Church discipline

" For I am in a strait betwixt two, having, a desire to depart, and to he with 
Christ, which is for better : nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more 
needful for you."— Phil. i. 23, 24. 

I. The two desires. 
11. A Christian balanced evenly between them. 
III. Practical lessons. 

I. The two desires are, 1. To depart and to be with 
Christ ; and, 2. To abide in the flesh. 

1. To depart and to be with Christ. This desire 
is composed of two parts, — a vestibule, somewhat dark 
and forbidding, through which the pilgrim must pass ; 
and a temple, unspeakably glorious, to which it leads the 
pilgrim, as his eternal home. 

(1.) The exodus from this life by dissolution of the 
body — " to depart." 

(2.) Christ's presence the immediate portion of his 
people, when their life on earth is done — " to be with 
Christ." 

(1.) The exodus. The word which in our Bible is 
translated " depart," means strictly to take to pieces. The 
living man is contemplated as a complex machine, and it 
is intimated that at death its joints are loosed, and the 
whole is broken up into its constituent elements. This life 
in the body is like a watch. By food, and drink, and air, 
it is wound up daily, and so kept going. At last the 
machinery, by gradual wear and tear, or by some sudden 
accident, is brought to a stand. Then it is taken down 
— taken to pieces — in order that it may be purified and 
perfected, and set agoing again, not to measure then the 
changing seasons of time, but to move on, without waste 
or weariness, in a limitless eternity. 

More immediately, the dissolution or untying probably 
refers to the separation of soul and body. The band that 
knit them together is broken at death. The soul escapes, 
and the body, meantime, returns to dust. In this view 
the works of the watch never stand still. When life 
from God was first breathed into that immortal being, 
it was wound up, once for all, to go for ever. At the 
shock of death it is severed from its case of flesh. Outer 
casement, and figured dial, and pointed hands, all remain 
with us, and all stand still. But these never were the 
moving springs. These were shells to protect the tender 
from injury where the road was rough, and indices to 
make the movements palpable to bodily sense ; but the 
vital motion of the departed spirit continues uninter- 
rupted, unimpeded, in a region where no violence is 
dreaded, and no sign to the senses is required. 

You may observe, both in the Scriptures, and in the 
actual history of Christians now, that lively faith is in- 
ventive and skilful, in turning the flank of the last enemy, 
and avoiding the terrors that frown from his front. They 
do not allow their view to terminate in the dark grave. 
They must look, they must move towards the grave ; but  
they look, at the same time, beyond it. They contrive 
so to lean on the resurrection, as to take away the terror 
of death. They are ingenious in discovering softer names 
for that which is so harsh in nature. For them its cha- 
racter has been changed, and why should they not apply 
to it a new designation? When Jews or Gentiles in 
those early days were converted to Christ, they received 
new names to indicate and commemorate their conver- 
sion. Paul became the Christian name of Saul the per- 
secutor. It was meet that when the waster of the 
Church became the gentle nurse who cherished her, the 
name which was so deeply dyed in blood should be allowed 
to drop, and another adopted which would be fragrant 
with associations of faith, and love, and holiness. So 
when death, king of terrors to the guilty, becomes sting- 
less and harmless to the forgiven, he gets from them a 
new name corresponding to his new nature. Death has 
several Christian names. Sometimes it is called Sleep, 
sometimes Departure ; sometimes the untying of the knot, 
that the immortal spirit may go free. The appellations 
are various, but they all indicate that, from the standing- 
place of them that are "in Christ Jesus," advancing 
death seems more a friend than a foe. 

