Philippians 4 - The Biblical Illustrator

Not that I speak in respect of want

Contentment

I. The great lesson. “I have learned,” etc. Man might very correctly be distinguished as the discontented animal.

1. We are not content with life in its severer aspects.

(1) We do not know how to be abased, neither are we instructed to be hungry. In the fields and woods we find organic life most responsive to changing environment--the spreading tree at the first chill beginning to modify its leaf, to retrench its branchery, to economize its flower; the bird of the orient at the first scent of a less genial air preparing to sacrifice in size or ornament to adjust itself to an altered sphere; but man rebels to accept a dress less rich or resources less abundant.

(2) The apostle had learned this lesson of accepting adversity with noble cheerfulness. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9; 2 Corinthians 6:9-10). How immense the distance between this and stoicism. That with its insensibility and hopelessness is the confession of inability to deal with the problem of suffering. Thousands since St. Paul have mastered the same lesson. A lovely child of wealthy parents was brought to the poet artist Blake. Sitting in his old worn clothes, amidst poverty, he looked at her very kindly for a long while without speaking, and then gently stroking her long bright curls, said, “May God make this world to you, my child, as beautiful as it has been to me.”

2. We are not content with life in its fairer aspects.

(1) We do not know how to abound, neither are we instructed to be full. The fairy chorus of the bees in the limes is expressive of a sublime content, and the blackbird in the ripe cherry tree asks for nothing but to be let alone, a wasp half buried in a melting nectarine has forgotten its fretfulness, the chirp of the sparrow looking at a golden harvest sheaf rises into something like music; but man at his best estate is consumed with regrets and repinings.

(2) The apostle has learned this lesson. The problem of affluence is one that many deep thinkers have had to give up. Oriental asceticism finding men full of power and wealth and yet unhappy thought the remedy lay in stripping life of its amenities. The same failure is confessed by Catholic monasticism, and by men like Thoreau. But the apostle found joy in all the gifts of God, and realized through them a still higher capacity and power of service and blessedness.

3. We are not content with life under any aspect.

(1) A lady was out in the fields when her little daughter begged to gather wild flowers. Having gathered a nice few she murmured when the mother wished to continue her walk. “Well, get all in the field if you like,” said the mother. Then for a while the eager creature ran about plucking the coveted things, only at last to burst into tears because she could not gather all. Thus is it ever with poor human nature.

(2) Now in opposition to this, Paul has learned the difficult lesson thoroughly, and intimates that not only could he endure uniform prosperity or adversity, but could pass from the one to the other with serenity. It has been thought that our ancestors did not grumble so much at the vicissitudes of the climate as we do--they had not the same opportunity for instituting odious comparisons. It was not their custom to rush off to Cannes for a fortnight, or to contrast the ferocious frosts of the North with the balmy atmosphere of Palermo. The chief grumblers at the weather, we are told, are those who thus feel the force of the contrast. And, really, the severest trial of the faith and temper of men is in widely contrasted experiences. Much of the bitter discontent of our age is found in that strange mingling of riches and poverty, things grand and grievous in close succession. But Paul is undismayed by any possible combination of events. He is not the victim of circumstances, but their master. He could be exalted without pride and abased without despair; full without presumption, empty without fretfulness.

II. The grand teacher. “I can do all things,” etc. Let us see how Christ teaches the supreme art.

1. Christ sets man right within himself. We think our discontents are circumstantial, but really their origin is to be sought in the anarchy of the soul. Many philosophers have perceived this and have sorrowfully turned away from the painful problem, or confessing that the inner discord is incurable. This is Schopenhauer’s position, but it is the work of Christ to do what he declares impossible. “Has there ever been a man in complete accord with himself?” asks the German. Yes, Paul, here. It is the unique work of Jesus Christ to restore purity, energy, harmony within our hearts. “A human being is the possibility of many contradictions,” and it is the work of Christ to attune the subtle chords of our reasonable and immortal nature, and bring forth in our heart the music of heaven.

2. Christ makes clear to us the whole sphere of life.

(1) Some modern sceptics teach contentment by narrowing the horizon, by denying our ideals and hopes, and thus strive to make life as prosaic as possible. If this could be done it would be a mighty misfortune. All civilization arises in the sense of discontent. As soon as the savage feels a sense of want, he has been started on the grand tour. The history of constitutional government is a noble discontent. That a man is discontented with his caste and seeks to improve himself raises the whole social order. Dissatisfaction with manual labour stimulates invention, and art, and science. Christ never attempts to contract our horizon, but mightily reinforces the romantic element in our nature.

(2) But whilst Christ discovers to us the infinity of life, He teaches the relative importance of the sphere of the senses and of the spirit. We soon get to the end of the possibilities of sensual and social enjoyments. We can enjoy very little however vast our resources; having just so much nerve force, so much appetite, five senses, twenty-four hours in the day and sixty minutes to the hour.

(3) But Christ opens to us a new world of ambition, and pleasure, and hope, in our moral life and destiny. Never does the New Testament give us any immoderate promises in the carnal sphere (1 Timothy 6:6-8; Hebrews 13:5). But out and beyond Christ opens to us boundless regions in which our nature may find fulness of joy. To destroy the larger thought and noble restlessness of the heart would leave man a maimed and wretched creature, and strike a blow at progress; but to leave man his instinct for greatness, his dreams of glory, his aspirations for knowledge, and power, and felicity, teaching him to expect his full satisfaction in the regions of his higher being and destiny is to fill him with sublime content.

3. Christ teaches us that all the events of this present life equally contribute to our personal and everlasting perfection. The apostle knew that the end of life was not more or less temporal good, but the hallowing of the spirit to God’s love and service. “All things work together for good,” etc. It was in that knowledge that Paul found deep reason for resignation. The finest races have a composite character. Who can analyse the elements of our own. Now Paul has got an insight into the analogous fact that the widest ranges of circumstance and experience would create the finest type of moral life. (W. L. Watkinson.)

Contentment in all things

There never was a pupil who graduated in any university with such a diploma as that. There never was penned such a record of attainment as the result of education. A man is educated just in the proportion in which by his soul-power he controls the conditions of life. An uneducated man is controlled by his conditions. What did Paul learn?

I. To be content. But it was a very poor kind of learning if by content is meant stupidity, want of aspiration and enterprise. If Paul meant, I consider one thing or place just as good as another, poverty as good as riches, slavery as good as independence, he had learned nothing useful. But he did not mean that. He had learned to be content because he carried about with him that which made any circumstances blessed. Englishmen are laughed at because they travel on the continent with their household and all its comforts; and when they camp down in a poverty-stricken village they feel better off than if they had nothing but herbs and rocks to subsist upon; and so are content. Now suppose we imitate that inwardly, and carry in ourselves such a store of inspirations, such an amplitude of moral life as shall make us superior to every circumstance! When a man is living so near to God as to have his whole being pervaded with Divine power, why should he not say, I am content wherever He is.

II. He was content in all things. A great many have learned it in single things.

1. The mother says, loving her child, I am content. She will forsake exhilarating pleasures and entertaining friends for the nursery, and there she is happy.

2. There is a gay giddy girl, for whom is predicted no enviable future; but her time comes. When love finds her, and wakes her up to her true life, and she becomes a wife and mother, how all the frivolity is gone. She has learned to be content. Take her out of that and she has not learned the lesson.

3. There are others who would be perfectly content if they could have fortunes made or their ambition gratified.

4. But where are those who can say, “Put me where you will and I will make it a paradise. Give me children and I am happy; take them away and I have still that which will make me happy. Give me husband, wealth, learning, or deprive me of them, and I am content”? Here is one at any rate.

III. He was content to alternate between different states. Men get used to things, so that if you let them have one state of things long enough they will adapt themselves to it; or give them, if you change, time enough to get used to the next, they will continue to bear it. But Paul says, “I have learned both.” It is as if a man were oscillating between the extremes of heat and cold, and in the sudden transition from one to the other should be content. Yet there is a power in the soul if rightly cultured that shall enable a man to pass from any state to another and say, “I am content.” Here is a man who is reduced by an adverse stroke of fortune from affluence to beggary, and if he be a Christian what is to prevent him saying, “I have lost a little dust; but God is mine, Christ is mine, heaven is mine. The ocean is not spilled even if my cup is. My coat is very useful; but should it be stolen it is not I.” Conclusion:

1. This is not a miraculous state. There are those who think that apostles do not belong to the common race.

2. This is not a superficial power, but one which requires developement. “I have learned.” It took him forty years to learn it, and you must not be discouraged if you cannot all at once put on the virtues which were the result of forty years’ experience. (H. W. Beecher.)

The tendency of Christian principles to produce true contentment

There have been few persons whose patience and temper have been so severely tried as Paul’s (2 Corinthians 11:26-27), and as he writes he is a prisoner. Do not think, however, that he was not subject to the same infirmities as other men. So far was a contented disposition from being natural to him he tells us that he had acquired it. Where had he]earned this lesson? At the feet of Gamaliel or from the heathen philosophers? These might have commended the virtue of contentment, and shown its reasonableness, and its necessity to happiness, but to put their followers in possession of it was not in their power. Paul learned it at the feet of Jesus, in the school of Christian experience, where we may learn it too.

I. Christianity takes away the natural cases of discontent.

1. Pride. Men are naturally proud. They think nothing too good for them, and if anything be withheld it is not according to their deserts; hence discontent. Christianity removes this. Humility is its first lesson. The Christian has been convinced that he is a sinner, and his high thoughts, therefore, are overthrown. So far from having been treated worse than he deserves, he feels that he has been treated better. Pride therefore yields to humble gratitude.

2. Self-preference. We naturally love ourselves with excessive fondness. In comparison with our own affairs all others are of no value. While others possess advantages which we do not, or are free from troubles which we experience, envy naturally arises. Christianity regulates this self-love by commanding us to love our neighbour as ourselves. Those who do this are free from envy and repining and so are content.

3. Covetousness. Men have naturally a strong desire for the things of this world, and the more they have, the more they crave. Ahab was only like many others. Here Christianity brings a cure (Luke 12:15). It reveals far more valuable riches than earth can give, which are sure and abiding, and knowing this he is content.

II. It furnishes very powerful motives for the exercise of a contented mind.

1. The disciples of Christ are under the strongest obligations to walk in the footsteps of their Master. In His life contentedness was very conspicuous. No one ever had such provocations to discontent as He. Shall we, then, murmur at our light afflictions when Christ bore so much for us.

2. True Christians are convinced that their lot, whatever it may be, has been chosen for them by their Lord. Can they, then, be dissatisfied with the appointments of their Sovereign, whom they are bound to obey and serve?

3. Their lot has been chosen in infinite love to their souls. Christ knows what is best for His people, and will order all things for their good. With this conviction how can the real Christian be otherwise than contented.

III. Practical uses.

1. For correcting the error that religion destroys cheerfulness. We see that its natural tendency is the very reverse. Look at the proud, selfish, or covetous man, and see what a miserable being he is. Compare him with the tranquil apostle. Surely, then, that which promotes contentment cannot be destructive of happiness.

2. To stir up Christians to their duty. There are many who, on the whole, live under the influence of religion, who nevertheless when disappointed or afflicted betray impatience. The fact is pride, self-preference, etc., are not completely broken. Then call forth your principles into more lively exercise. What grace could do for Paul lit can do for you. (E. Cooper, M. A.)

The school of Christ

I. What the believer can learn when Christ teaches.

1. To be content amidst the world’s changes. What a changeful life was that of St. Paul’s from the time he left his father’s house for Gamaliel’s school to his imprisonment at Rome. We are all subject to disturbing changes from increase or loss of wealth, friends, position, etc., and only in the school of Christ is there rest for the soul. The believer has “the unsearchable riches,” so nothing can impoverish him; peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, so nothing can fatally disturb him; is “kept by the power of God,” so nothing can harm him. He may, therefore, well be content.

2. To be submissive amidst the world’s trials. We all encounter a good deal that humbles us, but that is very different from learning how to be abased. This knowledge takes away half its burden and bitterness. Christ teaches this by encouraging us to cast our burden on Him, and by strengthening that faith which produces conformity to Him.

3. To be heavenly minded amidst the world’s enjoyments. “I know how to abound.” Count up your mercies and your trials and see which abounds.

