LECTURE XXXIV. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." — REV. iii. 21. IN the address or epistle to every Church of the seven, there is always the recognition of an overcoming one, and the promise of a special reward to him that thus overcomes. In every instance, the promise is given to the victor only; and in every case we are led to see that the victory is only to him who believeth that Jesus is the Christ; "for this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." And this teaches us too, that, if there be a chronological scale in the seven Churches,-if they be types of seven successive periods in the history of ChristianityI do not say or think they are, though some do so, then we are taught by this, that in every age a Christian must expect to have conflict, and in every age a true Christian may be assured that he will have victory. The world may change its form, it may become more beautiful, or it may appear more friendly, but it is the world still, and he that is the friend of the world is the enemy of God. By the world I do not mean the stones of the earth, the sweet streams, the trees, the hills, the valleys - the stars of the sky, or the flowers that are the smiles of God and the stars of the earth these are not sinful, and to admire them and to love them is not to be guilty of sin. What I mean by the world is, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." These are the component parts of the world, just as righteousness and peace and joy are the component parts of the kingdom of God. I have explained to you before the nature of the Christian's conflicts: I have also explained to you the resources and the secrets of the Christian's victory. This evening I take one special thought, and dwell upon it, and it is this; that while the whole Church or corporate body of Christians is rebuked, reprimanded, encouraged, exhorted, advised, the promise is always made to the individual. For instance, in chap. ii. 10, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life;" ver. 19, "To him that overcometh;" ver. 26, "He chat overcometh;" chap. iii. 5, "He that overcometh shall be clothed, &c.;" ver. 12," Him that overcometh will I make to sit upon my throne," and so in each of the epistles. In other words, while so many promises, exhortations, and warnings are given to the body, a special promise is also given to the individual in the body that overcomes. Now I am desirous of commenting this evening on the importance and value of the individual. We speak much of corporate bodies, and attach to them great importance. We are prone either to over-estimate or to under-estimate the individual. Now, in the first place, it is possible to over-estimate the individual's importance. Each of us, at one season of his life, has had a grand conception of his own excellence and value. Many are apt to think, "If I should be removed, who could supply my place? Who can follow me? Nobody can do my duty but myself; and if I be removed, the machine shops, and all the noble and magnificent results will instantly disappear." My dear friend, you over-esteem yourself. The fact is, very few will miss you when you are gone; a handful will go about the streets weeping, but the great world will rush on just as it has rolled before. It is quite possible, therefore, for you to disappear from the world and yet scarcely to be missed; and when God removes you, the same infinite and inexhaustible resources will raise up a nobler and a better to take your place. "The gay will laugh When thou art gone-the solemn brood of care His favourite phantom." But it is possible, on the other hand, to under-estimate the importance of the individual. If it be possible to have too lofty a conception of our own value, we may likewise have too mean and unworthy a notion of it. Some one, perhaps, looks around him upon this vast world: he sees it peopled with busy millions upon millions, to whom his very name is unknown, and he says to himself, "What am I amid so many?" He gazes into the vast expanse of the firmament above him, and he sees clusters of orbs constituting groups revolving around suns, and those suns with innumerable clusters constituting only another group revolving round an inner sun; and he says, "What am I in the immensity of the universe? A grain amid the sands of the seashore-a bubble on the face of the ocean-a spark that appears on the wave, is quenched, and disappears for ever." But there is surely a correct estimate; and the importance of coming to it is obvious from such facts as these. Some underestimating society and over-estimating self, and thinking that society was worthless, and that the individual was everything, have left the duties and the responsibilities of the world altogether; and have gone with Anthony and Jerome, and innumerable monks, and have spent their lives in deserts and caves and mountains, thinking that as individnals they could do all, and that by society they were only hampered, discouraged, or interfered with. Others again, supposing that the individual can do nothing at all, have formed themselves into bodies, and merging the personal in the corporate, have become mere cogs in the vast machinery-mere cranks and pivots in the great system, and have lost irretrievably their individual dignity and