^ Mrs. Watts, in George Frederic Waits, ii. 269. 8 B. Wilberforce, The Hope of Glory, 17. " Ruskin, Stones of Venice ( Works, x. 399).
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But soon the stern fight was decided,
When a bow threw its span o'er the storm, And the cold blinding tempest subsided, While joy to my bosom leapt warm; For that bow in the sky, Flashed its message on high, "Let Hope all thy doubtings disarm."
Thus darkness and light through the ages,
Wrath and mercy, alternate have reigned; Nor had all the world's mightiest sages. The key to the riddle attained; Till the shining God-Man, On the clouds wrote Heaven's plan, "Perfection through suffering gained." *
III.
Cheist in You the Hope of Gloky.
1. How can Christ be in us ? Is He not in heaven : throned in glory everlasting ? He is, yet is He in us. As to the body, He is on the throne of the Highest. The loving Man rules the courts of heaven. But He is in us as to His Spirit.
All the relations of my soul to Christ are personal, vital, and conscious. He " knocks at the door of my heart," and tells me that if I will open unto Him He will come in unto me; not merely to worship with me, or to hold formal religious fellowship with me, but to " sup with me " — to mingle with the pursuits, to inspire the joys of my common life. If I refuse to admit Him, He bewails my refusal with tears: "If thou hadst known;" " How often would I have gathered thee ! " " Ye will not come to me that ye might have life." He comes to me in individual recognition, in personal inspiration, in intelligent fellowship, in affectionate sympathy, in discriminating help. I speak to Him all my thoughts and feelings. I tell Him my secret in the common prayer of the congregation. He blesses me with an individual application of the common grace. I consciously hold intercourse with Him, in more intimate, uncalculating confidence ^ T. Crawford, Horoi iSerence, 69.
448 CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY
than a man with his friend. He represents Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep, as calling His own sheep by name and leading them out. "He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him : for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him : for they know not the voice of strangers."
How individual it all is ! What a unique conception of religious life and inspiration it is ! His is not a common benevolence ; it is a personal, discriminating love. Mine is not a general loyalty, it is a distinctive affection and service — a worship, a consecration, and, if needs be, a martyrdom.
^ There is such a thing as Jeremy Taylor, in one of his chapters on " Holy Living," calls the " Practice of the Presence of God." " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age," says the omnipresent Master ; and there is no greater need than that this presence shall be recognized and felt. It cannot be detected by the physical senses, for it is not a sensible fact. But to him who cultivates the sensibility to the unseen and exercises his inner senses to discern good and evil, the reality of the presence of Christ may become as indisputable as anything demonstrable by the bodily organs. Such communion with a personal Christ assimilates character to His likeness. "We, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." ^
^ An unknown writer has left us the following beautiful words: "It is not so much working for God, or speaking for God, as living in the secret of His presence, which most glorifies Him. We must so seek to realize our Saviour's presence with us and in us that our whole being shall be hushed, and quietly elevated, and controlled in every little thing." That is an inspiring picture of the life we might live. It is what God intends, for St. Paul has told us plainly, " He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." This communion with God is surely the highest and most sacred of all attainments. If hourly we hold sweet fellowship with Christ, our moral strength will be continually invigorated, and our spiritual life can never decline. It is like the sweet gravelly bed at the foot of the flowing stream. No impurity can lodge there. It is ceaselessly purged by the river of life. Surely there is nothing higher than this to wish for.2
* A. J. Gordon, How Christ came to Church, 77.
"^ J. A. Clappeiton, Culture of the Christian Heart, 90.
COLOSSIANS I. 27 449
2. There are two phrases — " We in Christ " and " Christ in us." " We in Christ " is safety : we have fled for refuge to the hope set before us in the Gospel. " Christ in us " is sanctifica- tion : Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith means that we are " able to comprehend with all the saints, and to know the love of Christ," until we are " filled unto all the fulness of God."