II. What the believer can do when Christ strengthens.

1. He can suffer the will of God.

2. He can vanquish his spiritual foes.

3. He can fulfil all his duties to God and man. (W. Cadman, M. A.)

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound

The Christian

I. Expects vicissitude.

II. Knows how to adapt himself to all circumstances.

III. Is instructed by the spirit of God. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

How to be abased

During the periods between the paroxysms of the fever, Cromwell occupied the time with listening to passages from the sacred volume, or by a resigned or despairing reference to the death of his daughter. “Read to me,” he said to his wife, in one of these intervals, “the Epistle to the Philippians.” She read these words: “I know both how to be abased, and”--the reader paused. “That verse,” said the Protector, “once saved my life when the death of my eldest born, the infant Oliver, pierced my heart like the sharp blade of a poignard.” (Lamartine.)

The knowledge of properly using abundance

Paul had the double knowledge, “How to be abased” and “how to abound.” The two are not distinctly separable--each in some way conditions the other. There is far too little of the knowledge how to abound. Few men who abound come asking how to abound. Men think it hard enough to get rich, but a very easy thing to be rich. No man has a right to be anything unless he has the knowledge of how to be that thing. When Paul says, “I know how to abound,” he is thinking of anything which makes life pleasant and ample--of money, of scholarship, of friendship, of great spiritual hopes and experiences. Paul did not have all these, and yet he had the knowledge of how to use them. The power by which he could rob abundance of its dangers was the knowledge of the true perfection of a soul in serving Christ. All men do not know how to be rich. The generous, sympathetic, active, kind, rich man knows how to be rich. What is more pitiable than the blunderer who holds wealth and knows not how to use it? There is also needed a knowledge of how to know truth. Here is a scholar who can give you any information, and yet you feel no enrichment. He has no deep convictions, no faith. He has grown less human. He values his knowledge as a botanist his specimens, and not as a gardener his plants. The highest knowledge comes by reverence and devotedness to God. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)

The difficulty of managing prosperity

Manton says: “A garment which is too long trails in the mire and soon becomes a dirty rag; and it is easy for large estates to become much the same. It is a hard lesson to ‘learn to abound’ (Philippians 4:12). We say such a one would do well to be a lord or a lady; but it is a harder thing than we think it to be.” It is hard to carry a full cup with a steady hand. High places are dizzy places, and full many have fallen to their eternal ruin through climbing aloft without having grace to look up. The simile of the trailing garment used by Manton is simple, but instructive. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

I am instructed.

Initiation into the mysteries

Formerly rendered: “I have been instructed,” it is given in the Revised Version, “I have been taught the secret;” while Lightfoot still more adequately brings out the meaning: “I have been initiated, I possess the secret.” That is what the Greek word means. And here we have one of many examples where a word of strong heathen association is baptized afresh, and consecrated to signify a new and loftier range of thoughts. What these words meant for a serious and good man, from the heathen point of view, was that he had been admitted to communicate in the mysteries, as the great sacramental services of Paganism were called. He had taken part in solemn baptisms, expressing the need of the purification of the soul. He had listened to an awful proclamation from an officiating minister, warning off all murderers and all barbarians, and, in later times, perhaps, all atheists, and Epicureans, and Christians. For these secret sacred rites were intended only for men of Greek blood; and it was thought neither pleasing to the gods nor good for the State that strangers should intrude upon these solemnities. And then, in these ceremonies themselves, he had been made to pass through experiences which could never be forgotten as long as he lived. His imagination was appealed to both through eye and through ear. He saw the representation of wanderings through the darkness, as amidst some maze; shapes of horror were revealed, and his soul was filled with trembling and terror. He was made to pass through a kind of mental proof or purgatory. Then all was changed. There was a sudden illumination; the scenery of beautiful pastures was disclosed; there was music, and dancing, and joy; and he walked in sweet converse with the pious and the good. At the crowning point of the service he was rapt away in an ecstasy of “beholding,” a species of beatific vision. He seemed to see the meaning of life, its beginning and its end; he beheld the wicked wallowing in filth and the righteous in Paradise--a blessed climate, where all the conditions of spiritual and physical good were realized. On the whole, these sacramental services exerted a very wholesome effect upon the con sciences of the people. They learned to meditate on death and eternity, on the need of the soul being prepared for its future, on the punishment of the wicked and the blessedness of the just. One of the Athenian orators, in boasting to his fellow citizens of the glories of their native land, refers to the great mysteries as imparting “good hopes for eternity.” If we ask the question how it was that these institutions died away in course of time, the simple answer seems to be that, in part, they were overcome by the superior spirituality and energy of our own religion; partly that they had themselves waxed corrupt, and had become sources of corruption, though originally good. However, the rites of which we have been speaking went on for a long time, for several centuries after Paul. When this letter was read in the Church of Philippi many, possibly all, of the Gentile members were initiated persons. And when this solemn word: “I have been initiated,” fell upon their ear, it must have vibrated in all its power through their imagination. They must have felt that their beloved teacher was giving a quite new turn to the word. The old sacramental and pictorial associations had vanished; and in place of them there was a deep, central, spiritual truth spoken of as the secret of Paul. What was this secret? It is expressed again by a single word, “content.” (Professor E. Johnson.)

The secret of contentment

It was the beautiful expression of a Christian, who had been rich, when he was asked how he could bear his reduced state so happily, “When I was rich, I had God in everything, and now I am poor I have everything in God.”

The value of contentment

Contentment is the best food to preserve a sound man, and the best medicine to restore a sick man. It resembles the gilt on nauseous pills, which makes a man take them without tasting their bitterness. Contentment will make a cottage look as fair as a palace. He is not a poor man that hath but little, but he is a poor man that wants much. (William Seeker.)

The secret explained

Making a day’s excursion from Botzen, in the Tyrol, we went along the very narrowest of roads, mere alleys, to which our country lanes would be turnpike roads. Well, you may be sure that we did not engage an ordinary broad carriage, for that would have found the passage as difficult as the needle’s eye to the camel; but our landlord had a very narrow chaise for us--just the very thing for threading those four-feet passages. Now, I must make you hear the moral of it, you fretful little gentlemen. When you have a small estate, you must have small wants, and by contentment suit your carriage to your road. “Not so easy,” say you? “Very necessary to a Christian,” say I. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me

Here we find

I. Weakness and strength. The believer is weak in himself. Looking to the “all things” to be done he laments this with shame and tears. But he is not alone. Allied to Christ he is strong to overcome evil and to do good. He has courage and hope. Nothing in the way of duty is impossible (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).

II. Dependence and freedom. Dependence is the law of our being. Of the natural life it is said, “In God we live and move and have our being;” how much more is this true of the spiritual life, and yet we are free. Of our own choice we trust in Christ; of our own will, every moment we abide in Him. “I can” implies the personal life, reason, conscience, will, and endeavour.

III. Humility and aspiration. Paul was remarkable for humility; it grew with him. But he was not discouraged. Fired with the noblest ambition, his inspiration was from above. So with all Christians. In spite of conscious weakness, opposition, and failure, “through Christ they take heart to persevere. “My soul cleaveth to the dust: quicken thou me according to Thy Word.”

IV. Suffering and contentment. Paul’s life was marked by vicissitudes and trouble; he was now in prison. But what then? His soul was free; there was peace within, Christ was with him. As a scholar under the great Master he had]earned many things, and among others the Divine secret of content (Philippians 4:11). So with Christians. Their satisfaction is not from without but from within; not from the lower and perishable things of the world, but from the immortal affection of their Saviour and God.

Learn--

1. The greatness of Christ as suggested by the place given Him by such a man as Paul. Consider his zeal, labours, achievements, and yet he ascribes the praise of all to Christ. But Paul was only one of many.

2. The grandeur of the Christian life. There is no limit to its possibilities. What has been done is only an earnest of what will be done. Take courage. “Through Christ,” His blood, Word, Spirit, resurrection, etc., all things are possible. What inspiration here for prayer and holy endeavour (Ephesians 3:20-21).

3. The certain triumph of Christianity. Strengthened by Him, His people shall never cease to pray and strive, till all the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. (W. Forsyth.)

All-sufficiency magnified

The former part of the sentence would be a piece of impudent daring without the latter. There have been men who, puffed up with vanity, have said, “I can do all things.” Their destruction has been sure--Nebuchadnezzar, Xerxes, Napoleon. And what shall we say to our apostle, weak in presence and contemptible in speech, the leader of a hated and persecuted sect. Has Gamaliel taught him an eloquence that can baffle all opposers? Have his sufferings given him so stern a courage that he is not to be turned away? Is it on himself he relies? No; he turns his face towards his Saviour and with devout reverence but dauntless courage. “Through Christ,” etc.

I. The measure of the text. It is exceeding broad. Paul meant that he was able--

1. To endure all trials.

2. To perform all duties.

3. To conquer all corruptions. He once said, “O wretched man that I am,” etc. But he did not stay there, “Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory.” Have you a violent temper? Through Christ you can curb it. Are you timid? Christ can give you a lion’s boldness. Are you slothful? Christ can make you energetic. Are you incapable for strong effort? Christ can increase your capacity. Are you inconstant? Christ can settle you. There is not a Hittite or Jebusite in the whole land that cannot be east out.

4. To serve God in any state! (Philippians 4:12). Some Christians are called to undergo extreme changes from wealth to poverty, and from poverty to wealth, and, alas, there is often a corresponding spiritual change; the one desponds, the other is elated or becomes avaricious. This need not be. When you gave yourself to Christ you gave yourself wholly to serve Him in everything and anywhere.

5. You can do all things through Christ in respect to all worlds. In this world you can enlighten and uplift it. You may pass through the dark gate of death with Christ without fear into the world of spirits, and there you are more than conqueror.

II. The manner of it. None of us can explain this; but we may see how the acts of the Spirit for Christ tend to strengthen the soul for all things.

1. By strengthening our faith. It is remarkable how timid and doubting Christians have in time of trial behaved most bravely. God gives faith equal to the emergency. Weak faith can sprout and grow till it becomes great under the pressure of a great trial. Nothing braces a man’s nerves like the cold winter’s blast. Together with faith often comes a singular firmness of mind. When John Ardley was brought before Bonner the latter said, “The fire will convert you; faggots are sharp preachers.” Said Ardley, “I am not afraid to try it; and I tell thee, Bishop, if I had as many lives as I have hairs on my head, I would give them all up sooner than I would give up Christ.” And then Christians are often enabled to anticipate the joys of heaven when their pangs are greatest. Look at old Ignatius with his arm in the lion’s mouth, exclaiming, “Now I begin to be a Christian.”

2. By quickening the mental faculties. It is astonishing how poor illiterate persons have been able to refute their clever opponents. Cranmer and Ridley were no match for Jane Bouchier the Baptist martyr. “I am as true a servant of God as any of you; and if you put your poor sister to death, take care lest God should let loose the wolf of Rome on you, and you have to suffer for God, too.”

3. By enabling the believer to overcome himself. He can lose all things, because he is already prepared to do it; he can suffer all things, because he does not value his body as the worldling does; he can brave all things, because he has learned to fear God, and therefore has no reason to fear man; he can perform wonders, because his body and spirit are disciplined.

4. Note the present tense. Not Christ has strengthened, did strengthen at conversion, “As thy days so shall thy strength be.”

III. The message of it.

1. One of encouragement to those who are doing something for Christ, but feel painfully their own inability. Cease not from God’s work, because you are unable to perform it of yourself. Cease from yourself, from man. Before Zerubbabel the mountain shall become a plain. If we believed great things we should do great things. Do net go through the world saying, “I was born little.” You were not meant to be little. Act as David did in spite of his brothers’ sneers.

2. Take heed that you do it in Christ’s strength. You can do nothing without that. Go not forth till thou hast first prayed. The battle that begins with holy reliance on God means victory.

3. Paul speaks in the name of all Christians. How is it that some of you then are doing nothing? What a work there is to do! And what may not one resolute Christian accomplish. (G. H. Spurgeon.)

The power of the Christian

I. There are two main errors by which men are deceived. The first is the fancy that they can do all things that they wish and try to do of themselves. The second is that they cannot and need not do anything. These have been the sources of two of the most mischievous heresies, the one undermining all spiritual, the other all practical religion; the first is Pelagianism, the other Antinomianism.

