A COMPANION VOLUME TO "LIGHT
ON LIFE'S DUTIES"
By F. B. MEYER
Author of "Christian Life"
Series, "Old Testament Character" Series
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY,
NEW YORK. CHICAGO. TORONTO.
Publishers of Evangelical
Literature.
CONTENTS
1.
THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE.
2.
"WHERE AM I WRONG?"
3.
THE SECRET OF CHRIST'S INDWELLING.
4.
FACT! FAITH! FEELING!
5.
"WHY SIGN THE PLEDGE?
6.
BURDENS AND WHAT TO DO WITH THEM.
7.
HOW TO BEAR SORROW.
8.
IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE.
9.
THE FULNESS OF THE SPIRIT.
COPYRIGHTED 1896, BY FLEMING
H. REVELL COMPANY.
CHAPTER 1
THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE.
Many
children of God are so deeply exercised on the matter of guidance that
it may be helpful to give a few suggestions as to knowing the way in which
our Father would have us walk, and the work He would have us do. The importance
of the subject cannot be exaggerated; so much of our power and peace consists
in knowing where God would have us be, and in being just there.
The
manna only falls where the cloudy pillar broods; but it is certain to be
found on the sands, which a few hours ago were glistening in the flashing
light of the heavenly fire, and are now shadowed by the fleecy canopy of
cloud. If we are precisely where our heavenly Father would have us to be,
we are perfectly sure that He Will provide food and raiment, and everything
beside. When He sends His servants to Cherith, He will make even the ravens
to bring them food.
How
much of our Christian work has been abortive because we have persisted
in initiating it for ourselves, instead of ascertaining what God was doing,
and where He required our presence! We dream bright dreams of success.
We try to command it. We call to our aid all kinds of expedients, questionable
or otherwise. At last we turn back, disheartened and ashamed, like children
who are torn and scratched by the brambles, and soiled by the quagmire.
None of this had come about if only we had been, from the first, under
God's unerring guidance. He might test us, but He could not allow us to
mistake.
Naturally,
the child of God, longing to know his Father's will, turns to the sacred
Book, and refreshes his confidence by noticing how in all ages God has
guided those who dared to trust Him up to the very hilt, but who at the
time must have been as perplexed as we are often now. We know how Abraham
left kindred and country, and started, with no other guide than God, across
the trackless desert to a land which he knew not. We know how for forty
years the Israelites were led through the peninsula of Sinai, with its
labyrinths of red sandstone and its wastes of sand. We know how Joshua,
in entering the Land of Promise, was able to cope with the difficulties
of an unknown region, and to overcome great and warlike nations, because
he looked to the Captain of the Lord's hosts, who ever leads to victory.
We know how, in the early Church, the Apostles were enabled to thread their
way through the most difficult questions, and to solve the most perplexing
problems, laying down principles which will guide the Church to the end
of time; and this because it was revealed to them as to what they should
do and say, by the Holy Spirit.
THE PROMISES FOR GUIDANCE
ARE UNMISTAKABLE.
Psalm
xxxii:8: "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt
go." This is God's distinct assurance to those whose transgressions are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered, and who are more quick to notice
the least symptom of His will than horse or mule to feel the bit.
Prov.
iii: 6: "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct (or make
plain) thy paths." A sure word, on which we may rest, if only we fulfil
the the previous conditions of trusting with all our heart, and of not
leaning to our own understanding.
Isa.
Iviii: 11: "The Lord shall guide thee continually." It is impossible to
think that He could guide us at all if He did not guide us always. For
the greatest events of life, like the huge rocking-stones in the West of
England, revolve on the smallest points. A pebble may alter the flow of
a stream. The growth of a grain of mustard seed may determine the rainfall
of a continent. Thus we are bidden to look for a Guidance which shall embrace
the whole of life in all its myriad necessities.
John
viii: 12: "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The reference here
seems to be to the wilderness wanderings, and the Master promises to be
to all faithful souls, in their piIgrimage to the City of God, what the
cloudy pillar was to the children of Israel on their march to the Land
of Promise.
These
are but specimens. The vault of Scripture is inlaid with thousands such,
that glisten in their measure as the stars which guide the wanderer across
the deep. Well may the prophet sum up the heritage of the servants of the
Lord by saying of the Holy City, "All thy children shall be taught of the
Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children."
And
yet it may appear to some tried and timid hearts as if every one mentioned
in the Word of God was helped, but they are left without help. They seem
to have stood before perplexing problems, face to face with life's mysteries,
eagerly longing to know what to do, but no angel has come to tell them,
and no iron gate has opened to them in the prison-house of circumstances.
Some
lay the blame on their own stupidity.
Their minds are blunt and dull. They cannot catch God's meaning, which
would be clear to others. They are so nervous of doing wrong that they
cannot learn clearly what is right. "Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf,
as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind
as the Lord's servant? "Yet, how do we treat our children? One child is
so bright-witted and so keen that a little hint is enough to indicate the
way; another was born dull; it cannot take in your meaning quickly. Do
you only let the clever one know what you want? Will you not take the other
upon your knee and make clear to it the directions which baffle it? Does
not the distress of the tiny nursling, who longs to know that it may immediately
obey, weave an almost stronger bond than that which binds you to the rest?
Oh! weary, perplexed and stupid children, believe in the great love of
God, and cast yourselves upon it, sure that He will come down to your ignorance,
and suit Himself to your needs, and will take "the lambs in His arms and
carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young."
There
are certain practical directions which we must attend to in order that
we may be led into the mind of the Lord.
I. OUR MOTIVES MUST
BE PURE.
When
thine eye is single, thy whole body is also full of light." (Luke xi:34.)
You have been much in darkness lately, and perhaps this passage will point
the reason. Your eye has not been single. There has been some obliquity
of vision, a spiritual squint; and this has hindered you from discerning
indications of God's will, which otherwise had been as clear as noonday.
We
must be very careful in judging our motives, searching them as the detectives
at the doors of the English House of Commons search each stranger who enters.
When by the grace of God we have been delivered from grosser forms of sin,
we are still liable to the subtle working of self in our holiest and loveliest
hours. It poisons our motives. It breathes decay on our fairest fruit-bearing.
It whispers seductive flatteries into our pleased ears. It turns the spirit
from its holy purpose, as the masses of iron on ocean steamers deflect
the needle of the compass from the pole.
So
long as there is some thought of personal advantage, some idea of acquiring
the praise and commendation of men, some aim at self-aggrandisement, it
will be simply impossible to find out God's purpose concerning us. The
door must be resolutely shut against all these if we would hear the still
small voice. All cross-lights must be excluded if we would see the Urim
and Thummim stone brighten with God's "Yes," or darken with His " No."
Ask
the Holy Spirit to give you the single eye, and to inspire in your heart
one aim alone: that which animated our Lord, and enabled Him to cry, as
He reviewed His life, "I have glorified Thee on the earth." Let this be
the watchword of our lives,"Glory to God in the highest." Then our "whole
body shall be full of light, having no part dark, as when the bright shining
of a candle doth give light."
II. OUR WILL MUST BE
SURRENDERED.
"My
judgment is just; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the
Father which hath sent Me. " (John v: 30.) This was the secret which Jesus
not only practised, but taught. In one form or another He was constantly
insisting on a surrendered will, as the key to perfect knowledge. "If any
man wiII do His will, he shall know."
There
is all the difference between a will which is extinguished and one which
is surrendered. God does not demand that our wills should be crushed out,
like the sinews of a fakir's unused arms. He only asks that they should
say "Yes" to Him. Pliant to Him as the willow twig to the practiced hand.
Many
a time, as the steamer has neared the quay, have I watched the little lad
take his place beneath the poop, with eye and ear fixed on the captain,
and waiting to shout each word he utters to the grimy engineers below;
and often have I longed that my will should repeat as accurately and as
promptly the words and will of God, that all the lower nature might obey.
It
is for the lack of this subordination that we so often miss the guidance
we seek. There is a secret controversy between our will and God's. And
we shall never be right till we have let Him take, and break, and make.
Oh! do seek for that. If you cannot give, let Him take. If you are not
willing, confess that you are willing to be made willing. Hand yourself
over to Him to work in you, to will and to do of His own good pleasure.
We must be as plastic clay, ready to take any shape that the great Potter
may choose, so shall we be able to detect His guidance.
III. WE MUST SEEK INFORMATION
FOR OUR MIND.
This
is certainly the next step. God has given us these wonderful faculties
of brain-power, and He will not ignore them. In grace He does not cancel
the action of any of His marvelous bestowments, but He uses them for the
communication of His purposes and thoughts.
It
is of the greatest importance, then, that we should feed our minds with
facts, with reliable information, with the results of human experience,
and (above all) with the teachings of the Word of God. It is matter for
the utmost admiration to notice how full the Bible is of biography and
history, so that there is hardly a single crisis in our lives that may
not be matched from those wondrous pages. There is no book like the Bible
for casting a light on the dark landings of human life.
We
have no need or right to run hither and thither to ask our friends what
we ought to do; but there is no harm in our taking pains to gather all
reliable information, on which the flame of holy thought and consecrated
purpose may feed and grow strong. It is for us ultimately to decide as
God shall teach us, but His voice may come to us through the voice of sanctified
common?sense, acting on the materials we have collected. Of course at times
God may bid us act against our reason, but these are very exceptional;
and then our duty will be so clear that there can be no mistake. But for
the most part God will speak in the results of deliberate consideration,
weighing and balancing the pros and cons.
When
Peter was shut up in prison, and could not possibly extricate himself,
an angel was sent to do for him what he could not do for himself; but when
they had passed through a street or two of the city, the angel left him
to consider the matter for himself. Thus God treats us still. He will dictate
a miraculous course by miraculous methods. But when the ordinary light
of reason is adequate to the task, He will leave us to act as occasion
may serve.
IV. WE MUST BE MUCH
IN PRAYER FOR GUIDANCE.
The
Psalms are full of earnest pleadings for clear direction: "Show me Thy
way, 0 Lord, lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies." It is the
law of our Father's house that His children shall ask for what they want.
"If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally,
and upbraideth not."
In
a time of change and crisis, we need to be much in prayer, not only on
our knees, but in that sweet form of inward prayer, in which the spirit
is constantly offering itself up to God, asking to be shown His will; soliciting
that it may be impressed upon its surface, as the heavenly bodies photograph
themselves on prepared paper. Wrapt in prayer like this the trustful believer
may tread the deck of the ocean steamer night after night, sure that He
who points the stars in their courses will not fail to direct the soul
which has no other aim than to do His will.
One
good form of prayer at such a juncture is to ask that doors may be shut,
that the way be closed, and that all enterprises which are not according
to God's will may be arrested at their very beginning. Put the matter absolutely
into God's hands from the outset, and He will not fail to shatter the project
and defeat the aim which is not according to His holy will.
V. WE MUST WAIT THE
GRADUAL UNFOLDING OF GOD'S PLAN IN PROVIDENCE.
God's
impressions within and His word without are always corroborated by His
Providence around, and we should quietly wait until these three focus into
one point.
Sometimes
it looks as if we are bound to act. Everyone says we must do something;
and, indeed, things seem to have reached so desperate a pitch that we must.
Behind are the Egyptians; right and left are inaccessible precipices; before
is the sea. It is not easy at such times to stand still and see the salvation
of God; but we must. When Saul compelled himself, and offered sacrifice,
because he thought that Samuel was too late in coming, he made the great
mistake of his life.
God
may delay to come in the guise of His Providence. There was delay ere Sennacherib's
host lay like withered leaves around the Holy City. There was delay ere
Jesus came walking on the sea in the early dawn, or hastened to raise Lazarus.
There was delay ere the angel sped to Peter's side on the night before
his expected martyrdom. He stays long enough to test patience of faith,
but not a moment behind the extreme hour of need. "The vision is yet for
an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and shall not lie; though
it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry."
It
is very remarkable how God guides us by circumstances. At one moment the
way may seem utterly blocked, and then shortly afterwards some trivial
incident occurs, which might not seem much to others, but which to the
keen eye of faith speaks volumes. Sometimes these signs are repeated in
different ways in answer to prayer. They are not haphazard results of chance,
but the opening up of circumstances in the direction in which we should
walk. And they begin to multiply, as we advance towards our goal, just
as lights do as we near a populous town, when darting through the land
by night express.
Sometimes
men sigh for an angel to come to point them their way; that simply indicates
that as yet the time has not come for them to move. If you do not know
what you ought to do, stand still until you do. And when the time comes
for action, circumstances, like glow?worms, will sparkle along your path;
and you will become so sure that you are right, when God's three witnesses
concur, that you could not be surer though an angel beckoned you on.
The
circumstances of our daily life are to us an infallible indication of God's
will, when they concur with the inward promptings of the Spirit and with
the Word of God. So long as they are stationary, wait. When you must act,
they will open, and a way will be made through oceans and rivers, wastes
and rocks.
We
often make a great mistake, thinking that God is not guiding us at all,
because we cannot see far in front. But this is not His method. He only
undertakes that the steps of a good man should be ordered by the
Lord. Not next year, but to?morrow. Not the next mile, but the next yard.
Not the whole pattern, but the next stitch in the canvas. If you expect
more than this you will be disappointed, and get back into the dark. But
this will secure for you leading in the right way, as you will acknowledge
when you review it from the hill-tops of glory.
We
cannot ponder too deeply the lessons of the cloud given in the exquisite
picture-lesson on Guidance (Num. ix: 15?23): "And on the day that the tabernacle
was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the
testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance
of fire, until the morning. So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day,
and the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud was taken up from
the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in
the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their
tents. At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed,
and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode
upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried
long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the
charge of the Lord, and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was
a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the Lord
they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord
they journeyed. And so it was when the cloud abode from even unto the morning,
and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether
it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.
Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried
upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in
their tents, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up, they journeyed.
At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents and at the commandment
of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord at the commandment
of the Lord by the hand of Moses."
Let
us look high enough for guidance. Let us encourage our soul to wait only
upon God till it is given. Let us cultivate that meekness which He will
guide in judgment. Let us seek to be of quick understanding, that we may
be apt to see the least sign of His will. Let us stand with girded loins
and lighted lamps, that we may be prompt to obey. Blessed are those servants.
They shall be led by a right way to the golden city of the saints.
Speaking
for myself, after months of waiting and prayer, I have become absolutely
sure of the Guidance of my heavenly Father; and with the emphasis of personal
experience, I would encourage each troubled and perplexed soul that may
read these lines to wait patiently for the Lord, until He clearly indicates
His will.
CHAPTER II.
WHERE AM I WRONG?
This
is thy eager question, 0 Christian soul, and thy bitter complaint. On the
faces and in the lives of others who are known to thee, thou hast discerned
a light, a joy, a power, which thou enviest with a desire which oppresses
thee, but for which thou shouldst thank God devoutly. It is well when we
are dissatisfied with the low levels on which we have been wont to live,
and begin to ask the secret of a sweeter, nobler, more victorious life.
The sleeper who turns restlessly is near awakening, and will find that
already the light of the morning is shining around the couch on which slumber
has been indulged too long. "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."
We
must, however, remember that temperaments differ. Some seem born
in the dark, and carry with them through life an hereditary predisposition
to melancholy. Their nature is set to a minor key, and responds most easily
and naturally to depression. They look always on the dark side of things,
and in the bluest of skies discover the cloud no bigger than a man's hand.
Theirs is a shadowed pathway, where glints of sunshine strike feebly and
with difficulty through the dark foliage above.
Such
a temperament may be thine; and if it be, thou never canst expect to obtain
just the same exberant gladness which comes to others, nor must thou complain
if it is so. This is the burden which thy Savior's hands shaped for thee,
and thou must carry it for Him, not complaining, or parading it to the
gaze of others, or allowing it to master thy steadfast and resolute spirit,
but bearing it silently, and glorifying God amid all. But though it may
be impossible to win the joyousness which comes to others, there may at
least be rest, and victory, and serenity , Heaven's best gifts to man.
We
must remember, also, that emotion is no true test of our spiritual state.
