Parables of the Christ-life | Page 7

direct contact with Him. All the
intervening tissues in the seed-vessel melt away. "You have learnt the
death of self when there is nothing between your bare heart and Jesus."
Yes; when the seed is ripe it fills up the whole of the husk--there is no
room left for anything else: the walls shrivel to a mere shell. This is the
calling of the Bride--to have no room for anything but Jesus. Blessed
are they who hear it and respond.
Look at the parable. The life of leaf and tendril has shrunk away, but
there is nothing sad about the dying of the seed-vessel. What lovely

things they are, these little burnt offerings! Their bright golden browns
look far happier than the greens of spring.
And they have come now to a point of beautiful heedless freedom
about the future. When once the last shade of green that marks a
clinging to the old days has vanished, all carefulness for the earthly
side of things vanishes too. No matter how soon now the last strand of
earthly support and supply gives way: its loss is not felt. The life is
"hid" with such a hiding that nothing from around can touch it. The
fiercest summer glow only causes the little germ to wrap itself close
together in happy recklessness, the careless feet that tread it down can
only hasten the burial that is its next stage onward, the autumn storms
can bring it nothing but fresh draughts of quickening.
Yes, our life is hid with Christ in God, in actual truth as well in God's
purpose, if it has come to this that it is "no longer" we that live but
Christ that liveth in us. Oh! the simplicity of that "no longer"--as the
seed-vessel pictures it now, taken up with the seed it bears, and
heedless of itself and whatever may come. And yet, in the absolute
simplicity, there is a depth of mystery that the former days never knew.
It is like a soul that has come into the Holiest, where it has God alone.
* * * * * *
And now we turn to the other side, to watch what God can do, in the
world around, with the Christ-life that He creates in us. We have seen
its in-flowing: we will follow its outflow. To be to Jesus all for which
He has called us--letting Him have His way utterly with us, possessed
by Him, taken up with Him--that is the first purpose for our souls. But
the Father's plan for us reaches wider than that, though it can reach no
deeper. "The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was
made a quickening Spirit." His ultimate aim is to set free for His own
use that which He has wrought in us in secret, and to give us the power
of communicating that Divine life of which we have been made
partakers. We are to be "good stewards of the manifold grace of God,"
entrusted with "the true riches" to minister for Him--His for His
spending. The promise to Abraham: "I will bless thee ... and thou shalt
be a blessing," gives the double purpose for His people--"grace" for our

own souls, and "apostleship" for those around.
We have seen in parable, in the seed's growing and ripening, the work
of the Spirit within us, forming the life of Jesus, and bringing down the
flesh into the grave. In its scattering we see shadowed forth the Spirit
upon us in His power of reaching other souls. There is no needs be with
us that this double work should be consecutive as in the plants--it may
go on simultaneously. There is never a moment, from the first receiving
of Christ as Saviour, when the full outpouring of the Holy Ghost may
not take place--never a moment when, in figure, the seed may not be set
free. There are some few who leap down, as soon as they are saved, to
the simple, bare, lowly faith which liberates God's power, and He can
use them mightily all along, but they are very few. Practically in most
cases there is time involved, because we take so long to unlearn our
own sufficiency and our own resources, and even after we have
received the promise of the Spirit through faith, we are puzzled, it may
be, by a want of continuity in His outflow.
It is because, before God can get us to the place where He can send
Him through us in a steady tide, we have to go lower than we dreamed
of at first: and He may have to stop using us for a time, that He may
deepen this work within, and bring us to utter brokenness.
Look at the last stage in