__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Title: Kept for the Master’s Use<\/p>\n
Creator(s): Havergal, Frances Ridley<\/p>\n
Print Basis: Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895<\/p>\n
Rights: Public domain.<\/p>\n
LC Call no: BV467<\/p>\n
LC Subjects:<\/p>\n
Practical theology<\/p>\n
Worship (Public and Private) Including the church year, Christian<\/p>\n
symbols, liturgy, prayer, hymnology<\/p>\n
Hymnology<\/p>\n
Hymns in languages other than English<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Kept for the Master’s Use–Havergal<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Kept for<\/p>\n
the Master’s<\/p>\n
Use<\/p>\n
By<\/p>\n
Frances Ridley<\/p>\n
Havergal<\/p>\n
Philadelphia<\/p>\n
Henry Altemus Company<\/p>\n
Copyrighted 1895, by Henry Altemus.<\/p>\n
HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER,<\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
CONTENTS.<\/p>\n
[1]I. Our Lives kept for Jesus, 9<\/p>\n
[2]II. Our Moments kept for Jesus, 26<\/p>\n
[3]III. Our Hands kept for Jesus, 34<\/p>\n
[4]IV. Our Feet kept for Jesus, 46<\/p>\n
[5]V. Our Voices kept for Jesus, 51<\/p>\n
[6]VI. Our Lips kept for Jesus, 66<\/p>\n
[7]VII. Our Silver and Gold kept for Jesus, 79<\/p>\n
[8]VIII. Our Intellects kept for Jesus, 91<\/p>\n
[9]IX. Our Wills kept for Jesus, 96<\/p>\n
[10]X. Our Hearts kept for Jesus, 104<\/p>\n
[11]XI. Our Love kept for Jesus, 109<\/p>\n
[12]XII. Our Selves kept for Jesus, 115<\/p>\n
[13]XIII. Christ for us, 122<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
PREFATORY NOTE.<\/p>\n
My beloved sister Frances finished revising the proofs of this book<\/p>\n
shortly before her death on Whit Tuesday, June 3, 1879, but its<\/p>\n
publication was to be deferred till the Autumn.<\/p>\n
In appreciation of the deep and general sympathy flowing in to her<\/p>\n
relatives, they wish that its publication should not be withheld.<\/p>\n
Knowing her intense desire that Christ should be magnified, whether by<\/p>\n
her life or in her death, may it be to His glory that in these pages<\/p>\n
she, being dead,<\/p>\n
Yet speaketh!’<\/p>\n
MARIA V. G. HAVERGAL.<\/p>\n
Oakhampton, Worchestershire.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
KEPT<\/p>\n
FOR<\/p>\n
The Master’s Use.<\/p>\n
Take my life, and let it be<\/p>\n
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.<\/p>\n
Take my moments and my days;<\/p>\n
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.<\/p>\n
Take my hands, and let them move<\/p>\n
At the impulse of Thy love.<\/p>\n
Take my feet, and let them be<\/p>\n
Swift and beautiful’ for Thee.<\/p>\n
Take my voice, and let me sing<\/p>\n
Always, only, for my King.<\/p>\n
Take my lips and let them be<\/p>\n
Filled with messages from Thee.<\/p>\n
Take my silver and my gold;<\/p>\n
Not a mite would I withhold.<\/p>\n
Take my intellect, and use<\/p>\n
Every power as Thou shalt choose.<\/p>\n
Take my will and make it Thine;<\/p>\n
It shall be no longer mine.<\/p>\n
Take my heart; it is Thine own;<\/p>\n
It shall be Thy royal throne.<\/p>\n
Take my love; my Lord, I pour<\/p>\n
At Thy feet its treasure-store.<\/p>\n
Take myself, and I will be<\/p>\n
Ever, only, ALL for Thee.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
CHAPTER I.<\/p>\n
Our Lives kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my life, that it may be<\/p>\n
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.’<\/p>\n
Many a heart has echoed the little song:<\/p>\n
Take my life, and let it be<\/p>\n
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!’<\/p>\n
And yet those echoes have not been, in every case and at all times, so<\/p>\n
clear, and full, and firm, so continuously glad as we would wish, and<\/p>\n
perhaps expected. Some of us have said:<\/p>\n
I launch me forth upon a sea<\/p>\n
Of boundless love and tenderness;’<\/p>\n
and after a little we have found, or fancied, that there is a hidden<\/p>\n
leak in our barque, and though we are doubtless still afloat, yet we<\/p>\n
are not sailing with the same free, exultant confidence as at first.<\/p>\n
What is it that has dulled and weakened the echo of our consecration<\/p>\n
song? what is the little leak that hinders the swift and buoyant course<\/p>\n
of our consecrated life? Holy Father, let Thy loving spirit guide the<\/p>\n
hand that writes, and strengthen the heart of every one who reads what<\/p>\n
shall be written, for Jesus’ sake.<\/p>\n
While many a sorrowfully varied answer to these questions may, and<\/p>\n
probably will, arise from touched and sensitive consciences, each being<\/p>\n
shown by God’s faithful Spirit the special sin, the special yielding to<\/p>\n
temptation which has hindered and spoiled the blessed life which they<\/p>\n
sought to enter and enjoy, it seems to me that one or other of two<\/p>\n
things has lain at the outset of the failure and disappointment.<\/p>\n
First, it may have arisen from want of the simplest belief in the<\/p>\n
simplest fact, as well as want of trust in one of the simplest and<\/p>\n
plainest words our gracious Master ever uttered! The unbelieved fact<\/p>\n
being simply that He hears us; the untrusted word being one of those<\/p>\n
plain, broad foundation-stones on which we rested our whole weight, it<\/p>\n
may be many years ago, and which we had no idea we ever doubted, or<\/p>\n
were in any danger of doubting now,–Him that cometh to Me I will in no<\/p>\n
wise cast out.’<\/p>\n
Take my life!’ We have said it or sung it before the Lord, it may be<\/p>\n
many times; but if it were only once whispered in His ear with full<\/p>\n
purpose of heart, should we not believe that He heard it? And if we<\/p>\n
know that He heard it, should we not believe that He has answered it,<\/p>\n
and fulfilled this, our heart’s desire? For with Him hearing means<\/p>\n
heeding. Then why should we doubt that He did verily take our lives<\/p>\n
when we offered them–our bodies when we presented them? Have we not<\/p>\n
been wronging His faithfulness all this time by practically, even if<\/p>\n
unconsciously, doubting whether the prayer ever really reached Him? And<\/p>\n
if so, is it any wonder that we have not realized all the power and joy<\/p>\n
of full consecration? By some means or other He has to teach us to<\/p>\n
trust implicitly at every step of the way. And so, if we did not really<\/p>\n
trust in this matter, He has had to let us find out our want of trust<\/p>\n
by withholding the sensible part of the blessing, and thus stirring us<\/p>\n
up to find out why it is withheld.<\/p>\n
An offered gift must be either accepted or refused. Can He have refused<\/p>\n
it when He has said, Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out’?<\/p>\n
If not, then it must have been accepted. It is just the same process as<\/p>\n
when we came to Him first of all, with the intolerable burden of our<\/p>\n
sins. There was no help for it but to come with them to Him, and take<\/p>\n
His word for it that He would not and did not cast us out. And so<\/p>\n
coming, so believing, we found rest to our souls; we found that His<\/p>\n
word was true, and that His taking away our sins was a reality.<\/p>\n
Some give their lives to Him then and there, and go forth to live<\/p>\n
thenceforth not at all unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them.<\/p>\n
This is as it should be, for conversion and consecration ought to be<\/p>\n
simultaneous. But practically it is not very often so, except with<\/p>\n
those in whom the bringing out of darkness into marvellous light has<\/p>\n
been sudden and dazzling, and full of deepest contrasts. More<\/p>\n
frequently the work resembles the case of the Hebrew servant described<\/p>\n
in Exodus xxi., who, after six years’ experience of a good master’s<\/p>\n
service, dedicates himself voluntarily, unreservedly, and irrevocably<\/p>\n
to it, saying, I love my master; I will not go out free;’ the master<\/p>\n
then accepting and sealing him to a life-long service, free in law, yet<\/p>\n
bound in love. This seems to be a figure of later consecration founded<\/p>\n
on experience and love.<\/p>\n
And yet, as at our first coming, it is less than nothing, worse than<\/p>\n
nothing that we have to bring; for our lives, even our redeemed and<\/p>\n
pardoned lives, are not only weak and worthless, but defiled and<\/p>\n
sinful. But thanks be to God for the Altar that sanctifieth the gift,<\/p>\n
even our Lord Jesus Christ Himself! By Him we draw nigh unto God; to<\/p>\n
Him, as one with the Father, we offer our living sacrifice; in Him, as<\/p>\n
the Beloved of the Father, we know it is accepted. So, dear friends,<\/p>\n
when once He has wrought in us the desire to be altogether His own, and<\/p>\n
put into our hearts the prayer, Take my life,’ let us go on our way<\/p>\n
rejoicing, believing that He has taken our lives, our hands, our feet,<\/p>\n
our voices, our intellects, our wills, our whole selves, to be ever,<\/p>\n
only, all for Him. Let us consider that a blessedly settled thing; not<\/p>\n
because of anything we have felt, or said, or done, but because we know<\/p>\n
that He heareth us, and because we know that He is true to His word.<\/p>\n
But suppose our hearts do not condemn us in this matter, our<\/p>\n
disappointment may arise from another cause. It may be that we have not<\/p>\n
received, because we have not asked a fuller and further blessing.<\/p>\n
Suppose that we did believe, thankfully and surely, that the Lord heard<\/p>\n
our prayer, and that He did indeed answer and accept us, and set us<\/p>\n
apart for Himself; and yet we find that our consecration was not merely<\/p>\n
miserably incomplete, but that we have drifted back again almost to<\/p>\n
where we were before. Or suppose things are not quite so bad as that,<\/p>\n
still we have not quite all we expected; and even if we think we can<\/p>\n
truly say, O God, my heart is fixed,’ we find that, to our daily<\/p>\n
sorrow, somehow or other the details of our conduct do not seem to be<\/p>\n
fixed, something or other is perpetually slipping through, till we get<\/p>\n
perplexed and distressed. Then we are tempted to wonder whether after<\/p>\n
all there was not some mistake about it, and the Lord did not really<\/p>\n
take us at our word, although we took Him at His word. And then the<\/p>\n
struggle with one doubt, and entanglement, and temptation only seems to<\/p>\n
land us in another. What is to be done then?<\/p>\n
First, I think, very humbly and utterly honestly to search and try our<\/p>\n
ways before our God, or rather, as we shall soon realize our<\/p>\n
helplessness to make such a search, ask Him to do it for us, praying<\/p>\n
for His promised Spirit to show us unmistakably if there is any secret<\/p>\n
thing with us that is hindering both the inflow and outflow of His<\/p>\n
grace to us and through us. Do not let us shrink from some unexpected<\/p>\n
flash into a dark corner; do not let us wince at the sudden touching of<\/p>\n
a hidden plague-spot. The Lord always does His own work thoroughly if<\/p>\n
we will only let Him do it; if we put our case into His hands, He will<\/p>\n
search and probe fully and firmly, though very tenderly. Very<\/p>\n
painfully, it may be, but only that He may do the very thing we<\/p>\n
want,–cleanse us and heal us thoroughly, so that we may set off to<\/p>\n
walk in real newness of life. But if we do not put it unreservedly into<\/p>\n
His hands, it will be no use thinking or talking about our lives being<\/p>\n
consecrated to Him. The heart that is not entrusted to Him for<\/p>\n
searching, will not be undertaken by Him for cleansing; the life that<\/p>\n
fears to come to the light lest any deed should be reproved, can never<\/p>\n
know the blessedness and the privileges of walking in the light.<\/p>\n
But what then? When He has graciously again put a new song in our<\/p>\n
mouth, and we are singing,<\/p>\n
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,<\/p>\n
Who like me His praise should sing?’<\/p>\n
and again with fresh earnestness we are saying,<\/p>\n
Take my life, and let it be<\/p>\n
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!’<\/p>\n
are we only to look forward to the same disappointing experience over<\/p>\n
again? are we always to stand at the threshold? Consecration is not so<\/p>\n
much a step as a course; not so much an act, as a position to which a<\/p>\n
course of action inseparably belongs. In so far as it is a course and a<\/p>\n
position, there must naturally be a definite entrance upon it, and a<\/p>\n
time, it may be a moment, when that entrance is made. That is when we<\/p>\n
say, Take’; but we do not want to go on taking a first step over and<\/p>\n
over again. What we want now is to be maintained in that position, and<\/p>\n
to fulfil that course. So let us go on to another prayer. Having<\/p>\n
already said, Take my life, for I cannot give it to Thee,’ let us now<\/p>\n
say, with deepened conviction, that without Christ we really can do<\/p>\n
nothing,–Keep my life, for I cannot keep it for Thee.’<\/p>\n
Let us ask this with the same simple trust to which, in so many other<\/p>\n
things, He has so liberally and graciously responded. For this is the<\/p>\n
confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to<\/p>\n
His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we<\/p>\n
ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. There<\/p>\n
can be no doubt that this petition is according to His will, because it<\/p>\n
is based upon many a promise. May I give it to you just as it floats<\/p>\n
through my own mind again and again, knowing whom I have believed, and<\/p>\n
being persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed<\/p>\n
unto Him?<\/p>\n
Keep my life, that it may be<\/p>\n
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.<\/p>\n
Keep my moments and my days;<\/p>\n
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.<\/p>\n
Keep my hands, that they may move<\/p>\n
At the impulse of Thy love.<\/p>\n
Keep my feet, that they may be<\/p>\n
Swift and beautiful’ for Thee.<\/p>\n
Keep my voice, that I may sing<\/p>\n
Always, only, for my King.<\/p>\n
Keep my lips, that they may be<\/p>\n
Filled with messages from Thee.<\/p>\n
Keep my silver and my gold;<\/p>\n
Not a mite would I withhold.<\/p>\n
Keep my intellect, and use<\/p>\n
Every power as Thou shalt choose.<\/p>\n
Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine!<\/p>\n
For it is no longer mine.<\/p>\n
Keep my heart; it is Thine own;<\/p>\n
It is now Thy royal throne.<\/p>\n
Keep my love; my Lord, I pour<\/p>\n
At Thy feet its treasure-store.<\/p>\n
Keep myself, that I may be<\/p>\n
Ever, only, ALL for Thee.<\/p>\n
Yes! He who is able and willing to take unto Himself, is no less able<\/p>\n
and willing to keep for Himself. Our willing offering has been made by<\/p>\n
His enabling grace, and this our King has seen with joy.’ And now we<\/p>\n
pray, Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the<\/p>\n
heart of Thy people’ (1 Chron. xxix. 17, 18).<\/p>\n
This blessed taking,’ once for all, which we may quietly believe as an<\/p>\n
accomplished fact, followed by the continual keeping,’ for which He<\/p>\n
will be continually inquired of by us, seems analogous to the great<\/p>\n
washing by which we have part in Christ, and the repeated washing of<\/p>\n
the feet for which we need to be continually coming to Him. For with<\/p>\n
the deepest and sweetest consciousness that He has indeed taken our<\/p>\n
lives to be His very own, the need of His active and actual keeping of<\/p>\n
them in every detail and at every moment is most fully realized. But<\/p>\n
then we have the promise of our faithful God, I the Lord do keep it, I<\/p>\n
will keep it night and day.’ The only question is, will we trust this<\/p>\n
promise, or will we not? If we do, we shall find it come true. If not,<\/p>\n
of course it will not be realized. For unclaimed promises are like<\/p>\n
uncashed cheques; they will keep us from bankruptcy, but not from want.<\/p>\n
But if not, why not? What right have we to pick out one of His faithful<\/p>\n
sayings, and say we don’t expect Him to fulfil that? What defence can<\/p>\n
we bring, what excuse can we invent, for so doing?<\/p>\n
If you appeal to experience against His faithfulness to His word, I<\/p>\n
will appeal to experience too, and ask you, did you ever really trust<\/p>\n
Jesus to fulfil any word of His to you, and find your trust deceived?<\/p>\n
As to the past experience of the details of your life not being kept<\/p>\n
for Jesus, look a little more closely at it, and you will find that<\/p>\n
though you may have asked, you did not trust. Whatever you did really<\/p>\n
trust Him to keep, He has kept, and the unkept things were never really<\/p>\n
entrusted. Scrutinize this past experience as you will, and it will<\/p>\n
only bear witness against your unfaithfulness, never against His<\/p>\n
absolute faithfulness.<\/p>\n
Yet this witness must not be unheeded. We must not forget the things<\/p>\n
that are behind till they are confessed and forgiven. Let us now bring<\/p>\n
all this unsatisfactory past experience, and, most of all, the want of<\/p>\n
trust which has been the poison-spring of its course, to the precious<\/p>\n
blood of Christ, which cleanseth us, even us, from all sin, even this<\/p>\n
sin. Perhaps we never saw that we were not trusting Jesus as He<\/p>\n
deserves to be trusted; if so, let us wonderingly hate ourselves the<\/p>\n
more that we could be so trustless to such a Saviour, and so sinfully<\/p>\n
dark and stupid that we did not even see it. And oh, let us wonderingly<\/p>\n
love Him the more that He has been so patient and gentle with us,<\/p>\n
upbraiding not, though in our slow-hearted foolishness we have been<\/p>\n
grieving Him by this subtle unbelief, and then, by His grace, may we<\/p>\n
enter upon a new era of experience, our lives kept for Him more fully<\/p>\n
than ever before, because we trust Him more simply and unreservedly to<\/p>\n
keep them!<\/p>\n
Here we must face a question, and perhaps a difficulty. Does it not<\/p>\n
almost seem as if we were at this point led to trusting to our trust,<\/p>\n
making everything hinge upon it, and thereby only removing a subtle<\/p>\n
dependence upon ourselves one step farther back, disguising instead of<\/p>\n
renouncing it? If Christ’s keeping depends upon our trusting, and our<\/p>\n
continuing to trust depends upon ourselves, we are in no better or<\/p>\n
safer position than before, and shall only be landed in a fresh series<\/p>\n
of disappointments. The old story, something for the sinner to do,<\/p>\n
crops up again here, only with the ground shifted from works’ to trust.<\/p>\n
Said a friend to me, I see now! I did trust Jesus to do everything else<\/p>\n
for me, but I thought that this trusting was something that I had got<\/p>\n
to do.’ And so, of course, what she had got to do’ had been a perpetual<\/p>\n
effort and frequent failure. We can no more trust and keep on trusting<\/p>\n
than we can do anything else of ourselves. Even in this it must be<\/p>\n
Jesus only’; we are not to look to Him only to be the Author and<\/p>\n
Finisher of our faith, but we are to look to Him for all the<\/p>\n
intermediate fulfilment of the work of faith (2 Thess. i. 11); we must<\/p>\n
ask Him to go on fulfilling it in us, committing even this to His<\/p>\n
power.<\/p>\n
For we both may and must<\/p>\n
Commit our very faith to Him,<\/p>\n
Entrust to him our trust.<\/p>\n
What a long time it takes us to come down to the conviction, and still<\/p>\n
more to the realization of the fact that without Him we can do nothing,<\/p>\n
but that He must work all our works in us! This is the work of God,<\/p>\n
that ye believe in Him whom He has sent. And no less must it be the<\/p>\n
work of God that we go on believing, and that we go on trusting. Then,<\/p>\n
dear friends, who are longing to trust Him with unbroken and unwavering<\/p>\n
trust, cease the effort and drop the burden, and now entrust your trust<\/p>\n
to Him! He is just as well able to keep that as any other part of the<\/p>\n
complex lives which we want Him to take and keep for Himself. And oh,<\/p>\n
do not pass on content with the thought, Yes, that is a good idea;<\/p>\n
perhaps I should find that a great help!’ But, Now, then, do it.’ It is<\/p>\n
no help to the sailor to see a flash of light across a dark sea, if he<\/p>\n
does not instantly steer accordingly.<\/p>\n
Consecration is not a religiously selfish thing. If it sinks into that,<\/p>\n
it ceases to be consecration. We want our lives kept, not that we may<\/p>\n
feel happy, and be saved the distress consequent on wandering, and get<\/p>\n
the power with God and man, and all the other privileges linked with<\/p>\n
it. We shall have all this, because the lower is included in the<\/p>\n
higher; but our true aim, if the love of Christ constraineth us, will<\/p>\n
be far beyond this. Not for me’ at all but for Jesus’; not for my<\/p>\n
safety, but for His glory; not for my comfort, but for His joy; not<\/p>\n
that I may find rest, but that He may see the travail of His soul, and<\/p>\n
be satisfied! Yes, for Him I want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept<\/p>\n
for His use; kept to be His witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him,<\/p>\n
that in me He may show forth some tiny sparkle of His light and beauty;<\/p>\n
kept to do His will and His work in His own way; kept, it may be, to<\/p>\n
suffer for His sake; kept for Him, that He may do just what seemeth Him<\/p>\n
good with me; kept, so that no other lord shall have any more dominion<\/p>\n
over me, but that Jesus shall have all there is to have;–little<\/p>\n
enough, indeed, but not divided or diminished by any other claim. Is<\/p>\n
not this, O you who love the Lord–is not this worth living for, worth<\/p>\n
asking for, worth trusting for?<\/p>\n
This is consecration, and I cannot tell you the blessedness of it. It<\/p>\n
is not the least use arguing with one who has had but a taste of its<\/p>\n
blessedness, and saying to him, How can these things be?’ It is not the<\/p>\n
least use starting all sorts of difficulties and theoretical<\/p>\n
suppositions about it with such a one, any more than it was when the<\/p>\n
Jews argued with the man who said, One thing I know, that whereas I was<\/p>\n
blind, now I see.’ The Lord Jesus does take the life that is offered to<\/p>\n
Him, and He does keep the life for Himself that is entrusted to Him;<\/p>\n
but until the life is offered we cannot know the taking, and until the<\/p>\n
life is entrusted we cannot know or understand the keeping. All we can<\/p>\n
do is to say, O taste and see!’ and bear witness to the reality of<\/p>\n
Jesus Christ, and set to our seal that we have found Him true to His<\/p>\n
every word, and that we have proved Him able even to do exceeding<\/p>\n
abundantly above all we asked or thought. Why should we hesitate to<\/p>\n
bear this testimony? We have done nothing at all; we have, in all our<\/p>\n
efforts, only proved to ourselves, and perhaps to others, that we had<\/p>\n
no power either to give or keep our lives. Why should we not, then,<\/p>\n
glorify His grace by acknowledging that we have found Him so<\/p>\n
wonderfully and tenderly gracious and faithful in both taking and<\/p>\n
keeping as we never supposed or imagined? I shall never forget the<\/p>\n
smile and emphasis with which a poor working man bore this witness to<\/p>\n
his Lord. I said to him, Well, H., we have a good Master, have we not?’<\/p>\n
Ah,’ said he, a deal better than ever I thought!’ That summed up his<\/p>\n
experience, and so it will sum up the experience of every one who will<\/p>\n
but yield their lives wholly to the same good Master.<\/p>\n
I cannot close this chapter without a word with those, especially my<\/p>\n
younger friends, who, although they have named the name of Christ, are<\/p>\n
saying, Yes, this is all very well for some people, or for older<\/p>\n
people, but I am not ready for it; I can’t say I see my way to this<\/p>\n
sort of thing.’ I am going to take the lowest ground for a minute, and<\/p>\n
appeal to your past experience.’ Are you satisfied with your experience<\/p>\n
of the other sort of thing’? Your pleasant pursuits, your harmless<\/p>\n
recreations, your nice occupations, even your improving ones, what<\/p>\n
fruit are you having from them? Your social intercourse, your daily<\/p>\n
talks and walks, your investments of all the time that remains to you<\/p>\n
over and above the absolute duties God may have given you, what fruit<\/p>\n
that shall remain have you from all this? Day after day passes on, and<\/p>\n
year after year, and what shall the harvest be? What is even the<\/p>\n
present return? Are you getting any real and lasting satisfaction out<\/p>\n
of it all? Are you not finding that things lose their flavour, and that<\/p>\n
you are spending your strength day after day for nought? that you are<\/p>\n
no more satisfied than you were a year ago–rather less so, if<\/p>\n
anything? Does not a sense of hollowness and weariness come over you as<\/p>\n
you go on in the same round, perpetually getting through things only to<\/p>\n
begin again? It cannot be otherwise. Over even the freshest and purest<\/p>\n
earthly fountains the Hand that never makes a mistake has written, He<\/p>\n
that drinketh of this water shall thirst again.’ Look into your own<\/p>\n
heart and you will find a copy of that inscription already traced,<\/p>\n
Shall thirst again.’ And the characters are being deepened with every<\/p>\n
attempt to quench the inevitable thirst and weariness in life, which<\/p>\n
can only be satisfied and rested in full consecration to God. For Thou<\/p>\n
hast made us for Thyself, and the heart never resteth till it findeth<\/p>\n
rest in Thee.’ To-day I tell you of a brighter and happier life, whose<\/p>\n
inscription is, Shall never thirst,’–a life that is no dull<\/p>\n
round-and-round in a circle of unsatisfactorinesses, but a life that<\/p>\n
has found its true and entirely satisfactory centre, and set itself<\/p>\n
towards a shining and entirely satisfactory goal, whose brightness is<\/p>\n
cast over every step of the way. Will you not seek it?<\/p>\n
Do not shrink, and suspect, and hang back from what it may involve,<\/p>\n
with selfish and unconfiding and ungenerous half-heartedness. Take the<\/p>\n
word of any who have willingly offered themselves unto the Lord, that<\/p>\n
the life of consecration is a deal better than they thought!’ Choose<\/p>\n
this day whom you will serve with real, thorough-going, whole-hearted<\/p>\n
service, and He will receive you; and you will find, as we have found,<\/p>\n
that He is such a good Master that you are satisfied with His goodness,<\/p>\n
and that you will never want to go out free. Nay, rather take His own<\/p>\n
word for it; see what He says: If they obey and serve Him, they shall<\/p>\n
spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.’ You<\/p>\n
cannot possibly understand that till you are really in His service! For<\/p>\n
He does not give, nor even show, His wages before you enter it. And He<\/p>\n
says, My servants shall sing for joy of heart.’ But you cannot try over<\/p>\n
that song to see what it is like, you cannot even read one bar of it,<\/p>\n
till your nominal or even promised service is exchanged for real and<\/p>\n
undivided consecration. But when He can call you My servant,’ then you<\/p>\n
will find yourself singing for joy of heart, because He says you shall.<\/p>\n
And who, then, is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the<\/p>\n
Lord?’<\/p>\n
Do not startle at the term, or think, because you do not understand all<\/p>\n
it may include, you are therefore not qualified for it. I dare say it<\/p>\n
comprehends a great deal more than either you or I understand, but we<\/p>\n
can both enter into the spirit of it, and the detail will unfold itself<\/p>\n
as long as our probation shall last. Christ demands a hearty<\/p>\n
consecration in will, and He will teach us what that involves in act.’<\/p>\n
This explains the paradox that full consecration’ may be in one sense<\/p>\n
the act of a moment, and in another the work of a lifetime. It must be<\/p>\n
complete to be real, and yet if real, it is always incomplete; a point<\/p>\n
of rest, and yet a perpetual progression.<\/p>\n
Suppose you make over a piece of ground to another person. You give it<\/p>\n
up, then and there, entirely to that other; it is no longer in your own<\/p>\n
possession; you no longer dig and sow, plant and reap, at your<\/p>\n
discretion or for your own profit. His occupation of it is total; no<\/p>\n
other has any right to an inch of it; it is his affair thenceforth what<\/p>\n
crops to arrange for and how to make the most of it. But his practical<\/p>\n
occupation of it may not appear all at once. There may be waste land<\/p>\n
which he will take into full cultivation only by degrees, space wasted<\/p>\n
for want of draining or by over fencing, and odd corners lost for want<\/p>\n
of enclosing; fields yielding smaller returns than they might because<\/p>\n
of hedgerows too wide and shady, and trees too many and spreading, and<\/p>\n
strips of good soil trampled into uselessness for want of defined<\/p>\n
pathways.<\/p>\n
Just so is it with our lives. The transaction of, so to speak, making<\/p>\n
them over to God is definite and complete. But then begins the<\/p>\n
practical development of consecration. And here He leads on softly,<\/p>\n
according as the children be able to endure.’ I do not suppose any one<\/p>\n
sees anything like all that it involves at the outset. We have not a<\/p>\n