II. The end of these errors is to keep men in sin. Pride says it will pay off the debt it owes to God when it has grown bigger. “Why should I do that today,” it cries, “which I can do any day whenever I please?” Meanwhile sloth alleges that it is a bankrupt and demands as such to be let off all manner of payment, for getting that a negligent and fraudulent bankrupt has no claim to favour. Pride says it can obey God and does not. Sloth says it cannot and need not.

III. These errors, irreconcilable though they may seem, are often found side by side. They are Satan’s right and left hand in which he tosses our souls from one to the other. The proud man, although he makes himself believe that he can obey God by himself, must be often warned by his conscience that he has not done so. At such times he will try to stifle his qualms by saying that he has done his best, and that Christ’s merits will be sufficient to make up. The slothful man, too, who has drugged his conscience with the notion that as his best works cannot earn heaven, so it matters not what his works are, must be startled now and then by scriptural exhortations to holiness; but when so startled he whispers to himself that let the worst come to the worst he will reform by and by.

IV. Both these errors are answered by the text, which picks out the truth involved in each and separates it from the false. When an error is long-lived it is by means of some truth mixed up with it.

1. As the pride of man says, “I can do all things,” so does Paul; only pride stops short here, whereas Paul adds, “through Christ,” etc. Pride forgets the Fall, and also that what it calls its own strength is really God’s gift.

2. The sluggard is also bereft of his only excuse. God never demands of us what we cannot do; and Paul tells us that there is no limit to our power; he poor, weak, frail as he was, could do all things when strengthened by Christ.

V. What does paul mean by this.

1. Certainly not in the same sense that God can do all things--make a world, arrest the sun, etc.; but--

2. In accordance with the previous verse. These things, however, seem to some hardly sufficient to bear the lofty declaration of the text, and would rather have expected to hear of some great victory gained or miracle wrought. Yet it is in these things that our hardest trials lie, for they are the things that the natural man cannot do of himself. He may brave dangers and accomplish many wonderful works, but he does not know how to be abased and how to abound. A cup knows how to be full and how to be empty, and stands equally straight in either case. But man’s hand cannot lift the full cup and will not lift the empty one. It is only through Christ that whether the Lord giveth or taketh away we can say, “Blessed be His name.”

3. The true children of God can do all things that they can ever desire to do, viz., the will of God. (Archdeacon Hare.)

Strength by Christ

The more literal rendering is “I am strong for all things”; or, “I am equal to all things, Christ invigorating me,” either doing or suffering. Let us look at--

I. Christ strengthening Paul.

1. Every man needs strength. Weakness is so much less of life. Lack of strength is more serious than any rack of outward possession. A weak rich man is in a worse position than a strong poor man. Weakness lessens work, reduces enjoyment, and aggravates suffering. It is also the cause of wickedness, exposing the individual to fierce temptation. As a preservative against sin we need to ask for daily strength.

2. Every man requires strengthening. Even the strong by constitution and education. The child learning to walk alone is strengthened by the hand of the mother, and the aged mother is in return strengthened by the arm of her son. The boy is strengthened to learn by his tutor or employer, and the man to pursue the objects of life by various invigorating influences; while all are strengthened by God.

3. The Christian is no exception. His conversion is not translation to ease. There are times when he lies down in green pastures; but he lies down tired, and that he may rise stronger. We rest not for resting’s sake but for work’s sake. The Christian life is a race to be run and a battle to be fought. To cease either is to cease to be a Christian.

4. A Christian’s strength can come only by his being strengthened. There is not within the man as a man or a Christian any stock of strength given at the commencement. Our resources are supplied as we need them. This arrangement keeps us close to the source of all energy and wisdom, communion with whom alone, apart from imparted blessings, invigorates.

5. An apostle is no exception to this rule. On the battlefield the eye of the soldier is upon the officers of the opposing army. So ministers are more tried than others, partly because of their vocation, and partly that they may have wisdom and grace to succour the tempted.

6. And Christ did strengthen Paul. By His example, grace, promises, doctrines, precepts,

II. Paul hereby assured that all things were possible to him. He felt equal to labour, suffering, and dying. Yet this was not undue self-confidence, but humility.

1. if we Christians are not equal to all the demands which God makes upon us our inability involves guilt. Weakness is not a misfortune but a crime, needing not pity but blame. Christ does not require anything impossible or injuriously difficult, nothing for which He does not guarantee strength.

2. The Divine help is manifold and constant. Look at the assistance obtained from--

(1) The Scriptures, which thoroughly furnish us unto all good works.

(2) Providence, under which all things work together for our good.

(3) Christian principle--faith, love, hope, joy, obedience.

3. If we turn from this various help to Christ personally and then remember that He is with us, immutable in His love, unfailing in His resources, unwearied in His oversight, we can understand what Paul meant.

(1) I cannot do many things which my fellow Christians say is my duty;

(2) Nor what in my ignorance I conclude to be my duty;

(3) Nor what is actually my duty, if I go about it in a wrong spirit or way;

(4) But Christ will strengthen us for all His will.

What can hinder? Not our ignorance, for He is our teacher; not our feebleness, for He never breaks the bruised reed; not our sinfulness, for He is our Saviour.

4. This assurance covers all the necessities of our Christian life--perseverance, cross-bearing and self-crucifixion, Christian work, the prospect and experience of death. (S. Martin.)

The fountain of strength

We all need strength. Whether conscious or unconscious of it, we are all weak. Our very strength is weakness. We may trust it and be deceived by it. This is a defect we cannot supply. The exertion of weakness can not produce strength. We must look out of ourselves; and to save us from a vain search God sets Christ before us as our strength and strengthener.

I. How Christ strengthens us.

1. Not by miracle or magic; not by acting upon us without our knowledge or against our will, but through our own intelligent and active powers.

2. By instructing us in the knowledge of our weakness and His own strength.

3. By His example, showing us how to do all that He requires in His own life.

4. By supplying us with the great motive power--His constraining love.

5. By working faith in us, which brings us into vital union with Him who is the source of strength.

II. For what He strengthens us.

1. To fulfil the law as a rule of duty.

2. To resist temptation.

3. To suffer and endure. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.)

Dependence on Christ

(Text in conjunction with John 15:5.) Two speakers, Divine-human and human. From how different a platform do they speak; one from conscious power to help, the other from conscious need of help. One a great Giver, the other a great receiver. A fine harmony in the two statements. Though Paul’s is not quite so universal as Christ’s, it forms a pleasing testimony to the correctness of Christ’s statement, and the usefulness of the promised aid.

I. The divine assertion. God in Christ speaks.

1. It applies to man’s spiritual life.

2. To His everyday purpose and action. “Good” is understood. There are some things we can do without Christ--and yet considering Him as God we cannot even do evil without the strength He supplies. Similarly, in a high spiritual sense, we can do nothing good without Him. We may feel our dignity affronted, and our first impulse will be denial of, or objection to the universality of the statement. But our life will prove that Christ is right. In every part of our life we have Christ’s influence. The Christian becomes “a law unto himself,” but behind the Christian and the law is the great Inspirer--Christ. Christ is the only one who can make this sweeping assertion without fear of ultimate contradiction.

II. The human confirmation. Paul gives particular instances, then generalizes. How does Christ strengthen us?

1. By His having done all things Himself. In all life’s experiences, conflicts, emergencies, Christ has preceded us. We have to walk in His steps.

2. By the effects of His wondrous life. We linger around the four great landmarks, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Gethsemane, Calvary, and they are a ceaseless inspiration to us. His miracles have made many a life path brighter, and they yield constant consolation. He healed the sick; sickness can be better borne. He hushed the waves; He stills the storm today.

3. By the effect of His unique teaching. Every word of His is the bread of life.

4. By His Cross and death. He is the Saviour from the curse of life--sin. Thus we hear Paul, “I can do all things,” not by his immediate environment, men, or things; not by his inherent energy; but by Christ which “strengtheneth him with strength in his soul” (Psalms 138:3). Our strength is not superseded. It is linked with God’s and made the grander for the union. It is “all things,” even the otherwise impossible. It applies to the whole life. “Without me--nothing.” Our power “through Christ which strengthens us” is limitless. So should our gratitude be. (J. B. Swallow.)

Strength through Christ

When I was at Princeton, Professor Henry had so constructed a huge bar of iron, bent into the form of a horseshoe, that it used to hang suspended from another iron bar above it. Not only did it hang there but it upheld four thousand pounds weight attached to it! The horseshoe magnet was not welded or glued to the metal above it, but through the iron wire coiled round it there ran a subtle current of electricity from a galvanic battery. Stop the flow of the current for one instant and the huge horseshoe dropped. So does all the lifting power of the Christian come from the currents of spiritual influence which flow into his heart from the living Jesus. The strength of the Almighty One enters into the believer. If his connection with Christ is cut off, in an instant he becomes as any other man. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

The secret of fortitude

In the days of bloody Mary a poor Protestant was condemned to be burned alive. When he came in sight of the stake he exclaimed, “Oh! I cannot burn! I cannot burn!” Those who heard him supposed he intended to recant, but they misunderstood him. He felt he needed more strength to bear the dread ordeal in a worthy manner, so being left a few moments to himself, he cried in an agony of prayer that God would more sensibly reveal Himself to him. As the result of this, instead of recanting, he cried out triumphantly, “Now I can burn! Now I can burn!” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)

Strength in Christ

“I was requested,” said the late Dr. Macleod, “by a brother minister, who was unwell, to go and visit a dying boy. He told me before some remarkable things of this boy. He was eleven years of age, and during three years’ sickness had manifested the most patient submission to the will of God, with a singular enlightenment of the Spirit. I went to visit him. He had suffered the most excruciating pain. For years he had not known one day’s rest. I gazed with wonder at the boy. After drawing near to him, and speaking some words of sympathy, he looked at me with his blue eyes--he could not move, it was the night before he died--and breathed into my ear these few words: ‘I am strong in Him.’ The words were few, and uttered feebly; they were the words of a feeble child, in a poor home, where the only ornament was that of a meek, and quiet, and affectionate mother; but these words seemed to lift the burden from the very heart; they seemed to make the world more beautiful than ever it was before; they brought home to my heart a great and a blessed truth. May all of us be strong in Him.”

Courageous Christians needed

No man is likely to accomplish much who moodily indulges a desponding view of his own capacities. By God’s help the weakest of us may be strong, and it is the way to become so, to resolve never to give up a good work till we have tried our best to achieve it. To think nothing impossible is the privilege of faith. We deprecate the indolent cowardice of the man who always felt assured that every new enterprise would be too much for him, and therefore declined it; but we admire the pluck of the ploughman who was asked on his cross examination if he could read Greek, and replied he did not know, because he had never tried. Those Suffolk horses which will pull at a post till they drop are worth a thousand times as much as jibbing animals that run back as soon as ever the collar begins to press them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The hidden source of power

A minister says: “The other day I was up in Lancashire, and my host took me to see one of those monster factories which are the wonders of civilization, covering acres of ground--nobody knows how many stories high, and how many hundreds of windows they have to let in the light upon the industrious work people inside. As I walked in and through those rooms, and went from one story to another, and saw the rolling of the pinions and heard the rattling of the wheels, and felt the vibration of the floor beneath my feet, while the raw material was being, as by magic, brought out at the other end to be a robe for a peasant or a prince, I said, ‘Why, where in the world is the motive power that sets all this to work?’ He took me out of the building altogether, to a little circumscribed place beneath, where there was only one door and a window to the whole room; but through the open door I saw the great piston moving in silent and majestic power as it was doing this wondrous work. ‘There,’ said he, ‘is the mighty force that sets the work in motion.’”

Power through the Spirit of Christ

A young Italian boy knocked one day at the door of an artist’s studio in Rome, and when it was opened, exclaimed, “Please, madam, will you give me the master’s brush?” The painter was dead, and the boy, feeling inflamed with longing to be an artist, wished for the great master’s brush, with the idea that it would inspire him with his genius. The lady placed the brush belonging to her departed husband in the hand of the boy, saying, “This is his brush; try it, my boy.” With a flush of earnestness on his face, he tried, but found he could paint no better with the master’s brush than with his own. The lady then said to him, “You cannot paint like the great master unless you have his spirit.” (W. Birch.)

