Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life<\/p>\n
* Contents
\n o THE CHRISTIANS SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE
\n + Preface
\n + Chapter 1
\n + Chapter 2
\n + Chapter 3
\n + Chapter 4
\n + Chapter 5
\n + Chapter 6
\n + Chapter 7
\n + Chapter 8
\n + Chapter 9
\n + Chapter 10
\n + Chapter 11
\n + Chapter 12
\n + Chapter 13
\n + Chapter 14
\n + Chapter 15
\n + Chapter 16
\n + Chapter 17
\n + Chapter 18
\n + Chapter 19
\n + Chapter 20
\n + Chapter 21
\n + Chapter 22<\/p>\n
—————————————————————————-<\/p>\n
THE CHRISTIAN’S SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE<\/p>\n
By Hannah Whitall Smith<\/p>\n
As Published by Christian Witness Co.<\/p>\n
“One of the most inspiring and influential books we have ever
\n read.” — Dale Evans and Roy Rogers “IS YOUR LIFE ALL YOU WANT IT
\n TO BE? Hannah Whitall Smith–Quaker, rebel, realist–faced life as
\n she found it, and she found it good. She took her Bible promises
\n literally, tested them, and found them true as tested steel. She
\n stepped out of conjecture into certainty, and the shadows
\n disappeared. Here she reveals the secret–how to make unhappiness
\n and uncertainty give way to serenity and ocnfidence in every day
\n of your life.” — from the Spire edition.<\/p>\n
Origial text document from the “Wesley Center for Applied Theology” at
\n Northwest Nazarene College (Nampa, ID)<\/p>\n
Contents<\/p>\n
Chapter 1 Introductory. — God’s Side and Man’s Side<\/p>\n
Chapter 2 The Scripturalness of This Life<\/p>\n
Chapter 3 The Life Defined<\/p>\n
Chapter 4 How To Enter In<\/p>\n
Chapter 5 Difficulties Concerning Consecration<\/p>\n
Chapter 6 Difficulties Concerning Faith<\/p>\n
Chapter 7 Difficulties Concerning The Will<\/p>\n
Chapter 8 Is God in Everything?<\/p>\n
Chapter 9 Growth<\/p>\n
Chapter 10 Service<\/p>\n
Chapter 11 Difficulties Concerning Guidance<\/p>\n
Chapter 12 Concerning Temptation<\/p>\n
Chapter 13 Failures<\/p>\n
Chapter 14 Doubts<\/p>\n
Chapter 15 Practical Results<\/p>\n
Chapter 16 The Joy of Obedience<\/p>\n
Chapter 17 Oneness With Christ<\/p>\n
Chapter 18 “Although” and “Yet”<\/p>\n
Chapter 19 Kings and Their Kingdoms<\/p>\n
Chapter 20 The Chariots of God<\/p>\n
Chapter 21 “Without Me Ye Can Do Nothing”<\/p>\n
Chapter 22 “God With Us”; or, The One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Psalm<\/p>\n
THE CHRISTIANS SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE<\/p>\n
By Hannah Whitall Smith<\/p>\n
Preface<\/p>\n
This is not a theological book. I frankly confess I have not been trained in
\n theological schools, and do not understand their methods nor their terms.
\n But the Lord has taught me experimentally and practically certain lessons
\nout of his Word, which have greatly helped me in my Christian life, and have
\n made it a very happy one. And I want to tell my secret, in the best way I
\n can, in order that some others may be helped into a happy life also.<\/p>\n
I do not seek to change the theological views of a single individual. I dare
\nsay most of my readers know far more about theology than I do myself, and
\nperhaps may discover abundance of what will seem to be theological mistakes.
\nBut let me ask that these may be overlooked, and that my reader will try,
\ninstead, to get at the experimental point of that which I have tried to say,
\nand if that is practical and helpful, forgive the blundering way in which it
\nis expressed. I have tried to reach the absolute truth which lies at the
\nfoundation of all “creeds” and “views,” and to bring the soul into those
\npersonal relations with God which must exist alike in every form of
\nreligion, let the expression of them differ as they may.<\/p>\n
I have committed my book to the Lord, and have asked Him to counteract all
\nin it that is wrong, and to let only that which is true find entrance into
\nany heart. It is sent out in tender sympathy and yearning love for all the
\nstruggling, weary ones in the Church of Christ, and its message goes right
\nfrom my heart to theirs. I have given the best I have, and could do no more.
\nMay the blessed Holy Spirit use it to teach some of my readers the true
\nsecret of a happy life!
\nHANNAH WHITALL SMITH, GERMANTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.<\/p>\n
Chapter 1<\/p>\n
INTRODUCTORY<\/p>\n
GOD’S SIDE AND MAN’S SIDE<\/p>\n
In introducing this subject of the life and walk of faith, I desire, at the
\nvery outset, to clear away one misunderstanding which very commonly arises
\nin reference to the teaching of it, and which effectually hinders a clear
\napprehension of such teaching. This misunderstanding comes from the fact
\nthat the two sides of the subject are rarely kept in view at the same time.
\nPeople see distinctly the way in which one side is presented, and, dwelling
\nexclusively upon this, without even a thought of any other, it is no wonder
\nthat distorted views of the whole matter are the legitimate consequence.
\n Now there are two very decided and distinct sides to this subject, and,
\nlike all other subjects, it cannot be fully understood unless both of these
\nsides are kept constantly in view. I refer, of course, to God’s side and
\nman’s side; or, in other words, to God’s part in the work of sanctification,
\nand man’s part. These are very distinct and even contrastive, but are not
\ncontradictory; though, to a cursory observer, they sometimes look so.
\n This was very strikingly illustrated to me not long ago. There were two
\nteachers of this higher Christian life holding meetings in the same place,
\nat alternate hours. One spoke only of God’s part in the work, and the other
\ndwelt exclusively upon man’s part. They were both in perfect sympathy with
\none another, and realized fully that they were each teaching different sides
\nof the same great truth; and this also was understood by a large proportion
\nof their hearers. But with some of the hearers it was different, and one
\nlady said to me, in the greatest perplexity, “I cannot understand it at all.
\nHere are two preachers undertaking to teach just the same truth, and yet to
\nme they seem flatly to contradict one another.” And I felt at the time that
\nshe expressed a puzzle which really causes a great deal of difficulty in the
\nminds of many honest inquirers after this truth.
\n Suppose two friends go to see some celebrated building, and return home
\nto describe it. One has seen only the north side, and the other only the
\nsouth. The first says, “The building was built in such a manner, and has
\nsuch and such stories and ornaments.” “Oh, no!” says the other, interrupting
\nhim, “you are altogether mistaken; I saw the building, and it was built in
\nquite a different manner, and its ornaments and stories were so and so.” A
\nlively dispute would probably follow upon the truth of the respective
\ndescriptions, until the two friends discover that they have been describing
\ndifferent sides of the building, and then all is reconciled at once.
\n I would like to state as clearly as I can what I judge to be the two
\ndistinct sides in this matter; and to show how the looking at one without
\nseeing the other, will be sure to create wrong impressions and views of the
\ntruth.
\n To state it in brief, I would just say that man’s part is to trust and
\nGod’s part is to work; and it can be seen at a glance how contrastive these
\ntwo parts are, and yet not necessarily contradictory. I mean this. There is
\na certain work to be accomplished. We are to be delivered from the power of
\nsin, and are to be made perfect in every good work to do the will of God.
\n“Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,” we are to be actually
\n“changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of
\nthe Lord.” We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we
\nmay prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. A real
\nwork is to be wrought in us and upon us. Besetting sins are to be conquered.
\nEvil habits are to be overcome. Wrong dispositions and feelings are to be
\nrooted out, and holy tempers and emotions are to be begotten. A positive
\ntransformation is to take place. So at least the Bible teaches. Now somebody
\nmust do this. Either we must do it for ourselves, or another must do it for
\nus. We have most of us tried to do it for ourselves at first, and have
\ngrievously failed; then we discover from the Scriptures and from our own
\nexperience that it is a work we are utterly unable to do for ourselves, but
\nthat the Lord Jesus Christ has come on purpose to do it, and that He will do
\nit for all who put themselves wholly into His hand, and trust Him to do it.
\nNow under these circumstances, what is the part of the believer, and what is
\nthe part of the Lord? Plainly the believer can do nothing but trust; while
\nthe Lord, in whom he trusts, actually does the work intrusted to Him.
\nTrusting and doing are certainly contrastive things, and often
\ncontradictory; but are they contradictory in this case? Manifestly not,
\nbecause it is two different parties that are concerned. If we should say of
\none party in a transaction that he trusted his case to another, and yet
\nattended to it himself, we should state a contradiction and an
\nimpossibility. But when we say of two parties in a transaction that one
\ntrusts the other to do something, and that that other goes to work and does
\nit, we are making a statement that is perfectly simple and harmonious. When
\nwe say, therefore, that in this higher life, man’s part is to trust, and
\nthat God does the thing intrusted to Him, we do not surely present any very
\ndifficult or puzzling problem.
\n The preacher who is speaking on man’s part in this matter cannot speak
\nof anything but surrender and trust, because this is positively all the man
\ncan do. We all agree about this. And yet such preachers are constantly
\ncriticised as though, in saying this, they had meant to imply there was no
\nother part, and that therefore nothing but trusting is done. And the cry
\ngoes out that this doctrine of faith does away with all realities, that
\nsouls are just told to trust, and that is the end of it, and they sit down
\nthenceforward in a sort of religious easy-chair, dreaming away a life
\nfruitless of any actual results. All this misapprehension arises, of course,
\nfrom the fact that either the preacher has neglected to state, or the hearer
\nhas failed to hear, the other side of the matter; which is, that when we
\ntrust, the Lord works, and that a great deal is done, not by us, but by Him.
\nActual results are reached by our trusting, because our Lord undertakes the
\nthing trusted to Him, and accomplishes it. We do not do anything, but He
\ndoes it; and it is all the more effectually done because of this. The puzzle
\nas to the preaching of faith disappears entirely as soon as this is clearly
\nseen.
\n On the other hand, the preacher who dwells on God’s side of the
\nquestion is criticised on a totally different ground. He does not speak of
\ntrust, for the Lord’s part is not to trust, but to work. The Lord does the
\nthing intrusted to Him. He disciplines and trains the soul by inward
\nexercises and outward providences. He brings to bear all the resources of
\nHis wisdom and love upon the refining and purifying of that soul. He makes
\neverything in the life and circumstances of such a one subservient to the
\none great purpose of making him grow in grace, and of conforming him, day by
\nday and hour by hour, to the image of Christ. He carries him through a
\nprocess of transformation, longer or shorter, as his peculiar case may
\nrequire, making actual and experimental the results for which the soul has
\ntrusted. We have dared, for instance, according to the command in Rom. 6:11,
\nby faith to reckon ourselves “dead unto sin.” The Lord makes this a reality,
\nand leads us to victory over self, by the daily and hourly discipline of His
\nprovidences. Our reckoning is available only because God thus makes it real.
\nAnd yet the preacher who dwells upon this practical side of the matter, and
\ntells of God’s processes for making faith’s reckonings experimental
\nrealities, is accused of contradicting the preaching of faith altogether,
\nand of declaring only a process of gradual sanctification by works, and of
\nsetting before the soul an impossible and hopeless task.
\n Now, sanctification is both a sudden step of faith, and also a gradual
\nprocess of works. It is a step as far as we are concerned; it is a process
\nas to God’s part. By a step of faith we get into Christ; by a process we are
\nmade to grow up unto Him in all things. By a step of faith we put ourselves
\ninto the hands of the Divine Potter; by a gradual process He makes us into a
\nvessel unto His own honor, meet for His use, and prepared to every good
\nwork.
\n To illustrate all this: suppose I were to be describing to a person,
\nwho was entirely ignorant of the subject, the way in which a lump of clay is
\nmade into a beautiful vessel. I tell him first the part of the clay in the
\nmatter, and all I can say about this is, that the clay is put into the
\npotter’s hands, and then lies passive there, submitting itself to all the
\nturnings and overturnings of the potter’s hands upon it. There is really
\nnothing else to be said about the clay’s part. But could my hearer argue
\nfrom this that nothing else is done, because I say that this is all the clay
\ncan do? If he is an intelligent hearer, he will not dream of doing so, but
\nwill say, “I understand. This is what the clay must do; but what must the
\npotter do?” “Ah,” I answer, “now we come to the important part. The potter
\ntakes the clay thus abandoned to his working, and begins to mould and
\nfashion it according to his own will. He kneads and works it, he tears it
\napart and presses it together again, he wets it and then suffers it to dry.
\nSometimes he works at it for hours together, sometimes he lays it aside for
\ndays and does not touch it. And then, when by all these processes he has
\nmade it perfectly pliable in his hands, he proceeds to make it up into the
\nvessel he has purposed. He turns it upon the wheel, planes it and smooths
\nit, and dries it in the sun, bakes it in the oven, and finally turns it out
\nof his workshop, a vessel to his honor and fit for his use.”
\n Will my hearer be likely now to say that I am contradicting myself;
\nthat a little while ago I had said the clay had nothing to do but lie
\npassive in the potter’s hands, and that now I am putting upon it a great
\nwork which it is not able to perform; and that to make itself into such a
\nvessel is an impossible and hopeless undertaking? Surely not. For he will
\nsee that, while before I was speaking of the clay’s part in the matter, I am
\nnow speaking of the potter’s part, and that these two are necessarily
\ncontrastive, but not in the least contradictory, and that the clay is not
\nexpected to do the potter’s work, but only to yield itself up to his
\nworking.
\n Nothing, it seems to me, could be clearer than the perfect harmony
\nbetween these two apparently contradictory sorts of teaching on this
\nsubject. What can be said about man’s part in this great work, but that he
\nmust continually surrender himself and continually trust?
\n But when we come to God’s side of the question, what is there that may
\nnot be said as to the manifold and wonderful ways in which He accomplishes
\nthe work intrusted to Him? It is here that the growing comes in. The lump of
\nclay would never grow into a beautiful vessel if it stayed in the clay-pit
\nfor thousands of years. But once put into the hands of a skilful potter,
\nand, under his fashioning, it grows rapidly into a vessel to his honor. And
\nso the soul, abandoned to the working of the Heavenly Potter, is changed
\nrapidly from glory to glory into the image of the Lord by His Spirit.
\n Having, therefore, taken the step of faith by which you have put
\nyourself wholly and absolutely into His hands, you must now expect Him to
\nbegin to work. His way of accomplishing that which you have intrusted to Him
\nmay be different from your way. But He knows, and you must be satisfied.
\n I knew a lady who had entered into this life of faith with a great
\noutpouring of the Spirit, and a wonderful flood of light and joy. She
\nsupposed, of course, this was a preparation for some great service, and
\nexpected to be put forth immediately into the Lord’s harvest field. Instead
\nof this, almost at once her husband lost all his money, and she was shut up
\nin her own house, to attend to all sorts of domestic duties, with no time or
\nstrength left for any Gospel work at all. She accepted the discipline, and
\nyielded herself up as heartily to sweep, and dust, and bake, and sew, as she
\nwould have done to preach, or pray or write for the Lord. And the result was
\nthat through this very training He made her into a vessel “meet for the
\nMaster’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
\n Another lady, who had entered this life of faith under similar
\ncircumstances of wondrous blessing, and who also expected to be sent out to
\ndo some great work, was shut up with two peevish invalid nieces, to nurse,
\nand humor, and amuse them all day long. Unlike the first lady, this one did
\nnot accept the training, but chafed and fretted, and finally rebelled, lost
\nall her blessing, and went back into a state of sad coldness and misery. She
\nhad understood her part of trusting to begin with, but not understanding the
\ndivine process of accomplishing that for which she had trusted, she took
\nherself out of the hands of the Heavenly Potter, and the vessel was marred
\non the wheel.
\n I believe many a vessel has been similarly marred by a want of
\nunderstanding these things. The maturity of Christian experience cannot be
\nreached in a moment, but is the result of the work of God’s Holy Spirit,
\nwho, by His energizing and transforming power, causes us to grow up into
\nChrist in all things. And we cannot hope to reach this maturity in any other
\nway than by yielding ourselves up utterly and willingly to His mighty
\nworking. But the sanctification the Scriptures urge as a present experience
\nupon all believers does not consist in maturity of growth, but in purity of
\nheart, and this may be as complete in the babe in Christ as in the veteran
\nbeliever.
\n The lump of clay, from the moment it comes under the transforming hand
\nof the potter, is, during each day and each hour of the process, just what
\nthe potter wants it to be at that hour or on that day, and therefore pleases
\nhim. But it is very far from being matured into the vessel he intends in the
\nfuture to make it.
\n The little babe may be all that a babe could be, or ought to be, and
\nmay therefore perfectly please its mother, and yet it is very far from being
\nwhat that mother would wish it to be when the years of maturity shall come.
\n The apple in June is a perfect apple for June. It is the best apple
\nthat June can produce. But it is very different from the apple in October,
\nwhich is a perfected apple.
\n God’s works are perfect in every stage of their growth. Man’s works are
\nnever perfect until they are in every respect complete.
\n All that we claim then in this life of sanctification is, that by a
\nstep of faith we put ourselves into the hands of the Lord, for Him to work
\nin us all the good pleasure of His will; and that by a continuous exercise
\nof faith we keep ourselves there. This is our part in the matter. And when
\nwe do it, and while we do it, we are, in the Scripture sense, truly pleasing
\nto God, although it may require years of training and discipline to mature
\nus into a vessel that shall be in all respects to His honor, and fitted to
\nevery good work.
\n Our part is the trusting, it is His to accomplish the results. And when
\nwe do our part, He never fails to do His, for no one ever trusted in the
\nLord and was confounded. Do not be afraid, then, that if you trust, or tell
\nothers to trust, the matter will end there. Trust is only the beginning and
\nthe continual foundation; when we trust, the Lord works, and His work is the
\nimportant part of the whole matter. And this explains that apparent paradox
\nwhich puzzles so many. They say, “In one breath you tell us to do nothing
\nbut trust, and in the next you tell us to do impossible things. How can you
\nreconcile such contradictory statements?” They are to be reconciled just as
\nwe reconcile the statements concerning a saw in a carpenter’s shop, when we
\nsay at one moment that the saw has sawn asunder a log, and the next moment
\ndeclare that the carpenter has done it. The saw is the instrument used, the
\npower that uses it is the carpenter’s. And so we, yielding ourselves unto
\nGod, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto Him, find that He
\nworks in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; and we can say with
\nPaul, “I labored; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” For we
\nare to be His workmanship, not our own. (Eph. 2:10.) And in fact, when we
\ncome to look at it, only God, who created us at first, can re-create us, for
\nHe alone understands the “work of His own hands.” All efforts after
\nself-creating, result in the marring of the vessel, and no soul can ever
\nreach its highest fulfillment except through the working of Him who “worketh
\nall things after the counsel of His own will.”
\n In this book I shall of course dwell mostly upon man’s side in the
\nmatter, as I am writing for man, and in the hope of teaching believers how
\nto fulfil their part of the great work. But I wish it to be distinctly
\nunderstood all through, that unless I believed with all my heart in God’s
\neffectual working on His side, not one word of this book would ever have
\nbeen written.<\/p>\n
Chapter 2<\/p>\n
THE SCRIPTURALNESS OF THIS LIFE<\/p>\n
When I approach this subject of the true Christian life, that life which is
\nhid with Christ in God, so many thoughts struggle for utterance that I am
\nalmost speechless. Where shall I begin? What is the most important thing to
\nsay? How shall I make people read and believe? The subject is so glorious,
\nand human words seem so powerless! But something I am impelled to say. The
\nsecret must be told. For it is one concerning that victory which overcometh
\nthe world, that promised deliverance from all our enemies, for which every
\nchild of God longs and prays, but which seems so often and so generally to
\nelude their grasp. May God grant me so to tell it, that every believer to
\nwhom this book shall come, may have his eyes opened to see the truth as it
\nis in Jesus, and may be enabled to enter into possession of this glorious
\nlife for himself.
\n For sure I am that every converted soul longs for victory and rest, and
\nnearly every one feels instinctively, at times, that they are his
\nbirthright. Can you not remember, some of you, the shout of triumph your
\nsouls gave when you first became acquainted with the Lord Jesus, and had a
\nglimpse of His mighty saving power? How sure you were of victory then! How
\neasy it seemed, to be more than conquerors, through Him that loved you.
\nUnder the leadership of a Captain who had never been foiled in battle, how
\ncould you dream of defeat? And yet, to many of you, how different has been
\nyour real experience. The victories have been but few and fleeting, the
\ndefeats many and disastrous. You have not lived as you feel children of God
\nought to live. There has been a resting in a clear understanding of
\ndoctrinal truth, without pressing after the power and life thereof. There
\nhas been a rejoicing in the knowledge of things testified of in the
\nScriptures, without a living realization of the things themselves,
\nconsciously felt in the soul. Christ is believed in, talked about, and
\nserved, but He is not known as the soul’s actual and very life, abiding
\nthere forever, and revealing Himself there continually in His beauty. You
\nhave found Jesus as your Saviour and your Master, and you have tried to
\nserve Him and advance the cause of His kingdom. You have carefully studied
\nthe Holy Scriptures and have gathered much precious truth therefrom, which
\nyou have endeavored faithfully to practise.
\n But notwithstanding all your knowledge and all your activities in the
\nservice of the Lord, your souls are secretly starving, and you cry out again
\nand again for that bread and water of life which you saw promised in the
\nScriptures to all believers. In the very depths of your hearts you know that
\nyour experience is not a Scriptural experience; that, as an old writer says,
\nyour religion is “but a talk to what the early Christians enjoyed,
\npossessed, and lived in.” And your souls have sunk within you, as day after
\nday, and year after year, your early visions of triumph have seemed to grow
\nmore and more dim, and you have been forced to settle down to the conviction
\nthat the best you can expect from your religion is a life of alternate
\nfailure and victory; one hour sinning, and the next repenting; and beginning
\nagain, only to fail again, and again to repent.
\n But is this all? Had the Lord Jesus only this in His mind when He laid
\ndown His precious life to deliver you from your sore and cruel bondage to
\nsin? Did He propose to Himself only this partial deliverance? Did He intend
\nto leave you thus struggling along under a weary consciousness of defeat and
\ndiscouragement? Did He fear that a continuous victory would dishonor Him,
\nand bring reproach on His name? When all those declarations were made
\nconcerning His coming, and the work He was to accomplish, did they mean only
\nthis that you have experienced? Was there a hidden reserve in each promise
\nthat was meant to deprive it of its complete fulfillment? Did “delivering us
\nout of the hands of our enemies” mean only a few of them? Did “enabling us
\nalways to triumph” mean only sometimes; or being “more than conquerors
\nthrough Him that love us” mean constant defeat and failure? No, no, a
\nthousand times no! God is able to save unto the uttermost, and He means to
\ndo it. His promise, confirmed by His oath, was that “He would grant unto us,
\nthat we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him
\nwithout fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our
\nlife.” It is a mighty work to do, but our Deliverer is able to do it. He
\ncame to destroy the works of the devil, and dare we dream for a moment that
\nHe is not able or not willing to accomplish His own purposes?
\n In the very outset, then, settle down on this one thing, that the Lord
\nis able to save you fully, now, in this life, from the power and dominion of
\nsin, and to deliver you altogether out of the hands of your enemies. If you
\ndo not think He is, search your Bible, and collect together every
\nannouncement or declaration concerning the purposes and object of His death
\non the cross. You will be astonished to find how full they are. Everywhere
\nand always His work is said to be, to deliver us from our sins, from our
\nbondage, from our defilement; and not a hint is given anywhere, that this
\ndeliverance was to be only the limited and partial one with which the Church
\nso continually tries to be satisfied.
\n Let me give you a few texts on this subject. When the angel of the Lord
\nappeared unto Joseph in a dream, and announced the coming birth of the
\nSaviour, he said, “And thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
\npeople from their sins.”
\n When Zacharias was “filled with the Holy Ghost” at the birth of his
\nson, and “prophesied,” he declared that God had visited His people in order
\nto fulfil the promise and the oath He had made them, which promise was,
\n“That He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hands of
\nour enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
\nbefore Him, all the days of our life.”
\n When Peter was preaching in the porch of the Temple to the wondering
\nJews, he said, “Unto you first, God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent
\nHim to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
\n When Paul was telling out to the Ephesian church the wondrous truth
\nthat Christ had loved them so much as to give Himself for them, he went on
\nto declare, that His purpose in thus doing was, “that He might sanctify and
\ncleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to
\nHimself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing;
\nbut that it should be holy and without blemish.”
\n When Paul was seeking to instruct Titus, his own son after the common
\nfaith, concerning the grace of God, he declared that the object of that
\ngrace was to teach us “that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
\nlive soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world”; and adds, as
\nthe reason of this, that Christ “gave Himself for us that He might redeem us
\nfrom all iniquity, and purify us unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of
\ngood works.”
\n When Peter was urging upon the Christian, to whom he was writing, a
\nholy and Christ-like walk, he tells them that “even hereunto were ye called
\nbecause Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should
\nfollow His steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth”; and
\nadds, “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we,
\nbeing dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were
\nhealed.”
\n When Paul was contrasting in the Ephesians the walk suitable for a
\nChristian, with the walk of an unbeliever, he sets before them the truth in
\nJesus as being this, “that ye put off concerning the former conversation the
\nold man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed
\nin the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God
\nis created in righteousness and true holiness.”
\n And when, in Romans 6, he was answering forever the question as to
\ncontinuing in sin, and showing how utterly foreign it was to the whole
\nspirit and aim of the salvation of Jesus, he brings up the fact of our
\njudicial death and resurrection with Christ as an unanswerable argument for
\nour practical deliverance from it, and says, “God forbid. How shall we, that
\nare dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as
\nwere baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we
\nare buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up
\nfrom the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
\nnewness of life.” And adds, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
\nwith Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should
\nnot serve sin.”
\n Dear Christians, will you receive the testimony of Scripture on this
\nmatter? The same questions that troubled the Church in Paul’s day are
\ntroubling it now: first, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”
\nAnd second, “Do we then make void the law through faith?” Shall not our
\nanswer to these be Paul’s emphatic “God forbid”; and his triumphant
\nassertions that instead of making it void “we establish the law”; and that
\n“what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God
\nsending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
\nsin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us
\nwho walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit-
\n Can we suppose for a moment that the holy God, who hates sin in the
\nsinner, is willing to tolerate it in the Christian, and that He has even
\narranged the plan of salvation in such a way as to make it impossible for
\nthose who are saved from the guilt of sin to find deliverance from its
\npower?
\n As Dr. Chalmers well says, “Sin is that scandal which must be rooted
\nout from the great spiritual household over which the Divinity rejoices . .
\n. Strange administration, indeed, for sin to be so hateful to God as to lay
\nall who had incurred it under death, and yet when readmitted into life that
\nsin should be permitted; and that what was before the object of destroying
\nvengeance, should now become the object of an upheld and protected
\ntoleration. Now that the penalty is taken off, think you that it is possible
\nthe unchangeable God has so given up His antipathy to sin, as that man,
\nruined and redeemed man, may now perseveringly indulge under the new
\narrangement in that which under the old destroyed him? Does not the God who
\nloved righteousness and hated iniquity six thousand years ago, bear the same
\nlove to righteousness and hatred to iniquity still? . . . I now breathe the
\nair of loving-kindness from Heaven, and can walk before God in peace and
\ngraciousness; shall I again attempt the incompatible alliance of two
\nprinciples so adverse as that of an approving God and a persevering sinner?
\nHow shall we, recovered from so awful a catastrophe, continue that which
\nfirst involved us in it? The cross of Christ, by the same mighty and
\ndecisive stroke wherewith it moved the curse of sin away from us, also
\nsurely moves away the power and the love of it from over us.”
\n And not Dr. Chalmers only, but many other holy men of his generation
\nand of our own, as well as of generations long past, have united in
\ndeclaring that the redemption accomplished for us by our Lord Jesus Christ
\non the cross at Calvary is a redemption from the power of sin as well as
\nfrom its guilt, and that He is able to save to the uttermost all who come
\nunto God by Him.
\n A quaint old divine of the seventeenth century says: “There is nothing
\nso contrary to God as sin, and God will not suffer sin always to rule his
\nmasterpiece, man. When we consider the infiniteness of God’s power for
\ndestroying that which is contrary to Him, who can believe that the devil
\nmust always stand and prevail? I believe it is inconsistent and disagreeable
\nwith true faith for people to be Christians, and yet to believe that Christ,
\nthe eternal Son of God, to whom all power in heaven and earth is given, will
\nsuffer sin and the devil to have dominion over them.
\n “But you will say no man by all the power he hath can redeem himself,
\nand no man can live without sin. We will say, Amen, to it. But if men tell
\nus, that when God’s power comes to help us and to redeem us out of sin, that
\nit cannot be effected, then this doctrine we cannot away with; nor I hope
\nyou neither.
\n “Would you approve of it, if I should tell you that God puts forth His
\npower to do such a thing, but the devil hinders Him? That it is impossible
\nfor God to do it because the devil does not like it? That it is impossible
\nthat any one should be free from sin because the devil hath got such a power
\nin them that God cannot cast him out? This is lamentable doctrine, yet hath
\nnot this been preached? It doth in plain terms say, though God doth
\ninterpose His power, it is impossible, because the devil hath so rooted sin
\nin the nature of man. Is not man God’s creature, and cannot He new make him,
\nand cast sin out of him? If you say sin is deeply rooted in man, I say so,
\ntoo, yet not so deeply rooted but Christ Jesus hath entered so deeply into
\nthe root of the nature of man that He hath received power to destroy the
\ndevil and his works, and to recover and redeem man into righteousness and
\nholiness. Or else it is false that `He is able to save to the uttermost all
\nthat come unto God by Him.’ We must throw away the Bible, if we say that it
\nis impossible for God to deliver man out of sin.
\n “We know,” he continues, “when our friends are in captivity, as in
\nTurkey, or elsewhere, we pay our money for their redemption; but we will not
\npay our money if they be kept in their fetters still. Would not any one
\nthink himself cheated to pay so much money for their redemption, and the
\nbargain be made so that he shall be said to be redeemed, and be called a
\nredeemed captive, but he must wear his fetters still? How long? As long as
\nhe hath a day to live.
\n “This is for bodies, but now I am speaking of souls. Christ must be
\nmade to me redemption, and rescue me from captivity. Am I a prisoner any
\nwhere? Yes, verily, verily, he that committeth sin, saith Christ, he is a
\nservant of sin, he is a slave of sin. If thou hast sinned, thou art a slave,
\na captive that must be redeemed out of captivity. Who will pay a price for
\nme? I am poor; I have nothing; I cannot redeem myself; who will pay a price
\nfor me? There is One come who hath paid a price for me. That is well; that
\nis good news, then I hope I shall come out of my captivity. What is His
\nname, is He called a Redeemer? So, then, I do expect the benefit of my
\nredemption, and that I shall go out of my captivity. No, say they, you must
\nabide in sin as long as you live. What! must we never be delivered? Must
\nthis crooked heart and perverse will always remain? Must I be a believer,
\nand yet have no faith that reacheth to sanctification and holy living? Is
\nthere no mastery to be had, no getting victory over sin? Must it prevail
\nover me as long as I live? What sort of a Redeemer, then, is this, or what
\nbenefit have I in this life, of my redemption?”
\n Similar extracts might be quoted from Marshall, Romaine, and many
\nothers, to show that this doctrine is no new one in the Church, however much
\nit may have been lost sight of by the present generation of believers. It is
\nthe same old story that has filled with songs of triumph the daily lives of
\nmany saints of God throughout all ages; and is now afresh being sounded
\nforth to the unspeakable joy of weary and burdened souls.
\n Do not reject it, then, dear reader, until you have prayerfully
\nsearched the Scriptures to see whether these things be indeed so. Ask God to
\nopen the eyes of your understanding by His Spirit, that you may “know what
\nis the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to
\nthe working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised
\nHim from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
\nplaces.” And when you have begun to have some faint glimpses of this power,
\nlearn to look away utterly from your own weakness, and, putting your case
\ninto His hands, trust Him to deliver you.
\n In Psalms 8:6, we are told that God made man to “have dominion over the
\nworks of His hand.” The fulfillment of this is declared in 2 Cor. 2, where
\nthe apostle cries, “Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in
\nChrist.” If the maker of a machine should declare that he had made it to
\naccomplish a certain purpose, and if upon trial it should be found incapable
\nof accomplishing that purpose, we would all say of that maker that he was a
\nfraud.
\n Surely then we will not dare to think that it is impossible for the
\ncreature whom God has made, to accomplish the declared object for which he
\nwas created. Especially when the Scriptures are so full of the assertions
\nthat Christ has made it possible.
\n The only thing that can hinder is the creature’s own failure to work in
\nharmony with the plans of his Creator, and if this want of harmony can be
\nremoved, then God can work. Christ came to bring about an atonement between
\nGod and man, which should make it possible for God thus to work in man to
\nwill and to do of His good pleasure. Therefore we may be of good courage;
\nfor the work Christ has undertaken He is surely able and willing to perform.
\nLet us then “walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham,” who
\n“staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in
\nfaith, giving glory to God; being fully persuaded that what He had promised,
\nHe was able also to perform.”<\/p>\n
Chapter 3<\/p>\n
THE LIFE DEFINED<\/p>\n
In my last chapter I tried to settle the question as to the scripturalness
\nof the experience sometimes called the Higher Christian Life, but which to
\nmy own mind is best described in the words, the “life hid with Christ in
\nGod.” I shall now, therefore, consider it as a settled point that the
\nScriptures do set before the believer in the Lord Jesus a life of abiding
\nrest and of continual victory, which is very far beyond the ordinary line of
\nChristian experience; and that in the Bible we have presented to us a
\nSaviour able to save us from the power of our sins, as really as He saves us
\nfrom their guilt.
\n The point to be next considered is, as to what this hidden life
\nconsists in, and how it differs from every other sort of Christian
\nexperience.
\n And as to this, it is simply letting the Lord carry our burdens and
\nmanage our affairs for us, instead of trying to do it ourselves.
\n Most Christians are like a man who was toiling along the road, bending
\nunder a heavy burden, when a wagon overtook him, and the driver kindly
\noffered to help him on his journey. He joyfully accepted the offer, but when
\nseated, continued to bend beneath his burden, which he still kept on his
\nshoulders. “Why do you not lay down your burden?” asked the kind-hearted
\ndriver. “Oh!” replied the man, “I feel that it is almost too much to ask you
\nto carry me, and I could not think of letting you carry my burden too.” And
\nso Christians, who have given themselves into the care and keeping of the
\nLord Jesus, still continue to bend beneath the weight of their burden, and
\noften go weary and heavy-laden throughout the whole length of their journey.
\n When I speak of burdens, I mean everything that troubles us, whether
\nspiritual or temporal.
\n I mean, first of all, ourselves. The greatest burden we have to carry
\nin life is self. The most difficult thing we have to manage is self. Our own
\ndaily living, our frames and feelings, our especial weaknesses and
\ntemptations, and our peculiar temperaments, our inward affairs of every
\nkind, these are the things that perplex and worry us more than anything
\nelse, and that bring us oftenest into bondage and darkness. In laying off
\nyour burdens, therefore, the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You
\nmust hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations, your
\ntemperament, your frames and feelings, all over into the care and keeping of
\nyour God, and leave them there. He made you, and therefore He understands
\nyou and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it. Say to
\nHim, “Here, Lord, I abandon myself to thee. I have tried in every way I
\ncould think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to
\nbe, but have always failed. Now I give it up to thee. Do thou take entire
\npossession of me. Work in me all the good pleasure of thy will. Mould and
\nfashion me into such a vessel as seemeth good to thee. I leave myself in thy
\nhands, and I believe thou wilt, according to thy promise, make me into a
\nvessel unto thine honor, `sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and
\nprepared unto every good work.'” And here you must rest, trusting yourself
\nthus to Him continually and absolutely.
\n Next, you must lay off every other burden, — your health, your
\nreputation, your Christian work, your houses, your children, your business,
\nyour servants; everything, in short, that concerns you, whether inward or
\noutward.
\n Christians always commit the keeping of their souls for eternity to the
\nLord, because they know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they cannot keep
\nthese themselves. But the things of this present life they take into their
\nown keeping, and try to carry on their own shoulders, with the perhaps
\nunconfessed feeling that it is a great deal to ask of the Lord to carry
\nthem, and that they cannot think of asking Him to carry their burdens too.
\n I knew a Christian lady who had a very heavy temporal burden. It took
\naway her sleep and her appetite, and there was danger of her health breaking
\ndown under it. One day, when it seemed especially heavy, she noticed lying
\non the table near her a little tract called “Hannah’s Faith.” Attracted by
\nthe title, she picked it up and began to read it, little knowing, however,
\nthat it was to create a revolution in her whole experience. The story was of
\na poor woman who had been carried triumphantly through a life of unusual
\nsorrow. She was giving the history of her life to a kind visitor on one
\noccasion, and at the close the visitor said, feelingly, “O Hannah, I do not
\nsee how you could bear so much sorrow!” “I did not bear it,” was the quick
\nreply; “the Lord bore it for me.” “Yes,” said the visitor “that is the right
\nway. You must take your troubles to the Lord.” “Yes,” replied Hannah, “but
\nwe must do more than that; we must leave them there. Most people,” she
\ncontinued, “take their burdens to Him, but they bring them away with them
\nagain, and are just as worried and unhappy as ever. But I take mine, and I
\nleave them with Him, and come away and forget them. And if the worry comes
\nback, I take it to Him again; I do this over and over, until at last I just
\nforget that I have any worries, and am at perfect rest.”
\n My friend was very much struck with this plan and resolved to try it.
\nThe circumstances of her life she could not alter, but she took them to the
\nLord, and handed them over into His management; and then she believed that
\nHe took it, and she left all the responsibility and the worry and anxiety
\nwith Him. As often as the anxieties returned she took them back; and the
\nresult was that, although the circumstances remained unchanged, her soul was
\nkept in perfect peace in the midst of them. She felt that she had found out
\na blessed secret, and from that time she tried never again to carry he own
\nburdens, nor to manage anything for herself.
\n And the secret she found so effectual in her outward affairs, she found
\nto be still more effectual in her inward ones, which were in truth even more
\nutterly unmanageable. She abandoned her whole self to the Lord, with all
\nthat she was and all that she had, and, believing that He took that which
\nshe had committed to Him, she ceased to fret and worry, and her life became
\nall sunshine in the gladness of belonging to Him. And this was the Higher
\nChristian Life! It was a very simple secret she found out. Only this, that
\nit was possible to obey God’s commandment contained in those words, “Be
\ncareful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
\nthanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God”; and that, in
\nobeying it, the result would inevitably be, according to the promise, that
\nthe “peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and
\nminds through Christ Jesus.”
\n There are many other things to be said about this life hid with Christ
\nin God, many details as to what the Lord Jesus does for those who thus
\nabandon themselves to Him. But the gist of the whole matter is here stated,
\nand the soul that has got hold of this secret has found the key that will
\nunlock the whole treasure-house of God.
\n And now I do trust that I have made you hunger for this blessed life.
\nWould you not like to get rid of your burdens? Do you not long to hand over
\nthe management of your unmanageable self into the hands of One who is able
\nto manage you? Are you not tired and weary, and does not the rest I speak of
\nlook sweet to you?
\n Do you recollect the delicious sense of rest with which you have
\nsometimes gone to bed at night, after a day of great exertion and weariness?
\nHow delightful was the sensation of relaxing every muscle, and letting your
\nbody go in a perfect abandonment of ease and comfort. The strain of the day
\nhad ceased for a few hours at least, and the work of the day had been thrown
\noff. You no longer had to hold up an aching head or a weary back. You
\ntrusted yourself to the bed in an absolute confidence, and it held you up,
\nwithout effort, or strain, or even thought on your part. You rested.
\n But suppose you had doubted the strength or the stability of your bed,
\nand had dreaded each moment to find it giving away beneath you and landing
\nyou on the floor; could you have rested then? Would not every muscle have
\nbeen strained in a fruitless effort to hold yourself up, and would not the
\nweariness have been greater than not to have gone to bed at all?
\n Let this analogy teach you what it means to rest in the Lord. Let your
\nsouls lie down upon His sweet will, as your bodies lie down in your beds at
\nnight. Relax every strain and lay off every burden. Let yourselves go in
\nperfect abandonment of ease and comfort, sure that when He holds you up you
\nare perfectly safe.
\n Your part is simply to rest. His part is to sustain you, and He cannot
\nfail.
\n Or take another analogy, which our Lord Himself has abundantly
\nsanctioned, that of the child-life. For “Jesus called a little child unto
\nHim, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you,
\nExcept ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter the
\nkingdom of Heaven.”
\n Now, what are the characteristics of a little child and how does he
\nlive? He lives by faith, and his chiefest characteristic is thoughtlessness.
\nHis life is one long trust from year’s end to year’s end. He trusts his
\nparents, he trusts his caretakers, he trusts his teachers, he even trusts
\npeople often who are utterly unworthy of trust, because of the confidingness
\nof his nature. And his trust is abundantly answered. He provides nothing for
\nhimself, and yet everything is provided. He takes no thought for the morrow,
\nand forms no plans, and yet all his life is planned out for him, and he
\nfinds his paths made ready, opening out to him as he comes to them day by
\nday, and hour by hour. He goes in and out of his father’s house with an
\nunspeakable ease and abandonment, enjoying all the good things it contains,
\nwithout having spent a penny in procuring them. Pestilence may walk through
\nthe streets of his city, but he regards it not. Famine and fire and war may
\nrage around him, but under his father’s tender care he abides in utter
\nunconcern and perfect rest. He lives in the present moment, and receives his
\nlife without question as it comes to him day by day from his father’s hands.
\n I was visiting once in a wealthy house, where there was one only
\nadopted child, upon whom was lavished all the love and tenderness and care
\nthat human hearts could bestow or human means procure. And as I watched that
\nchild running in and out day by day, free and light-hearted, with the happy
\ncarelessness of childhood, I thought what a picture it was of our wonderful
\nposition as children in the house of our Heavenly Father. And I said to
\nmyself, “If nothing could so grieve and wound the loving hearts around her,
\nas to see this little child beginning to be worried or anxious about herself
\nin any way, about whether her food and clothes would be provided for her, or
\nhow she was to get her education or her future support, how much more must
\nthe great, loving heart of our God and Father be grieved and wounded at
\nseeing His children taking so much anxious care and thought!” And I
\nunderstood why it was that our Lord had said to us so emphatically, “Take no
\nthought for yourselves.”
\n Who is the best cared for in every household? Is it not the little
\nchildren? And does not the least of all, the helpless baby, receive the
\nlargest share? As a late writer has said, the baby “toils not, neither does
\nhe spin; and yet he is fed, and clothed, and loved, and rejoiced in,” and
\nnone so much as he.
\n This life of faith, then, about which I am writing, consists in just
\nthis; being a child in the Father’s house. And when this is said, enough is
\nsaid to transform every weary, burdened life into one of blessedness and
\nrest.
\n Let the ways of childish confidence and freedom from care, which so
\nplease you and win your hearts in your own little ones, teach you what
\nshould be your ways with God; and leaving yourselves in His hands, learn to
\nbe literally “careful for nothing”; and you shall find it to be a fact that
\n“the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep (as in a
\ngarrison) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Notice the word
\n“nothing” in the above passage, as covering all possible grounds for
\nanxiety, both inward and outward. We are continually tempted to think it is
\nour duty to be anxious about some things. Perhaps our thought will be, “Oh,
\nyes, it is quite right to give up all anxiety in a general way; and in
\nspiritual matters of course anxiety is wrong; but there are things about
\nwhich it would be a sin not to be anxious; about our children, for instance,
\nor those we love, or about our church affairs and the cause of truth, or
\nabout our business matters. It would show a great want of right feeling not
\nto be anxious about such things as these.” Or else our thoughts take the
\nother tack, and we say to ourselves, “Yes, it is quite right to commit our
\nloved ones and all our outward affairs to the Lord, but when it comes to our
\ninward lives, our religious experiences, our temptations, our besetting
\nsins, our growth in grace, and all such things, these we ought to be anxious
\nabout; for if we are not, they will be sure to be neglected.”
\n To such suggestions, and to all similar ones, the answer is found in
\nour text, —<\/p>\n
“In NOTHING be anxious.”<\/p>\n
In Matt. 6:25-34, our Lord illustrates this being without anxiety, by
\ntelling us to behold the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field, as
\nexamples of the sort of life He would have us live. As the birds rejoice in
\nthe care of their God and are fed, and as the lilies grow in His sunlight,
\nso must we, without anxiety, and without fear. Let the sparrows speak to us:
\n—<\/p>\n
“I am only tiny sparrow,<\/p>\n
A bird of low degree;<\/p>\n
My life is of little value,<\/p>\n
But the dear Lord cares for me.<\/p>\n
I have no barn nor storehouse,<\/p>\n
I neither sow nor reap;<\/p>\n
God gives me a sparrow’s portion,<\/p>\n
But never a seed to keep.<\/p>\n
“I know there are many sparrows;<\/p>\n
All over the world they are found;<\/p>\n
But our heavenly Father knoweth<\/p>\n
When one of us falls to the ground.<\/p>\n
“Though small, we are never forgotten;<\/p>\n
Though weak, we are never afraid;<\/p>\n
For we know the dear Lord keepeth<\/p>\n
The life of the creatures he made.<\/p>\n
“I fly through the thickest forest,<\/p>\n
I light on many a spray;<\/p>\n
I have no chart nor compass,<\/p>\n
But I never lose my way.<\/p>\n
And I fold my wing at twilight<\/p>\n
Wherever I happen to be;<\/p>\n
For the Father is always watching,<\/p>\n
And no harm will come to me.<\/p>\n
I am only a little sparrow,<\/p>\n
A bird of low degree,<\/p>\n
But I know the Father loves me;<\/p>\n
Have you less faith than we?”<\/p>\n
Chapter 4<\/p>\n
HOW TO ENTER IN<\/p>\n
Having tried to settle the question as to the scripturalness of the
\nexperience of this life of full trust, and having also shown a little of
\nwhat it is; the next point is as to how it is to be reached and realized.
