01.02. The Fountain of Inward Recollections, of love
THE FOUNTAIN OF INWARD RECOLLECTIONS
“As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” There is the Fountain of Inward Recollections, from which we enjoy to drink. As we do, we proclaim, “We have tasted and the Lord is gracious.” In this life in Christ we live moment by moment in him. In a life detached from the worldly things and worldly pleasure we find in him all that is desired. Our recollections of him may be expressed as the song of his lover, “Yea, He is altogether lovely.” Yes, “He is all desires.” He is all that we ever needed, and satisfies the thirsty soul.
“All my life long I had panted, For a draught from some cool spring; That I hoped would quench the burning Of the thirst I felt within. But Hallelujah! I have found him, Whom my soul so long had craved, Jesus satisfies my longing Through his blood I now am saved.”
Inner recollections of his presence, oh! how sweet! We bow at his pierced feet; we are satisfied in his presence. Certainly he is the I AM of our life: the Alpha, the Omega, the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley, the Bread of Life, the Living Fountain. His name is Wonderful! The recollections of His love stagger our thinking Such love is too wonderful for us! We love to cultivate His acquaintance, listen to the whispers of His love, and learn of His blessed will. May we commune as friend and friend. Let us sing with the writer:
“Oh! I have found him, That crystal fountain, Where all my life’s deep needs Have been supplied; So freely flowing, From Calvary’s Mountain, And now my soul is fully satisfied.” THE FOUNTAIN OF FAITH The thirsting for the fullness of God is the normal desire for every truly saved Christian. The thirsting for a pure heart is a true index to one’s spiritual state. The daughter of Caleb already had been given a portion of Canaan, but she was not satisfied with the dry southland, so requested “Give me also the springs of water” He gave her the upper springs and the nether springs. Dear Christian, have you drunk from the upper and nether springs of God? To the fountain of Faith of which we partook when we were saved, we come often to drink in the life of holiness. It is a life of faith. The experience of entire sanctification, has also been designated as Perfect Love, and again Full Assurance of Faith. Perfect Love involves also perfect faith. Faith and love are concurrent, and are always aligned to bring the soul into all the fullness of God. Faith advances to receive the promises; love is by its side. Little faith; little love. Much faith and love abounds. Believe Him with a vigorous faith and you will love Him fervently. Trust Him, refusing to doubt, and you will love Him unwaveringly. The holy life is a life of perfect love, and also of perfect faith. There is a large distinction between the life governed by faith, and a life which is directed and governed by desire. Without argument, we may say that the sinner lives for and in his desires. They constitute his life, his labors, time and advances. He runs thither and yon to reach satisfaction, totally unaware that “All is vanity apart from God.” We know that some unregenerated persons are more noble and pure in desire than others, but all are moved into action by the prominence of desire. To a certain extent this is true of carnal believers. Their sins are pardoned. They are newborn— hence the desires are elevated. They no longer look to the world for satisfaction, yet they live chiefly in their desires. The natural and legitimate desire for life, health and happiness, overrules the life of faith. There is an immense disproportion between their desires and their faith. Even when desire is based on things good and right this is true. The temporal blessings are sought, without faith in God. Did not He say He would supply all our needs, according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus? The regenerate will desire spiritual help and blessings for themselves, their family, neighbors, friends, or for the church, and also desire the salvation of the lost, but do not live a life of faith that is necessary for the bestowal of these blessings. The carnal believer’s desire attaches itself mostly to created things — to the creature. The life of perfect faith has its center in God, and anchors itself in him. Within the heart of the unsanctified desire is restless, eager and unsatisfied; but in the heart of the sanctified, faith is quiet, contented and calm. Desire is full of effort, restlessness, and impetuosity. Faith looks wholly to Jesus and whispers, “My soul is satisfied.” Dear reader, I beseech you, seek this wonderful, cleansing baptism and you will learn the distinction between a life of desire and a life of faith. Look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Desire has found its fulfillment in a yielded trusting faith.
“So precious is Jesus my Savior and King, His praise all the day long with rapture I sing, To him in my weakness for strength I can cling, For He is so precious to me.”
