Lecture II · Pleasant Memories and Bright Hopes

HIS first paragraph, or, more exactly, sentence, of the letter proper, introduces us at once to the peculiarity of the apostle’s style, which in all his writings is very marked. Where style of expression has not been by definite effort conformed to certain rhetorical principles, but is to a considerable extent natural, it of necessity corresponds to the characteristics of a man’s mind and heart ; just as the particular nature of a tree expresses itself in specialty of form, in the regular beauty, for example, of the poplar and the palm, or the irregular beauty of the oak and the cedar. Now an examination of Scripture proves that divine inspiration. wrought in entire harmony with individual temperament, with free action of thought and play of feeling ; and thus we have most obvious differences of style among the sacred writers. Whilst all pervaded and guided by the Holy Ghost, David, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, Paul, James, and John, have yet such decided individualities, that even a cursory reader cannot fail to observe them. This genuine human

element in the Word of God, appealing as it does to our brotherly sympathies, has somewhat to do with the winning influence of the book over all candid souls.*

In Paul, extraordinary intellectual power was associated with singular liveliness of spirit and singular tenderness of affection ; and his style accords with this. His reasonings are couched occasionally in a rigid logical form; and now and again the most exquisite poetic thought takes the most perfect regularity of poetic expression, as in the wonderful psalm of love in the 13th chapter of First Corinthians, or the closing verses of the great chapter on the resurrection in that Epistle. But, as a rule, his sentences, laden with precious truth and holy emotion, are long and complicated, and thus not unfrequently hard of interpretation. We see in the writer’s mind one weighty thought pressing for expression after another so fast, that no time is given for full separate exhibition; and ever and anon.a gush of warm feeling comes in, in a strong current, swaying the sentence in a direction different from that in which at first apparently it had tended. One who studies the apostle’s writings with anything of the sympathy which Christian faith gives, feels growing delight that, through this very contortedness of the style, he is brought into such close contact with so great a soul,—so admitted into fellowship as to witness the private workings of an intellect of such force and vivacity, and of a heart so generous and tender.

The paragraph now before us, which, as has been said, excellently illustrates the apostle’s peculiar style, is an ascription of thanks to God for the spiritual prosperity of the Philippian church. It brings before us the feelings of a godly minister on the retrospect of his connection with a godly congregation.

It is the apostle’s usual practice to begin his letters with a thanksgiving. He delights to recognise good in those to whom

’ This point is illustrated at some length in the introductory paragraphs of the Lecture on chap. iii, 2-9.

he writes, even in cases where there may be also much to reprove ; and he wins his way to their hearts by beginning with the good. In melancholy contrast stands out the Epistle to the Galatians, where immediately after the salutation comes the sad stern ‘I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, which is not another ; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.’

In a Christian, the natural outflow of gladness is in thanks to our Father in heaven, from whose kindness come all the agencies of true happiness. Alas, Christian brethren, that we so often show the new nature to be as yet so feeble within us, by forgetting to raise our hearts in gratitude to Him! Yet more distinctively Christian is it, when the heart gives thanks for the good of others. The tendency of sin is to disintegrate society, to make men isolated in spirit, self absorbing their interest. The natural heart, as it comes increasingly under the power of worldliness, tends ever to less and less sympathy with others, less sadness through their sorrows, less pleasure through their happiness. The influence of Christianity is entirely in the other direction. Love is its essence, and love involves sympathy, ‘rejoicing with them that rejoice, and weeping with them that weep.’ Most of all distinctively Christian, absolutely distinctively Christian, is the spirit which we find exemplified by the apostle here, joy and thankfulness chiefly for the spiritual good of others. There are many who from natural kindliness of heart, not altogether blighted as yet by the withering power of sin, will join Christians in feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, and building hospitals for the diseased ; but to whom the news of a religious awakening brings no pleasure, who feel no interest whatever in efforts to extend the knowledge and power of the gospel. To the true believer in Christ, no pleasure is higher than that afforded by evidence of the progress of the Saviour’s kingdom. He delights to know that the children in the orphanages of Rajpootana have

been saved from the wretchedness of the famine, and are lovingly fed and clothed ; but his chief happiness in thinking of them is to know that they are under influences fitted, through the divine blessing, to bring them into the faith and love of Christ, and thus ‘save their sow/s from death.’

