things had come to a pretty pass up at corinth, when paul felt it incumbent upon him to write to the members of the church, imploring them to be reconciled to god. ‘now then,’ paul said to those recalcitrant believers, ‘now then, we are ambassadors for christ, as though god did beseech you by us, we pray you, in christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to god.’ i used to wonder what he can possibly have meant; but now i think i understand.
i
claudius was wealthy. he dwelt in a beautiful house on the top of a hill, on the eastern side of the city of corinth. from his spacious balconies he looked down upon the blue, blue waters of the adriatic as they lapped caressingly the sands of the bay on the one side, and on the spreading sapphire of the island-studded aegean gleaming most charmingly upon the other. away in the distance he commanded a magnificent prospect, and could clearly make out the towers and domes of athens as they pierced the sky on the far horizon. the acropolis could be seen distinctly. it was a delightful home, 69delightfully situated. claudius was a member of the church; but he was not very happy about it. claudius had prospered amazingly of late years, and his prosperity had involved him in commercial and social entanglements from which it would be very difficult now to escape. the life that claudius had set before himself in the early days of his spiritual experience seemed to him later on like a beautiful dream. that is to say, it seemed to him like a dream when he thought about it; but he did not think about it more often than he could help. claudius knew perfectly well that the life of which he used to dream was worth some sacrifice; and he knew that he was really the poorer, and not the richer, for having abandoned that radiant ideal. he occasionally attended the assembly of worshippers, it is true; but he derived small satisfaction from the exercise. it seemed like exposing his poor withered, emaciated soul to the limelight; and he saw with a start how starved and famished it had become. and so the inner experience of poor claudius became a perpetual battle-ground. at times the old dream seemed within an ace of being victorious. he was more than half inclined to break away from all his later entanglements, and to renew the ardour of his youthful aspirations. but he had scarcely reached this devout determination when the glamour of his later life once more began to dazzle him. alluring 70invitations, temptingly phrased, poured in upon him. it is horrid to be discourteous! how could he bring himself to offend people from whom he had received nothing but kindness? surely a man owes something to the proprieties of life! and so the fight went on. but in the depths of his secret soul claudius knew that that fight was a fight between claudius on the one hand and god on the other. he knew, too, that in that stern conflict claudius was altogether wrong, and god was altogether right. and he knew that, if he persisted in the unequal struggle, nothing but shame and humiliation awaited him. claudius knew it, and paul knew it. paul knew it, and proffered his good offices as mediator. ‘now then,’ he wrote, with claudius in his eye, ‘now then, we are ambassadors for christ, as though god did beseech you by us, we pray you, in christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to god.’ and the words brought to the heart of poor claudius just such a surge of vehement emotion as a lover feels at the prospect of once more embracing the beloved form with which he had so angrily and hastily parted.
ii
polonius and phebe were in a very different case. polonius dwelt close to the city in order to be near his work, and his windows commanded no view of any kind. he was not a slave, but 71sometimes he said bitterly that the slaves were as happy as he. the world had gone hardly with polonius. the stars in their courses seemed to be fighting against him. he had tried hard to be brave, but circumstances sometimes conspire against courage. polonius, in spite of the most commendable endeavours, was poor; yet if poverty had been his only misfortune he could have borne it with a smile. but, in addition to poverty, troubles came thick and fast upon him. like claudius, he was a member of the church at corinth; and it was in connexion with his labours of love for the sanctuary that he had first met phebe. she was young and fair in those days, and her loveliness was glorified by her devotion. but his love for her had fallen upon her tender spirit like a malediction. it was as though his fondness for his sweet young wife had woven a malignant spell about her early womanhood. he would have died a thousand deaths to make her happy; yet since first they linked their lives they had known nothing but incessant struggle and ceaseless grief. phebe herself had been ill again and again. four little children had stolen like sunbeams into their home; only, like sunbeams, to vanish again, and give place to tempests of tears. then came a long blank; and they fancied they were doomed to spend the rest of their sad lives childlessly. but, at length, to their unspeakable 72delight, their little home once more resounded with the shout of baby merriment and the patter of baby footsteps. it was as if the four children who had perished had bequeathed to this new treasure all the affection that they had excited in the breasts of their poor parents. and then, after seven happy years, it too faded and died. polonius and phebe were broken-hearted. never again, they said, would they go to the assembly at corinth. how could they believe in the love of god after this? and so their hearts grew hard, and their souls were soured, and all sweetness departed from their spirits.
there is a story very like this in our own literature. in the old house at kettering, andrew fuller was lying ill in one room, whilst his only surviving daughter—a child of six—lay at the point of death in the next. he tried hard to reconcile himself and his poor wife to the impending calamity. but their spirits revolted. the thought that, after having buried first one child and then another, this one too might be snatched from them was more than they could bear. but, ‘on tuesday, may 30,’ says fuller in his diary, ‘on tuesday, may 30, as i lay ill in bed in another room, i heard a whispering. i inquired, and all were silent! all were silent!—but all is well. i feel reconciled to god.’ that is a fine saying. ‘i feel reconciled to god.’ but poor polonius and phebe could as yet enter no such 73brave words in their domestic record. ‘wherefore,’ writes paul, with a thought, perhaps, of polonius and phebe, ‘wherefore we are ambassadors for christ, as though god did beseech you by us, we pray you, in christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to god.’ and when polonius and phebe heard that touching appeal they resolved no longer to kick against the pricks. ‘renew my will,’ they prayed, anticipating the language of a later hymn:
renew my will from day to day;
blend it with thine; and take away
all that now makes it hard to say,
‘thy will be done!’