(2.) The company to which that exodus directly leads, 
— " to be with Christ." It is obvious, and needs no 
proof, that Paul counted on immediate entrance at the 
untying of the knot into the joy of the Lord. He knew 
of no middle state of detention and purgation, either for 
himself or for disciples who might not be so ripe at the 
moment of their fall. Whatever and wherever the place  of saved spirits may be while their bodies lie in the 

dust, one thing is certain, Christ is there. " The love of 
the Spirit " has made that one point plain, and Christians 
need not care for more. Mark here how well suited 
these promises are to our capacity and our need. Of the 
three points regarding the condition of separate spirits, 
on which information might be thought possible or 
desirable, Where, What, and with Whom, the Scriptures 
deal only with the last. It is well. Information given 
to us about the locality in space where departed spirits 
dwell, or the kind of habitation provided for them there, 
might be in itself true ; but it would obviously be useless 
to us, because we lack the faculties and the experience 
necessary to understand it. Witness the inconsistent, 
childish, and grotesque legends of Mohammedans and 
Hindoos regarding the position of their paradise, and the 
material riches which it contains. In vivid contrast with 
those vain and vile deceptions, the Bible makes no 
attempt to fix the spot or describe the appearance of the 
saints' inheritance. One thing only it tells Christians 
about the state in which the spirits of the just shall 
dwell, — they shall be with Christ there. '' Then were 
the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." 

A law, however pure and perfect, cannot be company 
to a person. A thing, though it were the brightest bit 
of God's universe, or that universe itself, could not make 
a person happy. Persons will be miserable, although 
they possess all power and all wisdom, unless they have 
kindred persons with whom they may hold fellowship. 
What is a man profited, although he should gain a  
glorious heaven, if his human affections are lost for want 
of a human being: to exercise them on. Even true 
believers lag far behind in this department of duty and 
privilege. In this direction there is room for great 
advancement. The pleasure and profit which we derive 
from human society on earth is a matter of experience ; 
greater pleasure and profit await the saved from human 
society in heaven : if there were faith to realize the 
unseen, the hope of the greater in prospect would over- 
balance the less which we already hold in our hands. 
All the good which we enjoy from the society of our kind 
during a whole life-time, is not worthy to be compared 
with the blessedness of having the man Christ Jesus for 
company, where no sin mars the intercourse, and no 
duration brings it nearer to a close. Take human com- 
panionship in the purest, sweetest form that our experience 
in the body supplies, divest it absolutely of all alloy, 
magnify it by all the value of our Brother's divine nature, 
and extend it to eternity Such is the company that 
Christians expect. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not 
heard, heart cannot conceive how precious it is. Here is 
a mine, not much wrought now, where the martyrs found 
those riches of grace which we admire in their history, 
and where the poor may dig at will to-day. 

" Looking unto Jesus " is the act by which Christians 
contrive to gild with blessed hope the horizon of life's 
setting day. Intervening clouds, which seem murky 
from another stand -point, glitter all in gold when the 
observer is so situated that he sees the sun beyond them. 

2. "To abide in the flesh." It is a natural and a 
lawful desire. God has placed us here ; he has visited 
us here ; he has given us something to enjoy and some- 
thing to do here. He expects us to value what he has 
bestowed. Jesus, in his prayer to the Father for those 
whom he had redeemed, puts in a specific caveat : " I 
pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world." 
What Christ did not desire for Christians, they should 
not desire for themselves. Paul, even when he was ripe 
for glory, positively desired to abide in the flesh ; they 
are the healthiest Christians who in this matter tread in 
his track. 

This is a point of great practical importance in the 
experience of believers. On the one hand, some re- 
belliously cling to this life without respect to the will of 
our Father in heaven. A purpose is secretly cherished, 
determined in its nature, although impotent in effect, 
" to abide in the flesh " and enjoy it, wdiether God will 
or will not. On the other hand, true disciples are often 
troubled without cause, by detecting in themselves during 
periods of severe illness a distinct, positive desire for 
longer days. They sometimes expend much needless 
labour in trying to crucify an affection which is not a 
sin. The love of life ! — it is not necessary, it is not lawful 
to destroy it. Let it alone to the last. The way to deal 
with it is not to tear it violently out, so as to have, or 
say that you have, no desire to remain ; but to get, 
through the grace of the Spirit, such a blessed hope of 
Christ's presence as will gradually balance, and at last 
overbalance the love of life, and make it at the appointed 
time come easily and gently away. 
Such were the two opposite desires that lived together 
in a believer's breast ; let us consider now the weights 
with which each is loaded, so as to maintain a safe and 
easy equipoise, 