This paragraph of thanksgiving to God falls into two parts: first, an expression of gratitude for the past history of the Philippian church, which is contained in verses 3-5; secondly, an expression of gratitude for the assured hope the apostle has in regard to their future, which occupies the 6th and 7th verses. The 8th verse is a kind of appendix to the paragraph.

It is usually, as here, in thanksgivings that Paul uses the appropriating expression, ‘my God. ‘The naturalness of this, in the acknowledgment by a Christian of blessings which have been bestowed on him personally, is obvious. Looked at in connection with the subject of the present thanksgiving, the progress of Christ’s kingdom at Philippi, the ‘my’ well illustrates the broadening, liberalizing influence of Christianity, its tendency to slay the selfishness of the human heart. Intense as is the happiness felt by every child of God in the knowledge that he himself ‘has passed from death unto life ? yet, if there be any whose joy in the gospel rests exclusively, or anything like exclusively, on the thought of its having become ‘the power of God unto salvation’ to them personally, they have not as yet learned more than the elements of the truth which the Holy Spirit teaches the saints. Growth towards the 1

With the particulars of the illustrative case here referred to, the congregation to whom the lecture was delivered were familiar ; but for some who may read it a word of explanation may perhaps be desirable. After a terrible famine in Rajpootana a few years ago, several hundreds of destitute orphans were taken by the missionaries labouring in the district to their various stations, there to be cared for till they should be able to provide for themselves. Much interest was awakened in these poor children throughout the United Presbyterian Church, with which the mission is connected; and many members assumed the responsibility of supporting particular orphans, adopting them in a measure.

‘measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ’ is in nothing more imarked than in increasing delight, and increasing gratitude as for a personal blessing, to see the advancement of the glory of the Saviour all around, through the quickening of dead souls and the ripening of Christians in piety. In the fact that God is leading others to know Him as their covenant God, the wise believer sees ground for always new thankfulness and joy that so gracious a God is ἀξ God. He knows that the widening of the range of blessing brings no diminution of individual blessing. To each Christian God is as fully and satisfyingly 27s God as if there were no others in the covenant.

‘I thank my God,’ says the apostle, ‘upon every remembrance of you,—more exactly, ‘on all my remembrance of you,’ —an expression which may perhaps gather up, so to speak, into one head or sum the times when he is conscious of this feeling of gratitude, and may therefore be equivalent to ‘ upon every remembrance of you,’ but appears much more naturally to mean, ‘on the ground of all I remember regarding you.’ He had still vividly before him ‘the kindness of their youth, the love of their espousals’ to the Saviour. He remembered the sweet outflow of love from the ‘opened heart’ of Lydia, when ‘she besought’ him and his company, ‘saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there,-—and that her warm and active affection represented the spirit of the believers generally. With this good beginning, he knew that their history since had on the whole accorded. He had heard, and on his occasional visits seen, that knowledge, humility, and self-discipline were found among the members of the church; that their life was governed by ‘a spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind ;’ that they ‘walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.’ Thus, ‘on the ground of all his remembrance of them,’ the apostle, their spiritual father, ‘thanked his God.’ Ah, my brethren, how rare in any age has been such a church! How sweet to the pastor must always be such a memory !

The 4th verse tells us the form in which Paul’s thankfulness found expression,—in gladness of heart as he prayed for them: ‘ a/ways, in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy.’ The force of these last words is a little obscured through the omission by our translators of an article, the exact rendering being ‘making ¢he request with joy ;’ or, still more precisely, retaining, as in the original, the same word used in the first part of the clause, ‘ offering the prayer with joy.’

The mode of expression assumes that the Philippians did not need to be informed that the apostle often presented special prayer to God for them. He tells them what was his state of feeling in these prayers; but the fact of the prayers being offered is taken as a matter of course. The responsibility which rests upon a minister with reference to the spiritual welfare of his people, and the affections which arise out of the relations and intercourse between him and them, cannot but lead every spiritually-minded minister to bear his flock often on his heart before God.

