VOL. VIII. NEW SERIES.]

[JULY 1, 1865.

THE CHURCH.

Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone."

JULY, 1865.

LIFE IN CHRIST.

BY THE REV. J. U. DAVIS, B.A.

"Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”—Col. iii. 3.

THE early teachers of Christianity came into direct collision with three different principles of life, which have been represented in all agesSensualism, Judaism, and Philosophy (falsely so called). The Sensualists are most numerous, and yield themselves willing subjects to all uncleanness, covetousness, and idolatry. The Jews goad themselves to the rigid observance of outward ordinances, in hope of thus winning inward life. "The Wise" deem themselves incontaminate by impurity and independent of all rites, since they comprehend all mysteries." The Sensualist cares nothing for salvation. The Jew relies on his own strength of will to secure it. The Wise man reposes in his intellectual apprehension of truth or in certain inward experiences, and is sure of it. These classes are not always thus distinctly marked off from each other; they sometimes merge into, and combine with, one another; but they are always in direct antagonism to Christianity, which is pure, spiritual and humble. All these opposing elements existed in the church at Colosse, and Paul met them with the proper antidote of Christ, the source of purity, spiritual life and perfect wisdom. They are not yet extinct either in the world or the church, and must be met in a similar manner. Christians have not yet renounced all the impurities which make them of the world worldly. Some appear, by their harsh judgments of the known sinner, to be themselves the subjects of such unholy passions as demand the exhortation to "put off the old man ;"" others, it is known, bow down to omnipotent, all attractive and seemingly inexhaustible wealth, and worship it by the petty tricks of trade and puny contributions to that religion they profess to honour and obey; this is: “covetousness, which is idolatry." Christians have not yet thrown off alli the chains of Judaism, as recast and reforged for them by Laud on the one: hand, and the Puritans on the other; some still believe in the efficacy of the sacraments, baptism at birth and communion at death; others so enforce their rigid rules and set ordinances as to make Sabbaths burdensome,

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homes dull, and all devotion irksome; but Paul says, "Let no man pass a judgment on eating and drinking in the matter of a feast, a new moon, or a Sabbath." Christians have not yet fully recognized the one condition of Christian life, to love Christ, and follow him in love; some make the acceptance of certain doctrinal statements, dependent on speculation and human induction, so important that the creed of the church, important as all must hold that to be, is made all in all, and the Catechism overshadows the Gospel; others regard certain modes of feeling and inward experience as necessary to the existence of Christian life; and both incline to shut out from notice the proper union of these two, and the proof of their union in an honourable life and sacred activity. Again, the Apostle says, "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.”

That Sensualism which panders to the lusts of the flesh or the pride of life, and is only busy for wealth with the comforts and show it will procure, is not from heaven, heavenly; that Judaism which makes a child be born again of the will of man, or exercises the will mainly in the control of outward conduct, is of the earth, earthy; that wisdom which would rely on understanding or on experience only, does not find its light in Christ, but in man's intellect and man's feelings, and is therefore not Christian and divine, but worldly and human. Thus all are counteracted by the command, "Seek those things which are above . . . set tions on things above, not on things of the earth ;" and this command is based upon the fact, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

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I. "Ye died, and your life-." It was a maxim of ancient science, and is an axiom of modern unbelief, that out of nothing nothing's made." This maxim of modern science is the converse of this, "out of something, some thing's made;" so that, in a physical sense, "that which hath been is that which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun." Annihilation is deemed physically impossible. No change can destroy; it may disintegrate, analyze, resolve into constituent elements, but, after all, they retain their being, and re-appear in new combinations. The same is morally and spiri tually true. The change does not involve destruction. There was a life of its kind, then death broke it up, and now there is another life of its kind. The old union has been dissolved, a new union is formed. “You died, but your life is.” What is death? We think of death, physically, as the dislocation of the joints, the dissolution of the flesh-"dust to dust, ashes to ashes;" spiritually, as the liberation of the soul from the body-"the spirit returns to God who gave it;" and, socially, as a departure, the body to the earth beneath, the spirit to heaven above, and both from us-"The place that knew him once shall know him no more for ever." life, physically, as a connection of all parts, "the body by all joints and bands... knit together;" socially, as a union by personal presence and influence, "having fellowship one with another;" and, spiritually, as a oneness with God, "that they may be one in us." Death, then, is separation; life is union. No figures could so vividly set forth the fact of conversion as these, since it separates us from so many things of the earth, earthy, and binds us to Chrst and things of heaven, heavenly.

We think of

The senses were used for the satisfaction of ourselves, or we desecrated

Now, they should become the

ourselves to the satisfaction of our senses. instruments by which the mind is cleared, the heart warmed, and the will strengthened in connection with what " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard." The will was active in the control of outward circumstances and formation of outward habits. Now, it should become independent of that which is without, and rule, by exercise and constraint, "the thoughts and intents of the heart." The mind and heart were busy in comparing one truth with another, and one feeling with another. Now they should be engaged in the discovery of the relation between God and man, which such truths express, of the connection of these truths with the inward sentiment, and of the practice which should flow from them. Thus we die to the old, but live to the new ; the senses, the will, the mind and heart, receive new directions and fresh limits; one high and hallowed purpose consecrates them all. The body is a holy thing, the temple of God; the will is a wise regent within; whilst mind and heart conceive and carry out, by the will through the body, the loving commands of the Saviour. Sensualism, Judaism, Philosophy (so called), perish from us, and we from them. Christ comes nigh to us, and we to him. "Ye died, but your life is hid with Christ in God." "Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God."

