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Christianity a Life.
Christian experience is not merely something that comes into a man’s life when he becomes conscious of his sins; it is not merely a new series of duties he enters upon. It is coming into friendship with that great, noble Person in whom God is manifest to us; the giving of our lives so thoroughly to Him that we become like Him; our natures shaped upon His nature, till our life is His life and His life is our life. That is what it is to be a Christian. O Christians, remember this at the very beginning of our Christian life! Christianity and Christian experience is not the repenting of sin; it is not the doing of new duty. But it is the bringing of our life into conformity with the life in which God is manifest to us — the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. I climb a hill upon its darkened side. There is no sun that lights me, but I know upon the other side there is light; and as I go I stumble over ugly roots that trip me up. The dark shades are around me, and I go stumbling on. That is not the real purpose of my climbing the mountain. The obstacles are the incidents. But now I am up to the top!
There billows the sun before me, and I am illumined by his glory.
Now, that is just the way with Christians. It is not the experience of sin, it is not the conviction and wretchedness of sin, that is the object of the Christian life. The soul humbled under its sins has only just reached the threshold of the new Christian experience. I beg you to understand this, my dear friends. I beg you to understand it, because this is what gives a glorious and triumphant tone to Christian experience. It is the recognition of the life of Jesus Christ as the pattern of the life into which we have to be shaped by our continued obedience to Him.
— PHILLIPS BROOKS.
The Test of Christianity.
The final test of any religion is its inherent spiritual dynamic; the force of Christianity is the pledge of its success. It is not a school of morals, nor a system of speculation; it is an enthusiasm. This religion is Spring — Spring in the spiritual world — with the irresistible charm of the quickening wind and the bursting bud. It is a birth, as Jesus would say; a breath of God that makes all things new. Humanity does not need morals;
it needs motives. It is sick of speculation; it longs for action. Men see their duty in every land and age with exasperating clearness. We know not how to do it. — JOHN WATSON [Ian MacLaren].
Christianity and Evolution.
The commonest thing that we hear said nowadays by young men is:
“What about evolution? How am I to reconcile my religion, or any religion, with the doctrine of evolution?” That upsets more men than perhaps anything else at the present hour. How would you deal with it? I would say to a man that Christianity is the further evolution. I don’t know any better definition than that. It is the further evolution — the higher evolution. I don’t start with him to attack evolution. l don’t start with him to defend it. I destroy by fulfilling it. I take him at his own terms. He says evolution is that which pushes the man on from the simple to the complex
— from the lower to the higher. Very well; that is what Christianity does.
It pushes the man farther on. It takes him where nature has left him, and carries him on to heights which on the plan of nature he could never reach.
That is evolution. “Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” That is evolution. It is the development of the whole man in the highest directions
— the drawing out of his spiritual being. Show an evolutionist that, and you have taken the wind out of his sails. “I came not to destroy.” Don’t destroy his doctrine — perhaps you can’t — but fulfill it. Put a larger meaning into it.
— HENRY DRUMMOND.
An Inner Kingdom.
Christianity is a fine inoculation, a transfusion of healthy blood into an anemic or poisoned soul. No fever can attack a perfectly sound body; no fever of unrest can disturb a soul which has breathed the air or learned the ways of Christ. Men sigh for the wings of a dove that they may fly away and be at rest. But flying away will not help us. “The Kingdom of God is within you.” We aspire to the top to look for rest; it lies at the bottom.
Water rests only when it gets to the lowest place. So do men. Hence, be lowly. The man who has no opinion of himself at all can never be hurt if others do not acknowledge him. Hence, be meek. He who is without expectation can not fret if nothing comes to him.
It is self-evident that these things are so. The lowly man and the meek man are really above all other men — above all other things. They dominate the world because they do not care for it. The miser does not possess gold;
gold possesses him. But the meek possess it. Said Christ: “The meek inherit the earth.” They do not buy it; they do not conquer it; but they
inherit it. — HENRY DRUMMOND.
The Real Strength of Christianity.
We ought to discern the real strength of Christianity and revive the ancient passion for Jesus. It is the distinction of our religion; it is the guaranty of its triumph. Faith may languish; creeds may be changed; churches may be dissolved; society may be shattered. But one can not imagine the time when Jesus will not be the fair image of perfection, or the circumstances wherein He will not be loved. He can never be superseded; He can never be exceeded. Religions will come and go, the passing shapes of an eternal instinct; but Jesus will remain the standard of the conscience and the satisfaction of the heart, whom all men seek, in whom all men will yet meet. — JOHN WATSON [Ian MacLaren].