When, as in the case before us, a minister sees God’s blessing plainly resting on his work, then his sense of gratitude impels him with peculiar power to prayer. The proper and healthful influence of gratitude to God for any gift is to send us to our knees to express our trust in Him for the time to come, and to ask yet larger proofs of His kindness. In our relations to human benefactors the case stands otherwise. Sincere thankfulness for the kindness of a friend may often reasonably and becomingly lead us to resolve that, because his goodness to us has already been so great, we shall abstain from asking anything of him in the future. But one grand end of God in all His gifts to His moral creatures is, that through the course of thought and feeling into which the gifts are fitted to lead them, there may be produced a spirit, ever deepening, of childlike dependence upon Him. ‘Iam the Lord thy God,’ He says, ‘ which brought thee out of the land of Egypt ; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.’ True Christian wisdom is to obey this

gracious command, and on mercies past to build up a sure hope of new and more wondrous mercies to come. ‘The Lord hath been mindful of us ; He will bless us.’ ‘I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.’

Prayer offered when thankfulness thus specially occupies the heart—‘ calling upon the name of the Lord’ for further mercies, when ‘ the cup of salvation,’ which He has bestowed, is felt to be even now in the hands of the petitioner—will evidently have g/adness as its distinctive characteristic. This, accordingly, is what Paul points to as showing his thankfulness on the retrospect of the religious history of the Philippians,— the fact that he presents his petitions for them ‘ with joy.’ We are all sometimes called on to ‘ wrestle’ with God, like Jacob, in the night, and, with darkness all around, to ‘ watch for the morning’ with weary hearts. But in the apostle’s prayers for the Philippians he felt himself in the light. He saw his Father’s face, with its smile of ineffable love. God had already shown mercy, and this in regard to the very matter on which his entreaty bore. His prayer, above all things, for his dear Philippians was, that they might ‘grow in grace.’ Now he knew that they had been ‘ growing in grace.’ Was it not most reasonable that he should ‘ make his request with joy’?

The 5th verse exhibits the ground of the apostle’s thankfulness and joy. It expands the mention which he has made of his ‘remembrance’ of the Philippians, specifying the fact respecting them which it gave him such pleasure to look back upon.’ His gratitude and joy were ‘for their fellowship in the gospel’—rather, ‘with regard to the gospel’—‘ from the first day until now.

In the 1st verse we found Paul using the word ‘saints’ as *

As regards its precise connection with the rest of the sentence, this clause might be looked on as exactly parallel to ‘ on all my remembrance of you,’ and as expressly intended to be an exposition of it. The mode of construction is the same in both. Considering the inartificial character of the apostle’s style, however, the immediate connection is perhaps rather with ‘joy.’ Practically, the force of the clause is the same, either way.

equivalent to ‘church.’ We have here another very suggestive expression. The Philippian church was, and it is perfectly plain that the apostle considers that every church which is at all satisfactorily to fulfil the purposes of its existence will be, a body of persons bound together in ‘fellowship with respect to the gospel, or ‘for the furtherance of the gospel.’ ‘The church at Philippi was ax association for advancing the influence of the gospel.

The ‘fellowship’ of these brethren was, first and fundamentally, with Christ. They had been brought, in the measure of their faith, into unity of view and unity of will with Him ; and therefore with Him, guided by His wisdom and sustained by His strength, were exerting themselves in His cause. They had learned to regard sin in the light in which He regards it. Wherever and in whatever form it showed itself, in themselves or in others, they saw it to be exceedingly evil, utterly and only evil. By this oneness of view with their Lord they were naturally impelled to oneness, or ‘ fellowship,’ of action. They felt it to be most reasonable that if He, to overthrow sin, gave Himself up to death, and now is ever pleading through His Spirit with gospel hearers, knocking at the door of their hearts, all who think with Him should join Him in His work of love.

In Him, too, they had ‘fellowship in relation to the gospel’ with each other. The advancement of each other’s piety and spiritual peace was with them an object of definite pursuit. They prayed for each other’s advancement, and, in their intercourse, were mutually helpful with regard to the concerns of the soul, as well as those of the outward life. They co-operated also for the extension of the gospel. Not merely did each in his own sphere endeavour, by consistency of character and by direct effort, to bring ‘them that were ignorant and out of the way’ into the light and holiness and joy of true religion, but they associated themselves in various ways for such effort. They remembered that the wise and loving Saviour had sent

forth His apostles and His seventy disciples ‘ by two and two,’ for their mutual stimulus and support in missionary labour.

