men sundered far from each other, and both of them ecclesiastically separated from me. In my study every day of my life I enjoy the ' Communion of Saints.' " ^