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CHAPTER III.

THE PURPOSES OF 1 THE INCARNATI 'ION.

B1Y REV. G. CAMPB ELL MORGAN, , D. D.,

PASTOR OF WESTMINSTER CHAPEL, LONDON, ENGLAN .D.

The title of · this meditation marks its Iimita·tion, and indi-.,

cates its s.cope. Here is no1 attempt at defense o·f the statement of the Ne\\·

Testament that ''the Word was mad 1e flesh.'' That is taken for granted as. true.

Moreover, here is no attempt to explain the method of the Holy Mystery. That is recognized as Mystery: a fact revealed which is yet beyo ,nd httman comprehensio ,n or explanation .

The scope is that of considering in broad outline the plain ·treaching of the New T1estam 1en·t asl to the purpose 1s of ·the Incarnation. ·

Its final limitation is that of its brevity. If, however, it serv le to arous ,e a deeper sense 10£ the . wonder of th 1e gre~t central fact of our common Faith, and thus to inspire · further meditation, its object will be gained.

THE INCARNATION.

The whole teaching of Holy Scripture places the Incarna­tion at the center 10£ the methods of Go 1d with a si1nni ·ng race.

Toward that Incarnation everything moved until its accom­plishment, finding the·rein f uifillmen·t and explantion. The meslsagels of the pr 1ophets and seers and the S·ongs ,of the psalm­ists trembled with more or less certainty toward the final music which anno ,unced the coming of Christ. All the results also of thtse partial and broken messages of the past led toward the: Incarnation.

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It is equally true that from that Incarnation all subse-quent movement s have pro 1ceeded, depending upon it for direc­tion and dynamic. The 1Go1spel s,tories l are all co11c1erned with the comi.ng of Christ, with His mission and His l message ,. 1The let·ters of the New Testament have all to do with the fact of the Incarnation, and its correlated doctrines and duties. The last book of the Bible is a b1ool<, th,e true title of which is The Unveiling ,of the Christ.

No 1t only th 1e ,actual messages ·which have been bound up in this one Divine Library, but all the results issuing from them, are finally results issuing from this self -same coming of Christ. It i,s surely important, there ·fore, that w·e should un­ders itand its purp 1oses . in t.l1e economy · of Go 1d.

There is a fourfold statement of purpose declared in the New Testamen t: tl1e purpose to reveal the F .ather; the purpose to put away sin; . the purpose to destroy the works of the devil; a11d 'the purp 1ose to establish by another · advent the Kingdoxµ

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of God in th,e world. Christ was in conflict with all that was ,contrary to the pur-

. poses of God in individual, social, natio 1nal, and racial life. Tl1ere is a s,ense in which whe :n we have said tl1is we have stated tl1e whole meaning of His . coming. His rev·e'l.,atio,n of the Father was to1ward this end; His putti11g away of sin w·as part of this very process; and His second advent will be for

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the complete and final overtl1row of all the works . of the devil.

I . ' ·'No man hath seen God at any time; th ,e only 'begotten

Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him'' ( .John 1 :18).

''He that bath se:en me· hath seen t'he Father'' (Jol111 14 :9). This latter is Christ's own statement of tru ,th in this 1·egar.d,

and is characterize ,d by s.implicity and sublimity. Among all the things Jesus said concerning His relation ship to the Father, none is more comprehensive, inclusiv e, exhaustive, than this.

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The Purposes of the Incarnatio1i ..

The last hours of Jesus with His disciples we1·e pas .sing away. He w,as talking to ·them,. and fo ,ur times over they interrupted him. Philip said , ''Lord, .show us the Father, and it s.uffic,eth us,''. Philip's . interr uptio11 was due, in tl1e first :place, to a conviction of Christ's relation in son1e way to the Father. He had been so long with Jesus as to become familiar in some senses with His lin 1e of thou ,ght. In all pr 1obability Philip was asking that there should be repeated to him and tl1e little group o·f disciples some such wonderful thi ng as they had read of in th ,e past of their people 's histo.ry; as whe11 tl1e eldei:-s once ascended the mountain and saw God; or wl1en the prophet saw the Lord sitting upo,n a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple; or when Ezekiel saw GotI in fire, and wheels; in majesty and glory.

I cannot read the answer of Jesus to that request without feeling that He divested Himself, of set purpo se, of anything that approac .l1ed st .ateli :nes .s of 1diction, and 1droppe 1d ·into 1 the common speech of friend to friend, as, looking back into the face of P hilip, who was voicing, though he little knew it, the great angui sh of the human heart, the great hunger of the human soul, He said, ''Have I been so long time with you,

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an id. dost tho 1u not know me, Philip? He that hath ,seen me hath seen the FatI1er'', That claim has been vindicat .ed in the pas ,sing of the centuries.

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REVELATION TO THE RACE.

We wil .l, therefore, c1onsider first, what this revelation of God has meant to the race; and secondly, what it has meant to the individual ..

First, then, ' what conception of God had the race before Christ came ? Taking tl1e Hebrew thought of God, let me, put the wh.ole truth as I see it into one comprehensive statement. Prior. to the Incarnation there had been a growing intellectual apprehens 1ion 10£ truth con1cernin .g God, a.ccompanied by a

iminishing moral result. It is impossible to study the Old

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Testament without seeing that there gradually broke through the mists a clearer 'light concerning God. The fact of the unity of God; the fact of th 1e might of God; the fact of the holiness of God ; the fact of the beneficence of Go·d ; these things men had come to see through the process of the ages.

Yet side by side with this growing intellectual apprehension of God ther 1e wa .s diminis ,hing moral result, for it is. impossible to read the story of the ancient Hebrew people witnout seeing how they waxed worse and worse in all matters moral. The · moral life of Abraham was far purer than life in the time of the kings. Life in the early time of the l<in.gs w,as, far purer than the conditions which the p1rophets ultimately des ,cribed. In proportion as men grew in their , intellectual conception of God, it s1eemed increasingly unthin ·kable that He could be ·in er-­ested in their every-day life. Morality became something no,t of intimate relationship to Him, and the1·efore something that mattered far less.

Think of the great Gentile world, a.s it then was, and as it s.till is, save where the message of the Evangel has reached it. We have had such remarkable teachers as Zoroaster, Buddl1a, Confucius; men speaking ma.ny true things, flashing with 1ight, brut notwithstanding these things a perpetttal failure in morals and a uniform degradation of religion has been universal.. The failure has ev<::r been due to a lack of final knowledge concern~ ing God.

