CHAPTER VIII. THE PRACTICAL EFFECT ON THE HEART OF THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION AND ITS ASSISTANCE IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. "The fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, and Temperance.”—Gal. v. 22. The doctrine of Election is not to be regarded as a dry theory, or sentimental idea, but as a spiritual and practical truth. It is to be maintained as a principle to be proved and worked out under Divine teaching and guidance, by a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness-by a brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit-by the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost-by a constant warfare with the flesh-a hatred of all sin-by a following the Lord fully, a following of the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. The Elect must know Him, and the power of His resurrection. They must enter into the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death not living as though they had attained or were already perfect, but following after, that they may apprehend that for which also they were apprehended of Christ Jesus; treading in the steps of the same Apostle who said, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."8 The doctrine of Election is a doctrine full of life and peace to those who are exercised thereby, a most powerful incentive to righteousness and holiness, a constraining motive, a binding obligation on all to love and honour God who has so loved and chosen them. No Scriptural doctrine can be barren of effect. The doctrine of Election is certainly no exception to this rule, for it will be found to be peculiarly rich in developing the spiritual growth of the child of God, and in calling forth those fruits which are specially enumerated in Holy Scripture as fruits of the Spirit. First, then, it is productive of— 1 Phil. iii. 10. 2 Phil. iii. 12. 3 Phil. iii. 13, 14. Love. The most powerful motive to the love of God is found in His love to us. "We love Him because He first loved us."1 "The love of Christ constraineth us."2 A belief in the doctrine of Election implies a belief in the exceeding love of God-a love far surpassing human calculation. All that God has done or will do. for His chosen is the product of electing love. It is the love of God to the elect which is the great theme of the Apostle in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?" 8 "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." "No creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."5 The Apostle Paul points out how love to God is a fruit which the doctrine of Election is intended to produce. Thus, in writing to the Ephesians, he says, "He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." " Those who hold the doctrine of Election must acknowledge that infinite mercy and love which led the Father to send His only begotten Son into the world, that mercy and love which caused the Father and Son to send the Holy Ghost to enable God's children to see the everlasting sufficiency of the salvation brought about by the great offering on the Cross, and to experience truly the Father's love. It is the Father's love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost which is the very foretaste of glory. Whoever enjoys it has found what is more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." It is an everlasting love, having neither beginning nor end. It is without variableness or shadow of turning. The Elect know that the motives are all in Himself, and are according to the eternal purpose which He had purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, whereby before the foundations of the world were laid He chose them in Jesus Christ that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love. His love discovered in time is the fruit of His love to them before time, for the one is the effect of the other. And the Elect know that there is no pure love in their soul by nature; on the contrary, they confess with humility that every affection in them is turned from the Creator to the creature, that by nature they are in bondage, slaves to lust, sold under sin. They cannot love God, infinitely lovely as He is, until the bonds are broken asunder which hold them in captivity, and they are made by holy baptism one with Him who has found acceptance in the Father's sight, and in and through whom the Father may look upon them with delight and affection. The freedom of the Elect of God is shown in the delight they have in His love, and it becomes their heaven upon earth to walk with their God in the ways wherein He has appointed to meet them, to love them, and to bless them. The panting of their soul is after more of this love. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth their soul after more of the presence of God, and of the light of His loving countenance.1 Man as created in the image of God, as a dependent creature with spiritual aspirations, looks even in his lowest condition to his Creator for strength and support. There is a desire for something higher, a restless craving is experienced which cannot be satisfied with anything less than communion with God, its author. And this desire is intensified when a further relationship is effected, and God is manifested in the Person of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer, and further proceeds in the Person of the Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier. Yes, as these relationships are made known, the words of the Psalmist receive a power and display a truth which only the Holy Spirit could have brought to the lips of mortal man in the former dispensation, "O God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is." This desire expressed by the Psalmist, experienced by many of the Patriarchs and Prophets of old, for a nearer communion with God, is the very glory of the Elect in the present dispensation. 