My friend, Stuart K. Hine, tells of the inspiration which caused him to add verses in English to the old Swedish hymn, How Great Thou Art. He was visiting a home in the Carpathian Mountains near the Polish border when he found a Christian by the name of Dimitri and his wife. Almost by chance, a Bible had fallen into their hands, but no one in the village, save Dimitri's wife, had learned to read, and she only with the greatest of effort. As she slowly spelled out the wonderful words of John 3:16 to the wondering villagers, the tears began to flow, and one by one they dropped to their knees, crying out to God aloud. Twelve of these villagers had been truly converted, and it was these believing disciples that Mr. Hine met when he called at the cottage in the mountains that day. He arrived just in time to hear them crying out in amazement again at the revelation of God's love at Calvary. 

Under the inspiration of the blessed scene, he wrote: 

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in; that on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin … then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee, how great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Wondrous love had captured these mountain folk and added them to the train of His triumph. 

Paul not only saw himself being led as a captive in the triumphal march, but, through identification with Christ, he shared in the glory of the triumph with his Lord. 

Glorious truth! It is our privilege now as redeemed and captured ones to enter into enjoyment of the fruits of our Lord's victory over the powers of darkness. This is the marvel of our union with Him. After our capitulation to Christ come the conflict and conquests through Christ, when we celebrate His victory over the hosts of hell. It's true that at His glorious appearing, the Church triumphant will celebrate with Him His victory over all His enemies before a wondering universe, but it can never be too strongly stated that Calvary's victory is for every child of God today. "In all these things," cried Paul, "we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" - or, as one French version puts it, "we are super-conquerors" (Romans 8:37). 

It's well for us to remember always that the victory isn't our own, but His. We, in ourselves, are no match for the wiles of Satan. It's only as we assume our authority with our risen Lord on the throne that the powers of darkness are overthrown through us. It's His triumph we celebrate. It behooves us to bear this truth in mind always in our evangelistic ministry. The measure of the depth of any evangelistic work is the measure in which people are pointed to Christ and away from ourselves. He is the mighty conqueror - we only the exhibits of His redeeming power. Any victory we might achieve is by virtue of our union with Him. 

Yet the fact remains that all the glory of His victory is ours, and the fruits of His conquest are to be made experientially ours by faith. 

Finally, in the triumphal procession Paul sees himself, not only as a soldier, sharing in the victory, but as one of the incense-bearers - a "thurifer." "By me," he declared, "He wafts abroad through every land the knowledge of Jesus, the incense of His triumphal march." 

What a mighty statement. Only one who is completely identified with the sufferings of the Redeemer can waft abroad the knowledge of Him. Only one who has counted all things as refuse in order to "know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings" could make Him known to others. Paul's imagery wasn't spoken by him lightly; it was a great reality in his life. In this epistle of II Corinthians (verses 4-11), he declares:

 What we bring you is a treasure of great value, but we who bear it are but vessels, and that of fragile earthenware, in order that it may be evident that the irresistible power of the gospel doesn't originate with us, but is of God. We're hard-pressed incessantly, but never cornered; we're frequently at a loss, but never in despair; frequently persecuted, but never abandoned to our persecutors, hurled to the ground, yet ever rising undestroyed. Always and everywhere we go, in the deadly perils that beset us, we accept death.

 Odors recall to mind some scene of the past with which we are indissolubly associated. For example, the smell of newly mown hay will carry us off to merry scenes of childhood days on the farm. Paul's life was a fragrance which reminded people of Christ. It was a fragrance of the life hidden with Christ in God - a life which derives its aroma through fellowship with Him. "Wrap the habits of your soul in the sweet lavender of the Lord's character,"said F. B. Meyer. 

What a tremendous impact we would make upon a poor sinful world if, like the apostle, we wafted abroad through every land the fragrance of the Christ life! Yes, every land. How sober is the contemplation that we're making such little impact upon the world's teeming millions. Only a small percentage of the world's population are evangelical believers. Our responsibility is great. It's not enough to witness by word concerning our glorious Redeemer - we must also carry with us the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. We must know Christ in a deep intimate way in order to waft His fragrance abroad. So often there is a great gulf between our testimony with our lips and that of our lives. Murray McCheyne lamented in his day that few believers carried the odor of heaven along with them.

 The living Christ was so radiant in Adoniram Judson's countenance that the heathen used to call him "Mr. Glory-face." 

A chocolate manufacturer, while traveling home one day, was surprised to see many people smile as they came near him. They seemed to seek to remain as close to him as possible. When he arrived home, he noticed his wife met him with the same smile, so he spoke to her about it. She exclaimed, "But you have such a pleasant odor about you!" He then remembered that just before leaving his office, he'd been testing some flavoring which he planned to use in a new kind of chocolate, and that he'd placed the small expensive vial of highly concentrated flavoring in his pocket. It was the odor of this sweet-scented flavoring that had attracted the strangers to him. 

This incident was a message of God to his soul. He went immediately to his study and fell on his knees, begging God fervently to make him always bear in his life the fragrance of Christ, his Lord. 

Let us also, even now, cry to God that Paul's pageant of triumph may be our experience. 

This is copyrighted material from James Stewart's book Come O Breath!, available from Revival Literature, PO Box 6068, Asheville, NC 28816.