Philippiens 3:10

That I may know Him

The path of life

I. Knowledge.

II. Power.

III. Fellowship with Christ.

IV. Conformity to his death. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The believer’s aspirations

It is said that St. Augustine wished to have seen three things before he died; Rome in its glory, Christ in the flesh, and Paul in his preaching. But many have seen the first without being the holier, the second without being happier, and heard the third and yet went to perdition. But Paul, in this and the previous Chapter s, expresses seven wishes which centre in Christ--that he might know Christ, win Christ, magnify Christ, be conformed to Christ, be found in Christ, rejoice in the day of Christ, and be forever with Christ. Now these correspond perfectly with the desires of every child of God. Here Paul desires--

I. To know Christ. St. Paul appreciated the value of other departments of knowledge. He was a scholar and a theologian; but after he had learned Christ they seemed to fade in interest. This knowledge was the subject of his preaching everywhere, as he told the Corinthians and the Galatians. He wished to know Christ.

1. Increasingly. The more he knew Him the more he wanted to know, and no wonder, for

(1) in Him is everything worthy to be known.

(2) This knowledge never cloys.

2. Experimentally. To know in Scripture is to see and to taste. It is not the speculative knowledge that devils have, nor mere historical knowledge, but such as a hungry man has when he eats, and a thirsty man when he drinks. It is appropriative of Christ--“My Lord,” “My Saviour.”

3. Superlatively (verse 8). For what is the widest and most delightful knowledge in the presence of this? but as sounding brass, vanity.

II. The power of his resurrection. The word “power” makes all the difference between religion in the head and in the heart, between possession and profession. It is one thing to have knowledge, and another to have it vitally and brought into action. Christ’s resurrection has a vast power.

1. In our justification. His ransom could avail nothing without His resurrection. “If Christ be not raised your faith is vain.” But by it the Father publicly testified His approval

2. In our sanctification, which is the renewing of our nature and the strengthening of our graces by the Holy Spirit, who is the fruit of the resurrection.

3. In our edification. Every sermon, etc., is vain if Christ be not risen. All the means of Christian growth are dependent upon it (Éphésiens 4:7). What power it gave to apostolic preaching.

4. In our glorification. There had been no resurrection for us without Christ’s. As in Adam, the covenant head, all died; so in Christ, the covenant head of Adam’s posterity, all shall be made alive.

III. The fellowship of his sufferings. Not in His merits: the crown must be forever on His head. We know this.

1. By partaking of the benefit of His sufferings, pardon, etc.

2. By communion with Him through the channel of His sufferings--His Divine humanity, hanging on the Cross, and commemorated in the sacrament.

3. By enduring for His sake the same sufferings which He endured--the world’s frowns, Satan’s temptations. “Is the servant above his master.”

IV. Conformity unto his death. Why not His life? That is not excluded. But His death presents in a condensed form all that we could desire to he on earth. We see in Him--

1. Great patience under suffering.

2. Great faith.

3. Great compassion for dying men.

4. Great filial tenderness.

5. Great love for repenting sinners. (J. Sherman.)

Knowing Christ

He who of mortal men knew Christ best confesses that he knew Him but imperfectly.

1. How much, then, must there be in Him to know. Do we lose a sense of the Redeemer’s majesty by familiarity with His name? See, then, His chief disciple, after years of contemplation, imitation, and adoration, confessing that the great object of God, manifest in the flesh, seems greater than ever, so that at the last he offers the prayer suitable to a novice.

2. This is true of all the works of God, whether in the material or the spiritual world, and is illustrated by what a climber sees of the starry firmament: from the bottom the mountain tops seem among the stars, but as he ascends they seem to recede, and their vastness and distance are best seen from the summit.

3. What Paul meant is clearer from the following explanations.

I. Knowing the power of His resurrection. Paul laboured and suffered much, and was pursued by great infirmity and frequent depression; but he saw above him the figure of the once suffering but now risen Christ--his brother throned and crowned. Looking up it seems as if he were moved to say, “Would that I could be raised out of what I am, and become as He is--victor over sin, sorrow, and death.” In this sense we may feel the power of Christ’s resurrection. In Christ, risen and glorified, is the image in which we may behold what we may become.

II. A share of Christ’s sufferings the condition of a share in His resurrection. He has just expressed a desire to resemble Christ glorified, but he here checks himself in order to show that what he desires is not an easy and instantaneous change. What he seeks is not simply repose and relief. He is perfectly willing to resemble Christ glorified by passing through the intermediate stages. He, too, would reach the crown through the Cross, remembering that “it is enough for the disciple to be as his Master.” Whoever then would know Christ must face--

1. Suffering--the suffering of arduous effort, patient resignation, and trust when faith is tempted to fail.

2. Death--the death to much that is attractive here, and especially to sin, as well as to the death of the body. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.)

The experimental knowledge of Christ

I. An experimental knowledge of Christ is so great a blessing that we should count all things but loss to get it. It is sometimes expressed by taste. Sight is the knowledge of faith, taste that of experience (1 Pierre 2:3; Psaume 34:8). When we taste His goodness or feel His power we have an experimental knowledge of Christ. Many know how to talk about Him but feel nothing. Men speak of His salvation from day to day, but have not the effects of it. When we find within ourselves the fruits of His sufferings, the comfort of His promises, the likeness of His death, the power of His resurrection, then we know Christ experimentally. The benefits it confers show its value. Experience--

1. Gives us a more intimate knowledge of things. While we know them by hearsay we know them only by guess and imagination, but when we know them by experience we know them in truth. He that reads about the sweetness of honey may guess at it, but he that tastes it knows what it is (Colossiens 1:6). A man who has travelled through a country knows it better than he who knows it only by a map.

2. Gives greater confirmation of the truth. A man needs no reason to convince him that fire is hot who has been scorched, or that weather is cold who feels it in his fingers. So when the promises of God are verified we see that there is more than letters and syllables (Psaume 18:30; 1 Corinthiens 1:6; 1 Thesaloniciens 1:5).

3. Gives greater excitement to the love of Christ and His ways. The more we feel the necessity of Christ and know His usefulness in binding up our broken hearts, the more we shall love Him as our Saviour (1 Jean 4:19). We may know the truth of the gospel by other means, but we cannot know that it belongs to us by any other means.

4. Engages us more to zeal and diligence in the heavenly life, which reports and exhortations often fail to do.

(1) Because when, e.g., we have experience of the power of Christ’s resurrection it begets a new life within which inclines us to heavenly things--there is a principle to work with (Galates 5:25).

(2) When this life is gratified with the rewards of obedience, such as peace and comfort, it is an argument above all others to press for more. The Cauls when they had once tasted the Italian grape must get into the country where it grew. The spies were sent to bring the clusters of Canaan into the wilderness to animate the Israelites to put in for the good land. So God gives us the Spirit not only as an earnest (1 Corinthiens 1:22) to show us how sure, but as first fruits to show us how good (Romains 8:23).

(3) When this life is obstructed by folly and sin, you find more of Christ’s displeasure in your inward man (Éphésiens 4:30) than can possibly be represented to your outward condition.

II. Motives.

1. It is a dangerous temptation when the gospel comes in word only (1 Corinthiens 4:20). It must follow either that you settle in a cold form (2 Timothée 3:5) or into an open denying of Christ and the excellency of His religion.

2. If you have not this knowledge how will you be able to carry on this spiritual life with any delight, seriousness, or success? (1 Jean 5:3).

3. Without it you can have no assurance of your own interest (Romains 4:4; 1 Jean 4:17).

4. Without it you will neither honour Christianity nor propagate it.

(1) By word (Psaume 34:8). A report of a report at second or third hand is no valid testimony. None can speak with such confidence as those who feel what they speak (2 Corinthiens 1:4).

(2) By work (2 Thesaloniciens 1:11; 1 Thesaloniciens 1:4).

III. Means.

1. A sound belief of the doctrines of the gospel (1 Jean 5:10; 1 Thesaloniciens 2:13). We cannot feel the power of the truth till we receive it.

2. Serious meditation and consideration (Psaume 45:1; Actes 16:14).

3. Close application. Things work not upon us at a distance (Job 5:27). Conclusion:

1. Look for experience rather in the way of sanctification than of comfort. The one is not so necessary as the other, and the Spirit may cease to comfort that He may sanctify.

2. Look to the thing end not to the measure or degree (T. Manton, D. D.)

Experimental knowledge of Christ

1. A man may have a competent and very extensive acquaintance with the whole doctrine of the Christian religion, and yet if he has not an experimental knowledge of Christ it is all vain as to salvation.

2. In the previous verse the apostle deals with his gain in point of justification, here in point of sanctification.

I. What this experimental knowledge is. An inward and spiritual feeling of what we hear and believe, concerning Christ and His truths, whereby answerable impressions are made on our souls (Psaume 34:8; Jean 4:42).

1. The Scripture says of Christ that He is the way to the Father (Jean 14:6). Now the man who has tried many other ways and finds no access, at length comes by Christ and finds communion with God. This is experimental knowledge (Romains 5:1).