Rightness of heart often shows itself in gladness of heart, just as bodily
health generally reveals itself in exuberant spirits. But it is not always
so. In other words, absence of joy does not always prove that the heart
is wrong. It may do so, but certainly not invariably. Perhaps the nervous
system may have been over-taxed, as Elijah's was in the wilderness, when,
after the long strain of Carmel and his flight was over, he lay down upon
the sand and asked to die, a request which God met, not with rebuke, but
with food and sleep. Perhaps the Lord has withdrawn the light from the
landscape in order to see whether He was loved for Himself or merely for
His gifts. Perhaps the discipline of life has culminated in a Gethsemane,
where the bitter cup is being placed to the lips by a Father's hand, though
only a Judas can be seen; and in the momentary anguish caused by the effort
to renounce the will, it is only possible to lie upon the ground, with
strong crying and tears, which the night wind bears to God. Under such
circumstances as these, exuberant joy is out of place. Sombre colors become
the tried and suffering soul. High spirits would be as unbecoming here
as gaiety in the home shadowed by death. Patience, courage, faith are the
suitable graces to be manifested at such times.
But,
when allowance is made for all these, it is certain that many of us are
culpably missing a blessedness which would make us radiant with the light
of Paradise; and the loss is attributable to some defect in our character
which we shall do well to detect and make right.
I. PERHAPS YOU DO NOT
DISTINGUISH BETWEEN YOUR STANDING AND YOUR EXPERIENCE.
Our
experiences are fickle as April weather; now sunshine, now cloud; lights
and shadows chasing each other over miles of heathery moor or foam-flecked
sea. But our standing in Jesus changes not. It is like Himself; the same
yesterday, today, and forever.It
did not originate in us, but in His everlasting love, which, foreseeing
all that we should be, loved us notwithstanding all. It has not been purchased
by us, but by His precious blood, which pleads for us as mightily and successfully
when we can hardly claim it, as when our faith is most buoyant. It is not
maintained by us, but by the Holy Spirit. If we have fled to Jesus for
salvation, sheltering under Him, relying on Him, and trusting Him, though
with many misgivings, as well as we may, then we are one with Him for ever.
We were one with Him in the grave; one with Him on the Easter morn; one
with Him when He sat down at God's right hand. We are one with Him now
as He stands in the light of His Father's smile, as the Iimbs of the swimmer
are one with the head, though it alone is encircled with the warm glory
of the sun, while they are hidden beneath the waves. And no doubt or depression
can for a single moment affect or alter our acceptance with God through
the blood of Jesus, which is an eternal fact.
You
have not realized this, perhaps, but have thought that your standing in
Jesus was affected by your changeful moods. As well might the fortune of
a ward in chancery be diminished or increased by the amount of her spending
money. Our standing in Jesus is our invested capital. Our emotions at the
best are but our spending money, which is ever passing through our pocket
or purse, never exactly the same. Cease to consider how you feel, and build
on the immovable rock of what Jesus is, and has done, and is doing, and
will do for you, world without end.
II. PERHAPS YOU LIVE
TOO MUCH IN YOUR FEELINGS, TOO LITTLE IN YOUR WILL.
We
have no direct control over our feelings, but we have over our will. "Our
wills are ours, to make them Thine." God does not hold us responsible for
what we feel, but for what we will. In His sight we are not what we feel,
but what we will. Let us, therefore, not live in the summer-house
of emotion, but in the central citadel of the will, wholly yielded and
devoted to the will of God.
At
the Table of the Lord, the soul is often suffused with holy emotion, the
tides rise high, the tumultuous torrents of joy knock loudly against the
flood?gates as if to beat them down, and every element in the nature joins
in the choral hymn of rapturous praise. But the morrow comes, and life
has to be faced in the grimy counting?house, the dingy shop, the noisy
factory, the godless workroom; and as the soul compares the joy of yesterday
with the difficulty experienced in walking humbly with the Lord, it is
inclined to question whether it is quite so devoted and consecrated as
it was. But, at such a time, how fair a thing it is to remark that the
will has not altered its position by a hair's breadth, and to look up and
say:
"My
God, the spring?tide of emotion has passed away like a summer brook; but
in my heart of hearts, in my will, Thou knowest I am as devoted, as loyal,
as desirous to be only for Thee, as in the blessed moment of unbroken retirement
at Thy feet."
This
is an offering with which God is well pleased. And thus we may live a calm,
peaceful life.
III. PERHAPS YOU HAVE
DISOBEYED SOME CLEAR COMMAND.
Sometimes
a soul comes to its spiritual adviser, speaking thus:
"I
have no conscious joy, and have had but little for years."
"Did
you once have it?
"Yes,
for some time after my conversion to God."
"Are
you conscious of having refused obedience to some distinct command, which
came into your life, but from which you shrank?"
Then
the face is cast down, and the eyes film with tears, and the answer comes
with difficulty:
"Yes,
years ago I used to think that God required a certain thing of me; but
I felt I could not do what He wished, was uneasy for some time about it,
but after a while it seemed to fade from my mind, and now it does not often
trouble me."
"Ah,
soul, that is where thou hast gone wrong, and thou wilt never get right
till thou goest right back through the weary years to the point where thou
didst drop the thread of obedience, and performest that one thing which
God demanded of thee so long ago, but on account of which thou didst leave
the narrow track of implicit obedience."
Is
not this the cause of depression to thousands of Christian people? They
are God's children, but they are disobedient children. The Bible rings
with one long demand for obedience. The key?word of the Book of Deuteronomy
is, Observe and Do. The burden of Christ's Farewell Discourse is,
If ye love me, keep My commandments. We must not question
or reply or excuse ourselves. We must not pick and choose our way. We must
not take some commands and reject others. We must not think that obedience
in other directions will compensate for disobedience in some one particular.
God gives one command at a time, borne in upon us, not in one way only,
but in many; by this He tests us. If we obey in this, He wiII flood our
soul with blessing, and lead us forward into new paths and pastures. But
if we refuse in this we shall remain stagnant and water?logged, make no
progress in Christian experience, and lack both power and joy.
IV. PERHAPS YOU ARE
PERMITTING SOME KNOWN EVIL.
When
water is left to stand, the particles of silt betray themselves as they
fall one by one to the bottom. So if you are quiet, you may become aware
of the presence in your soul of permitted evil. Dare to consider it. Do
not avoid the sight as the bankrupt avoids his tell?tale ledgers, or as
the consumptive patient the stethoscope. Compel yourself quietly to consider
whatever evil the Spirit of God discovers to your soul. It may have lurked
in the cupboards and cloisters of your being for years, suspected but unjudged.
But whatever it be, and whatever its history, be sure that it has brought
the shadow over your life which is your daily sorrow.
Does
your will refuse to relinquish a practice or habit which is alien to the
will of God?
Do
you permit some secret sin to have its unhindered way in the house of your
life?
Do
your affections roam unrestrained after forbidden objects?
Do
you cherish any resentment or hatred towards another, to whom you refuse
to be reconciled?
Is
there some injustice which you refuse to forgive, some charge which you
refuse to pay, some wrong which you refuse to confess?
Are
you allowing something yourself which you would be the first to condemn
in others, but which you argue may be permitted in your own case because
of certain reasons with which you attempt to smother the remonstrances
of conscience?
In
some cases the hindrance to conscious blessedness lies not in sins, but
in weights which hang around the soul. Sin is that which is always
and everywhere wrong; but a weight is anything which may hinder or impede
the Christian life, without being positively sin. And thus a thing may
be a weight to one which is not so to another. Each must be fully persuaded
in his own mind. And wherever the soul is aware of its life being hindered
by the presence of any one thing, then, however harmless in itself, and
however innocently permitted by others, there can be no alternative, but
it must be cast aside as the garments of the lads when, on the village
green, they compete for the prize of the wrestle or the race.
V. PERHAPS YOU LOOK
TOO MUCH INWARDS ON SELF, INSTEAD OF OUTWARDS ON THE LORD JESUS.
The
healthiest people do not think about their health; the weak induce disease
by morbid introspection. If you begin to count your heartbeats, you will
disturb the rhythmic action of the heart. If you continually imagine a
pain anywhere you will produce it. And there are some true children of
God who induce their own darkness by morbid self?scrutiny. They are always
going back on themselves, analyzing their motives, reconsidering past acts
of consecration, comparing themselves with themselves. In one form or another
self is the pivot of their life, albeit that it is undoubtedly a religious
life. What but darkness can result from such a course? There are certainly
times in our lives when we must look within, and judge ourselves that we
be not judged. But this is only done that we may turn with fuller purpose
of heart to the Lord. And when once done, it needs not to be repeated.
"Leaving the things behind" is the only safe motto. The question is, not
whether we did as well as we might, but whether we did as well as we could
at the time.
We
must not spend all our lives in cleaning our windows, or in considering
whether they are clean, but in sunning ourselves in God's blessed light.
That light will soon show us what still needs to be cleansed away, and
will enable us to cleanse it with unerring accuracy. Our Lord Jesus is
a perfect reservoir of everything the soul of man requires for a blessed
and holy life. To make much of Him, to abide in Him, to draw from Him,
to receive each moment from His fulness, is therefore the only condition
of soul?health. But to be more concerned with self than with Him is like
spending much time and thought over the senses of the body, and never using
them for the purpose of receiving impressions from the world outside. Look
off unto Jesus. Delight thyself in the Lord. My soul, wait thou only upon
God!
VI. PERHAPS YOU SPEND
TOO LITTLE TIME IN COMMUNION WITH GOD THROUGH HIS WORD.
It
is not necessary to make long prayers, but it is essential to be much alone
with God; waiting at His door; hearkening for His voice; lingering in the
garden of Scripture for the coming of the Lord God in the dawn or cool
of the day. No number of meetings, no fellowship with Christian friends,
no amount of Christian activity can compensate for the neglect of the still
hour.
When
you feel least inclined for it, there is most need to make for your closet
with the shut door. Do for duty's sake what you cannot do as a pleasure,
and you will find it become delightful. You can better thrive without nourishment
than become happy or strong in Christian life without fellowship with God.
When
you cannot pray for yourself, begin to pray for others. When your desires
flag, take the Bible in hand, and begin to turn each text into petition;
or take up the tale of your mercies, and begin to translate each of them
into praise. When the Bible itself becomes irksome, inquire whether you
have not been spoiling your appetite by sweetmeats and renounce them; and
believe that the Word is the wire along which the voice of God will certainly
come to you if the heart is hushed and the attention fixed. "I will hear
what God the Lord shall speak."
More
Christians than we can count are suffering from a lack of prayer and Bible
study, and no revival is more to be desired than that of systematic private
Bible study. There is no short and easy method of godliness which can dispense
with this.
VII. PERHAPS YOU HAVE
NEVER GIVEN YOURSELF ENTIRELY OVER TO THE MASTERSHIP OF THE LORD JESUS.
We
are His by many ties and rights, but too few of us recognize His lordship.
We are willing enough to take Him as Savior; we hesitate to make Him King.
We forget that God has exalted Him to be Prince, as well as Savior. And
the Divine order is irreversible. Those who ignore the lordship of Jesus
cannot build up a strong or happy life.
Put
the sun in its central throne, and all the motions of the planets assume
a beautiful order. Put Jesus on the throne of the life, and all things
fall into harmony and peace. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all things
are yours. Consecration is the indispensable condition of blessedness.
So
shall light break on thy path, such as has not shone there for many days.
Yea, "thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw herself;
but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and the days of thy
mourning shall be ended."
CHAPTER III
THE SECRET OF CHRIST'S INDWELLING.
It
is meet that the largest church in the greatest Gentile city in the world
should be dedicated to the Apostle Paul, for Gentiles are under a great
obligation to him as the Apostle of the Gentiles. It is to him that we
owe, under the Spirit of God, the unveiling of two great mysteries, which
specially touch us as Gentiles.
The
first of these, glorious as it is, we cannot now stay to discuss, though
it wrought a revolution when first preached and maintained by the Apostle
in the face of the most strenuous opposition. Till then, Gentiles were
expected to become Jews before they were Christians, and to pass through
the synagogue to the church. But he showed that this was not needful, and
that Gentiles stood on the same level as Jews with respect to the privileges
of the gospel ?? fellow?heirs, and fellow?members of the body, and fellow?partakers
of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Eph. iii: 6).
The
second, however, well deserves our further thought, for if only it could
be realized by the children of God, they would begin to live after so Divine
a fashion as to still the enemy and avenger, and to repeat in some small
measure the life of Jesus on the earth.
This
mystery is that the Lord Jesus is willing to dwell within the Gentile
heart. That He should dwell in the heart of a child of Abraham was
deemed a marvellous act of condescension; but that He should find a home
in the heart of a Gentile was incredible. This mistake was, however, dissipated
before the radiant revelation of truth made to him who, in his own judgment,
was not meet to be called an Apostle, because he had persecuted the Church
of God. God was pleased to make known through him "the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of
glory" (Col. i: 27).
"Master,
where dwellest Thou?" they asked of old. And in reply Jesus led them from
the crowded Jordan bank to the slight tabernacle of woven osiers where
He temporarily lodged. But if we address the same question to Him now,
He will point, not to the high and lofty dome of heaven, not to the splendid
structure of stone or marble, but to the happy spirit that loves, trusts,
and obeys Him. "Behold," saith He, " I stand at the door and knock. If
any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." "We will
come," He said, including His Father with Himself, "and make our abode
with him." He promised to be within each believer as a tenant in a house;
as sap in the branch; as life-blood and life-energy in each member, however
feeble, of the body.
I. ?? THE MYSTERY.
Christ
is in the believer. He indwells the heart by faith, as the sun indwells
the lowliest flowers that unfurl their petals and bare their hearts to
its beams. Not because we are good. Not because we are trying to be wholehearted
in our consecration. Not because we keep Him by the tenacity of our love.
But because we believe, and in believing, have thrown open all the doors
and windows of our nature. And He has come in.
He
probably came in so quietly that we failed to detect His entrance. There
was no footfall along the passage. The chime of the golden bells at the
foot of His priestly robe did not betray Him. He stole in on the wing of
the morning, or like the noiselessness with which nature arises from her
winter's sleep and arrays herself in the robes which her Creator has prepared
for her. But this is the way of Christ. He does not strive, nor cry, nor
lift up or cause His voice to be heard. His tread is so light that it does
not break bruised reeds, His breath so soft that it can re?illumine dying
sparks. Do not be surprised, therefore, if you cannot tell the day or the
hour when the Son of Man came to dwell within you. Only know that He has
come. "Know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you,
unless ye be reprobate?" (2 Cor. xiii: 5.)
It
is very wonderful.
Yes; the heavens, even the heavens of heavens, with all their light and
glory, alone seem worthy of Him. But even there He is not more at home
than He is with the humble and contrite spirit that simply trust in Him.
In His earthly life, He said that the Father dwelt in Him so really that
the words He spake and the works He did were not His own, but His Father's.
And He desires to be in us as His Father was in Him, so that the outgoings
of our life may be channels through which He, hidden within, may pour Himself
forth upon men.
It
is not generally recognized.
It is not; though that does not disprove it. We fail to recognize many
things in ourselves and in nature around, which are nevertheless true.
But there is a reason why many whose natures are certainly the temple of
Christ, remain ignorant of the presence of the wonderful Tenant that sojourns
within. He dwells so deep. Below the life of the body, which is
as the curtain of the tent; below the life of the soul, where thought and
feeling, judgment and imagination, hope and love, go to and fro, ministering
as white-stoled priests in the holy place; below the play of light and
shade, resolution and will, memory and hope, the perpetual ebb and flow
of the tides of self?consciousness, there, through the Holy Spirit Christ
dwells, as of old the Shechinah dwelt in the Most Holy Place, closely shrouded
from the view of man.
It
is comparatively seldom that we go into these deeper departments of our
being. We are content to live the superficial life of sense. We eat, we
drink, we sleep. We give ourselves to enjoy the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We fulfil the desires of the flesh
and of the mind.Or we abandon ourselves
to the pursuit of knowledge and culture, of science and art. We make short
incursions into the realm of morals, that sense of right and wrong which
is part of the make-up of men. But we have too slight an acquaintance with
the deeper and more mysterious chamber of the spirit. Now this is why the
majority of believers are so insensible of their Divine and wonderful Resident,
who makes the regenerated spirit His abode.
It
is to be accepted by faith.
We repeat here our constant mistake about the things of God. We try to
feel them. If we feel them, we believe them; otherwise we take no account
of them. We reverse the Divine order. We say, feeling, FAITH, FACT.
God says FACT, FAITH, feeling. With Him feeling is of small account
?? He only asks us to be willing to accept His own Word, and to cling to
it because He has spoken it, in entire disregard of what we may feel.