and, like andrew fuller and his wife at kettering, polonius and his wife at corinth were able to say, ‘i feel reconciled to god.’
iii
to the south of corinth, just where the great main road begins to ascend the ridge of the mountains, lived julia. julia was a widow, comfortably circumstanced. her husband had died years before, leaving her with the charge of their one young son. and as the days had gone by, and time had sprinkled strands of silver into julia’s hair, she had built her hopes more and more upon the future of her boy. 74julia’s husband had died before either he or she had so much as heard the name of jesus. but after his death paul came over from athens to corinth in the course of that first memorable visit to europe, and julia had been among his earliest converts. after her conversion julia often thought of her husband, and was ill at ease. but, like a wise woman, she determined to work for the things that remained rather than to weep over those that were lost to her. and so she devoted all her love, and all her thought, and all her energy, and all her time to her little son. when paul’s first letter to the christians at corinth was read to the church, she caught a phrase about being ‘baptized for the dead.’ she did not quite know what paul meant by the words; but at any rate she would try to instil into the heart of her boy the lovely faith that she felt certain her husband would cheerfully have embraced. and wonderfully she succeeded. the boy listened with eyes wide open to the tender stories that julia told him, and his heart acknowledged their profound significance. at the same age at which jesus went with mary to the temple, and was found in the midst of the doctors, young amplius went with julia up to the church at corinth, and was found in the midst of the deacons.
from the very first the soul of amplius prospered. he was like those trees of which the psalmist sings 75which, ‘planted in the courts of the lord, flourish in the house of our god.’ from the time of his baptism and reception into the sacred fellowship, the child amplius grew, like the child jesus, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of god was upon him. then, after about six years of happy christian experience, amplius confided a wonderful secret to julia. he told her that he had resolved, with her consent, to devote himself to the sacred office of the ministry. and at that word the soul of julia died within her. she knew what those early preachers and teachers had suffered. she knew of the martyrdom of all those first apostles. she had heard that even paul himself had been ‘in journeyings often, in perils of rivers and in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen and in perils of the heathen, in perils of the city and in perils of the desert, in perils of the sea and in perils among false brethren.’ and julia’s heart failed her as she thought of amplius faced by such dangers. moreover, julia had other plans for amplius. she had fondly dreamed of him as holding a great place in the city of corinth. when she had seen rulers and governors performing exalted functions on state occasions, she had said within herself, ‘some day, perhaps, amplius will wear those robes,’ or ‘some day, perhaps, amplius will make that speech.’ and now all such dreams were rudely shattered. 76her son would fain be a minister, an outcast, perhaps even a martyr. and at that thought the soul of julia rebelled, and she began to fight against god.
there is a case like this, also, in our own literature. grey hazelrigg was the only child of lady hazelrigg, of carlton hall. her ladyship intended her son for the army, but he failed to pass the tests. she then sent him to cambridge university. there he came under deep religious influences. he began, as opportunities presented themselves, to preach the gospel. his efforts met with immediate acceptance, and he wrote to his astonished mother to say that he desired to become a minister of the old strict baptist communion! the request struck carlton hall like a thunderbolt, and the spirit of lady hazelrigg rose in instant revolt. but grey prayed in secret, and preached in public, and pleaded with his mother whenever a suitable opportunity occurred. then came an experience of which, the rev. w. y. fullerton says, he spoke with sparkling eyes seventy years afterwards. he was on a journey when his mind was suddenly and strangely arrested by the words of jeremiah, ‘verily, it shall be well with thy remnant.’ he took it to refer to lady hazelrigg’s opposition to his call; and, surely enough, ‘the very next letter that he received from his mother bore the joyful tidings that she was, as she herself phrased it, reconciled to god.’ mr. grey hazelrigg 77lived to be nearly a hundred, and his work, both as a writer and a preacher, will be remembered in england with thankfulness for many a day to come. there can be no doubt, therefore, that, in those earlier days, lady hazelrigg was fighting against god. and there can be no doubt, either, that, in those early days, julia was fighting against god. and therefore paul wrote as he did, perhaps with julia specially in mind. ‘now then,’ he said, ‘we are ambassadors for christ, as though god did beseech you by us, we pray you, in christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to god.’ and, like lady hazelrigg, julia made her peace with god, and her son adorned the christian ministry for many a long day.
iv
‘be ye reconciled to god’—paul the peacemaker wrote to the christians at corinth. it is vastly important. we so easily drift away from early attachments and early friendships; and even the divine friendship is not immune from this cruel and heartless treatment. we drift away from it, and must needs be reconciled. ‘be ye reconciled to god,’ says paul the peacemaker ‘for unless you yourselves are reconciled to god, how can you reconcile to god those who are without?’ how can i reconcile hearts that are alienated if, between either of those hearts 78and mine, there exists some embarrassing estrangement? ‘be ye reconciled to god,’ said paul the peacemaker to the church at corinth, for he knew that the church’s ministry of reconciliation would stand stultified and useless so long as the church herself was out of touch with her lord.
