Lecture XXIX · Christian Contentment

THE apostle has now ended the counsels which it was in his heart to give to his brethren at Philippi. There remains for him only the duty of thanking them for the pecuniary help which they had sent to him through Epaphroditus ; and this he does in the closing paragraph of his letter, in language fitted greatly to gratify the givers, and, at the same time, to minister to their spiritual wisdom. The paragraph presents for consideration several points of interest and importance, with regard to Christian giving, and Christian receiving, and Christian feeling about worldly circumstances generally.

In various parts of his writings, Paul lays it down very distinctly as a law of Christ,—a law obviously equitable, and in its operation spiritually healthful to both parties,—that ministers should be supported by those for whose religious instruction and welfare they care. ‘The Lord hath ordained,’ he says, ‘ that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel’ (1 Cor. ix. 14). It is evident, too, from allusions in the chapter from which these words are quoted, that most of the apostles and primitive teachers were in fact maintained by

the free-will offerings of the churches. Paul himself, however, — in consequence of the bitter opposition and misrepresentation to which he was subjected by teachers who wished to bring the Christians under the yoke of Jewish ordinances, preferred, in many places, to support himself by working at his trade of tent-making, that thus he might ‘cut off occasion from them which desired occasion’ to accuse him of preaching the gospel for the sake of gain (2 Cor. xi. 12). But his faith in the affection and spiritual intelligence of the church at Philippi was such that, both now, and also, as he mentions in the 16th verse, at an earlier time, he unhesitatingly accepted a pecuniary gift from them. Manifestly no circumstances could be more suitable for making such a gift than when he was imprisoned, and thus very probably prevented, in a great measure at least, from earning a livelihood by the labour of his hands. .

Observe the quiet dignity with which, at the outset of his acknowledgment of their contribution, Paul lifts this money matter up into a sphere where all things become sublime. The pleasure he felt in receiving their gift was ‘7m the Lord/— Christian joy. It was the Lord Jesus who had put it into their hearts to do this thing ; and it was as an evidence of loyalty to Him, and affection, for His sake, to His minister, that the apostle welcomed the money. In the thoughtful kindness to him, the servant, which showed that the friends he loved so dearly cherished gratitude and devotion to his Master, it was most reasonable that he should ‘ rejoice greatly.’

You will mark, too, the spirit of the true gentleman breathing through his language here, as always. I do not know that anything more clearly brings out whether a man really has this spirit, than the mode in which he receives kindness. How beautiful the mode is here! How perfectly free alike from boorish bluntness in the assertion of independence, and from adulation, or over-wrought expression of gratitude! Having delicately kept his acknowledgments on this subject for the close of the Epistle, because it was not seemly that, in

the communications of those whom divine grace had united by the tender tie of spiritual father and children, matters of this kind should hold other than an altogether subordinate place,— he begins his reference to it by stating that he felt great satisfaction in the Lord, ‘ that now at the last their care of him had flourished again’ His thought, you observe, blossoms into poetry. In former years the apostle’s heart had been gladdened, ever and anon, by kind messages and gifts from his friends at Philippi. For a considerable time, however, there had been none; but now, as after a long winter, the tree of their affection had ‘flourished again, putting forth leaf, and flower, and fruit. The ‘ow at the /ast’ tells us touchingly of the weary longings he had felt for intercourse with his Philippian friends. , Amid the sufferings of his imprisonment, and the troubles caused him in Rome by false brethren, he had often thought of the sweet simplicity of Christian feeling which had always prevailed among the members of the Philippian church, and the comfort he had always found in intercourse with them ; and had yearned strongly for a renewal of this fellowship. “ΝΟΥ͂ δ the last’ the renewal had come, in a way fitted in every respect greatly to refresh him. In writing this ‘ now at the last’ there was no thought further from his mind than that of reproach,— no thought present except the desire to tell his friends how much his heart had gone forth to them during the time when circumstances had prevented intercourse. The figure he has employed, too, is one fitted, perhaps, to obviate any idea that he intended reproach; for, though the tree be bare during winter, yet then, no less really than in the summer, it has life. But no sooner had the words been written, than the apostle saw that they were open to misconstruction ; and he at once throws in a clause guarding against this,—‘a matter wherein ye were careful also in the intermediate time, but ye lacked opportunity,—the reference in these last words being probably to the difficulty of obtaining a suitable messenger. Nothing could well gratify the Philippians more than such a statement

as this, showing the apostle’s full confidence in the constancy of their love.

