The Natural and the Spiritual

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor 2:14 KJV).

In 1 Cor. 2:14 St. Paul describes the natural man as utterly devoid of spiritual perception. Spiritual realities "are foolishness unto him"; and "he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged or examined" (R. V.). Christ foretold this state of things when he declared that "the world," the aggregate of natural men, "cannot receive the Spirit of truth, because they see him not." They have in exercise only sense-perception and reason, neither of which apprehends God and spiritual things. Spiritual intuition is an attribute of spiritual life; and spiritual life is absent, because unbelief bars out the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life. Hence, St. Jude describes "natural or sensual [animal, R. V. margin] men as having not the Spirit."

Just the opposite is the characteristic of spiritual men, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." While the natural man is, by the perverse attitude of his will, an agnostic, the spiritual man is an epignostic, having a clear perception of divine realities, which he is enabled to speak of, not in the terms of groveling human philosophy, but in the words which the Spirit teacheth (1 Cor. 2:13, R. V., margin), "interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men."

— Half-Hours With St. Paul and Other Bible Readings Chapter 14.

Crucifixion with Christ

Love made perfect requires as its antecedent that perfect surrender which, in the strong language of St. Paul, is crucifixion with Christ. The difficulty with average Christians is, that they faint beneath the cross on the via dolorosa, the way of grief, and never reach their Calvary. They do not by faith gird on strength for the hour when they must be stretched upon the cross. They shrink from the torturing spike, and from the spear aimed at the heart of their self-life. This betokens weakness of faith. But when the promise is grasped with the grip of a giant, no terrors, no agonies, can daunt the soul. In confidence that there will be after the crucifixion a glorious resurrection to spiritual life and blessedness, the believer yields his hand to the nail, and his head to the thorn crown. That flinty center of the personality, the will, which has up to this hour stood forth in resistance to the complete will of God, suddenly flows down, a molten stream under the furnace blast of divine love, melted into oneness with "the sweet will of God." After such a death there is always a resurrection unto life. An interval of hours or even of days may take place before the angels shall descend and roll away the stone from the sepulchre of the crucified soul, and the pulsations of a new and blissful life be felt through every fiber and atom of the being. It is not the old life that rises, but a new life is breathed forth by the Holy Ghost. "I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me." (R. V. Am. Committee.) "Dead indeed unto sin," "but alive unto God through Jesus Christ."

"He walks in glorious liberty,
To sin entirely dead:
The Truth, the Son, hath made him free,
And he is free indeed.
"Throughout his Soul Thy glories shine;
His soul is all renewed,
And deck'd in righteousness divine,
And clothed and filled with God."

He who enjoys this repose is brought so intimately into sympathy with Jesus Christ that he is all aflame with zeal, and aroused to the utmost activity to save lost men. As a venerable preacher, widely known, quaintly expressed it, "I enjoy the rest of faith that keeps me in perpetual motion."

— Half-Hours with St. Paul, Chapter 10.

Trust and Consecration

Some writers on advanced Christian experience magnify the will, and say to inquirers, Yield, bow, submit, to the law of Christ. While the evangelist of the Wesleyan type says, Believe, believe Christ's every word. Both are right. Perfect trust cannot exist without perfect consecration. Nor can we make over all our interests into Christ's hands without the utmost confidence in his word.

Hence, crucifixion with Christ implies perfect faith in him, not only when he is riding in triumph into Jerusalem amid the huzzas of enthusiastic men and the hosannas of willing children, but when the fickle multitude are crying, "Crucify him." From the beginning Jesus intimated that discipleship must be grounded on an acceptance of himself, stripped of all the attractions of riches or honor. To know him after the flesh, from some selfish and worldly motive, is to fail to know him in that way which insures eternal life. To an enthusiastic scribe who had just seen the glorious display of power in the healing of Peter's wife's mother and the casting out of demons, and who was taking only a romantic, rose-colored view of discipleship prompting the thoughtless promise, "I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest," Jesus replied, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." "Let him who follows me know that he is following a pauper, fed at the tables of friends, and soon to be buried as a beggar at their expense." "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me."

Here over the very gateway of the kingdom of Christ, stand chiseled the stoney words "Crucifixion of self." Hence, it is no stern requirement of the so-called higher Christian life; it is the condition of the lowest degree of spiritual life. The higher the degree of life the higher the required consecration.

— Half-Hours with St. Paul Chapter 10.

Giving Up Self to Christ

Many people are perplexed to understand the exhortation to give up self to Christ and to have no will of their own. We are so created that we must regard our own welfare. Self-love is implanted in our natures. If it would be destroyed, there would be nothing to which God or man could appeal. Neither threatening nor promise would move such a soul. Moreover, self-love has the approval of Christ in his epitome of the moral law. He makes it the measure of our love to our neighbor — "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

But selfishness differs from self-love in this, that self is exalted into the supreme law of action. The well-being of others, and the will of God are not regarded. This is the self that is to be crucified. Says St. Paul, "I am crucified with Christ, but it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" — Gal. 2:20 — as punctuated by Alford. The former ego of selfishness has met with violent death, having been nailed to the cross, and Christ has taken the supreme place in the soul. The very fact that this death was violent implies that it was instantaneous, a very sharply defined transition in St. Paul's consciousness. There is some one last rallying point of selfishness, a last ditch in which the evil ego intrenches itself. It may be some very trifling thing that is to be exempted from the dominion of Christ, some preference, some indulgence, some humiliating duty some association to be broken, some adornment to be discarded. "Reign. Jesus, over all but this," is the real language of that unyielding heart. This trifle, held fast, has been the bar which has kept thousands out of that harmony with the divine will which precedes the fullness of the Spirit.

