RELIGIOUS USE OF THE BODY
‘Glorify God in your body.’
‘From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot’ there is not a part of our frame which may not be the embodiment of spiritual things, or the means for religious service.
I. The very hairs remind me of the tender care of my God for me, for are not all those hairs ‘numbered’?
II. The eyes, are they not inlets wherewith I may first take into my very heart and soul all the wonderful and beautiful works of God in nature and providence, and the written Word of His grace? And then by bright and loving looks spread peace and happiness? How much of Satan, how much of Christ, there may be in the look of the eye! The eyes are very eloquent. Remember the use and the power given to them, and ‘glorify God’ with your eyes.
III. And the mouth!—What action the mouth has for sin and self-indulgence, or self-denial and careful moderation for Christ’s sake! Be careful, when you bring your religion to your mouth, that you ‘glorify God’ with your appetites or your government of the appetites. Those are very strong words of Solomon. Are they too strong? They are the words of a man of great experience: ‘Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat.’ And perhaps more than you are aware the mouth is the index of temper or of sweetness. Take care of your mouth. ‘Glorify God’ with your mouth.
IV. And the tongue!—That ‘fire,’ that ‘world of iniquity,’ which St. James calls it; but as Solomon calls it, that ‘tree of life.’ Your tongue! That thing of paradoxes. Are you thinking about it, are you really in your daily life consecrating your tongue; in your public worship as in your private; when you are alone in your own room, and when in society? Do you speak with that tongue what you ought, and when you ought, and where you ought about Jesus Christ? Who can calculate either what shame or what glory he can bring upon religion? What a curse or what a blessing that tongue may be; what a comforter, what a minister, what an instrument of salvation to men—that tongue! In all you have to do in daily life, it is not your inward feelings, it is not your secret appetites, that do it, your tongue must do it, your tongue must ‘glorify God.’ Does it? Does your tongue ‘glorify God’?
V. And your ear.—Take great care what you hear. Learn when to shut it and when to open it. A word may come in at that ear which may cling unto you, and be your millstone all your life long. It is an avenue of fearful power. Often ask Him ‘Who shutteth and none can open, and Who openeth and none can shut,’ to do with your ear what He did to Lydia’s heart.
VI. And your nerves.—You speak of your nerves. They are very good servants, but very bad masters. Take care of your nerves. Pray constantly for more calmness. ‘Glorify’ God with your nerves.
And all the senses—sweet handmaids of truth, and beauty, and pure enjoyment!—consecrate them. They are the Lord’s. Let all your senses ‘glorify God.’ And all your members!—hands, knees, and feet—keep every part of the body for God.
Illustration
‘We should look upon our body, and treat our body, as something given us to use and enjoy for God. A part of our likeness to Christ; a part of our present being which we are to meet again in another world; and therefore given us, here, to train and educate for the work and the services which that body is to render in heaven. For that is the body—a thing capable of being turned into the highest or the lowest uses; a marvellous structure to be dedicated; the temple walls of the inner sanctuary of the soul. Such being, then, the body, we should pray every morning of our lives about our bodies as much as about our souls. We should consecrate it in the morning to God, and we should deal with it all day long religiously, and watch and keep it diligently, and every part of it, as a very sacred thing.’