In the 14th and following verses, Paul continues those grateful acknowledgments of the kindness of his friends begun by him in the roth, which we have just examined. The three verses intervening, which will occupy our attention during the remainder of this lecture, constitute a digression. It occurred to him, as it would seem, that, from the warmth of his statement, ‘I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that your care of me hath flourished again,’ some might mistakenly infer that he had been restless under the privations he suffered, and that the gift brought by Epaphroditus had suddenly aroused him from dejection to cheerfulness. Immediately, therefore, he guards against this impression, seeing that such a state of feeling would have been dishonouring to religion. In opposition to this thought, he bears testimony to the power of divine grace, in his experience, to give equability and restfulness of spirit amid all vicissitudes and trials of life. This digression is a passage of much interest and importance, exhibiting in a very graphic way a prominent feature of the apostle’s character, and therein vividly illustrating the sustaining and beautifying power of the Divine Spirit. ‘I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that your care of me hath flourished again. Vof, however, that IT speak in respect of want; for I have learned, in whatsoever state 7 am, therewith to be content. ‘The apostle had come to know, like David, that ‘ there is πὸ wand to them that fear the Lord.’

The word ‘content’ means originally, and indeed is only another form of, ‘contained.’ We have in it, therefore, as no doubt in all words, if we fully understood them, not a cold symbol merely, but a lively pictorial illustration of the meaning. The man is ‘content,’ who is able to feel himself ‘ contained’ by his lot,—who in the position which God has assigned him can find room, so that he has rest and satisfaction,—who within his circumstances at the time can always discern a home of

reasonable comfort, and therefore, however his desires may at times healthfully enough roam beyond its bounds, yet never has them painfully so exercised. Every person of the slightest thoughtfulness is sensible of the dignity and happiness connected with such a state of mind as this. It is evident, too, that all around the contented man derive advantage from his contentment, because, so far as he is concerned, they are secure from various sources of trouble. To discontent alone are due avarice and ambition and envy, and the innumerable sins and crimes which spring from these. A world of universal contentment would be Paradise restored.

To every moderately attentive and candid observer of human life, one strong argument for the cultivation of contentment presents itself clearly and constantly, in the fact that a daw of compensation acts so extensively in connection with men’s lot. The poor man lacks, in some measure, the means of ministering to outward comfort and refinement which the rich man has; but at the same time he is free from many anxieties, many distractions and fears, which wealth generally brings with it. The childless wife may remember that parents, amid their peculiar and exquisite joys, have also innumerable peculiar difficulties and burdens ; and, as she thinks of her neighbour whose heart a prodigal son has ‘pierced through with many sorrows,’ she may well ‘possess her soul in patience.’ Power, with all its attractions, has endless troubles ; and no doubt the sentiment of very many kings and rulers was expressed by the pope who left this epitaph for himself: ‘ Here lies Adrian the Sixth, who thought nothing in his life to have befallen him more unhappy than that he had to rule.’ Advancement in fame and influence involves special exposure to envy and calumny ; and thus, observing how ‘that fierce light which beats upon’ high estate, in any department of life, ‘blackens every blot,’ and how assiduously and malevolently the character of eminent men, who, it may be, endeavour faithfully to ‘ wear the white flower of a blameless life,’ is misrepresented, the lowly may be grateful

for their obscurity. It is very plain that no ‘inheritance’ of — earthly good is ‘ undefiled,’ any more than it is ‘ incorruptible.’ Obvious, however, as are the dignity and manifold advantages of a contented spirit, and plain as is the teaching of the facts which have just been adverted to, still the experience of all ages has shown that, without the influence of true religion, men cannot attain to such a spirit, with anything like fulness and constancy. Thought and observation, while helpful as handmaids of religion, are impotent standing alone. Nature persistently defines ‘ Enough’ to mean ‘Something more than we have.’ Heathen philosophers could see truth on the subject so clearly as to make contentment their ideal. Heathen poets could thus sing,— ‘

Tossed on a sea of troubles, O my soul,

Thyself do thou control ; And to the weakness of advancing foes

A stubborn heart oppose ; Undaunted ’mid the hostile might Of squadrons burning for the fight. ‘

Thine be no boasting, when the victor’s crown

Wins thee deserved renown ; Thine no dejected sorrow, when defeat

Would urge a base retreat. Rejoice in joyous things,—nor overmuch

Let grief thy bosom touch Midst evil ; and still bear in mind How changeful are the ways of human kind.’!