But when this last entrenchment of self-will has been surrendered to Christ, he is not long in taking possession. The fullness, as well as the immediateness, depends on the faith of the soul in the divine promise. For there is a difference between the subjugation of the rebel and his reconstruction in loyal citizenship, between the death of sin and the fullness of the Christ-life. But the great distinctive and god-like feature of man is his free will. The memorable event, the pivotal point on which destiny, heaven, or hell hinges, is the hour of intense spiritual illumination, conviction of sin, when sin is deliberately chosen — "evil, be thou my good" — or voluntarily rejected. Submission to Christ is an act of faith. It could not be possible without confidence in his veracity and goodness. Hence, justification and emergence into "the higher life" frequently take place when the only preceding act which impressed itself on the memory was not an act of faith, but of surrender, which is grounded on trust as its indispensable condition.

— Half-Hours with St. Paul, Chapter 10.

Chain Letters

QUESTION: I have received a chain letter requesting me to offer the following prayer: "Oh Lord, Jesus Christ, we implore Thee, the all-eternal God, to have mercy upon all mankind, keep us from all sin by the precious blood, and take us all to be with Thee eternally, amen." Then follow these words, "This prayer was sent by Bishop Lawrence, recommending it to be rewritten and sent to nine other persons. They who will not rewrite it, will be afflicted by some misfortune. One person paid no attention to it, met with a dreadful accident." Then the promise is added that those who comply with the request "will on or after the ninth day experience great joy at Jerusalem during the Holy Feast, and be delivered from all calamities." What am I to do with it?

ANSWER: Do nothing. It evidently is the production of some malicious or unbalanced person, who has been for more than a year pestering the Christian public, and especially the good Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts, who has repeatedly denied that he is its author. No one outside of an insane asylum would fanatically assume the ability to indict distress on those who refused to use in prayer this form, and to bestow joy on others.

— Steele's Answers p. 152, 153.

Items Mentioned in Isaiah 3:18-23

QUESTION: Explain Isaiah 3:18-23,

"In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, The rings, and nose jewels, The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails." (KJV)

(1) cauls, (2) round tires like the moon, (3) chains, (4) tablets, (5) wimples, (6) crisping pins, (7) glasses, (8) vails.

ANSWER: (1) Some say "networks," others "embroidery;" (2) Crescents; (3) ankle chains,(4) perfume boxes; (5) a covering of silk or linen for the neck, chin and sides of the face worn now by nuns; (6) recticules or satchels highly ornamented; (7) handmirrors, probably of polished metal; (8) fine linen or silk so woven as to be diaphanous, or transparent, revealing the form. Of all this finery and even of all clothing would the Hebrew man and women be deprived when driven captives to Babylon. See the Revision.

— Steele's Answers p. 152

On Isaiah 28:20

QUESTION: Explain Isaiah 28:20, "For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than he can wrap himself in it."

ANSWER: This is a proverbial saying for the inadequate means for the defense of Jerusalem against a strong army. The Hebrew word for "covering" is used in chap. 22:8 for outworks of defense, the barrier of the city and of the country. The Jews were as poorly prepared for a siege as a tipsy man was for sleep whom I found one evening lying on the door of my veranda trying to keep himself warm by covering himself with the rubber doormat.

— Steele's Answers p. 151, 152.

No Treasures on Earth?

QUESTION: Explain Matt. 6:19, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth."

ANSWER: Infidels are fond of saying that this prohibition and others in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount are utterly impracticable and some superficial readers, though Protestants, admit that they are monkish: and the Roman Catholics imply this error when they teach that only those who obey the "counsels of perfection," the vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, can be perfect saints. 

The truth is that the term "treasures" does not mean simply money, but that which we deem our main good, the aim of our life, the object of our supreme desire and love. This should not be "on the earth," where all things are perishable and transient, but in heaven. 

Wesley suggests that this prohibition is designed "to guard us against making anything on earth our treasure." It cannot forbid provision for the support of our dependent kindred, the neglect of whom Paul says is worse than being an infidel (I Tim. 5:8). When Dr. Chalmers was trying to give a Christian uplift to the slums of Glasgow he secured the establishment of a savings bank as an auxiliary to the Gospel of Christ.

— Steele's Answers pp. 150, 151.

Labor Is Not a Curse

QUESTION: What fact shows that labor itself is not a curse?

ANSWER: In Eden man was commanded. to "subdue the earth," to dress and to keep the garden, and to till the ground. These commands accord with his constitution of body and mind, for health, happiness and moral character suffer from idleness. Convicts in prison deprived of work for a long time beg for regular daily labor. The tribes of men who do not labor are savages. Excessive labor is a curse; and child labor in factories is cruel. Pres. Eliot of Harvard University declares that "labor is the greatest civiliz­ing force in the world." I should except Christianity.

— Steele's Answers p. 149, 150.

What Meats Should Christians Eat?

QUESTION: What meats should be eaten by Christians?

ANSWER: The word meat includes both vegetable and animal foods. There are some vegetables, such as tobacco, unfit for either saint or sinner to eat,  and  the extract of others, such as opium from the poppy, and alcoholic distillations from fruits and cereals, should not go into the mouth of any Christian. He is sure to eat healthy food if he limits himself to the clean animals enumerated. in Lev. II. But since Jesus abrogated the ceremonial law (Mark 7:19, American Revised Version), the Christian does not sin if he eats swine's flesh, clams, oysters, lobsters, eels, etc. It is thought that the superior longevity of the Jews arises from their observance of the Levitical Law which perfectly guards his beefsteak and mutton chops.

— Steele's Answers p. 149.