importance by merging themselves in the mass. Let us look, then, at the true place that the individual should occupy; and in order to do so, you must look each at himself, not insulated and alone, but in connexion with and in relation to all the multitude by which you are surrounded. The sea-sand is made up of innumerable grains; the sea itself is made up of innumerable drops; the milky way, which seems but a cluster of pure brilliancy, is itself a group of countless stars. The body itself is made up of so many separate members. Look at the eye alone, separate from the body; you may under-estimate, you may over-estimate it: look at the eye in connexion with the other senses and members of the body, and you see its true and its important place. So in an army: a private soldier drops down weary with the march, or is smitten down by the shot of the enemy, and he is scarcely missed; but if each private soldier were to disappear, the whole army would disappear altogether. Thus while the individual, looked at alone, insulated from the mass, seems comparatively worthless, the individual, as a component part of the vast host, is of great and indispensable. importance. It is thus that each looking at himself not insulated, absolute, and alone, but as part and parcel of a system to which he contributes his quota, and the removal from which of that quota would be a mighty gap, will see how it is possible neither to over-estimate nor to under-estimate, but to assign to himself his right and his true position. We must also recollect that each of us is necessarily in a family, in a parish, in a nation, in society, and has therefore some influence of some kind, and that influence may be exerted by us unconsciously, or it may be exerted consciously and with design; but in either case we can no more denude ourselves of leaving around us ceaseless impressions for good or evil, than we can denude ourselves of our responsibility or our immortality. There is not a man that walks the streets, who does not go home in some degree modified by the sign-boards he has read, the shop windows he has seen, and the carriages that have rolled past him in the streets. There is not a child that walks from its mother's door to our day-schools, that has not stamped upon it in its transit from the one to the other, impressions that will be lasting, probably, as its life. And when men talk about the question whether society should be educated or not, they should remember that society never was left without education from Adam's day to the present. The only question is, shall it be educated on the principles that unfold to it the kingdom of heaven, or on the principles that shall deteriorate it below what it is, and still more injure it hereafter? If, then, each in his place is exercising a ceaseless. influence, let us recollect that each individual may be producing, consciously or unconsciously, effects of the greatest importance. A look leaves an impression. Every word that you utter pro duces its echo in the heart or conscience of some one. Every deed that you do leaves an indelible shadow, like the photographic light, bebind it; and every one, knowing this, should try never to do what is calculated to leave behind it an unfavourable impression. And yet this ought not to be the criterion. Be good, and you will always seem good. Be a Christian, and the influence you communicate, conscious or unconscious, secret or public, will be seen. But if you are not a Christian, you may screw your face into the most orthodox form, you may put on the most exquisite and beautiful mask, but the inner corruption will break forth, and men will see that it is a sham- an hypocrisy—a pretence, and not a reality. It is thus, then, that each individual in his place is leaving and creating influences, and is therefore possessed of greater importance than he supposes; and it is therefore a momentous question, whether he be a Christian or not. But if we consider, in the next place, what an individual may do, we shall see how much that individual may effect in promoting the spread of the Gospel, of beneficence, of charity, of goodness. We shall thus see how important a part an individual may play. Now, is there not a general opinion amongst us, that ministers of the Gospel. should be singularly holy, spiritual, pure-minded, and devoted? The impression is a right one; they ought to be so; but remember, they ought not to be more so than those that hear them. A Christian minister is not bound to be one whit holier than a Christian hearer. We are all bound to be what Christianity prescribes, and what its privileges dictate that we should be. But the individual by his ideas of the minister tries to lose himself in his shadow. He magnifies his estimate of the minister, by adding to him what he has subtracted from himself. And thus, thinking that he is of very little importance, and that the minister is of very great importance, he infers, logically enough, if the premises be correct, that little can be expected of him, and that everything must be expected of the minister. Now, my dear friends, you are to recollect, in contrast to such notions, that each of us is bound to be just as holy as Christ himself. "Be ye holy as I am holy," is addressed to the people, as well as to the minister. |