notion what an amount of waste of power there has been in our lives; we<\/p>\n
never measured out the odd corners and the undrained bits, and it never<\/p>\n
occurred to us what good fruit might be grown in our straggling<\/p>\n
hedgerows, nor how the shade of our trees has been keeping the sun from<\/p>\n
the scanty crops. And so, season by season, we shall be sometimes not a<\/p>\n
little startled, yet always very glad, as we find that bit by bit the<\/p>\n
Master shows how much more may be made of our ground, how much more He<\/p>\n
is able to make of it than we did; and we shall be willing to work<\/p>\n
under Him and do exactly what He points out, even if it comes to<\/p>\n
cutting down a shady tree, or clearing out a ditch full of pretty weeds<\/p>\n
and wild-flowers.<\/p>\n
As the seasons pass on, it will seem as if there was always more and<\/p>\n
more to be done; the very fact that He is constantly showing us<\/p>\n
something more to be done in it, proving that it is really His ground.<\/p>\n
Only let Him have the ground, no matter how poor or overgrown the soil<\/p>\n
may be, and then He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert<\/p>\n
like the garden of the Lord.’ Yes, even our desert’! And then we shall<\/p>\n
sing, My beloved has gone down into His garden, to the beds of spices,<\/p>\n
to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies.’<\/p>\n
Made for Thyself, O God!<\/p>\n
Made for Thy love, Thy service, Thy delight;<\/p>\n
Made to show forth Thy wisdom, grace, and might;<\/p>\n
Made for Thy praise, whom veiled archangels laud:<\/p>\n
Oh, strange and glorious thought, that we may be<\/p>\n
A joy to Thee!<\/p>\n
Yet the heart turns away<\/p>\n
From this grand destiny of bliss, and deems<\/p>\n
‘Twas made for its poor self, for passing dreams,<\/p>\n
Chasing illusions melting day by day,<\/p>\n
Till for ourselves we read on this world’s best,<\/p>\n
This is not rest!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
CHAPTER II.<\/p>\n
Our Moments kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my moments and my days;<\/p>\n
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.’<\/p>\n
It may be a little help to writer and reader if we consider some of the<\/p>\n
practical details of the life which we desire to have kept for Jesus’<\/p>\n
in the order of the little hymn at the beginning of this book, with the<\/p>\n
one word take’ changed to keep.’ So we will take a couplet for each<\/p>\n
chapter.<\/p>\n
The first point that naturally comes up is that which is almost<\/p>\n
synonymous with life–our time. And this brings us at once face to face<\/p>\n
with one of our past difficulties, and its probable cause.<\/p>\n
When we take a wide sweep, we are so apt to be vague. When we are<\/p>\n
aiming at generalities we do not hit the practicalities. We forget that<\/p>\n
faithfulness to principle is only proved by faithfulness in detail. Has<\/p>\n
not this vagueness had something to do with the constant<\/p>\n
ineffectiveness of our feeble desire that our time should be devoted to<\/p>\n
God?<\/p>\n
In things spiritual, the greater does not always include the less, but,<\/p>\n
paradoxically, the less more often includes the greater. So in this<\/p>\n
case, time is entrusted to us to be traded with for our Lord. But we<\/p>\n
cannot grasp it as a whole. We instinctively break it up ere we can<\/p>\n
deal with it for any purpose. So when a new year comes round, we commit<\/p>\n
it with special earnestness to the Lord. But as we do so, are we not<\/p>\n
conscious of a feeling that even a year is too much for us to deal<\/p>\n
with? And does not this feeling, that we are dealing with a larger<\/p>\n
thing than we can grasp, take away from the sense of reality? Thus we<\/p>\n
are brought to a more manageable measure; and as the Sunday mornings or<\/p>\n
the Monday mornings come round, we thankfully commit the opening week<\/p>\n
to Him, and the sense of help and rest is renewed and strengthened. But<\/p>\n
not even the six or seven days are close enough to our hand; even<\/p>\n
to-morrow exceeds our tiny grasp, and even to-morrow’s grace is<\/p>\n
therefore not given to us. So we find the need of considering our lives<\/p>\n
as a matter of day by day, and that any more general committal and<\/p>\n
consecration of our time does not meet the case so truly. Here we have<\/p>\n
found much comfort and help, and if results have not been entirely<\/p>\n
satisfactory, they have, at least, been more so than before we reached<\/p>\n
this point of subdivision.<\/p>\n
But if we have found help and blessing by going a certain distance in<\/p>\n
one direction, is it not probable we shall find more if we go farther<\/p>\n
in the same? And so, if we may commit the days to our Lord, why not the<\/p>\n
hours, and why not the moments? And may we not expect a fresh and<\/p>\n
special blessing in so doing?<\/p>\n
We do not realize the importance of moments. Only let us consider those<\/p>\n
two sayings of God about them, In a moment shall they die,’ and, We<\/p>\n
shall all be changed in a moment,’ and we shall think less lightly of<\/p>\n
them. Eternal issues may hang upon any one of them, but it has come and<\/p>\n
gone before we can even think about it. Nothing seems less within the<\/p>\n
possibility of our own keeping, yet nothing is more inclusive of all<\/p>\n
other keeping. Therefore let us ask Him to keep them for us.<\/p>\n
Are they not the tiny joints in the harness through which the darts of<\/p>\n
temptation pierce us? Only give us time, we think, and we should not be<\/p>\n
overcome. Only give us time, and we could pray and resist, and the<\/p>\n
devil would flee from us! But he comes all in a moment; and in a<\/p>\n
moment–an unguarded, unkept one–we utter the hasty or exaggerated<\/p>\n
word, or think the un-Christ-like thought, or feel the un-Christ-like<\/p>\n
impatience or resentment.<\/p>\n
But even if we have gone so far as to say, Take my moments,’ have we<\/p>\n
gone the step farther, and really let Him take them–really entrusted<\/p>\n
them to Him? It is no good saying take,’ when we do not let go. How can<\/p>\n
another keep that which we are keeping hold of? So let us, with full<\/p>\n
trust in His power, first commit these slippery moments to Him,–put<\/p>\n
them right into His hand,–and then we may trustfully and happily say,<\/p>\n
Lord, keep them for me! Keep every one of the quick series as it<\/p>\n
arises. I cannot keep them for Thee; do Thou keep them for Thyself!’<\/p>\n
But the sanctified and Christ-loving heart cannot be satisfied with<\/p>\n
only negative keeping. We do not want only to be kept from displeasing<\/p>\n
Him, but to be kept always pleasing Him. Every kept from’ should have<\/p>\n
its corresponding and still more blessed kept for.’ We do not want our<\/p>\n
moments to be simply kept from Satan’s use, but kept for His use; we<\/p>\n
want them to be not only kept from sin, but kept for His praise.<\/p>\n
Do you ask, But what use can he make of mere moments?’ I will not stay<\/p>\n
to prove or illustrate the obvious truth that, as are the moments so<\/p>\n
will be the hours and the days which they build. You understand that<\/p>\n
well enough. I will answer your question as it stands.<\/p>\n
Look back through the history of the Church in all ages, and mark how<\/p>\n
often a great work and mighty influence grew out of a mere moment in<\/p>\n
the life of one of God’s servants; a mere moment, but overshadowed and<\/p>\n
filled with the fruitful power of the Spirit of God. The moment may<\/p>\n
have been spent in uttering five words, but they have fed five<\/p>\n
thousand, or even five hundred thousand. Or it may have been lit by the<\/p>\n
flash of a thought that has shone into hearts and homes throughout the<\/p>\n
land, and kindled torches that have been borne into earth’s darkest<\/p>\n
corners. The rapid speaker or the lonely thinker little guessed what<\/p>\n
use his Lord was making of that single moment. There was no room in it<\/p>\n
for even a thought of that. If that moment had not been, though perhaps<\/p>\n
unconsciously, kept for Jesus,’ but had been otherwise occupied, what a<\/p>\n
harvest to His praise would have been missed!<\/p>\n
The same thing is going on every day. It is generally a moment–either<\/p>\n
an opening or a culminating one–that really does the work. It is not<\/p>\n
so often a whole sermon as a single short sentence in it that wings<\/p>\n
God’s arrow to a heart. It is seldom a whole conversation that is the<\/p>\n
means of bringing about the desired result, but some sudden turn of<\/p>\n
thought or word, which comes with the electric touch of God’s power.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it is less than that; only a look (and what is more<\/p>\n
momentary?) has been used by Him for the pulling down of strongholds.<\/p>\n
Again, in our own quiet waiting upon God, as moment after moment glides<\/p>\n
past in the silence at His feet, the eye resting upon a page of His<\/p>\n
Word, or only looking up to Him through the darkness, have we not found<\/p>\n
that He can so irradiate one passing moment with His light that its<\/p>\n
rays never die away, but shine on and on through days and years? Are<\/p>\n
not such moments proved to have been kept for Him? And if some, why not<\/p>\n
all?<\/p>\n
This view of moments seems to make it clearer that it is impossible to<\/p>\n
serve two masters, for it is evident that the service of a moment<\/p>\n
cannot be divided. If it is occupied in the service of self, or any<\/p>\n
other master, it is not at the Lord’s disposal; He cannot make use of<\/p>\n
what is already occupied.<\/p>\n
Oh, how much we have missed by not placing them at his disposal! What<\/p>\n
might He not have done with the moments freighted with self or loaded<\/p>\n
with emptiness, which we have carelessly let drift by! Oh, what might<\/p>\n
have been if they had all been kept for Jesus! How He might have filled<\/p>\n
them with His light and life, enriching our own lives that have been<\/p>\n
impoverished by the waste, and using them in far-spreading blessing and<\/p>\n
power!<\/p>\n
While we have been undervaluing these fractions of eternity, what has<\/p>\n
our gracious God been doing in them? How strangely touching are the<\/p>\n
words, What is man, that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him, and<\/p>\n
that Thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?’<\/p>\n
Terribly solemn and awful would be the thought that He has been trying<\/p>\n
us every moment, were it not for the yearning gentleness and love of<\/p>\n
the Father revealed in that wonderful expression of wonder, What is<\/p>\n
man, that Thou shouldest set Thine heart upon him?’ Think of that<\/p>\n
ceaseless setting of His heart upon us, careless and forgetful children<\/p>\n
as we have been! And then think of those other words, none the less<\/p>\n
literally true because given under a figure: I, the Lord, do keep it; I<\/p>\n
will water it every moment.’<\/p>\n
We see something of God’s infinite greatness and wisdom when we try to<\/p>\n
fix our dazzled gaze on infinite space. But when we turn to the marvels<\/p>\n
of the microscope, we gain a clearer view and more definite grasp of<\/p>\n
these attributes by gazing on the perfection of His infinitesimal<\/p>\n
handiworks. Just so, while we cannot realize the infinite love which<\/p>\n
fills eternity, and the infinite vistas of the great future are dark<\/p>\n
with excess of light’ even to the strongest telescopes of faith, we see<\/p>\n
that love magnified in the microscope of the moments, brought very<\/p>\n
close to us, and revealing its unspeakable perfection of detail to our<\/p>\n
wondering sight.<\/p>\n
But we do not see this as long as the moments are kept in our own<\/p>\n
hands. We are like little children closing our fingers over diamonds.<\/p>\n
How can they receive and reflect the rays of light, analyzing them into<\/p>\n
all the splendour of their prismatic beauty, while they are kept shut<\/p>\n
up tight in the dirty little hands? Give them up; let our Father hold<\/p>\n
them for us, and throw His own great light upon them, and then we shall<\/p>\n
see them full of fair colours of His manifold loving-kindnesses; and<\/p>\n
let Him always keep them for us, and then we shall always see His light<\/p>\n
and His love reflected in them.<\/p>\n
And then, surely, they shall be filled with praise. Not that we are to<\/p>\n
be always singing hymns, and using the expressions of other people’s<\/p>\n
praise, any more than the saints in glory are always literally singing<\/p>\n
a new song. But praise will be the tone, the colour, the atmosphere in<\/p>\n
which they flow; none of them away from it or out of it.<\/p>\n
Is it a little too much for them all to flow in ceaseless praise’?<\/p>\n
Well, where will you stop? What proportion of your moments do you think<\/p>\n
enough for Jesus? How many for the spirit of praise, and how many for<\/p>\n
the spirit of heaviness? Be explicit about it, and come to an<\/p>\n
understanding. If He is not to have all, then how much? Calculate,<\/p>\n
balance, and apportion. You will not be able to do this in heaven–you<\/p>\n
know it will be all praise there; but you are free to halve your<\/p>\n
service of praise here, or to make the proportion what you will.<\/p>\n
Yet,–He made you for His glory.<\/p>\n
Yet,–He chose you that you should be to the praise of His glory.<\/p>\n
Yet,–He loves you every moment, waters you every moment, watches you<\/p>\n
unslumberingly, cares for you unceasingly.<\/p>\n
Yet,–He died for you!<\/p>\n
Dear friends, one can hardly write it without tears. Shall you or I<\/p>\n
remember all this love, and hesitate to give all our moments up to Him?<\/p>\n
Let us entrust Him with them, and ask Him to keep them all, every<\/p>\n
single one, for His own beloved self, and fill them all with His<\/p>\n
praise, and let them all be to His praise!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter III.<\/p>\n
Our Hands Kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my hands, that they may move<\/p>\n
At the impulse of Thy love.’<\/p>\n
When the Lord has said to us, Is thine heart right, as My heart is with<\/p>\n
thy heart?’ the next word seems to be, If it be, give Me thine hand.’<\/p>\n
What a call to confidence, and love, and free, loyal, happy service is<\/p>\n
this! and how different will the result of its acceptance be from the<\/p>\n
old lamentation: We labour and have no rest; we have given the hand to<\/p>\n
the Egyptians and to the Assyrians.’ In the service of these other<\/p>\n
lords,’ under whatever shape they have presented themselves, we shall<\/p>\n
have known something of the meaning of having both the hands full with<\/p>\n
travail and vexation of spirit.’ How many a thing have we taken in<\/p>\n
hand,’ as we say, which we expected to find an agreeable task, an<\/p>\n
interest in life, a something towards filling up that unconfessed<\/p>\n
aching void’ which is often most real when least acknowledged; and<\/p>\n
after a while we have found it change under our hands into irksome<\/p>\n
travail, involving perpetual vexation of spirit! The thing may have<\/p>\n
been of the earth and for the world, and then no wonder it failed to<\/p>\n
satisfy even the instinct of work, which comes natural to many of us.<\/p>\n
Or it may have been right enough in itself, something for the good of<\/p>\n
others so far as we understood their good, and unselfish in all but<\/p>\n
unravelled motive, and yet we found it full of tangled vexations,<\/p>\n
because the hands that held it were not simply consecrated to God.<\/p>\n
Well, if so, let us bring these soiled and tangle-making hands to the<\/p>\n
Lord, Let us lift up our heart with our hands’ to Him, asking Him to<\/p>\n
clear and cleanse them.<\/p>\n
If He says, What is that in thine hand?’ let us examine honestly<\/p>\n
whether it is something which He can use for His glory or not. If not,<\/p>\n
do not let us hesitate an instant about dropping it. It may be<\/p>\n
something we do not like to part with; but the Lord is able to give<\/p>\n
thee much more than this, and the first glimpse of the excellency of<\/p>\n
the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord will enable us to count those<\/p>\n
things loss which were gain to us.<\/p>\n
But if it is something which He can use, He will make us do ever so<\/p>\n
much more with it than before. Moses little thought what the Lord was<\/p>\n
going to make him do with that rod in his hand’! The first thing he had<\/p>\n
to do with it was to cast it on the ground,’ and see it pass through a<\/p>\n
startling change. After this he was commanded to take it up again, hard<\/p>\n
and terrifying as it was to do so. But when it became again a rod in<\/p>\n
his hand, it was no longer what it was before, the simple rod of a<\/p>\n
wandering desert shepherd. Henceforth it was the rod of God in his<\/p>\n
hand’ (Ex. iv. 20), wherewith he should do signs, and by which God<\/p>\n
Himself would do marvellous things’ (Ps. lxxviii. 12).<\/p>\n
If we look at any Old Testament text about consecration, we shall see<\/p>\n
that the marginal reading of the word is, fill the hand’ (e. g. Ex.<\/p>\n
xxviii. 41; 1 Chron. xxix. 5). Now, if our hands are full of other<\/p>\n
things,’ they cannot be filled with the things that are Jesus<\/p>\n
Christ’s’; there must be emptying before there can be any true filling.<\/p>\n
So if we are sorrowfully seeing that our hands have not been kept for<\/p>\n
Jesus, let us humbly begin at the beginning, and ask Him to empty them<\/p>\n
thoroughly, that He may fill them completely.<\/p>\n
For they must be emptied. Either we come to our Lord willingly about<\/p>\n
it, letting Him unclasp their hold, and gladly dropping the glittering<\/p>\n
weights they have been carrying, or, in very love, He will have to<\/p>\n
force them open, and wrench from the reluctant grasp the earthly<\/p>\n
things’ which are so occupying them that He cannot have His rightful<\/p>\n
use of them. There is only one other alternative, a terrible one,–to<\/p>\n
be let alone till the day comes when not a gentle Master, but the<\/p>\n
relentless king of terrors shall empty the trembling hands as our feet<\/p>\n
follow him out of the busy world into the dark valley, for it is<\/p>\n
certain we can carry nothing out.’<\/p>\n
Yet the emptying and the filling are not all that has to be considered.<\/p>\n
Before the hands of the priests could be filled with the emblems of<\/p>\n
consecration, they had to be laid upon the emblem of atonement (Lev.<\/p>\n
viii. 14, etc.). That came first. Aaron and his sons laid their hands<\/p>\n
upon the head of the bullock for the sin-offering.’ So the transference<\/p>\n
of guilt to our Substitute, typified by that act, must precede the<\/p>\n
dedication of ourselves to God.<\/p>\n
My faith would lay her hand<\/p>\n
On that dear head of Thine,<\/p>\n
While like a penitent I stand,<\/p>\n
And there confess my sin.’<\/p>\n
The blood of that Holy Substitute was shed to make reconciliation upon<\/p>\n
the altar.’ Without that reconciliation we cannot offer and present<\/p>\n
ourselves to God; but this being made, Christ Himself presents us. And<\/p>\n
you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked<\/p>\n
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through<\/p>\n
death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His<\/p>\n
sight.<\/p>\n
Then Moses brought the ram for the burnt-offering; and Aaron and his<\/p>\n
sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram, and Moses burnt the<\/p>\n
whole ram upon the altar; it was a burnt-offering for a sweet savour,<\/p>\n
and an offering made by fire unto the Lord.’ Thus Christ’s offering was<\/p>\n
indeed a whole one, body, soul, and spirit, each and all suffering even<\/p>\n
unto death. These atoning sufferings, accepted by God for us, are, by<\/p>\n
our own free act, accepted by us as the ground of our acceptance.<\/p>\n
Then, reconciled and accepted, we are ready for consecration; for then<\/p>\n
he brought the other ram; the ram of consecration; and Aaron and his<\/p>\n
sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.’ Here we see Christ,<\/p>\n
who is consecrated for evermore.’ We enter by faith into union with Him<\/p>\n
who said, For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be<\/p>\n
sanctified through the truth.’<\/p>\n
After all this, their hands were filled with consecrations for a sweet<\/p>\n
savour,’ so, after laying the hand of our faith upon Christ, suffering<\/p>\n
and dying for us, we are to lay that very same hand of faith, and in<\/p>\n
the very same way, upon Him as consecrated for us, to be the source and<\/p>\n
life and power of our consecration. And then our hands shall be filled<\/p>\n
with consecrations,’ filled with Christ, and filled with all that is a<\/p>\n
sweet savour to God in Him.<\/p>\n
And who then is willing to fill his hand this day unto the Lord?’ Do<\/p>\n
you want an added motive? Listen again: Fill your hands to-day to the<\/p>\n
Lord, that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.’ Not a long time<\/p>\n
hence, not even to-morrow, but this day.’ Do you not want a blessing?<\/p>\n
Is not your answer to your Father’s What wilt thou?’ the same as<\/p>\n
Achsah’s, Give me a blessing!’ Here is His promise of just what you so<\/p>\n
want; will you not gladly fulfil His condition? A blessing shall<\/p>\n
immediately follow. He does not specify what it shall be; He waits to<\/p>\n
reveal it. You will find it such a blessing as you had not supposed<\/p>\n
could be for you–a blessing that shall verily make you rich, with no<\/p>\n
sorrow added–a blessing this day.<\/p>\n
All that has been said about consecration applies to our literal<\/p>\n
members. Stay a minute, and look at your hand, the hand that holds this<\/p>\n
little book as you read it. See how wonderfully it is made; how<\/p>\n
perfectly fitted for what it has to do; how ingeniously connected with<\/p>\n
the brain, so as to yield that instantaneous and instinctive obedience<\/p>\n
without which its beautiful mechanism would be very little good to us!<\/p>\n
Your hand, do you say? Whether it is soft and fair with an easy life,<\/p>\n
or rough and strong with a working one, or white and weak with illness,<\/p>\n
it is the Lord Jesus Christ’s. It is not your own at all; it belongs to<\/p>\n
Him. He made it, for without Him was not anything made that was made,<\/p>\n
not even your hand. And He has the added right of purchase–He has<\/p>\n
bought it that it might be one of His own instruments. We know this<\/p>\n
very well, but have we realized it? Have we really let Him have the use<\/p>\n
of these hands of ours? and have we ever simply and sincerely asked Him<\/p>\n
to keep them for His own use?<\/p>\n
Does this mean that we are always to be doing some definitely<\/p>\n
religious’ work, as it is called? No, but that all that we do is to be<\/p>\n
always definitely done for Him. There is a great difference. If the<\/p>\n
hands are indeed moving at the impulse of His love,’ the simplest<\/p>\n
little duties and acts are transfigured into holy service to the Lord.<\/p>\n
A servant with this clause<\/p>\n
Makes drudgery divine;<\/p>\n
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,<\/p>\n
Makes that and the action fine.’<\/p>\n
George Herbert.<\/p>\n
A Christian school-girl loves Jesus; she wants to please Him all day<\/p>\n
long, and so she practices her scales carefully and conscientiously. It<\/p>\n
is at the impulse of His love that her fingers move so steadily through<\/p>\n
the otherwise tiresome exercises. Some day her Master will find a use<\/p>\n
for her music; but meanwhile it may be just as really done unto Him as<\/p>\n
if it were Mr. Sankey at his organ, swaying the hearts of thousands.<\/p>\n
The hand of a Christian lad traces his Latin verses, or his figures, or<\/p>\n
his copying. He is doing his best, because a banner has been given him<\/p>\n
that it may be displayed, not so much by talk as by continuance in<\/p>\n
well-doing. And so, for Jesus’ sake, his hand moves accurately and<\/p>\n
perseveringly.<\/p>\n
A busy wife, or daughter, or servant has a number of little manual<\/p>\n
duties to perform. If these are done slowly and leisurely, they may be<\/p>\n
got through, but there will not be time left for some little service to<\/p>\n
the poor, or some little kindness to a suffering or troubled neighbour,<\/p>\n
or for a little quiet time alone with God and His word. And so the<\/p>\n
hands move quickly, impelled by the loving desire for service or<\/p>\n
communion, kept in busy motion for Jesus’ sake. Or it may be that the<\/p>\n
special aim is to give no occasion of reproach to some who are<\/p>\n
watching, but so to adorn the doctrine that those may be won by the<\/p>\n
life who will not be won by the word. Then the hands will have their<\/p>\n
share to do; they will move carefully, neatly, perhaps even elegantly,<\/p>\n
making every thing around as nice as possible, letting their<\/p>\n
intelligent touch be seen in the details of the home, and even of the<\/p>\n
dress, doing or arranging all the little things decently and in order<\/p>\n
for Jesus’ sake. And so on with every duty in every position.<\/p>\n
It may seem an odd idea, but a simple glance at one’s hand, with the<\/p>\n
recollection, This hand is not mine; it has been given to Jesus, and it<\/p>\n
must be kept for Jesus,’ may sometimes turn the scale in a doubtful<\/p>\n
matter, and be a safeguard from certain temptations. With that thought<\/p>\n
fresh in your mind as you look at your hand, can you let it take up<\/p>\n
things which, to say the very least, are not for Jesus’? things which<\/p>\n
evidently cannot be used, as they most certainly are not used, either<\/p>\n
for Him or by Him? Cards, for instance! Can you deliberately hold in it<\/p>\n
books of a kind which you know perfectly well, by sadly repeated<\/p>\n
experience, lead you farther from instead of nearer to Him? books which<\/p>\n
must and do fill your mind with those other things’ which, entering in,<\/p>\n
choke the word? books which you would not care to read at all, if your<\/p>\n
heart were burning within you at the coming of His feet to bless you?<\/p>\n
Next time any temptation of this sort approaches, just look at your<\/p>\n
hand!<\/p>\n
It was of a literal hand that our Lord Jesus spoke when He said,<\/p>\n
Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table;’<\/p>\n
and, He that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the same shall<\/p>\n
betray Me.’ A hand so near to Jesus, with Him on the table, touching<\/p>\n
His own hand in the dish at that hour of sweetest, and closest, and<\/p>\n
most solemn intercourse, and yet betraying Him! That same hand taking<\/p>\n
the thirty pieces of silver! What a tremendous lesson of the need of<\/p>\n
keeping for our hands! Oh that every hand that is with Him at His<\/p>\n
sacramental table, and that takes the memorial bread, may be kept from<\/p>\n
any faithless and loveless motion! And again, it was by literal wicked<\/p>\n
hands’ that our Lord Jesus was crucified and slain. Does not the<\/p>\n
thought that human hands have been so treacherous and cruel to our<\/p>\n
beloved Lord make us wish the more fervently that our hands may be<\/p>\n
totally faithful and devoted to Him?<\/p>\n
Danger and temptation to let the hands move at other impulses is every<\/p>\n
bit as great to those who have nothing else to do but to render direct<\/p>\n
service, and who think they are doing nothing else. Take one practical<\/p>\n
instance–our letter-writing. Have we not been tempted (and fallen<\/p>\n
before the temptation), according to our various dispositions, to let<\/p>\n
the hand that holds the pen move at the impulse to write an unkind<\/p>\n
thought of another; or to say a clever and sarcastic thing, or a<\/p>\n
slightly coloured and exaggerated thing, which will make our point more<\/p>\n
telling; or to let out a grumble or a suspicion; or to let the pen run<\/p>\n
away with us into flippant and trifling words, unworthy of our high and<\/p>\n
holy calling? Have we not drifted away from the golden reminder, Should<\/p>\n
he reason with unprofitable talk, and with speeches wherewith he can do<\/p>\n
no good?’ Why has this been, perhaps again and again? Is it not for<\/p>\n
want of putting our hands into our dear Master’s hand, and asking and<\/p>\n
trusting Him to keep them? He could have kept; He would have kept!<\/p>\n
Whatever our work or our special temptations may be, the principle<\/p>\n
remains the same, only let us apply it for ourselves.<\/p>\n
Perhaps one hardly needs to say that the kept hands will be very gentle<\/p>\n
hands. Quick, angry motions of the heart will sometimes force<\/p>\n
themselves into expression by the hand, though the tongue may be<\/p>\n
restrained. The very way in which we close a door or lay down a book<\/p>\n
may be a victory or a defeat, a witness to Christ’s keeping or a<\/p>\n
witness that we are not truly being kept. How can we expect that God<\/p>\n
will use this member as an instrument of righteousness unto Him, if we<\/p>\n
yield it thus as an instrument of unrighteousness unto sin? Therefore<\/p>\n
let us see to it, that it is at once yielded to Him whose right it is;<\/p>\n
and let our sorrow that it should have been even for an instant<\/p>\n
desecrated to Satan’s use, lead us to entrust it henceforth to our<\/p>\n
Lord, to be kept by the power of God through faith for the Master’s<\/p>\n
use.’<\/p>\n
For when the gentleness of Christ dwells in us, He can use the merest<\/p>\n