2. Christ’s blood purges the conscience, etc. (Hébreux 9:1). The experimental Christian knows that sin defiles the conscience and unfits him to serve God. At length he looks to God in Christ and throws his guilt into the sea of Christ’s blood; then the sting is taken from the conscience and the soul is enabled to serve God as a son with a father.

3. Christ is fully satisfying to the soul (Psaume 73:25; Habacuc 3:17). We all know this by report, the Christian knows it by experience. Sometimes in the midst of all his enjoyment he says, “These are not my portion,” and when deprived of these he can encourage himself in God (1 Samuel 30:6; 1 Samuel 1:18).

4. Christ helps His people to bear afflictions and keeps them from sinking under them. The Christian sometimes tries to bear his burden alone and finds it too heavy for him. Then he goes to Christ and lays it on the great burden-bearer and is helped (Psaume 28:7; Ésaïe 43:2; 2 Corinthiens 8:9).

5. Christ is made unto us wisdom (1 Corinthiens 1:20). When the Christian leans to his own understanding he mistakes his way at noonday, but when he gives himself up to be led by Christ as a blind man, he is conducted in a way he knew not, and blesses the Lord who has given him counsel.

6. Christ is made unto us sanctification (1 Corinthiens 1:30), Apart from Christ the Christian wrestles in vain and his graces lie dead; but when he renews the actings of faith in Christ, and flings down self-confidence, he becomes more than conqueror.

II. Confirmation of the point. Consider--

1. The Scripture testimonies concerning this.

(1) To learn religion in all the power and parts of it is to learn Christ (Éphésiens 4:20).

(2) There needs no more to be known, for this comprehends all (1 Corinthiens 2:2).

(3) It is the sum and substance of a believer’s life (Philippiens 1:21). Yea, eternal life itself (Jean 17:3).

2. All true religion is our likeness to God. This is impossible without Christ, for He is the only channel of those influences which makes us partakers of the Divine nature (2 Corinthiens 4:6).

3. Whatever religion a man seems to have that does not come and is maintained in this way, is but nature varnished over: for “he that honoureth not the Son,” etc.

III. The means. Faith closing with Christ.

1. Belief that Christ is such a one as He is held out in the gospel to be. It is the want of this that mars this knowledge (Ésaïe 53:1).

2. Closure with Christ, to the very end that the soul may so know Him.

3. Union with Christ, so making way for this knowledge which is the happy result of union.

IV. Improvement.

1. Religion is not a matter of mere speculation to satisfy curiosity, but a matter of practice. An unexperimental professor is like a foolish sick man who entertains those about him with fine discourses of the nature of medicines, but in the meantime is dying for the want of application of them.

2. The sweet of religion lies in the experience of it (Psaume 63:5; Psaume 19:11). Religion would not be the burden it is if we would by experience carry it beyond dry, sapless notions.

3. All the profit of religion lies in the experience of it (Matthieu 7:22). Painted fire will never burn, and the sight of water will never wash.

4. The experimental Christian is the only one whose religion will bring him to heaven, which is experimental religion perfected. (T. Boston, D. D.)

Do you know Him

I. Let us pass by that crowd of outer-court worshippers who are content to live without knowing Christ. I do not mean the ungodly and profane, these are altogether strangers and foreigners, but--

1. Those who are content to know Christ’s historic life. These know the life of Christ, but not Christ the life.

2. Those who know and prize Christ’s doctrine, but do not know him. Addison tells us that the reason why so many books are printed with the portraits of their authors is that the interested readers want to know what appearance the author had. This is very natural Why then do you rest satisfied with Christ’s words without desiring to know Him who is the “Word”?

3. Those who are delighted with Christ’s example. That is well as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. His example will be better understood as we know Himself.

4. Those who are perfectly at ease with knowing Christ’s sacrifice. This is a blessed attainment, but we should not forget that He was the sacrifice and is greater than it.

5. Those who look for His coming and forget His presence.

6. Those who are satisfied with hearing or reading about Christ: but Paul did not say, “I have heard of Him whom I believe,” but “I know.”

7. Those who are persuaded to their ruin that they know Him but do not.

II. Let us draw curtain after curtain, which shall admit us to know more of Christ.

1. We know a person when we recognize him: and to this extent we know the queen, because we have seen her, and so by a Divine illumination we must know Christ who He is and what He was.

2. By a practical acquaintance with what He does. They tell me Christ is a cleanser, I know Him because He has washed me in His blood; that He is a deliverer, I know Him because He has set me free; that He is a sovereign, I know Him because He has subdued my enemies; that He is food, my spirit feeds on Him.

3. We know a man in a better sense when we are on speaking terms with him. I know a man not only so as to recognize him, and because I have dealt with him, but because we are speaking acquaintances. So we know Christ if we pray to Him.

4. But we know a person better when he invites us to his house; we go and go again, and the oftener we go the better we know him. Do you visit Christ’s banquetting house, and has He permitted you to enjoy the sweets of being one of His family?

5. And yet after frequent visits you may not know a man in the highest sense: you say to his wife, “Your husband never seems to suffer from depression, or to change.” “Ah,” she says, “you do not know him as I do.” That man has grown much in grace who has come to recognize his marriage union with his Lord. Now we have the intimacy of love and delight.

6. But a Christian may get nearer than this. The most loving wife may not perfectly know her husband, yet a Christian may grow to be perfectly identified with Christ. Looking at all this might not Christ well say now, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me.”

III. Consider what sort of knowledge this is.

1. If I know Him I shall have a very vivid sense of His personality. He will not be to me a myth, a vision, a spirit, but a real person. Then there must be a personal knowledge on my part, not a hearsay, second-hand knowledge.

2. It must be intelligent. I must know His nature, offices, works, and glory.

3. Affectionate. It was said of Garibaldi that he charmed all who got into his society. Being near Christ His love warms our hearts.

4. Satisfying.

5. Exciting. The more we know the more we want to know.

6. Happy.

7. Refreshing.

8. Sanctifying.

IV. Seek, then, this knowledge.

1. It is worth having. Paul gave up everything for it.

2. There is nothing like this to fill you with courage. When Dr. Andrew Reed found some difficulty in founding one of his orphan asylums, he drew upon a piece of paper the cross, and then he said to himself, “What, despair in the face of the Cross;” and then he drew a ring round it and wrote, nil disperandum! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Uses of the knowledge of Christ

Paul’s acquaintance with Christ--

I. Reconciled him to the painful vicissitudes of outward circumstances (Philippiens 4:11).

II. Brought him help under the emergencies of special danger (2 Timothée 4:16).

III. Secured him support amidst the special inward trials of his personal life (2 Corinthiens 12:7). (Dean Vaughan.)

Characteristics of the knowledge of Christ

The apostle aimed to know Him as being in Him. Such knowledge is inspired by the consciousness--not elaborated by the intellect. It rises up from within; is not gathered from without. It does not accumulate evidence to test the truth--it “has the witness” in itself. It needs not to repair to the cistern and draw--it has in itself “a well of water springing,” etc. It knows, because it feels; it ascertains, not because it studies, but because it enjoys union, and possesses the righteousness of God through faith. She that touched the tassel of His robe had a knowledge of Christ deeper and truer by far than the crowds that thronged about Him: for “virtue” had come out of Him, and she felt it in herself. Only this kind of knowledge possesses “the excellency,” for it is connected with justification, as was intimated by Isaiah; and it is “eternal life,” as declared by Jesus (Ésaïe 53:11; Jean 17:3). The apostle could not set so high a value on mere external knowledge, or a mere acquaintance with the fact and dates of Christ’s career. For it is quite possible for a man to want the element of living experience, and yet be able to argue himself into the Messiahship of the Son of Mary; to gaze on His miracles and deduce from them a Divine commission without bowing to its authority; aye, and to linger by the Cross, and see in it a mysterious and complete expiation, without accepting the pardon and peace which the blood of the atonement secures. (Professor Eadie.)

The knowledge of Christ a personal knowledge

The knowledge about which the apostle speaks is a personal knowledge. It presupposes intellectual knowledge, but is something else. It is the knowledge of which we speak when we say of a man “I know him.” What do we mean when we say this? Do we not mean, I have seen him, observed him, conversed with him, interchanged thoughts with him, spent time with him, done things with him, have been admitted into his confidence, written to him, and heard from him? These things and such as these are what make up personal knowledge between man and man. We should never say, “I know such or such a great man of history--I know Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon”--merely because we have read of them, and could give an account of their exploits. We should not say this even of the great men of our own time, its statesmen, generals, or philosophers--no, not even if we had seen them in public, or heard them speak, or read their writings--unless also we had been admitted to their society, and had exchanged with them the confidences which a man gives his friend. Even thus is it with the knowledge of Christ. We have no right to say, “I know Christ,” merely because we have read of Him in Scripture, or because He has taught in our streets. We have no right to say so unless He has spoken to us, and we to Him. Unless we have access to His privacy, and can tell Him our secrets. Unless we can go in and out where He dwells, and talk with Him as a man talketh with his friend. Unless we have not only read in Scripture that He is wise and merciful, etc., but have also acted on that information, and found Him so for ourselves. Unless in temptation we have cried unto Him, and received strength; unless in trouble we have applied to Him and experienced a very present help. (Dean Vaughan.)