Power through the love of Christ

ONE day, one the gigantic eagles of Scotland carried away an infant, which was sleeping by the fireside in its mother’s cottage. THE whole village ran after it; but the eagle soon perched itself upon the loftiest eyrie, and everyone despaired of the child being recovered. A sailor tried to climb the ascent, but his strong limbs trembled, and he was at last obliged to give up the attempt. A robust Highlander, accustomed to climb the hills, tried next, and even his limbs gave way, and he was in fact precipitated to the bottom. But, at last, a poor peasant woman came forward. She put her feet on one shelf of the rock, then on a second, and then on a third; and in this manner, amid the trembling hearts of all who were looking on, she rose to the very top of the cliff, and at last whilst the breasts of those below were heaving, came down step by step, until, amid the shouts of the villagers, she stood at the bottom of the rock with the child on her bosom. Why did that woman succeed, when the strong sailor and the practised Highlander had failed? Why, because between her and the babe there was a tie; that woman was the mother of the babe. Let there be love to Christ and to souls in your hearts, and greater wonders will be accomplished. (Manual of Anecdotes.)

Now, ye Philippians, know also that in the beginning of the gospel--Observe

I.

The straitened circumstances of the apostle.

II. The honourable conduct of the Philippians.

1. Though poor (2 Corinthians 8:2) they acknowledged their debt.

2. Stood alone.

3. Repeated their bounty of their own free will.

III. The commendation of the spirit of God.

1. Recorded for their honour.

2. For our instruction. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Liberality to the minister

is--

I. Honourable.

II. Profitable.

III. Acceptable to God.

IV. A pledge of abundant blessing. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account

The nature and duty of giving

I. The Christian’s object.

1. Not self, but Christ.

2. Not the world, but heaven.

3. And the minister of the gospel especially may add, not yours, but you.

II. The Christian’s practice.

1. To do something for God’s cause.

2. To devote all he possibly can for this purpose.

3. To do this as a privilege.

III. The Christian’s reward.

1. It is personal and reciprocal--there is individual satisfaction and return of benefits given.

2. It is fruit--continually increasing in extent and value.

3. It is eternal--a reward with Christ, and His holy angels and spirits of just men made perfect. (I. W. Tapper.)

I. The nature of Christian giving. It should be--

1. Systematic.

2. Proportionate.

3. Regarded as a plain and prescribed duty.

4. An honoured privilege.

II. Its fruit or reward.

1. The Divine approval and promise.

2. Soul satisfaction.

3. Eternal results in the world to come. (G. Webber.)

It is more blessed to give than receive

I. The recipient--is placed under obligation--if unselfish and content he has no desire for a gift--values it chiefly for the giver’s sake.

II. The giver--gratifies a noble feeling--sows precious seed--has in prospect an abundant harvest. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Fruit

The word is of large significance. What a place it occupies in nature! Where is the work of husbandry, or the process of animal or vegetable life, in which this is not the one point of importance? What fruit is there? (James 5:7). What if it comes not? What if after all the husbandman’s waiting and toil, every blossom is cut off by frost, and every ear of corn spoiled by blight or mildew? Will he be consoled by the reflection that the trees in the earlier spring were bright with every form of promise, or that the fields were once green with the springing blade, wet with abundant rain, or warm with glorious sunshine? The one thing for which he looked was fruit. All else was valuable only as a prognostication of fruit. If the hope was not realized, it was rather a mockery than a satisfaction. And this word fruit was transferred by the gospel to other and yet more important uses. Trace it through the Scriptures of the New Testament, through the discourses of our Lord and the writings of the apostles, and how grave and anxious are the questions it suggests for self-examination (Luke 3:8-9; Matthew 7:20; Matthew 21:19; Matthew 12:43; Luke 13:7; John 15:2, Romans 6:22; James 3:17; Philippians 1:11). You see what God looks for; what is the one important question as concerns each of us; What fruit is there? In the great parable (Matthew 13:3-23) in which our Lord classified the hearers of His gospel in all ages, the one distinction between true and false profession is made to be this: not so much did a man listen, receive, or love the sound or entertain the demands of the gospel; but rather, Was there any fruit? The three evil hearers were alike in this--by this they were equally distinguishable from the good hearer--they brought no fruit to perfection; while he, in various degrees, but in reality, deed, and truth, was seen to produce fruit. Well, therefore, may a minister who understands the business of his high calling try himself and his ministry by this one criterion. Is there any fruit? Well may he as he stands before his people in the exercise of his important and responsible ministry address himself to them with all the earnestness of one pleading for his life, and say, I desire fruit that may abound to your account. He will not, indeed, mislead them as to the nature of the fruit for which he looks. He will never speak of it as though a few isolated acts of self-denial or charity were infallible marks of good. He will constantly remind them that only a heart right with God, a heart truly penitent and believing, can originate such acts as God will approve. (Dean Vaughan.)

Giving honours the giver

It is told of John Wesley that when he bestowed a gift or rendered anyone a service he lifted his hat as though he were receiving instead of conferring an obligation. (Christian Family.)

I have all and abound

Ministry to the saints an acceptable sacrifice

I. The individual receiving the benefit.

1. A Christian. The first duty of Christians is towards each other. Charity does not stay at home, but it begins there. The largest hearted charity towards the ends of the earth will not excuse parsimoniousness towards our fellow believers close at hand.

2. An aged Christian. Paul has borne the burden and heat of the day. Every Christian has a claim upon his brother Christian, but those who have the greatest claim are those who are worn out in the service of their Master.

3. A poor Christian. Although an apostle and richly endowed, Paul never employed his endowments on his own behalf. After having surrendered the brightest prospects he was now dependent on the charities of God’s people. “Blessed is the man who considereth the poor.”

4. A Christian minister, who having expended his spiritual gifts on his people, had a right to their temporal support.

II. The benefit bestowed. “A sacrifice.”

1. In the truest sense there is now no real sacrifice. By one offering Christ hath perfected forever them who are sanctified.

2. But in an inferior sense sacrifices are still offered. There is “the sacrifice of praise” and the sacrifice of charity. To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

3. The essence of sacrifice is self-denial. It is that which costs the offerer something.

III. The value of the benefit.

1. In relation to God. It is acceptable and well-pleasing to Him--

(1) From the motive from which it springs.

(2) From the good it does.

2. In relation to the object of the benefit.

(1) It produces satisfaction and gratitude.

(2) It becomes a means of usefulness. “Fruit to your account.” (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

Present blessings

Such is Paul’s confession concerning his temporal condition even in the midst of trials. He did not look on this life with bitterness, or refuse to enjoy it. He was not soured by his trials, but felt that if he had troubles he had blessings also. Gloom is no Christian temper. We must live in sunshine, even when we sorrow. We ought to bless God that we have--

I. The gift of life.

1. And not merely that we live, but for those blessings which are included in the notion of our living. God has made life to imply the existence of certain things which are in themselves a happiness. We cannot live without the means of life, and the means of life are means of pleasure. It might have been ordered that life should be sustained by means neither pleasurable nor painful, or even by means that were painful, and that what are the extraordinary means of preserving life should be the ordinary. Suppose, then, that food were medicine, and that wounds and bruises imparted health and strength! On the contrary, life is sustained by blessings.

2. The gospel guarantees these things. God has not promised what the world understands by good things; things whose good is only in the imagination, large estates, sumptuous furniture, carnal, sensual enjoyments, etc. But He has promised that life shall not be a burden but a blessing.

3. And giving us as much as this He bids us be satisfied with it, to confess that we “have all” when we have so much; that we “abound” when we have enough. He promises food, raiment, lodging, and He bids us, having that, to be content.

II. The gift of sleep. God does not suffer us to be miserable for a long time together, even when He afflicts us, but He breaks our trials into portions; takes us out of this world ever and anon, and gives us holiday time, like children at school. Sleep is equally the comfort and recruiting of rich and poor. We sleep whether we are in sorrow or in joy, in anxiety or hope.

III. The blessings of the Christian brotherhood. As food, raiment, sleep, are necessary conditions of life, so is society. When God removes us from the world He puts us into the Church; and distance, as proved in the case of St. Paul, does not break the communion of saints.

IV. The blessings of present peace in the Church, freedom from persecution.

V. The privileges of free speech and action.

VI. The privileges of daily worship and weekly communion. Let us then enjoy our present blessings and bless the Giver. (Cardinal Newman.)

Gratitude

I. Is associated with contentment--it has enough--desires no more.

II. Acknowledges its obligation--fully--thankfully.

III. Appreciates the spirit of the gift--love--sacrifice--well-pleasing to God. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Acceptable giving

It is related of Andrew Fuller that, on a begging tour for the cause of missions, he called on a certain wealthy nobleman to whom he was unknown, but who had heard much of Fuller’s talents and piety. After he had stated to him the object of his visit, his lordship observed that he thought he should make him no donation. Dr. Fuller was preparing to return, when the nobleman remarked that there was one man to whom, if he could see him, he thought he would give something for the mission, and that man was Andrew Fuller. Mr. Fuller immediately replied, “My name, sir, is Andrew Fuller.” On this the nobleman, with some hesitation, gave him a guinea. Observing the indifference of the donor, Mr. Fuller looked him in the face with much gravity, and said, “Does this donation, sir, come from your heart? If it does not, I wish not to receive it.” The nobleman was melted and overcome with this honest frankness, and taking from his purse ten guineas more, said, “There, sir, these come from my heart.” Men should give to the cause of missions cheerfully. They should do good with a good motive. “The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.” (J. Whitecross.)

My God shall supply all your need

The need and the supply

Paul declares that the contributions of his Philippian friends are pleasing to him, and acceptable to God.

He cannot requite their kindness, but declares that God can and will.

I. The extent of the supply. The emphasis is on all.

1. There are many promises of this kind even in the Old Testament. “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly,” etc. But in all their fulness we find them only in the gospel, where Christ tells us that our heavenly Father knows our need, and caring as He does for sparrows and lilies will much more care for us.

2. This promise is exceeding broad. It is not restricted--

(1) In the nature of its object, but comprehends temporal and spiritual good.

(2) Nor in the absolute measure of the good it possesses; not your occasional, but your constant need; not one kind, but every kind; not a portion, but all.

3. It is possible to misinterpret the promise. We are not to make it the ground of foolish expectations. God will not do for us what we can do for ourselves, nor gratify our whims. The promise has a just and obvious limit. God will supply our need. He does more, but does not engage to do so; and He is the final and righteous Judge of what our needs are. We may not feel the want of what God sees we require. We may desire wealth, or health of body, but God may see that we need spiritual riches and health of soul, and to give the latter He may have to withhold the former. Take the case of Paul who prayed for deliverance from his thorn in the flesh. God’s response was grace to bear it, and Paul saw that his need was supplied, and then gloried in his infirmity.

II. Its means--“riches in glory,” or “glorious riches,” a phrase indicative of the wealth of Deity; but more than this, for behind the works of His hand there is the uncreated wealth of His own infinity. Here we come to an ocean without a bottom or shore. What we see gives us a small idea of the Divine possibility. Notwithstanding all that God has given, His ability to give remains undiminished.

III. Its medium. The passage is sometimes made to read “out of” His riches and glory. This is true, but what Paul means is that our need is supplied by a certain method. We are under a mediatorial government. By Christ God made the worlds. Through Him, too, comes daily bread and daily pardon. The promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Apart from Him there is no mercy to anyone. Prayer is only heard as offered in His name.

IV. Its certainty. There is no doubt or contingency: God shall do it. Some one has said that the apostle here draws a bill on the exchequer of heaven that God will make the wants of the Philippians His own care. Rather let us say that he draws a bill which he is assured God will honour the moment it is presented in believing prayer. What are the grounds for this?

1. The apostle knew that God loved His own children with a peculiar love, and was therefore sure to take care of the Philippians.

2. He knew that God approved of their act, and would therefore compensate them.

3. He knew his own standing with God. We have friends for whom we can say that “for our sakes” they would do what we desire, and God thus puts Himself in human conditions and enables Paul to claim Him as his own. (J. Stacey, D. D.)