But self-seeking had its own way against theory. Envy and ambition proved the feebleness of abstract principles, when brought into contention with human depravity. In the religion of the Bible alone, which gives the soul the knowledge of the living God as an object of love and confidence, is found a motive power strong enough to enable a man to struggle successfully with his natural tendencies to discontent. Nothing else can inbreathe a spirit of true rest. 1

Archilochus, The translation is from Lord Neaves’s Greek Anthology. eee ee ee Se

Christian contentment is that feeling of repose of heart which results from an intelligent recognition of divine providence, as the care of an infinitely kind and wise and holy Being, exerted constantly in regard to all things, great and small, and absolutely controlling everything, so as to make it subservient to His ends. When a man sincerely believes in such providence, and this as the providence of a Father, he cannot but be content with whatever is his lot,—because God has assigned it to him, and what seems good to God must certainly be best.

Men who are in a “torpor, through indolence, sometimes fancy themselves contented. With this feeling Christian contentment has nothing in common. It naturally stands associated with energy, with vigorous and gladsome activity ; for the very same faith in providence which inspires the believer with content, gives him also a stimulus to exertion. He believes that the Lord his God will bless him in the works of his hand, so far as such success would bring him real good.

Christian contentment is essentially distinct, too, from mere natural resolution—such as is occasionally found in men, in considerable strength—not to be bent or broken by circumstances. Of this the sustenance is pride. When the man of such mere natural resolution asserts his ability to retire within himself, and in his own mind find comfort and quiet, however wintrily storms may rage without,—he glorifies himself. The believer also retires within himself ; but it is because God has come to dwell in his heart, and thus made it a holy place. Fellowship with that Divine Friend, whom he knows to be, by every variety of providential dealing, working out towards him the purposes of Fatherly love, gives him rest of spirit. Thus his contentment evidently and eminently glorifies God.

The reasonableness and dutifulness of contentment with any lot in life will become ever clearer to the Christian, if he allow his mind to rest on the various aspects of the subject, as lighted up by Scripture.

He will feel increasingly that the least he enjoys is immeasurably more than in justice he could expect, and that the worst he can here suffer ἐς immeasurably less than he deserves. ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.’ ‘ Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?’ If we can habituate ourselves to look at our circumstances in their relation to our deserts, rather than to our likings, we shall see, on every side, abundant grounds for thankfulness and praise. Alleviations will be found in connection with the heaviest trouble ; some brightness even where at first all seemed dark. ‘The chastisement is with ‘whips,’ when it might have been with ‘scorpions.’ We have had but to ‘run with the footmen,’ instead of having to ‘contend with horses.’ The clouds do not always ‘return after the rain.’

Again, the conviction will become always more impressive, that αὐ God’s dealings with us in providence are meant to serve as a discipline for the soul. Said Moses to Israel, ‘ Remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee; and He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.’ For a moral end, you observe—for training to spiritual wisdom—were intended both the adversity and the prosperity, the ‘suffering to hunger’ and the ‘feeding with manna.’ In nothing is growth towards the

‘measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ’ more marked, than in increase of practical apprehension of the truth that to moral ends divine providence always works, with a variety of treatment most graciously adapted to the requirements οὗ varied temperaments and varied intelligence. According to an image employed by Isaiah, the Divine Husbandman deals with us as the Eastern farmer with different kinds of grain: the harder and coarser kinds he bruises with the iron wheel,

‘but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin

with a rod’ (Isa. xxviii. 27). In the degree in which he understands all this, a believer is content. He has come to know and feel that the welfare of the soul is infinitely more important than anything merely temporal can be; and therefore he will accept thankfully the position in life which God has assigned him, as the best for his spiritual health at the time. He has prayed, ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart ; try me, and know my thoughts ; cleanse me from secret faults ;᾿ and he believes God’s providential actings towards him to be one mode in which He is answering the prayer. When trouble of any kind comes upon him, therefore, he will, on the one hand, ‘not despise the chastening of the Lord,’ but gravely consider it, as being a minister of God for his soul’s good ; and, on the other hand, he will not ‘ faint when thus rebuked of Him,’ but cast himself, with a child’s trust, on His sustaining and comforting grace.

