Part 7 (1/2)

But how does a tree grow? How are our souls to grow? Now here, again, we shall understand heavenly things best by taking and considering the pattern from among earthly things which the Bible gives us--the tree, I mean. A tree grows in two ways. Its roots take up food from the ground, its leaves take up food from the air.

Its roots are its mouth, we may say, and its leaves are its lungs.

Thus the tree draws nourishment from the earth beneath and from the heaven above; and so must our souls, my friends, if they are to live and grow, they must have food both from earth and from heaven. And this is what I mean--Why has G.o.d given us senses, eyes, and ears, and understanding? That by them we may feed our souls with things which we see and hear, things which are going on in the world round us. We must read, and we must listen, and we must watch people and their sayings and doings, and what becomes of them, and we must try and act, and practise what is right for ourselves; and so we shall, by using our eyes and ears and our bodies, get practice, and experience, and knowledge, from the world round us--such as Solomon gives us in his Proverbs--and so our eyes, and ears, and understandings, are to be to us like roots, by which we may feed our souls with earthly learning and experience. But is this enough?

No, surely. Consider, again, G.o.d's example which He has given us--a tree. If you keep stripping all the leaves off a tree, as fast as they grow, what becomes of it? It dies, because without leaves it cannot get nourishment from the air, and the rain, and the sunlight.

Again, if you shut up a tree where it can get neither rain, air, nor light, what happens? the tree certainly dies, though it may be planted in the very richest soil, and have the very strongest roots; and why? because it can get no food from the sky above. So with our souls, my friends. If we get no food from above, our souls will die, though we have all the wit, and learning, and experience, in the world. We must be fed, and strengthened, and satisfied, with the grace of G.o.d from above--with the Spirit of G.o.d. Consider how the Bible speaks of G.o.d's Spirit as the breath of G.o.d; for the very word SPIRIT means, originally, breath, or air, or gas, or a breeze of wind, shewing us that as without the airs of heaven the tree would become stunted and cankered, so our souls will without the fresh, purifying breath of G.o.d's Spirit. Again, G.o.d's Spirit is often spoken of in Scripture as dew and rain. His grace or favour, we read, is as dew on the gra.s.s; and again, that G.o.d shall come unto us as the rain, as the first and latter rain upon the earth; and again, speaking of the outpourings of G.o.d's Spirit on His Church, the Psalmist says that ”He shall come down as the rain upon the mown gra.s.s, as showers that water the earth;” and to shew us that as the tree puts forth buds, and leaves, and tender wood, when it drinks in the dew and rains, so our hearts will become tender, and bud out into good thoughts and wise resolves, when G.o.d's Spirit fills them with His grace.

But again; the Scripture tells us again and again that our souls want light from above; and we all know by experience that the trees and plants which grow on earth want the light of the sun to make them grow. So, doubtless, here again the Scripture example of a tree will hold good. Now what does the sunlight do for the tree?

It does every thing, for without light, the soil, and air, and rain, are all useless. It stirs up the sap, it hardens the wood, it brings out the blossom, it colours the leaves and the flowers, it ripens the fruit. The light is the life of the tree;--and is there not one, my friends, of whom these words are written--that He is the Life, and that He is the Light--that He is the Sun of Righteousness and the bright and morning Star--that He is the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world--that in Him was life, and the life was the light of men? Do you not know of whom I speak? Even of Him that was born at Bethlehem and died on the cross, who now sits at G.o.d's right hand, praying for us, offering to us His body and His blood;--Jesus the Son of G.o.d, He is the Light and the Life.

From Him alone our light must come, from Him alone our life must come, now and for ever. Oh, think seriously of this--and think, too, how a short time before He died on earth He spoke of Himself as the Bread of life--the living Bread which comes down from heaven; how He declared to men, that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they have no life in them. And, lastly, consider this, how the same night that He was betrayed, He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, ”Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me.” And how, likewise, He took the cup, and when He had blessed it, He gave it to them, saying, ”Drink ye all of this, for this is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins; this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” Oh, consider these words, my friends--to you all and every one they were spoken. ”Drink ye ALL of this,” said the Blessed One; and will you refuse to drink it? He offers you the bread of life, the sign and the pledge of His body, which shall feed your souls with everlasting strength and life; and will you refuse what the Son of G.o.d offers you, what He bought for you with His death? G.o.d forbid, my friends!

