CHAPTER V THE RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP OUR last chapter developed the thought that God is always the Benefactor, and that we, the beneficiaries, always owe our thanks to Him; also, that the Church of Christ as his representative has been called to the position of benefactor, and that the world, the beneficiary, owes its thanks to her. But there might be some danger that a Christian, taking this truth the wrong way, should fall into a Pharisaic and most unchristian superciliousness. Let me make haste, then, to guard against that risk by bringing forward in this chapter a complementary truth which is equally scriptural; for that is the way to correct possible misunderstanding of Scripture look at other Scripture. When the devil tempted Jesus to some perverted view by quoting something that had been "written," our Lord answered, "It is written again." He quoted other Scripture. And so, if we as Churchman had been tempted to thank God, like Pharisees, because we were not as other men are, "it is written again,” in the seventh verse of the third chapter of the Acts, "He took him by the right hand." The hand is the special organ of touch, for in it the nerves of feeling have been developed to the greatest delicacy of discrimination. We see with the eye; we hear with the ear; some kinds of objects are partially made known to us by the sense of smell; but if we are to know any external thing thoroughly, guarding ourselves against all risk of deception, assuring ourselves of its solid and genuine reality, we always like to touch it with the hand. It was a constant habit of our Lord Jesus to touch people with His hand. In His healing and blessing of the multitudes-not in every case, but generally-He chose to touch them. So it is written, “He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them." So, too, when He would bless the little children, “He laid His hands upon them and prayed." Jesus left with His disciples the same custom of touching men. When good Ananias was sent to help blinded Saul in Damascus, he came in and put his hands upon him. That was the common apostolic gesture when they were praying for young converts that they might receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit; they laid their hands upon them. It is one of the natural symbols which explains itself. The presbytery, the older men, by a kind of personal communication, laying their hands on young Timothy's head, share with him whatever gift and authority they themselves have enjoyed. The symbol represents visibly a spiritual fact; it is through this personal touch of man with man, down through the years, that the authority of Christ and the gifts of His Spirit have been perpetuated in the world. There is an unbroken continuity, a true succession; you and I join hands with those who felt the touch of those hands that were nailed to the cross. There has been no break; the succession-the Apostolic successionhas been maintained. We believe with all our hearts that Christ has been passing His gifts along in the Church from age to age by the touch of His servants, always by the touch of soul, and generally by the touch of the hand. If some of us object to some particular interpretations of that great doctrine of succession, it is only because these interpretations seem to us to treat the truth too narrowly, in a method too ceremonial and artificial, inventing small and crooked channels for gifts which the Lord Himself causes to flow along more generously. What we are interested in is a glorious dynamical fact, not a musty ecclesiastical theory: the fact that regularly this Christian power and grace have been conveyed from Christ Himself on and on through His Church by direct touch of man with man. Wher ever the blessed power is flowing to-day through holy lives and works of Christian love, whether in a Nestorian mission, or a Romish convent, or an Anglican parish, or a Friends' meeting, or a Salvation barracks, there the Apostolic succession-not the ecclesiastical fancy but the real thing-exists and authenticates itself; but if ever that gracious power begins to fail, if ever that power stops, we know that the circuit is broken; some non-conducting body has put itself in the way. No matter though you could produce a whole family tree of archbishops and patriarchs back to St. Peter himself, that does not prove anything. There is evidently a break in the wire, for the current has stopped. You would better see if you cannot come into contact with some other line of transmission which is still alive, and which may bring some of the original vitality back into your own discredited succession. Yes, these blessings of the Gospel have certainly been handed on to us by other men, else, humanly speaking, we could not now be enjoying them. Evidently, then, our Master intends that we should hand them on to others beyond, thus keeping up the succession; and that is the only satisfactory proof that anyone is still in the succession; the current must flow on beyond him. If earlier believers have laid their hands in blessing upon you, you must be laying your hands in blessing on someone else. But we have not yet reached quite the language of our text, for we have spoken of "laying the hand upon." The phrase would suggest two persons who stand on a different level of strength, or honor, or age, or holiness. For it is the gesture of blessing; and "without all contradiction," says the apostle," the less is blessed of the better." 1 When Christ laid His hands upon men, it was that some virtue in Him might flow into them. Young Timothy bared his head while the presbytery, men older than he in years, or experience, or official authority, laid their hands upon him, as if conferring upon him something that they already enjoyed. We still use that gesture in every kind of benediction, in the sacrament of baptism, in the service of ordination. "They laid their hands upon him." 2 But that was not what Peter did when he looked into the face of this impotent man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple; he did not lay his hands upon his head and pronounce a sort of dignified benediction over him. No, for he saw something in the man's eyes which led him to take him by the right hand and lift him up. Watch them there a moment 1 Hebrews vii, 7. |