It is very important,—and this is one of the highest and most difficult attainments in Christian wisdom,—that there should be a realizing operative sense of the wlimited range of the discipline of providence. We are exceedingly prone, even while recognising it, and giving ourselves up to the teaching in prominent occurrences in our lives, to forget that the training is as really given in αὐ that befalls us. John Newton says, ‘ Many Christians who bear the loss of a child, or the destruction of all their property, with the most heroic Christian fortitude, are entirely vanquished by the breaking of a dish, or the blunders of a servant ; and show so unchristian a spirit, that we cannot but wonder at them.’ The observation of us all tells that this witness is true. Now such sinful outbreaks of discontent are plainly due to a forgetfulness that in what we reckon the little events of life, as well as in the great, divine providence is present—present to teach, ‘to humble us, and to prove us, and to know what is in our hearts, whether we will keep God’s commandments, or no.’ By far the larger proportion of the history of all men is made up of little occur-

rences ; and the sum of the influence of these little things on our character is a great sum. Let us believe, then, that He by whom ‘the hairs of our heads are all numbered,’ is, by the little sorrows and the little joys of life, offering us instruction, as really as by the more notable. The truth is, that nothing is little which has moral bearings.

The thought, too, is fitted to be a most influential one with the child of God, that, however dreary to the carnal eye his lot here may be, he will very soon exchange it for heaven. Earth is not our home. We are but journeying homewards ; and—as wayfaring men before whose hearts already rises the vision of their own happy fireside, and all the dear ones around it, may well bear easily the discomforts of the resting-places into which they turn to tarry for a night on the way—so is it most reasonable that the Christian should be content with the entertainment he receives here below, since he expects to reach heaven so speedily. When our hearts are depressed, then, by difficulties and vexations, let us pray that God would give us ears to hear the voice of true wisdom, saying— ‘

Be comforted, And, like a cheerful traveller, take the road, Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod To meet the flints? At least it may be said, ‘* Because the way is short, I thank thee, God.”’ !

This thought, of the brevity of this earthly life, and the littleness of even its greatest possible distresses, as seen in the light which shines from heaven, is probably, in most cases, the most efficient practical argument for Christian contentment. Without it, the others would be featherless and untipped arrows ; whilst in our consideration of it, the energy of the others seems to gather around it. We feel the case to be so; and the first Christians felt it so. ‘The Hebrew believers ‘ took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves !

Mrs. Browning.

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that they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance.’ The Apostle Paul ‘fainted not, while he looked not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal;’ and ‘reckoned that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.’ Is it wonderful that one who could, with vivid realization, so ‘reckon,’ should have the contentment with his earthly lot of which we read in the passage now under consideration? Could any state of feeling be more reasonable ἢ

Whilst beginning, as his actual circumstances and the connection of his remarks naturally suggested, with a reference to his contentment under poverty and manifold sufferings, the apostle goes on to magnify the grace of his Saviour by telling his friends that he found himself enabled to bear prosperity also with equability of spirit. He was led so fully and vividly to apprehend the truth that God alone can satisfy man’s heart —God’s favour, and fellowship, and likeness,—and that God can satisfy the heart perfectly, that nothing external—neither poverty nor riches, humiliation nor honour, trouble nor rest— could seriously destroy the balance of his feelings. Now and again, in his course as a minister of Christ, he had been in ‘positions of considerable outward comfort, surrounded by kind and helpful friends, and free from physical privations. He had found, in such cases, that he was able to enjoy the prosperity without undue delight in it; as well as now to endure the hardships of his imprisonment without great depression of spirits. ‘Z know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere, and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.’

We naturally think, all of us, that we could bear wealth better than poverty. Observation and Scripture both tell us the contrary. It needs a very steady hand satisfactorily to carry a full cup. No doubt the cares of this world, to which s the poor are exposed, are apt to ‘choke’ the good seed of the word, and make it unfruitful; and in extreme poverty, where a father or mother hears children crying for bread, and has none to give them, it must be very hard to retain entire restfulness of heart in the divine love. But among persons to some extent influenced by religion, we should find, I apprehend, a much greater proportion of the poor uninjured spiritually by their poverty, than of the rich uninjured by their riches. We have in Scripture a very much larger number of ‘ charges to them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches,’ than we have of warnings to the poor regarding the hazards connected with their condition. As regards spiritual life, the tendency of outward prosperity is to emervate, to make a man flaccid and pithless, easily overcome by temptations to self-indulgence, to pride and vainglory, and, curiously enough, to discontent and greed. It is frequently ‘when riches increase,’ that men are most liable to “set their heart upon them.’ Often, in his heart, as Zophar the Naamathite remarked long ago, a rich man, ‘in the fulness of his sufficiency, is in straits.’ The peevishness and unmanhness of Ahab, the king of Israel, who ‘laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread,’ because Naboth declined to sell him his vineyard; and of Haman, the favourite of the king of Persia, whom all his success ‘availed nothing, so long as Mordecai the Jew bowed not, nor did him reverence,’—this not merely has innumerable counterparts in ungodly men who prosper in the world, but has too much also that resembles it, there is ground to fear, even in the prosperous who know the Lord. On the whole, it seems to be a rarer and grander attainment, to ‘know how to abound,’ even than to ‘know how to suffer need.’