Our need and supply

I. Examine the scope of the promise. There is danger of fanaticism in the interpretation of truth. God promises to supply our needs, but not to gratify our wishes or whims.

II. The supply is not according to our deserts, but according to the riches of His glory: i.e., His glorious wealth. The resources of the Trinity are drawn upon. Jesus bade His disciples to ask, that their joy might be full. He does not delight in a sad, starved Church, but in one that is joyful, well fed.

III. The medium. Through Christ. But God ordains means and puts us under conditions. As in agriculture, so here, we are to work in harmony with God’s established methods, if we would secure fruits. (M. Staple, D. D.)

Man’s needs and God’s wealth

I. Man’s needs and God’s wealth.

1. Man’s needs are--

(1) Physical. There is no creature with so many wants.

(a) The creatures far beneath him have not so long and so helpless an infancy, and acquire much sooner the means of self support.

(b) There are successive births in the same life. Man passes from one stage to another, higher and still higher; but he never reaches the platform where he finds perfection.

(c) We may learn the greatness of his nature from the character of his wants. He must have a world made for him and all things in it must serve him.

(d) His needs are constantly recurring. He has marvellous powers of receptivity. The world may empty its treasures at his feet, and yet leave crying needs.

(2) Social. Life can only develope itself by clinging to other forms of life. The affections require some object round which to twine, and thus give beauty to life. The words father, mother, brother, etc., represent the needs of his social nature. Let him be deprived of any of these and he ever after feels that he is poor.

(3) Mental. The mind in its best state is like the garden of Eden; but it may be like a wilderness which brings forth only thorns. It needs teachers, books, culture; the libraries of the world represent its needs.

(4) Moral.

(a) Man is a sinner, and that is enough to express his utter poverty. He needs nothing short of God’s great salvation. He has left his Father’s house and gone into a far country, and having spent all, he begins to be in want.

(b) With the new life there are new capacities. He wants light--the conditions of life--and God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness must shine in our heart. He wants love--God. Nothing short of the Infinite can satisfy him.

(c) There are great changes in this life which give birth to great needs.

(d) There are needs which stretch into the future. Man has time, he wants eternity; he has earth, he wants heaven; he has houses and lands, he needs “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” He wants the perfect life, without suffering, without sin, without sorrow.

2. God’s wealth. How poor all words are in describing the riches of God, the boundless wealth of His nature.

(1) There are some figures that help us; there is the sun. God is our Sun. The sun pours light not only on the tops of the mountains, but into the depths of the valleys; gives colourings to the countless leaves that quiver in mighty forests, and kindles the incense of the world. There are the pulsations of the ocean. In its fulness it pours its tide on our shores, and its waters flow on till they have filled every bay and creek and inlet. The pulsations of God’s goodness are felt through the universe: “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.”

(2) There are some titles that help us, such as the “God of hope,” the “God of peace,” the “God of all comfort,” the “God of all grace,” the “Father of mercies,” the “Father of lights.” But what a revelation of God’s wealth we have when we are told “God is love.” His promises represent His wealth, and are convertible into realities any day and any hour. His gospel reveals His purposes, His thoughts, His grace. Do you want mercy? “He keepeth mercy;” it is treasured in His nature as in a storehouse. Strength? “He giveth power to the faint.” Truth for your understanding? There are revelations as you are able to bear them, visions regulated by the soul’s capacities to see them. Love for your heart? Build a sanctuary, let its dimensions be vast, for in proportion to the greatness of the temple will be the manifestations of the Divinity. Get up into one of the world’s highest mountains and look around, and then claim all.

II. The experience of the highest life shows the connection between the needs of man and the wealth of God.

1. The life of the apostle illustrates our text. One class of needs creates another, and if the highest are supplied the others can be endured. The man who wrote the text had suffered every kind of need, and had therefore large conceptions of human want; but his need had been supplied, and therefore he had large conceptions of God’s wealth.

2. We have the best illustrations of this in his prayers. We may learn from the prayers of men how great the wealth of God must be. “God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” if our needs took outward form, what endless processions we should see going up to the throne of God, all asking. What prayers have gone up from tabernacle, temple, venerable sanctuaries, the pavements of which are worn by generations of kneeling worshippers. What prayers have gone up from men in the depths, from men in the height! What prayers we have heard prayed from our fathers and mothers! What prayers we have prayed. The answers to these reveal the connection between man’s needs and God’s wealth.

III. With what certainty the apostle speaks. This certainty must have come from his faith in God.

1. In the affluence of the Divine life. The universe is but the outward clothing of the thought of God. The gospel with its provision for the need of man is the revelation of the heart of God, and the outpouring of its love.

2. In the benevolence of the Divine nature, wherever God proclaims His name, He makes His goodness to pass before men. If our relationship to our children is the proof of our willingness to give them good gifts, how much more so in regard to God.

3. In the inexhaustibleness of the Divine resources. God is a fountain always overflowing: if the streams should fail there would be a universal bankruptcy of life.

IV. With what intense satisfaction the apostle speaks. He had a large mind and heart, and fitly represented the genius of Christianity. There are some who think only of themselves, and appear to value the gospel all the more because they limit it to a few. If they have bread, they care not if the whole race starves; if they are saved, they care not if the whole world is lost. But this treasure was placed in the apostle’s hands and in ours that man may be enriched. Our need supplied is an assurance that God will supply the need of every man.

V. God supplies our needs through Jesus Christ. How much more precious gifts are when they come through the hands of those who love us. (H. J. Bevis.)

Man’s need supplied from God’s riches

I. Man’s necessity. Strictly speaking, all creatures are equally indigent, whether sinners or saints. Out of God there is no self-sufficiency. But circumstances, though they cannot add to our inherent emptiness and dependence, may add materially to our necessities, and that in three ways.

1. When a creature is placed in a situation unfavourable to his happiness. An infant, e.g., in his mother’s arms, is as needy as want and helplessness can render it, but take it from its mother and cast it into the sea and it needs to be rescued as well as nourished; a deliverer as well as a mother.

2. When there is something within himself counteracting his welfare. A sick man needs more help than one in health; a man with a wounded spirit more comfort than one with a mind unwrung.

3. When he is destined for a high station. A monarch’s son requires more care in training than a peasant’s. A barbarian does well enough in his native woods, but set him apart for a high state of civilization and you add to him many wants. Put these three things together and we shall have some idea of the extent and urgency of the Christian’s need. We are in a state unfavourable to our happiness; there is sin within us; we are designated for a station for whose pursuits we have naturally no desire. We are needy as creatures, as sinful creatures, as redeemed creatures.

II. God’s wealth. The apostle has not in his mind all the blessings which God possesses in Himself, but those which are adapted to our present state of want and our future state of exaltation--gospel blessings, “the riches of His grace,” the mercies offered to sinners.

1. The figure contains two ideas.

(1) Their abundance. It is not one or two pieces of gold that make a man rich, nor power to relieve one or two beggars. There must be large resources. And where is the want for which God’s gospel does not offer a remedy? Where the blessing He is not able to bestow? Millions on millions can no more exhaust His store that we with the hollow of our hand could empty the sea.

(2) Their excellence. We do not deem worthless things riches however abundant. A mass of sand would never be called a treasure. And what so precious as God’s mercies? We can no more estimate their value than their abundance. We can no more say “We know their utmost worth” than “We have taken them all.”

2. Why are they called “riches in glory?” Perhaps the term

(1) may refer to heaven, the storehouse of spiritual blessings.

(2) Or it may be equivalent to “glorious riches.” In this case it may mean that these riches

(a) are magnificent as well as excellent and abundant.

(b) That they bring glory to their possessors, and are honourably acquired and spent.

(c) That they are glorious in their tendency and use. They not only come out of glory but lead to it--whereas earthly riches are often debasing and injurious.

III. The supply for this necessity out of this wealth. This supply is--

1. Certain.

2. Abundant. Not according to our necessities but to God’s riches; suited to His character not ours; commensurate with His magnificence rather than with our poverty and meanness.

3. Adapted to our real, not imaginary need.

4. Through Christ.

(1) He purchased them for us. “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” etc.

(2) He receives them for us as our representative.

(3) He bestows them on us. It is the connection it has with Christ that makes this supply certain, for it is the stipulated reward of His sufferings; abundant, for those sufferings were of infinite worth; glorious, because its bestowal brings glory to Him. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

Provision for the way

Joseph filled his brethren’s sacks with corn, which they were to carry home with them. But in addition he gave them “provision for the way.” This, compared with the other, was a small thing, but the other would never have reached home without it. So we know that there is a glorious portion in the heavenly Canaan, but we have a wilderness journey to pro vide for: and Jesus, our Covenant Joseph, who has charge of the treasures of heaven, has not forgotten this.

I. The nature of this provision.

1. This is embodied in the word “need.” This is all that God undertakes to provide for. There are many things that others have that we should like; there are many things that we feel we could make good use of if we had them; there are many things that our pride, ambition, desire for self-indulgence prompt us to crave, but we do not find them in this provision.

2. This word need has a variety of meanings which take their shape from the character and aim of the person to whom it refers. The man who goes to business with the consciousness that by twelve o’clock he has a note to take up for five thousand dollars--needs that amount of money. The mariner needs favouring breezes to aid him in reaching port. The farmer needs rain and sunshine to ripen and mature the grain. And so in the case of the Christian. His need does not take in what will minister to present gratification, but what will be useful in promoting his eternal interest. What this is God only knows and can give.

3. The psalmist teaches us the meaning of the word when he says, “No good thing” will God withhold from His people. But this good thing may mean disappointment, sickness, poverty. But whatever the soul’s interest requires is our need.

II. Its extent. This will be best illustrated by scriptural examples.

1. Job’s need could only be supplied by passing through a peculiar experience; but it was supplied. He was led into the furnace, supported through it, and brought out of it.

2. Noah’s need could not be met without a demand on faith and obedience such as had never been made before. But Noah believed and obeyed God, built the ark and was saved.

3. Jacob’s need could only be met by Joseph’s being governor of Egypt, and this involved much grief.

4. Abraham’s need could only be met by the stern call to offer up his son, and the result of that action will follow him throughout eternity in untold blessings.

5. And so with Moses, David, Daniel, Jonah, and Paul.

III. The rule by which this provision is regulated. It would have been a great thing had the apostle said, “According to His riches in grace.” These riches are marvellous, and show us what God is doing for His people here. But “riches in glory” point to what He will hereafter do for us in heaven. These “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.” When St. John gazed through the veil he only tells us of the foundations and walls of the heavenly home as made of precious jewels; its gates of pearls, and streets of gold; and then leaves us to infer what the “riches in glory” must be. Tempted, burdened, needy Christian, the riches lavished on yonder home are pledged for thy supply.

IV. The agent by whom this provision is administered. How tenderly God has considered our comfort in constituting Christ the agent. With whom could the administering of this supply be so safely left as with Him?

1. How able He is to help.

2. How willing.

3. How ready.

4. How close and always at hand.

V. Its certainty. This is the promise of the God of eternal truth. Did His promise ever fail? Can the scripture be broken. (R. Newton, D. D.)

Sure supplies

I. God is rich--gloriously rich.

1. In life. He is the living God.

2. In the power of imparting life--a fountain that can never be exhausted.

3. In strength. “Is anything too hard for the Lord.”

4. In knowledge and wisdom. “Oh, the depth,” etc.

5. In mercy. “He spared not His own Son.”

6. In all that constitutes goodness.

7. The earth is full of His riches--there is not a poor province in creation.

8. He is rich in possession, for “all things were created by Him and for Him.”

9. Rich without obligation to another, for “of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things.”

10. This gloriously rich God is our Father, and to His boundless wealth His firstborn had free access.

But they became prodigal, and all their younger children have trodden in their steps, and now we have not free access to the whole of our Father’s wealth. We now inherit God’s glorious riches by Christ Jesus, and become heirs of God by becoming joint heirs with Him.

II. The Christian’s supplies are sure. This is secured--

1. By the source--God.

(1) The ordinary sources of supply to us are ever changing and multiplying as we advance. The first we recognize is that which we denominate “my mother”; then “my father”; then “my teachers”; then “my books and companions”; then “my trade or profession”; then “my husband, wife, friends, country, Church.”

