14 - Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV.
Final Words of Counsel. The earnest desire of the writer, that this treatise should be helpful, especially to such as in laying down the book shall take up the purpose, to start forthwith for the King’s highway of holiness, with intent to walk thereon, even to the City of God, leads him to add an additional chapter of more specific directions pointing out the way. To men and women of this class he would say.
1st. Let it be a settled sentiment with you, that there is such a highway of holiness, cast up by the Lord, on which the ransomed of the Lord may return and come to Zion a Baptism of the Holy Ghost powerful and Pentecostal an establishment in holy living, not subject to the interruptions and vacillations, which usually characterize the first stages of Christian life.
2d. That this privilege of walking on the King’s High-Way is offered to you personally; as much so, as if your individual name were attached to the promises relating thereto. "Ho! every one that thirsts come ye to the waters! And lie that hath no money come! buy wine and milk without money and without price!" "On that last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink! And he that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given." This Special Gift, the Pentecostal Baptism, is offered to any man who thirsts. It is offered in abundance in rivers!" It is offered to you no matter what your circumstances or history.
3d. The difficulties in the way of the attainment of this gift of grace, are far from being insuperable. God longs to put us all in possession of it. He has cast up a high way to it. Relays of help are at every point of need. The blind need not miss the road, nor the lame stumble upon it. It will grieve the Father if any of us miss it, and the Saviour will weep over our failure, as once he wept over Jerusalem, saying, Oh! Jerusalem, Jerusalem! And the Holy Spirit too will be grieved if we will not let Him lead us there. We shall all admit this, and the admission involves the assurance that the terms of acquisition must be compliable and reasonable; as reasonable as infinite wisdom and love could make them. The yoke must be easy and the burden light.
There is an easy way and a hard way of doing duty. The easy way is the way of faith, where distrusting ourselves., we look to God for help and lean on His strong arm. It is then and then only, that we run and are not weary, and walk and not faint. What multitudes testify to this! " For what the low could not do in that it was weak through the flesh " this the Son of God enables us to do, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. " The hard way on the other hand, is that in which we strive to walk alone, and stumble at every step! Giving ourselves credit for the grace of humility, we think ourselves unworthy that the Lord should come to our aid where we are! No! But we must hobble on and on, till we reach a place over yonder, when we hope to meet the host of God, and be escorted by it into the land of Beulah! Alas! What a mistake! Seeker of salvation, you need help to begin! To take the first step! “Without Me you can do nothing. " But you can do all things through Christ who strengthened you! The easy way then is to lift up your hand to God where you are and cry, " Lord help me to get up, and help me walk, and lead me on forever more!" And if you will give a decent credit to His infinite generosity and interest in you if you will believe and follow His direction, He will guide you step by step and make your life a joy and triumph! Three things only are needful, consecration, faith, and the help of One Mighty to save!
4th. It need not take a long time to gain this holy Baptism. We are well aware that many who have obtained this anointing and whose experiences have been published, have told us of the long and tedious road they traveled, before they reached the promised land. It reminds us of Israel’s tortuous journeying and of the forty years in the wilderness. We are convinced that the idea thence imparted, that such delay and long seeking is necessary is misleading. Bible examples, it is safer to follow and they show a shorter road. The longest examples of seeking the Bible gives, is that of the Apostles, in the ten days prayer meeting. With Saul of Tarsus there were evidently only three days before he received his sight and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Then he began his life work boldly preaching Christ in the Synagogues of Damascus. Short was the introduction of the Samaritan Christians, the gentile Cornelius, and those of Ephesus and elsewhere into the fullness of baptismal influences and gracious gifts. An eminent Theologian, a man of great abilities and learning, and a personal friend of the writer, makes a sad mistake, we think, when he writes as follows :
“Those who have attained a sudden enlargement and elevation of soul, often undertake to give instructions by which others may be saved the long conflict which they endured, and be enabled to enter at once upon the blessedness of victory, as if there were some short cut for the pilgrim to the Delectable Mountains, without his passing through the Slough of Despond and the Valley of Humiliation. " We take direct issue with our friend, and deny that there is any necessity for Christians getting into the slough of despond floundering there and sadly besmirching their garments and person! By “Slough of Despond, " is meant a state of discouragement, unbelief and semi-despair, like that of unbelieving Israel, when they murmured against God and said, " We are not able to go up and possess the Land! " That was Israel’s Slough of Despond. But it was recorded not for our imitation, but for our warning, to bid us beware of getting into it. To teach us how senseless it is and how wicked! Indeed we affirm, there is no need of it. It is unwarranted and forbidden by the Mighty Leader, who has taken us by the hand, saying, "Fear not for I am with thee! be not dismayed, for I am thy God! " "Be strong and of good courage! Be not dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest! " We don’t believe Bunyan intended to teach by this figure what ought to be, or must be, but only what often is, on account of our sinful weakness and unbelief. But if he did mean that we ought to go through the slough and must, we take issue with him and declare that, from the beginning of the Bible to the end, there is not one intimation that in seeking the kingdom of God and its highest gifts and blessings, we must pass through a period of doubt, discouragement, despondency a slough of despond and almost hopeless despair! No! No! A decent faith in God will lead us clear of it and through a shorter cut into the delectable mountains! Sloughs of despond are hateful places. God don’t want us to go there or get into them. The devil does. Who goes there takes, like Israel, the long road and the wrong one. Like Israel at Barnea, one day of travel in faith and Holy courage will carry us over the border, quite within sight of Bashan and Pisgah. But who are so well qualified to give an opinion regarding the short or longer routes as those who have been over them, took the longer way and now see the mistakes they made? Surely there was a shorter cut for Israel, than that they actually took up into Canaan. They might have gone up by the way Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt, or