\n And first, I would say that this blessed life must not be looked upon
\nin any sense as an attainment but as an obtainment. We cannot earn it, we
\ncannot climb up to it, we cannot win it; we can do nothing but ask for it
\nand receive it. It is the gift of God in Christ Jesus. And where a thing is
\na gift, the only course left for the receiver is to take it and thank the
\ngiver. We never say of a gift, “See to what I have attained,” and boast of
\nour skill and wisdom in having attained it; but we say, “See what has been
\ngiven me,” and boast of the love and wealth and generosity of the giver. And
\neverything in our salvation is a gift. From beginning to end, God is the
\ngiver and we are the receivers; and it is not to those who do great things,
\nbut to those who “receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of
\nrighteousness,” that the richest promises are made.
\n In order, therefore, to enter into a realized experience of this
\ninterior life, the soul must be in a receptive attitude, fully recognizing
\nthe fact that it is to be God’s gift in Christ Jesus, and that it cannot be
\ngained by any efforts or works of our own. This will simplify the matter
\nexceedingly; and the only thing left to be considered then will be to
\ndiscover upon whom God bestows this gift, and how they are to receive it.
\nAnd to this I would answer in short, that He bestows it only upon the fully
\nconsecrated soul, and that it is to be received by faith.
\n Consecration is the first thing. Not in any legal sense, not in order
\nto purchase or deserve the blessing, but to remove the difficulties out of
\nthe way and make it possible for God to bestow it. In order for a lump of
\nclay to be made into a beautiful vessel, it must be entirely abandoned to
\nthe potter, and must lie passive in his hands. And in order for a soul to be
\nmade into a vessel unto God’s honor, “sanctified and meet for the Master’s
\nuse, and prepared unto every good work,” it must be entirely abandoned to
\nHim, and must lie passive in His hands. This is manifest at the first
\nglance.
\n I was once trying to explain to a physician, who had charge of a large
\nhospital, what consecration meant, and its necessity, but he seemed unable
\nto understand. At last I said to him, “Suppose, in going your rounds among
\nyour patients, you should meet with one man who entreated you earnestly to
\ntake his case under your especial care in order to cure him, but who should
\nat the same time refuse to tell you all the symptoms, or to take all your
\nprescribed remedies; and should say to you, `I am quite willing to follow
\nyour directions as to certain things, because they commend themselves to my
\nmind as good, but in other matters I prefer judging for myself and following
\nmy own directions.’ What would you do in such a case?” I asked. “Do!” he
\nreplied with indignation, — “do! I would soon leave such a man as that to
\nhis own care. For of course,” he added, “I could do nothing for him, unless
\nhe would put his whole case into my hands without any reserves, and would
\nobey my directions implicitly.” “It is necessary then,” I said, “for doctors
\nto be obeyed, if they are to have any chance to cure their patients?”
\n“Implicitly obeyed!” was his emphatic reply. “And that is consecration,” I
\ncontinued. “God must have the whole case put into His hands without any
\nreserves, and His directions must be implicitly followed.” “I see it,” he
\nexclaimed, — “I see it! And I will do it. God shall have His own way with
\nme from henceforth.”
\n Perhaps to some minds the word “abandonment” might express this idea
\nbetter. But whatever word we use, we mean an entire surrender of the whole
\nbeing to God; spirit, soul, and body placed under His absolute control, for
\nHim to do with us just what He pleases. We mean that the language of our
\nsoul, under all circumstances, and in view of every act, is to be, “Thy will
\nbe done.” We mean the giving up of all liberty of choice. We mean a life of
\ninevitable obedience.
\n To a soul ignorant of God, this may look hard. But to those who know
\nHim, it is the happiest and most restful of lives. He is our Father, and He
\nloves us, and He knows just what is best, and therefore, of course, His will
\nis the very most blessed thing that can come to us under all circumstances.
\nI do not understand how it is that Satan has succeeded in blinding the eyes
\nof the Church to this fact. But it really would seem as if God’s own
\nchildren were more afraid of His will than of anything else in life; His
\nlovely, lovable will, which only means loving-kindnesses and tender mercies,
\nand blessings unspeakable to their souls. I wish I could only show to every
\none the unfathomable sweetness of the will of God. Heaven is a place of
\ninfinite bliss because His will is perfectly done there, and our lives share
\nin this bliss just in proportion as His will is perfectly done in them. He
\nloves us, loves us, and the will of love is always blessing for its loved
\none. Some of us know what it is to love, and we know that could we only have
\nour way, our beloved ones would be overwhelmed with blessings. All that is
\ngood, and sweet, and lovely in life would be poured out upon them from our
\nlavish hands, had we but the power to carry out our will for them. And if
\nthis is the way of love with us, how much more must it be so with our God,
\nwho is love itself. Could we but for one moment get a glimpse into the
\nmighty depths of His love, our hearts would spring out to meet His will, and
\nembrace it as our richest treasure; and we would abandon ourselves to it
\nwith an enthusiasm of gratitude and joy, that such a wondrous privilege
\ncould be ours.
\n A great many Christians actually seem to think that all their Father in
\nheaven wants is a chance to make them miserable, and to take away all their
\nblessings, and they imagine, poor souls, that if they hold on to things in
\ntheir own will, they can hinder Him from doing this. I am ashamed to write
\nthe words, and yet we must face a fact which is making wretched hundreds of
\nlives.
\n A Christian lady who had this feeling, was once expressing to a friend
\nhow impossible she found it to say, “Thy will be done,” and how afraid she
\nshould be to do it. She was the mother of one only little boy, who was the
\nheir to a great fortune, and the idol of her heart. After she had stated her
\ndifficulties fully, her friend said, “Suppose your little Charley should
\ncome running to you tomorrow and say, `Mother, I have made up my mind to let
\nyou have your own way with me from this time forward. I am always going to
\nobey you, and I want you to do just whatever you think best with me. I know
\nyou love me, and I am going to trust myself to your love.’ How would you
\nfeel towards him? Would you say to yourself, `Ah, now I shall have a chance
\nto make Charley miserable. I will take away all his pleasures, and fill his
\nlife with every hard and disagreeable thing I can find. I will compel him to
\ndo just the things that are the most difficult for him to do, and will give
\nhim all sorts of impossible commands.” “Oh, no, no, no!” exclaimed the
\nindignant mother. “You know I would not. You know I would hug him to my
\nheart and cover him with kisses, and would hasten to fill his life with all
\nthat was sweetest and best.” “And are you more tender and more loving than
\nGod?” asked her friend. “Ah, no,” was the reply, “I see my mistake, and I
\nwill not be afraid of saying `Thy will be done,’ to my Heavenly Father, any
\nmore than I would want my Charley to be afraid of saying it to me.”
\n Better and sweeter than health, or friends, or money, or fame, or ease,
\nor prosperity, is the adorable will of our God. It gilds the darkest hours
\nwith a divine halo, and sheds brightest sunshine on the gloomiest paths. He
\nalways reigns who has made it his kingdom; and nothing can go amiss to him.
\nSurely, then, it is nothing but a glorious privilege that is opening before
\nyou when I tell you that the first step you must take in order to enter into
\nthe life hid with Christ in God, is that of entire consecration. I cannot
\nhave you look at it as a hard and stern demand. You must do it gladly,
\nthankfully, enthusiastically. You must go in on what I call the privilege
\nside of consecration; and I can assure you, from a blessed experience, that
\nyou will find it the happiest place you have ever entered yet.
\n Faith is the next thing. Faith is an absolutely necessary element in
\nthe reception of any gift; for let our friends give a thing to us ever so
\nfully, it is not really ours until we believe it has been given and claim it
\nas our own. Above all, this is true in gifts which are purely mental or
\nspiritual. Love may be lavished upon us by another without stint or measure,
\nbut until we believe that we are loved, it never really becomes ours.
\n I suppose most Christians understand this principle in reference to the
\nmatter of their forgiveness. They know that the forgiveness of sins through
\nJesus might have been preached to them forever, but it would never have
\nbecome theirs consciously until they believed this preaching, and claimed
\nthe forgiveness as their own. But when it comes to living the Christian
\nlife, they lose sight of this principle, and think that, having been saved
\nby faith, they are now to live by works and efforts; and instead of
\ncontinuing to receive, they are now to begin to do. This makes our
\ndeclaration that the life hid with Christ in God is to be entered by faith,
\nseem perfectly unintelligible to them. And yet it is plainly declared, that
\n“as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so we are to walk in Him.” We
\nreceived Him by faith, and by faith alone; therefore we are to walk in Him
\nby faith, and by faith alone. And the faith by which we enter into this
\nhidden life is just the same as the faith by which we were translated out of
\nthe kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, only it lays
\nhold of a different thing. Then we believed that Jesus was our Saviour from
\nthe guilt of sin, and according to our faith it was unto us. Now we must
\nbelieve that He is our Saviour from the power of sin, and according to our
\nfaith it shall be unto us. Then we trusted Him for our justification, and it
\nbecame ours; now we must trust Him for our sanctification, and it shall
\nbecome ours also. Then we took Him as a Saviour in the future from the
\npenalties of our sins; now we must take Him as a Saviour in the present from
\nthe bondage of our sins. Then He was our Redeemer, now He is to be our Life.
\nThen He lifted us out of the pit, now He is to seat us in heavenly places
\nwith Himself.
\n I mean all this of course experimentally and practically. Theologically
\nand judicially I know that every believer has everything the minute he is
\nconverted. But experimentally nothing is his until by faith he claims it.
\n“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given
\nunto you.” God “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
\nplaces in Christ,” but until we set the foot of faith upon them they do not
\npractically become ours. “According to our faith,” is always the limit and
\nthe rule.
\n But this faith of which I am speaking must be a present faith. No faith
\nthat is exercised in the future tense amounts to anything. A man may believe
\nforever that his sins will be forgiven at some future time, and he will
\nnever find peace. He has to come to the now belief, and say by faith, “My
\nsins are now forgiven,” before he can live the new life. And, similarly, no
\nfaith which looks for a future deliverance from the power of sin, will ever
\nlead a soul into the life we are describing. The enemy delights in this
\nfuture faith, for he knows it is powerless to accomplish any practical
\nresults. But he trembles and flees when the soul of the believer dares to
\nclaim a present deliverance, and to reckon itself now to be free from his
\npower.
\n To sum up, then: in order to enter into this blessed interior life of
\nrest and triumph, you have two steps to take: first, entire abandonment; and
\nsecond, absolute faith. No matter what may be the complications of your
\npeculiar experience, no matter what your difficulties or your surroundings
\nor your associations, these two steps, definitely taken and unwaveringly
\npersevered in, will certainly bring you out sooner or later into the green
\npastures and still waters of this higher Christian life. You may be sure of
\nthis. And if you will let every other consideration go, and simply devote
\nyour attention to these two points, and be very clear and definite about
\nthem, your progress will be rapid and your soul will reach its desired haven
\nfar sooner than now you can think possible.
\n Shall I repeat the steps, that there may be no mistake? You are a child
\nof God, and long to please Him. You love your precious Saviour, and are sick
\nand weary of the sin that grieves Him. You long to be delivered from its
\npower. Everything you have hitherto tried has failed to deliver you, and now
\nin your despair you are asking if it can indeed be, as these happy people
\nsay, that the Lord is able and willing to deliver you. Surely you know in
\nyour very soul that He is; that to save you out of the hand of all your
\nenemies is in fact just the very thing He came to do. Then trust Him. Commit
\nyour case to Him in an absolute abandonment, and believe that He undertakes
\nit; and at once, knowing what He is and what He has said, claim that He does
\neven now fully save. Just as you believed at first that He delivered you
\nfrom the guilt of sin because He said so, believe now that He delivers you
\nfrom the power of sin because He says so. Let your faith now lay hold of a
\nnew power in Christ. You have trusted Him as your dying Saviour, now trust
\nHim as your living Saviour. Just as much as He came to deliver you from
\nfuture punishment, did He also come to deliver you from present bondage.
\nJust as truly as He came to bear your sins for you, has He come to live His
\nlife in you. You are as utterly powerless in the one case as in the other.
\nYou could as easily have got yourself rid of your own sins, as you could now
\naccomplish for yourself practical righteousness. Christ, and Christ only,
\nmust do both for you, and your part in both cases is simply to give the
\nthing to Him to do, and then believe that He does it.
\n A lady, now very eminent in this life of trust, when she was seeking in
\ngreat darkness and perplexity to enter in, said to the friend who was trying
\nto help her, “You all say, `Abandon yourself, and trust, abandon yourself,
\nand trust,’ but I do not know how. I wish you would just do it out loud, so
\nthat I may see how you do it.”
\n Shall I do it out loud for you?
\n “Lord Jesus, I believe that Thou art able and willing to deliver me
\nfrom all the care, and unrest and bondage of my Christian life. I believe
\nthou didst die to set me free, not only in the future, but now and here. I
\nbelieve thou art stronger than Satan, and that thou canst keep me, even me,
\nin my extreme of weakness, from falling into his snares or yielding
\nobedience to his commands. And, Lord, I am going to trust thee to keep me. I
\nhave tried keeping myself, and have failed, and failed most grievously. I am
\nabsolutely helpless; so now I will trust thee. I will give myself to thee; I
\nkeep back no reserves. Body, soul, and spirit, I present myself to thee, a
\nworthless lump of clay, to be made into anything thy love and thy wisdom
\nshall choose. And now, I am thine. I believe thou dost accept that which I
\npresent to thee; I believe that this poor, weak, foolish heart has been
\ntaken possession of by thee, and thou hast even at this very moment begun to
\nwork in me to will and to do of thy good pleasure. I trust thee utterly, and
\nI trust thee now!”
\n Are you afraid to take this step? Does it seem too sudden, too much
\nlike a leap in the dark? Do you not know that the steps of faith always
\n“fall on the seeming void, but find the rock beneath- A man, having to
\ndescend a well by a rope, found, to his horror, when he was a great way
\ndown, that it was too short. He had reached the end, and yet was, he
\nestimated, about thirty feet from the bottom of the well. He knew not what
\nto do. He had not the strength or skill to climb up the rope, and to let go
\nwas to be dashed to pieces. His arms began to fail, and at last he decided
\nthat as he could not hold on much longer, he might as well let go and meet
\nhis fate at once. He resigned himself to destruction, and loosened his
\ngrasp. He fell! To the bottom of the well it was — just three inches!
\n If ever your feet are to touch the “rock beneath,” you must let go of
\nevery holding-place and drop into God; for there is no other way. And to do
\nit now may save you months and even years of strain and weariness.
\n In all the old castles of England there used to be a place called the
\nkeep. It was always the strongest and best protected place in the castle,
\nand in it were hidden all who were weak and helpless and unable to defend
\nthemselves in times of danger. Had you been a timid, helpless woman in such
\na castle during a time of siege, would it have seemed to you a leap in the
\ndark to have hidden yourself there? Would you have been afraid to do it? And
\nshall we be afraid to hide ourselves in the keeping power of our Divine
\nKeeper, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and who has promised to preserve
\nour going out and our coming in, from this time forth and even forever more?<\/p>\n
Chapter 5<\/p>\n
DIFFICULTIES CONCERNING CONSECRATION<\/p>\n
It is very important that Christians should not be ignorant of the devices
\nof the enemy; for he stands ready to oppose every onward step of the soul’s
\nprogress. And especially is he busy when he sees a believer awakened to a
\nhunger and thirst after righteousness, and seeking to reach out to apprehend
\nall the fulness that is in the Lord Jesus Christ for him.
\n One of the first difficulties he throws in the way of such a one is
\nconcerning consecration. The seeker after holiness is told that he must
\nconsecrate himself; and he endeavors to do so. But at once he meets with a
\ndifficulty. He has done it, as he thinks, and yet does not feel differently
\nfrom before; nothing seems changed, as he has been led to expect it would
\nbe, and he is completely baffled, and asks the question almost despairingly,
\n“How am I to know when I am consecrated?”
\n The one grand temptation which has met such a soul at this juncture is
\nthe temptation which never fails to assert itself on every possible
\noccasion, and generally with marked success, and that is in reference to
\nfeeling. The soul cannot believe it is consecrated until it feels that it
\nis; and because it does not feel that God has taken it in hand, it cannot
\nbelieve that He has. As usual, it puts feeling first and faith second. Now,
\nGod’s invariable rule is faith first and feeling second, in everything; and
\nit is striving against the inevitable when we seek to make it different.
\n The way to meet this temptation, then, in reference to consecration, is
\nsimply to take God’s side in the matter, and to put faith before feeling.
\nGive yourself to the Lord definitely and fully, according to your present
\nlight, asking the Holy Spirit to show you all that is contrary to God,
\neither in your heart or life. If He shows you anything, give it to the Lord
\nimmediately, and say in reference to it, “Thy will be done.” If He shows you
\nnothing, then you must believe that there is nothing, and must conclude that
\nyou have given Him all. Then you must believe that He takes you. You
\npositively must not wait to feel either that you have given yourself or that
\nHe has taken you. You must simply believe it, and reckon it to be the case.
\n If you were to give an estate to a friend, you would have to give it,
\nand he would have to receive it by faith. An estate is not a thing that can
\nbe picked up and handed over to another; the gift of it and its reception
\nare altogether a mental transaction and therefore one of faith. Now, if you
\nshould give an estate one day to a friend, and then should go away and
\nwonder whether you really had given it, and whether he had actually taken it
\nand considered it his own, and should feel it necessary to go the next day
\nand renew the gift; and if on the third day you should still feel a similar
\nuncertainty about it, and should again go and renew the gift, and on the
\nfourth day go through a like process, and so on, day after day for months
\nand years, what would your friend think, and what at last would be the
\ncondition of your own mind in reference to it? Your friend certainly would
\nbegin to doubt whether you ever had intended to give it to him at all; and
\nyou yourself would be in such hopeless perplexity about it , that you would
\nnot know whether the estate was yours, or his, or whose it was.
\n Now, is not this very much the way in which you have been acting
\ntowards God in this matter of consecration? You have given yourself to Him
\nover and over daily, perhaps for months, but you have invariably come away
\nfrom your seasons of consecration wondering whether you really have given
\nyourself after all, and whether He has taken you; and because you have not
\nfelt any differently, you have concluded at last, after many painful
\ntossings, that the thing has not been done. Do you know, dear believer, that
\nthis sort of perplexity will last forever, unless you cut it short by faith?
\nYou must come to the point of reckoning the matter to be an accomplished and
\nsettled thing, and leaving it there, before you can possibly expect any
\nchange of feeling what ever.
\n The very law of offerings to the Lord settles this as a primary fact,
\nthat everything which is given to Him becomes by that very act something
\nholy, set apart from all other things, and cannot without sacrilege be put
\nto any other uses. “Notwithstanding, no devoted thing that a man shall
\ndevote unto the Lord of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the
\nfield of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is
\nmost holy unto the Lord.” Having once given it to the Lord, the devoted
\nthing henceforth was reckoned by all Israel as being the Lord’s, and no one
\ndared to stretch forth a hand to retake it. The giver might have made his
\noffering very grudgingly and half-heartedly, but having made it, the matter
\nwas taken out of his hands altogether, and the devoted thing by God’s own
\nlaw became “most holy unto the Lord.”
\n It was not the intention of the giver that made it holy, but the
\nholiness of the receiver. “The altar sanctifies the gift.” And an offering
\nonce laid upon the altar, from that moment belonged to the Lord. I can
\nimagine an offerer who had deposited a gift, beginning to search his heart
\nas to his sincerity and honesty in doing it, and coming back to the priest
\nto say that he was afraid after all he had not given it right, or had not
\nbeen perfectly sincere in giving it. I feel sure that the priest would have
\nsilenced him at once with saying, “As to how you gave your offering, or what
\nwere your motives in giving it, I do not know. The facts are that you did
\ngive it, and that it is the Lord’s, for every devoted thing is most holy
\nunto Him. It is too late to recall the transaction now.” And not only the
\npriest but all Israel would have been aghast at the man who, having once
\ngiven his offering, should have reached out his hand to take it back. And
\nyet, day after day, earnest-hearted Christians, who would have shuddered at
\nsuch an act of sacrilege on the part of a Jew, are guilty in their own
\nexperience of a similar act, by giving themselves to the Lord in solemn
\nconsecration, and then through unbelief taking back that which they have
\ngiven.
\n Because God is not visibly present to the eye, it is difficult to feel
\nthat a transaction with Him is real. I suppose if, when we made our acts of
\nconsecration, we could actually see Him present with us, we should feel it
\nto be a very real thing, and would realize that we had given our word to Him
\nand could not dare to take it back, no matter how much we might wish to do
\nso. Such a transaction would have to us the binding power that a spoken
\npromise to an earthly friend always has to a man of honor. And what we need
\nis to see that God’s presence is a certain fact always, and that every act
\nof our soul is done right before Him, and that a word spoken in prayer is as
\nreally spoken to Him, as if our eyes could see Him and our hands could touch
\nHim. Then we shall cease to have such vague conceptions of our relations
\nwith Him, and shall feel the binding force of every word we say in His
\npresence.
\n I know some will say here, “Ah, yes; but if He would only speak to me,
\nand say that He took me when I gave myself to Him, I would have no trouble
\nthen in believing it.” No, of course you would not; but He does not
\ngenerally say this until the soul has first proved its loyalty by believing
\nwhat He has already said. It is he that believeth who has the witness, not
\nhe that doubteth. And by His very command to us to present ourselves to Him
\na living sacrifice, He has pledged Himself to receive us. I cannot conceive
\nof an honorable man asking another to give him a thing which, after all, he
\nwas doubtful about taking; still less can I conceive of a loving parent
\nacting so towards a darling child. “My son, give me thy heart,” is a sure
\nwarrant for knowing that the moment the heart is given, it will be taken by
\nthe One who has commanded the gift. We may, nay we must, feel the utmost
\nconfidence then that when we surrender ourselves to the Lord, according to
\nHis own command, He does then and there receive us, and from that moment we
\nare His. A real transaction has taken place, which cannot be violated
\nwithout dishonor on our part, and which we know will not be violated by Him.
\n In Deut. 26:17, 18, 19, we see God’s way of working under these
\ncircumstances: —
\n “Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in His
\nways and to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and
\nto hearken unto His voice; and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be
\nHis peculiar people, as He hath promised thee, and that thou shouldst keep
\nall His commandments; . . . and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the
\nLord, as He hath spoken.”
\n When we avouch the Lord to be our God, and that we will walk in His
\nways and keep His commandments, He avouches us to be His, and that we shall
\nkeep all His commandments. And from that moment He takes possession of us.
\nThis has always been His principle of working, and it continues to be so.
\n“Every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord.” This seems to me so plain as
\nscarcely to admit of a question.
\n But if the soul still feels in doubt or difficulty, let me refer you to
\na New Testament declaration which approaches the subject from a different
\nside, but which settles it, I think, quite as definitely. It is in 1 John
\n5:14, 15, and reads: “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that
\nif we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that
\nHe hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we
\ndesired of Him.” Is it according to His will that you should be entirely
\nconsecrated to Him? There can be, of course, but one answer to this, for He
\nhas commanded it. Is it not also according to His will that He should work
\nin you to will and to do of His good pleasure? This question also can have
\nbut one answer, for He has declared it to be His purpose. You know, then,
\nthat these things are according to His will, therefore on God’s own word you
\nare obliged to know that He hears you; and knowing this much, you are
\ncompelled to go further and know that you have the petitions that you have
\ndesired of Him. That you have, I say, not will have, or may have, but have
\nnow in actual possession. It is thus that we “obtain promises” by faith. It
\nis thus that we have “access by faith” into the grace that is given us in
\nour Lord Jesus Christ. It is thus, and thus only, that we come to know our
\nhearts are “purified by faith,” and are enabled to live by faith, to stand
\nby faith, to walk by faith.
\n I desire to make this subject so plain and practical that no one need
\nhave any further difficulty about it, and therefore I will repeat again just
\nwhat must be the acts of your soul in order to bring you out of this
\ndifficulty about consecration.
\n I suppose that you have trusted the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of
\nyour sins, and know something of what it is to belong to the family of God,
\nand to be made an heir of God through faith in Christ. And now you feel
\nspringing up in your soul the longing to be conformed to the image of your
\nLord. In order for this, you know there must be an entire surrender of
\nyourself to Him, that He may work in you all the good pleasure of His will;
\nand you have tried over and over to do it, but hitherto without any apparent
\nsuccess.
\n At this point it is that I desire to help you. What you must do now is
\nto come once more to Him in a surrender of your whole self to His will, as
\ncomplete as you know how to make it. You must ask Him to reveal to you by
\nHis Spirit any hidden rebellion; and if He reveals nothing, then you must
\nbelieve that there is nothing, and that the surrender is complete. This
\nmust, then, be considered a settled matter. You have abandoned yourself to
\nthe Lord, and from henceforth you do not in any sense belong to yourself;
\nyou must never even so much as listen to a suggestion to the contrary. If
\nthe temptation comes to wonder whether you really have completely
\nsurrendered yourself, meet it with an assertion that you have. Do not even
\nargue the matter. Repel any such idea instantly and with decision. You meant
\nit then, you mean it now, you have really done it. Your emotions may clamor
\nagainst the surrender, but your will must hold firm. It is your purpose God
\nlooks at, not your feelings about that purpose, and your purpose, or will,
\nis therefore the only thing you need attend to.
\n The surrender, then, having been made, never to be questioned or
\nrecalled, the next point is to believe that God takes that which you have
\nsurrendered, and to reckon that it is His. Not that it will be at some
\nfuture time, but is now; and that He has begun to work in you to will, and
\nto do, of His good pleasure. And here you must rest. There is nothing more
\nfor you to do, for you are the Lord’s now, absolutely and entirely in His
\nhands, and He has undertaken the whole care and management and forming of
\nyou; and will, according to His word, “work in you that which is
\nwell-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ.” But you must hold steadily
\nhere. If you begin to question your surrender, or God’s acceptance of it,
\nthen your wavering faith will produce a wavering experience, and He cannot
\nwork. But while you trust He works, and the result of His working always is
\nto change you into the image of Christ, from glory to glory, by His mighty
\nSpirit.
\n Do you, then, now at this moment surrender yourself wholly to Him? You
\nanswer, Yes. Then, my dear friend, begin at once to reckon that you are His;
\nthat He has taken you, and that He is working in you to will and to do of
\nHis good pleasure. And keep on reckoning this. You will find it a great help
\nto put your reckoning into words, and to say over and over to yourself and
\nto your God, “Lord, I am thine; I do yield myself up to thee entirely, and I
\nbelieve that thou dost take me. I leave myself with thee. Work in me all the
\ngood pleasure of thy will, and I will only lie still in thy hands, and trust
\nthee.”
\n Make this a daily definite act of your will, and many times a day recur
\nto it, as being your continual attitude before Him. Confess it to yourself.
\nConfess it to your God. Confess it to your friends. Avouch the Lord to be
\nyour God continually and unwaveringly, and declare your purpose of walking
\nin His ways and keeping His statutes; and you will find in practical
\nexperience that He has avouched you to be His peculiar people and that you
\nshall keep all His commandments, and that you will be “an holy people unto
\nthe Lord, as He hath spoken.”
\n A few simple rules may be found helpful here. I would advise the use of
\nthem in daily times of devotion, making them the definite test and attitude
\nof the soul, until the light shines clearly on this matter.
\n I. Express in definite words your faith in Christ as your Saviour; and
\nacknowledge definitely that you believe He has reconciled you to God;
\naccording to 2 Cor. 5:18, 19.
\n II. Definitely acknowledge God as your Father, and yourself as His
\nredeemed and forgiven child; according to Gal. v: 6.
\n III. Definitely surrender yourself to be all the Lord’s, body, soul,
\nand spirit; and to obey Him in everything where His will is made known;
\naccording to Rom. 12:12.
\n IV. Believe and continue to believe, against all seemings, that God
\ntakes possession of that which you thus abandon to Him, and that He will
\nhenceforth work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure, unless you
\nconsciously frustrate His grace; according to 2 Cor. 6:17, 18, and Phil.
\n2:13.
\n V. Pay no attention to your feelings as a test of your relations with
\nGod, but simply attend to the state of your will and of your faith. And
\ncount all these steps you are now taking as settled, though the enemy may
\nmake it seem otherwise. Heb. 10:22, 23.
\n VI. Never, under any circumstances, give way for one single moment to
\ndoubt or discouragement. Remember, that all discouragement is from the
\ndevil, and refuse to admit it; according to John 14:1, 27.
\n VII. Cultivate the habit of expressing your faith in definite words,
\nand repeat often, “I am all the Lord’s and He is working in me now to will
\nand to do of His good pleasure; according to Heb. 13:21.<\/p>\n
Chapter 6<\/p>\n
DIFFICULTIES CONCERNING FAITH<\/p>\n
The next step after consecration, in the soul’s progress out of the
\nwilderness of Christian experience, into the land that floweth with milk and
\nhoney, is that of faith. And here, as in the first step, the enemy is very
\nskilful in making difficulties and interposing obstacles.
\n The child of God, having had his eyes opened to see the fulness there
\nis in Jesus for him, and having been made to long to appropriate that
\nfulness to himself, is met with the assertion on the part of every teacher
\nto whom he applies, that this fulness is only to be received by faith. But
\nthe subject of faith is involved in such a hopeless mystery in his mind,
\nthat this assertion, instead of throwing light upon the way of entrance,
\nonly seems to make it more difficult and involved than ever.
\n “Of course it is to be by faith,” he says, “for I know that everything
\nin the Christian life is by faith. But then, that is just what makes it so
\nhard, for I have no faith, and I do not even know what it is, nor how to get
\nit.” And, baffled at the very outset by this insuperable difficulty, he is
\nplunged into darkness, and almost despair.
\n This trouble all arises from the fact that the subject of faith is very
\ngenerally misunderstood; for in reality faith is the plainest and most
\nsimple thing in the world, and the most easy of attainment.
\n Your idea of faith, I suppose, has been something like this. You have
\nlooked upon it as in some way a sort of thing, either a religious exercise
\nof soul, or an inward gracious disposition of heart; something tangible, in
\nfact, which, when you have got, you can look at and rejoice over, and use as
\na passport to God’s favor, or a coin with which to purchase His gifts. And
\nyou have been praying for faith, expecting all the while to get something
\nlike this, and never having received any such thing, you are insisting upon
\nit that you have no faith. Now faith, in fact, is not in the least this sort
\nof thing. It is nothing at all tangible. It is simply believing God, and,
\nlike sight, it is nothing apart from its object. You might as well shut your
\neyes and look inside to see whether you have sight, as to look inside to
\ndiscover whether you have faith. You see something, and thus know that you
\nhave sight; you believe something, and thus know that you have faith. For,
\nas sight is only seeing, so faith is only believing. And as the only
\nnecessary thing about seeing is, that you see the thing as it is, so the
\nonly necessary thing about believing is, at you believe the thing as it is.
\nThe virtue does not lie in your believing, but in the thing you believe. If
\nyou believe the truth you are saved; if you believe a lie you are lost. The
\nbelieving in both cases is the same; the things believed in are exactly
\nopposite, and it is this which makes the mighty difference. Your salvation
\ncomes, not because your faith saves you, but because it links you on to the
\nSaviour who saves; and your believing is really nothing but the link.
\n I do beg of you to recognize, then, the extreme simplicity of faith;
\nthat it is nothing more nor less than just believing God when He says He
\neither has done something for us, or will do it; and then trusting Him to do
\nit. It is so simple that it is hard to explain. If any one asks me what it
\nmeans to trust another to do a piece of work for me, I can only answer that
\nit means letting that other one do it, and feeling it perfectly unnecessary
\nfor me to do it myself. Every one of us has trusted very important pieces of
\nwork to others in this way, and has felt perfect rest in thus trusting,
\nbecause of the confidence we have had in those who have undertaken to do it.
\nHow constantly do mothers trust their most precious infants to the care of
\nnurses, and feel no shadow of anxiety? How continually we are all of us
\ntrusting our health and our lives, without a thought of fear, to cooks and
\ncoachmen, engine drivers, railway conductors, and all sorts of paid
\nservants, who have us completely at their mercy, and could plunge us into
\nmisery or death in a moment, if they chose to do so, or even if they failed
\nin the necessary carefulness? All this we do, and make no fuss about it.
\nUpon the slightest acquaintance, often, we thus put our trust in people,
\nrequiring only the general knowledge of human nature, and the common rules
\nof human intercourse; and we never feel as if we were doing anything in the
\nleast remarkable.
\n You have done all this yourself, dear reader, and are doing it
\ncontinually. You would not be able to live in this world and go through the
\ncustomary routine of life a single day, if you could not trust your
\nfellow-men. And it never enters into your head to say you cannot.
\n But yet you do not hesitate to say, continually, that you cannot trust
\nyour God!
\n I wish you would just now try to imagine yourself acting in your human
\nrelations as you do in your spiritual relations. Suppose you should begin
\ntomorrow with the notion in your head that you could not trust anybody,
\nbecause you had no faith. When you sat down to breakfast you would say, “I
\ncannot eat anything on this table, for I have no faith, and I cannot believe
\nthe cook has not put poison in the coffee, or that the butcher has not sent
\nhome diseased meat.” So you would go starving away. Then when you went out
\nto your daily avocations, you would say, “I cannot ride in the railway
\ntrain, for I have no faith, and therefore I cannot trust the engineer, nor
\nthe conductor, nor the builders of the carriages, nor the managers of the
\nroad.” So you would be compelled to walk everywhere, and grow unutterably
\nweary in the effort, besides being actually unable to reach many of the
\nplaces you could have reached in the train. Then, when your friends met you
\nwith any statements, or your business agent with any accounts, you would
\nsay, “I am very sorry that I cannot believe you, but I have no faith, and
\nnever can believe anybody.” If you opened a newspaper you would be forced to
\nlay it down again, saying, “I really cannot believe a word this paper says,
\nfor I have no faith; I do not believe there is any such person as the queen,
\nfor I never saw her; nor any such country as Ireland, for I was never there.
\nAnd I have no faith, so of course I cannot believe anything that I have not
\nactually felt and touched myself. It is a great trial, but I cannot help it,
\nfor I have no faith.”
\n Just picture such a day as this, and see how disastrous it would be to
\nyourself, and what utter folly it would appear to any one who should watch
\nyou through the whole of it. Realize how your friends would feel insulted,
\nand how your servants would refuse to serve you another day. And then ask
\nyourself the question, if this want of faith in your fellow-men would be so
\ndreadful, and such utter folly, what must it be when you tell God that you
\nhave no power to trust Him nor to believe His word; that “it is a great
\ntrial, but you cannot help it, for you have no faith-
\n Is it possible that you can trust your fellow-men and cannot trust your
\nGod? That you can receive the “witness of men,” and cannot receive the
\n“witness of God- That you can believe man’s records, and cannot believe
\nGod’s record? That you can commit your dearest earthly interests to your
\nweak, failing fellow-creatures without a fear, and are afraid to commit your
\nspiritual interests to the blessed Saviour who shed His blood for the very
\npurpose of saving you, and who is declared to be “able to save you to the
\nuttermost-
\n Surely, surely, dear believer, you, whose very name of believer implies
\nthat you can believe, will never again dare to excuse yourself on the plea
\nof having no faith. For when you say this, you mean of course that you have
\nno faith in God, since you are not asked to have faith in yourself, and you
\nwould be in a very wrong condition of soul if you had. Let me beg of you
\nthen, when you think or say these things, always to complete the sentence
\nand say, “I have no faith in God, I cannot believe God”; and this I am sure
\nwill soon become so dreadful to you, that you will not dare to continue it.
\n But you say, I cannot believe without the Holy Spirit. Very well; will
\nyou conclude that your want of faith is because of the failure of the
\nblessed Spirit to do His work? For if it is, then surely you are not to
\nblame, and need feel no condemnation; and all exhortations to you to believe
\nare useless.
\n But, no! Do you not see that, in taking up this position, that you have
\nno faith and cannot believe, you are not only “making God a liar,” but you
\nare also manifesting an utter want of confidence in the Holy Spirit? For He
\nis always ready to help our infirmities. We never have to wait for Him, He
\nis always waiting for us. And I for my part have such absolute confidence in
\nthe blessed Holy Ghost, and in His being always ready to do his work, that I
\ndare to say to every one of you, that you can believe now, at this very
\nmoment, and that if you do not, it is not the Spirit’s fault, but your own.
\n Put your will then over on to the believing side. Say, “Lord I will
\nbelieve, I do believe,” and continue to say it. Insist upon believing, in
\nthe face of every suggestion of doubt with which you may be tempted. Out of
\nyour very unbelief, throw yourself headlong on to the word and promises of
\nGod, and dare to abandon yourself to the keeping and saving power of the
\nLord Jesus. If you have ever trusted a precious interest in the hands of any
\nearthly friend, I conjure you, trust yourself now and all your spiritual
\ninterests in the hands of your Heavenly Friend, and never, never, NEVER
\nallow yourself to doubt again.
\n And remember, there are two things which are more utterly incompatible
\nthan even oil and water, and these two are trust and worry. Would you call
\nit trust, if you should give something into the hands of a friend to attend
\nto for you, and then should spend your nights and days in anxious thought
\nand worry as to whether it would be rightly and successfully done? And can
\nyou call it trust, when you have given the saving and keeping of your soul
\ninto the hands of the Lord, if day after day and night after night you are
\nspending hours of anxious thought and questionings about the matter? When a
\nbeliever really trusts anything, he ceases to worry about that thing which
\nhe has trusted. And when he worries, it is a plain proof that he does not
\ntrust. Tested by this rule how little real trust there is in the Church of
\nChrist! No wonder our Lord asked the pathetic question, “When the Son of Man
\ncometh shall he find faith on the earth?” He will find plenty of activity, a
\ngreat deal of earnestness, and doubtless many consecrated hearts; but shall
\nhe find faith, the one thing He values more than all the rest? It is a
\nsolemn question, and I would that every Christian heart would ponder it
\nwell. But may the time past of our lives suffice us to have shared in the
\nunbelief of the world; and let us every one, who know our blessed Lord and
\nHis unspeakable trustworthiness, set to our seal that He is true, by our
\ngenerous abandonment of trust in Him.
\n I remember, very early in my Christian life, having every tender and
\nloyal impulse within me stirred to its depths by an appeal I met with in a
\nvolume of old sermons to all who loved the Lord Jesus, that they should show
\nto others how worthy He was of being trusted, by the steadfastness of their
\nown faith in Him. And I remember my soul cried out with an eager longing
\nthat I might be called to walk in paths so dark, that an utter abandonment
\nof trust might be my blessed and glorious privilege.
\n “Ye have not passed this way heretofore,” it may be; but today it is
\nyour happy privilege to prove, as never before, your loyal confidence in the
\nLord by starting out with Him on a life and walk of faith, lived moment by
\nmoment in absolute and childlike trust in Him.
\n You have trusted Him in a few things, and He has not failed you. Trust
\nHim now for everything, and see if He does not do for you exceeding
\nabundantly above all that you could ever have asked or thought; not
\naccording to your power or capacity, but according to His own mighty power,
\nthat will work in you all the good pleasure of His most blessed will.
\n You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the
\nuniverse and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex
\nor difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about his
\nmanagement of it. Away with such unworthy doubtings! Take your stand on the
\npower and trustworthiness of your God, and see how quickly all difficulties
\nwill vanish before a steadfast determination to believe. Trust in the dark,
\ntrust in the light, trust at night, and trust in the morning, and you will
\nfind that the faith, which may begin by a mighty effort, will end sooner or
\nlater by becoming the easy and natural habit of the soul.
\n All things are possible to God, and “all things are possible to him
\nthat believeth.” Faith has, in times past, “subdued kingdoms, wrought
\nrighteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the
\nviolence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, waxed valiant in fight,
\nturned to flight the armies of the aliens”; and faith can do it again. For
\nour Lord Himself says unto us, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
\nye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall
\nremove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
\n If you are a child of God at all, you must have at least as much faith
\nas a grain of mustard seed, and therefore you dare not say again that you
\ncannot trust because you have no faith. Say rather, “I can trust my Lord,
\nand I will trust Him, and not all the powers of earth or hell shall be able
\nto make me doubt my wonderful, glorious, faithful Redeemer!”
\n In that greatest event of this century, the emancipation of our slaves,
\nthere is a wonderful illustration of the way of faith. The slaves received
\ntheir freedom by faith, just as we must receive ours. The good news was
\ncarried to them that the government had proclaimed their freedom. As a
\nmatter of fact they were free the moment the Proclamation was issued, but as
\na matter of experience they did not come into actual possession of their
\nfreedom until they had heard the good news and had believed it. The fact had
\nto come first, but the believing was necessary before the fact became
\navailable, and the feeling would follow last of all. This is the divine
\norder always, and the order of common-sense as well. I. The fact. II. The
\nfaith. III. The feeling. But man reverses this order and says, I. The
\nfeeling. II. The faith. III. The fact.
\n Had the slaves followed man’s order in regard to their emancipation,
\nand refused to believe in it until they had first felt it, they might have
\nremained in slavery a long while. I have heard of one instance where this
\nwas the case. In a little out-of-the-way Southern town a Northern lady
\nfound, about two or three years after the war was over, some slaves who had
\nnot yet taken possession of their freedom. An assertion of hers, that the
\nNorth had set them free, aroused the attention of an old colored auntie, who
\ninterrupted her with the eager question, —
\n “O missus, is we free?”
\n “Of course you are,” replied the lady.
\n “O missus, is you sure?” urged the woman, with intensest eagerness.
\n “Certainly, I am sure,” answered the lady. “Why, is it possible you did
\nnot know it?”
\n “Well,” said the woman, “we heered tell as how we was free, and we
\nasked master, and he `lowed we wasn’t, and so we was afraid to go. And then
\nwe heered tell again, and we went to the cunnel, and he `lowed we’d better
\nstay with ole massa. And so we’s just been off and on. Sometimes we’d hope
\nwe was free, and then again we’d think we wasn’t. But now, missus, if you is
\nsure we is free, won’t you tell me all about it?”
\n Seeing that this was a case of real need, the lady took the pains to
\nexplain the whole thing to the poor woman; all about the war, and the
\nNorthern army, and Abraham Lincoln, and his Proclamation of Emancipation,
\nand the present freedom.
\n The poor slave listened with the most intense eagerness. She heard the
\ngood news. She believed it. And when the story was ended, she walked out of
\nthe room with an air of the utmost independence, saying as she went, — “I’s
\nfree! I’s ain’t agoing to stay with ol massa any longer!”
\n She had at last received her freedom, and she had received it by faith.
\nThe government had declared her to be free long before, but this had not
\navailed her, because she had never yet believed in this declaration. The
\ngood news had not profited her, not being “mixed with faith” in the one who
\nheard it. But now she believed, and believing, she dared to reckon herself
\nto be free. And this, not because of any change in herself or her
\nsurroundings, not because of any feelings of emotions of her own heart, but
\nbecause she had confidence in the word of another, who had come to her
\nproclaiming the good news of her freedom.
\n Need I make the application? In a hundred different messages God has
\ndeclared to us our freedom, and over and over He urges us to reckon
\nourselves free. Let your faith then lay hold of His proclamation, and assert
\nit to be true. Declare to yourself, to your friends, and in the secret of
\nyour soul to God, that you are free. Refuse to listen for a moment to the
\nlying assertions of your old master, that you are still his slave. Let
\nnothing discourage you, no inward feelings nor outward signs. Hold on to
\nyour reckoning in the face of all opposition, and I can promise you, on the
\nauthority of our Lord, that according to your faith it shall be unto you.
\n Of all the worships we can bring our God, none is so sweet to Him as
\nthis utter self-abandoning trust, and none brings Him so much glory.
\nTherefore in every dark hour remember that “though now for a season, if need
\nbe, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations,” it is in order that
\n“the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
\nperisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and
\nhonor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”<\/p>\n
Chapter 7<\/p>\n
DIFFICULTIES CONCERNING THE WILL<\/p>\n
When the child of God has, by the way of entire abandonment and absolute
\ntrust, stepped out of himself into Christ, and has begun to know something
\nof the blessedness of the life hid with Christ in God, there is one form of
\ndifficulty which is very likely to start up in his path. After the first
\nemotions of peace and rest have somewhat subsided, or if, as is sometimes
\nthe case, they have never seemed to come at all, he begins to feel such an
\nutter unreality in the things he has been passing through, that he seems to
\nhimself like a hypocrite, when he says or even thinks they are real. It
\nseems to him that his belief does not go below the surface, that it is a
\nmere lip-belief, and therefore of no account, and that his surrender is not
\na surrender of the heart, and therefore cannot be acceptable to God. He is
\nafraid to say he is altogether the Lord’s, for fear he will be telling an
\nuntruth, and yet he cannot bring himself to say he is not, because he longs
\nfor it so intensely. The difficulty is real and very disheartening.
