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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
November 1926
G iv in g T h an k s fo r Our In h e r i t a n c e ALEXANDER BJACLAREN, D.D.
For our Thanksgiving message we have chosen a sermon by that great princely expositor and preacher, Dr. Alexander Maclaren. who was endowed as tew men have ever been with spiritual gifts and graces. To him, all wisdom was contained in the Word of God. and he had the art of applying it to the prac tical experiences of human life. May we, too, render unbounded thanks unto the Father for His unspeakable gift to the saints.
attribute to it. The life here and hereafter is like a road which passes the frontiers of two kingdoms divided by a bridged river, but runs on in the same direction on both sides of the stream. The flood had to be forded until Jesus bridged it. The elements of the future and the present are the same, as the apostolic metaphor of the "earnest of the inheritance” teaches us. The handful of soli which con stitutes the “ arles” is part of the broad acres made over by it. We should be saved from many unworthy conceptions of the future life, if we held more steadfastly to the great truth that God Himself is the portion of the inheritance. The human spirit is too great and too exacting to be satis fied with anything less than Him, and the possession of Him opens out into every blessedness, and includes all the minor Joys and privileges that can gladden and enrich the soul. We degrade the future if we think of it only, or even chiefly, as a state in which faculties are enlarged, and sorrows and sins are forever ended. Neither such nega tives as “ no night there,” “ neither sorrow nor crying,” "no more pain,” nor such metaphors as “ white robes” and “ golden crowns” and “ seats on thrones” are enough. We are “ heirs of God,” and only as we possess Him, and know that we are His, and He is ours, are we “ rich to all intents of bliss." That inheritance Is here set forth as being “ in light” and as belonging to saints. Light is the element and atmosphere of God. He is in light. He is the fountain of all light. He is light; perfect in wisdom, perfect in purity. The sun has its spots, but in Him is no darkness at all. Moons wax and wane, shadows of eclipse fall, stars have their time to set, but “ He is the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.” All that light focused in Jesus, the Light of the world. That Light fills the earth, but here it shineth in darkness that obstructs its rays. But there must be a placd and a time where the manifestation of God corresponds with the real ity of God, where His beams pour out, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof; nothing which they do not bless, nothing which does not flash them back rejoicing. There is a land whereof the Lord God is the Light. In it is the inheritance of the “ saints,” and in its light live the nations of the saved, who have God for their companion. All dark ness of ignorance, of sorrow, and of sin will fade away as the night flees and ceases to be, before the rising sun. The phrase “ to be partakers” is accurately rendered “ for the portion,” and carries a distinct allusion to the partition of the promised land to Israel, by which each man had his lot or share In the common inheritance. So the one word “ inheritance” brings with it blessed thoughts of a common possession of a happy society in which no man’s gain is another’s loss, and all envyings, rivalries, and Jealousies have ceased to be; and the other word, “ the portion,” sug gests the individual possession by each of his own vision and experience. Each man’s "portion” is capable of growth; each has as much of God as he can hold. The measure of
“Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be par takers of the inheritance of the saints in light. (Col. 1:1Z K. V.). H T I s Interesting to notice how much tne mouplt of Inheritance seems to have been filling the Apos tle’s mind during his writing of Ephesians and Colossians. Its recurrence Is one of the points of contact between them. For example, In Ephesians^we. read, “ In whom also were made a heritage” (1 :1 1 ); "An earnest of our inheritance” (1 :1 4 ); “ His Inheritance In the saints” (1 :1 8 ); “ Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ” (v. B). We notice too that In the address to the Elders of the Church at Ephesus, we read of “ the Inheritance among all them that are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). In the text the climax of the Apostle’s prayer Is presented as thankfulness, the perpetual recognition of the Divine hand in all that befalls us, the perpetual confidence that all which befalls us Is good, and the perpetual gushing out towards Him of love and praise. The highest diligence, the most strenuous fruit-bearing, and the most submissive patience and longsufterlng would be Incomplete without the consecration of a grateful heart, and the noblest beauty of a Christian character would lack Its rarest luster. This crown of Christian perfectness the Apostle regards as being called Into action mainly by the contemplation of that great act and continuous work of God s Fatherly love by which He makes us fit for our portion of the Inheritance which the same love has prepared for us. That Inheritance is the great cause for Christian thankfulness; the more imme diate cause is His preparation of us for It. So we have three points here to consider: the inheritance; God’s Fatherly preparation of His children for it; the continual temper of thankfulness which these should evoke. ( 1 ) . The Inheritance The frequent recurrence of this Idea In the Old Testament supplies Paul with a thought which he uses to set forth the most characteristic blessings of the New. The promised land belonged to Israel, and each member of each tribe had his own little holding In the tribal territory. Christians have in common the higher spiritual blessings which Christ brings, and Himself is, and each Individual has his own portion of, the general good. We-must begin by dismissing from our minds the com mon Idea, which a shallow experience tends to find con firmed by the associations ordinarily attached to the word "inheritance,” that It is entered upon by death. No doubt, that great change does effect an unspeakable change In our fitness for, and consequently in our possession of, the gifts which we receive from Christ’s pierced hands, and, as the Apostle has told us, the highest of these possessed on earth is but the “ earnest of the Inheritance” ; but we must ever bear in mind that the distinction between a Christian life on earth and one in heaven is by no means so sharply drawn in Scripture as it generally is by us, and that death has by no means so great importance as we faithlessly
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