I
am distinctly told that Christ, though He is on the Throne in His ascended
glory, is also within me by the Holy Ghost. I confess I do not feel Him
there. Often amid the assault of temptation or the fury of the storm that
sweeps over the surface of my nature, I cannot detect His form or hear
Him say, "It is I." But I dare to believe He is there; not without me,
but within; not as a transient sojourner for a night, but as a perpetual
inmate; not altered by my changes from earnestness to lethargy, from the
summer of love to the winter of despondency, but always and unchangeably
the same. And I say again and again, "Jesus, Thou art here.I am not worthy
that thou shouldest abide under my roof; but Thou hast come. Assert Thyself.
Put down all rule, and authority, and power. Come out of Thy secret chamber,
and possess all that is within me, that it may bless Thy holy name."
Catherine
of Siena at one time spent three days in a solitary retreat, praying for
a greater fulness and joy of the Divine presence. Instead of this, it seemed
as though legions of wicked spirits assailed her with blasphemous thoughts
and evil suggestions. At length, a great light appeared to descend from
above. The devils fled, and the Lord Jesus conversed with her. Catherine
asked Him:
"Lord,
where wert Thou when my heart was so tormented?"
I
was in thy heart," He answered.
0
Lord, Thou art everlasting truth," she replied, "and I humbly bow before
Thy word; but how can I believe that Thou wast in my heart when it was
filled with such detestable thoughts?"
"Did
these thoughts give thee pleasure or pain?" He asked.
"An
exceeding pain and sadness," was her reply.
To
whom the Lord said, "Thou wast in woe and sadness because I was in the
midst of thy heart. My presence it was which rendered those thoughts insupportable
to thee. When the period I had determined for the duration of the combat
had elapsed, I sent forth the beams of My light, and the shades of hell
were dispelled, because they cannot resist that light."
II. THE GLORY OF THIS
MYSTERY.
When
God's secrets break open, they do so in glory. The wealth of the root hidden
in the ground is revealed in the hues of orchid or scent of rose. The hidden
beauty of a beam of light is unravelled in the sevenfold color of the rainbow.
The swarming, infinitesimal life of southern seas breaks into waves of
phosphorescence when cleft by the keel of the ship. And whenever the unseen
world has revealed itself to mortal eyes, it has been in glory. It was
especially so at the Transfiguration, when the Lord's nature broke from
the strong restraint within which He confined it and revealed itself to
the eye of man. "His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became
white as light."
So
when we accept the fact of His existence within us deeper than our own,
and make it one of the aims of our life to draw on it and develop it, we
shall be conscious of a glory transfiguring our life and irradiating ordinary
things, such as will make earth, with its commonest engagements, like as
the vestibule of heaven.
The
wife of Jonathan Edwards had been the subject of great fluctuations in
religious experience and frequent depression, till she came to the point
of renouncing the world, and yielding herself up to be possessed by these
mighty truths. But so soon as this was the case, a marvellous change took
place. She began to experience a constant, uninterrupted rest; sweet peace
and serenity of soul ; a continual rejoicing in all the works of God's
hands, whether of nature or of daily providence; a wonderful access to
God by prayer, as it were seeing Him and immediately conversing with Him;
all tears wiped away; all former troubles and sorrows of life forgotten,
excepting grief for past sins and for the dishonor done to Christ in the
world; a daily sensible doing and suffering everything for God, and doing
all with a continual uninterrupted cheerfulness, peace and joy.
Such
glory, the certain pledge of the glory to be revealed, is within reach
of each reader of these lines who will dare day by day to reckon that Christ
lives within, and will be content to die to the energies and promptings
for the self?life so that there may be room for the Christ?life to reveal
itself. "I have been crucified," said the greatest human teacher of this
Divine art; "Christ liveth in me; I live by faith in the Son of God."
III. THE RICHES OF THE
GLORY OF THIS MYSTERY.
When
this mystery or secret of the Divine life in man is apprehended and made
use of, it gives great wealth to life. If all the treasures of wisdom,
knowledge, power, and grace reside in Jesus, and He is become the cherished
and honored resident of our nature, it is clear that we also must be greatly
enriched. It is like a poor man having a millionaire friend come to live
with him.
There
are riches of patience.
Life is not easy to any of us. No branch escapes the pruning?knife; no
jewel the wheel; no child the rod. People tyrannize over and vex us almost
beyond endurance. Circumstances strain us till the chords of our hearts
threaten to snap. Our nervous system is overtaxed by the rush and competition
of our times. Indeed, we have need of patience!
Never
to relax the self?watch; never to indulge in unkind or thoughtless criticism
of others; never to utter the hasty word, or permit the sharp retort; never
to complain except to God; never to permit hard and distrustful thoughts
to lodge within the soul; to be always more thoughtful of others than self;
to detect the one blue spot in the clouded sky; to be on the alert to find
an excuse for those who are froward and awkward, to suffer the aches and
pains, the privations and trials of life, sweetly, submissively, trustfully;
to drink the bitter cup, with the eye fixed on the Father's face, without
a murmur or complaint: ?? this needs patience, which mere stoicism could
never give.
And
we cannot live such a life till we have learnt to avail ourselves of the
riches of the indwelling Christ. The beloved Apostle speaks of being a
partaker of the patience which is in Jesus (Rev. i: 9). So may we be. That
calm, unmurmuring, unreviling patience, which made the Lamb of God dumb
before His shearers, is ours.
Robert
Hall was once overheard saying amid the heat of an argument, "Calm me,
0 Lamb of God!"
But
we may go further and say, "Lord Jesus, let Thy patience arise in me, as
a spring of fresh water in a briny sea."
There
are riches of grace.
Alone among the great cities of the world, Jerusalem had no river. But
the glorious Lord was in the midst of her, and He became a place of broad
rivers and streams, supplying from Himself all that rivers gave to cities,
at the foot of whose walls the welcome waters lapped (Isa. xxxii: 21).
This
is a picture of what we have, who dare to reckon on the indwelling of our
glorious Lord, as King, Lawgiver, and Savior. He makes all grace to abound
towards us, so that we have a sufficiency for all emergencies, and can
abound in every good work. In His strength, ever rising up within us, we
are able to do as much as those who are dowered with the greatest mental
and natural gifts, and we escape the temptations to vainglory and pride
by which they are beset.
The
grace of purity and self control, of fervent prayer and understanding in
the Scriptures, of love for men and zeal for God, of lowliness and meekness,
of gentleness and goodness, all is in Christ; and if Christ is in us, all
is ours also. 0 that we would dare to believe it, and draw on it, letting
down the pitcher of faith into the deep well of Christ's indwelling, opened
within us by the Holy Ghost!
It
is impossible, in these brief limits, to elaborate further this wonderful
thought. But if only we would meet every call, difficulty, and trial, not
saying, as we so often do, "I shall never be able to go through it," but
saying, "I cannot; but Christ is in me, and He can," we should find that
all trials were intended to reveal and unfold the wealth hidden within
us, until Christ was literally formed within us, and His life manifested
in our mortal body (2 Cor. iv:10).
(1)
Be still each day for a short time, sitting before God in meditation, and
ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the truth of Christ's indwelling.
Ask God to be pleased to make known to you what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery (Col. i:27).
(2)
Reverence your nature as the temple of the indwelling Lord. As the Eastern
unbares his feet, and the Western his head, on entering the precincts of
a temple, so be very careful of aught that would defile the body or soil
the soul. No beasts must herd in the temple courts. Get Christ to drive
them out. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God? The temple of God is
holy, and such are ye."
(3)
Hate your own life. "If any man hateth not his own life," said our Lord,
"he cannot be My disciple" (Luke iv:26). And the word translated "life"
is soul, the seat and centre of the self?life with its restless
energies and activities, its choices and decisions, its ceaseless strivings
at independence and leadership. This is the greatest hindrance to our enjoyment
of the indwelling Christ.If we will
acquire the habit of saying "No," not only to our bad but our good self;
if we will daily deliver ourselves up to death for Jesus' sake; if we will
take up our cross and follow the Master, though it be to His grave, we
shall become increasingly conscious of being possessed by a richer, deeper,
Diviner life than our own.
CHAPTER IV.
FACT! FAITH! FEELING!
These
three words stand for three most important factors in character and life.
We all have to do with them in one form or another, but it is above all
things necessary that we should place them in the right order.
Most
people try to put Feeling first, with as much success as if they
tried to build the top story of a house before laying its foundations.
Their order is:
FEELING,
FACT, FAITH
or
FEELING,
FAITH, FACT
Others
seek Faith first, without considering the Facts on which alone Faith
and Feeling can rest. They resemble the man, who desiring to get warm on
a frosty night, refuses to approach the fire which burns brightly on the
hearth.
The
only possible order that will bring blessing and comfort to the heart is
that indicated in our title:
God's
Facts, laid like a foundation of adamant.
Our
Faith, apprehending and resting on them.
Joyous
Feelings, coming, it may be at once, or after the lapse of days
and months, as God will.
FACT.
The
facts of which we are told in the Bible are like stepping?stones across
a brook. Before you reach the shallows where they lie, you wonder how you
will get over, but on stepping down to the margin of the water, they span
the space from bank to brae. When you have reached one you can step to
another, and so across. It is absurd to consult feeling, or look for faith,
while still at a distance from the brookside, or if you persist in going
above or below that primitive bridge of stones. You must come down to them,
consider them, see how strongly fixed they are in the oozy bed, notice
how easily the villagers pass and repass; then you will feel able to trust
them, and finally, with a light heart and great sense of relief, step from
one to another.
Let
us recall a few facts which may help us first to faith, and then to feeling.
It
is a fact that God loves each of us with the tenderest and most particular
love. You may not
believe or feel it; the warm summer sun may be shining against your shuttered
and curtained window without making itself seen or felt within; but your
failure to realize and appreciate the fact of God's love toward you cannot
alter its being so.
It
is a fact that in Jesus every obstacle has been removed out of the way
of your immediate forgiveness and acceptance.
God was in the dying Savior, putting away sin, bearing our sins in His
own body on the tree, reconciling the world to Himself. You may not believe
this, or feel the joy of it, but that does not alter the fact that it is
so.
After
the peace was signed between the North and the South in the great American
war, there were soldiers hiding in the woods, starving on berries, who
might have returned to their homes. They either did not know, or did not
credit, the good news, and they went on starving long after their comrades
had been welcomed by their wives and children. Theirs was the loss, but
their failure in knowledge or belief did not alter the fact that peace
was proclaimed and that the door was wide open for their return.
A
friend may have paid all my debts in my native village, from which I have
fled, fearing arrest and disgrace. He may have done it so speedily that
my credit has never been impaired, or my good name forfeited. There may
be all the old love and honor waiting to greet me. He may have told me
so; but if I still absent myself, and refuse to return, my folly in this
respect cannot undo those beneficent acts, though it perpetuates my misery.
It
is a fact that directly a soul trusts Christ, it is born into Christ's
family, and becomes a child.
There is no doubt about this. You may not feel good, or earnest, or anxious;
you may even be conscious of recent failure; you may be spending your days
under a pall of sombre depression; but if you have received Christ, and
have truly trusted in Him, you have been born again, not of man, or of
the will of the flesh, but of God (John i: 12). You may be a prodigal or
inconsistent child, but you are a child. If you were wise you would take
the child's place at the Father's table, and enjoy His smile. They await
you. But if you still remain out in the cold, as the elder brother in the
parable, you do not alter the fact that your place is ready for you to
occupy when you will.
It
is a fact that God takes what we give, and as soon as we give it.
There is no long interval. When we let go, He receives. When we place ourselves
on His altar, we are immediately sealed as His. When we consecrate ourselves,
He accepts. The divine act is instantaneous. You may not be aware of this,
and continue giving yourself day after day. If you do, you burden yourself
with needless anxiety; you continue offering what is not now yours to give,
and you lose the blessedness of realizing what it is to be the absolute
property, chattel and slave of the blessed Master; but your mistake cannot
alter the fact that God took you at your word when first you made yourself
over to Him in a solemn act of dedication. "Shall our want of faith make
of none effect the faithfulness of God? "
It
is a fact that in Jesus Christ we are seated in heavenly places.
We cannot alter this. We may not believe it, or avail ourselves of all
the privileges which it implies, or enjoy the blessedness of nearness to
Jesus; but such is, nevertheless, our rightful position in the divine order.
If we are united with Jesus by by the slenderest strand of faith, we are
as much one with Him as the loftiest saints; and where the Head is, there
is also the Body. In Him we died on the cross, and so met the righteous
demands of the holy law. In Him we lay in the grave, and so passed out
of the region ruled by the Prince of the Power of the air. In Him we rose
and ascended far above all might and dominion, principality and power.
Is
Satan under Christ's feet? In God's purpose he is under ours also. Are
death and the grave for ever behind Christ? So, in God's purpose, we have
passed to the Easter side of them both, and are to the windward of the
storm. As far as their sting or terror is concerned, they are like the
Egyptians dead on the sea shore. Has the great High Priest passed through
the heavens within the veil? So, in the purpose of God, we too have passed
from the outer court into the Holy Place, were we offer gifts, sacrifices,
supplications, and intercessions for all men.
All
this may appear unreal and impossible, as the idea of being the bride of
a prince to a poor Cinderella, but is nevertheless our true position. These
are the facts of the eternal world, whether you avail yourself of them
or not. There are not a few cases on record of slaves starving in bondage
because they would not avail themselves of freedom; and of noblemen living
a hard and difficult life because they would not claim their rights!
It
is a fact that there is a share in the gift of Pentecost waiting for each
member of Christ.
He received gifts even for the rebellious. To each grace has been given.
The promise of the Holy Ghost is to as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Without doubt you have a share in that infilling, that divine unction,
that marvellous power in service, which transformed the apostles from being
timid sheep to lions in fight. You may never have put in your claim, but
there is no grace that others have which you may not obtain. All thing
are yours. God has made over to you the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, all the
stores of grace and love and power which are yours in Christ, accumulating
for you in the Divine Deposit Bank. It seems a thousand pities that you
should live a beggar's life when such wealth and power are yours; but if
you persist in doing so, your folly and blindness do not alter the fact
that the fulness of God is yours in Christ.
These
are some of those facts, made known to us in the Word of God, which will
conduct us over the brook of turbid emotion to firm standing ground. Let
us give up worrying about our faith, or feeling the pulse of emotion, and
come to rest on them, assured that they are more stable than heaven or
earth.
FAITH.
If
you want a true faith, do not think about it, but look away to the facts
of which we have been speaking. We find no difficulty in trusting our friends,
because we open our hearts, like south windows, to their love. We recall
all their interpositions in our behalf. We remember all they have promised
and performed. Where would be our difficulty about faith if we ceased worrying
about it, and were occupied with the object of faith, Jesus Christ our
Lord?
Faith
is more than Creed.
In a creed we believe about a person or circumstance; but in faith we repose
our trust upon a person. We must not believe about Christ only, but in
Him, as Livingstone did, when on one occasion he was opposed at nightfall
by an army of infuriated savages, and was tempted to steal away in the
dark; but his eye lit on the promise, "I will be with you all the days,
" and he wrote, "I went to sleep because I knew it was the word of a perfect
gentleman." Do not believe about Christ, but in Him.
Faith
concerns itself with a person.
We are saved and blessed by the faith that passes through the facts of
our Savior's life to Himself. We rest not on the atonement, but on Him
who made it; not on the death, but on Him who died; not on the resurrection,
but on Him who rose, ascended, and ever liveth to make intercession; not
in statements about Him, but in Him of whom they are made.
Many
a time the question is asked by the enquirer, "Have I the right kind of
faith?" It is a needful question, because there is a dead and spurious
faith which will fail us in the supreme crisis, as the badly-tinned meats
did the Arctic exploration party, who on returning to their cairn of stores,
found them useless, and starved.
There
is one simple reply, "All faith that turns towards Jesus is the right faith."
It may bring no conscience rapture. It may be as weak as the woman's touch
on His garment's hem. It may be small and insignificant as a grain of mustard
seed. It may be despairful as Peter's cry, "Lord, save, or I perish!" But
if its deepest yearning be Christ, Christ, Christ, it is the tiny thread
which will bring the lost soul through subterranean passages, in which
it had been well-nigh overwhelmed, into the light of life.
True
Faith reckons on God's Faith.