touch of a finger. Have we not heard of one gentle touch on a wayward<\/p>\n
shoulder being the turning-point of a life? I have known a case in<\/p>\n
which the Master made use of less than that–only the quiver of a<\/p>\n
little finger being made the means of touching a wayward heart.<\/p>\n
What must the touch of the Master’s own hand have been! One imagines it<\/p>\n
very gentle, though so full of power. Can He not communicate both the<\/p>\n
power and the gentleness? When He touched the hand of Peter’s wife’s<\/p>\n
mother, she arose and ministered unto them. Do you not think the hand<\/p>\n
which Jesus had just touched must have ministered very excellently? As<\/p>\n
we ask Him to touch our lips with living fire,’ so that they may speak<\/p>\n
effectively for Him, may we not ask Him to touch our hands, that they<\/p>\n
may minister effectively, and excel in all that they find to do for<\/p>\n
Him? Then our hands shall be made strong by the hands of the Mighty God<\/p>\n
of Jacob.<\/p>\n
It is very pleasant to feel that if our hands are indeed our Lord’s, we<\/p>\n
may ask Him to guide them, and strengthen them, and teach them. I do<\/p>\n
not mean figuratively, but quite literally. In everything they do for<\/p>\n
Him (and that should be everything we ever undertake) we want to do it<\/p>\n
well–better and better. Seek that ye may excel.’ We are too apt to<\/p>\n
think that He has given us certain natural gifts, but has nothing<\/p>\n
practically to do with the improvement of them, and leaves us to<\/p>\n
ourselves for that. Why not ask him to make these hands of ours more<\/p>\n
handy for His service, more skilful in what is indicated as the next<\/p>\n
thynge’ they are to do? The kept’ hands need not be clumsy hands. If<\/p>\n
the Lord taught David’s hands to war and his fingers to fight, will He<\/p>\n
not teach our hands, and fingers too, to do what He would have them do?<\/p>\n
The Spirit of God must have taught Bezaleel’s hands as well as his<\/p>\n
head, for he was filled with it not only that he might devise cunning<\/p>\n
works, but also in cutting of stones and carving of timber. And when<\/p>\n
all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, the<\/p>\n
hands must have been made skilful as well as the hearts made wise to<\/p>\n
prepare the beautiful garments and curtains.<\/p>\n
There is a very remarkable instance of the hand of the Lord, which I<\/p>\n
suppose signifies in that case the power of His Spirit, being upon the<\/p>\n
hand of a man. In 1 Chron. xxviii. 19, we read: All this, said David,<\/p>\n
the Lord made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, even all<\/p>\n
the works of this pattern.’ This cannot well mean that the Lord gave<\/p>\n
David a miraculously written scroll, because, a few verses before, it<\/p>\n
says that he had it all by the Spirit. So what else can it mean but<\/p>\n
that as David wrote, the hand of the Lord was upon his hand, impelling<\/p>\n
him to trace, letter by letter, the right words of description for all<\/p>\n
the details of the temple that Solomon should build, with its courts<\/p>\n
and chambers, its treasuries and vessels? Have we not sometimes sat<\/p>\n
down to write, feeling perplexed and ignorant, and wishing some one<\/p>\n
were there to tell us what to say? At such a moment, whether it were a<\/p>\n
mere note for post, or a sheet for press, it is a great comfort to<\/p>\n
recollect this mighty laying of a Divine hand upon a human one, and ask<\/p>\n
for the same help from the same Lord. It is sure to be given!<\/p>\n
And now, dear friend, what about your own hands? Are they consecrated<\/p>\n
to the Lord who loves you? And if they are, are you trusting Him to<\/p>\n
keep them, and enjoying all that is involved in that keeping? Do let<\/p>\n
this be settled with your Master before you go on to the next chapter.<\/p>\n
After all, this question will hinge on another, Do you love Him? If you<\/p>\n
really do, there can surely be neither hesitation about yielding them<\/p>\n
to Him, nor about entrusting them to Him to be kept. Does He love you?<\/p>\n
That is the truer way of putting it; for it is not our love to Christ,<\/p>\n
but the love of Christ to us which constraineth us. And this is the<\/p>\n
impulse of the motion and the mode of the keeping. The steam-engine<\/p>\n
does not move when the fire is not kindled, nor when it is gone out; no<\/p>\n
matter how complete the machinery and abundant the fuel, cold coals<\/p>\n
will neither set it going nor keep it working. Let us ask Him so to<\/p>\n
shed abroad His love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given<\/p>\n
unto us, that it may be the perpetual and only impulse of every action<\/p>\n
of our daily life.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter IV.<\/p>\n
Our Feet kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my feet, that they may be<\/p>\n
Swift and beautiful for Thee.’<\/p>\n
The figurative keeping of the feet of His saints, with the promise that<\/p>\n
when they run they shall not stumble, is a most beautiful and helpful<\/p>\n
subject. But it is quite distinct from the literal keeping for Jesus of<\/p>\n
our literal feet.<\/p>\n
There is a certain homeliness about the idea which helps to make it<\/p>\n
very real. These very feet of ours are purchased for Christ’s service<\/p>\n
by the precious drops which fell from His own torn and pierced feet<\/p>\n
upon the cross. They are to be His errand-runners. How can we let the<\/p>\n
world, the flesh, and the devil have the use of what has been purchased<\/p>\n
with such payment?<\/p>\n
Shall the world’ have the use of them? Shall they carry us where the<\/p>\n
world is paramount, and the Master cannot be even named, because the<\/p>\n
mention of His Name would be so obviously out of place? I know the<\/p>\n
apparent difficulties of a subject which will at once occur in<\/p>\n
connection with this, but they all vanish when our bright banner is<\/p>\n
loyally unfurled, with its motto, All for Jesus!’ Do you honestly want<\/p>\n
your very feet to be kept for Jesus’? Let these simple words, Kept for<\/p>\n
Jesus,’ ring out next time the dancing difficulty or any other<\/p>\n
difficulty of the same kind comes up, and I know what the result will<\/p>\n
be!<\/p>\n
Shall the flesh’ have the use of them? Shall they carry us hither and<\/p>\n
thither merely because we like to go, merely because it pleases<\/p>\n
ourselves to take this walk or pay this visit? And after all, what a<\/p>\n
failure it is! If people only would believe it, self-pleasing is always<\/p>\n
a failure in the end. Our good Master gives us a reality and fulness of<\/p>\n
pleasure in pleasing Him which we never get out of pleasing ourselves.<\/p>\n
Shall the devil’ have the use of them? Oh no, of course not! We start<\/p>\n
back at this, as a highly unnecessary question. Yet if Jesus has not,<\/p>\n
Satan has. For as all are serving either the Prince of Life or the<\/p>\n
prince of this world, and as no man can serve two masters, it follows<\/p>\n
that if we are not serving the one, we are serving the other. And Satan<\/p>\n
is only too glad to disguise this service under the less startling form<\/p>\n
of the world, or the still less startling one of self. All that is not<\/p>\n
kept for Jesus,’ is left for self or the world, and therefore for<\/p>\n
Satan.<\/p>\n
There is no fear but that our Lord will have many uses for what is kept<\/p>\n
by Him for Himself. How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad<\/p>\n
tidings of good things!’ That is the best use of all; and I expect the<\/p>\n
angels think those feet beautiful, even if they are cased in muddy<\/p>\n
boots or goloshes.<\/p>\n
Once the question was asked, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing<\/p>\n
that thou hast no tidings ready?’ So if we want to have these beautiful<\/p>\n
feet, we must have the tidings ready which they are to bear. Let us ask<\/p>\n
Him to keep our hearts so freshly full of His good news of salvation,<\/p>\n
that our mouths may speak out of their abundance. If the clouds be full<\/p>\n
of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth.’ The two olive branches<\/p>\n
empty the golden oil out of themselves.’ May we be so filled with the<\/p>\n
Spirit that we may thus have much to pour out for others!<\/p>\n
Besides the great privilege of carrying water from the wells of<\/p>\n
salvation, there are plenty of cups of cold water to be carried in all<\/p>\n
directions; not to the poor only,–ministries of love are often as much<\/p>\n
needed by a rich friend. But the feet must be kept for these; they will<\/p>\n
be too tired for them if they are tired out for self-pleasing. In such<\/p>\n
services we are treading in the blessed steps of His most holy life,<\/p>\n
who went about doing good.’<\/p>\n
Then there is literal errand-going,–just to fetch something that is<\/p>\n
needed for the household, or something that a tired relative wants,<\/p>\n
whether asked or unasked. Such things should come first instead of<\/p>\n
last, because these are clearly indicated as our Lord’s will for us to<\/p>\n
do, by the position in which He has placed us; while what seems more<\/p>\n
direct service, may be after all not so directly apportioned by Him. I<\/p>\n
have to go and buy some soap,’ said one with a little sigh. The sigh<\/p>\n
was waste of breath, for her feet were going to do her Lord’s will for<\/p>\n
that next half-hour much more truly than if they had carried her to her<\/p>\n
well-worked district, and left the soap to take its chance.<\/p>\n
A member of the Young Women’s Christian Association wrote a few words<\/p>\n
on this subject, which, I think, will be welcome to many more than she<\/p>\n
expected them to reach:–<\/p>\n
May it not be a comfort to those of us who feel we have not the mental<\/p>\n
or spiritual power that others have, to notice that the living<\/p>\n
sacrifice mentioned in Rom. xii. 1 is our “bodies- Of course, that<\/p>\n
includes the mental power, but does it not also include the loving,<\/p>\n
sympathizing glance, the kind, encouraging word, the ready errand for<\/p>\n
another, the work of our hands, opportunities for all of which come<\/p>\n
oftener in the day than for the mental power we are often tempted to<\/p>\n
envy? May we be enabled to offer willingly that which we have. For if<\/p>\n
there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man<\/p>\n
hath, and not according to that he hath not.’<\/p>\n
If our feet are to be kept at His disposal, our eyes must be ever<\/p>\n
toward the Lord for guidance. We must look to Him for our orders where<\/p>\n
to go. Then He will be sure to give them. The steps of a good man are<\/p>\n
ordered by the Lord.’ Very often we find that they have been so very<\/p>\n
literally ordered for us that we are quite astonished,–just as if He<\/p>\n
had not promised!<\/p>\n
Do not smile at a very homely thought! If our feet are not our own,<\/p>\n
ought we not to take care of them for Him whose they are? Is it quite<\/p>\n
right to be reckless about getting wet feet,’ which might be guarded<\/p>\n
against either by forethought or afterthought, when there is, at least,<\/p>\n
a risk of hindering our service thereby? Does it please the Master when<\/p>\n
even in our zeal for His work we annoy anxious friends by carelessness<\/p>\n
in little things of this kind?<\/p>\n
May every step of our feet be more and more like those of our beloved<\/p>\n
Master. Let us continually consider Him in this, and go where He would<\/p>\n
have gone, on the errands which He would have done, following hard’<\/p>\n
after Him. And let us look on to the time when our feet shall stand in<\/p>\n
the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, when holy feet shall tread the<\/p>\n
streets of the holy city; no longer pacing any lonely path, for He hath<\/p>\n
said, They shall walk with Me in white.’<\/p>\n
Sarah Geraldina Stock.<\/p>\n
And He hath said, “How beautiful the feet!”<\/p>\n
The “feet” so weary, travel-stained, and worn–<\/p>\n
The “feet” that humbly, patiently have borne<\/p>\n
The toilsome way, the pressure, and the heat.<\/p>\n
The “feet,” not hasting on with wingd might,<\/p>\n
Nor strong to trample down the opposing foe;<\/p>\n
So lowly, and so human, they must go<\/p>\n
By painful steps to scale the mountain height.<\/p>\n
Not unto all the tuneful lips are given,<\/p>\n
The ready tongue, the words so strong and sweet;<\/p>\n
Yet all may turn, with humble, willing “feet,”<\/p>\n
And bear to darkened souls the light from heaven.<\/p>\n
And fall they while the goal far distant lies,<\/p>\n
With scarce a word yet spoken for their Lord–<\/p>\n
His sweet approval He doth yet accord;<\/p>\n
Their “feet” are beauteous in the Master’s eyes.<\/p>\n
With weary human “feet” He, day by day,<\/p>\n
Once trod this earth to work His acts of love;<\/p>\n
And every step is chronicled above<\/p>\n
His servants take to follow in His way.’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter V.<\/p>\n
Our Voices kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my voice, and let me sing<\/p>\n
Always, only, for my King.’<\/p>\n
I have wondered a little at being told by an experienced worker, that<\/p>\n
in many cases the voice seems the last and hardest thing to yield<\/p>\n
entirely to the King; and that many who think and say they have<\/p>\n
consecrated all to the Lord and His service, revolt’ when it comes to<\/p>\n
be a question of whether they shall sing always, only,’ for their King.<\/p>\n
They do not mind singing a few general sacred songs, but they do not<\/p>\n
see their way to really singing always and only unto and for Him. They<\/p>\n
want to bargain and balance a little. They question and argue about<\/p>\n
what proportion they may keep for self-pleasing and company-pleasing,<\/p>\n
and how much they must give up’; and who will and who won’t like it;<\/p>\n
and what they really must sing,’ and what they really must not sing’ at<\/p>\n
certain times and places; and what won’t do,’ and what they can’t very<\/p>\n
well help,’ and so on. And so when the question, How much owest thou<\/p>\n
unto my Lord?’ is applied to this particularly pleasant gift, it is not<\/p>\n
met with the loyal, free-hearted, happy response, All! yes, all for<\/p>\n
Jesus!’<\/p>\n
I know there are special temptations around this matter. Vain and<\/p>\n
selfish ones–whispering how much better a certain song suits your<\/p>\n
voice, and how much more likely to be admired. Faithless<\/p>\n
ones–suggesting doubts whether you can make the holy song go.’<\/p>\n
Specious ones–asking whether you ought not to please your neighbours,<\/p>\n
and hushing up the rest of the precept, Let every one of you please his<\/p>\n
neighbour for his good to edification’ (Rom. xv. 2). Cowardly<\/p>\n
ones–telling you that it is just a little too much to expect of you,<\/p>\n
and that you are not called upon to wave your banner in people’s very<\/p>\n
faces, and provoke surprise and remark, as this might do. And so the<\/p>\n
banner is kept furled, the witness for Jesus is not borne, and you sing<\/p>\n
for others and not for your King.<\/p>\n
The words had passed your lips, Take my voice!’ And yet you will not<\/p>\n
let Him have it; you will not let Him have that which costs you<\/p>\n
something, just because it costs you something! And yet He lent you<\/p>\n
that pleasant voice that you might use it for Him. And yet He, in the<\/p>\n
sureness of His perpetual presence, was beside you all the while, and<\/p>\n
heard every note as you sang the songs which were, as your inmost heart<\/p>\n
knew, not for Him.<\/p>\n
Where is your faith? Where is the consecration you have talked about?<\/p>\n
The voice has not been kept for Him, because it has not been truly and<\/p>\n
unreservedly given to Him. Will you not now say, Take my voice, for I<\/p>\n
had not given it to Thee; keep my voice, for I cannot keep it for<\/p>\n
Thee’?<\/p>\n
And He will keep it! You cannot tell, till you have tried, how surely<\/p>\n
all the temptations flee when it is no longer your battle but the<\/p>\n
Lord’s; nor how completely and curiously all the difficulties vanish,<\/p>\n
when you simply and trustfully go forward in the path of full<\/p>\n
consecration in this matter. You will find that the keeping is most<\/p>\n
wonderfully real. Do not expect to lay down rules and provide for every<\/p>\n
sort of contingency. If you could, you would miss the sweetness of the<\/p>\n
continual guidance in the kept’ course. Have only one rule about<\/p>\n
it–just to look up to your Master about every single song you are<\/p>\n
asked or feel inclined to sing. If you are willing and obedient,’ you<\/p>\n
will always meet His guiding eye. He will always keep the voice that is<\/p>\n
wholly at His disposal. Soon you will have such experience of His<\/p>\n
immediate guidance that you will be utterly satisfied with it, and only<\/p>\n
sorrowfully wonder you did not sooner thus simply lean on it.<\/p>\n
I have just received a letter from one who has laid her special gift at<\/p>\n
the feet of the Giver, yielding her voice to Him with hearty desire<\/p>\n
that it might be kept for His use. She writes: I had two lessons on<\/p>\n
singing while in Germany from our Master. One was very sweet. A young<\/p>\n
girl wrote to me, that when she had heard me sing, “O come, every one<\/p>\n
that thirsteth,” she went away and prayed that she might come, and she<\/p>\n
did come, too. Is not He good? The other was: I had been tempted to<\/p>\n
join the Gesang Verein in N—-. I prayed to be shown whether I was<\/p>\n
right in so doing or not. I did not see my way clear, so I went. The<\/p>\n
singing was all secular. The very first night I went I caught a bad<\/p>\n
cold on my chest, which prevented me from singing again at all till<\/p>\n
Christmas. Those were better than any lessons from a singing master!’<\/p>\n
Does not this illustrate both the keeping from and the keeping for? In<\/p>\n
the latter case I believe she honestly wished to know her Lord’s<\/p>\n
will,–whether the training and practice were needed for His better<\/p>\n
service with her music, and that, therefore, she might take them for<\/p>\n
His sake; or whether the concomitants and influence would be such as to<\/p>\n
hinder the close communion with Him which she had found so precious,<\/p>\n
and that, therefore, she was to trust Him to give her much more than<\/p>\n
this.’ And so, at once, He showed her unmistakeably what He would have<\/p>\n
her not do, and gave her the sweet consciousness that He Himself was<\/p>\n
teaching her and taking her at her word. I know what her passionate<\/p>\n
love for music is, and how very real and great the compensation from<\/p>\n
Him must have been which could thus make her right down glad about what<\/p>\n
would otherwise have been an immense disappointment. And then, as to<\/p>\n
the former of these two lessons,’ the song she names was one<\/p>\n
substituted when she said, Take my voice,’ for some which were far more<\/p>\n
effective for her voice. But having freely chosen to sing what might<\/p>\n
glorify the Master rather than the singer, see how, almost immediately,<\/p>\n
He gave her a reward infinitely outweighing all the drawing-room<\/p>\n
compliments or concert-room applause! That one consecrated song found<\/p>\n
echoes in heaven, bringing, by its blessed result, joy to the angels<\/p>\n
and glory to God. And the memory of that song is immortal; it will live<\/p>\n
through ages to come, never lost, never dying away, when the vocal<\/p>\n
triumphs of the world’s greatest singers are past and forgotten for<\/p>\n
ever. Now you who have been taking a half-and-half course, do you get<\/p>\n
such rewards as this? You may well envy them! But why not take the same<\/p>\n
decided course, and share the same blessed keeping and its fulness of<\/p>\n
hidden reward?<\/p>\n
If you only knew, dear hesitating friends, what strength and gladness<\/p>\n
the Master gives when we loyally sing forth the honour of His Name,’<\/p>\n
you would not forego it! Oh, if you only knew the difficulties it<\/p>\n
saves! For when you sing always and only for your King,’ you will not<\/p>\n
get much entangled by the King’s enemies, Singing an out-and-out sacred<\/p>\n
song often clears one’s path at a stroke as to many other things. If<\/p>\n
you only knew the rewards He gives–very often then and there; the<\/p>\n
recognition that you are one of the King’s friends by some lonely and<\/p>\n
timid one; the openings which you quite naturally gain of speaking a<\/p>\n
word for Jesus to hearts which, without the song, would never have<\/p>\n
given you the chance of the word! If you only knew the joy of believing<\/p>\n
that His sure promise, My Word shall not return unto Me void,’ will be<\/p>\n
fulfilled as you sing that word for Him! If you only tasted the solemn<\/p>\n
happiness of knowing that you have indeed a royal audience, that the<\/p>\n
King Himself is listening as you sing! If you only knew–and why should<\/p>\n
you not know? Shall not the time past of your life suffice you for the<\/p>\n
miserable, double-hearted, calculating service? Let Him have the whole<\/p>\n
use of your voice at any cost, and see if He does not put many a<\/p>\n
totally unexpected new song into your mouth!<\/p>\n
I am not writing all this to great and finished singers, but to<\/p>\n
everybody who can sing at all. Those who think they have only a very<\/p>\n
small talent, are often most tempted not to trade with it for their<\/p>\n
Lord. Whether you have much or little natural voice, there is reason<\/p>\n
for its cultivation and room for its use. Place it at your Lord’s<\/p>\n
disposal, and He will show you how to make the most of it for Him; for<\/p>\n
not seldom His multiplying power is brought to bear on a consecrated<\/p>\n
voice. A puzzled singing master, very famous in his profession, said to<\/p>\n
one who tried to sing for Jesus, Well, you have not much voice; but,<\/p>\n
mark my words, you will always beat anybody with four times your<\/p>\n
voice!’ He was right, though he did not in the least know why.<\/p>\n
A great many so-called sacred songs’ are so plaintive and pathetic that<\/p>\n
they help to give a gloomy idea of religion. Now don’t sing these; come<\/p>\n
out boldly, and sing definitely and unmistakeably for your King, and of<\/p>\n
your King, and to your King. You will soon find, and even outsiders<\/p>\n
will have to own, that it is a good thing thus to show forth His<\/p>\n
loving-kindness and His faithfulness (see Ps. xcii. 1-3).<\/p>\n
Here I am usually met by the query, But what would you advise me to<\/p>\n
sing?’ I can only say that I never got any practical help from asking<\/p>\n
any one but the Master Himself, and so I would advise you to do the<\/p>\n
same! He knows exactly what will best suit your voice and enable you to<\/p>\n
sing best for Him; for He made it, and gave it just the pitch and tone<\/p>\n
He pleased, so, of course, He is the best counsellor about it. Refer<\/p>\n
your question in simplest faith to Him, and I am perfectly sure you<\/p>\n
will find it answered. He will direct you, and in some way or other the<\/p>\n
Lord will provide the right songs for you to sing. That is the very<\/p>\n
best advice I can possibly give you on the subject, and you will prove<\/p>\n
it to be so if you will act upon it.<\/p>\n
Only one thing I would add: I believe there is nothing like singing His<\/p>\n
own words. The preacher claims the promise, My word shall not return<\/p>\n
unto Me void,’ and why should not the singer equally claim it? Why<\/p>\n
should we use His own inspired words, with faith in their power, when<\/p>\n
speaking or writing, and content ourselves with human words put into<\/p>\n
rhyme (and sometimes very feeble rhyme) for our singing?<\/p>\n
What a vista of happy work opens out here! What is there to prevent our<\/p>\n
using this mightiest of all agencies committed to human agents, the<\/p>\n
Word, which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged<\/p>\n
sword, whenever we are asked to sing? By this means, even a young girl<\/p>\n
may be privileged to make that Word sound in the ears of many who would<\/p>\n
not listen to it otherwise. By this, the incorruptible seed may be sown<\/p>\n
in otherwise unreachable ground.<\/p>\n
It is a remarkable fact that it is actually the easiest way thus to<\/p>\n
take the very highest ground. You will find that singing Bible words<\/p>\n
does not excite the prejudice or contempt that any other words,<\/p>\n
sufficiently decided to be worth singing, are almost sure to do. For<\/p>\n
very decency’s sake, a Bible song will be listened to respectfully; and<\/p>\n
for very shame’s sake, no adverse whisper will be ventured against the<\/p>\n
words in ordinary English homes. The singer is placed on a<\/p>\n
vantage-ground, certain that at least the words of the song will be<\/p>\n
outwardly respected, and the possible ground of unfriendly criticism<\/p>\n
thus narrowed to begin with.<\/p>\n
But there is much more than this. One feels the power of His words for<\/p>\n
oneself as one sings. One loves them and rejoices in them, and what can<\/p>\n
be greater help to any singer than that? And one knows they are true,<\/p>\n
and that they cannot really return void, and what can give greater<\/p>\n
confidence than that? God may bless the singing of any words, but He<\/p>\n
must bless the singing of His own Word, if that promise means what it<\/p>\n
says!<\/p>\n
The only real difficulty in the matter is that Scripture songs, as a<\/p>\n
rule, require a little more practice than others. Then practise them a<\/p>\n
little more! You think nothing of the trouble of learning, for<\/p>\n
instance, a sonata, which takes you many a good hour’s practice before<\/p>\n
you can render it perfectly and expressively. But you shrink from a<\/p>\n
song, the accompaniment of which you cannot read off without any<\/p>\n
trouble at all. And you never think of such a thing as taking one-tenth<\/p>\n
the pains to learn that accompaniment that you took to learn that<\/p>\n
sonata! Very likely, too, you take the additional pains to learn the<\/p>\n
sonata off by heart, so that you may play it more effectively. But you<\/p>\n
do not take pains to learn your accompaniment by heart, so that you may<\/p>\n
throw all your power into the expression of the words, undistracted by<\/p>\n
reading the notes and turning over the leaves. It is far more useful to<\/p>\n
have half a dozen Scripture songs thoroughly learnt and made your own,<\/p>\n
than to have in your portfolios several dozen easy settings of sacred<\/p>\n
poetry which you get through with your eyes fixed on the notes. And<\/p>\n
every one thus thoroughly mastered makes it easier to master others.<\/p>\n
You will say that all this refers only to drawing-room singing. So it<\/p>\n
does, primarily, but then it is the drawing-room singing which has been<\/p>\n
so little for Jesus and so much for self and society; and so much less<\/p>\n
has been said about it, and so much less done. There would not be half<\/p>\n
the complaints of the difficulty of witnessing for Christ in even<\/p>\n
professedly Christian homes and circles, if every converted singer were<\/p>\n
also a consecrated one. For nothing raises or lowers the tone of a<\/p>\n
whole evening so much as the character of the music. There are few<\/p>\n
things which show more clearly that, as a rule, a very definite step in<\/p>\n
advance is needed beyond being a believer or even a worker for Christ.<\/p>\n
Over how many grand or cottage pianos could the Irish Society’s motto,<\/p>\n
For Jesus’ sake only,’ be hung, without being either a frequent<\/p>\n
reproach, or altogether inappropriate?<\/p>\n
But what is learnt will, naturally, be sung. And oh! how many Christian<\/p>\n
parents give their daughters the advantage of singing lessons without<\/p>\n
troubling themselves in the least about what songs are learnt, provided<\/p>\n
they are not exceptionally foolish! Still more pressingly I would say,<\/p>\n
how many Christian principals, to whom young lives are entrusted at the<\/p>\n
most important time of all for training, do not give themselves the<\/p>\n
least concern about this matter! As I write, I turn aside to refer to a<\/p>\n
list of songs learnt last term by a fresh young voice which would<\/p>\n
willingly be trained for higher work. There is just one sacred’ song in<\/p>\n
the whole long list, and even that hardly such a one as the writer of<\/p>\n
the letter above quoted would care to sing in her fervent-spirited<\/p>\n
service of Christ. All the rest are harmless and pleasing, but only<\/p>\n
suggestive of the things of earth, the things of the world that is<\/p>\n
passing away; not one that might lead upward and onward, not one that<\/p>\n
might touch a careless heart to seek first the kingdom of God, not one<\/p>\n
that might show forth the glory and praise of our King, not one that<\/p>\n
tells out His grace and love, not one that carries His comfort to His<\/p>\n
weary ones or His joy to His loving ones. She is left to find and learn<\/p>\n
such songs as best she may; those which she will sing with all the ease<\/p>\n
and force gained by good teaching of them are no help at all, but<\/p>\n
rather hindrance in anything like wish or attempt to sing for Jesus.’<\/p>\n
There is not the excuse that the songs of God’s kingdom, songs which<\/p>\n
waft His own words to the souls around, would not have answered the<\/p>\n
teacher’s purpose as well. God has taken care of that. He has not left<\/p>\n
Himself without witness in this direction. He has given the most<\/p>\n