\n But there is nothing here which will not be very easily overcome, when
\nthe Christian once thoroughly understands the principles of the new life,
\nand has learned how to live in it. The common thought is, that this life hid
\nwith Christ in God is to be lived in the emotions, and consequently all the
\nattention of the soul is directed towards them, and as they are satisfactory
\nor otherwise, the soul rests or is troubled. Now the truth is that this life
\nis not to be lived in the emotions at all, but in the will, and therefore
\nthe varying states of emotion do not in the least disturb or affect the
\nreality of the life, if only the will is kept steadfastly abiding in its
\ncentre, God’s will.
\n To make this plain, I must enlarge a little. Fenelon says somewhere,
\nthat “pure religion resides in the will alone.” By this he means that as the
\nwill is the governing power in the man’s nature, if the will is set
\nstraight, all the rest of the nature must come into harmony. By the will I
\ndo not mean the wish of the man, nor even his purpose, but the choice, the
\ndeciding power, the king, to which all that is in the man must yield
\nobedience. It is the man, in short, the “Ego,” that which we feel to be
\nourselves.
\n It is sometimes thought that the emotions are the governing power in
\nour nature. But, as a matter of practical experience, I think we all of us
\nknow that there is something within us, behind our emotions, and behind our
\nwishes, — an independent self, — that after all decides everything and
\ncontrols everything. Our emotions belong to us, and are suffered and enjoyed
\nby us, but they are not ourselves; and if God is to take possession of us,
\nit must be into this central will or personality that He shall enter. If,
\nthen, He is reigning there by the power of His Spirit, all the rest of our
\nnature must come under His sway; and as the will is, so is the man.
\n The practical bearing of this truth upon the difficulty I am
\nconsidering is very great. For the decisions of our will are often so
\ndirectly opposed to the decisions of our emotions, that, if we are in the
\nhabit of considering our emotions as the test, we shall be very apt to feel
\nlike hypocrites in declaring those things to be real which our will alone
\nhas decided. But the moment we see that the will is king, we shall utterly
\ndisregard anything that clamors against it, and shall claim as real its
\ndecisions, let the emotions rebel as they may.
\n I am aware that this is a difficult subject to deal with, but it is so
\nexceedingly practical in its bearing upon the life of faith, that I beg of
\nyou, dear reader, not to turn from it until you have mastered it.
\n Perhaps an illustration will help you. A young man of great
\nintelligence, seeking to enter into this new life, was utterly discouraged
\nat finding himself the slave to an inveterate habit of doubting. To his
\nemotions nothing seemed true, nothing seemed real; and the more he struggled
\nthe more unreal did it all become. He was told this secret concerning the
\nwill, that if he would only put his will over on to the believing side; if
\nhe would choose to believe; if, in short, he would, in the Ego of his
\nnature, say, “I will believe! I do believe!” he need not trouble about his
\nemotions, for they would find themselves compelled, sooner or later, to come
\ninto harmony. “What!” he said,” do you mean to tell me that I can choose to
\nbelieve in that way, when nothing seems true to me; and will that kind of
\nbelieving be real?” “Yes,” was the answer, “your part is only this, — to
\nput your will over on God’s side in this matter of believing; and when you
\ndo this, God immediately takes possession of it, and works in you to will of
\nHis good pleasure, and you will soon find that He has brought all the rest
\nof your nature into subjection to Himself.” “Well,” was the answer, “I can
\ndo this. I cannot control my emotions, but I can control my will, and the
\nnew life begins to look possible to me, if it is only my will that needs to
\nbe set straight in the matter. I can give my will to God, and I do!”
\n From that moment, disregarding all the pitiful clamoring of his
\nemotions, which continually accused him of being a wretched hypocrite, this
\nyoung man held on steadily to the decision of his will, answering every
\naccusation with the continued assertion that he chose to believe, he meant
\nto believe, he did believe; until at the end of a few days he found himself
\ntriumphant, with every emotion and every thought brought into captivity to
\nthe mighty power of the blessed Spirit of God, who had taken possession of
\nthe will thus put into His hands. He had held fast the profession of his
\nfaith without wavering, although it had seemed to him that, as to real faith
\nitself, he had none to hold fast. At times it had drained all the will power
\nhe possessed to his lips, to say that he believed, so contrary was it to all
\nthe evidence of his senses or of his emotions. But he had caught the idea
\nthat his will was, after all, himself, and that if he kept that on God’s
\nside, he was doing all he could do, and that God alone could change his
\nemotions or control his being. The result has been one of the grandest
\nChristian lives I know of, in its marvellous simplicity, directness, and
\npower over sin.
\n The secret lies just here. That our will, which is the spring of all
\nour actions, is in our natural state under the control of self, and self has
\nbeen working it in us to our utter ruin and misery. Now God says, “Yield
\nyourselves up unto Me, as those that are alive from the dead, and I will
\nwork in you to will and to do of my good pleasure.” And the moment we yield
\nourselves, He of course takes possession of us, and does work in us “that
\nwhich is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ,” giving us the
\nmind that was in Christ, and transforming us into His image. (See Rom. 12:1,
\n2.)
\n Let us take another illustration. A lady, who had entered into this
\nlife hid with Christ, was confronted by a great prospective trial. Every
\nemotion she had within her rose up in rebellion against it, and had she
\nconsidered her emotions to be her king, she would have been in utter
\ndespair. But she had learned this secret of the will, and knowing that, at
\nthe bottom, she herself did really choose the will of God for her portion,
\nshe did not pay the slightest attention to her emotions, but persisted in
\nmeeting every thought concerning the trial, with the words, repeated over
\nand over, “Thy will be done! Thy will be done!” asserting in the face of all
\nher rebelling feelings, that she did submit her will to God’s, that she
\nchose to submit, and that His will should be and was her delight! The result
\nwas, that in an incredibly short space of time every thought was brought
\ninto captivity; and she began to find even her very emotions rejoicing in
\nthe will of God.
\n Again, there was a lady who had a besetting sin, which in her emotions
\nshe dearly loved, but which in her will she hated. Having believed herself
\nto be necessarily under the control of her emotions, she had therefore
\nthought she was unable to conquer it, unless her emotions should first be
\nchanged. But she learned this secret concerning the will, and going to her
\nknees she said, “Lord, Thou seest that with one part of my nature I love
\nthis sin, but in my real central self I hate it. And now I put my will over
\non thy side in the matter. I will not do it any more. Do thou deliver me.”
\nImmediately God took possession of the will thus surrendered to Himself, and
\nbegan to work in her, so that His will in the matter gained the mastery over
\nher emotions, and she found herself delivered, not by the power of an
\noutward commandment, but by the inward power of the Spirit of God working in
\nher that which was well pleasing in His sight.
\n And now, dear Christian, let me show you how to apply this principle to
\nyour difficulties. Cease to consider your emotions, for they are only the
\nservants; and regard simply your will, which is the real king in your being.
\nIs that given up to God? Is that put into His hands? Does your will decide
\nto believe? Does your will choose to obey? If this is the case, then you are
\nin the Lord’s hands, and you decide to believe, and you choose to obey; for
\nyour will is yourself. And the thing is done. The transaction with God is as
\nreal, where only your will acts, as when every emotion coincides. It does
\nnot seem as real to you; but in God’s sight it is as real. And when you have
\ngot hold of this secret, and have discovered that you need not attend to
\nyour emotions, but simply to the state of your will, all the Scripture
\ncommands, to yield yourself to God, to present yourself a living sacrifice
\nto Him, to abide in Christ, to walk in the light, to die to self, become
\npossible to you; for you are conscious that, in all these, your will can
\nact, and can take God’s side: whereas, if it had been your emotions that
\nmust do it, you would sink down in despair, knowing them to be utterly
\nuncontrollable.
\n When, then, this feeling of unreality or hypocrisy comes, do not be
\ntroubled by it. It is only in your emotions, and is not worth a moment’s
\nthought. Only see to it that your will is in God’s hands; that your inward
\nself is abandoned to His working; that your choice, your decision, is on His
\nside; and there leave it. Your surging emotions, like a tossing vessel,
\nwhich, by degrees, yields to the steady pull of the cable, finding
\nthemselves attached to the mighty power of God by the choice of your will,
\nmust inevitably come into captivity, and give in their allegiance to Him;
\nand you will verify the truth of the saying that, “If any man will do His
\nwill, he shall know of the doctrine.”
\n The will is like a wise mother in a nursery; the feelings are like a
\nset of clamoring, crying children. The mother decides upon a certain course
\nof action, which she believes to be right and best. The children clamor
\nagainst it, and declare it shall not be. But the mother, knowing that she is
\nmistress and not they, pursues her course calmly, unmoved by their clamors,
\nand takes no notice of them except in trying to soothe and quiet them. The
\nresult is that the children are sooner or later compelled to yield, and fall
\nin with the decision of the mother. Thus order and harmony are preserved.
\nBut if that mother should for a moment let in the thought that the children
\nwere the mistresses instead of herself, confusion would reign unchecked.
\nSuch instances have been known in family life! And in how many souls at this
\nvery moment is there nothing but confusion, simply because the feelings are
\nallowed to govern, instead of the will!
\n Remember, then, that the real thing in your experience is what your
\nwill decides, and not the verdict of your emotions; and that you are far
\nmore in danger of hypocrisy and untruth in yielding to the assertions of
\nyour feelings, than in holding fast to the decision of your will. So that,
\nif your will is on God’s side, you are no hypocrite at this moment in
\nclaiming as your own the blessed reality of belonging altogether to Him,
\neven though your emotions may all declare the contrary.
\n I am convinced that, throughout the Bible, the expressions concerning
\nthe “heart” do not mean the emotions, that which we now understand by the
\nword “heart”; but they mean the will, the personality of the man, the man’s
\nown central self; and that the object of God’s dealings with man is, that
\nthis “I” may be yielded up to Him, and this central life abandoned to His
\nentire control. It is not the feelings of the man God wants, but the man
\nhimself.
\n Have you given Him yourself, dear reader? Have you abandoned your will
\nto His working? Do you consent to surrender the very centre of your being
\ninto His hands? Then, let the outposts of your nature clamor as they may, it
\nis your right to say, even now, with the apostle, “I am crucified with
\nChrist; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the
\nlife which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
\nwho loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
\n After this chapter had been enclosed to the printer, the following
\nremarkable practical illustration of its teaching was presented by Pasteur
\nT. Monod, of Paris. It is the experience of a Presbyterian minister, which
\nthis pasteur had carefully kept for many years.
\nNEWBURGH, Sept. 26, 1842.<\/p>\n
Dear Brother, — I take a few moments of that time which I have devoted
\nto the Lord, in writing a short epistle to you, His servant. It is sweet to
\nfeel we are wholly the Lord’s, that He has received us and called us His.
\nThis is religion, — a relinquishment of the principle of self-ownership,
\nand the adoption in full of the abiding sentiment, “I am not my own, I am
\nbought with a price.” Since I last saw you, I have been pressing forward,
\nand yet there has been nothing remarkable in my experience of which I can
\nspeak; indeed I do not know that it is best to look for remarkable things;
\nbut strive to be holy, as God is holy, pressing right on toward the mark of
\nthe prize.
\n I do not feel myself qualified to instruct you; I can only tell you the
\nway in which I was led. The Lord deals differently with different souls, and
\nwe ought not to attempt to copy the experience of others, yet there are
\ncertain things which must be attended to by every one who is seeking after a
\nclean heart.
\n There must be a personal consecration of all to God, a covenant made
\nwith God, that we will be wholly and forever His. This I made intellectually
\nwithout any change in my feeling, with a heart full of hardness and
\ndarkness, unbelief and sin and insensibility.
\n I covenanted to be the Lord’s, and laid all upon the altar, a living
\nsacrifice, to the best of my ability. And after I rose from my knees, I was
\nconscious of no change in my feeling. I was painfully conscious that there
\nwas no change. But yet I was sure that I did, with all the sincerity and
\nhonesty of purpose of which I was capable, make an entire and eternal
\nconsecration of myself to God. I did not then consider the work done by any
\nmeans, but I engaged to abide in a state of entire devotion to God, a living
\nperpetual sacrifice. And now came the effort to do this.
\n I knew that I must believe that God did accept me, and had come in to
\ndwell in my heart. I was conscious I did not believe this, and yet I desired
\nto do so. I read with much prayer John’s First Epistle, and endeavored to
\nassure my heart of God’s love to me as an individual. I was sensible that my
\nheart was full of evil. I seemed to have no power to overcome pride, or to
\nrepel evil thoughts, which I abhorred. But Christ was manifested to destroy
\nthe works of the devil, and it was clear that the sin in my heart was the
\nwork of the devil. I was enabled, therefore, to believe that God was working
\nin me, to will and to do, while I was working out my own salvation with fear
\nand trembling.
\n I was convinced of unbelief, that it was voluntary and criminal. I
\nclearly saw that unbelief was an awful sin, it made the faithful God a liar.
\nThe Lord brought before me my besetting sins which had dominion over me,
\nespecially preaching myself instead of Christ, and indulging self-complacent
\nthoughts after preaching. I was enabled to make myself of no reputation, and
\nto seek the honor which cometh from God only. Satan struggled hard to beat
\nme back from the Rock of Ages but thanks to God I finally hit upon the
\nmethod of living by the moment, and then I found rest.
\n I trusted in the blood of Jesus already shed, as a sufficient atonement
\nfor all my past sins, and the future I committed wholly to the Lord,
\nagreeing to do His will under all circumstances as He should make it known,
\nand I saw that all I had to do was to look to Jesus for a present supply of
\ngrace, and to trust Him to cleanse my heart and keep me from sin at the
\npresent moment.
\n I felt shut up to a momentary dependence upon the grace of Christ. I
\nwould not permit the adversary to trouble me about the past or future, for I
\neach moment looked for the supply for that moment. I agreed that I would be
\na child of Abraham, and walk by naked faith in the Word of God, and not by
\ninward feelings and emotions: I would seek to be a Bible Christian. Since
\nthat time the Lord has given me a steady victory over sins which before
\nenslaved me. I delight in the Lord, and in His Word. I delight in my work as
\na minister: my fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
\nI am a babe in Christ; I know my progress has been small compared with that
\nmade by many. My feelings vary, but when I have feelings, I praise God, and
\nI trust in His word; and when I am empty and my feelings are gone, I do the
\nsame. I have covenanted to walk by faith and not by feelings.
\n The Lord, I think, is beginning to revive His work among my people.
\n“Praise the Lord.” May the Lord fill you with all His fulness and give you
\nall the mind of Christ. Oh, be faithful! Walk before God and be perfect.
\nPreach the Word. Be instant in season and out of season. The Lord loves you.
\nHe works with you. Rest your soul fully upon that promise, “Lo, I am with
\nyou alway, even unto the end of the world.”
\nYour fellow soldier,
\nWILLIAM HILL<\/p>\n
There may be some who will object to this teaching, that it ignores the
\nwork of the blessed Holy Spirit. But I must refer such to the introductory
\nchapter of this book, in which I have fully explained myself. I am not
\nwriting upon that side of the subject; I am considering man’s part in the
\nmatter, and not the part of the Spirit. I realize intensely that all a man
\ncan do or try to do would be utterly useless, if the Holy Spirit did not
\nwork in that man continually. And it is only because I believe in the Spirit
\nas a mighty power, ever present and always ready to do his work, that I can
\nwrite as I do. But, like the wind that bloweth where it listeth, and thou
\nhearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither
\nit goeth, the operations of the Spirit are beyond our control, and also
\nbeyond our comprehension.
\n The results we know, and the steps on our part which lead to those
\nresults, but we know nothing more. And yet, like a workman in a great
\nmanufactory, who does not question the commands of his employer, and is not
\nafraid to undertake apparent impossibilities, because he knows there is a
\nmighty unseen power, called steam, behind his machinery, which can
\naccomplish it all, so we dare to urge upon men that they shall simply and
\ncourageously set themselves to do that which they are commanded to do,
\nbecause we know that the mighty Spirit will never fail to supply at each
\nmoment the necessary power for that moment’s act. And we boldly claim that
\nwe who thus write can say from our very hearts, as earnestly and as solemnly
\nas any other Christians, We believe in the Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n
Chapter 8<\/p>\n
IS GOD IN EVERYTHING?<\/p>\n
One of the greatest obstacles to living unwaveringly this life of entire
\nsurrender is the difficulty of seeing God in everything. People say, “I can
\neasily submit to things which come from God; but I cannot submit to man, and
\nmost of my trials and crosses come through human instrumentality.” Or they
\nsay, “It is all well enough to talk of trusting; but when I commit a matter
\nto God, man is sure to come in and disarrange it all; and while I have no
\ndifficulty in trusting God, I do see serious difficulties in the way of
\ntrusting men.”
\n This is no imaginary trouble, but it is of vital importance, and if it
\ncannot be met, does really make the life of faith an impossible and
\nvisionary theory. For nearly everything in life comes to us through human
\ninstrumentalities, and most of our trials are the result of somebody’s
\nfailure, or ignorance, or carelessness, or sin. We know God cannot be the
\nauthor of these things, and yet unless He is the agent in the matter, how
\ncan we say to Him about it, “Thy will be done-
\n Besides, what good is there in trusting our affairs to God, if, after
\nall, man is to be allowed to come in and disarrange them; and how is it
\npossible to live by faith, if human agencies, in whom it would be wrong and
\nfoolish to trust, are to have a predominant influence in moulding our lives?
\n Moreover, things in which we can see God’s hand always have a sweetness
\nin them which consoles while it wounds. But the trials inflicted by man are
\nfull of bitterness.
\n What is needed, then, is to see God in everything, and to receive
\neverything directly from His hands, with no intervention of second causes.
\nAnd it is just to this that we must be brought, before we can know an
\nabiding experience of entire abandonment and perfect trust. Our abandonment
\nmust be to God, not to man, and our trust must be in Him, not in any arm of
\nflesh, or we shall fail at the first trial.
\n The question here confronts us at once, “But is God in everything, and
\nhave we any warrant from the Scripture for receiving everything from His
\nhands, without regarding the second causes which may have been instrumental
\nin bringing it about?” I answer to this, unhesitatingly, Yes. To the
\nchildren of God everything comes directly from their Father’s hand, no
\nmatter who or what may have been the apparent agents. There are no “second
\ncauses” for them.
\n The whole teaching of the Bible asserts and implies this. “Not a
\nsparrow falls to the ground without our Father.” The very hairs of our head
\nare all numbered. We are not to be careful about anything, because our
\nFather cares for us. We are not to avenge ourselves, because our Father has
\ncharged Himself with our defence. We are not to fear, for the Lord is on our
\nside. No one can be against us, because He is for us. We shall not want, for
\nHe is our Shepherd. When we pass through the rivers they shall not overflow
\nus, and when we walk through the fire we shall not be burned, because He
\nwill be with us. He shuts the mouths of lions, that they cannot hurt us. “He
\ndelivereth and rescueth.” “He changeth the times and the seasons; He
\nremoveth kings and setteth up kings.” A man’s heart is in His hand, and, “as
\nthe river of water, He turneth it whithersoever He will.” He ruleth over all
\nthe kingdoms of the heathen; and in His hand there is power and might,” so
\nthat none is able to withstand” Him. “He ruleth the raging of the sea; when
\nthe waves thereof arise, He stilleth them.” He “bringeth the counsel of the
\nheathen to nought; He maketh the devices of the people of none effect.”
\n“Whatsoever the Lord pleaseth, that does He in heaven, and in earth, in the
\nseas, and all deep places.”
\n “If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of
\njudgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for He that is
\nhigher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.”
\n “Lo, these are a part of His ways; but how little a portion is heard of
\nHim? But the thunder of His power who can understand?” “Hast thou not known,
\nhast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the
\nends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of
\nHis understanding.”
\n And this “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
\ntrouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though
\nthe mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters
\nthereof roar and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling
\nthereof.” “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God,
\nin Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the
\nfowler, and from the noisesome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His
\nfeathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy
\nshield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor
\nfor the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in
\ndarkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall
\nfall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come
\nnigh thee.” “Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the
\nMost High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall
\nany plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over
\nthee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
\n To my own mind, these Scriptures, and many others like them, settle
\nforever the question as to the power of second causes in the life of the
\nchildren of God. They are all under the control of our Father, and nothing
\ncan touch us except with His knowledge and by His permission. It may be the
\nsin of man that originates the action, and therefore the thing itself cannot
\nbe said to be the will of God but by the time it reaches us, it has become
\nGod’s will for us, and must be accepted as directly from His hands. No man
\nor company of men, no power in earth or heaven, can touch that soul which is
\nabiding in Christ, without first passing through Him, and receiving the seal
\nof His permission. If God be for us, it matters not who may be against us;
\nnothing can disturb or harm us, except He shall see that it is best for us,
\nand shall stand aside to let it pass.
\n An earthly parent’s care for his helpless child is a feeble
\nillustration of this. If the child is in its father’s arms, nothing can
\ntouch it without that father’s consent, unless he is too weak to prevent it.
\nAnd even if this should be the case, he suffers the harm first in his own
\nperson, before he allows it to reach his child. And if an earthly parent
\nwould thus care for his little helpless one, how much more will our Heavenly
\nFather, whose love is infinitely greater, and whose strength and wisdom can
\nnever be baffled! I am afraid there are some, even of God’s own children,
\nwho scarcely think that He is equal to themselves in tenderness, and love,
\nand thoughtful care; and who in their secret thoughts, charge Him with a
\nneglect and indifference of which they would feel themselves incapable. The
\ntruth really is, that His care is infinitely superior to any possibilities
\nof human care; and that He who counts the very hairs of our head, and
\nsuffers not a sparrow to fall without Him, takes note of the minutest
\nmatters that can affect the lives of His children, and regulates them all
\naccording to His own sweet will, let their origin be what they may.
\n The instances of this are numberless. Take Joseph. What could have
\nseemed more apparently on the face of it to be the result of sin, and
\nutterly contrary to the will of God, than his being sold into slavery? And
\nyet Joseph, in speaking of it, said, “As for you, ye thought evil against
\nme: but God meant it unto good.” “Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry
\nwith yourselves, that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to
\npreserve life.” To the eye of sense it was surely Joseph’s wicked brethren
\nwho had sent him into Egypt; and yet Joseph, looking at it with the eye of
\nfaith, could say, “God sent me.” It had been undoubtedly a grievous sin in
\nhis brethren, but, by the time it had reached Joseph, it had become God’s
\nwill for him, and was in truth, though at first it did not look so, the
\ngreatest blessing of his whole life. And thus we see how the Lord can make
\neven the wrath of man to praise Him, and how all things, even the sins of
\nothers, shall work together for good to them that love Him.
\n I learned this lesson practically and experimentally long years before
\nI knew the scriptural truth concerning it. I was attending a prayer-meeting
\nheld for the promotion of scriptural holiness, when a strange lady rose to
\nspeak, and I looked at her, wondering who she could be, little thinking she
\nwas to bring a message to my soul which would teach me such a grand lesson.
\nShe said she had had great difficulty in living the life of faith, on
\naccount of the second causes that seemed to her to control nearly everything
\nthat concerned her. Her perplexity became so great, that at last she began
\nto ask God to teach her the truth about it, whether He really was in
\neverything or not. After praying this for a few days, she had what she
\ndescribed as a vision. She thought she was in a perfectly dark place, and
\nthat there advanced towards her from a distance a body of light, which
\ngradually surrounded and enveloped her and everything around her. As it
\napproached, a voice seemed to say, “This is the presence of God; this is the
\npresence of God.” While surrounded with this presence, all the great and
\nawful things in life seemed to pass before her, — fighting armies, wicked
\nmen, raging beasts, storms and pestilences, sin and suffering of every kind.
\n She shrank back at first in terror, but she soon saw that the presence
\nof God so surrounded and enveloped each one of these, that not a lion could
\nreach out its paw, nor a bullet fly through the air, except as His presence
\nmoved out of the way to permit it. And she saw that, let there be ever so
\nthin a sheet, as it were, of this glorious presence between herself and the
\nmost terrible violence, not a hair of her head could be ruffled, nor
\nanything touch her, unless the presence divided to let the evil through.
\nThen all the small and annoying things of life passed before her, and
\nequally she saw that these all were so enveloped in this presence of God
\nthat not a cross look, not a harsh word, nor petty trial of any kind, could
\nreach her unless His presence moved out of the way to let them through.
\n Her difficulty vanished. Her question was answered forever. God was in
\neverything; and to her henceforth there were no second causes. She saw that
\nher life came to her day by day and hour by hour directly from His hand, let
\nthe agencies which should seem to control it be what they might. And never
\nagain had she found any difficulty in an abiding consent to His will and an
\nunwavering trust in His care.
\n If we look at the seen things, we shall not be able to understand the
\nsecret of this. But the children of God are called to look, “not at the
\nthings which are seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the
\nthings which are not seen are eternal.” Could we but see with our bodily
\neyes His unseen forces surrounding us on every side, we would walk through
\nthis world in an impregnable fortress, which nothing could ever overthrow or
\npenetrate, for “the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear
\nHim, and delivereth them.”
\n We have a striking illustration of this in the history of Elisha. The
\nking of Syria was warring against Israel, but his evil designs were
\ncontinually frustrated by the prophet; and at last he sent his army to the
\nprophet’s own city for the express purpose of taking him captive. We read,
\n“He sent thither horses and chariots and a great host; and they came by
\nnight and compassed the city about.” This was the seen thing. And the
\nservant of the prophet, whose eyes had not yet been opened to see the unseen
\nthings, was alarmed. And we read, “And when the servant of the man of God
\nwas risen early and gone forth, behold an host compassed the city, both with
\nhorses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how
\nshall we do?” But his master could see the unseen things, and he replied,
\n“Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”
\nAnd then he prayed, saying, “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may
\nsee. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold,
\nthe mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”
\n The presence of God is the fortress of His people. Nothing can
\nwithstand it. At His presence the wicked perish; the earth trembles; the
\nhills melt like wax; the cities are broken down; “the heavens also dropped,
\nand Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God.” And in the secret of
\nthis presence He has promised to hide His people from the pride of man, and
\nfrom the strife of tongues. “My presence shall go with thee,” He says, “and
\nI will give thee rest.”
\n I wish it were only possible to make every Christian see this truth as
\nplainly as I see it; for I am convinced it is the only clue to a completely
\nrestful life. Nothing else will enable a soul to live only in the present
\nmoment, as we are commanded to do, and to take no thought for the morrow.
\nNothing else will take all the risks and “supposes” out of a Christian’s
\nheart, and enable him to say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
\nthe days of my life.” Abiding in God’s presence, we run no risks; and such a
\nsoul can triumphantly say, —<\/p>\n
“I know not what it is to doubt,<\/p>\n
My heart is alway gay;<\/p>\n
I run no risks, for, come what will,<\/p>\n
God alway has His way.”<\/p>\n
I once heard of a colored woman who earned a precarious living by daily
\nlabor, but who was a joyous, triumphant Christian. “Ah! Nancy,” said a
\ngloomy Christian lady to her one day, who almost disapproved of her constant
\ncheerfulness, and yet envied it, — “ah! Nancy, it is all well enough to be
\nhappy now; but I should think the thoughts of your future would sober you.
\nOnly suppose, for instance, that you should have a spell of sickness and be
\nunable to work; or suppose your present employers should move away, and no
\none else should give you anything to do; or suppose — ” “Stop!” cried
\nNancy, “I never supposes. De Lord is my shepherd, and I knows I shall not
\nwant. And, honey,” she added to her gloomy friend, “it’s all dem supposes as
\nis makin’ you so misable. You’d better give dem all up, and just trust de
\nLord.”
\n There is one text that will take all the “suppose” out of a believer’s
\nlife, if only it is received and acted out in a childlike faith; it is in
\nHeb. 3:5, 6: “Be content, therefore, with such things as ye have; for He
\nhath said I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”; so that we may boldly
\nsay, “THE LORD IS MY HELPER, AND I WILL NOT FEAR WHAT MAN SHALL DO UNTO ME.”
\nWhat if dangers of all sorts shall threaten you from every side, and the
\nmalice or foolishness or ignorance of men shall combine to do you harm? You
\nmay face every possible contingency with these triumphant words, “The Lord
\nis my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” If the Lord is
\nyour helper, how can you fear what man may do unto you? There is no man in
\nthis world, nor company of men, that can touch you, unless your God, in whom
\nyou trust, shall please to let them. “He will not suffer thy foot to be
\nmoved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth Israel
\nshall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy
\nshade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon
\nby night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy
\nsoul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in, from this
\ntime forth, and even for evermore.”
\n Nothing else but this seeing God in everything will make us loving and
\npatient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only
\nthe instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes towards us,
\nand we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the
\nblessings they bring us.
\n Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmuring or rebelling
\nthoughts. Christians often feel a liberty to murmur against man, when they
\nwould not dare to murmur against God. But this way of receiving things would
\nmake it impossible ever to murmur. If our Father permits a trial to come, it
\nmust be because that trial is the sweetest and best thing that could happen
\nto us, and we must accept it with thanks from His dear hand. The trial
\nitself may be hard to flesh and blood, and I do not mean that we can like or
\nenjoy the suffering of it. But we can and must love the will of God in the
\ntrial, for His will is always sweet, whether it be in joy or in sorrow.
\n Our trials may be our chariots. We long for some victory over sin and
\nself, and we ask God to grant it to us. His answer comes in the form of a
\ntrial which He means shall be the chariot to bear us to the longed-for
\ntriumph. We may either let it roll over us and crush us as a Juggernaut car,
\nor we may mount into it and ride triumphantly onward. Joseph’s chariots,
\nwhich bore him on to the place of his exaltation, were the trials of being
\nsold into slavery, and being cast unjustly into prison. Our chariots may be
\nmuch more insignificant things than these; they may be nothing but
\nirritating people or uncomfortable circumstances. But whatever they are, God
\nmeans them to be our cars of triumph, which shall bear us onward to the
\nvictories we have prayed for. If we are impatient in our dispositions and
\nlong to be made patient, our chariot will probably be a trying person to
\nlive in the house with us, whose ways or words will rasp our very souls. If
\nwe accept the trial as from God, and bow our necks to the yoke, we shall
\nfind it just the discipline that will most effectually produce in us the
\nvery grace of patience for which we have asked.
\n God does not order the wrong thing, but He uses it for our blessing;
\njust as He used the cruelty of Joseph’s wicked brethren, and the false
\naccusations of Pharaoh’s wife. In short, this way of seeing our Father in
\neverything makes life one long thanksgiving, and gives a rest of heart, and
\nmore than that, a gayety of spirit, that is unspeakable. Someone says,
\n“God’s will on earth is always joy, always tranquillity.” And since He must
\nhave His own way concerning His children, into what wonderful green pastures
\nof inward rest, and beside what blessedly still waters of inward
\nrefreshment, is the soul led that learns this secret.
\n If the will of God is our will, and if He always has His way, then we
\nalways have our way also, and we reign in a perpetual kingdom. He who sides
\nwith God cannot fail to win in every encounter; and whether the result shall
\nbe joy or sorrow, failure or success, death or life, we may, under all
\ncircumstances, join in the apostle’s shout of victory, “Thanks be unto God,
\nwhich always causeth us to triumph in Christ!”<\/p>\n
Chapter 9<\/p>\n
GROWTH<\/p>\n
When the believer has been brought to the point of entire surrender and
\nperfect trust, and finds himself dwelling and walking in a life of happy
\ncommunion and perfect peace, the question naturally arises, “Is this the
\nend?” I answer emphatically “No, it is only the beginning.”
\n And yet this is so little understood, that one of the greatest
\nobjections made against the advocates of this life of faith, is, that they
\ndo not believe in growth in grace. They are supposed to teach that the soul
\narrives at a state of perfection beyond which there is no advance, and that
\nall the exhortations in the Scripture which point towards growth and
\ndevelopment are rendered void by this teaching.
\n As exactly the opposite of this is true, I have thought it important
\nnext to consider this subject carefully, that I may, if possible, fully
\nanswer such objections, and may also show what is the scriptural place to
\ngrow in, and how the soul is to grow.
\n The text which is most frequently quoted is 2 Pet, 3:18, “But grow in
\ngrace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Now this
\ntext exactly expresses what we believe to be God’s will for us, and what
\nalso we believe He has made it possible for us to experience. We accept, in
\ntheir very fullest meaning, all the commands and promises concerning our
\nbeing no more children, and our growing up into Christ in all things, until
\nwe come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness
\nof Christ. We rejoice that we need not continue always to be babes, needing
\nmilk; but that we may, by reason of use and development become such as have
\nneed of strong meat, skilful in the word of righteousness, and able to
\ndiscern both good and evil. And none would grieve more than we at the
\nthought of any finality in the Christian life beyond which there could be no
\nadvance.
\n But then we believe in a growing that does really produce maturity, and
\nin a development that, as a fact, does bring forth ripe fruit. We expect to
\nreach the aim set before us, and if we do not, we feel sure there must be
\nsome fault in our growing. No parent would be satisfied with the growth of
\nhis child, if, day after day, and year after year, it remained the same
\nhelpless babe it was in the first months of its life; and no farmer would
\nfeel comfortable under such growing of his grain as should stop short at the
\nblade, and never produce the ear, nor the full corn in the ear. Growth, to
\nbe real, must be progressive, and the days and weeks and months must see a
\ndevelopment and increase of maturity in the thing growing. But is this the
\ncase with a large part of that which is called growth in grace? Does not the
\nvery Christian who is the most strenuous in his longings and in his efforts
\nafter it, too often find that at the end of the year he is not as far on in
\nhis Christian experience as at the beginning, and that his zeal, and his
\ndevotedness, and his separation from the world are not as whole-souled or
\ncomplete as when his Christian life first began?
\n I was once urging upon a company of Christians the privileges and rest
\nof an immediate and definite step into the land of promise, when a lady of
\ngreat intelligence interrupted me, with what she evidently felt to be a
\ncomplete rebuttal of all I had been saying, exclaiming, “Ah! but, my dear
\nfriend, I believe in growing in grace.” “How long have you been growing?” I
\nasked. “About twenty-five years,” was her answer. “And how much more
\nunworldly and devoted to the Lord are you now than when you began your
\nChristian life?” I continued. “Alas!” was the answer, “I fear I am not
\nnearly so much so”; and with this answer her eyes were opened to see that at
\nall events her way of growing had not been successful, but quite the
\nreverse.
\n The trouble with her, and every other such case, is simply this, they
\nare trying to grow into grace, instead of in it. They are like a rosebush
\nwhich the gardener should plant in the hard, stony path, with a view to its
\ngrowing into the flower-bed, and which would of course dwindle and wither in
\nconsequence, instead of flourishing and maturing. The children of Israel
\nwandering in the wilderness are a perfect picture of this sort of growing.
\nThey were travelling about for forty years, taking many weary steps, and
\nfinding but little rest from their wanderings, and yet, at the end of it
\nall, were no nearer the promised land than they were at the beginning. When
\nthey started on their wanderings at Kadesh Barnea, they were at the borders
\nof the land, and a few steps would have taken them into it.
\n When they ended their wanderings in the plains of Moab, they were also
\nat its borders; only with this great difference, that now there was a river
\nto cross, which at first there would not have been. All their wanderings and
\nfightings in the wilderness had not put them in possession of one inch of
\nthe promised land. In order to get possession of this land it was necessary
\nfirst to be in it; and in order to grow in grace, it is necessary first to
\nbe planted in grace. But when once in the land, their conquest was very
\nrapid; and when once planted in grace, the growth of the soul in one month
\nwill exceed that of years in any other soil. For grace is a most fruitful
\nsoil, and the plants that grow therein are plants of a marvellous growth.
\nThey are tended by a Divine Husbandman, and are warmed by the Sun of
\nRighteousness, and watered by the dew from Heaven. Surely it is no wonder
\nthat they bring forth fruit, “some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some
\nthity-fold.”
\n But, it will be asked, what is meant by growing in grace? It is
\ndifficult to answer this question because so few people have any conception
\nof what the grace of God really is. To say that it is free, unmerited favor,
\nonly expresses a little of its meaning. It is the wondrous, boundless love
\nof God, poured out upon us without stint or measure, not according to our
\ndeserving, but according to His infinite heart of love, which passeth
\nknowledge, so unfathomable are its heights and depths. I sometimes think we
\ngive a totally different meaning to the word “love” when it is associated
\nwith God, from that we so well understand in its human application. But if
\never human love was tender and self-sacrificing and devoted; if ever it
\ncould bear and forbear; if ever it could suffer gladly for its loved ones;
\nif ever it was willing to pour itself out in a lavish abandonment for the
\ncomfort or pleasure of its objects, — then infinitely more is Divine love
\ntender and self-sacrificing and devoted, and glad to bear and forbear, and
\nto suffer, and to lavish its best of gifts and blessings upon the objects of
\nits love. Put together all the tenderest love you know of, dear reader, the
\ndeepest you have ever felt, and the strongest that has ever been poured out
\nupon you, and heap upon it all the love of all the loving human hearts in
\nthe world, and then multiply it by infinity, and you will begin perhaps to
\nhave some faint glimpses of what the love of God in Christ Jesus is. And
\nthis is grace. And to be planted in grace is to live in the very heart of
\nthis love, to be enveloped by it, to be steeped in it, to revel in it, to
\nknow nothing else but love only and love always, to grow day by day in the
\nknowledge of it, and in faith in it, to intrust everything to its care, and
\nto have no shadow of a doubt but that it will surely order all things well.
\n To grow in grace is opposed to all self-dependence, to all self-effort,
\nto all legality of every kind. It is to put our growing, as well as
\neverything else, into the hands of the Lord, and leave it with Him. It is to
\nbe so satisfied with our Husbandman, and with His skill and wisdom, that not
\na question will cross our minds as to His modes of treatment or His plan of
\ncultivation. It is to grow as the lilies grow, or as the babes grow, without
\na care and without anxiety; to grow by the power of an inward life principle
\nthat cannot help but grow; to grow because we live and therefore must grow;
\nto grow because He who has planted us has planted a growing thing, and has
\nmade us to grow.
\n Surely this is what our Lord meant when He said “Consider the lilies,
\nhow they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you,
\nthat even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Or,
\nwhen He says again, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto
\nhis stature?” There is no effort in the growing of a child or of a lily.
\nThey do not toil nor spin, they do not stretch nor strain, they do not make
\nany effort of any kind to grow; they are not conscious even that they are
\ngrowing; but by an inward life principle, and through the nurturing care of
\nGod’s providence, and the fostering of caretaker or gardener, by the heat of
\nthe sun and the falling of the rain, they grow and grow.
\n And the result is sure. Even Solomon, our Lord says, in all his glory,
\nwas not arrayed like one of these. Solomon’s array cost much toiling and
\nspinning, and gold and silver in abundance, but the lily’s array costs none
\nof these. And though we may toil and spin to make for ourselves beautiful
\nspiritual garments, and may strain and stretch in our efforts after
\nspiritual growth, we shall accomplish nothing; for no man by taking thought
\ncan add one cubit to his stature; and no array of ours can ever equal the
\nbeautiful dress with which the great Husbandman clothes the plants that grow
\nin His garden of grace and under His fostering care.
\n If I could but make each one of my readers realize how utterly helpless
\nwe are in this matter of growing, I am convinced a large part of the strain
\nwould be taken out of many lives at once. Imagine a child possessed of the
\nmonomania that he would not grow unless he made some personal effort after
\nit, and who should insist upon a combination of rope and pulleys whereby to
\nstretch himself up to the desired height. He might, it is true, spend his
\ndays and years in a weary strain, but after all there would be no change in
\nthe inexorable fact, “No man by taking thought can add one cubit unto his
\nstature”; and his years of labor would be only wasted, if they did not
\nreally hinder the longed-for end.
\n Imagine a lily trying to clothe itself in beautiful colors and graceful
\nlines, stretching its leaves and stems to make them grow, and seeking to
\nmanage the clouds and the sunshine, that its needs might be all judiciously
\nsupplied!
\n And yet in these two pictures we have, I conceive, only too true a
\npicture of what many Christians are trying to do; who, knowing they ought to
\ngrow, and feeling within them an instinct that longs for growth, yet think
\nto accomplish it by toiling, and spinning, and stretching, and straining,
\nand pass their lives in such a round of self-effort as is a weariness to
\ncontemplate.
\n Grow, dear friends, but grow, I beseech you, in God’s way, which is the
\nonly effectual way. See to it that you are planted in grace, and then let
\nthe Divine Husbandman cultivate you in His own way and by His own means. Put
\nyourselves out in the sunshine of His presence, and let the dew of heaven
\ncome down upon you, and see what will come of it. Leaves and flowers and
\nfruit must surely come in their season, for your Husbandman is a skilful
\none, and He never fails in His harvesting. Only see to it that you interpose
\nno hindrance to the shining of the Sun of Righteousness or the falling of
\nthe dew from Heaven. A very thin covering may serve to keep off the heat or
\nthe moisture, and the plant may wither even in their midst; and the
\nslightest barrier between your soul and Christ may cause you to dwindle and
\nfade as a plant in a cellar or under a bushel. Keep the sky clear. Open wide
\nevery avenue of your being to receive the blessed influences our Divine
\nHusbandman may bring to bear upon you. Bask in the sunshine of His love.
\nDrink in of the waters of His goodness. Keep your face up-turned to Him.
\nLook, and your soul shall live.
\n You need make no efforts to grow; but let your efforts instead be all
\nconcentrated on this, that you abide in the Vine. The Husbandman who has the
\ncare of the vine, will care for its branches also, and will so prune and
\npurge and water and tend them that they will grow and bring forth fruit, and
\ntheir fruit shall remain; and, like the lily, they shall find themselves
\narrayed in apparel so glorious that that of Solomon will be as nothing to
\nit.
\n What if you seem to yourselves to be planted at this moment in a desert
\nsoil where nothing can grow! Put yourself absolutely into the hands of the
\ngreat Husbandman, and He will at once make that desert blossom as the rose,
\nand will cause springs and fountains of water to start up out of its sandy
\nwastes; for the promise is sure, that the man who trusts in the Lord “shall
\nbe as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the
\nriver, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and
\nshall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from
\nyielding fruit.” It is the great prerogative of our Divine Husbandman that
\nHe is able to turn any soil, whatever it may be like, into the soil of
\ngrace, the moment we put our growing into His hands. He does not need to
\ntransplant us into a different field, but right where we are, with just the
\ncircumstances that surround us, He makes His sun to shine and His dew to
\nfall upon us, and transforms the very things that were before our greatest
\nhindrances into the chiefest and most blessed means of our growth. I care
\nnot what the circumstances may be, His wonder-working power can accomplish
\nthis. And we must trust Him with it all. Surely He is a Husbandman we can
\ntrust. And if He sends storms, or winds, or rains, or sunshine, all must be
\naccepted at His hands with the most unwavering confidence that He who has
\nundertaken to cultivate us, and to bring us to maturity, knows the very best
\nway of accomplishing His end, and regulates the elements, which are all at
\nHis disposal, expressly with a view to our most rapid growth.
\n Let me entreat of you, then, to give up all your efforts after growing,
\nand simply to let yourselves grow. Leave it all to the Husbandman, whose
\ncare it is, and who alone is able to manage it. No difficulties in your case
\ncan baffle Him. No dwarfing of your growth in years that are past, no
\napparent dryness of your inward springs of life, no crookedness or deformity
\nin any of your past development, can in the least mar the perfect work that
\nHe will accomplish, if you will only put yourselves absolutely into His
\nhands, and let Him have His own way with you. His own gracious promise to
\nHis backsliding children assures you of this. “I will heal their
\nbackslidings,” He says: “I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned
\naway from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily,
\nand cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his
\nbeauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell
\nunder His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as
\nthe vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.” And again He
\nsays, “Be not afraid, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the
\ntree beareth her fruit, the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength.
\nAnd the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine
\nand oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten; and
\nye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord
\nyour God, who hath dealt wondrously with you; and my people shall never be
\nashamed.”
\n Oh! that you could but know just what your Lord meant when He said,
\n“Consider the lilies, how they grow; for they toil not, neither do they
\nspin.” Surely these words give us a picture of a life and of a growth far
\ndifferent from the ordinary life and growth of Christians; a life of rest,
\nand a growth without effort; and yet a life and a growth crowned with
\nglorious results. And to every soul that will thus become a lily in the
\ngarden of the Lord, and will grow as the lilies grow, the same glorious
\narray will be surely given as is given them; and they will know the
\nfulfilment of that wonderful mystical passage concerning their Beloved, that
\n“He feedeth among the lilies.”
\n This is the sort of growth in grace in which we who have entered into
\nthe life of full trust believe: a growth which brings the desired results,
\nwhich blossoms out into flower and fruit, and becomes a tree planted by the
\nrivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; whose leaf
\nalso does not wither, and who prospers in whatsoever he doeth. And we
\nrejoice to know that there are growing up now in the Lord’s heritage many
\nsuch plants, who, as the lilies behold the face of the sun and grow thereby,
\nare, by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, being changed into
\nthe same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.
\n Should you ask such, how it is that they grow so rapidly and with such
\nsuccess, their answer would be that they are not concerned about their
\ngrowing, and are hardly conscious that they do grow; that their Lord has
\ntold them to abide in Him, and has promised that if they do thus abide, they
\nshall certainly bring forth much fruit; and that they are concerned only
\nabout the abiding, which is their part, and leave the cultivating and the
\ngrowing and the training and pruning to their good Husbandman, who alone is
\nable to manage these things or bring them about. You will find that such
\nsouls are not engaged in watching self, but in looking unto Jesus. They do
\nnot toil nor spin for their spiritual garments, but leave themselves in the
\nhands of the Lord to be arrayed as it may please Him. Self-effort and
\nself-dependence are at an end with them. Their interest in self is gone,
\ntransferred over into the hands of another. Self has become really nothing,
\nand Christ alone is all in all to such as these. And the blessed result is,
\nthat not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed like these shall be.