The natural desire of a Christian for the knowledge of his Saviour

Suppose yourself a man condemned to the lions in the Roman amphitheatre. A ponderous door is drawn up, and forth there rushes the monarch of the forest. You must slay him or be torn to pieces. You tremble; your joints are loosed; you are paralyzed with fear. But what is this? A great unknown leaps from the gazing multitude and confronts the monster. He quails not at the roaring of the devourer, but dashes on him till the lion slinks towards his den, dragging himself along in pain and fear. The hero lifts you up, smiles into your bloodless face, whispers comfort in your ear, and bids you be of good courage, for you are free. Do you not think that there would arise at once in your heart a desire to know your deliverer? As the guards conducted you into the open street, and you breathed the cool, fresh air, would not the first question, be, “Who was my deliverer, that I may fall at his feet and bless him?” You are not, however, informed, but instead of it you are led away to a noble mansion, where your wounds are healed with salve of rarest power. You are clothed in sumptuous apparel; you are made to sit down at a feast; you rest upon the softest down. The next morning you are attended by servants who guard you from evil and minister to your good. Day after day, week after week, your wants are supplied. I am sure that your curiosity would grow more and more intense. You would scarcely neglect an opportunity of asking the servants, “Tell me, who is my noble benefactor, for I must know him?” “Well, but” they would say, “is it not enough for you that you are delivered from the lion?” “Nay,” say you, “it is for that very reason that I pant to know him.” “Your wants are richly supplied--why are you vexed by curiosity as to the hand which reaches you the boon? If your garment is worn out, there is another. Long before hunger oppresses you, the table is well loaded. What more do you want?” But your reply is, “It is because I have no wants, that, therefore, my soul longs to know my generous friend.” Suppose that as you wake up one morning, you find lying upon your pillow a precious love token from your unknown friend, and engraved with a tender inscription. Your curiosity now knows no bounds. But you are informed that this wondrous being has not only done for you what you have seen, but that he was imprisoned and scourged for your sake, for he had a love to you so great, that death itself could not overcome it, you are informed that he is every moment occupied in your interests, because he has sworn by himself that where he is there you shall be; his honours you shall share, and of his happiness you shall be the crown. Why, methinks you would say, “Tell me, men and women, any of you who know him, who and what he is;” and if they said, “But it is enough for you to know that he loves you, and to have daily proofs of his goodness,” you would say, “No, these love tokens increase my thirst. If ye see him, tell him I am sick of love. The flagons which he sends me, and the love tokens which he gives me, they stay me for awhile with the assurance of his affection, but they only impel me onward with the more unconquerable desire that I may know him. I must know him; I cannot live without knowing him. His goodness makes me thirst, and pant, and faint, and even die, that I may know him.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The progressive knowledge of Christ

Did you ever visit the manufactory of splendid porcelain at Sevres? I have done so. If anybody should say to me, “Do you know the manufactory at Sevres?” I should say, “Yes, I do, and no, I do not. I know it, for I have seen the building; I have seen the rooms in which the articles are exhibited for sale, and I have seen the museum and model room; but I do not know the factory as I would like to know it, for I have not seen the process of manufacture, and have not been admitted into the workshops, as some are.” Suppose I had seen, however, the process of the moulding of the clay, and the laying on of the rich designs, if anybody should still say to me, “Do you know how they manufacture those wonderful articles?” I should very likely still be compelled to say, “No, I do not, because there are certain secrets, certain private rooms into which neither friend nor foe can be admitted, lest the process should be open to the world.” So, you see, I might say I knew, and yet might not half know; and when I half knew, still there would be so much left, that I might be compelled to say, “I do not know.” How many different ways there are of knowing a person--and even so there are all these different ways of knowing Christ; so that you may keep on all your lifetime, still wishing to get into another room, and another room, nearer and nearer to the great secret, still panting to “know Him.” Good Rutherford says, “I urge upon you a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing communion. There are curtains to be drawn by, in Christ, that we never shut, and new foldings in love with Him. I despair that ever I shall win to the far end of that love; there are so many plies in it. Therefore, dig deep, and set by as much time in the day for Him as you can, He will be won by labour.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

And the power of His resurrection.

The power of Christ’s resurrection

There are those who think it indicative of an unspiritual state of mind to lay stress on the physical resurrection of Christ. They tell us that the all-important matter is His resurrection in the hearts of His disciples. But Paul regarded it as a fact of transcendent importance. He and the other apostles regarded it as a power.

I. For inspiring faith in Christ as the son of God.

II. For our justification (Romains 4:25). The resurrection was a pledge that God had accepted the sacrifice.

III. For inspiring within us the hope of glory. Death is to the eye of sense a mystery, and the materialistic doctrine darkens what faint hope of immortality may be within us. But Christ’s resurrection “brought life and immortality to light.” He conquered death, and to believe that He is “the first fruits of them that slept,” is to receive power to break the tyranny of death (verse 21).

IV. To sanctify our nature. This is perhaps Paul’s leading idea. To identify ourselves with a risen Redeemer must exert a purifying effect on our souls (Colossiens 3:1). (T. C. Finlayson)

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The power of Christ’s resurrection

I. As seen in Christ himself (Éphésiens 1:17).

1. In it Christ as man was invested with all the power and glory of the Godhead. “All power is given unto Me.”

2. When He returns it will be in the fulness of the resurrection glory.

II. In the justification of the believer.

1. Resurrection implies death, and to know Christ in His resurrection is to know that we died in His death as our surety (Romains 6:7)

2. As judicially one with Christ in His death, the believer is one with Him in His resurrection.

III. In the life of the believer.

1. We who were dead in trespasses and sins are quickened by it into life.

2. This life is sustained by a constant supply from the fountain head.

3. By this power we rise above the world and sit in heavenly places with Christ.

IV. Is the believer’s service.

1. Observe its acting in the earliest possessors of it.

2. Employ it in testifying to its power.

V. In the believer’s resurrection.

1. Christ’s resurrection is the pledge of ours.

2. Ensures the triumph and glorification of the Church. (C. Graham.)

The power of Christ’s resurrection

I. In relation to sin.

1. The death of Christ, had the redemptive effort ended there, had sealed man’s doom forever; the resurrection made it vital, the spring of purifying and renewing for the world. From the ground the blood of Christ, like that of Abel, cries out against humanity. It is from heaven that Jesus preaches peace through His blood, and makes it a power to save.

2. The resurrection brought to man precisely the power he needed for victorious resistance to that by which his higher life was in process of being destroyed. The risen form threw glorious light on the flesh, as completing the incarnation. The body was redeemed by it from degradation, and consecrated as the Spirit’s organ and shrine forever.

3. When Christ had risen, men saw that the vileness, the curse, the stain, was the work of an alien and intrusive force which might be expelled, and in the might of that belief men for the first time rose in victory over those passions which had defiled the body.

II. In relation to sorrow.

1. The mountains of the world are great or as nothing according as we view them from a valley or from a star, so all the storms and crosses of life dwindle looked at from the height of “Jesus and the resurrection.”

2. The resurrection maintains the continuity of the life of the man of sorrows and the reigning king. So we need not shrink from our sorrows if we but bear in mind the glory that shall follow.

3. Nay, the men who first realized the power of the resurrection, “gloried in tribulations.” It made them one with Christ, which guaranteed the ultimate victory.

III. In relation to death.

1. We have little power of realizing the anguish with which the men of old peered into the unseen. This was the world of light, of life--that of shadows and ghosts. To the children of the resurrection it is exactly the reverse. The sorrow and gloom is of time, the light and joy are everlasting.

2. The resurrection wedded the two worlds. Who now dreads to live or to die? Because “living or dying we are the Lord’s.” (Baldwin Brown, B. A.)

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The power of Christ’s resurrection

I. As a fact. That is our faith. Your philosophers who do not believe in miracle do not believe it possible, because they do not allow that God can interfere with, and is above the system He arranged. But we believe that God who made the world administers His own laws and interposes if He thinks fit. The power of the resurrection, proving the truth of Christianity as a whole, proves its exclusiveness as a system of Divine thought which is to constitute the religion of man.

II. As a doctrine. The fact enshrines a thought. Simply considered as a fact, having power over the reason, as a part of the evidence of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus is the same as that of Lazarus. But as a doctrine it is very different. “Jesus died,” according to the Scriptures, and according to the Scriptures “He rose again.” It is the fulfilment of a Divine purpose; and its power is an appeal to our spiritual nature, our conscience, and sense of guilt.