perfect melodies and the richest harmonies to be linked with His own<\/p>\n
words, and no singer can be trained beyond His wonderful provision in<\/p>\n
this way. I pray that even these poor words of mine may reach the<\/p>\n
consciences of some of those who have this responsibility, and lead<\/p>\n
them to be no longer unfaithful in this important matter, no longer<\/p>\n
giving this strangely divided service–training, as they profess to<\/p>\n
desire, the souls for God, and yet allowing the voices to be trained<\/p>\n
only for the world.<\/p>\n
But we must not run away with the idea that singing sacred songs and<\/p>\n
singing for Jesus are convertible terms. I know by sorrowful personal<\/p>\n
experience that it is very possible to sing a sacred song and not sing<\/p>\n
it for Jesus. It is easier to have one’s portfolio all right than one’s<\/p>\n
heart, and the repertory is more easily arranged than the motives. When<\/p>\n
we have taken our side, and the difficulties of indecision are<\/p>\n
consequently swept away, we have a new set of more subtle temptations<\/p>\n
to encounter. And although the Master will keep, the servant must watch<\/p>\n
and pray; and it is through the watching and the praying that the<\/p>\n
keeping will be effectual. We have, however, rather less excuse here<\/p>\n
than even elsewhere. For we never have to sing so very suddenly that we<\/p>\n
need be taken unawares. We have to think what to sing, and perhaps find<\/p>\n
the music, and the prelude has to be played, and all this gives quite<\/p>\n
enough time for us to recollect whose we are and whom we serve, and to<\/p>\n
arouse to the watch. Quite enough, too, for quick, trustful prayer that<\/p>\n
our singing may be kept free from that wretched self-seeking or even<\/p>\n
self-consciousness, and kept entirely for Jesus. Our best and happiest<\/p>\n
singing will flow when there is a sweet, silent undercurrent of<\/p>\n
prayerful or praiseful communion with our Master all through the song.<\/p>\n
As for nervousness, I am quite sure this is the best antidote to that.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, it is quite possible to sing for Jesus without<\/p>\n
singing a sacred song. Do not take an ell for the inch this seems to<\/p>\n
give, and run off with the idea that it does not matter after all what<\/p>\n
you sing, so that you sing in a good frame of mind! No such thing! And<\/p>\n
the admission needs very careful guarding, and must not be wrested into<\/p>\n
an excuse for looking back to the world’s songs. But cases may and do<\/p>\n
arise in which it may be right to gratify a weary father, or win a<\/p>\n
wayward brother, by trying to please them with music to which they will<\/p>\n
listen when they would not listen to the songs you would rather sing.<\/p>\n
There are cases in which this may be done most truly for the Lord’s<\/p>\n
sake, and clearly under His guidance.<\/p>\n
Sometimes cases arise in which we can only say, Neither know we what to<\/p>\n
do, but our eyes are upon Thee.’ And when we honestly say that, depend<\/p>\n
upon it we shall find the promise true, I will guide thee with Mine<\/p>\n
eye.’ For God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above<\/p>\n
that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way (Gr.<\/p>\n
the way) to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.<\/p>\n
I do not know why it should be so, but it certainly is a much rarer<\/p>\n
thing to find a young gentleman singing for Jesus than a young lady,–a<\/p>\n
very rare thing to find one with a cultivated voice consecrating it to<\/p>\n
the Master’s use. I have met some who were not ashamed to speak for<\/p>\n
Him, to whom it never seemed even to occur to sing for Him. They would<\/p>\n
go and teach a Bible class one day, and the next they would be<\/p>\n
practising or performing just the same songs as those who care nothing<\/p>\n
for Christ and His blood-bought salvation. They had left some things<\/p>\n
behind, but they had not left any of their old songs behind. They do<\/p>\n
not seem to think that being made new creatures in Christ Jesus had<\/p>\n
anything to do with this department of their lives. Nobody could gather<\/p>\n
whether they were on the Lord’s side or not, as they stood and sang<\/p>\n
their neutral songs. The banner that was displayed in the class-room<\/p>\n
was furled in the drawing-room. Now, my friends, you who have or may<\/p>\n
have far greater opportunities of displaying that banner than we<\/p>\n
womenkind, why should you be less brave and loyal than your sisters? We<\/p>\n
are weak and you are strong naturally, but recollect that want of<\/p>\n
decision always involves want of power, and compromising Christians are<\/p>\n
always weak Christians. You will never be mighty to the pulling down of<\/p>\n
strongholds while you have one foot in the enemy’s camp, or on the<\/p>\n
supposed neutral ground, if such can exist (which I doubt), between the<\/p>\n
camps. You will never be a terror to the devil till you have enlisted<\/p>\n
every gift and faculty on the Lord’s side. Here is a thing in which you<\/p>\n
may practically carry out the splendid motto, All for Jesus.’ You<\/p>\n
cannot be all for Him as long as your voice is not for Him. Which shall<\/p>\n
it be? All for Him, or partly for Him? Answer that to Him whom you call<\/p>\n
Master and Lord.<\/p>\n
When once this drawing-room question is settled, there is not much need<\/p>\n
to expatiate about other forms of singing for Jesus. As we have<\/p>\n
opportunity we shall be willing to do good with our pleasant gift in<\/p>\n
any way or place, and it is wonderful what nice opportunities He makes<\/p>\n
for us. Whether to one little sick child or to a thousand listeners,<\/p>\n
according to the powers and openings granted, we shall take our happy<\/p>\n
position among those who minister with singing (1 Chron. vi. 32). And<\/p>\n
in so far as we really do this unto the Lord, I am quite sure He gives<\/p>\n
the hundred-fold now in this present time more than all the showy songs<\/p>\n
or self-gratifying performances we may have left for His sake. As we<\/p>\n
steadily tread this part of the path of consecration, we shall find the<\/p>\n
difficulties left behind, and the real pleasantness of the way reached,<\/p>\n
and it will be a delight to say to oneself, I cannot sing the old<\/p>\n
songs;’ and though you have thought it quite enough to say, With my<\/p>\n
song will I please my friends,’ especially if they happen to be pleased<\/p>\n
with a mildly sacred song or two, you will strike a higher and happier,<\/p>\n
a richer and purer note, and say with David, With my song will I praise<\/p>\n
Him.’ David said also, My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto<\/p>\n
Thee, and my soul, which Thou hast redeemed.’ And you will find that<\/p>\n
this comes true.<\/p>\n
Singing for Jesus, our Saviour and King;<\/p>\n
Singing for Jesus, the Lord whom we love!<\/p>\n
All adoration we joyously bring,<\/p>\n
Longing to praise as they praise Him above.<\/p>\n
Singing for Jesus, our Master and Friend,<\/p>\n
Telling His love and His marvellous grace,–<\/p>\n
Love from eternity, love to the end,<\/p>\n
Love for the loveless, the sinful, and base.<\/p>\n
Singing for Jesus, and trying to win<\/p>\n
Many to love Him, and join in the song;<\/p>\n
Calling the weary and wandering in,<\/p>\n
Rolling the chorus of gladness along.<\/p>\n
Singing for Jesus, our Life and our Light;<\/p>\n
Singing for Him as we press to the mark;<\/p>\n
Singing for Him when the morning is bright;<\/p>\n
Singing, still singing, for Him in the dark!<\/p>\n
Singing for Jesus, our Shepherd and Guide;<\/p>\n
Singing for gladness of heart that He gives;<\/p>\n
Singing for wonder and praise that He died;<\/p>\n
Singing for blessing and joy that He lives!<\/p>\n
Singing for Jesus, oh, singing with joy;<\/p>\n
Thus will we praise Him, and tell out His love,<\/p>\n
Till He shall call us to brighter employ,<\/p>\n
Singing for Jesus for ever above.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter VI.<\/p>\n
Our Lips kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my lips, that they may be<\/p>\n
Filled with messages from Thee.’<\/p>\n
The days are past for ever when we said, Our lips are our own.’ Now we<\/p>\n
know that they are not our own.<\/p>\n
And yet how many of my readers often have the miserable consciousness<\/p>\n
that they have spoken unadvisedly with their lips’! How many pray, Keep<\/p>\n
the door of my lips,’ when the very last thing they think of expecting<\/p>\n
is that they will be kept! They deliberately make up their minds that<\/p>\n
hasty words, or foolish words, or exaggerated words, according to their<\/p>\n
respective temptations, must and will slip out of that door, and that<\/p>\n
it can’t be helped. The extent of the real meaning of their prayer was<\/p>\n
merely that not quite so many might slip out. As their faith went no<\/p>\n
farther, the answer went no farther, and so the door was not kept.<\/p>\n
Do let us look the matter straight in the face. Either we have<\/p>\n
committed our lips to our Lord, or we have not. This question must be<\/p>\n
settled first. If not, oh, do not let another hour pass! Take them to<\/p>\n
Jesus, and ask Him to take them.<\/p>\n
But when you have committed them to Him, it comes to this,–is He able<\/p>\n
or is He not able to keep that which you have committed to Him? If He<\/p>\n
is not able, of course you may as well give up at once, for your own<\/p>\n
experience has abundantly proved that you are not able, so there is no<\/p>\n
help for you. But if He is able–nay, thank God there is no if’ on this<\/p>\n
side!–say, rather, as He is able, where was this inevitable necessity<\/p>\n
of perpetual failure? You have been fancying yourself virtually doomed<\/p>\n
and fated to it, and therefore you have gone on in it, while all the<\/p>\n
time His arm was not shortened that it could not save, but you have<\/p>\n
been limiting the Holy One of Israel. Honestly, now, have you trusted<\/p>\n
Him to keep your lips this day? Trust necessarily implies expectation<\/p>\n
that what we have entrusted will be kept. If you have not expected Him<\/p>\n
to keep, you have not trusted. You may have tried, and tried very hard,<\/p>\n
but you have not trusted, and therefore you have not been kept, and<\/p>\n
your lips have been the snare of your soul (Prov. xviii. 7).<\/p>\n
Once I heard a beautiful prayer which I can never forget; it was this:<\/p>\n
Lord, take my lips, and speak through them; take my mind, and think<\/p>\n
through it; take my heart, and set it on fire.’ And this is the way the<\/p>\n
Master keeps the lips of His servants, by so filling their hearts with<\/p>\n
His love that the outflow cannot be unloving, by so filling their<\/p>\n
thoughts that the utterance cannot be un-Christ-like. There must be<\/p>\n
filling before there can be pouring out; and if there is filling, there<\/p>\n
must be pouring out, for He hath said, Out of the abundance of the<\/p>\n
heart the mouth speaketh.’<\/p>\n
But I think we should look for something more direct and definite than<\/p>\n
this. We are not all called to be the King’s ambassadors, but all who<\/p>\n
have heard the messages of salvation for themselves are called to be<\/p>\n
the Lord’s messengers,’ and day by day, as He gives us opportunity, we<\/p>\n
are to deliver the Lord’s message unto the people.’ That message, as<\/p>\n
committed to Haggai, was, I am with you, saith the Lord.’ Is there not<\/p>\n
work enough for any lifetime in unfolding and distributing that one<\/p>\n
message to His own people? Then, for those who are still far off, we<\/p>\n
have that equally full message from our Lord to give out, which He has<\/p>\n
condensed for us into the one word, Come!’<\/p>\n
It is a specially sweet part of His dealings with His messengers that<\/p>\n
He always gives us the message for ourselves first. It is what He has<\/p>\n
first told us in darkness–that is, in the secrecy of our own rooms, or<\/p>\n
at least of our own hearts–that He bids us speak in light. And so the<\/p>\n
more we sit at His feet and watch to see what He has to say to<\/p>\n
ourselves, the more we shall have to tell to others. He does not send<\/p>\n
us out with sealed despatches, which we know nothing about, and with<\/p>\n
which we have no concern.<\/p>\n
There seems a seven-fold sequence in His filling the lips of His<\/p>\n
messengers. First, they must be purified. The live coal from off the<\/p>\n
altar must be laid upon them, and He must say, Lo, this hath touched<\/p>\n
thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.’<\/p>\n
Then He will create the fruit of them, and this seems to be the great<\/p>\n
message of peace, Peace to him that is far off, and to him that is<\/p>\n
near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him’ (see Isa. lvii. 19). Then<\/p>\n
comes the prayer, O Lord, open Thou my lips,’ and its sure fulfilment.<\/p>\n
For then come in the promises, Behold, I have put My words in thy<\/p>\n
mouth,’ and, They shall withal be fitted in thy lips.’ Then, of course,<\/p>\n
the lips of the righteous feed many,’ for the food is the Lord’s own<\/p>\n
giving. Everything leads up to praise, and so we come next to My mouth<\/p>\n
shall praise Thee with joyful lips, when I remember Thee.’ And lest we<\/p>\n
should fancy that when’ rather implies that it is not, or cannot be,<\/p>\n
exactly always, we find that the meditation of Jesus throws this added<\/p>\n
light upon it, By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise<\/p>\n
to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to’<\/p>\n
(margin, confessing) His name.’<\/p>\n
Does it seem a coming down from the mount to glance at one of our<\/p>\n
King’s commandments, which is specially needful and applicable to this<\/p>\n
matter of our lips being kept for Him? Watch and pray, that ye enter<\/p>\n
not into temptation.’ None of His commands clash with or supersede one<\/p>\n
another. Trusting does not supersede watching; it does but complete and<\/p>\n
effectuate it. Unwatchful trust is a delusion, and untrustful watching<\/p>\n
is in vain. Therefore let us not either wilfully or carelessly enter<\/p>\n
into temptation, whether of place, or person, or topic, which has any<\/p>\n
tendency to endanger the keeping of our lips for Jesus. Let us pray<\/p>\n
that grace may be more and more poured into our lips as it was into<\/p>\n
His, so that our speech may be alway with grace. May they be pure, and<\/p>\n
sweet, and lovely, even as His lips, like lilies, dropping<\/p>\n
sweet-smelling myrrh.’<\/p>\n
We can hardly consider the keeping of our lips without recollecting<\/p>\n
that upon them, more than all else (though not exclusively of all<\/p>\n
else), depends that greatest of our responsibilities, our influence. We<\/p>\n
have no choice in the matter; we cannot evade or avoid it; and there is<\/p>\n
no more possibility of our limiting it, or even tracing its limits,<\/p>\n
than there is of setting a bound to the far-vibrating sound-waves, or<\/p>\n
watching their flow through the invisible air. Not one sentence that<\/p>\n
passes these lips of ours but must be an invisibly prolonged influence,<\/p>\n
not dying away into silence, but living away into the words and deeds<\/p>\n
of others. The thought would not be quite so oppressive if we could<\/p>\n
know what we have done and shall be continuing to do by what we have<\/p>\n
said. But we never can, as a matter of fact. We may trace it a little<\/p>\n
way, and get a glimpse of some results for good or evil; but we never<\/p>\n
can see any more of it than we can see of a shooting star flashing<\/p>\n
through the night with a momentary revelation of one step of its<\/p>\n
strange path. Even if the next instant plunges it into apparent<\/p>\n
annihilation as it strikes the atmosphere of the earth, we know that it<\/p>\n
is not really so, but that its mysterious material and force must be<\/p>\n
added to the complicated materials and forces with which it has come in<\/p>\n
contact, with a modifying power none the less real because it is beyond<\/p>\n
our ken. And this is not comparing a great thing with a small, but a<\/p>\n
small thing with a great. For what is material force compared with<\/p>\n
moral force? what are gases, and vapours, and elements, compared with<\/p>\n
souls and the eternity for which they are preparing?<\/p>\n
We all know that there is influence exerted by a person’s mere<\/p>\n
presence, without the utterance of a single word. We are conscious of<\/p>\n
this every day. People seem to carry an atmosphere with them, which<\/p>\n
must be breathed by those whom they approach. Some carry an atmosphere<\/p>\n
in which all unkind thoughts shrivel up and cannot grow into<\/p>\n
expression. Others carry one in which thoughts of Christ and things<\/p>\n
divine’ never seem able to flourish. Have you not felt how a happy<\/p>\n
conversation about the things we love best is checked, or even<\/p>\n
strangled, by the entrance of one who is not in sympathy? Outsiders<\/p>\n
have not a chance of ever really knowing what delightful intercourse we<\/p>\n
have one with another about these things, because their very presence<\/p>\n
chills and changes it. On the other hand, how another person’s incoming<\/p>\n
freshens and develops it and warms us all up, and seems to give us,<\/p>\n
without the least conscious effort, a sort of lift!<\/p>\n
If even unconscious and involuntary influence is such a power, how much<\/p>\n
greater must it be when the recognised power of words is added!<\/p>\n
It has often struck me as a matter of observation, that open profession<\/p>\n
adds force to this influence, on whichever side it weighs; and also<\/p>\n
that it has the effect of making many a word and act, which might in<\/p>\n
other hands have been as nearly neutral as anything can be, tell with<\/p>\n
by no means neutral tendency on the wrong side. The question of Eliphaz<\/p>\n
comes with great force when applied to one who desires or professes to<\/p>\n
be consecrated altogether, life and lips: Should he reason with<\/p>\n
unprofitable talk, and with speeches wherewith one can do no good?’<\/p>\n
There is our standard! Idle words, which might have fallen<\/p>\n
comparatively harmlessly from one who had never named the Name of<\/p>\n
Christ, may be a stumbling-block to inquirers, a sanction to<\/p>\n
thoughtless juniors, and a grief to thoughtful seniors, when they come<\/p>\n
from lips which are professing to feed many. Even intelligent talk on<\/p>\n
general subjects by such a one may be a chilling disappointment to some<\/p>\n
craving heart, which had indulged the hope of getting help, comfort, or<\/p>\n
instruction in the things of God by listening to the conversation. It<\/p>\n
may be a lost opportunity of giving and gaining no one knows how much!<\/p>\n
How well I recollect this disappointment to myself, again and again,<\/p>\n
when a mere child! In those early seeking days I never could understand<\/p>\n
why, sometimes, a good man whom I heard preach or speak as if he loved<\/p>\n
Christ very much, talked about all sorts of other things when he came<\/p>\n
back from church or missionary meeting. I did so wish he would have<\/p>\n
talked about the Saviour, whom I wanted, but had not found. It would<\/p>\n
have been so much more interesting even to the apparently thoughtless<\/p>\n
and merry little girl. How could he help it, I wondered, if he cared<\/p>\n
for that Pearl of Great Price as I was sure I should care for it if I<\/p>\n
could only find it! And oh, why didn’t they ever talk to me about it,<\/p>\n
instead of about my lessons or their little girls at home? They did not<\/p>\n
know how their conversation was observed and compared with their sermon<\/p>\n
or speech, and how a hungry little soul went empty away from the supper<\/p>\n
table.<\/p>\n
The lips of younger Christians may cause, in their turn, no less<\/p>\n
disappointment. One sorrowful lesson I can never forget; and I will<\/p>\n
tell the story in hope that it may save others from causes of similar<\/p>\n
regret. During a summer visit just after I had left school, a class of<\/p>\n
girls about my own age came to me a few times for an hour’s singing. It<\/p>\n
was very pleasant indeed, and the girls were delighted with the hymns.<\/p>\n
They listened to all I had to say about time and expression, and not<\/p>\n
with less attention to the more shyly-ventured remarks about the words.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I accompanied them afterwards down the avenue; and whenever I<\/p>\n
met any of them I had smiles and plenty of kindly words for each, which<\/p>\n
they seemed to appreciate immensely. A few years afterwards I sat by<\/p>\n
the bedside of one of these girls–the most gifted of them all with<\/p>\n
both heart and head. She had been led by a wonderful way, and through<\/p>\n
long and deep suffering, into far clearer light than I enjoyed, and had<\/p>\n
witnessed for Christ in more ways than one, and far more brightly than<\/p>\n
I had ever done. She told me how sorrowfully and eagerly she was<\/p>\n
seeking Jesus at the time of those singing classes. And I never knew<\/p>\n
it, because I never asked, and she was too shy to speak first! But she<\/p>\n
told me more, and every word was a pang to me,–how she used to linger<\/p>\n
in the avenue on those summer evenings, longing that I would speak to<\/p>\n
her about the Saviour; how she hoped, week after week, that I would<\/p>\n
just stretch out a hand to help her, just say one little word that<\/p>\n
might be God’s message of peace to her, instead of the pleasant,<\/p>\n
general remarks about the nice hymns and tunes. And I never did! And<\/p>\n
she went on for months, I think for years, after, without the light and<\/p>\n
gladness which it might have been my privilege to bring to her life.<\/p>\n
God chose other means, for the souls that He has given to Christ cannot<\/p>\n
be lost because of the unfaithfulness of a human instrument. But she<\/p>\n
said, and the words often ring in my ears when I am tempted to let an<\/p>\n
opportunity slip, Ah, Miss F., I ought to have been yours!’<\/p>\n
Yes, it is true enough that we should show forth His praise not only<\/p>\n
with our lips, but in our lives; but with very many Christians the<\/p>\n
other side of the prayer wants praying–they want rousing up even to<\/p>\n
wish to show it forth not only in their lives but with their lips. I<\/p>\n
wonder how many, even of those who read this, really pray, O Lord, open<\/p>\n
Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.’<\/p>\n
And when opened, oh, how much one does want to have them so kept for<\/p>\n
Jesus that He may be free to make the most of them, not letting them<\/p>\n
render second-rate and indirect service when they might be doing direct<\/p>\n
and first-rate service to His cause and kingdom! It is terrible how<\/p>\n
much less is done for Him than might be done, in consequence of the<\/p>\n
specious notion that if what we are doing or saying is not bad, we are<\/p>\n
doing good in a certain way, and therefore may be quite easy about it.<\/p>\n
We should think a man rather foolish if he went on doing work which<\/p>\n
earned five shillings a week, when he might just as well do work in the<\/p>\n
same establishment and under the same master which would bring him in<\/p>\n
five pounds a week. But we should pronounce him shamefully dishonest<\/p>\n
and dishonourable if he accepted such handsome wages as the five<\/p>\n
pounds, and yet chose to do work worth only five shillings, excusing<\/p>\n
himself by saying that it was work all the same, and somebody had<\/p>\n
better do it. Do we not act something like this when we take the lower<\/p>\n
standard, and spend our strength in just making ourselves agreeable and<\/p>\n
pleasant, creating a general good impression in favour of religion,<\/p>\n
showing that we can be all things to all men, and that one who is<\/p>\n
supposed to be a citizen of the other world can be very well up in all<\/p>\n
that concerns this world? This may be good, but is there nothing<\/p>\n
better? What does it profit if we do make this favourable impression on<\/p>\n
an outsider, if we go no farther and do not use the influence gained to<\/p>\n
bring him right inside the fold, inside the only ark of safety? People<\/p>\n
are not converted by this sort of work; at any rate, I never met or<\/p>\n
heard of any one. He thinks it better for his quiet influence to tell!’<\/p>\n
said an affectionately excusing relative of one who had plenty of<\/p>\n
special opportunities of soul-winning, if he had only used his lips as<\/p>\n
well as his life for his Master. And how many souls have been converted<\/p>\n
to God by his “quiet influence” all these years?’ was my reply. And to<\/p>\n
that there was no answer! For the silent shining was all very beautiful<\/p>\n
in theory, but not one of the many souls placed specially under his<\/p>\n
influence had been known to be brought out of darkness into marvellous<\/p>\n
light. If they had, they must have been known, for such light can’t<\/p>\n
help being seen.<\/p>\n
When one has even a glimmer of the tremendous difference between having<\/p>\n
Christ and being without Christ; when one gets but one shuddering<\/p>\n
glimpse of what eternity is, and of what it must mean, as well as what<\/p>\n
it may mean, without Christ; when one gets but a flash of realization<\/p>\n
of the tremendous fact that all these neighbours of ours, rich and poor<\/p>\n
alike, will have to spend that eternity either with Him or without<\/p>\n
Him,–it is hard, very hard indeed, to understand how a man or woman<\/p>\n
can believe these things at all, and make no effort for anything beyond<\/p>\n
the temporal elevation of those around, sometimes not even beyond their<\/p>\n
amusements! People must have entertainment,’ they urge. I do not find<\/p>\n
that must in the Bible, but I do find, We must all stand before the<\/p>\n
judgment-seat of Christ.’ And if you have any sort of belief in that,<\/p>\n
how can you care to use those lips of yours, which might be a fountain<\/p>\n
of life to the dying souls before you, merely to entertain’ them at<\/p>\n
your penny reading or other entertainment? As you sow, so you reap. The<\/p>\n
amusing paper is read, or the lively ballad recited, or the popular<\/p>\n
song sung, and you reap your harvest of laughter or applause, and of<\/p>\n
complacence at your success in entertaining’ the people. And there it<\/p>\n
ends, when you might have sown words from which you and they should<\/p>\n
reap fruit unto life eternal. Is this worthy work for one who has been<\/p>\n
bought with such a price that he must say,<\/p>\n
Love so amazing, so divine,<\/p>\n
Demands my soul, my life, my all’?<\/p>\n
So far from yielding all’ to that rightful demand of amazing love, he<\/p>\n
does not even yield the fruit of his lips to it, much less the lips<\/p>\n
themselves. I cannot refrain from adding, that even this lower aim of<\/p>\n
entertaining’ is by no means so appreciated as is supposed. As a<\/p>\n
cottager of no more than average sense and intelligence remarked, It<\/p>\n
was all so trifling at the reading; I wish gentlefolks would believe<\/p>\n
that poor people like something better than what’s just to make them<\/p>\n
laugh.’ After all, nothing really pays like direct, straightforward,<\/p>\n
uncompromising words about God and His works and word. Nothing else<\/p>\n
ever made a man say, as a poor Irishman did when he heard the Good News<\/p>\n
for the first time, Thank ye, sir; you’ve taken the hunger off us<\/p>\n
to-day!’<\/p>\n
Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord; what about ours? Well,<\/p>\n
they are all uttered before the Lord in one sense, whether we will or<\/p>\n
no; for there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, Thou, O Lord, knowest<\/p>\n
it altogether! How solemn is this thought, but how sweet does it become<\/p>\n
when our words are uttered consciously before the Lord as we walk in<\/p>\n
the light of His perpetual presence! Oh that we may so walk, that we<\/p>\n
may so speak, with kept feet and kept lips, trustfully praying, Let the<\/p>\n
meditation of my heart and the words of my mouth be alway acceptable in<\/p>\n
Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer!’<\/p>\n
Bearing in mind that it is not only the words which pass their<\/p>\n
lightly-hinged portal, but our literal lips which are to be kept for<\/p>\n
Jesus, it cannot be out of place, before closing this chapter, to<\/p>\n
suggest that they open both ways. What passes in should surely be<\/p>\n
considered as well as what passes out. And very many of us are<\/p>\n
beginning to see that the command, Whether ye eat or drink, or<\/p>\n
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God,’ is not fully obeyed when<\/p>\n
we drink, merely because we like it, what is the very greatest obstacle<\/p>\n
to that glory in this realm of England. What matter that we prefer<\/p>\n
taking it in a more refined form, if the thing itself is daily and<\/p>\n
actively and mightily working misery, and crime, and death, and<\/p>\n
destruction to thousands, till the cry thereof seems as if it must<\/p>\n
pierce the very heavens! And so it does–sooner, a great deal, than it<\/p>\n
pierces the walls of our comfortable dining-room! I only say here, you<\/p>\n
who have said, Take my lips,’ stop and repeat that prayer next time you<\/p>\n
put that to your lips which is binding men and women hand and foot, and<\/p>\n
delivering them over, helpless, to Satan! Let those words pass once<\/p>\n
