Miscellaneous
Writings Vol. One
THE CHURCH'S PATH.
"And Peter answered Him and said, 'Lord, if it be Thou,
bid me come to Thee upon the waters.' And he said, 'Come.' And when Peter was
come down out of the ship, he walked on the waters to go to Jesus." (Matt. xiv.
28, 29.)
THE individuality of the path is what I would press upon our
souls just now. How strikingly it is presented! This solitary man, amid
boisterous winds and waves, forsaking the protection of the boat and the
company of the other disciples, and inviting the word which bids him to a path
at once so difficult and so resourceless. We often speak of a walk of faith. It
is well to look steadily at such a picture as this, and to ask ourselves, have
we ever realized it in our own experience? does it present really what
corresponds in its features (even though more deeply drawn,) to the path as we
know it?
Solitary;- but he had before him as the end of his path the
gracious and glorious presence of Him who had called him, and for sustaining
power the word which in its call was a promise for all difficulties that could
be. If in the meanwhile he had lost the company of others, every step on this
road would make the Presence before him more bright and lustrous; and, at the
end at least, even those now separated from would be restored. Was there not
abundant compensation in the meantime? Would there not be an overpayment of joy
at the end?
I would press, I again say, the individuality of it. As we
look back upon the examples of faith which God has given us in His own record,
how they shine separately and independently out from surrounding darkness! How
seldom are they set even in clusters! Enoch, in that walk with God which death
never shadowed; Noah, with his family, sole survivors of a judgment-wrecked
world; Abraham, with whom even Lot is a mere contrast. They stand out from the
dark background as men not formed by their circumstances, no mere natural
outgrowth from that in the midst of which we find them, but plants of the
Lord's planting, maintaining themselves where no power but His could avail to
keep them, north wind, as well as south, making the spices of His garden to
flow out. In all these the individuality of the path is manifest. Lot is a
warning as to the opposite course, of unmistakable significance. A walk with
God means necessarily independence of men,- even of the saints; while if it is
with God, it will be marked by unfeigned lowliness, and absence of mere
eccentricity and self-will.
In the scene to which I am now referring,
this solitary man, in that individual path in which nothing but divine power
could for a moment sustain him, is the representative, as is evident, of the
Church at large. The saints of the present time are as a body called to go
forth to meet the Bridegroom, leaving the "boat" of Judaism, a provision for
nature, not for faith. "The law is not of faith." To faith, God alone is
necessary and sufficient, and other helps would be helps to do (so far) without
Him: hindrances to faith therefore, really. Practically, it was a Jewish
remnant that the Lord left when He went on high, and to a Jewish remnant we
know He will return again, we in the meantime being called to meet Him and
return with Him. This company Peter, not only here, but elsewhere,
represents.
At first sight this may seem to take from the individual
aspect. The path is the Church's path, and belongs to the whole, not merely to
individuals: and that is so far true. In fact, as a company it has perhaps
never walked in it; most certainly not for centuries: and Scripture - prescient
as the Word of God must be - announced beforehand what history has since
recorded. If then the Church has failed, is the Christian to accept for himself
this failure? or is not individuality forced the more upon him,-a good which
divine sovereignty thus brings out of the evil? But in truth it never was
intended that the walk of a Christian should be different in principle or on a
lower level than that which characterized faith in former generations. We were
not meant to seek Lot-like companion-ship with one another, but Abraham-like
with God. He is "the father of all them that believe." If Peter here, then,
represent a company, it can only be a company of such as walk, each for
himself, with God: a course which would indeed secure the most blessed
companionship. Communion with one another can only be the result of communion
with the Father and with the Son.
In this way how striking is the path
of this lone man!- a path that terminates only in the presence of the Lord, and
on which every step in advance brings nearer to Him! Various as in some true
sense our paths must be, it is this that alone gives them their common
Christian character; it is this that makes us pilgrims; nay, as the inspired
Word presents it, racers our goal outside the world; our object - that
which rules us - heavenly. If it be not thus with us, we are immeasurably below
those of a dispensation darkness itself compared with ours, who nevertheless by
their lives "declared plainly" that they sought a better country. And for this
reason God was not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for
them a city.
This path of faith is one in which we may show, with
Peter, not the greatness Of our faith, but the littleness of it. It will never
really make much of us. Do we seek it? The glory of Christ is what lies before
and beckons us; for our weakness, if there be rebuke, it is only that of a
perfect love. Not, Wherefore didst thou presume but, "Wherefore didst thou
doubt?" And with that, the outstretched hand of human sympathy and of divine
support. Is it enough, dear fellow-Christian? Is there not for all the
difficulties of the way an over-abundant recompense? And the end - who shall
declare its blessedness?
Yet let us remember that it is to one who
invites his Lord's invitation to such a path that it really opens. The "Come"
of Christ is an answer to him who says, "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come to
Thee upon the waters!" The word for the path is the answer alone to the heart
for the path. And what to Him is the joy of such desire so expressed? Let ours
go forth, if any have not yet, with such a cry: "Lord, if it be upon the waters
I must come, and that path it is which alone leads to Thee, then bid me come to
Thee, blest, gracious Master, even upon the water!"
END OF VOLUME
ONE
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