Still further, this ‘fellowship’ was with all Christians. ‘They bore on their hearts before their Father all ‘the brotherhood,’ the whole ‘household of faith ;’ and, as opportunity served, they gave Christian brethren encouragement and aid, looking with especial interest to those who were actively engaged in labour for the gospel. To their friend Paul, for example, they had recently, as repeatedly in former years, sent such pecuniary help as their circumstances permitted. The noble veteran of gospel warfare, now in prison ‘for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ,’ had been greatly cheered by this proof of their love to him for the Master’s sake.

In speaking of their ‘fellowship regarding the gospel,’ he had no doubt in his mind all the forms of communion which have been mentioned ; and all his remembrances of the Philippians brought it up before his view, for its affection and energy had been seen ‘from the first day until now.

In the next verse the apostle continues his statement of the ground of his ‘joy’ in praying for them, and of his thankfulness to God respecting them. ‘I can present my petition for your spiritual advancement with the brightness of full hope,’ he says, ‘ deing confident of this very thing, which is the object of my prayer, that He which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,

Every work of God is ‘very good.’ With special intensity of significance is this attribute ascribed to His work of saving grace, in which He makes sinful men ‘good’ by enabling them to reflect His own image. The long and faithful continuance of the brethren at Philippi in their ‘fellowship with respect to the gospel,’ gave most convincing evidence that divine grace had ‘degun’ this supremely ‘good work’ in them ; and Paul believed that that same grace would still ‘perform it, ‘bring it to completeness.’ God does not do things by halves ; and all those who through the dealings of His Spirit are led to give themselves to Christ, are through the continued influence of the Spirit sustained in faith and holiness unto full salvation. ‘fhe gifts and calling of God are without repentance.’ As certainly as the ‘inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,’ is ‘reserved in heaven’ for the saints, so certainly they ‘are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.’ ‘I give unto My sheep eternal life,’ said the Lord Jesus, ‘and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are One.’

Having the happy conviction, then, from all he knows of the Philippians, that not in name only, but in truth, they have given themselves to the Lord, Paul is confident that the ‘Author of their faith’ will be its ‘Finisher ;’ that the ‘good work’ which has been ‘begun’ in them by divine grace, will be carried on ‘ until the day of Jesus Christ. The Christian knows that death will be for him the gate of life, seeing that ‘to depart’ will be ‘to be with Christ.’ But, according to the teaching of Scripture everywhere, the body is essential to complete humanity. So long, therefore, as the spirits of the saints remain disembodied, their condition is imperfect, even though they enjoy the highest happiness of which a disembodied human spirit is susceptible. The time of their perfection in the fullest sense begins at the second coming of the Lord, when the pure spirit will be united again to what it will recognise as in some true sense the old companion of its earthly en joys and sorrows, but now ‘ fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious ~ body.’ To that advent of the Lord in majesty, to bring the probationary history of our earth to a close, to subject His foes to utter overthrow, and to introduce His people into the fulness of eternal life, all imperfection for any of the elements of their nature for ever behind them,—to this sublime scene, as you know, Scripture continually directs our thoughts, In the representations of the divine Word, death, which we are

apt to keep so prominently before our minds, passes comparatively out of view, as but a stage in our progress towards the experiences of that great day. We should breathe a brighter and freer atmosphere, my brethren, if in this matter we followed the leadings of the Spirit more closely than we generally do. The first impulse of many of us, if we were expressing the thought of the verse before us, would be to write, ‘God will carry on the good work ἐμ death.” If we ponder the matter carefully, we shall see that the apostle’s language reveals a soul less absorbed in the thought of self, and more occupied with that of the glory of the Saviour and the blessedness of the whole church, than ours,—a soul, therefore, which was more likely to ‘rejoice in the Lord alway.’