The apostle tells us very distinctly that, to obtain either knowledge, we must ‘ /arn.’ God has revealed to us truth which, when understood and believed, can keep the soul equable in all worldly circumstances—calm and restful in Him,

He gives us, in His providence, fields for proving and improving our spiritual strength. He offers to us, freely and abundantly, the guiding and sustaining influences of His Spirit. We, on our part, having thus the privilege of divine teaching, are called on, if we would make progress, to set ourselves to ‘learn,’ by being thoughtful, and vigilant, and prayerful. We must be diligent students, if we are to succeed ; for certainly no form of Christian excellence is harder of attainment than such equipoise of spirit as is here described by Paul. The difficulty and sublimity of this knowledge are perhaps suggested by the original word rendered in our translation ‘ instructed,’ for, in its strict use, it was applied to initiation into the famous heathen mysteries,—those of Eleusis, and the like. The man who knows ‘ both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need,’ takes his place not in the outer ranks, but among the most proficient students of religion. He has learned the secret of a happy life. He has been ‘ initiated’ into the ‘ mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.’

In the 13th verse, the apostle’s statement of the moral power possessed by him becomes yet bolder. It takes a form, however, which prevents the possibility of any accusation of vainglory, by ascribing all the glory to the Redeemer. No man ever had a lowlier opinion of himself than Paul had. His whole history and character prove that he felt in his inmost soul what he said, when he spoke of himself as ‘ not meet to be called an apostle, as ‘less than the least of all saints,’ as ‘ the chief of sinners.’ Yet at times, in his letters to the churches, —whose own experience enabled them to confirm this class of statements to the letter, however much, one can hardly but think, they sometimes lovingly doubted the other,—he is led to speak of his ministerial efficiency, and of the consistency of his Christian character ;—with what exquisite humility always, and wondering thankfulness! His crown was ever cast down before the throne of his Saviour. ‘I laboured more abundantly than they all,—yet not I, but the grace of God which was with

me.’ ‘Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world,—by the grace of God.’ So here, ‘I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. J can do all things,—through Christ which Strengtheneth me.’

A more exact rendering of the last words is ‘ 221 Christ which strengtheneth me, or rather,—according to a reading which is probably the true one, being found in the oldest manuscripts,— ‘in Him which strengtheneth me.’ This latter mode of expression pleasantly illustrates the familiarity to the mind of Paul himself and, as he doubted not, to that of his readers, of the thought that the spring of their spiritual energy was in their Lord. The apostle puts the truth explicitly elsewhere, ‘I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me,’ or ‘strengthened me,’—in the original, the same word as here (1 Tim. i. 12).

Paul’s language here, you observe, implies an acknowledgment of personal weakness. This we have very fully in other places. ‘I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing,—for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? JZ thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Naturally powerless and dead, the believer finds in Him ‘the Resurrection and the Life.’ By Christ he is taught truth which presents to him the strongest motives to holy devotedness; and the example of Christ, as his Forerunner, is felt by him to be most stimulating. But this is not all, nor most. He is, through the grace of God, so vitally united to Christ by his faith, that Christ’s life is revealed in his. All our power for true service of God, my brethren, is ‘zz Christ, who strengtheneth us.’ ‘He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.’ ‘We live ; yet not we, but Christ liveth in us.’ Thus Paul was not merely ‘content’ to bear imprisonment and poverty, but would ‘most gladly glory

in his infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon him ; for, when he was weak, then was he strong’ through His strength who had said to him, ‘ My grace is sufficient for thee ; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ In the circumstances where man most feels his own impotence, the glory of the Saviour, who lives in His people, and whose strength reveals itself in them, is most signally attested ; and, therefore, in being placed in such circumstances the apostle would even exult.

‘In Christ,’ the believer has—or may have, if he will rise to the apprehension and acceptance of it—what may be called a moral omnipotence. There is no duty so arduous, that ‘in Him,’ the Almighty and All-wise, it cannot be discharged,—no trial so severe, that ‘in Him’ it cannot be undergone with fortitude and spiritual advantage. ‘JZ can do all things in Him which strengtheneth me.’ Would that we understood this more, —that we proved its truth for ourselves,—that in our Christian life we looked away more entirely from mere earthly helps, and practically showed belief that ‘Christ Jesus is made of God to us,’ not ‘wisdom and righteousness’ only, but also * sanctification’ ! ;