(2) But these are only subordinate sources of supply--cisterns which cannot long hold water. My mother and father--their days are as grass; my friends--how many are worthy of the name; my daily calling--if it yield bread enough is a weariness; the happy wife may become a widow; upon your country you may have to turn your back; the Church may be a wilderness to you. With everything you now term “my” you may be disappointed and disgusted.

(3) But Paul is positive that this source shall never fail, because it cannot.

2. By the channel--Christ Jesus.

(1) When our supplies fail the channel is sometimes at fault and not the source. The supply of fuel in midwinter sometimes fails, not because the coal fields are exhausted, but because the snow blocks the railways. The supply of water or gas may be insufficient, not because the reservoirs are low, but because the pipes are broken. A good scheme perishes through bad agents; and though sure of the source if we be doubtful of the channel we can never speak confidently of the supply.

(2) But in this case we are as sure of the channel as we are of the source. “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

3. By the scale of distribution. “According to His glorious riches.”

(1) Human supplies are not always according to means. The rich husband will sometimes supply his wife so sparingly that the wife of the working man is less straitened. Not according to their wealth do some parents educate their children, but according to their niggardliness. Wealthy masters remunerate their servants according to their own selfish hearts. Offerings cast into God’s treasury are often only “according to necessity.” But when we find men supplying the need of others according to their resources we are sure that they are kind and liberal, and are sure to supply the need of all that are dependent upon them.

(2) Now God gives “according to His glorious riches.” Not as the poor give, in the abundance of their poverty; not as the rich, when they give grudgingly; not according to our low views, restrained prayer, or feeble faith; not according to any liberality we see in each other. If the gloriously rich God give according to His wealth we may say with confidence, “My God shall supply,” etc.

III. The knowledge of God is essential to confidence in Him. There are few things in which we are oftener disappointed than the resources of our supplies. This is especially the case with men who look for patrons to carry them forward. The power to help is overestimated: disappointment comes and confidence is wrecked. Now this man knew God, and that knowledge was the basis of his trust. He had looked to God for the supply of his need of wisdom, guidance, protection, strength, etc., and God had supplied it. With this personal experience of the riches of the Divine liberality, he says, “My God shall supply all your need.” (S. Martin.)

Comfort for the needy

I. Your need--is great--diversified--constant.

II. The supply--suitable--seasonable--abundant.

III. The source of supply--certain--inexhaustible--free. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Filling the empty vessels

I. Set out the empty vessels.

1. It is not supposed that you need to borrow other people’s needs: you have enough of your own. Set them out--in a long row, all of them. Needs for your body and needs for your soul; needs for your families, for the present, for the future, for time, and for eternity. Your needs are as many as your moments and the hairs of your head.

2. Some of these empty vessels are large and are growing larger. Our wants grow upon us. One loaf sufficed once: it would not go far at your table now: the loaves vanish there like snow in the sun. You have more infirmities. You never needed so much as you do now.

3. Some of these needs, if supplied tonight, would be empty vessels tomorrow morning. Yesterday’s old patience is stale stuff. You must grow more of that sweet herb in your garden. We are like the fabled vessels of mythology that were so full of holes that the fifty daughters of Danaus could never fill them.

4. Some of our needs are very pressing. Bring, then, your urgent needs. Set them all out in this row of empty pots.

II. Who is to fill these empty vessels? My God will supply all your need. Nobody else can. He can. Paul says: See, my God has supplied me. He will also supply you. Paul’s God is the God of providence. He is also the God of grace. He that spared not His own Son, shall He not with Him freely give us all things? He is also the God of heaven. The riches of nations are as rags and rottenness in comparison with His resources.

III. In what style will God supply His people’s needs?

IV. By what means does the Lord fill His people’s needs? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Christian’s want and supply book

On a tradesman’s table I noticed a book labelled “Want Book.” What a practical suggestion for a man of prayer! He should put down all his needs on the tablets of his heart, and then present his want book to his God. If we knew all our need, what a large want book we should require! How comforting to know that Jesus has a supply book, which exactly meets our want book! Promises, providences, and Divine visitations, combine to meet the necessities of all the faithful. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God will supply our need

The Rev. Hansard Knollys was among the Christian ministers, who, in the seventeenth century, were the subjects of persecution. He was prosecuted in the High Commission Court and fled to America: whence after a time he returned. Having lived for some time in obscurity in London, he had but sixpence left, and no prospect for the support of his family. In these circumstances he prayed, encouraged his wife to remember the past goodness of God, and to reflect on the promise, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”; paid his lodging and then went out, like Abraham, not knowing whither he went. He had walked only a few steps, when he was met by a woman who told him that some Christian friends had prepared a residence for him and his family, and had sent him money and other comforts. They were impressed with this manifestation of Divine goodness to them, and his wife exclaimed, “O dear husband I how sweet it is to live by faith, and trust God’s faithful word! Let us rely upon Him whilst we live, and trust Him in all straits.”

The faithfulness of God

Rev. J. Brown, of Haddington, said that his epitaph might appropriately be, “Here lies one of the cares of Providence, who early wanted both father and mother, and yet never missed them.” (Thomas Cooper.)

Sufficiency of the Divine resources

God is satisfied with Himself, and sufficient to His own happiness. Therefore, surely, there is enough in Him to fill the creature. That which fills an ocean will fill a bucket; that which will fill a gallon will fill a pint; those revenues which will defray an emperor’s expenses are enough for a beggar or poor man. (T. Manton, D. D.)

The nearness of the provision

Ability and willingness to help are not sufficient of themselves. They must be always at hand just when and where we may require them. How often the help of earthly friends fails just here. We see this strikingly illustrated in the case of Hedley Vicars. He was wounded in one of those sanguinary conflicts before Sebastopol. His wound was not necessarily mortal The surgeon understood the nature of the wound perfectly. He felt sure that it could be cured, and he was perfectly ready and willing to do all he could for his suffering friend. But still Hedley Vicars died of that wound. And why? Because in the hurry and tumult of that terrible morning, on the gray heights of the Crimea, the regiment which Hedley Vicars commanded was carried far away from the tent that held the supplies. A bandage was needed to tie up the bleeding artery. But this bandage was in yon distant tent; and ere the tent could be reached, the brave Christian soldier was no more. In speaking of this circumstance afterwards, at a public meeting in England, one of the friends of the departed hero said, with the pathos of true affection, “If there had been a bandage within reach--if the tent of supplies had been half a mile nearer, Hedley Vicars might have been alive today.” There was knowledge, and power, and willingness to help. But just the one thing needed was not at hand, and so there was a failure to meet the pressing need. But such a thing can never occur with Him in whose hands our supply is left. (R. Newton, D. D.)

The exactness of the Divine supply

Harms of Hermannsburg, the pastor of a poor village on the Luneberg Heath in Hanover, said in his annual missionary sermon in 1857: “I have expended much in the past year in sending out the ship with her fifteen passengers, for the printing house, the press, and the paper, altogether 14,781 dollars, and I have received altogether 14,796 dollars, so I have fifteen dollars over. Is not that a wonder? So much spent, and yet something over! And I thank God that He has given us the fifteen dollars overplus. Riches only makes cares. God has heard all my prayers. He has given me no riches, and I have also no debts. We have neither collected nor begged, but waited patiently on God in prayer.”

Christ adapted to human need

You cannot name a noble figure, a sweet simile, a tender or attractive relationship, in which Jesus is not set forth for the comfort and encouragement of His people. Are we wounded? He is balm. Are we sick? He is medicine. Are we naked? He is clothing. Are we poor? He is wealth. Are we hungry? He is bread. Are we thirsty? He is water. Are we in debt? He is our Surety. Are we in darkness? He is our Sun. Have we a house to build? He is the Rock on which to build it. Have we a black and gathering storm to face? He is a strong tower to which we may flee and be safe. Are we to be tried? He is our Advocate. Is sentence passed, and are we under condemnation? He is our pardon. To deck Him out and set Him forth Nature culls her finest flowers, brings her choicest ornaments, and lays these treasures at His feet. The skies contribute their stars. The sea gives up its pearls. From fields, and rivers, and mountains, earth brings the tribute of her gems--her gold, her frankincense and myrrh, the lily of the valley, the clustered vine, and the fragrant rose of Sharon. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Mercies stilt left

There was a man who came over from New York some years ago, and threw himself down on a lounge in his house and said, “Well, everything’s gone.” They said, “What do you mean?” “Oh,” he replied, “We have had to suspend payment; our house has gone to pieces--nothing left.” His little child bounded from the other side of the room and said, “Papa, you have me left.” And the wife, who had been very sympathetic, and very helpful, came up and said, “My dear, you have me left.” And the old grandmother, seated in a corner of the room, put up her spectacles on her wrinkled forehead and said, “My son, you have all the promises of God left.” Then the merchant burst into tears and said, “What an ingrate I am! I find I have a great many things left. God, forgive me.” (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

The promise should inspire fearlessness in Divine service

Your business--you cannot neglect that! Call to mind the story of the rich English merchant to whom Elizabeth gave some commission of importance, and he demurred to undertake it, saying, “Please, your majesty, if I obey your behests what will become of these affairs of mine?” And his monarch answered, “Leave those things to me; when you are employed in my service I will take charge of your business.” So it will be with you. Do but surrender yourself to Christ, and He, of His own free will, takes in hand all your affairs. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Neglect of the promise

Many years ago, an aged and ragged Indian wandered into one of our western settlements, begging for food to keep him from starving. A bright-coloured ribbon was seen round his neck, from which there hung a small dirty pouch. On being asked what it was, he said it was a charm given him in his younger days. He opened it, and took out a worn and crumpled paper, which he handed the person speaking to him for inspection. It proved, on examination, to be a regular discharge from the Federal army, entitling him to a pension for life, and signed by General Washington himself. Here was a man, with a promise duly signed, which, if presented in the right place, would have secured to him ample provision for the way; and yet he was wandering about hungry, helpless, and forlorn, and begging for bread to keep him from starving! What a picture we have here of many Christians, who, with all the promises of Jesus in their hands--with the charter of their inheritance in full possession, are yet gloomy, and sad, and starving in the wilderness! (R. Newton, D. D.)

Now unto God and our Father

The spirit in which to close the year

I. The doxology.

1. We are to give glory to God as to our heavenly Father. We are not to regard Him as a tyrant, nor as a governor merely, but as a kind and loving Father.

2. We are to give Him the glory, that is, the honour and praise, of all His mercies to us.

II. Benediction. Grace is the love of God as displayed in Christ, whereby we receive all those unmerited favours which are included in the gospel plan of salvation.

1. The beginning of religion is grace.

2. Its progress in the soul depends upon grace. (Homiletic Monthly.)

Parting thoughts should embrace

I. Thanks to God.

II. Love to the brethren.

III. Prayer for grace. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Observe--

I. The glory of God--is absolute--full of grace--eternal.

II. Its acknowledgment--is due from all--in truth--forever. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Glory is due

I. To God--as supreme--as our Father.

II. From all--in heaven--and on earth.

III. Forever--in time--and eternity.

IV. In sincerity and truth--amen. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Salute every saint in Christ Jesus

I.

The description of a true believer.

1. He is a saint, i.e., a separated one.

(1) So God regards him as taken out of the world and set apart for Himself.

(2) So God employs him. He is a chosen instrument. While God uses all men to accomplish His general designs, none but Christians are told off for special spiritual uses.

(3) So the world esteems him; sometimes satirically, sometimes injuriously, as exhibiting a contrast, but often genuinely. There are certain things which will never be said or done in the presence of a Christian.

(4) He becomes more and more saintly: by watchfulness, avoidance of sin, separation from the world, consecration to God.

2. He is in Christ Jesus.

(1) Here he enters a new world and enjoys new experiences, thoughts, etc.

(2) He lives a new life, higher, purer, nobler.

(3) Here he has a charmed existence. Christ guides, protects, supports Him.

(4) He has the promise of a rich reward. With Christ here is to be with Him forever.

3. But only in Christ Jesus is he a saint.

(1) Not in his own resolution, endeavours, achievements.

(2) But in the enjoyment of Christ’s life, participating in His Spirit, cleansed in His blood, following His example.