III. As a type. As Christ died and rose, we are to die to sin and live to God, “as those who are alive from the dead.”

IV. As a motive. Observe how these thoughts interweave. The resurrection as a fact operates upon the intellect and gives assurance of truth; as a doctrine it deepens the truth and touches consciences and expresses reconciliation with God; as a type, we rising from the dead and walking with Christ--that is the developed experience of the Christian man in the life of God. Christ was not glorified immediately. He lived for forty days a different life from His former one. So must we under the power of the resurrection. Christ is risen, therefore “Seek those things that are above.”

V. As a model (verse 21). Conclusion: These transcendental thoughts, so far from unfitting us for the sober duties of life, ennoble and beautify life. A servant girl may act on a principle which may bring her into harmony with the angels. You need not wait for Sunday to engage in Divine service. You have but to realize in the shop or the market the power of the resurrection. (T. Binney, D. D.)

The power of Christ’s resurrection

1. We need more and more to look at the facts of the Christian dispensation; the doctrines we are required to believe have their foundations in these facts. Our tendency is to treat Christian doctrines as if they were speculations.

2. The resurrection is an accomplished fact. It is sometimes attributed to Christ alone; sometimes to the Father; sometimes to the Spirit; so that it is brought before us as a blessed manifestation of the power of the redeeming God.

3. The power of the resurrection may signify--

(1) The power which effected it;

(2) the power of the fact itself, or--

(3) the power with which Christ was endowed at it, and these words may include all.

4. To know the power, etc., is--

(1) To recognize it as a reality.

(2) To comprehend and appreciate it in its relation with man’s redemption.

(3) To feel its force upon the life. The resurrection of Christ is--

I. An example of the almighty life-giving power of God. To know its power is to be conscious of the working of the same upon ourselves, quickening, renewing, enlightening, invigorating.

II. A confirmation forever of the claims of Jesus of Nazareth. To know its power is to feel assured that the son of Mary is the Son of God. This is essential to our taking full advantage of His riches and resources.

III. The sign and seal of the truth of the gospel. To know its power is to see that truth sealed not by His blood simply, but by His hand in the newness of His glorified life. Why is it we do not declare that truth more constantly and zealously? Because of our unbelief. Those who cordially believe it are constantly repeating it.

IV. Adapted to strengthen our trust in him. To know its power is to feel our confidence strengthened in sorrow and death.

V. Calculated to awake within us the most glorious hopes. To know its power is to become the subjects by its influence of new and enlarged expectations, desires, aspirations and affections.

VI. Fitted to raise us into newness of life. To feel its power is to rise with Him and set our affections on things above. VII. Able to give courage in approaching suffering. To know its power is to feel strengthened to endure all the will of God. VIII. Suited to raise the believer above the fear of death. To know its power is to feel that it is a pledge of immortality. (S. Martin.)

The power of the resurrection

I. As the assurance of immorality (Romains 8:11; 1 Corinthiens 15:14, etc.).

II. As the triumph over six and the pledge of justification (Romains 4:24).

III. As asserting the dignity and enforcing the claims of the human body (1 Corinthiens 6:13; Philippiens 3:21).

IV. Thus stimulating the whole moral and spiritual being (Romains 6:4, etc.; Galates 2:20; Éphésiens 2:5; Colossiens 2:12). (Bishop Lightfoot.)

I. What is intended by the power of Christ’s resurrection. The influence which that great event has upon the other parts of His mediatorial character and offices, connected with the safety and happiness of His people. This may be traced--

1. In the open and uncontroverted declaration of His Divine Sonship (Romains 1:4; Psaume 2:1; cf. Actes 13:32; Hébreux 1:3).

2. In its influence upon our justification (Romains 4:25).

3. In its lainly resolves it by the testimony, of his experience. It however requires great resolution and diligence in conquering our desires; hence it is an art which few study.

I. In regard to God, we may consider that equity exacts, gratitude requires, and reason dictates that we should be content; or that, in being discontented, we behave ourselves unbeseemingly and unworthily, are very unjust, ungrateful, and foolish towards Him.

1. The point of equity considered, according to the gospel rule, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?”

2. That of gratitude; inasmuch as we have no right or title to anything; all we have coming from God’s pure bounty and designed for our good.

3. That of reason; because it is most reasonable to acquiesce in God’s choice of our estate, He being infinitely more wise than we are; loves us better than we love ourselves; and has a right to dispose of us as He pleases.

II. In regard to ourselves we may observe much reason for contentment.

1. As men and creatures, we are naturally indigent and impotent; have no just claim to anything, nor can maintain anything by our own power. Wherefore how little soever is allowed us no wrong is done and no reason to complain.

2. And on a moral account we have still less.

(1) As sinners we are obnoxious to wrath and should therefore complain of nothing.

(2) We are God’s servants and shall a mere servant, or slave, presume to choose his place, or determine his rank in the family? Is it not fit that these things should be left to the Master’s discretion and pleasure?

(3) Again, if we consider ourselves as the children of God by birth and nature, or by adoption and grace, how can we be discontented with anything?

III. If we consider our condition, be it what it may, we can have no reasonable ground for discontent.

1. Our state cannot if rightly considered and well managed be insupportable. The defect of some things is supplied by other enjoyments. If we think highly of some things no wonder our condition is unpleasant if we want them; and if we consider others mighty evils, if they come upon us we can hardly escape being displeased; but if we estimate all things according to the dictates of true reason, we shall find that neither the absence of the one nor the presence of the other is deplorable.

(1) Take poverty; that is, the absence of a few superfluous things which please our fancy rather than answer our need, and without which nature is easily satisfied.

(2) Take his case who has fallen from honour into contempt; that may be only a change in the opinion of giddy men, the breaking of a bubble, the changing of the wind.

(3) Take him who is slandered; is not every man subject to this? and the greatest and wisest most exposed to it? Or is thy reproach just? Then improve this dealing and make it wholesome.

(4) Take him who is disappointed and crossed in his undertakings. Why art thou disquieted on this score? Didst thou build much expectation on uncertainties? Didst thou not foresee a possibility that thy design might miscarry? and if so, why art thou not prepared to receive what happeneth?

(5) Take one who has met with unkindness and ingratitude from friends. Such misbehaviour, however, is more their calamity than ours. The loss of bad friends is no damage, but an advantage.

(6) Take him who mourns the death of friends. Can he, after all, lose his best friend? Neither is it loss which he laments but only separation for a short time. He is only gone as taking a little journey. But--

(7) It may perhaps displease us, that the course of this world does not go right, or according to our mind; that justice is not well dispensed, virtue not duly considered, industry not sufficiently rewarded; but favour, partiality, flattery, craft, and corruption, carry all before them. Yet why should this displease thee? Art thou guilty of contributing to it? then mend it thyself: if not, then bear it; for so it always hath been, and ever will be. Yet God is engaged competently to provide for us. God observeth this course of things, yet He permits it. But He has appointed a judgment hereafter.

2. As there is no condition here perfectly and purely good, so there is none so thoroughly bad, that it has not somewhat convenient and comfortable therein. Seldom or never all good things forsake a man at once, and in every state there is some compensation for evil. We should not pore over small inconveniences and overlook benefits. This hinders us reaping satisfaction in all other things.

3. Is our condition so extremely bad that it might not be worse? Surely not. God’s providence will not suffer it. There are succours always ready against extremities--our own wit and industry; the pity and help of others. When all is gone we may keep the inestimable blessing of a good conscience, have hope in God, enjoy His favour. Why, then, are we discontented.

4. Then look at the uses of adversity--the school of wisdom, the purifying furnace of the soul, God’s method of reclaiming sinners, the preparation for heaven. Who ever became great or wise or good without adversity.

5. Whatever our state it cannot be lasting. Hope lies at the bottom of the worst state that can be. “Take no thought for the morrow.” Mark the promises that none who hope in God shall be disappointed. And then death will end it all and heaven compensate for all earthly ills.

IV. Consider the world and the general state of men here.

1. Look on the world as generally managed by men. Art thou displeased that thou dost not prosper therein? If thou art wise thou wilt not grieve, for perhaps thou hast no capacity nor disposition. This world is for worldlings.

2. We are indeed very apt to look upward towards those few, who, in supposed advantages of life, seem to surpass us, and to repine at their fortune; but seldom do we cast down our eyes on those innumerable good people, who lie beneath us in all manner of accommodations; whereas if we would consider the case of most men, we should see abundant reason to be satisfied with our own.

3. If even we would take care diligently to compare our state with that of persons whom we are most apt to admire and envy, it would often afford matter of consolation and contentment to us.

4. It may induce us to be content, if we consider what commonly hath been the lot of good men in the world. Scarcely is there recorded in holy Scripture any person eminent for goodness, who did not taste deeply of wants and distresses--even our Lord. Have all these then, “of whom the world was not worthy,” undergone all sorts of inconvenience, being “destitute, afflicted, tormented;” and shall we disdain, or be sorry to be in such company?