more from your heart out through your lips, and I do not think you will<\/p>\n
feel comfortable in letting the means of such infernal work pass in<\/p>\n
through them.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter VII.<\/p>\n
Our Silver and Gold Kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my silver and my gold;<\/p>\n
Not a mite would I withhold.’<\/p>\n
The silver and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts.’ Yes, every<\/p>\n
coin we have is literally our Lord’s money.’ Simple belief of this fact<\/p>\n
is the stepping-stone to full consecration of what He has given us,<\/p>\n
whether much or little.<\/p>\n
Then you mean to say we are never to spend anything on ourselves?’ Not<\/p>\n
so. Another fact must be considered,–the fact that our Lord has given<\/p>\n
us our bodies as a special personal charge, and that we are responsible<\/p>\n
for keeping these bodies, according to the means given and the work<\/p>\n
required, in working order for Him. This is part of our own work.’ A<\/p>\n
master entrusts a workman with a delicate machine, with which his<\/p>\n
appointed work is to be done. He also provides him with a sum of money<\/p>\n
with which he is to procure all that may be necessary for keeping the<\/p>\n
machine in thorough repair. Is it not obvious that it is the man’s<\/p>\n
distinct duty to see to this faithfully? Would he not be failing in<\/p>\n
duty if he chose to spend it all on something for somebody else’s work,<\/p>\n
or on a present for his master, fancying that would please him better,<\/p>\n
while the machine is creaking and wearing for want of a little oil, or<\/p>\n
working badly for want of a new band or screw? Just so, we are to spend<\/p>\n
what is really needful on ourselves, because it is our charge to do so;<\/p>\n
but not for ourselves, because we are not our own, but our Master’s. He<\/p>\n
who knoweth our frame, knows its needs of rest and medicine, food and<\/p>\n
clothing; and the procuring of these for our own entrusted bodies<\/p>\n
should be done just as much for Jesus’ as the greater pleasure of<\/p>\n
procuring them for some one else. Therefore there need be no quibbling<\/p>\n
over the assertion that consecration is not real and complete while we<\/p>\n
are looking upon a single shilling as our own to do what we like with.<\/p>\n
Also the principle is exactly the same, whether we are spending pence<\/p>\n
or pounds; it is our Lord’s money, and must not be spent without<\/p>\n
reference to Him.<\/p>\n
When we have asked Him to take, and continually trust Him to keep our<\/p>\n
money, shopping’ becomes a different thing. We look up to our Lord for<\/p>\n
guidance to lay out His money prudently and rightly, and as He would<\/p>\n
have us lay it out. The gift or garment is selected consciously under<\/p>\n
His eye, and with conscious reference to Him as our own dear Master,<\/p>\n
for whose sake we shall give it, or in whose service we shall wear it,<\/p>\n
and whose own silver or gold we shall pay for it, and then it is all<\/p>\n
right.<\/p>\n
But have you found out that it is one of the secrets of the Lord, that<\/p>\n
when any of His dear children turn aside a little bit after having once<\/p>\n
entered the blessed path of true and conscious consecration, He is sure<\/p>\n
to send them some little punishment? He will not let us go back without<\/p>\n
a sharp, even if quite secret, reminder. Go and spend ever such a<\/p>\n
little without reference to Him after you have once pledged the silver<\/p>\n
and gold entirely to Him, and see if you are not in some way rebuked<\/p>\n
for it! Very often by being permitted to find that you have made a<\/p>\n
mistake in your purchase, or that in some way it does not prosper. If<\/p>\n
you observe these things,’ you will find that the more closely we are<\/p>\n
walking with our Lord, the more immediate and unmistakeable will be His<\/p>\n
gracious rebukes when we swerve in any detail of the full consecration<\/p>\n
to which He has called us. And if you have already experienced and<\/p>\n
recognised this part of His personal dealing with us, you will know<\/p>\n
also how we love and bless Him for it.<\/p>\n
There is always a danger that just because we say all,’ we may<\/p>\n
practically fall shorter than if we had only said some,’ but said it<\/p>\n
very definitely. God recognises this, and provides against it in many<\/p>\n
departments. For instance, though our time is to be all’ for Him, yet<\/p>\n
He solemnly sets apart the one day in seven which is to be specially<\/p>\n
for Him. Those who think they know better than God, and profess that<\/p>\n
every day is a Sabbath, little know what floodgates of temptation they<\/p>\n
are opening by being so very wise above what is written. God knows<\/p>\n
best, and that should be quite enough for every loyal heart. So, as to<\/p>\n
money, though we place it all at our Lord’s disposal, and rejoice to<\/p>\n
spend it all for Him directly or indirectly, yet I am quite certain it<\/p>\n
is a great help and safeguard, and, what is more, a matter of simple<\/p>\n
obedience to the spirit of His commands, to set aside a definite and<\/p>\n
regular proportion of our income or receipts for His direct service. It<\/p>\n
is a great mistake to suppose that the law of giving the tenth to God<\/p>\n
is merely Levitical. Search and look’ for yourselves, and you will find<\/p>\n
that it is, like the Sabbath, a far older rule, running all through the<\/p>\n
Bible, [1] and endorsed, not abrogated, by Christ Himself. For,<\/p>\n
speaking of tithes, He said, These ought ye to have done, and not to<\/p>\n
leave the other undone.’ To dedicate the tenth of whatever we have is<\/p>\n
mere duty; charity begins beyond it; free-will offerings and<\/p>\n
thank-offerings beyond that again.<\/p>\n
First-fruits, also, should be thus specially set apart. This, too, we<\/p>\n
find running all through the Bible. There is a tacit appeal to our<\/p>\n
gratitude in the suggestion of them,–the very word implies bounty<\/p>\n
received and bounty in prospect. Bringing the first of the first-fruits<\/p>\n
into the house of the Lord thy God,’ was like saying grace’ for all the<\/p>\n
plenty He was going to bestow on the faithful Israelite. Something of<\/p>\n
gladness, too, seems always implied. The day of the first-fruits’ was<\/p>\n
to be a day of rejoicing (compare Num. xxviii. 26 with Deut. xvi. 10,<\/p>\n
11). There is also an appeal to loyalty: we are commanded to honour the<\/p>\n
Lord with the first-fruits of all our increase. And that is the way to<\/p>\n
prosper, for the next word is, So shall thy barns be filled with<\/p>\n
plenty.’ The friend who first called my attention to this command, said<\/p>\n
that the setting apart first-fruits–making a proportion for God’s work<\/p>\n
a first charge upon the income–always seemed to bring a blessing on<\/p>\n
the rest, and that since this had been systematically done, it actually<\/p>\n
seemed to go farther than when not thus lessened.<\/p>\n
Presenting our first-fruits should be a peculiarly delightful act, as<\/p>\n
they are themselves the emblem of our consecrated relationship to God.<\/p>\n
For of His own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we should be<\/p>\n
a kind of first-fruits of His creatures. How sweet and hallowed and<\/p>\n
richly emblematic our little acts of obedience in this matter become,<\/p>\n
when we throw this light upon them! And how blessedly they may remind<\/p>\n
us of the heavenly company, singing, as it were, a new song before the<\/p>\n
throne; for they are the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.<\/p>\n
Perhaps we shall find no better plan of detailed and systematic setting<\/p>\n
apart than the New Testament one: Upon the first day of the week let<\/p>\n
every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.’ The<\/p>\n
very act of literally fulfilling this apostolic command seems to bring<\/p>\n
a blessing with it, as all simple obedience does. I wish, dear friends,<\/p>\n
you would try it! You will find it a sweet reminder on His own day of<\/p>\n
this part of your consecration. You will find it an immense help in<\/p>\n
making the most of your little charities. The regular inflow will guide<\/p>\n
the outflow, and ensure your always having something for any sudden<\/p>\n
call for your Master’s poor or your Master’s cause. Do not say you are<\/p>\n
afraid you could not keep to it.’ What has a consecrated life to do<\/p>\n
with being afraid’? Some of us could tell of such sweet and singular<\/p>\n
lessons of trust in this matter, that they are written in golden<\/p>\n
letters of love on our memories. Of course there will be trials of our<\/p>\n
faith in this, as well as in everything else. But every trial of our<\/p>\n
faith is but a trial of His faithfulness, and is much more precious<\/p>\n
than gold which perisheth.’<\/p>\n
What about self-denial?’ some reader will say. Consecration does not<\/p>\n
supersede this, but transfigures it. Literally, a consecrated life is<\/p>\n
and must be a life of denial of self. But all the effort and pain of it<\/p>\n
is changed into very delight. We love our Master; we know, surely and<\/p>\n
absolutely, that He is listening and watching our every word and way,<\/p>\n
and that He has called us to the privilege of walking worthy of the<\/p>\n
Lord unto all pleasing.’ And in so far as this is a reality to us, the<\/p>\n
identical things which are still self-denial in one sense, become<\/p>\n
actual self-delight in another. It may be self-denial to us to turn<\/p>\n
away from something within reach of our purse which it would be very<\/p>\n
convenient or pleasant to possess. But if the Master lifted the veil,<\/p>\n
and revealed Himself standing at our side, and let us hear His audible<\/p>\n
voice asking us to reserve the price of it for His treasury, should we<\/p>\n
talk about self-denial then? Should we not be utterly ashamed to think<\/p>\n
of it? or rather, should we, for one instant, think about self or<\/p>\n
self-denial at all? Would it not be an unimaginable joy to do what He<\/p>\n
asked us to do with that money? But as long as His own unchangeable<\/p>\n
promise stands written in His word for us, Lo, I am with you alway,’ we<\/p>\n
may be sure that He is with us, and that His eye is as certainly on our<\/p>\n
opened or half-opened purse as it was on the treasury, when He sat over<\/p>\n
against it and saw the two mites cast in. So let us do our shopping as<\/p>\n
seeing Him who is invisible.’<\/p>\n
It is important to remember that there is no much or little in God’s<\/p>\n
sight, except as relatively to our means and willingness. For if there<\/p>\n
be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath,<\/p>\n
and not according to that he hath not.’ He knows what we have not, as<\/p>\n
well as what we have. He knows all about the low wages in one sphere,<\/p>\n
and the small allowance, or the fixed income with rising prices in<\/p>\n
another. And it is not a question of paying to God what can be screwed<\/p>\n
out of these, but of giving Him all, and then holding all at His<\/p>\n
disposal, and taking His orders about the disposal of all.<\/p>\n
But I do not see at all how self-indulgence and needless extravagance<\/p>\n
can possibly co-exist with true consecration. If we really never do go<\/p>\n
without anything for the Lord’s sake, but, just because He has<\/p>\n
graciously given us means, always supply for ourselves not only every<\/p>\n
need but every notion,’ I think it is high time we looked into the<\/p>\n
matter before God. Why should only those who have limited means have<\/p>\n
the privilege of offering to their Lord that which has really cost them<\/p>\n
something to offer? Observe, it is not merely going without something<\/p>\n
we would naturally like to have or do, but going without it for Jesus’<\/p>\n
sake. Not, I will go without it, because, after all, I can’t very well<\/p>\n
afford it;’ or, because I really ought to subscribe to so and so;’ or,<\/p>\n
because I daresay I shall be glad I have not spent the money:’ but, I<\/p>\n
will do without it, because I do want to do a little more for Him who<\/p>\n
so loves me–just that much more than I could do if I did this other<\/p>\n
thing.’ I fancy this is more often the heart language of those who have<\/p>\n
to cut and contrive, than of those who are able to give liberally<\/p>\n
without any cutting and contriving at all. The very abundance of God’s<\/p>\n
good gifts too often hinders from the privilege and delight of really<\/p>\n
doing without something superfluous or comfortable or usual, that they<\/p>\n
may give just that much more to their Lord. What a pity!<\/p>\n
The following quotation may (I hope it will), touch some conscience:–A<\/p>\n
gentleman once told us that his wine bill was 100 a year–more than<\/p>\n
enough to keep a Scripture reader always at work in some populous<\/p>\n
district. And it is one of the countless advantages of total abstinence<\/p>\n
that it at once sets free a certain amount of money for such work.<\/p>\n
Smoking, too, is a habit not only injurious to the health in a vast<\/p>\n
majority of cases, and, to our mind, very unbecoming in a “temple of<\/p>\n
the Holy Ghost,” but also one which squanders money which might be used<\/p>\n
for the Lord. Expenses in dress might in most people be curtailed;<\/p>\n
expensive tastes should be denied; and simplicity in all habits of life<\/p>\n
should be a mark of the followers of Him who had not where to lay His<\/p>\n
head.’<\/p>\n
And again: The self-indulgence of wealthy Christians, who might largely<\/p>\n
support the Lord’s work with what they lavish upon their houses, their<\/p>\n
tables, or their personal expenditure, is very sad to see.’ [2]<\/p>\n
Here the question of jewellery seems to come in. Perhaps it was an<\/p>\n
instance of the gradual showing of the details of consecration,<\/p>\n
illustrated on page 21, but I will confess that when I wrote Take my<\/p>\n
silver and my gold,’ it never dawned on me that anything was included<\/p>\n
beyond the coin of the realm! But the Lord leads on softly,’ and a good<\/p>\n
many of us have been shown some capital bits of unenclosed but easily<\/p>\n
enclosable ground, which have yielded pleasant fruit.’ Yes, very<\/p>\n
pleasant fruit! It is wonderfully nice to light upon something that we<\/p>\n
really never thought of as a possible gift to our Lord, and just to<\/p>\n
give it, straight away, to Him. I do not press the matter, but I do ask<\/p>\n
my lady friends to give it fair and candid and prayerful consideration.<\/p>\n
Which do you really care most about–a diamond on your finger, or a<\/p>\n
star in the Redeemer’s kingdom, shining for ever and ever? That is what<\/p>\n
it comes to, and there I leave it.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, it is very possible to be fairly faithful in much,<\/p>\n
and yet unfaithful in that which is least. We may have thought about<\/p>\n
our gold and silver, and yet have been altogether thoughtless about our<\/p>\n
rubbish! Some have a habit of hoarding away old garments, pieces,’<\/p>\n
remnants, and odds and ends generally, under the idea that they will<\/p>\n
come in useful some day;’ very likely setting it up as a kind of mild<\/p>\n
virtue, backed by that noxious old saying, Keep it by you seven years,<\/p>\n
and you’ll find a use for it.’ And so the shabby things get shabbier,<\/p>\n
and moth and dust doth corrupt, and the drawers and places get choked<\/p>\n
and crowded; and meanwhile all this that is sheer rubbish to you might<\/p>\n
be made useful at once, to a degree beyond what you would guess, to<\/p>\n
some poor person.<\/p>\n
It would be a nice variety for the clever fingers of a lady’s maid to<\/p>\n
be set to work to do up old things; or some tidy woman may be found in<\/p>\n
almost every locality who knows how to contrive children’s things out<\/p>\n
of what seems to you only fit for the rag-bag, either for her own<\/p>\n
little ones or those of her neighbours.<\/p>\n
My sister trimmed 70 or 80 hats every spring for several years with the<\/p>\n
contents of friends’ rubbish drawers, thus relieving dozens of poor<\/p>\n
mothers who liked their children to go tidy on Sunday,’ and also<\/p>\n
keeping down finery in her Sunday school. Those who literally fulfilled<\/p>\n
her request for rubbish’ used to marvel at the results.<\/p>\n
Little scraps of carpet, torn old curtains, faded blinds, and all such<\/p>\n
gear, go a wonderfully long way towards making poor cottagers and old<\/p>\n
or sick people comfortable. I never saw anything in this rubbish’ line<\/p>\n
yet that could not be turned to good account somehow, with a little<\/p>\n
considering of the poor and their discomforts.<\/p>\n
I wish my lady reader would just leave this book now, and go straight<\/p>\n
up-stairs and have a good rummage at once, and see what can be thus<\/p>\n
cleared out. If she does not know the right recipients at first hand,<\/p>\n
let her send it off to the nearest working clergyman’s wife, and see<\/p>\n
how gratefully it will be received! For it is a great trial to workers<\/p>\n
among the poor not to be able to supply the needs they see. Such<\/p>\n
supplies are far more useful than treble their small money value.<\/p>\n
Just a word of earnest pleading for needs, closely veiled, but very<\/p>\n
sore, which might be wonderfully lightened if this wardrobe<\/p>\n
over-hauling were systematic and faithful. There are hundreds of poor<\/p>\n
clergymen’s families to whom a few old garments or any household<\/p>\n
oddments are as great a charity as to any of the poor under their<\/p>\n
charge. There are two Societies for aiding these with such gifts, under<\/p>\n
initials which are explained in the Reports; the P.P.C.<\/p>\n
Society–Secretary, Miss Breay, Battenhall Place, Worcester; and the<\/p>\n
A.F.D. Society–Secretary, Miss Hinton, 4 York Place, Clifton. I only<\/p>\n
ask my lady friends to send for a report to either of these devoted<\/p>\n
secretaries; and if their hearts are not so touched by the cases of<\/p>\n
brave and bitter need that they go forthwith to wardrobes and drawers<\/p>\n
to see what can be spared and sent, they are colder and harder than I<\/p>\n
give Englishwomen credit for.<\/p>\n
There is no bondage in consecration. The two things are opposites, and<\/p>\n
cannot co-exist, much less mingle. We should suspect our consecration,<\/p>\n
and come afresh to our great Counsellor about it, directly we have any<\/p>\n
sense of bondage. As long as we have an unacknowledged feeling of<\/p>\n
fidget about our account-book, and a smothered wondering what and how<\/p>\n
much we ought’ to give, and a hushed-up wishing the thing had not been<\/p>\n
put quite so strongly before us, depend upon it we have not said<\/p>\n
unreservedly, Take my silver and my gold.’ And how can the Lord keep<\/p>\n
what He has not been sincerely asked to take?<\/p>\n
Ah! if we had stood at the foot of the Cross, and watched the<\/p>\n
tremendous payment of our redemption with the precious blood of<\/p>\n
Christ,–if we had seen that awful price told out, drop by drop, from<\/p>\n
His own dear patient brow and torn hands and feet, till it was ALL<\/p>\n
paid, and the central word of eternity was uttered, It is finished!’<\/p>\n
should we not have been ready to say, Not a mite will I withhold!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
My Jewels.<\/p>\n
From Woman’s Work.<\/p>\n
Shall I hold them back–my jewels?<\/p>\n
Time has travelled many a day<\/p>\n
Since I laid them by for ever,<\/p>\n
Safely locking them away;<\/p>\n
And I thought them yielded wholly.<\/p>\n
When I dared no longer wear<\/p>\n
Gems contrasting, oh, so sadly!<\/p>\n
With the adorning I would bear.<\/p>\n
Shall I keep them still–my jewels?<\/p>\n
Shall I, can I yet withhold<\/p>\n
From that living, loving Saviour<\/p>\n
Aught of silver or of gold?<\/p>\n
Gold so needed, that His gospel<\/p>\n
May resound from sea to sea;<\/p>\n
Can I know Christ’s service lacketh,<\/p>\n
Yet forget His “unto Me”!<\/p>\n
No; I lay them down–my jewels,<\/p>\n
Truly on the altar now.<\/p>\n
Stay! I see a vision passing<\/p>\n
Of a gem-encircled brow:<\/p>\n
Heavenly treasure worn by Jesus,<\/p>\n
Souls won through my gift outpoured;<\/p>\n
Freely, gladly I will offer<\/p>\n
Jewels thus to crown my Lord!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
[1] See Gen. xiv. 20, xxviii. 22; Lev. xxvii. 30, 32; Num. xviii. 21;<\/p>\n
Deut. xiv. 22; 2 Chron. xxxi. 5, 6, 12; Neh. x. 37, xii. 44, xiii. 12;<\/p>\n
Mal. iii. 8, 10; Matt. xxiii. 23; Luke xi. 42; 1 Cor xvi. 2; Heb. vii.<\/p>\n
8.<\/p>\n
[2] Christian Progress, vol. iii. pp. 25, 26.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter VIII.<\/p>\n
Our Intellects kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my intellect, and use<\/p>\n
Every power as Thou shalt choose.’<\/p>\n
There are two distinct sets of temptations which assail those who have,<\/p>\n
or think they have, rather less, and those who have, or think they<\/p>\n
have, rather more than an average share of intellect; while those who<\/p>\n
have neither less nor more are generally open in some degree to both.<\/p>\n
The refuge and very present help from both is the same. The intellect,<\/p>\n
whether great or small, which is committed to the Lord’s keeping, will<\/p>\n
be kept and will be used by Him.<\/p>\n
The former class are tempted to think themselves excused from effort to<\/p>\n
cultivate and use their small intellectual gifts; to suppose they<\/p>\n
cannot or need not seek to win souls, because they are not so clever<\/p>\n
and apt in speech as So-and-so; to attribute to want of gift what is<\/p>\n
really want of grace; to hide the one talent because it is not five.<\/p>\n
Let me throw out a thought or two for these.<\/p>\n
Which is greatest, gifts or grace? Gifts are given to every man<\/p>\n
according to his several ability.’ That is, we have just as much given<\/p>\n
as God knows we are able to use, and what He knows we can best use for<\/p>\n
Him. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure<\/p>\n
of the gift of Christ.’ Claiming and using that royal measure of grace,<\/p>\n
you may, and can, and will do more for God than the mightiest intellect<\/p>\n
in the world without it. For which, in the clear light of His Word, is<\/p>\n
likely to be most effectual, the natural ability which at its best and<\/p>\n
fullest, without Christ, can do nothing’ (observe and believe that<\/p>\n
word!), or the grace of our Almighty God and the power of the Holy<\/p>\n
Ghost, which is as free to you as it ever was to any one?<\/p>\n
If you are responsible for making use of your limited gift, are you not<\/p>\n
equally responsible for making use of the grace and power which are to<\/p>\n
be had for the asking, which are already yours in Christ, and which are<\/p>\n
not limited?<\/p>\n
Also, do you not see that when there are great natural gifts, people<\/p>\n
give the credit to them, instead of to the grace which alone did the<\/p>\n
real work, and thus God is defrauded of the glory? So that, to say it<\/p>\n
reverently, God can get more glory out of a feeble instrument, because<\/p>\n
then it is more obvious that the excellency of the power is of God and<\/p>\n
not of us. Will you not henceforth say, Most gladly, therefore, will I<\/p>\n
rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon<\/p>\n
me’?<\/p>\n
Don’t you really believe that the Holy Spirit is just as able to draw a<\/p>\n
soul to Jesus, if He will, by your whisper of the one word, Come,’ as<\/p>\n
by an eloquent sermon an hour long? I do! At the same time, as it is<\/p>\n
evidently God’s way to work through these intellects of ours, we have<\/p>\n
no more right to expect Him to use a mind which we are wilfully<\/p>\n
neglecting, and taking no pains whatever to fit for His use, than I<\/p>\n
should have to expect you to write a beautiful inscription with my pen,<\/p>\n
if I would not take the trouble to wipe it and mend it.<\/p>\n
The latter class are tempted to rely on their natural gifts, and to act<\/p>\n
and speak in their own strength; to go on too fast, without really<\/p>\n
looking up at every step, and for every word; to spend their Lord’s<\/p>\n
time in polishing up their intellects, nominally for the sake of<\/p>\n
influence and power, and so forth, while really, down at the bottom, it<\/p>\n
is for the sake of the keen enjoyment of the process; and perhaps, most<\/p>\n
of all, to spend the strength of these intellects for that which doth<\/p>\n
not profit,’ in yielding to the specious snare of reading clever books<\/p>\n
on both sides,’ and eating deliberately of the tree of the knowledge of<\/p>\n
good and evil.<\/p>\n
The mere mention of these temptations should be sufficient appeal to<\/p>\n
conscience. If consecration is to be a reality anywhere, should it not<\/p>\n
be in the very thing which you own as an extra gift from God, and which<\/p>\n
is evidently closest, so to speak, to His direct action, spirit upon<\/p>\n
spirit? And if the very strength of your intellect has been your<\/p>\n
weakness, will you not entreat Him to keep it henceforth really and<\/p>\n
entirely for Himself? It is so good of Him to have given you something<\/p>\n
to lay at His feet; shall not this goodness lead you to lay it all<\/p>\n
there, and never hanker after taking it back for yourself or the world?<\/p>\n
Do you not feel that in very proportion to the gift you need the<\/p>\n
special keeping of it? He may lead you by a way you know not in the<\/p>\n
matter; very likely He will show you that you must be willing to be a<\/p>\n
fool for His sake first, before He will condescend to use you much for<\/p>\n
His glory. Will you look up into His face and say, Not willing’?<\/p>\n
He who made every power can use every power–memory, judgment,<\/p>\n
imagination, quickness of apprehension or insight; specialties of<\/p>\n
musical, poetical, oratorical, or artistic faculty; special tastes for<\/p>\n
reasoning, philosophy, history, natural science, or natural<\/p>\n
history,–all these may be dedicated to Him, sanctified by Him, and<\/p>\n
used by Him. Whatever He has given, He will use, if we will let Him.<\/p>\n
Often, in the most unexpected ways, and at the most unexpected turns,<\/p>\n
something read or acquired long ago suddenly comes into use. We cannot<\/p>\n
foresee what will thus come in useful’; but He knew, when He guided us<\/p>\n
to learn it, what it would be wanted for in His service. So may we not<\/p>\n
ask Him to bring His perfect foreknowledge to bear on all our mental<\/p>\n
training and storing? to guide us to read or study exactly what He<\/p>\n
knows there will be use for in the work to which He has called or will<\/p>\n
call us?<\/p>\n
Nothing is more practically perplexing to a young Christian, whose<\/p>\n
preparation time is not quite over, or perhaps painfully limited, than<\/p>\n
to know what is most worth studying, what is really the best investment<\/p>\n
of the golden hours, while yet the time is not come for the field of<\/p>\n
active work to be fully entered, and the thoroughly furnishing’ of the<\/p>\n
mind is the evident path of present duty. Is not His name called<\/p>\n
Counsellor’? and will He not be faithful to the promise of His name in<\/p>\n
this, as well as in all else?<\/p>\n
The same applies to every subsequent stage. Only let us be perfectly<\/p>\n
clear about the principle that our intellect is not our own, either to<\/p>\n
cultivate, or to use, or to enjoy, and that Jesus Christ is our real<\/p>\n
and ever-present Counsellor, and then there will be no more worry about<\/p>\n
what to read and how much to read, and whether to keep up one’s<\/p>\n
accomplishments, or one’s languages, or one’s ologies’! If the Master<\/p>\n
has need of them, He will show us; and if He has not, what need have we<\/p>\n
of them? If we go forward without His leading, we may throw away some<\/p>\n
talent, or let it get too rusty for use, which would have been most<\/p>\n
valuable when other circumstances arose or different work was given. We<\/p>\n
must not think that keeping’ means not using at all! What we want is to<\/p>\n
have all our powers kept for His use.<\/p>\n
In this they will probably find far higher development than in any<\/p>\n
other sort of use. I know cases in which the effect of real<\/p>\n
consecration on mere mental development has been obvious and surprising<\/p>\n
to all around. Yet it is only a confirmation of what I believe to be a<\/p>\n
great principle, viz. that the Lord makes the most of whatever is<\/p>\n
unreservedly surrendered to Him. There will always be plenty of waste<\/p>\n
in what we try to cut out for ourselves. But He wastes no material!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter IX.<\/p>\n
Our Wills kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my will, oh, keep it Thine,<\/p>\n
For it is no longer mine.’<\/p>\n
Perhaps there is no point in which expectation has been so limited by<\/p>\n
experience as this. We believe God is able to do for us just so much as<\/p>\n
He has already done, and no more. We take it for granted a line must be<\/p>\n
drawn somewhere; and so we choose to draw it where experience ends, and<\/p>\n
faith would have to begin. Even if we have trusted and proved Him as to<\/p>\n
keeping our members and our minds, faith fails when we would go deeper<\/p>\n
and say, Keep my will!’ And yet the only reason we have to give is,<\/p>\n
that though we have asked Him to take our will, we do not exactly find<\/p>\n
that it is altogether His, but that self-will crops up again and again.<\/p>\n
