Parables of the Christ-life | Page 3

plans for our development too, as
vessels for His Christ-life. It is by the Divine indwelling that our true,
eternal personality dawns, and for the expression of the special
manifestation of Himself which is entrusted to each one of us. The

protoplasm that quickens each different seed is one and the same
essence, but in no two does it find the same expression. He needs the
whole Church to manifest His whole character and accomplish His
appointed ministry, and so the individual development must differ
widely in everything but the common vital principle. Life--eternal
life--is the essence of all--life receiving and life-giving. There is no
need to imitate the seed-vessel of a brother vetch!--only to draw into
our own the fulness of grace that we may develop into its full
individuality the mission entrusted to us.
There is nothing arbitrary in these differing shapes of the seed-vessels.
If we look closely, we shall find that they are formed in union with the
seed that each contains--it is this that determines the form of each, and
builds it up. See these few instances: the peas need their long pod with
its daintily-cushioned divisions, to allow each little globe to round itself
to perfection; the crescent-shaped seeds of this other vetch, each set
into its own place again, form the distinctive character of their different
sheath--so do the tiny rod-shaped ones of the third vetch, which clothe
themselves in a segmented rod in turn. While on the other hand the fine
sand-like grain of this snap-dragon needs storing in a capsule--such a
quaint one it is (whether most like a bird or a mouse sitting on a twig is
hard to say)--but it is a perfectly adapted treasure-bag for the delicate
things, and when they are ripe the two eyes open, and the wind shakes
the seed out by them! Each one lays itself out for the special trust
committed to it. Is it not the same wonderful Fashioner Who fits us and
our ministry together, and forms us through it with unerring precision,
preparing us for the white stone and the new name which no man
knoweth saving he that receiveth it, eternity's seal on the heavenly
individuality of each. That eternal future will show how the Lord had
need of each of us in our varying character, and how all that made up
this earthly life fitted us for "bearing about" the special manifestation of
Jesus entrusted to us, in which no other could take our place. He needs
us, every one of us, as if there were no other besides.
* * * * * *
But we will go back from this glimpse of God's ultimate purpose for us,

to watch the process by which it is reached, so far as we can trace it in
the ripening of the little annuals.
The figure will not give us all the steps by which God gets His way in
the intricacies of a human soul: we shall see no hint in it of the
cleansing and filling that is needed in sinful man before he can follow
the path of the plant. It shows us some of the Divine principles of the
new life rather than a set sequence of experience; above all, the parable
gives a lesson that most of us only begin to learn after Pentecost has
become a reality to us--the lesson of walking, not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit.
The flesh--the life of nature--is all, good and bad alike, that we had and
were before Christ came to us. We see its shadow in the life of root and
stem, leaf and tendril and petal, that made up the plant before its new
birth took place; "for all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is
as the flower of the field." It is not only that which is sinful as opposed
to that which is holy: it is that which is human as opposed to that which
is Divine.
In the earlier stage of the seed-vessel's growth we see the two lives, the
old and the new, practically going on alongside. And can we not
remember, many of us, in our own history, how the self life went
almost untouched and unrecognised, for years, while all the time Christ
was growing within us, and our ministry was being given?
Let us look at the seed-vessels, well set and forming fast, with their
natural life all unbroken as yet, and learn to be very tender and patient
with the early stages of God's work in those around.
But though the two may exist for a time side by side, they cannot
flourish together. The crisis must come to us as to the annual, when the
old creation begins to go down into the grave,