LIFE, not what it is, for it is here, both life and its dread opposite, death. This brief study does not pause to speculate on the mystery of life; rather the kind of life and its continuance shall be the all-important theme. For most men love life; and, most of all, they love continuance in life, with but little thought, generally, as to the manner of the life. They desire quantity rather than quality, persistence rather than perfectness. Our study shall be based upon the Scriptures, and we take for our starting-point the following words from the American Standard Revised Version:— “If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you.
“So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Rom. 8:9-13. It demands no close or exacting study of the above scripture to see that there are two lives, two ways of living, presented. The one is expressed by “the Spirit of Christ,” “Christ in you,” “the Spirit is life,” “The Spirit of Him . . . dwelleth in you,” “shall give life,” “ye shall live.” The other is expressed by the terms, “the body is dead,” “live after the flesh,” etc. But is there more than one life? Is not all life one? Is not the source of life one? Have not all living creatures—rock and tree and bird and beast and man—the same life? Is it true, as expressed by Sir Thomas Browne, that “life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us”? Is it true that life is God, and that God is within every living creature, variously expressed as “the divine immanence,” “the divine self within,” and other terms more or less emphatic, some writers expressing it so strongly that they declare of themselves in bold capitals, “I AM”? Or is the quality of life dependent upon the law of its reception and use? These are vitally important questions in these days of multiplied isms, false philosophies, “science falsely so-called,” and speculative delusions. Let us briefly consider some of the elemental facts set forth in the Scriptures, and open to every-day observance in the light of common sense:— 1. The source of all life is one, namely, God, the great Jehovah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. “With Thee is the fountain of life” (Ps. 36:9); “in Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). 2. He who lives in glory transcendent and supernal, in the great Central Heaven, has been pleased to give this life to all His creatures through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. “For as the Father hath life in Himself, even so gave He to the Son also to have life in Himself.” John 5:26. “For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things have been created through Him and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the Head of the body, the church.” Col. 1:16-18, A. R. V., margin. 3. By the power of His life all things were created. By the out-flowing from the great Central Fountain is the universe supplied; for “He Himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” Acts 17:25. 4. But this Being of life is also a Being of law. “Jehovah hath established His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all.” Ps. 103:19. Wherever life flows law is operative. He ruleth over all; He giveth life to all; and He therefore giveth life in harmony with law. 5. His own perfect plan knows only righteous law and eternal, endless life, the life in consonance with the law of righteousness; “for in the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” Prov. 12:28. Constant harmony with righteous law means endless persistence in fulness of life. 6. But the perfect life was amenable to different laws, in harmony with the varied creation of God. The mineral has its law of formation and crystallization, and each mineral a law peculiar to itself. The various salts have each their peculiar crystals. If these crystals be dissolved, and the water be allowed to evaporate under proper conditions, crystallization will immediately take place, each salt appropriating the life according to the law of its own being. Each plant in the vegetable kingdom has its own peculiar law, placed therein by the Creator. By that law the inflowing life is regulated and used. Growth is produced, flower and seed follow; and the seed always produces its kind. In the animal kingdom the same law obtains. Each species has its own law. Each animal perpetuates its kind, Darwinism to the contrary notwithstanding. The gulf has not been bridged between the species, the “missing link” is still missing. Men breed hybrids and mules and monstrosities, but, thanks to the God of law, the hybrids do not persist. The horse was created horse, and is horse still. The robin was created robin, and is robin still. Man was created man, and is in many cases man still; and in all cases, in some measure, is man degenerate. 7. But man is subject, not only to law, but laws. He receives life from the great Fountain through different channels. As an animal, he receives it from the food he eats, from the water he drinks, from the air he breathes, as truly as does the horse, but normally always according to the law of his physical being. That God-given power of law and inflowing life takes the vegetable and transmutes it into flesh and blood and bone and nerve. But this does not feed the moral, spiritual man. The spiritual man must have life through another channel, in harmony with a higher law. That law, in the nature of the case, must be the reflect of God’s character. For He commands man to be holy as He is holy, perfect as He is perfect. Lev. 19:2; 1 Peter 1:16; Gen. 17:1; Matt. 5:48. And the spiritual law which He has given is summarily comprehended in the Decalogue, coming to sinful man in a largely negative and prohibitive form, but to the child of God as enabling acts in Jesus Christ, comprehended in the two great principles of love to God and man. Therefore the law of man’s spiritual life is God’s all-comprehensive, spiritual law, and the eternal life of God is only received as man’s will and heart and mind are perfectly yielded to that law. That law, therefore, becomes the great test of all other laws, of all lives. It is the one Voice by which all other voices are to be tested. Sinful man’s relation to that law and the life of God will be considered in our next.