V. Consider the nature of the duty itself.

1. It is the sovereign remedy for all poverty and suffering; removing them or allaying the mischief they can do us.

2. Its happiness is better than any arising from secular prosperity. Satisfaction springing from rational content, virtuous disposition, is more noble, solid, and durable than any fruition of worldly goods can afford.

3. Contentment is the best way of bettering our condition, disposing us to employ advantages as they occur, and securing God’s blessing (Isaac Barrow, D. D.)

The best lesson

(Children’s sermon)

:--The world is a school, and we have to learn our lessons in it. The best lesson we can learn is contentment.

I. Why it is the best lesson.

1. Because it makes those who learn it happy. Nothing in the world can make a discontented person happy. There was a boy once who only wanted a marble; when he had the marble, he only wanted a ball; when he had a ball, he only wanted a top; when he had a top, he only wanted a kite: and when he had marble, ball, top, and kite, he was not happy. There was a man once who only wanted money; when he had money, he only wanted a house; when he had a house, he only wanted land; when he had land, he only wanted a coach; but when he had money, house, land, and coach, he wanted more than ever. I remember, when I was a boy, reading a fable about a mouse that went to a spring with a sieve to carry some water in it. He dipped the sieve in the water, but, of course, as soon as he raised it up the water all ran through. He tried it over and over again, but still no water would stay in the sieve. The poor mouse hadn’t sense enough to know where the trouble was. He never thought about the holes in the sieve. The fable said that while the mouse was still trying, in vain, to get some water in the sieve to carry home, there came a little bird and perched on a branch of the tree that grew near the spring. He saw the trouble the poor mouse was in, and kindly sung out a little advice to him in these simple words:

“Stop it with moss, and daub it with clay, and then you may carry it all away.”
Trying to make a discontented person happy is like trying to fill a sieve with water. However much you pour into it, it all runs out just as fast as you pour it in. If you want to fill the sieve, you must stop the holes up. Then it will be easy enough to fill it. Just so it is with trying to make discontented people happy. It is impossible to make them happy while they are discontented. You must stop up the holes; you must take away their discontent, and then it is very easy to make them happy. If we were in Paradise, as Adam and Eve were, we should not be happy unless we learned to be content. Nay, if we were in heaven even, as Satan and the fallen angels once were, we should be unhappy without contentment. It was because Paul had learned this lesson that he could be happy, and sing for joy, when he was in a dungeon, and his back was all bleeding from the cruel stripes laid upon it.

2. Because it makes those who learn it useful. When people or things are content to do or be what God made them for, they are useful: when they are not content with this, they do harm. God made the sun to shine; the sun is content to do just what God made it for, and so it is very useful. God made the little brooks to flow through the meadows, giving drink to the cattle, and watering the grass and the roots of the trees, so as to make them green, and help them to grow. While they do this they are very useful. But suppose they should stop flowing, and spread themselves over the fields, they would do a great deal of harm. God made our hearts to keep beating, and sending the blood all over our bodies. While they are content to do this, they are very useful Let them only stop beating, and we should die.

II. Why we should learn it.

1. Because God puts us where we are. God puts all things in the places where they are. The sun and moon and stars in the sky, the birds in the air, the fish in the sea, the trees in the woods, the grass in the fields, the stones and metals in the earth. He knows best where to put things. When people try to change what God has done, because they think they can arrange things better, they always make a mistake.

2. Because God wants us to learn it. This we know

(1) from what He has said (1 Timothée 6:8; Hébreux 13:5).

(2) From what He has done. He has filled the world with examples of contentment. All things that God has made are content to be where He has put them, except the children of Adam. God has done more for us than for any other of His creatures. We ought to be the most contented of all, and yet we are generally the most discontented. The fish are content with the water; the birds are content with the air. The eagle, as he soars to the sun, is content with his position; and so is the worm that crawls in its slime, or the blind mole that digs its way in darkness through the earth. All the trees of the forest are content to grow where God put them. The lily of the valley is content with its lowly place, and so is the little flower that blooms unnoticed on the side of the bleak mountain. Wherever you look you may see examples of contentment. Only think of the grass. It is spread all over the earth. It is mowed down continually; it is trodden on and trampled under foot all the time; and yet it always has a bright, cheerful, contented look. It is a beautiful image of contentment.

3. Because Jesus learned and practised it. It must have been very hard for Jesus to be content with the way in which He lived in this world, because it was so totally different from what He had been accustomed to before He came into it. A bird that has been hatched and brought up in a cage may be contented with its position, and live happily in its little wire prison. The reason is that it has never known anything better. But take a bird that has been accustomed to its liberty in the open air, and shut it up in a small cage. It cannot be contented there. It will strike its wings against the cage, and stretch its neck through the wires, and show in this way how it longs for the free air of heaven again. Just so a person who was born and brought up in a garret or cellar, and who has never known anything better, may manage to be content there. But one who has lived in a beautiful palace for many years would find it very hard to live in a damp, dark cellar, among thieves and beggars. But Jesus lived in heaven before He came here. There He had everything that He wanted. (R. Newton, D. D.)

The condition of contentment

To be contented is to be contained, to be within limits. Whatever is within limits is likely to be quiet. A walled garden is one of the quietest places in the world; its high walls are a sign of contentment; within them are so many attractions and objects of delight; the world is shut out, and through the great gates one can look out upon it with all the affectionateness of distance and all the enchantment borrowed therefrom. An enclosed garden is a calm, quiet place, place in which to be content. So, the soul of man, being as it were in an enclosed garden, man’s spirit being within limits, is thus shut into a calm, quiet, sunny content. Now there are limits which a man need not trouble himself much about making; the walls of circumstances will build themselves about you. But if you are a very wise man you will give up scraping when you have got enough, and put yourself within limits. Just as an enclosed garden becomes a place of peace and delight, so the spirit should have limits round it and let those limits become grounds of quietness, reasons of peace and content, a content which leads a man to be easy, within these walls to be so satisfied as not to pine, fret, complain, fuss, kick, or go to the gates and scream for deliverance, asking passers by, “Did you ever see such a woe as mine.” The contented man limited and bound by circumstances, makes those very limits the cure of his restlessness. The warrior and conqueror is not content, but seeks to add kingdom to kingdom. The miser is not content with much, but seeks to make more money. It is not whether your garden is one rood or three acres, but what you should remember is that there is a wall, that so living within bounds, be they large or small, you may possess a quiet spirit and a happy heart. Things would then serve you, instead of your being the miserable servant of circumstances. You would then make life bring tribute to its King, instead of doing as people do, hire themselves out as servants to their goods, as waiters upon their chattels; allowing things to ride over them instead of their being masterful over things. A man should be within bounds, but within those bounds there is room for pleasure and service. (G. Dawson, M. A.)

Contentment

is not one of the distinct and separate sensibilities of the heart, standing by itself and to be examined and understood alone, so much as it is a general sensibilility which mingles with and tempers all others--which spreads its cast and character over the whole. It is not the rock on the landscape nor the rill--it is not the distant mountain of fading blue which loses its head in the heavens--it is not the tree, or the flower, or the contrast between light and shade, or that indescribable something which seems to give it life, as if the grass grew, and the flowers breathed, and the winds were singing some song of pleasure or sighing some mournful requiem. It is none of these. These can be more clearly described. But it is rather that softness, that mellow light, which lies over the whole--which sleeps on rock, and river, and tree, on the bosom of the distant mountain, and on the bosom of the humble violet that blushes in the sweetness of its lowly valley. Content is a general cast of sensibility which lies all over the heart. (L. S. Spencer, D. D.)

Contentment the outcome of a right view of circumstances

“How dismal you look,” said a bucket to his companion as they were going to the well. “Ah!” replied the other, “I was reflecting on the uselessness of our being filled; for, let us go away ever so full, we always come back empty.” “Dear me! how strange to look at it in this way,” said the bucket. “Now I enjoy the thought, that however empty we come, we always go back full. Only look at it in that light, and you will be as cheerful as I am.”

St. Paul’s contentment

If his trials were clouds upon his heavens, his contentment was the deep sunlight in which they bathed; and, just like the clouds of an evening sky, they made the heavens more beautiful than if no clouds were there. (L. S. Spencer, D. D.)

Contentment does not always imply pleasure

I may be content; that is to say, I may have a calm patience in waiting over night at a miserable inn where have congregated smugglers, and drunken sailors, and the rift-raff of a bad neighbourhood. If, after fighting for my life in my little yacht, I had at last been driven up on shore, myself a wreck, and had crawled out of the water, and staggered to the light, and gone in there, would it not be proper for me to say: “I thank God for my deliverance and for my safety”? And yet every element is distasteful to me. The air reeks with bad liquor and worse oaths; and the company are obscene, and vile, and violent; the conditions are detestable; but that have escaped from the sea can say: “I am content to be here. Not that I am pleased at being there particularly; but as compared with something else it is tolerable. I have learned how to bear this.” How did I learn it? I learned it by being swirled around for an hour in the whirlpools of the sea. I learned it by being thumped and pounded by the waves. I learned it by being chilled to the very marrow. So I learned to be patient with the surroundings in the midst of which I found myself. But it does not follow that a man is obliged to say: “I like these circumstances,” in order to be content with them. (H. W. Beecher.)

