SOURCES OF SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
‘Quit you like men, be strong.’
We are conscious of our weakness, our need is strength, but how shall we attain to it? Elsewhere St. Paul, using the same military metaphors that we have seen here, tells his people how that strength is to be obtained. ‘Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.’ From the words of the Apostle two things are clear: (a) First, he regards every man as engaged in a separate personal struggle with a real spiritual power of evil; and (b) he insists upon every man’s need of Divine strength. The Apostle would say, when he says here, ‘Be strong,’ as he says elsewhere, ‘Be strong in the Lord.’ Do not go unready, unprepared, unarmed, into the struggle against evil.
Let me remind you of a few of the means by which we seek to attain that spiritual grace, that Divine help, without which the spiritual combat will certainly be a failure.
I. Prayer.—First of all, there is the weapon of prayer. Here we have always before us the example of our Lord Himself. What is prayer? All of you know it is not a mere asking for something, above all it is a contact of spirit with spirit, of person with person; it is the contact with God Himself, putting ourselves in touch with Him. If you doubt prayer, or the power of prayer, just remember for a moment, again in this instance also, what the experiences of spiritual men have been, how they have found prayer to be this very power in their lives, how they have proved it, how they have lived by it.
II. The devotional reading of the Scriptures.—Or, again, there is the devotional use of the Holy Scriptures. This use of the Holy Scriptures is much more rare than it used to be, and the Bible is much less read than it used to be, even by good, church-going religious people. No doubt there are reasons for this. One reason is the enormous multiplication of every form of literature, especially ephemeral literature. People who read four or five newspapers a day have no time obviously to read the New or the Old Testament. Partly it may be caused by what is supposed to be the unsettlement of the basis of Holy Scripture. Most people hear something, if they know little, about Higher Criticism, but we may be sure that, whatever has happened to the Holy Scriptures, nothing has happened to make their devotional value less than it used to be. Questions of date or authorship do not really affect spiritual power. Experience shows still, as it used to show, that the Holy Scriptures can make men wise unto salvation.
III. The Holy Communion.—Or once more, there is the Supper of the Lord, or the Holy Communion. Here again I am afraid one may assume that a large part of one’s hearers have excommunicated themselves. It ought not to be necessary now for one to say that the Holy Communion is not, what it used so often to be regarded as, a sort of mark or test of superiority. Believe me, it is not for strong men, but for weak men, for those who know and feel and realise their own weakness. Hesitate before you pass it by, before you let it go.
It is Christ Who calls us into His fight. It is Christ Who leads us, Christ Who arms us. Let us pray for grace so to trust in Him that when it is over, or when it is ended, we may be able to say, like His Apostle, that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
—Rev. H. R. Gamble.
Illustration
‘The devil is often made a subject of mirth and ridicule, but our Lord’s language is utterly meaningless unless it signified that there is a real spiritual power of evil. He always seemed to find it hanging on the frontiers of His own life, tempting all along the way, especially in the hours of weakness and sorrow. May we not also appeal to the experience of spiritual people, of all those who have entered with all their power into the personal struggle against evil? Is it not a fact that the more earnestly they have engaged in it the more they have been sensible of struggle with a real spiritual power, force, kingdom, method of evil? Nay, may we not say of ourselves, is it not our own experience in the darkest hours of temptation, when the worst thoughts come, when the most awful strain is put upon us, do we then find it difficult to believe in the working of a personal power? Nothing can be more foolish than to underrate the power with which we are engaged, or may be engaged.’
(SECOND OUTLINE)
MANLINESS AND STRENGTH
Let me suggest one or two things that may help to give the manliness and the strength which I think we all want in our religion.
I. In reading the Bible, let me advise you to deal with your Bible as you deal with facts.—Jesus died in my stead. It is a fact. Then I shall never die. It is a fact. Jesus rose. All His people are His members; then they were there; then they rose in Him; then I have risen; then I lead a risen life, and I must rise more and more. It is a fact. The Holy Spirit is in me. Then I can do anything. Yet not I, but He. It is a fact. God is my Father. He loves me infinitely. There is no room for any fear. It is a fact. Christ is always at my side, like a brother. I may tell Him anything. It is a fact. Christ never leaves His own work unfinished: then He won’t leave His own work unfinished in my soul. It is a fact. Christ will soon come, and when He comes, He will ask me what I have done for Him; and according to my answer I shall be for ever. My eternity is at stake upon it. It is a fact. These are all facts, historical facts. Accept them as facts. Do not dwell upon abstruse things half so well as you dwell upon simple things. Do not try to fathom God. It is the simplicity of truth which is the power and the life of truth.
II. When you pray, pray about the things you care for, temporal and spiritual.—Do not pray general, unpersonal prayers. Pray for the things you have on your heart at that time. This, only this, will give reality to prayer. And as you pray your prayer, however poor it be, believe that Christ presents it and makes it effectual; and remember that He Who has put it into your heart to ask, much more has it in His heart to give. Therefore in your prayer be importunate; be confident. Use a great deal of repetition. There is no earnestness without repetition. Repetitions are not ‘ vain repetitions.’ Pray strong prayer. ‘The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.’
III. Do not live either above, or below, what you really are.—Seem what you are and be what you seem. Do not say what you do not thoroughly feel; what you thoroughly feel, say it, and say it anywhere, and say it like a man. Be natural about it. Speak in a natural voice. Use natural expressions. Avoid canting phraseology. Anything affected, anything unnatural, either affects, or makes, unreality. Realise the Manhood of Christ—its gentleness and its strength. It will help and fortify your manhood. It will make you really a man. For manhood is manhood when it is like, and part of, the Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Religion is a good life with a right motive.
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‘Many persons are feeling that there is a want of reality in the religion of the day—that we need more manliness; and because there is so much unmanliness, which is unreality, therefore Christianity is so weak and uninfluential. There is great truth in the charge. It is, indeed, a very hollow age in many things! Art and skill are gone very high; and one of the great achievements of art is to be able to conceal a great many things, and to make good surface where there is very little underneath. And we live in everything under high pressure. And high pressure taxes things beyond their natural state, and debilitates them. Things, too strained, avenge themselves by lassitude and weakness. Everything has grown sensational. Books are sensational. Works of benevolence are sensational. The very enterprises of commerce are sensational. Religion has become, and is becoming every day, more and more sensational. Feeling is everything. The appeal is to feeling. Feeling thrives; feeling restores; feeling saves. It is a condition of heart where, naturally, the young plants run up fast and unhealthily.’