478. The Perfect Example
The Perfect Example
Rom_8:9 : ’93Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.’94
There is nothing more desirable than a pleasant disposition. Without it we cannot be happy ourselves, or make others happy. When we have lost our temper or become impatient under some light cross, we suddenly awaken to new appreciation of proper equipoise of nature. We wish we had been born with self-balance. We envy those people who bear themselves through life without any perturbation, and we flatter ourselves that however little self-control we may now have, the time will come, under the process of years, when we will be mellowed and softened, and the things which are in us wrong now will then be all right, forgetful of the fact that an evil habit in our nature will grow into larger proportions, and that an iniquity not corrected will become the grandfather of a whole generation of iniquities. So that people without the grace of God in the struggle and amid the annoyances and exasperations of life are apt to become worse instead of better.
Now, the trouble is that we have a theory abroad in the world that a man’92s disposition cannot be changed. A man says, ’93I am irascible in temper, and I can’92t help it.’94 Another man says, ’93I am revengeful naturally, and I can’92t help it.’94 A man says, ’93I am impulsive, and I can’92t help it.’94 And he tells the truth. No man can correct his disposition. I never knew a man by force of resolution to change his temperament, but by his grace God can take away that which is wrong and put in that which is right; and I know and you know people who, since their conversion are just the opposite of what they used to be. In other words, we may, by the Spirit of God, have the disposition of Jesus Christ implanted in our disposition, and we must have it done or we will never see heaven. ’93If any man have not the disposition of Jesus Christ he is none of his.’94
In the first place, the Spirit of Christ was a spirit of gentleness. Sometimes he made wrathful utterance against Pharisees and hypocrites, but the most of his words were kind and gentle and loving and inoffensive and attractive. When we consider the fact that he was omnipotent, and could have torn to pieces his assailants, the wonder is greater. We often bear the persecution and abuse of the world because we cannot help it. Christ endured it when he could have helped it. Little children who always shy off at a rough man, rushed into his presence and clambered on him, until the people begged the mothers to take them away. Invalids so sore with wounds that they could not bear to have any one come near them, begged Christ just to put his hand upon the wound and soothe it. The mother with the sickest child was willing to put the little one in Christ’92s arms. Self-righteous people rushed into his presence with a woman of debased character, and said, ’93Now, annihilate her, blast her, kill her.’94 Jesus looked at her, and saw she was sorry and repentant; and he looked at them, and he saw they were proud and arrogant and malignant, and he said, ’93Let him that is without sin cast the first stone at her.’94 A blind man sat by the wayside making a great ado about his lack of vision. They told him to hush up and not bother the Master. Christ stooped to him and said, ’93What wilt thou that I do unto thee?’94 Gentleness of voice, gentleness of manner, gentleness of life.
We all admire it, whether we have any of it or not. Just as the rough mountain bluff and the scarred crag love to look down into the calm lake at their feet, and as the stormiest winter loves to merge into the sunshiny spring, so the most precipitate and impulsive and irascible nature loves to think of the gentleness of Christ. How little we have of it! How little patience in treating with enemies! We have so little of the gentleness of Christ we are not fit for Christian work half the time. We do not know how to comfort the bereft or to encourage the disheartened or to take care of the poor. Even our voice of sympathy is on the wrong pitch.
My sister had her arm put out of joint, and we were in the country, and the neighbors came in, and they were all sympathetic, and they laid hold of the arm and pulled and pulled mightily until the anguish was intolerable; but the arm did not go to its place. Then the old country doctor was sent for, and he came in, and with one touch it was all right. He knew just where to put his finger, and just how to touch the bone. We go out to our Christian work with too rough a hand and too unsympathetic a manner, and we fail in our work, while some Christian, in the gentleness of Christ, comes along, puts his hand of sympathy on the sore spot’97the torn ligaments are healed and the disturbed bones are rejoined. Oh, for this gentleness of Christ!
The dew of one summer night will accomplish more good than fifty Caribbean whirlwinds. How important it is that in going forth to serve Christ we have something of his gentleness! Is that the way we bear ourselves when we are assaulted? The rule is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, retort for retort, sarcasm for sarcasm. Give him as much as he sends! After a while you look up into the face of Christ and you see his gentleness, and you say, ’93Well now, I must do differently.’94 Then your proud heart says, ’93Now you have him in a corner, you will never get him in a corner again; chastise him, and then let him go.’94 So we postpone the gentleness of Christ. Did you ever know any difficulty to be healed by acerbity or hypercriticism? About forty-five years ago, the Presbyterian Church was split into the New School and the Old School. The chasm got wider and wider. The most outrageous personalities were indulged in. Good men on one side anathematized good men on the other side. Wider and wider the chasm got, until after a while some good people tried another tack, and they began to explain away the difficulties, and soon all the differences were healed, and at Pittsburg they shook hands, and are one now to be one forever.