At las.t th 1ere came the song of the angels, and the birth of the Son of God, through Whose Incarnation and ministry the ·re came to men a new consciousness of God.

He inclt1ded in His tea ,ching and manifestation al1 th 1e essen- . tial things which men had learned in the long ages of the past. He did not deny the truth of the unity of God; He re-empha­sized it. He did not deny th ,e might of God; He declared it and manifested it in many a gentle touch of· infinite power. · He did no 1t deny the holiness of God; He insisted upon it in

Tlie, Purposes of ,the Incarnation. 33

teaching and life, and at last by the mystery of dying. He did not deny the beneficence of God ; He changed the cold word . beneficence into the w1ord throb ,bing with the i·nfinite heart of Deity Love. He did more. That which men had imperfectly expressed in song and prophecy He came to state·----Ji!i ''He that hath seen me hath seen the F 1at 'l1er'' not Elohim, not Jehovah, not Adonai ; none of the great names of the past,

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although all of them are suggestive. In and through Him that truth of the Fatherhood was revealed.

Fatherhood means a great deal more than we som.etimes imagine. It is not merely a term of tenderness; it is also a term of law and discipline. But fatherhood means supremely that if the child have wandered away, the father will suffer everything ,to save and bring _it home again. Within the realm of revealed religion this truth emerged, that the one God, mighty, holy, beneficent, is the Father who will sacrifice Him­self to save the child. There man found the point of contact, in infinite love which never abandons him, never leaves him. That is the truth which, coming into revealed religion, saved it from being intellectual apprehension, minus moral dynamic, and sent running through all human life rivers o,f cleansing, renewal, , regeneration ..

Wherever Christ comes to people who have never had direct revelati 1on, He comes first of all as fulfillment of all that in their thought and scheme is true. He comes, morever, for the correction of all that in their thought and scheme is false. AJJ the underlying consciousne ss of huma nity concerning God is touched and answered and lifted into the supreme conscious­ness whenever God is seen in Christ. All the gleams of light which have been flashing across the consciousness of humanity merge into , the essential light when He is presented.

Chris ·t comes , not to 1contradict th ,e es.sential truth of Bud­dhism,. but to fulfill it. He comes not to· rob the Chinaman of his regard for parents, as taught by Confucius, but to fulfill

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it , ,an,d to lif ·t him up,on ·that reg,ard into rega .,rd f,or the On 1e great Father, God. He comes always to fulfill. Wherever He has come; whi1erev 1er He ha.s b,een presented; wl1er,e·ver , men low o,r high in the intellectual scale, have seen God in Christ, their hands have opened and they hav,e dropped their fetis,h.es, an.d their idols, and have yielded themselve ,s to Him. If the world has not come to God through Him, it is because the world has n,ot yet .se,en Him; a1(][d if t.he world has not yet seen Him, ·the blame is upon the Cl1ristian Churcl1.

The wide, issues of the manifes ta tion of God in Christ ar ,e the union of intellectual apprehension and m·oral improve ­ment, and tl1e relatio ,n of religion to life,. In . n·o system of reli~ gion in the world has there come to men the idea of God which uni ·tes religi ,on wi,tl1 m,orals, save in this ·revelation of Co1d in Jesus Christ.

REVELATION TO TiiE INDIVIDUAL.

Secondly, the effect 0 1£ the man ·if est.ation. in relation to the individual. In illustration we cannot do better th·an by taking Philip, 1 the man to wh,om Chris ,t spoke. To P'hilip' 's request il'

''Show us the Father and it sufficeth us'', Jesus said, ''Have I ,

been so long time with y,ou, and dost thou ,not know me, Philip?'' The evident sense of th ,e question is, You have seen · enough of Me, Pl1ilip, if ·you hav ·e really s,een Me, to have f,ound what you are asking for a vision of God.

What then had Philip seen? What revelations of Deity h.ad come t,o this .man who thought he had not seen and did not understand '? We will ad'here to what Scripture tells of what Philip had seen.

All the story is in John. Philip is referred to b1y Matthew , Mar 'k, ,a·nd Luke, as 1 being among the number of the, a,positle.s, but in no other way. John te11s of four occasions when Philip is seen in union with Christ. Philip was the first man Jesus ,called t,o follow Him; -not the first man t.o f o11ow Him. There w1ere other ·two who pr ,eceded Philip, going a.f·ter Christ in con-

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seque11ce of the teaching of John. But Philip was the first man to wh 1on1 Christ use,d that great f 1ormul ,a 01£ calli11g men which has become so precious in the passing of the centuries-­''Follow me." What happened? ''Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith u11to him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote.'' That was tl1e first thing that Philip had seen i11 Christ according to his own confession : One Who embodied all the ideals of Moses and the prophets.

We find Philip 11ext in the sixth chapter, when the multi­tudes were about Christ, and they were hungry. Philip, who considered it impossible to feed the hungry multitude, now sees Someone Who in a mysterious way had resource enough to satisfy human hunger. . Philip then . listened while in match­less discourse Jesus lifted the thought from material hunger to spiritual need and declared, ''I am the bread of life''. So that the second vision Philip had of Jesus, according to the record, was a vision of Him, full of resource and able to satisfy h11nger, both material and spiritual .

We next see Philip in the twelfth chapter. The Greeks coming to him said, ''Sir, we would see Jesus.'' Philip found his way with Andrew to Jesu s, and asked Him to see the Greeks. Phi lip saw by what then took place that this Man had intimate relation with the Father, and that there was per­fect l1armony between them, no conflict, no controversy. He saw, moreover, that upon tl1e b1asis ,of that communion with H.is Father, and that perfect harmony, His voice changed from the to11es of sorrow to those of triumph, ''Now is the judg­ment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be Iif ted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself.'' That was Philip's third vision of Jesus. It was the vision of One acting in perfect accord with God, bending to the sorrow that surged upon His soul, in order that through it He might accomplish human redemption.

We now come back to the last scene. Philip said, ''Show .

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36 Th.e Fundamentals.

us the Father and it sufficeth us''. Gathering up all the things of the past, Christ looked into , the face of Philip and replied,

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''Have I been s,o long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip?'' No, Philip had not seen these . things. They were there to be seen, and by and by, the infinite work of Christ being accomplished, and the glory of Pentecost having dawned upon the world, Philip saw it all; saw the meaning of the things he had seen, and had never seen ; the things he had looked upon, and had never understood.

