» E. F. Horton. ^ Ibid.
REVELATION ii. 7 75
3. Lot Christ Himself be our example, whose whole life on earth was a warfare with the powers of evil ; who found its crises and its agonies in the hours when He was alone with the Father ; "who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears . . . was heard for his godly fear." Let us follow Him, who was tempted in all things Hke as we are, till by feeling our fellowship with Him in agony and the awful difficulty of doing the Father's will, we shall also share His faith that we have this conflict to endure just because we can bear it, just because of our freedom, and just in order to realize that we are alive. " As I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne." Our Lord Jesus con- quered all opposed to Him. In their presence He never fainted, He never failed, He never suffered defeat. Calm, confident victory rests upon every page of the sacred story. As one reads the narrative of conquest, one is amazed at the prolific and abundant spiritual energy which everywhere confronts the powers of ill. Our Lord overcame the world; He never bowed to the entice- ments or the glitter ; they would make Him a king of the worldly order, but He rejected the allurement and went away to pray. He overcame the flesh; His life is characterized by order and beauty ; on the one hand there was no harsh asceticism, and on the other hand there was no unseemly excess. He overcame the devil; they met again and again; "the prince of this world Cometh " ; he was ever coming, but he came to no purpose, and he achieved no triumph. Our Lord was always victor over the antagonists which stand in our path to-day.
^ There is, perhaps, no one term whose significance is less truly understood than that of overcoming. When Jesus said, " In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world," there was something meant quite different from its commonly received interpretation. Many persons have translated it to imply that in this world — this present life — tribulation is the appointed lot of man ; but that death will end this, and by that event we " overcome the world " — that is, enter into joy and peace as inevitable conditions of the life beyond. But is there not undoubtedly a far deeper and nobler meaning than this? The "world" does not refer merely to life on this planet — the threescore years and ten allotted to man in this present state of existence — but rather it has reference to a con-
76 THE TREE OF LIFE
dition. By " the world " is meant all that materiality which must be overcome before one can enter into that state of mind which is the kingdom of heaven, and which may be the condition of life here just as surely as hereafter. We overcome only as we rise to the spiritual plane. " Be of good cheer," said Jesus : " I have overcome the world." Where He has gone we may follow. If He overcame the world, so may we. It is not easy ; it is possible. Not being easy to achieve, it is, when once attained, a condition so easy that it preserves itself and progresses by its own momentum. One who is succeeding in living to any perceptible degree the spiritual life rather than the material, realizes for himself the profound truth in the assertion of the Christ, that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. There is in it the peace which indeed passeth all understanding, and the joy that the world can neither give nor take away. Believe and love — all the duties of the world and all the privileges of heaven are condensed in those three words. Believe and love. Not only trust, but know, believe. Hold fast to the conviction that the forces of life are Divine. Come into harmony with them, and thus live above the plane on which discord is possible, thus overcome the world.^
4. After every temptation conquered, after every self-indul- gence refused, after every duty accepted and patiently performed, we do feel, in a hundred fresh impulses of moral vigour and hope- fulness, this life which those enjoy who overcome. He who conquers is a new man — fresh, elastic, confident. The skies are bright above him, and his heart is clear within. There is given to him an enjoyment of God's world denied to other men ; and at the same time a power of patience with things that are evil, for he has already conquered these in himself, and knows that their day is determined. What a generous trust in others our victories over ourselves give us ! What an eye for the good that is in them ! What a power of encouraging that good ! While about us is the atmosphere of peace which springs from the faith that God reigns.
^ When Philip Henry was thirty years old, he noted in his diary that " so old and no older was Alexander when he conquered the great world ; but I have not subdued the little world, myself." ^