II. A Christian balanced evenly between these two 
desires : " I am in a strait betwixt two." From the word 
strait employed in our translation we are apt to take up the 
notion of pain and difficulty. This is not the idea which 
the apostle intended to express. Literally the word 
signifies to be between two, and held by both at the same 
time. In ordinary circumstances, and in the present case 
especially, this is pleasanter and safer than to be held by 
only one. This strait is the happiest condition in which 
a living man can be. It is not a position of distraction 
from which he would fain escape, but a position of solid 
repose. To be grasped and drawn by either of these 
emotions alone would bend and break a man ; to be 
attracted equally by both produces a delicious equilibrium. 

The spiritual fact may be explained by a material 
example. Suppose a man is standing aloft upon a 
pedestal where he finds room to plant his feet and no 
more. Suppose that one neighbour stands near him on 
the right hand, and another near him on the left. If 
one of these grasp and draw him, his posture immediately 
becomes uneasy and dangerous. Under the strain he 
does not keep his footing easily, and will not keep it 
long. But if both should grasp him, either seizing a 
hand, and draw with equal force in opposite directions, 
the result would be an erect attitude and an easy position. 
Such precisely in the spiritual department is the equili- 
brium of a believer who is held and drawn by both these 
desires at once. It is the strait betwixt two that makes 
him easy. Either of these desires wanting the other 
would distress him in proportion to its strength. 

On the one hand, a desire to abide in the flesh 
without a balancing desire to depart and to be with 
Christ, is a painful condition. The weight hanging on 
one side racks the person all over. Most men are 
crushed in this manner all their days. The Redeemer 
knows this sorrow and provides relief. One specific 
design of his coming was " to deliver them who through 
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 
As soon as one of these tremblers is begotten again 
into a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead, the balance is restored and deliverance 
effected. 

On the other hand, the converse is equally true, although 
not equally common. To experience a desire to depart, 
unbalanced by a desire to abide in the flesh, is also a 
painful experience. Many Christians pass through at 
least a short period of this unevenness and uneasiness 
before they are set free. Whatever may be the im- 
mediate causes which have made life wearisome to a 
Christian, whenever the desire to abide dies out, the 
desire to depart distracts him. It may be that most of 
us at present would gladly bargain for such a state of 
mind at the close of life, as being the safest ; but it is, 
notwithstanding, and not the less a painful state of mind. 

But besides the general intimation that he w^as drawn 
simultaneously toward both sides, we find in this text 
the specific quality which on either side exerted the power; 
the one was "far better" for himself, the other "more 
needful " for his brethren. The gain which it promised 
to himself made the prospect of departure welcome ; the 
opportunity of doing good to others reconciled him to 
longer life on earth. The desire "to be with Christ" 
does not make life unhappy, because it is balanced by the 
pleasure of working for Christ in the world ; the desire 
to work for Christ in the world does not make the ap- 
proach of dissolution painful, because it is balanced by 
the expectation of being soon — of being ever with the 
Lord. 

These two, then, go to constitute the spiritual man. 
These are the right and left sides of the new creature in 
Christ. Where both grow equally, there is no halting ; 
where both have grown well, the step is steady and the 
progress great. 

 Practical lessons. 