He found that having seen Jesus he had actually seen the Father; that when he· looked upon One Who embodied in His own personality all the facts of law and righteousness; Who was able to satisfy all the hunger of humanity; Who in co­operation with God was sent to sh.are tl1.e sorrows of humanity . in order to draw men to Himself ' and to save them; he had seen God.

This manif 1estation wins the submission of the reason; appeals to the love of the heart ; demands the surrender of the will. Here is the value of th 1e Incarnation ,as revelation of God.

Let us recall our thoughts for a moment from the particu-lar application in the case o,f Philip, and think what this means to us. Is it true that this manifestation wins the st.1bmission of our reason, . appeals to the love o,f our heart, asks the sur-render of our will ?

Then 'to, ref us,e God in 1Christ is, to violat ,e a.t some e,ssential point our own humanity. To refuse we must violate reason, which is captured by the revelation ; or we must crush the emotion, which springs in our heart in the presence of the revelation ; or we must decline to submit o,ur will to the de­mands which the manifestation makes. God gr ,ant that we may rather look into His face and say, ''My Lord . and iny God''! So shall we find o,ur r,est, and our hearts will be satisfied. . It shall suffic,e1

, as we s,ee the Father in Ch.rist .

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II. To Take Away Sins. ''Ye know tha ·t he was manifested to take away sins; and

in him is no sin1' (I. John 3 :5).

In this text we get nearer to an unde1·standing of th,e pur- .... pos ,e of the Incarnatio ,n as it touches . our human need. The simple and all-inclusive theme whicli it suggests is, first, that the purpo se of the Incarnation was the taking away of sins; and secondly, that the process of accomplishment is that of the 1·ncarna .tion.

THE PURPOSE.

Firs t, then, we will take the purpo ,se as declared, ~'He was manifested to take away sins''. In or d,er to understand this, w,e must tak 1e th 1e te"rms in al] 'thei ·r simp licity, a·nd be V 1ery care­fu] to find what they really mean. What is intended by this word ''sins 1'? The sum total of all lawle ss acts. The thou ,ght is incomprehensible as to numbers when we think of the race, b,ut I.et us remember tl1at in th 1e midst of that whi .ch over­whelms us in our thinking are og.r own actual sins.

''Sins'' missings of tl1e mark, whether wilful missings, or missings through ignorance, does not at prese11t matter. The word inclu1es all those thoughts and words and deeds in which we have missed the mark of the Divine purpose and the Divine ideal ; tho ,se things which sta11d between man and God, so that man becomes afraid of God ; those thing s which stand between man and his. fellowmen, so that man becomes afraid of his fel­lowman, knowing that he has wronged him in some direction ; tho se tl1ings w'hich stand betwee11 man and his own s·uccess. Call them failures if you will; call them by any name you pleas ,e; S10 that you understand the intention of the , word.

The phra se ''to take away'' is a statement of result, not a declaration of proce ss. The I-Iebrew equivalent of the word ''take away'' is found in that familiar story of the scapegoat. It was provided that this animal should be driven away to, the wildern~ss ''unto a solitary land''. This suggested that sins

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sho,uld be lifted from one and pla 1ced upon anotl1er, and b)r that one carried away ot1t of experience, out of consciousness. That is the simp ·l.e sig11ification of this declaratio11, ''He was manifested to bear ,sins'' t,o lift sins .. H ,e was manifes ·ted in order that He mi ,ght come i.nto 1·elationship with human life, and passing u11derneatl1 the load of human sins, lif 't them, take, them away.

, Eitl1,er thi ,s i.s tl1e most glot·io,u,s G·ospel that m .a11 I1as ,ever heard; or it is the greatest delusion to wl1i,ch man has ever l·istened. In the heart of eve ry n1an and woman there is a

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consciousnes .s of sin. No 0 11e of tts would be: pr ,ep,a.r·ed. to, say, I have never deliberately done tl1e thin .g I knew I ougl1t not t10

do. That is consciou s11ess of sin. We may affect to excuse it. We may be r,eady to argue as to the reas .0·11 f,or it, and the 'issue of it; but if we coul ,d, we would undo it. We m,ay profess to have turne cl our back upon these evangelical truths, and yet we !{now ,ve have sinned and we wish we had not.

Passing for a mome nt from that ,011ter fringe of men an ,d wo :me·n, who · are . somewhat ,carele ,ss about the matter, to the sou l=» v_rl10 are in ago 11y concerning it; who know th ,eir sin and loathe it; wl10 carry the con sciottsness of· wrongs done in past years as a perpetu .al burden upon th ei r sou ls ; who hate the m.emory of th·eir own sins, to such, a declaration like th is is the mo st cru ,el word, or the l{indest, that can be 11tte1·ed. Cruel, if it be false; kind i11deed, w·ith tl1e ki·n.dn iess of the l1eart of God, if it. b,e true. If it b,1e t1~ue. tl1at rle was tnanif ested ,son1e-­how, in son1e mystery that w 1e shall . never perfectly ur1derstand, in order to get beneatl1 my sins, my sins, my thougl 1t of im­purity, my words of bitterness, my unl1oly deeds, and lift them and b,ear the .m aw1ay that is th .e one Evangel I long for more than all. More valuable to me, a sinne r, than anything else that He can do for me,, is th is.

THE P·ROCESS.

Secondly, in order that this great purpose of the Incarna~

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tion, as declared, may be more power£ ully and better under­stoo,d, let us reveren tly turn to the indication of the process which we have in this particular text, ''He was manifested to take away sins''. Who was. the Person? It is perfectly evi­dent that John here, as always, has his eye fixed upon the Man of Nazareth; and yet it is equally evident that he is loo,k­ing through Jesus of Nazareth to God. That is the meaning of his wor,d. ''m ,anifested'' .here. He is the Wo ,rd m.ade flesh .• He is flesl1, but He is the Word. He is Someone that John had appreci3:ted by the senses, and yet He iis Someone Whom John knew pre-eminently by the Spirit.

Notice, that after he makes the affirmation, ''He was mani­fested to take away sins,' ' he adds tl1is great word, ''In Hirn is no sin''; or, ''Missing of the mark was not in Him''. The One in Whom there was no missing of the mark was mani­fested for the express pu.rpose of lifting, bearing away, mal<:ing not to be, the, missi·ngs, of the mark of o·thers.