\n Let us look at this subject practically. We all know that growing is
\nnot a thing of effort, but is the result of an inward life, a principle of
\ngrowth. All the stretching and pulling in the world could not make a dead
\noak grow. But a live oak grows without stretching. It is plain, therefore,
\nthat the essential thing is to get within you the growing life, and then you
\ncannot help but grow. And this life is the life hid with Christ in God, the
\nwonderful divine life of an indwelling Holy Ghost. Be filled with this, dear
\nbeliever, and, whether you are conscious of it or not, you must grow, you
\ncannot help growing. Do not trouble about your growing, but see to it that
\nyou have the growing life. Abide in the Vine. Let the life from Him flow
\nthrough all your spiritual veins. Interpose no barrier to His mighty
\nlife-giving power, working in you all the good pleasure of His will. Yield
\nyourself up utterly to His sweet control. Put your growing into His hands,
\nas completely as you have put all your other affairs. Suffer Him to manage
\nit as He will. Do not concern yourself about it, nor even think of it. Trust
\nHim absolutely, and always. Accept each moment’s dispensation as it comes to
\nyou, from His dear hands, as being the needed sunshine or dew for that
\nmoment’s growth. Say a continual “Yes” to your Father’s will.
\n Heretofore you have perhaps tried, as so many do, to be both the lily
\nand the gardener, both the vineyard and the husbandman. You have taken upon
\nyour shoulders the burdens and responsibilities that belong only to the
\nDivine Husbandman, and which He alone is able to bear. Henceforth consent to
\ntake your rightful place and to be only what you really are. Say to
\nyourself, If I am the garden only, and not the gardener, if I am the vine
\nonly, and not the husbandman, it is surely essential to my right growth and
\nwell being that I should keep the place and act the part of the garden, and
\nshould not usurp the gardener’s place, nor try to act the gardener’s part.
\n Do not seek then to choose your own soil, nor the laying out of your
\nborders; do not plant your own seeds, nor dig about, nor prune, nor watch
\nover your own vines. Be content with what the Divine Husbandman arranges for
\nyou, and with the care He gives. Let Him choose the sort of plants and
\nfruits He sees best to cultivate, and grow a potato as gladly as a rose, if
\nsuch be His will, and homely everyday virtues as willingly as exalted
\nfervors. Be satisfied with the seasons He sends, with the sunshine and rain
\nHe gives, with the rapidity or slowness of your growth, in short, with all
\nHis dealings and processes, no matter how little we may comprehend them.
\n There is infinite repose in this. As the viole rests in its little
\nnook, receiving contentedly its daily portion satisfied to let rains fall,
\nand suns rise, and the earth to whirl, without one anxious pang, so must we
\nrepose in the present as God gives it to us, accepting contentedly our daily
\nportion, and with no anxiety as to all that may be whirling around us, in
\nHis great creative and redemptive plan.<\/p>\n
The wind that blows can never kill<\/p>\n
The tree God plants;<\/p>\n
It bloweth east, it bloweth west,<\/p>\n
The tender leaves have little rest,<\/p>\n
But any wind that blows is best.<\/p>\n
The tree God plants<\/p>\n
Strikes deeper root, grows higher still,<\/p>\n
Spreads wider boughs, for God’s good-will<\/p>\n
Meets all its wants.<\/p>\n
There is no frost hath power to blight<\/p>\n
The tree God shields;<\/p>\n
The roots are warm beneath soft snows,<\/p>\n
And when spring comes it surely knows,<\/p>\n
And every bud to blossom grows.<\/p>\n
The tree God shields<\/p>\n
Grows on apace by day and night,<\/p>\n
Till, sweet to taste and fair to sight,<\/p>\n
Its fruit it yields.<\/p>\n
There is no storm hath power to blast<\/p>\n
The tree God knows;<\/p>\n
No thunder-bolt, nor beating rain,<\/p>\n
Nor lightning flash, nor hurricane;<\/p>\n
When they are spent it doth remain.<\/p>\n
The tree God knows<\/p>\n
Through every tempest standeth fast,<\/p>\n
And, from its first day to its last,<\/p>\n
Still fairer grows.<\/p>\n
If in the soul’s still garden-place<\/p>\n
A seed God sows —<\/p>\n
A little seed — it soon will grow,<\/p>\n
And far and near all men will know<\/p>\n
For heavenly land He bids it blow.<\/p>\n
A seed God sows,<\/p>\n
And up it springs by day and night;<\/p>\n
Through life, through death, it groweth right,<\/p>\n
Forever grows.<\/p>\n
Chapter 10<\/p>\n
SERVICE<\/p>\n
There is, perhaps, no part of Christian experience where a greater change is
\nknown upon entering into the life hid with Christ in God, than in the matter
\nof service. In all the lower forms of Christian life, service is apt to have
\nmore or less of bondage in it; that is, it is one purely as a matter of
\nduty, and often as a trial and a cross. Certain things, which at the first
\nmay have been a joy and delight, become weary tasks, performed faithfully,
\nperhaps, but with much secret disinclination, and many confessed or
\nunconfessed wishes that they need not be done at all, or at least that they
\nneed not be done so often. The soul finds itself saying, instead of the “May
\nI” of love, the “Must I” of duty. The yoke, which was at first easy, begins
\nto gall, and the burden feels heavy instead of light.
\n One dear Christian expressed it once to me in this way. “When I was
\nfirst converted,” she said, “I was so full of joy and love that I was only
\ntoo glad and thankful to be allowed to do anything for my Lord, and I
\neagerly entered every open door. But after a while, as my early joy faded
\naway, and my love burned less fervently, I began to wish I had not been
\nquite so eager; for I found myself involved in lines of service which were
\ngradually becoming very distasteful and burdensome to me. I could not very
\nwell give them up, since I had begun them, without exciting great remark,
\nand yet I longed to do so increasingly. I was expected to visit the sick,
\nand pray beside their beds. I was expected to attend prayer-meetings, and
\nspeak at them. I was expected to be always ready for every effort in
\nChristian work, and the sense of these expectations bowed me down
\ncontinually. At last it became so unspeakably burdensome to me to live the
\nsort of Christian life I had entered upon, and was expected by all around me
\nto live, that I felt as if any kind of manual labor would have been easier,
\nand I would have preferred, infinitely, scrubbing all day on my hands and
\nknees, to being compelled to go through the treadmill of my daily Christian
\nwork. I envied,” she said, “the servants in the kitchen, and the women at
\nthe wash-tubs.”
\n This may seem to some like a strong statement: but does it not present
\na vivid picture of some of your own experiences, dear Christian? Have you
\nnever gone to your work as a slave to his daily task, knowing it to be your
\nduty, and that therefore you must do it, but rebounding like an india-rubber
\nball back into your real interests and pleasures the moment your work was
\nover?
\n Of course you have known this was the wrong way to feel, and have been
\nashamed of it from the bottom of your heart, but still you have seen no way
\nto help it. You have not loved your work, and, could you have done so with
\nan easy conscience, you would have been glad to have given it up altogether.
\n Or, if this does not describe your case, perhaps another picture will.
\nYou do love your work in the abstract; but, in the doing of it, you find so
\nmany cares and responsibilities connected with it, so many misgivings and
\ndoubts as to your own capacity or fitness, that it becomes a very heavy
\nburden, and you go to it bowed down and weary, before the labor has even
\nbegun. Then also you are continually distressing yourself about the results
\nof your work, and greatly troubled if they are not just what you would like,
\nand this of itself is a constant burden.
\n Now from all these forms of bondage the soul is entirely delivered that
\nenters fully into the blessed life of faith. In the first place, service of
\nany sort becomes delightful to it, because, having surrendered its will into
\nthe keeping of the Lord, He works in it to will and to do of His good
\npleasure, and the soul finds itself really wanting to do the things God
\nwants it to do. It is always very pleasant to do the things we want to do,
\nlet them be ever so difficult of accomplishment, or involve ever so much of
\nbodily weariness. If a man’s will is really set on a thing, he regards with
\na sublime indifference the obstacles that lie in the way of his reaching it,
\nand laughs to himself at the idea of any opposition or difficulties
\nhindering him. How many men have gone gladly and thankfully to the ends of
\nthe world in search of worldly fortunes, or to fulfil worldly ambitions, and
\nhave scorned the thoughts of any cross connected with it! How many mothers
\nhave congratulated themselves and rejoiced over the honor done their sons in
\nbeing promoted to some place of power and usefulness in their country’s
\nservice, although it has involved perhaps years of separation, and a life of
\nhardship for their dear ones? And yet these same men and these very mothers
\nwould have felt and said that they were taking up crosses too heavy almost
\nto be borne, had the service of Christ required the same sacrifice of home,
\nand friends, and worldly ease. It is altogether the way we look at things,
\nwhether we think they are crosses or not. And I am ashamed to think that any
\nChristian should ever put on a long face and shed tears over doing a thing
\nfor Christ, which a worldly man would be only too glad to do for money.
\n What we need in the Christian life is to get believers to want to do
\nGod’s will, as much as other people want to do their own will. And this is
\nthe idea of the Gospel. It is what God intended for us; and it is what He
\nhas promised. In describing the new covenant in Heb. 8:6-13, He says it
\nshall no more be the old covenant made on Sinai, that is, a law given from
\nthe outside, controlling a man by force, but it shall be a law written
\nwithin constraining a man by love. “I will put my laws,” He says, “in their
\nmind, and write them in their hearts.” This can mean nothing but that we
\nshall love His law, for anything written on our hearts we must love. And
\nputting it into our minds is surely the same as God working in us to “will
\nand to do of His good pleasure,” and means that we shall will what God
\nwills, and shall obey His sweet commands, not because it is our duty to do
\nso, but because we ourselves want to do what He wants us to do. Nothing
\ncould possibly be conceived more effectual than this. How often have we
\nthought when dealing with our children, “Oh, if I could only get inside of
\nthem and make them want to do just what I want, how easy it would be to
\nmanage them then!” And how often practically in experience we have found
\nthat, to deal with cross-grained people, we must carefully avoid suggesting
\nour wishes to them, but must in some way induce them to suggest them
\nthemselves, sure that then there will be no opposition to contend with. And
\nwe, who are by nature a stiff-necked people, always rebel more or less
\nagainst a law from outside of us, while we joyfully embrace the same law
\nspringing up within.
\n God’s plan for us therefore is to get possession of the inside of a
\nman, to take the control and management of his will, and to work it for him;
\nand then obedience is easy and a delight, and service becomes perfect
\nfreedom, until the Christian is forced to exclaim, “This happy service! Who
\ncould dream earth had such liberty?”
\n What you need to do then, dear Christian, if you are in bondage, is to
\nput your will over completely into the hands of your Lord, surrendering to
\nHim the entire control of it. Say, “Yes, Lord, YES!” to everything; and
\ntrust Him so to work in you to will, as to bring your whole wishes and
\naffections into conformity with His own sweet and lovable and most lovely
\nwill. I have seen this done over and over, in cases where it looked
\nbeforehand an utterly impossible thing. In one case, where a lady had been
\nfor years rebelling fearfully against a thing which she knew was right, but
\nwhich she hated, I saw her, out of the depths of despair and without any
\nfeeling, give her will in that matter up into the hands of her Lord, and
\nbegin to say to Him, “Thy will be done; thy will be done!” And in one short
\nhour that very thing began to look sweet and precious to her. It is
\nwonderful what miracles God works in wills that are utterly surrendered to
\nHim. He turns hard things into easy, and bitter things into sweet. It is not
\nthat He puts easy things in the place of the hard, but He actually changes
\nthe hard thing into an easy one. And this is salvation. It is grand. Do try
\nit, you who are going about your daily Christian living as to a hard and
\nweary task, and see if your divine Master will not transform the very life
\nyou live now as a bondage, into the most delicious liberty!
\n Or again, if you do love His will in the abstract, but find the doing
\nof it hard and burdensome, from this also there is deliverance in the
\nwonderful life of faith. For in this life no burdens are carried, nor
\nanxieties felt. The Lord is our burden-bearer, and upon Him we must lay off
\nevery care. He says, in effect, Be careful for nothing, but just make your
\nrequests known to Me, and I will attend to them all. Be careful for nothing,
\nHe says, not even your service. Above all, I should think, our service,
\nbecause we know ourselves to be so utterly helpless in this, that even if we
\nwere careful, it would not amount to anything. What have we to do with
\nthinking whether we are fit or not! The Master-workman surely has a right to
\nuse any tool He pleases for His own work, and it is plainly not the business
\nof the tool to decide whether it is the right one to be used or not. He
\nknows; and if He chooses to use us, of course we must be fit. And in truth,
\nif we only knew it, our chiefest fitness is in our utter helplessness. His
\nstrength can only be made perfect in our weakness. I can give you a
\nconvincing illustration of this.
\n I was once visiting an idiot asylum and looking at the children going
\nthrough dumb-bell exercises. Now we all know that it is a very difficult
\nthing for idiots to manage their movements. They have strength enough,
\ngenerally, but no skill to use this strength, and as a consequence cannot do
\nmuch. And in these dumb-bell exercises this deficiency was very apparent.
\nThey made all sorts of awkward movements. Now and then, by a happy chance,
\nthey would make a movement in harmony with the music and the teacher’s
\ndirections, but for the most part all was out of harmony. One little girl,
\nhowever, I noticed, who made perfect movements. Not a jar nor a break
\ndisturbed the harmony of her exercises. And the reason was, not that she had
\nmore strength than the others, but that she had no strength at all. She
\ncould not so much as close her hands over the dumb-bells, nor lift her arms,
\nand the master had to stand behind her and do it all. She yielded up her
\nmembers as instruments to him, and his strength was made perfect in her
\nweakness. He knew how to go through those exercises, for he himself had
\nplanned them, and therefore when he did it, it was done right. She did
\nnothing but yield herself up utterly into his hands, and he did it all. The
\nyielding was her part, the responsibility was all his. It was not her skill
\nthat was needed to make harmonious movements, but only his. The question was
\nnot of her capacity, but of his. Her utter weakness was her greatest
\nstrength. And if this is a picture of our Christian life, it is no wonder
\nthat Paul could say, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
\ninfirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Who would not glory
\nin being so utterly weak and helpless, that the Lord Jesus Christ should
\nfind no hindrance to the perfect working of His mighty power through us and
\nin us?
\n Then, too, if the work is His, the responsibility is His, and we have
\nno room left for worrying about it. Everything in reference to it is known
\nto Him, and He can manage it all. Why not leave it all with Him then, and
\nconsent to be treated like a child and guided where to go. It is a fact that
\nthe most effectual workers I know are those who do not feel the least care
\nor anxiety about their work, but who commit it all to their dear Master,
\nand, asking Him to guide them moment by moment in reference to it, trust Him
\nimplicitly for each moment’s needed supplies of wisdom and of strength. To
\nsee such, you would almost think perhaps that they were too free from care,
\nwhere such mighty interests are at stake. But when you have learned God’s
\nsecret of trusting, and see the beauty and the power of that life which is
\nyielded up to His working, you will cease to condemn, and will begin to
\nwonder how any of God’s workers can dare to carry burdens, or assume
\nresponsibilities which He alone is able to bear.
\n There are one or two other bonds of service from which this life of
\ntrust delivers us. We find out that we are not responsible for all the work
\nin the world. The commands cease to be general, and become personal and
\nindividual. The Master does not map out a general course of action for us
\nand leave us to get along through it by our own wisdom and skill as best we
\nmay, but He leads us step by step, giving us each hour the special guidance
\nneeded for that hour. His blessed Spirit dwelling in us, brings to our
\nremembrance at the time the necessary command; so that we do not need to
\ntake any thought ahead but simply to take each step as it is made known to
\nus, following our Lord whithersoever He leads us. “The steps of a good man
\nare ordered of the Lord” not his way only, but each separate step in that
\nway. Many Christians make the mistake of expecting to receive God’s commands
\nall in a lump, as it were. They think because He tells them to give a tract
\nto one person in a railway train, for instance, that He means them always to
\ngive tracts to everybody, and they burden themselves with an impossible
\ncommand.
\n There was a young Christian once, who, because the Lord had sent her to
\nspeak a message to one soul whom she met in a walk, took it as a general
\ncommand for always, and thought she must speak to every one she met about
\ntheir souls. This was, of course, impossible, and as a consequence she was
\nsoon in hopeless bondage about it. She became absolutely afraid to go
\noutside of her own door, and lived in perpetual condemnation. At last she
\ndisclosed her distress to a friend who was instructed in the ways of God
\nwith His servants, and this friend told her she was making a great mistake;
\nthat the Lord had His own especial work for each especial workman, and that
\nthe servants in a well-regulated household might as well each one take it
\nupon himself to try and do the work of all the rest, as for the Lord’s
\nservants to think they were each one under obligation to do everything. He
\ntold her just to put herself under the Lord’s personal guidance as to her
\nwork, and trust Him to point out to her each particular person to whom He
\nwould have her speak, assuring her that He never puts forth His own sheep
\nwithout going before them, and making a way for them Himself. She followed
\nthis advice, and laid the burden of her work on the Lord, and the result was
\na happy pathway of daily guidance, in which she was led into much blessed
\nwork for her Master, but was able to do it all without a care or a burden,
\nbecause He led her out and prepared the way before her.
\n Putting ourselves into God’s hands in this way, seems to me just like
\nmaking the junction between the machinery and the steam engine. The power is
\nnot in the machinery, but in the steam; disconnected from the engine, the
\nmachinery is perfectly useless; but let the connection be made, and the
\nmachinery goes easily and without effort, because of the mighty power there
\nis behind it. Thus the Christian life becomes an easy, natural life when it
\nis the development of the divine working within. Most Christians live on a
\nstrain, because their wills are not fully in harmony with the will of God,
\nthe connection is not perfectly made at every point, and it requires an
\neffort to move the machinery. But when once the connection is fully made,
\nand the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can work in us with all
\nits mighty power, we are then indeed made free from the law of sin and
\ndeath, and shall know the glorious liberty of the children of God. We shall
\nlead frictionless lives.
\n Another form of bondage as to service, from which the life of faith
\ndelivers the soul, is in reference to the after-reflections which always
\nfollow any Christian work. These self-reflections are of two sorts. Either
\nthe soul congratulates itself upon its success, and is lifted up; or it is
\ndistressed over its failure, and is utterly cast down. One of these is sure
\nto come, and of the two I think the first is the more to be dreaded,
\nalthough the last causes at the time the greater suffering. But in the life
\nof trust, neither will trouble us; for, having committed ourselves and our
\nwork to the Lord, we will be satisfied to leave it to Him, and will not
\nthink about ourselves in the matter at all.
\n Years ago I came across this sentence in an old book: “Never indulge,
\nat the close of an action, in any self-reflective acts of any kind, whether
\nof self-congratulation or of self-despair. Forget the things that are
\nbehind, the moment they are past, leaving them with God.” It has been of
\nunspeakable value to me. When the temptation comes, as it always does, to
\nindulge in these reflections, either of one sort or the other, I turn from
\nthem at once, and positively refuse to think about my work at all, leaving
\nit with the Lord to overrule the mistakes, and to, bless it as He chooses.
\n To sum it all up then, what is needed for happy and effectual service
\nis simply to put your work into the Lord’s hands, and leave it there. Do not
\ntake it to Him in prayer, saying, “Lord, guide me; Lord, give me wisdom;
\nLord, arrange for me,” and then arise from your knees, and take the burden
\nall back, and try to guide and arrange for yourself. Leave it with the Lord,
\nand remember that what you trust to Him, you must not worry over nor feel
\nanxious about. Trust and worry cannot go together. If your work is a burden,
\nit is because you are not trusting it to Him. But if you do trust it to Him,
\nyou will surely find that the yoke He puts upon you is easy, and the burden
\nHe gives you to carry is light, and even in the midst of a life of ceaseless
\nactivity you shall find rest to your soul.
\n But some may say that this teaching would make us into mere puppets. I
\nanswer, No, it would simply make us into servants. It is required of a
\nservant, not that he shall plan, or arrange, or decide, or supply the
\nnecessary material, but simply and only that he shall obey. It is for the
\nMaster to do all the rest. The servant is not responsible, either, for
\nresults. The Master alone knows what results he wished to have produced, and
\ntherefore he alone can judge of them. Intelligent service will, of course,
\ninclude some degree of intelligent sympathy with the thoughts and plans of
\nthe Master, but after all there cannot be a full comprehension, and the
\nresponsibility cannot be transferred from the Master’s shoulders to the
\nservant’s. And in our case, where our outlook is so limited and our
\nignorance so great, we can do very little more than be in harmony with the
\nwill of our Divine Master, without expecting to comprehend it very fully,
\nand we must leave all the results with Him. What looks to us like failure on
\nthe seen side, is often, on the unseen side, the most glorious success; and
\nif we allow ourselves to lament and worry, we shall often be doing the
\nfoolish and useless thing of weeping where we ought to be singing and
\nrejoicing.
\n Far better is it to refuse utterly to indulge in any self-reflective
\nacts at all; to refuse, in fact, to think about self in any way, whether for
\ngood or evil. We are not our own property, nor our own business. We belong
\nto God, and are His instruments and His business; and since He always
\nattends to His own business, He will of course attend to us.
\n I heard once of a slave who was on board a vessel in a violent storm,
\nand who was whistling contentedly while every one else was in an agony of
\nterror. At last someone asked him if he was not afraid he would be drowned.
\nHe replied with a broad grin, “Well, missus, s’pose I is. I don’t b’long to
\nmyself, and it will only be massa’s loss any how.”
\n Something of this spirit would deliver us from many of our perplexities
\nand sufferings in service. And with a band of servants thus abandoned to our
\nMaster’s use and to His care, what might He not accomplish? Truly one such
\nwould “chase a thousand, and two would put ten thousand to flight”; and
\nnothing would be impossible to them. For it is nothing with the Lord “to
\nhelp, whether with many or with them that have no power.”
\n May God raise up such an army speedily!
\n And may you, my dear reader enroll your name in this army today and,
\nyielding yourself unto God as one who is alive from the dead, may every one
\nof your members be also yielded unto Him as instruments of righteousness, to
\nbe used by Him as He pleases.<\/p>\n
Chapter 11<\/p>\n
DIFFICULTIES CONCERNING GUIDANCE<\/p>\n
You have now begun, dear reader, the life of faith. You have given yourself
\nto the Lord to be His wholly and altogether, and He has taken you and has
\nbegun to mould and fashion you into a vessel unto His honor. Your one most
\nearnest desire is to be very pliable in His hands, and to follow Him
\nwhithersoever He may lead you, and you are trusting Him to work in you to
\nwill and to do of His good pleasure. But you find a great difficulty here.
\nYou have not learned yet to know the voice of the Good Shepherd, and are
\ntherefore in great doubt and perplexity as to what really is His will
\nconcerning you.
\n Perhaps there are certain paths into which God seems to be calling you,
\nof which your friends utterly disapprove. And these friends, it may be, are
\nolder than yourself in the Christian life, and seem to you also to be much
\nfurther advanced. You can scarcely bear to differ from them or distress
\nthem; and you feel also very diffident of yielding to any seeming
\nimpressions of duty of which they do not approve. And yet you cannot get rid
\nof these impressions, and you are plunged into great doubt and uneasiness.
\n There is a way out of all these difficulties, to the fully surrendered
\nsoul. I would repeat, fully surrendered, because if there is any reserve of
\nwill upon any point, it becomes almost impossible to find out the mind of
\nGod in reference to that point; and therefore the first thing is to be sure
\nthat you really do purpose to obey the Lord in every respect. If however
\nthis is the case, and your soul only needs to know the will of God in order
\nto consent to it, then you surely cannot doubt His willingness to make His
\nwill known, and to guide you in the right paths. There are many very clear
\npromises in reference to this. Take, for instance, John 10:3, 4: “He calleth
\nHis own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His
\nown sheep He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His
\nvoice.” Or, John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
\nthe Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring
\nall things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Or, James
\n1:5, 6: “If any of you lack wisdom, let Him ask of God, that giveth to all
\nmen liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” With such
\npassages as these, and many more like them, we must believe that Divine
\nguidance is promised to us, and our faith must confidently look for and
\nexpect it. This is essential; for in James 1:6, 7, we are told, “Let him ask
\nin faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea,
\ndriven with the wind and tossed. For let not such a man think that he shall
\nreceive anything of the Lord.”
\n Settle this point then first of all, that Divine guidance has been
\npromised, and that you are sure to have it, if you ask for it; and let no
\nsuggestion of doubt turn you from this.
\n Next, you must remember that our God has all knowledge and all wisdom,
\nand that therefore it is very possible He may guide you into paths wherein
\nHe knows great blessings are awaiting you, but which to the short-sighted
\nhuman eyes around you seem sure to result in confusion and loss. You must
\nrecognize the fact that God’s thoughts are not as man’s thoughts, nor His
\nways as man’s ways; and that He who knows the end of things from the
\nbeginning, alone can judge of what the results of any course of action may
\nbe. You must therefore realize that His very love for you may perhaps lead
\nyou to run counter to the loving wishes of even your dearest friends. You
\nmust learn from Luke 14:26-33, and similar passages, that in order, not to
\nbe saved only, but to be a disciple or follower of your Lord, you may
\nperhaps be called upon to forsake all that you have, and to turn your backs
\non even father or mother, or brother or sister, or husband or wife, or it
\nmay be your own life also. Unless the possibility of this is clearly
\nrecognized, the soul would be very likely to get into difficulty, because it
\noften happens that the child of God who enters upon this life of obedience
\nis sooner or later led into paths which meet with the disapproval of those
\nhe best loves; and unless he is prepared for this, and can trust the Lord
\nthrough it all, he will scarcely know what to do.
\n All this, it will of course be understood, is perfectly in harmony with
\nthose duties of honor and love which we owe to one another in the various
\nrelations of life. The nearer we are to Christ, the more shall we be enabled
\nto exemplify the meekness and gentleness of our Lord, and the more tender
\nwill be our consideration for those who are our natural guardians and
\ncounsellors. The Master’s guidance will always manifest itself by the
\nMaster’s Spirit, and where, in obedience to Him, we are led to act contrary
\nto the advice or wishes of our friends, we shall prove that this is our
\nmotive, by the love and patience which will mark our conduct.
\n But this point having been settled, we come now to the question as to
\nhow God’s guidance is to come to us, and how we shall be able to know His
\nvoice.
\n There are four especial ways in which God speaks: by the voice of
\nScripture, the voice of the inward impressions of the Holy Spirit, the voice
\nof our own higher judgment, and the voice of providential circumstances.
\n Where these four harmonize, it is safe to say that God speaks. For I
\nlay it down as a foundation principle, which no one can gainsay, that of
\ncourse His voice will always be in harmony with itself, no matter in how
\nmany different ways He may speak. The voices may be many, the message can be
\nbut one. If God tells me in one voice to do or to leave undone anything, He
\ncannot possibly tell me the opposite in another voice. If there is a
\ncontradiction in the voices, the speaker cannot be the same. Therefore, my
\nrule for distinguishing the voice of God would be to bring it to the test of
\nthis harmony.
\n If I have an impression, therefore, I must see if it is in accordance
\nwith Scripture, and whether it commends itself to my own higher judgment,
\nand also whether, as we Quakers say, “way opens” for its carrying out. If
\neither one of these tests fail, it is not safe to proceed; but I must wait
\nin quiet trust until the Lord shows me the point of harmony, which He surely
\nwill, sooner or later, if it is His voice that has spoken.
\n For we must not overlook the fact that there are other voices that
\nspeak to the soul. There is the loud and clamoring voice of self, that is
\nalways seeking to be heard. And there are the voices, too, of evil and
\ndeceiving spirits, who lie in wait to entrap every traveller entering these
\nhigher regions of the spiritual life. In the same epistle which tells us
\nthat we are seated in “heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 2:6), we are also
\ntold that we shall have to fight there with spiritual enemies (Eph. 6:12).
\nThese spiritual enemies, whoever or whatever they may be, must necessarily
\ncommunicate with us by means of our spiritual faculties, and their voices,
\ntherefore, will be, as the voice of God is, an inward impression made upon
\nour spirits.
\n Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit may tell us, by impressions, what is
\nthe will of God concerning us, so also will these spiritual enemies tell us,
\nby impressions, what is their will concerning us, though not of course
\ngiving it their name. It is very plain, therefore, that we must have some
\ntest or standard by which to try these inward impressions, in order that we
\nmay know whose voice it is that is speaking. And that test will always be
\nthe harmony to which I have referred. Sometimes, under a mistaken idea of
\nexalting the Divine Spirit, earnest and honest Christians have ignored and
\neven violated the teachings of Scripture, have disregarded the plain
\npointings of Providence, and have outraged their own higher judgment. God,
\nwho sees the sincerity of their hearts, can and does pity and forgive, but
\nthe consequences as to this life are often very sad.
\n Our first test, therefore, of the Divine authority of any voice which
\nmay seem to speak to us, must be its harmony in moral character with the
\nmind and will of God, as revealed to us in the Gospel of Christ. Whatever is
\ncontrary to this, cannot be Divine, because God cannot contradict Himself.
\n Until we have found and obeyed God’s will in reference to any subject,
\nas it is revealed in the Bible, we cannot expect a separate direct personal
\nrevelation. A great many fatal mistakes are made in this matter of guidance,
\nby the overlooking of this simple rule. Where our Father has written out for
\nus plain directions about anything, He will not, of course, make an especial
\nrevelation to us concerning it. No man, for instance, needs or could expect
\nany direct revelation to tell him not to steal, because God has already in
\nthe Scriptures plainly declared His will about it. This seems such an
\nobvious thing that I would not speak of it, but that I have frequently met
\nwith Christians who have altogether overlooked it, and have gone off into
\nfanaticism as the result. For the Scriptures are far more explicit even
\nabout details than most people think. And there are not many important
\naffairs in life for which a clear direction may not be found in God’s book.
\nTake the matter of dress, and we have 1 Pet. 3:3, 4 , and 1 Tim. 2:9, 10.
\nTake the matter of conversation, and we have Eph. 4:29, and 5:4. Take the
\nmatter of avenging injuries and standing up for your rights, and we have
\nRom. 12:19, 20, 21, and Matt. 5:38-48, and 1 Pet. 2:19-21. Take the matter
\nof forgiving one another, and we have Eph. 4:32 and Mark 11:25, 26. Take the
\nmatter of conformity to the world, and we have Rom. 12:2, and 1 John
\n2:15-17, and James 4:4. Take the matter of anxieties of all kind, and we
\nhave Matt. 6:25-34, and Phil. 4:6, 7.
\n I only give these as examples to show how very full and practical the
\nBible guidance is. If, therefore, you find yourself in perplexity, first of
\nall search and see whether the Bible speaks on the point in question, asking
\nGod to make plain to you by the power of His Spirit, through the Scripture,
\nwhat is His mind. And whatever shall seem to you to be plainly taught there,
\nthat you must obey.
\n When we read and meditate upon this record of God’s mind and will, with
\nour understandings thus illuminated by the inspiring Spirit, our obedience
\nwill be as truly an obedience to a present, living word, as though it were
\nafresh spoken to us today by our Lord from Heaven. The Bible is not only an
\nancient message from God sent to us many ages ago, but it is a present
\nmessage sent to us now each time we read it. “The words that I speak unto
\nyou, they are spirit, and they are life,” and obedience to these words now
\nis a living obedience to a present and personal command.
\n But it is essential in this connection to remember that the Bible is a
\nbook of principles, and not a book of disjointed aphorisms. Isolated texts
\nmay often be made to sanction things, to which the principles of Scripture
\nare totally opposed. I heard not long ago of a Christian woman in a Western
\nmeeting, who, having had the text, “For we walk by faith, and not by sight,”
\nbrought very vividly before her mind, felt a strong impression that it was a
\ncommand to be literally obeyed in the outward; and, blindfolding her eyes,
\ninsisted on walking up and down the aisle of the meeting-house, as an
\nillustration of the walk of faith. She very soon stumbled and fell against
\nthe stove, burning herself seriously, and then wondered at the mysterious
\ndispensation. The principles of Scripture, and her own sanctified
\ncommon-sense, if applied to this case, would have saved her from the
\ndelusion.
\n The second test, therefore, to which our impressions must be brought,
\nis that of our own higher judgment, or common-sense.
\n It is as true now as in the days when Solomon wrote, that a “man of
\nunderstanding shall attain unto wise counsels”; and his exhortation still
\ncontinues binding upon us: “Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get
\nwisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding.”
\n As far as I can see, the Scriptures everywhere make it an essential
\nthing for the children of God to use all the faculties which have been given
\nthem, in their journey through this world. They are to use their outward
\nfaculties for their outward walk, and their inward faculties for their
\ninward walk. And they might as well expect to be “kept” from dashing their
\nfeet against a stone in the outward, if they walk blindfold, as to be “kept”
\nfrom spiritual stumbling, if they put aside their judgment and common-sense
\nin their interior life.
\n I asked a Christian of “sound mind” lately how she distinguished
\nbetween the voice of false spirits and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and
\nshe replied promptly, “I rap them over the head, and see if they have any
\ncommon-sense.”
\n Some, however, may say here, “But I thought we were not to depend on
\nour human understanding in Divine things.” I answer to this, that we are not
\nto depend on our unenlightened human understanding, but upon our human
\njudgment and common-sense, enlightened by the Spirit of God. That is, God
\nwill speak to us through the faculties He has Himself given us, and not
\nindependently of them. That is, just as we are to use our eyes when we walk,
\nno matter how full of faith we may be, so also we are to use our mental
\nfaculties in our inward life.
\n The third and last test to which our impressions must be brought is
\nthat of providential circumstances. If a “leading” is of God, way will
\nalways open for it. Our Lord assures us of this when He says in John 10:4,
\n“And when He putteth forth His own sheep he goeth before them, and the sheep
\nfollow Him, for they know his voice.” Notice here the expression “goeth
\nbefore,” and “follow.” He goes before to open a way, and we are to follow in
\nthe way thus opened. It is never a sign of a Divine leading when the
\nChristian insists on opening his own way, and riding rough-shod over all
\nopposing things. If the Lord “goes before” us, He will open all doors for
\nus, and we shall not need ourselves to hammer them down.
\n The fourth point I would make is this: that, just as our impressions
\nmust be tested, as I have shown, by the other three voices, so must these
\nother voices be tested by our inward impressions; and if we feel a “stop in
\nour minds” about anything, we must wait until that is removed before acting.
\nA Christian who had advanced with unusual rapidity in the Divine life, gave
\nme as her secret this simple receipt: “I always mind the checks.” We must
\nnot ignore the voice of our inward impressions, nor ride rough-shod over
\nthem, any more than we must the other three voices of which I have spoken.
\n These four voices, then, will always be found to agree in any truly
\nDivine leading, i.e., the voice of our impressions, the voice of Scripture,
\nthe voice of our own sanctified judgment, and the voice of providential
\ncircumstances; and where these four do not all agree at first, we must wait
\nuntil they do.
\n A divine sense of “oughtness,” derived from the harmony of all God’s
\nvarious voices, is the only safe foundation for any action.
\n And now I have guarded the points of danger, do permit me to let myself
\nout for a little to the blessedness and joy of this direct communication of
\nGod’s will to us. It seems to me to be the grandest of privileges. In the
\nfirst place, that God should love me enough to care about the details of my
\nlife is perfectly wonderful. And then that He should be willing to tell me
\nall about it, and to let me know just now to live and walk so as to
\nperfectly please Him, seems almost too good to be true. We never care about
\nthe little details of people’s lives unless we love them. It is a matter of
\nindifference to us with the majority of people we meet, as to what they do
\nor how they spend their time; but as soon as we begin to love any one, we
\nbegin at once to care. That God cares, therefore, is just a precious proof
\nof His love; and it is most blessed to have Him speak to us about everything
\nin our lives, about our duties, about our pleasures, about our friendships,
\nabout our occupations, about all that we do, or think, or say. You must know
\nthis in your own experience, dear reader, if you would come into the full
\njoy and privilege of this life hid with Christ in God, for it is one of it
\nmost precious gifts!
\n God’s promise is, that He will work in us to will as well as to do of
\nHis good pleasure. This, of course, means that He will take possession of
\nour will, and work it for us, and that His suggestions will come to us, not
\nso much commands from the outside, as desires springing up within. They will
\noriginate in our will; we shall feel as though we wanted to do so and so,
\nnot as though we must. And this makes it a service of perfect liberty; for
\nit is always easy to do what we desire to do, let the accompanying
\ncircumstances be as difficult as they may. Every mother knows that she could
\nsecure perfect and easy obedience in her child, if she could only get into
\nthat child’s will and work it for him, making him want himself to do the
\nthings she willed he should. And this is what our Father does for His
\nchildren in the new dispensation; He writes His laws on our hearts and on
\nour minds, and we love them, and are drawn to our obedience by our
\naffections and judgment, not driven by our fears.
\n The way in which the Holy Spirit, therefore, usually works in His
\ndirect guidance is to impress upon the mind a wish or desire to do or leave
\nundone certain things.
\n The soul when engaged, perhaps, in prayer, feels a sudden suggestion
\nmade to its inmost consciousness in reference to a certain point of duty. “I
\nwould like to do this or the other,” it thinks, “I wish I could.” Or perhaps
\nthe suggestion may come as question, “I wonder whether I had not better do
\nso and so?” Or it may be only at first in the way of a conviction that such
\nis the right and best thing to be done.
\n At once the matter should be committed to the Lord, with an instant
\nconsent of the will to obey Him; and if the suggestion is in accordance with
\nthe Scriptures, and a sanctified judgment, and with Providential
\ncircumstances, an immediate obedience is the safest and easiest course. At
\nthe moment when the Spirit speaks, it is always easy to obey; if the soul
\nhesitates and begins to reason, it becomes more and more difficult
\ncontinually. As a general rule, the first convictions are the right ones in
\na fully surrendered heart; for God is faithful in His dealings with us, and
\nwill cause His voice to be heard before any other voices. Such convictions,
\ntherefore, should never be met by reasoning. Prayer and trust are the only
\nsafe attitudes of the soul; and even these should be but momentary, as it
\nwere, lest the time for action should pass and the blessing be missed.
\n If, however, the suggestion does not seem quite clear enough to act
\nupon, and doubt and perplexity ensue, especially if it is something about
\nwhich one’s friends hold a different opinion, then we shall need to wait for
\nfurther light. The Scripture rule is, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin”;
\nwhich means plainly that we must never act in doubt. A clear conviction of
\nright is the only safe guide. But we must wait in faith, and in an attitude
\nof entire surrender, saying, “Yes,” continually to the will of our Lord,
\nwhatever it may be. I believe the lack of a will thus surrendered lies at
\nthe root of many of our difficulties; and next to this lies the want of
\nfaith in any real Divine guidance. God’s children are amazingly skeptical
\nhere. They read the promises and they feel the need, but somehow they cannot
\nseem to believe the guidance will be given to them; as if God should want us
\nto obey His voice, but did not know how to make us hear and understand Him.
\nIt is, therefore, very possible for God to speak, but for the soul not to
\nhear, because it does not believe He is speaking. No earthly parent or
\nmaster could possibly guide his children or servants, if they should refuse
\nto believe he was speaking, and should not accept his voice as being really
\nthe expression of his will.<\/p>\n
God, who at sundry times and in manners many,<\/p>\n
Spake to the fathers and is speaking still,<\/p>\n
Eager to see if ever or if any<\/p>\n
Souls will obey and hearken to His will.<\/p>\n
Every moment of our lives our Father is seeking to reveal Himself to
\nus. “I that speak unto thee am He. I that speak in thy heart, I that speak
\nin thy outward circumstances, I that speak in thy losses, I that speak in
\nthy gains, I that speak in thy sorrows or in thy joys, I that speak
\neverywhere and in everything, am He.”
\n We must, therefore, have perfect confidence that the Lord’s voice is
\nspeaking to us to teach and lead us, and that He will give us the wisdom
\nneeded for our right guidance; and when we have asked for light, we must
\naccept our strongest conviction of “oughtness” as being the guidance we have
\nsought.<\/p>\n
A few rules will help us here.<\/p>\n
I. We must believe that God will guide us.
\n II. We must surrender our own will to His guidance.
\n III. We must hearken for the Divine voice.
\n IV. We must wait for the divine harmony.
\n V. When we are sure of the guidance, we must obey without question.<\/p>\n
God only is the creature’s home;<\/p>\n
Though rough and strait the rod,<\/p>\n
Yet nothing less can satisfy<\/p>\n
The love that longs, for God.<\/p>\n
How little of that road, my soul!<\/p>\n
How little hast thou gone!<\/p>\n
Take heart, and let the thought of God<\/p>\n
Allure thee further on.<\/p>\n
The perfect way is hard to flesh;<\/p>\n
It is not hard to love;<\/p>\n
If thou wert sick for want of God,<\/p>\n
How swiftly wouldst thou move.<\/p>\n
Dole not thy duties out to God,<\/p>\n
But let thy hand be free;<\/p>\n
Look long at Jesus, His sweet love,<\/p>\n
How was it dealt to thee?<\/p>\n
And only this perfection needs<\/p>\n
A heart kept calm all day,<\/p>\n
To catch the words the Spirit there,<\/p>\n
From hour to hour may say.<\/p>\n
Then keep thy conscience sensitive,<\/p>\n
No inward token miss:<\/p>\n
And go where grace entices thee —<\/p>\n
Perfection lies in this.<\/p>\n
Be docile to thine unseen Guide,<\/p>\n
Love Him as He loves thee;<\/p>\n
Time and obedience are enough,<\/p>\n
And thou a saint shalt be.<\/p>\n
Chapter 12<\/p>\n
CONCERNING TEMPTATION<\/p>\n
Certain very great mistakes are made concerning this matter of temptation,
\nin the practical working out of this life of faith.
\n First of all, people seem to expect that, after the soul has entered
\ninto its rest in God, temptations will cease; and to think that the promised
\ndeliverance is not only to be from yielding to temptation, but even also
\nfrom being tempted. Consequently, when they find the Canaanite still in the
\nland, and see the cities great and walled up to Heaven, they are utterly
\ndiscouraged, and think they must have gone wrong in some way, and that this
\ncannot be the true land after all.
\n Then, next they make the mistake of looking upon temptation as sin, and
\nof blaming themselves for what in reality is the fault of the enemy only.
\nThis brings them into condemnation and discouragement; and discouragement,
\nif continued in, always ends at last in actual sin. The enemy makes an easy
\nprey of a discouraged soul; so that we fall often from the very fear of
\nhaving fallen.
\n To meet the first of these difficulties it is only necessary to refer
\nto the Scripture declarations, that the Christian life is to be throughout a
\nwarfare; and that, especially when seated in heavenly places in Christ
\nJesus, we are to wrestle against spiritual enemies there, whose power and
\nskill to tempt us must doubtless be far superior to any we have ever
\nheretofore encountered. As a fact, temptations generally increase in
\nstrength tenfold after we have entered into the interior life, rather than
\ndecrease; and no amount or sort of them must ever for a moment lead us to
\nsuppose we have not really found the true abiding place. Strong temptations
\nare generally a sign of great grace, rather than of little grace. When the
\nchildren of Israel had first left Egypt, the Lord did not lead them through
\nthe country of the Philistines, although that was the nearest way; for God
\nsaid, “lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they
\nreturn to Egypt.” But afterwards, when they learned better how to trust Him,
\nHe permitted their enemies to attack them. Then also in their wilderness
\njourney they met with but few enemies and fought but few battles, compared
\nto those in the land, where they found seven great nations and thirty-one
\nkings to be conquered, besides walled cities to be taken, and giants to be
\novercome.
\n They could not have fought with the Canaanites, or the Hittites, and
\nthe Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, until
\nthey had gone into the land where these enemies were. And the very power of
\nyour temptations, dear Christian, therefore, may perhaps be one of the
\nstrongest proofs that you really are in the land you have been seeking to
\nenter, because they are temptations peculiar to that land. You must never
\nallow your temptations to cause you to question the fact of your having
\nentered the promised “heavenly places.”
\n The second mistake is not quite so easy to deal with. It seems hardly
\nworth while to say that temptation is not sin, and yet most of the distress
\nabout it arises from not understanding this fact. The very suggestion of
\nwrong seems to bring pollution with it, and the evil agency not being
\nrecognized, the poor tempted soul begins to feel as if it must be very bad
\nindeed, and very far off from God to have had such thoughts and suggestions.
\nIt is as though a burglar should break into a man’s house to steal, and,
\nwhen the master of the house began to resist him and to drive him out,
\nshould turn round and accuse the owner of being himself the thief. It is the
\nenemy’s grand ruse for entrapping us. He comes and whispers suggestions of
\nevil to us, doubts, blasphemies, jealousies, envyings, and pride; and then
\nturns round and says, “Oh, how wicked you must be to think of such things!
\nIt is very plain that you are not trusting the Lord; for if you were, it
\nwould have been impossible for these things to have entered your heart.”