In earlier life I used to seek after greater faith by considering how great
God was, how rich, how strong; why should He not give me money for His
work, since He was so rich? Why not carry the entire burden of my responsibilities,
since He was so mighty ? These considerations helped me less, however,
than my now certain conviction that He is absolutely faithful; faithful
to His covenant engagements in Christ, faithful to His promises, and faithful
to the soul that at His clear call has stepped out into any enterprise
for Him. We may lose heart and hope, our head my turn dizzy and our heart
faint, lover and friend may stand at a distance, the mocking voices of
our foes suggest that God has forgotten or forsaken; but He abideth faithful,
He cannot deny Himself, He cannot disown the helpless child whom He has
begotten, because it ails, He cannot throw aside responsibilities He has
assumed. He has made, and He must bear.
Oftentimes
I have gone to God in dire need, aggravated by nervous depression and heart-sickness,
and said, "My faith is flickering out. Its hand seems paraIyzed, its eye
blinded, its old glad song silenced forever. But Thou art faithful, and
I am reckoning on Thee!" The soul loves to go behind the promises of God
to Himself who made them, as the wife needs not quote the pledges made
by her husband in the marriage?service when she is sure of him, and feels
the pressure of his hand.
Do
not trouble about your Faith; reckon on God's Faithfulness. If He bids
you step out on the water, He knows that He can bring you safely back to
the boat. When an Alpine guide takes you over a ragged piece of ice, he
considers whether, in the event of your utter collapse, He is not able
to carry you through by the strength of His iron grasp and sinewy frame.
What iron is to the blood, that the thought of God's faithfulness is to
faith. "Sarah received power . . . since she counted Him faithful that
promised"; Abraham waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God."
Faith
bears Fruit. It cannot
help it, because it links the soul with Christ, so that the energy of His
life pours into it through the artery of faith, and, as it comes in, so
it must make a way for itself out. Fruit is (so to speak) forced from the
believing soul. Why does the lark sing? It cannot help it, because the
spirit of spring has been poured into its heart. Why does the branch bear
fruit? It cannot help it, because the life?forces are ever pouring up from
the root. Why does a child run to meet its mother? It cannot help it, because
its heart has imbibed her nature. So the believer, united to Christ, receives
grace upon grace from His heart, and from the abundance of His indwelling
his life speaks.
It
is not difficult to obtain faith like this.
Put your will on the side of Christ, not a passing wish, but the whole
desire and choice of your being. Be willing to believe; or be willing to
be made willing to believe. Lift your eyes toward Christ. If you cannot
see Him, look towards the place where you think He is. Remind Him that
He is the author of faith, and that it is His gift. Claim it from Him,
and reckon that in answer to your appeal He does confer this priceless
boon. You may not feel faith, but you will find yourself unconsciously
thinking of Christ, counting on Christ, going out toward Christ; and that
engagement of the soul with Christ is faith.
Be
careful of the tender plant which has thus been planted within you. Give
it plenty of sunshine. Live outside yourself in the consideration of what
Christ is. Feed faith on her native food of promise, and let her breathe
her native air on the hills of communion. Treat all suggestions of doubt
as you would questions as to the fidelity of your dearest friend. Avoid
the cold blast that sets in from skeptical books and talk. Be sure to live
up to your highest conceptions of duty towards God and man. Your faith
will be in exact proportion to your obedience. lnability to trust almost
always denotes some failure to obey. If faith is faltering, ask yourself
whether you have not dropped the thread of obedience, and go back to the
place where you lost It. Christian could not face the lions till he had
sorrowfully retraced his steps to the arbor where he slept and had recovered
his roll.
Faith
is preeminently the receptive faculty.
It not only reckons that God gives, but it stretches out its hand to take.
"As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John i:12). We receive
the atonement from the Lord who died, and we receive the abundance of God's
grace from the Lord who ever lives, so that we reign in this mortal life
as we hope to reign when the heavens and earth have fled away, and there
is no more sea to divide us from our beloved (Rom. v: 11, 17). The beautiful
garments are prepared, faith arrays herself in them.
The
armor hangs on the wall, faith girds herself in it. The water of life gushes
at her feet, but faith catches it up, as did Gideon's three hundred men.
Faith thus deals definitely with God. She does not simply see His gifts
as the passer-by the jewels in the shop window, but she knows that all
the regalia of God's kingdom are hers, and she takes them as she will.
She bears the voice of her Father saying: "Thou art ever with Me, and all
that I have is thine."
It
was not enough that God should give the land of Canaan by promise and covenant
to the chosen race. They had to go in to possess it, to put their foot
down on its soil, to till its acres, and to live in its rich products.
So it must be with the believer. He is first united with Jesus by a living
faith, which rests in Him as Savior, Friend, and King; then he reckons
that the Son of God is well able to make him His joint-heir of all His
boundless wealth; and, lastly, he learns the art of receiving and using
the plenteous heritage, and year by year presses the fences of his possession
further back, taking in more and more of that vast extent of territory
which has been assigned to him in Jesus.
Oh!
settler on the boundless continent of God's fulness in Jesus, get thee
up into the high mountain. Look northward, southward, eastward and westward,
over the lengths, and breadths, and depths, and heights of the love of
God. It is all yours from the river of Time which rises at your foot to
the utmost sea of Eternity. Be not slack to go up and possess the land,
and to inherit all which God has freely bestowed on you in the Son of His
love.
FEELING.
Our
feelings are very deceptive, because so easily wrought on from without.
They are affected by the state of our health, changes in the weather, the
society or absence of those who love. When the air is light, and the sun
shines, and we have slept well, we are more likely to feel disposed towards
God than when the dripping November fog drenches the woodlands. The Father
who made us and knows our frame, understands this; so much so, that when
Elijah, after the strain of Carmel, his swift flight, and his disappointment
at Jezebel's continued obduracy, threw himself beneath the juniper tree
and asked for a swift death, God sent him sleep for his exhausted nervous
system, and food for his hunger.
As
a rule, Faith fruits in Feeling.
"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God . . . . and not only
so, but we joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." "Believing we rejoice
with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." When the prodigal returned, the
father bade them slay the fatted calf, saying: "Let us eat and be merry."
There is relief from a heavy burden of sin, the ecstasy of pardon, the
light of the Father's face, the sense of rightness, the calm outlook on
the future. When the King comes to His own the bells ring out their peals
on the waiting air, as though intoxicated with delight!
Happy
and blessed feeling is the effect of the Spirit's work on the soul.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace . . ." He is the earnest of
our inheritance, and though in our minority we cannot expect to enter on
the fulness of our heritage, we are privileged to enjoy its first fruits.
There are prelibations of the river of His pleasures, and stray notes from
the full chorus of bliss. When the Holy Ghost reveals the Bridegroom, the
loving heart is glad, even though the nuptials are not yet celebrated.
But
the lack of feeling does not always indicate we are wrong.
There may be causes, as we have seen, which account for our depression.
It may be that Christ would teach us to distinguish between love and the
emotion of love, between joy and the rapture of joy, between peace and
the sense of peace. Or perhaps He may desire to ascertain whether we cling
to Him for Himself or for His gifts.
Children
greet their father from the window, as he turns the corner and comes down
the street. He hears the rush of their feet along the passage as he inserts
his latch?key in the door. But one day he begins to question whether they
greet him for the love they bear him or for the gifts with which he never
forgets to fill his pockets. One day, therefore, he gives them due notice
that there will be no gifts when he returns at night. Their faces fall,
but when the hour of return arrives they are at the window as usual, and
there is the same trampling of little feet to the door. Ah," he says, "my
children love me for myself," and he is glad.
Our
Father sometimes cuts off the supply of joy, and suffers us to hunger,
that He may know what is in our hearts, and whether we love Him for Himself.
If we still cling to Him as Job did, He is glad, and restores comforts
to His mourners with both hands.
Seek
feeling and you will miss it; be content to live without it, and you will
have all you require.
If you are always noticing your heart?beats, you will bring on heart?disease.
If you are ever muffling against cold, you wiII become very subject to
chills. If you are you perpetually thinking about your health, you will
induce disease. If you are always consulting your feelings, you will live
in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. He that saveth his soul shall
lose it.
Be
indifferent to emotion. If it is there, be thankful; if it is absent, go
on doing the will of God, reckoning on Him, speaking well of Him behind
His back, and, above all, giving no signs of what you are suffering, lest
you be a stumbling-block to others. Then joy will overtake you as a flood.
He will make you sit at His table, and gird Himself to come forth and serve
you.
CAUTIONS.
There
are five concluding cautions for the culture of the devout life, attention
to which will generally result in holy joy and peace.
1.
We must be still before God. The life around us, in this age, is
pre?eminently one of rush and effort. It is the age of the express?train
and electric telegraph. Years are crowded into months, and weeks into days.
This feverish haste threatens the religious life. The stream has already
entered our churches, and stirred their quiet pools. Meetings crowd on
meetings. The same energetic souls are found at them all, and engaged in
many good works beside. But we must beware that we do not substitute the
active for the contemplative, the valley for the mountain-top. Neither
can with safety be divorced from the other. The sheep must go in and out.
The blood must come back to the heart to be re-charged, and fitted to be
impelled again to the extremities.
We
must make time to be alone with God. The closet and the shut door are indispensable.
We must lose the glare of the sunny piazza that we may see the calm angel?figures
bending above the altar. We must escape the din of the world, to become
accustomed to the accents of the still, small voice. Like David, we must
sit before the Lord. Happy are they who have an observatory in their heart?house
to which they can often retire beneath the great arch of Eternity, turning
their telescope to the mighty constellations that turn beyond life's fever,
and reaching regions where the breath of human applause or censure cannot
follow!
It
is only in such moments that the best spiritual gifts will loom on our
vision, or we shall have grace to receive them. It is impossible to rush
into God's presence, catch up anything we fancy, and run off with it. To
attempt this will end in mere delusion and disappointment. Nature will
not unveil her rarest beauty to the chance tourist. Pictures which are
the result of a life of work do not disclose their secret loveliness to
the saunterer down a gallery. No charter can be read at a glance. And God's
best can not be ours apart from patient waiting in His Holy presence. The
superficial may be put off with a parable, a pretty story, but it is not
given such to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.
2.
We must be possessed by an eager desire. There is a difference between
wishing for a thing and willing it. In a single hour we may wish for a
hundred differing objects, and forget them. But how different from this
is the fixed determination, the settled purpose of the will!
The
lad catches sight of some equipment for his sport, the student of a precious
book, the lover of a rare and jewelled ornament which he covets for the
one he loves, and in each case the will is wrought upon till it resolves
to acquire at any cost. Then privation and self-sacrifice and delay are
cheerfully encountered. Nothing can extinguish or slacken the determination
that follows hard after its quest.So
with us. We must hunger and thirst; we must be possessed by strong and
passionate desire; we must be resolved even to use violence to take the
Kingdom of Heaven. The expressions of Scripture are all so intense, the
hart pants for the waterbrooks; Jacob will not let the angel go; the widow
troubles the unjust judge day and night. We too may have this strong desire
if we will let the Spirit of God produce it within our hearts. But the
merchantman must be bent on seeking and finding the goodly pearl. We must
strive to enter the strait gate. We must agonize (to use the Apostle's
word) as the athlete for the crown.
3.
We must have a promise in our hand. This is the true method of dealing
with God. Search the Bible for some holy word which exactly fits you case.
It will not be hard to find one, since it abounds with personal incidents,
culled from every conceivable variety of life. Then, when it has been discovered,
and perhaps borne in on you by the divine Spirit, take it with you into
the presence of God, or place your finger upon it as pass into the presence-chamber
with hushed and reverent step. The promises are our inventory of possession,
and our need should make us look up for and claim the blessing intended
to meet it.
4.
Reckon on God.If you desire
spiritual gifts, not for your own gratification, but for the glory of Christ;
if, so far as you know, your heart is rid of evil, and your life of sinful
habit; if you perceive that the promise is for you, because you are not
only a son, but an heir of God, and a joint?heir with Christ; if you feel
an eager desire that God has instilled to lead you to this very point,
then open your mouth wide, and believe that God fills it; unshutter
every window, and believe that the light enters; throw wide every aperture,
and believe that you have received what you needed and sought. According
to your faith, it shall be unto you.
In
some moment of need, or when you least expect it, or when engaged in wonted
tolls, some glad consciousness of joy, or peace, or nearness to Christ,
or power over others, will be the evidence that you did receive.
5.
We must care for others. No life can be blessed which is self-centred,
and shut in, as the Dead Sea, by giant walls. The secret of having is giving;
of learning is teaching; of climbing to the throne is by stooping to wash
the feet of the disciples. Think more of others than yourself, and your
own life shall be never so rich and prosperous. "I Want, I want, I want
Christians to go all over the world, and spread the Gospel." These words,
spoken with labored breath, were almost the last uttered by a beloved Christian
worker.
CHAPTER V.
WHY SIGN THE PLEDGE?
The
feeling in favor of Total Abstinence from Strong Drink is rapidly growing.
By the efforts and self?sacrifice of tens of thousands, a strong public
sentiment is being formed, like a mighty breakwater. An arrest is being
placed on the onward march of drunkenness, and many a bark, battered by
the fury of Passion and Self?indulgence, is safely moored in the haven,
sheltered from utter ruin, and able to repair its terrible wreckage. Happy
are we who live in such a time! Let us do our best to build our few stones
into this great breakwater, which is only made up by the small work of
unknown and soon forgotten builders.
One
important means by which so much has been done, has been the use of the
Pledge. Humanly speaking, if it had not been for the Pledge, the present
sentiment in favor of Total Abstinence would not have been possible. And
it will be a great mistake if the signing of the Pledge should ever fall
into disuse, or become an object of contempt. We must not kick away the
ladder by which we have climbed up.
And
yet in some quarters there is a disposition to think and speak lightly
of the Pledge
"Oh,"
says one, "I can keep teetotal without signing your Pledge."
"Yes,"
says another, "it is childish to sign away your freedom."
"It
may be all very well," says a third, "for some to do it, but it is not
so for me."
Why,
then, should we sign the Pledge of Total Abstinence?
Sign
the Pledge: it is your protest against Strong Drink.
It is time for every thoughtful person to enter a solemn protest against
Strong Drink, which every year is inflicting such awful havoc among our
race. Who can be indifferent to the woes it brings on hearts and homes,
on villages and towns, on countries and continents? Well may the Hindoos
call it "Shame-water." There is not a house in which you may not find its
slain. There is not a newspaper that does not record its diabolical outrages.
There is not a public officer that could not bear damning evidence against
it.
We
can not do much, but let us do what we can. We have a voice, a right to
cry aye or nay, a power to assent or protest. Let us use them by all means
on the right side. And if we can not express our feelings in any other
way, let us at least sign a solemn declaration on paper that we will never
again touch the cruelest foe that ever reveled in human tears and blood.
Sign
the Pledge: it will benefit your health.
Alcohol is not more necessary to health than any other chemical or medicinal
agent. It excites the heart, hinders digestion, disturbs the liver, and
stupefies the brain. It gives a momentary glow and stimulus, but you have
to pay for them afterwards by an inevitable lessening of vital heat and
animal power and mental force. Even in moderate quantities it acts as an
irritant and a poison.
The
athlete, in training for a boat?race, a prize-fight or a running match,
must absolutely forego the use of Alcohol; and if men do not want it for
such extraordinary exertions, why do you want it for ordinary ones? Recent
English expeditions in Abyssinia, the Transvaal and Egypt, proved that
if a General wishes his troops to perform forced marches, or to undergo
unusual fatigues, he must substitute coffee for grog. The extremes of the
Arctic circle and the Tropical sun are best endured on cold water, as the
experience of many explorers and travelers proves. The tables of Insurance
Offices show that one hundred moderate drinkers die for every seventy?three
abstainers, and many offices have a special section to give abstainers
the benefits of insurance at a less price.
It
would be a perfect revelation to some who read these words if they would
give Total Abstinence a trial. Your appetites would be better, your minds
would be clearer, your nerves would be stronger, and your whole system
would get fitness and tone.
Sign
the Pledge: it will save your time.
We have only one short life to live, and we can not afford to fling the
diamond moments into the rushing stream beside us. How many days in the
fore-part of the week are spent by our working?classes in saloons which
are a dead loss to them and their families and the country! How many hours
are spent by clerks and commercial travelers in the course of the week,
at the bars of railway stations and restaurants, which might be sown with
the seeds of golden harvest! How many evenings are worse than wasted in
convivial company, which might be spent in innocent and health-giving recreation,
or in acquiring knowledge which would unlock many a shut door! From all
this you would escape, if you signed the Pledge.