''He was tnanif ested'' and in the name of God let us not read into tl1e ''He'' anything small or narrow. If we do, we shall at once be driven into the place of having to deny the declaration that He can take away sins. If He was ma:n as I am man merely, then though He be perfect and sinless, He can­.not take away sins. If into the '''He'' we will read all that John evidently meant according to the testimony of his own writing, . we shall begin to see something of the stupendous ideat and something of the possibility at least of believing the dec­laration that ''He was manife,$ted to take away sins."'

Consider the manifestation and sins, as to man. The terms of the final promise of the Incarnation were, ''Thon shalt call His name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins.'' When the songs to which the shepherds liste~ed were heard, wh.at said they? ' 'There is born to you this day ,. · . a Sav ·iour, wl10 is Chris ·t the Lo,r·d.'' The promise of the Incarnatio ,n was that of the coming of One to lift sins.

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During ' His lif 1e and ministry th 1e wo·r,ds of J esus 1 were words . revea]ing the meaning of sin; words . calculated to rebu 'ke sin and to bring men away from sin. The ·works of Jesus.­an .d b,y works I me,an mir .acles and signs and won .ders were ,chi1efly works overtaking the results of sin. The miracles of Jesus were not sup,ernaturar in their effect upon men; they were alw·ays ·resto ·rations of t·he unn .atural to natural pos,i.t·ions. When He cured disease it was the restoration of man to 'the normal p·hysical c,011dition. He was taking away the results of sin. , . ~

1 come now to the fina.1 thing in this manifestation the pro .cess of the death ; for in that s.olemn and lonely and unap­pr ,oa,chabl,e hou ·r 10£ the cro.ss is t11e final fulfilment of th.e wor 1d of the herald on th 1e b·anks of the Jordan, ''Behol ,d the Lamb of God, that taket ·h away the sin of the wo,rld 1'' Tl1at phrase., ' 'The Lamb of God,'' could hav·e but o·ne significance in the ears of the men wl10 hear .cl it. This . was the voice of a He 1brew prophet speaking t 10 Hebrews, and when he spoke of the Lamb taking away sins, they had no alternative 0 1ther t'han to think of the . l1ong line of symbolical sa,crifices which had been offered, and which they had been taught shad ,owed forth some great mystery of D,ivine purpose whereby sin might b,e dealt with. So in the hou r of H is, de,ath we find th 1e ult ·imate m.e,aning o,f that great word.. WI1e,r·eas by ma·nif ,estation, , from first to 1 las,t,f He is for evermore dealing with sins and w·ith sin, lifti ·ng, cor­rect ing, arre ·sting, by gleams of light s,uggesting to men the 1

deepe st meaning of His mission; it is when we come to the hour of His unutterable loneline ss, and deep darkness, and passi,on-baptis,m, that we have that part of the manifestation in

- .. which we see, as nowhere else,, and ,as. never before, the mean-ing 0 1f this text, ''He wa s mani .fested to take away sins''.

Re ,verently let us tak ,e one st ,ep further ,. The manifes .ta· ti,on and sins, as to God., The manifested One was God, If that be once seen, then we shall for evermore look back upon

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tha ,t Man of Naza ·reth in Hi .s birt .h, His life, His cross, as but a manifestation. The whole fact cannot be seen, but the who 1le fact is brought to the point of visibility by the way of Incarna­tion. If indeed tl1is Q,·ne be very God manif ,ested, then remem­ber this, the whol 1e measure of hu·mani·ty is in Hirn, and infin­itely more than the whole measure of hu manity. Be,yond the utm .ost bo 1und of creation, , Go,d is.. All creation, heaven a11d earth, s·u11s and sitars and systems, angels and a1~cbang,els, p:·rin­cipaliti ·es and powers, tl1e hierarchies of whom we hear, but cannot perf~ctl y e;x:plain their nature or their order, all these are in Him ; but He is infinitely beyond them all.

I begin to wonder. In amazement I begin to believe in the possib 1il.ity of lifting the burden of my sin. The cross ., like everything else, was ma11ifestation. , In the cross of' Jesus t·here was the working out into visibility of et.ernal things. Love and light were wrought out int o visibility by the cross. Love and light in the pr _es,en 1ce of th e co·n,ditions of sin became sorrow­and became joy ! In tl1e cross I see the sorrow ·Of God, and in the cro ss I see the joy of G,od, for ''it plea .sed the L ,ord to

'bruise him. '' ' In th 1e cross I s,ee the 1,o·v·e of God work ,ing out through passion and power for the redemption of man. In the cro,ss I see the light of God refu sing to make any terms wi·th iniquit y and s.in and evil. T·he cr 1oss is the l1·isto,ric reve ­lation of the abiding facts within the hea rt of God. The meas ,t1re of the · cross is God. If all tl11e measure o·f ht1manity • I! f. 1

ts 111 God and He is more ,, and the measure of t'he cross is God, then the mea sttre of the cross wraps humanity about,. S·O

that nlo one individual 'is outs ide its meaning and its power. He Who was manifeste ·1d is ,God. I-lie can gather into l His eter ­nal life all the race as to its sorrow and as to its sin, and bear it.

Ye·t remember thi s, It was not by the e,ternal fact s that sins were taken away, but by the manifestation of those · facts. This text does not af6rm, and there is no text that begins to

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affi:rm, that He bef,ore I-le was ma,nife ,sted,, t.akes aw,ay sin.s. There is a .sense in which that is tru e ; but '' H e was mani· f ested to take away Si'ins''. The pas sion revealed in the cros .s was indeed the passion of God, but the passion of 1God be­came dynamic in human life wl1en it became manifest through human f,orm, in the perfection of a life, and the mystery o,f a deat,h.

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Man's wil ,1 is the factor ,always to be dealt with, and whereas the s,in of man was gathered into the cons ,ciousness of God, ,an,d created the sorrow of God from the very begin­ning, it is ,o,nly when tha ,t f a,ct of the sorr 1ow of Go1dhead is wrought out into visib·ility by manifes ,tati ,on, that th ,e will of man can ever be captured or ever constrained to the position of trust and obedience wl1ich is necessary for , h'is p1 .. actical a·nd effectual restorati 1on to righteousness. Wherever man thus yields himself, trusting that is the co,ndition his sins are

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taken awa.y, lifted. If it be declar ,ed tha 't God might have wrought this self­

same delive ,rance without s,uffering, our ar.swe ,r is that the man who says so know ·s nothing about sin. Sin and suffering are co-existent. The mome,nt the,r·e is sin, there is suff e··ring. The . moment there is sin and suff·ering in a human being it is in God multiplied. ''The Lamb was slain from the foundat ,io·n of the world." From the moment when man in his sin be­came a child . of sorrow, , the sorrow was most keenly felt in heaven. ,

The man who i,s burdened with a sense , of sin I would ask t 'O con,template th ,e Pers ,o,n ma,nifeste :d. There is not one of us of whom it is not t 'rue that we live and mo1ve and have our bein ,g in God. God is infinit ,e]y ·mor 1e than I am ; infinitely more than the whole human race from ,its fir,st to its last. If infinitely more, then all my life is in Him. If ' in the my·stery of Incarnation there became manif 1est the truth that He ·,, God, lifted sin, then I can trust. If that be the cleaving of ' the rock, then I can say as never be£1ore-

The Purposes of the Incarnati 1on.