1. This one text is sufficient to destroy the whole 
fabric of Romish prayer to departed saints. Incidentally 
this inspired intimation of Paul's peaceful equipoise scatters 
their mediatorial system like chafiT before the wind. If 
the Popish doctrine is true, obviously Paul was funda- 
mentally mistaken. " To depart and to be with Christ " 
would, in that case, have been far more needful, and more 
useful for his friends who might be left behind in the 
body. In thorough consistency with their scheme, a dead 
saint is a much greater affair in Rome than a living one. 
A human saint already in heaven is either invested with 
an attribute which, in relation to this earth, is equivalent 
to omniscience, or he is not ; if he is not, of a thousand 
Papists who, in various parts of the world, may be ad- 
dressing the same saint at the same moment, nine hundred 
and ninety-nine lose their labour, while the merely human 
mediator is occupied with one ; if he is, then Paul should 
have said to his brethren, It is far better both for you and 
me that I should depart and be with Christ. One only 
could say with truth, and in tlie Bible one only has said, 
" It is expedient for you that I go away.'" There is one 
mediator between God and men. Paul knew that by 
" pains " taken with them, he might do good to his 
brethren as long as he abode in the flesh ; but it never 
entered his mind that, in answer to "prayers" which they 
might address to him, he could do them any good after 
his departure. 

2. The chief use of a Christian in the world is to do 
good. When the master sends labourers into the field to 
convert it into a garden, idlers only take up room, and 
stand in the way of the willing. Christians are in their 
own sphere like Christ ; it is their meat and their drink 
to do the will of the Father. The command of the 
Saviour and the inclination of the saved coincide in 
sending forth labourers to the Lord's harvest. He w^ho 
has gotten mercy from God is and must be merciful to 
men. They who hope to be with Christ when they 
depart, should so act as that neighbours would count 
them needful while here, and miss them when they go. 

3. You cannot be effectively useful to those who are 
in need on earth, unless you hold by faith and hope to 
Christ on high. The man who desires to depart and 
to be with Christ is felt to be most needful among 
his brethren. Hope is the soul of successful labour. It 
is the man who is above the world that can do most 
for the world. The old philosopher knew that he could 
not move the earth, however potent his instruments might 
be, as long as he had nothing but the earth to stand upon. 
They who desire to move the world in its spiritual cha- 
racter are subjected to similar conditions. It is only when 
they are "not of the world" that they will have purchase 
on the w^orld, or any part of it, to turn it unto God. 

To labour for lost neighbours without sustaining hope 
in your own soul is a painful process, and comparatively 
ineffectual. It is like an attempt to carry water in a 
vessel with one hand, while the other hand is empty. 
You will not be able to carry much, and all the bones of 
your frame will be racked by the little which you carry. 
An equal weight on the other side will make the weight 
easy. It was because Paul was loaded on both sides 
that he stood so erect, and walked so steadily under his 
burden. 

4. Living hope of going to be with Christ is the only 
anodyne which has power to neutralize the pain of parting 
with those who are dear to us in the body. When Paul 
looked upon his own children in the faith, who still greatly 
needed his presence, the thought of separation was in 
itself painful. The bond on this side was strong, the 
attraction on this side powerful ; it was good for him 
that he was drawn with equal force to the other side.  

Brethren, we all have tender ties to earth and time. 
Children it may be, or brothers, both in the flesh and in 
the spirit, are twined closely round our hearts. We are 
needful to them. This is felt on both sides now, and will 
be felt more tenderly when the hour of separation is 
drawing near. How shall that pang be softened to both 
parties, — to him who is departing, and to those who 
remain ? In one way only : the desire to depart and to 
be with Christ will do it, and nothing else w^ill. How 
good it is, — how necessary to have that hope and trust 
now ! How dreary to be drifting down toward those 
dark and tempestuous narrows before the anchor of the 
soul has been thrown within the veil, and fastened there 
on Jesus I 

Paul's " strait " is the only easy position on the earth ; 
oh, to be in it ! If you are held by both of these bonds 
you will not fear a fall on either side. Although your 
life, instead of being in your Father's hands, were at the 
disposal of your worst enemy, in his utmost effort to do 
you harm, he would be shut up between these two, — 
either to keep you a while longer in Christ's work, or 
send you sooner to Christ's presence. That were indeed 
a charmed life that should tremble evenly in the blessed 
balance ; — this way, we shall do good to men ; that way, 
we shall be with the Lord. William Arnot