In considering the many precious assurances given in Scripture, that all who cordially accept Christ as their Saviour will certainly be saved, it is of the highest importance that we bear in mind the perfect compatibility with these assurances, and, indeed, the absolute necessity, of diligence, and watchfulness, and prayer, ‘to make our calling and election sure.’ The perseverance of the saints is a perseverance in faith and holiness. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Christ’s people secures for us success in our struggle with sin; but His teaching enables us to see in this no reason for carelessness and indolence, but a most powerful reason for diligence, seeing that the contest may be maintained with such assured hope. The children of God feel that no argument could by possibility be stronger than that which Paul exhibits elsewhere in this Epistle— ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do, of His good pleasure.’

In the portion of this long and somewhat complicated paragraph, or sentence, which we have already examined, we have seen that the apostle thanks God on two grounds,—on account of his remembrances of the Philippians, and on account of the happy future which he can confidently anticipate for

them. He has given us, too, his reasons for the pleasure he felt both in the retrospect and the prospect. His thought may therefore be held as completely exhibited. But his delight in thinking of their history, and in telling them of his affection for them, is such, that his heart still dwells on the subject; and in the 7th verse he goes back again to speak of their character and of his feelings regarding them, expanding in an interesting way his previous statements. He says, ‘ Even as it is meet—reasonable, due to you—for me to think this of you all. Wow admirable a Christian society that of Philippi must have been, brethren, when the wise apostle, with ample opportunities of judging, could say expressly that he had valid reasons ‘to think this’—to entertain confidently the very best hopes—‘ of them all’ Alas, how few ministers could venture safely even to approach such a statement regarding the spiritual condition of those under

their care !

The ground on which rested the ‘meetness’ that Paul ‘should think this of them,’ was the abundant evidence he had seen of their Christian character. Instead, however, of the bare statement of this ground, ‘because I have observed such satisfactory proof of your being Christians,’ we have here a characteristically Pauline deviation from regularity in the form of expression. ‘The same facts which have proved to him the piety of the Philippians have led him to become attached to them, to give them a warm place in his great loving heart. Now this thought comes rushing into the sentence in place of the cold, quiet statement that he knows their character. ‘ It is meet for me to think this of you all, because 7 have you in my heart, inasmuch as ye all are partakers of my grace’—or, ‘as being all partakers with me of my grace’ You see that these words must all be taken together, and that the logical force of the ‘because’ is found in the last part; not in the simple ‘I love you,’ but in ‘I love you as well/-proved Salles Christians,

By some expositors the other words of the clause, which by our translators are attached to the latter part, are joined to the former,—thus, ‘I have you in my heart, both in my bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, as being all partakers of my grace ;’ that is, ‘ Both in my prison and when actively engaged in preaching the gospel, I feel a warm affection for you, as being ‘my fellow-Christians.’ The original will bear this connection of the words ; but it seems to me greatly inferior in point and force to that adopted in our version. Accepting the latter, therefore, as setting forth the meaning of the apostle, you observe that in these words he specifies the spheres in which the fellowship of the Philippians with him in divine favour and help, their being ‘ partakers with him of God’s grace,’ had been seen. They had, like Paul, laboured for Christ, and also, like Paul, suffered for Him.

Very naturally in a letter from the prison, the ‘ donds’ come up first to the apostle’s mind. By the contribution which, through Epaphroditus, they had sent to the apostle, to alleviate the troubles of his imprisonment, they had practically evinced their sympathy—in the full sense of the word, their ‘ fellow-feeling’— with the persecuted saint. They had suffered with him in heart, ‘remembering him that was in bonds, as bound with him.’ Such sympathy could come only from the teaching of divine ‘grace.’ But there had been among these brethren not merely sympathy with suffering Christians, but personal experience of suffering for the gospel. ‘ Unto you it is given,’ says the apostle in the last verses of this chapter, ‘to suffer for Christ’s sake ; having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.’ Can we recognise God’s ‘grace’ in such suffering? By nature men can see in suffering only an evil, and therefore, if it be looked at in relation to God, only a manifestation of His anger. The Christian learns to take another view. In affliction of every kind he sees a most efficient form of gracious Fatherly discipline. Suffering directly for Christ the Divine Spirit enables him to count, in a special manner, a ‘gift of