Sign
the Pledge: it will save your purse.
?? Sit down and calculate how much you spend per day in Drink, not only
for yourself, but also for those whom you treat. It will amount to a respectable
sum in the course of the year. Add to this the money you might earn in
the time you now lose. Add to this all the sums squandered wastefully in
the company into which habits of drinking lead you. And when all is put
together, would it not make a nice nest-egg against a rainy day, or for
illness and old age?
I
often say to those who sign my pledge cards that there is a $500 note hidden
inside the double cardboard.
Sign
the Pledge: it will save you from temptation.
You have no intention of becoming a drunkard; you scorn the thought. But
there is a risk of your becoming one, so long as you tamper with the drink.
You take it now for the sake of society, but you will come to take it for
its own sake. You can not be sure that daily dram-drinking may not do for
you what it has done for myriads, in exciting a thirst, now perhaps dormant,
but which, when once aroused, will be unsatiable! Wise men, good men, strong
men have been mastered by that awful thirst, who no more expected such
a thing than you do. Is it not folly, then, for you to run the risk
of creating it? Why not stop at once, before that thirst has been aroused?
You
tell me that it seems hard for you to do without the Drink. Then that
is a sure sign that the accursed appetite has got a foothold within you.
Spring off the car ere it rushes down the incline, Run the boat into a
creek ere it is caught by the rapids above the falls. Force the cloven
foot back out of the door before the demon has time to thrust his whole
body into your heart and life. Do it at once. Do it now. You ask not to
be led into temptation, then don't go into it. Saloons are well called
"shades " and "vaults." They are the shades of death, and vault for the
burial of all that is noblest and best in men. Avoid them. Pass them by.
Refuse to enter them unless the Good Shepherd sends you there to find a
lost sheep.
Sign
the Pledge: it will make a definite starting point in your history.
In all efforts after a better life it is well to have some landmark or
timemark, to which to look back and from which to date. There is a sort
of satisfaction in being able to point to a mental stone-cairn, or crease-line,
or white?painted post, standing out on the moorland of life, and to say:
"Up
to that point I lived a selfish, evil life, but since then I have tried
to run fair and well, by the help of God."
With
some it is a sermon. With others it is a birthday, a death, an entry in
the diary, or a New Year's Eve. With others it is the visit of some Gospel
Temperance advocate to their town. But in many cases, the same purpose
is served by signing the Pledge. The date of that Pledge?card is a birthday,
a new start, a beginning of a new era in the story of the soul; and it
very often leads to the second step of faith in Christ.
Sign
the Pledge: it makes a strong obligation.
When a man gives up the Drink, he must do all that can be done to strengthen
his resolution. If he simply makes a resolution, he feels at liberty to
withdraw from it if he choose. But if he double?knots his resolution with
a solemn promise to which he has put his hand, then he feels bound by the
most solemn obligations. He can not think of breaking his word. He dare
not violate his plighted troth. And in the moment of temptation, his self?respect,
his love for truth, his desire to be a man of his word, his written vow,
will be a strong reason for saying No.
A
gentleman who signed the Pledge?card recently said that during the whole
of the next day he carried it in his pocket, and took it out fifteen times
to remind him that he had put his hand to a promise which he dared not
violate, and could not retract.
Sign
the Pledge: it will give a sufficient answer to to those who tempt you
to drink. There
is no answer that a man can give so good as this. If he refuses because
he is hot, he will be advised to drink to get cool. If he refuses because
he is cold, he will be recommended to drink to get warm. If he refuses
because he can not afford it, his companion will gladly treat him. If he
refuses because he is not well, there is no ailment to which flesh is heir
for which intoxicating drinks are not prescribed as a certain cure. Men
who are well drink till they are ill; and then drink to get themselves
well again. None of these excuses avail, but if a man says, "I have signed
the Pledge," they may think him a fool, but they can not say that he has
not given a sufficient reason; and if they are true men themselves, they
dare not ask him to break his word. If a man asks you to drink after you
have signed the pledge, he is no true friend; he is doing the devil's work.
He is certain to turn round and insult you after you have done his will,
because he will have lost the last fragment of respect for you.
There
are some men who must have a reason to give others for doing as they do.
Here at least is a clear, straightforward, intelligible reason, which puts
an end to controversy, and settles the matter forever: "I have signed the
Pledge."
Sign
the Pledge: it keeps it from becoming the badge of a reclaimed drunkard.
If the Pledge were only signed by men who had been drunkards, but who were
trying to live a new life, it would become the badge of reclaimed drunkards,
and it would soon cease to be signed by this class of men who need it most.
This would be a great calamity.
"I
dare not sign the Pledge," said a young doctor to a friend who was trying
to get him to do so, as a means of saving him from ruin.
"Why
not?" was his friend's reply.
"Because,
if people heard that I had done so, they would say that there must have
been a screw loose in my character, and that I was a reclaimed drunkard."
"No,"
said his friend, "they never can say that, for it has been signed by thousands
of thousands on whose character there has never been a stain."
The
answer re?assured him. He took the Pledge, and is now an earnest Christian
worker in one of our large towns.
You
may not need to sign the Pledge for yourself, but sign it that you may
give it the benefit, the weight, the standing of your own moral character.
If every one of reputable and stainless character were to stand aloof,
the Pledge would be a hopeless failure. Every respectable Christian person
who signs it is like one of the corks floating on the surface of the sea,
helping to sustain the heavy nets laden with fish.
Sign
the Pledge: it makes it easier for others to do the same.
We are creatures of fashion. We can not help it. We are made so. What one
does, the others are apt to do. There's many an eager eye looking to see
what the reader of these lines is going to do. If he signs the Pledge,
that boy, that companion, that servant, will do the same; but if he refuses
to do so, it may be that that waiting one will also refuse, and that refusal
will lead to ruin.
More
eyes are watching us than we think. More lives than we know are on the
balance, waiting for the feather of our example to turn them this way or
that. Are we right in leaving anything undone that might save one for whom
Christ died? We must use all means to save some, though the use of the
means compel us to forego some boasted liberty, or some loved indulgence.
Don't
say that you have no influence. It is only an excuse, you have; you would
not like another to say that.
"I
have no influence," said a man to one who asked him to take the Pledge
for the sake of others.
His
wife came up at that moment and said, "That's true, you have no more influence
than a cat."
"If
you say that again, woman," said he, "I will knock you down."
Of
course you have influence. Use it well.
Sign
the Pledge: it will win you friends.
We all need friends, and if we have given up those who gather around the
Drink, we need others, and we are most likely to find these wherever there
are Pledge-cards to be had for signature. It is all very well to resolve
to give up Drink and to keep the vow secretly; but it is much better to
take the Pledge in the presence of one or more persons, who shall bear
witness to what they have seen, and who will be bound to you in the bonds
of a new and common brotherhood, because they have done the same thing,
and are pledged to the same cause.
OBJECTIONS.
But
I do not like to sign away my liberty.
Then, if you are unmarried, you will never be married; you will surely
never promise to love and honor any one individual, because you may want
to change your mind. And what is true in this case is true in others, and
is a sufficient answer to the objection.
If
you like, take the Pledge, for a short time only, as you take the
lease of a house. You can easily renew it again and again. Or, better still,
promise to abstain, by God's help, from all intoxicating Drinks, as a Beverage,
until you return your pledge?card to the friend from whom you have received
it. This will give you an opportunity of relinquishing it when you
choose, and it will give him an opportunity of speaking earnestly
with you when your purpose is faltering.
But
I may be forced to drink.
If you are, you will not violate your Pledge. You only promise to abstain
from intoxicants as a beverage. If it is poured down your throat
by force, or when you are fainting; if the physician compels you to take
it; if you take it unawares in some dish of cookery; your Pledge is not
broken. It is not you that break it.
But
I have taken it, and broken more than once.
Then take it again, in humble dependence on the Savior, "who has been manifested
to destroy the works of the devil."
Most,
if not all, Total Abstinence Pledges lay stress on the words GOD HELPING
ME. These words are the heart of all. If they are not felt deep down in
the soul, the Pledge is not good for much, it rests on mere human strength.
But when God is appealed to, the case is altered. Divine power pours into
the spirit which is lifted up to Him in prayer and trust. Angel hands are
stretched out to hold back the erring feet. A holy garrison is put inside
the weak and trembling nature to hold it against the foe. Ask the Lord
Jesus to forgive the past. Ask Him to save you from your enemy. Ask Him
to shield you in the day of battle. Ask Him, when the door is nearly battered
in, to put His foot against it and keep it closely shut. He is able to
keep you from stumbling. He is able to keep that which you commit to Him.
He is able to make you more than a conqueror. Put yourself into His hands
before you leave your room in the morning. Keep looking to Him all day.
Praise Him for His grace each night.
"What's
that, that you keep mumbling to yourself?" said a working?man to another
at a little distance from him in the same shop.
"I
keep on saying 'Lord help me,' " was the reply; "I say it day and night.
It is the only way I know of to keep down my thirst for the Drink."
Take
heart, my friends. The battle may be sharp, but victory is sure. And when
once you stand firm on the rock, be on the alert to rescue others from
the raging waters of strong Drink.
CHAPTER VI.
BURDENS, AND WHAT TO DO WITH
THEM.
Do
you keep the Sabbath? Not indeed the literal seventh?day rest, but the
inner rest of which that day was the blessed type. The pause in the outward
business of life was but a parable of that inner hush, which is not for
one day but for all days; not for one race but for all men; not for the
Hereafter only but for Now. The Sabbath?keeping which awaits the people
of God, undiminished in a single atom by the storms which have swept around
it, is for all faithful souls, who may take it when they will and carry
it with them
"Through
dusky lane and wrangling mart,
Plying
their daily task with busier feet,
Because
their secret souls a holy strain repeat."
A
strain borrowed from the eternal chords and harmonies of the life and being
of God.
The
Secret of Sabbath-keeping is in the absence of burden-bearing. "Thus
saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves and bear no burden on the Sabbath
day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Neither carry forth a burden
out of your houses on the Sabbath day." And in the words that follow the
continual presence of a king is made to hinge on obedience about burdens
(Jer. xvii:24, etc). Nehemiah was so urgent in this matter that he set
his servants at the city gates, as they crowned the grey summit of Zion,
"that there should be no burden brought in on the Sabbath day" (Neh. xiii:
19).
And
what was true in those bygone days is true always. There can be no true
Sabbath?keeping when burdens are freely brought into the precincts of the
soul. As well try to sleep when a party of high-spirited, healthy children
are tearing up and down the house, and playing hide-and-seek in all the
rooms. Care will break the rest of the soul as much as sin does. And there
is no hope that we should know the peace which passeth all understanding
till we have learnt the art of shutting the door against the long train
of burden-carrying thoughts which are always coming up the hill from the
world beneath to fill our spirit with the ring of their feet and the clamor
of their cries.
We
need not stay to describe the results which burden-bearingbrings
to the heavy-laden. They are evident in the careworn look, the weary
eye, the heavy step. But deeper than these, there is no power in prayer,
no joy in God, no lying down in green pastures, no walking beside the waters
of rest. As snowflakes in the artics or sand-grains in the tropics will
build a rampart before some lowly dwelling sufficient to exclude the light,
so will worries, each infinitesimal in itself, shut out the blessed light
of God from the soul and make midnight where God meant midday.
Burden?bearing
sadly dishonors God.
As men of the world look upon the faces of those who profess to be God's
children, and see them dark with the same shadows as are flung athwart
their own, they may well wonder what sort of a Father He is. Whatever be
a man's professions, we can not helping judging him by the faces of his
children. And if God be judged by the unconscious report made of Him by
some of His children, the hardest things ever said against Him by His foes
are not far off the truth.
Under
such circumstances the unbeliever may fitly argue, "Either there is no
God, or He is powerless to help, or He does not really love, or He is careless
of the needs of His children. Of what good will religion be to me?"
We
are either libels or Bibles; harbor-lights or warning-signals; magnetic
or repellent; and which very much depends on how we treat our burdens.
Of
course there is a difference between Care and Pain; between bearing
the self?made burden of our anxieties, and suffering according to the will
of God. We must not make light of sufferings sent by our Father to teach
lessons which could only be learnt in the school on the forms of which
our Lord has sat before us to learn obedience. The chastened spirit must
go softly, and withdraw itself to suffer. But this is very different from
burden?bearing. There wiII be no doubt as to the Father's care, no worry
about the issues, no foreboding as to the long future, which to the eye
of faith gleams like the horizon?rim of the sea on which the sun is shining
in splendor, though dark clouds brood immediately overhead.
Before
we are thoroughly awake in the morning we sometimes become conscious of
a feeling of depression, as if all were not right; and a voice seems to
tell a long tale of burdens to be carried, and difficulties to be met as
the hours pass by.
"Ah!"
says the voice, "a miserable day will this be."
"How
so?" we inquire, fearfully.
"Remember
there is that creditor to meet, that skein to disentangle, that irritation
to soothe, those violent tempers to confront. It is no use praying. Better
Iinger where you are, and then drag through the day as you can. You are
like a martyr being led to his death."
And
too often we have yielded to the suggestion, and have dragged ourselves
wearily through the hours, doing our daily task with hands engaged and
strength spent by the burdens which we have assumed. God is pledged to
give strength for all duties which He sets, but not for the burdens which
we elect to take on as well.
The
one cure for burden?bearing is to cast all burdens on the Lord.
The margin of the revised version of Psalm lv:22 reads thus: Cast that
He hath given thee upon the Lord. Whatever burden the Lord hath given
thee, give it back to Him. Treat the burden of care as once the burden
of sin; kneel down and deliberately hand it over to Jesus. Say to Him,
"Lord, I entrust to thee this, and this, and this. I can not carry them,
they are crushing me; but I definitely commit them all to thee to manage,
and adjust, and arrange. Thou hast taken my sins. Take my sorrows, and
in exchange give me Thy Peace, Thy Rest". As George Herbert says so quaintly,
"We must put them all into Christ's bag."
Will
not our Lord Jesus be at least as true and faithful as the best earthly
friend we have ever known? And have there not been times in all our lives
we have been too weary or helpless to help ourselves, and have thankfully
handed some wearing anxiety to a good, strong man, sure that when once
it was entrusted to him, he would not rest until he had finished it to
his satisfaction? And surely He who loved us enough to die for us may be
trusted to arrange all the smaller matters of our daily lives!
Of
course there are one or two conditions which we must fulfill, before
we shall be able to hand over our burdens to the Lord Jesus and leave them
with Him in perfect confidence. We must have cast our sins on Him before
we can cast our cares. We must be at peace with God through the work of
our Savior before we can have the peace of God through faith in His gracious
interposition on our behalf. We must also be living on God's plan, tarrying
under the cloud, obeying His laws and executing His plans so far as we
know them. We must also feed faith with promise, for this food is essential
to make it thrive.And when we have
done all this we shall not find it so difficult
"To
kneel, and cast our load,
E'en
while we pray upon our God,
Then
rise with lightened cheer."
I.??
HAND OVER TO CHRIST THE BURDEN OF HOW TO GROW IN GRACE.
This
is a very great burden to some earnest people. They go from convention
to convention, from one speaker to another, note?book in hand, so eager
to get the Blessing (as they term it), and often thinking more of the rapture
of the Gift than of the Person of of the Giver. And because they hear of
others having experiences which they know not, they carry heavy burdens
of disappointment and self?reproach.
Equally
well might a child in the infant?class fret because he is not entered in
the higher classes of the school. But why should he worry about his future
progress? His one business is to acquire the lessons set him by his teacher.
When these are learnt it will be for him to teach his pupil more,
and advance him to positions where quicker progress may be made. And it
is for us to learn the lessons which the Lord Jesus sets before us day
by day, leaving Him to lead us into the fuller knowledge and love of God.
Thomas
was one of the dull pupils in our Master's school. He could not see what
was clear to all beside. But instead of chiding him, and leaving him to
grope in the dark, the Master paid him a special visit, and made the glad
fact of His resurrection so simple that the doubter was able to rejoice
with the rest. Don't worry about your dullness; it will only that the dear
Master will give you longer and more personal attention. Mothers give most
pains to the sickly, weak, and stupid among their children.
II. HAND OVER TO CHRIST THE
BURDEN OF MAINTAINING A CHRISTIAN PROFESSION.
Many
are kept from identifying themselves openly with the Lord's people by a
secret feeling that they will never be able to hold out. They carry with
them a nervous dread of bringing disgrace on their Christian profession,
and trailing Christ's colors in the dust. Almost unconsciously, they repeat
the words of David, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul."