II. The democracy of the Christian Church.

1. Our Lord established a society of those who believed in Him on the earth, and that society is still recognized by visible signs. There are many belonging to Christ who have not joined themselves to any body of believers. It is a bad thing to stand outside in that way, waiting for a perfect Church. If you should find it and be admitted to it, it would from that day be imperfect.

2. This Church is not a monarchy as Rome has tried to make it; nor an oligarchy ruled by a few. It is a pure true republic. In it all believers are equal before the law. True, it is a theocracy. God governs it. It is subject to Christ; but His will is exerted over individuals according to their voluntary actions. The earliest Church realized it. The latest church will realize it. Every saint is in Christ Jesus. What higher honour can they have. This implies equality of status, privilege, responsibility, and reward.

III. The salutation. Recognize every saint. There are no lines of demarcation between saints.

1. Theological differences are often fictitious. If a man be in Christ he is my brother, whatever creed he may profess.

2. Neither are ecclesiastical lines to be drawn between saints. What matter if a man has been dipped in Jordan or sprinkled, whether he calls himself by one name or another in the army of the saved ones. Because a man chooses to wear one style of livery we are not to stand aloof and say, “I will not salute you.”

3. Let not selfish ends divide saints. Look not so much at the name, wealth and quality, rank, etc., as to the saint side of everybody.

4. What business in the Church of God have jealousy, recriminations, criticism. “Bless and curse not.” Speak as well as you can for every saint; and when you cannot, keep quiet. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

True Christians have

I. One centre--Christ.

II. One character--saints and brethren.

III. One heart--they love one another. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The brethren which are with me greet you. All the saints salute you--The earlier ages of the Church were marked by a spirit of love; so that Christians actually regarded themselves as all members of one family. The moment a man embraced Christianity, he was regarded as a brother by the whole Christian body: a thousand hearts at once beat kindly towards him; and multitudes, who were never likely to see him in the flesh, were instantly one with him in spirit. The love of Christians because they are Christians, no regard being had to country or condition--is this still a strongly marked characteristic of those who profess themselves the disciples of the Redeemer? There was something very touching and beautiful in Christ’s promise to such as should forsake all for his sake--“He shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands.” Thus was strikingly verified a description long before given of God by the Psalmist: “He setteth the solitary in families”--for they who were to all appearance abandoned, left orphaned and alone in the world, found themselves surrounded by kinsmen. The criterion of genuine Christianity remains just what it was: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. In our own time the ends of the earth are being wondrously brought together: there is an ever-growing facility of communication between country and country; and this must rapidly break down many barriers, and bring far-scattered tribes into familiar intercourse. In earlier times, nation was widely divided from nation: the inhabitants of different lands were necessarily almost strangers to each other; and you could not have expected an approximation to universal brotherhood. But then it was, in the face of all obstacles to personal communion, that the spirit of Christianity showed its comprehensive and amalgamating energies: the name of Christ was as a spell to annihilate distance; to plant the cross in a land, sufficed to make that land one with districts removed from it by the diameter of the globe. Alas for the colder temper of modern times! We have been led into these remarks, from observing, in the apostolical writings, the affectionate greetings which the members of one Church send to those of another. For the most part, these Churches had no intercourse the one with the other; they were widely separated by situation; and, had it not been for the bond of a common faith, their members would have been as much strangers as though they had belonged to different orders of being. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Chiefly they that are of Caesar’s household

These words

I. Remind us of the adaptation of the gospel to men everywhere.

1. It is no part of God’s purpose in redemption to limit its blessings to a nation or class. Hence the provisions of the gospel are suited to the circumstances of man as man. It knows nothing of the distinctions of rich and poor, noble and ignoble, learned and ignorant, bond and free. It knows them only as sinners, and offers salvation to all on equal terms. Hence in the early Churches we find slaves like Onesimus, fishermen like Peter, physicians like Luke, lawyers like Zenas, soldiers like Cornelius, and saints in Caesar’s household.

2. The gospel is still of universal adaptation. Christ is still the Saviour of sinners, and has disciples in every country and amidst all circumstances and conditions.

II. Teaches us the possibility of serving God in positions of temptation and difficulty.

1. Caesar’s household was the last place where one would have expected to find saints. Under any circumstances it could not be favourable to conversions and Christian growth; and it was now at about its worst. It illustrates the sovereignty of Divine grace that out of these circumstances there should arise witnesses for the gospel. It must have required great courage; but the grace that called them sustained them.

2. So it is always. There are some positions in which a man cannot serve God because they are wrong. There are others lawful enough, yet encompassed by temptation, e.g., the position of the sailor shut up for months with ungodly shipmates, that of the pious soldier in barracks with ungodly comrades, that of a godly citizen among scoffing fellow workmen. In all such cases God is able to make all grace abound to His servants. Faint not. God by placing you in a post of trial has assigned to you a post of honour. Never try to effect a compromise between right and wrong.

III. Tells how the Spirit of Christ animates all his followers. That spirit is love and sympathy. See how it breathes through these brotherly salutations. The age wants more of this spirit. What Christ requires is not so much uniformity of belief and worship as union of heart.

IV. Illustrates the way in which Christians may comfort and help one another.

1. The Philippians needed comfort. They had adversaries and were in danger of being terrified by this. The letter itself would afford deep consolation, this postscript especially so. The salutation was not much, but it showed that they were not forgotten at the throne of grace.

2. In many ways comfort and help may be afforded if there be only a little thoughtfulness. A truly sympathetic heart can give help with a look and a grasp of the hand. A too common sin is thoughtlessness. “Evil is wrought by want of thought, as well as want of heart.” The youth in the midst of scoffing companions, the young girl in an ungodly house, the poor man battling with poverty, the discouraged Christian worker--what might not be done by a timely and kind word.

V. A suggestion of the way in which our conduct becomes example and influence to others. Little did the Roman saints think that their salutations would be preserved and handed down through the centuries for the use of the Church. Kind words can never die. Neither can kind actions. Our names may perish but we shall live. Who these saints were we cannot tell. Nevertheless their power is felt today. (W. Walters.)

The saints in Caesar’s household

The throne of the Caesars was at this time occupied by Nero, a monster rather than a man. Certainly if ever there was an atmosphere uncongenial to Christianity it may be supposed to have been that of the court and palace of this bloody debauchee. Yet so true is it that gospel weapons are mighty to the casting down of strongholds that there were here Christians of the highest type willing to give their profession all publicity by sending greetings to Christians in distant cities.

I. The agency which brought round so unlikely a result. The mind naturally turns to Paul’s miraculous gifts, and remembers how with noble intrepidity Paul rose up before the sages of Greece, and that as he spoke to Felix, the slave of base lusts, the haughty Roman trembled. It is easy to imagine, therefore, Paul working some great miracle to command the attention of the emperor and the court, and then reasoning of temperance, righteousness, and judgment to come. But this fancy would be incorrect. Paul was now a prisoner, and could not go like Moses, rod in hand, and compel by his miracles the attention of the profligate king, and yet it was at this time of seeming impotence that the great victory was won. Nay, it appears actually to have been in consequence of his imprisonment. Philippians 1:12-14 shows the two ways in which his bonds gave enlargement to Christianity. His patience and meekness witnessed for the truth of the gospel for which he suffered, and nerved the Christians to greater energy.

II. We have here a lesson as to God’s power of overruling evil for good. We are apt to imagine when a man is withdrawn from active duty that his usefulness is gone. But a minister can preach from a sick bed as well as from a pulpit. The report which goes forth of his patience and fortitude will do as much and perhaps more towards overcoming resistance to the gospel than his active ministrations. The martyrs did most for God and truth when actually in the clutches of their persecutors. A true Christian is never laid by. The influence that he exerts when suffering or reduced to poverty is often greater than when he led a benevolent enterprise. Let no one then be discouraged.

III. A man cannot be placed in circumstances which put it out of his power to give heed to the duties of religion. The instance of saints in Caesar’s household takes away the excuse that temptations, hindrances, opposition render piety impossible. Where are any so circumstanced as these people? It is true that more appears to be done for one man than for another, and that some circumstances are conducive and others hindering to religion. But under every possible disadvantage there may be a striving with evil and a following after good. The excuse assumes that God has put it out of some men’s power to provide for their soul’s safety, and to assume this is to contradict the Divine word, and to throw scorn on the Divine attributes. Take a case like the one before us, that of servants in an irreligious family. Their superiors set them a bad example, give them few opportunities for public or private devotion, and would frown on or ridicule any indication of piety. Let this be granted. Yet these difficulties would disappear before earnest resolve. They have but to begin and obstacles would be gradually lowered and strength would grow by exercise. The Spirit of the living God fails no man who is not false to himself.

IV. These saints not only belonged to Caesar’s household at the time of their conversion, but remained after their conversion. They did not feel it their duty to abandon their stations and seek others apparently more favourable to religion. So that it does not follow that a man is to withdraw from circumstances of danger and difficulty, and place himself where there is less temptation and opposition. It is true a converted man is not justified in seeking employment where it would be specially difficult to cultivate religion; but to desert it because it made religion difficult would be to declare that the grace which had converted him in spite of disadvantages would not suffice to establish him, and to mark distrust of God’s Spirit. If the employment were sinful, there would be no room for debate; but if only dangerous, and simply required a greater amount of vigilance and boldness, to forsake it would prove timidity rather than prudence. For, e.g., a Christian nobleman in a corrupt court, or servant in an ungodly family, may find it unlawful to leave, inasmuch as distinct opportunity may be afforded of doing honour to God and promoting Christ’s cause. They are placed by God as leaven in the midst of an unsound mass. Not that a servant has to travel beyond the duties of his station; he has simply to carry his Christianity into all his occupations, and to distinguish himself from others by closer attention to his master’s interests, stricter adherence to truth, etc. Let an irreligious master perceive all this, and he will scarcely fail to receive an impression favourable to religion. There are families to which the preacher can gain no access. God forbid that pious domestics should hastily withdraw from such.

V. Wheresoever God makes it a man’s duty, there he will make it his interest to remain. If He employ one of His servants in turning others from sin, He will cause the employment to conduce to that servant’s holiness. Notice the “chiefly” of our text. Of all the Roman Christians the foremost in love were these saints who probably remained in Caesar’s service for the express purpose of furthering the gospel. Nor need we feel any surprise at this. Absence of trial is not the most favourable thing to religious growth. Nero’s palace may be a far better place for the development of personal piety than the cell of the monk; in the one the Christian has his graces put continually to the proof, and this serves both to discover and strengthen them; in the other there may be comparatively nothing to exercise them. And then the God of all grace, who has promised that His people shall not be tempted above that they are able, will bestow assistance proportioned to their wants. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Saints in Caesar’s household

I. It is possible to be a Christian anywhere.

1. Christianity is not a thing of locality but of character. There are plants which will bloom in some latitudes and die in others, but Christianity can live where man can live, because it consists in the loyalty of the heart and life to Christ. Obadiah kept his conscience in the house of Ahab, Daniel his in the court of Babylon, Nehemiah his in the Persian palace. As Jonathan Edwards says, “The grace of God can live where neither you nor I can.” In the abodes of poverty humble Christians are living as near to God as Enoch. Even yet, if we care to look for it, we may find the lily among thorns.

2. What is true of places is true of occupations. Unless a man’s business is sinful he may serve God in any profession. The Roman army was a very poor school of morals, yet all the centurions mentioned in the New Testament were good men. The sailor is proverbially rough, yet some of the best Christians have been sailors. What heroic godliness has been manifested by miners?

3. Now, if this be so it follows--

(1) That we must not be prejudiced against a man because of the locality he comes from. What peril Nathaniel nearly incurred because he thought Jesus came from Nazareth. Test a man by what he is, not by what he comes from.

(2) That we ought not to excuse ourselves for our lack of Christianity by pleading the force of circumstances. How often do we hear one saying, “It is no use trying to be a Christian where I am.” But it is never necessary to do wrong. Sin is a voluntary thing, and no external force can constrain a man to commit it. One comes home intoxicated and pleads that he met some friends and had to go with them; another excuses his extravagance on the plea that he must keep up appearances; a third excuses his dishonourable practices because he is in danger of bankruptcy. But if you cannot help doing wrong it is not wrong, but it is the consciousness of being able to help it that makes you so eager to use the excuse.

