That we might know Him, Thou didst come and live; That we might find Him, Thou didst come and die ; The son-heart. Brother, Thy son-being give — We too would love the Father perfectly. And to His bosom go back with the cry. Father, into Thy hands I give the heart Which left Thee but to learn how good Thou art !
' A. Maclaren.
EPHESIANS III. 14, 15 113
There are but two in all the universe —
The Father and His children — not a third; l^or, all the weary time, fell any curse !
Not once dropped from its nest an unfledged bird But Thou wast with it! Never sorrow stirred But a love-pull it was upon the chain That draws the children to the Father again !
0 Jesus Christ, babe, man, eternal Son,
Take pity ! we are poor where Thou art rich : Our hearts are small ; and yet there is not one In all Thy Father's noisy nursery which, Merry, or mourning in its narrow niche,
Needs not Thy Father's heart, this very now, With all his being's being, even as Thou ! ^
* George MacDonald, Poetical Works, ii. 335.
EPH.-COL. — 8
Power in the Inward Man.
1x5
Literature.
Burrell (D. J.), The Religion of the Future, 13.
Campbell (R. J.), Thursday Mornings at the City Temple, 210.
Ewing (J. W.), The Undying Christ, 68.
Ferguson (F.), Sermons, 190.
Gibbon (J. M.), The Children's Year, 230.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, iii. 182.
Maclaren (A.), Christ in the Heart, 1.
„ Expositions: Ephesians, 132.
Matheson (G.), Voices of the Spirit, 199, Murray (A.), The Full Blessinj of Pentecost, 121.
„ Aids to Devotion, 62.
Muspratt (W.), Tlie Work and Power of the Holy Spirit, 24, Pulsford (J.), Christ and His Seed, 106. Ealeigh (A.), The Way to the City, I, 46. Ridding (G.), Tlie Revel and the Battle, 151. Smith (H. A.), Things New and Old, 160. Spurgeon (C. H.), My Sermon-Notes, iv. 275. Tasker (J. G.), in Great Texts of the New Testament, 219. Vallings (J. F.), The Holy Spirit of Promise, 148. Winterbotham (R.), Sermons, 270. Christian World Pulpit, xiii. 88 (Gallaway) ; xxxii. 339 (White) ;
xxxix. 379 (White). Church of England Pulpit, 1. 182 (Rainsf ord). Churchman's Pulpit: Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, xii. 188 (Jobson),
192 (Cotton), 195 (Wright), 197 (Davies), 201 (Armstrong), 214
(Kempthorne), 216 (Hebcr). Keswick Week, 1905, p. 49 (Moore).
ti6
Power in the Inward Man.
I bow my knees unto the Father, . . . that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man. — Eph. iii. i6.
In every sphere of life to-day there is an urgent demand for strength or efficiency. The apostles of physical culture denounce, in large letters, the " crime " of not being strong. Their laudable endeavour is to persuade us to develop our powers by exercise ; but they have no gospel for the weak. There are strong-minded men who agree with John Stuart Mill that, notwithstanding all the talk about brain-fag, it would do most people good to use their minds more than they do. And if worry be distinguished from work, it is probably true that increased mental effort would mean, for the majority of people, increased mental power. There is a corresponding truth in the spiritual life, as every Christian knows. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews refers to the harmful effects which are the inevitable result of neglecting to exercise the higher faculties of the soul (v. 11, 14). Though our ears have been opened and we have heard the whisper of His love, we shall become " dull of hearing " unless we listen often and listen long for the still and small and inward voice of His Spirit. Therefore, let us " exercise " ourselves " unto godliness " (1 Tim. ii. 7), but withal let us remember that the central truth of the Christian gospel is not that we are to become strong merely by development of our own powers, by exercise of our own faculties, by conservation of our own energies ; if we are to become strong, we must be strengthened by a "power that is not our- selves," and St. Paul can name that power and bear witness to its energizing — it is the power of the Holy Spirit.^
» J. G. Tasker. "7
ii8 POWER IN THE INWARD MAN
I.
The Desire, " That ye may be strengthened with power."
1. Wliat shall the universal Father be asked to give to Hig needy children upon earth ? They have newly learnt His name ; they are barely recovered from the malady of their sin, fearful of trial, weak to meet temptation. Strength is their first necessity : " I bow my knees unto the Father . . . that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man." The Apostle asked them in verse 13, in view of the greatness of his own calling, to be of good courage on his account ; now he entreats God so to reveal to them His glory and to pour into their hearts His Spirit, that no weakness or fear may remain in them. The strengthening of which he speaks is the opposite of the faintness of heart, the failure of courage deprecated in verse 13.