^ Just as a river that runs in a full clear current through the heart of a city yields an unfailing supply of water to each of its dwellings, and fills a vessel which a child may dip into its stream, because it gushes from its rocky cleft high up near the mountain peak where the rain-clouds gather and drip, or the perpetual snows distil their ice-cold dews into its basin ; so in like manner the grace that is in Christ, the fulness of the Godhead, flows into and fills up all the emptiness of the human soul. Man till he has come to God is an infinite want — Christ is an infinite resource and fulfilment for that want. Man is fallen — Christ lifts him up ; he is fettered — Christ sets him free; he is guilty — Christ is righteousness ; he is ignorant — Christ is wisdom ; he is powerless — Christ is strength. And after he has come to God, his earthly
1 Francis Paget, Bishop of Oxford, 220. ^ D. D. McLaurin.
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life is full of yearning and striving, of lofty reach and heavenward endeavour, the powers of an immortal nature unfolding within him and seeking their true sphere of exercise, its affections climbing upwards and seeking their true centre of rest. For all upward longings and pure aspirations there is satisfaction in Christ, In him all noble powers find full employment, all holy affections complete repose. Man's weak, imperfect, sinful nature, conscious of its fall and seeking to rise to God again, finds in Christ all needful resources for raising it up and guiding it onwards to holiness and glory. In the second Adam the whole family of the redeemed stand faultless before God, perfect and entire, wanting nothing. They are " complete in Him." ^
He bore the sin!
Alone He bore the load; For us He drank the cup, —
Jesus, the Son of God. He bore the sin !
He paid the debt!
He paid it with His blood; Each claim He satisfied, —
All that we owe to God. He paid the debt !
He made the peace !
He silences each fear; He is Himself the peace.
By blood He brings us near. He made the peace !
He did the work !
The law He magnified; Our lifetime's failure He
Hath gloriously supplied. He did the work !
The foe He fought I
Our foe and His He slew; He leads us in the war,
Almighty to subdue. The foe He fought!
* J. Hamilton Memoir and Remains of the Rev. James D. Burns, M.A., 363.
472 COMPLETE IN CHRIST
He won the life !
Life by His death He won; That life He giveth us,
The glory and the crown. He won the life!^
(1) We are made full in Him as the Eevealer of Divine truth. This is one aspect of the fulness upon which the sacred writer dwells. The Church at Colossse was in danger from heretical teaching, and their refuge from that danger was in the fulness of Christ. Their reply to all the wild speculations of the mysticism around them was found here. " We are complete in him." " In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." " This I say, that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech." He exhorted them to " take heed lest any one should make spoil of them through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ ; for in him dwelleth all the fulness."
^ Ancient mariners sailed by the light of the stars ; from the stormy bosom of the ocean they looked to the distant heavens for direction ; while the firmament was clear they were safe, but when clouds intervened dangers beset their path. So, taking the words of the Lord Jesus for your guidance, you shall cross the sea of life in safety and reach the heavenly shore ; but if you allow human philosophy, science, or tradition, if you permit priesthoods, ceremonies, or sacraments to come between your mind and the light of His teaching, your course must be perilous, and your progress uncertain, for He, and He only, is " the way, the truth, and the life." 2
(2) The chasm between man and God has been bridged over in Him. If we descend at times to the darkest depths. He anticipates us there; He weighs every sigh; He interprets every tear ; He helps every desire Godward in its upward flight — and if in our more jubilant and ecstatic moments we cherish bright visions of future bliss and glory, He still anticipates us there, saying, " Come up hither." The ladder of mediation is complete ; there are no gaps left. Every rung is there in our ascent to God. The veil of the Temple has been rent in twain; the way to the Holiest is opened wide for the
^ Horatius Bonar. ^ T. Jones, The Divine Order, 30.
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mitred dignitary and for the most obscure of Christ's brethren as well. And in our approach to God we are made full in Him.
^ Pilate, when he set Christ before the crowd which sur- rounded his palace on that dread day, cried out Ecce Homo, Behold the man ! This might be echoed round all the world — " Behold the Man ! — the true Man, the One we should ever aim to be like, and whose perfection becomes ours by faith in His holy Name." He is the Mediator of the New Covenant that stands between God and man. Faith in Him contains the germ of the new life, and the new love required. It is only a germ — a small thing, it is true — but Christ will make it grow till it becomes like His own. When we live in this spirit we shall come to understand the words of the Apostle, " Ye are complete in him." ^