HOW TO LIVE THE CHRIST-LIFE

Man can not naturally live the Christ-life. But Christ has promised to come into our hearts and live in us. In order that we may have Christ dwell in our hearts and that we may live his life, there must be a giving up of our self-life. There must be annihilation of self that Christ may live. It is truly wonderful and as glorious as it is wonderful that man can live the life of Christ in this world. But here is the secret: it is man ceasing to live the self life and Christ living in him.

Imagine a hollow brass figure in the exact image of a man. Suppose you fill this hollow figure with a kind of life which we shall call self-life. This life goes to using the hands and feet, and eyes, ears, tongue, in short, all the members of this brass figure, but using them in the interest of itself. Now you desire to make a change; you want that image to speak, act, and think only for you. You must first put to death the life that is using the figure, cleanse it entirely out, and then get into it yourself. Once in, you can use all the members of that image for yourself. Your body is that image. There was a life in you that used all the members of your body in the interest of self. But there has been a change. You were made a new creature. The life you once had was put to death- was crucified; then Christ stepped into your heart, and now he uses all the members of your body for himself. You still live, yet not you, but Christ lives in you. Once you did things for yourself; now you do them for Christ. Just as you once lived purposely and intentionally for yourself, now you do things purposely and intentionally for Jesus, because it is he that lives, and not you yourself. You remember how once you would plan for yourself. In the evening as you lay upon your bed and again in the morning and throughout the day you would think about what you were going to eat or drink, what you were going to have for clothing, where you were going to live, where you were going to go, and what you were going to do. But now you are changed; you are a new creature. Now it is not you that lives, but Christ lives in you. Now you eat not for yourself but for Jesus. You now go, not where self would lead you, but where that life in you loves to go and would have you do.
You do things, not for yourself, but for Jesus.

O Christ, I die that thou mayest live,
That thou mayest live in me;
That all I think or speak or do,
May be, O Lord, for thee.
May not the least of self remain,
But all be put to death.
Oh, may I nothing do for self,
Nor draw one selfish breath!
To have my Saviour live in me,
To occupy the whole,
To make my heart his royal throne
And take complete control-
'Tis all I ask; 'tis all I wish;
'Tis all my heart's desire,
Content if but a wayside bush
To hold God's holy fire.
Low at thy feet, O Christ I fall
A yielded lump of clay,
For thee to mold me as thou wilt,
To have thy own sweet way.

THE MODEL LIFE - C.E. Orr

In doing anything, it is always well to have a model by which to fashion our work. In fact, nothing is done without a pattern, either real or imaginary. The little boy making a toy has in his mind a model by which he is framing his work. Likewise, the sculptor has in his mind a model, and as the "marble wastes, the image grows" into the likeness of the vision in his soul.

To live this one life of ours as it should be lived, we must have a perfect model after which to pattern. Thank God, this perfect model of life can be found. Of all the vast number of lives that have been lived since Adam down to this present day, there has been only one that we can take as a model. This one is the life of Jesus. He says, "I am the life." To live this life of ours well, to live it to the highest degree of perfection, we must fashion it according to the glorious life of Christ. The life of Jesus is the model life for every other human life. He invites us, yea, commands us, to follow Him, to step in His steps, to walk as He walked.

There have been many good men in the world. but none of them afford us a true pattern of life. There was a man who said, "Be ye followers of me," but he immediately added, "even as I also am of Christ." Man may so live as to reveal to us the life of Christ. We can then follow, not them, but the Christ-life they manifested through them.

Let me here say a word on a subject on which we may have more to say hereafter. The grandest, noblest work man has ever done is by his life to reveal the life of Christ to another, thereby helping that person to be fashioned more after the image of Jesus. A little flower grew in a place so shaded that no ray from the sun could fall directly upon it. A window was so situated that al a certain time in the afternoon it refracted the sun's rays and threw them upon the flower, thus giving it color and beauty, and aiding it to bloom. Some people are living in dense shade. No light from Christ has ever shined upon them. If you so live as to refract the life of Christ and turn it upon them and thus stamp upon them a holier life, you have not lived in vain. To set the life of Christ in its purity and beauty before some one and influence him, though only a little, to live better and love Jesus more, is a work the worth of which can never be computed. He who helps another to a better way of living does more than he who gains great worldly honor and riches. Blessed indeed is that life which causes some other life to be more like Christ. Oh, may this thought seize upon our hearts and fill us with a greater passion to live the life of God.

