The price of expansion - Chambers, Oswald

Rejoice, o young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things god will bring thee into judgement. Ecclesiastes 11:9 (RV )

Every expansion of mind, or heart, or emotion has to be paid for by additional concentration. The price is the same in national and individual life. During these years there has been a terrific expansion in lives through bereavement and sorrow, everything in individual life has been altered, but there is the price to pay. The majority of us are inclined to make little of what we feel most; it is a good thing to be inarticulate, but at the same time it is well to get an expression because others have the same experience. Up to thirty years of age life is full of promise; after that, life holds out no more promise, it holds out the test as to whether we are going to live up to what we saw in vision. The danger is to abandon the vision and say we are getting more sensible; we are, rather, getting more sordid, we have lost the moral vim, the effort to pay the price of the expansion. It is a question of hanging in in the dark to what we saw in the light. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light ( john 12:36).

1. Reaction of formation (Luke 11:2426)

Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more evil than himself; and they enter in and dwell there. (Luke 11:26 RV )

There is an idea in regard to a revival that the thing is done suddenly, by a magic pill. Some things in a mans life are done suddenly, but there is always the price to pay afterwards; he has to set his face to it. To-day people are crying out for a revival and an awakening, but we have to remember that we must lay our account with the inevitable reaction. Reaction means the way i answer back to anything which impinges on me; physical health, moral and spiritual health, are all maintained by reaction. A converted man is not necessarily one gods spirit has touched; a man may reform himself by sheer strength of will, but reaction is inevitable and unless he is willing to pay the price of the expansion, he will end worse than he began. Our lord is not talking about the man who suddenly collapses because he has gone on in some secret sin; he is describing the man who has turned the devil out and made his heart clean by sheer will swept and garnished but empty, and he says that the last state of that man becometh worse than the first (rv ).

Our lords attitude to the human will is not that frequently presented to-day; he never says that a man must make vows and decisions. Decisions for christ fail, not because men are not in earnest, but because the bedrock of christianity is left out. The bedrock of Christianity is not strength of will, but the realisation of my inability to decide: if i am ever going to be what Jesus christ wants me to be, he must come in and do it, i am an abject pauper morally and spiritually. Fundamental free will is never possible, if it were our vowing would be omnipotent, we could do as we liked.

2. The danger of drifting from ideals

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and i will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for i am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:2830)

We generally look upon an ideal as something to live up to; it is rather something to live in the inspiration of. A boy in his teens has clearer and purer ideals than at any future time; then when he begins to find a divorce between what he is and what he sees he ought to be, he experiences an agony of mind. We can all see visions and dream dreams, but they are not woven into the texture of our life, and unless we are willing to pay the price of expansion we will drift from our ideals. Immediately you are prepared to live in the inspiration of your ideals, you become a speckled bird. Many a man is kept back from Jesus Christ by a sense of honour to his own crowd no, they will think i am becoming a superior person, and a man often chooses to drift from his ideals rather than seem disloyal to his crowd. If he goes on, ultimately his crowd will go with him, but it will test his moral calibre to the utmost.

3. The natural law of emotion

(colossians 3:510) mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. . . . (colossians 3:5)

If i allow an emotion and refuse to act it out on its right level, it will react on a lower level, and the higher the emotion the deeper the reaction. The most unwholesome people spiritually are those who like to have their emotions stirred by prayer meetings

And devotional readings, but they never act them out. In the natural world the one who is used to having things played before his emotions apart from actual life is as a rule the most callous, heartless person at home. My guide as to what emotion i am going to allow is to ask myselfsuppose i allow this emotion, what is its logical outcome? If it has to do with sin and satan, then cut it clean out, allow it no more way; if it is an emotion to be generous, then be generous, work it out on its right level and your moral life will be tremendously benefited. The place for discipline in both natural and spiritual life lies just here. When the spirit of god stirs you, make as many things inevitable as possible, let the consequences be what they will. It is in such crises in spiritual life as these that Jesus says, come unto me . . . And i will give you rest. He will make a man able to work out in actual life what he sees by the power of vision.