No church since the early centuries has had the courage to formulate an ethical creed, for even those bodies of Christians which have no written theological creeds, yet have implicit affirmations or denials of doctrine as their basis. Imagine a body of Christians who should take their stand on the sermon of Jesus, and conceive their creed on His lines. Imagine how it would read: “I believe in the Fatherhood of God; I believe in the words of Jesus; I believe in the clean heart; I believe in the service of love; I believe in the unworldly life; I believe in the Beatitudes; I promise to trust God and follow Christ, to forgive my enemies and to seek after the righteousness of God.” Could any form of words be more elevated, more persuasive, more alluring? Do they not thrill the heart and strengthen the conscience? Liberty of thought is allowed; liberty of sinning is alone denied. Who would refuse to sign this creed? They would come from the east and the west, and the north and the south, to its call; and even they who would hesitate to bind themselves to a crusade so arduous would admire it and long to be worthy. Does one say this is too ideal, too impractical, too Quixotic? That no church could stand and work on such a basis? For three too short years the Church of Christ had none else; and it was by holy living, and not by any metaphysical subtleties, the Primitive Church lived, and suffered, and conquered.
— JOHN WATSON [Ian MacLaren].
What It Is to Be a Christian.
Look at the old saint, whose Christian life is almost over; whose beautiful days are drawing to their beautiful close; who just remembers the far-back time when he first became a disciple of the Master. What has made him what he is? I try to analyze it, and, when I get at the secret of it, it is that back there was a heavenly vision made manifest to him. It became known to him that there was One who, being his Master by the very right of His birth, had asserted His mastership by the love He had shown him and by the death He had died for him; and as gradually his years slipped by, his life has been shaping itself upon the life of that great Master, till now he says, in the words that old Paul used: “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me.” The perfection of his life, as it has been shaped by obedience upon the life of his Master! — PHILLIPS BROOKS
The Meaning of Christianity.
A Christian is the highest style of man. — POPE. Human innocence is not to know evil; Christian saintliness is to know evil and good, and to prefer the good. — F. W. ROBERTSON
It is a very lofty thing to be a Christian, for a Christian is a man who is restoring God’s likeness to his character. — F. W.
ROBERTSON.
The Scriptures give four names to Christians — saints, for their holiness;
believers, for their faith; brethren, for their love; disciples, for their
knowledge. — A. FULLER.
As a tree bringeth forth first leaves, then blossoms and then fruit, so a good Christian ought first to bring forth good thoughts, then good speeches and afterward a godly life, to the honor of God and the good of
his children. — R. CAWDRAY.
Paul recognized the vision. He says he became obedient to it. My dear friends, that is the truth I want to take to myself, and have you take to yourselves: The truth that the government of this world is all by obedience; that it depends upon what a man obeys what a man is. Personal obedience is the Christian life; personal salvation by One who has done for us that which has not merely won the right to demand of us that we should obey Him, but has also shown us what He has done — how worthy He is of exacting our obedience. The vision, then, of the Christian life, it seems to me — that thing upon which the Christian fastens his eye and which he follows, and which leads him on through all the rich and beautiful ranges of Christian growth, the vision that first moves him — is Christ his Master, and his own life completely obedient to Christ. We ask ourselves again the question: “What is it to be a Christian?” We ask yourselves again the question: “How shall I become a Christian?” It is
personal obedience to the Master; and in obedience to that Master there opens before him all the richness of the new life, and in this obedience man watches the character of Him whom he is obeying. — PHILLIPS BROOKS.
The Christian’s Title.
My title is clear to all spiritual blessings, because God being my God in Jesus, all things are mine. Having His free grant of them in the word of promise, and trusting to His faithfulness, I have set out to walk with my divine Friend and Father, hoping to enjoy His loving presence all the way to Heaven. I would not aim at getting any new title to His love, but to have new enjoyment. Every day I am seeking for more knowledge, and for more experience of His abundant love to me in His beloved Son, and for this end I would walk close with Him in His way; not to buy His love — it is inestimable; not to merit it — free grace and merit can not stand together; not that He may give it me for walking with Him, but that in walking with Him I may enjoy what He has already given me. His love is a free gift; I would by faith enjoy it in time, as I hope by sense to enjoy it in eternity. Whatever blessing, strength, victory or comfort I stand in need of, I look to the fullness which He has laid up in Jesus, and thence I receive it. I read my title in it, and I take possession of it, for nothing done in me or by me, now or at any other time, but only in or for the free grace of His Father and my Father.
— ROMAINE [“Walk of Faith”].
Christianity in Heathen Lands.
