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Revelation—Experience—Service A Message to Ministers By the Rev. W. Graham Scroggie (Edinburgh)
the same mistake, and the matter is of vital importance, for we can never rise to the level of experience set forth in the former texts, so long as we are providing substitutes for the Holy Spirit. But, perhaps, the immediate point is best illustrated in the words of Peter when in vision he saw a vessel as it were a sheet let down from heaven, full of creatures, and was bidden rise, slay and eat. To this command he made response: “Not so, Lord.” How glaring a contradiction stands fixed in those words, he did not at first realize. He who says “Not so” should never follow it up by saying “Lord,”’ and he who truly says “Lord” never will say “Not so.”'1 From these, and such-like passages of Scripture, we must, or at least should be driven to the conclusion that Christians generally, and, alas, we also, who have been called to minister in sacred things, have been content with an experience far removed from the divine ideal. We have made the intellectual apprehension of truth a substitute for the power of it in our own hearts, and have been in danger of regarding Christianity as a PHILOSOPHY rather than as a life. LIGHTFOOT has well said that: “Faith in Christ is a moral as well as an intellectual state, and with St. Paul its moral aspect is in fact the more prominent of the two.” He has well shown that: Christ contains the complete answer to the errors alike of Judaism and Hellenism; to the false ground of hope of the one, and to the false theory of life of the other. The answer to the legalism of the Jew is: “Christ died for us”; and to the license of the Greek: “We must die with Christ.” RELIGIOUS BELIEF is not enough, there must be MORAL CHANGE. We teach that to others, and we must believe it ourselves. It is the discrepancy between our profession and our experience that needs looking to, and we must deal with it, not in the twilight of past attainment, but in the noontide of divine possibility. The Christ who dying did a work FOR US, now lives to do a work IN US, and if I understand the innermost signifi cance of REVIVAL, it is first of all The upfllling of thè Divine Life in the Soul’s Experience; and then, The Overflowing of that Life in Sacrificial Service. II. Experience ( 1 ) Of course a superstructure must have a foundation; but also every foundation should have a superstructure; and REVELATION and EXPERIENCE stand much in this rela tion to one another. EXPERIENCE which does not rest upon Revealed Truth is bound to mislead, and often proves fatal; and a knowl edge of REVEALED TRUTH which does not find embodi ment in HAPPY EXPERIENCE leaves men cold, and often makes them cruel. We should ever remember that doctrine is not the MEASURE of experience, but its MOULD; and also, that experience is not the standard of truth but its apprehension.
I. Revelation H E are surely all concerned as to how we can pro mote REVIVAL in our midst, and we do well to get together for the stimulation of our faith and consideration of ways and means. We shall do well also to give the most careful thought to our MESSAGE and METHOD, but I propose just now that we think of OURSELVES. From time to time we gather together as MINISTERS and WORKERS, but it will be well for us to remember that we are first men, ourselves in need of the grace of God. Where there is infinite diversity of need around us, there will be also infinite diversity of method employed in meet ing it, and every variety Of presentation of the saving Evangel; but behind our method and presentation are OURSELVES, surely next to the Spirit Himself, the most important factor of all. U ) We cannot but have been impressed in our reading of the NEW TESTAMENT, especially in the writings of PAUL and JOHN, with the high level on which their thought moves when dealing with the subject of the CHRISTIAN LIFE. Phrase after phrase stands out in mystic grandeur of truths which have their origin in heaven, but their home in the heart. . As for example: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” (Phil. 1 : 2 1 . ) “I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3:8.) “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer 1 that live, but Christ liveth in me; and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in Faith, the Faith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal. 2:20.) And the words of our Lord: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10.) Accompanying such passages as these are others which point the way to the realization of the blessed secret; suCh as: “Leaving the principles of the Doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.” (Heb. 6:1.) “He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6.) “Be fiilled with the Spirit.” (Eph. 5:18.) “Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let hs cleanse ourselves from all filthiness Of the flesh and Spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Cor. 7:1.) w j And there is yet another class of passages which shows the need of those just referred to, passages which illustrate that one may have LIFE, yet not ABUNDANT LIFE, that one may be conscious of spiritual UNION with Christ, and yet be a stranger, for the most part, to that COMMUNION which is the outcome of obedience and trust. Two illustrations of this will suffice: Paul remonstrating with the fickle Galatians said: “Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3.) Better instructed Christians than they were are making
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