You say to a man with whom you have had a falling out, ’93I despise you.’94 He says, ’93I can’92t bear the sight of you.’94 You say to him, ’93I never want you to come to my house again.’94 He says, ’93If you come to my house again I’92ll kick you out.’94 You say, ’93I’92ll put you down.’94 ’93Oh no,’94 he says, ’93I’92ll put you down.’94 But some day the spirit of Christ comes into you, and you go over and say, ’93My brother, give me your hand; time is short and eternity is near, and we can’92t afford to quarrel. Now let bygones be bygones, and let us act like Christians.’94 It is all settled. How? By the gentleness of Christ.
Did you ever know a drunkard reclaimed by mimicry of his staggering step, his thick tongue, or his hiccough? No. You only madden his brain. But you go to him and you let him know you appreciate what an awful struggle he has with the evil habit, and you let him know that you have been acquainted with people who were down in the same depths and who, by the grace of God, have been rescued. He hears your voice, he responds to that sympathy, and he is saved. You cannot scold the world into anything better. You may attract it into something better. The stormiest wind comes out from its hiding-place and says, ’93I will arouse this sea,’94 and it blows upon the sea. Half of the sea is aroused, or a fourth of the sea is aroused, yet not the entire Atlantic. But after a while the moon comes out, calm and placid. It shines upon the sea, and the ocean begins to lift. It embraces all the highlands, the beach is all covered. The heartthrob of one world beating against the heartthrob of another world. The storm could not rouse the whole Atlantic; the moon lifted it. ’93And I,’94 said Christ, ’93if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me.’94
Christ’92s disposition was also one of self-sacrifice. No young man ever started out with so bright a prospect as Christ started out with, if he had been willing to follow a worldly ambition. In the time that he gave to the sick he might have gathered the vastest fortune of his time. With his power to popularize himself and magnetize the people he could have gained any official position. No orator ever won such applaudits as he might have won from Sanhedrin and synagogue and vast audiences by the seaside. No physician ever got such a reputation for healing power as he might have obtained if he had performed his wonderful cures before the Roman aristocracy. I say these things to let you know what Paul meant when he said, ’93He pleased not himself,’94 and to show something of the wonders of his self-sacrifice. All human power together could not have thrown Christ into the manger if he had not chosen to go there. All satanic strength could not have lifted Christ upon the cross if he had not elected himself to the torture. To save our race from sin and death and hell he faced all the sorrows of this world and the sorrows of eternity. How much of that self-sacrifice have we?
What is self-sacrifice? It is my walking a long journey to save you from fatigue. It is my lifting a great number of pounds to save you from the awful strain. It is a subtraction from my comfort and prosperity so that there may be an addition to your comfort and prosperity. How much of that have we? Might not I rather say, ’93How little have we?’94 Two children’97brother and sister’97were passing down the road. They were both very destitute. The lad had hardly any garments at all. His sister had a coat that she had outgrown. It was a very cold day. She said, ’93Johnnie, come under this coat.’94 ’93Oh,’94 he said, ’93no, the coat isn’92t large enough.’94 ’93Oh,’94 she said, ’93it will stretch.’94 He comes under the coat, but the coat would not stretch. So she took off the coat and put it on him. Self-sacrifice pure and simple. Christ taking off his robe to clothe our nakedness. Self-sacrifice. I have not any of it, nor have you, compared with that. The sacrifice of the Son of God.
Christ walked to Emmaus, Christ walked from Capernaum to Bethany, Christ walked from Jerusalem to Golgotha. How far have you and I walked for Christ? His head ached, his heart ached, his back ached. How much have we ached for Christ?
The disposition of Jesus was also a disposition of humility. The Lord of earth and heaven in the garb of a rustic. He who poured all the waters of the earth out of his right hand’97the Amazon and the Euphrates and the Oregon and the Ohio and the Mississippi’97bending over a well to ask a Samaritan woman for a drink. He who spread the canopy of the heavens and set the earth for a footstool, lodging with one Simon, a tanner. He whose chariots the clouds are, walking with sore feet. Hushing the tempest on Genessaret and wiping the spray of the storm from his beard, then sitting down in the cabin beside his disciples, as though he had done no more than wipe the sweat from his brow in his father’92s carpenter shop. Taking the foot of death off the heart of Lazarus and breaking the chain of the grave against the marble of the tomb, and then walking out with Mary and Martha without any more pretension than a plain citizen going out in the surburban village to spend the evening. Jostled as though he were a nobody. Pursued as though he were an outlaw. Nicknamed. Seated with publicans and with sinners. King of heaven and earth trailing his robes in the dust.