This is your blessed right and privilege--the right and the privilege of every one of you--to come freely and boldly to that holy table, and there to remember your Saviour. At that table to confess your Saviour before men--at that table to shew that you really believe that Jesus Christ died for you--at that table to claim your share in the strength of His body, in the pardon of His blood, which cleanses from all sin--and at that table to receive what you claim, to receive at that table the wine, as a sign from Christ Himself, that His blood has washed away your sins; and the bread, as a sign that His body and His spirit are really feeding your spirits, that your souls are strengthened and refreshed by the body and blood of Christ, as your bodies are with the bread and wine. I have shewn you that your souls must be fed from heaven,-- that the Lord's Supper is a sign to you that they ARE fed from heaven. You pray to G.o.d, I hope, many of you, that He would give you His Holy Spirit, that He would change, and renew, and strengthen your souls--you pray G.o.d to do this, I hope--Well, then, there is the answer to your prayers. There your souls WILL be renewed and strengthened--there you will claim your share in Christ, who alone can renew and strengthen them. The bread which is there broken is the communion, the sharing, of the body of Christ; the cup which is there blessed is the communion of the blood of Christ: to that heavenly treat, to that spiritual food of your souls, Jesus Himself invites you, He who is the life of men. Do not let it be said at the last day of any one of you, that when the Son of G.o.d Himself invites you, you would not come to Him that you might have life.

SERMON XIX. MAN'S WORKING DAY

JOHN, xi. 9, 10.

”Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”

This was our blessed Lord's answer to His disciples when they said to Him, ”Master, the Jews of late tried to stone Thee, and goest Thou among them again?” And ”Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”

Now, at first sight, one does not see what this has to do with the disciples' question--it seems no answer at all to it. But we must remember who it was who gave that answer. The Son of G.o.d, from whom all words come, who came to do good, and only good, every minute of His life. And, therefore, we may be sure that He never threw away a single word. And we must remember, too, to whom He spoke--to His disciples, whom He was training to be apostles to the whole world, teaching them in every thing some deep lesson, to fit them for their glorious calling, as preachers of the good news of His coming. So we may be sure that He would never put off any question of theirs; we may be certain, that whatever they asked Him, He would give them the best possible answer; not, perhaps, just the answer for which they wished, but the answer which would teach them most. Therefore I say, we must believe that there is some deep, wonderful lesson in this text--that it is the very best and fullest answer which our Lord could have made to His disciples when they asked Him why He was going again to Judea, where He stood in danger of His life.

Let us think a little about this text in faith, that is, sure that there is a deep, blessed meaning in it, if we can but find it out.

Let us take it piece by piece; we shall never get to the bottom of it, of course, but we may get deep enough into it to set us thinking a little between now and next Sunday.

”Are there not twelve hours in the day?” said our Lord. We know there are, and we know, too, that if any man walks in the day, and keeps his eyes open, he does not stumble, because he has the light of this world to guide him. Twelve hours for business, and twelve for food, and sleep, and rest, is our rule for working men, or, indeed, not our rule, but G.o.d's. He has set the sun for the light of this world, to rule the day, to settle for us how long we are to work. In this country days vary. In summer they are more than twelve hours, and then men work early and late; but that is made up to us by winter, when the days are less than twelve hours, and men work short time. In the very cold countries again, far away in the frozen north, the sun never sets all the summer, and never rises all the winter, and there is six months day and six months night.

