Something of the Christ in me,
May each man who hears me, hear
Jesus whispering in his ear."
--THE LORICA.
"As the incarnation of Christ was a witness to the divine indwelling, the re-incarnation of Christ in his people is a witness to the presence of Christ in the world. In the lives of His Redeemed His presence is openly revealed. They are His representatives. In them His incarnation is repeated and perpetuated. By them His influence is reduplicated. The life which He lost on the cross He finds again in them. They are Christs to all they meet. It has been regarded by many as a bold thing for Whitfield to call Dr. Watts 'a bit of Christ'; but is not every Christian 'a bit of Christ,' a little Christ--Christ brought down to date, Christ extended into the present?
"A child was once asked, 'Where is Jesus Christ now?' The instant reply was, 'He lives in our alley.' He lived there before the eyes of the world in the person of one of His followers. He always lives where his people live. The 'I am' has immortal life. He multiplies himself in the lives of his followers. Every life which He inspires, every life of which He is the animating and governing principle continues His life and work on the earth. Those in whom He lives, not only live Him out in their daily lives, but He lives Himself out from them. They do His work, or rather, He does His work through them. The reality of His presence is confirmed by them when they say:
The bound and suffering of our kind,
In works we do, in prayers we pray
Life of our life, He lives to-day."
--WHITTIER.
"The continuation of the life of Christ implies the continuation of His sacrifice. If in all the service His people perform for others His work is carried on, in all the suffering they endure for others His sacrifice is re-enacted. There is an element of truth in the Romanist doctrine of the perpetual sacrifice of Christ. That sacrifice is not outwardly and formally repeated in the Mass, 'one sacrifice for sin for ever' having been made; but the self-giving spirit of Christ is being continually imparted, and the sacrifice of Christ continually repeated. The self-sacrificing love which is the essential thing in the character of Christ is also the essential thing in the character of every Christian.
"As Christ offered Himself up for others, so will every one who possesses His spirit. Every Christian ought to be able to say, 'I die daily'; 'I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus'; 'I rejoice in my sufferings for others, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ.'
"He ought to desire to know Christ, and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed unto His death. He ought to bear about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus might be manifested in his
body. Alike in active and in passive suffering he ought to be 'a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.' His life ought to be poured out as a constant oblation in the service of humanity; consumed on the altar of love as a perpetual sacrifice for the salvation of humanity.
"The incarnation of Christ in Christian lives makes His manifestation in the flesh something other than a transient event. From the humanity into which He comes He does not withdraw. The footing He has gained He continues to hold. In human lives He continues to be revealed, through human lives He continues to speak. The tabernacle of God is not only with man; it is man. 'The true shekinah,' says Chrysostom, 'is man.'
"The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, but in the living temple of the humble, holy heart. Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, 'I dwell in the high and holy place, with Him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.' Appealing to the inner consciousness of Christians the Apostle of the Gentiles asks, 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?' Know ye not that in the inmost sanctuary of your soul the Spirit of the living God is to be found? Know ye not that there is the secret place where the Most High is to be met and worshiped?
"Identifying the divine immanence with the immanence of Christ the same apostle asks, 'Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ'--sanctuaries cleansed by His holy presence, instruments made fit to do His will? Know ye not that the whole man is His; that the inner and outer natures are to be under His control; that in body and spirit He is to be glorified?
"The repeated inquiry 'know ye not?' carries with it the implication that it is possible for Christians to remain in ignorance concerning much that is involved in the fact of the divine indwelling. Christ may be to them as one who is far away, 'the king of some remoter star,' instead of being a living, brooding presence; they may think of their soul as a place to which He pays an occasional visit, instead of seeing that it is a house which He has built for His permanent abode.
"To know that Christ is in us; to know that we were made by Him and for Him; to know that we were designed to be the living temple of His presence, is to attain to an excellent knowledge for which all things else might be counted loss. Let each one ask, 'Have I attained this knowledge? Do I see that the very end for which the Lord of Glory assured my nature was that He might dwell in my poor heart? Has His incarnation become to me real and personal? Has He come into my life? Has He taken up His abode within me? Do I live in the happy consciousness of His abiding presence? Do I take Him with me wherever I go? Is my advent His advent? Is the putting of my life into other lives the putting of His life into other lives? Are all the outgoings of my redeemed personality the out-goings of His divine personality? Is there seen in me as His holy temple a constant out-shining of His inshining glory? Does my life so shine before men that they, seeing my good works, give glory to Him whose grace has produced them? In a word, is the Christ who lives in me, accepted, confessed, lived and glorified?
"The continued incarnation of Christ realized in Christians individually, is realized still more fully in the church collectively. The whole is greater than a part. Christians are members of Christ, the church is the 'body of Christ.' It is His chosen dwelling place, the organism in which His fullness abides, the agency by which His truth amid grace are made known, the visible witness of His continuous presence in the world.
"The mission of the church is the mission of Christ. It exists to represent Him, to act for Him, to do what He wants it to do. It is the center from which His recreative saving energy is to go forth over all the earth. The salvation which is to come from Him to the world, is to come from Him through His church. In all its activities the church is simply the organ of Christ; all that it does for the uplifting of the kingdom of God on the earth is what Christ enables it to do. The outpouring of its life in the service of humanity is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which Christ has first of all in poured.
"The body of Christ has millions of hands to do His work; millions of feet to run His errands; millions of tongues to sing His praise. In its manifold life He continues to express Himself; through its multitudinous activities He continues to work; by its multiplying agencies He continues to make His presence and power increasingly felt in the moral advancement of the world.
"Do we describe the church ideal or the church actual? Both. It is true that there are many churches in which it would be difficult to discover any evidence of the Indwelling Christ--Laodicean churches from which Christ has been shut out, and at whose closed doors He patiently stands knocking and pleading for admittance.
"There are churches that have killed their Christ; wounded Him to death; crucified Him; put Him to an open shame by ungratefully denying His claims, and by wickedly casting reproach upon His name. There are churches which have embalmed a dead Christ in their creeds; buried a dead Christ beneath their imposing ceremonials, instead of making a living, reigning Christ the one object of their faith and worship. Their temple has become a mausoleum; their altar a shrine; their worship an empty form; their life an ease-loving, self-loving worldliness. In their organized life there is nothing suggestive of Christ; nothing that compels men to think of Christ as in their midst.
"But in most churches, taken at their worst, there is always to be found a spiritual seed by which the spirit and life of Christ are perpetuated; hid among the cold, gray ashes of their banked altar fires are tiny sparks which the breath of the Holy Spirit can fan into a fervent flame. In many churches abundant proof is furnished of the Indwelling Christ. They are manifesting His life, and doing His works. They possess some measure of His healing, saving power. They are able to throw out the challenge to a onlooking world, 'Examine our lives and our works and see if they do not bear witness to the presence of Christ within us.'
"Taken as a whole, the church of to-day is Christian. Her light may be dim, but it is divine; her life may be imperfect but it is from heaven; her power may be feeble, but it is from God.
"'The Church of the living God' is no failure, Christ is for her; and she is for Christ. Her ideal has never been fully reached; but she keeps following after, endeavoring to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of her. The measure of her power for usefulness always has been, always must be, the measure in which she experiences the indwelling of Christ. Just so far as she comes to see that in representing Christ, she represents the inexhaustible power of that embodied righteousness and love by which the world is finally to be conquered, will she rise to the fulfillment of her high destiny."
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