We are told by the voice of Scripture to be "followers of God as dear children." When children are dear to the heart of the parent, he loves to have them obey him. God's children are dear to Him, and He would have them follow Him. To follow God is to imitate Him, or be like Him. This is the true way of life.

A text of Scripture as rendered by the Revised Version is very appropriate here: "Like as he which has called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living." 1 Peter 1:15. Only those who live godly in their entire manner of life are spending the days of their pilgrimage as they should. Jesus has walked the true way of life; we are told to walk in his steps. If we will step each day just where Jesus stepped, then on looking back, we can not see a footprint of our own; but if we take a single misstep, our footprint will show our departure from the true way of life. How deep and awful are the words of Scripture wherein we are commanded to walk even as "Jesus walked!" Jesus says, "I am the way." There is no other right and perfect way. If we will walk as Jesus walked, then we shall walk in the true path of life. This only is the pathway that leads up to the golden gates of glory and the sweet fields of heaven. That bright world of bliss encourages us on. If we will follow Jesus and live as he lived, God's approval will be upon us, and his outstretched hand will help us along life's way and finally over the turbulent river of death to the sunlit shore of eternal rest.

Many times we may become wearied and think the toils of the way almost too heavy; but when we remember that it is the way that Jesus trod, then the heavens open to our view, we look forward to the mansion prepared for us, and the toils of the way grow lighter.

See that aged pilgrim journeying down the western slope of life. The sun is nearing the setting. Long and toilsome has been his pilgrimage, but he has walked in the path his Savior trod. For many years his life has been hid with Christ in God. In Him he has lived and moved and had his being. Now he is making his last step on the shore of time; he passes out of our sight through the gates into that land where toils are ended and the sun never sets. But his life was the life of Jesus. He was holy as God is holy, he walked as Jesus walked. This is how to live. This is the true way of life and the only way to life eternal.

He who does not live with Christ on earth can not live with Him in heaven, and he who does not live as Jesus lived does not live as he should. The life of Christ was the perfect life. Ours is perfect to the degree that we imitate him.

Take my life, O Christ divine,

Make it holy, just like shine;

Every act and thought and word

Be an outflow from my God.

Guide my feet and keep my heart;

Let me not from thee depart;

Let me breathe thy warming love,

That my soul be drawn above.

Draw me, Jesus closer draw;

Thy strong arm around me throw;

Draw me to thy pierced side;

In thy bosom let me hide.

Teach me all thy will and word,

That my life be filled with God;

Teach me. Lamb of Calvary,

How to live this life for thee.

From the Book; How to Live A Holy Life - C.E. Orr

Victory

Selected

When you are forgotten or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you smile inwardly, glorying in the insult or the oversight, because thereby counted worthy to suffer with Christ—that is victory.

When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your taste offended, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you take it all in patient, loving silence—that is victory.

When you are content with any food, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God—that is victory.

When you can lovingly and patiently bear with any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance—that is victory.

When you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it all as Jesus endured it—that is victory.

When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or to record your own good works, or to itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown—that is victory.

When, like Paul, you can throw all your suffering on Jesus, thus converting it into a means of knowing His overcoming grace, and can say from a surrendered heart, “Most gladly therefore [do] I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake”* (II Corinthians 12:9-10)—that is victory.

When death and life are both alike to you through Christ, and to do His perfect will, you delight not more in one than the other—that is victory, for, through Him, you may become able to say, “Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.”* (Philippians 1:20) “Death is swallowed up in victory.”* (I Corinthians 15:54)

The perfect victory is to “put… on the Lord Jesus Christ”* (Romans 13:14) and thus to triumph over one’s self.

“In all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”* (Romans 8:37)

LOVE OF HOME

There are but few sweeter words in the English language than the word home. I have thought the three sweetest words are mother, home, and heaven. Home is the dearest place in all the world to the Christian heart. To have a fond love for home is not at all injurious to Christian character. Those who have but little love for home will never succeed well in the Christian life. It may sometimes occur that some of the home members are so disagreeable that the Christian for the sake of peace will quit the home roof; but he still loves home. Sometimes young people think that to enjoy life they must get out from under parental rule and roof. We have an instance of this nature recorded in the Bible (Luke 15:11-32). How soon we learn of the prodigal’s longing for the comforts of home. How often he thought of his father’s house, that place so dear to him now. The love of home is a high mark of integrity. Show me one who has no love for home, and I will show you one who has but little true manhood or womanhood. The Bible command to young Christians is to be “chaste, keepers at home.”* (Titus 2:5) When our duty and service to God demand our absence from home we submit and go in the strength of His grace, but lose not our love for home, and return in joy at Father’s will.

