He lives;
therefore we can front change and decay in all around calmly and
triumphantly. It matters not though the prophets and their hearers pass
away. Men depart; Christ abides. Luther was once surprised by some
friends sitting at a table from which a meal had been removed, and
thoughtfully tracing with his fingers upon its surface with some drop of
water or wine the one word 'Vivit'; He lives. He fell back upon that
when all around was dark. Yes, men may go; what of that? Aaron may have
to ascend to the summit of Hor, and put off his priestly garments and
die there. Moses may have to climb Pisgah, and with one look at the land
which he must never tread, die there alone by the kiss of God, as the
Rabbis say. Is the host below leaderless? The Pillar of Cloud lies still
over the Tabernacle, and burns steadfast and guiding in front of the
files of Israel. 'Your fathers, where are they? The prophets, do they
live for ever?' 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day and for
ever.'

Another consideration to be drawn from this contrast is, since we have
this abiding Word, let us not dread changes, however startling and
revolutionary. Jesus Christ does not change. But there is a human
element in the Church's conceptions of Jesus Christ, and still more in
its working out of the principles of the Gospel in institutions and
forms, which partakes of the transiency of the men from whom it has
come. In such a time as this, when everything is going into the
melting-pot, and a great many timid people are trembling for the Ark of
God, quite unnecessarily as it seems to me, it is of prime importance
for the calmness and the wisdom and the courage of Christian people,
that they should grasp firmly the distinction between the divine
treasure which is committed to the churches, and the earthen vessels in
which it has been enshrined. Jesus Christ, the man Jesus, the divine
person, His incarnation, His sacrifice, His resurrection, His ascension,
the gift of His Spirit to abide for ever with His Church--these are the
permanent 'things which cannot be shaken.' And creeds and churches and
formulas and forms--these are the human elements which are capable of
variation, and which need variation from time to time. No more is the
substance of that eternal Gospel affected by the changes, which are
possible on its vesture, than is the stateliness of some cathedral
touched, when the reformers go in and sweep out the rubbish and the
trumpery whi