How much of that humility have we? If we get a few more dollars than other people, or gain a little higher position, oh, how we strut! We go around wanting everybody to know their place, and say, ’93Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the honor of my kingdom and for the might of my strength?’94 Who has anything of the humility of Christ?
The disposition of Christ was also the spirit of prayer. Prayer on the mountains, prayer on the sea, prayer among the sick, prayer everywhere. Prayer for little children: ’93Father, I thank thee that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes.’94 Prayer for his friends: ’93Father, I will that they be with me where I am.’94 Prayer for his enemies: ’93Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.’94 Prayer for all nations: ’93Thy kingdom come.’94 How little of that spirit you and I have. How soon our knees get tired. Where is the vial full of odors which are the prayers of all the saints? Which of us can keep our mind ten minutes on a prayer without wandering. Not you, not I. Oh, that we might have the spirit of prayer which was the Spirit of Christ. We want more prayer in the family, more prayer in the Church, more prayer in the legislative hall, more prayer among the sick, more prayer among the aged, more prayer among the young. The great advancement of the Church is to be in that direction yet.
While the Council of Nuremburg was signing the edict that gave the church its freedom, Martin Luther was away off in a room by himself praying for that accomplishment Though there was no line of communication between the place where the Council was assembled and the room where Martin Luther was praying, Martin Luther suddenly rose from his knees and said, ’93It is accomplished, the church is free. Victory, victory!’94 Oh, for this direct line of communication with the throne of God, so that it may be said of us as it was said of Luther, ’93He got what he asked for!’94 We want, like Daniel, to pray with our face toward the holy city. We want, like Stephen, to pray gazing into heaven. We want like the publican, to pray smiting on the heart of conviction. We want, like Christ, to pray, the Christ who emptied his heart of all its life blood and then filled it with the sorrows, the woes, the agonies of all nations.
Cold mountains and the midnight air
Witnessed the fervor of his prayer.
The Spirit of Christ, I remark lastly, was a spirit of hard work. Not one lazy moment in all his life. Whether he was talking to the fishermen on the beach or preaching to the sailors on the dock or administering to the rustics amid the mountains or spending an evening in Bethany, always busy for others. With hands, heart, head busy for others. Hewing in his father’92s carpenter shop, teaching the lame how to walk without crutches, curing the child’92s fits, providing rations for the hungry host. Busy, busy, busy! The hardy men who pulled the net out of the sea filled with floundering treasures, the shepherds who hunted up grassy plots for their flocks to nibble at, the shipwrights pounding away in the dockyards, the wine-makers of Engedi dipping the juices from the vat and pouring them into the goat-skins, were not more busy than Christ. Busy, busy for others. From the moment he went out of the caravansary of Bethlehem to the moment when the cross plunged into the socket on the bloody mount, busy for others. Does that remind you of yourself? It does not remind me of myself. If we lift a burden it must be light. If we do work it must be popular. If we sit in the pew it must be soft. If we move in a sphere of usefulness it must be brilliant. If we have to take hold of a load, give us the light end of the log. In this way to heaven fan us, rock us, sing us to sleep. Lift us up toward heaven on the tips of your fingers, under a silken sunshade. Stand out of the way all you martyrs who breasted the fire; stand out of the way and let this colony of tender-footed modern Christians come up and get their crowns.
What has your Lord done to you, O Christian, that you should betray him? Who gave you so much riches that you can afford to despise the awards of the faithful? At this moment, when all the armies of heaven and earth and hell are plunging into the conflict, how can you desert the standard? Oh, backslidden Christian, is it not time for you to start anew for God and anew for heaven?
Now, I have shown you that the disposition of Christ was a spirit of gentleness, a spirit of self-sacrifice, a spirit of humility, a spirit of prayer, a spirit of hard work’97five points. Will you remember them? Are you ready now for the tremendous announcement of the text? ’93If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his.’94 Are you ready for that statement? Can we stand up and say, ’93Yes, we have the Spirit of Christ?’94 Not one of us can make that answer to the full question, yet I am to declare to you there is no discouragement in this subject for Christian people. You have the seeds of this character planted in your soul. ’93It doth not yet appear what we shall be.’94 You might as well blame an acorn for not being an oak of a thousand years as to blame yourself because you are not equal to Christ. You have the implantation within you which will enlarge and develop into the grandest Christian character, and there is no discouragement in this text for you to try and love and serve the Lord. Aim high. Sheathe not your sword until you have gained the last victory. Climb higher and higher until you reach the celestial hills. Crowns bright and radiant for all the victors, but death to every deserter.
Autor: T. De Witt Talmage