\nThis reasoning sounds so very plausible that the soul often accepts it as
\ntrue, and at once comes under condemnation, and is filled with
\ndiscouragement; then it is easy for it to be led on into actual sin. One of
\nthe most fatal things in the life of faith is discouragement. One of the
\nmost helpful is cheerfulness. A very wise man once said that in overcoming
\ntemptations, cheerfulness was the first thing, cheerfulness the second, and
\ncheerfulness the third. We must expect to conquer. That is why the Lord said
\nso often to Joshua, “Be strong and of a good courage”; “Be not afraid,
\nneither be thou dismayed”; “Only be thou strong and very courageous.” And it
\nis also the reason He says to us, “Let not your heart he troubled neither
\nlet it be afraid.” The power of temptation is in the fainting of our own
\nhearts. The enemy knows this well, and always begins his assaults by
\ndiscouraging us, if it can in any way be accomplished.
\n Sometimes this discouragement arises from what we think is a righteous
\ngrief and disgust at ourselves that such things could be any temptation to
\nus; but which is really a mortification arising from the fact that we have
\nbeen indulging in a secret self-congratulation that our tastes were too
\npure, or our separation from the world was too complete for such things to
\ntempt us. We have expected something from ourselves, and have been sorely
\ndisappointed not to find that something there, and are discouraged in
\nconsequence. This mortification and discouragement are really a far worse
\ncondition than the temptation itself, though they present an appearance of
\ntrue humility, for they are nothing but the results of wounded self-love.
\nTrue humility can bear to see its own utter weakness and foolishness
\nrevealed, because it never expected anything from itself, and knows that its
\nonly hope and expectation must be in God. Therefore, instead of discouraging
\nthe soul from trusting, it drives it to a deeper and more utter trust. But
\nthe counterfeit humility which springs from self, plunges the soul into the
\ndepths of a faithless discouragement, and drives it into the very sin at
\nwhich it is so distressed.
\n I remember once hearing an allegory that illustrated this to me
\nwonderfully. Satan called together a council of his servants to consult how
\nthey might make a good man sin. One evil spirit started up and said, “I will
\nmake him sin.” “How will you do it?” asked Satan. “I will set before him the
\npleasures of sin,” was the reply; “I will tell him of its delights and the
\nrich rewards it brings.” “Ah,” said Satan, “that will not do; he has tried,
\nit, and knows better than that.” Then another spirit started up and said, “I
\nwill make him sin.” “What will you do?” asked Satan. “I will tell him of the
\npains and sorrows of virtue. I will show him that virtue has no delights,
\nand brings no rewards.” “Ah, no!” exclaimed Satan, “that will not do at all;
\nfor he has tried it, and knows that `wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness
\nand all her paths are peace.'” “Well,” said another imp, starting up, “I
\nwill undertake to make him sin.” “And what will you do?” asked Satan, again.
\n“I will discourage his soul,” was the short reply. “Ah, that will do,” cried
\nSatan, — “that will do! We shall conquer him now.” And they did.
\n An old writer says, “All discouragement is from the devil”; and I wish
\nevery Christian would just take this as a pocket-piece, and never forget it.
\nWe must fly from discouragement as we would from sin.
\n But this is impossible if we fail to recognize the true agency in
\ntemptation. For if the temptations are our own fault, we cannot help being
\ndiscouraged. But they are not. The Bible says, “Blessed is the man that
\nendureth temptation”; and we are exhorted to “count it all joy when we fall
\ninto divers temptations.” Temptation, therefore, cannot be sin; and the
\ntruth is, it is no more a sin to hear these whispers and suggestions of evil
\nin our souls, than it is for us to hear the swearing or wicked talk of bad
\nmen as we pass along the street. The sin only comes in either case by our
\nstopping and joining in with them. If, when the wicked suggestions come, we
\nturn from them at once, as we would from wicked talk, and pay no more
\nattention to them, we do not sin. But if we carry them on in our minds, and
\nroll them under our tongues, and dwell on them with a half-consent of our
\nwill to them as true, then we sin. We may be enticed by evil a thousand
\ntimes a day without sin, and we cannot help these enticings. But if the
\nenemy can succeed in making us think that his enticings are our sin, he has
\naccomplished half the battle, and can hardly fail to gain a complete
\nvictory.
\n A dear lady once came to me under great darkness, simply from not
\nunderstanding this. She had been living very happily in the life of faith
\nfor some time, and had been so free from temptation as almost to begin to
\nthink she would never be tempted any more. But suddenly a very peculiar form
\nof temptation had assailed her, which had horrified her. She found that the
\nmoment she began to pray, dreadful thoughts of all kinds would rush into her
\nmind. She had lived a very sheltered, innocent life, and these thoughts
\nseemed so awful to her, that she felt she must be one of the most wicked of
\nsinners to be capable of having them. She began by thinking she could not
\npossibly have entered into the rest of faith, and ended by concluding that
\nshe had never even been born again. Her soul was in an agony of distress. I
\ntold her that these dreadful thoughts were altogether the suggestions of the
\nenemy, who came to her the moment she kneeled in prayer, and poured them
\ninto her mind, and that she herself was not to blame for them at all; that
\nshe could not help them any more than she could help hearing if a wicked man
\nshould pour out his blasphemies in her presence. And I urged her to
\nrecognize and treat them as from the enemy; not to blame herself or be
\ndiscouraged, but to turn at once to Jesus and commit them to Him. I showed
\nher how great an advantage the enemy had gained by making her think these
\nthoughts were originated by herself, and plunging her into condemnation and
\ndiscouragement on account of them. And I assured her she would find a speedy
\nvictory if she would pay no attention to them; but, ignoring their presence,
\nwould simply turn her back on them and look to the Lord.
\n She grasped the truth, and the next time these thoughts came she said
\nto the enemy, “I have found you out now. It is you who are suggesting these
\ndreadful thoughts to me, and I hate them, and will have nothing to do with
\nthem. The Lord is my Saviour; take them to Him, and settle them in His
\npresence.” Immediately the baffled enemy, finding himself discovered, fled
\nin confusion, and her soul was perfectly delivered.
\n Another thing also. The enemy knows that if a Christian recognizes a
\nsuggestion of evil as coming from him, he will recoil from it far more
\nquickly than if it seems to be the suggestion of his own mind. If Satan
\nprefaced each temptation with the words, “I am Satan, your relentless enemy;
\nI have come to make you sin,” I suppose we would hardly feel any desire at
\nall to yield to his suggestions. He has to hide himself in order to make his
\nbaits attractive. And our victory will be far more easily gained if we are
\nnot ignorant of his devices, but recognize him at his very first approach.
\n We also make another great mistake about temptations in thinking that
\nall time spent in combating them is lost. Hours pass, and we seem to have
\nmade no progress, because we have been so beset with temptations. But it
\noften happens that we have been serving God far more truly during these
\nhours, than in our times of comparative freedom from temptation. Temptation
\nis really more the devil’s wrath against God, than against us. He cannot
\ntouch our Saviour, but he can wound our Saviour by conquering us, and our
\nruin is important to him only as it accomplishes this. We are, therefore,
\nreally fighting our Lord’s battles when we are fighting temptation, and
\nhours are often worth days to us under these circumstances. We read,
\n“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation”; and I am sure this means
\nenduring the continuance of it and its frequent recurrence. Nothing so
\ncultivates the grace of patience as the endurance of temptation, and nothing
\nso drives the soul to an utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus as its
\ncontinuance. And finally, nothing brings more praise and honor and glory to
\nour dearest Lord Himself, than the trial of our faith which comes through
\nmanifold temptations. We are told that it is more precious than gold, though
\nit be tried with fire, and that we, who patiently endure the trial, shall
\nreceive for our reward “the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to
\nthem that love Him.”
\n We cannot wonder, therefore, any longer at the exhortation with which
\nthe Holy Ghost opens the Book of James: “Count it all joy when ye fall into
\ndivers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh
\npatience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and
\nentire, wanting nothing.”
\n Temptation is plainly to be the blessed instrument used by God to
\ncomplete our perfection, and thus the enemy’s own weapons are turned against
\nhimself, and we see how it is that all things, even temptations, can work
\ntogether for good to them that love God.
\n As to the way of victory over temptations, it seems hardly necessary to
\nsay to those whom I am at this time especially addressing, that it is to be
\nby faith. For this is, of course, the foundation upon which the whole
\ninterior life rests. Our one great motto is throughout, “We are nothing,
\nChrist is all.” And always and everywhere we have started out to stand, and
\nwalk, and overcome, and live by faith. We have discovered our own utter
\nhelplessness, and know that we cannot do anything for ourselves. Our only
\nway, therefore, is to hand the temptation over to our Lord, and trust Him to
\nconquer it for us. But when we put it into His hands we must leave it there.
\nIt must be as real a committing of ourselves to Him for victory, as it was
\nat first a committing of ourselves to Him for salvation. He must do all for
\nus in the one case, as completely as in the other. It was faith only then,
\nand it must be faith only now.
\n And the victories which the Lord works in conquering the temptations of
\nthose who thus trust Him are nothing short of miracles, as thousands can
\ntestify.
\n But into this part of the subject I cannot go at present, as my object
\nhas been rather to present temptation in its true light, than to develop the
\nway of victory over it. I want to deliver conscientious, faithful souls from
\nthe bondage into which they are sure to be brought, if they fail to
\nunderstand the true nature and use of temptation, and confound it with sin.
\nI want that they should not be ignorant of the fact that temptations are,
\nafter all, an invaluable part of our soul’s development; and that, whatever
\nmay be their original source, they are used by God to work out in us many
\nblessed graces of character which would otherwise be lacking. Wherever
\ntemptation is, there is God also, superintending and controlling its power.
\n“Where wert thou, Lord I while I was being tempted?” cried the saint of the
\ndesert. “Close beside thee, my son, all the while,” was the tender reply.
\n Temptations try us; and we are worth nothing if we are not tried. They
\ndevelop our spiritual strength and courage and knowledge; and our
\ndevelopment is the one thing God cries for. How shallow would all our
\nspirituality be if it were not for temptations. “Blessed is the man that
\nendureth temptation: for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of
\nlife, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.” This “crown of
\nlife” will be worth all that it has cost of trial and endurance to obtain
\nit; and without these it could not be attained.
\n An invalid lady procured once the cocoon of a very beautiful butterfly
\nwith unusually magnificent wings hoping to have the pleasure of seeing it
\nemerge from its cocoon in her sick-chamber. She watched it eagerly as spring
\ndrew on, and finally was delighted to see the butterfly beginning to emerge.
\nBut it seemed to have great difficulty. It pushed, and strained, and
\nstruggled, and seemed to make so little headway, that she concluded it must
\nneed some help, and with a pair of delicate scissors she finally clipped the
\ntight cord that seemed to bind in the opening of the cocoon. Immediately the
\ncocoon opened wide, and the butterfly escaped without any further struggle.
\nShe congratulated herself on the success of her experiment, but found in a
\nmoment that something was the matter with the butterfly. It was all out of
\nthe cocoon it is true, but its great wings were lifeless and colorless, and
\ndragged after it as a useless burden. For a few days it lived a miserable
\nsickly life, and then died, without having once lifted its powerless wings.
\nThe lady was sorely disappointed and could not understand it. But when she
\nrelated the circumstance to a naturalist, he told her that it had all been
\nher own fault. That it required just that pushing and struggling to send the
\nlife fluid into the veins of the wings, and that her mistaken kindness in
\nshortening the struggle, had left the wings lifeless and colorless.
\n Just so do our spiritual wings need the struggle and effort of our
\nconflict with temptation and trial; and to grant us an escape from it would
\nbe to weaken the power of our soul to “mount up with wings as eagles,” and
\nwould deprive us of the “crown of life” which is promised to those who
\nendure.<\/p>\n
Chapter 13<\/p>\n
FAILURES<\/p>\n
The very title of this chapter may perhaps startle some. “Failures,” they
\nwill say; “we thought there were no failures in this life of faith!”
\n To this I would answer that there ought not to be, and need not be;
\nbut, as a fact, there sometimes are. And we have got to deal with facts, and
\nnot with theories. No teacher of this interior life ever says that it
\nbecomes impossible to sin; they only insist that sin ceases to be a
\nnecessity, and that a possibility of uniform victory is opened before us.
\nAnd there are very few who do not confess that, as to their own actual
\nexperience, they have at times been overcome by momentary temptation.
\n Of course, in speaking of sin here, I mean conscious, known sin. I do
\nnot touch on the subject of sins of ignorance, or what is called the
\ninevitable sin of our nature, which are all covered by the atonement, and do
\nnot disturb our fellowship with God. I have no desire nor ability to treat
\nof the doctrines concerning sin; these I will leave with the theologians to
\ndiscuss and settle, while I speak only of the believer’s experience in the
\nmatter. And I wish it to be fully understood that in all I shall say, I have
\nreference simply to that which comes within the range of our consciousness.
\n Misunderstanding, then, on this point of known or conscious sin, opens
\nthe way for great dangers in the higher Christian life. When a believer, who
\nhas, as he trusts, entered upon the highway of holiness, finds himself
\nsurprised into sin, he is tempted either to be utterly discouraged, and to
\ngive everything up as lost; or else, in order to preserve the doctrine
\nuntouched, he feels it necessary to cover his sin up, calling it infirmity,
\nand refusing to be honest and above-board about it. Either of these courses
\nis equally fatal to any real growth and progress in the life of holiness.
\nThe only way is to face the sad fact at once, call the thing by its right
\nname, and discover, if possible, the reason and the remedy. This life of
\nunion with God requires the utmost honesty with Him and with ourselves. The
\ncommunion which the sin itself would only momentarily disturb, is sure to be
\nlost by any dishonest dealing with it. A sudden failure is no reason for
\nbeing discouraged and giving up all as lost. Neither is the integrity of our
\ndoctrine touched by it. We are not preaching a state, but a walk. The
\nhighway of holiness is not a place, but a way. Sanctification is not a thing
\nto be picked up at a certain stage of our experience, and forever after
\npossessed, but it is a life to be lived day by day, and hour by hour. We may
\nfor a moment turn aside from a path, but the path is not obliterated by our
\nwandering, and can be instantly regained. And in this life and walk of
\nfaith, there may be momentary failures, which, although very sad and greatly
\nto be deplored, need not, if rightly met, disturb the attitude of the soul
\nas to entire consecration and perfect trust, nor interrupt, for more than
\nthe passing moment, its happy communion with its Lord.
\n The great point is an instant return to God. Our sin is no reason for
\nceasing to trust, but only an unanswerable argument why we must trust more
\nfully than ever. From whatever cause we have been betrayed into failure, it
\nis very certain that there is no remedy to be found for it in
\ndiscouragement. As well might a child who is learning to walk, lie down in
\ndespair when he has fallen, and refuse to take another step; as a believer,
\nwho is seeking to learn how to live and walk by faith, give up in despair
\nbecause of having fallen into sin. The only way in both cases is to get
\nright up and try again. When the children of Israel had met with that
\ndisastrous defeat, soon after their entrance into the land, before the
\nlittle city of Ai, they were all so utterly discouraged that we read:
\n “Wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water. And
\nJoshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark
\nof the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust
\nupon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas! O Lord God, wherefore hast Thou at
\nall brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the
\nAmorites to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the
\nother side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs
\nbefore their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land
\nshall hear of it, and shall environ us round and cut off our name from the
\nearth: and what wilt Thou do unto Thy great name?”
\n What a wail of despair this was! And how exactly it is repeated by many
\na child of God in the present day, whose heart, because of a defeat, melts
\nand becomes as water, and who cries out, “Would to God we had been content
\nand dwelt on the other side Jordan!” and predicts for itself further
\nfailures and even utter discomfiture before its enemies. No doubt Joshua
\nthought then, as we are apt to think now, that discouragement and despair
\nwere the only proper and safe condition after such a failure. But God
\nthought otherwise. “And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore
\nliest thou upon thy face?”
\n The proper thing to do was not to abandon themselves thus to utter
\ndiscouragement, humble as it might look, but at once to face the evil and
\nget rid of it, and afresh and immediately to “sanctify themselves.” “Up,
\nsanctify the people,” is always God’s command. “Lie down and be
\ndiscouraged,” is always the enemy’s temptation. Our feeling is that it is
\npresumptuous, and even almost impertinent, to go at once to the Lord, after
\nhaving sinned against Him. It seems as if we ought to suffer the
\nconsequences our sin first for a little while, and endure the accusings of
\nour conscience. And we can hardly believe that the Lord can be willing at
\nonce to receive us back into loving fellowship with Himself.
\n A little girl once expressed the feeling to me, with a child’s
\noutspoken candor. She had asked whether the Lord Jesus always forgave us for
\nour sins as soon as we asked Him, and I had said, “Yes, of course He does.”
\n“Just as soon” she repeated, doubtingly. “Yes,” I replied, “the very minute
\nwe ask, He forgives us.” “Well,” she said deliberately, “I cannot believe
\nthat. I should think He would make us feel sorry for two or three days
\nfirst. And then I should think He would make us ask Him a great many times,
\nand in a very pretty way too, not just in common talk. And I believe that is
\nthe way He does, and you need not try to make me think He forgives me right
\nat once, no matter what the Bible says.” She only said what most Christians
\nthink, and, what is worse, what most Christians act on, making their
\ndiscouragement and their very remorse separate them infinitely further off
\nfrom God than their sin would have done. Yet it is so totally contrary to
\nthe way we like our children to act towards us, that I wonder how we ever
\ncould have conceived such an idea of God. How a mother grieves when a
\nnaughty child goes off alone in despairing remorse, and doubts her
\nwillingness to forgive; and how, on the other hand, her whole heart goes out
\nin welcoming love to the darling who runs to her at once and begs her
\nforgiveness! Surely our God knew this yearning love when He said to us,
\n“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.”
\n The fact is, that the same moment which brings the consciousness of
\nhaving sinned, ought to bring also the consciousness of being forgiven. This
\nis especially essential to an unwavering walk in the highway of holiness,
\nfor no separation from God can be tolerated here for an instant.
\n We can only walk in this path by looking continually unto Jesus, moment
\nby moment; and if our eyes are taken off of Him to look upon our own sin and
\nour own weakness, we shall leave the path at once. The believer, therefore,
\nwho has, as he trusts, entered upon this highway, if he finds himself
\novercome by sin, must flee with it instantly to the Lord. He must act on 1
\nJohn 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
\nsins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He must not hide his sin
\nand seek to salve it over with excuses, or to push it out of his memory by
\nthe lapse of time. But he must do as the children of Israel did, rise up
\n“early in the morning,” and “run” to the place where the evil thing is
\nhidden, and take it out of its hiding-place, and lay it “out before the
\nLord.” He must confess his sin. And then he must stone it with stones, and
\nburn it with fire, and utterly put it away from him, and raise over it a
\ngreat heap of stones, that it may be forever hidden from his sight. And he
\nmust believe, then and there, that God is, according to His word, faithful
\nand just to forgive him his sin, and that He does do it; and further, that
\nHe also cleanses him from all unrighteousness. He must claim an immediate
\nforgiveness and an immediate cleansing by faith, and must go on trusting
\nharder and more absolutely than ever.
\n As soon as Israel’s sin had been brought to light and put away, at once
\nGod’s word came again in a message of glorious encouragement, “Fear not,
\nneither be thou dismayed . . . See, I have given into thy hand the king of
\nAi, and his people, and his city, and his land.” Our courage must rise
\nhigher than ever, and we must abandon ourselves more completely to the Lord,
\nthat His mighty power may the more perfectly work in us all the good
\npleasure of His will. Moreover, we must forget our sin as soon as it is thus
\nconfessed and forgiven. We must not dwell on it, and examine it, and indulge
\nin a luxury of distress and remorse. We must not put it on a pedestal, and
\nthen walk around it and view it on every side, and so magnify it into a
\nmountain that hides our God from our eyes. We must follow the example of
\nPaul, and “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
\nthose things which are before,” we must “press toward the mark for the prize
\nof the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
\n I would like to bring up two contrastive illustrations of these things.
\nOne was an earnest Christian man, an active worker in the Church, who had
\nbeen living for several months in the enjoyment of full salvation. He was
\nsuddenly overcome by a temptation to treat a brother unkindly. Not having
\nsupposed it possible that he could ever sin again, he was at once plunged
\ninto the deepest discouragement, and concluded he had been altogether
\nmistaken, and had never entered into the life of full trust at all. Day by
\nday his discouragement increased, until it became despair, and he concluded
\nhe had never even been born again, and gave himself up for lost. He spent
\nthree years of utter misery, going further and further away from God, and
\nbeing gradually drawn off into one sin after another, until his life was a
\ncurse to himself and to all around him. His health failed under the terrible
\nburden, and fears were entertained for his reason.
\n At the end of three years he met a Christian lady, who understood the
\ntruth about sin that I have been trying to explain. In a few moments’
\nconversation she found out his trouble, and at once said, “You sinned in
\nthat act, there is no doubt about it, and I do not want you to try and
\nexcuse it. But have you never confessed it to the Lord and asked Him to
\nforgive you?” “Confessed it!” he exclaimed, “why it seems to me I have done
\nnothing but confess it, and entreat God to forgive me night and day for all
\nthese three dreadful years.” “And you have never believed He did forgive
\nyou?” asked the lady. “No,” said the poor man, “how could I, for I never
\nfelt as if He did?” “But suppose He had said He forgave you, would not that
\nhave done as well as for you to feel it?” “Oh, yes,” replied the man, “if
\nGod said it, of course I would believe it.” “Very well, He does say so,” was
\nthe lady’s answer, and she turned to the verse we have taken above 1 John
\n1:9) and read it aloud. “Now,” she continued, “you have been all these three
\nyears confessing and confessing your sin, and all the while God’s record has
\nbeen declaring that He was faithful and just to forgive it and to cleanse
\nyou, and yet you have never once believed it. You have been `making God a
\nliar’ all this while by refusing to believe His record.”
\n The poor man saw the whole thing, and was dumb with amazement and
\nconsternation; and when the lady proposed they should kneel down, and that
\nhe should confess his past unbelief and sin, and should claim, then and
\nthere, a present forgiveness and a present cleansing, he obeyed like one in
\na maze. But the result was glorious. In a few moments the light broke in,
\nand he burst out into praise at the wonderful deliverance. In three minutes
\nhis soul was enabled to traverse back by faith the whole long weary journey
\nthat he had been three years in making, and he found himself once more
\nresting in Jesus, and rejoicing in the fulness of His salvation.
\n The other illustration was the case of a Christian lady who had been
\nliving in the land of promise about two weeks, and who had had a very bright
\nand victorious experience. Suddenly, at the end of that time, she was
\novercome by a violent burst of anger. For a moment a flood of discouragement
\nswept over her soul. The enemy said, “There, now, that shows it was all a
\nmistake. Of course you have been deceived about the whole thing, and have
\nnever entered into the life of full trust at all. And now you may as well
\ngive up altogether, for you never can consecrate yourself any more entirely,
\nnor trust any more fully, than you did this time; so it is very plain this
\nlife of holiness is not for you!” These thoughts flashed through her mind in
\na moment, but she was well taught in the ways of God, and she said at once,
\n“Yes, I have sinned, and it is very sad. But the Bible says that if we
\nconfess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
\ncleanse us from all unrighteousness, and I believe He will do it.”
\n She did not delay a moment, but while still boiling over with anger,
\nshe ran, she could not walk, into a room where she could be alone, and
\nkneeling down beside the bed, she said, “Lord, I confess my sin. I have
\nsinned, I am even at this very moment sinning. I hate it, but I cannot get
\nrid of it. I confess it with shame and confusion of face to Thee. And now I
\nbelieve that, according to Thy word, Thou dost forgive and Thou dost
\ncleanse.” She said it out loud, for the inward turmoil was too great for it
\nto be said inside. As the words “Thou dost forgive and Thou dost cleanse”
\npassed her lips, the deliverance came. The Lord said, “Peace, be still,” and
\nthere was a great calm. A flood of light and joy burst on her soul, the
\nenemy fled, and she was more than conqueror through Him that loved her. The
\nwhole thing, the sin and the recovery from it, had occupied not five
\nminutes, and her feet trod on more firmly than ever in the blessed highway
\nof holiness. Thus the valley of Achor became to her a door of hope, and she
\nsang afresh and with deeper meaning her song of deliverance, “I will sing
\nunto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously.”
\n The truth is, the only remedy, after all in every emergency, is to
\ntrust in the Lord. And if this is all we ought to do, and all we can do, is
\nit not better to do it at once? I have often been brought up short by the
\nquestion, “Well, what can I do but trust?” And I have realized at once the
\nfolly of seeking for deliverance in any other way, by saying to myself, “I
\nshall have to come to simple trusting in the end, and why not come to it at
\nonce now in the beginning?” It is a life and walk of faith we have entered
\nupon, and if we fail in it our only recovery must lie in an increase of
\nfaith, not in a lessening of it.
\n Let every failure, then, if any occur, drive you instantly to the Lord,
\nwith a more complete abandonment and a more perfect trust; and you will find
\nthat, sad as they are, they will not take you out of the land of rest, nor
\npermanently interrupt your sweet communion with Him.
\n And now, having shown the way of deliverance from failure, I want to
\nsay a little as to the causes of failure in this life of full salvation. The
\ncauses do not lie in the strength of the temptation nor in our own weakness,
\nnor, above all, in any lack in the power or willingness of our Saviour to
\nsave us. The promise to Israel was positive, “There shall not any man be
\nable to stand before thee all the days of thy life.” And the promise to us
\nis equally positive. “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
\nabove that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of
\nescape that ye may be able to bear it.”
\n The men of Ai were “but few,” and yet the people who had conquered the
\nmighty Jericho “fled before the men of Ai.” It was not the strength of their
\nenemy, neither had God failed them. The cause of their defeat lay somewhere
\nelse, and the Lord Himself declares it, “Israel hath sinned, and they have
\nalso transgressed my covenant which I commanded them; for they have even
\ntaken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen and dissembled also, and
\nthey have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of
\nIsrael could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs upon
\ntheir enemies.” It was a hidden evil that conquered them. Deep down under
\nthe earth, in an obscure tent in that vast army, was hidden something
\nagainst which God had a controversy, and this little hidden thing made the
\nwhole army helpless before their enemies. “There is an accursed thing in the
\nmidst of thee, O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye
\ntake away the accursed thing from among you.”
\n The teaching here is simply this, that anything allowed in the heart
\nwhich is contrary to the will of God, let it seem ever so insignificant, or
\nbe ever so deeply hidden, will cause us to fall before our enemies. Any root
\nof bitterness cherished towards another, any self-seeking and harsh
\njudgments indulged in, any slackness in obeying the voice of the Lord, any
\ndoubtful habits or surroundings, any one of these things will effectually
\ncripple and paralyze our spiritual life. We may have hidden the evil in the
\nmost remote corner of our hearts, and may have covered it over from our
\nsight, refusing even to recognize its existence, of which, however, we
\ncannot help being all the time secretly aware. We may steadily ignore it,
\nand persist in declarations of consecration and full trust, we may be more
\nearnest than ever in our religious duties, and have the eyes of our
\nunderstanding opened more and more to the truth and the beauty of the life
\nand walk of faith. We may seem to ourselves and to others to have reached an
\nalmost impregnable position of victory, and yet we may find ourselves
\nsuffering bitter defeats. We may wonder, and question, and despair, and
\npray; nothing will do any good until the accursed thing is dug up from its
\nhiding-place, brought out to the light, and laid before God. And the moment
\na believer who is walking in this interior life meets with a defeat, he must
\nat once seek for the cause not in the strength of that particular enemy, but
\nin something behind, some hidden want of consecration lying at the very
\ncentre of his being. Just as a headache is not the disease itself, but only
\na symptom of a disease situated in some other part of the body, so the sin
\nin such a Christian is only the symptom of an evil hidden probably in a very
\ndifferent part of his being.
\n Sometimes the evil may be hidden even in that, which at a cursory
\nglance, would look like good. Beneath apparent zeal for the truth, may be
\nhidden a judging spirit, or a subtle leaning to our own understanding.
\nBeneath apparent Christian faithfulness, may be hidden an absence of
\nChristian love. Beneath an apparently rightful care for our affairs, may be
\nhidden a great want of trust in God. I believe our blessed Guide, the
\nindwelling Holy Spirit, is always secretly discovering these things to us by
\ncontinual little twinges and pangs of conscience, so that we are left
\nwithout excuse. But it is very easy to disregard His gentle voice, and
\ninsist upon it to ourselves that all is right; and thus the fatal evil will
\ncontinue hidden in our midst causing defeat in most unexpected quarters.
\n A capital illustration of this occurred to me once in my housekeeping.
\nI had moved into a new house and, in looking over it to see if it was all
\nready for occupancy, I noticed in the cellar a very clean-looking cider-cask
\nheaded up at both ends. I debated with myself whether I should have it taken
\nout of the cellar and opened to see what was in it, but concluded, as it
\nseemed empty and looked nice, to leave it undisturbed, especially as it
\nwould have been quite a piece of work to get it up the stairs. I did not
\nfeel quite easy, but reasoned away my scruples and left it. Every spring and
\nfall, when house-cleaning time came on, I would remember that cask, with a
\nlittle twinge of my housewifely conscience, feeling that I could not quite
\nrest in the thought of a perfectly cleaned house, while it remained
\nunopened, for how did I know but under its fair exterior it contained some
\nhidden evil. Still I managed to quiet my scruples on the subject, thinking
\nalways of the trouble it would involve to investigate it; and for two or
\nthree years the innocent-looking cask stood quietly in my cellar.
\n Then, most unaccountably, moths began to fill my house. I used every
\npossible precaution against them, and made every effort to eradicate them,
\nbut in vain. They increased rapidly and threatened to ruin everything I had.
\nI suspected my carpets as being the cause, and subjected them to a thorough
\ncleaning. I suspected my furniture, and had it newly upholstered. I
\nsuspected all sorts of impossible things. At last the thought of the cask
\nflashed on me. At once I had it brought up out of the cellar and the head
\nknocked in, and I think it is safe to say that thousands of moths poured
\nout. The previous occupant of the house must have headed it up with
\nsomething in it which bred moths, and this was the cause of all my trouble.
\n Now I believe that, in the same way, some innocent-looking habit or
\nindulgence, some apparently unimportant and safe thing, about which we yet
\nhave now and then little twinges of conscience, something which is not
\nbrought out fairly into the light, and investigated under the searching eye
\nof God, lies at the root of most of the failure in this higher life. All is
\nnot given up. Some secret corner is kept locked against the entrance of the
\nLord. And therefore we cannot stand before our enemies, but find ourselves
\nsmitten down in their presence.
\n In order to prevent failure, or to discover its cause if we have
\nfailed, it is necessary that we should keep continually before us this
\nprayer, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts;
\nand see if there be any evil way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
\n There may be something very deceptive in our sufferings over our
\nfailures. We may seem to ourselves to be wholly occupied with the glory of
\nGod, and yet in our inmost souls it may be self alone that occasions all our
\ntrouble. Our self-love is touched in a tender spot by the discovery that we
\nare not so saintly as we thought we were; and this chagrin is often a
\ngreater sin than the original fault itself.
\n The only safe way to treat our failures is neither to justify nor
\ncondemn ourselves on account of them, but to lay them quietly and in
\nsimplicity before the Lord, looking at them in peace and in the spirit of
\nlove.
\n All the old mystic writers tell us that our progress is aided far more
\nby a simple, peaceful turning to God, than by all our chagrin and remorse
\nover our lapses from Him. Only be faithful, they say, in turning quietly to
\nHim alone, the moment you perceive what you have done, and His presence will
\ndeliver you from the snares which have entrapped you. To look at self
\nplunges you deeper into the slough, for this very slough is after all
\nnothing but self; while the gentlest look towards God will calm and deliver
\nyour heart.
\n Finally, let us never forget for one moment, no matter how often we may
\nfail, that the Lord Jesus able, according to the declaration concerning Him,
\nto deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, that we may “serve Him
\nwithout fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our
\nlife.”
\n Let us then pray, every one of us, day and night, “Lord, keep us from
\nsinning, and make us living witnesses of Thy mighty power to save to the
\nuttermost”; and let us never be satisfied until we are so pliable in His
\nhands, and have learned so to trust Him, that He will be able to “make us
\nperfect, in every good work to do His will, working in us that which is
\nwell-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever
\nand ever. Amen.”<\/p>\n
Chapter 14<\/p>\n
DOUBTS<\/p>\n
A great many Christians are slaves to the habit of doubting. No drunkard was
\never more utterly bound by the chains of his fatal habit than they are by
\ntheirs. Every step of their whole Christian life is taken against the
\nfearful odds of an army of doubts, that are forever lying in wait to assail
\nthem at each favorable moment. Their lives are made wretched, their
\nusefulness is effectually hindered, and their communion with God is
\ncontinually broken by their doubts. And although the entrance of the soul
\nupon the life of faith, of which this book treats, does in many cases take
\nit altogether out of the region where these doubts live and flourish; yet
\neven here it sometimes happens that the old tyrant will rise up and reassert
\nhis sway, and will cause the feet to stumble and the heart to fail, even
\nwhen he cannot succeed in utterly turning the believer back into the dreary
\nwilderness again.
\n We all of us remember, doubtless, the childish fascination, and yet
\nhorror, of that story of Christian’s imprisonment in Doubting Castle by the
\nwicked giant Despair, and our exultant sympathy in his escape through those
\nmassive gates and from that cruel tyrant. Little did we suspect then that we
\nshould ever find ourselves taken prisoner by the same giant, and imprisoned
\nin the same castle. And yet I fear to every member of the Church of Christ
\nthere has been at least one such experience. Turn to the account again, if
\nit is not fresh in your minds, and see if you do not see pictured there
\nexperiences of your own that have been very grievous to bear at the time,
\nand very sorrowful to look back upon afterwards.
\n It seems strange that people, whose very name of Believers implies that
\ntheir one chiefest characteristic is that they believe, should have to
\nconfess to such experiences. And yet it is such a universal habit that I
\nfeel if the majority of the Church were to be named over again, the only
\nfitting and descriptive name that could be given them would be that of
\nDoubters. In fact, most Christians have settled down under their doubts, as
\nto a sort of inevitable malady, from which they suffer acutely, but to which
\nthey must try to be resigned as a part of the necessary discipline of this
\nearthly life. And they lament over their doubts as a man might lament over
\nhis rheumatism, making themselves out as an “interesting case” of especial
\nand peculiar trial, which requires the tenderest sympathy and the utmost
\nconsideration.
\n And this is too often true of believers, who are earnestly longing to
\nenter upon the life and walk of faith, and who have made perhaps many steps
\ntowards it. They have got rid, it may be, of the old doubts that once
\ntormented them, as to whether their sins are really forgiven, and whether
\nthey shall, after all, get safe to Heaven; but they have not got rid of
\ndoubting. They have simply shifted the habit to a higher platform. They are
\nsaying, perhaps, “Yes, I believe my sins are forgiven, and I am a child of
\nGod through faith in Jesus Christ. I dare not doubt this any more. But
\nthen–” And this “but then” includes an interminable array of doubts
\nconcerning every declaration and every promise our Father has made to His
\nchildren. One after another they fight with them and refuse to believe them,
\nuntil they can have some more reliable proof of their being true, than the
\nsimple word of their God. And then they wonder why they are permitted to
\nwalk in such darkness, and look upon themselves almost in the light of
\nmartyrs, and groan under the peculiar spiritual conflicts they are compelled
\nto endure.
\n Spiritual conflicts! Far better would they be named did we call them
\nspiritual rebellions! Our fight is to be a fight of faith, and the moment we
\ndoubt, our fight ceases and our rebellion begins.
\n I desire to put forth, if possible, one vigorous protest against this
\nwhole thing. Just as well might I join in with the lament of a drunkard and
\nunite with him in prayer for grace to endure the discipline of his fatal
\nindulgence, as to give way for one instant to the weak complaints of these
\nenslaved souls, and try to console them under their slavery. To one and to
\nthe other I would dare to do nothing else but proclaim the perfect
\ndeliverance the Lord Jesus Christ has in store or them, and beseech,
\nentreat, command them, with all the force of my whole nature, to avail
\nthemselves of it and be free. Not for one moment would I listen to their
\ndespairing excuses. You ought to be free, you can be free, you MUST be free!<\/p>\n
Will you undertake to tell me that it is an inevitable necessity for
\nGod to be doubted by His children? Is it an inevitable necessity for your
\nchildren to doubt you? Would you tolerate their doubts a single hour? Would
\nyou pity your son and condole with him, and feel that he was an interesting
\ncase, if he should come to you and say, “Father, I cannot believe your word,
\nI cannot trust your love-
\n I remember once seeing the indignation of a mother I knew, stirred to
\nits very depths by a little doubting on the part of one of her children. She
\nhad brought two little girls to my house to leave them while she did some
\nerrands. One of them, with the happy confidence of childhood, abandoned
\nherself to all the pleasures she could find in my nursery, and sang and
\nplayed until her mother’s return. The other one, with the wretched caution
\nand mistrust of maturity, sat down alone in a corner to wonder whether her
\nmother would remember to come back for her, and to fear she would be
\nforgotten, and to imagine her mother would be glad of the chance to get rid
\nof her anyhow, because she was such a naughty girl, and ended with working
\nherself up into a perfect frenzy of despair. The look on that mother’s face,
\nwhen upon her return the weeping little girl told what was the matter with
\nher, I shall not easily forget. Grief, wounded love, indignation, and pity,
\nall strove together for mastery. But indignation gained the day, and I doubt
\nif that little girl was ever so vigorously dealt with before. A hundred
\ntimes in my life since has that scene come up before me with deepest
\nteaching, and has compelled me, peremptorily, to refuse admittance to the
\ndoubts about my Heavenly Father’s love, and care, and remembrance of me,
\nthat have clamored at the door of my heart for entrance.
\n I am convinced that to many people doubting is a real luxury, and to
\ndeny themselves from indulging in it would be to exercise the hardest piece
\nof self-denial they have ever known. It is a luxury that, like the
\nindulgence in all other luxuries, brings very sorrowful results; and,
\nperhaps, looking at the sadness and misery it has brought into your own
\nChristian experience, you may be tempted to say, “Alas! This is no luxury to
\nme, but only a fearful trial.” But pause for a moment. Try giving it up, and
\nyou will soon find out whether it is a luxury or not. Do not your doubts
\ncome trooping to your door as a company of sympathizing friends, who
\nappreciate your hard case, and have come to condole with you? And is it no
\nluxury to sit down with them and entertain them, and listen to their
\narguments, and join in with their condolences? Would it be no self-denial to
\nturn resolutely from them, and refuse to hear a word they have to say? If
\nyou do not know, try it and see.
\n Have you never tasted the luxury of indulging in hard thoughts against
\nthose who have, as you think, injured you? Have you never known what a
\npositive fascination it is to brood over their unkindnesses, and to pry into
\ntheir malice, and to imagine all sorts of wrong and uncomfortable things
\nabout them? It has made you wretched, of course, but it has been a
\nfascinating sort of wretchedness that you could not easily give up.
\n And just like this is the luxury of doubting. Things have gone wrong
\nwith you in your experience. Dispensations have been mysterious, temptations
\nhave been peculiar, your case has seemed different from that of any one’s
\naround you. What more natural than to conclude that for some reason God has
\nforsaken you, and does not love you, and is indifferent to your welfare? And
\nhow irresistible is the conviction that you are too wicked for Him to care
\nfor, or too difficult for Him to manage.
\n You do not mean to blame Him, or accuse Him of injustice, for you feel
\nthat His indifference and rejection of you are fully deserved because of
\nyour unworthiness. And this very subterfuge leaves you at liberty to indulge
\nin your doubts under the guise of a just and true appreciation of your own
\nshortcomings. But all the while you are as really indulging in hard and
\nwrong thoughts of your Lord as ever you did of a human enemy; for He says He
\ncame not to save the righteous, but sinners; and your very sinfulness and
\nunworthiness is your chiefest claim upon His love and His care.
\n As well might the poor little lamb that has wandered from the flock and
\ngot lost in the wilderness say, “The shepherd does not love me, nor care for
\nme, nor remember me, because I am lost. He only loves and cares for the
\nlambs that never wander.” As well might the ill man say, “The doctor will
\nnot come to see me, nor give me any medicines, because I am ill. He only
\ncares for and visits well people.” Jesus says, “They that are whole need not
\na physician, but they that are sick.” And again He says, “What man of you,
\nhaving an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety
\nand nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find
\nit?” Any thoughts of Him, therefore, which are different from what He says
\nof Himself, are hard thoughts; and to indulge in them is far worse than to
\nindulge in hard thoughts of any earthly friend or foe. From the beginning to
\nthe end of your Christian life it is always sinful to indulge in doubts.
\nDoubts are all from the devil, and are always untrue. And the only way to
\nmeet them is by a direct and emphatic denial.
\n And this brings me to the practical part of the whole subject, as to
\nhow to get deliverance from this fatal habit. My answer would be that the
\ndeliverance from this can be by no other means than the deliverance from any
\nother sin. It is to be found in the Lord and in Him only. You must hand your
\ndoubting over to Him, as you have learned to hand your other temptations.
\nYou must do just what you do with your temper, or your pride. You must give
\nit up to the Lord. I believe myself the only effectual remedy is to take a
\npledge against it as you would urge a drunkard to do against drink, trusting
\nin the Lord alone to keep you steadfast.
\n Like any other sin, the stronghold is in the will and the will to doubt
\nmust be surrendered exactly as you surrender the will to yield to any other
\ntemptation. God always takes possession of a surrendered will. And if we
\ncome to the point of saying that we will not doubt, and surrender this
\ncentral fortress of our nature to Him, His blessed Spirit will begin at once
\nto work in us all the good pleasure of His will, and we shall find ourselves
\nkept from doubting by His mighty and overcoming power.
\n The trouble is that in this matter of doubting the soul does not always
\nmake a full surrender, but is apt to reserve to itself a little secret
\nliberty to doubt, looking upon it as being sometimes a necessity. “I do not
\nwant to doubt any more,” we will say, or, “I hope I shall not”; but it is
\nhard to come to the point of saying, “I will not doubt again.” But no
\nsurrender is effectual until it reaches the point of saying, “I will not”.
\nThe liberty to doubt must be given up forever. And the soul must consent to
\na continuous life of inevitable trust. It is often necessary, I think, to
\nmake a definite transaction of this surrender of doubting, and to come to a
\npoint about it. I believe it is quite as necessary in the case of a doubter
\nas in the case of a drunkard. It will not do to give it up by degrees. The
\ntotal abstinence principle is the only effectual one here.
\n Then, the surrender once made, the soul must rest absolutely upon the
\nLord for deliverance in each time of temptation. It must lift up the shield
\nof faith the moment the assault comes. It must hand the very first
\nsuggestion of doubt over to the Lord, and must tell the enemy to settle the
\nmatter with Him. It must refuse to listen to the doubt a single moment. Let
\nit come ever so plausibly, or under whatever guise of humility, the soul
\nmust simply say, “I dare not doubt; I must trust. The Lord is good, and HE
\nDOES love me. Jesus saves me; He saves me now.” Those three little words,
\nrepeated over and over, — “Jesus saves me, Jesus saves me,” — will put to
\nflight the greatest army of doubts that ever assaulted any soul. I have
\ntried it times without number, and have never known it to fail. Do not stop
\nto argue the matter out with your doubts, nor try to prove that they are
\nwrong. Pay no attention to them whatever; treat them with the utmost
\ncontempt. Shut your door in their faces, and emphatically deny every word
\nthey say to you. Bring up some “It is written,” and hurl it after them. Look
\nright at Jesus, and tell Him you trust Him, and you mean to trust Him. Let
\nthe doubts clamor as they may, they cannot hurt you if you will not let them
\nin.
\n I know it will look to you sometimes as though you were shutting the
\ndoor against your best friends, and your heart will long after your doubts
\nmore than ever the Israelites longed after the flesh-pots of Egypt. But deny
\nyourself; take up your cross in this matter, and unmercifully refuse ever to
\nlisten to a single word.
\n This very day a perfect army of doubts stood awaiting my awaking, and
\nclamored at my door for admittance. Nothing seemed real, nothing seemed
\ntrue; and least of all did it seem possible that I — miserable, wretched —
\ncould be the object of the Lord’s love, or care, or notice. If I only had
\nbeen at liberty to let these doubts in, and invite them to take seats and
\nmake themselves at home, what a luxury I should have felt it to be! But
\nyears ago I made a pledge against doubting; and I would as soon think of
\nviolating my pledge against intoxicating liquor as to violate this one. I
\nDARED not admit the first doubt. I therefore lifted up my shield of faith
\nthe moment I was conscious of these suggestions, and handing the whole army
\nover to my Lord to conquer, I began to say, over and over, “The Lord does
\nlove me. He is my present and my perfect Saviour; Jesus saves me, Jesus
\nsaves me now!” The victory was complete. The enemy had come in like a flood,
\nbut the Lord lifted up a standard against him, and he was routed and put to
\nflight; and my soul is singing the song of Moses and the children of Israel,
\nsaying, “I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the
\nhorse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and
\nmy song, and He is become my salvation. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord
\nis His name.”
\n It will help you to resist the assaults of this temptation to doubt, to
\nsee clearly that doubting is sin. It is certainly a direct disobedience to
\nour Lord, who commands us, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it
\nbe afraid.” And all through the Bible everywhere the commands to trust are
\nimperative, and admit of no exceptions. Time and room would fail me to refer
\nto one hundredth part of these, but no one can read the Psalms without being
\nconvinced that the man who trusts without a question, is the only man who
\npleases God and is accepted of Him. The “provocation” of Israel was that
\nthey did not trust; “anger also came up against Israel, because they
\nbelieved not in God, and trusted not in His salvation.” (Psalms 78:17-22.)