And whatever flaw there might be in this argument, we think the matter<\/p>\n
is quite settled by the fact that some whom we rightly esteem, and who<\/p>\n
are far better than ourselves, have the same experience, and do not<\/p>\n
even seem to think it right to hope for anything better. That is<\/p>\n
conclusive! And the result of this, as of every other faithless<\/p>\n
conclusion, is either discouragement and depression, or, still worse,<\/p>\n
acquiescence in an unyielded will, as something that can’t be helped.<\/p>\n
Now let us turn from our thoughts to God’s thoughts. Verily, they are<\/p>\n
not as ours! He says He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all<\/p>\n
that we ask or think. Apply this here. We ask Him to take our wills and<\/p>\n
make them His. Does He or does He not mean what He says? and if He<\/p>\n
does, should we not trust Him to do this thing that we have asked and<\/p>\n
longed for, and not less but more? Is anything too hard for the Lord?’<\/p>\n
Hath He said, and shall He not do it?’ and if He gives us faith to<\/p>\n
believe that we have the petition that we desired of Him, and with it<\/p>\n
the unspeakable rest of leaning our will wholly upon His love, what<\/p>\n
ground have we for imagining that this is necessarily to be a mere<\/p>\n
fleeting shadow, which is hardly to last an hour, but is necessarily to<\/p>\n
be exhausted ere the next breath of trial or temptation comes? Does He<\/p>\n
mock our longing by acting as I have seen an older person act to a<\/p>\n
child, by accepting some trifling gift of no intrinsic value, just to<\/p>\n
please the little one, and then throwing it away as soon as the child’s<\/p>\n
attention is diverted? Is not the taking rather the pledge of the<\/p>\n
keeping, if we will but entrust Him fearlessly with it? We give Him no<\/p>\n
opportunity, so to speak, of proving His faithfulness to this great<\/p>\n
promise, because we will not fulfil the condition of reception,<\/p>\n
believing it. But we readily enough believe instead all that we hear of<\/p>\n
the unsatisfactory experience of others! Or, start from another word.<\/p>\n
Job said, I know that Thou canst do everything,’ and we turn round and<\/p>\n
say, Oh yes, everything except keeping my will!’ Dare we add, And I<\/p>\n
know that Thou canst not do that’? Yet that is what is said every day,<\/p>\n
only in other words; and if not said aloud, it is said in faithless<\/p>\n
hearts, and God hears it. What does Almighty’ mean, if it does not<\/p>\n
mean, as we teach our little children, able to do everything’?<\/p>\n
We have asked this great thing many a time, without, perhaps, realizing<\/p>\n
how great a petition we were singing, in the old morning hymn, Guard my<\/p>\n
first springs of thought and will!’ That goes to the root of the<\/p>\n
matter, only it implies that the will has been already surrendered to<\/p>\n
Him, that it may be wholly kept and guarded.<\/p>\n
It may be that we have not sufficiently realized the sin of the only<\/p>\n
alternative. Our wills belong either to self or to God. It may seem a<\/p>\n
small and rather excusable sin in man’s sight to be self-willed, but<\/p>\n
see in what a category of iniquity God puts it! (2 Pet. ii. 10). And<\/p>\n
certainly we are without excuse when we have such a promise to go upon<\/p>\n
as, It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His<\/p>\n
pleasure.’ How splendidly this meets our very deepest<\/p>\n
helplessness,–worketh in you to will!’ Oh, let us pray for ourselves<\/p>\n
and for each other, that we may know what is the exceeding greatness of<\/p>\n
His power to usward who believe.’ It does not say, to usward who fear<\/p>\n
and doubt;’ for if we will not believe, neither shall we be<\/p>\n
established. If we will not believe what God says He can do, we shall<\/p>\n
see it with our eyes, but we shall not eat thereof. They could not<\/p>\n
enter in because of unbelief.’<\/p>\n
It is most comforting to remember that the grand promise, Thy people<\/p>\n
shall be willing in the day of Thy power,’ is made by the Father to<\/p>\n
Christ Himself. The Lord Jesus holds this promise, and God will fulfil<\/p>\n
it to Him. He will make us willing because He has promised Jesus that<\/p>\n
He will do so. And what is being made willing, but having our will<\/p>\n
taken and kept?<\/p>\n
All true surrender of the will is based upon love and knowledge of, and<\/p>\n
confidence in, the one to whom it is surrendered. We have the human<\/p>\n
analogy so often before our eyes, that it is the more strange we should<\/p>\n
be so slow to own even the possibility of it as to God. Is it thought<\/p>\n
anything so very extraordinary and high-flown, when a bride<\/p>\n
deliberately prefers wearing a colour which was not her own taste or<\/p>\n
choice, because her husband likes to see her in it? Is it very<\/p>\n
unnatural that it is no distress to her to do what he asks her to do,<\/p>\n
or to go with him where he asks her to come, even without question or<\/p>\n
explanation, instead of doing what or going where she would undoubtedly<\/p>\n
have preferred if she did not know and love him? Is it very surprising<\/p>\n
if this lasts beyond the wedding day, and if year after year she still<\/p>\n
finds it her greatest pleasure to please him, quite irrespective of<\/p>\n
what used to be her own ways and likings? Yet in this case she is not<\/p>\n
helped by any promise or power on his part to make her wish what he<\/p>\n
wishes. But He who so wonderfully condescends to call Himself the<\/p>\n
Bridegroom of His church, and who claims our fullest love and trust,<\/p>\n
has promised and has power to work in us to will. Shall we not claim<\/p>\n
His promise and rely on His mighty power, and say, not<\/p>\n
self-confidently, but looking only unto Jesus–<\/p>\n
Keep my will, for it is Thine;<\/p>\n
It shall be no longer mine!’<\/p>\n
Only in proportion as our own will is surrendered, are we able to<\/p>\n
discern the splendour of God’s will.<\/p>\n
For oh! it is a splendour,<\/p>\n
A glow of majesty,<\/p>\n
A mystery of beauty<\/p>\n
If we will only see;<\/p>\n
A very cloud of glory<\/p>\n
Enfolding you and me.<\/p>\n
A splendour that is lighted<\/p>\n
At one transcendent flame,<\/p>\n
The wondrous Love, the perfect Love,<\/p>\n
Our Father’s sweetest name;<\/p>\n
For His Name and very Essence<\/p>\n
And His Will are all the same!<\/p>\n
Conversely, in proportion as we see this splendour of His will, we<\/p>\n
shall more readily or more fully surrender our own. Not until we have<\/p>\n
presented our bodies a living sacrifice can we prove what is that good,<\/p>\n
and perfect, and acceptable will of God. But in thus proving it, this<\/p>\n
continual presentation will be more and more seen to be our reasonable<\/p>\n
service, and becomes more and more a joyful sacrifice of praise.<\/p>\n
The connection in Romans xii. 1, 2, between our sacrifice which He so<\/p>\n
graciously calls acceptable to Himself, and our finding out that His<\/p>\n
will is acceptable to ourselves, is very striking. One reason for this<\/p>\n
connection may be that only love can really understand love, and love<\/p>\n
on both sides is at the bottom of the whole transaction and its<\/p>\n
results. First, He loves us. Then the discovery of this leads us to<\/p>\n
love Him. Then, because He loves us, He claims us, and desires to have<\/p>\n
us wholly yielded to His will, so that the operations of love in and<\/p>\n
for us may find no hindrance. Then, because we love Him we recognise<\/p>\n
His claim and yield ourselves. Then, being thus yielded, He draws us<\/p>\n
nearer to Him, [3] and admits us, so to speak, into closer intimacy, so<\/p>\n
that we gain nearer and truer views of His perfections. Then the unity<\/p>\n
of these perfections becomes clearer to us. Now we not only see His<\/p>\n
justice and mercy flowing in an undivided stream from the cross of<\/p>\n
Christ, but we see that they never were divided, though the strange<\/p>\n
distortions of the dark, false glass of sin made them appear so, but<\/p>\n
that both are but emanations of God’s holy love. Then having known and<\/p>\n
believed this holy love, we see further that His will is not a separate<\/p>\n
thing, but only love (and therefore all His attributes) in action; love<\/p>\n
being the primary essence of His being, and all the other attributes<\/p>\n
manifestations and combinations of that ineffable essence, for God is<\/p>\n
Love. Then this will of God which has seemed in old far-off days a<\/p>\n
stern and fateful power, is seen to be only love energized; love<\/p>\n
saying, I will.’ And when once we really grasp this (hardly so much by<\/p>\n
faith as by love itself), the will of God cannot be otherwise than<\/p>\n
acceptable, for it is no longer a question of trusting that somehow or<\/p>\n
other there is a hidden element of love in it, but of understanding<\/p>\n
that it is love; no more to be dissociated from it than the power of<\/p>\n
the sun’s rays can be dissociated from their light and warmth. And love<\/p>\n
recognised must surely be love accepted and reciprocated. So, as the<\/p>\n
fancied sternness of God’s will is lost in His love, the stubbornness<\/p>\n
of our will becomes melted in that love, and lost in our acceptance of<\/p>\n
it.<\/p>\n
Jean Sophia Pigott.<\/p>\n
Take Thine own way with me, dear Lord,<\/p>\n
Thou canst not otherwise than bless;<\/p>\n
I launch me forth upon a sea<\/p>\n
Of boundless love and tenderness.<\/p>\n
I could not choose a larger bliss<\/p>\n
Than to be wholly Thine; and mine<\/p>\n
A will whose highest joy is this,<\/p>\n
To ceaselessly unclasp in Thine.<\/p>\n
I will not fear Thee, O my God!<\/p>\n
The days to come can only bring<\/p>\n
Their perfect sequences of love,<\/p>\n
Thy larger, deeper comforting.<\/p>\n
Within the shadow of this love,<\/p>\n
Loss doth transmute itself to gain;<\/p>\n
Faith veils earth’s sorrows in its light,<\/p>\n
And straightway lives above her pain.<\/p>\n
We are not losers thus; we share<\/p>\n
The perfect gladness of the Son,<\/p>\n
Not conquered–for, behold, we reign;<\/p>\n
Conquered and Conqueror are one.<\/p>\n
Thy wonderful grand will, my God!<\/p>\n
Triumphantly I make it mine;<\/p>\n
And faith shall breathe her glad “Amen”<\/p>\n
To every dear command of Thine.<\/p>\n
Beneath the splendour of Thy choice,<\/p>\n
Thy perfect choice for me, I rest;<\/p>\n
Outside it now I dare not live,<\/p>\n
Within it I must needs be blest.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile my spirit anchors calm<\/p>\n
In grander regions still than this;<\/p>\n
The fair, far-shining latitudes<\/p>\n
Of that yet unexplord bliss.<\/p>\n
Then may Thy perfect, glorious will<\/p>\n
Be evermore fulfilled in me,<\/p>\n
And make my life an answ’ring chord<\/p>\n
Of glad, responsive harmony.<\/p>\n
Oh! it is life indeed to live<\/p>\n
Within this kingdom strangely sweet,<\/p>\n
And yet we fear to enter in,<\/p>\n
And linger with unwilling feet.<\/p>\n
We fear this wondrous rule of Thine,<\/p>\n
Because we have not reached Thy heart;<\/p>\n
Not venturing our all on Thee,<\/p>\n
We may not know how good Thou art.’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
[3] Now ye have consecrated yourselves unto the Lord, come near’ (2<\/p>\n
Chron. xxix. 31).<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter X.<\/p>\n
Our hearts kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my heart; it is Thine own;<\/p>\n
It is now Thy royal throne.’<\/p>\n
It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,’ and yet<\/p>\n
some of us go on as if it were not a good thing even to hope for it to<\/p>\n
be so.<\/p>\n
We should be ashamed to say that we had behaved treacherously to a<\/p>\n
friend; that we had played him false again and again; that we had said<\/p>\n
scores of times what we did not really mean; that we had professed and<\/p>\n
promised what, all the while, we had no sort of purpose of performing.<\/p>\n
We should be ready to go off by next ship to New Zealand rather than<\/p>\n
calmly own to all this, or rather than ever face our friends again<\/p>\n
after we had owned it. And yet we are not ashamed (some of us) to say<\/p>\n
that we are always dealing treacherously with our Lord; nay, more, we<\/p>\n
own it with an inexplicable complacency, as if there were a kind of<\/p>\n
virtue in saying how fickle and faithless and desperately wicked our<\/p>\n
hearts are; and we actually plume ourselves on the easy confession,<\/p>\n
which we think proves our humility, and which does not lower us in the<\/p>\n
eyes of others, nor in our own eyes, half so much as if we had to say,<\/p>\n
I have told a story,’ or, I have broken my promise.’ Nay, more, we have<\/p>\n
not the slightest hope, and therefore not the smallest intention of<\/p>\n
aiming at an utterly different state of things. Well for us if we do<\/p>\n
not go a step farther, and call those by hard and false names who do<\/p>\n
seek to have an established heart, and who believe that as the Lord<\/p>\n
meant what He said when He promised, No good thing will He withhold<\/p>\n
from them that walk uprightly,’ so He will not withhold this good<\/p>\n
thing.<\/p>\n
Prayer must be based upon promise, but, thank God, His promises are<\/p>\n
always broader than our prayers. No fear of building inverted pyramids<\/p>\n
here, for Jesus Christ is the foundation, and this and all the other<\/p>\n
promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him amen, unto the glory of God<\/p>\n
by us.’ So it shall be unto His glory to fulfil this one to us, and to<\/p>\n
answer our prayer for a kept’ or established’ heart. And its fulfilment<\/p>\n
shall work out His glory, not in spite of us, but by us.’<\/p>\n
We find both the means and the result of the keeping in the 112th<\/p>\n
Psalm: His heart is fixed.’ Whose heart? An angel? A saint in glory?<\/p>\n
No! Simply the heart of the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth<\/p>\n
greatly in His commandments. Therefore yours and mine, as God would<\/p>\n
have them be; just the normal idea of a God-fearing heart, nothing<\/p>\n
extremely and hopelessly beyond attainment.<\/p>\n
Fixed.’ How does that tally with the deceitfulness and waywardness and<\/p>\n
fickleness about which we really talk as if we were rather proud of<\/p>\n
them than utterly ashamed of them?<\/p>\n
Does our heavenly Bridegroom expect nothing more of us? Does His<\/p>\n
mighty, all-constraining love intend to do no more for us than to leave<\/p>\n
us in this deplorable state, when He is undoubtedly able to heal the<\/p>\n
desperately wicked heart (compare verses 9 and 14 of Jeremiah xvii.),<\/p>\n
to rule the wayward one with His peace, and to establish the fickle one<\/p>\n
with His grace? Are we not without excuse’?<\/p>\n
Fixed, trusting in the Lord.’ Here is the means of the fixing–trust.<\/p>\n
He works the trust in us by sending the Holy Spirit to reveal God in<\/p>\n
Christ to us as absolutely, infinitely worthy of our trust. When we see<\/p>\n
Jesus’ by Spirit-wrought faith, we cannot but trust Him; we distrust<\/p>\n
our hearts more truly than ever before, but we trust our Lord entirely,<\/p>\n
because we trust Him only. For, entrusting our trust to Him, we know<\/p>\n
that He is able to keep that which we commit (i. e. entrust) to Him. It<\/p>\n
is His own way of winning and fixing our hearts for Himself. Is it not<\/p>\n
a beautiful one? Thus his heart is established.’ But we have not quite<\/p>\n
faith enough to believe that. So what is the very first doubting, and<\/p>\n
therefore sad thought that crops up? Yes, but I am afraid it will not<\/p>\n
remain fixed.’<\/p>\n
That is your thought. Now see what is God’s thought about the case. His<\/p>\n
heart is established, he shall not be afraid.’<\/p>\n
Is not that enough? What is, if such plain and yet divine words are<\/p>\n
not? Well, the Gracious One bears with us, and gives line upon line to<\/p>\n
His poor little children. And so He says, The peace of God, which<\/p>\n
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds, through<\/p>\n
Christ Jesus.’ And again, Thy thoughts shall be established.’ And<\/p>\n
again, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on<\/p>\n
Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.’<\/p>\n
And to prove to us that these promises can be realized in present<\/p>\n
experience, He sends down to us through nearly 3000 years the words of<\/p>\n
the man who prayed, Create in me a clean heart, O God,’ and lets us<\/p>\n
hear twice over the new song put by the same Holy Spirit into his<\/p>\n
mouth: My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed’ (Ps. lvii. 7,<\/p>\n
cviii. 1).<\/p>\n
The heart that is established in Christ is also established for Christ.<\/p>\n
It becomes His royal throne, no longer occupied by His foe, no longer<\/p>\n
tottering and unstable. And then we see the beauty and preciousness of<\/p>\n
the promise, He shall be a Priest upon His throne.’ Not only reigning,<\/p>\n
but atoning. Not only ruling, but cleansing. Thus the throne is<\/p>\n
established in mercy,’ but by righteousness.’<\/p>\n
I think we lose ground sometimes by parleying with the tempter. We have<\/p>\n
no business to parley with an usurper. The throne is no longer his when<\/p>\n
we have surrendered it to our Lord Jesus. And why should we allow him<\/p>\n
to argue with us for one instant, as if it were still an open question?<\/p>\n
Don’t listen; simply tell him that Jesus Christ is on the long-disputed<\/p>\n
throne, and no more about it, but turn at once to your King and claim<\/p>\n
the glorious protection of His sovereignty over you. It is a splendid<\/p>\n
reality, and you will find it so. He will not abdicate and leave you<\/p>\n
kingless and defenceless. For verily, The Lord is our King; He will<\/p>\n
save us’ (Isa. xxxiii. 22).<\/p>\n
Our hearts are naturally– God can make them–<\/p>\n
Evil, Heb. iii. 12. Clean, Ps. li. 10.<\/p>\n
Desperately wicked, Jer. xvii. 9. Good, Luke viii. 15.<\/p>\n
Weak, Ezek. xvi. 30. Fixed, Ps. cxii. 7.<\/p>\n
Deceitful, Jer. xvii. 9. Faithful, Neh. ix. 8.<\/p>\n
Deceived, Isa. xliv. 20. Understanding, 1 Kings iii. 9.<\/p>\n
Double, Ps. xii. 2. Honest, Luke viii. 15.<\/p>\n
Impenitent, Rom. ii. 5. Contrite, Ps. li. 17.<\/p>\n
Rebellious, Jer. v. 23. True, Heb. x. 22.<\/p>\n
Hard, Ezek. iii. 7. Soft, Job xxiii. 16.<\/p>\n
Stony, Ezek. xi. 19. New, Ezek. xviii. 31.<\/p>\n
Froward, Prov. xvii. 20. Sound, Ps. cxix. 80.<\/p>\n
Despiteful, Ezek. xxv. 15. Glad, Ps. xvi. 9.<\/p>\n
Stout, Isa. x. 12. Established, Ps. cxii. 8.<\/p>\n
Haughty, Prov. xviii. 12. Tender, Ephes. iv. 32.<\/p>\n
Proud, Prov. xxi. 4. Pure, Matt. v. 8.<\/p>\n
Perverse, Prov. xii. 8. Perfect, 1 Chron. xxix. 9.<\/p>\n
Foolish, Rom. i. 21. Wise, Prov. xi. 29.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter XI.<\/p>\n
Our love kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my love; my Lord, I pour<\/p>\n
At Thy feet its treasure-store.’<\/p>\n
Not as a mere echo from the morning-gilded shore of Tiberias, but as an<\/p>\n
ever new, ever sounding note of divinest power, come the familiar words<\/p>\n
to each of us, Lovest thou Me?’ He says it who has loved us with an<\/p>\n
everlasting love. He says it who has died for us. He says it who has<\/p>\n
washed us from our sins in His own blood. He says it who has waited for<\/p>\n
our love, waited patiently all through our coldness.<\/p>\n
And if by His grace we have said, Take my love,’ which of us has not<\/p>\n
felt that part of His very answer has been to make us see how little<\/p>\n
there was to take, and how little of that little has been kept for Him?<\/p>\n
And yet we do love Him! He knows that! The very mourning and longing to<\/p>\n
love Him more proves it. But we want more than that, and so does our<\/p>\n
Lord.<\/p>\n
He has created us to love. We have a sealed treasure of love, which<\/p>\n
either remains sealed, and then gradually dries up and wastes away, or<\/p>\n
is unsealed and poured out, and yet is the fuller and not the emptier<\/p>\n
for the outpouring. The more love we give, the more we have to give. So<\/p>\n
far it is only natural. But when the Holy Spirit reveals the love of<\/p>\n
Christ, and sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, this natural<\/p>\n
love is penetrated with a new principle as it discovers a new Object.<\/p>\n
Everything that it beholds in that Object gives it new depth and new<\/p>\n
colours. As it sees the holiness, the beauty, and the glory, it takes<\/p>\n
the deep hues of conscious sinfulness, unworthiness, and nothingness.<\/p>\n
As it sees even a glimpse of the love that passeth knowledge, it takes<\/p>\n
the glow of wonder and gratitude. And when it sees that love drawing<\/p>\n
close to its deepest need with blood-purchased pardon, it is<\/p>\n
intensified and stirred, and there is no more time for weighing and<\/p>\n
measuring; we must pour it out, all there is of it, with our tears, at<\/p>\n
the feet that were pierced for love of us.<\/p>\n
And what then? Has the flow grown gradually slower and shallower? Has<\/p>\n
our Lord reason to say, My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook,<\/p>\n
and as a stream of brooks they pass away’? It is humiliating to have<\/p>\n
found that we could not keep on loving Him, as we loved in that<\/p>\n
remembered hour when Thy time was the time of love.’ We have proved<\/p>\n
that we were not able. Let this be only the stepping-stone to proving<\/p>\n
that He is able!<\/p>\n
There will have been a cause, as we shall see if we seek it honestly.<\/p>\n
It was not that we really poured out all our treasure, and so it<\/p>\n
naturally came to an end. We let it be secretly diverted into other<\/p>\n
channels. We began keeping back a little part of the price for<\/p>\n
something else. We looked away from, instead of looking away unto<\/p>\n
Jesus. We did not entrust Him with our love, and ask Him to keep it for<\/p>\n
Himself.<\/p>\n
And what has He to say to us? Ah, He upbraideth not. Listen! Thus saith<\/p>\n
the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine<\/p>\n
espousals.’ Can any words be more tender, more touching, to you, to me?<\/p>\n
Forgetting all the sin, all the backsliding, all the coldness, casting<\/p>\n
all that into the unreturning depths of the sea, He says He remembers<\/p>\n
that hour when we first said, Take my love.’ He remembers it now, at<\/p>\n
this minute. He has written it for ever on His infinite memory, where<\/p>\n
the past is as the present.<\/p>\n
His own love is unchangeable, so it could never be His wish or will<\/p>\n
that we should thus drift away from Him. Oh, Come and let us return<\/p>\n
unto the Lord!’ But is there any hope that, thus returning, our<\/p>\n
flickering love may be kept from again failing? Hear what He says: And<\/p>\n
I will betroth thee unto Me for ever’ And again: Thou shalt abide for<\/p>\n
Me many days; so will I also be for thee.’ Shall we trust His word or<\/p>\n
not? Is it worthy of our acceptation or not? Oh, rest on this word of<\/p>\n
the King, and let Him from this day have the keeping of your love, and<\/p>\n
He will keep it!<\/p>\n
The love of Christ is not an absorbing, but a radiating love. The more<\/p>\n
we love Him, the more we shall most certainly love others. Some have<\/p>\n
not much natural power of loving, but the love of Christ will<\/p>\n
strengthen it. Some have had the springs of love dried up by some<\/p>\n
terrible earthquake. They will find fresh springs’ in Jesus, and the<\/p>\n
gentle flow will be purer and deeper than the old torrent could ever<\/p>\n
be. Some have been satisfied that it should rush in a narrow channel,<\/p>\n
but He will cause it to overflow into many another, and widen its<\/p>\n
course of blessing. Some have spent it all on their God-given dear<\/p>\n
ones. Now He is come whose right it is; and yet in the fullest<\/p>\n
resumption of that right, He is so gracious that He puts back an even<\/p>\n
larger measure of the old love into our hand, sanctified with His own<\/p>\n
love, and energized with His blessing, and strengthened with His new<\/p>\n
commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.’<\/p>\n
In that always very interesting part, called a Corner for<\/p>\n
Difficulties,’ of that always very interesting magazine, Woman’s Work,<\/p>\n
the question has been discussed, When does love become idolatry? Is it<\/p>\n
the experience of Christians that the coming in of a new object of<\/p>\n
affection interferes with entire consecration to God?’ I should like to<\/p>\n
quote the many excellent answers in full, but must only refer my<\/p>\n
readers to the number for March 1879. One replies: It seems to me that<\/p>\n
He who is love would not give us an object for our love unless He saw<\/p>\n
that our hearts needed expansion; and if the love is consecrated, and<\/p>\n
the friendship takes its stand in Christ, there is no need for the fear<\/p>\n
that it will become idolatry. Let the love on both sides be given to<\/p>\n
God to keep, and however much it may grow, the source from which it<\/p>\n
springs must yet be greater.’ Perhaps I may be pardoned for giving, at<\/p>\n
the same writer’s suggestion, a quotation from Under the Surface on<\/p>\n
this subject. Eleanor says to Beatrice:–<\/p>\n
I tremble when I think<\/p>\n
How much I love him; but I turn away<\/p>\n
From thinking of it, just to love him more;–<\/p>\n
Indeed, I fear, too much.’<\/p>\n
Dear Eleanor,<\/p>\n
Do you love him as much as Christ loves us?<\/p>\n
Let your lips answer me.’<\/p>\n
Why ask me, dear?<\/p>\n
Our hearts are finite, Christ is infinite.’<\/p>\n
Then, till you reach the standard of that love,<\/p>\n
Let neither fears nor well-meant warning voice<\/p>\n
Distress you with “too much.” For He hath said<\/p>\n
How much–and who shall dare to change His measure?<\/p>\n
“That ye should love as I have loved you.”<\/p>\n
O sweet command, that goes so far beyond<\/p>\n
The mightiest impulse of the tenderest heart!<\/p>\n
A bare permission had been much; but He<\/p>\n
Who knows our yearnings and our fearfulness,<\/p>\n
Chose graciously to bid us do the thing<\/p>\n
That makes our earthly happiness,<\/p>\n
A limit that we need not fear to pass,<\/p>\n
Because we cannot. Oh, the breadth and length,<\/p>\n
And depth and height of love that passeth knowledge!<\/p>\n
Yet Jesus said, “As I have loved you.”‘<\/p>\n
O Beatrice, I long to feel the sunshine<\/p>\n
That this should bring; but there are other words<\/p>\n
Which fall in chill eclipse. Tis written, “Keep<\/p>\n
Yourselves from idols.” How shall I obey?’<\/p>\n
Oh, not by loving less, but loving more.<\/p>\n
It is not that we love our precious ones<\/p>\n
Too much, but God too little. As the lamp<\/p>\n
A miner bears upon his shadowed brow<\/p>\n
Is only dazzling in the grimy dark,<\/p>\n
And has no glare against the summer sky,<\/p>\n
So, set the tiny torch of our best love<\/p>\n
In the great sunshine of the love of God,<\/p>\n
And, though full fed and fanned, it casts no shade<\/p>\n
And dazzles not, o’erflowed with mightier light.’<\/p>\n
There is no love so deep and wide as that which is kept for Jesus. It<\/p>\n
flows both fuller and farther when it flows only through Him. Then,<\/p>\n
too, it will be a power for Him. It will always be unconsciously<\/p>\n
working for Him. In drawing others to ourselves by it, we shall be<\/p>\n
necessarily drawing them nearer to the fountain of our love, never<\/p>\n
drawing them away from it. It is the great magnet of His love which<\/p>\n
alone can draw any heart to Him; but when our own are thoroughly<\/p>\n
yielded to its mighty influence, they will be so magnetized that He<\/p>\n
will condescend to use them in this way.<\/p>\n
Is it not wonderful to think that the Lord Jesus will not only accept<\/p>\n
and keep, but actually use our love?<\/p>\n
Of Thine own have we given Thee,’ for we love Him because He first<\/p>\n
loved us.’<\/p>\n
Set apart to love Him,<\/p>\n
And His love to know;<\/p>\n
Not to waste affection<\/p>\n
On a passing show;<\/p>\n
Called to give Him life and heart,<\/p>\n
Called to pour the hidden treasure,<\/p>\n
That none other claims to measure,<\/p>\n
Into His belovd hand! thrice blessd set apart’!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter XII.<\/p>\n
Our Selves kept for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Keep my self, that I may be<\/p>\n
Ever, only, all for Thee.’<\/p>\n
For Thee!’ That is the beginning and the end of the whole matter of<\/p>\n
consecration.<\/p>\n
There was a prelude to its endless song,’–a prelude whose theme is<\/p>\n
woven into every following harmony in the new anthem of consecrated<\/p>\n
life: The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ Out of<\/p>\n
the realized for me,’ grows the practical for Thee!’ If the former is a<\/p>\n
living root, the latter will be its living fruit.<\/p>\n
For Thee!’ This makes the difference between forced or formal, and<\/p>\n
therefore unreasonable service, and the reasonable service’ which is<\/p>\n
the beginning of the perfect service where they see His face. This<\/p>\n
makes the difference between slave work and free work. For Thee, my<\/p>\n
Redeemer; for Thee who hast spoken to my heart; for Thee, who hast done<\/p>\n
for me–what? Let us each pause, and fill up that blank with the great<\/p>\n
things the Lord hath done for us. For Thee, who art to me–what? Fill<\/p>\n
that up too, before Him! For Thee, my Saviour Jesus, my Lord and my<\/p>\n
God!<\/p>\n
And what is to be for Him? My self. We talk sometimes as if, whatever<\/p>\n
else could be subdued unto Him, self could never be. Did St. Paul<\/p>\n