Anxiety
about so sacred a matter as this will hide the face of Christ, as the impalpable
vapor-wreaths hide the majestic, snow?capped peaks. And it is quite needless.
He who saved can uphold. As is His heart of love, so is His arm of might.
He is able to keep from stumbling, and present us faultless before the
Presence of His glory. But we shall never know the sufficiency of that
keeping whilst we cling to the boat, or even keep one hand upon its side.
Only when we have stepped right out on the water, relying utterly on the
Master's power, shall we know how blessedly and certainly He keeps what
is committed to Him against that day.
We
must not carry even the burden of daily abiding in Him. Let us rather trust
Him to keep us trusting and abiding in Himself. He will not fall us if
we do, and will answer our faith by giving us an appetite for those exercises
of prayer, Bible study, and communion, which are the secrets of unbroken
fellowship.
III. HAND OVER TO CHRIST
THE BURDEN OF CHRISTIAN WORK.
How
to maintain our congregations; how to hold our ground amid the competition
of neighboring workers; how to sustain the vigor and efficiency of our
machinery; how to adjust the differences arising between fellow and subordinate
worriers; how to find material enough for sermons and addresses beneath
the pressure of burdens like these how many workers break down! They could
bear the work, but not the worry.
And
yet the responsibility of the work is not ours but our Master's. He is
bearing this world in His arms, as a mother her sick child. He is ministering
to the infinite need of man. He is carrying on His great redemptive scheme
for the glory of His Father. All He wants of us is a faithful performance
of the daily tasks He gives.
Let
the sailor-lad sleep soundly in his hammock; the captain knows exactly
the ship's course. Let the errand-boy be content to fetch and carry, as
he is bidden; the heads of the firm know what they are about, and have
plenty of resources to meet all their needs. And let the Christian worker
guard against bearing burdens which the Lord alone can carry. The Lord
would never have sent us to His work without first calculating His ability
to carry us through.
IV. HAND OVER TO CHRIST
THE BURDEN OF THE EBB AND FLOW OF FEELING.
Our
feelings are as changeable as April weather. They are affected by an infinite
number of subtle causes: our physical health, the state of the atmosphere,
over-weariness, want of sleep, as well as by those which are spiritual
and inward. No stringed instrument is more liable to be affected by minute
changes than we are. And we are apt to take it sorely to heart when we
see the tide of emotion running out.
At
such times we should question ourselves, to see whether our lack of feeling
is due to conscious sin or worrying; and if not, we may hand over all further
anxiety in the matter to Him who knows our frame, and remembers that we
are dust. And as we pass down the dark staircase, let us hold fast to the
handrail of His will, willing still to do His will, though in the dark.
"I am as much Thine own, equally devoted to Thee now in the depths of my
soul, as when I felt happiest in Thy love."
V. HAND OVER TO CHRIST
ALL OTHER BURDENS.
Servants
with their frequent changes; employers with unreasonable demands; unkind
gossip and slanderous tales which are being circulated about you; the perplexities
and adversities of business; the difficulties to make two ends meet; the
question of changing your residence, or situation, and obtaining another;
children with the ailments of childhood and the waywardness of youth; provision
for sickness and old age. There are some whose businesses are peculiarly
trying, and liable to cause anxious thoughts; others whose horizon is always
bounded by the gaunt spectres of beggary and the workhouse.
Any
one of these will break our rest, as one whelping dog may break our slumber
in the stillest night, and as one grain of dust in the eye will render
it incapable of enjoying the fairest prospect.
There
is nothing for us, then, but roll our burden, and indeed, ourselves, on
God (Ps. xxii:8, marg.).
When
a little boy, trying to help his father move some books, fell on the stairs
beneath the weight of a heavy volume, the father ran to his aid and caught
up boy and burden both, and bore them in his arms to his own room. And
will our Father do worse? He must love us infinitely, and be ever at hand.
"He careth for you."
It
is a good way in dealing with God, and if you are not quite sure of His
will, to say that you will stay where you are, or go on doing what you
have been doing, until He makes quite clear what He wants and empowers
you to do it. Roll the responsibility of your way on God (Prov. xvi: 3,
marg.), and expect that He will make known to you any alteration which
He desires in a way so unmistakable, that though you are dull and stupid
you may not mistake.
Don't
worry about dress, or ornaments, or doubtful things. Satan loves to turn
the soul's attention from Christ to itself. It is as if a girl should spend
an hour in her room wondering in what dress to meet her lover, who is waiting
impatiently below. Let her go to him, and if she desires it, he will soon
enough tell her clearly what he prefers. Get into the presence of Jesus,
and you will not be left to hazy questionings and doubtful disputations,
but will be told clearly and unmistakably His will, and always definitely
about one point at a time.
Archbishop
Leighton sweetly says: "When thou art either to do or suffer anything,
when thou art about any purpose of business, go, tell God about it, and
acquaint Him with it, yea, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter
of caring. No more care, but sweet, quiet diligence in thy duty, and dependence
on Him for the carriage of thy matters. Roll over on God, make one bundle
of all; roll thy cares, and thyself with them, as one burden, all on thy
God."
And
so, when no burdens are brought into the soul, but are handed immediately
over to the blessed Lord, the peace of God will fill the inner temple.
And though outside there may be the strife of tongues, and the chafe of
this restless world, like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, and the
pressure of many engagements, yet these things shall expand themselves
on the battlements of the life which is the environing presence of God;
whilst, within, the soul keeps an unbroken Sabbath, like the unruffled
ocean depths, which are not stirred by the hurricanes that churn the surface
into foam and fury. "The Peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Phil: iv.
7.)
CHAPTER VII.
HOW TO BEAR SORROW.
You
are passing through a time of deep sorrow. The love on which you were trusting
has suddenly failed you, and dried up like a brook in the desert ?? now
a dwindling stream, then shallow pools, and at last drought. You are always
listening for footsteps that do not come, waiting for a word that is not
spoken, pining for a reply that tarries overdue.
Perhaps
the savings of your life have suddenly disappeared. Instead of helping
others, you must be helped; or you must leave the warm nest where you have
been sheltered from life's storms to go alone into an unfriendly world;
or you are suddenly called to assume the burden of some other life, taking
no rest for yourself till you have steered it through dark and difficult
seas into the haven. Your health, or sight, or nervous energy is failing;
you carry in yourself the sentence of death; and the anguish of anticipating
the future is almost unbearable. In other cases there is the sense of recent
loss through death, like the gap in the forest?glade, where the woodsman
has lately been felling trees.
At
such times life seems almost unsupportable. Will every day be as long as
this? Will the slow?moving hours ever again quicken their pace? Will life
ever array itself in another garb than the torn autumn remnants of past
summer glory? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut
up His tender mercies? Is His mercy clean gone forever?
This
road has been trodden by myriads.
When you think of the desolating wars which have swept through every country
and devasted every land; of the expeditions of the Nimrods, the Nebuchadnezzars,
the Timours, the Napoleons of history; of the merciless slave trade, which
has never ceased to decimate Africa; and of all the tyranny, the oppression,
the wrong which the weak and defenceless have suffered at the hands of
their fellows; of the unutterable sorrows of women and children, surely
you must see that by far the larger number of our race have passed through
the same bitter griefs as those which rend your heart.
Jesus
Christ Himself trod this difficult path, leaving traces of His blood on
its flints; and apostles, prophets, confessors, and martyrs have passed
by the same way. It is comforting to know that others have traversed the
same dark valley, and that the great multitudes which stand before the
Lamb, wearing palms of victory, came out of great tribulation. Where they
were we are; and, by God's grace, where they are we shall be.
Do
not talk about punishment.
You may talk of chastisement or correction, for our Father deals with us
as with sons; or you may speak of reaping the results of mistakes and sins
dropped as seeds into life's furrows in former years; or you may have to
bear the consequences of the sins and mistakes of others; but do not speak
of punishment. Surely all the guilt and penalty of sin were laid on Jesus,
and He put them away forever. His were the stripes and the chastisement
of our peace. If God punishes us for our sins, it would seem that the sufferings
of Christ were incomplete; and if He once began to punish us, life would
be too short for the infliction of all that we deserve. Besides, how could
we explain the anomalies of life, and the heavy sufferings of the saints
as compared with the gay life of the ungodly? Surely, if our sufferings
were penal, there would be a reversal of these lots.
Sorrow
is a refiner's crucible.
It may be caused by the neglect or cruelty of another, by circumstances
over which the sufferer has no control, or as the direct result of some
dark hour in the long ?past; but inasmuch as God has permitted it to come,
it must be accepted as His appointment, and considered as the furnace by
which He is searching, testing, probing, and purifying the soul. Suffering
searches us as fire does metals. We think we are fully for God, until we
are exposed to the cleansing fire of pain. Then we discover, as job did,
how much dross there is in us, and how little real patience, resignation,
and faith. Nothing so detaches us from the things of this world, the life
of sense, the birdlime of earthly affections. There is probably no other
way by which the power of the self?life can be arrested, that the life
of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
But
God always keeps the discipline of sorrow in His own hands.
Our Lord said, "My Father is the husbandman." His hand holds the pruning?knife.
His eye watches the crucible. His gentle touch is on the pulse while the
operation is in progress. He will not allow even the devil to have his
own way with us. As in the case of Job, so always. The moments are carefully
allotted. The severity of the test is exactly determined by the reserves
of grace and strength which are lying unrecognized within, but will be
sought for and used beneath the severe pressure of pain. He holds the winds
in His fist, and the waters in the hollow of His hand. He dare not risk
the loss of that which has cost Him the blood of His son. "God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tried above that you are able."
In
sorrow the comforter is near.
"Very present in time of trouble." He sits by the crucible, as a
Refiner of silver, regulating the heat, marking every change, waiting patiently
for the scum to float away, and His own face to be mirrowed in clear, translucent
metal. No earthly friend may tread the winepress with you, but the Savior
is there, His garments stained with the blood of the grapes of your sorrow.
Dare to repeat it often, though you do not feel it, and though Satan insists
that God has left you, "Thou art with me." Mention His name again
and again, "Jesus, JESUS, Thou art with me." So you will become
conscious that He is there.
When
friends come to console you they talk of time's healing touch, as though
the best balm for sorrow were to forget; or in their well?meant kindness
they suggest travel, diversion, amusement, and show their inability to
appreciate the black night that hangs over your soul. So you turn from
them sick at heart, and prepared to say, as Job of his, "Miserable comforters
are ye all." But all the while Jesus is nearer than they are, understanding
how they wear you, knowing each throb of pain, touched by fellow-feeling,
silent in a love too full to speak, waiting to comfort from hour to hour
as a mother her weary, and suffering babe.
Be
sure to study the art of this Divine comfort, that you may be able to comfort
them that are in any affliction with the comfort with which you yourself
have been comforted of God (2 Cor. i: 4). There can be no doubt that some
trials are permitted to come to us, as to our Lord, for no other reason
than that by means of them we should become able to give sympathy and succor
to others. And we should watch with all care each symptom of the pain,
and each prescription of the Great Physician, since in all probability
at some future time we shall be called to minister to those passing through
similar experiences. Thus we learn by the things which we suffer, and,
being made perfect, become authors of priceless and eternal help to souls
in agony.
Do
not shut yourself up with your sorrow.
A friend, in the first anguish of bereavement, wrote, saying that he must
give up the Christian ministries in which he had delighted; and I replied
immediately, urging him not to do so, because there is no solace for heart-pain
like ministry. The temptation of great suffering is toward isolation, withdrawal
from the life of men, sitting alone, and keeping silence. Do not yield
to it. Break through the icy chains of reserve, if they have already gathered.
Arise, anoint your head and wash your face; go forth to your duty, with
willing though chastened steps.
Selfishness
of every kind, in its activities or its introspection, is a hurtful thing,
and shuts out the help and love of God. Sorrow is apt to be selfish. The
soul, occupied with its own griefs, and refusing to be comforted, becomes
presently a Dead Sea, full of brine and salt, over which the birds do not
fly, and beside which no green thing grows. And thus we miss the very lesson
that God would teach us. His constant war is against the self?life, and
every pain He inflicts is to lesson its hold upon us. But we may thwart
His purpose and extract poison from His gifts, as men get opium and alcohol
from innocent plants.
A
Hindoo woman, the beautiful Eastern legend tells us, lost her only child.
Wild with grief, she implored a prophet to give back her little one to
her love. He looked at her for a long while tenderly, and said:
"Go,
my daughter, bring me a handful of rice from a house into which Death has
never entered, and I will do as thou desirest."
The
woman at once began her search. She went from dwelling to dwelling, and
had no difficulty in obtaining what the prophet specified; but when they
had granted it, she inquired:
"Are
you all here around the hearth; father, mother, children, none missing?"
The
people invariably shook their heads, with sighs and looks of sadness. Far
and wide as she wandered, there was always some vacant seat by the hearth.
And gradually, as she passed on, the legend says, the waves of her grief
subsided before the spectacle of sorrow everywhere; and her heart, ceasing
to be occupied with its own selfish pang, flowing out in strong yearnings
of sympathy with the universal suffering, tears of anguish softened into
tears of pity, passion melted away in compassion, she forget herself in
the general interest, and found redemption in redeeming.
Do
not chide yourself for feeling strongly.
Tears are natural. Jesus wept. A thunderstorm without rain is fraught with
peril; the pattering raindrops cool the air and relieve the overcharged
atmosphere. The swollen brooks indicate that the snows are melting on the
hills and spring is near. "Daughters of Jerusalem," said our Lord, "weep
for yourselves and your children."
To
bear sorrow with dry eyes and stolid heart may befit a Stoic, but not a
Christian. We have no need to rebuke fond nature crying for its mate, its
lost joy, the touch of the vanished hand, the sound of the voice that is
still, provided only that the will is resigned. This is the one consideration
for those who suffer: Is the will right? If it isn't, God Himself
cannot comfort. If it is, then the path will inevitably lead from the valley
of the shadow of death to the banqueting table and the overflowing cup.
Many
say: "I can not feel resigned. It is bad enough to have my grief to bear,
but I have this added trouble, that I can not feel resigned."
My
invariable reply is: "You probably never can feel resignation, but you
can will it."
The
Lord Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, has shown us how to suffer. He
chose His Father's will. Though Judas, prompted by Satan, was the instrument
for mixing the cup and placing it to the Savior's lips, He looked right
beyond him to the Father, who permitted him to work his cruel way, and
said: "The cup that My Father giveth Me to drink, shall I not drink it?"
And He said repeatedly, "If this cup may not pass from Me, except I drink
it, Thy will be done." He gave up His own way and will, saying, "I will
Thy will, 0 My Father. Thy will, and not Mine, be done."
Let
all sufferers who read these lines go apart and dare to say the same words:
"Thy will, and not mine. Thy will be done in the earth of my life, as in
the heaven of Thy purpose. I choose Thy will." Say this thoughtfully and
deliberately, not because you can feel it, but because you will
it; not because the way of the cross is pleasant, but because it must be
right. Say it repeatedly, whenever the surge of pain sweeps through you,
whenever the wound begins to bleed afresh. "Not my will, but Thine be done."
Dare to say Yes to God. "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good
in Thy sight."
And
so you will be led to feel that all is right and well. A great calm will
settle down on your heart, a peace that passeth understanding, a sense
of rest, which is not inconsistent with suffering, but walks in the midst
of it as the three young men in the fiery furnace, to whom the burning
coals must have been like the dewy grass of a forest glade.
"The
doctor told us my little child was dying. I felt like a stone. But in a
moment I seemed to give up my hold on her. She appeared no longer mine,
but God's."
Be
sure to learn God's lessons.
Each sorrow carries at its heart a germ of holy truth, which if you get
and sow in the soil of your heart will bear harvests of fruit, as seed-corns
from mummy-cases fruit in English soil. God has a meaning in each blow
of His chisel, each incision of His knife. He knows the way that He takes.
But His object is not always clear to us.
In
suffering and sorrow God touches the minor chords, develops the passive
virtues, and opens to view the treasures of darkness, the constellations
of promise, the rainbow of hope, the silver light of the covenant. What
is character without sympathy, submission, patience, trust, and hope that
grips the unseen as an anchor? But these graces are only possible through
sorrow. Sorrow is a garden, the trees of which are laden with the peaceable
fruits of righteousness; do not leave it without bringing them with you.
