Chapter 10: Other Worldliness.
Chapter 10: Other Worldliness.
2 Cor. vi: 8, 9, 10,
BY THE OPERATION of than mysterious force which matter exerts on matter, the formula of which is contained in Newton's definition of the law of gravitation, we are all kept close to the surface of our earth. However swift its motion, there is no fear of our being flung up from the solid ground into the air, and away into space. But we do not equally realize that, to a certain extent, the sun also, millions of miles distant, constantly exercises an attractive force, by virtue of which we are being insensibly drawn towards it.
We are incessantly subject to the operation of two mighty forces. On the one hand, attracted downwards to the earth, on the other, upwards to the sun. But we are unconscious of the latter, because the mass of our planet is so much nearer. Suppose, however, that we could begin to rise from the surface of our earth by the exercise of our will, and in the track of the Ascension of our Lord, every mile that we left it, the earth would attract us less, and the sun more. When, however, we had traversed some considerable distance across the abyss between our native home and the source of light, we should come to a point where the attraction of the earth would be exactly balanced by that of the sun, and we should remain in perfect equipoise, balanced between the drawing power of the earth on the one side, and of the sun on the other. But when we had passed a hair's breath beyond that point, we should be caught into a swifter current of mystic power, and begin, with ever-increasing velocity, to rush towards the glowing surface of the sun.
This illustration will help us to understand our relation to two worlds. By our natural birth, we are closely related to the time-sphere, the system of things around us, with all its alternations of experience, its heat and cold, its light and shade, its joy and sorrow. We cannot dissociate ourselves from the century, the city, the circle, to which we belong. But by our second birth we become related to the unseen and eternal, to the world that gathers around the New Jerusalem as its metropolis, and finds its centre in the person of our Lord.
In the earlier part of our Christian life, we are deeply and perpetually conscious of the conflicting forces that contend for us. On the one side, habits, companions, associations strive strongly to keep their hold on us, whilst Heaven begins steadily to pull us away. Presently we reach the point of equilibrium and equipoise. Time and eternity, the worlds seen and unseen, exert an equal power; we hover between the two; now dipping back into the one, now borne swiftly towards the other. But the more blessed experience is yet to come, wherein we are hardly aware of the pull of earth, because we are abandoned to the strong and blessed current which is bearing us nearer to our true center of bliss in God.
Holy souls have ever felt the momentum and energy of that current. It was this which drew Abraham from Charran, and made the patriarchs willing to dwell in tents. And it is this which has made the saints pass through the earth, as Christian and Faithful through Vanity Fair, regardless of the enticement that would arrest their steps. "Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we wait for a Saviour." "We look for and hasten unto the coming of the day of God."
Other worldliness is the true method of unworldliness. The lives of many amongst us are full of negations, with very little of the positive and affirmative. It is as though we were to take one side of the Apostle's paradoxes, without the other. Unknown, but not well-known; dying, but not living; sorrowful, but never rejoicing; poor, yet never enriched; as having nothing in this world, and possessing nothing in the next. Miserable, indeed, is such a life as this. It is as if we were to try to wrench ourselves from the earth-sphere by the force of our will, before ever we had felt or yielded to the beckoning attraction of the sun.
The easier and better way is to surrender ourselves more entirely and obediently to the tender constraint of heaven. Think less of the world you are leaving than of that which is attracting you. Seek to be heavenlyminded by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. Lay up treasures in heaven by the judicious administration of all your possessions on earth. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. Let the drift and set of your thoughts be towards the movements of the blessed Lord as He goes forth, followed by the armies of heaven, to put down all rule and authority and power. Tread the streets of the heavenly city, lave in its fountain, pluck the fruits from its tree of life, hold converse with its inhabitants. "Ye are come unto mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the spirits of just men made perfect."
Then almost insensibly you will become unworldly. You will view without heartbreak the wreck of patterns of things in the heavens, because you have found the heavenly things themselves. You will not scruple to part with all your sham jewels, because you have found the pearl of great price. You will not view with much chagrin the fading of the chaplet of earthly glory, because you have become possessed of the incorruptible crown that fadeth not away.
Let us reverse the Apostle's magnificent series of paradoxes. Let us be true, transparent, and sincere before the eye of God and His holy angels, and we shall not be greatly moved, though all men count us deceivers. Let us seek to be well-known in heaven as those that pray and work for the coming of the kingdom, and we shall be content to live as unknown in the esteem of this babbling and vain world. Let us be quick with God's life beating high within us, and we shall be willing to fall into the ground to die. Let us drink deep from the chalices of heaven's gladness, and we shall bear the stings of whips of time with patient composure. Let us amass the treasures of a noble character, and possess ourselves of the unsearchable riches of Christ, and we shall be content to be poor, and to have nothing. Give us heaven, 0 God, and we shall be weaned from the breasts of consolation that are everything to others. Inevitably, a life like this will bring us into collision with men around us. It could not be otherwise. They are being swept along by the earth-current, we are on the heaven-current. They are being drawn downward, we upward; so there must be antagonism and collision as we pass. "Marvel not if the world hate you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
We may gauge the directness and swiftness of our course heavenward by remarking the intensity of the world's hatred and scorn; yet we must never cease to pity it and weep for it, and exert ourselves to the uttermost to deliver those who are being swept to ruin by its insidious streams. "He was in the world and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." But he so loved the world. Other-worldliness weans us from that love of the world, which is unholy and harmful; and inspires a love which is pure and holy, self-sacrificing and divine.
The world is the inspired symbol of transcience. It passeth away like the shows of a theatre. Permanent though it appear, the scene is changing whilst we gaze, like a dissolving view. And even before it fades, its lust is gone (1 John ii: 17). The power to enjoy dies down in satiety. Woeful, indeed, would it be if some day we were to wake up to find the thirst of desire burning within the soul, whilst the zest of enjoyment and the source of satisfaction were gone for ever! Is not this the worm that never dies, the fire that is never quenched?
But thrice blessed is it to obey the divine summons, and to yield to the attraction of the Unseen and Eternal. Because the power of pure enjoyment is ever on the increase, and the taste becomes more refined to detect the flavor of the best wine, kept to the last, and there is always some sweeter note, some more delicate hue of color, some more rapturous experience of bliss. Though we penetrate into the divine nature for countless ages, there will always be something in God we have never explored, and always increased power to appreciate and enjoy. Let us begin to yield ourselves more than ever to the attractions and blessedness of that great Voice from heaven, which calls us to come up thither. Leaving what is behind, let us walk-let us run-let us mount up with wings as eagles.