II. " hid with Christ!" Christ is the source, the support, and object of this life. It begins from him, and ends in him. He taught us how we might gaze upon the glowing lily, listen to the song of birds, watch the stream sweep past us when swollen by the storm which broke about the neighbouring hills, or make one at a marriage festival, and still think of our Father," His commandments, and our last best home. He showed us how the will might rule, not after the rigid and formal manner of the law, but after the freer mode of love, putting its constraint, not first on hand and eye, but first on head and heart. And he, too, declared how vain all speculations and sentiments must be that did not comprise a keen sense of the sinfulness of sin, the just judgments of God, and the need of another than ourselves for our salvation, since he came into the world to teach us how to live, to constrain us by his love, and, by his sacrifice, to make us spiritually safe and sound. When thus he has inspired us with the moral courage to die to sin, and the moral strength to live to him, he naturally becomes the ideal of Christian life. There is no ambition higher than this, "to be made conformable unto" him, as he was on earth and as he is in glory. For since he is above, the new life does not only seek to be like him here strengthened by him now-but to be more like him hereafter, and still more strengthened there; and thus our life is not only with Christ, but hid with him" whom, not having seen, we love; yet in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

All life is hid. The sharp knife of anatomy cannot find it, nor the piercing eye of the microscope discover it. It is only known by its phenomena; all life is in this, like the first great Life of all; "the invisible things thereof are declared by the things which are seen." It is so of Christian life; "by their fruits ye shall know them." Like all sentient existence, the Christian life is an individual personal treasure, hid, so to speak, in each one's own

conscience. It is most true here that the heart knoweth "its own bitterness, and the stranger intermeddleth not with its joy." The Sensualist, the Jew, and the Wise in their own wisdom, cannot know the buoyant heart whose pulse is throbbing with love to God, and faith in Christ, and hope of heaven. "The natural man discerneth not the things of God, for they are spiritually discerned."

But not only is this life hid, by its nature, in itself and from the world, but it is especially hid with Christ, the source and object of it; for we do not know the fulness which is in him, and therefore do not know the resources of the life which is in us, nor the development of which it is capable now and hereafter. The Nile rose and fell for ages, and left its rich sediment for rice-fields on its fertile banks; whilst slaves toiled in the brickyards, philosophers discoursed in the cities, priests worshipped in the temples, and kings lay embalmed in the pyramids of its valley; but none knew the full strength of it-its life, for its source was hid from all Egyptian ken in the lake embosomed amongst lofty hills, whose melting snows supplied the streams which filled its widening marge to overflowing, till it fed the waters of the Nile. So is the current of Christian life in the world, or in us each; its possible strength and beauty is not known. Christ is the source of it, and he is "out of sight," resting in majestic repose amidst the mountains of God's purity and might.

The Christian life grows into perfect Christ-likeness. That "perfection in him" is not yet known, but it shall be; whilst we "have not yet attained" " our life is hid ;" and, since Christ is "the ideal" of it, it is hid

with him.

The kernel is hidden in its hardy shell, but has within it a hidden life, which makes it swell in the sun-warmed and rain-moistened clod, break through its crust, push up its pale and sallow stem to the light, open its early leaflets to the dew and multiply its twigs, until they thicken into boughs and branches. Old men will come and lean their tired backs against its steady trunk, boys and girls shall play beneath its fluttering shadows and children shall echo back with songs the warbling of the birds above them. Such is the kingdom of heaven. It is like a grain cast into the garden, which grew and waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air came and lodged in it.

It is with every individual as with the whole church; the life is hidden now, you can scarce tell what it shall grow to. The life we now live is child life compared with the life we shall live, which is man life; and Christian manhood is hidden from us in our Christian childhood.

When Pharoah's daughter found the fair child among the flags that rustled his lullaby, and the rippling waves that rocked him to sweet sleep; none could see that those waters should be the scene of his miracles—when he should resist Pharoah rescue Israel, and prepare them for the promised land. Miriam lay him in the bulrushes, and little weened that the Angels of God should lay him in his sepulchre-his life was hid.

So our perfect life, which is to be like Christ, is hid with Christ. It is only in its infancy, and has yet by suffering and sorrow, temptation and care, death and resurrection, to attain its manhood. Now we are but

children; we speak as children—all inarticulately; we understand as children —all partially; we reason as children—all illogically; but we shall put away these childish things, and speak clearly, understand fully, and reason rightly, when the life of the Christian now hidden in the child shall be revealed in the man.

THE BREAD OF LIFE.

BY THE REV. SAMUEL Cox.

True they were "about twenty-five or thirty furlongs" from the shore, and the lake was only some forty furlongs across: but ships and boats do not take a direct course, even when the weather is fair, much less when beating up in a storm against a strong contrary wind. That phrase, by-the-bye, "about twenty-five or thirty furlongs (John vi., 19), is a somewhat curious one. Did not the Holy Spirit know exactly how far the little ship had gone? or must we modify a certain current theory of Inspiration?