''Rock of Ages, cleft fo·r me, Let m1e hide myself in Thee.''

43

He was 1 manifested, and by tl1at manifestation I see wrought out the infinite truth of the passion of God which ·we spe,ak of as the atonement.

Ill. To D.estr·oy, t/1.e vVor,ks of the Dev,il. ''To this end was the S011 of God manifested, that he might

d·estroy the W 10rk .s of the devil'' ( I. John 3 :8). The re can be no question as to the One to Whom John

ref er:red wh~n he said, ''tl1e Son of God." In all the writings of John it is evident that his eyes are fixed upon the man Jesus. Occasionally he does not even name Him ; does not even ref er to H im by a personal pronoun, but indicates Him by a word you can only use when you are looki11g at an object or a person. For instan.ce, ''That which we have seen with our eyes, t/1,at which we beheld, and our l1ands handled''. Upon another occasion he said; "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as lie walked.'' It is always the method of expre ssio11 of a n1an who is looking at a Person. For evermore the actu .al human Perso ·n of Christ was present to tl1e mind of J1ohn as he wr o·te of Him .

How intimate he l1ad been with Him we all know. One of the most tender and beautif1.1l tl1ings in all the story of the life of Jesus is the story of Jol1n's l)Ure hu111an love for Him. The other disciples loved Him, but their love was of a different·""~ tone and _ quality fron1 tl1at of John. John must get close to Him, and lay his head upon His bosom. Yet if I said no more, I would . not have tittered half the truth. If John, the­mystic, the lover, lai d his head upon the human bosom oi the Man of N azateth, he heard the beating of the heart oi God. If he laid his hand upon Jesus when he talked to Him1 he knew tl1at ·beneath tl1,e ,¥ar n1. tottch of the human flesh there beat the mystic majesty of Deity. · ''That which our hands handled, concerning the Word of life.'' He is perfectly con·

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44 The Fundarr..entals. (

scious of the fles·h, but supreme1,y conscious of the mys,tic ·word veiled in fles·h and shining through it. I-Ie is per£ ectly con­scious of the hu 1nan, and thereby finds Deity~ So that when John comes to write of this One, he speaks 0 1f Him as '''the Son ,of God.'' He reinembers the warmth 0 1£ His bosom, the gen­tleness o,f His touch, the 1ove--lit glory of His eyes, b,ut He is '' ·the Son of ' God.'' ' ·

The word ''manife sted'' presupposes existence prior to - ,...,...-,-.

m~nifestatio 1n. In the Man of Nazare ,th t'here was manifesta-tion or 10n ,e Who had existed long before the Man of Nazareth.

The enemy is described ]1ere as tl1e devil. We read t'hat he is a rnur ,derer, a liar, a betrayer; the fountain-head of sin, the Jawless one. The w·ork of the murderer is destruction of · life. The w.ork of tl1e liar is t11e extinguishing of light. The work of the betrayer is the violation of Io,ve. The wo 1rk of tl1e a·rch~ sinn ,er is tl1e breaking of the law. These are the ,vo 1rks of the devil.

He is a murderer. This consists f'undamentally in the de@P struction of 1ife on its hig 'hest level, which is the spiritual. Alienation from God is the devil's work. It is also death on the level of the menta1. Vision which fails to include God is practical blindness. On the physical plane, all disease and all pain are ultimately results of sin, and are among ·tl1e works of the devil. These things a11 lie within the , rea]m of his work as murderer, destroye ·r ' of human life.

He is more. He is, the liar, and to him is due t'he e1xtin­g·t1ishing of light, so that men blunder alo11g the way. All ignoran ce, all despair , all wander ·ing over the trackles ,s deserts of life·, are due to extinctio ·n of spiritual ligl1t in the mind of man. All ignorance is the result of the clouding of man's visio 1n 0 1£ God ..

''This , is life e,terna1," age-abiding life, high lif 1e, de ,ep life, b1,road life, lo·ng life, comprehe ,nsive life , ' ''tl1at they should know the e the only true God, and him whom . thou didst send, even

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45

Jesus Christ.'' The proportion in which man knows God is the piroportion in which he sees cl1early to the heart of things. 'By and by, when the redempt ·tve work of Christ has been per fected in man, ,and in the w 1orld, we: shall find that all ignoran ,ce is bani shed, and man has found his way into light. But the liar, the one who brings darknes ,s1 ha :s made his works far spre ,a1d o'e ·r al l the fa ,c.e of humanity , and all ignora nce and resultant despai r, and all wandering aimlessly in every realm of life, are due to the , work of the one wl1om ] esus designa·ted a liar f r·om the beginning.

Agai11, the violation of lo·ve, as a w 1or·1c of tl1e devi'l, is seen supremely ill the way he entered into the heart of Judas, and marde hi.m the betrayer. All the avarice ,you fi,nd in the w,orld today, and all the j:ealousy, and all tl1e crue 'lty, are the works ,of the devil. \

Finally, he is the supre1ne sinner. Sin is lawlessnes ,s, which does not mean the condition of being without law, but the con­dition of' being agai ,ns t l,aw, brealci11g law. So that all W'ron .g

don ,e to God in His world, all wro ,ng done by man to man, all wrong d,one by man to himself, are works of the ,devil.

To summarize then: death, dar 'l{ness, hatred, find them where ) 'OU wi'll, are works ,of the devil.

Tl1e, Son of God was manifested , that He might d,es,troy the, works of the devil. If at the beginning we saw Him as a soul in conflict with al) these things, reme mber that was an indica­tion of the program and a prophecy of the pt1rpose. The In­c,arnation was not merely the birth of a litt le child in whom we were to learn the secre ,t of' childl1ood, an 1d in whom pres­ently we were to see the glories of manhood, A11 that is true; but it was the happening in the course of human events, of that one thing through which God Himself is able to destroy the wo,rks, of the devil,

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WHAT ''DES ,TROY'' MEANS.

