The Mystery of Power
Canon Knox-Little. 1 Corinthians 1:24 But to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. I. THE CROSS REPRESENTS THREE GREAT IDEAS WHICH SUM UP WHAT IS NEEDED BY US ALL FOR THE FULFILMENT OF VOCATION. 1. The idea of Duty. In the moral mystery of the Passion we see this special characteristic in the Representative Man. He perfectly subordinated every sinless desire of ease, or wish for deliverance, to the fulfilment of the infinite claim of duty, though it drove Him to His death. 2. The idea of Love. I am assured in the gloom of the Passion that "God is Love." And this force of the Passion has strength to attract the soul to the Redeemer with infinite desire. Love implies generosity of service; "loved me, gave Himself for me," rouses the generous answer "love for love." Now this is a spiritual power of the Passion drawing and enabling me to love God. 3. The idea of Holiness. Thus we name that perfect loveliness which is the sum of the moral glory of God. Now to the creature there is a possibility of the grasp and apprehension of the heavenly beauty. The fact was seen in Jesus crucified, and by the infinite merits of the Passion is guaranteed to man a share in the grace, in the life of the Man of men. Jesus crucified is the source, the promise of this power. II. IN THE CROSS THERE IS DIVINE POWER. 1. I have watched the wild waves of an Atlantic storm. The wind was screaming to a pitch of tempest, the clouds rolled mass on mass of inky blackness, only relieved by a glow of vivid fire. The waves towered high, then sank again in restless mountains and unstable valleys of seething sea. A splendid spectacle! the spectacle of nature in exercise of unrestrained tremendous power! 2. I have watched the great engines in Chicago pumping up with steady unabated beat their three hundred million gallons hour by hour from the central depths of Michigan, for the use of that strangest city of the New World. 3. I have started turning into the Scuola di San Rocco at Venice, brought suddenly face to face with that grand and pathetic picture of the Crucified, displayed there these centuries in living colour from the genius of Tintoretto. 4. Nature, Mechanical Invention, Art — each show the mystery of power. But the power that consoles the sunken spirit, kindles the heart's best affections, changes and invigorates the stern or failing will, and transforms the corrupted soul to the likeness of the Divine ideal — a power moral, spiritual, supernatural — that is the greatest of all. Ah! that is found in the Crucified; it becomes the possession of the creature by union with Christ. III. IN THE CROSS IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION. 1. What is it to be saved? Is it to make a satisfactory investment in insurance against final punishment, when here in our mortal pilgrimage we have, so to speak, "taken our fling," and passion and ambition have had their unrestricted play? Certainly not. (1) It is to be placed habitually on a higher platform of thought, and to be awakened to a sincerity of manly and abiding sorrow for aught in our motives or actions unworthy or wrong. (2) It is to have that light of the heart, that strength of the will, that eager purity of the affections, by the force of which we breast the waves of sorrow, sustain ourselves with meekness under the strain of success, and in the darkest hours, as in the brightest moments, do not fail in unselfishness and truth. (3) It is to rise out of the ruts of convention; it is to strangle the treachery of self; it is to have the clear eye and spiritual understanding of the inhabitant of eternity; to be advancing in fitness to play our part as citizens of that blessed commonwealth which is quickly coming — "the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."(4) In one word, it is to have the heart of a man, as his Creator conceived him, pure, tender, and loving; it is with that heart to love God supremely, perfectly; and in God to lose self in love for others — that is to be saved! 2. Can this be ours? Thou hast answered, "It can," O my Jesus! my Redeemer! The lesson of it comes from the Crucified; its power, its possibility from the precious blood. (Canon Knox-Little.) Parallel Verses KJV: But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. WEB: but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.