forget to mention this important exception to the all things’ in Phil.<\/p>\n
iii. 21? David said: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within<\/p>\n
me, bless His Holy Name.’ Did he, too, unaccountably forget to mention<\/p>\n
that he only meant all that was within him, except self? If not, then<\/p>\n
self must be among the all things’ which the Lord Jesus Christ is able<\/p>\n
to subdue unto Himself, and which are to bless His Holy Name.’ It is<\/p>\n
Self which, once His most treacherous foe, is now, by full and glad<\/p>\n
surrender, His own soldier–coming over from the rebel camp into the<\/p>\n
royal army. It is not some one else, some temporarily possessing<\/p>\n
spirit, which says within us, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee,’ but<\/p>\n
our true and very self, only changed and renewed by the power of the<\/p>\n
Holy Ghost. And when we do that we would not, we know that it is no<\/p>\n
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.’ Our true self is the<\/p>\n
new self, taken and won by the love of God, and kept by the power of<\/p>\n
God.<\/p>\n
Yes, kept!’ There is the promise on which we ground our prayer; or,<\/p>\n
rather, one of the promises. For, search and look for your own<\/p>\n
strengthening and comfort, and you will find it repeated in every part<\/p>\n
of the Bible, from I am with thee, and will keep thee,’ in Genesis, to<\/p>\n
I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation,’ in Revelation.<\/p>\n
And kept for Him! Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you,<\/p>\n
when it is only the fulfilling of His own eternal purpose in creating<\/p>\n
us? This people have I formed for Myself.’ Not ultimately only, but<\/p>\n
presently and continually; for He says, Thou shalt abide for Me;’ and,<\/p>\n
He that remaineth, even he shall be for our God.’ Are you one of His<\/p>\n
people by faith in Jesus Christ? Then see what you are to Him. You,<\/p>\n
personally and individually, are part of the Lord’s portion (Deut.<\/p>\n
xxxii. 9) and of His inheritance (1 Kings viii. 53, and Eph. i. 18).<\/p>\n
His portion and inheritance would not be complete without you; you are<\/p>\n
His peculiar treasure (Ex. xix. 5); a special people’ (how warm, and<\/p>\n
loving, and natural that expression is!) unto Himself’ (Deut. vii. 6).<\/p>\n
Would you call it keeping,’ if you had a special’ treasure, a darling<\/p>\n
little child, for instance, and let it run wild into all sorts of<\/p>\n
dangers all day long, sometimes at your side, and sometimes out in the<\/p>\n
street, with only the intention of fetching it safe home at night? If<\/p>\n
ye then, being evil, would know better, and do better, than that, how<\/p>\n
much more shall our Lord’s keeping be true, and tender, and continual,<\/p>\n
and effectual, when He declares us to be His peculiar treasure,<\/p>\n
purchased (See 1 Pet. ii. 9, margin) for Himself at such unknown cost!<\/p>\n
He will keep what thus He sought,<\/p>\n
Safely guard the dearly bought;<\/p>\n
Cherish that which He did choose,<\/p>\n
Always love and never lose.<\/p>\n
I know what some of us are thinking. Yes; I see it all plainly enough<\/p>\n
in theory, but in practice I find I am not kept. Self goes over to the<\/p>\n
other camp again and again. If is not all for Jesus, though I have<\/p>\n
asked and wished for it to be so.’ Dear friends, the all’ must be<\/p>\n
sealed with only.’ Are you willing to be only’ for Jesus? You have not<\/p>\n
given all’ to Jesus while you are not quite ready to be only’ for Him.<\/p>\n
And it is no use to talk about ever’ while we have not settled the<\/p>\n
only’ and the all.’ You cannot be for Him,’ in the full and blessed<\/p>\n
sense, while you are partly for’ anything or any one else. For the Lord<\/p>\n
hath set apart him that is godly for Himself.’ You see, the for<\/p>\n
Himself’ hinges upon the set apart.’ There is no consecration without<\/p>\n
separation. If you are mourning over want of realized consecration,<\/p>\n
will you look humbly and sincerely into this point? A garden enclosed<\/p>\n
is my sister, my spouse,’ saith the Heavenly Bridegroom.<\/p>\n
Set apart for Jesus!<\/p>\n
Is not this enough,<\/p>\n
Though the desert prospect<\/p>\n
Open wild and rough?<\/p>\n
Set apart for His delight,<\/p>\n
Chosen for His holy pleasure,<\/p>\n
Sealed to be His special treasure!<\/p>\n
Could we choose a nobler joy?–and would we, if we might? [4]<\/p>\n
But yielding, by His grace, to this blessed setting apart for Himself,<\/p>\n
The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself, as He hath<\/p>\n
sworn unto thee.’ Can there be a stronger promise? Just obey and trust<\/p>\n
His word now, and yield yourselves now unto God, that He may establish<\/p>\n
thee to-day for a people unto Himself.’ Commit the keeping of your<\/p>\n
souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator, being persuaded<\/p>\n
that He is able to keep that which you commit to Him.<\/p>\n
Now, Lord, I give myself to Thee,<\/p>\n
I would be wholly Thine,<\/p>\n
As Thou hast given Thyself to me,<\/p>\n
And Thou art wholly mine;<\/p>\n
O take me, seal me for Thine own,<\/p>\n
Thine altogether, Thine alone.<\/p>\n
Here comes in once more that immeasurably important subject of our<\/p>\n
influence. For it is not what we say or do, so much as what we are,<\/p>\n
that influences others. We have heard this, and very likely repeated it<\/p>\n
again and again, but have we seen it to be inevitably linked with the<\/p>\n
great question of this chapter? I do not know anything which,<\/p>\n
thoughtfully considered, makes us realize more vividly the need and the<\/p>\n
importance of our whole selves being kept for Jesus. Any part not<\/p>\n
wholly committed, and not wholly kept, must hinder and neutralize the<\/p>\n
real influence for Him of all the rest. If we ourselves are kept all<\/p>\n
for Jesus, then our influence will be all kept for Him too. If not,<\/p>\n
then, however much we may wish and talk and try, we cannot throw our<\/p>\n
full weight into the right scale. And just in so far as it is not in<\/p>\n
the one scale, it must be in the other; weighing against the little<\/p>\n
which we have tried to put in the right one, and making the short<\/p>\n
weight still shorter.<\/p>\n
So large a proportion of it is entirely involuntary, while yet the<\/p>\n
responsibility of it is so enormous, that our helplessness comes out in<\/p>\n
exceptionally strong relief, while our past debt in this matter is<\/p>\n
simply incalculable. Are we feeling this a little? getting just a<\/p>\n
glimpse, down the misty defiles of memory, of the neutral influence,<\/p>\n
the wasted influence, the mistaken influence, the actually wrong<\/p>\n
influence which has marked the ineffaceable although untraceable<\/p>\n
course? And all the while we owed Him all that influence! It ought to<\/p>\n
have been all for Him! We have nothing to say. But what has our Lord to<\/p>\n
say? I forgave thee all that debt!’<\/p>\n
Then, after that forgiveness which must come first, there comes a<\/p>\n
thought of great comfort in our freshly felt helplessness, rising out<\/p>\n
of the very thing that makes us realize this helplessness. Just because<\/p>\n
our influence is to such a great extent involuntary and unconscious, we<\/p>\n
may rest assured that if we ourselves are truly kept for Jesus, this<\/p>\n
will be, as a quite natural result, kept for Him also. It cannot be<\/p>\n
otherwise, for as is the fountain, so will be the flow; as the spring,<\/p>\n
so the action; as the impulse, so the communicated motion. Thus there<\/p>\n
may be, and in simple trust there will be, a quiet rest about it, a<\/p>\n
relief from all sense of strain and effort, a fulfilling of the words,<\/p>\n
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own<\/p>\n
works, as God did from His.’ It will not be a matter of trying to have<\/p>\n
good influence, but just of having it, as naturally and constantly as<\/p>\n
the magnetized bar.<\/p>\n
Another encouraging thought should follow. Of ourselves we may have but<\/p>\n
little weight, no particular talents or position or anything else to<\/p>\n
put into the scale; but let us remember that again and again God has<\/p>\n
shown that the influence of a very average life, when once really<\/p>\n
consecrated to Him, may outweigh that of almost any number of merely<\/p>\n
professing Christians. Such lives are like Gideon’s three hundred,<\/p>\n
carrying not even the ordinary weapons of war, but only trumpets and<\/p>\n
lamps and empty pitchers, by whom the Lord wrought great deliverance,<\/p>\n
while He did not use the others at all. For He hath chosen the weak<\/p>\n
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.<\/p>\n
Should not all this be additional motive for desiring that our whole<\/p>\n
selves should be taken and kept?<\/p>\n
I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever. Therefore we<\/p>\n
may rejoicingly say ever’ as well as only’ and all for Thee!’ For the<\/p>\n
Lord is our Keeper, and He is the Almighty and the Everlasting God,<\/p>\n
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He will never<\/p>\n
change His mind about keeping us, and no man is able to pluck us out of<\/p>\n
His hand. Neither will Christ let us pluck ourselves out of His hand,<\/p>\n
for He says, Thou shalt abide for Me many days.’ And He that keepeth us<\/p>\n
will not slumber. Once having undertaken His vineyard, He will keep it<\/p>\n
night and day, till all the days and nights are over, and we know the<\/p>\n
full meaning of the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,<\/p>\n
unto which we are kept by His power.<\/p>\n
And then, for ever for Him! passing from the gracious keeping by faith<\/p>\n
for this little while, to the glorious keeping in His presence for all<\/p>\n
eternity! For ever fulfilling the object for which He formed us and<\/p>\n
chose us, we showing forth His praise, and He showing the exceeding<\/p>\n
riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in the ages to come! He<\/p>\n
for us, and we for Him for ever! Oh, how little we can grasp this! Yet<\/p>\n
this is the fruition of being kept for Jesus!’<\/p>\n
Set apart for ever<\/p>\n
For Himself alone!<\/p>\n
Now we see our calling<\/p>\n
Gloriously shown.<\/p>\n
Owning, with no secret dread,<\/p>\n
This our holy separation,<\/p>\n
Now the crown of consecration [5]<\/p>\n
Of the Lord our God shall rest upon our willing head.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
[4] Loyal Responses, p. 11.<\/p>\n
[5] Num. vi. 7.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Chapter XIII.<\/p>\n
Christ for Us.<\/p>\n
So will I also be for Thee.’–Hos. iii. 3.<\/p>\n
The typical promise, Thou shalt abide for Me many days,’ is indeed a<\/p>\n
marvel of love. For it is given to the most undeserving, described<\/p>\n
under the strongest possible figure of utter worthlessness and<\/p>\n
treacherousness,–the woman beloved, yet an adulteress.<\/p>\n
The depth of the abyss shows the length of the line that has fathomed<\/p>\n
it, yet only the length of the line reveals the real depth of the<\/p>\n
abyss. The sin shows the love, and the love reveals the sin. The Bible<\/p>\n
has few words more touching, though seldom quoted, than those just<\/p>\n
preceding this wonderful promise: The love of the Lord toward the<\/p>\n
children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.’<\/p>\n
Put that into the personal application which no doubt underlies it, and<\/p>\n
say, The love of the Lord toward me, who have looked away from Him,<\/p>\n
with wandering, faithless eyes, to other helps and hopes, and have<\/p>\n
loved earthly joys and sought earthly gratifications,–the love of the<\/p>\n
Lord toward even me!’ And then hear Him saying in the next verse, So I<\/p>\n
bought her to Me;’ stooping to do that in His unspeakable condescension<\/p>\n
of love, not with the typical silver and barley, but with the precious<\/p>\n
blood of Christ. Then, having thus loved us, and rescued us, and bought<\/p>\n
us with a price indeed, He says, still under the same figure, Thou<\/p>\n
shalt abide for Me many days.’<\/p>\n
This is both a command and a pledge. But the very pledge implies our<\/p>\n
past unfaithfulness, and the proved need of even our own part being<\/p>\n
undertaken by the ever patient Lord. He Himself has to guarantee our<\/p>\n
faithfulness, because there is no other hope of our continuing<\/p>\n
faithful. Well may such love win our full and glad surrender, and such<\/p>\n
a promise win our happy and confident trust!<\/p>\n
But He says more. He says, So will I also be for thee!’ And this seems<\/p>\n
an even greater marvel of love, as we observe how He meets every detail<\/p>\n
of our consecration with this wonderful word. [6]<\/p>\n
1. His Life for thee!’ The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the<\/p>\n
sheep.’ Oh, wonderful gift! not promised, but given; not to friends,<\/p>\n
but to enemies. Given without condition, without reserve, without<\/p>\n
return. Himself unknown and unloved, His gift unsought and unasked, He<\/p>\n
gave His life for thee; a more than royal bounty–the greatest gift<\/p>\n
that Deity could devise. Oh, grandeur of love! I lay down My life for<\/p>\n
the sheep!’ And we for whom He gave it have held back, and hesitated to<\/p>\n
give our lives, not even for Him (He has not asked us to do that), but<\/p>\n
to Him! But that is past, and He has tenderly pardoned the unloving,<\/p>\n
ungrateful reserve, and has graciously accepted the poor little<\/p>\n
fleeting breath and speck of dust which was all we had to offer. And<\/p>\n
now His precious death and His glorious life are all for thee.’<\/p>\n
2. His Eternity for thee.’ All we can ask Him to take are days and<\/p>\n
moments–the little span given us as it is given, and of this only the<\/p>\n
present in deed and the future in will. As for the past, in so far as<\/p>\n
we did not give it to Him, it is too late; we can never give it now!<\/p>\n
But His past was given to us, though ours was not given to Him. Oh,<\/p>\n
what a tremendous debt does this show us!<\/p>\n
Away back in the dim depths of past eternity, or ever the earth and the<\/p>\n
world were made,’ His divine existence in the bosom of His Father was<\/p>\n
all for thee,’ purposing and planning for thee,’ receiving and holding<\/p>\n
the promise of eternal life for thee.’<\/p>\n
Then the thirty-three years among sinners on this sinful earth: do we<\/p>\n
think enough of the slowly-wearing days and nights, the heavy-footed<\/p>\n
hours, the never-hastening minutes, that went to make up those<\/p>\n
thirty-three years of trial and humiliation? We all know how slowly<\/p>\n
time passes when suffering and sorrow are near, and there is no reason<\/p>\n
to suppose that our Master was exempted from this part of our<\/p>\n
infirmities.<\/p>\n
Then His present is for thee.’ Even now He liveth to make<\/p>\n
intercession;’ even now He thinketh upon me;’ even now He knoweth,’ He<\/p>\n
careth,’ He loveth.’<\/p>\n
Then, only to think that His whole eternity will be for thee!’ Millions<\/p>\n
of ages of unfoldings of all His love, and of ever new declarings of<\/p>\n
His Father’s name to His brethren. Think of it! and can we ever<\/p>\n
hesitate to give all our poor little hours to His service?<\/p>\n
3. His Hands for thee.’ Literal hands; literally pierced, when the<\/p>\n
whole weight of His quivering frame hung from their torn muscles and<\/p>\n
bared nerves; literally uplifted in parting blessing. Consecrated,<\/p>\n
priestly hands; filled’ hands (Ex. xxviii. 41, xxix. 9, etc.,<\/p>\n
margin)–filled once with His great offering, and now with gifts and<\/p>\n
blessings for thee.’ Tender hands, touching and healing, lifting and<\/p>\n
leading with gentlest care. Strong hands, upholding and defending. Open<\/p>\n
hands, filling with good and satisfying desire (Ps. civ. 28, and cxlv.<\/p>\n
16). Faithful hands, restraining and sustaining. His left hand is under<\/p>\n
my head, and His right hand doth embrace me.’<\/p>\n
4. His Feet for thee.’ They were weary very often, they were wounded<\/p>\n
and bleeding once. They made clear footprints as He went about doing<\/p>\n
good, and as He went up to Jerusalem to suffer; and these blessed steps<\/p>\n
of His most holy life,’ both as substitution and example, were for<\/p>\n
thee.’ Our place of waiting and learning, of resting and loving, is at<\/p>\n
His feet. And still those blessed feet’ are and shall be for thee,’<\/p>\n
until He comes again to receive us unto Himself, until and when the<\/p>\n
word is fulfilled, They shall walk with Me in white.’<\/p>\n
5. His Voice for thee.’ The Voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,<\/p>\n
Open to me, my sister, my love;’ the Voice that His sheep hear’ and<\/p>\n
know,’ and that calls out the fervent response, Master, say on!’ This<\/p>\n
is not all. It was the literal voice of the Lord Jesus which uttered<\/p>\n
that one echoless cry of desolation on the Cross for thee,’ and it will<\/p>\n
be His own literal voice which will say, Come, ye blessed!’ to thee.<\/p>\n
And that same tender and glorious Voice’ has literally sung and will<\/p>\n
sing for thee.’ I think He consecrated song for us, and made it a sweet<\/p>\n
and sacred thing for ever, when He Himself sang an hymn,’ the very last<\/p>\n
thing before He went forth to consecrate suffering for us. That was not<\/p>\n
His last song. The Lord thy God … will joy over thee with singing.’<\/p>\n
And the time is coming when He will not only sing for thee’ or over<\/p>\n
thee,’ but with thee. He says He will! In the midst of the church will<\/p>\n
I sing praise unto Thee.’ Now what a magnificent glimpse of joy this<\/p>\n
is! Jesus Himself leading the praises of His brethren,’ [7] and we<\/p>\n
ourselves singing not merely in such a chorus, but with such a leader!<\/p>\n
If singing for Jesus’ is such delight here, what will this singing with<\/p>\n
Jesus’ be? Surely song may well be a holy thing to us henceforth.<\/p>\n
6. His Lips for thee.’ Perhaps there is no part of our consecration<\/p>\n
which it is so difficult practically to realize, and in which it is,<\/p>\n
therefore, so needful to recollect?–I also for thee.’ It is often<\/p>\n
helpful to read straight through one or more of the Gospels with a<\/p>\n
special thought on our mind, and see how much bears upon it. When we<\/p>\n
read one through with this thought–His lips for me!’–wondering, verse<\/p>\n
by verse, at the grace which was poured into them, and the gracious<\/p>\n
words which fell from them, wondering more and more at the cumulative<\/p>\n
force and infinite wealth of tenderness and power and wisdom and love<\/p>\n
flowing from them, we cannot but desire that our lips and all the fruit<\/p>\n
of them should be wholly for Him. For thee’ they were opened in<\/p>\n
blessing; for thee’ they were closed when He was led as a lamb to the<\/p>\n
slaughter. And whether teaching, warning, counsel, comfort, or<\/p>\n
encouragement, commandments in whose keeping there is a great reward,<\/p>\n
or promises which exceed all we ask or think–all the precious fruit of<\/p>\n
His lips is for thee,’ really and truly meant for thee.’<\/p>\n
7. His Wealth for thee.’ Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He<\/p>\n
became poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich.’ Yes,<\/p>\n
through His poverty’ the unsearchable riches of Christ are for thee.’<\/p>\n
Seven-fold riches are mentioned; and these are no unminted treasure or<\/p>\n
sealed reserve, but all ready coined for our use, and stamped with His<\/p>\n
own image and superscription, and poured freely into the hand of faith.<\/p>\n
The mere list is wonderful. Riches of goodness,’ riches of forbearance<\/p>\n
and long-suffering,’ riches both of wisdom and knowledge,’ riches of<\/p>\n
mercy,’ exceeding riches of grace,’ and riches of glory.’ And His own<\/p>\n
Word says, All are yours!’ Glance on in faith, and think of eternity<\/p>\n
flowing on and on beyond the mightiest sweep of imagination, and<\/p>\n
realize that all His riches in glory’ and the riches of His glory’ are<\/p>\n
and shall be for thee!’ In view of this, shall we care to reserve<\/p>\n
anything that rust doth corrupt for ourselves?<\/p>\n
8. His treasures of wisdom and knowledge’ for thee.’ First, used for<\/p>\n
our behalf and benefit. Why did He expend such immeasurable might of<\/p>\n
mind upon a world which is to be burnt up, but that He would fit it<\/p>\n
perfectly to be, not the home, but the school of His children? The<\/p>\n
infinity of His skill is such that the most powerful intellects find a<\/p>\n
lifetime too short to penetrate a little way into a few secrets of some<\/p>\n
one small department of His working. If we turn to Providence, it is<\/p>\n
quite enough to take only one’s own life, and look at it<\/p>\n
microscopically and telescopically, and marvel at the treasures of<\/p>\n
wisdom lavished upon its details, ordering and shaping and fitting the<\/p>\n
tiny confused bits into the true mosaic which He means it to be. Many a<\/p>\n
little thing in our lives reveals the same Mind which, according to a<\/p>\n
well-known and very beautiful illustration, adjusted a perfect<\/p>\n
proportion in the delicate hinges of the snowdrop and the droop of its<\/p>\n
bell, with the mass of the globe and the force of gravitation. How kind<\/p>\n
we think it if a very talented friend spends a little of his thought<\/p>\n
and power of mind in teaching us or planning for us! Have we been<\/p>\n
grateful for the infinite thought and wisdom which our Lord has<\/p>\n
expended upon us and our creation, preservation, and redemption?<\/p>\n
Secondly, to be shared with us. He says, All that I have is thine.’ He<\/p>\n
holds nothing back, reserves nothing from His dear children, and what<\/p>\n
we cannot receive now He is keeping for us. He gives us hidden riches<\/p>\n
of secret places’ now, but by and by He will give us more, and the<\/p>\n
glorified intellect will be filled continually out of His treasures of<\/p>\n
wisdom and knowledge. But the sanctified intellect will be, must be,<\/p>\n
used for Him, and only for Him, now!<\/p>\n
9. His Will for thee.’ Think first of the infinite might of that will;<\/p>\n
the first great law and the first great force of the universe, from<\/p>\n
which alone every other law and every other force has sprung, and to<\/p>\n
which all are subordinate. He worketh all things after the counsel of<\/p>\n
His own will.’ He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven,<\/p>\n
and among the inhabitants of the earth.’ Then think of the infinite<\/p>\n
mysteries of that will. For ages and generations the hosts of heaven<\/p>\n
have wonderingly watched its vouchsafed unveilings and its sublime<\/p>\n
developments, and still they are waiting, watching, and wondering.<\/p>\n
Creation and Providence are but the whisper of its power, but<\/p>\n
Redemption is its music, and praise is the echo which shall yet fill<\/p>\n
His temple. The whisper and the music, yes, and the thunder of His<\/p>\n
power,’ are all for thee.’ For what is the good pleasure of His will’?<\/p>\n
(Eph. i. 5.) Oh, what a grand list of blessings purposed, provided,<\/p>\n
purchased, and possessed, all flowing to us out of it! And nothing but<\/p>\n
blessings, nothing but privileges, which we never should have imagined,<\/p>\n
and which, even when revealed, we are slow of heart to believe;’<\/p>\n
nothing but what should even now fill us with joy unspeakable and full<\/p>\n
of glory!’<\/p>\n
Think of this will as always and altogether on our side–always working<\/p>\n
for us, and in us, and with us, if we will only let it; think of it as<\/p>\n
always and only synonymous with infinitely wise and almighty love;<\/p>\n
think of it as undertaking all for us, from the great work of our<\/p>\n
eternal salvation down to the momentary details of guidance and supply,<\/p>\n
and do we not feel utter shame and self-abhorrence at ever having<\/p>\n
hesitated for an instant to give up our tiny, feeble, blind will, to<\/p>\n
be–not crushed, not even bent, but blent with His glorious and perfect<\/p>\n
Will?<\/p>\n
10. His Heart for thee.’ Behold … He is mighty … in heart,’ said<\/p>\n
Job (Job xxxvi. 5, margin). And this mighty and tender heart is for<\/p>\n
thee!’ If He had only stretched forth His hand to save us from bare<\/p>\n
destruction, and said, My hand for thee!’ how could we have praised Him<\/p>\n
enough? But what shall we say of the unspeakably marvellous<\/p>\n
condescension which says, Thou hast ravished (margin, taken away) my<\/p>\n
heart, my sister, my spouse!’ The very fountain of His divine life, and<\/p>\n
light, and love, the very centre of His being, is given to His beloved<\/p>\n
ones, who are not only set as a seal upon His heart,’ but taken into<\/p>\n
His heart, so that our life is hid there, and we dwell there in the<\/p>\n
very centre of all safety, and power, and love, and glory. What will be<\/p>\n
the revelation of that day,’ when the Lord Jesus promises, Ye shall<\/p>\n
know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me’? For He implies that we do<\/p>\n
not yet know it, and that our present knowledge of this dwelling in Him<\/p>\n
is not knowledge at all compared with what He is going to show us about<\/p>\n
it.<\/p>\n
Now shall we, can we, reserve any corner of our hearts from Him?<\/p>\n
11. His Love for thee.’ Not a passive, possible love, but outflowing,<\/p>\n
yes, outpouring of the real, glowing, personal love of His mighty and<\/p>\n
tender heart. Love not as an attribute, a quality, a latent force, but<\/p>\n
an acting, moving, reaching, touching, and grasping power. Love, not a<\/p>\n
cold, beautiful, far-off star, but a sunshine that comes and enfolds<\/p>\n
us, making us warm and glad, and strong and bright and fruitful.<\/p>\n
His love! What manner of love is it? What should be quoted to prove or<\/p>\n
describe it? First the whole Bible with its mysteries and marvels of<\/p>\n
redemption, then the whole book of Providence and the whole volume of<\/p>\n
creation. Then add to these the unknown records of eternity past and<\/p>\n
the unknown glories of eternity to come, and then let the immeasurable<\/p>\n
quotation be sung by angels and archangels, and all the company of<\/p>\n
heaven,’ with all the harps of God, and still that love will be untold,<\/p>\n
still it will be the love of Christ that passeth knowledge.’<\/p>\n
But it is for thee!’<\/p>\n
12. Himself for thee.’ Christ also hath loved us, and given Himself for<\/p>\n
us.’ The Son of God … loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ Yes,<\/p>\n
Himself! What is the Bride’s true and central treasure? What calls<\/p>\n
forth the deepest, brightest, sweetest thrill of love and praise? Not<\/p>\n
the Bridegroom’s priceless gifts, not the robe of His resplendent<\/p>\n
righteousness, not the dowry of unsearchable riches, not the<\/p>\n
magnificence of the palace home to which He is bringing her, not the<\/p>\n
glory which she shall share with Him, but Himself! Jesus Christ, who<\/p>\n
His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree;’ this same<\/p>\n
Jesus,’ whom having not seen, ye love;’ the Son of God, and the Man of<\/p>\n
Sorrows; my Saviour, my Friend, my Master, my King, my Priest, my Lord<\/p>\n
and my God–He says, I also for thee!’ What an I’! What power and<\/p>\n
sweetness we feel in it, so different from any human I,’ for all His<\/p>\n
Godhead and all His manhood are concentrated in it, and all for thee!’<\/p>\n
And not only all,’ but ever’ for thee. His unchangeableness is the seal<\/p>\n
upon every attribute; He will be this same Jesus’ for ever. How can<\/p>\n
mortal mind estimate this enormous promise? How can mortal heart<\/p>\n
conceive what is enfolded in these words, I also for thee’?<\/p>\n
One glimpse of its fulness and glory, and we feel that henceforth it<\/p>\n
must be, shall be, and by His grace will be our true-hearted,<\/p>\n
whole-hearted cry–<\/p>\n
Take myself, and I will be<\/p>\n
Ever, ONLY, ALL for Thee!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
[6] The remainder of this chapter is printed in a little penny book,<\/p>\n
entitled, I also for Thee, by F. R. H., published by Caswell,<\/p>\n
Birmingham, and by Nisbet & Co.<\/p>\n
[7] See A. Newton on the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. ii. ver. 12.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
SELECTIONS FROM<\/p>\n
MISS HAVERGAL’S LATEST POEMS.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
An Interlude.<\/p>\n
That part is finished! I lay down my pen,<\/p>\n
And wonder if the thoughts will flow as fast<\/p>\n
Through the more difficult defile. For the last<\/p>\n
Was easy, and the channel deeper then.<\/p>\n
My Master, I will trust Thee for the rest;<\/p>\n
Give me just what Thou wilt, and that will be my best!<\/p>\n
How can I tell the varied, hidden need<\/p>\n
Of Thy dear children, all unknown to me,<\/p>\n
Who at some future time may come and read<\/p>\n
What I have written! All are known to Thee.<\/p>\n
As Thou hast helped me, help me to the end;<\/p>\n
Give me Thy own sweet messages of love to send.<\/p>\n
So now, I pray Thee, keep my hand in Thine;<\/p>\n
And guide it as Thou wilt. I do not ask<\/p>\n
To understand the wherefore’ of each line;<\/p>\n
Mine is the sweeter, easier, happier task,<\/p>\n
Just to look up to Thee for every word,<\/p>\n
Rest in Thy love, and trust, and know that I am heard.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
The Thoughts of God.<\/p>\n
They say there is a hollow, safe and still,<\/p>\n
