The herald., 1893-01-30

| read how holy love. awful in the in
tensity OF its yearning, moved the in
carnate Christ up Cavalry's gloomy
steep. Then the word comes, "As the
Father hath life ia Himself, even SO
gave He to the Son to have life in Him
self" And my heart cries out in anti
cipstion l was chosen in Him created in
Him, loved by Him, even unto death,
and now this strange being, with whom
| am so knitted in e.ernal bonds, hath
''life in Himself" 1t, too, must be for
me. And so it proves, for l read again,
God hath given to us eternal lie and
this life is in His Son." Then come the
Sons own words, 81 come that they may
have life and have it abundantly. !" But
in these days it is necessary to define
more closely the meaning OF 'lfe' as
the word is used in the phrase "life in
Himself" !" Oh what nature was this
life the Father gave Him? Was it "a
life," that is, the power to live a Cody
example for the worlds ideal and imita-
tion, or was it life" a fountain of vi
tality in Himself, a positive something
he could impaft to the world as the
Father impaired to Him? In other
words, what is the relation of Christ to
men? Was He only q God inspired
AiA"h ID uAiO Ohly lDIC6 Il6 pOSbcbbtb
the power of example? Is there no
more to Him for us than the uplift that
comes to the soul when we see that q
pure life has been lived in the world,
and that G d has helped a man to live
it? Ia Jesus removed from US only by
the diameter of circumstance? Is He
receptacle of life or source of life?
The tiret place to look for an answer
to these inq'ories is in His own con-
sciousness. Either Jesus was POSSESSED
of divine vitality of His own or He
was insane. He stood before the world
and declared, II am come that they may
have life and have it abundantly."
What life was it He controlled? 81 lay
down my life," He says, "no one taketh
1t away from me, but [ lay it down of
myself. have power to lay it down,
and have power to take it again. This
commandment have 1 received of my
Father" With wonderful bolduess
tie says to those who would know the
Father, "he that hath seen Ne hath
sen the Father" Again, 81 am the
resurrection and the life. He that be-
lieveth in Me, though he were dead yet
shall he live. Because l live, ye shall
live Also" His relations to men were
Stated in terms of living communication
He spake as never man spske, yet His
words carry conviction of the truth that
ia in them by their very utterance. He
did the works that no other man did
and yet these miracles do not seem at
all unnatural to Him. They fall easily
into the story of His life as common
places. And this is also true of His
claim to possession of ''life in Himeelf."
He was conscious of it to such degree
that He faced Calvary unfinchingly.
He knew He could lay His life down
and take it again. In this He is the
unique figure of all histo.y. And, in
His ministry, was that consciousness a
conviction that He was the way and the
truth only, and not also the life? Was
it a conviction that He was the light of
the world and not its resurrection Was
He possessed of the idea that His work
was to impart system of ethics and not
spirit of ethics? Was His professed
mission to set up laws to regulate con-
duct and not to bestow the life that is
sues in character? What did He mean,
then, when He turned to the legalists
and cried: "Ye search the scriptures
because in them ye think ye have eter-
nal life, and ye will not come
to Me that ye may have life." What
llio n lOlby duu poTl5Ct oAdmplc! l.
have no fault to find with the doctrine
that He is our example. l believe it
and preach it. But is that all? He is
the way, He is the truth. Is lie not
also the life? Whatever opinion to the
contrary may exist as to His power to
impart life to men, He believed He had
it, and SO declared.
But some one says: "What if He did
believe it? That proves nothing. He
might have been deceived. He might
have been conscious of conviction, not
of fact" Well, l don't have to argue
that ground. l find the world today
pervaded with His vitality. How did
the world receive it? A life has been
impaired to humanity and they who
have received it deny that it is their
own, and declare that they received it
from Jesus Christ. How can you ac-
count for it on any other hypothesis
than that in Him was life, and the
power to bestow it on all who would re-
ceive it? When the life OF Jesus went
out in sacrifice there was a marvellous
result. In place of personal presence
among men of a given place, there was
new spiritual power in all the world.
Still the identity was not lost. 1t was
the same life which had been seen and
felt in Capernaum and Jerusalem which
WAS reappearing in Damassus, Corinth
and Rome. THAT life which 1 now
live in the flesh, live in faith, the
faith which is in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave Himself up for me-"
This has been the tes .mony of all sue
ceeding ages because it has been the
consciousness of all succeeding ages. 81
no longer live, but Christ liveth in me-"
At the heart of every deep spiritual
movement of the race or the Individual
we find Jesus, not as an ideal, but as
vital energy. The dark ages OF the
church were the years when it substi-
|'tut"1 its own life for His. Spiritual
force grew faint. The tide of develop
ment in human nature ebbed And, in
the history of the church, the seasons
of enlarged spiritual might have
bsen the times when the church
has turned from rites and cere-
monies and externalities, and has come
back to Jesus Christ. Never has the
church or single soul drawn nearer to
the Lord without great evidence of
quickened and enlarged spiritual ex-
psrience. How do you account for this
thing2 No one who has felt the new life
claims it as his own or as his old life
touched with the inspiration OF the
Christ ideal. Nay, sll protest that it is
not His example,it ia Himself. Christ is
formed in them. 1t is not "Christ of
1000 i,,s h,,t