''To ,destroy .. '' It ·is a wo,rd which means to dissolve, to

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I

The Fu11dame1,itals.

Joo,sen. It is the very same word as is used in the Apocalypse about loosing us from our sins; or if yo,u will be more graphic, it is the word used in the Acts of tl1e Apostles when you read tha .t, the ship was b 1roken to pieces ; loosed, dissolved, that which had been a consistent whole, was broken up and scattered and wrecked.

Th ie wor ,d ''de s,troye cl'' may be: perfectly co1rrect, but let us under stand it. He was manifested to do a work in human history the result of which should be that the works of t.he devil shot1ld los,e the ·ir consistency·. The C10h1esive fo,rce that makes them appear stable until this moment, He came to loosen and dissolve. He was manifested to destroy death by the gift of life. · He was ma11if,ested to de,stroy darkne ,ss by the gift of light. He was manifested to destroy hatred by the gift of love. H 1e wa .s manife sted to destro 1y lawles sness by the gift of law. He was n1a11ifestecl to loose,n, to break up, to de­stroy th 1e negatives whicl1 spoi.l., by the brin,ging of th.e positive that remak ·es and . uplifts.

He was manife sted to destroy the works of the devi1 as to death, by the gift of life. Thi s mea,ns .first spiritt1al life, which is fellow ship with God. It mea11s also mental life, the vision of th1e open secret. Not yet perfectly do w,e ttnderstand, but already the · tru sting .soul, utte1 .. ly devoid of educatio 1n, h1ears more in th 1e wind at eventide, and sees more in the blossoming of the flowers than .any merely scie11tific man can do.

He ·who sees has the true intellectual vision wl1ich Cl1rist has bestowed in His gif 't 10£ 1ife. ''T .his is lif 'e eternal, that they should know thee the ,only true Go,d.'' The .gift of life was to destroy death, and the man who has His gift of life laughs in th 1e fa.ce of <lea.th, ],aughs trium .phantly. I believe that ther ·e was lau ,ghter in the apostle's tone when he sai 1d, ''0 death, where is thy sting?'' As t·t1ough he had said, what hast thou ,done with thy v·i,ctory? I trembled in thy pre se.nce once,. O rider upon the pale horse ; but now I laugh in thy face, for

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The Purposes of the Incarnatio,i. 47

thy paleness has become the glistening white of an angel of light. So He destroys the worl<:s of the devil by giving the gift of life which destroys death.

p.;_5 to da1 .. kness ,.. Th is ·is, intimately asso 1c,ia,te1d with th 1e thing already said. The gift of light always comes out of life. If there be death, then there is no vision. If there be life, there is light. Light means knowledge and hope and guidance, so that there is no more wandering aimlessly. Ey bringing light into human life and into tl1e world He has destroyed the works of ·the devil.

As to hatred. He destroyed hatred by His gift of love. Benevolence and I am not using the word idly as we of ten do; I am using it in all its rich, spacious, gracious meaning-­benevolence, well-willing, self-abnegation, kindness in the apo stle's sense of the word when writing to the Galatians he gives kindness as one of the qualities of love, the specific do­ing o,f small things out of pure love. All these th .ings are things by which the works of the devil are being destroyed. Hatred, avarice, jealousy, selfishness, are destroyed by shed­ding abroad love which is the warmth of life, as light is its illumination. By these things He destroys the works of the devil.

As to, lawlessness. Th is f-Ie destroys , 'by tl1e gif ·t of law; , ·pass,·io11. for th 1e rights of God , se1·vice to 01ur f'ellowmen; the finding of self ii:1 the great abnegation, and the finding of self ·in the perfect freedom because , I have become the bon1d .... slave of the infinit 1e Lor 1d of love,.

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Nineteen centuries ago the Son of God was manifested, and during those centuries in the lives of hundreds, thou­sands1J He has des·troyed tl1e w1or'ks of the devil, maslt,e,red death by the gift of life; caslt darkn ,ess, out b1y the inco1ning light; turned the selfishness of avarice and jealousy into love, joy, pea ice, longsuffering, kindness, , goo 1dness ,.. He has taken hold of lawless men and made them into the willing, glad ·b1ond-

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48 The · Funda .mentals ..

servants of G,od. So· has H 1e destroyed the works of the, devil.

H.IST 10RIC MEANING OF THE INCARNATION.

Do not forget th.e meianing of the Incarn .ation hist ·orical]y. It was the invasion of 11.uman history by One Who snatched the scepter from the usurper. It was the intrusion of forces into human history whicl1 dissolv ·ed the ·co1nsistency of the works of the devil and caused tl1em to break and fail. "'How long, 0 Lor ,d, how long·?'' is the cry of the heart of the s,aint to,day·., Yet let u,s take heart as, we Ioo1k back and know t.h,at l

the victorious force has ope1 .. a,t.ed £or ninetee ·n centuries, and always . towa~q co·nsumma .tion. Sti.l.l, the works of the devil are manifest; the worl{s of tl1e flesl1 are manifest-. Yes, but the fruit of the Spirit of life which ha .s come throu .gh the ad­vent of Christ is also inanif ·es·t. All over the world today on many a branch .o,f the vine of the Father's planting ·, the rich cluster .s of fruit are to be found. All, so far, is bt1t prelim­inary. It is twilight only. High noon has not arrive 1d; but it is twilight, and the noon must come.

Further, the Incar11ation was the ,coming of the Stronger than the strong man armed to destroy the works of the devil jn my own life. Are the works of the devil death, darkness, hatred, and rebellion ·the ma ster forces 1of your being? Then I bring y 1ou th 1e Evangel .. I t·ell yott of 10n 1e manifest ,ed to d,e-, st.roy ,all such works. , I tell yo·u not mere ly as a thieory, but as having the testimony of histo 1.ry attesting th ,e truth of the,

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ann,,uncement of this text. The forces of this Cl1rist have operated, and are operat~

ing; and the things that were f or1nerly established are loos­ened, and are fal 'ling to decay. He was, manifes ted to destroy the works o·f the devil. If yo,u a·re in the grip 0 1£ f o·rces of evil ,; if you re.aliz1e ·that in your life His works are 'the thin,gs of strength, then I pray! you, t·urn with f u]I purpose of heart to th.e One m,anifeste 1d long ago, Who .in all the power of His

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The Purposes of the Incarnat·io'l'i. 49 I

gracious victo 1:ry, wi.11 de,stroy· in you all t·he works of t'he 1devil, . and set you free.