grace.’ Such is the very expression of Paul in the words quoted a moment ago, ‘ Unto you it is given zz grace’ (for the word in the original means this, being the verbal form of that employed in the passage before us) ‘to suffer for Christ’s sake.’ The men whom a general, at the critical moment of a great battle, specially appoints to hold the key of his position, or whom, in the assault of a besieged city, he sends on a ‘forlorn hope,’ are, by his choice of them for peril and probable suffering, marked out as in his judgment ‘the bravest of the brave.’ Their comrades, even while rejoicing in their hearts, it may be, that the selection has left themselves out, feel that those on whom the choice has fallen are honoured. Similarly, is there not ‘ grace’ shown in the choice made by the ‘ Captain of salvation,’ when in His providence He calls this soldier of the cross, and that, to suffer or die under the standard? In the old persecuting times in our country, men who ‘ bore in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus,’ in limbs crushed by the iron boot or torn by the rack,—looking back in after days upon the patience which the Saviour had given them amid their anguish, and the increase of spiritual wisdom and energy which had come through the trial to themselves, and to some extent also to others, could not but esteem the suffering for Christ as a ‘ gift of grace.’ When under sentence of death, good Bishop Ridley wrote thus to his relatives: ‘I warn you all, my beloved kinsfolk, that ye be not amazed or astonished at the kind of my departure or dissolution ; for I assure you I think it the most honour that ever I was called unto in all my life. And therefore I thank God heartily for it, that it hath pleased Him to call me, of His great mercy, unto this high honour, to suffer death willingly for His sake and in His cause ; unto the which honour He called the holy prophets, and His dearly beloved apostles, and His blessed chosen martyrs.’ And when the end came, and Latimer and he were burned at the same stake,— whilst the persecutors could see only the flame which consumed the flesh, the faith of the martyrs could discern, for themselves

a chariot of fire waiting to bear them home to their Lord, and for their country a fire of pious zeal lighted up, which all the arts of the wicked one should never be able to put out. There was great ‘grace’ there.

The Philippians had also, like Paul, been bold and successful ‘in the defence and confirmation of the gospel,—that is, in maintaining its divine authority against gainsayers, and in establishing its influence over the minds and hearts of those who had in some degree accepted it. Each of them had felt himself called upon, in his sphere, and according to his abilities, to be a missionary of the cross. Their souls, rejoicing in the gracious invitation, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,’ had heard also, as an injunction following on the invitation, ‘ And let him that heareth say, Come ;’ and ‘the love of Christ had constrained’ them to obey. They felt that the opportunity to work for their Saviour, by carrying the light of life to their fellow-men, was a precious ‘sift of grace? and they found that, in the work, all needed grace to guide and support was bestowed upon them abundantly.

Alike as sufferers for Christ, then, and labourers for Him, they had proved themselves to have ‘like precious faith’ with Paul, and to be led and sustained by the same Spirit of glorious power who had enabled Paul to go through his wonderful evangelistic labours, and bear his extraordinary trials. Manifestly ‘ partakers with him in his grace,’ recipients with him of the love and help of his Father in heaven, they were loved by him as brethren ; and he could not but offer his petitions for them ‘with joy,’ entertaining a firm persuasion that He who had ‘ begun a good work in them would perform - it until the day of Jesus Christ.’

The 8th verse contains an earnest confirmation of what the apostle has just said. ‘Strong as my language is respecting my love for you, there is no exaggeration in it; for God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

’ * Record’ here means ‘witness.’ In the older English the C c word had not its meaning limited to testimony committed to writing, as commonly now, but was applied to testimony generally, and sometimes, as here, to the witness who gave it. The fact that the apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, here makes a solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts with respect to the truth of his assertion,—and the case is only one of several which occur in his Epistles,—shows, in opposition to the view of the members of the Society of Friends, and of some other small bodies of Christians, that our Lord’s prohibition of swearing, given in the Sermon on the Mount, does not refer to all oaths, but merely to all of a particular kind. All appealing to God in a careless state of mind, on subjects of no moment, in forms or under circumstances calculated to weaken in ourselves and others reverence for God,—this is utterly hateful to Him. ‘The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.’ But whilst an oath on the lips of a man whose condition of heart is in no accordance with his solemn words of appeal, is a glaring insult to the Majesty of heaven; yet a reverential oath honours, not dishonours, God. The example of our Lord Himself, and His inspired servants, proves that, consistently with His law, an oath may be taken in a court of justice,—and now and again elsewhere, when a Christian, bearing fully in mind the weighty importance of his words, believes that a solemn appeal to God » will advance the interests of Christ’s kingdom. The earnestness and solemnity of the apostle in the case before us are to be explained, no doubt, by his conviction that a lively impression, on the part of the Philippians, of his love for them, would give special force to his advices and pleadings and warnings throughout the letter.

