Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind… I. TWO THOUGHTS ARE HERE SUGGESTED. 1. The apostle's principle is the very one which makes the civilized man distinct from the barbarian. The characteristic of the former is restless progressiveness; of the latter, supineness and stagnation.. (1) The civilizing man has his caravan track, but he will have one directer and easier. He has turnpikes and stage coaches, but he must level or tunnel the mountain, and lay a pavement of iron, and chain his ear to a horse of fire. The earth yields him enough to eat, but he will not live by bread alone; he must eat bread enough to bring with it a better provided life; so he contrives steam ploughs and threshers to make the arm of the farmer equal to the productive power of the sun and field. He finds the pen too slow, hence his types and cylinders scatter libraries. On the other hand, the barbarian is content to live in a hut, to scratch the ground with a stick, to trudge on foot with a trail for a road. He takes the world as he finds it, and leaves it as he found it. (2) But the one sort do not all live where civilization prevails, nor do the others in lands where barbarism is dominant. Every civilized region has risen out of barbarism, and we see the barbarian spirit in stagnant conservatism resisting improvement. (3) None the less does the old barbarian strain come to the surface. When a man thinks of his moral condition, he says, "I am as good as the average of my neighbours." It is this from which man has to be saved. 2. A rule which God has made fundamental in the world, we must make so in individual life. (1) Since the day when man first lighted a fire to boil his pot, and hollowed out his first canoe, up to the day when the latest development of these contrivances appears in the steamship which can sail three thousand miles a week, the world has never rested in its advance. What achievements has the world made and forgotten in achieving better. Again and again it would seem as if the men of Babylon, of Memphis, of Athens, and Rome must have said to themselves, "No more beyond." Modern men have said this, and prophesied dire results from setting up of power instead of hand looms, sewing machines instead of needles, locomotives instead of coach horses. But the world moved on to "forget the things behind," etc. (2) Said the popes to those who saw a purer Church and truth attainable, "No more beyond, except the fire for those who would disturb our established order." So said the English kings of the seventeenth century to the uprising spirit of liberty. So say the theologians today; but the world and the Church move on. There are branches to spring from the ever-growing trees that have not yet even budded. (3) What God works in the great whole, we are to work in our part. He in the man, we as the molecules of the man are to be of one mind — "forgetting," etc. II. FROM THESE THOUGHTS WE MAY DRAW FRESH CONVICTIONS FOR THE REALIZATIONS OF THE SPIRITUAL CAPABILITIES OF OUR NATURE. 1. While we derive inspirations of confidence from contemplating the grand law of the world's increasing progress, must we not see a stern rebuke upon every life not in harmony with this law? 2. On what principle is our personal life and thought conducted? So far as relates to our worldly condition, our constant endeavour for betterment as the necessity of an undecaying life. How then about the far more important thing? All unimproveable life must sooner or later run out. When the law of development will not work, the law of decay and dissolution is the only one that will. Work, then, with the better law intelligently, consistently, perseveringly. 3. The great reproach of Christianity is its passive content with an average morality, and a life devoid of aspiration to higher levels — in a word, its spiritual barbarism, stagnant, supine, and poor in power. (J M. Whiton, Ph. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, |
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