Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-02-09
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE MORE THAN A
MINTCKRY OF WHAT JESUS WAS
BY BISHOP WARREN A. GAMBLER.

The error that imitation of the historic
Christ is the true principle of Christian
living has been frequently made in the
history of the Church. But whenever and
wherever this unscriptural view has been
accepted it has yielded uniformly mis-
chieyous results.
Some years ago a book was published
| by a preacher out in Kansas which set
forth this idea under the taking title I'm
His Steps" 1t had a wide circulation and
produced for a season a considerable
stock of morbid, fantastical, and censo-
rious religiosity 1t was distinctly un-
wholesome in its general effects whatever
may have been derived from IL by a GER
tain class of minds who were aroused by
its appeal but who never carried its prin-
ciple into practice. Written doubtless
with a pious purpose. it nevertheless pro-
! duced the same sort of fruits which Its
central principle has always yielded In
all the Christian centuries.
The true method of Christian life is not
imitation of the historic Christ but par
ticipation in the spirit of the Risen and
Living Saviour. This is the teaching OF
St Paul when he says to the Collosians,
''If We then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where
Christ stitch on the right hand OF GOD.
For We are dead and your life Is
hid with Christ in God" To the same
purpose he speaks in another one Of his
epistles in which he says, "Henceforth
know we no man after the flesh: yea
though we have known Christ after the
flesh, vet now henceforth know we him
no more Therefore II any man he In
Christ, he is a new creature: old Things
have passed away; behold all things have
become new" In these weighty words
the great Apostle is not to be understood
as undertaking. the life of Jesus In the
flesh. But he teaches us that whatever
may have been the beauty and power OF
that life, 1t did not express the full ideal
TO which Christians were to be raised
The Christian ideal he would have US I'M
derstand is to be found only in that glory
of the Risen Lord which Christians, like
mirror. were to reflect and into full
conformity with which they were to be
changed from glory to glory, even as
from the Lord the Spirit. =
Similarly st. John teaches when ne
says, with reference to the Risen LORD
"As he is so are we in the world" 1t
will be noted that the beloved disciple
does not say 'as He WAS, but as He
IS".
In passages such as these,-and there
are many such in the New Testament
the Christian life is set before US as life
in Risen Saviour. as life deriving It's
character, colour and whole tone not
merely from what Jesus was. but from
what He now is as He is enthroned In the
highest place of spiritual power and au-
thoritv in the universe. The force of the
Christian life is as st. Paul tells the
Enhesians, according to His mighty
mower. which He wrought in Christ, when
He raised Him from the dead, and set
Him at His own right hand in the heav-
emily places, far above all principally and
power and might, and dominion, and
every name that is named. not only In
this world but also in that which is TO
come.
When the principle OF imitation OF
Christ's earthly life is substituted for the
force of His ever-continuing life in the
believer. the stature of our exalted Lord
Is distinctly reduced to the disciples con-
sciousness. and Christian life is lowered
and impoverished in the same measure.
The look OF Christian experience is by
such a method turned backward, and II
becomes reminiscential and archaic,
rather than expectant, buoyant and tri-
umphant In such a posture of soul men
are no longer saved by hope" which
thew have "as an anchor Of the soul both
sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil;" but, II saved
at ALL they are rather saved by a MEM
ory growing more dim with distance and
operating with varying degrees of power
according to the strength or weakness Of
individual imagination. BY such a pro-
cess our Lord becomes an ever
vanishing quantity, and the vital cur
rents of Christian experience run with
sluggish and diminished flow. |
Moreover, this imitation theory of |
Christianity shifts the center of gravity /
of Christian character; it transfers Chris /
tian experience from the conscience and |
the affections TO the imagination, and /
makes personal piety dependent upon /
ones ability to reconstruct historic in
cidents of an ancient time and reproduce /
some fanciful conception Of them in
daily conduct. 1t sets up for Christian I
living a sort of universal Ober-Ammer-
gau Passion Play, and every man under |
takes to play the part of Jesus. OF
course, each mans imagination, work
ing on the materials found in the four
Gospels, constructs a Christ of his own,
and each yields submission not to the
living Lord. but TO the image he has set
up In his own mind. Hereby a species of
subtle idolatTy is brought to pass, only
the image worshiped by each idolater
has never been embodied in wood or
stone. Each worshiper frames a Christ
according to his own notion, and as the