Contentment looks at what is left

Am I fallen into the hands of publicans and sequestrators who have taken all from me? What now? Let me look about me. They have left me the sun and moon, fire and water, a loving wife, and many friends So pity me, and some to relieve me, and I can still discourse: and unless I list, they have not taken away my merry countenance, and a cheerful spirit, and a good conscience; they have still left me the providence of God, and all the promises of the gospel, and my religion, and the hopes of heaven, and my charter to them too; and still I sleep and digest, I eat and drink, I read and meditate, I can walk in my neighbours’ pleasant fields and see the varieties of natural beauties, and delight in all which God delights--that is, in virtue and wisdom; in the whole creation, and in God Himself. And he who hath so many causes of joy, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness who loses all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down on his little handful of thorns. (Jeremy Taylor.)

Contentment not found in an exchange of places

In a room, there was a gold fish, in a glass globe, in water; and there was a canary up in a cage by the window. It was a very hot day; and the fish in the globe, and the canary in the cage began talking (of course you know in fables anything can talk). The fish said, “I wish I could sing like that canary. I should like to be up there in that cage.” And the canary, who was uncommonly hot, said, “Oh, how nice to be down in that cool water where the fish is!” Suddenly a voice said, “Canary, go down to the water! Fish go up into the cage!” Immediately they both exchanged places. Weren’t they happy? Wasn’t the fish happy up in the cage? Wasn’t thee canary happy down in the cool water? How long did their happiness last, do you think? Ah! God had given to the canary and the fish “according to their ability.” He had given each a place suited to their natures. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Bad might be worse

For every bad there might be a worse; and when a man breaks his leg, let him be thankful it was not his neck. (Bishop Hall.)

Contentment not inconsistent with discontent

No doctrine of contentment must be so taught as to lessen a man’s labours in the removal of his miseries and the improvement of his state. Contentment is of the spirit, and should be no discouragement to labour. If I have only one coat to my back, am I to sit down and say, “I am perfectly content”? No. I must be content with one whilst I have but one, but my contentment must not hinder me from trying to see my way to get two. Cinderella, while among the ashes, was content in spirit, though she strove to get out of the nastiness of the ashes. But I see people sometimes who are so friendly with their miserable circumstances that they never want to mend them--men at home with dirt and women with slovenliness, until they come to like it. It is true that if you have got to live with an ugly person you must try to settle down; but not with dirt, disease, ignorance, poverty. Under no plea of content should a man refuse the lawful means of enlargement and betterment. If you took possession of a new garden and allowed it to remain always full of weeds, and then if you took me round and said, “I have been here so many years; my garden is always full of weeds, but I am perfectly content”--my duty then would be to worry you, and try to make you discontented. A man who is content in the midst of a weedy garden is ingloriously content; he lets his circumstances degrade him. No wise contentment bears for one moment longer than is necessary a removable misery. It is our duty rather to unite with the utmost care for the healing of the wound, the patientest bearing of the suffering from the wound. He who, having a wound, did not seek to cure it, would degrade himself; but he who, while patiently bearing the necessary wound, seeks to cure it, is a contented man. (G. Dawson, M. A.)

Content not found in circumstances

I knew a man that had both health and riches, and several houses all beautiful and ready finished; and would often trouble himself and family to be removing from one house to another; and being asked by a friend why, replied: “It was to find content in some one of them.” But his friend, knowing his temper, told him if he would find content in any of his houses he must leave himself behind him; for content will never dwell but in a meek and quiet soul. And this may appear from the beatitude--“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth;” not that the meek shall not also obtain mercy, and see God, and be comforted, and at last obtain the kingdom of heaven; but in the meantime he, and he only, possesses the earth, as he travels towards that kingdom, by being humble and cheerful and content with what his good God has allotted him. (Izaak Walton.)

The art of divine contentment

I. I begin with the first: the scholar and his proficiency--“I have learned.” Out of which I shall, by the by, observe two things by way of paraphrase.

1. The apostle doth not say, “I have heard that in every estate I should be content,” but “I have learned.” It is one thing to hear and another thing to learn, as it is one thing to eat and another thing to concoct. St. Paul was a practitioner. Christians hear much, but, it is to be feared, learn little. There are two things which keep us from learning.

1. Slighting what we hear. Who will learn that which he thinks is scarce worth learning?

2. Forgetting what we hear.

II. This word, “I have learned,” is a word imports difficulty; it shows how hardly the apostle came by contentment of mind; it was not bred in nature. The business of religion is not so facile as most do imagine. There are two pregnant reasons why there must be so much study and exercitation.

1. Because spiritual things are against nature.

2. Because spiritual things are above nature.

III. I come to the main thing, the lesson itself--“In whatsover state I am, therewith to be content.”

1. It is a hard lesson. The angels in heaven have not learned it; they were not contented. They kept not their estate because they were not contented with their estate. Our first parents, clothed with the white robe of innocency in paradise, had not learned to be content; they had aspiring hearts. O then, if this lesson was so hard to learn in innocency, how hard shall we find it who are clogged with corruption?

2. It is of universal extent; it concerns all.

(1) It concerns rich men. Rich men have their discontents as well as others!

(2) The doctrine of contentment concerns poor men.

It is much when poverty hath clipped our wings then to be content, but, though hard, it is excellent; and the apostle here had “learned in every state to be content.” A contented spirit is like a watch: though you carry it up and down with you, yet the spring of it is not shaken nor the wheels out of order, but the watch keeps its perfect motion. So it was with St. Paul. Though God carried him into various conditions, yet he was not lift up with the one, nor cast down with the other; the spring of his heart was not broken, the wheels of his affections were not disordered, but kept their constant motion towards heaven; still content. The ship that lies at anchor may sometimes be a little shaken, but never sinks; flesh and blood may have its fears and disquiets, but grace doth check them; a Christian, having cast anchor in heaven, his heart never sinks; a gracious spirit is a contented spirit.

IV. The resolving of some questions. For the illustration of this doctrine I shall propound these questions.

1. Whether a Christian may not be sensible of his condition, and yet be contented? Yes; for else he is not a saint, but a stoic.

2. Whether a Christian may not lay open his grievances to God, and yet be contented?

3. What is it properly that contentment doth exclude? There are three things which contentment doth banish out of its diocese, and which can by no means consist with it.

(1) It excludes a vexatious repining; this is properly the daughter of discontent. Murmuring is nothing else but the scum which boils off from a discontented heart.

(2) It excludes an uneven discomposure: when a man saith, “I am in such straits that I know not how to evolve or get out, I shall be undone;” when his head and heart are so taken up that he is not fit to pray or meditate.

(3) It excludes a childish despondency; and this is usually consequent upon the other. A despondent spirit is a discontented spirit.

V. Showing the nature of contentment. The nature of this will appear more clear in these three aphorisms.

1. Contentment is a divine thing; it becomes ours, not by acquisition, but infusion; it is a slip taken off from the tree of life, and planted by the Spirit of God in the soul; it is a fruit that grows not in the garden of philosophy, but is of a heavenly birth; it is therefore very observable that contentment is joined with godliness, and goes in equipage; “godliness with contentment is great gain.”

2. Contentment is an intrinsical thing; it lies within a man; not in the bark, but the root. Contentment hath both its fountain and stream in the soul. The beam hath not its light from the air; the beams of comfort which a contented man hath do not arise from foreign comforts, but from within.

3. Contentment is a habitual thing; it shines with a fixed light in the firmament of the soul. Contentment doth not appear only now and then, as some stars which are seen but seldom; it is a settled temper of the heart. It is not casual, but constant. Aristotle, in his rhetoric, distinguisheth between colours in the face that arise from passion and those which arise from complexion; the pale face may look pale when it blusheth, but this is only a passion. He is said properly to be ruddy and sanguine who is constantly so; it is his complexion. He is not a contented man who is so upon an occasion, and perhaps when he is pleased, but who is so constantly; it is the habit and complexion of his soul.

VI. Reasons pressing to holy contentment.

1. The first is God’s precept. It is charged upon us as a duty: “Be content with such things as you have.”

2. The second reason enforcing contentment is God’s promise, for He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Here God hath engaged Himself under hand and seal for our necessary provisions. True faith will take God’s single bond without calling for witnesses.

3. Be content by virtue of a decree. Not chance or fortune, as the purblind heathens imagined; no, it is the wise God that hath by His providence fixed me in this orb. We stand oft in our own light; if we should sort or parcel out our own comforts, we should hit upon the wrong. Is it not well for the child that the parent doth choose for it? were it left to itself, it would perhaps choose a knife to cut its own finger. A man in a paroxysm calls for wine, which, if he had it, were little better than poison; it is well for the patient that he is at the physician’s appointment. God sees, in His infinite wisdom, the same condition is not convenient for all; that which is good for one may be bad for another; one season of weather will not serve all men’s occasions--one needs sunshine, another rain; one condition of life will not fit every man no more than one suit of apparel will fit everybody; prosperity is not fit for all, nor yet adversity.

