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That things above, that things beyond, may belong to the Christian is welt understood; the sceptic with a smile will allow this; but that "things present" are ours in Christ is not so well understood. Observe, however —

I. THAT THE FAITH OF CHRIST SECURES TO US "THINGS PRESENT." It is a common complaint of secularism that the tendency of supernatural religion is to withdraw our attention from the immediate practical world, and to waste our time and powers on mere figments of the imagination. And it is a very common thing for secular writers to point to the mediaeval age for the demonstration of their position, and to assert that civilisation was saved only by the Renaissance calling man's energies from the unknowable to the knowable, from heaven to earth. Now this is capable of a satisfactory reply.

1. We appeal from a corrupt to a pure Christianity. Surely none would compare the positive science of astronomy with the obscure divinations and horoscopes of astrology. Yet astronomy concerns itself with the distant, but the science of the firmament is a most fruitful one in regard to our present immediate worldly interests. And so if in the middle ages a corrupt theology and ecclesiasticism worked badly, that is no argument against the Christianity of Christ. The New Testament never separates earth from heaven. It brings before us, in God and Christ and heaven, great ideals which are to vivify, to enrich, to realise, to exalt, to perfect, all earthly things. Men talk of the unworldliness of Christianity, but it recognises the dignity and rights of the body, it assigns us all the wealth of nature, it leaves us free to work out our intellectual faculty, it gives its Divine sanction to all the articulations of human society. Men talk of the narrowness of Christianity, but it is wide enough for all present things so far as those things are rational and useful. If there ever was a grand protest against narrowness it is the protest of the text. Christianity is wide enough for all muscularities; it shuts out Roman amphitheatres and modern prize-rings, but thank God for the narrowness that shuts out brutality and blood. Christianity is wide enough for all art; it shuts out Pompeian chambers of obscenity, but thank God for the narrowness that shuts out beastliness and ghastliness. Christianity is wide enough for love and home; it shuts out Venus's temple and Mohammed's harem, but thank God for the narrowness that shuts out the degradation of women. Christianity is wide enough for all true commerce, wealth, pleasure; it warns us against covetousness, licentiousness, materialism, but thank God for the narrowness that prevents our taking the big barn of Dives for the supreme goal of life.

2. We appeal from the mediaeval to the modern world. Whatever a few dilettante critics may say, the faith of Christ has filled us with an energy which finds manifold and magnificent manifestations in the things present. Do you find that the faith of Christ gives men about you a distaste for, and makes them successful in, practical life? "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof," and all is yours, for "ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

II. THAT THE FAITH OF CHRIST MAKES "THINGS PRESENT" OURS WITH TRUEST AND FULLEST PROPRIETY. In Christ we have —

1. The richest enjoyment of things present. Things are not ours when they are ours legally, conventionally — they are ours only when we so realise them that they rejoice our heart. It is easy to have riches, &c., and yet not have the power to eat thereof. Some maintain that it is in miserable conditions that the deepest need is felt for religious truth and consolation; and they affirm that as man ceases to be miserable, so religion will be ignored as a superfluous thing. But this is far from being the case. Men are never more deeply, mysteriously miserable than they are when they have everything their soul desireth. Look at Germany to-day, brilliant in genius, flushed with power and success, and yet cankered with the philosophy of despair. And we are constant witnesses how successful opulent men are wearied of life; they remind one of bees drowning in their own honey. The fact is, you can only realise the joy of things present in the light of God's presence, in the power of His blessing. When the beautiful orb comes between the sun and the earth, it is an inky blot on the heavens. And so all beautiful things in human life become dark and disappointing the moment they come between us and God. It is only in the light of God that life shines, only in His blessing that it is rich.

2. The fullest profit of things present. A life of material success is no advantage. Maudsley, who has no bias to religion certainly, observes: "There is no more efficient cause of mental degeneracy than the mean and vulgar life of a tradesman, whose soul is entirely taken up with petty gains, who, under the sanction of the customs of the trade, practises systematic fraud and theft. The deterioration of nature which he has acquired will, unless a healthier family influence serve to counteract it, be transmitted as a family heritage to his children, and may result in some form of moral or intellectual deficiency, perhaps in outbreaks of positive insanity." Here, then, the religion of materialism and material success is nothing very grand. Now, what is to save a man from this deterioration? Romances? Politics? The theatre? 'The newspaper? Surely not. Great thoughts, great principles, great hopes — these will lift the soul of the tradesman; and these are to be found only in religion. Christ makes things present ours by making them means and instruments of our higher education. Conclusion: In this way we are told much about impressionism, about making the best of the present moment. It is said that man has always one foot in the past, the other in the future, and that he misses altogether the flowers and fruits, the delights and treasures, of the present. There is no vivid, full realisation of the moment except as we realise immortality in the moment; he who tastes the power of the present must taste the powers of the world to come. In Christ things present are ours because things to come are ours. Present joy is ours in all its depth and preciousness; and these "light afflictions, which are but for a moment," are ours also. "Whilst we look not at the things which are seen," &c.

(W. L. Watkinson.)

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KJV: Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

WEB: whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,