IX

THE CHRISTIAN'S WEALTH

Wherefore, let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."-I COR. III: 21, 22, 23.

I

T is said that Tennyson's brother, Frederick, was a shy, backward youth, easily nonplussed at social functions. To calm Frederick as they entered a drawing-room, Alfred would whisper to him: "Now just think of Herschel's star-clusters, brother." The poet knew that if the mind of his brother was caught up into the majesty and immensity of astronomic worlds, he could be neither awed nor excited by the babble of the average drawing-room. Paul applies a like principle to the Christian. Tempted to dwell among small things, bewildered by the world's gaudy shows, blinded by the flying dust of the present, Christians lose the sense of true perspective. Evidently, the Corinthians had suffered such a loss. That is why Paul recalls them to their better, deeper selves; that is why he reminds them of their immeasurable wealth. All we need is to get Paul's viewpoint, Paul's vision of God in

Christ, and we, too, shall begin to think more worthily of our gleaming piles of uncounted gold.

I

In taking account of the Christian's wealth, Paul makes a large place for all true teachers. "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas." The completely universal mind is the Christian mind. Wherever truth is, in any realm of being, there the Christian has a challenge to gird up his mental loins for conquest. For truth is not isolated, local, fragmentary; truth is as unprejudiced as the sun, as calm as the everlasting hills, as unconfined as the ether. All that truth requires to make its home in a personality is a pure heart, a hungry mind, and an obedient will. This is all, I say, but it is everything. Wherever you find purity of heart, intellectual integrity, and unswerving obedience to the highest, you invariably find a combination of qualities possible only to the soul that is living out the reality of the inliving Christ. He is the owner of all truth-bringers. He says: "Paul, with his immortal cargoes of truth, outward bound from the Coasts of Eternity, is mine; but Paul was so heavily freighted that he could not bring all of my wealth to me. So God sent me another consignment by Apollos; and lo! when the good ship Apollos arrived, loaded to the water's edge, I found that there was still more to come. Looking again toward the sea of truth, I

beheld Cephas sailing direct to my spiritual port. Then, after all had come ashore, Captain Paul gathered us about him and said: 'Brethren, we have brought you some nuggets from the mines of truth; we have sailed the oceans of mystery to deliver our precious freight at your doors; but there is so much more behind, so much that He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, desires to send you, that He has chartered all noble spiritual craft to ply between Him and your souls. One may be Paul, another Apollos, and another Cephas; but the names are less than the truth they bring. All true teachers are your servants, ordained by the God of nature and of grace, to enrich you; all-all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." "

Unfortunately, many Christian people fall far short of Paul's standard in measuring their wealth. We are tempted to lease too many of truth's domains to error, unbelief, and infidelity. We cut our vast spiritual estate up into cross-lots and say: "This belongs to science; this to philosphy; this to art; and that to the world." Have we not a fatal genius for makeshifts? Do we not glory in our span-high artificiality? Now, Paul's attitude is opposed to all this. He was a spiritual statesman, claiming the universe as his own. He refused to concede any part of God's dominion to the devil. He regarded sin as an outlaw, a vile intruder, having no rights, and entitled to none. Manifested to destroy the works of the devil, Christ restores man to his true

order and heirship in the worlds and the ages. Consequently, Paul seems to say: "Hold up every true teacher coming your way and shake the truth out of him. At first he may be loath to part with his truth, but stand pleadingly by until he imparts what is rightfully your own also." If only we are in Christ and Christ in us, we may becomingly waylay every truth-bringer from Moses to Paul, from Plato to Darwin, relieve him of his gleaming treasure without pauperizing him, and go on our way rejoicing, because we are as sure of being guided into all truth as we are that "the innocent moon, which nothing does but shine, moves all the labouring surges of the world." We must have more of Paul's catholicity and mental ampleness, which is the fruit of genuine Christian faith. Let a man but attain the apostle's viewpoint and he will exclaim with Mrs. Browning: "I shall never again be poor, thank God!" Breasting the stream of the years unafraid, he is ever searching the floors of the spiritual deeps for new pearls of truth. He has ceased to glory in men because he has seen the glory of God. No longer interested in building disturbing fences around sectarian gardens, he delights in counting the star-panels that fence in his shining worlds of beauty and love. Owning the solar year of time and the dateless eras of eternity, the Christian also owns Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, and all truth-bearers from all realms.

II

Because all things belong to God and His Christ, Paul puts in a second claim of the Christian. He says that "the world" is his also. Such a statement must be carefully scrutinized. Various kinds. of people have imagined that they owned the world, but somehow it always slipped out of their uncertain grasp. Our very myths, and even history itself, are shot through with the claims of fictitious world-owners. In childhood we hear of Midas and Croesus; of the world-conquerors, Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon; of the kings of finance, whose morning-steps in Wall Street shake the markets of the world before sundown. On the other hand, we are familiar with another type of worldowner today. His claims are blatantly pressed in many quarters. He is the Judas among the apostles of labour. He says: "Everything belongs to the working man; he is the only creator of wealth; therefore, let him take a stick of dynamite and claim his own." But it is scarcely worth while to say that neither Croesus, nor the tyrant, nor the anarchist has any permanent or true claims to worldownership. Both in theory and practice they are its abject slaves.

Well, then, have Paul and his fellow-Christians any deeper, juster reasons for saying: "Millionaires, kings, and revolutionists may come and go, but I go on forever; and whether I go or come, the