IV. To Prepare f ,or a Second Advent.

''Christ also, having b·een o·nce offered t·o b1ear the sins o,f many, . sl1all appear a second time, apart from sin, to 1 them that wait for him, unto salvati .1011'' (Hebrews 9 :28).

,v e are a]l conscious th.at nothing is per£ ect; that the things which Christ came to do are not yet done ; that the works of the devil are not yet final]y destroyed; that sins are not yet

1experimentally tak 1en away; tl1at in tl1e spiritual consciousnes ,s of t}:le race, God is not yet per£ ectly known. ''Now we see not yet all things subject ,ed to Him.'' The victory does not seem to be won. It is impossible to read the s,tory of the Incarnation, and to believe in it, and to fallow the history of the centuries that have followed upon that Incarnation with­out feeling in one's deepest heart that something more is need­ed, tl1at the Incarnation was preparatory, . and . that the con .. summation of its meaning can only be bro ,u,ght ab1out ·by an­other coming, as personal, as definite, as positive, as real in human history as was the first .

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''Chri s,t • • . shall appear a second ·time.,'' There is no escape, other than by casuistry, from the simple meaning of those words. The first idea conveyed by them is · that of an actual personal advent of Je sus yet to be. To spiritualize a state1nent like this and to attempt to m.ake application of it in any other than the way in which .a little child would under ­stand it, is to be driven, one is almost inclined to say, to dis­honesty with the simplicity of the scriptural declaration. There rnay be diversities of interpretations as to how He will come, and wl1en He will come; whether He will come to us11er in a

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lll1llennium or to crown it; but the fact of His actual coming is heyond que stion. -

Paul in all h.is writings is conscious of this truth of the sec .. ond advent. In some of them he does not dwell upon it at

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50 The Fundamentals.

such great ·tength, or with su1ch clearness as in others, for ·the s1imple reaso ·n that ·it is not the specific sub1j 1ect with which he is d·ealing. In the Thessalonian letters we have m,os.t clearly set forth Paul's t.eacl1ing co1ncer11ing this matte r. In the very cen­ter of the firs.t letter we have a passag 1e which declares in un­mistakable lan .guage that ''t .he Lord himself sh.a.II descend from heaven, with a shot1t,J with the voice of the archangel, . and with the trump of God . : and tl1e ,dea 1d in Christ shall ris,1e f.irst; th.en we that are alive, that are left, sha ll together with them be caught up in th.e cl,ouds, to n1e,et the Lord in the air: and so shal] ,~e ever be with the Lord."

Ja .me:s writing t 10 tho se wh 10 were in affliction said, ''Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand."

Peter with equal clearness . s.aid to th 1e early disciples, ·'' 'Be sober and set your hop ·e pe ,rfe ,ctly on the g1·a,ce that is to be brought unto you at ·tl1e revelation of J1esus . Christ."

John, who leaned upon l1is Master's bosom, and who w ·rote the most wonderful 1of all mystic wor 1ds concerning ·~Iim, said, ''We know that, if he shall be manifested, we sl1all be like him .; for we shall see him even as he is. A11d every 011e · tha ·t hath this ho 1pe set on hi111 purifieth himse lf, 1even as he is pure.''

Jude s,aid to tho se t·o whom he wrote, '·'Ye, b1eloved, b1uilding up yo 1urselves on your mo st ho 1ly faitl1, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yo 1urs .elves . in the Io1ve of God, . l.ook .ing for the m 1ercy of our Lord J ,esus Christ ur1to eternal life.,·.,

Ev·ery New Test .ament writer pres ,en.ts tl1is truth as p·art of ·the commo 1n Christian faith. B,elief in the personal actual sec­ond . advent of Jes ,us gave the b1oom to primitive Ch.risti .anity, and constituted the power of the early Christian .s to laugh in the face of death, and t,o overcome .alJ forces that were against them .. There is nothing more neces sary in our day than a new declaration of this vital fact of Christian f.aith. Think what it would me.an if t·he whole churc 'h stil 'l lifted 'her face

The Purposes of the lnc ,arnation. 51

toward the east and waited for the morning; waited as the Lord would have her wait not star-gazing, and aln1anac ex­amining, but with loins girt for service, and lamps burning; Waited as .she s,erve ,d. If tl1e wl1ole, Christian church were s,o waiti ng, she would cast off her worldliness and i11fidelity, and all other things which hinder her march to conquest.

MEANING OF THE SE COND ADVENT.

Tl1is text does n1ore than affi.rn1 the fact of the second ad­vent., In a ,somewl1at re·markable way, it de,clares , tl1e. me·aning thereof, ''Christ . . . shall appear a second time, apart from sin." To rightly understand this, we mttst lo,ok upon it as putting t11e second advent into contrast with the first. That is what the writer most evidently means, for the context de­clares tl1at He was manifes .ted in the consummation of tl1e ages t,o bea r sins. He now ,says that ''Christ . • . . shall app ,ear a second time apart from sin ." All the things of the first ad­vent W 1ere necessary to the second ; bt1t all the things of the second ,vill. be diffe1·ent from the things of the first.

By I-Iis fi·rst adve 11t s,in was . revealed. I-Iis own cross was the place wh 1ere all th.e deep hatrecl of the human heart ex-­pressed itself most diabolically in view ·Of heaven and · earth and hell ..

There was also revelation of darkness as contrary to light. ''Men loved the darkness rather than the light," was the su­preme wail of tl1e heart of Jesus.

His prese ,·11c1e in 'the wo1--ld was, mo·1·e,over, revelati ,on ·of spir-­itual death as contrary to life. In the perpetual attempt of men to inaterialize His work, the attempt of His own disciples as well as of all the rest, and their absolttte failure to appre-

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rC'iate tl1·e spiritual teaching He gave,, we see· wha ·t spiritual death re,ally is,.