\nAnd in contrast, we read in Isaiah concerning those who trust, “Thou wilt
\nkeep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth
\nin Thee.” Nothing grieves or wounds our hearts like doubting on the part of
\na friend, and nothing, I am convinced, grieves the heart of God more than
\ndoubting from us.
\n One of my children, who is now with the Lord, said to me one evening as
\nI was tucking her up in bed, “Well, mother, I have had my first doubt.” “Oh,
\nRay,” I said, “what was it?” “Why,” she replied, “Satan came to me and told
\nme not to believe the Bible, for it was not a word of it true.” “And what
\ndid thee say to him?” I asked. “Oh,” she replied, triumphantly, “I just said
\nto him, Satan, I will believe it. So there!” I was delighted with the
\nchild’s spiritual intelligence in knowing so well how to meet doubts, and
\nencouraged her with all my heart, explaining to her how all doubts and
\ndiscouragements are from the enemy, and how he is always a liar and must not
\nbe listened to for a moment. The next night, I had forgotten all about it,
\nhowever, and was surprised and startled when she said, as I was tucking her
\nin bed, “Well, mother, Satan has been at it again.” “Oh, Ray darling!” I
\nexclaimed in dismay, “what did he say this time?” “Well,” she replied, “he
\njust told me that I was such a naughty little girl that Jesus could not love
\nme, and I was foolish to think He did.” “And what did thee say this time?” I
\nasked. “Oh!” she replied, “I just looked at him cross and said, Satan, shut
\nthy mouth!” And then she added, with a smile, “He can’t make me unhappy one
\nbit.” A grander battle no soul ever fought than this little child had done,
\nand no greater victory was ever won!
\n Dear, doubting soul, go and do likewise; and a similar victory shall be
\nthine. As you lay down this book take up your pen and write out your
\ndetermination never to doubt again. Make it a real transaction between your
\nsoul and the Lord. Give up your liberty to doubt forever. Put your will in
\nthis matter over on the Lord’s side, and trust Him to keep you from falling.
\nTell him all about your utter weakness and your long-encouraged habits of
\ndoubt, and how helpless you are before your enemy, and commit the whole
\nbattle to Him. Tell Him you will not doubt again; and then henceforward keep
\nyour face steadfastly looking unto Jesus, away from yourself and away from
\nyour doubts, holding fast the profession of your faith without wavering,
\nbecause He is faithful who has promised. And as surely as you do thus hold
\nthe beginning of your confidence steadfast unto the end, just so surely
\nshall you find yourself in this matter made more than conqueror, through Him
\nwho loves you.<\/p>\n
Chapter 15<\/p>\n
PRACTICAL RESULTS IN THE DAILY WALK AND CONVERSATION<\/p>\n
If all that has been said concerning the life hid with Christ in God be
\ntrue, its results in the practical daily walk and conversation ought to be
\nvery marked, and the people who have entered into the enjoyment of it ought
\nto be, in very truth, a “peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
\n My son at college once wrote to a friend to this effect: that
\nChristians are God’s witnesses necessarily, because the world will not read
\nthe Bible, but they will read our lives; and that upon the report these give
\nwill very much depend their belief in the Divine nature of the religion we
\nprofess. As we all know, this is an age of facts, and inquiries are being
\nincreasingly turned from theories to realities. If our religion is to make
\nany headway now, it must be proved to be more than a theory, and we must
\npresent, to the investigation of the critical minds of our age, the grand
\nfacts of lives which have been actually and manifestly transformed by the
\nmighty power of God working in us all the good pleasure of His will. Give us
\n“forms of life,” say the scientists, and we will be convinced. And when the
\nChurch is able to present to them in all its members, the form of a holy
\nlife, their last stronghold will be conquered.
\n I desire, therefore, before closing my book, to speak very solemnly of
\nwhat I conceive to be the necessary fruits of a life of faith, such as I
\nhave been describing, and to press home to the hearts of every one of my
\nreaders their responsibility to walk worthy of the high calling wherewith
\nthey have been called.
\n And I would speak to some of you, at least, as personal friends, for I
\nfeel sure we have not gone this far together through this book without there
\nhaving grown in your hearts, as there has in mine, a tender personal
\ninterest and longing for one another, that we may in everything show forth
\nthe praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous
\nlight. As a friend, then, to friends, I am sure I may speak very plainly,
\nand will be pardoned if I go into some particulars of life and character
\nwhich are vital to all true Christian development.
\n The standard of practical holy living has been so low among Christians
\nthat any good degree of real devotedness of life and walk is looked upon
\nwith surprise, and even often with disapprobation, by a large portion of the
\nChurch. And, for the most part, the professed followers of the Lord Jesus
\nChrist are so little like Him in character or in action, that to an outside
\nobserver there would not seem to be much harmony between them.
\n But we, who have heard the call of our God to a life of entire
\nconsecration and perfect trust, must do differently from all this. We must
\ncome out from the world and be separate, and must not be conformed to it in
\nour characters nor in our purposes. We must no longer share in its spirit or
\nits ways. Our conversation must be in Heaven, and we must seek those things
\nthat are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. We must walk
\nthrough the world as Christ walked. We must have the mind that was in Him.
\nAs pilgrims and strangers we must abstain from fleshly lusts that war
\nagainst the soul. As good soldiers of Jesus Christ, we must disentangle
\nourselves from the affairs of this life as far as possible, that we may
\nplease Him who hath chosen us to be soldiers. We must abstain from all
\nappearance of evil. We must be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
\none another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven us. We must not
\nresent injuries or unkindness, but must return good for evil, and turn the
\nother cheek to the hand that smites us. We must take always the lowest place
\namong our fellowmen; and seek not our own honor, but the honor of others. We
\nmust be gentle, and meek, and yielding; not standing up for our own rights,
\nbut for the rights of others. All that we do must be done for the glory of
\nGod. And, to sum it all up, since He which hath called us is holy, so we
\nmust be holy in a manner of conversation; because it is written, “Be ye
\nholy, for I am holy.”
\n Now, dear friends, this is all exceedingly practical and means, surely,
\na life very different from the lives of most professors around us. It means
\nthat we do really and absolutely turn our backs on self, and on self’s
\nmotives and self’s aims. It means that we are a peculiar people, not only in
\nthe eyes of God, but in the eyes of the world around us; and that, wherever
\nwe go, it will be known from our Christlike lives and conversation that we
\nare followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and are not of the world, even as He
\nwas not of the world. We shall no longer feel that our money is our own, but
\nthe Lord’s, to be used in His service. We shall not feel at liberty to use
\nour energies exclusively in the pursuit of worldly means, but, seeking first
\nthe kingdom of God and His righteousness, shall have all needful things
\nadded unto us. We shall find ourselves forbidden to seek the highest places,
\nor to strain after worldly advantages. We shall not be permitted to be
\nconformed to the world in our ways of thinking or of living. We shall feel
\nno desire to indulge in the world’s frivolous pursuits. We shall find our
\naffections set upon heavenly things, rather than upon earthly things. Our
\ndays will be spent not in serving ourselves, but in serving our Lord; and
\nall our rightful duties will be more perfectly performed than ever, because
\nwhatever we do will be done “not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as
\nthe servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”
\n Into all these things we shall undoubtedly be led by the blessed Spirit
\nof God, if we give ourselves up to His guidance. But unless we have the
\nright standard of Christian life set before us, we shall be hindered by our
\nignorance from recognizing His voice; and it is for this reason I desire to
\nbe very plain and definite in my statements.
\n I have noticed that wherever there has been a faithful following of the
\nLord in a consecrated soul, several things have inevitably followed, sooner
\nor later.
\n Meekness and quietness of spirit become in time the characteristics of
\nthe daily life; a submissive acceptance of the will of God, as it comes in
\nthe hourly events of each day; pliability in the hands of God to do or to
\nsuffer all the good pleasure of His will; sweetness under provocation;
\ncalmness in the midst of turmoil and bustle; yieldingness to the wishes of
\nothers, and an insensibility to slights and affronts, absence of worry or
\nanxiety; deliverance from care and fear: all these, and many other similar
\ngraces are invariably found to be the natural outward development of that
\ninward life which is hid with Christ in God. Then as to the habits of life:
\nwe always see such Christians sooner or later giving themselves up to some
\nwork for God and their fellowmen, willing to spend and be spent in the
\nMaster’s service. They become indifferent to outward show in the furniture
\nof their houses and the style of their living, and make all personal
\nadornment secondary to the things of God. The voice is dedicated to God, to
\ntalk and sing for Him. The purse is placed at His disposal. The pen is
\ndedicated to write for Him, the lips to speak for Him, the hands and the
\nfeet to do His bidding. Year after year such Christians are seen to grow
\nmore unworldly, more heavenly-minded, more transformed, more like Christ,
\nuntil even their very faces express so much of the beautiful inward Divine
\nlife, that all who look at them cannot but take knowledge of them that they
\nlive with God, and are abiding in Him.
\n I feel sure that to each one of you have come at least some Divine
\nintimations or foreshadowings of the life I here describe. Have you not
\nbegun to feel dimly conscious of the voice of God speaking to you in the
\ndepths of your soul about these things? Has it not been a pain and a
\ndistress to you of late to discover how much there is wrong in your life?
\nHas not your soul been plunged into inward trouble and doubt about certain
\ndispositions and ways, in which you have been formerly accustomed to
\nindulge? Have you not begun to feel uneasy with some of your habits of life,
\nand to wish that you could do differently in these respects? Have not paths
\nof devotedness and of service begun to open out before you, with the longing
\nthought, “Oh, that I could walk in them-
\n All these longings and doubts, and this inward distress, are the voice
\nof the Good Shepherd in your heart seeking to call you out of all that is
\ncontrary to His will. Oh! let me entreat of you not to turn away from His
\ngentle pleadings. You little know the secret paths into which He means to
\nlead you by these very steps, nor the wonderful stores of blessedness that
\nlie at their end, or you would spring forward with an eager joy to yield to
\nevery one of His requirements. The heights of Christian perfection can only
\nbe reached by faithfully following the Guide who is to lead you there, and
\nHe reveals your way to you one step at a time in the teachings and
\nprovidences of your daily lives, asking only on your part that you yield
\nyourselves up to His guidance. If, then, in anything you are convinced of
\nsin, be sure that it is the voice of your Lord, and surrender it at once to
\nHis bidding, rejoicing with a great joy that He has begun thus to lead and
\nguide you. Be perfectly pliable in His wise hands, go where He entices you,
\nturn away from all from which He makes you shrink, obey Him perfectly; and
\nHe will lead you out swiftly and easily into a wonderful life of conformity
\nto Himself, that will be a testimony to all around you, beyond what you
\nyourself will ever know.
\n I knew a soul thus given up to follow the Lord whithersoever He might
\nlead her, who in three short months travelled from the depths of darkness
\nand despair into the realization and conscious experience of the most
\nblessed union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Out of the midst of her darkness,
\nshe consecrated herself to the Lord, surrendering her will up altogether to
\nHim, that He might work in her to will and to do of His own good pleasure.
\nImmediately He began to speak to her by His Spirit in her heart, suggesting
\nto her some little acts of service for Him, and calling her out of all
\nun-Christlike dispositions and ways. She recognized His voice, and yielded
\nto Him each thing He asked for, following Him whithersoever He might lead
\nher, with no fear but the one fear of disobeying Him. He led her rapidly on,
\nday by day conforming her more and more to His will, and making her life
\nsuch a testimony to those around her, that even some who had begun by
\nopposing and disbelieving, were forced to acknowledge that it was of God,
\nand were won to a similar surrender. And, finally, after three short months
\nof this faithful following, it came to pass, so swiftly had she gone, that
\nher Lord was able to reveal to her wondering soul some of the deepest
\nsecrets of His love, and to fulfil to her the marvellous promise of Acts
\n1:5, baptizing her with the Holy Ghost. Think you she has ever regretted her
\nwholehearted following of Him? Or that aught but thankfulness and joy can
\never fill her soul when she reviews the steps by which her feet had been led
\nto this place of wondrous blessedness, even though some of them may have
\nseemed at the time hard to take? Ah! dear soul, if thou wouldst know a like
\nblessing, abandon thyself, like her, to the guidance of the Divine Master,
\nand shrink from no surrender for which He may call.<\/p>\n
“The perfect way is hard to flesh,<\/p>\n
It is not hard to love;<\/p>\n
If thou wert sick for want of God,<\/p>\n
How swiftly wouldst thou move.”<\/p>\n
Surely thou canst trust Him! And if some things may be called for which
\nlook to thee of but little moment, and not worthy thy Lord’s attention,
\nremember that He sees not as man seeth, and that things small to thee may be
\nin His eyes the key and the clue to the deepest springs of thy being. In
\norder to mould thee into entire conformity to His will, He must have thee
\npliable in his hands, and this pliability is more quickly reached by
\nyielding in the little things than even by the greater. Thy one great desire
\nis to follow Him fully; canst thou not say then a continual “Yes, Lord!” to
\nall His sweet commands, whether small or great, and trust Him to lead thee
\nby the shortest road to thy fullest blessedness?
\n My dear friend, this, and nothing less than this, is what thy
\nconsecration meant, whether thou knew it or not. It meant inevitable
\nobedience. It meant that the will of thy God was henceforth to be thy will
\nunder all circumstances and at all times. It meant that from that moment
\nthou surrendered thy liberty of choice, and gave thyself up utterly into the
\ncontrol of thy Lord. It meant an hourly following of Him whithersoever He
\nmight lead thee, without any dream of turning back.
\n And now I appeal to thee to make good thy word. Let everything else go,
\nthat thou mayest live out, in a practical daily walk and conversation, the
\nDivine life thou hast dwelling within thee. Thou art united to thy Lord by a
\nwondrous tie; walk, then, as He walked, and show to the unbelieving world
\nthe blessed reality of His mighty power to save, by letting Him save thee to
\nthe very uttermost. Thou needst not fear to consent to this, for He is thy
\nSaviour; and His power is to do it all. He is not asking thee, in thy poor
\nweakness, to do it thyself; He only asks thee to yield thyself to Him, that
\nHe may work in thee to will and to do by His own mighty power. Thy part is
\nto yield thyself, His part is to work; and never, never will He give thee
\nany command which is not accompanied by ample power to obey it. Take no
\nthought for the morrow in this matter; but abandon thyself with a generous
\ntrust to thy loving Lord, who has promised never to call His own sheep out
\ninto any path, without Himself going before them to make the way easy and
\nsafe. Take each onward step as He makes it plain to thee. Bring all thy life
\nin each of its details to Him to regulate and guide. Follow gladly and
\nquickly the sweet suggestions of His Spirit in thy soul. And day by day thou
\nwilt find Him bringing thee more and more into conformity with His will in
\nall things; moulding thee and fashioning thee, as thou art able to bear it,
\ninto a vessel unto His honor, sanctified and meet for His use, and fitted to
\nevery good work. So shall be given to thee the sweet joy of being an epistle
\nof Christ known and read of all men; and thy light shall shine so brightly
\nthat men seeing, not thee, but thy good works, shall glorify, not thee, but
\nthy Father which is in Heaven.
\n We are predestined to be “conformed to the image” of God’s Son. This
\nmeans, of course, not a likeness of bodily presence, but a likeness of
\ncharacter and nature. It means a similarity of thought, of feeling, of
\ndesire, of loves, of hates. It means, that we are to think and act,
\naccording to our measure, as Christ would have thought and acted under our
\ncircumstances.
\n A little girl was once questioned what it meant to be a Christian. She
\nreplied, “It means to be just what Christ would be, if He was a little girl
\nand lived in my house.”
\n The secret of Christ’s life was the pouring out of Himself for others;
\nand if we are like Him, this will be the secret of our lives also. He saved
\nothers, but Himself He could not save. He “pleased not Himself,” and
\ntherefore we are “not to please ourselves,” but rather our neighbor, when it
\nis for his good.
\n A thoughtful Hindoo religionist, who visited England and America lately
\nto examine into Christianity, said, as the result of his observations, “What
\nChristians need is a little more of Christ’s Christianity, and a little less
\nof man’s.”
\n Man’s Christianity teaches sacrifice to save ourselves; Christ’s
\nChristianity teaches sacrifice to save others. Man’s Christianity produces
\nthe fruitless selfishness of too much of our religion. Christ’s Christianity
\nproduces the blessed unselfishness of lives that are poured out for others,
\nas was His.
\n In short, then, the one practical outcome of all that our book has been
\nteaching us, is simply this, that we are to be Christlike Christians. And
\nall our experiences amount to nothing if they do not produce this result.
\nFor “not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
\nkingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
\nheaven.”<\/p>\n
Chapter 16<\/p>\n
THE JOY OF OBEDIENCE<\/p>\n
I remember reading once somewhere this sentence, “Perfect obedience would be
\nperfect happiness, if only we had perfect confidence in the power we were
\nobeying.” I remember being struck with the saying, as the revelation of a
\npossible, although hitherto undreamed-of way of happiness; and often
\nafterwards, through all the lawlessness and wilfulness of my life, did that
\nsaying recur to me as the vision of a rest, and yet of a possible
\ndevelopment, that would soothe and at the same time satisfy all my
\nyearnings. Need I say that this rest has been revealed to me now, not as a
\nvision, but as a reality; and that I have seen in the Lord Jesus, the Master
\nto whom we may all yield up our implicit obedience, and, taking His yoke
\nupon us, may find our perfect rest?
\n You little know, dear hesitating soul, of the joy you are missing. The
\nMaster has revealed Himself to you, and is calling for your complete
\nsurrender, and you shrink and hesitate. A measure of surrender you are
\nwilling to make, and think indeed it is fit and proper you should. But an
\nutter abandonment, without any reserves, seems to you too much to be asked
\nfor. You are afraid of it. It involves too much, you think, and is too great
\na task. To be measurably obedient you desire; to be perfectly obedient
\nappalls you.
\n And then, too, you see other souls who seem able to walk with easy
\nconsciences, in a far wider path than that which appears to be marked out
\nfor you, and you ask yourself why this need be. It seems strange, and
\nperhaps hard to you, that you must do what they need not, and must leave
\nundone what they have liberty to do.
\n Ah! dear Christian, this very difference between you is your privilege,
\nthough you do not yet know it. Your Lord says, “He that hath my
\ncommandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth
\nMe shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest
\nMyself to him.” You have His commandments; those you envy, have them not.
\nYou know the mind of your Lord about many things, in which, as yet, they are
\nwalking in darkness. Is not this a privilege? Is it a cause for regret that
\nyour soul is brought into such near and intimate relations with your Master,
\nthat He is able to tell you things which those who are further off may not
\nknow? Do you not realize what a tender degree of intimacy is implied in
\nthis?
\n There are many relations in life which require from the different
\nparties only very moderate degrees of devotion. We may have really pleasant
\nfriendships with one another, and yet spend a large part of our lives in
\nseparate interests, and widely differing pursuits. When together, we may
\ngreatly enjoy one another’s society, and find many congenial points; but
\nseparation is not any especial distress to us, and other and more intimate
\nfriendships do not interfere. There is not enough love between us, to give
\nus either the right or the desire to enter into and share one another’s most
\nprivate affairs. A certain degree of reserve and distance is the suitable
\nthing, we feel. But there are other relations in life where all this is
\nchanged. The friendship becomes love. The two hearts give themselves to one
\nanother, to be no longer two but one. A union of souls takes place, which
\nmakes all that belongs to one the property of the other. Separate interests
\nand separate paths in life are no longer possible. Things which were lawful
\nbefore become unlawful now, because of the nearness of the tie that binds.
\nThe reserve and distance suitable to mere friendship becomes fatal in love.
\nLove gives all, and must have all in return. The wishes of one become
\nbinding obligations to the other, and the deepest desire of each heart is,
\nthat it may know every secret wish or longing of the other, in order that it
\nmay fly on the wings of the wind to gratify it.
\n Do such as these chafe under this yoke which love imposes? Do they envy
\nthe cool, calm, reasonable friendships they see around them, and regret the
\nnearness into which their souls are brought to their beloved one, because of
\nthe obligations it creates? Do they not rather glory in these very
\nobligations, and inwardly pity, with a tender yet exulting joy, the poor
\nfar-off ones who dare not come so near? Is not every fresh revelation of the
\nmind of one another a fresh delight and privilege, and is any path found
\nhard which their love compels them to travel?
\n Ah! dear souls, if you have ever known this even for a few hours in any
\nearthly relation; if you have ever loved a fellow human being enough to find
\nsacrifice and service on their behalf a joy; if a whole-souled abandonment
\nof your will to the will of another has ever gleamed across you as a blessed
\nand longed-for privilege, or as a sweet and precious reality, then, by all
\nthe tender longing love of your heavenly Master, would I entreat you to let
\nit be so towards God!
\n He loves you with more than the love of friendship. As a bridegroom
\nrejoices over his bride, so does He rejoice over you, and nothing but a full
\nsurrender will satisfy Him. He has given you all, and He asks for all in
\nreturn. The slightest reserve will grieve Him to the heart. He spared not
\nHimself, and how can you spare yourself? For your sake He poured out in a
\nlavish abandonment all that He had, and for His sake you must pour out all
\nthat you have without stint or measure.
\n Oh, be generous in your self-surrender! Meet His measureless devotion
\nfor you, with a measureless devotion to Him. Be glad and eager to throw
\nyourself headlong into His dear arms, and to hand over the reins of
\ngovernment to Him. Whatever there is of you, let Him have it all. Give up
\nforever everything that is separate from Him. Consent to resign from this
\ntime forward all liberty of choice; and glory in the blessed nearness of
\nunion which makes this enthusiasm of devotedness not only possible but
\nnecessary. Have you never longed to lavish your love and attentions upon
\nsomeone far off from you in position or circumstances, with whom you were
\nnot intimate enough for any closer approach? Have you not felt a capacity
\nfor self-surrender and devotedness, that has seemed to burn within you like
\na fire, and yet had no object upon which it dared to lavish itself? Have not
\nyour hands been full of alabaster boxes of ointment, very precious, which
\nyou have never been near enough to any heart to pour out? If, then, you are
\nhearing the sweet voice of your Lord calling you into a place of nearness to
\nHimself, which will require a separation from all else, and which will make
\nthis enthusiasm of devotedness not only possible, but necessary will you
\nshrink or hesitate? Will you think it hard that He reveals to you more of
\nHis mind than He does to others, and that He will not allow you to be happy
\nin anything which separates you from Himself? Do you want to go where He
\ncannot go with you, or to have pursuits which He cannot share?
\n No! no, a thousand times, no! You will spring out to meet His dear will
\nwith an eager joy. Even His slightest wish will become a binding law to you,
\nwhich it would fairly break your heart to disobey. You will glory in the
\nvery narrowness of the path He marks out for you, and will pity with an
\ninfinite pity the poor far-off ones who have missed this precious joy. The
\nobligations of love will be to you its sweetest privileges; and the right
\nyou have acquired to lavish the uttermost abandonment of all that you have
\nupon your Lord, will seem to lift you into a region of unspeakable glory.
\nThe perfect happiness of perfect obedience will dawn upon your soul, and you
\nwill begin to know something of what Jesus meant when He said, “I delight to
\ndo thy will, O my God.”
\n And do you think the joy in this will be all on your side? Has the Lord
\nno joy in those who have thus surrendered themselves to Him, and who love to
\nobey Him? Ah, my friends, we are not fit to speak of this but surely the
\nScriptures reveal to us glimpses of the delight, the satisfaction, the joy
\nour Lord has in us, that ravish the soul with their marvellous suggestions
\nof blessedness. That we should need Him, is easy to comprehend; that He
\nshould need us, seems incomprehensible. That our desire should be towards
\nHim, is a matter of course; but that His desire should be towards us, passes
\nthe bounds of human belief. And yet, over and over He says it, and what can
\nwe do but believe Him? He has made our hearts capable of this supreme,
\novermastering affection, and has offered Himself as the object of it. It is
\ninfinitely precious to Him, and He says, “He that loveth me shall be loved
\nof my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
\nContinually at every heart He is knocking, and asking to be taken in as the
\nsupreme object of love. “Wilt thou have me,” He says to the believer, “to be
\nthy Beloved? Wilt thou follow me into suffering and loneliness, and endure
\nhardness for my sake, and ask for no reward but my smile of approval, and my
\nword of praise? Wilt thou throw thyself with an utter abandonment into my
\nwill? Wilt thou give up to me the absolute control of thyself and all that
\nthou art? Wilt thou be content with pleasing me and me only? May I have my
\nway with thee in all things? Wilt thou come into so close a union with me as
\nto make a separation from the world necessary? Wilt thou accept me for thy
\nonly Lord, and leave all others, to cleave only unto Me?”
\n In a thousand ways He makes this offer of oneness with Himself to every
\nbeliever. But all do not say “Yes,” to Him. Other loves and other interests
\nseem to them too precious to be cast aside. They do not miss of Heaven
\nbecause of this. But they miss an unspeakable joy.
\n You, however, are not one of these. From the very first your soul has
\ncried out eagerly and gladly to all His offers, “Yes, Lord; yes!” You are
\nmore than ready to pour out upon Him all your richest treasures of love and
\ndevotedness. You have brought to Him an enthusiasm of self-surrender that
\nperhaps may disturb and distress the more prudent and moderate Christians
\naround you. Your love makes necessary a separation from the world, which a
\nlower love cannot even conceive of. Sacrifices and services are possible and
\nsweet to you, which could not come into the grasp of a more half-hearted
\ndevotedness. The life upon which you have entered gives you the right to a
\nlavish outpouring of your all upon your beloved One. Services, of which more
\ndistant souls know nothing, become now your sweetest privilege. Your Lord
\nclaims from you, because of your union with Him, far more than He claims of
\nthem. What to them is lawful, love has made unlawful for you. To you He can
\nmake known His secrets, and to you He looks for an instant response to every
\nrequirement of His love.
\n Oh, it is wonderful! the glorious, unspeakable privilege upon which you
\nhave entered! How little it will matter to you if men shall hate you, or
\nshall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you and cast out
\nyour name as evil for His dear sake! You may well “rejoice in that day and
\nleap for joy”; for behold your reward is great in Heaven, and if you are a
\npartaker of His suffering, you shall be also of His glory.
\n In you He is seeing of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied. Your
\nlove and devotedness are His precious reward for all He has done for you. It
\nis unspeakably sweet to Him. Do not be afraid then to let yourself go in a
\nheart-whole devotedness to your Lord, that can brook no reserves. Others may
\nnot approve, but He will, and that is enough. Do not stint or measure your
\nobedience or your service. Let your heart and your hand be as free to serve
\nHim, as His heart and His hand were to serve you. Let Him have all there is
\nof you, body, soul, and spirit, time, talents, voice, everything. Lay your
\nwhole life open before Him that He may control it. Say to Him each day,
\n“Lord, how shall I regulate this day so as to please Thee? Where shall I go?
\nwhat shall I do? whom shall I visit? what shall I say?” Give your intellect
\nup into His control and say, “Lord, tell me how to think so as to please
\nThee?” Give Him your reading, your pursuits, your friendships, and say,
\n“Lord, give me the insight to judge concerning all these things with Thy
\nwisdom.” Do not let there be a day nor an hour in which you are not
\nintelligently doing His will, and following Him wholly. And this personal
\nservice to Him will give a halo to your life, and gild the most monotonous
\nexistence with a heavenly glow.
\n Have you ever grieved that the romance of youth is so soon lost in the
\nhard realities of the world? Bring God thus into your life and into all its
\ndetails, and a far grander enthusiasm will thrill your soul than the
\nbrightest days of youth could ever know, and nothing will seem hard or stern
\nagain. The meanest life will be glorified by this. Often, as I have watched
\na poor woman at her wash-tub, and have thought of all the disheartening
\naccessories of such a life, and have been tempted to wonder why such lives
\nneed to be, there has come over me, with a thrill of joy, the recollection
\nof this possible glorification of it, and I have said to myself, Even this
\nlife, lived in Christ, and with Christ, following Him whithersoever He may
\nlead, would be filled with an enthusiasm that would make every hour of it
\nglorious. And I have gone on my way comforted to know that God’s most
\nwondrous blessings thus lie in the way of the poorest and the meanest lives.
\n“For,” says our Lord Himself, “whosoever,” whether they be rich or poor, old
\nor young, bond or free, “whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my
\nbrother, and my sister, and my mother.”
\n Pause a moment over these simple yet amazing words. His brother, and
\nsister, and mother! What would we not have given to have been one of these!
\nOh, let me entreat of you, beloved Christian, to come, taste and see for
\nyourself how good the Lord is, and what wonderful things He has in store for
\nthose who “keep His commandments, and who do those things that are pleasing
\nin His sight.”
\n “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the
\nvoice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I
\ncommand thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high, above
\nall nations of the earth; and all these blessings shall come on thee, and
\novertake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
\n “Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the
\nfield.
\n “Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground,
\nand the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy
\nsheep.
\n “Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
\n “Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be
\nwhen thou goest out.
\n “The Lord shall cause thine enemies that shall rise up against thee to
\nbe smitten before thy face; they shall come out against thee one way, and
\nflee before thee seven ways.
\n “The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and
\nin all that thou settest thine hand unto; and He shall bless thee in the
\nland which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
\n “The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself, as He hath
\nsworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God,
\nand walk in His ways.
\n “And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name
\nof the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee.
\n “And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy
\nbody, and in the fruit of thy cattle, in the fruit of thy ground, in the
\nland which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
\n “And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou
\nshalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken
\nunto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to
\nobserve and to do them.”
\n For the Israelites this was outward and temporal, for us it is inward
\nand spiritual; and, as such, infinitely more glorious. May our surrendered
\nwills leap out to embrace it in all its fulness!<\/p>\n
Chapter 17<\/p>\n
ONENESS WITH CHRIST<\/p>\n
All the dealings of God with the soul of the believer are in order to bring
\nhim into oneness with Himself, that the prayer of our Lord may be fulfilled:
\n“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that
\nthey also may be one in us.” . . . “I in them, and thou in me, that they may
\nbe made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
\nand hast loved them as thou hast loved me.”
\n This soul-union was the glorious purpose in the heart of God for His
\npeople before the foundation of the world. It was the mystery hid from ages
\nand generations. It was accomplished in the incarnation of Christ. It has
\nbeen made known by the Scriptures. And it is realized as an actual
\nexperience by many of God’s dear children.
\n But not by all. It is true of all, and God has not hidden it or made it
\nhard, but the eyes of many are too dim and their hearts too unbelieving, and
\nthey fail to grasp it. And it is for the very purpose of bringing them into
\nthe personal and actual realization of this, that the Lord is stirring up
\nbelievers everywhere at the present time to abandon themselves to Him, that
\nHe may work in them all the good pleasure of His will.
\n All the previous steps in the Christian life lead up to this. The Lord
\nhas made us for it; and until we have intelligently apprehended it, and have
\nvoluntarily consented to embrace it, the travail of His soul for us is not
\nsatisfied, nor have our hearts found their destined and final rest.
\n The usual course of Christian experience is pictured in the history of
\nthe disciples. First they were awakened to see their condition and their
\nneed, and they came to Christ and gave in their allegiance to Him. Then they
\nfollowed Him, worked for Him, believed in Him; and yet, how unlike Him!
\nseeking to be set up one above the other; running away from the cross;
\nmisunderstanding His mission and His words; forsaking their Lord in time of
\ndanger; but still sent out to preach, recognized by Him as His disciples,
\npossessing power to work for Him. They knew Christ only “after the flesh,”
\nas outside of them, their Lord and Master, but not yet their Life.
\n Then came Pentecost, and these disciples came to know Him as inwardly
\nrevealed; as one with them in actual union, their very indwelling Life.
\nHenceforth He was to them Christ within, working in them to will and to do
\nof His good pleasure; delivering them by the law of the Spirit of His life
\nfrom the bondage to the law of sin and death, under which they had been
\nheld. No longer was it between themselves and Him, a war of wills and a
\nclashing of interest. One will alone animated them, and that was His will.
\nOne interest alone was dear to them, and that was His. They were made ONE
\nwith Him.
\n And surely all can recognize this picture, though perhaps as yet the
\nfinal stage of it has not been fully reached. You may have left much to
\nfollow Christ, dear reader; you may have believed on him, and worked for
\nHim, and loved Him, and yet may not be like Him. Allegiance you know, and
\nconfidence you know, but not yet union. There are two wills, two interests,
\ntwo lives. You have not yet lost your own life that you may live only in
\nHis. Once it was I and not Christ; then it was I and Christ; perhaps now it
\nis even Christ and I. But has it come yet to be Christ only, and not I at
\nall?
\n Perhaps you do not understand what this oneness means. Some people
\nthink it consists in a great emotion or a wonderful feeling of oneness, and
\nthey turn inward to examine their emotions, thinking to decide by the state
\nof these, what is the state of their interior union with God. But nowhere is
\nthe mistake of trusting to feelings greater than here.
\n Oneness with Christ must, in the very nature of things, consists in a
\nChrist-like life and character. It is not what we feel, but what we are that
\nsettles the question. No matter how exalted or intense our emotions on the
\nsubject may be, if there is not a likeness of character with Christ, a unity
\nof aim and purpose, a similarity of thought and of action, there can be no
\nreal oneness.
\n This is plain common-sense, and it is Scriptural as well.
\n We speak of two people being one, and we mean that their purposes, and
\nactions, and thoughts, and desires are alike. A friend may pour out upon us
\nenthusiastic expressions of love, and unity and oneness, but if that
\nfriend’s aims, and actions, and ways of looking at things are exactly
\nopposite to ours, we cannot feel there is any real oneness between us,
\nnotwithstanding all our affection for one another. To be truly one with
\nanother, we must have the same likes and dislikes, the same joys and
\nsorrows, the same hopes and fears. As someone says, we must look through one
\nanother’s eyes, and think with one another’s brains. This is, as I said
\nabove, only plain common-sense.
\n And oneness with Christ can be judged by no other rule. It is out of
\nthe question to be one with Him in any other way than in the way of nature,
\nand character, and life. Unless we are Christ-like in our thoughts and our
\nways, we are not one with Him, no matter how we feel.
\n I have seen Christians, with hardly one Christ-like attribute in their
\nwhole characters, who yet were so emotional and had such ecstatic feelings
\nof love for Christ, as to think themselves justified in claiming the closest
\noneness with Him. I scarcely know a sadder sight. Surely our Lord meant to
\nreach such cases when He said in Matt. 7:21, “Not every one that saith unto
\nme, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth
\nthe will of my Father which is in heaven.” He was not making here any
\narbitrary statement of God’s will, but a simple announcement of the nature
\nof things. Of course it must be so. It is like saying, “No man can enter the
\nranks of astronomers who is not an astronomer.” Emotions will not make a man
\nan astronomer, but life and action. He must be one, not merely feel that he
\nis one.
\n There is no escape from this inexorable nature of things, and
\nespecially here. Unless we are one with Christ as to character and life and
\naction, we cannot be one with Him in any other way, for there is no other
\nway. We must be “partakers of His nature” or we cannot be partakers of His
\nlife, for His life and His nature are one.
\n But emotional souls do not always recognize this. They feel so near
\nChrist and so united to Him, that they think it must be real; and
\noverlooking the absolute necessity of Christ-likeness of character and walk,
\nthey are building their hopes and their confidence on their delightful
\nemotions and exalted feelings, and think they must be one with Him, or they
\ncould not have such rich and holy experiences.
\n Now it is a psychological fact that these or similar emotions can be
\nproduced by other causes than a purely divine influence, and that they are
\nlargely dependent upon temperament and physical conditions. It is most
\ndangerous, therefore, to make them a test of our spiritual union with
\nChrist. It may result in just such a grievous self-deception as our Lord
\nwarns against in Luke 6:46-49, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not
\nthe things which I say?” Our soul delights perhaps in calling Him, Lord,
\nLord, but are we doing the things which He said; for this, He tells us, is
\nthe important point, after all.
\n If, therefore, led by our feelings, we are saying in meetings, or among
\nour friends, or even in our own heart before the Lord, that we are abiding
\nin Him, let us take home to ourselves in solemn consideration these words of
\nthe Holy Ghost, “He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself so to walk,
\neven as He walked.”
\n Unless we are thus walking, we cannot possibly be abiding in Him, no
\nmatter how much we may feel as if we were.
\n If you are really one with Christ you will be sweet to those who are
\ncross to you; you will bear everything and make no complaints; when you are
\nreviled you will not revile again; you will consent to be trampled on, as
\nChrist was, and feel nothing but love in return; you will seek the honor of
\nothers rather than your own; you will take the lowest place, and be the
\nservant of all, as Christ was; you will literally and truly love your
\nenemies and do good to them that despitefully use you; you will, in short,
\nlive a Christ-like life, and manifest outwardly as well as feel inwardly a
\nChrist-like spirit, and will walk among men as He walked among them. This,
\ndear friends, is what it is to be one with Christ. And if all this is not
\nyour life according to your measure, then you are not one with Him, no
\nmatter how ecstatic or exalted your feelings may be.
\n To be one with Christ is too wonderful and solemn and mighty an
\nexperience to be reached by any overflow or exaltation of mere feeling. He
\nwas holy, and those who are one with Him will be holy also. There is no
\nescape from this simple and obvious fact.
\n When our Lord tried to make us understand His oneness with God, He
\nexpressed it in such words as these, “I do always the things that please
\nHim.” “Whatsoever He saith unto me that I do.” “The Son can do nothing of
\nHimself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth,
\nthese also doeth the Son likewise.” “I can of mine own self do nothing; as I
\nhear I judge, and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but
\nthe will of Him that sent me.” “If I do not the works of my Father, believe
\nme not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works; that ye
\nmay know and believe that the Father is in me and I in Him.”
\n The test of oneness then, was the doing of the same works, and it is
\nthe test of oneness now. And if our Lord could say of Himself that if He did
\nnot the works of his Father, He did not ask to be believed, no matter what
\nprofessions or claims He might make, surely His disciples must do no less.
\n It is forever true in the nature of things that “a good tree cannot
\nbring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.”
\nIt is not that they will not, but they cannot. And a soul that is one with
\nChrist will just as surely bring forth a Christ-like life, as a grapevine
\nwill bring forth grapes and not thistles.
\n Not that I would be understood to object to emotions. On the contrary,
\nI believe they are very precious gifts, when they are from God, and are to
\nbe greatly rejoiced in. But what I do object to is the making them a test or
\nproof of spiritual states, either in ourselves or others, and depending on
\nthem as the foundation of our faith. Let them come or let them go, just as
\nGod pleases, and make no account of them either way. But always see to it
\nthat the really vital marks of oneness with Christ, the marks of likeness in
\ncharacter, and life, and walk, are ours, and all will be well. For “he that
\nsaith I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth
\nis not in Him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God
\nperfected: hereby know we that we are in Him.”
\n It may be, my dear reader, that the grief of your life has been the
\nfact that you have so few good feelings. You try your hardest to get up the
\nfeelings which you hear others talking about, but they will not come. You
\npray for them fervently, and are often tempted to upbraid God because He
\ndoes not grant them to you. And you are filled with an almost unbearable
\nanguish because you think your want of emotion is a sign that there is not
\nany interior union of your soul with Christ. You judge altogether by your
\nfeelings, and think there is no other way to judge.
\n Now my advice to you is to let your feelings go, and pay no regard to
\nthem whatever. They really have nothing to do with the matter. They are not
\nthe indicators of your spiritual state, but are merely the indicators of
\nyour temperament, or of your present physical condition. People in very low
\nstates of grace are often the subjects of very powerful emotional
\nexperiences. We all know this from the scenes we have heard of or witnessed
\nat camp-meetings and revivals. I myself had a colored servant once who would
\nbecome unconscious under the power of her wonderful experiences, whenever
\nthere was a revival meeting at their church, who yet had hardly a token of
\nany spiritual life about her at other times, and who was, in fact, not even
\nmoral. Now surely, if the Bible teaches nothing else, it does teach this,
\nthat a Christ-like life and walk must accompany any experience which is
\nreally born of His spirit. It could not be otherwise in the very nature of
\nthings. But I fear some Christians have separated the two things so entirely
\nin their conceptions, as to have exalted their experiences at the expense of
\ntheir walk, and have come to care far more about their emotions than about
\ntheir character.
\n A certain colored congregation in one of the Southern States was a
\nplague to the whole neighborhood by their open disregard of even the
\nordinary rules of morality; stealing, and lying, and cheating, without
\napparently a single prick of conscience on the subject. And yet their
\nnightly meetings were times of the greatest emotion and “power.” Someone
\nfinally spoke to the preacher about it, and begged him to preach a sermon on
\nmorality, which would lead his people to see their sins. “Ah, missus,” he
\nreplied, “I knows dey’s bad, but den it always brings a coldness like over
\nde meetings when I preaches about dem things.”
\n You are helpless as to your emotions, but character you can have if you
\nwill. You can be so filled with Christ as to be Christ-like, and if you are
\nChrist-like, then you are one with Him in the only vital and essential way,
\neven though your feelings may tell you that it is an impossibility.
\n Having thus settled what oneness with Christ really is, the next point
\nfor us to consider is how to reach it for ourselves.
\n We must first of all find out what are the facts in the case, and what
\nis our own relation to these facts.
\n If you read such passages as 1 Cor. 3:16, “Know ye not that ye are the
\ntemple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” and then look at
\nthe opening of the chapter to see to whom these wonderful words are spoken,
\neven to “babes in Christ,” who were “yet carnal,” and walked according to
\nman, you will see that this soul-union of which I speak, this unspeakably
\nglorious mystery of an indwelling God is the possession of even the weakest
\nand most failing believer in Christ. So that it is not a new thing you are
\nto ask for, but only to realize that which you already have. Of every
\nbeliever in the Lord Jesus it is absolutely true, that his “body is the
\ntemple of the Holy Ghost, which is in him, which he has of God.”
\n It seems to me just in this way; as though Christ were living in a
\nhouse, shut up in a far-off closet, unknown and unnoticed by the dwellers in
\nthe house, longing to make Himself known to them and be one with them in all
\ntheir daily lives, and share in all their interests, but unwilling to force
\nHimself upon their notice; as nothing but a voluntary companionship could
\nmeet or satisfy the needs of His love. The days pass by over that favored
\nhousehold, and they remain in ignorance of their marvellous privilege. They
\ncome and go about all their daily affairs with no thought of their wonderful
\nGuest. Their plans are laid without reference to Him. His wisdom to guide,
\nand His strength to protect, are all lost to them. Lonely days and weeks are
\nspent in sadness, which might have been full of the sweetness of His
\npresence.
\n But suddenly the announcement is made, “The Lord is in the house!”
\n How will its owner receive the intelligence? Will he call out an eager
\nthanksgiving, and throw wide open every door for the entrance of his
\nglorious Guest; Or will he shrink and hesitate, afraid of His presence and
\nseek to reserve some private corner for a refuge from His all-seeing eye?
\n Dear friend, I make the glad announcement to thee that the Lord is in
\nthy heart. Since the day of thy conversion He has been dwelling there, but
\nthou hast lived on in ignorance of it. Every moment during all that time
\nmight have been passed in the sunshine of His sweet presence, and every step
\nhave been taken under His advice. But because thou knew it not, and hast
\nnever looked for Him there, thy life has been lonely and full of failure.
\nBut now that I make the announcement to thee, how wilt thou receive it? Art
\nthou glad to have Him? Wilt thou throw wide open every door to welcome Him
\nin? Wilt thou joyfully and thankfully give up the government of thy life
\ninto His hands? Wilt thou consult Him about everything, and let Him decide
\neach step for thee, and mark out every path? Wilt thou invite Him to thy
\ninnermost chambers, and make Him the sharer in thy most hidden life? Wilt
\nthou say, “YES!” to all His longing for union with thee, and with a glad and
\neager abandonment, hand thyself and all that concerns thee over into His
\nhands? If thou wilt, then shall thy soul begin to know something of the joy
\nof union with Christ.
\n And yet, after all, this is but a faint picture of the blessed reality.
\nFor far more glorious than it would be to have Christ a dweller in the house
\nor in the heart, is it to be brought into such a real and actual union with
\nHim as to be one with Him, one will, one purpose, one interest, one life.
\nHuman words cannot express such glory as this. And yet I want to express it.
\nI want to make your souls so unutterably hungry to realize it, that day or
\nnight you cannot rest without it. Do you understand the words, one with
\nChrist? Do you catch the slightest glimpse of their marvellous meaning? Does
\nnot your whole soul begin to exult over such a wondrous destiny? For it is a
\nreality. It means to have no life but His life, to have no will but His
\nwill, to have no interests but His interests, to share His riches, to enter
\ninto His joys, to partake of His sorrows, to manifest His life, to have the
\nsame mind as He had, to think, and feel, and act, and walk as He did. Oh,
\nwho could have dreamed that such a destiny could have been ours!
\n Wilt thou have it, dear soul? Thy Lord will not force it on thee, for
\nHe wants thee as His companion and His friend, and a forced union would be
\nincompatible with this. It must be voluntary on thy part.
\n The bride must say a willing “Yes,” to her bridegroom, or the joy of
\ntheir union is utterly wanting. Canst thou say a willing “Yes,” to thy Lord?
\n It is such a simple transaction, and yet so real! The steps are but
\nthree. First, be convinced that the Scriptures teach this glorious
\nindwelling of thy God; then surrender thy whole being to Him to be possessed
\nby Him; and finally believe that He has taken possession, and is dwelling in
\nthee. Begin to reckon thyself dead, and to reckon Christ as thy only life.