4 It could not have been obtained but for the Incarnation. This was the starting point, the very foundation. In order that this precious fruit of the Incarnation might be reaped it was expedient that our Lord should leave us for a time. He is now with you, but He shall be in you," gives the reason. If on earth those who had followed our Lord could testify to Him as the fountain of living waters, how much more emphatic should be the testimony of the Elect, since He who was given that He might open their eyes and guide them into all truth has been so long in their midst. "Lord," asked Peter, "to whom shall we go; Thou hast the words of eternal life." Peter had but the earnest and the promise. The great change in the relationship between God and man effected in the Incarnation waited the glorifying of Jesus on high, and the receiving and giving of the Holy Spirit. "Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father," were words spoken even after the Resurrection. The very words of our Lord as to those athirst coming unto Him, when recorded by St. John, have the following context: "This spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him 1 Ps. xlii. 1. Ps. Ixiii. 1. 5 John vi. 68. 3 John xiv. 17. should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."1 From the day of Pentecost we date the time when it became possible for us to have that closer communion, that glorious unity with our Lord, which was the craving of the Patriarchs and Prophets of old as their hearts were stirred by the Spirit of God. The fountain till then sealed was opened, and the waters rushed out as a river from the Mount of God, and each taster of the Water of Life experiences the truth of the promise of our Lord to the woman of Samaria, "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life." soul becomes "as a watered garden, and as a spring of water whose waters fail not." The Elect are made so far like their Risen Head that they may give forth the Living Water they imbibethe quickening Spirit received within. It is, in fact, part of their calling in this world, part of their standing as members of Christ, children of His love, to convey from the Fountain Head the Living Waters of the sanctuary. His "He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it Him, even length of days for ever and ever." His life He giveth His Elect, His glory covereth them as with a mantle. He giveth them endowments, gifts, possessions. He revealeth His election, His Church, as the "fulness of Him that filleth all in all." The former and the latter rain are hers. Is it not recorded in Joshua,' of Achsah the daughter of Caleb, when she came as a bride to her father, who had given her a field, that she lighted off her ass and said, "Give me a blessing, for thou hast given me a south land, give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs." And hath not the Election-the Church of God-the Bride of the Lamb received a south land whereon the sun is always shining? And hath not the Father given her the same blessing which Achsah sought for-the upper springs and the nether springs? On the day of Pentecost the upper springs-the living waters of the Spirit, flowed into the Church, fertilising and rendering luxuriant the soil of the kingdom, and from the Church where the nether springs are, the living water should evermore rise, springing up unto the source from whence it came. It is the spirit of oneness which is the source of strength. It is the voice of harmony, the unity and oneness of the Spirit for the Spirit and the Bride say come, "And let him that heareth say come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." The doctrine of Election, revealing as it does the great love of God to all, and His special love to the Elect, must call forth love in response, and should bring them into that holy state of mind 1 John vii. 39. Eph. i. 23: 2 John iv. 14. 3 Is. lviii. 11. • Joel ii. 23, Acts ii. Josh. xv. 18, 19. • Ps. xxi. 4. Rev. xxii. 17. required by the Divine law, the loving of God with all their heart and their neighbours as themselves. And like as the love of God was manifested in the Elect One, in the Person of our Blessed Lord, seen first in that natural body which He took unto Himself of the seed of Abraham, so must it be manifested in those who are engrafted into and made members of His mystical Body. The Temple of the Body is the manifestation of the love of Godthe living stones thereof as the Elect are drawn together and firmly fixed therein by the love of Christ manifested in the brethren by the power of the Holy Ghost. The Elect of God, as the living stones of the Eternal Temple, must manifest openly the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost in love-love to God-love to all the creatures of His hand, for they all in some degree and in their appointed measure partake of His excellence and give expression to His glory. This love must fill the hearts of the Elect and give a tone to all their actions. And there never was a time when such love was more needed than the present. We live in the days when each man seeks his own good only, in the midst of those perilous times when "men shall be lovers of their own selves," and the Lord looks to His Elect to reveal His love by forgetting themselves, renouncing their selfishness, counting themselves as dead to self and alive only to God, to labour for that bread that perisheth not the bread which is the mystical body of Christ, even their brethren of the baptised. He calls upon them to show forth that charity which "seeketh not her own," to give up themselves-their whole being, body, soul, and spirit, to their Lord, constrained thereto by earnest, devoted love, that love which will never fail, whose flame will burn brighter and brighter as the purposes of God gradually unfold, and the Elect are enabled to enter more and more therein, until they find themselves standing face to face with Him who is love, whose they are, and with whom they desire to be through all eternity. Joy. The Joy of the Elect of God should be unique. They alone can know it in its highest sense. They alone can know what is "joy in the Holy Ghost." It is the joy which our blessed Lord left with His disciples when he went away. "These things have I spoken unto you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." The kingdom of heaven "is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." The Elect are introduced to this kingdom by holy baptism as heirs only; but as they have received the earnest of the kingdom, so do they experience the earnest of the joy of that kingdom. They know that they have been chosen and accepted in the dearly beloved of the 1 2 Tim. iii. 2. 21 Cor. xiii. 5. 3 John xv. 9, 11. Rom. xiv. 17. |