You can nowhere find more of heaven upon earth than in a Christian home. Look at the picture: A father with the Holy Bible, the mother and children listening in reverence to the heavenly message. Where, I say, can you find more of heaven? Such a scene is most sweet and sacred. Methinks the angels bend low to catch the chants of praise that arise from those devoted hearts to the gates of heaven. “Such a picture,” you may say, “is very beautiful and inspiring to look upon, but where is the reality?” Thank God, such a home can be real in life, and it is your duty as a Christian to help make it so. God is pleased with such a home. It is much to His praise. Since such homes are so rare they are all the more glorifying to God, and we should strive the more earnestly to have them real.

In your home is the place to shine for God. It is the place to shed forth the radiant beams of Christian light from your grace-ladened soul. If you hope to prosper in the divine life, be your best at home. Do not think you can be careless at home and then shine in the splendor of Christian virtue when before the public. Your life at home leaves its mark upon you. Shine in Christian beauty at home, and you will shine in beauty in public; but attempt away from home to be more than you are at home, and you will miserably fail.

A few years ago, while in one of our large Eastern cities laboring for Jesus and souls for whom He died, I wrote a few lines to the dear ones at home, which perhaps will not be out of place to insert here.

When the light of day is dying
And the shades of night steal on,
Voices to my mem’ry whisper
Of the dear loved ones at home.
Ere the chandelier is lighted,
Ere the day’s last ray is gone,
O’er me comes a fond remembrance
Of the dear loved ones at home.
Far above in arch of heaven
Lamps are lighted one by one,
But I only see the bright eyes
Of the dear loved ones at home.
Far away beyond the region
Where I see those shining stars,
Somewhere in the land of angels,
Dwells a little boy of ours.
Years ago, one wintry evening
Heaven’s gate was opened wide,
And an angel swift descended,
With a sickle at his side.
Paused he at our boy’s low trundle
In the evening twilight hour,
Caught away his happy spirit
To its home beyond the stars.
How my heart adores the Giver
Of all good o’er land and sea,
But I praise Him more than ever
For the dear ones left to me.
As I think of her he gave me
In my happy youthful time,
How he bound our hearts together
At love’s pure and sacred shrine;
As I think of her this moment,
Given me by love divine,
Seems I almost feel the pressure
Of her gentle hand in mine.
In the arms of night I’m folded,
Soon in dreamland I shall roam;
Then I’ll go and see the dear ones—
See the dear loved ones at home.

Consciousness of God’s Presence

Happy and blessed is the soul that is conscious of God’s sweet indwelling presence. Being conscious of God’s presence is what the Psalmist meant when he said, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”* (Psalm 8) “Tasting God” is an expression incomprehensible to the unregenerate. Those who have tasted Him comprehend the meaning of this expression better than they can tell it. When a bit of sugar is placed upon the tongue there is experienced a sweetness in the sense of taste. When the soul tastes of God there is experienced a sweetness in the spiritual being. The sweetness of God’s presence in the soul is as much more glorious than the sweetness of sugar to the taste, as spiritual and heavenly things are above literal and earthly things. God and His word are inseparable, or the word is God; therefore, when the Psalmist says, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth,”* (Psalm 119:103) it is in reality tasting the sweetness of God.

The awakened soul thirsts for this sweetness of the divine presence. Nothing else can satisfy it. The wealth and pleasure of the world do not contain a sweetness sufficient to satisfy the heart of man. It is only God that can fill the hungry soul with goodness. The divine life sheds peace and light and rest in the soul. Man receives the divine presence into his spiritual being when he is quickened by the Spirit. In the Word of God it is termed “[passing] from death unto life,”* (John 5:24; I John 3:14) and “being born again.”* (I Peter 1:23) In sanctification, when a revolution is effected in the nature of man and he becomes a partaker of the divine nature, it is then he is conscious of the fullness of the divine presence and is at rest. Glory be to God!

To possess the divine presence in its fullness is not the end of the Christian race. There are certain conditions for man to meet in order to possess this glorious inheritance, and there are certain conditions for him to meet in order to retain it. Not only is man able, in the economy of grace, to retain the sweet consciousness of the divine presence in the soul, but in his hands are placed instruments that enable him to cultivate and deepen this consciousness and thus add glory to glory and cause his way to shine “more and more unto the perfect day.”* (Proverbs 4:18) Oh, how many Christians would enjoy more of heaven’s glory in their souls, if by careful cultivation they would increase the sense of the divine presence! Dear pilgrim, have you reached the land where is an “eternal weight of glory”* (II Corinthians 4:17) or the regions of “joy unspeakable”* (I Peter 1:8)?