\nMaintain this attitude of soul unwaveringly. Say, “I am crucified with
\nChrist, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,” over and
\nover day and night, until it becomes the habitual breathing of thy soul. Put
\noff thy self-life by faith and in fact continually, and put on practically
\nthe life of Christ. Let this act become, by its constant repetition, the
\nattitude of thy whole being. And as surely as thou dost this day by day,
\nthou shalt find thyself continually bearing about in thy body the dying of
\nthe Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in thy
\nmortal flesh. Thou shalt learn to know what salvation means; and shalt have
\nopened out to thy astonished gaze secrets of the Lord, of which thou hast
\nhitherto hardly dreamed.<\/p>\n
How have I erred! God is my home<\/p>\n
And God Himself is here.<\/p>\n
Why have I looked so far for Him,<\/p>\n
Who is nowhere but near?<\/p>\n
Yet God is never so far off<\/p>\n
As even to be near;<\/p>\n
He is within, our spirit is<\/p>\n
The home He holds most dear.<\/p>\n
So all the while I thought myself<\/p>\n
Homeless, forlorn, and weary;<\/p>\n
Missing my joy, I walked the earth,<\/p>\n
Myself God’s sanctuary.<\/p>\n
Chapter 18<\/p>\n
“ALTHOUGH” AND “YET,” A LESSON IN THE INTERIOR LIFE<\/p>\n
In many of our store windows at Christmas time there stands a most
\nsignificant picture. It is a dreary, desolate winter scene. There is a dark,
\nstormy, wintry sky, bare trees, and brown grass and dead weeds, with patches
\nof snow over them. On a leafless tree at one side of the picture is an empty
\nand snow-covered nest, and on a branch near sits a little bird. All is cold,
\nand dark, and desolate enough to daunt any bird, and drive it to some fairer
\nclime, but this bird is sitting there in an attitude of perfect contentment,
\nand has its little head bravely lifted up towards the sky, while a winter
\nsong is evidently about to burst forth from its tiny throat.
\n This picture, which always stands on my shelf, has preached me many a
\nsermon. And the test is always the same, and finds its expression in the two
\nwords that stand at the head of this article, “Although” and “Yet.”
\n “ALTHOUGH the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
\nvines: the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat;
\nthe flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the
\nstall: YET I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
\nsalvation.”
\n There come times in many lives, when, like this bird in the winter, the
\nsoul finds itself bereft of every comfort both outward and inward; when all
\nseems dark, and all seems wrong, even; when everything in which we have
\ntrusted seems to fail us; when the promises are apparently unfulfilled, and
\nour prayers gain no response; when there seems nothing left to rest on in
\nearth or Heaven. And it is at such times as these that the brave little bird
\nwith its message is needed. “Although” all is wrong everywhere, “yet” there
\nis still one thing left to rejoice in, and that is God; the “God of our
\nsalvation,” who changes not, but is the same good, loving, tender God
\nyesterday, today, and forever. We can joy in Him always, whether we have
\nanything else to rejoice in or not.
\n By rejoicing in Him, however, I do not mean rejoicing in ourselves,
\nalthough I fear most people think this is really what is meant. It is their
\nfeelings or their revelations or their experiences that constitute the
\ngroundwork of their joy, and if none of these are satisfactory, they see no
\npossibility of joy at all.
\n But the lesson the Lord is trying to teach us all the time is the
\nlesson of self-effacement. He commands us to look away from self and all
\nself’s experiences, to crucify self and count it dead, to cease to be
\ninterested in self, and to know nothing and be interested in nothing but
\nGod.
\n The reason for this is that God has destined us for a higher life than
\nthe self-life. That just as He has destined the caterpillar to become the
\nbutterfly, and therefore has appointed the caterpillar life to die, in order
\nthat the butterfly life may take its place, so He has appointed our
\nself-life to die in order that the divine life may become ours instead. The
\ncaterpillar effaces itself in its grub form, that it may evolve or develop
\ninto its butterfly form. It dies that it may live. And just so must we.
\n Therefore, the one most essential thing in this stage of our existence
\nmust be the death to self and the resurrection to a life only in God. And it
\nis for this reason that the lesson of joy in the Lord, and not in self, must
\nbe learned. Every advancing soul must come sooner or later to the place
\nwhere it can trust God, the bare God, if I may be allowed the expression,
\nsimply and only because of what He is in Himself, and not because of His
\npromises or His gifts. It must learn to have its joy in Him alone, and to
\nrejoice in Him when all else in Heaven and earth shall seem to fail.
\n The only way in which this place can be reached I believe, is by the
\nsoul being compelled to face in its own experience the loss of all things
\nboth inward and outward. I do not mean necessarily that all one’s friends
\nmust die, or all one’s money be lost: but I do mean that the soul shall find
\nitself, from either inward or outward causes, desolate, and bereft, and
\nempty of all consolation. It must come to the end of everything that is not
\nGod; and must have nothing else left to rest on within or without. It must
\nexperience just what the prophet meant when he wrote that “Although.”
\n It must wade through the slough, and fall off of the precipice, and be
\nswamped by the ocean, and at last find in the midst of them, and at the
\nbottom of them, and behind them, the present, living, loving, omnipotent
\nGod! And then, and not until then, will it understand the prophet’s exulting
\nshout of triumph, and be able to join it: “YET I will rejoice in the Lord; I
\nwill joy in the God of my salvation.”
\n And then, also, and not until then, will it know the full meaning of
\nthe verse that follows: “The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my
\nfeet like hind’s feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
\n The soul often walks on what seem high places, which are, however,
\nlargely self-evolved and emotional, and have but little of God in them; and
\nin moments of loss and failure and darkness, these high places become
\nprecipices of failure. But the high places to which the Lord brings the soul
\nthat rejoices only in Him, can be touched by no darkness or loss, for their
\nvery foundations are laid in the midst of an utter loss and death of all
\nthat is not God.
\n If we want an unwavering experience, therefore, we can find it only in
\nthe Lord, apart from all else; apart from His gifts, apart from His
\nblessings, apart from all that can change or be affected by the changing
\nconditions of our earthly life.
\n The prayer which is answered today, may seem to be unanswered tomorrow;
\nthe promises once so gloriously fulfilled, may cease to be a reality to us;
\nthe spiritual blessing which was at one time such a joy, may be utterly
\nlost; and nothing of all we once trusted to and rested on may be left us,
\nbut the hungry and longing memory of it all. But when all else is gone, God
\nis still left. Nothing changes Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and
\nforever, and in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. And the
\nsoul that finds its joy in Him alone, can suffer no wavering.
\n It is grand to trust in the promises, but it is grander still to trust
\nin the Promiser. The promises may be misunderstood or misapplied, and at the
\nmoment when we are leaning all our weight upon them, they may seem utterly
\nto fail us. But no one ever trusted in the Promiser and was confounded.
\n The God who is behind His promises and is infinitely greater than His
\npromises, can never fail us in any emergency, and the soul that is stayed on
\nHim cannot know anything but perfect peace.
\n The little child does not always understand its mother’s promises, but
\nit knows its mother, and its childlike trust is founded not on her word, but
\nupon herself. And just so it is with those of us who have learned the lesson
\nof this “Although” and “Yet.” There may not be a prayer answered or a
\npromise fulfilled to our own consciousness, but what of that? Behind the
\nprayers and behind the promises, there is God, and He is enough. And to such
\na soul the simple words, GOD IS, answer every question and solve every
\ndoubt.
\n To the little trusting child the simple fact of the mother’s existence
\nis the answer to all its need. The mother may not make one single promise,
\nor detail any plan, but she is, and that is enough for the child. The child
\nrejoices in the mother; not in her promises, but in herself. And to the
\nchild, as to us, there is behind all that changes and can change, the one
\nunchangeable joy of the mother’s existence. While the mother lives, the
\nchild must be cared for, and the child knows this, instinctively if not
\nintelligently, and rejoices in knowing it. And while God lives, His children
\nmust be cared for as well, and His children ought to know this, and rejoice
\nin it as instinctively and far more intelligently than the child of human
\nparents. For what else can God do, being what He is? Neglect, indifference,
\nforgetfulness, ignorance, are all impossible to Him. He knows everything, He
\ncares about everything, He can manage everything; and He loves us; and what
\nmore could we ask? Therefore, come what may, we will lift our faces to our
\nGod, like our brave little bird teacher, and, in the midst of our darkest
\n“Althoughs,” will sing our glad and triumphant “Yet.”
\n All of God’s saints in all ages have done this. Job said, out of the
\ndepths of sorrow and trial which few can equal, “Though He slay me yet will
\nI trust in Him.”
\n David could say in the moment of his keenest anguish, “Yea, though I
\nwalk through the valley of the shadow of death,” yet “I will fear no evil;
\nfor Thou art with me.” And again he could say, “God is our refuge and
\nstrength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear,
\nthough the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the
\nmidst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled; though the
\nmountains shake with the swelling thereof . . . God is in the midst of her;
\nshe shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early.”
\n Paul could say in the midst of his sorrows, “We are troubled on every
\nside, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted,
\nbut not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed . . . for which cause we
\nfaint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
\nday by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for
\nus a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look, not at
\nthe things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the
\nthings which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are
\neternal.”
\n All this and more can the soul say that learned this lesson of
\nrejoicing in God alone.
\n Spiritual joy is not a thing, not a lump of joy, so to speak, stored
\naway in one’s heart to be looked at and rejoiced over. Joy is only the
\ngladness that comes from the possession of something good, or the knowledge
\nof something pleasant. And the Christian’s joy is simply his gladness in
\nknowing Christ, and in his possession of such a God and Saviour. We do not
\non an earthly plane rejoice in our joy, but in the thing that causes our
\njoy. And on the heavenly plane it is the same. We are to “rejoice in the
\nLord, and joy in the God of our salvation”; and this joy no man nor devil
\ncan take from us, and no earthly sorrows can touch.
\n A writer on the interior life says, in effect, that our spiritual
\npathway is divided into three regions, very different from one another, and
\nyet each one a necessary stage in the onward progress. First, there is the
\nregion of beginnings, which is a time full of sensible joys and delights, of
\nfervent aspirations, of emotional experiences, and of many secret
\nmanifestations of God. Then comes a vast extent of wilderness, full of
\ntemptation, and trial, and conflict, of the loss of sensible manifestations,
\nof dryness, and of inward and outward darkness and distress. And then,
\nfinally, if this desert period is faithfully traversed, there comes on the
\nfurther side of it a region of mountain heights of uninterrupted union and
\ncommunion with God, of superhuman detachment from everything earthly, of
\ninfinite contentment with the Divine will, and of marvellous transformation
\ninto the image of Christ.
\n Whether this order is true or not, I cannot here discuss, but of one
\nthing I am very sure, that to many souls who have tasted the joy of the
\n“region of beginnings” here set forth, there has come afterwards a period of
\ndesert experience at which they have been sorely amazed and perplexed. And I
\ncannot but think such might, perhaps, in this explanation, find the answer
\nto their trouble. They are being taught the lesson of detachment from all
\nthat is not God, in order that their souls may at last be brought into that
\ninterior union and oneness with Him which is set forth in the picture given
\nof the third and last region of mountain heights of blessedness.
\n The soul’s pathway is always through death to life. The caterpillar
\ncannot in the nature of things become the butterfly in any other way than by
\ndying to the one life in order to live in the other. And neither can we.
\nTherefore, it may well be that this region of death and desolation must
\nneeds be passed through, if we would reach the calm mountain heights beyond.
\nAnd if we know this, we can walk triumphantly through the darkest
\nexperience, sure that all is well, since God is God.
\n In the lives of many who read this paper there is, I feel sure, at
\nleast one of these desert “Althoughs,” and in some lives there are many.
\n Dear friends, is the “Yet” there also? Have you learned the prophet’s
\nlesson? Is God enough for you? Can you sing and mean it,<\/p>\n
“Thou, O Christ, art all I want,<\/p>\n
More than all in thee I find-<\/p>\n
If not, you need the little bird to speak to you.
\n And the song that he sings, as he sits on that bare and leafless tree,
\nwith the winter storm howling around him, must become your song also.<\/p>\n
“Though the rain may fall and the wind be blowing,<\/p>\n
And cold and chill is the wintry blast;<\/p>\n
Though the cloudier sky is still cloudier growing,<\/p>\n
And the dead leaves tell that summer is passed;<\/p>\n
Yet my face I hold to the stormy heaven,<\/p>\n
My heart is as calm as a summer sea;<\/p>\n
Glad to receive what my God hath given,<\/p>\n
Whate’er it be.<\/p>\n
“When I feel the cold, I can say, `He sends it,’<\/p>\n
And His wind blows blessing I surely know;<\/p>\n
For I’ve never a want but that He attends it;<\/p>\n
And my heart beats warm, though the winds may blow<\/p>\n
The soft sweet summer was warm and glowing,<\/p>\n
Bright were the blossoms on every bough;<\/p>\n
I trusted Him when the roses were blowing,<\/p>\n
I trust Him now.<\/p>\n
“Small were my faith should it weakly falter,<\/p>\n
Now that the roses have ceased to blow;<\/p>\n
Frail were the trust that now should alter,<\/p>\n
Doubting His love when the storm-clouds grow.<\/p>\n
If I trust Him once I must trust Him ever,<\/p>\n
And His way is best, though I stand or fall,<\/p>\n
Through wind or storm He will leave me never,<\/p>\n
For He sends all.”<\/p>\n
Chapter 19<\/p>\n
KINGS AND THEIR KINGDOMS; OR, HOW TO REIGN IN THE INTERIOR LIFE<\/p>\n
“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should
\ncome, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with
\nobservation: neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the
\nkingdom of God is within you.”
\n The expressions “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of Heaven” are used in
\nScripture concerning the divine life in the soul. They mean simply the place
\nor condition where God rules, and where His will is done. It is an interior
\nkingdom, not an exterior one. Its thrones are not outward thrones of human
\npomp and glory, but inward thrones of dominion and supremacy over the things
\nof time and sense. Its kings are not clothed in royal robes of purple and
\nfine linen, but with the interior garments of purity and truth. And its
\nreign is not in outward show, but in inward power. Neither is it in one
\nplace rather than another, nor in one form of things above another. It is
\nnot, lo here, nor lo there, not in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, that
\nwe are to find Christ, and enter into His kingdom. It is not a matter of
\nplace at all, but one of condition. And in every place and under every name,
\nand through every form, all who seek God and work righteousness shall find
\nHis kingdom within them.
\n But this is very little understood. In our childish fashion of
\nliteralism we have too much imbibed the idea that a kingdom must necessarily
\nbe in a particular place and with outward observation; and have therefore
\nexpected that the kingdom of heaven would mean for us an outward victory of
\nheaven over earth in some particular place, or under some especial form; and
\nthat to sit on a throne with Christ, would be to have an outward uplifting
\nin power and glory before the face of all around us.
\n But as the inner sense of Scripture unfolds to us, we see that this
\nwould be but a poor and superficial fulfilling of the real meaning of these
\nwonderful symbols. And the vision of their true significance grows and
\nstrengthens before the “eyes that see,” until at last we know that our
\nLord’s words were truer than ever we had dreamed before, that the “kingdom
\nof God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo
\nthere! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
\n In Daniel 2:44, we have the announcement of the kingdom, and in Isaiah
\n9:6, 7, the announcement of the King: —
\n “The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be
\ndestroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall
\nbreak in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
\n “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
\ngovernment shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called
\nWonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of
\nPeace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end,
\nupon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to
\nestablish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.
\nThe zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
\n This kingdom is to break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms by
\nright of the law by which the inward always rules the outward. If there is
\npeace within, no outward turmoil can affect the soul; but outward peace can
\nnever quiet an inward tempest. A happy heart can walk in triumphant
\nindifference through a sea of external trouble; while internal anguish
\ncannot find happiness in the most favorable surroundings. What a man is
\nwithin himself, makes or unmakes his joy, and not what he possesses outside
\nof himself.
\n Someone said to Diogenes, “The king has degraded you.” “Yes” replied
\nDiogenes, triumphantly, “but I am not degraded!” No act of kings or emperors
\ncan degrade a soul that retains its own dignity; no tyrant can enslave a man
\nwho is inwardly free.
\n Therefore to have this divine kingdom set up within, means that all
\nother powers to conquer or enslave are broken, and the soul reigns
\ntriumphant over them all. Men and devils may try to hold such a one in
\nbondage, but they are powerless before the might of this interior kingdom.
\nNo longer will fashion, or conventionality, or the fear of man, or the love
\nof ease, or any other of the many tyrants to which Christians cringe and
\nbow, rule a soul that has been raised to a throne in this inward kingdom. No
\nsin or temptation can overcome, no sorrow can crush, no discouragement can
\nhinder. Let a man or woman have been bound in ever so tyrannical chains of
\nsinful habits, this kingdom will set them free. Circumstances make men kings
\nin the outward life, but in this hidden life men become kings over
\ncircumstances. And the soul that has aforetime been the slave of a thousand
\noutward things, finds itself here utterly independent of them, every one.
\n For the King in this kingdom is One whom no circumstances can affect or
\nbaffle. He it is indeed who makes circumstances. And since the government is
\nupon His shoulders, we cannot doubt that He will order the kingdom with a
\njudgment and justice that will leave nothing for any subject in His kingdom
\nto desire.
\n In the expression “the government shall be upon His shoulder,” we have
\nthe whole secret of this wonderful kingdom. Upon His shoulder, not upon
\nours. The care is His, the burdens are His, the responsibility belongs to
\nHim, the protection rests upon Him, the planning, and providing, and
\ncontrolling, and guiding, all are in His hands. No one can question as to
\nHis perfect fulfilment of every requirement of His kingship. Therefore those
\nwho are in His kingdom, are utterly delivered from any need to be anxious,
\nor burdened, or perplexed, or troubled. And by this deliverance they become
\nkings. The government is not upon their shoulders, and they have no business
\nto interfere with it. Their King has assumed the whole responsibility, and
\nif He can but see His subjects happy and prosperous, He is content Himself
\nto bear all the weight and care of kingship. How often we speak of the
\nresponsibilities of earthly kings, and pity them for the burdens that
\nkingship imposes. We recognize, even on an earthly plane, that to be a king
\nmeans, or ought to mean, the bearing of the burdens of even the meanest of
\nhis subject. And even now, as I write, many hearts are aching with sympathy
\nfor the new Czar, who has assumed the grievous burden of the mighty Russian
\nEmpire.
\n From this instinctive sense of every human heart as to the rightful
\nduties and responsibilities of kingship, we may learn what it means to be in
\na kingdom over which God is King, and where He has himself declared all
\nthings shall be ordered with judgment and justice from henceforth and even
\nforever. Surely no care or anxiety can ever enter here, if the heart but
\nknows its kingdom and its King!
\n In John 18:36, our King tells us the tactics of His kingdom: “Jesus
\nanswered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world
\nthen would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews;
\nbut now is my kingdom not from hence.”
\n Earthly kings and earthly kingdoms gain and keep their supremacy by
\noutward conflict; God’s kingdom conquers by inward power. Earthly kings
\nsubdue enemies; God subdues enmity. His victories must be interior before
\nthey can be exterior. He does not subjugate, but he conquers. Even we, on
\nour earthly plane, know something of this principle, and do not value any
\nvictory over another which only reaches the body and has not subdued the
\nheart. No true mother cares for an outward obedience merely; nothing will
\nsatisfy her but the inward surrender. Unless the citadel of the heart is
\nconquered, the conquest seem worthless. And with God how much more will this
\nbe the case, since we are told that “He seeth not as man seeth; for man
\nlooketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” We
\nspeak of “subduing hearts,” and we mean, not that they are overpowered or
\nforced into an unwilling and compulsory surrender, but that they are
\nconquered by being won, and are willingly yielded up to another’s control.
\nAnd it is after this fashion and no other that God subdues. So that to read
\nthat “His kingdom ruleth over all,” means that all hearts are won to His
\nservice in a glad and willing surrender.
\n For again I repeat, His reign must be inward before it can be outward.
\nAnd in truth it is no reign at all, unless it is within. If we think of it a
\nmoment we shall see that this must be so in the very nature of things, and
\nthat it is impossible to conceive of God reigning in a kingdom where the
\nsubduing reaches no further than the outside actions of His subjects. His
\nkingdom is not of this world, but is in a spiritual sphere, where its power
\nis over the souls and not the bodies of men; and therefore only when the
\nsoul is conquered, can it be set up.
\n Understood in this light, how full of love and blessing do all those
\ndeclarations and prophecies become, which tell us that God is to subdue His
\nenemies under His feet, and is to rule them in righteousness and power! And
\nhow glorious with hope does the voice of that great multitude heard by John
\nsound out, saying, “Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!”
\n In confirmation of all this we have two passages descriptive of this
\nkingdom, in Rom. 14:17, and 1 Cor. 4:20: “For the kingdom of God is not meat
\nand drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” “For the
\nkingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”
\n Not outward things, but inward. Not what a man eats and drinks, not
\nwhere he lives, nor what is his nationality, nor the customs of his race,
\nnot even what he thinks nor what he says; but what are the inward
\ncharacteristics of his nature, and the inward power of his spiritual life.
\nFor these alone constitute this kingdom of God. Not what I do, but what I
\nam, is to decide whether I belong to it or not. And only as inward
\nrighteousness, and inward peace, and inward joy, and inward power are
\nbestowed and experienced, can this kingdom be set up. Therefore no outward
\nsubjugation can accomplish results like these, but only the interior work of
\nthe all-subduing spirit of God.
\n I have been greatly instructed by the story of Ulysses, when he was
\nsailing past the islands of the sirens. These sirens had the power of
\ncharming by their songs all who listened to them, and of inducing them to
\nleap into the sea. To avert this danger, Ulysses filled the ears of his crew
\nwith wax, that they might not hear the fatal music, and bound himself to the
\nmast with knotted cords; and thus they passed the isle in safety. But when
\nOrpheus was obliged to sail by the same island, he gained a better victory,
\nfor he himself made sweeter music than that of the sirens, and enchanted his
\ncrew with more alluring songs; so that they passed the dangerous charmers
\nnot only with safety, but with disdain. Wax and knotted cords kept Ulysses
\nand his crew from making the fatal leap; but inward delights enabled Orpheus
\nand his crew to reign triumphant over the very source of temptation itself.
\nAnd just so is it with the kingdom of which we speak. It needs no outward
\nlaw to bind it, but reigns by right of its inward life. So that it is said
\nof those who have entered it, “Against such there is no law.”
\n For it is a kingdom of kings. The song we shall one day sing, nay, that
\nwe ought to be singing even now and here in this life, declare this: “Unto
\nHim that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath
\nmade us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and
\ndominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (Rev. 1:5, 6.)
\n We who have entered this kingdom, or, rather, in whom this kingdom is
\nset up, sit upon the throne with our King and share His dominion. The world
\nwas His footstool, and it becomes our footstool also. Over the things of
\ntime and sense He reigned triumphant by the power of a life lived in a plane
\nabove them and superior to them, and so may we. We are all of us familiar
\nwith the expression that such or such a person “rises superior to his
\nsurroundings,” and we mean that there is in that soul a hidden power that
\ncontrols its surroundings, instead of being controlled by them. Our King
\nessentially rose superior to His surroundings; and it is given to us who are
\nreigning with Him to do the same.
\n But, just as He was not a king in outward appearance, but only in
\ninward power, so shall we be. He reigned, not in this, that He had all the
\ntreasures and riches of the world at His command, but that He had none of
\nthem, and could do without them. And so shall our reigning be. We shall not
\nhave all men bowing down to us, and all things bending to our will; but with
\nall men opposing and all things adverse, we shall walk in a royal triumph of
\nsoul through the midst of them. We shall suffer the loss of all things, and
\nby that loss be set forever free from their power to bind. We shall hide
\nourselves in the impregnable fortress of the will of our King, and shall
\nreign there in a perpetual kingdom.
\n All this is contrary to man’s thought of kingship. The only idea the
\nhuman heart can compass, is, that outward circumstances must bend and bow to
\nthe soul that is seated on a throne with Christ. Friends must approve,
\nenemies must be silenced, obstacles must be overcome, affairs must prosper,
\nor there can be no reigning. If man had had the ordering of Daniel’s
\nbusiness, or of that matter of the three Hebrew children in the burning
\nfiery furnace, he would have said the only way of victory would be for the
\nminds of the kings to have been so changed that Daniel should not have been
\ncast into the den of lions, and the Hebrew children should have been kept
\nout of the furnace. But God’s way was infinitely grander. He suffered Daniel
\nto be cast among the lions, in order that he might reign triumphant over
\nthem when in their very midst, and He allowed Shadrach, Meshach, and
\nAbednego to be cast into the burning, fiery furnace, in order that they
\nmight walk through it without so much as the smell of fire upon them. He
\ntells us, not that we shall walk in paths where there are no dragons and
\nadders, but that we shall walk through the midst of dragons and adders, and
\nshall “tread them under our feet.”
\n And how much more glorious a kingdom is this than any outward rule or
\ncontrol could be! To be inwardly a king, while outwardly a slave, is one of
\nthe grandest heights of triumph of which our hearts can conceive. To be
\ndestitute, afflicted, tormented, to be stoned and torn asunder, and slain
\nwith the sword; to wander in sheepskins and goatskins, and in deserts and
\nmountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, and yet to be through it all,
\nkings in interior kingdoms of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
\nGhost, is surely a kingdom that none but God could give, and none but
\nGod-like souls receive.
\n A few such kings we have at some time or other seen or heard of in this
\nworld of ours, and all hearts have acknowledged their unconscious sway. One
\nI read of among the brethren of the monastery of St. Cyr. Because of their
\npiety, these brethren incurred the hatred of the monasteries around them,
\nand the anger of their superiors, and were cast out as evil from their
\ncommunity. One of them was sent as prisoner to a monastery where his chief
\nenemies dwelt, and was there subjected to the most cruel and degrading
\ntreatment. Although he was of gentle birth, and had been an abbot in the
\ncommunity he had left, he was compelled to do the most menial work, was
\nforced to carry a noisome burden on his back, and was driven out to beg with
\na placard on his bosom declaring him to be the vilest of the vile. But
\nthrough it all the spirit of the saint reigned triumphant, and nothing
\ndisturbed his calm, or soured for a moment his Christ-like sweetness. For
\nhis persecutors he never had anything but words of kindness and smiles of
\nlove. And at last by the mighty power of the divine kingdom in which he
\nlived, he subdued all hearts around him to himself, and became the trusted
\nfriend and adviser, and the beloved ruler over the very enemies who had once
\nso delighted to persecute and revile him. “Blessed are the meek, for they
\nshall inherit the earth.” By his meekness he conquered and became king.
\n At one time a dangerous criminal was sent to the monastery for
\nimprisonment. He was so violent that no bonds sufficed to bind him, and no
\nstrength could control him. At last he was taken to the cell of this brother
\nfrom St. Cyr, and they were shut up together; even the stolid monks
\nthemselves recognizing in that divine meekness a power to conquer that
\nsurpassed all the powers with which they were acquainted. The saint received
\nthe violent man as a beloved brother, and smiled upon him with heavenly
\nkindness. But the criminal returned it with abuse and violence. He broke the
\nmonk’s furniture and destroyed his bed, he kicked him, and beat him, and
\ntore his hair, and spat upon him. He exhausted himself in his violence
\nagainst him. Through it all the monk made no resistance, and said no word
\nbut words of love; and when at length the criminal, worn out with his fury,
\npaused to take breath, the beaten and outraged man looked upon his
\npersecutor with a smile of ineffable love and tender compassion, as though
\nhe would gather him to his bosom and comfort him for his misery. It was more
\nthan the criminal could bear. Hatred, and revenge, and anger he could repay
\nin kind, but against love and meekness like this he had no weapons, and his
\nheart was conquered. He fell at the feet of the saint and washed them with
\nhis tears, as he entreated forgiveness for his cruelty, and vowed a lifelong
\nloyalty to his service. And from that moment all trouble with that criminal
\nwas over. He followed the saint about like a loving and faithful dog, eager
\nto do or to be anything the other might desire. And when the time of his
\nimprisonment was over, and the gates of his prison were opened for his
\nrelease, he could not be induced to go, because he could not bear to leave
\nthe man who had saved him by love.
\n Of such a nature is kingship in this kingdom of heaven.
\n Each soul can make the application for itself, without need of comment
\nfrom me.
\n In Matt. 5, 6, and 7, we have the King of this kingdom describing the
\ncharacteristics of His kingdom and giving the laws for His subjects.
\n“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” He says, “for theirs is the kingdom of
\nheaven.” Not the rich, or great, or wise, or learned, but the poor in
\nspirit, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, those who mourn, and
\nthose who hunger and thirst, those who are persecuted, and reviled, and
\nspoken evil against, all such belong to this kingdom. Gentleness,
\nyieldingness, meekness, charity, are the characteristics of these kings, and
\nthey reign in the power of them.
\n One Christian asked another, “How can I make people respect me?” “I
\nwould command their respect,” was the reply. And this meant, not that he
\nshould stand up and say in tones of authority, “Now I command you all to
\nrespect me,” but that he should so act, and live, and be, that no one could
\nhelp respecting him. Men sometimes win an outward show of respect and
\nsubmission by an over-bearing tyranny, but he who would rule the heart of
\nhis subjects must try other methods.
\n Our Lord developed this thought to some who wished to share His throne.
\nHe called them to Him, and said, “Ye know that they which are accounted to
\nrule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones
\nexercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but
\nwhosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of
\nyou will be the chiefest shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man
\ncame not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a
\nransom for many.”
\n From the human standpoint, that man alone reigns who is able to
\nexercise lordship over those around him. From the divine standpoint the soul
\nthat serves is the soul that reigns. Not he who demands most, receives this
\ninward crowning, but he who gives up most.
\n What grander kingship can be conceived of than that which Christ sets
\nforth in the sermon on the mount, “But I say unto you, that ye resist not
\nevil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
\nother also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat,
\nlet him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile,
\ngo with him twain-
\n Surely only a soul that is in harmony with God can mount such a throne
\nof dominion as this!
\n But this is our destiny. We are made for this purpose. We are born of a
\nkingly race, and are heirs to this ineffable kingdom; “heirs of God and
\njoint heirs with Christ.”
\n Would that we could realize this; and could see in every act of service
\nor surrender to which we might find ourselves called, an upward step in the
\npathway that leads us to our kingdom and our throne!
\n I mean this in a very practical sense. I mean that the homely services
\nof our daily lives, and the little sacrifices which each day demands, will
\nbe, if faithfully fulfilled, actual rounds in the ladder by which we are
\nmounting to our thrones. I mean that if we are faithful over the “few
\nthings” of our earthly kingdom, we shall be made ruler over the “many
\nthings” of the heavenly kingdom.
\n He that follows Christ in this ministry of service and of suffering,
\nwill reign with Him in the glory of supreme self-sacrifice, and will be the
\n“chiefest” in His divine kingdom of love. Knowing this, who would hesitate
\nto “turn the other cheek,” since by the turning a kingdom is to be won and a
\nthrone is to be gained?
\n Joseph was a type of all this. In slavery and in prison he reigned a
\nking, as truly as when seated on Pharaoh’s throne or riding in Pharaoh’s
\nchariot. (See Gen. 39:6, 22, 23.) He became the greatest by being the least,
\nthe chiefest by being servant of all.
\n Dear reader, art thou reigning after this fashion, and in this sort of
\na kingdom? Art thou the greatest in thy little world of home, or church, or
\nsocial circle by being the least, and chiefest by being the servant of all?
\nIf not, thy kingdom is not Christ’s kingdom, and thy throne is not one
\nshared by Him.
\n To enter into the secrets of this interior kingdom and to partake of
\nits heavenly power, is no notional victory, no fancied supremacy. It is a
\nreal and actual reigning, which will cause thee as a matter of fact to “rise
\nsuperior” to the world and the things of it, and to walk through it
\nindependent of its smiles or frowns, dwelling in a region of heavenly peace
\nand heavenly triumph which earth can neither give nor take away. “For the
\nkingdom of God is not in word but in power.” It is not a talk but a fact;
\nand those who are in it recognize their kingship and prove it by reigning.
\n But perhaps thou wilt say, “How can I enter into this kingdom, if I am
\nnot already in?” Let our Lord himself answer thee: “At the same time came
\nthe disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of
\nheaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst
\nof them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become
\nas little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever
\ntherefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in
\nthe kingdom of heaven.”
\n It is a kingdom of childlike hearts, and only such can enter it.
\n To be a “little child” means simply to be one. I cannot describe it
\nbetter than this. We all have known little children in our lives, and have
\ndelighted ourselves in their simplicity and their trustfulness, their
\nlight-hearted carelessness, and their unquestioning obedience to those in
\nauthority over them. And to be the greatest in this divine kingdom means to
\nhave the most of this guileless, tender, trustful, self-forgetting, obedient
\nheart of the child.
\n “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
\nkingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
\nheaven.”
\n It is not saying, but doing, that will avail us here. We must be a
\nchild, or we cannot sit on the child’s throne. And to be a child means to do
\nthe Father’s will, since the very essence of true childhood is the spirit of
\nobedience united to the spirit of trust.
\n Become a little child, then, by laying aside all thy greatness, all thy
\nself-assertion, all thy self-dependence, all thy wisdom, and all thy
\nstrength, and consenting to die to thy own self-life, be born again into the
\nkingdom of God. The only way out of one life into another is by a death to
\none and a new birth into the other. It is the old story, therefore,
\nreiterated so often and in so many different ways, of through death to life.
\nDie, then, that you my live. Lose your own life that you may find Christ’s
\nlife. The caterpillar can only enter into the butterfly’s kingdom by dying
\nto its caterpillar life, and emerging into the resurrection life of the
\nbutterfly; and just so can we also only enter into the kingdom of God by the
\nway of a death out of the kingdom of self, and an emergence into the
\nresurrection life of Christ. Let everything go, then, that belongs to the
\nnatural; all your own notions, and plans, and ways, and thoughts; and accept
\nin their stead God’s plans, and ways, and thoughts. Do this faithfully and
\ndo it persistently, and you shall come at last to sit on His throne, and to
\nreign with Him in an interior kingdom which shall break in pieces and
\nconsume all other kingdoms, and shall stand for ever and ever.
\n There is no other way. This kingdom cannot be entered by pomp, and
\nshow, and greatness, and strength; but by littleness, and helplessness, and
\nchildlikeness, and babyhood, and death. He that humbleth himself, and he
\nonly, shall be exalted here; and to mount the throne with Christ requires
\nthat we shall first have followed Him in the suffering, and loss, and
\ncrucifixion. If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with Him. Not as an
\narbitrary reward for our suffering, but as the result that will follow in
\nthe very nature of things. Christ’s loss must necessarily bring Christ’s
\ngain, Christ’s death must bring Christ’s resurrection, and to follow Him in
\nthe regeneration, will surely and inevitably bring the soul that follows to
\nHis crown and His throne.
\n In a volume of sermons for children I have found a vivid illustration
\nof this royal kingdom: —
\n “A little fellow from one of the Refuges in England had risked his life
\nto save one of his comrades, and England’s Queen had sent him a medal by the
\nhand of one of England’s earls. The little fellow was held forward by his
\ncomrades to receive it, for he was shy and nervous and tried to sidle away.
\n “Look at the noble chairman; he had driven down from his proper place
\nin the House of Lords, where were gathered earls and dukes, and the men who
\nhad done well as lawyers, and judges, and statesmen, and warriors, and the
\nPrinces of the royal blood. Yet, all peer though he was, he was moved to the
\nsincerest depths of his being as he murmured, `I have the honor,’ and pinned
\nthe life-saving medal on the child’s jacket. His heart was full. He paused
\nto swallow down something that would rise in his throat before he could go
\non.
\n “There is the `glory and honor’ of successful statesmen, and warriors,
\nand lawyers, but the glory of self-forgetful saving of life is a glory that
\nexcelleth, and that was the wondrous glory won by this boy. He had plunged
\ninto the stream and shared a drowning boy’s risk, and that little hand, look
\nat it there, steadying him by holding the table, had come out holding the
\nsaved.
\n “Why has self-forgetfulness such mighty power? How was it that a
\ntwelve-year-old boy could bow down an audience of grown men before him? What
\ngave to that brow, that its stubby crown of carroty hair, a glory and honor
\nmore than the lustre of gold and jewels? Why was it that that small body in
\nits little breeches and jacket, wiping its tears on the rough little sleeve,
\ncould grip thousands of hearts and hold them all, and make them for the time
\nloyal members of his kingdom?
\n “Why was all this so?
\n “It was so because that little boy in his measure had been like Christ,
\nin the self-forgetful spirit of sacrifice for others. He had a bit of the
\nsame beauty we are all made on purpose to worship; the glory before which
\nangels give a great shout, and all the company of heaven fall down and
\nadore, saying with a loud voice, `Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!'”
\n The “Lamb that was slain” is the mightiest King the world has ever
\nknown, and all who partake of His spirit share in His kingdom.
\n And since this kingdom is not a place, but is character, those who have
\nnot the character cannot by any possibility be in it.
\n We pray daily, “Thy kingdom come.” Do we know what we are praying for?
\nDo we comprehend the change it will make in us if it comes in us? Are we
\nwilling to be so changed?
\n What is the kingdom of God but the rule of God? And what is the rule of
\nGod but the will of God? Therefore when we pray, “Thy will be done on earth
\nas it is in heaven,” we have touched the secret of it all.
\n A horde of savages might conquer a civilized kingdom by sheer brute
\nforce; but if they would conquer the civilization of that kingdom, they
\ncould only do so by submitting to its control. And just so is it with the
\nkingdom of heaven. It yields its sceptre to none but those who render
\nobedience to its laws.
\n “To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne, even
\nas I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
\n “He always reigns who sides with God,” says an old writer. And again,
\n“He who perfectly accepts the will of God, dwells in a perpetual kingdom.”
\n Art thou reigning after this fashion and in this sort of a kingdom?
\n Art thou the “chiefest” by being the “servant of all-
\n Art thou a king over thy circumstances, or do thy circumstances reign
\nover thee?
\n Dost thou triumph over thy temptations, or do they triumph over thee?
\n Canst thou sit on an inward throne in the midst of outward defeat and
\nloss?
\n Canst thou conquer by yielding, and become the greatest by being the
\nleast?
\n If thou canst answer Yes to all these questions, then thou art come
\ninto thy kingdom; and whatever thy outward lot may be, or the estimation in
\nwhich men may hold thee, thou art in very truth among the number of those
\nconcerning whom our Lord declares “the same shall be called greatest in the
\nkingdom of heaven.”<\/p>\n
Chapter 20<\/p>\n
THE CHARIOTS OF GOD<\/p>\n
FOUNDATION TEXT. — Psalm 68:17.<\/p>\n
Chariots are for conveyance and progress. Earthly chariots carry the bodies
\nof those who ride in them over all intervening distances or obstacles to the
\nplace of their destination, and God’s chariots carry their souls. No words
\ncan express the glorious places to which that soul shall arrive who travels
\nin the chariots of God. And our verse tells us they are “very many.” All
\naround us on every side they wait for us; but we, alas! we do not always see
\nthem. Earth’s chariots are always visible, but God’s chariots are invisible.<\/p>\n
2 Kings 6:14-17.
\n The king of Syria came up against the man of God with horses and
\nchariots that were visible to every one, but God had chariots that could be
\nseen by none save the eye of faith. The servant of the prophet could only
\nsee the outward and visible, and he cried, as so many have done since,
\n“Alas, my Master! how shall we do?” But the prophet himself sat calmly
\nwithin his house without fear, because his eyes were opened to see the
\ninvisible. And all that he asked for his servant was, “Lord, I pray thee
\nopen his eyes that he may see.”
\n This is the prayer we need to pray for ourselves and for one another,
\n“Lord, open our eyes that we may see.” For the world all around us is full
\nof God’s horses and chariots, waiting to carry us to places of glorious
\nvictory.
\n But they do not look like chariots. They look instead like enemies,
\nsufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments,
\nunkindnesses. They look like Juggernaut cars of misery and wretchedness,
\nthat are only waiting to roll over us and crush us into the earth; but they
\nreally are chariots of triumph in which we may ride to those very heights of
\nvictory for which our souls have been longing and praying.
\n Deut. 32:12, 13.
\n If we would “ride on the high places of the earth” we must get into the
\nchariots that can take us there; and only the “chariots of God” are equal to
\nsuch lofty riding as this.
\n Isa. 58:14.
\n We may make out of each event in our lives either a Juggernaut car to
\ncrush us, or a chariot in which to ride to heights of victory. It all
\ndepends upon how we take them; whether we lie down under our trials and let
\nthem roll over and crush us, or whether we climb up into them as into a
\nchariot, and make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward.
\n 2 Kings 2:11, 12.
\n Whenever we mount into God’s chariots the same thing happens to us
\nspiritually that happened to Elisha. We shall have a translation. Not into
\nthe heavens above us, as Elisha did, but into the heaven within us, which
\nafter all is almost a grander translation than his. We shall be carried up
\naway from the low earthly groveling plane of life, where everything hurts
\nand everything is unhappy, up into the “heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”
\nwhere we shall ride in triumph over all below.
\n Eph. 2:6.
\n These “heavenly places” are interior, not exterior, and the road that
\nleads to them is interior also. But the chariot that carries the soul over
\nthis road is generally some outward loss, or trial or disappointment; some
\nchastening that does not indeed seem for the present to be joyous, but
\ngrievous; but that nevertheless afterward yieldeth the peaceable fruits of
\nrighteousness to them that are exercised thereby.
\n Heb. 12:5-11.
\n Look upon these chastenings, no matter how grievous they may be for the
\npresent, as God’s chariots sent to carry your souls into the “high places”
\nof spiritual achievement and uplifting, and you will find that they are
\nafter all “paved with love.”
\n Canticles 3:9, 10.
\n Your own individual chariot may look very unlovely. It maybe a
\ncross-grained relative or friend; it may be the result of human malice, or
\ncruelty, or neglect; but every chariot sent by God must necessarily be paved
\nwith love, since God is love, and God’s love is the sweetest, softest,
\ntenderest thing to rest one’s self upon that was ever found by any soul
\nanywhere. It is His love indeed that sends the chariot.
\n Hab. 3:8, 12, 13.
\n Here the prophet tells us that it was God’s displeasure against the
\nobstacles which beset the path of His people that made Him come to their
\nrescue, riding in His “chariots of salvation.” Everything becomes a “chariot
\nof salvation” when God rides upon it.
\n The “clouds” that darken our skies and seem to shut out the shining of
\nthe sun of righteousness are, after all, if we only knew it, His chariots,
\ninto which we may mount with Him, and “ride prosperously” over all the
\ndarkness.
\n Ps. 45:3, 4; Ps. 18:10; Deut. 33:26.
\n A late writer has said that we cannot, by even the most vigorous and
\ntoilsome efforts, sweep away the clouds, but we can climb so high above them
\nas to reach the clear atmosphere overhead; and he who rides with God rides
\nupon the heavens far above all earth-born clouds.
\n Ps. 68:32-34.
\n This may sound fanciful, but it is really exceedingly practical when we
\nbegin to act it out in our daily lives.
\n I knew a lady who had a very slow servant. She was an excellent girl in
\nevery other respect, and very valuable in the household, but her slowness
\nwas a constant source of irritation to her mistress, who was naturally
\nquick, and who always chafed at slowness. The lady would consequently get
\nout of temper with the girl twenty times a day, and twenty times a day would
\nrepent of her anger, and resolve to conquer it, but in vain. Her life was
\nmade miserable by the conflict. One day it occurred to her that she had for
\na long while been praying for patience, and that perhaps this slow servant
\nwas the very chariot the Lord had sent to carry her soul over into patience.
\nShe immediately accepted it as such, and from that time used the slowness of
\nher servant as a chariot for her soul. And the result was a victory of
\npatience that no slowness of anybody was ever after able to disturb.
\n Another instance: I knew a sister at one of our conventions who was put
\nto sleep in a room with two others on account of the crowd. She wanted to
\nsleep, but they wanted to talk, and the first night she was greatly
\ndisturbed, and lay there fretting and fuming long after the others had
\nhushed and she might have slept. But the next day she heard something about
\nGod’s chariots, and that night she accepted these talking sisters as her
\nchariots to carry her over into sweetness and patience, and she lay there
\nfeeling peaceful and at rest. When, however, it grew very late, and she knew
\nthey all ought to be sleeping, she ventured to say slyly, “Sisters, I am
\nlying here riding in a chariot,” and the effect was instantaneous in
\nproducing perfect quiet. Her chariot had carried her over to victory, not
\nonly inwardly, but at last outwardly as well.
\n If we would ride in God’s chariots, instead of in our own, we should
\nfind this to be the case continually.
\n Isa. 31:1-3; Ps. 20:7, 8.
\n Our constant temptation is to trust in the “chariots of Egypt.” We can
\nsee them; they are tangible and real, and they look so substantial; while
\nGod’s chariots are invisible and intangible, and it is hard to believe they
\nare there. Our eyes are not opened to see them.
\n 2 Kings 19:23.
\n We try to reach the high places with the “multitude of our chariots.”
\nWe depend first on one thing, and then on another, to advance our spiritual
\ncondition and to gain our spiritual victories. We “go down to Egypt for
\nhelp.” And God is obliged often to destroy all our own chariots before he
\ncan bring us to the point of mounting into His.
\n Micah 5:10; Hag. 2:22.