VII. Showing how a Christian may make his life comfortable. It shows how a Christian may come to lead a comfortable life, even a heaven upon earth, be the times what they will, by Christian contentment. A drop or two of vinegar will sour a whole glass of wine. Let a man have the affluence and confluence of worldly comforts, a drop or two of discontent will imbitter and poison all contentation is as necessary to keep the life comfortable as oil is necessary to keep the lamp burning; the clouds of discontent do often drop the showers of tears. Why dost thou complain of thy troubles. It is not trouble that troubles, but discontent; it is not the water without the ship, but the water that gets within the leak, which drowns it; it is not outward affliction that can make the life of a Christian sad; a contented mind would sail above these waters, but when there’s a leak of discontent open, and trouble gets into the heart, then it is disquieted and sinks. Do therefore as the mariners, pump the water out and stop the spiritual leak in thy soul, and no trouble can hurt thee.

VIII. A check to the discontented Christian. Every man is complaining that his estate is no better, though he seldom complains that his heart is no better. How is it that no man is contented? Very few Christians have learned St. Paul’s lesson. Neither poor nor rich know how to be content; they can learn anything but this.

1. If men are poor, they learn to be envious; they malign those that are above them. Another’s prosperity is an eyesore.

2. If men are rich, they learn to be covetous. God will supply our wants, but must He satisfy our lusts too? Many are discontented for a very trifle; another hath a better dress, a richer jewel, a newer fashion. Nero, not content with his empire, was troubled that the musician had more skill in playing than he.

IX. A suasive to contentment. It exhorts us to labour far contentation; this is that which doth beautify and bespangle a Christian, and as a spiritual embroidery doth set him off in the eyes of the world. God is pleased sometimes to bring His children very low and cut them short in their estate; it fares with them as with that widow who had nothing in her house “save a pot of oil”: but be content.

1. God hath taken away your estate, but not your portion. Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her.

2. Perhaps, if thy estate had not been lost, thy soul had been lost; outward comforts do often quench inward heat. God can bestow a jewel upon us, but we fall so in love with it, that we forget Him that gave it. What pity is it that we should commit idolatry with the creature! Be content. If God dam up our outward comforts, it is that the stream of our love may run faster another way.

3. If your estate be small, yet God can bless a little. It is not how much money we have, but how much blessing.

4. You did never so thrive in your spiritual trade; your heart was never so low as since your condition was low; you were never so poor in spirit, never so rich in faith. You did never run the ways of God’s commandments so fast as since some of your golden weights were taken off.

5. Be your losses what they will in this kind, remember in every loss there is only a suffering, but in every discontent there is a sin, and one sin is worse than a thousand sufferings. The sixth apology that discontent makes is disrespect in the world. I have not that esteem from men as is suitable to my quality and grace. And doth this trouble? Consider--The world is an unequal judge; as it is full of change, so of partiality. Discontent arising from disrespect savours too much of pride; an humble Christian hath a lower opinion of himself than others can have of him. The next apology is, I meet with very great sufferings for the truth. Your sufferings are not so great as your sins. Put these two in the balance and see which weighs heaviest; where sin lies heavy, sufferings lie light. The next apology is the prosperity of the wicked.

Well, be contented; for remember--

1. These are not the only things, nor the best things; they are mercies without the pale.

2. To see the wicked flourish is matter rather of pity than envy; it is all the heaven they must have. “Woe to ye that are rich, for ye have received your consolation.” The next apology that discontent makes is lowness of parts and gifts. I cannot (saith the Christian) discourse with that fluency, nor pray with that elegancy, as others. Grace is beyond gifts. Thou comparest thy grace with another’s gifts, there is a vast difference. Grace without gifts is infinitely better than gifts without grace. The twelfth apology that discontent makes for itself is this, It is not my trouble that troubles me, but it is my sins that do disquiet and discontent me. Be sure it be so. Do not prevaricate with God and thy own soul. In true mourning for sin when the present suffering is removed, yet the sorrow is not removed. But suppose the apology be real, that sin is the ground of your discontent; yet, I answer, a man’s disquiet about sin may be beyond its bounds in these three cases.

1. When it is disheartening, that is, when it sets up sin above mercy.

2. When sorrow is indisposing it untunes the heart for prayer, meditation, holy conference: it cloisters up the soul. This is not sorrow, but rather sullenness, and doth render a man not so much penitential as cynical.

3. When it is out of season. I see no reason why a Christian should be discontented, unless for his discontent.

X. Divine motives to contentment. The first argument to contentation.

1. Consider the excellency of it. Contentment is a flower that doth not grow in every garden; it teacheth a man how in the midst of want to abound. Now there are in species these seven rare excellencies in contentment.

(1) A contented Christian carries heaven about him, for what is heaven but that sweet repose and full contentment that the soul shall have in God? In contentment there is the first fruits of heaven. The sails of a mill move with the wind, but the mill itself stands still, an emblem of contentment; when our outward estate moves with the wind of providence, yet the heart is settled through holy contentment.

2. Whatever is defective in the creature is made up in contentment. Wicked men are often disquieted in the enjoyment of all things; the contented Christian is well in the want of all things. He is poor in purse, but rich in promise.

3. Contentment makes a man in tune to serve God; it oils the wheels of the soul and makes it more agile and nimble; it composeth the heart and makes it fit for prayer, meditation, etc. How can he that is in a passion of grief or discontent “attend upon the Lord without distraction?” Contentment doth prepare and tune the heart.

4. Contentment is the spiritual arch or pillar of the soul; it fits a man to bear burdens; he whose heart is ready to sink under the least sin, by virtue of this hath a spirit invincible under sufferings. The contented Christian is like Samson that carried away the gates of the city upon his back. He can go away with his cross cheerfully, and makes nothing of it.

5. Contentment prevents many sins and temptations. It prevents many sins. In particular there are two sins which contentation prevents.

(1) Impatience.

(2) It prevents murmuring.

Contentment prevents many temptations; discontent is a devil that is always tempting. It puts a man upon indirect means. He that is poor and discontented will attempt anything; he will go to the devil for riches. Satan takes great advantage of our discontent; he loves to fish in these troubled waters.

6. Contentment sweetens every condition. Hath God taken away my comforts from me? It is well, the Comforter still abides. Thus contentment, as a honeycomb, drops sweetness into every condition. Contentation is full of consolation.

7. Contentment hath this excellency. It is the best commentator upon providence; it makes a fair interpretation of all God’s dealings. The argument to contentation is, Consider the evil of discontent. Malcontent hath a mixture of grief and anger in it, and both these must needs raise a storm in the soul. Have you not seen the posture of a sick man? Sometimes he will sit up on his bed, by and by he will lie down, and when he is down he is not quiet; first he turns on the one side and then on the other; he is restless. This is just the emblem of a discontented spirit. Evil

1. The sordidness of it is worthy of a Christian.

(1) It is unworthy of his profession.

(2) It is unworthy of the relation we stand in to God. Evil

2. Consider the sinfulness of it, which appears in three things--the causes, the concomitants, the consequences of it.

(1) It is sinful in the causes, such as pride. The second cause of discontent is envy, which Augustine calls the sin of the devil. The third cause is covetousness. This is a radical sin. The fourth cause of discontent is jealousy, which is sometimes occasioned through melancholy and sometimes misapprehension. The fifth cause of discontent is distrust, which is a great degree of Atheism,

(2) Discontent is joined with a sullen melancholy. Cheerfulness credits religion. How can the discontented person be cheerful?

(3) It is sinful in its consequences, which are these.

(a) It makes a man very unlike the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is a meek Spirit.

(b) It makes a man like the devil; the devil, being swelled with the poison of envy and malice, is never content; just so is the malcontent.

(c) Discontent disjoints the soul; it untunes the heart for duty.

(d) Discontent sometimes unfits for the very use of reason. Jonah, in a passion of discontent, spake no better than blasphemy and nonsense: “I do well to be angry even unto death.” This humour doth even suspend the very acts of reason.

(e) Discontent does not only disquiet a man’s self, but those who are near him. This evil spirit troubles families, parishes, etc.

Evil 3. Consider the simplicity of it. I may say, as the Psalmist, “surely they are disquieted in vain,” which appears thus--

(1) Is it not a vain, simple thing to be troubled at the loss of that which is in its own nature perishing and changeable?

(2) Discontent is a heart breaking: “by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.” It takes away the comfort of life.

(3) Discontent does not ease us of our burden, but it makes the cross heavier. A contented spirit goes cheerfully under its affliction.

(4) Discontent spins out our troubles the longer. The argument to contentation is this, Why is not a man content with the competency which he hath? Perhaps if he had more he would be less content. The world is such that the more we have the more we crave; it cannot fill the heart of man. When the fire burns, how do you quench it? Not by putting oil on the flame, or laying on more wood, but by withdrawing the fuel. The argument to contentation is the shortness of life. It is “but a vapour.” The argument to contentation is, Consider seriously the nature of a prosperous condition. There are in a prosperous estate three things.