If Christianity did nothing among all the myriads of that empire but relieve the physical suffering of women, the spirit of humanitarianism would obligate us to continue our missionary enterprises there. The first step in the education of a Chinese girl in a Christian school is not to teach her the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments or the Catechism; it is to unbind her feet. I doubt if those who have never seen the process of feetbinding can understand the monstrous cruelty of the operation. It begins in infancy and continues for years, daily subjecting its victims to pain that can only
be expressed in tears. Christianity in China protests against that ancient barbarism, and Jesus Christ is saying to many a woman there just what He said to one He healed long, long ago: “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.”
— CHARLES C. ALBERTSON.
Those who scoff may well be thankful that they live in the land where the Gospel has tamed the beastliness and ferocity of men who but for Christianity might long ago have eaten their carcasses, like the South Sea Islanders, or cut off their heads and tanned their hides, like the monsters of the French Revolution. — JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
Is it not perfectly erroneous to speak of the failure of missions, when they started with a hundred and twenty despised Galileans, and when there are now at least 120,000,000 Protestants, and they have in their power almost all the wealth and almost all the resources of the world?
— FARRAR.
The Bible is found in the languages of three-fourths of the people of the globe. As of old, it is running very swiftly. There is scarcely a ship that goes to the heathen world which does not carry reinforcements and supplies to the missionaries. In all hearts there is the instinct of victory.
— MCLEAN.
All the shallow pretexts for our neglect and meager offerings and few laborers are shamed into silence when our opened eyes behold in the history of missions itself a “burning bush” whose every leaf and twig is aflame with the presence of Jehovah. — PIERSON.
In my opinion, Christian missions have done more real and lasting good than all other agencies combined. They have been the salt of the country and the true saviors of the empire. — SIR RIVERS THOMPSON. Every other faith in India is decaying. Christianity alone is beginning to
run its course. — SIR HERBERT EDWARDS.
I believe that a great many Christians are overcome because they don’t know what a terrible fight we have. Now, it is no sign because a man is a Christian that he is going to overcome the world, unless he resists temptation when it comes. Do not let any man think that all he has to do is to join the church. That will not save you. The question is, Are you overcoming the world, or is the world overcoming you? Are you more loving than you were five years ago? Are you more patient than you were five years ago? Are you more amiable? Have you more patience? If you haven’t, the world is overcoming you, even if you are a church member.
That epistle which Paul wrote to Titus says we are to be sound in patience, faith and charity. We have got Christians — a good many of them — who are good in spots, but mighty poor in other spots.
— MOODY. Investing in Christianity.
Our King is coming! Surely, then, the best investment of money is in His treasury; the best expenditures of time and strength is in His service. We shall not wish to show Him large balances, nor selfish reserves of either the one or the other; but we shall love to bring Him the lost ones found, the weary ones refreshed, the suffering ones comforted; for His name’s sake.
Stand before Calgary’s cross; see there what it cost to redeem our souls;
and then hear Him say: “How much owest thou unto thy Lord?” Will you then make calculations? Will you say: “So much for Thee, blessed Jesus;
so much for the world; so much for myself?” Can it be so in the final view of the love which gave Himself? — PENNYFATHER.
A True Philosophy.
Christianity as Christ taught it is the truest philosophy of life ever spoken. But let us be quite sure when we speak of Christianity that we mean Christ’s Christianity. Other versions are either caricatures, or exaggerations, or misunderstandings, or short-sighted and surface readings.
For the most part, their attainment is hopeless and the results wretched.
But I care not who the person is, or through what vale of tears he has passed, or is about to pass, there is a new life for him along this path.
— HENRY DRUMMOND. Belief in Jesus.
A Christian is a believer in Jesus. He believes that if he only throws his own lost and sinful soul on the Redeemer, there is in His sacrifice sufficient merit to cancel all his guilt, and in His heart sufficient love to undertake the keeping of his soul for all eternity. He believes that Jesus is a Savior. He believes that His heart is set on His people’s holiness, and that it is only by making them new creatures — pure-minded, kind-hearted, unselfish, devout — that He can fit them for a home and a life like His own; that He can fit them for the occupations and enjoyments of Heaven. And, believing all this, he prays and labors after holiness.
— JAMES HAMILTON. The Security of Christianity.
The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality;
in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart; in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect; in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning; in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave. — MACAULAY.
Condensed Comments.
Wherever are tears and sighs, Wherever are children’s eyes, Where man calls man his brother.
And loves as himself another, Christ lives!
GEORGE HOUGHTON.
The trees look cold and bare today as the wind passes by and finds no playmates in their leaves. Yet on every branch the winter leaves hold,