Yet we find something even greater and more precious than a union with God by faith, and this is a union with him by love. Faith is indispensable to love; it is also subordinate to it. Charity is the ultimate; it emanates from God for God is love. Therefore all Godlike love has its source in him. This love is shed abroad in our hearts through divine grace by the Holy Ghost. Love, beyond the human, flows from the fountain head, God himself. Oh! dear heart, drink in and be full; you will find your completeness. Let the spirit of God pour into your soul and love will be in you and shall flow from you in rivers of living water. “Be ye also enlarged”, wrote the Apostle. May our capacities be enlarged for the infilling of more love. Never can we, the finite, measure in quantity to the infinite, but the same quality may be ours. God’s love flows forth from his infinite heart to express the nature of holiness, to do good to all creatures. The burning fervent heart of the sanctified expresses love to God himself with a desire to glorify him, and also to point the lost to the Christ of Calvary — the bread of heaven, the balm in Gilead, the living water of life. Oh Spring of Heaven, you have called us to the waters. Let us be full, complete, without sham, or alloy. Thou art “all desires,” thou art the author of faith, thou art love. One that drinks from the Fountain of Faith, knows also the sweet waters of love. Christ is foremost in thought and action. He is our life. As the fountains of living water are sweet to the soul, the bitter waters of sin are nauseating. Faith and Love are always opposed to sin. Perfect faith has the strongest abhorrence of sin. Perfect love detests even the appearance of evil. Fools make mock of sin. Faith forms a battleline against every form of evil. Faith finds the strength to be an overcomer of temptation. While it is Christ who succors and delivers in temptation, the will of the sanctified is in perfect harmony with the Holy nature of Jesus. The modern conception of a holy life, admixed with sin, worldliness, and carnal promptings and actions is not only unscriptural, but opposed to God and his holiness. In him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. When we drink at the fount of Faith, we do not seek for special signs, extraordinary manifestations or any other sensational phenomena. For we are strongly warned by our Savior that we are not to seek for signs. He classified those who do as wicked. We are assured if the Spirit wills to reveal truths by visions or dreams, or by other means, that is his prerogative, but generally those who live an inner life of holiness do not claim these sensational experiences. Is not the Lord himself, the revelation of the Spirit upon an enlightened conscience, the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and the order of teachers, pastors, and evangelists inspired by the Holy Ghost, sufficient for our instruction and guidance? Woe, to the one that transgresses the order that Infinite Wisdom has given for our instruction.
“Faith rests upon the word of God, the promises which are prayed over and appropriated when divinely applied Presumption opens the Bible at random, catches up some phrase wrenched from its context, and hastily applies it without divine authority.” Dr. Harry Jessop. The life of faith is a life of growth and enlargement. The second Epistle of Peter reveals to us that we by faith in the promises are partakers of the divine nature, but we must not or cannot stop here. Faith must grow. Faith must reproduce. “Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness (God likeness); and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The believer who receives the baptism of the Spirit and is purged from his own nature and partakes of the divine, lives by faith and grows in faith. His spiritual vitality increases in direct proportion as his faith increases. Faith increases by exercise. It becomes a holy habit to trust God in all circumstances. The life of Christ weighs every circumstance. and in full trust whispers, “so be it.” His God consciousness is holy rest. If the soul is not resting, it is not believing. He who drinks from him often believes the promises, with thanksgiving accepts the blessings, and in deep trust thanks providence for the trials. There is an inner consciousness of a divine purpose that never errs, and the faithful repeats again, “Not as I will, but thy will be done.” THE FOUNTAIN OF LOVE
All else would be vain and there would be no indwelling life of Christ filling our life, if we failed to drink from the fountain of Love. Love must vitalize every other grace. It flows in all other fountains of living water. None other satisfies without divine love. Its elements must infuse, and give energy to every realm of life, every part of our being — spirit, soul, and body. God is Love. If we drink of him, we drink Love. If we are complete in him, we are complete in love. The quality of love is as Jesus prayed, “The love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them.” The fullness of the Godhead that indwells the soul is love. “And ye are complete in him.” (Colossians 2:10) The saintly John Wesley writes; “The ground of a thousand mistakes, is the not considering deeply that love is the highest gift of God; humble, gentle, patient love; that all visions, revelations, manifestations, whatever, are little things compared to love. It were well you should be thoroughly sensible of this. The heaven of heavens is love. There is nothing higher in religion; there is, in effect, nothing else. If you look for anything but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are getting out of the royal way. And when you are asking others, “Have you received this or that blessing?” if you mean anything but more love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them on the wrong scent. Settle it then in your heart that from the moment God has saved you from all sin, you are to aim at nothing but more of that love described in the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians. You can go no higher than this till you are carried into Abraham’s bosom.” This water of Christ that we drink not only impregnates our being, but flows into all the outflowing life, the rivers of outer holiness. Out from our inner parts