\n We lean too much upon a dear friend to help us onward in the spiritual
\nlife, and the Lord is obliged to separate us from that friend. We feel that
\nall our spiritual prosperity depends on our continuance under the ministry
\nof a favorite preacher, and we are mysteriously removed. We look upon our
\nprayer-meeting or our Bible-class as the chief source of our spiritual
\nstrength, and we are shut up from attending it. And the “chariot of God,”
\nwhich alone can carry us to the places where we hoped to be taken by the
\ninstrumentalities upon which we have been depending, is to be found in the
\nvery deprivations we have so mourned over. God must burn up with the fire of
\nHis love every chariot of our own that stands in the way of our mounting
\ninto His.
\n Isa. 66:15, 16.
\n Let us be thankful, then, for every trial that will help to destroy our
\nchariots, and will compel us to take refuge in the chariot of God, which
\nstands ready and waiting beside us.
\n Ps. 62:5-8.
\n We have to be brought to the place where all other refuges fail us,
\nbefore we can say, “He only.” We say, “He and — something else.” “He, and
\nmy experience,” or “He, and my church relationships,” or “He, and my
\nChristian work”; and all that comes after the “and” must be taken away from
\nus, or must be proved useless before we can come to the “He only.” As long
\nas visible chariots are at hand, the soul will not mount into the invisible
\nones.
\n Ps. 68:4.
\n If we want to ride with God “upon the heavens,” we have to be brought
\nto an end of all riding upon the earth.
\n Ps. 68:24.
\n To see God’s “goings,” we must get into the “sanctuary” of his
\npresence; and to share in His “goings” and “go” with Him, we must abandon
\nall earthly “goings.”
\n Prov. 20:24; Ps. 17:5; Ps. 40:1, 2.
\n When we mount into God’s chariot our goings are “established,” for no
\nobstacles can hinder its triumphal course. All losses therefore are gains
\nthat bring us to this.
\n Phil. 3:7-9.
\n Paul understood this, and he gloried in the losses which brought him
\nsuch unspeakable gain.
\n 2 Cor. 12:7-10.
\n Even the “thorn in the flesh,” the messenger of Satan sent to buffet
\nhim, became only a chariot to his willing soul, that carried him to heights
\nof triumph which he could have reached in no other way. To “take pleasure”
\nin one’s trials, what is this but turning them into the grandest of
\nchariots?
\n Joseph had a revelation of his future triumphs and reigning, but the
\nchariots that carried him there looked to the eye of sense like the
\nbitterest failures and defeats. It was a strange road to a kingdom, through
\nslavery and a prison, and yet by no other road could Joseph have reached his
\ntriumph. His dream, Gen. 37:5-10; His chariots, Gen. 37:19, 20, 27, 28;
\n39:19, 20; How he rode in his chariots, Gen. 39:1-6, 21-23; His triumph,
\nGen. 43:38-43.<\/p>\n
And now a word as to how one is to mount into these chariots.
\n My answer would be simply this: Find out where God is in each one of
\nthem, and hide yourself in Him. Or, in other words, do what the little child
\ndoes when trouble comest, who finds its mother and hides in her arms. The
\nreal chariot after all that takes us through triumphantly is the carrying of
\nGod.
\n Isa. 46:4.
\n The baby carried in the chariot of its mother’s arms rides triumphantly
\nthrough the hardest places, and does not even know they are hard.
\n Isa. 63:9.
\n And how much more we, who are carried in the chariot of the “arms of
\nGod”!
\n Get into your chariot, then. Take each thing that is wrong in your
\nlives as God’s chariot for you. No matter who the builder of the wrong may
\nbe, whether men or devils, by the time it reaches your side it is God’s
\nchariot for you, and is meant to carry you to a heavenly place of triumph.
\nShut out all the second causes, and find the Lord in it. Say, “Lord, open my
\neyes that I may see, not the visible enemy, but thy unseen chariots of
\ndeliverance.”
\n Accept His will in the trial, whatever it may be, and hide yourself in
\nHis arms of love. Say, “Thy will be done; Thy will be done!” over and over.
\nShut out every other thought but the one thought of submission to His will
\nand of trust in His love. Make your trial thus your chariot, and you will
\nfind your soul “riding upon the heavens” with God in a way you never dreamed
\ncould be.
\n I have not a shadow of doubt that if all our eyes were opened today we
\nwould see our homes, and our places of business, and the streets we
\ntraverse, filled with the “chariots of God.” There is no need for any one of
\nus to walk for lack of chariots. That cross inmate of your household, who
\nhas hitherto made life a burden to you, and who has been the Juggernaut car
\nto crush your soul into the dust, may henceforth be a glorious chariot to
\ncarry you to the heights of heavenly patience and longsuffering. That
\nmisunderstanding, that mortification, that unkindness, that disappointment,
\nthat loss, that defeat, all these are chariots waiting to carry you to the
\nvery heights of victory you have so longed to reach.
\n Mount into them, then, with thankful hearts, and lose sight of all
\nsecond causes in the shining of His love who will “carry you in His arms”
\nsafely and triumphantly over it all.<\/p>\n
Chapter 21<\/p>\n
“WITHOUT ME YE CAN DO NOTHING”<\/p>\n
CONCERNING THE LIFE OF DIVINE UNION IN ITS PRACTICAL ASPECTS.<\/p>\n
Not long ago I was driving with a Quaker preacher through our beautiful
\nPhiladelphia Park, when our conversation turned on the apparent
\nfruitlessness of a great deal of the preaching in the church at the present
\ntime. We had spoken, of course, of the foundation cause in the absence of
\nthe power of the Holy Ghost, but we still felt that this could not account
\nfor it all, as we both of us knew many preachers really baptized with the
\nSpirit, who yet seemed to have no fruit to their ministry. And then I
\nsuggested that one reason might be in the fact that so many ministers, when
\npreaching or talking on religious subjects, put on a different tone and
\nmanner from the one they ordinarily use, and by this very manner remove
\nreligion so far from the range of ordinary life, as to fail of gaining any
\nreal hold on the hearts of the men and women whose whole lives are lived on
\nthe plane of ordinary and homely pleasures and duties. “Now, for instance,”
\nI said, “if in thy preaching from the Friends’ gallery thee could use the
\nsame tone and manner as thy present one, how much more effectual and
\nconvincing thy preaching would be.” “Oh, but I could not do that,” was the
\nreply, “because the preacher’s gallery is so much more solemn a place than
\nthis.”
\n “But why is it more solemn?” I asked. “Is it not the presence of God
\nonly that makes the gallery or the pulpit solemn, and have we not the
\npresence of God equally here? Is it not just as solemn to live in our
\neveryday life as it is to preach, and ought we not to do the one to His
\nglory just as much as the other?” And then I added, as the subject seemed to
\nopen out before me, “I verily believe a large part of the difficulty lies in
\nthe unscriptural and unnatural divorce that has been brought about between
\nour so-called religious life and our so-called temporal life; as if our
\nreligion were something apart from ourselves, a sort of outside garment that
\nwas to be put on and off according to our circumstances and purposes. On
\nSundays, for instance, and in church, our purpose is to seek God, and
\nworship and serve Him, and therefore on Sundays we bring out our religious
\nlife and put it on in a suitably solemn manner, and live it with a strained
\ngravity and decorum which deprives it of half its power. But on Mondays our
\npurpose is to seek our own interests and serve them, and so we bring out our
\ntemporal life and put it on with a sense of relief, as from an unnatural
\nbondage, and live it with ease and naturalness, and consequently with far
\nmore power.”
\n The thoughts thus started remained with me and gathered strength. Not
\nlong afterward I was present at a meeting where the leader opened with
\nreading John 15, and the words, “Without me ye can do nothing,” struck me
\nwith amazement. Hundreds of times before I had read those words, and had
\nthought that I understood them thoroughly. But now it seemed almost as
\nthough they must have been newly inserted in the Bible, so ablaze were they
\nwith wondrous meaning.
\n “There it is,” I said to myself, “Jesus himself said so, that apart
\nfrom Him we have no real life of any kind, whether we call it temporal or
\nspiritual, and that, therefore, all living or doing that is without Him is
\nof such a nature that God, who sees into the realities of things, calls it
\n`nothing.'” And then the question forced itself upon me as to whether any
\nsoul really believed this statement to be true; or, if believing it
\ntheoretically, whether any one made it practical in their daily walk and
\nlife. And I saw, as in a flash almost, that the real secret of divine union
\nlay quite as much in this practical aspect of it as in any interior
\nrevealings or experiences. For if I do nothing, literally nothing, apart
\nfrom Christ, I am of course united to Him in a continual oneness that cannot
\nbe questioned or gainsaid; while if I live a large part of my daily life and
\nperform a large part of my daily work apart from Him, I have no real union,
\nno matter how exalted and delightful my emotions concerning it may be.
\n It is to consider this aspect of the subject, therefore, that the
\npresent paper is written. For I am very sure that the wide divorce made
\nbetween things spiritual and things temporal, of which I have spoken, has
\ndone more than almost anything else to hinder a realized interior union with
\nGod, and to put all religion so outside of the pale of common life as to
\nmake it an almost unattainable thing to the ordinary mass of mankind.
\nMoreover it has introduced an unnatural constraint and stiltedness into the
\nexperience of Christians that seems to shut them out from much of the free,
\nhappy, childlike ease that belongs of right to the children of God.
\n I feel, therefore, that it is of vital importance for us to understand
\nthe truth of this matter.
\n And the thought that makes it clearest to me is this, that the fact of
\nour oneness with Christ contains the whole thing in a nutshell. If we are
\none with Him, then of course in the very nature of things we can do nothing
\nwithout Him. For that which is one cannot act as being two. And if I
\ntherefore do anything without Christ, then I am not one with Him in that
\nthing, and like a branch severed from the vine I am withered and worthless.
\nIt is as if the branch should recognize its connection with and dependence
\nupon the vine for most of its growth, and fruit-bearing, and climbing, but
\nshould feel a capacity in itself to grow and climb over a certain fence or
\naround the trunk of a certain tree, and should therefore sever its
\nconnection with the vine for this part of its living. Of course that which
\nthus sought an independent life would wither and die in the very nature of
\nthings. And just so is it with us who are branches of Christ the true vine.
\nNo independent action, whether small or great, is possible to us without
\nwithering and death, any more than to the branch of the natural vine.
\n This will show us at once how fatal to the realized oneness with
\nChrist, for which our souls hunger, is the divorce I have spoken of. We have
\nall realized, more or less, that without Him we cannot live our religious
\nlife, but when it comes to living our so-called temporal life, to keeping
\nhouse or transacting business, or making calls, or darning stockings, or
\nsweeping a room, or trimming a bonnet, or entertaining company, who is there
\nthat even theoretically thinks such things as these are to be done for
\nChrist, and can only be rightly done as we abide in Him and do them in His
\nstrength?
\n But if it is Christ working in the Christian who is to lead the
\nprayer-meeting, then, since Christ and the Christian are one, it must be
\nalso Christ working in and through the Christian who is to keep the house
\nand make the bargain; and one duty is therefore in the very essence of
\nthings as religious as the other. It is the man that makes the action, not
\nthe action the man. And as much solemnity and sweetness will thus be brought
\ninto our everyday domestic and social affairs as into the so-called
\nreligious occasions of life, if we will only “acknowledge God in all our
\nways,” and do whatever we do, even if it be only eating and drinking, to His
\nglory.
\n If our religion is really our life, and not merely something extraneous
\ntacked on to our life, it must necessarily go into everything in which we
\nlive; and no act, however human or natural it may be, can be taken out of
\nits control and guidance.
\n If God is with us always, then He is just as much with us in our
\nbusiness times and our social times as in our religious times, and one
\nmoment is as solemn with His presence as another.
\n If it is a fact that in Him we “live and move and have our being,” then
\nit is also a fact, whether we know it or not, that without Him we cannot do
\nanything. And facts are stubborn things, thank God, and do not alter for all
\nour feelings.
\n In Psalm 127:1, 2, we have a very striking illustration of this truth.
\nThe Psalmist says, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that
\nbuild it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It
\nis vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of
\nsorrows; for so He giveth His beloved sleep.” The two things here spoken of
\nas being done in vain, unless the Lord is in the doing of them, are purely
\nsecular things, so called; simple business matters on the human plane of
\nlife. And whatever spiritual lesson they were intended to teach gains its
\nimpressiveness only from this, that these statements concerning God’s
\npresence in temporal things were statements of patent and incontrovertible
\nfacts.
\n In truth the Bible is full of this fact, and the only wonder is how any
\nbeliever in the Bible could have overlooked it. From the building of cities
\ndown to the numbering of the hairs of our head and the noting of a sparrow’s
\nfall, throughout the whole range of homely daily living, God is declared to
\nbe present and to be the mainspring of it all. Whatever we do, even if it be
\nsuch a purely physical thing as eating and drinking, we are to do for Him
\nand to His glory, and we are exhorted to so live and so walk in the light in
\neverything, as to have it made manifest of our works, temporal as well as
\nspiritual, that “they are wrought in God.”
\n There is unspeakable comfort in this for every loving Christian heart,
\nin that it turns all of life into a sacrament, and makes the kitchen, or the
\nworkshop, or the nursery, or the parlor, as sweet and solemn a place of
\nservice to the Lord, and as real a means of union with Him, as the
\nprayer-meeting, or the mission board, or the charitable visitation.
\n A dear young Christian mother and housekeeper came to me once with a
\nsorely grieved heart, because of her engrossing temporal life. “There
\nseems,” she said, “to be nothing spiritual about my life from one week’s end
\nto the other. My large family of little children are so engrossing that day
\nafter day passes without my having a single moment for anything but simply
\nattendance on them and on my necessary household duties, and I go to bed
\nnight after night sick at heart because I have felt separated from my Lord
\nall day long, and have not been able to do anything for Him.” I told her of
\nwhat I have written above, and assured her that all would be changed if she
\nwould only see and acknowledge God in all these homely duties, and would
\nrecognize her utter dependence upon Him for the doing of them. Her heart
\nreceived the good news with gladness, and months afterward she told me that
\nfrom that moment life had become a transformed and glorified thing, with the
\nabiding presence of the Lord, and with the sweetness of continual service to
\nHim.
\n Another Christian, a young lady in a fashionable family, came to me
\nalso in similar grief that in so much of her life she was separated from God
\nand had no sense of His presence. I told her she ought never to do anything
\nthat could cause such a separation; but she assured me that it was
\nimpossible to avoid it, as the things she meant were none of them wrong
\nthings. “For instance,” she said, “it is plainly my duty to pay calls with
\nmy mother, and yet nothing seems to separate me so much from God as paying
\ncalls.” “But how would it be,” I asked, “if you paid the calls as service to
\nthe Lord and for His glory?” “What!” she exclaimed, “pay calls for God! I
\nnever heard of such a thing.” “But why not?” I asked; “if it is right to pay
\ncalls at all it ought to be done for God, for we are commanded whatsoever we
\ndo to do it for His glory, and if it is not right you ought not to do it. As
\na Christian,” I continued, “you must not do anything that you cannot do for
\nHim.” “I see! I see!” she exclaimed, after a little pause, “and it makes all
\nlife look so different! Nothing can separate me from Him that is not sin,
\nbut each act done to His glory, whatever it may be, will only draw me closer
\nand make His presence more real.”
\n These two instances will illustrate my meaning. And I feel sure there
\nare thousands of other burdened and weary lives that would be similarly
\ntransformed if these truths were but realized and acted on.
\n An old spiritual writer says something to this effect, that in order to
\nbecome a saint it is not always necessary to change our works, but only to
\nput an interior purpose towards God in them all; that we must begin to do
\nfor His glory and in His strength that which before we did for self and in
\nself’s capacity; which means, after all, just what our Lord meant when He
\nsaid, “Without me ye can do nothing.”
\n There is another side of this truth also which is full of comfort, and
\nwhich the Psalmist develops in the verses I have quoted. “It is vain,” he
\nsays, “to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows.” Or,
\nin other words, “What is the use of all this worry and strain? For the work
\nwill after all amount to nothing unless God is in it, and if He is in it,
\nwhat folly to fret or be burdened, since He of course, by the very fact of
\nHis presence, assumes the care and responsibility of it all.”
\n Ah, it is vain indeed, and I would that all God’s children knew it!
\n We mothers at least ought to know it, for our own ways with our
\nchildren would teach us something of it every day we live, if we had but the
\n“eyes to see.”
\n How many mothers have risen early, and sat up, late, and eaten the
\nbread of sorrows, just that they might give sleep to their beloved children.
\nAnd how grieved their hearts would have been if, after all their pains, the
\nchildren had refused to rest. I can appeal to some mother hearts, I am sure,
\nas thoroughly understanding my meaning. Memories will arise of the flushed
\nand rosy boy coming in at night, tired with his play or his work, with knees
\nout and coat torn, and of the patient, loving toil to patch and mend it all,
\nsitting up late and rising early, that the dearly loved cause of all the
\nmischief might rest undisturbed in childhood’s happy sleep. How “vain,” and
\nworse than vain, would it have been for that loved and cared-for darling to
\nhave himself also sat up late, and risen early, and eaten the bread of
\nsorrows, when all the while his mother was doing it for him just that he
\nmight not have it to do.
\n And if this is true of mothers, how much more true must it be of Him
\nwho made the mothers, and who came among us in bodily form to bear our
\nburdens, and carry our sorrows, and do our work, just that we might “enter
\ninto His rest.”
\n Beloved, have we entered into this rest?
\n “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own
\nworks as God did from His.” That is, he has learned at last the lesson that
\nwithout Christ or apart from Him he can do nothing, but that he can do all
\nthings through Christ strengthening him; and therefore he has laid aside all
\nself-effort, and has abandoned himself to God that He may work in him both
\nto will and to do of His good pleasure. This and this only is the rest that
\nremaineth for the people of God.
\n Scientific men are seeking to resolve all forces in nature into one
\nprimal force. Unity of origin is the present cry of science. Light, heat,
\nsound are all said to be the products of one force differently applied, and
\nthat force is motion. All things, say the scientists, can be resolved back
\nto this. Whether they are right or wrong I cannot say; but the Bible reveals
\nto us one grand primal force which is behind motion itself, and that is
\nGod-force. God is at the source of everything, God is the origin of
\neverything, God is the explanation of everything. Without Him was not
\nanything made that was made, and without Him is not anything done that is
\ndone.
\n Surely, then, it is not the announcement of any mystery, but the simple
\nstatement of a simple fact, when our Lord says, “Without me ye can do
\nnothing.”
\n Even of Himself He said, “I can of mine own self do nothing,” and He
\nmeant that He and His Father were so one that any independent action was
\nimpossible. Surely it is the revelation of a glorious necessity existing
\nbetween our souls and Christ that He should say we could do nothing without
\nHim; for it means that He has made us so one with Himself that independent
\naction is as impossible with us as towards Him, as it was with Him as
\ntowards His Father.
\n Dear Christian, dost thou not catch a glimpse here of a region of
\nwondrous glory?
\n Let us believe, then, that without Him we can literally do nothing. We
\nmust believe it, for it is true. But let us recognize its truth, and act on
\nit from this time forward. Let us make a hearty renunciation of all living
\napart from Christ, and let us begin from this moment to acknowledge Him in
\nall our ways, and do everything, whatsoever we do, as service to Him and for
\nHis glory, depending upon Him alone for wisdom, and strength, and sweetness,
\nand patience, and everything else that is necessary for the right
\naccomplishing of all our living.
\n As I said before, it is not so much a change of acts that will be
\nnecessary, as a change of motive and of dependence. The house will be kept,
\nor the children cared for, or the business transacted, perhaps, just the
\nsame as before as to the outward, but inwardly God will be acknowledged, and
\ndepended on, and served; and there will be all the difference between a life
\nlived at ease in the glory of His presence, and a life lived painfully and
\nwith effort apart from Him. There will result also from this bringing of God
\ninto our affairs a wonderful accession of divine wisdom in the conduct of
\nthem, and a far greater quickness and dispatch in their accomplishment, a
\nsurprising increase in the fertility of resource, an ease in apprehending
\nthe true nature and bearing of things, and an enlargement on every side that
\nwill amaze the hitherto cramped and cabined soul.
\n I mean this literally. I mean that the house will be kept more nicely
\nand with greater ease, the children will be trained more swiftly, the
\nstockings will be darned more swiftly, the guest will be entertained more
\ncomfortably, the servants will be managed more easily, the bargain will be
\nmade more satisfactorily, and all life will move with far more sweetness and
\nharmony. For God will be in every moment of it, and where He is all must go
\nwell.
\n Moreover the soul itself, in this natural and simple way, will acquire
\nsuch a holy habit of “abiding in Christ” that at last His presence will
\nbecome the most real thing in life to our consciousness, and an habitual,
\nsilent, and secret conversation with Him will be carried on that will yield
\na continual joy.
\n Sometimes the child of God asks eagerly and hungrily, “What is the
\nshortest and quickest way by which I can reach the highest degree of union
\nand communion with God, possible to human beings in this life?” No shorter
\nor quicker way can be found than the one I have been declaring. By the
\nhomely path of everyday duties done thus in God and for God, the sublimest
\nheights are reached. Not as a reward, however, but as an inevitable and
\nnatural result, for if we thus abide in Him and refuse to leave Him, where
\nHe is there shall we also be, and all that He is will be ours.
\n If, then, thou wouldst know, beloved reader, the interior divine union
\nrealized in thy soul, begin from this very day to put it outwardly in
\npractice as I have suggested. Offer each moment of thy living and each act
\nof thy doing to God, and say to Him continually, “Lord, I am doing this in
\nThee and for Thy glory. Thou art my strength, and my wisdom, and my
\nall-sufficient supply for every need. I depend only upon Thee.” Refuse
\nutterly to live for a single moment or to perform a single act apart from
\nHim. Persist in this until it becomes the established habit of thy soul. And
\nsooner or later thou shalt surely know the longings of thy soul satisfied in
\nthe abiding presence of Christ, thy indwelling Life.<\/p>\n
Chapter 22<\/p>\n
“GOD WITH US”; OR, THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH PSALM<\/p>\n
“Thus doth thy hospitable greatness lie<\/p>\n
Around us like a boundless sea;<\/p>\n
We cannot lose ourselves where all is home,<\/p>\n
Nor drift away from Thee.”<\/p>\n
Very few of us understand the full meaning of the words in Matt. 1:23, “They
\nshall call His name Emmanuel; which being interpreted is, God with us.” In
\nthis short sentence is revealed to us the grandest fact the world can ever
\nknow; that God, the Almighty God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, is not a
\nfar-off Deity, dwelling in a Heaven of unapproachable glory, but is living
\nwith us right here in this world, in the midst of our poor, ignorant,
\nhelpless lives, as close to us as we are to ourselves. This seems so
\nincredible to the human heart that we are very slow to believe it; but that
\nthe Bible teaches it as a fact, from cover to cover, cannot be denied by any
\nhonest mind. In the very beginning of Genesis we read of the “presence of
\nthe Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” And from that time on He is
\nrevealed to us always as in the most familiar and daily intercourse with His
\npeople everywhere.
\n In Exodus we find Him asking them to make Him a “sanctuary, that He
\nmight dwell among them.” He is recorded as having “walked” with them in the
\nwilderness, and as “taking up His abode” with them in the promised land. He
\ntaught them to rely on Him as an ever-present Friend and Helper, to consult
\nHim about all their affairs, and to abandon the whole management of their
\nlives to Him. And finally He came in Christ in bodily form and dwelt in the
\nworld as a man among men, making Himself bone of our bone and flesh of our
\nflesh, taking upon Him our nature, and revealing to us, in the most tangible
\nand real way possible, the grand, and blessed, and incomprehensible fact
\nthat He intended to be with us always, even unto the end of the world.
\n Whoever will believe this fact with all their hearts will find in it
\nthe solution of every difficulty of their lives.
\n I remember when I was a little girl and found myself in any trouble or
\nperplexity, the coming in of my father or mother on the scene would always
\nbring me immediate relief. The moment I heard the voice of one of them
\nsaying, “Daughter, I am here,” that moment every burden dropped off and
\nevery anxiety was stilled. It was their simple presence that did it. They
\ndid not need to promise to relieve me, they did not need to tell me their
\nplans of relief; the simple fact of their presence was all the assurance I
\nrequired that everything now would be set straight and all would go well for
\nme, and my only interest after their arrival was simply to see how they
\nwould do it all. Perhaps they were exceptional parents, to have created such
\nconfidence in their children’s hearts. I think myself they were. But as our
\nGod is certainly an exceptional God, the application has absolute force, and
\nHis presence is literally all we need. It would be enough for us, even if we
\nhad not a single promise nor a single revelation of His plans. How often in
\nthe Bible He has stilled all questions and all fears by the simple
\nannouncement, “I will be with thee”; and who can doubt that in these words
\nHe meant to assure us that all His wisdom, and love, and omnipotent power
\nwould therefore, of course, be engaged on our side? Over and over again in
\nmy childhood have the magic words, “Oh, there is mother!” brought me
\nimmediate relief and comfort; and over and over again in my later years have
\nalmost the same words reverently spoken, “Oh, there is God!” brought me a
\nfar more blessed deliverance. With Him present, what could I have to fear?
\nSince He has said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” surely I may
\nboldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do
\nunto me.” I remember to this day the inspiring sense of utter security that
\nused to come to me with my earthly father’s presence. I never feared
\nanything when he was by. And surely with my Heavenly Father by, there can be
\nno possible room for fear.
\n It is because of its practical help and comfort, therefore, that I
\ndesire to make this wonderful fact of “Emmanuel, God with us,” clear and
\ndefinite, for I am very sure but few, even of God’s own children, really
\nbelieve it. They may say they do, they may repeat a thousand times in the
\nconventional, pious tone considered suitable to such a sentiment, “Oh, yes,
\nwe know that God is always present with us, but — ” And in this “but” the
\nwhole story is told. There are no “buts” in the vocabulary of the soul that
\naccepts His presence as a literal fact. Such a soul is joyously triumphant
\nover every suggestion of fear or of doubt. It has God, and that is enough
\nfor it. His presence is its certain security and supply, always, and for
\neverything.
\n Let me, then, beg my readers to turn with me for a while to the 139th
\nPsalm, where we shall find a most blessed revelation of this truth.
\n The central thought of the Psalm is to be found in verses 7 to 12,
\n“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy
\npresence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in
\nhell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell
\nin the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and
\nthy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me;
\neven the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from
\nthee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both
\nalike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my
\nmother’s womb.”
\n I cannot conceive of a more definite or sweeping declaration of His
\ncontinual presence with us, wherever we may be or whatever we may do, than
\nis contained in this passage. People talk about seeking to get into the
\npresence of the Lord, but here we see that they cannot get out of it; that
\nthere is no place in the whole universe where He is not present; neither
\nheaven, nor hell, nor the uttermost parts of the sea; and no darkness so
\ngreat as to hide for one moment from Him. And the reason of this is, that He
\n“has possessed our reins,” which means that He is not only with us, but
\nwithin us, and consequently must accompany us wherever we ourselves go.
\n We must accept it as true, therefore, that the words of our Lord, “Lo,
\nI am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” were the expression,
\nnot of a beautiful sentiment merely, but of an incontrovertible fact. He is
\nwith us, and we cannot get away from Him.
\n We may be in such thick darkness as to be utterly unable to see Him,
\nand may think, probably often have thought, that, therefore, He does not see
\nus. But our Psalm assures us that the darkness hideth not from Him, and
\nthat, in fact, darkness and light are both alike to Him. We are as present
\nto His view and as plainly seen when our own souls are in the depths of
\nspiritual darkness, as when they are basking in the brightest light. The
\ndarkness may hide Him from us, but it does not hide us from Him. Neither
\ndoes any apparent spiritual distance or wandering take us out of His
\npresence; not even if we go into the depths of sin in our wandering. In the
\nuttermost parts of the sea, or wherever we may be, He is ever present to
\nhold and to lead us. There is not a moment nor a place where we can be left
\nwithout His care.
\n There are times in our lives when delirium makes us utterly unaware of
\nthe presence of our most careful and tender nurses. A child in delirium will
\ncry out in anguish for its mother, and will harrow her heart by its piteous
\nlamentations and appeals, when all the while she is holding its fevered
\nhand, and bathing its aching head, and caring for it with all the untold
\ntenderness of a mother’s love. The darkness of disease has hidden the mother
\nfrom the child, but has not hidden the child from the mother.
\n And just so it is with our God and us. The darkness of our doubts or
\nour fears, of our sorrows or our despair, or even of our sins, cannot hide
\nus from Him, although it may, and often does, hide Him from us. He has told
\nus that the darkness and the light are both alike to Him; and if our faith
\nwill only lay hold of this as a fact, we will be enabled to pass through the
\ndarkest seasons in quiet trust, sure that all the while, though we cannot
\nsee nor feel Him, our God is caring for us, and will never leave nor forsake
\nus.
\n Whether, however, this abiding presence of our God will be a joy to us
\nor a sorrow, will depend upon what we know about Him. If we think of Him as
\na stern tyrant, intent only on His own glory, we shall be afraid of His
\ncontinual presence. If we think of Him as a tender, loving Father, intent
\nonly on our blessing and happiness, we shall be glad and thankful to have
\nHim thus ever with us. For the presence and the care of love can never mean
\nanything but good to the one beloved.
\n The Psalm we are considering shows us that the presence of our God is
\nthe presence of love, and that it brings us an infinitude of comfort and
\nrest. He says in verses 1 to 5, “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known
\nme. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my
\nthought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art
\nacquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O
\nLord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and
\nlaid thine hand upon me.”
\n Our God knows us and understands us, and is acquainted with all our
\nways. No one else in all the world understands us. Our actions are
\nmisinterpreted, it may be, and our motives misjudged. Our natural
\ncharacteristics are not taken into account, nor our inherited tendencies
\nconsidered. No one makes allowances for our ill health; no one realizes how
\nmuch we have to contend with. But our Father knows it all. He understands
\nus, and His judgment of us takes into account every element, conscious or
\nunconscious, that goes to make up our character and to control our actions.
\nOnly an all-comprehending love can be just, and our God is just. No wonder
\nFaber can say: —<\/p>\n
“There is no place where earth’s sorrows<\/p>\n
Are more felt than up in Heaven;<\/p>\n
There is no place where earth’s failings<\/p>\n
Have such kindly judgment given.”<\/p>\n
Some of you have been afraid of His justice, perhaps, because you
\nthought it would be against you. But do you not see now that it is all on
\nyour side, just as a mother’s justice is, because “He knoweth our frame and
\nremembereth that we are dust- No human judge can ever do this; and to me
\nthis comprehension of God is one of my most blessed comforts. Often I do not
\nunderstand myself; all within looks confused and hopelessly tangled. But
\nthen I remember that He has searched me, and that He knows me and
\nunderstands the thoughts which so perplex me, and that, therefore, I may
\njust leave the whole miserable tangle to Him to unravel. And my soul sinks
\ndown at once, as on downy pillows, into a place of the most blissful rest.
\n Then further, because of this complete knowledge and understanding of
\nour needs, what comfort it is to be told that He knows our downsitting and
\nour uprising; that He compasses our path, and takes note of our lying down.
\nJust what a mother does for her foolish, careless, ignorant, but dearly
\nloved little ones, this very thing does our God for us. When a mother is
\nwith her children she thinks of their comfort and well-being always before
\nher own. They must have comfortable seats where no draught can reach them,
\nno matter what amount of discomfort she may herself be compelled to endure.
\nTheir beds must be soft and their blankets warm, let hers be what they may.
\nTheir paths must be smooth and safe, even though she is obliged herself to
\nwalk in rough and dangerous ways. Her own comfort, as compared with that of
\nher children, is of no account in a loving mother’s eyes. And surely our God
\nhas not made the mothers in this world more capable of a self-sacrificing
\nlove than He is Himself. He must be better and greater on the line of love
\nand self-sacrifice than any mother He ever made.
\n Then, since He has assured us that He knows our downsitting and our
\nuprising, that He compasses our path and our lying down, we may be perfectly
\nand blessedly sure that in even these little details of our lives we get the
\nvery best that His love, and wisdom, and power can compass. I mean this in a
\nvery literal sense. I mean that He cares for our literal seats and our
\nliteral beds, and sees that we, each one, have just that sort of a seat or
\nthat sort of a bed which is best for us and for our highest development. And
\njust on this last point is where He is so much better than any mother can
\nbe. His love is a wise love, that sees the outcome of things, and cares more
\nfor our highest good than for that which is lower. So that, while a mother’s
\nweak love cannot see beyond the child’s present comfort, and cannot bear to
\ninflict or allow any discomfort, the strong, wise love of our God can bear
\nto permit the present discomfort, for the sake of the future glory that is
\nto result therefrom.
\n At home and abroad, therefore, let us commit the choosing of our seats,
\nand of our beds, and of all the other little homely circumstances of our
\ndaily lives and surroundings, to the God who has thus assured us that He
\nknows all about every one of them.
\n For we are told in our Psalm that He “besets” our path. We have some of
\nus known what it was to be “beset” by unwelcome and unpleasant people or
\nthings. But we never have thought, perhaps, that we were beset by God, that
\nHe loves us so that He cannot leave us alone, and that no coldness nor
\nrebuffs on our parts can drive Him away. Yet it is gloriously true! And,
\nmoreover, He besets us “behind” as well as before. Just as a mother does.
\nShe goes after her children and picks up all they have dropped, and clears
\naway all the rubbish they have left behind them. We mothers begin this in
\nthe nursery with the blocks and playthings, and we go on with it all our
\nlives long; seeking continually to set straight that which our children have
\nleft crooked behind them; often at the cost of much toil and trouble, but
\nalways with a love that makes the toil and trouble nothing in comparison to
\ncaring for the children we love. What good mother ever turned away the poor
\nlittle tearful darling who came with a tangled knot for her unraveling, or
\nrefused to help the eager rosy boy to unwind his kite-strings? Suppose it
\nhas been their own fault that the knots and tangles have come, still her
\nlove can sympathize with and pity the very faults themselves, and all the
\nmore does she seek to atone for them.
\n All this and more does our God do for us from our earliest infancy,
\nlong even before we know enough to be conscious of it, until the very end of
\nour earthly lives. We have seen Him before us perhaps, but we have never
\nthought of Him as behind us as well. Yet it is a blessed fact that He is
\nbehind us all the time, longing to make crooked things straight, to untangle
\nour tangled skeins, and to atone continually for the wrong we have done and
\nthe mistakes we have made. If any of us, therefore, have that in our past
\nwhich has caused us anxiety or remorse, let us lift up our heads in a happy
\nconfidence from henceforth, that the God who is behind us will set it all
\nstraight somehow, if we will but commit it to Him, and can even make our
\nvery mistakes and misdoings work together for good. Ah! it is a grand thing
\nto be “beset” by God.
\n Then again what depths of comfort there are in verses 14 to 16: “I will
\npraise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy
\nworks; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from
\nthee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts
\nof the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in
\nthy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
\nwhen as yet there was none of them.”
\n One of the things which often troubles us more than we care to confess,
\nis our dislike of the way we have been put together. Our mental or moral
\n“make-up” does not suit us. We think if we had only been created with less
\nof this or more of that, if we were less impulsive or more enthusiastic, if
\nwe had been made more like someone else whom we admire, that then our
\nchances of success would have been far greater; that we could have served
\nGod far more acceptably; and could have been more satisfactory in every way
\nto ourselves and to Him. And we are tempted sometimes to think that with our
\nmiserable make-up, it is hopeless to expect to please Him.
\n If we really realized that God Himself had made us, we should see the
\nfolly of all this at once, but we secretly feel as if somehow He had not had
\nmuch hand in the matter, but as if we had been put together in a haphazard
\nsort of way, that had left our characters very much to chance. We believe in
\ncreation in the general, but not in the particular, when it comes to
\nourselves. But in this Psalm we see that God has presided over the creation
\nof each one of us, superintending the smallest details; even, to speak
\nfiguratively, writing down what each “member” was to be, when as yet there
\nwas none of them. Therefore we, just as we are naturally, with just the
\ncharacteristics that inhere in us by birth, are precisely what God would
\nhave us to be, and were planned out by His own hand to do the especial work
\nthat He has prepared for our doing. I mean, of course, our natural
\ncharacteristics, not the perversion of them by sin on our parts.
\n There is something very glorifying to the Creator in this way of
\nlooking at it. Genius always seeks expression, and seeks, too, to express
\nitself in as great a variety of forms and ways as possible. No true artist
\nrepeats himself, but each picture he paints, or statue he carves, is a new
\nexpression of his creative power. When we go to an exhibition of pictures,
\nwe should feel it a lowering of art if two were exactly alike; and just so
\nis it with us who are “God’s workmanship.” His creative power is expressed
\ndifferently in each one of us. And in the individual “make-up” which
\nsometimes so troubles us, there is a manifestation of this power different
\nfrom every other, and without which the day of exhibition, when we are, each
\none, to be to the praise of His glory, would be incomplete. All He asks of
\nus is that, as He has had the making of us, so He may also have the
\nmanaging, since He alone understands us, and is, therefore, the only one who
\ncan do it.
\n The man who makes an intricate machine is the best one to manage it and
\nrepair it; any one else who meddles with it is apt to spoil it. And when we
\nthink of the intricacy of our inward machinery and the continual failure of
\nour own management of it, we may well be thankful to hand it all over to the
\nOne who created it, and to leave it in His hands. We may be sure He will
\nthen make the best out of us that can be made, and that we, even we, with
\nour “peculiar temperaments,” and our apparently unfortunate characteristics,
\nwill be made vessels unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use,
\nand fitted to every good work.
\n I met once with a saying in an old Quaker writer which I have never
\nforgotten: “Be content to be just what thy God has made thee.” It has helped
\nme to understand the point upon which I am dwelling; and I feel sure
\ncontentment with our own “make-up” is as essential a part of our submission
\nto God as contentment with any other of the circumstances of our daily life.
\nIf we did not each one of us exist just as we are by nature, then one
\nexpression of God’s creative power would be missing, and one part of His
\nwork would be left undone. And besides, to complain of ourselves is to
\ncomplain of the One who has made us, and cannot but grieve Him. Let us be
\ncontent, then, and only see to it that we let the Divine Potter make out of
\nus the very best He can, and use us according to His own good pleasure.
\n Verses 17 and 18 bring out another view of God’s continual presence
\nwith us, and that is, that He is always thinking about us, and that His
\nthoughts are kind and loving thoughts, for the Psalmist calls them precious.
\n“How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of
\nthem! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I
\nawake, I am still with thee.”
\n So many people are tempted to think that God is not paying any
\nattention to them. They think that their interests and their affairs are
\naltogether beneath His notice, and that they are too unworthy to hope for
\nHis attention. But they wrong Him grievously by such thoughts. A mother pays
\nas much attention to her smallest infant as to her oldest children, and is
\nas much interested in its little needs and pleasures as in theirs. I am not
\nsure but she is more. Her thoughts dwell around the one who needs them most;
\nand He who made the mother’s heart will not Himself be less attentive to the
\nneeds and pleasures of the meanest and most helpless of His creatures. He
\neven hears the young lions when they cry, and not a sparrow can fall to the
\nground without Him; therefore, we, who are of more value than many sparrows,
\nneed not be afraid of a moment’s neglect.
\n In fact, the responsibilities of creating anything require an
\nunintermitting care of it on the part of the Creator; and it is the glory of
\nomnipotence that it can attend at once to the smallest details and to the
\ngrandest operations as well.<\/p>\n
“For greatness which is infinite makes room<\/p>\n
For all things in its lap to lie;<\/p>\n
We should be crushed by a magnificence<\/p>\n
Short of infinity.”<\/p>\n
I do not know why it is that we consider a man or woman weak who
\nattends to large affairs to the neglect of little details, and then turn
\naround and accuse our God of doing this very thing. But if any of my readers
\nhave hitherto been guilty of this folly, let it end now and here, and let
\neach one from henceforth believe, without any questioning, that always and
\neverywhere the “Lord thinketh upon me.”
\n The remainder of the Psalm develops the perfect accord of thought
\nbetween the soul and God, where this life of simple faith has been entered
\nupon. Having learned the transforming fact of God’s continual presence and
\nunceasing care, the soul is brought into so profound a union with Him as to
\nlove what He loves, and hate what He hates; and eagerly appeals to Him to
\nsearch it, and try it, that there may be no spot left anywhere in all its
\nbeing which is out of harmony with Him.
\n In the sunlight of His presence darkness must flee, and the heart will
\nsoon feel that it cannot endure to have any corner shut away from His
\nshining; for in His presence is “fulness of joy,” and at His right hand
\n“there are pleasures forevermore.”
\n An old woman, living in a rather desolate part of England, made
\nconsiderable money by selling ale and beer to chance travelers who passed
\nher lonely cottage. But her conscience troubled her about it. She wanted to
\nbe a Christian and to go to Heaven when she died, but she had an inward
\nfeeling that if she did become a Christian she would have to give up her
\nprofitable business, and this she thought would be more than she could do;
\nso that between the two things she was brought into great conflict.
\n But one night, at the meeting she attended, a preacher from a distance
\ntold about the sweet and blessed fact of God’s continual presence with us,
\nand of the joy this was sure to bring when it was known. Her soul was
\nenraptured at the thought of such a possibility for her, and forgetting all
\nabout the beer, she began at once with a very simple faith to claim it as a
\nblessed reality. Over and over again she exclaimed in her heart, as the
\npreacher went on with his sermon, “Why, Lord Jesus, I didn’t know as thee
\nwast always with me! Why, Lord, how good it is to know that I have got thee
\nall the time to live with me and take care of me! Why, Lord, I sha’n’t never
\nbe lonely no more!” And when the meeting closed and she took her way home
\nacross the moors, all the time the happy refrain went on, “Ah, Lord Jesus,
\nthee art going home with me tonight. Never mind, Lord Jesus, old Betty won’t
\nnever let thee go again now, I knows I have got thee!”
\n As her faith thus laid hold of the fact of His presence she began to
\nrejoice in it more and more, until finally, when she had reached her cottage
\ndoor, her soul was full of delight. As she opened the door, the first object
\nher eyes rested upon was a great pot of ale on the table ready for selling.
\nAt once it flashed into her mind, “The Lord will not like to have that ale
\nin the house where He lives,” and her whole heart responded eagerly, “That
\nale shall go.” She knew the pot was heavy, and she kneeled beside it saying,
\n“Lord, thee hast come home with me, and thee art going to live with me
\nalways in this cottage, and I know thee don’t like this ale. Please give me
\nstrength to tip it over into the road.” Strength was given, and the ale was
\nsoon running down the lane. Then the old woman came back into her cottage,
\nand kneeling down again thanked the Lord for the strength given, and added,
\n“Now, Lord, if there is anything else in this cottage that thee does not
\nlike, show it to me, and it shall be tipped out too.”
\n Is not this a perfect illustration of the close of our Psalm? “Do not I
\nhate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise
\nup against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred; I count them mine
\nenemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts;
\nand see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
\neverlasting.”
\n Just as light drives out darkness, so does the realized presence of God
\ndrive out sin, and the soul that by faith abides in His presence knows a
\nvery real and wonderful deliverance.
\n And now I trust that some will ask, “How can I find this presence to be
\nreal to myself?” I will close, therefore, with a few practical directions.
\n First, convince yourself from the Scriptures that it is a fact. Facts
\nmust always be the foundation of our experiences, or the experiences are
\nworthless. It is not the feeling that causes the fact, but the fact that
\nproduces the feeling. And what every soul needs in this case first of all,
\nis to be convinced beyond question, from God’s own words about it, that His
\ncontinual presence with us is an unalterable fact.
\n Then, this point having been settled, the next thing to do is to make
\nit real to ourselves by “practising His presence,” as an old writer
\nexpresses it, always and everywhere, and in everything. This means simply
\nthat you are to obey the Scripture command, and “in all your ways
\nacknowledge Him,” by saying over each hour and moment, “The Lord is here,”
\nand by doing everything you do, even if only eating and drinking, in His
\npresence and for Him. Literally, “whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or
\nwhatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
\n By this continual “practice of His presence,” the soul at last acquires
\na habit of faith; and it becomes, finally, as difficult to doubt His
\npresence as it was at first to believe it.
\n No great effort is required for this, but simply an unwavering faith.
\nIt is not studied reasonings or elaborate meditations that will help you
\nhere. The soul must recognize, by an act of simple faith, that God is
\npresent, and must then accustom itself to a continual conversation with Him
\nabout all its affairs, in freedom and simplicity. He does not require great
\nthings of us. A little remembrance of His presence, a few words of love and
\nconfidence, a momentary lifting of the heart to Him from time to time as we
\ngo about our daily affairs, a constant appeal to Him in everything as to a
\npresent and loving friend and helper, an endeavor to live in a continual
\nsense of His presence, and a letting of our hearts “dwell at ease” because
\nof it, — this is all He asks; the least little remembrance is welcome to
\nHim, and helps to make His presence real to us.
\n Whoever will be faithful in this exercise will soon be led into a
\nblessed realization of all I have been trying to tell in this book, and of
\nfar more that I cannot tell; and will understand in a way beyond telling,
\nthose wonderful words concerning our Lord, “They shall call His name
\nEmmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life * Contents o THE CHRISTIANS SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE + Preface + Chapter 1 + Chapter 2 + Chapter 3 + Chapter 4 + Chapter 5 + Chapter 6 + Chapter 7 + Chapter 8 + Chapter 9 + Chapter 10 + Chapter 11 + Chapter 12 +…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}