Sorrow is a mine, the walls of which glisten with precious stones; be sure
and do not retrace your steps into daylight without some specimens. Sorrow
is a school. You are sent to sit on its hard benches and learn from its
black?lettered pages lessons which will make you wise forever; do not trifle
away your chance of graduating there. Miss Havergal used to talk of "turned
lessons ! "
Count
on the afterward.
God will not always be causing grief. He traverses the dull brown acres
with His plough, seaming the yielding earth that He may be able to cast
in the precious grain. Believe that in days of sorrow He is sowing light
for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Look forward
to the reaping. Anticipate the joy which is set before you, and shall flood
your heart with minstrel notes when patience has had her perfect work.
You
will live to recognize the wisdom of God's choice for you. You will one
day see that the thing you wanted was only second best. You will be surprised
to remember that you once nearly broke your heart and spilt the wine of
your life for what would never have satisfied you if you had caught it,
as the child the butterfly or soap?bubble. You will meet again your beloved.
You will have again your love. You will become possessed of a depth of
character, a breadth of sympathy, a fund of patience, an ability to understand
and help others, which, as you lay them at Christ's feet for Him to use,
will make you glad that you were afflicted. You will see God's plan and
purpose; you will reap His harvest; you will behold His face, and be satisfied.
Each wound will have its pearl; each carcass will contain a swarm of bees;
each foe, like Midian to Gideon, will yield its goodly spoil.
The
way of the cross, rightly borne, is the only way to the everlasting light.
The path that threads the Garden of Gethsemane, and climbs over the hill
of Calvary, alone conducts to the visions of the Easter morning and the
glories of the Ascension mount. If we will not drink of His cup, or be
baptized with His baptism, or fill up that which is behind of His sufferings,
we cannot expect to share in the joys of His espousals and the ecstasy
of His triumph. But if these conditions are fulfilled, we shall not miss
one note in the everlasting song, one element in the bliss that is possible
to men.
Remember
that somehow suffering rightly borne enriches and helps mankind.
?? The death of Hallam was the birthday of Tennyson's "In Memoriam."
The cloud of insanity that brooded over Cowper gave us the hymn, "God
moves in a mysterious way." Milton's blunders taught him to sing of
"Holy light, offspring of heaven's first?born." Rist used to say,
"The cross has pressed many songs out of me." And it is probable that none
rightly suffer anywhere without contributing something to the alleviation
of human grief, to the triumph of good over evil, of love over hate, and
of light over darkness.
If
you believe this, could you not bear to suffer? Is not the chief misery
of all suffering its loneliness, and perhaps its apparent aimlessness?
Then dare to believe that no man dieth to himself. Fall into the ground,
bravely and cheerfully, to die. If you refuse this, you will abide alone;
but if you yield to it, you will bear fruit which will sweeten the lot
and strengthen the life of others who perhaps will never know your name,
or stop to thank you for your help.
CHAPTER VIII.
IN THE SECRET OF HIS PRESENCE.
In
one sense God is always near us. He is not an Absentee, needing to be brought
down from the heavens or up from the deep. He is nigh at hand. His Being
pervades all being. Every world, that floats like an islet in the ocean
of space, is filled with signs of His presence, just as the home of your
friend is littered with the many evidences of his residence, by which you
know that he lives there, though you have not seen his face. Every crocus
pushing through the dark mould; every firefly in the forest; every bird
that springs up from its nest before your feet; everything that is ?? all
are as full of God's presence as the bush which burned with His fire, before
which Moses bared his feet in acknowledgement that God was there.
But
we do not always realize it. We often pass hours, and days, and weeks.
We sometimes engage in seasons of prayer, we go to and fro from His house,
where the ladder of communication rests; and still He is a shadow, a name,
a tradition, a dream of days gone by.
"Oh!
that l knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat.
Behold! I go forward but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive
Him: on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He
hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him."
How
different is this failure to realize the presence of God to the blessed
experience of His nearness realized by some.
Brother
Lawrence, the simple?minded cook, tells us that for more than sixty years
he never lost the sense of the presence of God, but was as conscious of
it while performing the duties of his humble office, as when partaking
of the Holy Supper.
John
Howe, on the blank page of his Bible, made this record in Latin: "This
very morning I awoke out of a most ravishing and delightful dream, when
a wonderful and copious stream of celestial rays, from the lofty throne
of the Divine Majesty, seemed to dart into my open and expanded breast.
I have often since reflected on that very signal pledge of special Divine
favor, and have with repeated fresh pleasure tasted the delights thereof."
Are
not these experiences, so blessed and inspiring, similar to that of the
author of the longest, and, in some respects, the sublimest Psalm in the
Psalter? He had been beating out the golden ore of thought through the
successive paragraphs of marvellous power and beauty, when suddenly he
seems to have become conscious that He, of whom he had been speaking, had
drawn near, and was bending over him. The sense of the presence of God
was borne in upon his inner consciousness. And, lifting up a face on which
reverence and ecstasy met and mingled, he cried, Thou art near, 0 Lord!"
(Psalm cxix: 151.)
If
only such an experience of the nearness of God were always ours, enwrapping
us as air or light; if only we could feel, as the great Apostle put it
on Mars' Hill, that God is not far away, but the element in which we have
our being, as sea?flowers in deep, still lagoons: ?? then we should understand
what David meant when he spoke about dwelling in the house of the Lord
all the days of his life, beholding His beauty, inquiring in His temple,
and hidden in the secret of His pavilion (Ps. xxvii.). Then, too, we should
acquire the blessed secret of peace, purity and power.
In
the Secret of His Presence There is Peace.
"In the world ye shall have tribulation," our Master said, "but in Me ye
shall have peace." It is said that a certain insect has the power of surrounding
itself with a film of air, encompassed in which it drops into the midst
of muddy, stagnant pools, and remains unhurt. And the believer is also
conscious that he is enclosed in the invisible film of the Divine Presence,
as a far-travelled letter in the envelope which protects it from hurt and
soil.
"They
draw near me that follow after mischief," but Thou art nearer than the
nearest, and I dwell in the inner ring of Thy presence. The mountains round
about me are filled with the horses and chariots of Thy protection. No
weapon that is formed against me can prosper, for it can only reach me
through Thee, and, touching Thee, will glance harmlessly aside. To be in
God is to be in a well-fitted house when the storm has slipped from its
leash; or in a sanctuary, the doors of which shut out the pursuer.
In
the Secret of His Presence there is Purity.
The mere vision of snow-capped Alps, seen from afar across Geneva's lake,
so elevates and transfigures the rapt and wistful soul as to abash all
evil things which would thrust themselves upon the inner life. The presence
of a little child, with its guileless purity, has been known to disarm
passion, as a beam of light, falling in a reptile-haunted cave, scatters
the slimy snakes. But what shall not Thy presence do for me, if I acquire
a perpetual sense of it, and live in its secret place? Surely, in the heart
of that fire, black cinder though I be, I shall be kept pure, and glowing,
and intense!
In
the Secret of His Presence there is Power.
My cry, day and night, is for power; spiritual power. Not the power of
intellect, oratory, or human might. These cannot avail to vanquish the
serried ranks of evil. Thou sayest truly that it is not by might or power.
Yet human souls which touch Thee become magnetized, charged with a spiritual
force which the world can neither gainsay nor resist. Oh ! let me touch
Thee! Let me dwell in unbroken contact with Thee, that out of Thee successive
tides of Divine energy may pass into and through my emptied and eager spirit,
flowing, but never ebbing, and lifting me into a life of blessed ministry,
which shall make deserts below like the garden of the Lord.
But
how shall we get and keep this sense of God's nearness?
Must
we go back to Bethel, with its pillar of stone, where even Jacob said,
"Surely God is in this place"? Ah, we might have stood beside him, with
unanointed eye, and seen no ladder, heard no voice; whilst the patriarch
would discover God in the bare moorlands of our lives, trodden by us without
reverence or joy.
Must
we travel to the mouth of the cave in whose shadow Elijah stood, thrilled
by the music of the still small voice, sweeter by contrast with the thunder
and the storm? Alas! we might have stood beside him unconscious of that
glorious Presence; whilst Elijah, if living now, would discern it in the
whisper of the wind, the babbling of babes, the rhythm of heart?throbs.
If
we had stationed ourselves in our present state beside the Apostle Paul
when he was caught into the third heaven, we should probably have seen
nothing but a tent-maker's shop, or a dingy room in a hired lodging; we
in the dark, whilst he was in transports; whilst he would discern, were
he to live again, angels on our steamships, visions in our temples, doors
opening into heaven amid the tempered glories of our more sombre skies.
In
point of fact, we carry everywhere our circumference of light or dark.
God is as much in the world as he was when Enoch walked with Him, and Moses
communed with Him face to face. He is as willing to be a living, bright,
glorious Reality to us as to them. But the fault is with us. Our eyes are
unanointed because our hearts are not right. The pure in heart still see
God, and to those who love Him, and do His commandments, He still manifests
Himself as He does not to the world. Let us cease to blame our times; let
us blame ourselves. We are degenerate, not they.
What,
then, is that temper of soul which most readily perceives the presence
and nearness of God?
Let us endeavor to learn the blessed secret of abiding ever in the secret
of His Presence and of being hidden in His Pavilion (Ps. xxxi:20).
Remember,
then, at the outset, that neither thou, nor any of our race, can have that
glad consciousness of the Presence of God except through Jesus.
None knoweth the Father but the Son and those to whom the Son reveals Him;
and none cometh to the Father but by Him. Apart from Jesus the Presence
of God is an object of terror, from which devils hide themselves in hell,
and sinners weave aprons, or hide among the trees. But in Him all barriers
are broken down, all veils rent, all clouds dispersed, and the weakest
believer may live, where Moses sojourned, in the midst of the fire, before
whose consuming flames no impurity can stand.
"What
part of the Lord's work is most closely connected with this blessed sense
of the Presence of God? "
It
is through the blood of His cross that sinners are made nigh. In His death
He not only revealed the tender love of God, but put away our sins, and
wove for us those garments of stainless beauty, in which we are gladly
welcomed into the inner Presence?chamber of the King. Remember it is said,
"I will commune with thee from off the mercy-seat." That golden slab on
which Aaron sprinkled blood whenever he entered the most Holy Place was
a type of Jesus. He is the true mercy?seat. And it is when thou enterest
into deepest fellowship with Him in His death, and livest most constantly
in the spirit of His memorial supper, that thou shall realize most deeply
His nearness. Now, as at Emmaus, He loves to make Himself known in the
breaking of bread.
And
is this all? for I have heard this many times, and still fail to live in
the secret place as I would."
Exactly
so; and therefore, to do for us what no effort of ours could do, our Lord
has received of His Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, that He should
bring into our hearts the very Presence of God. Understand that since thou
art Christ's, the blessed Comforter is thine. He is within thee as He was
within thy Lord, and in proportion as thou dost live in the Spirit, and
walk in the spirit, and open thine entire nature to Him, thou wilt find
thyself becoming His Presence?chamber, irradiated with the light of His
glory. And as thou dost realize that He is in thee, thou shalt realize
that thou art ever in Him. Thus the beloved Apostle wrote, "Hereby know
we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His
Spirit."
"All
this I know, and yet I fall to realize this marvellous fact of the indwelling
of the Spirit in me; how then can I ever realize my indwelling in Him?"
It
is because thy life is so hurried. Thou dost not take time enough for meditation
and prayer. The Spirit of God within thee and the Presence of God without
thee cannot be discerned whilst the senses are occupied with pleasure,
or the pulse beats quickly, or the brain is filled with the tread of many
hurrying thoughts. It is when water stands that it becomes pellucid, and
reveals the pebbly beach below. Be still, and know that God is within thee
and around! In the hush of the soul the unseen becomes visible, and the
eternal real. The eye dazzled by the sun cannot detect the beauties of
its pavilion till it has had time to rid itself of the glare. Let no day
pass without its season of silent waiting before God.
"Are
there any other conditions which I should fulfil, so that I may abide in
the secret of His Presence?
Be
pure in heart. Every
permitted sin encrusts the windows of the soul with thicker layers of grime,
obscuring the vision of God. But every victory over impurity and selfishness
clears the spiritual vision, and there fall from the eyes, as it had been,
scales. In the power of the Holy Ghost deny self, give no quarter to sin,
resist the devil, and thou shalt see God.
The
unholy soul could not see God even though it were set down in the midst
of heaven. But holy souls see God amid the ordinary commonplaces of earth,
and find everywhere an open vision. Such could not be nearer God though
they stood by the sea of glass. Their only advantage there would be that
the veil of their mortal and sinful natures having been rent, the vision
would be directer and more perfect.
Keep
His commandments.
Let there be not one jot or tittle unrecognized and unkept. He that
hath My commandments and keepeth Them, he it is that loveth Me, and he
that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest Myself to him. Moses the faithful servant was also the seer,
and spake with God face to face as a man speaketh with his friend.
Continue
in the spirit of prayer.
Sometimes the vision will tarry to test the earnestness and steadfastness
of thy desire. At other times it will come as the dawn steals over the
sky, and, or ever thou art aware, thou wilt find thyself conscious that
He is near. He was ever wont to glide, unheralded, into the midst of His
disciples through unopened doors. "Thy footsteps are not known."
At
such times we may truly say with St. Bernard: "He entered not by the eyes,
for His presence was not marked by color; nor by the ears, for there was
no sound; nor by the breath, for He mingled not with the air; nor by the
touch, for He was impalpable. You ask, then, how I knew that He was present.
Because He was a quickening power. As soon as He entered, He awoke my slumbering
soul. He moved and pierced my heart, which before was strange, stony, hard
and sick, so that my soul could bless the Lord, and all that is within
me praised His Holy Name.
Cultivate
the habit of speaking aloud to God.
Not perhaps always, because our desires are often too sacred or deep to
be put into words. But it is well to acquire the habit of speaking to God
as to a present friend whilst sitting in the house or walking by the way.
Seek the habit of talking things over with God;
thy letters, thy plans, thy hopes, thy mistakes, thy sorrows and sins.
Things look very differently when brought into the calm light of His presence.
One cannot talk long with God aloud without feeling that He is near.
Meditate
much upon the word.
This is the garden where the Lord God walks, the temple where He dwells,
the presence?chamber where He holds court, and is found by those who seek
Him. It is through the word that we feed upon the Word. And He said, "He
that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him."
Be
diligent in Christian work.
The place of prayer is indeed the place of His manifested presence, but
that presence would fade from it were we to linger there after the bell
of duty had rung for us below. We shall ever meet it as we go about our
necessary work: "Thou meetest him that worketh righteousness." As we go
forth to our daily tasks the angel of His presence comes to greet us, and
turns to go at our side. "Go ye," said the Master; "Lo, I am with you all
the days." Not only in temple courts, or in sequestered glens, or in sick
rooms, but in the round of daily duty, in the common places of life, on
the dead levels of existence, we may be ever in the secret of His presence,
and shall be able to say with Elijah before Ahab, and Gabriel to Zecharias,
"I stand in the presence of God " (I Kings xvii:1; Luke i:19).
Cultivate
the habit of recognizing the Presence of God.
"Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee,
that he may dwell in Thy courts." There is no life like this. To feel that
God is with us; that He never leads us through a place too narrow for Him
to pass as well; that we can never be lonely again, never for a single
moment; that we are beset by Him behind and before, and covered by His
hand; that He could not be nearer to us, even if we were in heaven itself.
To have Him as Friend, and Referee, and Counsellor, and Guide. To realize
that there is never to be a Jericho in our lives without the presence of
the Captain of the Lord's host, with those invisible but mighty legions,
before whose charge all walls must fall down. What wonder that the saints
of old waxed valiant in fight as they heard Him say, "I am with thee; I
will never leave nor forsake thee."
Begone
fear and sorrow and dread of the dark valley! "Thou shalt hide me in the
secret of Thy presence from the pride of man; Thou shalt keep me secretly
in a pavilion from the strife of tongues."
CHAPTER IX.
THE FULNESS OF THE SPIRIT.
"Be Filled with the Spirit."
Ephesians v:18.
Nothing
can compensate the Church, or the individual Christian, for the lack of
the Holy Spirit. What the full stream is to the mill?wheel, that the Holy
Spirit is to the Church. What the principle of life is to the body, that
the Holy Spirit is to the individual. We shall stand powerless and abashed
in the presence of our difficulties and our foes until we learn what He
can be, as a mighty tide of love and power in the hearts of His saints.