by some other route west of it through the Philistine country. They ought to have taken one of them. It would not have taken them more than ten days of travel. A. miserable want of courage and a wicked unbelief alone made it necessary for them to take the long route. Hear what God says, "And it came to pass, that when Pharaoh let the people go, that God led them not through the way of Philistines though that was near, for God said, "Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war and return to Egypt!" Sa also after they had crossed an arm of the Red Sea, they might then in one short year, have gone to Sinai and received the law, made the journey back, and have gone up into Canaan over its south-east border. And when they came to Kadesh-Barnea on the border of the Holy Land, the short cut or march of one day, would have carried them within the sacred enclosure. But they took it not! They were cowards. They had no faith. And though urged and entreated by Joshua, Caleb, Moses and the Lord to take the short cut, they would not but turned back into the hateful desert, and floundered about in its sloughs of despond for forty years. Teacher of Theology don’t tell us we must follow that bad example! There is surely a shorter road. At our very door stands the Holy Sanctifier, saying so affectionately, " Behold I stand at the door and knock! If any man hear my voice and will open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with Me. " This idea of a long waiting before we may hope to have the joyful reign of God within is like the long since exploded teaching that the sinner must go through a long period of penitent seeking, conviction and almost despair before God would receive him! Neither of them find their warrant in Bible promises or examples. On the contrary we can’t come too quickly to our Father’s arms. Every moment we stay away will grieve Him. Surely there is a short cut to a place of safety and of help. Now is the accepted time! To-day is the day of Salvation! "
5th. Seek not after a sign. Jesus condemned the Jews for doing so, And the Spirit has frowned upon many a one since for the same thing. What we mean is this, when you have consecrated yourself to God and all you have, carefully, deliberately and as best you know how to do, and have asked Him to put you in any place and set you at any work He sees fit, and have .asked the Holy Spirit now to come and take full possession and direction, then take it home to your heart as an accepted fact, that He has accepted the offering and will from this moment, lead you forward in the wisest path. Believe it not on account of any special feeling. But because of His love and his word. In after life, you will often ask for help and go forward in the discharge of duty, with no special feeling indicating God’s approval. You might as well begin in this way, relying on the naked word of God and your conscious consecration of all to Him. Should the question arise whether you have really laid all on God’s Altar, you can quietly ask the Spirit to show what is withheld, ’that you may bring it also, and you may rest assured he will do so. For it cannot be that He will allow one to be deceived on a point so important, who comes to Him for light. So would not a loving parent do. Paul says, " If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you. "
6th. After the consecration and the appropriating faith, there often comes a brief period of testing the thoroughness of the choice we have made. Don’t be alarmed. "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as if some strange thing had happened to you, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren in the world." Rather receive it as a token that God has heard your prayer and has come to ratify the covenant with you. When God would exalt Abram, and give him the new name of Abraham, he led him through the test of offering up his only son!
7th. Having entered upon, the high road to holiness and victory, in your upward reaching after still larger endowments and power, do not forget to render thanks to God continually, for the gifts already received. There will remain behind, the great blessings of forgiveness of a life of sin, find deliverance from Satan’s power. Whatever else you lack or think you lack, never cease to thank God for these. The best preparation for future blessings, is an appreciation and thankfulness for those already granted.
8th. Do not fail on all suitable occasions to confess what the Lord has done for your soul. Such confession is at once due to God will be helpful to others and give you great boldness in the faith.
We know not how more fittingly to close this appeal for higher and holier living in our ministry and Churches, than by citing two passages of Scripture; one from Isaiah and one from a discourse of our Savior: "And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it : but it shall be for those; the way-faring men though fools shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." Isaiah 35:8, Isaiah 35:10.
"In that last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried: If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink! He that believeth on me, as the Sci ipture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified." John 7:37, John 7:40.
Holy Spirit! faithful guide, ever near the Christian’s side,
Gently lead us by the hand, pilgrims in a desert land;; , Whispering softly wanderer come, follow Me, I’ll guide thee home, Weary souls, fore’er rejoice, while they hear thy sweetest voice .
Ever present, truest friend! ever near thine aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear, groping on in darkness drear; When the storms are raging sore, hearts grow faint and hopes give o’er, Whispering softly, wanderer come, follow Me, I’ll guide thee home. When the days of life shall cease, waiting still for sweet release, Nothing left but heaven and prayer, wondering if our name is there;
Wading deep the dismal flood, pleading nought but Jesus’ blood,
Whispering softly, wanderer come, follow Me, I’ll guide thee home. A CLOSING PKAYER.
Before we part will the reader unite with the writer in the following prayer?
Heavenly Father! in laying down this book, we look upward to Thee and ask, that if on its pages there is a message from the Lord for us, that we may not fail to hear and heed it. If in the exceeding great and precious promises of Thy word, there are measures of Grace and Gospel gifts not yet properly sought by us, and therefore not received, help us without delay to rise up and take possession if before each of us there are great possibilities of usefulness. If from us may flow rivers of living water, suffer us not to rest content, till the possibility has become an actuality, and the promise of Jesus is in our case fulfilled. We mourn our unfruitfullness, and that we have wrought so small deliverance in the earth. Pass over the barren past, we pray Thee, and in mercy forgive. Touch our hearts, Thou gentle Spirit, and create a hunger there, that shall grow more and more intense, till Thou shalt enter them with Pentecostal gifts, and fill us with all the fullness of God! Enlarge our vision of Thy plan of Grace. Increase our faith, till like Elisha after he had received the double portion, we shall see the mountains around us, full of horses and chariots of fire, sent, to help and defend us, from the Lord of Hosts. In the Great Redeemer’s name.
Amen and Amen. THE END.