A point of coolness and repose<\/p>\n
Within the centre of a flame, where life might dwell<\/p>\n
Unharmed and unconsumed, as in a luminous shell,<\/p>\n
Which the bright walls of fire enclose<\/p>\n
In breachless splendour, barrier that no foes<\/p>\n
Could pass at will.<\/p>\n
There is a point of rest<\/p>\n
At the great centre of the cyclone’s force,<\/p>\n
A silence at its secret source;–<\/p>\n
A little child might slumber undistressed,<\/p>\n
Without the ruffle of one fairy curl,<\/p>\n
In that strange central calm amid the mighty whirl.<\/p>\n
So, in the centre of these thoughts of God,<\/p>\n
Cyclones of power, consuming glory-fire,–<\/p>\n
As we fall o’erawed<\/p>\n
Upon our faces, and are lifted higher<\/p>\n
By His great gentleness, and carried nigher<\/p>\n
Than unredeemd angels, till we stand<\/p>\n
Even in the hollow of His hand,<\/p>\n
Nay, more! we lean upon His breast–<\/p>\n
There, there we find a point of perfect rest<\/p>\n
And glorious safety. There we see<\/p>\n
His thoughts to usward, thoughts of peace<\/p>\n
That stoop in tenderest love; that still increase<\/p>\n
With increase of our need; that never change,<\/p>\n
That never fail, or falter, or forget<\/p>\n
O pity infinite!<\/p>\n
O royal mercy free!<\/p>\n
O gentle climax of the depth and height<\/p>\n
Of God’s most precious thoughts, most wonderful, most strange!<\/p>\n
For I am poor and needy, yet<\/p>\n
The Lord Himself, Jehovah, thinketh upon me!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Free to Serve.’<\/p>\n
She chose His service. For the Lord of Love<\/p>\n
Had chosen her, and paid the awful price<\/p>\n
For her redemption; and had sought her out,<\/p>\n
And set her free, and clothed her gloriously,<\/p>\n
And put His royal ring upon her hand,<\/p>\n
And crowns of loving-kindness on her head.<\/p>\n
She chose it. Yet it seemed she could not yield<\/p>\n
The fuller measure other lives could bring;<\/p>\n
For He had given her a precious gift,<\/p>\n
A treasure and a charge to prize and keep,<\/p>\n
A tiny hand, a darling hand, that traced<\/p>\n
On her heart’s tablet words of golden love.<\/p>\n
And there was not much room for other lines,<\/p>\n
For time and thought were spent (and rightly spent,<\/p>\n
For He had given the charge), and hours and days<\/p>\n
Were concentrated on the one dear task.<\/p>\n
But He had need of her. Not one new gem<\/p>\n
But many for His crown;–not one fair sheaf,<\/p>\n
But many, she should bring. And she should have<\/p>\n
A richer, happier harvest-home at last.<\/p>\n
Because more fruit, more glory and more praise<\/p>\n
Her life should yield to Him. And so He came,<\/p>\n
The Master came Himself, and gently took<\/p>\n
The little hand in His, and gave it room<\/p>\n
Among the angel-harpers. Jesus came<\/p>\n
And laid His own hand on the quivering heart,<\/p>\n
And made it very still, that He might write<\/p>\n
Invisible words of power–Free to serve!’<\/p>\n
Then through the darkness and the chill He sent<\/p>\n
A heat-ray of His love, developing<\/p>\n
The mystic writing, till it glowed and shone<\/p>\n
And lit up all her life with radiance new,–<\/p>\n
The happy service of a yielded heart.<\/p>\n
With comfort that He never ceased to give<\/p>\n
(Because her need could never cease) she filled<\/p>\n
The empty chalices of other lives,<\/p>\n
And time and thought were thenceforth spent for Him<\/p>\n
Who loved her with His everlasting love.<\/p>\n
Let Him write what He will upon our hearts,<\/p>\n
With His unerring pen. They are His own,<\/p>\n
Hewn from the rock by His selecting grace,<\/p>\n
Prepared for His own glory. Let Him write!<\/p>\n
Be sure He will not cross out one sweet word<\/p>\n
But to inscribe a sweeter,–but to grave<\/p>\n
One that shall shine for ever to His praise,<\/p>\n
And thus fulfil our deepest heart-desire.<\/p>\n
The tearful eye at first may read the line,<\/p>\n
Bondage to grief!’ But He shall wipe away<\/p>\n
The tears, and clear the vision, till it read<\/p>\n
In ever-brightening letters, Free to serve!’<\/p>\n
For whom the Son makes free is free indeed.<\/p>\n
Nor only by reclaiming His good gifts,<\/p>\n
But by withholding, doth the Master write<\/p>\n
These words upon the heart. Not always needs<\/p>\n
Erasure of some blessd line of love<\/p>\n
For this more blest inscription. Where He finds<\/p>\n
A tablet empty for the lines left out,’<\/p>\n
That might have been’ engraved with human love<\/p>\n
And sweetest human cares, yet never bore<\/p>\n
That poetry of life, His own dear hand<\/p>\n
Writes Free to serve!’ And these clear characters<\/p>\n
Fill with fair colours all the unclaimed space,<\/p>\n
Else grey and colourless.<\/p>\n
Then let it be<\/p>\n
The motto of our lives until we stand<\/p>\n
In the great freedom of Eternity,<\/p>\n
Where we shall serve Him’ while we see His face,<\/p>\n
For ever and for ever Free to serve.’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Coming to the King.<\/p>\n
2 Chronicles ix. 1-12.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death or<\/p>\n
life, even there also will thy servant be.’–2 Sam. xv. 21.<\/p>\n
Where I am, there shall also my servant be.’–John xii. 26.<\/p>\n
I came from very far away to see<\/p>\n
The King of Salem; for I had been told<\/p>\n
Of glory and of wisdom manifold,<\/p>\n
And condescension infinite and free.<\/p>\n
How could I rest, when I had heard His fame,<\/p>\n
In that dark lonely land of death from whence I came?<\/p>\n
I came (but not like Sheba’s queen), alone!<\/p>\n
No stately train, no costly gifts to bring;<\/p>\n
No friend at court, save One, that One the King!<\/p>\n
I had requests to spread before His throne,<\/p>\n
And I had questions none could solve for me,<\/p>\n
Of import deep, and full of awful mystery.<\/p>\n
I came and communed with that mighty King,<\/p>\n
And told Him all my heart; I cannot say,<\/p>\n
In mortal ear, what communings were they.<\/p>\n
But wouldst thou know, go too, and meekly bring<\/p>\n
All that is in thy heart, and thou shalt hear<\/p>\n
His voice of love and power, His answers sweet and clear.<\/p>\n
O happy end of every weary quest!<\/p>\n
He told me all I needed, graciously;–<\/p>\n
Enough for guidance, and for victory<\/p>\n
O’er doubts and fears, enough for quiet rest;<\/p>\n
And when some veiled response I could not read,<\/p>\n
It was not hid from Him,–this was enough indeed.<\/p>\n
His wisdom and His glories passed before<\/p>\n
My wondering eyes in gradual revelation;<\/p>\n
The house that He had built, its strong foundation,<\/p>\n
Its living stones; and, brightening more and more,<\/p>\n
Fair glimpses of that palace far away,<\/p>\n
Where all His loyal ones shall dwell with Him for aye.<\/p>\n
True the report that reached my far-off land<\/p>\n
Of all His wisdom and transcendent fame;<\/p>\n
Yet I believed not until I came,–<\/p>\n
Bowed to the dust till raised by royal hand.<\/p>\n
The half was never told by mortal word;<\/p>\n
My King exceeded all the fame that I had heard!<\/p>\n
Oh, happy are His servants! happy they<\/p>\n
Who stand continually before His face,<\/p>\n
Ready to do His will of wisest grace!<\/p>\n
My King! is mine such blessedness to-day?<\/p>\n
For I too hear Thy wisdom, line by line,<\/p>\n
Thy ever brightening words in holy radiance shine.<\/p>\n
Oh, blessd be the Lord thy God, who set<\/p>\n
Our King upon His throne! Divine delight<\/p>\n
In the Beloved crowning Thee with might,<\/p>\n
Honour, and majesty supreme; and yet<\/p>\n
The strange and Godlike secret opening thus,–<\/p>\n
The kingship of His Christ ordained through love to us!<\/p>\n
What shall I render to my glorious King?<\/p>\n
I have but that which I receive from Thee;<\/p>\n
And what I give, Thou givest back to me,<\/p>\n
Transmuted by Thy touch; each worthless thing<\/p>\n
Changed to the preciousness of gem or gold,<\/p>\n
And by Thy blessing multiplied a thousand fold.<\/p>\n
All my desire Thou grantest, whatsoe’er<\/p>\n
I ask! Was ever mythic tale or dream<\/p>\n
So bold as this reality,–this stream<\/p>\n
Of boundless blessings flowing full and free?<\/p>\n
Yet more than I have thought or asked of Thee,<\/p>\n
Out of Thy royal bounty still Thou givest me.<\/p>\n
Now I will turn to my own land, and tell<\/p>\n
What I myself have seen and heard of Thee.<\/p>\n
And give Thine own sweet message, Come and see!’<\/p>\n
And yet in heart and mind for ever dwell<\/p>\n
With Thee, my King of Peace, in loyal rest,<\/p>\n
Within the fair pavilion of Thy presence blest.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
The Two Paths.<\/p>\n
Via Dolorosa and Via Giojosa.<\/p>\n
[Suggested by a Picture.]<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
My Master, they have wronged Thee and Thy love!<\/p>\n
They only told me I should find the path<\/p>\n
A Via Dolorosa all the way!<\/p>\n
Even Thy sweetest singers only sang<\/p>\n
Of pressing onward through the same sharp thorns,<\/p>\n
With bleeding footsteps, through the chill dark mist,<\/p>\n
Following and struggling till they reach the light,<\/p>\n
The rest, the sunshine of the far beyond.<\/p>\n
The anthems of the pilgrimage were set<\/p>\n
In most pathetic minors, exquisite,<\/p>\n
Yet breathing sadness more than any praise;<\/p>\n
Thy minstrels let the fitful breezes make<\/p>\n
olian moans on their entrusted harps,<\/p>\n
Until the listeners thought that this was all<\/p>\n
The music Thou hadst given. And so the steps<\/p>\n
That halted where the two ways met and crossed,<\/p>\n
The broad and narrow, turned aside in fear,<\/p>\n
Thinking the radiance of their youth must pass<\/p>\n
In sombre shadows if they followed Thee;<\/p>\n
Hearing afar such echoes of one strain,<\/p>\n
The cross, the tribulation, and the toil,<\/p>\n
The conflict, and the clinging in the dark.<\/p>\n
What wonder that the dancing feet are stayed<\/p>\n
From entering the only path of peace!<\/p>\n
Master, forgive them! Tune their harps anew,<\/p>\n
And put a new song in their mouths for Thee,<\/p>\n
And make Thy chosen people joyful in Thy love.<\/p>\n
Lord Jesus, Thou hast trodden once for all<\/p>\n
The Via Dolorosa,–and for us!<\/p>\n
No artist power or minstrel gift may tell<\/p>\n
The cost to Thee of each unfaltering step,<\/p>\n
When love that passeth knowledge led Thee on,<\/p>\n
Faithful and true to God, and true to us.<\/p>\n
And now, belovd Lord, Thou callest us<\/p>\n
To follow Thee, and we will take Thy word<\/p>\n
About the path which Thou hast marked for us.<\/p>\n
Narrow indeed it is! Who does not choose<\/p>\n
The narrow track upon the mountain side,<\/p>\n
With ever-widening view, and freshening air,<\/p>\n
And honeyed heather, rather than the road,<\/p>\n
With smoothest breadth of dust and loss of view,<\/p>\n
Soiled blossoms not worth gathering, and the noise<\/p>\n
Of wheels instead of silence of the hills,<\/p>\n
Or music of the waterfalls? Oh, why<\/p>\n
Should they misrepresent Thy words, and make<\/p>\n
Narrow’ synonymous with very hard’?<\/p>\n
For Thou, Divinest Wisdom, Thou hast said<\/p>\n
Thy ways are ways of pleasantness, and all<\/p>\n
Thy paths are peace; and that the path of him<\/p>\n
Who wears Thy perfect robe of righteousness<\/p>\n
Is as the light that shineth more and more<\/p>\n
Unto the perfect day. And Thou hast given<\/p>\n
An olden promise, rarely quoted now, [8]<\/p>\n
Because it is too bright for our weak faith:<\/p>\n
If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend<\/p>\n
Days in prosperity, and they shall spend<\/p>\n
Their years in pleasures.’ All because Thy days<\/p>\n
Were full of sorrow, and Thy lonely years<\/p>\n
Were passed in grief’s acquaintance–all for us!<\/p>\n
Master, I set my seal that Thou art true,<\/p>\n
Of Thy good promise not one thing hath failed!<\/p>\n
And I would send a ringing challenge forth,<\/p>\n
To all who know Thy name, to tell it out,<\/p>\n
Thy faithfulness to every written word,<\/p>\n
Thy loving-kindness crowning all the days,–<\/p>\n
To say and sing with me: The Lord is good,<\/p>\n
His mercy is for ever, and His truth<\/p>\n
Is written on each page of all my life!’<\/p>\n
Yes! there is tribulation, but Thy power<\/p>\n
Can blend it with rejoicing. There are thorns,<\/p>\n
But they have kept us in the narrow way,<\/p>\n
The King’s Highway of holiness and peace.<\/p>\n
And there is chastening, but the Father’s love<\/p>\n
Flows through it; and would any trusting heart<\/p>\n
Forego the chastening and forego the love?<\/p>\n
And every step leads on to more and more,’<\/p>\n
From strength to strength Thy pilgrims pass and sing<\/p>\n
The praise of Him who leads them on and on,<\/p>\n
From glory unto glory, even here!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
[8] Job xxvi. 15.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Only for Jesus.<\/p>\n
Only for Jesus! Lord, keep it for ever<\/p>\n
Sealed on the heart and engraved on the life!<\/p>\n
Pulse of all gladness and nerve of endeavour,<\/p>\n
Secret of rest, and the strength of our strife.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Vessels of Mercy, Prepared unto Glory.’<\/p>\n
(Rom. ix. 23.)<\/p>\n
Jer. xviii. 4.<\/p>\n
Isa. xxii. 23, 24.<\/p>\n
2 Tim. ii. 21.<\/p>\n
2 Cor. iv. 5, 6.<\/p>\n
Acts ix. 15.<\/p>\n
Prov. xxv. 4.<\/p>\n
Vessels of mercy, prepared unto glory!<\/p>\n
This is your calling and this is your joy!<\/p>\n
This, for the new year unfolding before ye,<\/p>\n
Tells out the terms of your blessed employ.<\/p>\n
Vessels, it may be, all empty and broken,<\/p>\n
Marred in the Hand of inscrutable skill;<\/p>\n
(Love can accept the mysterious token!)<\/p>\n
Marred but to make them more beautiful still.<\/p>\n
Vessels, it may be, not costly or golden;<\/p>\n
Vessels, it may be, of quantity small,<\/p>\n
Yet by the Nail in the Sure Place upholden,<\/p>\n
Never to shiver and never to fall.<\/p>\n
Vessels to honour, made sacred and holy,<\/p>\n
Meet for the use of the Master we love,<\/p>\n
Ready for service, all simple and lowly,<\/p>\n
Ready, one day, for the temple above.<\/p>\n
Yes, though the vessels be fragile and earthen,<\/p>\n
God hath commanded His glory to shine;<\/p>\n
Treasure resplendent henceforth is our burthen,<\/p>\n
Excellent power, not ours but Divine.<\/p>\n
Chosen in Christ ere the dawn of Creation,<\/p>\n
Chosen for Him, to be filled with His grace,<\/p>\n
Chosen to carry the streams of salvation<\/p>\n
Into each thirsty and desolate place.<\/p>\n
Take all Thy vessels, O glorious Finer,<\/p>\n
Purge all the dross, that each chalice may be<\/p>\n
Pure in Thy pattern, completer, diviner,<\/p>\n
Filled with Thy glory and shining for Thee.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
The Turned Lesson.<\/p>\n
I thought I knew it!’ she said,<\/p>\n
I thought I had learnt it quite!’<\/p>\n
But the gentle Teacher shook her head,<\/p>\n
With a grave yet loving light<\/p>\n
In the eyes that fell on the upturned face,<\/p>\n
As she gave the book<\/p>\n
With the mark still set in the self-same place.<\/p>\n
I thought I knew it!’ she said;<\/p>\n
And a heavy tear fell down,<\/p>\n
As she turned away with bending head,<\/p>\n
Yet not for reproof or frown,<\/p>\n
Not for the lesson to learn again,<\/p>\n
Or the play hour lost;–<\/p>\n
It was something else that gave the pain.<\/p>\n
She could not have put it in words,<\/p>\n
But her Teacher understood,<\/p>\n
As God understands the chirp of the birds<\/p>\n
In the depth of an autumn wood.<\/p>\n
And a quiet touch on the reddening cheek<\/p>\n
Was quite enough;<\/p>\n
No need to question, no need to speak.<\/p>\n
Then the gentle voice was heard,<\/p>\n
Now I will try you again!’<\/p>\n
And the lesson was mastered,–every word!<\/p>\n
Was it not worth the pain?<\/p>\n
Was it not kinder the task to turn,<\/p>\n
Than to let it pass,<\/p>\n
As a lost, lost leaf that she did not learn?<\/p>\n
Is it not often so,<\/p>\n
That we only learn in part,<\/p>\n
And the Master’s testing-time may show<\/p>\n
That it was not quite by heart’?<\/p>\n
Then He gives, in His wise and patient grace,<\/p>\n
That lesson again<\/p>\n
With the mark still set in the self-same place.<\/p>\n
Only, stay by His side<\/p>\n
Till the page is really known.<\/p>\n
It may be we failed because we tried<\/p>\n
To learn it all alone,<\/p>\n
And now that He would not let us lose<\/p>\n
One lesson of love<\/p>\n
(For He knows the loss),–can we refuse?<\/p>\n
But oh! how could we dream<\/p>\n
That we knew it all so well!<\/p>\n
Reading so fluently, as we deem,<\/p>\n
What we could not even spell!<\/p>\n
And oh! how could we grieve once more<\/p>\n
That Patient One<\/p>\n
Who has turned so many a task before!<\/p>\n
That waiting One, who now<\/p>\n
Is letting us try again;<\/p>\n
Watching us with the patient brow,<\/p>\n
That bore the wreath of pain;<\/p>\n
Thoroughly teaching what He would teach,<\/p>\n
Line upon line,<\/p>\n
Thoroughly doing His work in each.<\/p>\n
Then let our hearts be still,’<\/p>\n
Though our task is turned to-day;<\/p>\n
Oh let Him teach us what He will,<\/p>\n
In His own gracious way.<\/p>\n
Till, sitting only at Jesus’ feet,<\/p>\n
As we learn each line<\/p>\n
The hardest is found all clear and sweet!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Sunday Night.<\/p>\n
Rest him, O Father! Thou didst send him forth<\/p>\n
With great and gracious messages of love;<\/p>\n
But Thy ambassador is weary now,<\/p>\n
Worn with the weight of his high embassy.<\/p>\n
Now care for him as Thou hast cared for us<\/p>\n
In sending him; and cause him to lie down<\/p>\n
In Thy fresh pastures, by Thy streams of peace.<\/p>\n
Let Thy left hand be now beneath his head,<\/p>\n
And Thine upholding right encircle him,<\/p>\n
And, underneath, the Everlasting arms<\/p>\n
Be felt in full support. So let him rest,<\/p>\n
Hushed like a little child, without one care;<\/p>\n
And so give Thy belovd sleep to-night.<\/p>\n
Rest him, dear Master! He hath poured for us<\/p>\n
The wine of joy, and we have been refreshed.<\/p>\n
Now fill his chalice, give him sweet new draughts<\/p>\n
Of life and love, with Thine own hand; be Thou<\/p>\n
His ministrant to-night; draw very near<\/p>\n
In all Thy tenderness and all Thy power.<\/p>\n
Oh speak to him! Thou knowest how to speak<\/p>\n
A word in season to Thy weary ones,<\/p>\n
And he is weary now. Thou lovest him–<\/p>\n
Let Thy disciple lean upon Thy breast,<\/p>\n
And, leaning, gain new strength to rise and shine.’<\/p>\n
Rest him, O loving Spirit! Let Thy calm<\/p>\n
Fall on his soul to-night. O holy Dove,<\/p>\n
Spread Thy bright wing above him, let him rest<\/p>\n
Beneath its shadow; let him know afresh<\/p>\n
The infinite truth and might of Thy dear name–<\/p>\n
Our Comforter!’ As gentlest touch will stay<\/p>\n
The strong vibrations of a jarring chord,<\/p>\n
So lay Thy hand upon his heart, and still<\/p>\n
Each overstraining throb, each pulsing pain.<\/p>\n
Then, in the stillness, breathe upon the strings,<\/p>\n
And let thy holy music overflow<\/p>\n
With soothing power his listening, resting soul.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
A Song in the Night.<\/p>\n
[Written in severe pain, Sunday afternoon, October 8th, 1876, at the<\/p>\n
Pension Wengen, Alps.]<\/p>\n
I take this pain, Lord Jesus,<\/p>\n
From Thine own hand,<\/p>\n
The strength to bear it bravely<\/p>\n
Thou wilt command.<\/p>\n
I am too weak for effort,<\/p>\n
So let me rest,<\/p>\n
In hush of sweet submission,<\/p>\n
On Thine own breast.<\/p>\n
I take this pain, Lord Jesus,<\/p>\n
As proof indeed<\/p>\n
That Thou art watching closely<\/p>\n
My truest need;<\/p>\n
That Thou, my Good Physician,<\/p>\n
Art watching still;<\/p>\n
That all Thine own good pleasure<\/p>\n
Thou wilt fulfil.<\/p>\n
I take this pain, Lord Jesus;<\/p>\n
What Thou dost choose<\/p>\n
The soul that really loves Thee<\/p>\n
Will not refuse.<\/p>\n
It is not for the first time<\/p>\n
I trust to-day;<\/p>\n
For Thee my heart has never<\/p>\n
A trustless Nay!’<\/p>\n
I take this pain, Lord Jesus;<\/p>\n
But what beside?<\/p>\n
Tis no unmingled portion<\/p>\n
Thou dost provide.<\/p>\n
In every hour of faintness<\/p>\n
My cup runs o’er<\/p>\n
With faithfulness and mercy,<\/p>\n
And love’s sweet store.<\/p>\n
I take this pain, Lord Jesus,<\/p>\n
As Thine own gift;<\/p>\n
And true though tremulous praises<\/p>\n
I now uplift.<\/p>\n
I am too weak to sing them,<\/p>\n
But Thou dost hear<\/p>\n
The whisper from the pillow,<\/p>\n
Thou art so near!<\/p>\n
‘Tis Thy dear hand, O Saviour,<\/p>\n
That presseth sore,<\/p>\n
The hand that bears the nail-prints<\/p>\n
For evermore.<\/p>\n
And now beneath its shadow,<\/p>\n
Hidden by Thee,<\/p>\n
The pressure only tells me<\/p>\n
Thou lovest me!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
What will You do without Him?<\/p>\n
I could not do without Him!<\/p>\n
Jesus is more to me<\/p>\n
Than all the richest, fairest gifts<\/p>\n
Of earth could ever be.<\/p>\n
But the more I find Him precious–<\/p>\n
And the more I find Him true–<\/p>\n
The more I long for you to find<\/p>\n
What He can be to you.<\/p>\n
You need not do without Him,<\/p>\n
For He is passing by,<\/p>\n
He is waiting to be gracious,<\/p>\n
Only waiting for your cry:<\/p>\n
He is waiting to receive you–<\/p>\n
To make you all His own!<\/p>\n
Why will you do without Him,<\/p>\n
And wander on alone?<\/p>\n
Why will you do without Him?<\/p>\n
Is He not kind indeed?<\/p>\n
Did He not die to save you?<\/p>\n
Is He not all you need?<\/p>\n
Do you not want a Saviour?<\/p>\n
Do you not want a Friend?<\/p>\n
One who will love you faithfully,<\/p>\n
And love you to the end?<\/p>\n
Why will you do without Him?<\/p>\n
The Word of God is true!<\/p>\n
The world is passing to its doom–<\/p>\n
And you are passing too.<\/p>\n
It may be no to-morrow<\/p>\n
Shall dawn on you or me;<\/p>\n
Why will you run the awful risk<\/p>\n
Of all eternity?<\/p>\n
What will you do without Him,<\/p>\n
In the long and dreary day<\/p>\n
Of trouble and perplexity,<\/p>\n
When you do not know the way,<\/p>\n
And no one else can help you,<\/p>\n
And no one guides you right,<\/p>\n
And hope comes not with morning,<\/p>\n
And rest comes not with night?<\/p>\n
You could not do without Him,<\/p>\n
If once He made you see<\/p>\n
The fetters that enchain you,<\/p>\n
Till He hath set you free.<\/p>\n
If once you saw the fearful load<\/p>\n
Of sin upon your soul;<\/p>\n
The hidden plague that ends in death,<\/p>\n
Unless He makes you whole!<\/p>\n
What will you do without Him,<\/p>\n
When death is drawing near?<\/p>\n
Without His love–the only love<\/p>\n
That casts out every fear;<\/p>\n
When the shadow-valley opens,<\/p>\n
Unlighted and unknown,<\/p>\n
And the terrors of its darkness<\/p>\n
Must all be passed alone!<\/p>\n
What will you do without Him,<\/p>\n
When the great white throne is set,<\/p>\n
And the Judge who never can mistake,<\/p>\n
And never can forget,–<\/p>\n
The Judge whom you have never here<\/p>\n
As Friend and Saviour sought,<\/p>\n
Shall summon you to give account<\/p>\n
Of deed and word and thought?<\/p>\n
What will you do without Him,<\/p>\n
When He hath shut the door,<\/p>\n
And you are left outside, because<\/p>\n
You would not come before?<\/p>\n
When it is no use knocking,<\/p>\n
No use to stand and wait;<\/p>\n
For the word of doom tolls through your heart<\/p>\n
That terrible Too late!’<\/p>\n
You cannot do without Him!<\/p>\n
There is no other name<\/p>\n
By which you ever can be saved,<\/p>\n
No way, no hope, no claim!<\/p>\n
Without Him–everlasting loss<\/p>\n
Of love, and life, and light!<\/p>\n
Without Him–everlasting woe,<\/p>\n
And everlasting night.<\/p>\n
But with Him–oh! with Jesus!<\/p>\n
Are any words so blest?<\/p>\n
With Jesus, everlasting joy<\/p>\n
And everlasting rest!<\/p>\n
With Jesus–all the empty heart<\/p>\n
Filled with His perfect love;<\/p>\n
With Jesus–perfect peace below,<\/p>\n
And perfect bliss above.<\/p>\n
Why should you do without Him?<\/p>\n
It is not yet too late;<\/p>\n
He has not closed the day of grace,<\/p>\n
He has not shut the gate.<\/p>\n
He calls you! hush! He calls you!<\/p>\n
He would not have you go<\/p>\n
Another step without Him,<\/p>\n
Because He loves you so.<\/p>\n
Why will you do without Him?<\/p>\n
He calls and calls again–<\/p>\n
Come unto Me! Come unto Me!’<\/p>\n
Oh, shall He call in vain?<\/p>\n
He wants to have you with Him;<\/p>\n
Do you not want Him too?<\/p>\n
You cannot do without Him,<\/p>\n
And He wants–even you.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Church Missionary Jubilee Hymn.<\/p>\n
He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.’–Isa.<\/p>\n
liii. 11.<\/p>\n
Rejoice with Jesus Christ to-day,<\/p>\n
All ye who love His holy sway!<\/p>\n
The travail of His soul is past,<\/p>\n
He shall be satisfied at last.<\/p>\n
Rejoice with Him, rejoice indeed!<\/p>\n
For He shall see His chosen seed.<\/p>\n
But ours the trust, the grand employ,<\/p>\n
To work out this divinest joy.<\/p>\n
Of all His own He loseth none,<\/p>\n
They shall be gathered one by one;<\/p>\n
He gathereth the smallest grain,<\/p>\n
His travail shall not be in vain.<\/p>\n
Arise and work! arise and pray<\/p>\n
That He would haste the dawning day!<\/p>\n
And let the silver trumpet sound,<\/p>\n
Wherever Satan’s slaves are found.<\/p>\n
The vanquished foe shall soon be stilled,<\/p>\n
The conquering Saviour’s joy fulfilled,<\/p>\n
Fulfilled in us, fulfilled in them,<\/p>\n
His crown, His royal diadem.<\/p>\n
Soon, soon our waiting eyes shall see<\/p>\n
The Saviour’s mighty Jubilee!<\/p>\n
His harvest joy is filling fast,<\/p>\n
He shall be satisfied at last.<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
A Happy New Year to You!<\/p>\n
New mercies, new blessings, new light on thy way;<\/p>\n
New courage, new hope, and new strength for each day;<\/p>\n
New notes of thanksgiving, new chords of delight,<\/p>\n
New praise in the morning, new songs in the night,<\/p>\n
New wine in thy chalice, new altars to raise;<\/p>\n
New fruits for thy Master, new garments of praise;<\/p>\n
New gifts from His treasures, new smiles from His face;<\/p>\n
New streams from the Fountain of infinite grace;<\/p>\n
New stars for thy crown, and new tokens of love;<\/p>\n
New gleams of the glory that waits thee above;<\/p>\n
New light of His countenance, full and unpriced;<\/p>\n
All this be the joy of thy new life in Christ!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Another Year.<\/p>\n
Another year is dawning!<\/p>\n
Dear Master, let it be<\/p>\n
In working or in waiting,<\/p>\n
Another year with Thee.<\/p>\n
Another year of leaning<\/p>\n
Upon Thy loving breast,<\/p>\n
Of ever-deepening trustfulness,<\/p>\n
Of quiet, happy rest.<\/p>\n
Another year of mercies,<\/p>\n
Of faithfulness and grace;<\/p>\n
Another year of gladness<\/p>\n
In the shining of Thy face.<\/p>\n
Another year of progress,<\/p>\n
Another year of praise;<\/p>\n
Another year of proving<\/p>\n
Thy presence all the days.’<\/p>\n
Another year of service,<\/p>\n
Of witness for Thy love;<\/p>\n
Another year of training<\/p>\n
For holier work above.<\/p>\n
Another year is dawning!<\/p>\n
Dear Master, let it be<\/p>\n
On earth, or else in heaven,<\/p>\n
Another year for Thee!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
New Year’s Wishes.<\/p>\n
What shall I wish thee?<\/p>\n
Treasures of earth?<\/p>\n
Songs in the springtime,<\/p>\n
Pleasure and mirth?<\/p>\n
Flowers on thy pathway,<\/p>\n
Skies ever clear?<\/p>\n
Would this ensure thee<\/p>\n
A Happy New Year?<\/p>\n
What shall I wish thee?<\/p>\n
What can be found<\/p>\n
Bringing thee sunshine<\/p>\n
All the year round?<\/p>\n
Where is the treasure,<\/p>\n
Lasting and dear,<\/p>\n
That shall ensure thee<\/p>\n
A Happy New Year?<\/p>\n
Faith that increaseth,<\/p>\n
Walking in light;<\/p>\n
Hope that aboundeth,<\/p>\n
Happy and bright;<\/p>\n
Love that is perfect,<\/p>\n
Casting out fear;<\/p>\n
These shall ensure thee<\/p>\n
A Happy New Year.<\/p>\n
Peace in the Saviour,<\/p>\n
Rest at His feet,<\/p>\n
Smile of His countenance<\/p>\n
Radiant and sweet,<\/p>\n
Joy in His presence!<\/p>\n
Christ ever near!<\/p>\n
This will ensure thee<\/p>\n
A Happy New Year!<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Most Blessed For Ever.’<\/p>\n
(Though the date of these lines is uncertain, they are chosen as a<\/p>\n
closing chord to her songs on earth.)<\/p>\n
The prayer of many a day is all fulfilled,<\/p>\n
Only by full fruition stayed and stilled;<\/p>\n
You asked for blessing as your Father willed,<\/p>\n
Now He hath answered: Most blessed for ever!’<\/p>\n
Lost is the daily light of mutual smile,<\/p>\n
You therefore sorrow now a little while;<\/p>\n
But floating down life’s dimmed and lonely aisle<\/p>\n
Comes the clear music: Most blessed for ever!’<\/p>\n
From the great anthems of the Crystal Sea,<\/p>\n
Through the far vistas of Eternity,<\/p>\n
Grand echoes of the word peal on for thee,<\/p>\n
Sweetest and fullest: Most blessed for ever.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
__________________________________________________________________ Title: Kept for the Master’s Use Creator(s): Havergal, Frances Ridley Print Basis: Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895 Rights: Public domain. LC Call no: BV467 LC Subjects: Practical theology Worship (Public and Private) Including the church year, Christian symbols, liturgy, prayer, hymnology Hymnology Hymns in languages other than English __________________________________________________________________ Kept for the Master’s Use–Havergal __________________________________________________________________…<\/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-5597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597","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=5597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}