‘God is my record,’ he says, ‘ how greatly I long after you 1

In the Authorized Version there are many instances of its use in the sense of ‘testimony,’ particularly in the phrase ‘ bear record.’ In the sense of ‘a witness,’ which it has in the present passage, it occurs also in Job xvi, 19 and 2 Cor, i, 23.

all

’—‘how eagerly I desire to be permitted, in God’s providence, to see you again; and, at the same time, how intense is my yearning for your prosperity, your growth in the beauty and strength and joy of religion.’ And this ‘longing’ was ‘ 7 the bowels of Jesus Christ’ Among the ancients, the imagined bodily seat of the affections, which with us is the heart, was the bowels. Thus we have frequently in Scripture such expressions as ‘bowels of mercies,’ ‘ bowels of compassion,’— where we should say, ‘a heart full of mercy, full of compassion.’ Paul’s statement, then, is that his longing love for the Philippians was ‘in the heart of Jesus Christ.’ The expression is a remarkable one, very strong and startling. It shows us how real, and thorough, and lively, was the apostle’s conviction of the union of Christians to their Lord. By the teaching of the word of Christ, made vital through the quickening energy of the Spirit of Christ, the believer, in the measure of his faith, has oneness of mind and heart with the Saviour, judges as He judges, loves as He loves, desires as He desires. ‘Christ liveth in the Christian,’ for ‘ he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit ;’ and thus, in all holy emotion and affection in the followers of Christ, we see the action of His life and love. Thus the apostle’s longings were ‘in the heart of Jesus Christ.’

You see then, brethren, by immediate inference, that our calling as Christians is to be, every one of us, a revelation or word of Christ, an epistle of Christ, written in characters so large and fair as to be known and read of all men. If the union between the Lord and His people be so real and so intimate that, in as far as our faith is intelligent and lively, His spiritual life pervades us, and our affections. are ‘in His heart,’ then plainly, seeing that ‘out of the heart are the issues of life,’ Christ-like beauty of character, Christ-like energy and patience, should be visible in every department of our conduct. As a matter of fact, then, does your life, does my life, truthfully represent the life of Christ? This.is the practical question on the subject for us. What impression of the Saviour’s ‘heart’ is likely to be made on those around who are strangers to Him, by our lives, which, if our Christian profession mean anything, it declares to be ‘issues’ from His heart? Men hear of a vast hidden lake of purest water far up among the mountains. They judge by the streams whether the report is true. If, where they have been told that they will find a stream from the great lake, they come only on a dry channel ; or, if there be water, find the water bitter,—what will their judgment of the lake be ?

To no feature of character did our Lord Himself more expressly draw attention, as rightly exhibiting His spirit to the world, than to that so fully and beautifully displayed by the apostle in the passage before us,—love to the Christian brotherhood. ‘This is My commandment,’ He said, ‘that ye love one another as I have loved you.’ ‘ Hereby shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.’ How is it with us, brethren, in this respect? We have often sat together at the table of the Lord, declaring our close union to each other, through our common union to Him,—declaring that ‘ we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.’ Now, in daily life, what tender interest do we’show in each other? Do we find and display happiness in each others happiness, and sorrow in each other’s sorrow? Are the poor and the sick of the brotherhood objects of our care? Are we really exerting ourselves, as God gives us opportunity, to strengthen the tempted among us, to guide the perplexed, to raise the fallen, to ‘bear each others burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ’? All of us, dear friends, will find much cause for deep abasement, if we honestly put to ourselves such questions as these. Are there not some of us to whom Paul’s words in this verse regarding — his love to the brotherhood—and that a love ‘in the heart of Christ’—would be totally unintelligible, if they were to read them only by the light of their own personal experience ?