THE SUMMING-UP OF LIFE
‘He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him Which died for them, and rose again.’
Have you ever considered the meaning of life? You say to me, ‘It is a mystery which no man can explain,’ and you are quite right. Of all the wise men that have lived up to the present not one yet has been able to explain to us the mystery of life. We can speak of the power of thought, the gift of speech, and the wonderful gift of action, but we are no nearer explaining the mystery of life.
If God has given to us this wonderful gift of life, then you and I will be held responsible for its use. Around one of two pivots every human life revolves: the one pivot is self and the other pivot is Christ. But true life may be summed up in three short sentences: letting go, taking hold, and keeping hold.
I. There is the letting go.—Before we can live the life we must get rid of certain things, and this, of course, by the power of the Holy Ghost. There must be a letting go. If you have seen a balloon inflated you have seen it floating now to the right and now to the left, and only held down to the earth by a number of small weights in the form of sand-bags. How many a Christian has named the name of Christ, but not departed yet from iniquity! He is kept down by the sand-bags! I do not know what your ‘sandbag’ may be; perhaps it is a quick temper, or it may be that there is a tendency to make merry at the expense of some one who is trying to follow Christ. (It is easy to laugh and scoff at a brother, a professing Christian!) With some it may be that drink is a snare, or it may be lust. I do not know; God only knows our hearts. But every sand-bag must be slipped. It is not till the sand-bags are gone that the balloon rises. Every balloon I see reminds me of those words in the New Testament, ‘Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us … looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith.’ It is only thus that we can rise. Now it is for you to say whether you are letting go; you will never make progress in the heavenly journey until you are willing to let go, because until you let go your hands are full of iniquity, and you have to make them clean before you can get hold.
II. There is the taking hold.—When you are free you can make a fresh start and make progress. You say, How can I make progress? You say, How can I take hold? The fingers of the hands which lay hold of God are these, f-a-i-t-h and t-r-u-s-t, and the hands which lay hold of heavenly things lay hold of God. Without them you can make no progress. Lay hold of God. If any man has lost the light, or the power, or the life, lay hold of God afresh to-day. But it will not be your hold of God so much as His hold of you. Nothing comforts me more than this, not that I have chosen God, but that God has chosen me. It is God the Father’s grip of the child, not the child’s grip of the Father, though both are necessary. It is the Father’s grip which means salvation, keeping from falling.
III. There is the keeping hold.—Then let me say to each, Keep hold, do not let go. How shall I keep hold?
(a) First of all, by reverencing and using and reading and feeding upon God’s holy Word. There are men who will speak and there are writers who have written against this precious Word of God, but it is still the Sword of the Spirit, it is still the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Do not neglect to read your Bible; if it is only one text before you go to work in the morning, that text will keep you and strengthen you and help you all the day. If you are going to keep hold, if you are going to live not unto yourselves, but unto Him, you must do your part. The sparrows that we feed out of our windows, every bird has to pick up his own crumb. God feedeth the birds, and God has provided food for your soul and mine, but every man, like every bird, has to pick up his own crumb. And not only must you do your part, but there is one other word of advice I would give you. It is this:
(b) See that you keep near to Jesus all the way, and to the death. Make everything a matter of prayer. Every man we meet is either a bother or a brother. God grant that we may look upon him as a brother, and try to win him for our Master Christ. And the very sins that have possessed you in the past—that fiery temper, Christ shall turn to zeal. Everything that hindered you in the past, when it has been turned round and consecrated, becomes useful in the Master’s service.
Bishop J. Taylor Smith.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Under a palm tree in one of the islands of the Pacific there was sitting a poor black man who once had been a cannibal, and he was reading his Bible, and there came along a French trader, smoking his cigar. He went up to the poor black man, and he said, “What is that you are reading?” The man said, “I am reading the Bible.” Then the Frenchman said, “Reading the Bible? That is out of date. Why, we have given up that long ago in our country. You are a foolish man to be reading the Bible.” And the Christian man who had once been a cannibal went to him and said, “Not so much out of date, sir, for if it had not been for this Book you would have been eaten long ago.” ’
(2) ‘The impetuous Peter, he led the way on the day of Pentecost to the conversion of three thousand. During the French War the cannon that were captured were turned into church bells, and even the empty shells from the war in South Africa are now being turned into dinner gongs. Oh, what a splendid change, to change these destructive forces into the most helpful ministrations!’