II. It is harder to be a Christian in some places than in others. There are households in which it seems most natural for a child to grow up in the beauty of holiness, and others where loyalty to Christ is met with opposition. The surroundings of some occupations are more trying to piety than others. When the lymphatic Dutchman, who took things easily, said to his excited minister, “Dominic, restrain your temper,” he was met with the pertinent reply, “Restrain my temper, sir! I restrain more temper in the course of a single day than you do in a year.” That was a difference of temperament. What then?

1. The Lord knows that this is so, and He will estimate our work by our opportunity. We may be sure that if we are in a hard place He will give us strength according to our need. Each gets his own grace. “Ilka blade of grass has its ain drap o’ dew,” and grace is suited to the place in which one dwells.

2. We ought to be charitable in our judgment of each other. While we hold ourselves to a rigid reckoning in all circumstances, let us make allowance for the circumstances of others. The flower in the window of a poor man’s cottage may be far from a perfect specimen, but it is a greater marvel than the superb specimen in a rich man’s conservatory. There may be more honour to one man for the Christianity he has maintained in the face of great obstacles, though it may be marked with blemishes, than there is to another who has no such blemishes, but who has had no such conflict.

III. The harder the place in which we are we should be the more earnest to maintain our Christianity. Here, however, it is needful to know what the hardest place is. It is not always that where there is the greatest external resistance to Christianity. An avowed antagonist the Christian meets as such; he prepares himself for the encounter, and is not taken unawares; but when the ungodly meet him as friends, then he is in real peril. The world’s attentions are more deadly than its antagonisms. The Church is in the world as a boat is in the sea; it can float only by being kept above it; and if we let it become waterlogged it will be swamped.

IV. The greater the difficulty we overcome in the maintenance of our Christianity the greater will be our reward. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

Sainthood in Nero’s household

1. This incidental allusion informs us that already Jesus was confessed before emperors; men that in irresponsible power and savage cruelty had almost lost the nature of men. Faith has won its greatest conquests on straitened and sorrowful fields.

2. If the strength and joy of believing are proportioned to the weight of the crosses born for it, then in some such post as this we must look for the bravest witnesses to the truth.

3. We eulogize virtues that flourish only in a favourite soil and climate. We palliate and excuse the deficiency, when honesty is missing in the household of Caesar. We forget that the piety of the Church and of society dwindles inevitably unless it is replenished by the energy of those valiant examples which will dare to be true in the palaces of power, and fashion, and mammon.

4. There are yet saints in Caesar’s household, and there is as good cause to venerate them as when beasts licked up their blood from the sand. For the substance of all sainthood which has vitality enough to live in Caesar’s household is this, that its virtue is so built on interior foundations, and its faith so rooted in its Divine Master, that no outward opposition can break it down.

5. There are special traits essential to sainthood in Caesar’s household.

I. Courage Christianity has favour for every noble sentiment; and so she offers to the veteran soldier, and to the enthusiastic youth, a field for bravery grander than any battle, in the resistance of moral invasion. Accordingly, we find that, very soon, Christianity seized on rough warriors, and some of these believers about the person of Nero must probably have been guards of his palace. On one of the early Christian monuments at Rome there is an epitaph of a young military officer, who “lived long enough when he shed his blood for Christ.” But Christ’s religion courts no consideration from armies. Its courage is of another kind--the courage that bears wrong, but will not commit it--that saves life, rather than destroys it; that springs from an unspotted conscience; that goes into and out of all companies, counting houses, caucuses, and churches, with an uprightness not to be bent, whether you bring threats, or sneers, or golden baits to tempt it; that lifts up an unblenched face in the most formidable array of difficulties, satisfied to stand on God’s side, to listen to the encouragement of the beatitudes and to hold to the breastplate of righteousness. Wherever such Christian courage in duty is there will be saints of Caesar’s household.

II. Modesty. They did not call themselves saints; Paul called them so. They did not boast of their religion; there was too much solemn sincerity in it. They did not lurk about the temples to mock the soothsayers, and to disseminate slanders about the priesthood. They knew the joy of their communion with Jesus, and cared more for that than for the admiration of the citizens. That was their Christian modesty. Disjoined from their fortitude, it might haw degenerated into timidity. And that is often our danger. There are persons of a diffident disposition, that err in not mixing enough boldness of resistance with their good nature. They remain inefficient disciples because they shrink from public notice. This is to turn “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit” into a deformity, and to rob the Master of the testimony that is His due. This is the danger of all threatened minorities, but they will get strength for the fiery trial by going back to see how the inmates of a palace full of gluttony, licentiousness, and all royal vices, held their allegiance fast.

III. But to imitate that successful blending of modesty and courage, they will want a third quality, namely, independence. The question of duty once settled, all gates but that which leads to acting it out must be shut. And beyond that point, all arguments from custom, from the general expectation, from popular applause, from public or private gratification, are impertinent. Remember, these saints were living in the centre of the great world’s energy and splendour, and in the very focus of its intelligence. Independence was a virtue quite indispensable to them; but not a whit more so than to us. For, every day, Providence, through our own instincts, pushes us into some crisis of moral peril, where, if we do not act simply of ourselves, and take our direction at first hand from the Spirit, our integrity itself is gone.

IV. And superadded to independence and modesty and courage is constancy. There must have been many days when it would have been easy and convenient for these saints to slip round into the old comfortable heathenism. Inducements were not wanting. For the ignorant there was personal safety. For the cultivated Seneca was alive. But they held fast. They might be hunted out, and see their teachers slaughtered; but they gathered again the next evening, and other hands, willing to be mangled by the same martyrdom, broke to them the bread of life. The emperor might send them out to build his baths; they raised no civil rebellion, but while they bent to their slavery they knelt and prayed to their Father. Arrows might pierce their bodies, but they believed the Lord Jesus would receive their spirits. God is asking constancy of us. Our Nero is self-love. The senses are the Caesars of all ages. Fashion is a Rome that commissions its legions and spreads its silent empire wider than the Praetorian eagles. The reigning temper of the world is the imperishable persecutor and tyrant of the faithful soul. And so, in every home and street there are chances for the reappearing of saints in Caesar’s household. (Bishop Huntington.)

The religion of charity compatible with all callings

Notice that the “chief” salutations came from the unlikeliest place. It is a rebuke to some who think that Christianity pervades one state of life more than another. At times men have thought that the Christian religion was peculiarly suitable to the poor, and had nothing to do with the officers of Caesar’s household. Christ preached at first to the lowly, yet wise and rich were also called. If saints are found in Caesar’s household where shall they not be found? But men go sighing to find the proper soil for religion, and go to the desert to be religious, and think that when a man is a beggar he must be nearest heaven.

I. Christianity has affinity with all callings.

1. With riches, because the great grace of charity can be exercised thereby. Whose has charity in his heart and wealth in his hand has the finest gift of God.

2. With statesmanship, although it is common to say that that is a very uncongenial atmosphere for a Christian. But a statesman can put an end to the foul obstructions that hinder truth; he can make laws that men shall be no longer housed in conditions that make righteousness impossible.

3. With the soldier, though some think not. Though the day will come when war shall be at an end, nevertheless he who goes forth in a good cause stirred by the spirit of verity to do righteousness in the spirit of order, obedience, and self sacrifice, between him and the Christian faith are strong affinities.

4. With retirement. Christianity has much to say about the blessings of quiet existence, in deepening the wells of life.

5. With business. The merchant may be the most eminent missionary.

6. With art. The artist who gives relief to the tired eye and brain, who preaches the God of eternal beauty, and the spirit which underlies all visible things, is in harmony with our faith.

II. Wherein consists this unity by which the spirit of Christ has an affinity with extremely opposite characteristics?

1. Let us wander seemingly for a time and answer this question by asking another. It is not whether this or that calling or characteristic be holy or not, but what is that holiness which justifies us in calling it holy? A man may be a sweeper of chimneys or the holder of a sceptre; but the sceptre may be swayed in righteousness, and so may the besom. The righteousness of each depends on the degree to which each embodies in his calling that which constitutes righteousness.

2. To do a good action three things are essential.

(1) That you know what you are doing.

(2) That you do it from choice.

(3) That you have firmness and perseverance to do the like at all times.

3. Having knowledge, intention, and persistence in the performance of that which is just and wise, the question becomes this--What is that which, put into voice or action, constitutes it an act in accord with the Christian faith? Christianity pronounces it to be charity. Charity means the large, loving, constant doing of all things great and small. It is the universal spirit to which there is nothing great or small. A king through charity may sway the sceptre, and a room may be swept to the glory of God. So in Caesar’s household and Peter’s fishing hut, it is possible to be filled with that which constitutes the spirit of religion. Therefore it is a matter of indifference what your calling may be. If you are scandal mongers, indeed, it is impossible to be charitable, because you violate the first principles of charity. When one lives not in constant piety one goes back to Caesar’s household and thinks who they were. (G. Dawson, M. A.)

Christianity

I. Is holy--it makes men saints.

II. Might--it enters the palace.

III. Fearless--it stands before Nero.

IV. Kind--it teaches love. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The composition of Caesar’s household

The household of the emperor consisted mainly of troops and of slaves who ministered to his wants and caprices as the wealthiest and most luxurious of Roman magnates. But senators and knights were also in close attendance upon him, equally in his hours of business and relaxation. These, indeed, were probably masters of households of their own; thus Seneca, the most intimate of his ministers, enjoyed a private residence in his gardens; Burrus, the prefect of the Praetorians, whose duty brought him, no doubt, daily into the imperial presence, occupied his own lodging in the Praetorian camp. The affairs of government were transacted chiefly by the emperor’s freedmen, some of them notorious for their riches and influence, court favourites who had been enfranchised by himself or his predecessors. These also had each his own palace and gardens, in which he vied with the proudest of the ancient aristocracy. Nevertheless these, too, were so closely attached to the emperor’s person that they might claim to form a part of Caesar’s household, and any one of them may have come in contact with Paul. A man of Paul’s power of thought and language, speaking with the academic tone of a scholar of Tarsus, and the natural fervour of a Hebrew prophet, could hardly fail to command the attention of the feverish students of moral truth who abounded in the ranks of the Roman aristocracy. But if such turned away he could not fail to be received among the lower class of the emperor’s household attendants, both male and female, who filled a thousand menial offices about his person, and that of his consort. The ministers to the luxury of Poppaea were certainly not less numerous than those who discharged similar functions for Livia before her. Among them were servants of the chamber and the ante-chamber, servants who waited at the doors, who attended at the bath, who assisted at the toilet, who kept the jewels, who read at the empress’s couch, who sat at her feet, who followed her in her walks, who lulled her to sleep and watched over her slumbers, who had charge of her purse, and distributed the tasks of the whole household. The persons in waiting on the emperor were probably even more multitudinous, and while many of their functions were merely manual, there were not a few entrusted with affairs which required high intellectual training. The emperor was surrounded with numerous members of the learned classes such as could discharge the duties of secretaries, physicians, professors of every art and accomplishment and teachers in philosophy. To have access to Caesar’s household was to be put into communication with the most intelligent people of the day. Over Paul’s intercourse with these people a cloud rests, but it so happens that recent excavations have discovered the names of various persons connected with the court of Claudius which are identical with those which the apostle mentions in his Epistle to the Romans. We find among these names those of Amphas, Urbanus, Stachys, Apella, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Rufus, Hermas, Potrobius (Patrobas), Philologus, and Nerens. Some of these, no doubt, are very common appellatives; but the occurrence of so many coincidences can hardly be accidental. And the easy and familiar way in which the apostle introduces the mention of “the saints in Caesar’s household,” seems to imply that he stood on an easy footing with them. It is the style of one who went in and out among them, of a man who dwelt close at hand; accessible daily as they passed by on their ordinary avocations. (Dean Merivale.)

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amen

The benediction

I. Its contents--grace.

II. Its comprehensiveness--it embraces all.

III. Its power--it is yea and amen. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Grace

I. Its sources.

II. Its fulness.

III. Its flow.

IV. Its power. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

In parting with his readers the apostle wishes them to possess the grace of the Lord Jesus; that grace which--

I. Blesses and cheers.

II. Strengthens and consoles.

III. At last ripens into glory. (Professor Eadie.)