To cultivate or deepen the sense of the divine presence requires an almost constant effort. Right at this point is where perhaps more Christians have failed to do what was required of them than at any other; and consequently experience less joy and power than formerly. There are many things employed by Satan to weaken this consciousness of God. Looseness of thought, moments of idleness, or yielding to self, serve to weaken the reverential feeling in our hearts toward Him. A little attention to the world, a little thought for the morrow, a little anxiety, a little too much talking—these things destroy the consciousness of the divine presence in the soul, and rob us of spiritual power and rest. Living before God in prayer, holy and pure thoughts, the entertaining of right feelings toward God and man, acts of benevolence and self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, develop and fashion the soul more and more into the beauty of the divine life.

It is the privilege of the saint so to walk in the presence of God and live in holy communion with Him as to draw God’s glory and life into his own, and give him a feature very distinguishing for ordinary natural man. If we wish to be like Jesus and enjoy the sweet consciousness of His presence, we must live with Him in prayer. As we improve the health and strength of our physical being by proper food and exercise, so we improve the strength and beauty of our spiritual being by proper meditation and prayer.

Consciousness of God’s Presence

Happy and blessed is the soul that is conscious of God’s sweet indwelling presence. Being conscious of God’s presence is what the Psalmist meant when he said, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”* (Psalm 8) “Tasting God” is an expression incomprehensible to the unregenerate. Those who have tasted Him comprehend the meaning of this expression better than they can tell it. When a bit of sugar is placed upon the tongue there is experienced a sweetness in the sense of taste. When the soul tastes of God there is experienced a sweetness in the spiritual being. The sweetness of God’s presence in the soul is as much more glorious than the sweetness of sugar to the taste, as spiritual and heavenly things are above literal and earthly things. God and His word are inseparable, or the word is God; therefore, when the Psalmist says, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth,”* (Psalm 119:103) it is in reality tasting the sweetness of God.

The awakened soul thirsts for this sweetness of the divine presence. Nothing else can satisfy it. The wealth and pleasure of the world do not contain a sweetness sufficient to satisfy the heart of man. It is only God that can fill the hungry soul with goodness. The divine life sheds peace and light and rest in the soul. Man receives the divine presence into his spiritual being when he is quickened by the Spirit. In the Word of God it is termed “[passing] from death unto life,”* (John 5:24; I John 3:14) and “being born again.”* (I Peter 1:23) In sanctification, when a revolution is effected in the nature of man and he becomes a partaker of the divine nature, it is then he is conscious of the fullness of the divine presence and is at rest. Glory be to God!

To possess the divine presence in its fullness is not the end of the Christian race. There are certain conditions for man to meet in order to possess this glorious inheritance, and there are certain conditions for him to meet in order to retain it. Not only is man able, in the economy of grace, to retain the sweet consciousness of the divine presence in the soul, but in his hands are placed instruments that enable him to cultivate and deepen this consciousness and thus add glory to glory and cause his way to shine “more and more unto the perfect day.”* (Proverbs 4:18) Oh, how many Christians would enjoy more of heaven’s glory in their souls, if by careful cultivation they would increase the sense of the divine presence! Dear pilgrim, have you reached the land where is an “eternal weight of glory”* (II Corinthians 4:17) or the regions of “joy unspeakable”* (I Peter 1:8)?

To cultivate or deepen the sense of the divine presence requires an almost constant effort. Right at this point is where perhaps more Christians have failed to do what was required of them than at any other; and consequently experience less joy and power than formerly. There are many things employed by Satan to weaken this consciousness of God. Looseness of thought, moments of idleness, or yielding to self, serve to weaken the reverential feeling in our hearts toward Him. A little attention to the world, a little thought for the morrow, a little anxiety, a little too much talking—these things destroy the consciousness of the divine presence in the soul, and rob us of spiritual power and rest. Living before God in prayer, holy and pure thoughts, the entertaining of right feelings toward God and man, acts of benevolence and self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, develop and fashion the soul more and more into the beauty of the divine life.

It is the privilege of the saint so to walk in the presence of God and live in holy communion with Him as to draw God’s glory and life into his own, and give him a feature very distinguishing for ordinary natural man. If we wish to be like Jesus and enjoy the sweet consciousness of His presence, we must live with Him in prayer. As we improve the health and strength of our physical being by proper food and exercise, so we improve the strength and beauty of our spiritual being by proper meditation and prayer.