^ In Paul's opinion a Christian had no right to be weak. To Timothy, his spiritual son, he wrote, " Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." To the Colossians, " We desire that ye might be strengthened with all might, accord- ing to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." To the Corinthians, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." And again, to the Ephesians, " Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." To be strong is a duty ; therefore to be weak is a sin. " Why art thou lean, being the king's son ? " ^
2. " Strengthened with power." The word for " power " is familiar to-day in the forms " dynamite," electric " dynamos," etc. It signifies force or energy in an intense degree. We have it in the 19th and 20th verses of the 1st chapter : " And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead " ; and then in the 20th verse of this third chapter : " Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power
-V that worketh in us."
^ D. J. Burrell, The Religion of the Fnttire, 14.
EPHESIANS III. i6 119
^ I confess that power, the possession of power, is one of the ideas I am trying to master. It seems to be greater every day I live ; I am only just beginning to understand it, but Paul says that the power working in us is the power that raised Christ up from the dead. 1 cling to that thought, because I find that in my weakness and unworthiness I am like Christ in the tomb, and I pray that I may be raised up, out of weakness into strength, out of selfishness into sympathy, out of earth into Heaven. The power is the great power of God, the power of resurrection, the power of " endless life." ^
3. It was when we were " without strength " that Christ died for the ungodly, and the work of new creation is to restore strength to our thoughts, to our volitions, to our speech, and to our action. He " worketh in us to will, and to do." He kindles within us a flame of spiritual passion, a force of resolution, before which even bars of iron must give way, and which makes us " mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." One man in real earnest is a match for a thousand who do not know either their own minds or their Maker's; and while others are putting it to the vote, or seeking authority for reform, or graciously holding that a balance of argument is in favour of the truth of Christianity, he who knows Almighty God, and with whom God dwells, knows the great secret of truth beyond all doubt, speaks not as the scribes, but pushes on the work of God as a soldier who sees victory before him and the Kingdom nigh at hand,
^ There are important cases in which the difference between half a heart and a whole heart makes just the difference between signal defeat and a splendid victory .^
^ When Palmerston was trying to get Cobden into the Government, and meeting all his objections in a light and airy way, Cobden at length said : " But, my Lord, I am in earnest." That closed the conversation. Palmerston, I should think, would look on earnestness in politics as the one unpardonable sin, as it is often looked upon now.^
^ Take me out of the langour, the irritability, the sensitive- ness, the incapability, the anarchy, in which my soul lies, and fill it with Thy fullness. Breathe on me, that the dead bones may live. Breathe on me with that Breath which infuses energy and
^ J. W. Ewing, The Undying Christ, 77. ^ ^^ k. H. Boyd.
» G. "W. E. Russell, Sir Wilfrid Lawsm, 29.
I20 POWER IN THE INWARD MAN
kindles fervour. In asking for fervour, I ask for all timt I can need, and all that Thou canst give ; for it is the crown of all gifts and all virtues. It cannot really and fully be, except where all are present. It is the beauty and the glory, as it is also the continual safeguard and purifier of them all. In asking for fervour, I am asking for effectual strength, consistency, and perseverance ; I am asking for deadness to every human motive and simplicity of intention to please Thee ; I am asking for faith, hope, and charity in their most heavenly exercise. In asking for fervour, I am asking to be rid of the fear of man, and the desire of his praise ; I am asking for the gift of prayer, because it will be so sweet ; I am asking for that loyal perception of duty which follows on yearning affection ; I am asking for sanctity, peace, and joy all at once. In asking for fervour, I am asking for the brightness of the Cherubim and the fire of the Seraphim, and the whiteness of all Saints. In asking for fervour I am asking for that which, while it implies all gifts, is that in which I signally fail. Nothing would be a trouble to me, nothing a difficulty, had I but fervour of soul.