shall flow rivers of love. There can never be the outer constraining, living, helping, sacrificing love, without the inner nature of Christ. So we say again, it is not what we naturally are or profess in experience, but what we are when we receive of him by divine grace. Shall we that want to be like Jesus, drink again? There are many Springs of Substitution. Many are the False Fountains. The waters are bitter, not satisfying — poison to the soul. Holy Ghost, lead us from any other than the real! Give us only Jesus. Love is long suffering inwardly, without fanfare, nor does it envy another. It is not proud; self has been dethroned. Christ is all in all. The sanctified has no promptings within to behave unseemly, immodestly, or rudely; is not selfish, but sacrifices for others. The holy in heart is not provoked easily. He disciplines the mind to entertain no evil thoughts. Neither does he have any pleasure in sin, but seeks truth and knowledge of the divine will. How diverse from the sinful heart is this! He beareth all things, believeth all truth, has that blessed hope, which causes him to suffer affliction and endure reproach with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. As we drink again of the Fount of Divine Love, we find this love perfect and expanding, and although satisfying, we thirst for more of Him. He is the infinite object of our devotion. His ability to receive is ever enlarging, and our capacity is ever expanding adoration. Love is perfect an complete yet increases forever. Love is never on parade. Love makes itself of no reputation. It takes the towel of humility and washes the feet of others without partiality. Holiness says, “I must decrease, but he must increase.” “Not I but Christ.” The highest life of holiness is the deepest life of humility. Charity is the immutable anchor of the soul. All else will pass away almost all else will fail, but charity never fails. When this old world quakes in its death throes, the elements burn with fervent heat, and all else has failed, divine love will be as vital, strong and enduring as God himself The story is told of the city of Narvik, Norway in the dark days of World War II. It had taken a terrible pounding by enemy bombers. Destruction, rubble, ruin was the picture of the once beautiful city. The blue harbor was full of wreckage and sunken ships. Debris and oil slicks rode the rippling waves in the calm dawn of the following morning. The Mayor of the city walked the shores, viewed the destruction and desolation through tear filled eyes. What he saw moved him to confirm that the works of man’s hands were perishing and only for a time. He looked across the waters and his eyes lifted to the majestic snowcapped, mountains, sun-kissed by the morning sunrise. His spirits rose and he was heard to proclaim, “But we still have the mountains.” So it is with Love, all else may be taken from us but something eternal burns within the breast, we fall at His pierced feet and whisper, “My Lord and my God.” When time is lost in eternity, and eternity rolls on, that eternal something that constrains us, burns warmer, brighter, and more complete within us. Charity still remains; enlarges, grows into divine glory throughout the ages of ages. As angels look on and marvel, we will lift our voices in praise, “His love is everlasting!” To Him be the glory. Many seek holiness for emotional joy. It is certainly true that joy accompanies a pure life, but to seek for joy for our own sakes is a selfish desire. We should seek to be sanctified because it is His will and we seek holiness for His sake. Love endures all things. Joy is sometimes taken partially from us as we are tried and tested, but love is enduring in trials. Love causes obedience to be active in our most trying temptations. True love is not simply an emotion, but is characterized by strong desire. It is not satisfied with mere infatuation but has a burning desire to do good to its object of adoration When love is directed toward God, it brings all powers into action to promote his glory and do his will. Love to God is not perfect unless we love the souls of all people. Even the least of these must receive of our love. Isaiah marveled at the love of Christ and wrote of him. “A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoking flax he shall not quench.” Our loving Christ never looked upon a soul as worthless. The bruised reed, thought to be unfit for use, was not cast aside. A smoking wick, the obnoxious, was not quenched but trimmed and lighted that it might be of use. So also the sanctified loves, sacrifices, and seeks avenues of service, tries to love as he loved, to lift the load, to bind up the broken hearted, to give sight to the blind, to seek that which is lost. Such was the expression of the compassionate heart of Moses, “O, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold; yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sins; and if not blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” Listen to the Apostle to the Gentiles, “For I wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.” Our love for all His created persons and things will be subordinate to our love for Him, yet will be expressed to all creatures even as He loved. He that has been filled from the Fountain of Love, finds in Christ the center of life. He is not double-minded. He lives in Christ, moves in Christ, and in Christ has his source of life. The life of the pure in heart is not centered in self, nor does it try to revolve around two masters. The Agag of the heart has been slain utterly and Jesus reigns supremely. The Sovereignty of his Lord and Master is never contested. He is King Eternal. He is the Alpha and Omega of his life.
“So precious is Jesus, my Savior and King. His praise all the day long with rapture I sing To him in my weakness for strength I can cling For He is so precious to me.”
—Chas. H. Gabriel
Perhaps as we mention the fountains of water that proceed from our Savior, we find each repetitious, or like virtues evidenced within the soul. Though alike they are not monotonous; though satisfying we thirst for more; though sufficient we desire Him to become our ever increasing strength. Faith, Love, Joy, Peace, and all other characteristics of holiness, originate in the same source — Christ Himself.