1. More trouble.

2. In a prosperous condition there is more danger.

3. A prosperous condition hath in it a greater reckoning; every man must be responsible for his talents.

The argument to contentation is the example of those who have been eminent for contentation. Examples are usually more forcible than precepts. Abraham being called out to hot service, and such as was against flesh and blood, was content. God bid him offer up his son Isaac. The argument to contentation is this, To have a competency and to want contentment is a great judgment.

XI. Three things inserted by way of caution. In the next place I come to lay down some necessary cautions. Though I say a man should be content in every estate, yet there are three estates in which he must not be contented.

1. He must not be contented in a natural estate; here we must learn not to be content.

2. Though, in regard to externals, a man should be in every estate content, yet he must net, be content in such a condition wherein God is apparently dishonoured.

3. The third caution is, though in every condition we must be content, yet we are not to content ourselves with a little grace. Grace is the best blessing. Though we should be contented with a competency of estate, yet not with a competency of grace.

XII. Showing how a Christian may know whether he hath learned this divine art.

1. A contented spirit is a silent spirit. He hath not one word to say against God: “I was dumb and silent, because thou didst it.” Contentment silenceth all dispute: “He sitteth alone and keepeth silence.”

2. A contented spirit is a cheerful spirit. The Greeks call it euthema. Contentment is something more than patience; for patience denotes only submission, contentment denotes cheerfulness.

3. A contented spirit is a thankful spirit. This is a degree above the other; “in everything giving thanks.”

4. He that is content no condition comes amiss to him; so it is in the text, “in whatever state I am.” He could carry a greater sail or lesser. Thus a contented Christian knows how to turn himself to any condition.

5. He that is contented with his condition, to rid himself out of trouble, will not turn himself into sin.

XIII. Containing a Christian directory, or rules about contentment. And here I shall lay down some rules for holy contentment.

Rule 1. Advance faith. All our disquiets do issue immediately from unbelief. It is this that raiseth the storm of discontent in the heart. O set faith a work! How doth faith work contentment?

(1) Faith shows the soul that whatever its trials are, yet it is from the hand of a father.

(2) Faith sucks the honey of contentment out of the hive of promise.

Rule 2. Labour for assurance. O let us get the interest cleared between God and our souls!

Rule 3. Get an humble spirit. The humble man is the contented man. If his estate be low, his heart is lower than his estate, therefore be content.

Rule 4. Keep a clear conscience. Contentment is the manna that is laid up in the ark of a good conscience.

Rule 5. Learn to deny yourselves. Look well to your affections; bridle them in.

(1) Mortify your desires.

(2) Moderate your delights. Set not your heart too much upon any creature. What we over love, we shall over grieve.

Rule 6. Get much of heaven into your heart. Spiritual things satisfy. The more of heaven is in us, the less earth will content us.

Rule 7. Look not so much on the dark side of your condition as on the light.

Rule 8. Consider in what a posture we stand here in the world.

(1) We are in a military condition; we are soldiers. Now a soldier is content with anything.

(2) We are in a mendicant condition; we are beggars.

Rule 9. Let not your hope depend upon these Outward things.

Rule 10. Let us often compare our condition. Make this five-fold comparison.

(1) Let us compare our condition and our desert together.

(2) Let us compare our condition with others, and this will make us content.

(3) Let us compare our condition with Christ’s upon earth.

(4) Let us compare our condition with what it was once, and this will make us content.

(5) Let us compare our condition with what it shall be shortly.

Rule 11. Get fancy regulated. It is the fancy which raiseth the price of things above their real worth.

Rule 12. Consider how little will suffice nature. The body is but a small continent, and is easily recruited.

Rule 13. Believe the present condition is best for us. Flesh and blood is not a competent judge.

Rule 14. Meditate much on the glory which shall be revealed.

XIV. Of consolation to the contented Christian. To a contented Christian I shall say for a farewell--God is exceedingly taken with such a frame of heart. (T. Watson.)

The blessedness of contentment

The habit of looking on the best side of every event is better than £1,000 a year. (S. Johnson, LL. D.)

Sources of contentment

Four of us were one day climbing together a beautiful hill in Switzerland, and when we reached a bend in the road, we stopped to rest, and to enjoy the widespread prospect. “How charming is this clear fresh air, how lovely that green valley, and how graceful is that silver river winding all along!” But suddenly regarding my companions I noticed that not one of the three enjoyed the view at all. “The fact is,” said the first, “I have had no pleasure in my walk; I have a thorn in my foot.” And so is our passage through life hindered in enjoyment by one troubling sin, a conscience ill at ease, that makes each step a lame one. The next traveller was gazing, it is true, at the prospect, but not with pure enjoyment, for he said: “How I wish that house down there were mine! “He, too, lost the true delight of looking at fine scenery, being wholly absorbed in the wish for something that never could be his. As for my third companion, he seemed less happy even than the others, saying, as he looked into the sky with a face of anxious foreboding: “I’m afraid it’s going to rain.” Let us not mar the prospects of happiness by a halting walk, a greedy wish, or by undue fear of that evil which we cannot prevent. (Sunday at Home.)

Contentment is rare

Suppose I could have these faces gathered and brought to me, and could hold them thus, and should ask, “Whose image and superscription is stamped on this face?” “Care marked this face,” would be the (frequent) answer. “Who marked this one?” “Fretfulness.” “And this?” “Selfishness?” “This?” “Suffering stamped this.” “What this?” “Lust! Lust!” “And this?” “Self-will.” “And who stamped this face?” I should ask of one--a rare and sweet one. “This I why, where did you get it? Whose face is this? How beautiful! It is marked by the sweet peace of a contented spirit.” I never saw more than a dozen of these in my life. (H. W. Beecher.)

Contentment

A minister of the gospel, passing one day near a cottage, was attracted to its door by the sound of a loud and earnest voice. It was a bare and lonely dwelling; the home of a man who was childless, old, and poor. Drawing near this mean and humble cabin, the stranger at length made out these words, “This, and Jesus Christ too! this, and Jesus Christ too!” as they were repeated over and over in tones of deep emotion; of wonder, gratitude, and praise. His curiosity was roused to see what that could be which called forth such fervent, overflowing thanks. Stealing near, he looked in at the patched and broken window; and there in the form of a grey, bent, worn-out son of toil, at a rude table, with hands raised to God, and his eyes fixed on some crusts of bread and a cup of water, sat piety, peace, humility, contentment, exclaiming, “This, and Jesus Christ tool” (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Contentment: a parable

A violet shed its modest beauties at the turfy foot of an old oak. It lived there many days during the kind summer in obscurity. The winds and the rains came add fell, but they did not hurt the violet. Storms often crashed among the boughs of the oak. And one day said the oak, “Are you not ashamed of yourself when you look up at me, you little thing down there, when you see how large I am, and how small you are; when you see how small a space you fill, and how widely my branches are spread?” “No,” said the violet, “we are both where God has placed us; and God has given us both something. He has given to you strength, to me sweetness; and I offer Him back my fragrance, and I am thankful.” “Sweetness is all nonsense,” said the oak; “a few days--a month at most--where and what will you be? You will die, and the place of your grave will not lift the ground higher by a blade of grass. 1 hope to stand some time--ages, perhaps--and then, when I am cut down, I shall be a ship to bear men over the sea, or a coffin to hold the dust of a prince. What is your lot to mine?” “But,” cheerfully breathed the violet back, “we are both what God made us, and we are both where He placed us. I suppose I shall die soon. I hope to die fragrantly, as I have lived fragrantly. You must be cut down at last; it does not matter, that I see, a few days or a few ages, my littleness or your largeness, it comes to the same thing at last. We are what God made us. We are where God placed us. God gave you strength; God gave me sweetness.” (Paxton Hood.)

Equanimity reasonable to faith

When Archbishop Leighton lost his patrimony by failure of a merchant, he only said: “The little that was in Mr. E--’s hands hath failed me, but I shall either have no need of it, or be supplied in some other way,” On his brother-in-law expressing surprise that he took the matter so easily, he answered: “If when the Duke of Newcastle, after loosing nineteen times as much of yearly income, can dance and sing, the solid hopes of Christianity will not support us, we had better be in another world.” (Sunday at Home.)

Making the best of circumstances

Sydney Smith, when labouring at Foston-le-Clay, in Yorkshire, though he did not feel himself to be in his proper element, went cheerfully to work in the determination to do his best. “I am resolved,” he said, “to like it and reconcile myself to it, which is more manly than to feign myself above it, and to send up complaints by the post of being thrown away, of lying desolate, and such like trash.” So Dr. Hook, when leaving Leeds for Chichester, said, “Wherever I may be, I shall, by God’s blessing, do with all my might what my hand findeth to do, and if I do not find work, I shall make it.” (S. Smiles.)