I11 His fi1·st advent He not only re,vealed sin, but bore it. In the words, ''Chr ist also, having been once offered to bear the s.i11s of many," the reference is not merel :y to the final move-

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52 The Fu·ndamien.tal.s. •

me,nt of the C'ross. Tl1e word '''offe .red'' is, used in r·ef 1erence ·to ,God's action in giving 1-Iim. It would be pe·rf ·ectly corr 1ec.t in·­t,erpt'etation to, s,upply the word ''offe1·ed." b1y the word '' .ga.ve ;'' the word which we have in Joh11's Gospe l,, '''F 1or ,God so love,d the world, that h,e gave 'his 0 1nly· begott ,en Son.'' Let us, put that wor ·d h,ere ''Christ also, .h.av.ing b,een 0 1nce give·n to be:a:r the s.ins of many, .shall appear a s.econd time.' '' All th ·rougl1

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His life He was putting Himse]f ' und erne ·atl1 sin in o·rde ·r to '

tak ,e it away. He bore its, .l'i.mitat .io11s tl1roughout the who,le of His life. In . po1verty, in sorrow, in lo,neliness, He li,ve.d: and all thes .e things a.re limitations . result ,i11g ·f·r·o1m sin. \Vhen J esius Chris .t e.nt ,ered int,o, th,e flesh, I-le ent,er,ed int.01 the limitations w hi,ch f 1oll,ow u,pon sin, and He bore sin in His own cons.cio·u,s-

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ne,ss throttgh all tl1.e yea:rs ; not :poverty only, but sorr ·o·w i·n al.I. forms, and lonelin ess,. All tl~e s,orro ,w.s of the huma ·n heart were upon Hi .. s h,eart u.nti l He U'tte·red th,at uns ,peakable cry, ''My Go1d, my God ., why l1ast T ,hou f'or,sa~en Me?''

Having fina lly de·alt with sin, and de·stroye .. d it a.t its very root at His first a.dv,e:nt, His second a,dvent is to be that 10£· vic­·tory. He will come: ag ,ain; no·t to po·v·erty, b1ut to wea.]th. He will c10,me again; n,ot to sorrow, \ but . with .all ,joy. He will c,ome ag .ain ;: not in l1oneli,nes.s, but to gat 'her aboi1t I-Iim all trusting s,ouls who have looked and . served and . w,aite 1d.. All i.n His fi.rst adv,ent of s.orrow and loneline ss , of pove1·ty· an,d of sin, w·ill b,e abs ,ent from tl1e: se,c1011,d. . Tl1e firs.t adve nt was for atonement; th,e secon .d will be for adminis :tration. H 'e ca,1rne·, entering , into human natur ,e, and takin ,g hold o,f .it, to deal . with sin ,an,d p1ut . it aw·ay. He h.as. taken sin away, and He wilt com,e agai ,n. to set up that ki.n.gd.om, the fo 1undations , of w'l1ich He laid in, His fir·st coming.

I ' ''JUDGME .NT'' ''SALVATION:''

This text de.clare .s th.e purpos ·e o·f ·the adv ,ent: ''It is ap­,pointed unto 1 men ,o,n,ce: to die:, and a.i.ter th,isl cometh ju .dgment; so ·Christ als,o,, ha vi,n.g b,een once 0 1ff ered t,o 'be·a:r the sin.s, o·f

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The Purposes of the Incarnation. 53

many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them tha t ~ait for him, unto salvation." A similarity is suggested. ' 'It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh j udg· ment." Over again st that dual appointment stands, "So Chri st also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation."

There is a strange differentiation in the ending of the two declarations. We would expect that it would be written to complete the comparison, thus, it is appointed unto men once to die, and .after this cometh judgment; so Christ also, hav ing been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a sec­ond time, apart from sin, unto judgm ent. That would seem to be a balanced comparison, but the writer does not so write . This very difference unfolds the meanings of the first and sec­ond advents. It is appointed to men to die,-He was offered to bear the sins of many. After death judgment,-He is com­ing again unto salvation. As the first advent negatived the death appointed unto men, the second advent will turn the judgment into salvation.

"It is appointed unto men once to die." It is often some­what car elessly affirmed that men must die. While admitting the truth of this statement we inqui re, why must they die? Science can no more account for death than it can account for

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life. It has never yet been able to say why men die. How they die, yes; why they die, no! I will tell you why. Death is the wage of sin. Science will admit that death comes by the breaking of certain laws, but · Science will use some other word than the word sin. "It is appointed unto men once to die," by the fiat of God Almighty because they are sinners, and no man can escape that fiat.

But He was offered by God to bear the sins of many. That Was the answer of the first advent to man's appointn1ent to death.

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54 The Fundamentals.

Beyond death there is another .appointn1 ,ent, t·ha t of judg ~ ment. Who 1 shall appeal against the absol .ute j.usti 1ce o.f tha t

appointm ent? He ''shall ap 1pe·a1· a seco11d ·time, ap,ar ·t f ro.m sin . . .,

unto sal,ration .'' To those who have heard tl1e message of tl1e first advent and l1ave believ,ed it, and trttsted in .His great wo,r·k, and have found shelter in the mystery of His manifestation and bearing of sin to such, salvation ta l{es tl1e place of judg­men t . B,ut to tl1e m.an wh.o will not sh 1elter benea .th tl1at first advent and its atoning va lue j udg1ne nt .abides. All th e tl1ings begun by His first advent will be consumm ated by the second .

At Hi .s second advent there will be complete salvation for the ind iv id t1al righ teo,usness, sanctifica tion, redemp tion . We believed, and we1·e saved.. We believ ,e, and are being saved. We believ~, and ,ve shall be saved. Tl1e ·ta st moven1ent will

come when He co1nes. Those who have fallen on sleep are safe witl1 God, and He

·will. b1·ing them witl1 H im when He cormes. They are not yet perfected, ''God having provided some better thing concerning us, that ap .art fro ·tn us the ·y should not be made per ,fect.' '' They a.re at r ,est, an .cl cons,ciously at rest. They are ''ab sent from 'the body • .. . at hom 1e with the Lo,rd,'' but tl1ey are not yet per £ ected; they are waiting. We are waiting in the midst of earth's struggle they i11 heaven's ligl1t and joy, fo1· the second a·dvent. H ·eaven is wa.itin,g for it. Earth is waitin .g for it. Hell is. waiting for it. Tl1e universe is waiting for it.

Tl1at comin ,g ,vill be to those wl10 wait for Him .. Who are tho se who wait for Him? ''Ye turned unto God from idols, to ser·ve ,a ·t·iving, and tru 1e 1God, and to wait f'or his Son from heaven.'' The first tl1ing is the turning from idols. Have we done that ·? The s·econd th ing ' is serving the living ,God. Are we doing that? Then because we have turned from idols,, and are serving Him, we are waiting. That is the waiting the New Testam ent enjoins, an d to tho se who wait, His second advent will mean salvation. ''Christ shall appear.'' Glorious Gosp,el !

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