Originally published in the February 1972 issue of The Testimony magazine
A Sound Mind
THIS BOOK consists of a series of essays by brother Sargent that have appeared in The Christadelphian. Most of them are quite short, about four to five pages, and each can be read in a few minutes. So here is an ideal book for all brethren and sisters to have at hand to be picked up at any time and read with profit. The articles are varied, the early ones of a general nature and the later ones particularly concerned with the work of Jesus as our redeemer and what this means to us.
In an early article dealing with the miracle Jesus performed on the woman who was “bowed together” he comments, “The saying that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, does not mean that the Sabbath was made for human needs, and must be accommodated to those needs. It means the Sabbath, being the foreshadowing of the future age, is the type of God’s redemptive purpose with man: and the purpose is greater than the type. When Jesus on the Sabbath performs the works of the Messianic age … he is acting as the Messiah … For that work no day is so appropriate as the Sabbath.”
Frequently, we are left to make the application to ourselves. For example speaking of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding on the ass he writes, “In the incident in the Temple the hearts of the two groups are laid bare by the contrast they provide. But are we never blinded by hidden motives? Is our ‘righteous indignation’ never moved by personal jealousy? Or on the other hand do we sometimes exalt a work which is for the glory of men? Let us look honestly in the mirror held up to human nature by these two groups in the Temple.”
His interest in Nature is shown in the article, “Ask now the beasts”. “A flutter of fur in a hole in the hedgebank … An orange-tip butterfly zig-zagged wantonly along … that yard of Worcestershire hedge, so filled with life … So David comes to the conclusion: ‘O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.’ Wisdom is shown in the light with which creation begins; in the preparation of the world as a home; in the development of the web of life in which every creature is a strand: and above all in man, who is capable of contemplating the work and acknowledging the wisdom.”
The duties of parents are indicated in the history of Rehoboam and Solomon where he reminds us, “Whatever his heredity, Rehoboam had the advantage of having as father the greatest educationist in history; and, however it is explained, the fact is that the inspired author of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes failed in the education of his own successor. The causes we can only guess. Did Solomon among the cares of state and his many pursuits find time to apply his principles to the nurture of his son? Could he give Rehoboam the personal care of a father? … the facts as far as we can know them do suggest that both in Rehoboam’s heredity and his environment, Solomon was not without a measure of responsibility for his failure. And from it all some obvious lessons may be drawn for today.”
There are excellent articles on Christ and Freewill and the Sign of the Son of Man. In calling for a return to the centre he writes, “If problems at the circumference of our faith come to occupy more thought than the certainties at the hub, there will be a shifting of balance. Not all the problems can be solved in this life, whether in Scripture or out of it, but there are realities which are abiding. Times occur in the life of individuals and communities when the greatest need is a return to the centre.” Later on he continues, “In the past there was no doubt about it: the very beginnings in the work of Dr. John Thomas left a clear line of demarcation. Christadelphians were a people ‘called out’, not merely from the world at large, but from the ‘names and denominations of Christendom’. Believing that they had the ‘Truth’, they stood apart from all the churches, refusing any compromise of their distinctiveness or any association which could lead to their being regarded as merely one ‘persuasion’ among many. They rejoiced in being ‘the sect everywhere spoken against’. Their essential task was to guard undefiled that deposit of truth which was committed to their trust, and this they could only do in strict separation from others.” He concludes the essay, “Unless it remains firm on those essentials of truth which a hundred years ago were presented as a whole body of belief and the way of life, the real work of the Christadelphian community will have ended and it will be only a matter of time before its light is put out.”
In a series of articles on “Foundations”, he calls attention to the reality of the things we believe. “But ,the eternal things are not abstract principles or immaterial entities; the future is the fruition of God’s creation, not the annihilation of it … There is no conflict between God and things material, for He has made them; the conflict is between ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit’ as states of mind and disposition, the one having its ground in fallen man, the other having its source in God and His revelation.” Later he adds, “The fact of Christ risen is the core of our faith and the object of our hope. And by resurrection we mean – a real historical event, occurring in Jerusalem at a certain passover when Pontius Pilate was governor under the Emperor Tiberius; an event in which Jesus demonstrated his substantial bodily existence, was identified by his wounds and by his power of knowing what was in men, and showed 'his reality by eating before their eyes and preparing a meal for them … The truth of the resurrection must mean far more to us than defence against unbelief, or resistance to any encroachment of it into our own midst … This is our faith and life.”
This emphasis on the resurrection is all the more appropriate when we remember that our brother sleeps in the hope of the resurrection along with so many of like precious faith, and to quote from one of his earlier articles, “‘But now is Christ risen, and become the firstfruits of them that are asleep’. We see the sheaf; we know the harvest will follow.”
This review originally appeared in the February 1972 edition of The Testimony Magazine (pages 67-68), and is reproduced by kind permission.