Amongst
the readers of these lines there may be many who are suffering from different
forms of spiritual weakness, all of which are directly attributable to
the lack of the Holy Spirit. Not that they are completely destitute of
Him, for if they were, they would not be Christians at all; but that, being
within them, He is present only as an attenuated thread, a silver streak,
a shallow brook. Why should we be content with this? The Pentecostal fulness,
the enduement of power, the baptism of fire, are all within our reach.
Let us be inspired with a holy ambition to get all that our God is willing
to bestow.
It
is not difficult to point this contrast by analogies drawn from the Word
of God. May we not reverently say that the ministry of our blessed Lord
Himself owed much of its marvelous power to that moment when, although
filled with the Holy Spirit from His birth, He was afresh anointed at the
waters of baptism? With marked emphasis it was said he was filled with
the Spirit (Luke iv:1), and returned in the power of the Spirit unto Galilee
(ver. 14), and stood up in the synagogue of His native town, claiming the
ancient prophecy, and declaring that the Spirit of God was upon Him (ver.
18). His wondrous words and works are directly traced to the marvelous
operation of the Holy Ghost upon His human life (Acts x:38).
Do
you lack assurance? Sometimes you do not, for you feel happy and
content. But anon these happy hours are fled, and your rest is broken,
as the surface of the mountain tarn is overcast and ruffled by the gathering
storm. You need a basis of settled peace, and it is only to be found, first,
in a clear apprehension of what Jesus has done for you; secondly, in the
sealing of the Holy Spirit. It is His sacred office to witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God. He is the Spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father!
Do
you lack victory over sin? This is not to be wondered at, if you
neglect the Holy Spirit. He is the blessed antidote to the risings and
dominion of the flesh. He lusts against the flesh, so that we may not fulfil
its lusts. When He fills the heart in His glorious fulness, the suggestions
of temptation are instantly quenched, as sparks in the ocean wave. Sin
can no more stand against the presence of the Holy Ghost than darkness
can resist the gentle, all-pervasive beams of morning light.
If,
however, He Is grieved, or resisted, or quenched, so that His power and
presence are restrained, there is no deliverance for the spirit, however
bitter its remorse, or eager its resort to fastings, mortification and
regrets. The law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus can alone
make us free from the law of sin and death. But it can, and it will, if
we only yield ourselves to its operation.
Do
you lack the fruits of holiness? Some whom we know are so evidently
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are the praise of God, that
we are instinctively drawn to them. Their faces are bright with the presence
of the Lord, though they drink of the cup of His sorrows. Their spirit
is tender; their disposition sweet and unselfish, and their childlike humility
flings the halo of indescribable beauty over their whole behavior. We lack
these graces. There is little in us to attract men to Christ; much to repel.
Our boughs are naked and bare, as if locusts had stripped them. And the
reason is evident. We have not let the Holy Spirit have HIS way with our
inner life. Had the sap of His presence been mightily within us, we should
have been laden with luscious fruitage; it would have been impossible to
be otherwise.
Do
you lack power for service? You have no burning thirst for the salvation
of others. You are not on fire for souls. You have never been in agony
over the alienation of men from God. And when you speak, there is no power
in what you say. The devils laugh at your attempts to exorcise them. The
sleeper turns for a moment uneasily, but soon falls into profounder slumber
than ever. The home, the class, the congregation, yield no results. No
hand-picked fruit fills your basket. No finny shoal breaks your nets. No
recruits accept your call to arms. And you cannot expect it to be otherwise
till you obtain the power which our Lord promised when He said: "Ye shall
receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you." It was when the early
Christians were filled with the Holy Ghost that they spake the word of
God with boldness, and gave witness with great power to the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus.
These
and many other deficiencies would be met, if only we were filled with the
Holy Spirit. There would be a joy, a power, a consciousness of the Lord
Jesus, an habitual rest in the will of God, which would be a joyful discovery
to us; if only we refused to be satisfied with anything less than the full
indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Mr.
Spurgeon said once that he never passed a single quarter of an hour in
his waking moments without a distinct consciousness of the presence of
the Lord. When the Spirit fills the heart, Jesus is vividly real and evidently
near. What is He to you? Do you awake in the morning beneath His light
touch and spend the hours with Him? Can you frequently look up from your
work and perceive His face? Are you constantly seeking from Him power,
grace, direction? If He is but a fitful vision, you have not realized the
first mark of the Pentecostal gift.
Entire
consecration to the service of the Lord Jesus is a great step in advance
of the experience of most Christians; but even that is not enough. It is
often largely negative; but we require something strongly positive,
to meet the necessities of our hearts and of our times. And this is to
be sought in our entire possession by that mighty Spirit whose advent at
Pentecost has dated a new era for the Church and the world.
Of
course He was always in the world. It was the Holy Spirit Of Pentecost
who brooded over chaos, and spoke in prophets and holy men, and nerved
the heroes and saints of the Old Testament time. The day of Pentecost did
not introduce a new Spirit into the world, but it inaugurated an era in
which the weakest and meanest of the saints might possess Him in the same
measure as they did who lived upon its farther side. Before that momentous
day His fulness was the prerogative of only the few, the elite,
the Elijahs, and Isaiahs and Daniels, but since that day He has been shed
forth in all His plenitude on the many; on women and children; on
obscure thinkers and hidden workers; on hand-maids and servants; on all
and any who were prepared to fulfil the conditions and to abide by the
results. Why not on us?
We
are willing to admit that the special gifts of the Holy Ghost belong to
the Apostolic age. Given for a special purpose, they are now withdrawn;
though it Is a serious question whether they might not have been continued,
if only the Church had been more faithful to her sacred trust. But the
special gifts of the Holy Ghost are altogether apart from His blessed fulness.
That is not the exclusive right of any age. Confined to no limited era
or epoch in the history of the Church, it pours its tide of light and power
around us, as the Nile in flood; nor is there a single plot or garden-ground,
however remote, into which it will not come, to fertilize and enrich, if
only the channel of communication be kept cleansed and open.
Alas!
that many think that the Almighty, like some bankrupt builder, constructed
the portico of his Church with marble, and has finished it with common
brick!
"Be
filled with the Spirit " is an injunction as wide?reaching in its demands
as "Husbands, love your wives," which is found on the same page. It is
a positive command, which we must obey at our peril, and all God's commands
are enablings. In other words, He is prepared to make us what He tells
us to become. Moreover, on the day of Pentecost, in words which are the
charter of our right to the fulness of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter
told the listening crowds that the fulness which had suddenly come on them
from the ascended Lord, and which was a direct fulfillment of the ancient
prophecy, was not for them only, or for their children; but for as many
as were afar off, even for them whom the Lord God shall call. Are you one
of His called ones? Then rejoice because that fulness is for you! Be not
faithless, but believing! Lay claim at once to the covenanted portion,
and thank God for having cast your lot in an age of such marvelous possibilities.
I. EXCITE HOLY DESIRE
BY CONSIDERING WHAT THE FULNESS OF THE SPIRIT MEANS.
We
cannot expect to have it if we are quite content to live without it. Our
Father is not likely to entrust this priceless gift to those who are indifferent
to its possession. Where the flame of desire burns low there can be no
intelligent expectation that the Holy Spirit's fulness shall be realized.
And
it is not enough to have a fitful and inconstant desire, which flames up
today, but will remain dormant for months and years. There must be a steady
purpose, able to stand the test of waiting (if need be) for ten days, and
to bear the rebuff of silence or apparent denial.
And
yet the flame of desire needs fuel. We must muse before that fire can burn.
And it becomes us, therefore, to stir up the gift that is within us by
a quiet consideration of all that is meant by becoming Spirit-filled.
There
is no book which will so move us in this direction as the Acts of the Apostles.
It is perfectly marvelous to see what this fulness did for those who first
received it. Cowards became brave. Obtuse intellects which had stumbled
at the simplest truths, suddenly awoke to apprehend the Master's scheme.
Bosoms that had heaved with rivalry and suspicion and desire for earthly
power, now thought each better than himself and sought to excel in humble
ministry to the saints. Such power attended their words that crowds became
congregations, Christ's murderers became His worshipers and friends. Councils
of clever men were not able to withstand the simple eloquence of indisputable
facts. Towns and countries were shaken, and yielded converts by the thousand
to the unlearned but fervid preachers of the cross.
All
this was simply attributable to the power which had become the common property
of the whole Church. And there is not a fragment of reason why it should
not do so much for us. And, as we contrast that triumphant success
to our halting progress, shall not we be filled with uncontrolable longings
that He should work similar results by us?
We
may still further secure the same results by studying the biography of
saintly men belonging to recent centuries. Happy the man within reach of
a library, the shelves of which are well lined with books of holy biography!
He will never, never be in want of additional stimulus as he reads the
story of McCheyne and W. C. Burns, of Brainerd and Martyn, of Jonathan
Edwards and others. He will not envy or repine; but he will constantly
lift eye and heart to Heaven, asking that as much may be done through himself.
And
moreover the promises of the Scriptures are enough to incite us to the
uttermost. That rivers of water should flow from us; that we should never
need to be anxious about our words, because they would be given; that we
should be taught all things, and led into the whole circle of truth; that
we should know Christ, and be changed into His image; that we should have
power; all this is so fascinating that it is impossible not to glow with
a holy desire to be charged with the Holy Ghost, as a jar with electricity.
And, if needs be, we shall be prepared to bear the test of long waiting,
as the faithful few did in the upper room.
II. SEEK THIS BLESSED
FULNESS FROM THE RIGHT MOTIVE.
If
you want it that you may realize a certain experience, or attract people
to yourself, or transform some difficulty into a stepping-stone, you are
likely to miss it. You must be set on the one purpose of magnifying the
Lord Jesus in your body, whether by life or death. Ask that all inferior
motives may be destroyed, and that this may burn strong and clear within
you.
God
will not find water for us to use for turning our own water-wheels. He
will do nothing to minister to our pride. He will not give us the Holy
Spirit to enable us to gain celebrity, or to procure a name, or to live
an easy, self?contented life.
If
we seek the Holy Spirit merely for our happiness, or comfort, or liberty
of soul, it will be exceedingly unlikely that He will be given. His one
passion is the glory of the Lord Jesus; and He can only make His
abode with those who are willing to be at one with Him In this. "Can two
walk together except they be agreed?" But if you are actuated simply by
by the desire that the Lord Jesus may be magnified in you, whether by life
or death; if you long, above all, that men should turn away from you to
Him, as they did from John the Baptist, then rejoice, because you are near
blessing beyond words to describe. If your motives fall below this standard,
trust in Him to enlighten and purify them, and offer Him a free entrance
within. It will not then be long ere there shall be a gracious response;
and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, and He
shall sit as a refiner of silver, that the sons of Levi may offer an offering
in righteousness.
III. CONSIDER THAT HOLY
SCRIPTURE IS HIS SPECIAL ORGAN.
A
subtle danger besets the teaching of this most helpful doctrine, and one
that we need to guard against. Some earnest people have magnified the inner
light and leading of the Holy Spirit to the neglect of the Word which He
gave, and through which He still works on human hearts. This is a great
mistake and the prolific parent of all kinds of evil. Directly we put aside
the Word of God, we lay ourselves open to the solicitation of the many
voices that speak within our hearts; and we have no test, no criterion
of truth, no standard of appeal. How can we know the Spirit of God in some
of the more intricate cases which are brought into the court of conscience,
unless our judgment is deeply imbued with the Word of God?
We
must not be content with the Spirit without the Word, or with the Word
without the Spirit. Our life must travel along these two, as the locomotive
along the parallel metals. The word is the chosen organ of the Spirit;
and it is only by our devout contact with it that we shall be enabled to
detect His voice. It is by the Word that the Spirit will enter our hearts,
as the heat of the sun passes into our chambers with the beams of light
that enter the open casement.
We
need a widespread revival of Bible study. These mines of Scripture, lying
beneath the surface, call loudly for investigation and discovery; and those
who shall obey the appeal, and set themselves to the devout and laborious
study of the inner meaning of the Word, shall be soon aware that they have
received the filling that they seek.
There
is no such way of communing with God as to walk to and fro in your room
or in the open air, your Bible in hand, meditating on it and turning its
precepts and promises into prayer. God walks in the glades of Scripture,
as of old in those of Paradise.
IV. BE PREPARED TO LET
THE HOLY GHOST DO AS HE WILL WITH YOU.
The
Holy Ghost is in us, and by this means Christ is in us; for He dwells in
us by the Spirit, as the sun dwells in the world by means of the atmosphere
vibrating with waves of light. But we must perpetually yield to Him,
as water to the containing vessel. This is not easy; indeed, it can
only be accomplished by incessant self-judgment, and the perpetual mortification
of our own self?life.
What
is our position before God in this respect? We have chosen Jesus as our
substitute; but have we also chosen Him by the Holy Spirit as our Life?
Can we say, like the Apostle: "Not I, but Christ liveth in me"?
If so, we must be prepared for all that it involves. We must be willing
for the principle of the new life to grow at the expense of the self-life.
We must consent for the one to increase, while the other decreases, through
processes which are painful enough to the flesh. Nay, we must ourselves
be ever on the alert, hastening the processes of judgment, condemnation
and crucifixion. We must keep true in our allegiance to the least behest
of the Holy Spirit, though it cost tears of blood.
The
perpetual filling of the Holy Spirit is only possible to those who obey
Him, and who obey Him in all things. There is nothing trivial in
this life. By the neglect of slight commands, a soul may speedily get out
of the sunlit circle and lose the gracious plentitude of Spirit-power.A
look, a word, a refusal, may suffice to grieve Him in ourselves, and to
quench him in others. Count the cost; yet do not shrink back afraid of
what He may demand. He is the Spirit of love; and He loves us too well
to cause grief, unless there is a reason, which we should approve, if we
knew as much as He.
V. RECEIVE HIM BY FAITH.
"As
ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Faith is the
one law of the Divine household. And as once you obtained forgiveness and
salvation by faith, so now claim and receive the Holy Spirit's fulness.
Fulfil
the conditions already named; wait quietly but definitely before God in
prayer, for He gives His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him: then
reverently appropriate this glorious gift, and rise from your knees and
go on your way, reckoning that God has kept His word, and that you are
filled with the Spirit. Trust Him day by day to fill you and keep you filled.
According to your faith, so shall it be done to you.
There
may not be at first the sound of rushing wind, or the coronet of fire,
or the sensible feeling of His presence. Do not look for these, any more
than the young convert should look to feeling as an evidence of acceptance.
But believe, in spite of feeling, that you are filled. Say over
and over, "I thank Thee, 0 my God, that Thou hast kept Thy word with
me. I opened my mouth, and Thou hast filled it; though as yet, I am not
aware of any special change." And the feeling will sooner or later
break in upon your consciousness, and you will rejoice with exceeding great
joy; and all the fruits of the Spirit will begin to show themselves.
VI. BUT REMEMBER IT
IS NOT ENOUGH TO BE FILLED ONCE FOR ALL.
Like
the Apostles of old, we must seek perpetual refillings. They who were filled
in the second chapter of Acts were filled again in the fourth. Happy is
that man who never leaves his chamber in the morning without definitely
seeking and receiving the plenitude of the Spirit! He shall be a proficient
scholar in God's school, for the anointing which he has received, like
fresh oil, shall abide in him, and teach him all things. Above all, he
will be taught the secret of abiding fellowship with Christ, for it is
written, "As it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. "
(1 John ii:27.)
Whenever
you are conscious of leakage, when the exhaustion of service has been greater
than the reception of fresh supplies, when some new avenue of ministry,
or freshly discovered talent, or new department of your being has presented
itself, go again to the same source for a refilling, a recharging with
spiritual power, a re-anointing by the holy chrism.
Three
tenses are used in the Acts of the Apostles of the filling of the Spirit,
which have their counterparts still:
Filled:
a sudden decisive experience for a specific work (Acts iv:8).
Were
being filled: the
imperfect tense, as though the blessed process were always going on (Acts
xiii:52).
Full:
the adjective, indicating the perpetual experience (Acts vi:8).
There
is, of course, more in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit than is at all realized
by the writer of these feeble lines. The fiery baptism of the Holy Spirit
may be something far beyond. Let us not then be content to miss anything
possible to redeemed men; but, leaving the things that are behind, let
us press on to those before, striving to apprehend all for which we have
been apprehended by Christ Jesus.
at Calvin College. Last updated on May 27, 1999. Contacting the CCEL. |