Wonderful! But even there G.o.d has fitted the land and men's lives to that strange climate, and they can gather in enough meat in the summer to keep them all the winter, that they may be able to spend the long six months' night of winter warm in their houses, sleeping and resting, with plenty of food. So that even to them there are twelve hours in the day, though their hours are each a fortnight long,--I mean a certain fixed time in which to walk, and do the business which they have to do before the long frozen night comes, wherein no man can work, because the sun, the light of this world, is hid from them below the ice for six whole months. So that our Lord's words hold true of all men, even of those people in the icy north. But in by far the most parts of the world, and especially in the hot countries, where our Lord lived, there are twelve common hours in every day, wherein men may and ought to work.

Now what did our Lord mean by reminding His disciples of this, which they all knew already? He meant this,--that G.o.d His Father had appointed Him a certain work to do, and a certain time to do it in; that though His day was short, only thirty-three years in all, while we have, many of us, seventy years given us, yet that there were twelve hours in His day in which He must work--that G.o.d would take care that He lived out His appointed time, provided He was ready and earnest in doing G.o.d's work in it--and that He MUST work in that time which G.o.d had given Him, whatever came of it, and do His appointed work before the night of death came in which no man can work.

There was a heathen king once, named Philip of Macedon, and a very wise king he was, though he was a heathen, and one of the wisest of his plans was this:--he had a slave, whom he ordered to come in to him every morning of his life, whatever he was doing, and say to him in a loud voice, ”Philip, remember that thou must die!”

He was a heathen, but a great many who call themselves Christians are not half so wise as he, for they take all possible care, not to remember that they must die, but to FORGET that they must die; and yet every living man has a servant who, like King Philip's, puts him in mind, whether he likes it or not, that his day will run out at last, and his twelve hours of life be over, and then die he must.

And who is that servant? A man's own body. Lucky if his body is his servant, though--not his MASTER and his tyrant. But still, be that as it may, every finger-ache that one's body has, every cough and cold one's body catches, ought to be to us a warning like King Philip's servant, ”Remember that thou must die.” Every little pain and illness is a warning, a kindly hint from our Father in heaven, that we are doomed to death; that we have but twelve hours in this short day of life, and that the twelve must end; and that we must get our work done and our accounts settled, and be ready for our long journey, to meet our Father and our King, before the night comes wherein no man can work, but only takes his wages; for them who have done good the wages of life eternal, and for them who have done evil--G.o.d help them! we know what is written--”the wages of sin is death!”

Now, observe next, that those who walk in the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world, and those who walk in the night stumble--they have no light in them. If they are to see, it must be by the help of some light outside themselves, which is not part of themselves, or belonging to themselves at all. We only see by the light which G.o.d has made; when that is gone, our eyes are useless.

So it is with our souls. Our wits, however clever they may be, only understand things by the light which G.o.d throws on those things. He must explain and enlighten all things to us. Without His light--His Spirit, all the wit in the world is as useless as a pair of eyes in a dark night.

Now this earthly world which we do see is an exact picture and pattern of the spiritual, heavenly world which we do not see, as Solomon says in the Proverbs, ”The things which are seen are the doubles of the things which are not seen.” And as there is a light for us in this earth, which is NOT OURSELVES, namely the sun, so there is a light for us in the spirit-world, which is NOT OURSELVES.

And who is that? The blessed Lord shall answer for Himself. He says, ”I am the light of the world;” and St. John bears witness to Him, ”In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” And does not St. Paul say the same thing, when he blessed G.o.d so often for having called him and his congregations out of darkness into that marvellous light? If you read his Epistles you will find what he meant by the darkness, what he meant by the light. The darkness was heathendom, knowing nothing of Christ. The light was Christianity, knowing Christ the light; and, more, being IN the light, belonging to Christ--being joined to Him, as the leaves are to the tree,-- living by trust in Christ, being taught and made true men and true women of, by the n.o.ble and Holy Spirit of Christ--seeing their way through this world by trust in Christ and His promises,--That was light.

And there is no other light. If a man does not work trusting in Christ, whom G.o.d has set for the light of the world, he works in the night, where G.o.d never set or meant him to work; and stumble he will, and make a fool of himself, sooner or later, because he is walking in the night, and sees nothing plainly or in a right view.