1. JuDE is the prophet of the Apostasy, He sounds the JBnal note of warning. The key word is " kept." Those who embrace the faith and contend for the faith are " preserved " unto the day of presentation ; those who reject and oppose the faith are " re- served " unto the day of retribution. Those who kept not their first estate, and are kept for judgment, are contrasted with those who keep themselves in the love of God, and are kept by His power.
^ Most travellers in foreign countries follow about the same route of travel. They see the same cathedrals, art galleries, and bits of scenery that thousands before them have seen. Once in a while some one insists on leaving the well-beaten routes and exploring less frequented places of interest. It is safe to say that there are many beautiful things in those countries which do not lie along the frequented routes. There are mountains, and lakes, and brooks — scenes of beauty that cannot be counted — which only those who step out of the well-beaten paths ever see.
There are well-beaten routes in the Scripture, chapters that are read over and over again by the multitude who are content to see and know what the multitude sees and knows. But whoever goes into the unfrequented places finds beautiful things. Here in Jude — hidden away where those who follow the usual Biblical route would never see it — is this : " Keep yourselves in the love of God." 1
2. When this verse occurs, the turning-point of the Epistle has just been passed. The thunder-storm of invective, which
» G. "W. Hinckley.
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the writer has been hurling against certain godless disturbers of the purity and peace of the Church, spends itself almost abruptly, and the Epistle seems to gather to a close among the quiet sunset- light of a sky that has been clarified by the storm. These last calm sentences are directly for the saints whom he loves. " But ye," says he, " see that ye make a contrast to all this vapid corruption. The contrast which already exists between your condition and theirs, your prospects and theirs, let it be carried forth into a contrast between your conduct and theirs, your habits and theirs. Keep yourselves in the love of God."
^ " Keep yourselves in the love of God " does not mean keep yourselves loving God, but keep believing and rejoicing that God loves you. " Conviction " is a good word there, because it comes from con and vidum — conquered, or vinculum — a chain. Be con- quered, be enchained, by the thought that God loves you. " Keep " means guard, protect, as in a fortress. Live in this castle, and no enemy of doubt or fear can by any means hurt you.*
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The Duty of Self-Keeping.
1. The central thought that lies in this passage is that we are in charge of ourselves. To keep ourselves — to be ever vigilant amid the perils that beset us, and steer our course aright — this is the main work of life.
There is a law pervading all animate and inanimate nature called by the scientists of to-day the law of conformity to type. By this law every living thing is compelled to stamp upon its offspring the image of itself. The fish produces its like, and the bird its like. The basis of all forms of animal and herbal life is one. There is no difference between the protoplasm which is destined to develop into a man, and that which is to become a herb, or one of the lower animals. How then does the difference arise ? What is the secret of varieties in Nature ? Scientists tell us it is this law of conformity to type. Bird life builds up a bird. Man life builds up a man. Now, if man were only the stuff of which trees are made he would still be subject to this law of con-
^ M. D. Babcoek, Thoughts for Every'Day Living, 16.
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formity to type. But it would be automatically. He would have no conscious individual share in helping on the process. But add the elements of free will, and intellectual faculties, and moral sense, and spiritual affections, and we have a creature both subject to and greater than this law. We cannot, indeed, evade or over- come the law. But we can determine the way in which it will act through us. God gives up to us the power of forming character. Our birth was His. Our vital powers are His. Our heredities are His. But our truest, vitallest, God-aspiring or God-shunning self — that is our own. By what means shall we assist this law of conformity to type to mould our lives after the image of our Creator ? Let us keep ourselves in the love of God ; let no meaner ends of life so engross us that we lose sight of this our high calling of God.
2. There are two sides to this keeping : a Divine side and a human side.
(1) Our Lord keeps us. — Perhaps it is difficult for some to believe that we who are upon the earth can really know ourselves to be always, without interruption, in our Lord's hands and under His power. How much clearer and more glorious does the truth become when the Spirit discovers to us that Christ is in us ; and that, not only as a tenant in a house, or water in a glass, in such a fashion that they continue quite distinct, but rather as the soul is in the body, animating and moving every part of it, and never to be separated from each other except by a violent death. It is thus that Christ dwells in us, penetrating our whole nature with His nature. The Holy Spirit came for the purpose of making Him thus deeply present within us. As the sun is high in the firmament above us, and yet by his heat penetrates our bones and marrow and quickens our whole life, so the Lord Jesus, who is exalted high in heaven, penetrates our whole nature by His Spirit in such a way that all our willing, and thinking, and feeling are animated by Him. Once this fact is fully grasped, we no longer think of an external keeping through a person outside of us in heaven, but rather become convinced that our whole individual life is itself quickened and possessed by One who, not in a human but in a Divine, all-penetrating manner, occupies and fills the heart. Then we see how natural, how certain, how blessed it is