======================================================================== WRITINGS OF SAMUEL CHADWICK by Samuel Chadwick ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by Samuel Chadwick, compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 122 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 01.00. The Call To Christian Perfection 2. 01.01. The Accent of Wesley's Teaching 3. 01.02. The Doctrine of Christian Perfection 4. 01.03. The Doctrine of Christian Perfection 5. 01.04. The Essential Element in Christian Perfection 6. 01.05. Christian Perfection as Interpreted By John Wesley 7. 01.06. Christian Perfection in Relation to Sins and Mistakes 8. 01.07. Christian Perfection and Temptation 9. 01.08. Christian perfection: A Second Blessing 10. 01.09. Do the Scriptures Teach a Second Blessing? 11. 01.10. Is Christian Perfection Attainable? 12. 01.11. The Negations of Christian Perfection 13. 01.12. Difficulties About Christian Perfection 14. 01.13. The Prayer For Christian Perfection 15. 02.00. The Call To Holiness 16. 02.01. Introduction 17. 02.02. The Will Of God 18. 02.03. The Act Of God 19. 02.04. the Work Of God 20. 02.05. When Does God Sanctify? 21. 03.00. The Path Of Prayer 22. 03.01. The Sign of Prayer 23. 03.02. What God Thinks About Prayer 24. 03.03. The Way God Answers Prayer 25. 03.04. Learning To Pray 26. 03.05. Personality In Prayer 27. 03.06. Prayer Learned By Praying 28. 03.07. Trained In Prayer 29. 03.08. Praying In Secret 30. 03.09. What Does Our Lord Teach Us As To Prayer? 31. 03.10. The Silent Spaces Of The Soul 32. 03.11. The Hill of The Lord 33. 03.12. Thine Inner Chamber 34. 03.13. The Inner Room And The Closed Door 35. 03.14. Where Shall We Find The Secret Place? 36. 03.15. How Can We Secure The Closed Door? 37. 03.16. The Word Of God In The Holy Presence 38. 03.17. The Word Of God And Prayer 39. 03.18. Aids To Devotion 40. 03.19. The Devotional Use of The Bible 41. 03.20. The Praying Method In The Word 42. 03.21. How To Use The Word In Prayer 43. 03.22. Praying In The Name 44. 03.23. "Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask In My Name" 45. 03.24. "In The Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ" 46. 03.25. "For The Sake of The Name" 47. 03.26. Praying In The Spirit 48. 03.27. The Co-Operation Of The Spirit 49. 03.29. The Fellowship Of The Spirit In Prayer 50. 03.30. The Spirit Helping Our Infirmities 51. 03.31. The Prayer Of The Spirit 52. 03.32. Praying To God Our Father 53. 03.33. Our Father In Heaven 54. 03.34. Pray To The Father Which Is In Secret 55. 03.35. If Ye Call On Him As Father 56. 03.36. In The Glory Of His Father 57. 03.37. The Importunity Of Prayer 58. 03.38. Importunity And Persistance 59. 03.39. Prayer And Supplication 60. 03.40. Striving And Wrestling 61. 03.41. The Paradox Of Prayer 62. 03.42. The Cost Of Prayer 63. 03.43. The Recompense Of Prayer 64. 03.44. The Place Of Revelation 65. 03.45. The Place Of Power 66. 03.46. The Place Of Fellowship 67. 03.47. The Power Of Prayer 68. 03.48. A Mighty Man 69. 03.49. Miracles Of Power 70. 03.50. The Greatest Force On Earth 71. 03.51. An Energized Intercessor 72. 03.52. Praying And The Commonplace 73. 03.53. Prayer And Ordinary Folk 74. 03.54. Prayer And Daily Toil 75. 03.55. The Practical Value Of Prayer 76. 03.56. "Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask" 77. 03.57. The Prayer Of Faith 78. 03.58. The Law Of Faith 79. 03.59. The Law Of Faith In Prayer 80. 03.60. Praying "One For Another" 81. 03.61. The Mystery Of Intercession 82. 03.62. The Intercession In Heaven 83. 03.63. The Intercession Of The Spirit 84. 03.64. The Intercession Of The Secret Place 85. 03.65. Praying For Divine Healing 86. 03.66. The Problem Of Divine Healing 87. 03.67. Witnesses To Divine Healing 88. 03.68. What Saith The Scripture? 89. 03.69. I Believe In Divine Healing 90. 03.70. The Problem Of Unanswered Prayer 91. 03.71. The Problem 92. 03.72. The Prayer Of Moses 93. 03.73. Is It Not Often So? 94. 03.74. The Answer To Unanswered Prayers 95. 04.00. The Way to Pentecost 96. 04.01. Do We Believe in the Holy Ghost? 97. 04.02. The Church Without the Spirit 98. 04.03. The Spirit of Promise 99. 04.04. Pentecost 100. 04.05. The Gift of the Holy Ghost 101. 04.06. The Pentecostal Life 102. 04.07. The Indwelling of the Spirit 103. 04.08. The Communion of the Holy Ghost 104. 04.09. The Spirit of Christ 105. 04.10. The Spirit of Power 106. 04.11. The Spirit of Life 107. 04.12. The Spirit of Truth 108. 04.13. The Spirit of Holiness 109. 04.14. The Spirit of Love 110. 04.15. The Spirit of Fire 111. 04.16. The Fruit of the Spirit 112. 04.17. The Gifts of the Spirit 113. 04.18. The Law of the Spirit 114. 04.19. The Challenge of Pentecost 115. 04.20. The Way Into the Blessing 116. S. Chrisitan Perfection 117. S. Effective Preaching for Reaching the Unchurched Masses 118. S. Practical Pastoral Methods for Bringing In Outsiders 119. S. Quotations 120. S. The Meaning of the Cross 121. S. The Will To Do 122. S. Things! Things! Things! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 01.00. THE CALL TO CHRISTIAN PERFECTION ======================================================================== The Call To Christian Perfection by Samuel Chadwick Samuel Chadwick was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1860. He was converted to Christ at the age of 10 and felt a call to the ministry at the age of 15. He started to preach at the age of 16 and by 21 was a circuit rider for the Methodists. In 1907 he became a tutor at Cliff College, Calver with the hopes that he would return to the mission work he was doing in the south Yorkshire coalfields within five years. However, when the Principal, Thomas Cook, died Chadwick was called to fill the position and he never returned to circuit duties. He became editor of ’Joyful News’ magazine, was elected Chairman of Sheffield District in 1911, President of the Methodist Conference in 1917, and President of the Free Church Council in 1922. He made seven preaching tours of the United States, and visited South Africa in 1916 when he addressed their Conference. He returned to Cliff College in the late 1920’s and went home to Jesus on October 16th, 1932. One famous student of his was Leonard Ravenhill who said he learned how to pray from Chadwick. Text for this module came from ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01.01. THE ACCENT OF WESLEY'S TEACHING ======================================================================== The Accent of Wesley’s Teaching Methodism was born of God in the warmed heart of its founder. It grew with his growth. All its developments have their correspondence in his experience. Membership is based on personal conversion, the ordinances are ordered for the nourishing of the soul, and all things are made subservient to the bringing of men to the knowledge of the truth. John Wesley had no doctrinal eccentricities. To the end he was an orthodox clergyman of the Church of England. He protested that he had always been loyal to both her doctrine and her discipline. He made no new discovery, invented no new theory, denied no dogma. The peculiarity of his teaching lay in its accent. It gave a new emphasis. It proclaimed the old truth with a living voice, spoken out of the depths of a living soul. Academic truth kills; truth vitalized by experience quickens and saves, Wesley preached Christ as he had realized Him in his own soul. The Methodist doctrines of conversion, assurance, and full salvation can be traced to marked crises in his own experience of the saving grace of God. The Methodist peculiarities of fellowship, testimony, and aggression, were all first exemplified in the religious life of the first Methodist. He is the explanation of every essential peculiarity of the great Methodist movement. He anticipated the developments of two hundred years, and every forward movement is discovered to be but a return to first principles. The Democracy of the Kingdom The first distinctive note of his creed was the universality of the gospel of Christ. He who claimed the world for his parish preached a gospel worthy of the claim. Christ died for all; the gates of the eternal kingdom were flung wide for all; the feast of the Father’s house was spread for all. There was no limitation, exemption, or preference. He had heard the voice of God commanding him to go forth everywhere, calling upon all men to turn and live. The secret of his confidence was his own experience of the grace of God. From the moment he himself was accepted, he was debtor to all, and despaired of none. It is difficult for us to realize the startling novelty of such teaching in Wesley’s day. To us it is a commonplace; to the eighteenth century it was a revelation. It was novel as a doctrine, and still more novel as a testimony. The England to which the great revival came was wrapped in dense darkness. Rationalism had quenched the altar fire, and brutality had taken possession of the people. The dissenting Churches were taking their ease after their heroic struggles with principalities and powers. In the zeal for liberty the zeal for souls had suffered loss, and in the reaction it was not regained. If the Established Church was asleep in the dark, the Dissenters were as truly asleep in the light. In both Churches there were some who were awake. Bishop Butler had answered and routed the deists, and in many a sanctuary the candle of the Lord was kept alight. But religion was a thing apart, and its followers were elect and separate from the common ruck of men. Calvinism was the dominant creed, and Calvinism in its baldest form means monopoly, privilege, caste. Wesley fought Calvinism with all his might, and better still, he preached everywhere the gospel of universal love. It brought to men a new conception of God, gave them a new idea of religion, and, not least, it revealed to them the value of manhood in the sight of God. It offered salvation to all on equal terms. It was for the boy in the stable, as much as for the heir in the palace; for the man at the plow as truly as for the man in the pulpit; for the sinner in the gutter, as well as for the saint in the curtained pew. The word startled men into life. Respectable people were shocked beyond measure, for respectability is always ready to imagine itself entitled to a monopoly of heaven’s favor and gifts. Pious people were scandalized that the vulgar and reprobate should be welcomed to the privileges of the Father’s house. Still, they came, and the land was filled with the hallelujahs of converted ruffians who had wept their way back to God. Wesley was the first great evangelist in this country to whom was given the privilege of preaching through the length and breadth of the land this glorious gospel in which there is no restriction, limitation, or reserve. What John preached, Charles sang. The Methodist Hymn-book is the manual of Methodist theology and the expression of Methodist experience. The hymns everywhere strike the note of universality. Listen to this: Come, sinners, to the gospel feast, Let every soul be Jesus’ guest; Ye need not one be left behind, For God hath bidden all mankind. Sent by my Lord, on you I call; The invitation is for all: Come, all the world; come, sinner, thou! All things in Christ are ready now; There is no possibility of mistaking the invitation, and the same note runs through all their songs. They went everywhere, saying to every man: "O let me commend my Saviour to you." Wesley did not give himself to academic discussion, but to the preaching of the Word, and by his persistent testimony he gave the death-blow to the doctrine which limited the possibility of salvation to the favored few. An Assured Salvation Not less conspicuous than the doctrine of universality was Wesley’s teaching of Assurance. Not only might every man be saved, but it was his privilege to be conscious of his acceptance in Christ. This was a prominent feature of Wesley’s own conversion. Here is his own account of it: "In the evening (May 24, 1738) I went very unwillingly to a Society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart, through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." An assurance was given him, and to that assurance he testified openly on the spot. He lived in the enjoyment of an assured acceptance, and preached its privilege to all who would trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation. This also gave great offense and occasion of stumbling, but the Methodists exulted and sang with the gladness of those who know. Some, doubtless, dwelt in a false security, and mistook emotion for divine impression. Here and there the corresponding evidence of righteousness was wanting. In every movement which stirs the soul’s depths there are those who take up professions without conviction, but multitudes rejoiced in the witness of God’s Spirit to their adoption. Wesley fostered their faith, fanned their enthusiasm, and guarded at every point against fanaticism. Those who testified loudly and walked crookedly he mercilessly expelled. On the other hand, he urged all to seek the full assurance of faith, and to make open confession of the same. The converts were gathered into Society Classes, where all spoke frankly of the experience of God in the soul. Love-feasts became great rallying centers, where men and women testified of the wonderful works of God. No wonder they sang! They were children of God and heirs of heaven. Poverty lost its sting in the vision of glory. All distinctions of rank, wealth, and culture disappeared. All were one in Christ. The Methodist people became a brotherhood; a radiant jubilant family of God. The witness of the Spirit is now conceded to be the privilege of sonship by all the evangelical churches, but it was the Wesleys who brought it to the people. Wherever Methodists gathered, it was preached and sung. What was once denounced as presumption is now acknowledged to be the natural right of every child. Surely, if God be Father, it is reasonable to expect that He will assure His children of their parentage. It is the very first thing a child is taught to know. The knowledge is necessary to the child. Uncertainty secures no good purpose, and does much harm. It fills the heart with perplexity, suspicion, and resentment. It destroys filial instinct, and robs sonship of its inspiration, affection, and joy. Instead of keeping the soul humble, it turns it sour. God seeks the love of sons, not the service of slaves. If God speaks of anything to man He must speak of this. His nature demands it, for love must speak; the rights of sonship require it; and so, "Because we are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Galatians 4:6) The Methodists hailed the Spirit’s cry with a glorious shout of praise. Christian Perfection Still more distinctive was Wesley’s teaching of Christian Perfection. Its accent was very marked. He preached it, expounded it, defended it, and insisted upon it continually. It laid him open to scurrilous attack and scandalous misrepresentation, but he never wavered. Its statement was the greatest work of his life, and its literature his unique contribution to the doctrines of the Church. He escaped many perils common to definitions by confining himself to scriptural expressions. Writing on the subject in 1769, he said, "By Christian Perfection I mean -- (1) Loving God with all our heart; (2) A heart and life all devoted to God; (3) Regaining the whole image of God; (4) Having all the mind that was in Christ; (5) Walking uniformly as Christ walked. If anyone means anything more or anything less by perfection, I have no concern with it." He wrote A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, which is to this day unsurpassed, if not unrivaled, as a statement and defense of the doctrine. It is a great testimony to his sanity, caution, and scriptural fidelity that, after a century and a half of Christian progress, nothing has been added, nor has any defect been discovered in his teaching upon the subject. His steady, clear light is still the best guide to the Canaan of perfect love. In this, as m everything else, he was a man of action. He inquired of all his preachers, regularly, whether they had received the gift of perfect love. If their testimony was not very clear the question was followed by another: "Are you groaning after it?" In the Societies it was the same. Everywhere he inquired if believers were living in the enjoyment of entire sanctification. Nothing less was sufficient. Even new converts were urged to seek full salvation, the deliverance from the very presence of inbred sin. He observed that where the blessing was neglected the cause languished. The entire sanctification of believers was followed by the conversion of the ungodly. On this subject the Methodist Hymn-book is the best guide to the doctrine. The hymns classed under the heading, "Seeking for Full Redemption," are probably unique in the hymnology of the Church. They throb with the holiest aspirations of the soul, and pulsate with the indwelling life of God. As Paul’s prayers are the best exposition of his theology, so these Methodist hymns are the best exponents of the Methodist doctrine. Selection is difficult in such profusion, but here is one: O come, and dwell in me, Spirit of power within! And bring the glorious liberty From sorrow, fear and sin. The seed of sin’s disease, Spirit of health, remove, Spirit of finished holiness, Spirit of perfect love. Hasten the joyful day Which shall my sins consume, When old things shall be passed away, And all things new become. The original offense Out of my soul erase; Enter Thyself, and drive it hence, And take up all the place. In those lines is the very kernel of the Methodist conception of scriptural holiness. Here is another: O grant that nothing in my soul May dwell, but Thy pure love alone; O may Thy love possess me whole, My joy, my treasure, and my crown! Strange flames far from my heart remove, My every act, word, thought, be love. This blessing was declared to be the gift of God through faith, and wrought in the soul by the sanctifying spirit of truth. It is not of works, any more than pardon is of works. It is not by striving, any more than peace is by striving. It is preceded by conviction, and received through faith. The act of claiming is set forth in lines familiar to every Methodist: Saviour, to Thee my soul looks up, My present Saviour Thou! In all the confidence of hope, I claim the blessing now. ’Tis done! Thou dost this moment save, With full salvation bless; Redemption through Thy blood I have, And spotless love and peace. This is the scriptural holiness Wesley declared Methodists were raised up to spread through the land. This is the gospel he preached; a gospel of present, free, universal salvation; a gospel of assured acceptance in the love of God; a gospel of complete deliverance from all inward and outward sin; a gospel of grace so perfect, that the whole life is maintained in the will of God. Its accent was in the greatness of man’s need, and the sufficiency of God’s grace in Christ Jesus. The Influence of the Methodist Revival It is impossible to trace the influence of the gospel or to gauge its revolutionary power in the world. It began a new era. It quickened the churches, changed the constitution of England, permeated the life of America, carried blessings to the Colonies, freed the slave and inaugurated the missionary enterprise which is destined to save the world. The Evangelical Revival saved England by bringing new conceptions of God, new ideas of religion, new estimates of manhood, a new sense of responsibility and a baptism of power by which ideals could be transmuted into life. No nation can be better than its God. Like God, like people! The character of a people’s God is reflected in the life and institutions of the nation. Religion is the formative and dominant power. The fundamental distinctions of races are religious. Every problem is at the root a religious problem. Wesley found England in the grip of the doctrines of election and predestination. Calvinism did reverent homage to the sovereignty of God, and it produced saints of mighty power; but it emphasized God to the neglect of man. Its sovereignty became arbitrary, meretricious, and almost capricious, until it was a caricature of the God and Father of Jesus Christ. The Calvinism of ecclesiasticism had a corresponding Calvinism in secular and national life. The few were elect, the rest were reprobate. The elect monopolized the privileges; the rest existed to be their hewers of wood and drawers of water. Election was not according to merit, but by birth and favor. The elect possessed all things. They had all the land, all the wealth, all the votes, all the learning, and everything else worth having in the nation. A democratic gospel changed all that. The Evangelical Revival carried everywhere a gospel of equality before God. The revival saved the land from revolution. "The man in the street" got the Methodist conception of Christianity, with the result that national life has been remodeled on the pattern of Methodist doctrine. The whole march of progress for more than a century has been a succession of reforms, breaking up monopolies, destroying high fences, and bringing the life of the nation into line with the new conception of the kingdom of heaven. True it is that other forces have been at work. . Scientific discoveries, economic developments, and industrial organizations have done their part; but the result is due more to the revival that sought man as man and judged him apart from the accidents of birth and possessions, than to anything else. It let loose the dynamic, and led the way to the goal. The archetype of a Christian nation’s life is the government of heaven, and there, helplessness is the first claim, manhood the supreme value, and righteousness the first law. The doctrines of the Methodist are now heard in all the churches. All preach the universal gospel, all evangelicals accept the doctrine of Assurance, and the teaching concerning holiness is as zealously taught at Keswick as at City Road. But the mission of Methodism is needed now as much as ever. The wider acceptance of doctrine cannot compensate for the loss of intensity, and the spread of the truth does not always carry with it a corresponding zeal. It is possible to be evangelical without being evangelistic. There is still the same need to seek the lost. In the developments of religious thought the center has been shifted from individual salvation to social condition. Wesley made no such blunder, and there is need for his successors to stand in the old paths. The wider belief in the possibility of assurance has been accompanied by other teaching, which has weakened rather than intensified the experience. Testimony is needed. Abstract truth can never take the place of the living witness. Let the children of Wesley speak openly in clear and certain speech. Scriptural holiness is not yet spread through the land. There are thousands in the churches who have not so much as heard of perfect love as a present possession. The sons of Wesley have a great heritage and a great responsibility. God has wrought great things by them, but greater tasks await them. There are many adversaries. There are perils in the remembrance of the past, and perils in the aspirations for the future. But the God that raised can keep and guide. He is not only the Father of the Wesleys, He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is head over all things to His Church. The lineage goes beyond Wesley to Pentecost. Methodism is in the hands of the living Spirit. H, under His blessing, the commemoration be kept, the Ebenezer will become an altar, the starting point of a deeper devotion and a larger service, in which all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. The gospel which made the democracy is the only gospel by which the democracy can be saved. There lies the opportunity and responsibility of Methodism. There Methodism will find her conquest or her grave. Light of life, seraphic Fire, Love divine! Thyself impart; Every fainting soul inspire, Shine in every drooping heart. Every mournful sinner cheer, Scatter all our guilty gloom, Son of God, appear, appear! To Thy human temples come. Come in this accepted hour; Bring Thy heavenly kingdom in; Fill us with the glorious power, Rooting out the seeds of sin. Nothing more can we require, We will covet nothing less; Be Thou all our heart’s desire, All our joy, and all our peace! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 01.02. THE DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION ======================================================================== The Doctrine of Christian Perfection It was the settled conviction of John Wesley that the Lord had raised up the Methodist people "to spread Scriptural Holiness throughout the land." The doctrine was in a peculiar sense committed to them. Perhaps it would not be quite true to say it was discovered by them, but they received it, preached it, and formulated it in their teaching as never before in the history of the Christian Church. The witness to the experience has come down through the ages, but John Wesley became its apostle. For thirty years he preached it, expounded it, and defended it. When he died, he deposited it with the Methodist people as their special charge and responsibility. A collection of his teachings, warnings, and appeals on this subject would come with a shock to many of the people called Methodists. If it were not for Wesley’s Hymn-book, there would be many who had not so much as heard of the doctrine. The late Dr. Dale used to say that the last word on the subject was still with Wesley, but he was equally sure the last word had not yet been spoken. He regretted that the Methodist people had done nothing to develop the doctrine. Keswick has tried to correct the Methodist emphasis by stating the doctrine from the Calvinistic angle, and some American theologians have attempted its statement in modern terms; but the standard teaching is still that of Wesley. The Need For Restatement Wesley’s statement of the doctrine was obviously incomplete, but had it been complete it would have needed a new birth for the new age. Truth needs to be reborn. Words change their content, and lose their value. Some become archaic, and others obsolete. Truth must be progressive. New problems call for new developments. Faith must speak in new tongues, if it would cast out devils and heal the diseases and wounds of the world. There were some things upon which even Wesley hesitated to pronounce. I love the frankness with which he dismissed what he could not explain: "I confess that I cannot split this hair." His teaching was experimental, and he refused to be entangled in philosophical speculations. He never shirked a practical problem, but he could only deal with those of his own age. Principles are eternal and universal, but rules are determined by times and circumstances. His anxiety to avoid all suspicion of preaching "a sinless perfection" led him to reckon in the category of sins some infirmities and limitations which are entirely destitute of moral character It is never satisfactory to have a problem dismissed with a gesture, as when in 1776 he answers the question, "Is it sinless?" with the remark, "It is not worth while to contend for a term: it is salvation from sin." The contention is for something more than a term. It is a demand for clearness of thought, intelligence of faith, and instruction in the implications of experience. We have to plead guilty to the charge that we have not been faithful stewards of this great "depositum" of grace. There is with one consent a culpable silence on the subject. For sixteen years I heard candidates for ordination asked if they ever preached specifically and definitely on the subject of Holiness as an experience, and the answer was always the same. All their preaching was on Holiness, but they had not specifically expounded or urged the experience. Causes For Neglect The causes for neglect are numerous and various. No doubt some avoid it because of its demands. They are content with the measure of light they have, because they are satisfied with the level at which they live. Others are in bondage to prejudice. The logic of unbelief is the same in saints as in sinners. The ungodly reject the Christian religion because of its hypocrites, and the saints reject the doctrine because of its caricatures. Saintliness has stiffened into types, and they dislike the mold. The profession of the experience has exhibited a severity, complacency, and censoriousness which are peculiarly repellent. Perfection has been too often associated with the phylacteries of the Pharisee to make it commendable. Everyone admits that no cause should be judged by its counterfeit, but in religion the counterfeit keeps many from seeking the true. I Have Seen an End of All Perfection A more serious factor has been that for two generations the thought of the age has been hostile. The idea of evolution has been dominant. There has been no place for the supernatural or the catastrophic. It has been assumed that all life must advance in orderly sequence. Salvation must be by culture. There was no need for the Second Birth, and the Second Blessing was an outrage and an offense. The man was in the child, and in the natural man there was latent all the qualities of spiritual life. Clever people asked ignorant questions. If a Second Blessing, why not a thirty-second? If Perfect, how can progress be possible? If saved from sin, why pray the Lord’s Prayer? If saved to the uttermost, what is there beyond? If Love is made perfect, what comes of discipline, ethical values, and the militant character of discipleship? That tyranny is past. Naturalistic evolution as a universal law of life is discredited and abandoned. The fact of conversion is psychologically sound. The experience of a Second Crisis is no longer counted foolish in the wisdom of this world. We ask no patronage from the mentality of the learned, but we welcome an attitude of mind that is sympathetic to spiritual truth. The witness still suffers from inadequate statement. It is quite likely that it always will. For it must be remembered that the experience is often received by persons unskilled in the art of precise expression. Philip’s testimony was at fault in two points out of five, and there are many disciples less skilled than he. There are witnesses to the fact of experience, but they are not able to define and explain. They have never acquired the habit of mental analysis, nor have they the knowledge required for exactness of definition. Happily, grace is not conditioned by theology. These things are hid from the clever and the vain, but they are revealed unto babes. The literature upon the subject is singularly disappointing. I have for years urged the young biblical scholars of the ministry to explore and restate the teaching of the Scriptures on the subject of Holiness. I hope some of them are doing it. I am sure it must be done, for while the witness may be sincere, the teaching is confused, unrelated, and incomplete. The Bible is every man’s best guide, but teaching is necessary, otherwise God would not have included teachers among His gifts to the Church. Wesley is often commended for his sagacity in defining the doctrine in terms of Scripture, and for the purposes of controversy it was proof of his wisdom. For instruction in the faith something more is needed than to be told that: "Pure love alone, reigning in the heart, is the whole of Christian Perfection." So it is. No words could set before the mind a higher ideal, a simpler principle, or a greater incentive; but there is something in the general terms that engenders vagueness of conception and non-ethical emotion. Faith needs to be instructed, and the heart must be able to give reasons for its experience and hope. Christian teachers must translate their theology into the speech of the twentieth century. The Need For Revival Revival is more important than re-statement Testimony to the possession of the blessing is exceedingly rare. To our fathers there was given a witness of the Spirit to a definite gift as distinct as that borne to adoption. God’s ambassadors are witnesses as well as messengers. What has come to our testimony? In how many pulpits is it heard throughout the year? What about the classmeeting? Testimony is impossible without experience assured to the heart. Failure in fellowship has its roots far deeper than the changes in social life. What about the theological training of the ministry? Is the doctrine expounded with clearness, and the experience urged upon those who are to be the future leaders of our Israel? Is there not occasion to ask whether the doctrine is any longer believed and taught among us? God of eternal truth and grace, Thy faithful promise seal! Thy word, Thy oath, to Abraham’s race, In us, e’en us, fulfill. Let us, to perfect love restored, Thy image here retrieve, And in the presence of our Lord The life of angels live. That mighty faith on me bestow Which cannot ask in vain, Which holds, and will not let Thee go, Till I my suit obtain. Till Thou into my soul inspire Thy perfect love unknown, And tell my infinite desire, "Whate’er Thou wilt, be done." But is it possible that I Should live and sin no more? Lord, if on Thee I dare rely, The faith shall bring the power. On me the faith divine bestow Which doth the mountain move; And all my spotless life shall show The omnipotence of love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 01.03. THE DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION ======================================================================== What Christian Perfection Implies Much of the difficulty in the subject of Christian Perfection lies in the ambiguity which clings to the word "perfect." It is used with various meanings, both in the Scriptures and in common speech. In everyday talk, common sense is allowed to interpret the significance of the word. When we speak of a child as perfect, we are not foolish enough to quibble over the finality of its perfection. Unfortunately, common sense seldom gets a chance in theology. We quarrel over terms and tenses, abstract definitions and speculative hypotheses, till we cannot see the wood for trees. There is no absolute perfection but in God. All other perfection is relative. There is a perfection that is initial, a perfection that is progressive, and a perfection that is final. The Apostle Paul was perfect, even when he had not yet attained to perfection. There is neither contradiction nor confusion in the two statements, except to the man who is himself confused. Paul declared emphatically in Php 3:12 that he was not perfect. Perfection was a goal he was striving to attain, but he did not expect to reach it in this life. That is the perfection that appeals. The fact is overlooked that in Php 3:15 he includes himself among the perfect. Here is a paradox that cannot be relegated to the number of Wesley’s unsplittable hairs. St. Paul, in the same paragraph, repudiates perfection, and claims to be perfect. Those who reason by the rule-of-thumb method argue that both statements cannot be true, and that the emphatic personal word is conclusive. The Apostle made no claim to the perfect, and the second statement must be ruled by the first. Truth is generally expressed in a paradox, and in a paradox two statements apparently contradict each other, but the contradiction is only apparent. There is a fundamental unity of which the statements are the complimentary expression. It is true, for instance, that no man hath seen God at any time, but it is also true that the pure in heart see God. Both are true. So it is with perfection. It is obviously true that there is a perfection to which no one has attained, or can attain, either in this life or the next. Perfection belongs to God. For man there is a perfection for which he is apprehended in Christ, to which he cannot come until grace is consummated in glory. That is the perfection St. Paul had not attained. On the other hand there is a perfection that is both commanded and promised. It is many years since I set myself to a scientific and earnest study of the New Testament on this subject. I had entered into an experience that I could neither define nor defend. I had to find reasons for the assurance of which I had no doubt. Books did not help me. I had no skill in Bible study, but with patient humility and much prayer I was led gradually into the light. I found in the Scriptures more than one angle of presentation for the same experience. The legal aspect expressed it in terms of law. The Temple had a different vocabulary from the Law Court. Neither was complete without the other. The family completed both the Court and the Temple. Perfection in the Court was acquittal without condemnation. Perfection in the Temple was purity without defect, cleanness without stain. Perfection in the family was the perfection of love. There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus: THE LAW. The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin: THE TEMPLE. Herein is our love made perfect... There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: THE HOME. No interpretation of Perfection is complete that ignores any one of these three angles of interpretation. Finality or Fitness I shall never forget the excitement with which I discovered another word for Perfection. The word for the Perfection that is final is teleios. That is the big word for Perfection. It is used of Christ and His redeeming work which is all Perfect. It is used also of the ultimate consummation of Grace, and of perfect development. The word I discovered was katartizo, which does not mean the finality of a thing, but its fitness. The uses of the word are illuminating. It is used of mending nets (Matthew 4:21); to set in order as in music (Matthew 21:16); to fit into perfect relationship (1 Corinthians 1:10); to adjust that which is dislocated (Galatians 6:1); to complete that which is lacking (1 Thessalonians 3:10); to frame together various parts of a machine (Hebrews 11:3). There is nothing very difficult to understand in this kind of perfection. Mending is done to repair damage and make fit again for use. Perfecting music is so arranging it that all discords are lost in the perfection of harmony. Limbs fitly joined work together in the unity of the body. No one objects to perfection in the joints of arms, legs, and necks. Putting into joint a dislocated limb is making it perfect. The various parts of creation are perfectly fitted and framed together. When that which is lacking is supplied, the defective is made perfect. Three pence added to nine pence make a perfect shilling. That is what is meant by perfection. It is complete deliverance from everything that makes the soul unfit for, and unequal to, the will of God; the adjustment of life to perfect harmony, and the adaptation of all its powers to the purpose of God; and the supply of all grace, wisdom, power, and whatever else is lacking for efficient obedience to every demand in the fellowship of God in Christ. It is life 80 completely saved that there is no defect, no disorder, no discord. What Man Lost in Adam Nothing is more obvious than the anxiety of exponents of Christian Perfection to keep down the standard of attainment. It is the rebound from all kinds of fanaticism, ignorance, and immortality. The doctrine needs to be safeguarded, but its best defense is in the heights. Negations are not strongholds. Enthusiasm cannot be kindled by contemplation of its limitations. We need the affirmations of truth and the confirmation of testimony. We are told that Christian Perfection is not angelic, and yet we pray, "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." Neither is it Adamic, and yet, it is putting on "the new man" which is "after the image of Him that created him." There is evidently some confusion in these statements, for the salvation procured by Jesus Christ cannot be less than a complete restoration to man’s original state of perfection. Indeed: In Him the sons of Adam boast More blessings than their father lost. Redemption implies a restoration. Something forfeited is bought back; something lost is restored. What is the something that constituted man’s original perfection, and which was lost through sin? The Scriptures make it plain that God made man upright. He came from the hands of his Maker a being of distinguished excellence and perfection. God made man in His own image, and after His own likeness. So far all evangelical believers agree, but when it is asked in what this image and perfection consist there is an end to agreement. The first chapters of Genesis are the paradise of all speculation. In the dim light truth takes shape according to every man’s fancy. By many the perfection of man in his original state has been greatly exaggerated. It cannot have been his physical nature that was made in the image of God; for "God is a Spirit." He had physical limitations and appetites that are still common to the race. Neither was his perfection in knowledge absolute. The woman sinned because she was deceived -- a fact that indicates a lack of intellectual penetration combined with moral perversity. So it was not in knowledge perfection lay. His nature was endowed with such powers as made intercourse with spirits possible. He had fellowship with God, and was accessible to Satan. His perfection was spiritual and moral, held on condition of obedience, and exposed to moral and spiritual assault. When man sinned he forfeited his inheritance. He lost God. The sense of the Divine presence and approval vanished. Losing God, he lost life. The soul that sinneth dies. The death of the soul does not mean extinction. It is the loss of that spiritual consciousness in which all right direction and control of man’s various faculties and powers have their source. In spiritual death no part of man’s nature is destroyed, but every part becomes disordered and deranged. In the life of sin God is dethroned, and the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life hold sway over the soul. The Extent of Recovery in Christ The essential elements in man’s loss through sin are the sense of divine fellowship and moral power to live in harmony with the divine will. Other results followed, but they stand to these as effect to cause, and will be remedied as man is restored. The curse upon the world will be lifted as man is redeemed. God’s concern is with men. One of the things frequently forgotten is that man’s sin made no difference in the requirements of the moral law. There was no lowering of the standard. The laws of the moral realm are inherent in the divine character, and as unalterable as the laws of Nature. Obedience can never be vicarious, in the sense that it releases another from obligation to obey. "Justification by faith is not a legal fiction, but a moral anticipation." The end of grace is to make sinful men holy. Grace comes to condemn sin in the flesh "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit" (Romans 8:3-4). Man’s duty is not changed. God asked of Adam no more than that he should love Him with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength and of us He demands nothing less. The moral law is not repealed in grace. It is not the condition of salvation, but it is the rule and standard of life. Love is not a substitute for righteousness; it is the filling of the law. Salvation restores the soul to peace and fellowship with God, and so renews the nature and sustains the heart, as to enable man to live according to the divine will. Made Perfect It does not lift man above the possibility of temptation, for both Adam and Jesus suffered being tempted. Neither can it bring immunity from frailty, limitation, and ignorance, for humanity is sanctified without being absorbed. It cannot be final for it is still probationary. The writer to the Hebrews prayed that they might be made "perfect in every good thing to do His will." The prayer is the best definition. It is a restoration of relationship, a renewal of nature, a sufficiency of grace that makes it possible to live in all things according to the will of God. It is a prayer for restored fitness and power, in which His purpose shall be fulfilled. Christian Perfection is a question of Christian efficiency. We are the workmanship of a Perfect Worker, and it would be strange if perfection were impossible to us in Him. He wills that I should holy be, That holiness I long to feel; That full divine conformity To all my Saviour’s righteous will. See, Lord, the travail of Thy soul Accomplished in the change of mine, And plunge me, every whit made whole, In all the depths of love divine. On Thee, O God, my soul is stayed, And waits to prove Thine utmost will; The promise, by Thy mercy made, Thou canst, Thou wilt, in me fulfill. Now let Thy Spirit bring me in, And give Thy servant to possess The land of rest from inbred sin, The land of perfect holiness. Lord, I believe Thy power the same, The same Thy truth and grace endure; And in Thy blessed hands I am, And trust Thee for a perfect cure. Come, Saviour, come, and make me whole! Entirely all my sins remove; To perfect health restore my soul, To perfect holiness and love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 01.04. THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENT IN CHRISTIAN PERFECTION ======================================================================== The Essential Element in Christian Perfection The essential principle of all moral evil is alienation of the heart from God. "The carnal mind is enmity against God." This enmity is the source of all the streams of evil. There can be no redemption except by the healing of this spring. Whatever relationships need readjustment the heart must be cleansed. There is no substitute for a clean heart. Till this is accomplished, nothing is done; when this is done all things become possible. The putting right of the inward principle and the cleansing of the springs of thought and desire, motive and will, must of necessity rectify the entire character, transform the whole life, and reconstruct all its relationships. This is the work of the gospel. It reconciles man to God, slays the principle of enmity, and sheds abroad the love of God in the heart. In Jesus Christ God’s favor is restored to man, and God’s love is begotten in his soul. Few people would be found to dissent from Wesley’s statement, "Pure love alone, reigning in the heart and life, this is the whole of Christian perfection." Yet for more than fifty years he was in continual controversy over it, and controversy always leads to definition and testing. Throughout the whole period he never varied. Through all explanations he clave to the same simple statements, and in all defense he held to the same essentials. There is no more remarkable example of consistency in the history of doctrinal discussion. One of his earliest definitions states it to mean, "Salvation from all sin, and loving God with all the heart"; and one of his latest defines it as "a full deliverance from all sin, and a renewal in the whole image of God." Objection was taken to the term "Perfection." He contended that the word is scriptural, and therefore he says, "Neither you nor I can in conscience object to it, unless we would send the Holy Ghost to school, and teach Him to speak who made the tongue." He would not drop the word, but he took great pains to explain it. "By ’perfection’ I mean perfect love, or the loving of God with all our heart, so as to rejoice evermore, to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks." What is the objection to this teaching? Is it not scriptural? Is it not stated in the very language of scripture? He himself says, "This perfection cannot be a delusion unless the Bible be a delusion too." Was he mistaken, and a preacher of a false doctrine? Or have we forsaken the Word of the Lord? The sanctification of man’s nature is a work of love. Its progress is in the development of the principle of love, and entire sanctification consists in the perfection of love in the heart and life. The Whole Law Love sums up the whole of the Christian religion. Without love nothing counts. Knowledge, beneficence, and faith are nothing without love. The greatest gifts, including prophecy and miraculous powers, are nothing without love. It comprehends all God’s revelation of Himself, for God is love. It sums up all man’s duty. All the Commandments are comprehended in this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." There has never been any other commandment. Love is, and always has been, the fulfilling of the law. Mechanical obedience of the letter never could have satisfied God. There are two covenants, but they declare one kind of righteousness, and that righteousness is the perfect love of God and our neighbor. These two great demands of the Divine Law are universal and eternal, equally binding in all worlds and in all ages. Just as in tracing back existence we come to the necessity of God’s being, so, in tracing back principles, we come to the necessity of God’s character. The Law is not a principle of Nature, nor a matter of creation for the government of the world; it is inherent in the divine character, coexistent and coeternal with the divine nature. The obligation to be holy is in the fact of His holiness, and the demand for love is inherent in the fact that God is love. "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." Love is the fulfilling of the law; not its substitute. It keeps the commandments and sinneth not. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It saves from the power and pollution of sin. This is its one grand result: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Into the cleansed soul there comes to abide the Spirit of God, the fruit of whose presence is the love of God permeating every part of heart and life. Love reigns supreme. Christian perfection is this gift of love made perfect in the soul. Love Made Perfect Whether a man’s love is perfect is a question that must rest with his own consciousness and his God. The heart is known to no one else. The most palpable failure to attain to a high standard may not be inconsistent with the most ardent devotion, and on the other hand one who is "as touching the law blameless" may be destitute of love. The question of fact can be settled only by testimony, but the proof of the testimony is the "fruit unto holiness" by which it is sustained. There are many artificial tests which tend to neutralize the testimony. The only authorized test of love is obedience. Love that runs to license is of the flesh, and not of God. There have been many intelligent witnesses to the gift of perfecting grace. Thousands of sane and saintly people have borne witness to a definite experience in which they have received an assurance of love perfected in the soul, and a gift of power that has lifted life into a new plane of fellowship and power. Their lives have triumphed over evil, and overflowed in love and joy. There are thousands, on the other hand, who are equally sure their hearts are not clean, neither is their love perfect. They are conscious not only of failure, but of guilt. They know that their hearts ought to be pure, and their love ought to be perfect, and what ought to be can be God never commands what He cannot enable. He makes possible whatever He demands. Love Not Yet Perfect In what sense may the love of God be imperfect in the soul? A thing may be perfect in quality and defective in quantity. An article may be up to standard and of short measure. Again, a thing may be perfect, though not yet perfected. There is a difference between initial and final perfection. The two "perfects" in Php 3:1-21 are a good example of this distinction. Perfect love is not an end, but a beginning. It is love without corruption, without flaw, without deficiency. It has to do with quantity rather than quality. God’s love is something more than a gift out of His treasury; it is the gift of Himself. Love and God are one. "God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him. Herein is love made perfect with us." That is the secret of it all. Love is made perfect by the abiding fullness of the Divine Presence. Self dies in the soul filled with God. Love reigns where He abides. The capacity for love expands with the exercise of love, but perfect love always fills to the utmost limit. A teacup may be as full as a bucket, and God fills the surrendered soul to the full. When? On the testimony of many witnesses this experience may come suddenly upon the simple exercise of faith. And why not? There is nothing inconceivable or inconsistent in the statement that the Lord may come suddenly to His Temple, and fill it with His glory. The cleansing of the heart is by faith, and there is nothing to hinder faith from operating suddenly and immediately. God’s promise waits our claim. His power has no conditions but our consent. His presence stays for nothing but the open door. He waits to save to the uttermost even now. O Jesus, at Thy feet we wait, Till Thou shalt bid us rise, Restor’d to our unsinning state, To love’s sweet paradise. Saviour from sin, we Thee receive; From all indwelling sin, Thy blood, we steadfastly believe, Shall make us throughly clean. Since Thou wouldst have us free from sin, And pure as those above, Make haste to bring Thy nature in, And perfect us in love. The counsel of Thy love fulfill; Come quickly, gracious Lord! Be it according to Thy will, According to Thy word! According to our faith in Thee Let it to us be done; O that we all Thy face might see, And know as we are known! O that the perfect grace were given, The love diffused abroad! O that our hearts were all a heaven, For ever filled with God! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 01.05. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION AS INTERPRETED BY JOHN WESLEY ======================================================================== Christian Perfection as Interpreted By John Wesley Wesley’s theology was experimental. His statements were formulated from experience. He had no stereotyped forms, no rigid creed, no sense of finality. His message enlarged with years, and to the end he did not hesitate to correct his theological views. Less capacious minds stereotype their opinions, and are careful only to maintain them. Such can never be charged with inconsistency. Progress involves correction, and it is easy to quote the man who grows against himself. Further, Wesley was a practical theologian. His life was lived in a perpetual hurricane of controversy and incessant activity. He had no leisure for abstract speculation. Like the Apostle Paul, he was an evangelist first, and only incidentally a philosopher and a theologian. His wine-skins were always bursting. One after another the boundaries of creed and ecclesiasticism were swept away. He formulated no creed; elaborated no system. The standards of doctrine he left are embedded in sermons and expository notes. His system of Church government is embodied in a legal document, designed to secure the property to his people and the fellowship of his spiritual children. The completeness and consistency of his doctrine and discipline are due to the simplicity and transparency of the man. His principles were well and truly laid; and he had learned to distinguish between principles and opinions, things eternal and unchanging, and those which are temporary and provisional. For half a century he was stating, restating, and defending the doctrine of scriptural holiness. He examined thousands who professed to have entered into the experience. He himself testified to its possession, and for years contended that the Methodist people were raised up to be its exponents and witnesses, and to spread it through the land. Wesley’s Insistent Preaching of the Doctrine He preached it as an immediate, instantaneous, assured work of grace through faith. By it the believer is delivered from inbred sin. "Not by a slow and insensible growth in grace, but by the power of the Highest overshadowing you, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, so as utterly to abolish sin, and to renew you in His whole image! If you are simple of heart, if you are willing to receive the heavenly gift as a little child, without reasoning, why may you not receive it now?" The seal of many witnesses confirmed his teaching. The plain fact is this: he was able to say, "I know many who love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. He is their one desire, their one delight, and they are continually happy in Him. They love their neighbor as themselves. They rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. This is plain, sound, scriptural experience; and of this we have more and more living witnesses." These were the seals to his preaching and the crown of his rejoicing. "I declared to all, ’We are saved from sin, we are made holy by faith.’ This I testified in private, in public, in print; and God confirmed it by a thousand witnesses." Wesley insisted on all his preachers expounding, and explicitly urging, this doctrine of Full Salvation. Writing to Adam Clarke on November 26, 1790, on the doctrine, he says: "If we can prove that any of our local preachers, or leaders, either directly or indirectly, speak against it, let him be a local preacher or leader no longer. I doubt whether he should continue in society. Because he that could speak thus in our congregation cannot be an honest man." There were declensions and periods of stagnation in his day. To what did he trace them, and what was his remedy? Of one society he says: "I was surprised to find fifty members fewer than I left in October last. One reason is, Christian Perfection has been little insisted on; and where this is not done, be the preachers ever so eloquent, there is little increase, either in the number or grace of the hearers." He testifies again and again that, where Christian Perfection is not strongly, clearly, explicitly, and earnestly preached, the work of God declines. The devil hates the doctrine, but God, in a remarkable way, crowns it with blessing. "Only do not forget," he says, "strongly and explicitly to urge believers to ’go on to perfection.’ When this is constantly and earnestly done, the Word is always clothed with power ... Till you press the believers to expect full salvation now, you must not look for any revival." The Charge of Perfectionism In nothing was Wesley so bitterly assailed as for his teaching of Christian Perfection. It cost him some of his most valued friends, and exposed him to all sorts of calumny and misrepresentation. His doctrine was attacked from opposite sides. Some objected that he placed the standard too high. The Calvinists charged him with making void the gospel of faith, because he insisted upon inward cleansing from all sin and a life in which the love of God reigns supreme. He demanded nothing less than obedience to all the commandments of God -- not only some of them, or most of them, but all of them -- from the least to the greatest. "Whatever God has forbidden, he avoids; whatever God has enjoined, he does. It is his glory and joy to run in the way of God’s commandments; it is his daily crown of rejoicing to do the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven." This is Wesley’s standard of perfection. To this day the attack is maintained by the representatives of the Calvinistic faith. There are some conventions for the promotion of godliness where it is always in the background of their teaching. Eradication of inward sin is held to be impossible in this life. Subjugation is all we may hope for. Perfectionism is assailed as deadly heresy. The old questions of Wesley’s day reappear in modern form. If salvation from sin means that Christians live without sin, what need will the sanctified have of the atoning blood? Such objections seem to regard the death of Christ as making up the balance of human merit before God, and to regard some sin in the heart as necessary to secure the peculiar value of the atoning blood. To make the death of Christ an occasion of release from perfect obedience comes very near to making the Cross the minister of sin. The Charge of Antinomianism Opposition comes also from the other extreme. While some charge him with putting the standard too high, others contend he puts it too low, because he says that "no man is able to perform the service which the Adamic law requires," that "no man is obliged to perform it," that "we are not under the angelic or the Adamic law." On this subject there is certainly some ambiguity in Wesley’s teaching. He declines to call Christian Perfection "sinless," and yet he insists that it is salvation from all sin. At one time he classes "errors resulting from unavoidable ignorance and weakness" as sins; and at another time he speaks of them as sins improperly so-called. Theoretically he contends that while man is in a corruptible body he can never attain to Adamic or angelic perfection, while practically he tells us we can keep all the commandments and do the will of God as it is done in heaven. There is need for elucidation and co-ordination of his teaching. The explanation will probably be found in an exaggerated view of Adam’s original perfection; and, if one dare say it, a somewhat lax and popular use of the word "sin." Whatever the explanation, no one familiar with Wesley’s teaching will charge him with making void the law. He never spoke of the law as having passed away, in any sense, but as ceremonial ordinance and a condition of justification. Salvation is by faith and not by the works of the law, but the perfect law remains in force as the standard of life and obedience. The law is immutable, universal, and eternal -- "a transcript of the divine nature." The law of love is not new. It is no lowering of the standard. It is the fulfilling of the law. Grace does not release from obedience; it empowers it. A Charge Upon All Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The seat of sin is in the soul. It is neither in the physical nor intellectual powers. Christian Perfection is salvation from sin. A higher meaning than this it cannot have; a lower meaning it must not have. Sin defaced God’s image in man, and turned his love to enmity. Jesus restores the image, and turns enmity to love. By Him provision is made that "the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." The law is not a system of statutes to be mechanically observed, but a principle of love possible alike to angels and men: love filling the heart and reigning in the life is as possible to those of the highest intellectual attainments as to those of the lowest. The same commandment is laid upon all, and the same privilege of grace is open to all. If any man would know more of this subject, let him read John Wesley’s Plain Account of Christian Perfection, and above all, let him search the Scriptures that he may know the fullness of God’s saving grace. What! never speak one evil word, Or rash, or idle, or unkind! O how shall I, most gracious Lord, This mark of true perfection find? Thy sinless mind in me reveal, Thy Spirit’s plenitude impart; And all my spotless life shall tell The abundance of a loving heart. Saviour, I long to testify The fullness of Thy saving grace; O might Thy Spirit the blood apply, Which bought for me the sacred peace! Forgive, and make my nature whole, My inbred malady remove; To perfect health restore my soul, To perfect holiness and love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 01.06. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION IN RELATION TO SINS AND MISTAKES ======================================================================== Christian Perfection in Relation to Sins and Mistakes St. John’s teaching concerning sin settles some things for all time. 1 John 3:1-24 emphatically declares: 1) That sin is lawlessness. 2) Jesus Christ was manifested to take away sins. 3) Whosoever is begotten of God, and abideth in Him, does not commit sin. 4) The difference between the children of God and the children of the devil is that one sins and the other does not. Nothing can be plainer than that. Every man born of God quits sin. If a man sins, he is not a child of God but a child of Satan. There is no escape from that alternative. He that is not with God is with the devil. It is often asserted that all are of God and none of the devil. God is the universal Father, and therefore every man is His child. Jesus did not so teach. When the Jews claimed God for their Father, Jesus denied the claim and declared them to be the children of the devil. They said "... We have one Father, even God. Jesus said ... Ye are of your father, the devil" (John 8:41, John 8:44). They claimed sonship with God through Abraham their father. They forgot that soul-relationships rest, not upon lineal descent, but on spiritual affinities. Spiritual kinship is not of blood, but of spirit. Though men belong by right to God they may be by choice the possession of the devil. No man is the devil’s by any right of creation. He did not make us. We are the work of God’s hands and the people of His pasture. Neither is any man the devil’s by birth. We may have been born in sin and shapen in iniquity, but for all that we belong to God, not Satan. Whatever the power of heredity, it lays no such curse upon the child, and establishes no such right for the prince of darkness. Original sin is counterbalanced by original grace. No soul belongs to Satan either by any vestige of right or by any law of necessity. Neither is any man a child of God by reason of any of these things. The relationship of the creation is forfeited by sin. The sonship of the covenant avails only till moral responsibility is attained. The Timothys need to be born again as truly as the Ishmaels. No rite of baptism can secure it, neither is any man the Lord’s any more than the devil’s of necessity. Spiritual parentage is by adoption. There can be no adoption without consent. Therefore, choice settles sonship. In the spiritual realm every man chooses his own Father. On the other hand, in the first chapter of the same Epistle John says: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." These passages present a real difficulty. They seem to absolutely contradictory, that if one be true the other must be false; and it is between these two statements we find the most contention. Some contend for the absolute deliverance of the soul from sin, and others for the inevitable continuance of sin in the soul. What is Sin? The explanation will be found in a complete study of St. John’s treatment of the doctrine of sin. He defines it as lawlessness. It is not the violation of a commandment, but a principle of evil within the soul. Sin is not an act, but an attitude. Man is not so much a sinner because he is a transgressor, as he is a transgressor because he is a sinner. Its seat is neither in the body nor in the mind; it is in the heart. In the first chapter he exposes three false views of sm. If we deny the reality of sin under cloak of fellowship with God, we lie and do not the truth (1 John 1:6). If we deny our responsibility for sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). If we deny the fact of sin and say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and His Word is not in us (1 John 1:10). None of these passages teach that sin must always be in us, or that we must inevitably keep on sinning. On the contrary, they make plain God’s provision for sin. He pardons and cleanses those who confess their sins, and the blood of His Son cleanses from all sin those who walk in the light. Jesus Christ came to save sinners from sin, and He does what He came to do. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him." "He that doeth sin is of the devil." This does not mean that the Christian can never again fall away into sin. All scripture -- John’s writings included -- warns us that the child of God can fall into sin. God’s saving power is conditioned on man’s consent. What it does mean is that the whole attitude of the regenerate man is contrary to sin. He stands resolutely opposed to it. He antagonizes it. His nature is cleansed of that which hankered after it. He has been made partaker of the divine nature, and the bent of his nature is one with God’s. Sins Improperly So Called This is a hard saying, and it is not a matter of surprise if even John Wesley’s logic faltered in the presence of the persistent criticism to which it is obviously exposed. Christian perfection has been regarded as claiming, not only deliverance from sin, but from all error, limitation and defect Such is manifestly impossible. Christian perfection is not infallibility. It does not deify men. It does not dehumanize humanity; it sanctifies it. A clean heart does not imply a perfect head. So long as we are in this world there will be unavoidable errors and imperfections of judgment. The mistake is in regarding such errors and imperfections as sins. The decalogue gives no pronouncement upon them. There is no explicit direction concerning them in either Old or New Testament. The Word of God is the standard of both doctrine and conduct, but in neither does it systematize and codify its teaching. In doctrine it reveals truth through the records of history, and in conduct it lays down principles, not rules. For doctrine the Scriptures need to be searched. In conduct the principles are to be discovered and applied. Wesley speaks of these errors as "deviations from the perfect law, and need an atonement." They are inevitable, and sometimes even unconscious; and yet he declares, whether "known or unknown, they need the atoning blood." In his sermon on "Perfection," however, he says they are improperly called sins, and adds, "The word sin is never taken in this sense in Scripture." There is no scriptural warrant regarding either physical infirmities, or mental weaknesses, or any of their proper consequences as sins. They are not sins. Such imperfections are utterly destitute of moral character. They require no repentance. No man can repent of an act which is the result of pure ignorance, or of something which was unavoidable. He may regret these things, but regret and repentance are by no means the same. Neither do they need atonement. Deliverance from mistakes is not by the blood of the Cross, but by the discipline of experience. This is a perfection that is by suffering, and not by faith. The Levitical Law and the Lord’s Prayer The Levitical law required sacrifice for violations of the law committed in ignorance. This is the basis on which "unavoidable infirmities" are regarded as sins requiring atonement, but it proves too much. These sacrifices were for diseases, some of which were providentially inflicted. This standard would make motherhood a sin! It would include bricks and mortar among the things for which "atonement" had to be made (see Leviticus 14:53). The new covenant has put away all these symbolical classifications. It is upon the heart that the perfect law is written, and it is in the heart that God perfects the love which is the fulfilling of the law. A mistake is a wrong act, in which the right was intended. Motive determines moral quality. Intention, not achievement, is the divine test. Sanctification reduces liability to error to a minimum, but it does not guarantee infallibility; and while we have an adversary so subtle and a nature so liable to sin, we shall never rise above the need to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses." The vision of the pure heart is always discovering new demands of grace and a new sensibility of sin. It is better to live a sinless life than to say we never sin. Jesus, Thou art our King! To me Thy succor bring; Christ, the mighty One, art Thou, Help for all on Thee is laid; This the word; I claim it now, Send me now the promis’d aid. High on Thy Father’s throne, O look with pity down! Help, O help, attend my call, Captive lead captivity; King of glory, Lord of all, Christ, be Lord, be King, to me! I pant to feel Thy sway, And only Thee to obey, Thee my spirit gasps to meet; This my one, my ceaseless prayer, Make, O make, my heart Thy seat, O set up Thy Kingdom there! Triumph and reign in me, And spread Thy victory; Hell, and death, and sin control, Pride, and wrath, and every foe, All subdue; through all my soul Conquering, and to conquer go. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 01.07. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION AND TEMPTATION ======================================================================== Christian Perfection and Temptation It is said of Jesus Christ "that he himself hath suffered being tempted," and also that "He hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." The first statement declares the reality of His temptation, and the second certifies its representative character. The Scriptures never speculate upon the nature and character of Christ. No explanation is offered of His temptation, nor of the extent to which He pondered or desired the objects presented to His mind. The facts are stated, and we are able to deduce important conclusions, but though important they are not revealed. Satan was the tempter, so we infer Jesus was open to attack from an evil source. He suffered being tempted, by which we understand there was real conflict in the soul of Christ. The proposals of the tempter appealed to Him. There was a consciousness of something in the forbidden path that was plausible. Otherwise there could be no temptation to sin. He was tempted in "all points like as we are." In all points; not in all forms. There are temptations that come to us that never came to Him, because He never experienced many of the relations out of which our temptations spring. For instance, He never was a husband or father, wife or mother. He did not live under twentieth century conditions of life and labor. In these and other respects He had no experience of many temptations with which we are familiar, but in every practical sense He was tempted like as we are. He was tested at every point where temptation can assail, and tried along every avenue by which sin may gain access to the soul. The Perfect Man Tempted The temptation of Christ is our warrant for saying that temptation is inseparable from probation. The perfect are subject to assault from Satan and solicitation to evil. Humanity is not dehumanized when the work of grace is perfected in the soul. Some teaching would make Entire Sanctification a process of emasculation. Grace destroys nothing but sin. The "old man" crucified is superseded by the "new man in Christ Jesus." He is still a man. All the appetites remain in the sanctified man. Their order is restored, their direction rectified, and their desires purified. Their gratification is no longer sought in forbidden ways. Every desire is submitted at once to the test of the divine will, and whatever is suspected of being at variance with the standard is at once dismissed. In the sanctified man the desires, the affections, and the will become allies of the conscience. Man may be tempted in another sense than that indicated in James 1:13-14. The ambiguity which attaches to the English word "temptation" has led to some confusion. Originally it meant just "to try." Hence the noun, attempt, and the adjective, tentative (temptative). It has hardened, however, into a use that indicates trial with an evil purpose. Both uses are found in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament it is more frequently used of righteous than of unrighteous trial; while in the New Testament, prevailingly, but not uniformly, it is used of trying to induce to evil. The first use of the word is in Genesis 22:1 : "And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham." The writer to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:17) says of the same event, "By faith Abraham, when he was tried." The Revised Version substitutes "prove" for "tempt" in the Genesis story. In Psalms 26:2, the psalmist says, "Examine me, 0 Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart." Our Lord is said to have asked a question of Philip to prove him (John 6:6). Writing in the second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 13:5), St. Paul exhorts them Saying, "Try your own selves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves." The word used for "trying" and "proving" could quite rightly be translated "tempt". God tried those at Ephesus who said they were apostles, and found them liars (Revelation 2:2). Jesus was led "of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil" (Matthew 4:1). There is a vital difference between the two uses of the word. It may mean either to solicit or to test. In the first sense Satan tempts men; he entices to evil. In the second sense God proved Abraham. He put him to the proof. Adam was tempted and fell. Jesus was tempted and conquered. In neither was there the lust or proneness due to sinful generation, but both were tempted. Grace cannot make us more perfect than Christ, and if He suffered being tempted we surely shall not escape. St. James bids us glory in temptation: "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." Again he says, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him" Sanctification and Temptation It is a matter of speculation at what point temptation passes beyond the boundary of innocence. Some have argued that, if the temptation advances beyond the intellect and affects the desires, exciting them to action, such desires are always attended with sin. This position cannot be sustained from the Word of God. Desire may be sinful, for Christ Himself has told us that a look may be adultery, and passion, murder; but that is when desire has the consent of the will, and only for prudential or other reasons does not pass into action. What about sinful desire resisted? The lust of the flesh may be successfully antagonized and overcome. Temptation is not sin; it is consent that makes it sin. Entire sanctification purges the nature of its inborn proneness to evil. Dr. W. B. Pope says, "Sanctification in its beginnings, process, and final issues, is the full eradication of the sin itself, which reigning in the unregenerate co-exists with the new life in the regenerate, is abolished in the wholly sanctified." Mark the terms! "Reigning in the unregenerate, co-exists with the new life in the regenerate, abolished in the wholly sanctified." It cleanses him of "his own lust" by which he was drawn away and enticed. The desire for gratification by forbidden means is taken away. The soul is cleansed by the cleansing blood of the Son of God. Not only is grace given to resist, the desire to yield is rooted up and cast out of the heart. Sin is loathed because love is perfect. The Temptations of the Sanctified This does not mean that sanctification places the soul beyond temptation. On the contrary, it brings it to exceptional exposure. The experience furnishes a new basis of attack. Our Lord’s temptation followed His baptism, not only as a matter of time, but of consequence. The temptation was the outcome of the experience. It was upon the testimony of the baptism that the attack was made. If He was "tempted like as we are" it follows that, as we become like Him, we shall be tempted as He was. The wilderness is never far from the Jordan. The relations of the natural and the spiritual have to be adjusted, and Satan will seek to win us back through the demands of the flesh, the problem of bread, and the obligations of common toil. If he fails there, he will test along the avenue of courageous faith, and tempt to presumption and vain glory. The second often succeeds where the first fails. Grace is made the occasion of sin, when we disobey God under cover of faith. The final temptation of Spirit-filled people is to use carnal weapons in spiritual aims. The world is accepted under plea of its service to the kingdom. The peril of these temptations is in their subtlety. To the saints Satan comes as an angel of light. The beast is transformed into the likeness of a lamb. The very elect are deceived, if they cease to live in the Spirit through whom comes discernment as well as power. God is able to keep us from stumbling, and to set us before the presence of His glory without blemish, in exceeding joy, but we need to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. Saviour of the sin-sick soul, Give me faith to make me whole! Finish Thy great work of grace, Cut it short in righteousness. Speak the second time, "Be clean!" Take away my inbred sin; Every stumbling-block remove, Cast it out by perfect love. Nothing less will I require, Nothing more can I desire; None but Christ to me be given! None but Christ in earth or heaven! O that I might now decrease! O that all I am might cease! Let me into nothing fall, Let my Lord be all in all! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 01.08. CHRISTIAN PERFECTION: A SECOND BLESSING ======================================================================== Christian perfection: A Second Blessing There is a deep-rooted prejudice against Christian Perfection as a second definite experience assured to the soul. The prejudice is so great that even convention teachers rarely use the term. Substitutes have been invented which take away the offense because they take off the edge. Both in Regeneration and in Sanctification there is a shrinking from the sharp and definite experience of a crisis. Theology has been taken captive by the modern spirit. The theory of evolution has relegated everything sudden and supernatural to the limbo of superstition. We are impressed by the operations that take millenniums, and suspect whatever is wrought by processes we cannot trace and powers we cannot schedule. We can understand culture, but distrust conversion. Growth appeals to our sense of reason, but a sudden elimination of inherited tendencies is not in harmony with the process of Nature. That is why so much modern preaching is vague and ineffective. It is of the sheet-lightning sort; it shines but does not strike. Glittering generalities may dazzle, but they accomplish nothing. Wesley reproached his preachers in the Launceston Circuit because they "either did not speak of Perfection at all (the peculiar doctrine committed to our trust) or they speak of it only in general terms, without urging the believers to go on unto Perfection, and to expect it every moment, and wherever this is not done the work of God does not prosper." Why Call It a Second Blessing? Is it worth while to contend for a term? That depends upon what is involved in its surrender. Not infrequently we hear men told to "call it what they please, it does not matter what you call it if you get it." That is true, and yet the more general terms reveal a dislike of the experience which comes as a crisis. The names substituted are beautifully suggestive and singularly evasive. "A deeper work of Grace,." "the Higher Life," and "a Great Blessing" have a gracious and soothing sound, but they lack definiteness, certainty, and assurance. The new names are more indicative of pietism than of testimony. Why this vagueness and laxity in defining Entire Sanctification? True, in matters of life there cannot be the same exactness as in machinery. Experience varies in sanctification as in conversion with temperament and education. No one pleads for uniformity. There are Twelve Gates into the City, and they are equally distributed to all points of the compass. Some enter the blessing as they enter the Kingdom without consciousness of time or place, but an assurance is given them of cleansing as of pardon and reconciliation. Whether we call it a Second Blessing or not, that is what it is. It is distinct from Regeneration and subsequent to it. Those who contend that they received all that is involved in salvation when they were "born again" do not distinguish between potentiality and conscious possession. The man is in the child, but manhood can be attained only in stages. The experience is the crisis when the immaturity of "Babes in Christ" passes into the mature consciousness of the full-grown. In pagan religions there is a period of initiation. It is said that the process is associated with things that are vile, but the vital point is that it marks a crisis, a transition, an introduction to the powers and responsibilties of manhood. The reproach of the Corinthian Christians was that they had passed the age of adolescence and were still children in experience and understanding. They failed to understand because they had missed the experience of initiation. The "First" Blessing comprehends justification, regeneration, and adoption; and the "Second" Blessing brings cleansing of the carnal mind, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The term is not scriptural, but that is true of many doctrinal terms, and there can be no objection so long as it stands for an equivalent of biblical teaching. The Second Blessing a Methodist Doctrine All teaching of holiness as a definite experience agrees that it is for the "elect through grace." It is for those who are born again of the Spirit, for Christians and not for unbelievers. That is by faith, of grace, and by the Spirit. Like conversion it involves a crisis, an acceptance, and a confession. Wesley taught it as a definite blessing instantaneously received by faith. He held that believers are not entirely sanctified in regeneration, but are delivered from the remains of sin by a second work of grace. He called it a "second blessing" and a "second change." He tested those who professed the experience with the care and fidelity of a scientist. He cross-examined the witnesses with the severity of a lawyer. His conclusions were not based upon a few exceptional cases, and so sure was he of the doctrine, that he says if he is mistaken in this he is clearly convinced his whole meaning of Scripture must be mistaken. So strongly convinced was he that three months before his death he wrote: "If we can prove that any of our local preachers or leaders, either directly or indirectly, speak against it, let him be a local preacher or leader no longer." With some, Dr. W. B. Pope has more weight than John Wesley. In his sermon on the Healing of the Blind Man, in Mark 8:1-38, he says: "I have sometimes very delicately scrupled at this, that, and the other expression, and I have wondered whether it is right to speak of a ’second blessing’ ... in the face of this text, and in the face of the experience of multitudes of our fathers; in the face of multitudes now living, and in the face of the deep instinct, the hope and desire of my own unworthy heart, I will never again write or speak against the phraseology referred to." I heard these words from his own lips, and shall never forget the humility and emotion with which they were spoken. He lacked the assertive confidence of shallower men, but his testimony was not wanting, and his spirit was its daily exposition. There has been much confusion and many abuses of the doctrine, but thousands can testify to the experience. It is difficult to choose, for there is "a great cloud of witnesses," and there is not space to tell all their testimony; but let Charles Inwood, a world-known Keswick speaker and missioner, give his. He was a Methodist, and reared in the best type of Methodist home. While still a boy at school he was converted, knew it, and lived it. Then when he had become a minister there came to him a wonderful experience of Sanctification - a distinctly second work of grace. There had been no backsliding, no Blackness, no compromise, but there came to him a great soul-hunger, a need of cleansing, and a longing to be filled with the Spirit of God. This is how it came. "God led me on Friday morning, simply as a little child, to trust Him for this priceless gift, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. By simple, naked faith I took the gift, but I was not conscious of receiving anything. All through that day there seemed even a deeper dryness and dullness in one’s soul - no new pulsations, no new sense of the presence of God... Sunday morning just as dry as ever; and the Sunday morning service came, and during the proclamation of the message, there came silently stealing into my heart a strange new sense of ease and rest and peace. That is how it began; and then it deepened, hour by hour during the day, deepened in the service in the evening, and in the after-meeting it seemed to culminate in one great tidal wave of the glory of God that swelled and submerged and interpenetrated, and broke me down in silent, holy adoration in God’s presence." Out of that baptism there emerged the Apostolic ministry of the sanctified Charles Inwood, and its rivers flowed to the ends of the earth. The doctrine is scriptural, and that is more important than being Methodist, but with the Methodist there rests a heavier responsibility than most. It was for this testimony the Methodist Church was raised up, and this is the special "depositum" committed to its trust. Ever fainting with desire, For Thee, O Christ, I call; Thee I restlessly require, I want my God, my all! Jesus, dear redeeming Lord, I wait Thy coming from above; Help me, Saviour, speak the word, And perfect me in love. Lord, if I on Thee believe, The second gift impart; With the indwelling spirit give A new, a contrite heart; If with love Thy heart is stored, If now o’er me Thy mercies move, Help me, Saviour, speak the word, And perfect me in love. Let me gain my calling’s hope, O make the sinner clean! Dry corruption’s fountain up, Cut off the entail of sin; Take me into Thee, my Lord, And I shall then no longer rove; Help me, Saviour, speak the word, And perfect me in love. Grant me now the bliss to feel Of those that are in Thee; Son of God, Thyself reveal, Engrave Thy name on me; As in heaven be here adored, And let me now the promise prove; Help me, Saviour, speak the word, And perfect me in love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 01.09. DO THE SCRIPTURES TEACH A SECOND BLESSING? ======================================================================== Do the Scriptures Teach a Second Blessing? It is easier to prove the doctrine of a Second Blessing from John Wesley, than from the Bible. The demand for scriptural proof calls a halt. In creeds and theologies, truth is defined and stated clearly and dogmatically. They give the results of analysis and classification, without hint of the processes by which the conclusions were reached. From ecclesiastical declarations and theological definitions, it is easy to prove the need for a second work of grace in believers. The Bible, however, is not so explicit. Its doctrines are neither stated in dogmatic utterances nor expressed in syllogisms. There is much theology that is not biblical, and most people prefer to have their doctrines formulated for them. The task of seeking truth at first hand is not easy. Christian truth has been evolved through long and varied processes. It is embodied -- not to say embedded -- in a series of books in which the unity does not appear upon the surface. The raw material has to be analyzed and systematized. Nothing must be imported, nothing suppressed, nothing "squared." The doctrine must be comprehensive enough to include all the Scriptures have to contribute. There must be space for apparently contradictory propositions. No statement may override another. Proof by isolated texts can be made to prove anything. Truth flows through a thousand channels, and doctrine must gather up all phases in its ultimate statement. For this reason it is not enough to buttress a statement by texts; the statement must be the final issue of all the texts. The proof is an accumulation of truth. Conviction is not begotten of logic. A man does not believe a doctrine because something proves it; he believes it because everything proves it. That is why the things of which we are surest are always most difficult to prove. The Second Blessing is not in a text; it is in the whole Bible. Because the man who has found it sees it everywhere, it is difficult for him to prove it anywhere. The multiplicity of proof bewilders in the presence of one who cannot see, but the experience itself brings the supreme Teacher. There is an unction of the Holy One by which the sanctified are led into the Truth. The pure in heart see. Love made perfect sanctifies all life, and perfects the knowledge of divine things. Hereby we know, and know that we know, if we keep His commandments. Hidden Treasures People often ask why a doctrine so important is not more explicitly stated and commanded in the Bible. The same question applies to all doctrine within the Kingdom. The command to repent and believe, the necessity of forgiveness and regeneration, are definite and explicit enough, because these are concerned with them that are without. When once the boundary is passed, truth has to be discovered. It cannot be mechanically or magically poured into a man. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. They cannot be passed on as articles of faith. Every soul has to find them for itself. Jesus commanded His disciples to tell no man He was the Christ. He Himself had many things to say, but His lips were sealed. The Spirit leads each into the possession of truth, that can only be received by the experiment of personal faith. To those who have entered in, there is given a glorious assurance and much treasure which they cannot divide with those who have it not. All they can say is: This is our testimony -- go and "buy for yourselves." Those who are keen to know that they may possess will find it fully set forth in the Scriptures. There is no other guide, nor any other authority. The Bible is its own interpreter, and they that will to know that they may do, will not seek in vain. It is an experience that must be rooted and grounded in the Word of God. It must be admitted that passages urged as the basis of a Second Blessing carry little weight, apart from those who have the key to them in their own hearts. There are smiles of incredulity, mingled with pity, when the blessing is discovered in Exodus and Leviticus; in the architecture, furniture, and ordinances of the tabernacle; as well as in distinctions of speech that seem forced and fanciful. So marked has this become that the method of interpretation is labeled and tabooed. But those who have entered the experience see the teaching from Genesis to Revelation, and the method has the warrant of apostolic example. The Scriptural Basis That the Scriptures require us to be holy, no one denies. Without holiness no man can ever enter heaven. Neither is it denied that provision is made in Christ for our sanctification. He came to save from sin. That involves more than pardon and deliverance from its dominion. Sin is of the heart, and its presence is more offensive than its acts of transgression. Christ redeems, that He may cleanse and restore. Sin remains in the regenerate. It does not reign, but it remains. Of that there can be no doubt. Scripture and experience affirm it. The Christians at Corinth were sanctified, and yet carnal (1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3). They were exhorted to cleanse themselves "from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). The Galatians had received the spirit of adoption, and to them the Apostle said, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17). Thus people already in a state of grace are urged to an experience of cleansing and fullness. Count Zinzendorf’s teaching, that "all true believers are not only saved from the dominion of sin, but from the being of inward as well as outward sin, so that it no longer remains in them," is utterly without warrant. The New Testament saints were true believers, and carnality remained in them. That there is cleansing from the being of inward sin, is abundantly manifest from God’s Word. The commands assume it, and the promises declare it. "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin." That cleansing is by faith. There is no other condition, but faith is impossible without conviction. It is a definite act with a definite aim. If the soul is to be cleansed from sin, it must take place somewhere between regeneration and heaven; and that point is reached where faith claims the blessing. The Apostle desired to come again to the believers at Thessalonica, that he might "perfect that which was lacking in their faith," and the desire was expressed in the prayer: "And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it." I ask the gift of righteousness, The sin-subduing power, Power to believe, and go in peace, And never grieve Thee more. I ask the blood-bought pardon sealed, The liberty from sin, The grace infused, the love revealed, The Kingdom fixed within. Thou hear’st me for salvation pray, Thou seest my heart’s desire; Made ready in Thy powerful day, Thy fullness I require. My vehement soul cries out opprest, Impatient to be freed; Nor can I, Lord, nor will I rest, Till I am saved indeed. Art Thou not able to convert? Art Thou not willing, too? To change this old, rebellious heart, To conquer and renew? Thou canst, Thou wilt, I dare believe, So arm me with Thy power, That I to sin shall never cleave, Shall never feel it more. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 01.10. IS CHRISTIAN PERFECTION ATTAINABLE? ======================================================================== Is Christian Perfection Attainable? Whether Christian Perfection is attainable in this life is a question of first importance. There is a perfection that is not. The final perfecting of grace awaits its consummation in glory. This is the perfection to which St. Paul said he had not yet attained, but to which he was ever pressing forward as the great end for which he was apprehended in Christ Jesus. That is the perfection of finality, whereas Christian Perfection is one of adjustment and completeness. It does not even imply maturity, much less finality. Christian Perfection is neither physical nor mental. It is in the heart, the motive, and the will. Can the love of God be perfected in the soul in this life? God commands it and expects it. The experience is described by a variety of terms, but they all represent the same truth from different aspects. Wesley spoke of it as Entire Sanctification; a term which is scriptural and intelligible. No honest believer in the Bible can deny the necessity for sanctification. Without it no man can see the Lord. Therefore, it must be attainable before the manifestation of God to the soul. There is nothing in the death of the body that can perfect the work of sanctification in the soul, and the Scriptures give no hope of purgatorial perfecting. If Christian Perfection is attainable at all it must be in the conditions of our present life. Objections to Perfection There are those, however, who do not believe it possible in our mortal state. Some objections are the result of confusion. For instance, it is argued that Christian Perfection involves finality. No heresy based upon the corruption of God’s Word dies harder than this! It is amazing that Bible teachers should say that this state would "admit of no progression," that if it were attained the Christian’s "work would be finished and his obligations discharged"; that there would be no more warfare, "nor further need of prayer or the means of grace." Such teaching in some vague way regards the body as inherently antagonistic to God, and irreclaimably corrupt. It confounds moral corruption with physical limitation. The sinless life of Christ is the absolute denial of any such doctrine. The life of God has to be realized, appropriated and exemplified by those who are still in the flesh. Death has no saving efficacy. Not a single passage of scripture can be found that associates the cleansing of the soul with physical dissolution. There is a theory which regards Christian Perfection as "metaphysically attainable," and denies the fact of actual attainment. It is too subtle and too devout to bluntly deny the doctrine, but it regards it as an imputed perfection and not an actual possession. In this teaching inbred sin is not eradicated but repressed, and holiness is not imparted but imputed. Here is a summary of this doctrine: "He who is our Great High Priest before God is pure, without sin. God sees Him as such, and He stands for us who are His people, and we are accepted in Him. His holiness is ours by imputation. Standing in Him we are in the sight of God, holy as He is holy, and pure as Christ is pure. God looks at our Representative, and He sees us in Him. We are complete in Him who is our spotless and glorious Head." Such a theory makes void the law through faith. It is a process of sheer make-believe, by which God shuts His eyes to our real state and agrees to accept a fiction for a fact. It makes man holy by exemption, instead of by righteousness. Such teaching contravenes the plainest statements of God’s Word in which Christ is declared to have made provision for man’s deliverance from all sin. Christ died not that He might secure our exemption from the law, but "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Has It Been Attained? Next to the authority of the Scriptures is the testimony of them that believe. The question of fact as to the reality of this experience can be settled by testimony alone. Whether a man loves God with all his heart is known only to himself and his God. No man can search the heart of another. The only test we have is in such terms of scripture as: "Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected," and "he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked." Ought surely implies possibility; and it is a sufficient test without inventing others. All hypothetical tests tend to morbid introspection or self-complacent Pharisaism. Apart from all fads, cranks, and absurdities, so often associated with the profession of this state of grace, we have to ask whether it has ever been a conscious reality in the soul of a believer. It is not a question whether some may not have been mistaken, but whether all are mistaken. The question cannot be settled by quoting the number of those who were leaders in the Church and conscious that they did not love God with all their heart. The deepest piety is not generally found among the leaders of the Church. The witness of one man whose eyes have been opened is of greater weight than the opinions of all the leaders of religious thought. An Assured Possession Thousands whose integrity was beyond reproach have testified to its possession. They were in a glorious succession. John Wesley bore a similar testimony, and thousands of his people professed a like experience. Wesley sifted their evidence. He found them sane, sincere, and saintly. Their intelligence was clear, and their logic sound. The facts could be verified, and the fruits were manifest. Either their witness must be received, or there is an end of credible testimony. The experience was based upon Scripture. It came through the promises, and proved them to be Yea and Amen. They were sanctified in truth," and the truth was demonstrated in their sanctification. In a moment by appropriating faith they became conscious of heart purity and indwelling fullness of the divine Presence. The experience was assured to them by the witness of the Spirit. It has been the chief glory of Methodism to proclaim this experience as the duty and privilege of all. Those who entered into the blessing were urged to bear definite witness to the experience, and to abide in fellowship with those who had received, or were seeking after this grace. The type of piety it produced became as distinctive as the witness. I would like to quote what Wesley says of Jane Cooper in his preface to her Letters: "All here is strong sterling sense, strictly agreeable to sound reason. Here are no extravagant flights, no mystic reveries, no unscriptural enthusiasm. The sentiments are all just and noble; the result of a fine natural understanding cultivated by conversation, thinking, reading, and true Christian experience. At the same time they show a heart as well improved as the understanding; truly devoted to God, and filled in a very uncommon degree with the entire fruit of His Spirit. . . . This strong, genuine sense is expressed in such style as none would expect from a young servant maid; a style not only simple and artless in the highest degree but likewise clear, lively, proper: every phrase, every word being so well chosen, yea, and so well placed, that it is not easy to mend it. And such an inexpressible sweetness runs through the whole as art would in vain strive to imitate." It would be difficult to find a more perfect delineation of the spiritual experience and character of a Methodist. You will observe that Jenny Cooper was a servant-maid. The Methodists insisted that this grace is without respect of persons, and that it does not depend upon natural endowments, intellectual culture, or on favorable opportunities. It is not a cult. The experience is neither purely intellectual nor purely emotional, but a mingling of sound understanding and deep feeling. Sometimes in a rapture of unspeakable joy and at other times with a deep sense of humility and peace, men have realized that God sanctified their hearts by faith. Life was raised to a new plane of experience and power. Death was swallowed up in life more abundant. Defeat ended in the victory of overcoming power. Fellowship entered into more intimate communion and a larger inheritance. They lived with a new sense of the divine Presence, and served in the strength of the indwelling Spirit. It is attainable, for it has been attained. O might I this moment cease From every work of mine, Find the perfect holiness, The righteousness divine! Let me Thy salvation see; Let me do Thy perfect will; Live in glorious liberty, And all Thy fullness feel. O cut short the work, and make Me now a creature new! For Thy truth and mercy’s sake The gracious wonder show; Call me forth Thy witness, Lord, Let my life declare Thy power; To Thy perfect love restored, O let me sin no more! Fain would I the truth proclaim That makes me free indeed, Glorify my Saviour’s name, And all its virtues spread; Jesus all our wants relieves, Jesus, mighty to redeem, ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 01.11. THE NEGATIONS OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION ======================================================================== The Negations of Christian Perfection One of the most common criticisms of Holiness is that it is a religion of negation, inhibition, and prohibition. These are not my words, and I have taken the trouble to look them up in the dictionary. The sense in which negation is used means the absence of certain qualities in anything. Inhibition is to restrain, to hold in, or keep back. Prohibition is to forbid, and implies the command of a superior authority. Taken together as a criticism, they complain that a life of holiness is made up chiefly of negatives, that it is a life of repression, and a series of things not to be done. The criticism is the opposite of the truth. It is not negative but positive, not restraint but freedom, not mechanism but life. Can anything be more positive than Love made Perfect? Can anything be more gloriously free than the liberty of an emancipated soul? Can anything be so free from the bondage of external authority or the mechanism of tyrannical rules as Life in the Spirit? Full Salvation fills up that which is lacking, gives fullness and spontaneity to all the resources of vitality and power, and lifts life above the legalism of systems and ordinances of the flesh. Salvation is full, present, and free. Negations Not Negative I hesitated between the words negation and negative, but there is a difference between an absence and a denial. Light is the negation of darkness, but it does not deny its existence; and it is in this way that the perfect is described by the opposites which are not there. It is a familiar way of describing perfection in the Scriptures. The perfection of the Spirit-filled ministry of Jesus is described in terms of qualities that were strikingly absent. "I have put my Spirit upon him. . . . He shall not strive, nor cry aloud, neither shall any one hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench" (Matthew 12:18-20). These characteristics are absent, because of the perfection of the opposites. The defects are excluded, because of the majestic perfection of His truth, humility, faith, and love. In the same way the Apostle James argues the perfection of the whole man from the absence of offense in speech: "If any man stumbleth not in word, the same man is a perfect man" (James 3:2). The glory of heaven is described in the same way. "They hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat . . . and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." No hunger; no thirst; no weariness; no tears! In the heavenly land there will be no curse, no night, no candle, no sun, no moon, and no temple. The perfection of glory is revealed by their absence. They are excluded, because they are incompatible. So it is in the Spirit-filled life. The negations, inhibitions, and prohibitions are not labels or bandages; they are incompatibles. St. Paul uses the five strongest words he can find, to set forth the incongruity of alliance and compromise with the world, the flesh, and the devil. What fellowship? What communion? What concord? What part? What agreement? "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord" (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). The perfection is known by the things not there. No Fear Full salvation saves from fear. It is amazing how the Lord seeks to save from fear. In the Old Testament and in the New He rebukes our fears, calls to courage, and promises peace. "Fear not, for I am with Thee." Zacharias proclaimed in the coming of the Messiah a gospel of holiness and righteousness, in which service should be without fear. "To grant us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life" (Luke 1:74-75). The enemies in the mind of Zacharias may have been the Romans, but he was a priest, and it was of other enemies he thought in the mission of the Messiah, or he would not have given such prominence to the holiness and righteousness to be lived before Him. Holiness is rightness of character, righteousness is the rightness of conduct. Before Him! Life is to be in His presence, acceptable to Him in thought, disposition, and desire, and approved in conduct, judgment, and speech. Without fear, because without condemnation. "There is no fear in love" (1 John 4:18). Perfect love casteth out fear, and our love is made perfect in the indwelling of the God of love by the gift of His Spirit. No fear means the fullness of love and the perfection of trust. That is one of the negations of Love made perfect. Holiness is a life in which there is no fear. No fear! None whatever, of any kind, or any place? That is what no fear means. "I will fear no evil." I will trust in Him at all times. I will trust and not be afraid. If God be for us, with us, and in us, of whom and of what shall we be afraid? He undertakes supplies. He chooses our way, and guides our feet. He fights our battles, and makes us more than conquerors. He knows all things -- all about our needs, all about our temper and temperament, all about our lot, all about life, and all about death. He fills the heart with love, and asks implicitly for the trust in which there is no fear. No Care What a care-burdened world this is! Jesus summed up its need in the burden of unrest, and promised a heart free from care. The supreme gift of God in Christ is peace. He is the God of Peace, and the gift of Jesus is the peace of God. He not only gives the divine peace, but He keeps in perfect peace. What is perfect peace but peace without anxiety and without care? "Be anxious for nothing." That is the command and promise of Jesus. The fully saved live without care. Just inside my study door is the word "Ataraxia" in letters of gold. It was the gift of a friend years ago after a sermon I had preached on the word. Nearly every stranger that comes asks what it means, and when I answer "Without care," they pause and say, "Ah, is it possible?" Yes, wherever the Spirit of God dwells in the heart, sanctifying, perfecting, filling, unto all the will of God. Business people sometimes hint that I should find it different if I were in business, but there are business men who have found the life that is radiant and without care. Often I am told that I should find it different if in these days I had sons and daughters, and that, I can imagine, would be quite likely; but they would be His as well as mine, and I cannot believe He would fail me. He never has failed. He cares, that I may be free from care. The children of God have no more right to worry, than they have to get drunk. In the Spirit-sanctified, Spirit-possessed, Spirit-strengthened, Spirit-perfected, there is no anxiety, no worry, no care. Blessed negation! Blessed inhibition! I ask no greater blessedness than the perfection supplied by such blessed absences. No Blame NO BLAME There are people who imagine that a life of full salvation pretends to be beyond need or capability of progress or improvement. It is really difficult to be patient with such stupidity, especially in those who are the accredited teachers and leaders of the Church. Christian Perfection is defined by its adjective. It is neither final nor flawless. It is a definite work of grace, by which the nature is cleansed of its bias to evil and is made to be partaker of the Divine nature. Every part is sanctified and made conformable to the Divine will. It does not make mistakes impossible or discipline unnecessary, but it does answer the prayer of the Apostle in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 : "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." Ye ransom’d sinners, hear, The prisoners of the Lord, And wait till Christ appear, According to His word; Rejoice in hope, rejoice with me, We shall from all our sins be free. In God we put our trust; If we our sins confess, Faithful He is, and just, From all unrighteousness To cleanse us all, both you and me; We shall from all our sins be free. Surely in us the hope Of glory shall appear; Sinners, your heads lift up, And see redemption near; Again I say, rejoice with me, We shall from all our sins be free. The word of God is sure, And never can remove, We shall in heart be pure, And perfected in love; Rejoice in hope, rejoice with me, We shall from all our sins be free. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 01.12. DIFFICULTIES ABOUT CHRISTIAN PERFECTION ======================================================================== Difficulties About Christian Perfection Among the many letters received on the above subject, here is one that expresses in a typical way the difficulties of many devout and earnest Christian people: "I have been much interested, and more than interested by your article, ’The Spirit of Holiness.’ It has moved me to a deeper yearning for holiness. "I am one of those people you speak of, whose mistake it is to suppose that holiness comes by a gradual growth in grace, and I quite agree, from my inner experience, that ’its mischief is that it never gets there.’ One is always hungering and thirsting, but just as surely, one is always conscious of deep defilement of nature which constantly prevents anything approaching the ’heart made perfect.’ If I could realize that this perfection is really as you say, not a thing to be attained, but a gift of grace in the Holy Ghost, how gladly would I claim it! "Yet, to be quite candid, I feel that the consciousness of a heart made free from all inner sinfulness, would soon lose its humility, and perhaps lose its sympathy with sinful people. I have in mind one Christian worker who claimed the blessing of holiness some years ago, and is never tired of telling how she has been kept without sin for this period. But her testimony never moves me, as does the cry of some heart yearning after more of God, and if one must be quite honest, this good woman is rather avoided. "I can quite understand, regarding the positive side of holiness, that health never hinders growth; but to have health means to be free from disease, free from sin. Would you be so good as to explain to my dense mind the difference between the freedom from sin which you term ’Perfection,’ and which you term ’Finality,’ for I fear I am partly guilty of this ’most common and senseless confusion.’ I know I am almost hopelessly ignorant, but, believe me, I really desire to know, if it be possible, to be made perfect. So if you should feel that you can make it the matter of some future article - this difference between perfection of grace and perfection of glory - maybe it would vastly help other ignorant and struggling sinners like myself." The Confession Perhaps it will be best to begin with the confession. For years my correspondent has supposed that holiness comes by a gradual growth in grace, but testifies from experience "that it never gets there." That is the experience of everybody who hopes to grow into the blessing. It never comes by growth, either unurged or forced. The evil grows with the good until the evil is purged out. Surely it cannot be consistent with the gospel of a Saviour who is able to save to the uttermost, that we should be for ever striving and for ever failing! His purpose is that we should be saved with a present, free, and full salvation, and His grace is equal to His purpose. Salvation is not of works, but of grace through faith. The work is not begun in grace and perfected in works. It is the gift of God. I am quite aware of the fascination of evolution in spiritual life. Professor Drummond’s Natural Law in the Spiritual World captures by its charm rather than convinces by its logic. The theory of evolution breaks down, both in Nature and in Grace. There are creative epochs which lift life into a new plane, implant a new quality, and impart a new power. The experience of the perfecting of grace is a crisis and an epoch. Tens of thousands have testified to the experience, and not one of them ever achieved it by endeavor. Without exception, they received it as a gift of grace through faith. The Objection A definite objection is raised. It is a strange comment on the growth and the hungering and thirsting of the soul, to be told that a perfect salvation is neither believed in nor desired. There is a fear lest "the consciousness of a heart made free from all inner sinfulness would lose its humility." That is rather confused logic. How can salvation from the disposition to pride lead to the loss of humility? Is it the sense of sin that makes us humble? If so, how was our sinless Lord meek and lowly in .heart? It is not the presence of sin that makes the heart lowly. On such a basis of reckoning, the more sin would yield the greater humility. The blood that cleanses from all sin purges out of the heart all pride. Lowliness and meekness come of the vision by which the pure in heart see God. The blessing of full salvation saves from pride and envy and all false estimates of worth and virtue. It is stranger still, to imagine that holiness makes us hard and unsympathetic toward sinful people. A heart of compassion is the fruit of holiness. The yearning pity of Romans 9:1-33 has its springs in the experience of the eighth chapter. The sinful cannot love sinners unto salvation. The unsatisfied has nothing to give to those who perish of hunger. Holiness brings the soul into fellowship with the redeeming Son of God. When believers rejoice in its possession, sinners are awakened and saved. John Wesley has left it on record as his deliberate judgment that, "when Christian Perfection is not strongly and explicitly preached, there is seldom any remarkable blessing from God; and consequently little addition to the Society, and little life in the members of it." My friend should read some Methodist biographies, and see how the experience of holiness brought to the heart a consuming passion for souls. The Terrible Example We are all familiar with the ghastly caricatures of the doctrine, and it is hardly worthy of an enlightened believer to judge an experience by its failures. It has its true witnesses, and it is by them it must be judged. Spirituality has its perils, and our Lord warned us against censoriousness and hypocrisy. Every doctrine has its cranks who regard something important as all-important, but ignorance should not be confused with intention, and it is for those who know better to judge discreetly and set a better example. Counterfeits argue actual genuineness, and it is for us to find the true. Holiness does not make people repellent, but radiant. They are the people of the singing heart and the shining face. The Difficulty The real difficulty seems to be in the term "perfection." I have been explaining it for thirty years, and failure to understand the use of the term in two different senses is amazing. Take Php 3:1-21. The apostle disavows perfection in Php 3:12, and affirms it in Php 3:15. The two cannot mean the same in such contradictory statements. The first obviously refers to a future perfecting in the glory of the resurrection; the other is a present experience. In the present he is perfect, but not perfected. There is no finality in the perfection of grace, but in the resurrection grace will be perfected in the consummation of redemption. The great prayer for perfection in Hebrews 13:20-21, is the best statement of both the doctrine and the experience. It is being made perfect in every good thing to do His will, and if grace cannot do this it is useless to talk of an uttermost salvation. Now, e’en now, I yield, I yield, With all my sins to part; Jesus, speak my pardon sealed, And purify my heart; Purge the love of sin away, Then I into nothing fall; Then I see the perfect day, And Christ is all in all. Jesus, now our hearts inspire With that pure love of Thine; Kindle now the heavenly fire, To brighten and refine; Purify our faith like gold, All the dross of sin remove; Melt our spirits down, and mold Into Thy perfect love. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 01.13. THE PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN PERFECTION ======================================================================== The Prayer For Christian Perfection "Now the God of peace, which brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good thing, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen." To that prayer I say Amen, and to that covenant I set my seal. It is not for any man to say he is perfect. The doctrine is scriptural and the defense of it is sound, but the profession of the experience in terms of perfection is not to be commended. It may be true, but it is not expedient. Testimony should never need to be explained. If a man were to say he was perfect, he would need always to safeguard his testimony by explaining what he did not mean. Even then most people would remember the statement and forget the qualifications. It is well to leave the witness to our perfection to other people, and yet the experience cannot be retained without confession. It is assured to the soul by the witness of the Holy Spirit, and what He witnesses we have also to testify. The word may be inexpedient, but the reality must not be refused because the label is not acceptable. It is the experience that matters. Other terms have been used, but they are less expressive than those of scripture. Perfect love is scriptural and interpretative. Sanctification is also a scriptural word, but less popular in this country than in America. Full salvation is comprehensive and less definite, and that is true also of the terms which set forth the fullness of the Spirit. "Christian Perfection" would still be best if we talked Greek, but we speak English and to English-speaking people who have no means of distinguishing between the perfection of grace for efficiency in all the will of God, and the perfection of grace in the consummation of glory, between fitness and finality. Praying For Perfection Perfection belongs to the language of prayer. Christian truth finds sublimest expression in prayer. There are no expositions of faith like those in the inspired prayer of Holy Scripture. Language finds its wings in the prayer-life of the soul. Prayer is an exercise that calls for every faculty of man’s nature. We have all known people who were naturally slow of speech who were wonderfully gifted in prayer. One reason may be that we talk more freely to God than to anyone else. I remember presiding over a Conference to which there was submitted a resolution on the union of the churches. There was a phrase in it I did not quite like, and I asked that it might be withdrawn. The mover of the resolution expressed surprise that I should make such a request, for the words were quoted from my own prayer at the previous Sunday morning service. There was a laugh at the expense of the president, until I assured them that I said many things to God that I never said to anyone else. Hannah poured out her soul in prayer to God. That is prayer, and in such prayer there are no boundaries or restraints. God knows what we mean. There is no need to weigh our thoughts or measure our words, lest the dictionary should condemn us. We pour them all out knowing that God looks at the heart, and nowhere are we so conscious that we are not perfect as in His presence. We know that above all things we seek to do His will, and our hearts are assured before Him, but our holy things need His grace and the cleansing of His blood. Prayer reviews life and motive in the light of His countenance. There is always something to correct, something to improve, something to claim. Prayer cannot ask too much. Hope dwells within the veil. Faith goes in to possess. We pray not only that we may be perfect in every good thing to do His will, but that we may be perfected in the consummation of grace in the glory of our glorious Lord. In prayer faith finds its function and its creed. Therefore, pray! Perfect In Every Good Thing To Do His Will Prayer is definitely concerned with the will of God. To do His will we must know what it is, have grace to will it, and to do it. Both are found in prayer. The Perfection is the perfecting of every good thing. The evil things have been done away. It is the good that needs to be perfected. The prayer includes every good thing. In many there remains some good not perfected. When Brother Brice preached in the College Chapel he took the Potter for his subject, and told us some things the commentators did not know. He told us that the vessel on the wheel was not spoiled by some foreign element like stone or glass, wood or iron, but by something of the same nature as itself. It was a bit of clay, and it was quite as good as the rest, but it had not been tempered to the proper pliability. It was not made perfect for its purpose. All the rest was all right, but it was all spoiled because that bit of good clay had not been made perfect for the will of the potter. That illustration tells its own story. The trouble is the imperfect good thing. Christian Perfection is surrender to, acceptance of, and efficiency in, all the will of God. It is not the attainment of some mystical ecstasy, or the achievement of some heroic sacrifice, but just doing the will of God out of a pure heart. Some people invent tests for themselves that God never imposed. One man I knew was kept from the joy of unreserved surrender for years because he was afraid God would send him to China. God never wanted him for China. Neurotic piety is always inventing impossible heroics. It keeps good people on the jump from one impossibility to another. The Guaranty To Faith God has given guaranties of His ability and good faith. It is not a question of man’s will and ability, but of God’s purpose and power. I believe in holiness, because I believe in the holiness of God. I am not able, but He is able. Unbelief measures God by man. Faith measures man by God. Unbelief asks if God can. Faith affirms His ability to do. Can God? God can. His very nature demands it, for He is the God of Peace. He makes peace. He gives peace; even perfect peace. There are no antagonisms He cannot reconcile, no dislocations He cannot adjust, no discords He cannot harmonize, no faults He cannot remedy, no diseases He cannot heal, no lack He cannot supply. He is the God of peace, and peace is the perfect relation of every part to every other part, and of all the parts to the whole. He has proved His power. He brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. The resurrection of our Lord from the dead is not mentioned elsewhere in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and it is cited here as a guaranty of God’s power to make His people perfect. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus is the New Testament standard of measurement for the power of God. It is the big thing by which all other things are measured. In the Old Testament it was the Red Sea. In the New Testament it is the empty grave. This is the example of what God can do. If He did that, He can do this. He is able, I believe. He has provided a Great Saviour. The Risen Lord is the "Great Shepherd." He called Himself the Good Shepherd. God calls Him the Great Shepherd. After all salvation is not a question of mechanism, but a personal relationship. The Shepherd is everything to His flock. He protects and provides, leads and loves, heals and helps, corrects and controls. The Lamb of God has become the Shepherd of His people, and He so shepherds them that they neither hunger nor thirst, neither does the sun make them weary nor the hardness of the way distress them, for He leads them by still waters and living fountains, and with the gentleness of a mother God wipes away every tear from their eyes. I believe in holiness because I believe in the Great Shepherd. God has put it in the covenant. Through the blood of the everlasting covenant the prayer for perfection is made. God has sworn by an oath. Every word of God is sure, but of this word He has given surety. It is His will we should be made perfect in every good thing to do His will. His only begotten Son is surety for His Word. He has undertaken it on covenant terms. It is a wonderful covenant, for in it God pledges Himself and undertakes for us. I love the covenant relationship. The blood of the cross is the security for our perfecting. I believe in Holiness because I believe in the covenant through the blood of the cross. Even that is not all. He works in us that which He wills to do for us. He works in us to will His will and to do His good pleasure. The end of it all is that we so live as to be well-pleasing in His sight. That is the Christian Perfection set forth in the great prayer which closes the Epistle on the Perfect Son, the Perfect Saviour, and the Perfect Salvation. How can I but believe that such a Saviour is able to save to the uttermost, and make me perfect in every good thing to do His Will? Jesus, the First and Last, On Thee my soul is cast: Thou didst Thy work begin By blotting out my sin; Thou wilt the root remove, And perfect me in love. Yet when the work is done, The work is but begun: Partaker of Thy grace, I long to see Thy face; The first I prove below, The last I die to know. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 02.00. THE CALL TO HOLINESS ======================================================================== The Call To Holiness by Samuel Chadwick Samuel Chadwick was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1860. He was converted to Christ at the age of 10 and felt a call to the ministry at the age of 15. He started to preach at the age of 16 and by 21 was a circuit rider for the Methodists. In 1907 he became a tutor at Cliff College, Calver with the hopes that he would return to the mission work he was doing in the south Yorkshire coalfields within five years. However, when the Principal, Thomas Cook, died Chadwick was called to fill the position and he never returned to circuit duties. He became editor of ’Joyful News’ magazine, was elected Chairman of Sheffield District in 1911, President of the Methodist Conference in 1917, and President of the Free Church Council in 1922. He made seven preaching tours of the United States, and visited South Africa in 1916 when he addressed their Conference. He returned to Cliff College in the late 1920’s and went home to Jesus on October 16th, 1932. One famous student of his was Leonard Ravenhill who said he learned how to pray from Chadwick. NOTE: I have taken the liberty of dividing Mr. Chadwick’s work into it’s various sections, rather than merely by chapter numbers and other minor formatting changes. I have not edited ANY of his material with the exception of inserting scripture reference’s where appropriate and tagging all reference’s as tool tips. Being read as .top files, I feel his work lends itself more readily to being studied as sections; he himself broke the individual chapters up in such a manner. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 02.01. INTRODUCTION ======================================================================== There is no doubt about the call. It is on every page of the Scriptures, and the reason for it is in the nature and character of God. Holiness is not optional, but imperative. Because God is holy, His people must be holy. Without holiness no man can see the Lord. It is imperative. It must be possible. He who wills the end must provide the means. The will of God is our sanctification. The command of God is that we be holy. If sanctification is His will, and holiness His command, He must have made it possible; otherwise He would mock us and call us to an unequal and unfair task. Life would be doomed to disappointment and dissatisfaction, failure and condemnation. When God calls us to holiness it is frankly admitted that the demand is beyond us. We cannot attain unto holiness. God gives what we cannot gain by will or effort of our own. Sanctification is not attained; it is obtained. For it is of grace through faith and not of merit by works. It is without price, because it is priceless, and it is not of works, because it is beyond man’s possibility. He who wills our sanctification is Himself the Sanctifier. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 02.02. THE WILL OF GOD ======================================================================== God wills our sanctification. Of that there is no doubt. It is not a doctrine of man to be accepted or declined. We are called unto holiness, and God requires His people to be holy because He is holy. His holiness is the pattern, and His people are to be holy because He is holy, and His holiness is the pattern and standard of His demand. Absolute holiness belongs to God alone, and when He commands that His people be holy as He is holy, it means that every quality of holiness in Him must be in them, even as Jesus commanded, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) What He wills He commands. "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath given unto us his Holy Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8). To reject the call is to reject God -- to despise God. To deny the call is to deny the Holy Spirit. The will of God is our sanctification. Will implies purpose, purpose is dependent upon power, and power assumes provision. What God wills to be He must be able to do; what He requires He must make possible. Will implies freedom, our freedom as well as His. God cannot make saints as He makes worlds. When He wills man’s sanctification, another will is involved. Man cannot be sanctified even by God apart from consent and without cooperation. The thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel is the chapter of God’s "I wills." At the end of the chapter God says: "I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it," (Ezekiel 36:36) and immediately adds another "I will": "Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." (Ezekiel 36:37) God’s will waits for man’s will; and God’s power is conditioned upon man’s consent. His will is plainly our sanctification. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 02.03. THE ACT OF GOD ======================================================================== Saints are God’s workmanship. Sanctification is the act of God. Concerning this, the Word of God is decisive and emphatic. Saint Paul prays in the Thessalonian epistle -- "The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly." (1 Thessalonians 5:23) It is the Lord who separates the godly unto Himself, and He alone can make that which is separated to be holy in nature and character. There is a cleansing required that is beyond man’s power, and there is a sanctification to be wrought that God alone can do. The carnal mind is rooted in the subsoil of human nature, and man knows that he cannot make himself clean. Sanctification is not by the will of man. Neither prayer nor discipline, Bible study nor fasting, penance nor ordinance, can purify the heart and sanctify the nature. It takes God to do that. He is able. He Himself does that which He wills and commands. The experience of sanctification is variously ascribed to God, to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit. We are sanctified through Christ; our Lord sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified, and we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10). We are sanctified with the blood of Christ (Hebrews 13:12) and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin, (1 John 1:7). We are sanctified through the Word of God. "The word is truth," (John 15:3-17; 1 John 1:7). We are made holy through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2). From first to the last, salvation is of grace through faith. As we are justified by faith, so are we sanctified by faith. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 02.04. THE WORK OF GOD ======================================================================== There is a tense in the Greek that indicates an act and implies a process. The act is definite and complete, and it establishes a subsequent and consequent order. That is the tense of the sanctifying act of God. It is a definite experience, specific in character, and verified by the assurance of the Spirit. It is a second work of grace involving a crisis, making an end and establishing a beginning. The act initiates a new order, a new stage of development, and a new inheritance of maturity. The son comes of age. The experience equips and endows. No state of grace is static, no growth in grace is final, no work of grace is unrelated. We do not grow into the experience of sanctification. but we grow in it; there is no perfection beyond which there is no perfecting. The holy have their fruit unto holiness. The branch in the vine is cleansed, that it may bring forth more fruit; the call to holiness is a call to a holy life. It is a tragedy when "holiness" people are not holy people. The act of God in sanctification is followed by the work of God in holiness of character and life. "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 02.05. WHEN DOES GOD SANCTIFY? ======================================================================== If a man must be holy to see God, there must be some point at which the work is done. Because the blessing seems impossible outside heaven, there are many who believe that it takes place at death. There is no Scripture authority for such belief, and death is never said to be either the time or the means of sanctification. Many regard holiness as a state toward which we continually strive but never attain. It is thus always an ideal and never an experience, but God speaks of it as an act, and treats it as an experience. The Scriptures never identify it with the new birth. They urge it upon the regenerate as an inheritance, and command it as an obligation. John Fletcher of Madeley has answered the question of time: "If our hearts are purified by faith, as the Scriptures expressly testify, if the faith which peculiarly purifies the heart of Christians is a faith in the promise of the Father, which promise was made by the Son, and directly points at a peculiar effusion of the Holy Spirit, the purifier of spirits; if we may believe in a moment, and if God may in a moment seal our sanctifying faith by sending us a fullness of His sanctifying Spirit; if this, I say, is the case, does it not follow, that to deny the possibility of the instantaneous destruction of sin, is to deny that we can make an instantaneous act of faith in the sanctifying promise of the Father, and in the all-cleansing blood of the Son, and that God can seal that act by an instantaneous operation of His Spirit?" Nothing surprised nor distressed John Wesley so much as the number of those who entered into the blessing of entire sanctification and lost it. The same disastrous experience is with us. The moral failures are largely responsible for the unbelief that despises the blessing. The strain of trying to live the holy life is intolerable if the life itself declines. It is only possible with God, and the conditions of life and growth are constant and uncompromising. If the experience is not to end in disappointment and dishonor, there must be the work of God that establishes in holiness. The garden of God can suffer no neglect. Holiness involves diligence in cultivation, watchfulness in discipline, attention to nourishment, and exercise in Godlikeness. The perfect must go on unto perfection, and the sanctified must perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. The God that sanctifies can keep, and His keeping is as complete as His sanctifying. He keeps the spirit holy. He keeps the soul unspotted. He keeps the body sanctified, as becomes the temple of the indwelling God. This whole subject is hopeless until it is approached from the Godward side. Man cannot make himself holy. He cannot keep himself holy. God can sanctify. God can keep. "Faithful is he that calleth you. who also will do it." "Jesus, the First and Last, On Thee my soul is cast; Thou didst Thy work begin By blotting out my sin; Thou wilt the root remove, And perfect me in love. "Yet when the work is done The work is but begun; Partaker of Thy grace, I long to see Thy face; The first I prove below; The last I die to know." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 03.00. THE PATH OF PRAYER ======================================================================== The Path Of Prayer by Samuel Chadwick Samuel Chadwick was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1860. He was converted to Christ at the age of 10 and felt a call to the ministry at the age of 15. He started to preach at the age of 16 and by 21 was a circuit rider for the Methodists. In 1907 he became a tutor at Cliff College, Calver with the hopes that he would return to the mission work he was doing in the south Yorkshire coalfields within five years. However, when the Principal, Thomas Cook, died Chadwick was called to fill the position and he never returned to circuit duties. He became editor of ’Joyful News’ magazine, was elected Chairman of Sheffield District in 1911, President of the Methodist Conference in 1917, and President of the Free Church Council in 1922. He made seven preaching tours of the United States, and visited South Africa in 1916 when he addressed their Conference. He returned to Cliff College in the late 1920’s and went home to Jesus on October 16th, 1932. One famous student of his was Leonard Ravenhill who said he learned how to pray from Chadwick. NOTE: I have taken the liberty of dividing Mr. Chadwick’s work into it’s various sections, rather than merely by chapter numbers and other minor formatting changes. I have not edited ANY of his material with the exception of inserting scripture reference’s where appropriate and tagging all reference’s as tool tips. Being read as .top files, I feel his work lends itself more readily to being studied as sections; he himself broke the individual chapters up in such a manner. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 03.01. THE SIGN OF PRAYER ======================================================================== The Sign of Prayer All religions pray. God and prayer are inseparable. Belief in God and belief in prayer are elemental and intuitive. The ideas may be crude and cruel in primitive and pagan peoples, but they belong to the universal intuitions of the human race. The teaching of the Old Testament is full of the subject of prayer. Everywhere there are commands and inducements to pray, and the great stories of deliverance and victory, experience and vision, are all examples of prevailing prayer. All the crises in the life of our Lord were linked with special seasons of prayer, and His teaching set forth wonderful assurances to those who pray. He laid down the laws of prayer, though He never sought to explain its mystery. Prayer was not a problem to Him. The two parables He spake about prayer are not very acceptable to those who pray. There is something alien to the spirit of prayer in likening God to a heartless judge or a churlish friend. God is neither. The parables were not spoken as representative of God, but to illustrate the reward of importunity. The basis of prayer is sonship. Prayer is possible and reasonable because it is filial. It is natural for a child to ask of its father, and it is reasonable for the father to listen to the request of his child. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:11). There are many problems about prayer, but they lie outside the fact and experience of prayer, and apart from praying there is no solution of them. Prayer is a fact of experience, and through all the ages the testimony of those who prayed has been that God hears and answers the prayers of His children. He enters heaven with prayer. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 03.02. WHAT GOD THINKS ABOUT PRAYER ======================================================================== What God Thinks About Prayer The thoughts of God are not as man’s thoughts, neither are His ways man’s ways. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9). God has made known His thoughts and His ways, in the revelation of His Word and in the Person of His Son. The medium of the revelation is experience, and the occasion is in the events of life in individuals and in history. God has never put his thoughts into a thesis of philosophy or metaphysics. He has interpreted in life and set forth His way in precepts, principles, and example. There is one incident which tells us what God thinks of prayer. His mind concerning prayer is seen in every command to pray, in every law of prayer, in every promise concerning prayer, and in every example of answered prayer. Every part is part of the whole, but every subject of Scripture has its final and complete expression, and in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus there is a unique revelation of the mind of God concerning prayer. There are three persons in that incident of prayer. There are the man who prayed, the God who heard, and the man through whom the answer came. God is central. It is to Him prayer is made, through Him prayer is interpreted, and by Him prayer is answered. God speaks of prayer in terms of wonder: "Behold, he prayeth." (Acts 9:11) The language is that of humanity, but it is the only speech man knows, and however inadequate it may be, it stands for corresponding reality in God. Can God wonder? Can there be in Him elements of surprise and amazement? Can it be that there are things that to God are wonderful? That is how God speaks, and to Him there is nothing more gloriously wonderful than prayer. It would seem as if the biggest thing in God’s universe is a man who prays. There is only one thing more amazing, and that is, that man, knowing this, should not pray. Behold! In that word there is wonder, rapture, exultation. In the estimate of God prayer is more wonderful than all the wonders of the heavens, more glorious than all the mysteries of the earth, more mighty than all the forces of creation. God interprets prayer as a sign of all that happened to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road The event is variously expressed To the church of Judaea it was a conversion that turned their archpersecutor into a preacher. This is how Paul the apostle states it in writing to the Galatians: "Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ; but they had heard only, that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me." (Galatians 1:21-23) That is a conversion that was the result of an experience. What was the experience? Paul says that in the experience it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. That is what the Damascus road experience meant to him. When God speaks of it, He sums it all up in the words, "Behold, he prayeth." (Acts 9:11) That is what it meant to God, and that is what it always means to Him. Prayer is the symbol and proof and gauge of grace. All that happens in the converting work of grace whereby we receive the adoption of sons is that, being sons, we begin to pray. Saul of Tarsus had been a praying man all his life, but it was not until then that he began to pray as God interprets prayer. The children’s hymn is equally applicable to grown-up people: I often say my prayers, But do I ever pray? Prayer is the privilege of sons, and the test of sonship. It would seem as if God divided all men into the simple classification of those who pray and those who do not. It is a very simple test, but it is decisive, and divisive. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 03.03. THE WAY GOD ANSWERS PRAYER ======================================================================== The Way God Answers Prayer God answers joyously. There is a ring of exultation in the words He speaks to Ananias, like the joyous ring of our Lord’s parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Rejoice with me! "Behold, he prayeth!" (Acts 9:11) There is joy in the heart of God the Father when His lost children begin to pray. He answers like the God He is. Ananias may parley with God, but God never parleys with man. The answering hand of God waits for the lifted hand of man, and the heart that answers always transcends the heart that cries. The answer to Saul of Tarsus was twofold: He gave a vision and sent a messenger -- a vision, and a man, each corresponding to the other. That is God’s way: first an assurance, and then the confirmation. That is the prayer of faith that never fails. God’s servants are partners with Him in the ministry of prayer. That is the mystery of spiritual co-operation. The Lord goes before the man He sends. Saul was prepared and waiting for the man he had already seen in a vision of God. Ananias found Saul prepared and waiting. God gave to Ananias the sign of prayer as the proof of grace. It was His own sign, and it is the sign He still gives. Is there any proof that a man is a man of God like the fact that he is a man of prayer? Of Elijah it is said that he "prayed in his prayer" (James 5:17, A.V., margin). Of some men it is said that they live in at atmosphere of devotion; but it is one thing to live in an atmosphere of prayer and another to "pray in our praying." Finney went to a weekly prayer meeting, where they prayed much and got no answers. Muller prayed and answers came, and that is why all men believed him to be a man of God. When I was a very small boy, not more than six or seven years of age, I was sent on an errand to the house of a neighbor named Davenport; it was about nine o’clock in the morning. I knocked, lifted the latch, and stepped inside. On the hearth, kneeling at a chair on which was an open Bible, was Mrs. Davenport, praying. She was unaware of my presence. I stood in silent awe for a moment, and then quietly stepped out and closed the door. It is more than sixty years since that morning, but from then till now I have known that Mrs. Davenport was a saint of God, because she prayed. It is God’s infallible sign, and it is the only sign that even the world accepts as an infallible proof. Prayer made all the difference to Saul of Tarsus, and it always makes all the difference. It brought a new assurance of God, a new confirmation of faith, a new fellowship of the people of God, a new experience of healing, a new vocation, a new inheritance, a new power. Prayer changes things; Prayer makes all things possible, for it links the praying soul to the omnipotence of God. Do we pray? Do we pray in our praying? Does God put His seal on our prayers? Lord, teach us to pray! Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice Returning from his ways, While angels in their songs rejoice, And cry, "Behold he prays." Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, The Christian’s native air, His watchword at the gates of death; ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 03.04. LEARNING TO PRAY ======================================================================== Learning to Pray Can prayer be learned? Is it not of the very soul of prayer that it shall be in the freedom of the Spirit? John the Baptist gave his disciples a form of prayer, and the disciples of Jesus asked to be taught to pray. There were not many things they asked Him to do for them, and when they did, they were usually wrong. Would He have given them a form of prayer if they had not asked Him? Why did they ask? His own praying awoke within them a desire to be able to pray, and when they wanted to pray they found they did not know how. They felt the need of some ordered form by which they could speak out of their heart to God. They quoted John. There are still disciples who quote John the Baptist to Jesus. Forms are easier than a creative spirit. Prayers counted on a rosary are easier than the prayers of a soul poured out in unrestrained speech to God. The Prayer Book helps the inarticulate to expression. Such praying may be perfectly sincere, and the devout may find in provided prayers a real help to devotion, and it may be that such praying may need to be learned at the feet of instructors. Indeed, that is the kind of prayer that needs to be learned. The rosary prayers are recited, and the Free Churchman seldom knows his way through Morning or Evening Prayers in the Prayer Book. All praying begins with forms of prayer. There is hardly a soul but remembers the simple, earnest prayers repeated at the mother’s knee with reverent wonder and joy. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 03.05. PERSONALITY IN PRAYER ======================================================================== Personality in Prayer It is not other people’s prayers that make the man of prayer. All true prayer, the prayer that prevails, is personal, intimate and original. Hannah protested that she had poured out her soul to God. That is prayer, and yet it is not the whole of prayer. Receptivity is as real a part of prayer as expression. Saul of Tarsus had been a praying man from his youth, but he never really prayed till he met the risen Lord on the Damascus road. From the heavenward side the whole change that had been wrought was summed up in the words, "Behold, he prayeth." (Acts 9:11) The secret of Elijah’s power in prayer was that he "prayed in his prayer." That is the translation given in the margin of the Authorized Version. He "prayed earnestly" is given in the text, and "fervently" in the Revised Version, with the note in the margin that says the Greek literally is, "with prayer." (James 5:17) He prayed with prayer; he prayed in his prayer. That is to say, he really prayed his prayers. He did not say prayers; he prayed in praying. His whole personality was in his supplication. He really wanted what he asked, and fervently meant what he said. Can that kind of prayer be taught? It is the prayer that prevails. Formal routine of temple-service and the regular reading of words of second-hand inspiration and no understanding are neither acceptable to God nor profitable to man. They are vain repetitions. There is much praying that avails nothing, so far as we can judge. During the baccarat scandal, W. E. Stead computed the number and value of the prayers offered every day in the Anglican Church for the Prince of Wales, and the computation of value was not in proportion to their number. He was probably wrong, for prayer is not accounted in terms of arithmetic. The real problem is not there. Prayers are measured neither by time nor by number, but by intensity. There are prayers that are impassioned and there is no answer, and there are things for which we know we ought to pray in an agony of prayer, and there is no power to pray. We do not know how to pray. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 03.06. PRAYER LEARNED BY PRAYING ======================================================================== Prayer Learned by Praying There is no way to learn to pray but by praying. No reasoned philosophy of prayer ever taught a soul to pray. The subject is beset with problems, but there are no problems of prayer to the man who prays. They are all met in the fact of answered prayer and the joy of fellowship with God. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, and if prayer waits for understanding, it will never begin. We live by faith. We walk by faith. Edison wrote in 1921: "We don’t know the millionth part of one per cent about anything. We don’t know what water is. We don’t know what light is. We don’t know what gravitation is. We don’t know what enables us to keep on our feet when we stand up. We don’t know what electricity is. We don’t know what heat is. We don’t know anything about magnetism. We have a lot of hypotheses about these things, but that is all. But we do not let our ignorance about all these things deprive us of their use." We discover by using. We learn by practice. Though a man should have all knowledge about prayer, and though he understand all mysteries about prayer, unless he prays he will never learn to pray. There have been souls that were mighty in prayer, and they learned to pray. There was a period in their lives when they were as others in the matter of prayer, but they became mighty with God and prevailed. In every instance there was a crisis of grace, but it was in the discipline of grace that they discovered the secret of power. They were known as men of God, because they were men of prayer. Some of them were renamed, like Jacob and Simon and Saul. They were called "Praying John," "Praying Mary," "Praying Bramwell," and "Praying Hyde." Our Methodist fathers were mighty in prayer. They saved England by prayer. They shook the gates of hell by prayer. They opened the windows of heaven by prayer. How did they learn to pray? They learned to pray by being much in prayer. They did not talk about prayer; they prayed. They did not argue about prayer; they prayed. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 03.07. TRAINED IN PRAYER ======================================================================== Trained in Prayer Prayer touches infinite extremes. It is so simple that a little child can pray, and it is so profound that none but a child-heart can pray. Montgomery’s hymn has immortalized its profound simplicity: Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed, The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast. Prayer is the simplest form of speech That infant lips can try; Prayer the sublimest strains that reach The Majesty on high. That is gloriously true. A cry brings God. A cry is mightier than the polished phrase. The Pharisee prayed within himself. His prayers revolved on ruts of vanity in his own mind and heart. The publican cried and was heard. It is not of emergency exits of the soul we are thinking, but the sustained habit and experience of the man of prayer. Such prayer comes by training, and there is no discipline so exacting. Coleridge says of such praying that it is the very highest energy of which the human heart is capable, and it calls for the total concentration of all the faculties. The great mass of worldly men and learned men he pronounced incapable of prayer. To pray as God would have us pray is the greatest achievement on earth. Such a life of prayer costs. It takes time. Hurried prayers and muttered litanies can never produce souls mighty in prayer. To become skilled in art and mechanism, learners give hours regularly every day that they may become proficient. Our Lord rose before daybreak that He might pray, and not infrequently He spent all night in prayer. All praying saints have spent hours every day in prayer. One is afraid to quote examples. In these days there is no time to pray; but without time, and a lot of it, we shall never learn to pray. It ought to be possible to give God one hour out of twenty-four all to Himself. Anyway, let us make a start in the discipline of training in prayer by setting apart a fixed time every day for the exercise of prayer. We must seriously set our hearts to learn how to pray. "To pray with all your heart and strength, with the reason and the will, to believe vividly that God will listen to your voice through Christ, and verily do the thing He pleaseth thereupon -- this is the last, the greatest achievement of the Christian’s warfare upon earth." Teach us to pray, O Lord, we beseech thee. The Praying Spirit breathe, The watching power impart, From all entanglements beneath, Call off my anxious heart. My feeble mind sustain, By worldly thoughts oppressed, Appear, and bid me turn again To my eternal rest. When you feel the strain of discipline remember these words: Thou art oft most present, Lord, In weak, distracted prayer; A sinner out of heart with self, Most often finds thee there. For prayer that humbles, sets the soul From all delusions free, And teaches it how utterly Dear Lord, it hangs on thee. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: 03.08. PRAYING IN SECRET ======================================================================== Praying in Secret If prayer is the greatest achievement on earth, we may be sure it will call for a discipline that corresponds to its power. The School of Prayer has its conditions and demands. It is a forbidden place to all but those of set purpose and resolute heart. Strong men often break down under the strain of study. Concentration is a heavier task than handling a hammer or guiding a plow. The discipline curbs freedom, and drills the mind to attention. Understanding is more taxing than doing, and meditation is a severer tax than service. The reason so many people do not pray is because of its cost. The cost is not so much in the sweat of agonizing supplication as in the daily fidelity to the life of prayer. It is the acid test of devotion. Nothing in the life of faith is so difficult to maintain. There are those who resent the association of discipline and intensity with prayer. They do not pray like that, and certainly they would not like their children to entreat and plead for anything they wanted with "strong crying and tears." (Hebrews 5:7) That is quite likely, but then no one suspects them of praying like that, and the analogy of their children may not be the whole truth. Nothing can be farther from the truth than a false analogy. The School of Prayer is for those who really want to learn to pray. Those who come to learn are disciples. They put themselves under the yoke of Him from whom they seek to learn, and the first condition of learning is a teachable spirit. Our Lord has the authority to teach, and He Himself is Example as well as Instructor. There is no appeal beyond Him. Having besought Him to teach us how to pray, we surrender mind and heart to His teaching and yield all to the discipline of loyal and believing obedience. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: 03.09. WHAT DOES OUR LORD TEACH US AS TO PRAYER? ======================================================================== What Does Our Lord Teach Us As To Prayer One of the first things he commands is that there shall be a place of prayer. It is quite true that the whole earth is the Lord’s, and that there is no place where prayer may not be heard. God wills that men should pray everywhere. Wherever we may be, he is nigh at hand, and not afar off, and wherever there is a praying heart, the soul finds the sanctuary of God. No one would suggest that Jesus did not appreciate the sacredness of the earth, which He said was the footstool of God, but it was His habit to withdraw into a solitary place to pray. He needed the fenced spaces of silence. To His disciples He said: "And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. But thou, when thou prayest. enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee" (Matthew 6:5-6). Why does He insist upon this inner chamber and the closed door? The first reason is that the first quality God requires in prayer is reality. Hypocrites never pray in secret. Prayers that are a pretense require an audience. They are intended to be heard of men, and they have their reward in skill of phrasing, a show of earnestness, and a reputation for piety. These things do not count with God. They cannot live in His presence. Prayer is between the soul and God alone. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: 03.10. THE SILENT SPACES OF THE SOUL ======================================================================== The Silent Spaces of the Soul The soul needs its silent spaces. It is in them we learn to pray. There, alone, shut in with God, our Lord bids us pray to our Father who is in secret, and seeth in secret. There is no test like solitude. Fear takes possession of most minds in the stillness of the solitary place. The heart shrinks from being alone with God who seeth in secret! Who shall abide in His presence? Who can dwell with God, who is shadowless light? Hearts must be pure and hands clean that dare shut the door and be alone with God. It would revolutionize the lives of most men if they were shut in with God in some secret place for half an hour a day. For such praying all the faculties of the soul need to be awake and alert. When our Lord took Peter and James and John with Him to the secret place of prayer, they were heavy with sleep. It was the same in the mount of glory and the garden of agony, and it was not until they were fully awake that they saw the glory or realized the anguish. There are some silent places of rare wisdom where men may not talk, but they find it possible to sleep. Mooning is not meditation, and drowsy repose is not praying. The secret place of prayer calls for every faculty of mind and heart. Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, Bless His holy name. (Psalms 103:1) As for praise, so for prayer the whole being is called. There is a vital difference between private and corporate prayer. Each kind of prayer brings blessing after its kind, but there is a difference. Corporate prayer is less exacting. There is a sense of fellowship that gives courage and inspires expression. Guided prayer is companionable, but it has a tendency to do its thinking by proxy. In private prayer the soul stands naked and alone in the presence of God. Thought is personal, prayer is original, motive is challenged. Corporate prayer gives a spirit of fellowship; private prayer disciplines personality. Who can measure the influence of an hour a day spent alone with God? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: 03.11. THE HILL OF THE LORD ======================================================================== The Hill of the Lord The way into the Holy Presence is not a thoroughfare. The inner chamber into which a man goes is his own, but it is the presence of God that makes it a holy place. To a secular mind there would be no Presence. It is the seeking soul that finds. There are some people to whom no audience is given. There are souls that cannot pray. James says of some men that they need not think they can receive anything of the Lord. Even before Christ taught men to pray, the psalmist declared, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear" (Psalms 66:18). The Judgment Seat of God is in the inner chamber; but the throne of grace is there also, or none would ever dare to enter in. Forgotten sins start into life, and hidden things stand naked and open before Him with whom we have to do. All who would enter the Holy Presence and live must have a sincere desire for God and a conscience set on dwelling in the light. Our Lord laid emphasis upon the forgiving spirit. The one thing above all others that bolts and bars the way into the presence chamber of prayer is unwillingness to forgive from the heart. No gift can be accepted of God until reconciliation has been made. "If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift" (Matthew 5:23-24) Again, when Jesus stated the law of faith in relation to prayer, he said: "Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them. And whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against anyone; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses" (Mark 11:24-26). "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:15). Why did He lay such emphasis upon forgiveness? Was it not for the same reason that the law and the prophets placed the emphasis upon righteousness? All who would come to the Holy One must be holy, and whoever will come to the God of mercy must be merciful. The petitioner for grace must believe in grace. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: 03.12. THINE INNER CHAMBER ======================================================================== Thine Inner Chamber Let no soul be discouraged from making a beginning. Schools are graded to the capacity of the learners. The great souls who became mighty in prayer, and rejoiced to spend three and four hours a day alone with God, were once beginners. They went from strength to strength. For our comfort let us remember that it is into our own inner chamber we enter, and the God who is there is our Father. Many years ago a sweet little girl stole into my bedroom in the house where I was staying. She prattled blithely over all the wonders of her child world, but when I asked if father was up, she looked radiantly and reverently into my eyes and said, "Oh, my daddy always talks with God in the drawing room before breakfast." Happy father! Happy child! Happy God! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: 03.13. THE INNER ROOM AND THE CLOSED DOOR ======================================================================== The Inner Room and The Closed Door "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee" (Matthew 6:6). There are two difficulties awaiting us at the threshold of this command. One is that many have no inner chamber. There is no place in their lives for privacy. They have no room that is not shared, and if they could find room, they have no leisure. The closed door may neither shut out nor shut in. The wireless has made us familiar with the fact that neither bolted doors nor shuttered windows can secure privacy. Thought is more subtle than sound, and Satan is more cunning than the wireless expert. The saints who have been practiced in private prayer bear witness to the adversaries that keep watch at the door of the soul’s inner chamber. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: 03.14. WHERE SHALL WE FIND THE SECRET PLACE? ======================================================================== Where Shall We Find The Secret Place? My aim is not to instruct, but to suggest. Manuals of devotion have usually been to me depressing rather than helpful. They are either too mechanical or too exacting. They discourage rather than inspire. I want to write quite frankly, and in the first person. All my life I have wanted to learn to pray. In my zeal I have experimented and explored in likely and unlikely ways and schools of prayer, and without pose or pride I want in meekness and humility to tell you what I have learned. I speak for myself. I judge no man’s method, criticize no man’s counsel, challenge no man’s experience. I speak with utmost simplicity, and you must judge what I say. Let us begin with the difficulty of privacy. There are tens of thousands of Christ’s disciples who have no room to which they can retire for private prayer. They live with other people, sleep with other people, work with other people. They cannot escape from people. Is not this a reason why the door of the house of God should never be closed? One Monday morning a penitent sinner stopped me in the main street of the town where I had preached on the Sunday. There were three nonconformist churches near at hand, but they were locked and bolted, back and front, and we had to go to the parish church to find a place where there was privacy for prayer. The door of the church should always be open. Even that does not meet the need of the soul. The secret place of prayer should be part of the daily life, a part of the daily dwelling place. Some place must be found that shall be a trysting place with God. A hungry heart will find a way. In the open air or in some secluded corner, some inner sanctuary will be found. If this advantage is impossible, the soul must make an open space into which it can withdraw, even in the presence of others, and be alone with God; but the "inner chamber" is an unspeakable boon. Happily, God wills that men should pray everywhere, but the place of His glory is in the solitudes, where He hides us in the cleft of the rock, and talks with man face to face as a man talketh with his friend. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: 03.15. HOW CAN WE SECURE THE CLOSED DOOR? ======================================================================== How Can We Secure The Closed Door? How is it possible to keep the world from coming in and the mind from straying out? Concentration on any subject is a severe strain upon the mind, and nowhere is it so difficult as in the place and practice of private prayer. An enemy is there to raise bogies, excite conscience, jog memory, and direct invaders of the sacred hour. Some simple device will usually secure the secret place from intrusion. General Gordon pinned a white handkerchief at the opening of his tent. I hang a card outside the door when I wish to be alone. That is simple enough, but though it may keep people out, it is useless against the distractions of the mind, and a body may just as well be roaming at large as be shut in with a wandering mind. How can the door be so shut as to keep out the things that divert and distract? Attention is an act of the will. Concentration is sustained attention upon a specific object. The will can be disciplined and the power of concentration developed. An educated mind is trained to attention, discrimination, and concentration. By patience the soul is won, and by discipline the mind is trained. God is in secret. Let the first act be to affirm the fact of the Holy presence. Call every faculty of mind and body to remembrance, recognition, and realization of the God that is in secret and seeth in secret. Hold the mind to this fact. Tolerate no distraction, allow no diversion, indulge no dissipation. Every faculty must be alert. Of the apostles in the holy mount it is said they were heavy with sleep, but when they were fully awake they saw His glory. Dreaming is not meditation. Dozing is not thinking. Moping is not praying. Prayer in the secret place unvaryingly demands that every faculty should be at its best. Our Lord gave His disciples a form and order of prayer, and it does not begin with either song or supplication, but with the contemplation of God: Our Father, Which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. It is in this way all the great prayers of the Bible begin. That is how I find it helpful to begin. I think in adoring love and wonder of His character and attributes, of His majesty and might, of His grace and glory. Musing kindles the fire, and the flame becomes "a wall of fire round about," which keeps beasts and intruders as a safe distance. That is why I so often find that prayer in the secret place begins with the Doxology, and abounds in glory and thanksgiving. It is there the transfigured Lord is seen. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: 03.16. THE WORD OF GOD IN THE HOLY PRESENCE ======================================================================== The Word og God in the Holy Presence I never take any book but the Bible into the secret place. It is my prayer book. I seek no external aids to devotion, such as the cross or crucifix. I have no altar but the one within the veil. Other minds have other ways. Most people have some devotional classic, but I do not take even my hymn book. I will write more fully on the devotional use of the Bible, and at present I will content myself with saying that I feed upon it by searching its truth, appropriating its affirmations, and turning its psalms and prayers into personal thanksgiving and supplication. Questions of criticism, textual or otherwise, do not enter into my mind in the secret place, any more than questions of chemical analysis trouble me when I eat my dinner. The Word is more to me than my necessary food. It thrills and moves me with tremendous power. The Word of God instructs us how to pray. The posture of the body must be determined by conditions of health and comfort. Normally, to kneel is reverent and helpful. One of my friends tells me that he sits, and close by him he places a vacant chair. The habit should be to kneel, but conditions of health and soul will dictate their own posture. it is fitting that we should "kneel before the Lord our Maker." Prayer is more than asking, but even our asking should be instructed under the direction of the Holy Spirit. I find it good to rehearse and review my daily life in the Holy Presence. It is there I make my plans. God keeps the pattern of earthly things in the holy mount. Thomas Champness talked with God about his work and his evangelists every morning from five to six. God guides with His eye, and eyes speak best in the place of secret communion. It is there we are assured of His will and are made to understand His way. It is the place of intercession. That is the place where we can talk freely with God about other people. The family, the church, the business, the friendships, the state, the world, are all subjects of earnest and believing private prayer. Class leaders should go, over the classbook name by name; the Sunday school superintendent over the teachers’ roll, and the teacher over the class register in the same way, name by name. Keep a prayer list of subjects for intercession, and always have a list of people for whom you pray. It is not necessary to tell anyone else the things you tell to God. The Father is in secret, He sees in secret, He hears in secret; leave it to Him to make it known. The God in secret is our Father. Prayer is filial; we pray as sons and daughters in the Father’s house. He knows our need better than we can tell, Him, and He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think; therefore ask in confidence, nothing doubting. It is in the secret place we learn that silence is the best speech and listening is the best part of praying. Those who speak are; heard, and those who listen hear. Of Jesus it is said, "And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed" (Mark 1:35). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: 03.17. THE WORD OF GOD AND PRAYER ======================================================================== The Word of God And Prayer The Word of God quickens the soul and instructs it in prayer. The psalmist speaks for all who pray when he confesses to seasons when the soul could not find its wings: "My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy Word." (Psalms 119:25) It is always to the Word of God he turns for quickening and instruction. Saint Paul links together the Word of God and prayer. "And take.. . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me." (Ephesians 6:17-18) Watching where and whereunto? Watching with all perseverance! That is surely with diligence and patience, alertness and reverence. We must search the Word, that we may know how to pray. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: 03.18. AIDS TO DEVOTION ======================================================================== Aids to Devotion It must be remembered that I do not judge any man in the method of devotion. I speak only for myself. The practice of private prayer is so difficult to maintain that I grudge no help to those who find aids in things that to me would be a hindrance. Some find help in symbols and pictures, and most of those who seek to cultivate the prayer life of the soul keep some book of devotion at hand. Thomas a Kempis, Lancelot Andrewes, William Law, Andrew Murray, and the hymnology of all the churches have, been blessed to tens of thousands who have sought to know how to pray. It may be a confession of shame, but I do not want any of them in the "inner chamber." I can appreciate, them, more or less, elsewhere, but not here. There are two perils to be avoided: one is emotional unreality; and the other is intellectual preoccupation. An earnest believer whose religious enthusiasm found expression in service for the church and humanity was convicted of prayerlessness. He earnestly resolved to spend half an hour every day in private prayer. At the end of the month he gave it up because he could not endure the sense of unreality. He could not talk or meditate half an hour every day when there was no one there! There was not only no sense of a Presence, but there was a very real consciousness of an absence. There can be no experience of heart speech and soul fellowship without a consciousness of a Presence. The soul cannot keep up an emotional make-believe day after day. The mind cannot live in a vacuum. The Father is in secret, but it is the glory of His presence that makes the sanctuary. There must be truth as well as spirit in all worship, and nowhere is the combination more necessary than in the secret place of prayer. Altar fires are kindled and quickened by truth, but the truth must get to the altar. Devotional studies do not necessarily lead to devotion. There may be a preoccupation with truth that becomes an obsession. The study of experimental truth may never become experience, and the experience of others may become a snare. Even the Bible may become a hindrance. Light can blind. Our Lord reproached the religious teachers of His day because their misuse of the Scriptures blinded their minds. Stepping-stones may become slipping-stones, and even a corner stone may be a stumblingblock. In all questions of the soul each must find help where he Song of Solomon ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: 03.19. THE DEVOTIONAL USE OF THE BIBLE ======================================================================== The Devotional Use of the Bible Have we still got a Bible we can take into the holy place? The most disastrous result of paganizing the Bible is that it has so largely fallen into disuse as a Book of Devotion. An honest man cannot pray through a discredited book. Truth is as essential to man as to God. If he is to worship, he must worship in spirit and in truth. Some teachers and preachers have what the learned called a "complex." The unlearned call it a "bee in the bonnet." They never miss a chance to drag in a jibe at what they call the traditional view of the Bible, and yet they insist that nothing has been lost in the change. The Scriptures are still "the living and sovereign Word of God." They admit that "Jesus took the Bible at its face value," and that in it He found His gospel, on it He fed His soul, and in all the great crises of His life He relied upon its truth. The disciple may be content to be as his Lord. There are methods of Bible study that do not belong to the inner sanctuary of prayer. Historical Sources, Literary Criticism, Higher Criticism, and Lower Criticism belong to the forum and the study. They are concerned with the external conditions and progressive development of Revealed Truth. In the Holy Place the Scriptures are received as "the living, sovereign Word of God." How many soever may be the inspired writers, there is but one Author. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:21) Questions of date, authorship, and the like are left outside, not because ignorance is more helpful to prayer than intelligence, but because they are irrelevant. In all Scripture there is a local and immediate message of truth, but there is also a revelation that is timeless and universal. Local knowledge is essential to complete understanding, but the soul in prayer comes to the Word that it may find God, and to the soul at prayer it is the infallible, sovereign, saving Word of God. Therefore we may still take the Scriptures into the inner chamber. Even the critics are anxious to assure us that the things for which they contend are not among the things that really matter, and, after all, their "assured results" are nothing more than "agreed hypotheses." I do not want to harp unduly on the subject of biblical criticism, but I think it may help you if I tell you how I regard the Scriptures. It always seems to me that there is a very real analogy between the Word of the Lord and the law of the land. The judge and jury accept the law, and it is their business, not to criticize or amend, but to interpret and administer. They have no concern with the politics and politicians by whom the law came. It is very interesting to study the historical situation it was intended to meet, to trace the agitation of the reformers, to know who framed the bill, and who was responsible for amending clauses, but that is the business of historians, experts, and antiquarians. Even a lawyer may be ignorant of them. His business is to know the law. The business of a judge is to interpret the law. The business of the jury is to submit their verdict to the authority of the law. So it is with the Word of God. There may be two Isaiahs or twenty, two contributors to the Pentateuch or two hundred, Mark’s Gospel may have begun with "Q" or any other letter of the’ alphabet. The Word has passed beyond personal and historical limitations, and because of the inspiration that gave them, the Scriptures are the Word of the Lord that abideth forever. We take the Bible into the inner sanctuary, not that we may know what is its literary history, but that we may hear what the Lord our God will say unto us. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: 03.20. THE PRAYING METHOD IN THE WORD ======================================================================== The Praying Method In The Word Saint Paul said, "I will pray with the understanding also." (1 Corinthians 14:15) The Word of God gives understanding to prayer. The Bible is not an easy book to the uninitiated, and that is why so many fall back upon ordered and simple books of devotion, but it is the Book of Common Prayer to be understood of the common people. I think I can help you best by telling you of my own method. The first question is where to begin. Each will find his own starting point. I began with the Psalms. The next thing to decide is the most suitable time of the day. When I began I was called at five o’clock in the morning, and had to be at work at six, so I read my morning portion the night before. I read through the appointed portion in a prayer spirit again and again, then went over it clause by clause on my knees, turning its statements into prayer and thanksgiving. Then I wrote out the verse or phrase that spoke to me, read it over next morning as I dressed, committed the day briefly to God, and put the text in my waistcoat pocket. Before I found this method I used to try to work myself into a praying mood, but I lacked resourcefulness, and praying became "prayers" again, and listening a void. Prayer has been an experience of thrilling wonder, creative meditation, and real fellowship since it has been instructed, quickened, and inspired by the Word of God. In addition to this simple method, I find, great help in the use of the marginal references, especially those of the Revised Version. The method taught by the Holy Spirit is to compare scripture with scripture, and spiritual things with spiritual. The Spirit that inspired the Scriptures is given to us for interpretation. The Holy Spirit and the Holy Word are never at variance. Revelation is progressive, and every part has its relative truth. To watch the unfolding of the Word deeply stirs my soul. New discoveries excite the mind and kindle the fires of worship and praise. Is this prayer? It assuredly is, so long as it is kept to its devotional purpose, and not followed with any other object. I once tried taking scriptures set for examination as my devotional portion, but it left the hour barren and unprofitable. God wants the whole presence of the spirit as surely as man wants the sense of the real presence of God. The soul is never less alone than when it is alone with God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: 03.21. HOW TO USE THE WORD IN PRAYER ======================================================================== How To Usse the Word in Prayer It is best to have no book but the Bible, that scripture may be interpreted by scripture. I find it well to take the sayings of psalmist and prophet and turn them into prayers. Avoid the lure of sidetracks. I have been interested to find that men known far and wide for their biblical scholarship always use the Authorized Version in their devotions. I commend their example. Search the Scriptures. The heart is soon aglow when the Word is alight. The Word of God is like God’s world: it is all interesting and all wonderful, but there are places to which we go often in thought and affection if not in actual visits: beauty spots of which we never tire, and sacred places of hallowed association. So there are pages of the Bible that wear thin with use, and some that are stained with tears. There is no psalter like the book `of Psalms. There are favorite psalms that register the pilgrimage of the soul. I love Psalms 37:1-40, the Psalms 46:1-11, Psalms 80:1-19, and Psalms 116:1-19, and many more besides. Usually I read through the psalm, and then return for meditation to a few verses that have appealed to me. How often I have countered "fret" with "trust" in Psalm thirty-seven, committed my way unto the Lord, and hummed and prayed through the matchless words, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him;" and my soul rejoices in the assurance that if I delight myself in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart. It is great to take the Lord’s own words and speak them in praise and plead them in prayer. Psalms 46:1-11 is just as wonderful, with its threefold division of catastrophe, hostility, and testimony. Then I go back to the first verse, with its description of God as Refuge, Strength, and Help. The Refuge is for sanctuary in perils in which man is utterly helpless. What can he do against a changing earth, hurtling mountains, and raging storms?’ When sudden calamity comes, and the foundations slip from under our feet, God is our Refuge. "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Always underneath! Always lower than our deepest depths! God is also our Strength. There are demands for which we have no might and enemies against whom we have not strength. "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." (Isaiah 40:29) Immediately the mind is among the heroes of God, and faith rejoices in the assurance of strength that shall be as the day. God is a Help. There are experiences in which we are incomplete. A Helper is near, companionable, encouraging, inspiring, achieving. Could assurance be more complete? No wonder the heart nestles near to God and whispers, "I will trust, and not be afraid." "The Lord of hosts is with me [us]; And the God of Jacob is my [our] refuge." (Psalms 46:7) I wonder how often I have prayed through Psalm one hundred and sixteen. It was one of God’s earliest gifts to me. There is no need to change the pronoun, for there is a personal pronoun in every verse. I love the alternating surge of a sorrow escaped and the triumphant note of thanksgiving, and I linger long over the vows of the redeemed soul. He had been down into the depths. Every kind of trouble seemed to come at once, and greatest of all was his loss of faith in God and man. Deliverance came when he prayed. Praise followed prayer, and praise became a sacrifice of thanksgiving. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, Mine eyes from tears, And my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord In the land of the living." (Psalms 116:7-9) There are scriptures that I read at stated seasons. One of my earlier attempts at real Bible study was to try to write out in order the doings and sayings of our Lord in the week of His Passion, and I go over those passages always in the sacred week. There are similar passages for Advent and other festivals of the Christian year. The first thing I do with a new Bible is to mark the passages in Saint John in which our Lord makes His promise of the Paraclete, and those I read always between Easter and Pentecost, and then I find my inner chamber becomes my Lord’s Upper Room. There are three scriptures that I have read on fixed days of the week for more than forty years. Every Sunday morning I read the fifth" chapter of Revelation, and every Sunday night the seventh chapter from verse nine. Why do I do this? Sunday is the great day of my week. I preach other days, but there is only one day in seven that is specially the Lord’s Day. It is a day devoted to worship and the ministry of the Word. To me is given the responsibility of intercessor and prophet, teacher and evangelist. I have to represent Christ, preach Christ, plead forChrist. For all this I need the vision of Christ, and nowhere do I find the vision as He is there revealed in the midst of the throne, in the midst of the redeemed, in the midst of the angels, and in the midst of creation. I can face the day when I have beheld His glory, and said "Amen, Hallelujah!" in His presence. At night I come back to the vision of His ultimate triumph and commit the day unto Him and rest my heart within the veil. On Monday morning I invariably read Isaiah forty-one from verse eight. Monday morning is a difficult time for the prophet-evangelist. Sunday looks somber on Monday. A blue Monday is the devil’s chance, so I resolved at the beginning of my ministry that if I had to have a blue Monday, I would have it in the middle of the week and God gave me this scripture as a protection against the "blues." Perhaps you would like to know how He did it. It was in my first month out of college. I was in my room on a Monday morning, wrapped in a rug, for I had a cold and the room was cold. It rained pitilessly all the morning. Just before noon a cab stopped at the door, and H. S. B. Yates, the minister of Leith, was announced. We had met only twice. When I asked how he was, he answered, "I am a worm, and no man." He had the blue Monday so badly that he had taken a cab and come to see me for a change. His church had been crowded the night before for the first time, and Satan taunted and tormented him into sheer terror. I listened with amused amazement. I am not made that way. He asked me what I did when I felt myself a creeping, crawling, contemptible worm? I had just read the forty-first of Isaiah, and I said "Here is the very chapter for you. It is God’s promise to a worm" We read it. We prayed through it, and he went away greatly comforted. Since then I have read it every Monday morning, and I have found it a rare defense against depression, with the result that Monday has been one of my busiest and happiest days I go through the Bible, as I have gone through these passages of Scripture. These are intimate words, but at any rate you do not wonder now that to me the Word of the Lord is precious. All the time I have tried to keep in mind the overworked and toil-driven who have little or no space for an inner sanctuary. That is why I urge the Bible as the only necessary book for the devotional hour. For the same reason I advise that it be studied in short portions, lest prayer become secondary in the place consecrated to prayer. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: 03.22. PRAYING IN THE NAME ======================================================================== Praying in the Name The most incredible things are promised to prayer. The Old Testament abounds in promises and examples. Deliverance and help, guidance and grace were assured to those who called upon God and committed their way unto Him. Nothing was too hard for the Lord, and nothing was impossible to those who prayed. Some of the passages are overwhelming in their challenge to prayer. Here is one: "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me" (Isaiah 45:11). Prayer passes from entreaty to command. There is no limit to the possibility of prayer, and the Old Testament confirms and attests the promises by examples and demonstrations of its power. Our Lord speaks with the same illimitable speech. His word is, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8). He gave prayer a new basis, a new confidence, and a new range. For He gave as its reason the fact that God is our Heavenly Father. Prayer is a child’s petition. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:11). There is one saying of Jesus that is even more startling than that of Isaiah. "Therefore," says he, "I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: 03.23. "WHATSOEVER YE SHALL ASK IN MY NAME" ======================================================================== Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask In My Name The promise to prayer reaches its climax in the Upper Room on that memorable night of revelation and tragedy. He declared Himself to be the basis of prayer. They were to pray m a new way. They were to pray in His name, and they would heard for His sake. As there are seven words on the cross, so there are seven words concerning prayer in the fellowship of the Upper Room. They gather up and complete the whole revelation of the Scriptures, and enlarge and certify the promises of God. It would seem to be sacrilege not to quote them in full, for no other words can compare with them. "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it" (John 14:13-14). "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you" (John 15:16). "And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you. And in that day ye shall ask me no question [R. V., margin]. Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask any thing of the Father, he will give it you in my name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled... In that day ye shall ask in my name" (John 16:22-26). What extraordinary promises these are that are pledged to prayer in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! They abound in universal and unconditional terms. All things, whatsoever ye ask! Prayer reaches its highest level when offered in the Name which is above every name, for it lifts the petitioner into unity and identity with himself. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: 03.24. "IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST" ======================================================================== In the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ Our Lord never explained what was meant by pray in His name. The meaning was plain enough to every Israelite. God was in His name. He had made them an elect people, that they might be the interpreters, custodians and witnesses of His name. When they dishonored it in their own land and degraded it among the Gentiles, he redeemed and restored them for the sanctification of the Name. "I do not this for your sakes, ... but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name." (Ezekiel 36:22-23) Our Lord speaks in terms of Deity. To pray in Christ’s name means something more than adding "for Christ’s sake" to our petitions The name expresses personality, character, and being. The person is in the name. Prayer in Christ’s name is prayer according to the character of His mind, and according to the purpose of His will. To pray in the name of Christ is to pray as one who is at one with Christ, whose desires is the mind of Christ, whose desires are the desires of Christ, and whose purpose is one with that of Christ. Such correspondence and identification with Christ secure the balance and interpretation of the promises given to prayer. The absolute and unconditional promises find their relativity and conditions in Him. In the Old Testament prayer was conditioned upon urgency, intensity, and sincerity. God was found of men when they cried unto Him out of a great need, when they sought Him with all their heart and when there was sincerity of purpose and motive. Men found that God required truth in the innermost soul, and that they were not heard if they regarded iniquity in their hearts, or came to Him with insincere pretenses upon their lips. Our Lord demanded importunity and a forgiving spirit of all who prayed. In the prayer in the Name all conditions are unified and simplified in Him. Sincerity is tested in the Name. Motive is judged in the Name. Prayer is proved in the Name. Prayer is sanctified in the Name. Prayer is indorsed by the Name, when it is in harmony with the character, mind, desire and purpose of the Name. That is why in John 15:7 the words of Christ are interchangeable with His name. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15:7) It is something like the word of the psalmist: "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart;" (Psalms 37:4) or that of Saint John: "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight" (1 John 3:21-22) Prayers offered in the name of Christ are scrutinized and sanctified by His nature, His purpose, and His will They are indorsed by Him ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: 03.25. "FOR THE SAKE OF THE NAME" ======================================================================== For the Sake of the Name It means more than that. We are heard for His sake He is the petitioner He ever haveth to make intercession for us. In the Apocalypse He is represented as taking our prayers and adding to them of the fire of the altar that makes them prevail. He told His disciples He was going to the Father, and that He was going to pray on their behalf, and whatever they asked of the Father in His name the Father would do it. Not for their own sake, but for His sake they would be heard. When I was in Leeds a man came a long way to look over a factory in which he was interested He wrote to the firm, and his request was politely declined. He went to the factory and presented his card. It was returned, and he was refused admittance. No argument could get him beyond the little shutter in the outer office. He told his disappointment to a friend, who suggested I might be able to help him. He came to see me. I gave him my card, and wrote to the head of the firm. Next day he presented his request, and handed in my card, and immediately every door opened to him. His petition was granted, but not for his own sake. The head of the firm saw me in him. In some such way we pray in Christ’s name. He indorses our petitions and makes our prayers His own, and "the Father hears Him pray." We are not heard for our much loud shouting Neither are we heard for our fine phrasing, nor our much weeping. Neither are we heard for our good works, nor for our self-denials. Prayer in His name is heard for His name’s sake. In the secret inner chamber we ask, seek, and knock in His holy name, and present our prayers in the sure confidence of His wonderful and glorious word: "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you,... that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." (John 15:16) "Ask, and ye shall receive." (John 16:24) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: 03.26. PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== Praying in the Spirit Early in the year 1882 there came to me an experience that lifted my life to a new plane of understanding and of power. I received the gift of the Holy Spirit. I was led in ways I did not know, for I had hardly so much as heard that such an experience was possible. The demands of an impossible task awakened me to a sense of need. I had neither power nor might in either service or prayer. I began to pray for power, for service, and God led me to the answer by way of equipment for prayer. It was a great surprise to me, for I thought I knew how to pray, and had prayed much over the work to which he had sent me. When I began to seek power, my ears were opened before my eyes began to see. I heard testimonies to which I had been deaf. Others had been driven to God baffled by lack of power, but they always associated the gift of power with an experience of holiness about which I was not keen. It was power I wanted. I wanted power that I might succeed, and my chief concern for power was the success it would bring. I wanted success that would fill my church, save the people, and bring down the strong fortifications of Satan with a crash. I was young, and I was in a hurry. Twelve of us began to pray in band, and the answer came by A way no more expected, Than when His sheep Passed through the deep, By crystal walls protected. He led us to Pentecost. The key to all my life is in that experience. It awakened my mind as well as cleansed my heart. It gave me a new joy and a new power, a new love and a new compassion. It gave me a new Bible and a new message. Above all else, it gave me a new understanding and a new intimacy in the communion and ministry of prayer; it taught me to pray in the Spirit. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: 03.27. THE CO-OPERATION OF THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== The Co-Operation of the Spirit The work of the Holy Spirit is always in co-operation. He never works alone. He depends upon human co-operation for the mediation of His mind, the manifestation of truth, and the effectual working of His will. He indwells the body of Christ, as Christ dwelt in the body prepared for Him by the Holy Spirit. Revelation came from the Spirit of Truth as men of God were inspired by Him. The Word is His, but the writing is with the hands of men. This twofold action runs through the whole of redemption by Christ Jesus. Our Lord was born of a woman, but was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. He grew in stature and in knowledge in the house of Joseph, instructed and guided by the Holy Spirit. His teaching and ministry were in the power of the same Spirit. He offered Himself without blemish unto God through the Eternal Spirit, and it was the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead. There is the same co-operation in all the experience of salvation. There is always a human and a divine factor. There is a twofold witness, a twofold leading, a twofold work, and a twofold intercession. We pray in the Spirit, and the Spirit maketh intercession for us. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: 03.29. THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SPIRIT IN PRAYER ======================================================================== The Fellowship of the Spirit in Prayer The Holy Spirit does nothing of Himself, neither does He do anything for Himself. His mission is to glorify Christ, and all He does is based upon the finished work of Christ. (John 16:14) He could not be given until Jesus was glorified, and in experience there can be no Pentecost until there is a coronation. The Spirit is the coronation gift of Jesus, whom the Father has made to be both Lord and Christ. The fellowship of the Spirit in prayer is made possible by an experience in Christ. The sequence is set forth in the eighth chapter of Romans (verses nine to twenty-seven). Those who pray in the Spirit must be in the Spirit, and if the Spirit of God is to make intercession for us, He must dwell in us. If we live after the flesh, we die; if we are led of the Spirit, and walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, then the Spirit dwells in us, lives through us, and works by us. Then comes to pass that which is written: "And, in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself [that dwelleth in us] maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." (Romans 8:9-15, Romans 8:16-21, Romans 8:22-27) The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of. God. He takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. God knows the mind of the Spirit; we pray in the Spirit, instructed and inspired by Him, and He makes intercession for us in word less intercession. That is the New Testament explanation of prayer that prevails. Though I did not know it until years after, that is what happened to me when God gave me a new understanding, a new joy, and a new power in prayer. A new Personality entered a new temple, and set up a new altar. As I live, yet not I so I pray, yet not I. I pray in the Spirit, and the Spirit Himself also maketh intercession. (Romans 8:26-27) The Spirit in my spirit prays. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: 03.30. THE SPIRIT HELPING OUR INFIRMITIES ======================================================================== The Spirit Helping Our Infirmatives He instructs and inspires all true prayer. There is no truer word than that "we know not what we should pray for as we ought." (Romans 8:26) There is no realm in which we so soon come to the end of what we know as in that of prayer. Our petitions urge wants that are immediate, obvious, and urgent. We cannot see deep enough or far enough to know what is real need. Most people would like good health, home comfort, congenial conditions, happy friend ships, a little more money, and better success; but who can tell if these would be for their ultimate good? God sees deeper and farther, and He may will otherwise. How often have people who have pleaded with breaking hearts that a life might be spared lived to thank God that the Lord took when He did? He knew what was coming, and took them from the evil to come. The Holy Spirit knows the mind of Christ and the will of God, and He teaches us how to pray and what to pray for. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and He will give him more than wisdom, He will give him the Spirit of wisdom to instruct, strengthen, and guide. (James 1:5) The Holy Spirit creates the conditions of prayer. We may ask amiss, not only in what we ask, but also in the reason for asking. He sanctifies desire and directs it into the will of God, so that we desire what God wills to give. That is how it comes to pass that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, we can be sure that He will give us the desires of our heart. We want what He wills. The Spirit brings to expression the unutterable things of the soul. His groanings are before our praying, and our prayers are born of His travail. In Him is the supply of life and desire, wisdom and faith, intercession and power. He quickens desire, purifies motive, inspires confidence, and assures faith. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: 03.31. THE PRAYER OF THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== The Prayer of the Spirit This is the inner meaning of prayer. It is more than asking, it is communion, fellowship, co-operation, identification with God the Father and the Son by the Holy Spirit. Prayer is more than words, for it is mightiest when wordless. It is more than asking, for it reaches its highest glory when it adores and asks nothing. When a child entered his father’s study and walked up to him at his desk, the father turned and asked, "What do you want, sonnie?" The little chap answered, "Nothing, daddy, I just came to be with you." This mystery of the Spirit is the key to other mysteries. The secret of the Lord is made manifest to those who pray in the fellowship of the Spirit. There are stages of prayer. In one stage we pray and ask Him to help. There is a more wonderful way in which He prays and we assent, and His praying is ours. He makes intercession within the temple of our hearts, and our Lord ever lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of the Father. The Spirit within our spirits prays, working in us to will and to do the will and good pleasure of our Father which is in heaven. He is God the Spirit representing God the Father, and God the Son, and the three are one God. He is the power that worketh in us. He it is that unifies hearts in prayer and makes them an irresistible unity in intercession. The assurance of answered prayer comes from Him, and He it is that makes prayer the mightiest force in the universe of God. The secret of it all is in Him. The power of it all is by Him. The joy of it all is with Him. The biggest thing God ever did for me was to teach me to pray in the Spirit. We are never really men of prayer in the best sense, until we are "filled with the Holy Ghost." (Luke 1:15, Acts 4:31)Therefore, Lord, teach us to pray in the Spirit! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: 03.32. PRAYING TO GOD OUR FATHER ======================================================================== Praying to God Our Father Our Lord bases prayer on personal relationship. He taught us to call God our Father, and the implication of sonship changes the whole aspect of prayer. Whatever difficulties may remain, intercourse must be possible between father and child, and to suggest that a child may not ask of a father would be to empty the terms of all meaning. It is a child’s right to ask, and it is a father’s responsibility to hear in affectionate sympathy and discerning love. The wonder is not that God hears prayer, but that He is our Father. The greater wonder includes the less. The revelation that God is Father establishes the possibility and reasonableness of prayer. The one establishes the other. God would not be Father if His children could not pray. All the teaching of Jesus about the supremacy of the child-heart in the kingdom of God is rank blasphemy if God is not our Father. The relationship carries with it accessibility, intimacy, and fearless love. Sons of great men have sometimes remembered their father as an institution rather than as a father, and God is to some of His children little more than an institution. It was not thus that Jesus revealed Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: 03.33. OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN ======================================================================== Our Father in Heaven There is no lowering of His majesty in the intimacy of the family relationship. He is still the Holy and Most High God; the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity. The Sermon on the Mount, with its relation of God to sparrows and lilies, detracts nothing from the majesty of Isaiah’s vision of Him: "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth." He is still "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. . . . the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see" (1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:15-16). There are many such revelations of the divine glory and majesty, and it is well to ponder them in adoring worship; but Jesus Christ turned them .into terms of filial value. He is our Father! That is the crowning fact. To the child he is just Father. Others may cringe in fear, but the child heart is a stranger to terror. I have never forgotten the dread that gripped me when, as a youth, I was invited to go for an interview at the parsonage. I walked past the door several times before I had courage to ring the bell, and as I stood at the door my heart throbbed in my ears. Imagine my surprise when shown into the room to find the great man on all-fours, giving a ride to riotously happy children, who turned his long beard into driving reins! He was their father! They knew nothing of the awe in which others stood of him, and as they grew older and knew something of his greatness their reverence deepened, but their fearlessness was not diminished. The children of the House are free and fearless. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: 03.34. PRAY TO THE FATHER WHICH IS IN SECRET ======================================================================== Pray to the Father Which Is In Secret The heavens cannot contain God our Father, but He dwells in the inner chamber of the soul. He is in secret, and seeth in secret. He waits and watches for the opening of the sanctuary door. It is holy ground, and must be approached with reverence. The soul must summon all its powers for this its holiest exercise. Here the mind must be at its best, that it may think of God and life. Thought of God is more than thinking of our thoughts about Him. Communion is deeper than theology. Prayer in secret is life finding expression in the realized presence of God our Father. All things are voluntarily laid bare before Him. All pretense is stripped from motive, all hypocrisy from desire, all dissimulation from speech. A season of silence is the best preparation for speech with God. Infinite glory finds new value when interpreted in terms of Fatherhood, and prayer finds new horizons in the majesty of our Father in heaven. If God be Father, we may pray; but if He is such a Father, why need we pray? "When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him" (Matthew 6:7-8). Then what need is there to ask? We do not pray to inform God. Neither do we pray to persuade Him, for His love needs neither to be induced nor coaxed. No father answers his son’s prayer for bread with a stone, or the request for a fish with a scorpion. Wisdom and love combine to answer need, and not to make sport of infirmity. Our earthly fathers, notwithstanding their evil natures, know better than to mock the needs and trust of their children. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matthew 7:11). "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Matthew 7:7). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: 03.35. IF YE CALL ON HIM AS FATHER ======================================================================== If Ye Call On Him As Father It is no part of our purpose to discuss the problems of prayer. We are seeking to learn how to pray, and barren speculations have nothing to teach us. No part of the man must be shut out when the man is shut in. Reason is as truly of God as emotion, and neither divorced from the other leaves the soul maimed and incapacitated. Vision comes to love apart from reason, but reason conserves the vision and translates it into life. Our spiritual life stands in knowledge of God, but it is not a knowledge that is acquired or achieved by the energy of flesh and blood. Love is the bond of fellowship in prayer. Attempts to rationalize love dampen its fires, but where reason is dethroned, emotion becomes a conflagration. The study and the oratory are allies, but the inner chamber is better to be a place apart; then prayer enlightens thinking, and thinking kindles the altar fires of the heart. God as Father is the key to the problem of prayer. God is more than a Creator. He is our Father: Heavenly Father, holy Father, righteous Father; the God of love and still the God of law. "The Sabbath was made for man," (Mark 2:27) and the universe of God was made for the family of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: 03.36. IN THE GLORY OF HIS FATHER ======================================================================== In the Glory of His Father The fact that we pray to God our Father in heaven tells us much as to how we should pray. The Son of God gloried in the glory of His Father. It was His habit to rise early that He might behold His glory and delight in His presence . He rejoiced in the Father’s greatness and in the majesty of His power. It is good to go over His affirmations of the Father. "MY FATHER!" The accents of adorning love vibrate in every tone. "God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth," (John 4:24) "for the Father seeketh such to worship him." (John 4:23) "My Father. . . . is greater than all. . . I and the Father are one." (John 10:29-30) He loved to dwell upon the care and bounty of the Father’s love. Nothing is insignificant. Each is to the Infinite as if there were no other. Even the odd sparrow is not forgotten, and man is so much the more the child of His care that even the hairs of his head are numbered. He lived in the sovereign will of the holy and righteous Father. He did not pray to subdue the Father’s will to his desire; but that the will of the Father might be done. The sweat and agony of prayer were in the strong praying of the Father’s Son, and it was always in obedience to the Father’s will. Because we pray to our Heavenly Father in the secret place of prayer, we may pray with the artless unreserve of little children. There is nothing about which we may not pray. We pray as His children, and we trust Him as our Heavenly Father. His answer will transcend our asking. Prayer is in itself a discipline and an education. The Spirit instructs and trains in the school of prayer. A true father waits to bless in discretion, as well as in readiness. Sometimes He waits for us. Sometimes the answer is given long before the one who prayed is told, but "every one that asketh, receiveth." Dr. Adoniram Judson as he lay dying heard of the remarkable answer to his prayer for. the Jews when he was a missionary in Burma, and he uttered this testimony: "I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came; at some time -- no matter how distant the day -- somehow, in some shape, probably the last I should have devised, it came." "When thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret" (Matthew 6:6) - "Unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." (Ephesians 3:20) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: 03.37. THE IMPORTUNITY OF PRAYER ======================================================================== The Importunity of Prayer Our Lord taught men to pray to God as Father. That is the central fact of His teaching. "When ye pray say, Our Father, which art in heaven." He rebukes all parade and pretense in prayer. It must be in the secret place, and the door must be shut. Within the secret place there must be simplicity and sincerity. Hypocrisy cannot live where either much speaking or fine phrasing is forbidden. Fathers and children do not make speeches to each other. God is not far off. He is near. He does not need to be informed, for Jesus says, "For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him." Neither does He need to be persuaded; for if "ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" Nothing could be simpler, more natural, more assuring. "Ask, and ye shall receive;" "for every one that asketh receiveth." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: 03.38. IMPORTUNITY AND PERSISTANCE ======================================================================== Importunity and Persistance Alongside this teaching there come the parables of the friend at midnight and the unjust judge. They are not like His other parables, for they teach by contrast, and not by comparison. God is not like the reluctant friend or the unjust judge. Then why tell the stories? The point in common between them and prayer is that in both importunity prevails. If the suppliants were not heard for their much speaking, their persistence had much to do with their prevailing. What place is there for such importunity in the prayers of children to their Heavenly Father? Our Lord Himself prayed with intensity and importunity. He rose early to pray. He spent all nights in prayer. The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 5:7) tells us that He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. The awe of Gethsemane is full of mystery. He called upon God as Father, but in His praying there was the sweat and agony of blood. "He kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done... and being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground" (Luke 22:41-44). Saint Matthew (Matthew 26:38-46) tells us that He prayed a third time using the same words. He wrought many mighty works in nature and in men, calming the tempest, casting out devils, and raising the dead, but in none of them is there any trace of strain or travail. Virtue went out of Him and He wearied in toil, but there was the ease of mastery in all He did; but of His praying it is said, "As he prayed he sweat." (Luke 22:44) He prayed in an agony unto blood. If God be Father, why such agony in the praying of His Song of Solomon? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: 03.39. PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION ======================================================================== Prayer and Supplication There is a group of words that greatly enlarge the scope of asking and modify the impression of ease and simplicity of prayer. The man at midnight was prepared to make supplication and entreat with importunity, till his request was granted. That is not much like praying to a Heavenly Father. God is not like that, but praying that prevails is like that. The same is true of the parable of the unjust judge. God is not like him, but prayer pleads and persists until it prevails. Petition asks, supplication entreats, pleading argues. Job asks for an opportunity to plead his cause: "Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me" (Job 23:3-5). God invites to reason, and prayer is given the right to plead, but if God be Father, knowing what we need, waiting to be asked, why should there be supplication and pleading? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: 03.40. STRIVING AND WRESTLING ======================================================================== Striving and Wrestling When Peter was in prison, "Prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him" (Acts 12:5). The Revised Version substitutes "earnestly" for "without ceasing." They continued earnestly in prayer. They prayed all night, and kept on praying until the answer came. There was the same contending in the prayer of the Syrophoenician woman. She came to grips and held on till Jesus commended her faith and granted her request. Striving is a familiar word in the New Testament. Saint Paul exhorts the Christians in Rome "by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me" (Romans 15:30). He commends Epaphras as a praying pastor who strove and labored in prayer (Colossians 4:12), and tells the Colossians how greatly he himself strove for them. Prayer is work that involves contending, a toil that implies labor; but why should it be a toil and a labor? Even the idea of wrestling is associated with prayer. It is not suggested that we wrestle with God, but there is a grip and grappling that calls for vigilance and concentration. It is quite clear that prayer is not the easy thing that seems to be implied in the simplicity of asking our Heavenly Father for what we want and getting it. There is travail in it. There is work in it. There is entreaty in it. There is importunity in it. Maybe Coleridge was not far wrong when he spoke of prayer as the highest energy of which the human heart is capable and the greatest achievement of the Christian’s warfare on earth. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: 03.41. THE PARADOX OF PRAYER ======================================================================== The Paradox of Prayer Prayer is full of apparent contradictions. It is so simple that a child can pray, and it is so profound that the wisest cannot explain its mystery. It is so easy that those who have no strength can pray, and it is so strenuous that it taxes every resource of energy, intelligence, and power. It is so natural that it need not be taught, and it is so far beyond nature that it cannot be learned in the school of this world’s wisdom. Prayer is a world in itself, and no one aspect of life’s similes can explain it. The relation of Father and child, has bigger meanings in revealed truth than in our modern conception. Jesus spoke of Him as the Heavenly, the Holy, and the Righteous Father. Saint Peter combines in Him both Father and Judge. The modern mind resents prayer that is an agony and entreaty, a pleading and striving, a wrestling and persistence. That is not the way parents would like to see their children come to them, and so they reason it is not the way for them to pray. For many years I kept by me a check on the Bank of Heaven. It was sent to me on Christmas from America by Dr. A. T. Pierson. It was made payable to bearer, and promised to deliver on demand whatever I might need. On the face of it was the text, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Php 4:19) Prayer is just cashing checks! Is it as simple as that? Is God at the counter waiting to hand over whatever we ask? Experience soon disillusions those who think that is the whole of prayer. If that were all, why should there be a secret place and a closed door? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: 03.42. THE COST OF PRAYER ======================================================================== The Cost of Prayer Fatherhood implies sonship, and sonship involves correspondence of nature, character, and mind. The Holy Father is the Father of holy sons. He is in secret, and we are in secret. To be shut in alone with God is to be at the Judgment Seat. "If I regard iniquity in my heart," said the psalmist, "the Lord will not hear me." (Psalms 66:18) We cannot pray so long as our hearts condemn us. God does not give orders any more than He supplies them. He talks with His children and encourages them to reason with Him. He waits to bless, not only in readiness, but with discretion. Prayer is a discipline and an education. Jesus spake divine wisdom when He forbade us to cast pearls before swine: it is contrary to the divine order. Intensity is a law of prayer. God is found of those who seek Him with all their heart. Wrestling prayer prevails. The fervent effectual prayer of the righteous is of great force. God hates strange fire. We must never try to work up an emotion of intensity. Avoid all that is mechanical and perfunctory. Shun the casual and flippant. Suspect all easy and cheap methods like that of the bank and the store. Leave all directors and prompters to the place of corporate and liturgical prayer. When alone with God, be alone with Him. Begin in silence. Speak with simplicity. Listen in meekness. Never leave without a conscious season of real communion. We have not to persuade God, but He has to discipline and prepare us. In all moods and at all seasons pour out the soul in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, and if the Spirit groans in intercession do not be afraid of the agony of prayer. There are blessings of the Kingdom that are only yielded to the violence of the vehement soul. A minister told of his Sunday-school teacher who despaired of his class and asked to be released. The superintendent persuaded him to try again, and to promise that every day for three months he would pray in secret, for every boy. Every boy in the class was saved, and four of them became ministers of great usefulness and power. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: 03.43. THE RECOMPENSE OF PRAYER ======================================================================== The Recompense of Prayer "Thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee." (Matthew 6:6) Our Lord did not hesitate to associate recompense with prayer, and who can measure the blessings that come through the avenue of prayer? Those who deny that prayer changes things, or effects any wonders of deliverance and help, are among the first to exalt its influence upon the soul that prays. The value of a daily habit of withdrawal and hallowed seclusion is beyond exaggeration. The contemplation of the unseen, the attempt to think in terms of the Eternal, and the honest endeavor of the soul to enter in communion with God in themselves redeem life from all that is fitful, fretful, and futile. Apart altogether from specific blessings, the sheer influence of a daily habit of private prayer is incalculable. I propose to consider three, maybe four, examples. It has been said that the mountains of the Bible well repay the climber, and no life is richer in mountain scenes than that of Moses. For forty years he had wandered among their solitary heights, feeding his flock and grappling with the great problems of his people and their God. He had been schooled in all the learning of the Egyptians, but when God wanted to instruct him, He took him from the valley into the mount. It was amid the silence of the everlasting hills that the polished courtier and distinguished scholar was fitted for the work of delivering and guiding the people of God. His service began and ended in the mount. On the eve of every new development, and on every critical occasion, God called him, and he went up. Whenever the burden of his charge oppressed him, he hastened to seek God in the mount. What he found in those ascents is still the wonder of the world. The mount of God was a privileged place of peculiar sanctity. God had commanded that it should be fenced, lest the cattle should trample it. "Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it." (Exodus 19:23) The people were not permitted to approach. Even priests and elders must stop at the boundary. No companionship was allowed. The most trusted and intimate had to be left to tarry while the servant of God went alone into the Holy Place. The Lord commanded him to get ready and come up early in the morning. God wants man at his best. All these instructions of the Pentateuch anticipate the Sermon on the Mount. There is a very special sense in which God dwells in the secret place. He is in secret: He seeth in secret. God wants us in the mount. Come. away! Come up! Come up early! Before daybreak Jesus and Moses were alone with God. Let us go up with Moses, that we may learn what he found in the mount of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: 03.44. THE PLACE OF REVELATION ======================================================================== The Place of Revelation Moses found God in the mount. Read the story in the third chapter of Exodus. (Exodus 3:1-6) After forty years of exile for his championship of God’s people, the shepherd-prince found the God of Israel. He was not a stranger to Him in Egypt. He had renounced the privileges and pleasures of a royal palace and cast in his lot with the afflicted people of his race. He had given proof of his zeal for the Most High, but he had never had a personal revelation of Him till he found Him that day in the mount. There is much outer-court service in the Lord’s temple. Many serve and suffer for Him who never enter the Holy Place where the Most High dwells between the Cherubim. It is there He reveals Himself as nowhere else. He manifests Himself to those who pray in secret as He cannot to those who have no inner sanctuary of the soul. Moses found himself where he found his God. It was not a pleasant discovery; it seldom is. He was a disappointed reformer. He had made great sacrifices for Israel, and he found them resentful of his interference, jealous of his motives, distrustful of his purpose. For forty years he had brooded over a wicked king, a spiritless and ungrateful people. He nursed his grievance with the resignation of a martyr and the despondency of a disappointed leader. "Put thy hand into thy bosom," commanded the Voice out of the fire; and, lo, it was leprous, white as snow! (Exodus 4:6) That was a startling surprise for him. He had thought the other people were leprous, but neither his own heart nor hands were clean. That is the kind of discovery men make in the mount of God, and that is one reason we are so reluctant to ascend. He discovered other things besides leprosy. He found himself. He found latent powers. He found his vocation. He found that a stick he had carried daily was a symbol and instrument of Divine power. God discovers us to ourselves when He reveals Himself to us. Moses found the will of God in the mount. It was there he received the law. After forty days alone with God he brought heaven’s laws to earth on two tables of stone. (Exodus 34:28) Those laws remain to this day the foundation of all righteous government among men. After centuries of progress they are still the basis of civilization. He not only received the Commandments which were to be the corner stones of good government for all time; he also received directions concerning local and personal details. See the minute instructions for the building of the tabernacle. No trifle is overlooked. Nails and fringes, tong and snuffers are all included. Every detail was designed in the mount. Every pattern was divinely fixed and approved. The way to the mount is still open. The divine pattern of each life is still to be seen in the secret place of the Most High God. The humblest follower of Jesus may know the Divine Will at first hand. It is every man’s privilege to be fully assured in the will of God. The Divine attention to detail is amazing. Nothing is too trivial for Omniscience. Come straight to God. Do not bother other people. Lay all questions naked before Him, and He will make it plain to you what is His will. When God speaks, His speech is easily understood. All questions of the plain should be settled in the mount, and where there is certainty in the mount there will be victory on the levels and in the valleys. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: 03.45. THE PLACE OF POWER ======================================================================== The Place of Power There is a wonderful story in Exodus 17:1-16. It was Israel’s first battle. The Amalekites Came against them in Rephidim. Joshua commanded the hosts of Israel, and Moses went up into the mount to pray. The fluctuations of the battle were astonishing. In turns the opposing hosts prevailed, until it was found that the issue of the battle was. not with the fighters in the field, but with the intercessors in the mount. It was the weaponless hand of prayer that ruled the battle. "And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed." (Exodus 17:11) Is it necessary to point the moral of the tale? Power is the recompense of prayer. It takes us long to learn that prayer is more important than organization, more powerful than armies, more influential than wealth, and mightier than all learning. Prevailing prayer makes men invincible. They who prevail in the secret place of the Most High cannot be beaten anywhere. All things are possible to secret prayer. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: 03.46. THE PLACE OF FELLOWSHIP ======================================================================== The Place of Fellowship In the mount the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Like Abraham, Moses was admitted to the friendship of God. He did not come simply to plead petitions and receive orders. He was there for communion on a common basis of fellowship. The inner chamber is an audience chamber where the soul enters into friendly intercourse and mutual interchange. It is a place for listening as well as for speech. The most important part of prayer is not what we say to God, but what God says to us. It is no place for hurry. The soul must be still and wait before the Lord. The mount is the place of intercession. There is a moving story in Exodus 32:9-14 of how Moses pleaded for Israel. He stepped into the breach. God looks for men who will stand in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30). God encourages us to speak for others and to plead for them. He suffers entreaty. How daring was Abraham’s faith! With what audacity Moses stepped into the breach and urged the plea for Israel! With what passion Paul pleaded for his kinsmen according to the flesh! We are commanded to pray one for another, and who can tell what blessings come to men through intercession? It was in the mount Moses saw God’s glory. It is a vision of the secret place. It was in the mount that Jesus was transfigured. (Matthew 17:2) The glory seen is also shared. Prayer transfigures. Moses came down from the mount all aglow with the glory, but "he wist not that the skin of his face shone." That is the secret of radiant humility. "As Jesus prayed, he was transfigured before them." Glory is the recompense of prayer. The Lord who calls His servant into the mount sends him down. Peter wanted to stay. We go up that we may go down. There are golden images, senseless and wicked passions, enslaved and misguided people, distracted fathers and devil-torn sons and daughters that need the vision and the power of God. Come up! Go down! God wants us in the mount and He wants us in the valley. Moses died in the mount. Those who go up and down at God’s bidding are sure to end in going up to come down no more. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: 03.47. THE POWER OF PRAYER ======================================================================== The Power of Prayer Elijah is chosen in the New Testament as the example of prayer. There were many others in the Old Testament Scriptures who prayed and prevailed, for they abound with stories of those who called upon God and were mightily delivered. Jacob so prayed that his name was changed from Jacob to Israel; Moses was pre-eminently a man of prayer; he was sustained, guided, and transformed by prayer. Daniel prayed habitually and continually; and his life was a romance of prayer. There were others from Abraham to the last of the Old Testament prophets, including kings and priests, soldiers and reformers, widows and sufferers. Why was Elijah chosen from among them all? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 68: 03.48. A MIGHTY MAN ======================================================================== A Mighty Man Elijah occupies a larger place in the New Testament than in the Old, and it is always an advantage when the New Testament gives the interpretation of an Old Testament theme. The Old Testament story offers no explanation of the prophet’s power. His ministry consisted in a series of dramatic appearances, and the most sensational event in a sensational life was its dramatic end. For the most part he dwelt in solitary places, and he was always a solitary figure. "I alone," was a plaint often on his lips. The Old Testament closes with a promise of his return, and the New Testament opens with the record of its fulfillment. He championed God, defied kings, and held the destiny of nations in his hand. The New Testament explanation of the man and his work is that he was a man of prayer. On the face of the Old Testament story, prayer was an outstanding feature of this man, but according to the New Testament, prayer was the entire explanation of the man and his marvelous doings. That he was a mountain of a man is plain for all men to see, but he was a man of like passions with other men, and whatever difference there was between him and others was due to prayer. Saint James says, "Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed" -- that is what made him different. Prayer accounts for the man, as it accounts for Abraham and Jacob, David and Daniel, but there was something in Elijah’s praying that gave distinction even among saints mighty in prayer. What was it? Why did Jehovah come to be known as the Lord God of Elijah? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 69: 03.49. MIRACLES OF POWER ======================================================================== Miracles of Power The praying of Elijah is a demonstration of the supernatural power of prayer. His prayers were miracles of power. That is what the New Testament says of them. There has always been difficulty with the translation of James 5:16. The Authorized version reads, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." The Revised Version -- "The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working." Dr. Rendel Harris translates it, "The energized prayer of a righteous man is of great force." Prayer with Elijah was force, supernatural power, miraculous in its working. He never discussed natural law, and he never doubted supernatural law, and he never doubted supernatural power. He prayed, and there was no rain, and when he prayed for rain, it came in floods. He prayed for life to come again to the dead child of the widow with whom he lodged, and the soul of the child returned. He prayed for fire from heaven, and it fell as he prayed. He did not argue about prayer. He prayed. Praying solves problems of prayer. There always have been problems about prayer. In the wilderness they questioned God’s power to transcend known laws of His world. Can God? The answer of faith turns the question into an affirmation and believes God can. These are hardly the days in which it is safe to say that anything is impossible. We stand on the threshold of unexplored worlds; and if so much that was incredible has become possible to man, who shall say that anything is impossible to God? If the thought of man can be spoken and heard thousands of miles away, who dare put limits to the thoughts and purpose of God? He who made the heavens and earth must be bigger than His worlds, and it is impossible He should be imprisoned within His own laws. The prayer of faith links man’s petition to the power of God. All men believe in the power of prayer to influence mind, develop character, and sanctify motive and will; but that is not all. Prayer is force. Prayer changes things. The Lord God of Elijah had’ sovereign and omnipotent power, and these were at the command of the prayer of faith. Every praying man knows of answers to prayer to which there is no explanation but in God. I am reluctant to quote examples, but in my own life they abound, and the language of Psalms 116:1-19 is often on my lips: "I love the Lord, because he hath heard My voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live." (Psalms 116:1-2) There is one remarkable instance that I cherish because of the way the story came to me. There are two buildings in the city of Bristol which are monuments of answered prayer. One is Muller’s Orphanage, and of the other I am not at present at liberty to speak. Dr. A. T. Pierson was my friend, and he was the friend and biographer of Muller. It was from him I got the first half of the story. He told me of an occasion when he was the guest of Muller at the Orphanage. One night when all the house hold had retired he asked Pierson to join him in prayer. He told him that there was absolutely nothing in the house for next morning’s breakfast. My friend tried to remonstrate with him and to remind him that all the stores were closed. Muller knew all that. He had prayed as he always prayed, and he never told anyone of his needs but God. They prayed. At least Muller did, and Pierson tried to. They went to bed and slept, and breakfast for two thousand children was there in abundance at the usual breakfast hour. Neither Muller nor Pierson ever knew how the answer came. The story was told next morning to Simon Short of Bristol, under pledge of secrecy till the benefactor died. The details of it are thrilling, but all that need to be told here is that the Lord called him out of bed in the middle of the night to send breakfast to Muller’s Orphanage, and knowing nothing of the need, or of the two men at prayer, he sent provisions that would feed them for a month. That is like the Lord God of Elijah, and still more like the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 70: 03.50. THE GREATEST FORCE ON EARTH ======================================================================== The Greatest Force on Earth It is not every kind of praying that works such wonders. It takes a man of prayer to pray as Elijah and George Muller prayed. It is the energized prayer of the righteous man that is of great force. The widow knew that Elijah was a man of God when he prayed her boy back to life (1 Kings 17:24). It is always the crowning proof and the ultimate test. Nothing would turn the nation back to God so surely and so quickly as a church that prayed and prevailed. The world will never believe in a religion in which there is no supernatural power. A rationalized faith, a socialized church, and a moralized gospel may gain applause, but they awaken no conviction and win no converts. There is passion in the praying that prevails. Elijah was a man of passions all compact. There was passion in all he did. All there was of him went into everything he did. God loves a man aflame. The lukewarm he cannot abide. He never keeps hot hearts waiting. "When ye shall search for me with all your heart, ... I will be found of you" (Jeremiah 29:13-14). When he prayed, he prayed in his prayer. Is there not much praying in which there is no prayer? The praying man was in his petition. Listen to his praying in the death chamber. Watch him on Carmel. Hear him plead the honor of God and cry unto the Lord for the affliction of the people. It is always the same: Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief -- Jesus in a sweat of blood. Add to the list from the records of the church, personal observation and experience, and always there is the cost of passion unto blood. It prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God. There is no power like that of prevailing prayer. Recent correspondence has brought me many stories of answered prayer. I can quite understand why critical minds have misgivings as to their evidential value. The man who has not travailed through the supplication is always free to look for other explanations, but to the man who has prayed the explanation adds to the wonder of the answer. He had the answer before the answer came. Take one example. A man told me of a great anxiety in his business life. Like Jehoshaphat, he had no resources to meet the need, and he knew not what to do, but he continued earnestly in prayer and supplication to God until one day there came a great peace into his soul and he knew that he was heard. The conditions were unchanged, but he had an assurance of peace, and in a most unexpected way, and by a comparatively unknown person, deliverance came. The explanation was obvious, but the answer was no less sure. It always seems to me quite useless to argue about prayer; a challenge like that of Huxley is utterly futile. The proof that God answers prayer is in praying. I once answered a street-corner challenge to prove that God answers prayer by challenging the man to come and kneel down and pray, but the challenge was not accepted. I still hold that to be the only way, and that way is scientific and conclusive. Another story that I may repeat comes from the Rev. T. A. Turney. He was a scholar in the school where the schoolmaster was both master and uncle. He was one of the old sort, who taught by making his scholars find out things for themselves. He was harder with his nephew than with the rest, lest he should be suspected of favoritism. The lad came to the deadlock that awaits us all at some stage of learning. There was a problem in mathematics he could not do. Day after day he brought it to the master, to be sent back to try again. When this had gone on for more than a week, the lad went one night to a mission service and gave his heart to God. At the communion rail he began to pray. When he got home he turned again to his problem, with the same old result. When he knelt down to pray he asked God to help him with this problem. In the night, asleep or awake he does not know, he saw the proposition worked out. He got up and wrote it down. Next morning he took it to the master, who answered sharply, "Right! Who showed you?" "God," answered the boy. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 71: 03.51. AN ENERGIZED INTERCESSOR ======================================================================== An Energized Intercessor Have you ever heard of "Praying Hyde?" The fact that John Hyde came by the universal accord of his intimates to be called "Praying Hyde" dates back to the day when he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In that experience his amazing prayer life began. The recorded answers to prayer are the least part of his record. He prayed the Indian Keswick into existence. He prayed thousands into the kingdom of God and hundreds of laborers into the harvest fields of God. Above and beyond all this he prayed himself into the mystery of fellowship in our Lord’s intercession. The secret of his prayer life is that it was a life of prayer. He was in England in 1911. He went to a mission service where Wilbur Chapman and Charlie Alexander were having a hard time. He took the burden of the mission upon his heart and prayed till victory came. After a meeting of wonderful power, Doctor Chapman asked Mr. Hyde to pray for him, and this is his account of what happened: "He came to my room, turned the key in the door, dropped on his knees, waited five minutes without a single syllable Coming from his lips. I could hear my own heart thumping and his beating. I felt the hot tears running down my face. I knew I was with God. Then with upturned face, down which the tears were streaming, he said: ’Oh, God!’ Then for five minutes at least he was still again, and then, when he knew he was talking with God, his arm went around my shoulder and there came up from the depth of his heart such petitions for men as I had never heard before. I rose from my knees to know what real prayer was. We believe that prayer is mighty, and we believe it as we never did before." I am aware that such records of prayer life may discourage where they were meant to inspire I am not asking that you and I should be fashioned after the pattern of exceptional men, but I do rejoice that whatever was given to one is available for all. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 72: 03.52. PRAYING AND THE COMMONPLACE ======================================================================== Praying and the Commonplace Moses and Elijah were not ordinary men. They were so unusual that they were chosen from among all the Old Testament saints’, to come and talk with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. One was the leader of the Old Covenant, and the other was the most dramatic of its prophets. Their tasks were unique. God called them to duties that demanded frequent and intimate intercourse with Himself. The miraculous was conspicuous in all they did. The rod of Moses and the mantle of Elijah were symbols and instruments of power. Their prayers were miracles. They moved in the realm of the infinite. They controlled the heavens and commanded the earth. At their word rivers and rain were ruled, life and death were commanded, oil and meal multiplied. Greater than these works of power were the results of prayer in illumination and guidance. God revealed His mind and gave instructions as to His will. It was in answer to their prayer that there came the revelation that was beyond human wisdom, and the miracle of the mind was greater than those of material power. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 73: 03.53. PRAYER AND ORDINARY FOLK ======================================================================== Prayer and Ordindinary Folk The dramatic stories of prevailing prayer in the Bible have made a profound impression upon the minds of ordinary people. It has standardized miracle as the normal working power of prayer. It is the true standard, for all prayer is supernatural in its working, but it has its discouraging influence. Moses stands alone, and though Elijah was a man of like passions with ourselves, he was no ordinary man, and his task was by no means commonplace. What is the place and work of prayer in the life of ordinary people? What about the people in whose life there is no opportunity for either privacy or leisure, and whose duties are an unrelieved monotony of mechanical commonplace? Is prayer for exceptional people and exceptional circumstances? Or has it a place and a work in lives of ordinary gifts and commonplace living? Of the New Testament successor of Elijah it is said that he did no miracle. He was not less a man of prayer than his Old Testament predecessor, but food did not multiply at his touch, he raised no dead, and neither water nor fire was at his command. The only miracles in him were in personality, in discernment, and in truth. So we find that supernatural power may work along normal lines of natural law. Ordinary people may pray about commonplace things, and the answer to their prayers may be in an enlightened mind, a triumphant soul, a steadfast faith, and a holy life. There may be no miraculous incidents, but prayer lifts the lowliest and most ordinary life to the exalted plane of the supernatural, and that is the greatest miracle of all. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 74: 03.54. PRAYER AND DAILY TOIL ======================================================================== Prayer and Daily Toil It is quite certain that we cannot all be Elijahs or Elishas, Abrahams or Daniels, or George Mullers or Hudson Taylors, Barnardos or "Praying Hydes," but that is no reason why we should not be men of prayer. There are praying men in the Scriptures of whom no miracles are told. They moved in other spheres. They were workers in the workshop of the world. Jacob and Moses were keepers of sheep, with ample spaces of solitude in which to pray. We are not told that Elijah ever worked at anything but prayer. The example of Elijah’s miraculous record needs to be balanced by that of others who lived and worked among the normal conditions of life. It is expected that preachers and prophets should give themselves to the Word of God and prayer, but what about the man whose life is lived in the factory, the office, and the store? Nehemiah was as truly a man of prayer as Elijah. He was the builder of the wall of Jerusalem. He wrought no miracle, he saw no vision, he had no special commission from Heaven. He never said God had sent him, neither did he ask anyone else to say it for him. A need and an opportunity called him. That was enough. There was a condition that filled his soul with grief, a great work to be done, and no one seeming to care about it; and somehow it was laid upon him that he ought to take it in hand. So he prayed. He prayed over the evil tidings, prayed for the ruined city, prayed about the reproach of the people of God, prayed on behalf of those in distress; prayed till his heart was well-nigh breaking. Nothing extraordinary happened. No angel came. God gave no sign. When Elijah prayed, things happened. Nehemiah prayed, and nothing happened! Oh, yes, there did! Something happened in Nehemiah, and a miracle in personality is greater than a miracle in nature. Emotion turned to prayer, and prayer turned to conviction; then conviction generated purpose, and purpose directed energy; then energy vitalized activity, until the two sayings come together: "So I Prayed" and "So We Built." The praying of Nehemiah wrought no startling and dramatic manifestation of supernatural power, but it built the wall and restored the city, and in the will of God that was his work. Nehemiah prayed about his work. Prayer was the maintained attitude and continued habit of his life. There are those who reserve prayer for special and desperate occasions. We read of some who prayed because they were at their wits’ end. Most people pray when they get there. Some pray under the stress of an emotional mood. Nehemiah prayed all the time, all the way through, and about everything. It was so entirely his habit to pray that he became a man of prayer. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 75: 03.55. THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF PRAYER ======================================================================== The Practical Value of Prayer The habit of prayer implies a certain attitude toward life. It predicates God, and recognizes His sovereignty over all. It submits all things to His will, rehearses all things in His presence, judges all things by His standard of values, and lives by faith in Him. Prayer is the essence and test ,of the godly life. Who can measure its influence upon mind and character, or estimate its value in practical wisdom and dexterous skill?’ The book of Nehemiah is in the Bible, and therein it is written for all to see what prayer did for the man of prayer, who wrought no miracle, but built the wall against tremendous odds. It gave him the commission and co-operation of the king, and secured him all necessary supplies. It brought him courage and sense in dealing with critics and adversaries, and it instructed him in wisdom in adjusting difficulties of labor and wages. It saved him from the tricky craft of the official, and gave him sagacity to resist the cunning of the enemy. It gave him sanctuary when they invented lies and slanders about him. It armed him with faith and humor as well as with a sword and trowel. He kept his hands clean, his wits alert, his courage bright, and prayed his way through. He was sure of God: sure of the character of God, the word of God, the covenant of God. So he prayed and ho he trusted; so he worked and so he prevailed. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 76: 03.56. "WHATSOEVER YE SHALL ASK" ======================================================================== Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask There is nothing about which we may not pray, but prayer will not avail if it is a mere whim or an idle wish. Nehemiah prayed over his work, but he made it his business to know all about the things of which he prayed. His work prospered because he worked at his work. It is no use to pray about work and then neglect it, or play the fool in it, for lack of courage, efficiency, and sense. He prayed and used his wits. He knew the Lord would send supplies, but he took care to have the king’s letters. He knew the Lord would protect, but he added a sword to the equipment of the builder’s trowel. Prayer gives vision in the secret place, intelligence in work, sense in judgment, courage in temptation, tenacity in adversity, and a joyous assurance in the will of God. A weaver who prayed over his work, as Nehemiah prayed over his, came to be known as the man who wove every yard of cloth for the Lord Jesus Christ. He never made a fortune, but his work prospered, and his character was of rare worth. Every task and every duty may be sanctified in the word of God and in prayer. The prayer life in which there are no miracles may be the greatest miracle of all. The secret of life is in the secret place where God waits. Even to those to whom privacy is impossible there is a sanctuary of the soul into which they can withdraw. I want to bear my witness to the priceless value of the habit of secret prayer. There is nothing about which I do not pray. I go over all my life in the presence of God. All my problems are solved there. All questions of liberty as well as duty are settled there. I seek counsel of God, and submit all things to the judgment of God. The sanctuary of my soul is there. There was a wonderful sight from my study window this morning. I stood and watched a gorgeous rainbow come up over the hill. It rose until it stood like a thing apart, and then it moved toward us till one end rested in the village and the other in the river. Its colors were indescribably beautiful, and it filled all the landscape with its glory. The old ruin was like a fairy palace and every cottage was a blaze of radiant beauty. The fields and the trees reflected the splendor of the heavens. Every common stick and stone was transformed into a thing of radiant beauty and holy splendor. Even so does prayer sanctify and glorify the commonplace life of ordinary folk. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 77: 03.57. THE PRAYER OF FAITH ======================================================================== The Prayer of Faith "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6) Faith is necessary to prayer. Without some such faith it is difficult to imagine how any man could pray. Man could not pray without faith. Therefore the faith which God demands is the first requirement in the man who prays. Atheists do not pray. God sets great store on faith. He makes it the first requisite of prayer, the sole condition of salvation, the one essential of spiritual life, and the universal law of power. It is a shallow interpretation of faith that sneers at salvation by grace through faith alone. Faith is enough. Faith is all God asks. Faith is all Jesus asks: "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." When the ruler of the synagogue was told that his daughter was dead, Jesus steadied his faith, saying, "Fear not: only believe;" and when the distraught father of the demoniac boy cried out against his own despair, our Lord assured him that "all things are possible to him that believeth." (Mark 9:23) Without faith it is impossible to please God. Without faith it is impossible to pray to God. Without faith it is impossible to have fellowship with God. Without faith man can do nothing with God, and God can do nothing with man. Neither can man do anything with man apart from faith, for faith is the basis of civilization as well as of salvation. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 78: 03.58. THE LAW OF FAITH ======================================================================== The Law of Faith Saint Paul expounds the law of faith in relation to grace, and Saint James expounds the same law. in the realm of prayer. There is no controversy between them. Faith to both is more than an intellectual conviction, however sincere. It is a moral and spiritual attitude that commits the whole being to accepted and assured truth. Faith is more than belief. The devils believe and tremble, but they do not trust. Faith is trust. It is not an opinion, not a fiction, not a supposition. It is a faculty of vision, a process of verification, an assurance of knowledge, a logic of life. It demands an honest and impartial mind, a pure and disinterested motive, a loyal and steadfast obedience. This is the faith that works by law to the justification of the ungodly, the sanctification of the unholy, and to the mighty power that prevails in prayer. "For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:20-21). The saying in Saint Matthew’s Gospel must be put alongside that of Saint Mark 11:22-26 :"Have faith in God For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:22-24) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 79: 03.59. THE LAW OF FAITH IN PRAYER ======================================================================== The Law of Faith in Prayer 1) Ask (James 1:5). The teaching of James consists chiefly of amplifications and applications of our Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He begins where our Lord began on the subject of prayer with the simple command to ask. "If any man lack, let him ask of God." The reach of the privilege of asking covers the whole man’s need as well as his lack of wisdom. God gives to all that ask, liberally and without upbraiding, therefore "ask, and ye shall receive." There is no limit to the range of prayer. "Whatsoever" is promised to "whosoever," and the largest liberty is given to those who pray. "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Php 4:6). "Ask, and ye shall receive" (John 16:24). Prayer is asking. "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye" (Matthew 6:8-9). Why pray if He knows? Because asking is something different from giving information. God waits to be asked, before He gives the gifts that supply man’s deepest needs. 2) Ask in Faith (James 1:6). Faith is explained by its opposite. Doubt is double-minded and unstable. Like a troubled sea, it is driven by the force of the wind and tossed by the surge of the deep; it is at the mercy of a double motion of oscillation and undulation. Internal conditions disturb, and external circumstances drive. Such a man gets nothing because he is not of one mind, and a two-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Ships go East and ships go West, Whatever the winds that blow; The set of the sail, and not the gale, Settles the way we go. 3) Ask Aright (James 4:3). It is possible to ask amiss. "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures." God takes account, not only of what we want, but of why we want it. He looks at the heart. There are some people to whom He will not give audience. Sin shuts men out. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Psalms 66:18). Unbelief shuts men out (Hebrews 11:6). An unforgiving spirit shuts men out (Matthew 5:23-24; Matthew 6:14-15; Mark 11:25-26). An unstable mind shuts men out (James 1:7). A condemning conscience shuts men out (John 4:14). A self-seeking motive shuts men out (James 4:3). Faith works in those who pray that they may ask aright 4) Ask Righteously (James 5:13-18). The rightness of the asking goes down to the rightness of the asker. The person who prays is the prayer. He is both the petitioner and the petition; the pleader and the plea; the request and the reason. Patriarchs and psalmists fall back on their integrity as an argument with God, and their plea is admitted. The alms and prayers of Cornelius were accepted of God, and Peter declared his new faith in these terms: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to him" (Acts 10:34-35). It is the praying of the righteous man that is of great force. Faith is no substitute for right living. It does not cover sin; only blood can do that. It saves from sin, gives victory over sin, and makes men righteous with the righteousness of God. There is no condemnation, but an assurance in the will of God that gives "boldness toward God: and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in his sight" (1 John 3:21-22). 5) Ask Earnestly. God promises to be found of us when we seek Him with all our hearts (Jeremiah 29:13). Elijah’s prevailing prayer was intense in its passion. Our Lord’s parables on prayer emphasize an importunity that persists and insists in spite of discouragement, and the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of His own praying with strong cries and tears. It is the impassioned prayer that prevails. 6) Ask in the Spirit. The prevailing prayer of Elijah was energized prayer. It was inspired, instructed, and empowered of the Holy Spirit. 7) Ask in the Prayer of Faith. Ask believingly, according to the law of faith. The principle is stated in Mark 11:24, and illustrations are in all the Scriptures. The Honor Roll of Faith in Hebrews 11:1-40 furnishes illustrious examples of its power, and in verse 13 there is a picturesque description of its method. (Hebrews 11:13) Like the man in the Gospels who believed the word that Jesus spake and went his way (John 4:50), so these had witness borne to them, and they dared and endured by faith, even dying believing. Israel shouted before the walls of Jericho while as yet there was not even a crack in the solid masonry, and the shout of faith brought them down so that there was not a yard of solid masonry left. Jehoshaphat’s singers chanted the song of victory before the battlefield was reached, and the song of faith was mightier than thousands of armed men skilled in war. Elijah’s promise to the widow was made in the midst of famine, and in the house of faith there was no lack. The prayer of faith works mightily, for it is mighty with the power of God. "When ye pray, believe that ye have received, and ye shall have." (Mark 11:24) "Have Faith In God" (Mark 11:22) He never dishonors faith. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 80: 03.60. PRAYING "ONE FOR ANOTHER" ======================================================================== Praying "One for Another" The praying people of the Bible are intercessors. Abraham pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses made intercession for apostate Israel. Samuel prayed all night for Saul and continually for the nation. David entreated God for his people. Daniel prayed for the deliverance of the Lord’s people from Babylon. Christ prayed for His disciples, and made special intercession for Peter. Paul was an example of his own exhortation "that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men." The one thing that is said to have surprised God is that the voice of intercession had ceased. "And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor" (Isaiah 59:16). His delivering mercy depends upon intercessors, who will put their shoulders under the burdens of others. "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the fence, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none" (Ezekiel 22:30). The normal function of prayer is to make intercession with God for others. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 81: 03.61. THE MYSTERY OF INTERCESSION ======================================================================== The Mystery of Intercession That we may pray for others is the deepest mystery and the crowning glory of prayer. If we do not know how to pray for ourselves as we ought, how can we know how to pray for other people? If we know so imperfectly our own needs, how can we know the needs of others? Who are we that we should presume to interpret the needs of another to God? He alone knows, and may not His knowledge and love be trusted? The answer is that prayer cannot be solitary. It must be personal, but it cannot be isolated. Life is relative and interdependent, "For none of us liveth unto himself" (Romans 14:7). Prayer cannot stop at personal need. Even in the inner chamber there is no escape from the impact of those who impinge upon us in the home, the church, and the world. The law of prayer is that each stands alone in the Presence of God, just as surely as "each one of us shall give account of himself to God," each bearing his own burden, and yet every man bearing the burden of others. There is always a burden. Intercession is vicarious. The Savior made intercession because He bare the sin of the transgressors (Isaiah 58:12). So it is in all prayer that entreats for others. Moses made the cause of Israel his own. (See the prayers in Exodus 17:1-16; Exodus 22:1-31; Exodus 33:1-23; Exodus 34:1-35; Numbers 11:1-35; Numbers 14:1-45; Numbers 21:1-35; Numbers 27:1-23.) Isaiah identified himself with the people of "unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5). Daniel made confession for the nation (Daniel 9:1-27). The despairing father of the epileptic boy (Mark 9:22) and the distracted mother of the devil-possessed daughter (Matthew 14:21-28) each made the affliction of the child a personal plea. So it has been in the history of the Christian Church. Carey bore the burden of India, Hudson Taylor of China, Livingstone of Africa; and so does everyone bear the burden of those for whom he prays. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 82: 03.62. THE INTERCESSION IN HEAVEN ======================================================================== The Intercession in Heaven Prayer is central in heaven. The interpretation of the mystery of intercession begins there. It is fellowship in the ministry of our Great High Priest at the right hand of God. "He ever liveth to make intercession" (Hebrews 7:25). That our Lord should need to pray in the days of His flesh is a mystery of humiliation; that He should need to make intercession in heaven is a mystery of glory. It is a light that transcends our vision. The "why" and the "how" are beyond our understanding, but it is because He so lives to make intercession that He is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him. The truth revealed is explicit, and its effect in experience assures its certainty. The ascended Christ is the Priest-King at the right hand of God. As High Priest He represents man to God; as King He represents God to man. He entered in by the one offering of Himself as a Sacrifice for sin. Having entered by His own blood, He is the One Mediator between God and man, and humanity’s Advocate with the Father. He intercedes for men (Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 9:24). Prayer finds its expression and availableness in terms of Christ and His finished work. He takes the prayers of the earthly altar and adds to them the fires of the heavenly, and they become acceptable and effective through His name (Hebrews 13:15; Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3). So much is revealed, and we have no authority to go beyond, but it makes clear that in the fellowship of the saints there is prayer in heaven, and there is no logic by which the redeemed can be excluded from the ministry of intercession. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 83: 03.63. THE INTERCESSION OF THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== The Intercession of the Spirit There is a twofold intercession. The High Priest intercedes for us in heaven, and the Holy Spirit intercedes within the temple of the consecrated soul. "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27). There is such unity of purpose and harmony of method in the two intercessions that the two are one, and what is prayed by the intercessor on earth is prayed by the Intercessor in heaven. The Spirit takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. He takes of the deep things of God and interprets them to us. He knows the purpose of God, and makes intercession according to the divine will. In this way He works in us both to will and to do the good pleasure of His will. The unutterable groaning is in our imperfect humanity, but the inarticulate groaning of the Spirit within us finds complete expression in the terms of the heavenly Priesthood. Intercession through the Spirit implies a Spirit-filled temple. He can only interpret spiritual things to the spiritually minded, for the carnal mind cannot know the mind of the Spirit. He cannot intercede in the heart of an unyielded will. The pure in heart see God. The heart must be sensitive to light and obedient to the heavenly vision. It takes a saint to be in the ministry of intercession. There are many kinds of service that make no demand upon spirituality for their success. Preaching may be an art in which there is no power of the Spirit. The ecclesiastical ministry of outer-court stewardship may be rendered by the gifts of the office and the counter. Social service may make a fair showing official returns without any glow of spiritual mindedness. Church music may be of a kind that does not call for the travail and anguish of intercession. The man of prayer must be a man of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 84: 03.64. THE INTERCESSION OF THE SECRET PLACE ======================================================================== The Intercession of the Secret Place We are called unto the fellowship of this twofold intercession. The terms that are used to describe it indicate sacrificial labor and sustained intensity. Nothing costs so much. Saint Paul speaks of being in travail, striving and laboring in prayer. There is always the sweat of blood in prevailing intercession. The reason is not in God’s reluctance, for He inspires that He may fulfill. There are many adversaries in the human will, as well as spiritual forces and personalities. God waits to bless; and that means that He is always ready and always waiting. The answer to Daniel’s prayer was delayed for three weeks by some mysterious conflict in the realm of spirits (Daniel 10:12-14). "For our wrestling," says Saint Paul, "is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). Jesus said, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee" (Luke 22:31-32). For whom and for what may we pray? The general answer is, for all and for everything. The real answer is, according to the intercession of the Spirit and according to the will of God. There are those who have a natural right to our prayers, such as our families, our friends, our fellow believers, our minister and colleagues, our fellow workmen and our masters, as well as those whom we know to be in circumstances of need. The prayer of intercession calls for intelligence, understanding, watchfulness, as well as for sympathy, intensity, and sacrifice. There is often a severe discipline of patience and faith. Sometimes the answer comes immediately, and sometimes it tarries. The one truth in which faith rests is that it comes. The Spirit that assures is acquainted with all contingencies, and His assurances are YEA and AMEN in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 1:20) I have been more mindful to set forth the sanctuary of my own faith than to give rules and quote examples. The subject is in all the Scriptures, and its range is without boundaries. Its mysteries are unsearchable, but its certainties are infallible. The blessings are immeasurable and invaluable. Who can tell the influences that have come into his life through the intercession of those who have prayed for him? Who can measure the work of those whose ministry is that of laboring in prayer for others? The great need of God is of intercessors. "Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, take ye no rest, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." He still saves by them that sigh and that cry. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 85: 03.65. PRAYING FOR DIVINE HEALING ======================================================================== Praying for Divine Healing The subject of divine healing is always with me. The infirmities of the flesh have kept it continually among the problems of my faith. In the work of a pastor there is no escape from it. Invalids look wistfully at the statement of the apostle James concerning the prayer that heals the sick, and seek for guidance. (James 5:14-15) Some are healed by the prayer of faith, and if one, why not another; if some, why not all? I have searched the Scriptures from end to end again and again that I might know the truth, and I have not found the subject easy of solution. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 86: 03.66. THE PROBLEM OF DIVINE HEALING ======================================================================== The Problem of Divine Healing There is healing through the prayer of faith. The truth of this is confirmed by many witnesses who are both sane and saintly. There appear to be those to whom is given the gift of healing, and they lay hands upon the sick and they recover. I myself have been healed through the prayer of faith. In my ministry I have been used of God to the healing of the sick. I have never exercised the ministry of healing except at the urgent request of the sick and a sure constraint of the Spirit of God. In other cases I have been quite helpless. There are those for whom I would have given my right hand if I could have prayed them to health, but I have had to see them suffer and die. Some have suffered untold anguish of mind because they sought for healing in vain. That has been my problem. While I was yet a young minister, one of the workers of the church was stricken with disease. We claimed the promises, and some of the best people I have ever known prayed earnestly and believingly for his recovery. We refused to believe that faith could fail. He died while we prayed. The shock to our faith was overwhelming. A sister of my own was an invalid for many years. Devout souls distressed her by the arguments Job’s comforters had hurled at him. Together we searched the Scriptures and inquired of the Lord, beseeching Him that she might be healed. The Lord answered her in a vision, and gave her peace, but not healing. I could multiply such instances on the one side and on the other, and it may be that others have been similarly perplexed. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 87: 03.67. WITNESSES TO DIVINE HEALING ======================================================================== Witneses to Divine Healing There are many witnesses that the Lord is Our Healer. A few weeks ago I was in the neighborhood of Bishop Auckland, where Pastor Jeffries had held a mission some months before. As we were leaving the house where we had called, one of our party expressed regret to her sister that she had not brought some special tablets for her. She had been a martyr to severe pains in the head for years, and this was some new remedy to be tried. She answered gayly: "You needn’t bring them. My head doesn’t need them. The Lord healed me, and I have never had a suspicion of pain since." Her husband and children confirmed her testimony with the remark, "She is a different woman." There are many such witnesses. The most remarkable example of divine healing I have known took place at the Southport Convention. The Rev. W. H. Tindall was president of the Convention, and the strain of much speaking had brought on a disease of the throat. For more than a year he had not spoken above a whisper, and even that was painful. The specialists gave no hope of recovery. At all the meetings he was a pathetic and silent figure. Prayer was offered for him continually. At the speakers’ prayer meeting on the Friday morning there was a remarkable intensity and unity of faith. No one could pray for anything but the recovery of Mr. Tindall’s voice. Faith gathered courage, forgot impossibilities, and claimed the promise. Dr. Ebenezer E. Jenkins presided, and when the rest of us rose from our knees Mr. Tindall remained kneeling. Doctor Jenkins said, "This is the most remarkable prayer meeting I have ever known," and placing his hand on the president’s head he declared, in the name of the Lord, that we should hear Mr. Tindall speak in the tent before the Convention closed. That night Mr. Tindall spoke in the tent for fifteen minutes and was heard by twelve hundred people, and he preached without loss of voice to the end of his days. I was present and saw and heard, and there are those still alive to confirm my testimony. The experience of E. Stanley Jones as recorded in The Christ of the Indian Road is another great illustration of the Divine will and power to heal. Before the supreme missionary opportunity of his life he found himself spiritually impotent and physically broken. "I saw," he says, "that unless I got help from somewhere I would have to give up my missionary career, go back to America, and go to work on a farm to try to regain my health. It was one of the darkest hours. At that time I was in a meeting at Lucknow. While in prayer, not particularly thinking about myself, a Voice seemed to say, ’Are you yourself ready for this work to which I have called you?’ I replied: ’No, Lord, I am done for. I have reached the end of my rope.’ The Voice replied, ’If you will turn that over to me and not worry about it, I will take care of it.’ I quickly answered, ’Lord, I close the bargain right here.’ A great peace settled into my heart and pervaded me. I knew it was done! Life - abundant Life - had taken possession of me... For days after that I hardly knew I had a body. I went through the days, working all day and far into the night, and came down to bedtime wondering why in the world I should ever go to bed at all, for there was not the slightest trace of tiredness of any kind. I seemed possessed by Life and Peace and Rest -- by Christ Himself. . . . Nine of the most strenuous years of my life have gone by since then, and the old trouble has never returned, and I have never had such health. I seemed to have tapped new Life for body, mind and spirit. Life was on a permanently higher level. And I have done nothing but take it." The Rev. Andrew Murray had a very similar experience. After he was healed, he traveled for several years extensively in Europe, America, and South Africa, preaching and speaking daily with great power; and yet when ill toward the close of his life, he said to his daughter in a voice full of tender sweetness: "My child, I would so much like to hold evangelistic meetings, but God does not see fit to heal me." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 88: 03.68. WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURE? ======================================================================== What Saith the Scripture? The teaching of the Scriptures is the final authority on this subject, as on every other question of faith and life. The teaching of the Bible is for me the last word. I accept it whether I understand it or not. Faith can wait. It is humbling to have to bear the reproachful pity of those who speak with the confident authority of science and philosophy, learning and psychology, but the yoke of Christ is easy when faith is assured and meekness is content to wait God’s time. When evolution and revelation seem to be at variance, faith banks with revelation. The difficulty is not, however, with the hostility of science and learning, but with the, contradictions among those who believe. There are differences of interpretation, but we may leave the disputants to their contentions, and seek to know the truth for ourselves as far as we can. There is no doubt that the Scriptures teach that the Lord is our Healer. That is one of the names by which He is revealed. It is also beyond dispute that our Lord and Savior regarded healing as an integral part of His ministry. He was a Physician who healed without medicine all kinds of diseases. He commissioned His apostles to heal the sick. The gift of healing was, and is, among the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:9) Healing was part of the apostolic ministry. The gift has never been withdrawn from the church. Through all the ages there have been witnesses to its power. The promise in the Epistle of James is for all time: "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." The Bible associates sickness with Satan. God did not make man to be sick. Sickness came with sin. Jesus attributed some sicknesses to the devil. He said of one woman that Satan had bound her eighteen years (Luke 13:16). In Acts 10:38 we read that "Jesus. . . . went about doing good, and healing the diseases of all who were oppressed of the devil." At the same time, he rebuked those who traced sickness and calamity to personal sinfulness. "Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, that he should be born blind." Sickness and sin are associated in redemption and healing. Saint Matthew sees in the healing ministry of our Lord the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. "He cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:16-17). He bare our sicknesses as He bare our sins, for they were part of the same burden. It cannot mean that they were transferred to Him, for, so far as we know, He was never sick, but in sympathy and at great cost in physical and mental virtue He lifted their burden and bore it away. The sick-less Christ bare our sicknesses, as the sin-less Christ bare our sins. When He healed the palsied man who was let down through the roof, He began with his sin. Others whom He healed He commanded to sin no more, and the passage in Saint James links healing with forgiveness. There is a passage of Saint Paul’s (1 Corinthians 11:31-32) that traces sickness and even death to spiritual dishonor. There is sickness in which there is no sin. It may be true theologically that all sickness came from sin, but experimentally there is a sickness that is of grace. Scripture must interpret Scripture. The affliction of Job was of grace. It was to the glory of God. Paul’s thorn in the flesh was not of sin. Satan took advantage of it, but God gave it for the glory of His grace. Paul healed others, but he accepted his own sufferings as part of the afflictions of Christ. Epaphroditus was healed of the Lord (Php 2:27), Trophimus he had to leave at Miletum sick (2 Timothy 4:20), for Timothy’s stomach he recommended a moderate use of wine (1 Timothy 5:23), and on his travels there went with him Luke, the beloved physician. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 89: 03.69. I BELIEVE IN DIVINE HEALING ======================================================================== I Believe in Divine Healing I believe in the healing power of faith. Apart from religion there is, generally speaking, health for the man who lives by faith. Sickness is of the mind rather than of the flesh. Divine healing is more than healing by faith. It is not to be confused with hypnotism and autosuggestion. The Lord is the Healer. The faith is in Him. The grounds of my faith are in Him. I trust His Word, the redeeming work of Christ, and the sanctifying power of His Spirit who quickens our mortal bodies. The main concern is to know the will of God. Sickness may be chastisement for disobedience, and by faith the cause may be removed, the sin forgiven, and health restored. I am bound to believe that sickness may be in the will of God, for the purpose of discipline, for the glory of His grace, and the ministry of Christ. I am sure that divine healing is a fact; and that the gift of healing waits within the church for the prayer of faith. I am sure that many people are sick who ought never to have been sick, and who might now be healed. I am sure that no life is so health-giving and so radiant as the life of joyous and obedient faith. I am sure I believe with all my heart and mind in divine healing, in spite of the fact that I am often ailing. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 90: 03.70. THE PROBLEM OF UNANSWERED PRAYER ======================================================================== The Problem Of Unanswered Prayer It is many years since I first wrote on unanswered prayer. The problem became acute when the man for whom we were praying so earnestly and confidently died while we prayed. The shock of it was overwhelming. It had never occurred to us that he might die. We had claimed the promise. We were absolutely sure of the Word. I do not think my faith was ever so sorely tried. We went back to the Word, and God gave me a message that has brought consolation to many, and through all the the years it has been a stronghold for my trust. Many years have passed since then, but the truth abides, and though it may involve some repetition, I want to pass on the message to others. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 91: 03.71. THE PROBLEM ======================================================================== The Problem There can be no doubt that God answers prayer. On this point the Scriptures speak plainly enough. Nothing could be more definite. All men are commanded to pray, at all times, in all places and for all needs. Assurances abound that prayer is heard The promise are explicit, and the Scriptures are full of examples and encouragement. Christ’s own word is, "Every one that asketh receiveth" (Matthew 7:8). The scope of the promise is without limit of place (1 Timothy 2:8), time (Luke 18:1), or subject (John 16:23; Matthew 21:22; Php 4:6). Everything that concerns man is of interest to God, and is a proper subject for prayer. God does not divide our needs into sacred and secular, spiritual and material. He who taught us to pray for the forgiveness of our sins, taught us also to say, "Give us this day our daily bread." Yet, as we have studied the subject, it has been made clear that there are conditions and limitations. There are laws of prayer. The unrestricted promises are hedged about it conditions We are commanded to pray for all men, but there were some for whom the prophet was forbidden to pray (Jeremiah 7:16, see also 1 John 5:15-16). It is possible to ask and not receive (Psalms 66:18; James 4:2-3). Prayers that lack sincerity and faith cannot be heard. This is obvious. God judges by the heart. So do we. No one grants requests where these simple elements are wanting. The sincerity must extend to both petition and petitioner. Eloquence is not prayer (Isaiah 29:13; John 9:31; James 4:6; 1 John 3:22). Are all the sincere, earnest, believing prayers of good people granted? The answer of experience is, No. I have seen a distracted mother cling to the corpse of her child, refusing to believe it was dead. She had prayed. God had promised. She had believed. He heard, always heard. How could her child die? When at last the truth has forced itself upon her protesting mind, the distress deepens at the thought that God has, not heard. There are many such days of desperate faith. Is God angry, as in the case of David (2 Samuel 12:14-23), even though there be no such cause? Can it be that He is indifferent? Can it be that He does not know? He forgotten? It was with such thoughts as these in mind that I turned to my Bible, and in the Book I found the answer in three representative cases: 1) Deuteronomy 3:23-29, where Moses prayed that he might go over into Canaan. 2) 1 Kings 19:4 . Elijah’s prayer that he might die. 3) 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, in which Paul prayed for the removal of affliction. These there men occupy a prominent place in Scripture, and yet each was denied his request. Their prayers are fairly representative, and cover the ground of the problem. Let us examine them in their order. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 92: 03.72. THE PRAYER OF MOSES ======================================================================== The Prayer of Moses Moses prayed that he might be allowed to complete his work. He had undertaken it at God’s command. For forty years he had nursed and led a murmuring and ungrateful people through the wilderness. The promised land was within sight. What more natural than that he should desire to see his lifework completed? Besides, in all human judgment, he could not be spared. He would be needed in Canaan even more than in the wilderness. There were enemies to be driven out, the constitution to be established, and the people to be settled. If he should leave them now, the work of forty years would fall to pieces. Internal strife would wreck the nation. No wonder he prayed that he might go over. In spite of a nation’s entreaty, regardless of his record, and notwithstanding his earnest pleading, he died; died with his work unfinished; died when he seemed to be most needed; died with the hope of years at last within his reach. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 93: 03.73. IS IT NOT OFTEN SO? ======================================================================== Is Itt Not Often So? A lifework is accepted as a divine appointment. The powers of brain and muscle, time and energy - all a man is goes into the task at the cost of personal comfort and ambition. You pray for your work, that God will prosper it and bless you in it. That is right. No man has a right to be in any business for which he cannot pray. God does not put a man into business for worthless or unworthy ends. He means the work to prosper; and yet how often it happens that the prayers of good men seem to fail! Plans over which they have prayed collapse. Competitors prevail. Misfortune overwhelms. Ill health disables. Death calls, and the work of years is left unfinished and incomplete. Death at such times seems almost spiteful in its cruelty. It strikes the arm as it stretches the hand to grasp the prize; takes the parent and counselor when they can least be spared; passes by the weakly and takes the strong; strikes down the burden-bearer and spares the burden. We plead that we may stay a little longer: only a little while; just till this is completed; just till the children are grown up, or the business settled; and the answer is, "Get thee up into the top of Pisgah" -- and die. David wanted to build a house for God. His heart was Set on it. God praised him for wanting to do it, but He forbade him (1 Chronicles 22:8). So is many heart set with a yearning that prays and aches for a work that is withheld. The man Jesus saved with a mighty salvation prayed that he might go with Jesus, and Jesus sent him home (Luke 8:38). Juniper Tree Prayers. Elijah was mighty in prayer. God answered all his prayers but one, and that was the prayer that he might die. He was under the juniper tree, suffering from mental and physical reaction. Yesterday had been a great day. He had stood alone as God’s champion: strong, defiant, triumphant. The next day was the day after! At the threat of a woman he fled. His nerves were unstrung. Fear, despondency, and despair took hold of him. In the fret and frenzy of depression he prayed that he might die. The disease is still with us, and is so multiplied that there are not enough juniper trees to go around. There are morbid Christians who have built tabernacles under them. Nerve collapse is more spiritual than physical, though it is usually both. There is no despondency in faith. What a mercy that God does not always take us at our word! Nothing dishonors God more than the fretful despondency of the saints. Juniper trees make poor sanctuaries. The apostle’s thorn in the flesh need not detain us, for we have already dealt with the subject of prayer and affliction. The thorn was a physical affliction, and because he regarded it as a hindrance he prayed for its removal. It was not removed, though he besought the Lord thrice. He had to learn that affliction may be God’s messenger, as well as the messenger of Satan. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 94: 03.74. THE ANSWER TO UNANSWERED PRAYERS ======================================================================== The Answer to Unanswered Prayers None of these prayers was unanswered. They were not granted, but they were answered, and "No" was the answer. "No" is as truly an answer as "Yes." When a request is refused, it is as truly answered as when it is granted. Refusal may be the only answer possible to love and wisdom and truth A child may cry for a razor, and full-grown people may cry for things equally unsuitable, unsafe, and unwise. Many have lived to thank God that He withstood their agonizing entreaties at some particular time or for some particular thing that seemed indispensable. God never refuses without reason. He knows the past, in which there may be reasons for present disqualification. Forgiven sin may disable. Moses and David were both examples of this (Deuteronomy 32:49-52; 2 Samuel 12:14). There are vessels that break on the wheel, and though another maybe made, the original is impossible. Diseases may be healed, but a lost limb cannot be restored. The Lord knows the future as well as the past. The immediate may imperil the future. The eagerness for a mess of pottage may involve the loss of an inheritance. Esau got the answer to his entreaty at dinner time. Jacob got his at dawn. God spared Hezekiah fifteen years, but he had better have gone when the Lord sent for him. The Greater Includes the Less. Delays are not denials, and it pays to wait God’s time. Moses got into Canaan, and Elijah went to heaven by a more glorious way than that of the juniper tree. No inspired prayer of faith is ever refused. "No" is never God’s last word. If the prayer seems unanswered, it is because it is lost in the glory of the answer when it comes. God may refuse the route because he knows a better, and He took Moses into Canaan by a better way and in better company. I have known other people who have had to go by way of heaven to find the answer to their prayers. He took Elijah to heaven by a much more wonderful way than that of the grave. He wanted to die, and God gave his tired servant sleep and rest, and sent him away to the hills for a holiday. That is His remedy for nerves: a change of air, a new vision, and a bigger job. Paul never had any use for juniper trees, and to him God said, "My grace is sufficient for thee," and He taught him to glory in affliction and adversity. In the experience that first sorely fried our faith, God sent help out of the darkness. Through the tears of a broken heart the vision came, and when the memorial card was sent it bore this text, which rebuked our unbelief, "He asked life of thee, and thou gayest it him, even length of days for ever and ever." So in Glory shall we find our prayers have been interpreted according to the infinite wisdom and eternal love of God our Father who bids us pray. Unanswered yet! The prayers your lips have pleaded In agony of heart these many years? Does faith begin to fail? Is hope departing? And think you all in vain those falling tears? Say not, the Father hath not heard your prayer, You shall have your desire - sometime - somewhere. Unanswered yet! Though when you first presented This one petition at the Father’s Throne It seemed you could not wait the time of asking, So urgent was the heart to make it known; Though years have passed since then, do not despair, The Lord will answer you - sometime - somewhere. Unanswered yet! Nay, do not say ungranted, Perhaps your work is not wholly done. The work began when first your prayer was uttered, And God will finish what He has begun. If you will keep the incense burning there, His glory you shall see - sometime - somewhere. Unanswered yet! Faith cannot be unanswered; Her feet are firmly planted on the Rock; Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted, Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock. She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer, And cries, "It shall be done - sometime - somewhere." - E. B. Browning ======================================================================== CHAPTER 95: 04.00. THE WAY TO PENTECOST ======================================================================== The Way to Pentecost by Samuel Chadwick Samuel Chadwick was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1860. He was converted to Christ at the age of 10 and felt a call to the ministry at the age of 15. He started to preach at the age of 16 and by 21 was a circuit rider for the Methodists. In 1907 he became a tutor at Cliff College, Calver with the hopes that he would return to the mission work he was doing in the south Yorkshire coalfields within five years. However, when the Principal, Thomas Cook, died Chadwick was called to fill the position and he never returned to circuit duties. He became editor of ’Joyful News’ magazine, was elected Chairman of Sheffield District in 1911, President of the Methodist Conference in 1917, and President of the Free Church Council in 1922. He made seven preaching tours of the United States, and visited South Africa in 1916 when he addressed their Conference. He returned to Cliff College in the late 1920’s and went home to Jesus on October 16th, 1932. One famous student of his was Leonard Ravenhill who said he learned how to pray from Chadwick. Text for this module came from http://www.raptureready.com ======================================================================== CHAPTER 96: 04.01. DO WE BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST? ======================================================================== Do We Believe in the Holy Ghost? The Apostles’ Creed contains ten articles on the Person and Work of Christ, and only one on the Holy Spirit. The proportion of ten to one about represents the interest in the doctrine of the Spirit in the history of Christian thought. No doctrine of the Christian faith has been so neglected. Sermons and hymns are singularly barren on this subject, and the last great book on the Spirit was written in 1674. This is all the more remarkable when we remember that the Holy Spirit is the ultimate fact of Revelation and the unique force in Redemption. No other religion has anything corresponding to the Christian doctrine of the Spirit, and in the Christian religion there is nothing so vital, pervasive, and effective. John Owen speaks of it as the touchstone of faith; the one article by which the Church stands or falls. Thomas Arnold said it is "the very main thing of all. We are living under the dispensation of the Spirit; in that character God now reveals Himself to His people. He who does not know God the Holy Ghost cannot know God at all." The Holy Scriptures declare Him to be the revealer of all truth, the active agent in all works of redemption, and from first to last the instrument of Grace in the experience of salvation. In Him, and through Him, and by Him, is the power that saves. Illumination and Conviction, Repentance and Regeneration, Assurance and Sanctification, are all the work of God the eternal Spirit. To the Church He is the Source and Supply of wisdom and power. The Church is the Body of Christ, indwelt and controlled by the Spirit. He directs, energizes, and controls. From first to last this Dispensation is the Dispensation of the Spirit. The Fruit of Neglect The Church affirms its faith in the Holy Ghost every time it repeats its Creed, but does the Church really believe its belief? Modern writers are contending that the name is nothing more than a figure of speech for spiritual atmosphere. They regard it as one of the misfortunes of the Christian religion that Personality has been claimed for the Spirit. The life of the Church witnesses to the same attitude. The things of the Spirit are ignored as of no account. Atmosphere is valued. Religious assemblies of a certain order give a large place to silent pauses which produce emotional excitement When our fathers glowed with fires kindled in the soul, they gave vent in noise. The modern way is to be still. Spirituality and silence are as wedded as were revivalism and rowdiness. Both types are emotional, but revivalists did believe their work was of the Spirit; the Quietists cultivate psychological influence. They speak of the Spirit with a different content from that of the Creeds. The blunders and disasters of the Church are largely, if not entirely, accounted for by the neglect of the Spirit’s Ministry and Mission. The morass of speculation about the Bible takes no account of the Holy Spirit. It regards inspiration as negligible, and insists upon interpreting Revealed Truth by no standards save those of history and literature. Miracles are condemned without trial. Prophesy is dismissed without inquiry. Revelation is ignored without reason. Under the plea of breadth, all truth is thrust into uniform ruts. Our Lord spoke of the Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, and promised that He would guide His people into all Truth. He spake by the Prophets. There were many writers, but He is the Author, and the Bible can neither be accounted for nor interpreted but by His guidance, He holds the key; He is the Key. Revealed Truth can be known only through the Revealer, Ignoring this. scholars and historians, grammarians and antiquarians, critics and agnostics, are blind in the midst of light. The same result is seen in the belief about our Lord Jesus Christ, the Experience of Grace, and the Doctrine of the Church. No man can say Jesus is Lord save by the Holy Ghost, but men are seeking to interpret the Christ in terms of reason, history, and philosophy. The Christian religion begins in a New Birth in the power of the Spirit. It is developed under His guidance, and sustained by His presence; but ignoring the Spirit, it becomes a matter of education and evolution. The Church is the Body of Christ begotten, unified, and indwelt by the Spirit, but forgetting the Spirit, men wrangle over limbs, functions, and orders. The Christian religion is hopeless without the Holy Ghost. The Problems of the Church As in truth, so it is in service. The Church is helpless without the presence and power of the Spirit. The Church never talked so much about itself and its problems. That is always a bad sign. The lust for talk about work increases as the power for work declines. Conferences multiply when work fails. The problems of the Church are never solved by talking about them. The problems arise out of failures. There is no need to discuss the problem of reaching the masses, go long as the masses are being reached. There is no problem of empty churches, so long as churches are full. There is no class-meeting question, so long as the classmeeting throbs with life and ministers to the manifold needs of heart and life. The power to attract is in attractiveness, and it is useless to advertise the banquet if there is nothing to eat. We are acting as though the only remedy for decline were method, organization, and compromise. The Church is failing to meet modern needs, grip the modern mind, and save modern life. The saints are the ordained rulers of the earth, but they do not rule; indeed, they have dropped the scepter and repudiated the responsibility. The helplessness of the Church is pathetic and tragic. There might be no such Person as the Holy Ghost. Believers Without the Holy Ghost The Church knows quite well both the reason and the remedy for failure. The human resources of the Church were never so great. The opportunities of the Church were never so glorious. The need for the work of the Church was never so urgent. The crisis is momentous; and the Church staggers helplessly amid it all. When the ancient Church reproached God with sleeping at the post of duty, God charged His people with being staggering drunk. The Church knows perfectly well what is the matter. It is sheer cant to seek the explanation in changed conditions. When were conditions ever anything else? The Church has lost the note of authority, the secret of wisdom, and the gift of power, through persistent and willful neglect of the Holy Spirit of God. Confusion and impotence are inevitable when the wisdom and resources of the world are substituted for the presence and power of the Spirit of God. Proofs abound. The New Testament furnishes examples of Churches filled with the Spirit and Churches without the Spirit. The differences are obvious. The Church of which Apollos was minister had not so much as heard that the Spirit was given. The Church in our day has no such excuse. Ours is the sin of denial. He has been shut out from the province in which He is indispensable. Religion has been reconstructed without Him. There is no denial of the supernatural, but it is insisted that the supernatural must conform to natural law. It is admitted that truth is inspired, but its inspiration must develop along the lines of natural selection and growth. Religion cannot be allowed to have come upon any other lines than those of literature, philosophy, and ethics. The Christian religion has simply the honor of being less faulty than the rest. Jesus Christ must be accounted for in the same way. He is simply the crown and consummation of a progressive humanity. The emphasis is upon the Man, and in that emphasis there is reason to rejoice but the strange thing is that in the intense interest in Jesus the certainties about Him that come through the Spirit have been lost. Doctrine Without Experience The Church still has a theology of the Holy Ghost, but it has no living consciousness of His presence and power. Theology without experience is like faith without works: it is dead. The signs of death abound. Prayer-meetings have died out because men did not believe in the Holy Ghost. The liberty of prophesying has gone because men believe in investigation and not in inspiration. There is a dearth of conversions be cause faith about the New Birth as a creative act of the Holy Ghost has lost its grip on intellect and heart. The experience of the Second Gift of Grace is no longer preached and testified, because Christian experience, though it may have to begin in the Spirit, must be perfected in the wisdom of the flesh and the culture of the schools. Confusion and impotence are the inevitable results when the wisdom and resources of the world are substituted for the presence and power of the Spirit. The rebound from materialism is seen in such movements as Christian Science, Spiritualism, and Theosophy. It is the truth in these things that gives them their power, and it is useless to denounce them. They are the reaction of the spirit against the bondage of the flesh and of the mind. The cravings they represent must be met by the experience of Pentecost. Modernism and Mysticism are also the products of a religion that is not baptized of the Holy Ghost. Sacerdotalism is another. These things flourish on impoverished soil and dunghills. They are the works of the flesh, and the product of spiritual death. The remedy for them is not in reproach and bitterness, but in floods and rivers, winds and sun. The answer is in the demonstration of a supernatural religion, and the only way to a supernatural religion is in the abiding presence of the Spirit of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 97: 04.02. THE CHURCH WITHOUT THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== The Church Without the Spirit The Church is the creation of the Holy Spirit. It is a community of believers who owe their religious life from first to last to the Spirit. Apart from Him there can be neither Christian nor Church. The Christian religion is not institutional but experimental. It is not an ordained class, neither is it in ordinances and sacraments. It is not a fellowship of common interest in culture, virtue, or service. Membership is by spiritual birth. The roll of membership is kept in heaven. Christ is the Door. He knows them that are His, and they know Him. The Church Roll and the Lamb’s Book of Life are not always identical. "No man can say Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit," and confession of the lordship of Jesus Christ is the first condition of membership in His Church. The command to tarry in the city until there came enduement of power from on high proves that the one essential equipment of the Church is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Nothing else avails for the real work of the Church. For much that is undertaken by the Church He is not necessary. The Holy Ghost is no more needed to run bazaars, social clubs, institutions, and picnics, than He is to run a circus. These may be necessary adjuncts of the modern Church, but it is not for power to run these things we need tarry. Religious services and organized institutions do not constitute a Christian Church, and these may flourish without the gift of Pentecostal fire. The Life of the Body The work of the Spirit in the Church is set forth in the promises of Jesus on the eve of His departure, and demonstrated in the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospels "tell of "all that Jesus began to do and to teach, until the day in which He was received up," and the Acts of the Apostles tell of all that He continued to do and to teach after the day in which He was received up. The Holy Spirit is the active, administrative Agent of the glorified Son. He is the Paraclete, the Deputy, the acting Representative of the Ascended Christ. His mission is to glorify Christ by perpetuating His character, establishing His Kingdom, and accomplishing His redeeming purpose in the world. The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He fills the Body, directs its movements, controls its members, inspires its wisdom, supplies its strength. He guides into the truth, sanctifies its agents, and empowers for witnessing. The work of the Church is to "minister the Spirit," to speak His message, and transmit His power. He calls and distributes, controls and guides, inspires and strengthens. The Spirit has never abdicated His authority nor relegated His power. Neither Pope nor Parliament, neither Conference nor Council is supreme in the Church of Christ. The Church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is College trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles. The Church that multiplies committees and neglects prayer may be fussy, noisy, enterprising, but it labors in vain and spends its strength for naught. It is possible to excel in mechanics and fail in dynamic. There is a superabundance of machinery; what is wanting is power. To run an organization needs no God. Man can supply the energy, enterprise, and enthusiasm for things human. The real Work of a Church depends upon the power of the Spirit. The Presence of the Spirit is vital and central to the work of the Church. Nothing else avails. Apart from Him wisdom becomes folly, and strength weakness. The Church is called to be a "spiritual house" and a holy priesthood. Only spiritual people can be its "living stones," and only the Spirit-filled its priests. Scholarship is blind to spiritual truth till He reveals. Worship is idolatry till He inspires. Preaching is powerless if it be not a demonstration of His power. Prayer is vain unless He energizes. Human resources of learning and organization, wealth and enthusiasm, reform and philanthropy, are worse than useless if there be no Holy Ghost in them. The Church always fails at the point of self-confidence. When the Church is run on the same lines as a circus, there may be crowds, but there is no Shekinah. That is why prayer is the test of faith and the secret of power. The Spirit of God travails in the prayer-life of the soul. Miracles are the direct work of His power, and without miracles the Church cannot live. The carnal can argue, but it is the Spirit that convicts. Education can civilize, but it is being born of the Spirit that saves. The energy of the flesh can run bazaars, organize amusements, and raise millions; but it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes a Temple of the Living God. The root-trouble of the present distress is that the Church has more faith in the world and the flesh than in the Holy Ghost, and things will get no better till we get back to His realized presence and power. The breath of the four winds would turn death into life and dry bones into mighty armies, but it only comes by prayer. Form and Spirit The Acts of the Apostles gives us an account of a Church destitute of the Spirit. The picture corresponds in many particulars with that of the Church in the Apocalypse that had lost its Christ. The Church in Laodicea was rich and respectable, prosperous and influential, complacent and confident, but was blind to the tragedy on the doorstep. Their worship was faultless in form and passionless in spirit. There was no heresy in their creed, but there was no fire in their souls. The Spirit of Christ was outside. Ephesus and Laodicea have much in common, for where Christ is dishonored there can be no Pentecost. The Church at Ephesus had the advantage of a distinguished and brilliant preacher. He was a man of great scholarship, who had won distinction at a great University. No preacher can have too much learning, and the Bible gives due recognition to the fact that Apollos was "a learned man." In addition to the wisdom of the schools, "he was mighty in the Scriptures." Some preachers have finished their ministerial training with the confession that they had learned less about their Bibles than about any other subject; but this man had been taught the Scriptures and "instructed in the way of the Lord." His teaching was Scriptural, orthodox, careful. To scholarship he added passion. This accomplished scholar, Scriptural in doctrine and careful in exegesis, literally "boiled over in spirit." Enthusiasm does not often accompany scholarship. It is bad form among cultured people. Religious fervor generally declines with the advance of education. Much learning has a tendency to make cold, dry preachers. This was a rare type of College-made preacher. His fervor survived success in study, and he came through his course intense and scholarly, fervent and accurate, faithful and accomplished, courageous and cultured. It seems hardly credible that such a minister should lack the very things essential for the work of the Christian ministry. He had neither Gospel nor power. In his preaching there was no Cross, no Resurrection, no Pentecost. He preached Jesus, but he did not know Christ crucified. Peter the fisherman was worth a thousand of him. Eloquent, learned, Scriptural, impassioned, faithful and courageous, Apollos had no Gospel. Carefully trained, well-instructed, a courageous learner, and an effective teacher, he had no vision. Skilled in definition, powerful in debate, earnest in advocacy, he had no power. The Colleges had given him of their best, but they left him ignorant of things vital and destitute of the Holy Ghost. Like priests, like people. Like minister, like members. Truth comes through personality; and the level of a preacher’s experience determines both the range and level of the sermon. It also determines the level to which he can help others. John’s Baptism in the pulpit resulted in a corresponding religion in the pew. It was a cold-water Gospel and a cold-water piety. To Paul’s keen eye there was something wanting. They were sternly devout, orderly, reverent; but it was not Christian worship and experience. Their heads were bowed and their faces gave evidence of discipline, but they were not radiant. Their lives were marked by strict integrity, for John’s cold-water religion was severely moral. They were as fervent as they were upright, and as religious as they were conscientious. Their religion was marked by a spirit of deep penitence and godly fear. They were upright in life, fervent in religion, devout in spirit, faithful in service; and yet, without the Holy Ghost. Their religion was a strict, external observance; not an Indwelling Presence. They lived by rule, not by illumination. God. saves from within; they disciplined themselves from without. Religion to them was a joyless burden, for they carried their God on their backs instead of in their hearts. The Difference Holy Ghost Fire Makes Pentecost transforms the preacher. The commonest bush ablaze with the presence of God becomes a miracle of glory. Under its influence the feeble become as David, and the choice mighty "as the angel of the Lord." The ministry energized by the Holy Ghost is marked by aggressive evangelism, social revolution, and persecution. Holy Ghost preaching led to the burning of the books of the magic art, and it stirred up the opposition of those who trafficked in the ruin of the people. Indifference to religion is impossible where the preacher is a flame of fire. To the Church, Pentecost brought light, power, joy. There came to each illumination of mind, assurance of heart, intensity of love, fullness of power, exuberance of joy, No one needed to ask if they had received the Holy Ghost. Fire is self-evident. So is power! Even demons know the difference between the power of inspiration and the correctness of instruction. Second-hand gospels work no miracles. Uninspired devices end in defeat and shame. The only power that is adequate for Christian life and Christian work is the power of the Holy Ghost. The work of God is not by might of man or by the power of men, but by His Spirit. It is by Him the truth convicts and converts, sanctifies and saves. The philosophies of men fail, but the Word of God in the demonstration of the Spirit prevails. Our wants are many and our faults innumerable, but they are all comprehended in our lack of the Holy Ghost. We want nothing but the fire. The resources of the Church are in "the supply of the Spirit." The Spirit is more than the Minister of Consolation. He is Christ without the limitations of the flesh and the material world. He can reveal what Christ could not speak. He has resources of power greater than those Christ could use, and He makes possible greater works than His. He is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Witness, the Spirit of Conviction, the Spirit of Power, the Spirit of Holiness, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Adoption, the Spirit of Help, the Spirit of Liberty, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Revelation, the Spirit of Promise, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Meekness, the Spirit of Sound Mind, the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of Glory, and the Spirit of Prophecy. It is for the Church to explore the resources of the Spirit. The resources of the world are futile. The resources of the Church within herself are inadequate. In the fullness of the Spirit there is abundance of wisdom, resources, and power; but a man-managed, world-annexing, priest-pretending Church can never save the world or fulfill the mission of Christ. Suppose we try Pentecost! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 98: 04.03. THE SPIRIT OF PROMISE ======================================================================== The Spirit of Promise The Divine Spirit is called "the Holy Spirit of Promise." The expression looks both backward and forward. He is the Spirit given in fulfillment of promise, and in Him is the earnest of the promise as yet unfulfilled. The gift of Pentecost fulfills the crowning promise of the Father. The Spirit is the Promised One. Our Lord spoke of Him as "the promise of the Father," and on the day of Pentecost the Apostle Peter, in explanation of the descent of the Holy Spirit, declared: "This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath poured forth this, which we see and hear." Pentecost was God’s seal upon the Messiahship of Jesus, and the fulfilling of His promise to Israel. Fulfillment brings new promises. Attainment inspires new hopes. The Spirit comes to the believing disciples, as the earnest of inheritance through sonship and the pledge of our resurrection in Christ the Risen Lord and Saviour. He is the Spirit of Promise in fulfillment, and the Spirit of Promise in assurance through faith. The Promise of the Father Throughout the development of the Old Testament revelation the promise of the Spirit is always closely identified with the Person and Ministry of the Messiah. In the earlier stages He is conceived as a Power rather than as a Person, but in Him is always revealed a Person who is an active Agent, and not a mere influence emanating from God. There was little knowledge of Him as a distinct Person with whom man could hold personal intercourse, but in slow stages there emerged a Living Person in whom was the fullness of Divine wisdom and power. In Him was the secret of the redemptive and sovereign power of the Servant of the Lord who should save Israel, and through Israel redeem the world. Our Lord claimed that these promises concerning the Spirit were to be fulfilled in Him. John the Baptist baptized with water, but the Christ came to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. He claimed the fulfillment of prophecy in the gift of the Spirit to Him in Jordan, and He claimed it also in the gift of the Spirit to the world. There are few incidents more illuminating than that recorded of "the last day of the Feast," in John 7:37-39. The Feast was the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast proper lasted seven days, during which all Israel dwelt in booths. Special sacrifices were offered and special rites observed. Every morning one of the priests brought water from the pool of Siloam, and amidst the sounding of trumpets and other demonstrations of joy the water was poured upon the altar. The rite was a celebration and a prophecy. It commemorated the miraculous supply of water in the wilderness, and it bore witness to the expectation of the coming of the Spirit. On the seventh day the ceremony of the poured water ceased, but the eighth day was a day of holy convocation, the greatest day of all. On that day there was no water poured upon the altar, and it was on the waterless day that Jesus stood on the spot and cried, saying: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." Then He added these words: "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water." The Apostle adds the interpretive comment: "But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified." "As the Scripture hath said." There is no such passage in the Scripture as that quoted, but the prophetic part of the water ceremony was based upon certain Old Testament symbols and prophecies In which water flowed forth from Zion to cleanse, renew, and fructify the world. A study of Joel 3:18 and Ezekiel 47:1-23 will supply the key to the meaning, both of the rite and our Lord’s promise. The Holy Ghost was not yet given," but He was promised, and His coming should be from the place of blood, the altar of sacrifice. Calvary opened the fountain from which was poured forth the blessing of Pentecost. The descent of the Spirit depended upon the. ascent of the Son. The Promise of the Son The promise of the Father becomes explicit in the promise of Jesus. For the greater part of His ministry He rarely mentioned the Spirit. On the eve of His Passion He spoke of Him with amazing fullness. Until then there had been no need to speak of Him, except to warn those who were in danger of "eternal sin" through their blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Neither were they ready to hear of Him. When the time came for the Son to return to the Father, it was necessary that His own should know about the Comforter whom He would send to them. The promise is complete. It summed up all the teaching of prophecy, and anticipated all the development in experience. Those who would know the doctrine and work of the Spirit should study carefully the words spoken about Him in the Upper Room. They should be underlined, searched into, read over and over again, and prayed through till they are received into the mind and made the possession of the heart. There are seven fundamental statements about the Spirit in the promise of the Son. 1) That the self-same Spirit that had been given to the Son would be given to them 2) That He would be to them all that He had been to Him 3) That He would be to them all that the Son had been to them and more 4) That He would be in them as the Son’ had been with them 5) That they would gain in Him more than they would lose in the departure of Christ 6) That He would be the Paraclete, or Other Self of the Christ, and through His indwelling the Christ would live in them 7) That His Mission was to glorify the Son by taking of the things of Christ and making them available to us Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. It is unfortunate that "Paraclete" should have been translated "Comforter," for the ministry of consolation hardly enters into Christ’s promise. The margin of the Revised Version suggests the Latin word "Advocate" as the nearest equivalent to Paraclete, and if "Advocate" is substituted for "Comforter" in St. John 14:1-31; John 15:1-27; John 16:1-33, it is astonishing how illuminating it becomes. The Spirit is not our Advocate, but Christ’s. An advocate appears as representative of another, and the Holy Spirit comes to represent Christ, interpret and vindicate Christ, administer for Christ in His Church and Kingdom; to be to the believer all that Christ Himself was, and is -- with this difference, that the Christ was with His disciples and the Spirit is in them. The Promise of the Spirit St. Paul speaks of "the supply of the Spirit." All the promises of God are made possible by the Holy Spirit. All our wants are met in His supply. He is the all-inclusive gift. In Him, and by Him, and through Him is the supply of all our need. He is the Spirit of Truth and Life, of wisdom and might, of grace and love. He knows the deep things of God, and teaches the heart the secret of prayer. He takes of the things of Christ, and makes them known to both mind and heart. He is the source of Divine energy and power, and through Him the inner man receives strength. "The supply of the Spirit" fulfills every need. The Church is the Minister of Supply. The measure of our usefulness is the measure of the supply of the Spirit which we bring. The work of God is not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Living God. It is useless to attempt in the energy of the flesh what can be accomplished only in the power of the Holy Ghost. The promise of the Spirit covers every present need, and guarantees the consummation of redeeming grace. He is both seal and earnest. He secures us to God for an inheritance for His own possession; and He secures to us a glorious, complete, and eternal inheritance in God. That is why the gift of the Spirit always sets the heart singing. Its confidence is unwavering, its power is invincible, and its joy unspeakable. Have ye received the Holy Ghost? There are many who have believed of whom the words of St. John are still true: He is "not yet given," and the reason is the same, for the Coronation gift always comes when the King is crowned. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 99: 04.04. PENTECOST ======================================================================== Pentecost What happened at Pentecost? There was something that began a new era for the world, a new power of righteousness, a new mission of redemption, and a new basis of fellowship. What was it that made Pentecost the birthday of the Church of Christ? It is not enough to say the Holy Spirit was given. In what sense was He given? Before Pentecost The Spirit of God has been active in the world from the beginning. He brooded upon the face of the waters when the earth was without form and void, and the order of creation was the result of His brooding. In the Old Testament He is the creative Agent, Sustainer, and Renewer of the world of Nature. He is the Lord and Giver of life. In Ezekiel’s vision the forces and machinery of nature were impelled and controlled by the Spirit of God that dwelt in the wheels. It was God’s gift of His Spirit to man in creation that distinguished man from the rest of His works.’ What else can it mean when it is said, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust or the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul"? Breath is the word for Spirit. It is a picture word. God does not breathe. The Spirit is not wind. It is a figure of speech to illustrate the fact that God communicated to man the life which was within Himself, God breathed into man His Spirit and man became a living soul. It was by the Spirit of God that man was made in the image of God, and it was by the Breath of God in His Son that there was given unto man again the gift of the Holy Ghost. On the evening of Easter Day the Risen Lord breathed upon His disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." He communicated to them the Life which He had in Himself. "There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty giveth understanding." "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty giveth me life." All through the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is creative, directive, energizing. He came upon Moses, Bezaleel, Samson, Gideon, Samuel; and all the prophets spake by Him. Every creative period had its gift of the Holy Ghost. The manifestations are occasional and special. There is in them a consciousness of limitation and incompleteness, and prophets like Isaiah and Joel foretold a day of fullness of the Spirit which would be the crowning gift of redeeming grace. In the New Testament the Spirit of God is the active Agent in salvation, but in the Gospels lie was "not yet given," and our Lord Himself was straitened until His baptism was accomplished, and He had "sent fire upon the earth." The Spirit was in the world, but "not yet given." At Pentecost At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came as He had never come before. The signs were not new except in their combination and intensity. The Wind and the Fire and the Tongues had all been associated with the gift of the Spirit, but they were now intensified, enlarged, and distributed to a community of believers. There was a sense of overflowing fullness. Something had happened in the cosmic order that sent forth the Spirit of God in larger measure, with new powers and enlarged opportunities. He was the gift of God to His Son, and the gift of His Son to the world. He came to fulfill the mission for which Christ came into the world. He is our Lord’s Paraclete, His Advocate, and Administrator. His ministry is redemptive and regenerative. In Him the Risen and Ascended Lord finds His enlarged opportunity. The straitening is past. He is exalted far above all rule, and authority, and dominion, and power, and to Him are given all authority in heaven and on earth, and the fullness of "Him that filleth all in all." He had said, "It is better for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter, the Paraclete, will not come to you." The inference is that the presence of the Spirit is better than the bodily presence of Jesus. That is a strange word. Why could not the Spirit come if Jesus did not go away? Why should the coming of the Spirit wait for the going of Jesus? It is not difficult to understand that the Spirit found the fullest opportunity of manifestation in Jesus. To none but Jesus had He ever been able to come "without measure," but why wait to come upon such men as Peter and James and John? The gift of the Spirit is inseparable from the work of the Son. Is it not true to say that Deity gained new experience of humanity in Jesus Christ? Our great High Priest learned obedience by the things He suffered, and because He is touched with the feeling of our infirmity, He is able to succor and mighty to save. By the sufferings of Christ the Throne of God is the Throne of Grace where mercy and help are found. If Jesus needed to learn that He might be our Great High Priest, was there not a reason for waiting till that was accomplished before the Spirit could be given? The Scriptures are reticent about the Holy Spirit, which means that the Spirit is reticent about Himself, but they do make it clear that the Spirit is the crowning gift of redemption through Jesus Christ, and the Spirit was through it all. As the Son learned and thereby entered into the Priesthood of Grace, so the Spirit was prepared to be His Paraclete in the Church and the world. In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, and when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, "they were altogether in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." After Pentecost The change in the Apostles was more wonderful than any of the marvelous portents of the day. The wind and the fire passed, but the transformation remained. It is easy to see the difference in Peter, but it was no greater in him than in the rest. All that Jesus had promised had come to pass. Pentecost interprets the Upper Room. The Paraclete had come, and they were comforted. The Spirit of Truth had come, and they knew. The witness to the Christ had come, and they became witnesses. The Executant of the Kingdom had come in power, and each found himself under authority and speaking as the Spirit gave him utterance. Fear had gone. They no longer sat with closed windows and bolted doors for fear of the Jews. They feared no one. They were afraid of nothing. They no longer spoke with bated breath. They proclaimed the truth concerning Jesus in the open streets of the city where Jesus had been murdered, and within six weeks of His death. A new power was at work. The Lord Jesus had said that when the Spirit was come He would convict of sin, and righteousness, and judgment; and, lo, multitudes were smitten, and three thousand souls cried for mercy. It was indeed "a great and notable day." The world had never seen such a day. The angels had never seen such a day. Neither had Satan and his hosts of spiritual darkness ever seen such a day. The vital thing that happened at Pentecost is that the Spirit of Jesus came to abide in the hearts of men in the power of God. That is the difference Pentecost made. "Ye know Him, for He abideth with you and shall be in you." It is the difference from with to in, plus the difference in Christ by His exaltation and coronation. Through that indwelling Presence Pentecost makes us one with Christ as the Son is one with the Father: "I in you, and ye in Me." So the Spirit brings the Life of Jesus into the soul; by Him we say, "Christ liveth in me." What did Pentecost do for men? It brought a new dynamic of righteousness. From the beginning there has been the light lighting every man that cometh into the world; a light the darkness could neither apprehend nor overcome. In the incarnation of the Word made flesh, the Light came into the world. Pentecost focused the light. He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. There is a new power of conviction. Men were pricked in their hearts as they had never been pricked before. That conviction centers in Christ and is wrought by the Spirit. Pentecost brought a new fellowship. That is the abiding miracle. Community of the Spirit of Jesus issued in community of life in His Name. The Kingdom of God henceforth is a new theocracy, permeated, dominated, sanctified in the Spirit of Pentecost. The new thing is not in the wind and fire, or the gift of tongues, but in the possession of the Spirit by each for the good of all. That which happened at Pentecost is the biggest thing that ever happened. And now the biggest question of all is, has it happened to you and me? Have ye received the Holy Ghost? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 100: 04.05. THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST ======================================================================== The Gift of the Holy Ghost Pentecost is the crowning miracle and abiding mystery of grace. It marks the beginning of the Christian dispensation. The tongues of fire sat upon each one of them. The word "sat" in Scripture marks an end and a beginning. The profess of preparation is ended, and the established order has begun. It marks the end of creation, and the beginning of normal forces. "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." There is no weariness in God. He did not rest from fatigue. What it means is that all creative work was accomplished. The same figure of speech is used of the Redeemer. Of Him it is said: "When He had made purification of sins, [He] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." No other priest had sat down. The priests of the Temple ministered standing, because their ministry was provisional and preparatory, a parable and a prophecy. Christ’s own ministry was part of the preparation for the’ coming of the Spirit. Until He "sat down" in glory, there could be no dispensation of the Spirit. John says of our Lord’s promise in the Temple: "This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified." The descent of the One waited for the ascent of the Other. When the work of redemption was complete, the Spirit was given, and when He came He "sat." He reigns in the Church, as Christ reigns in the Heavens. This is the dispensation of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is God’s gift to the Church of His Son. For the work of Redemption the Son of God emptied Himself of the prerogatives of His Divine status, but for His ministry the Father gave Him the Spirit, and at its close "He made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly sphere, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every Name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the Church which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." Pentecost is the sequel of the Son’s investiture. "Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and’ hear." The Spirit in the Church The sphere of the Spirit is in the Living Temple of sanctified humanity. He dwells not in temples made with hands. The Temple at Jerusalem was a permitted mistake, as surely as the kingship of Israel. In the New Jerusalem there is no Temple. The Tabernacle was a type of heavenly realities. The Temple sought to give solidity, permanence, and magnificence, to that which God meant to be provisional and typical. God cares nothing for costly buildings, and everything for loving hearts. He seeks men. He wants men. He needs men. He dwells in men. Immanuel is the first word and the last of the Gospel of grace. In a powerful plea for the life of prayer, E. M. Bounds says: "God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men." He has staked His kingdom on men. He has trusted His Gospel to men. He has given His Spirit to men. The Church is on the stretch for new methods, new plans, new buildings, new organizations, but "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." The Holy Ghost does not come upon methods, but upon men. He does not anoint machinery, but men. He does not work through organizations, but through men. He does not dwell in buildings, but in men. He indwells the Body of Christ, directs its activities, distributes its forces, empowers its members. Those gathered in that Upper Room "when the day of Pentecost was fully come" had been prepared for His coming. They were disciples who acknowledged the Lordship of Jesus. They had realized His saving power, and surrendered all to His Sovereign will. For ten days they had been in prayer, and for the greater part of three years they sat at the feet of Jesus. When they realized His Sonship He blessed them, and now the promise of the fiery baptism is fulfilled. The Spirit "sat upon each one of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." He had come to reign over each and all. Jesus Christ had defined His mission, and outlined His program. He was to unify them into one Body, guide them into all truth, and strengthen them for all service. In the Church He is the supreme executive, but He has His seat in the soul. He directs all things from the spiritual center of the inner life. The body prepared for the Eternal Son was born of a Virgin; the body prepared for the Indwelling Spirit is begotten of faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. The Church is the sphere of His ministry, the agent of His purpose, the place of His Presence. The Spirit in the Believer "The Spirit sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled." The whole is for each, and each is for all. The study of Pentecost reveals what the gift did for individual men, as well as for the whole company. The Spirit in the World It is this mystery that has filled the history of the Church with anomalies. Inadequate men are always doing impossible things, and ordinary men achieve extraordinary results. God’s biggest things seem to be done by the most unlikely people. Unknown Davids kill terrifying Goliaths. The weak confound the mighty, and things hid from the learned and wise are made known to unlearned and ignorant men. The All-wise seems to delight in nothing so much as turning the wisdom of the vain to folly, and the strength of the proud to shame. He has declared the insufficiency of all but Himself, but man struts and sets himself to demonstrate his own sufficiency. Pride of logic, pride of skill, pride of personality, pride of power, perpetuate the spirit of Babel in the Church of God with the same inevitable result. It ends in defeat, disaster, and dishonor. There is no conquest of the world for God but by the Holy Ghost. He alone can convict the world "in respect to sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." There is no other power that can do that, and without conviction there can be neither the salvation of the soul nor the coming of the Kingdom. Our one lack is the power that comes of the Spirit. For holiness and for service, for prosperity and for victory, He is our one need. The Spirit is God’s gift. The power cannot be bought either with money or merit. A gift can only be received or rejected. This gift is for all who believe and crown Jesus Christ in their hearts. Peter moves in the blaze of the sun. Throughout the gospel narrative he is a man of generous impulses, with many failings. He utters his resolves with the emphasis of the irresolute, and often fails in the hour of testing. Pentecost reveals him transformed. He has the certainty of revealed truth in his speech, and the confidence of invincible power in his bearing. The man who cringed and skulked a few days ago stands upon both feet, utterly destitute of fear. Temperament and natural aptitude are unchanged, but the man is radiant with a new energy, transfigured with a new Spirit, effective with a new power. The Spirit of Christ has clothed Himself with Peter. He speaks with the same Galilean accent; but the utterance is of the Holy Ghost. St. Paul put the same truth another way when he said: "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." The indwelling Presence is clothed with sanctified manhood, and becomes the very life of life, and the very soul of the soul, "I live; yet no longer I." The Apostle attributes all spiritual effectiveness to the indwelling power. "Our sufficiency," he says, "is of God Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." There are other kinds of ability than that which comes of God through the Spirit, but they are death-dealing and never life-giving. It is the Spirit that quickens. Everything else fails. The letter may be faultlessly orthodox, the method may be marvelously ingenious, the man may be tremendously earnest, but only the God-made, God-inspired, God-enabled avails. Carnalities kill. The power that quickens, transforms, perfects, is of God the Spirit. There never was so much human perfection in the Church, but the New Jerusalem is not built up by the powers of Babylon; it comes down out of Heaven from God. Believers without the Holy Ghost cannot do the work of the Spirit. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 101: 04.06. THE PENTECOSTAL LIFE ======================================================================== The Pentecostal Life When Andrew Murray was led to write on "The Temple of the Holy Spirit," he said with reverential awe: "I will meditate and be still, until something of the overwhelming glory of the truth fall upon me, and faith begin to realize it: I am His Temple, and in the secret place He sits upon the throne." Then, when he had written, this prayer rises like incense: "I do now tremblingly accept the blessed truth: God the Spirit; the Holy Spirit; who is God Almighty dwells in me O my Father, reveal within me what it means, lest I sin against Thee by saying it and not living it." Hour after hour, since I wrote the headline of this chapter, my mind has been held in the same reverential awe. I have written and preached much on the Holy Spirit, for the knowledge of Him has been the most vital fact of my experience. I owe everything to the gift of Pentecost. It came to me when I was not seeking it. I was about my Heavenly. Father’s business, seeking means whereby I could do the work to which He had called and sent me, and in my search I came across a prophet, heard a testimony, and set out to seek I knew not what. I knew that it was a bigger thing than I had ever known. It came along the line of duty, in a crisis of obedience. When it came I could not explain what had happened, but I was aware of things unspeakable and full of glory. Some results were immediate. There came into my soul a deep peace, a thrilling joy, and a new sense of power. My mind was quickened. I felt that I had received a new faculty of understanding. Every power was vitalized. My bodily powers were quickened. There was a new sense of spring and vitality, a new power of endurance, and a strong man’s exhilaration in big things. Things began to happen. What we had failed to do by strenuous endeavor came to pass without labor. It was as when the Lord Jesus stepped into the boat that with all their rowing had made no progress, "immediately the ship was at the land whither they went." It was gloriously wonderful. The things that happened were the least part of the experience. The wind and the fire and the tongues excited most comment, but they vanished, and it was the realities that remained that were most wonderful. The experience gave me the key to all my thinking, all my service, and all my life. Pentecost gave me the key to the Scriptures. It has kept my feet in all the slippery places of all sorts of criticism. The things that are stumblingblocks to so many are steppingstones to me. The inexplicable becomes plain when we recognize the Presence and Law of the Spirit. It balances scholarship, and gives discernment beyond all human learning. Indeed, learning without the Holy Ghost blinds men to the realities of Divine truth. The man who thinks he can know the Word of God by mere intellectual study is greatly deceived. Spiritual truth is spiritually discerned. The soul sees with the eyes of the heart, and they are opened by the Holy Spirit. The knowledge He gives is something more than information it is knowledge that leads to trust, knowledge that brings life, and knowledge that inspires love. The same Spirit gave me a new understanding and experience of prayer, and with these gifts there came a new enduement of wisdom and power. From the first day of my Pentecost I became a seeker and a winner of souls. A Definite Experience The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a definite and distinct experience assured and verified by the witness of the Spirit. The disciples who were commanded to "Tarry until they were endued with power from on high" had already received the Spirit for salvation. It is puerile to say they were not already saved. Our Lord places that question for ever beyond doubt in His intercession for them on the eve of His passion. They were His. He had kept them by His power, given them the eternal Word, and they were not of the world even as He was not of the world. Still they were commanded to tarry for the fullness of the Spirit. Of the believers at Samaria it was said that when Peter and John came down they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost, for as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 8:14-17). Of the group of believers at Ephesus, Paul asked: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" The Revised Version renders it, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?" (Acts 19:2). In any case the receiving of the Holy Ghost was so definite an experience that they were expected to know whether they had received the gift or not. Their answer was an emphatic "No." and they added that they had not so much as heard whether the Holy Ghost was given. The experience is distinct from that of Regeneration. Of those who had believed and been baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, it was said they had not yet been baptized of the Holy Ghost. It is evident, therefore, that a man may be born again of the Spirit and not be baptized with the Spirit. In regeneration there is a gift of life by the Spirit, and whosoever receives it is saved; in the baptism of the Spirit there is a gift of power, and by it the believer is equipped for service and endued for witnessing. In the Corinthian Church there were many believers who were not filled with the Holy Ghost, though they were rich in the gifts of the Spirit. Nevertheless, it is the inheritance of every believer to receive the gift of the Spirit, to be baptized with the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit; and to this definite experience thousands have testified. They were born again of the Spirit, and afterwards, sometimes a long time after, and sometimes after a little while, there came a conviction of need and an assurance of Faith through the Word of God by which they entered into an experience of sanctification and the abiding fullness of the Spirit. The question of Paul to the converts of Apollos proves that we may be Christians and not filled with the Spirit. There are many Christians of whose devotion and Christian experience there can be no doubt who have never had a Pentecost; and they know it. Sometimes they grieve over their lack and sigh for the blessing. Pentecost is the gift of power. The Spirit fills, vitalizes, and energizes with the power of God. Deliverance from sin, efficiency in service, and effectiveness in witnessing are given with the fullness of the Pentecostal blessing. Power to move the world for God and to win souls for Him is neither intellectual nor social, but is in the fullness of the Spirit of God in the soul. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Ye Shall Know Ask... The promises of our Lord concerning the Spirit gather around the centers knowledge, prayer, service. In that day "ye shall know," "ye shall ask," "ye shall do." Certainty, prayer, work. Certainty in knowledge, assurance in prayer, power in service. The fullness of the Spirit brings the certainty of revelation to the soul. The men of Pentecost knew the things of God. No theological instruction could have given Peter the doctrine he preached concerning Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. In that day ye shall know, said Jesus, and when the day came they knew; and they knew the things Jesus had said they should know. They knew the essential relationship between Christ and God. The mystery baffles all investigation, but it was made known to them when the Spirit of the Lord "sat upon each of them." They knew the mysterious union of the believer With Christ, that we are in Christ, as the Son is in the Father. It can never be explained, but there is no uncertainty in the knowledge. The secret is disclosed to the heart, and no one sees the writing but the soul that receives it. They knew that Christ is also in the believer as surely as the Christ and the Father are one. There are no words in the Bible quite so profound as these seven tiny words, "Ye in Me, and I in you"; but the gift of Pentecost reveals their mystery and establishes their certainty. The Spirit-filled KNOW. They have knowledge that does not depend upon intellectual capacity, scholarly training, or even on experience, and their certainty is the secret of their power. They have knowledge that comes not of flesh and blood, but from the Spirit Who knows the deep things of God, for He is Himself God. And the Spirit not only reveals the deep things of God, but gives also illumination for all the practical affairs of life. All questions are answered in Him. The Spirit-filled are not left in uncertainty as to the mind of God. Pentecost brings a pervasive light, according to the words in 1 John 2:27, "the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in Him." The Pentecostal blessing makes the believer mighty in prayer. "In that day ye shall ask in My Name, and whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name He will give you." Prayer is an impossible task without the Holy Ghost. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. There are two kinds of praying. Before Pentecost we pray in the Spirit, after Pentecost the Spirit prays through us. "He maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." None but the Spirit-filled know that kind of praying. It is the kind that wrought miracles in the Acts of the Apostles, and to this day prevails. It pleads the Name, enthrones the Name, and claims the Name. It prays in His will, presents His promise, and decrees in His Power. Prayer brings Pentecost, and Pentecost makes prayer omnipotent for all the will of God. The Spirit instructs and inspires prayer, gives intelligence and intensity to intercession, and brings reality and joy to communion with God. The Spirit-filled love to pray, and prayer that is in the Spirit must prevail. Pentecost is always associated with power. The final promise of our Lord was, "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Power. Everywhere in the Scriptures He is associated with the might of Almighty God. In the Old Testament He wrought mightily, even though "He was not yet given." In the New Testament He is God’s crowning gift of Power. He clothes Himself with sanctified men and women, "that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." The measure of our power is in the energy of the Holy Spirit, working in us and through us. All fullness of life, all resources of vitality, all certainty of assurance, all victory over sin and the flesh, all prevailing power in prayer, all certitude of glory -- all and everything is in the Indwelling Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Inheritance of the Spirit-Filled Romans 8:1-39 is the fullest exposition of the life which comes through "the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus." It is the charter of the believer’s inheritance in the Spirit. 1) Pentecost Brings Deliverance The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus makes men free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. He is the Spirit of Power, and the first demonstration of power is emancipation. He breaks the power of canceled sin. There is no bondage from which He cannot deliver. He breaks the fetters of the soul, and opens the prison doors of the redeemed. Salvation comes with the suddenness of a mighty rushing wind and as with the flash of fire; or it may come as the breath of the morning and the light of the dawn. However it comes, it comes to set men free from all that brings into bondage and condemnation. It is the Gospel of Liberty to all imprisoned life. There is no slave the Gospel cannot save. The greatest deliverance of all is from the moral impotence of the dual personality of chapter 7. The measure of completeness is in the word: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." They are delivered from all and everything that brings condemnation. 2) Pentecost Brings Abounding Vitality Our Lord came that we might have abundant and abounding life, and it is found in the Gift of the Spirit of Life. The Gift of God is Living Water, springing up into everlasting life. Living water is the water of vitality from the Eternal Source of Life. The law i. good, but weak through the flesh, ineffective through human infirmity. The Holy Spirit strengthens the inward man. The Spirit of Life dwells in men, permeates their being, sanctifies their nature, quickens their powers, vitalizes their mortal bodies, and radiates their life. They live -- really live! They live the life that is life indeed. Pentecost turned anemic believers into exuberant saints. People said they were drunk, and so they were, but not with wine. They were vivacious with abounding vitality. Pentecost wakens people up. It vitalizes latent powers, and makes the utmost of every faculty and gift. Those who would have Life abounding Life, victorious Life, satisfying Life, glorious Life must get to Pentecost. Life is the best medicine for every kind of sickness. It cures all ills, ends all weariness, and conquers death all the time. 3) Pentecost Brings Understanding Where did Peter get the sermon he preached on the Day of Pentecost? He did not read it from a carefully prepared manuscript. This fisherman Apostle is always surprising us with the things he knows. Who taught him? How did he know the hidden meanings of Prophecy? How did he come to understand the philosophy of history so that he could say with certainty, "This is that"? How came he to understand the meaning of the Cross and to discover the explanation of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead? Who instructed him in these things? The Master tells how he had come to know that He was the Christ the Son of God; and that one explanation explains the rest. He knew by the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation. The Spirit of Truth guides into all Truth. "In that day ye shall know." We know by the Spirit that we are sons of God and joint-heirs with Christ. The Spirit Himself is our Witness. We know that the world is redeemed, and therefore travails in Hope, waiting for its redemption through "the revealing of the Sons of God"; a new Creation by Regeneration. We know, and do not despair. "We know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose." We know, and are not as others in the day of adversity. We know God. We know, and we know that we know. We know that at the last we shall be saved, and shall stand approved in Christ at the Throne of God. None shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. "In that Day ye shall know." The Spirit is familiar with the deep things of God, and He takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto those who receive Him. He is the Spirit of Wisdom as well as of Revelation. He leads in practical wisdom, as well as guides into all Truth. He makes men wise with the wisdom that is from above. 4) Pentecost Brings a New Fellowship in Prayer "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" That is the secret of prevailing prayer. 5) Pentecost Brings Power That was the specific promise of Christ. "Ye shall receive Power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me." Witnessing prevails over the enemy. "We are more than conquerors," says St. Paul, and St. John ascribes the victory to testimony. "And they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death" (Revelation 12:2). The Spirit of Power is given for witnessing. The testimony of Pentecost was mighty. It is always mighty in the demonstration of the Spirit. 6) Pentecost Brings the Fire of God Fire is the chosen symbol of Heaven for moral passion. It is emotion aflame. God is love; God is fire. The two are one. The Holy Spirit baptizes in fire. Spirit-filled souls are ablaze for God. They love with a love that glows. They believe with a faith that kindles. They serve with a devotion that consumes. They hate sin with a fierceness that burns. They rejoice with a joy that radiates. Love is perfected in the Fire of God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. 7) Pentecost Brings Passion for the Souls of Men The eighth chapter overflows into the ninth. The experience consummates in anguish and tears for the lost. There is no sterner test of Grace than the attitude to the lost. Pentecost leads back to Gethsemane, for it baptizes into Christ’s Baptism of Redeeming Passion. Spirit-filled hearts are always tender, and they see men through the tears of a holy compassion. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 102: 04.07. THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== The Indwelling of the Spirit Inwardness is the distinctive feature of the Spirit. The Son of God reveals and works from without, but the Spirit of God dwells and works from within. The Son is the Word. He reveals the Living and Eternal Truth and is the express image of the invisible and Glorious God. The Spirit is the secret Presence. He is the source of Life and Truth; the very soul of the universe, and the source of Light and Life, Wisdom and Power. He is behind the Word, within the Strength, the Dweller in the innermost of all secret places. In all the Old Testament references to the Spirit there is the suggestion of inwardness. At the Creation, God made the heavens and the earth, but the Spirit is said to have brooded over the face of the waters, as if He would beget rather than create. The Son is said to have made the worlds, but there is no suggestion of the Son brooding over Creation. When God threatened to destroy the world for its wickedness, He said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." Striving implies an inward contest rather than an outward compulsion. From within He sought to instruct, correct, and save. Again, when God chose Israel to be His peculiar people, Nehemiah says, "Thou gavest also Thy Good Spirit to instruct them." The instruction covered a wide area, from Bezaleel, the craftsman, who was filled "with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship," to the Prophets, who "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." There is one marginal reading in the Revised Version that is both emphatic and illuminating: "The Spirit of the Lord clothed Itself with Gideon." He did not come upon him like a garment, but the Spirit clothed Himself with Gideon as with a garment. From "With" to "In" The distinction is patent enough in the New Testament The very first word of Promise concerning the Spirit in the Upper Room emphasizes it. "Ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you." The change from with to in marks the transition from one dispensation to another. The very essence of the Christian religion is in the realized Presence of God in the soul, and this Presence is the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit. There is often some confusion in the inter change of terms, and the elimination of the middle factor. The Son comes in the coming of the Spirit, and abides in the soul in the presence of the Spirit; and in the coming of the Son through the Spirit the Father comes and abides also. "He will come... I will come... We will come" all refer to the Coming of the Spirit as promised in our Lord’s farewell talk with His disciples (John 14:16-23) "In their relation to the human soul the Father and the Son act through and are represented by the Holy Spirit. And yet the Spirit is not merged in either the Father or in the Son." There is absolute unity with perfect distinction of Persons in the Trinity. They are never confused in the unity nor divided in the distinction. Each is Divine and all are One. The Spirit works from within, That is the distinction that makes all the difference. There were things Christ could not do that are possible to the Spirit for this very reason. "He that abideth with you shall dwell in you"; and so it came to pass. "The Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us." Auguste Sabatier says:-- "It is not enough to represent the Spirit of God as coming as a help of man’s spirit, supplying strength which he lacks, an associate or juxtaposed force, a supernatural auxiliary. There is no simple addition of divine power and human power in the Christian life. The Spirit of God identifies Himself with the human ME into which it enters and whose life it becomes. If we may so speak it is individualized in the new moral personality it creates." The Spirit of God identified with the human Me; the human Me identified with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the experience of Galatians 2:20 is the result. That is as our Lord promised. He that is with you, shall be in you. "I in you, and ye in Me." The Spirit in the Son St. Paul singles out the fact of our Lord’s Resurrection to set forth the work of the Spirit in the mediatorial work of the Son. He selects the Resurrection be cause it was the culminating and representative act, but the same Spirit was in all our Lord’s life and ministry. The indwelling Spirit is the key to both His personality and His work. When He became man He emptied Himself of all the prerogatives and privileges of deity. He Himself was unchanged, for He is the same yesterday, today, and for ever, but He laid aside all that belonged to His exalted state and submitted to the limitations of our nature and our lot. But God gave to the self-emptied Son the fullness of His Spirit, and our Lord was in all things dependent upon the Spirit. His body was prepared for Him by the Spirit. He grew in wisdom and in stature under the guidance of the Spirit. His teaching was given to Him by the Spirit, and His miracles were wrought in the power of the Spirit. At the last He offered Himself to God through the Eternal Spirit, and it was the Spirit that brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead. The standard of the Spirit’s power is demonstrated in the Son. He is the Spirit’s unit of measurement; the standard and sample of what the Holy Ghost can do in and for and through sanctified humanity. The Spirit in the Believer The believer’s fellowship with the Son is as absolute as the Son’s fellowship with the Father. He has no more reserves in His partnership than in His renunciation. He has made possible to us whatever was or is accessible to Him. The gift of His Spirit includes all His inheritance just as the Father gave all in His Son, "He shall be in you." The very same Spirit that was in Him shall be in us. All that He had been to Him He comes to be to us. The Spirit dwells in the believer as He dwelt in the Son. There is no other interpretation to be put on such sayings as these: "Know ye that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). "Ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (2 Corinthians 6:16). "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9). "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11). What does it mean exactly to say "He dwelleth in you"? Christian teachers are often disposed to interpret the language of the Scriptures as a strong figure of speech. Dying with Christ, fellowship in His Resurrection, and the mutual indwelling of the believer and our Lord are attempts to express the experience of the soul in its relation to spiritual life and power. They argue that these expressions are not to be taken literally, but as types of great spiritual realities in the soul. What saith the Scripture? The New Testament abounds with teaching and testimony that demand a deeper explanation if the terms used do not involve personality, there is an end of intelligible speech. The indwelling is that of a real, personal, spiritual Presence. It is not a gift that can be located somewhere in the brain or heart of a man, but a personal Spirit that indwells another personality; a personality within a personality by which the Spirit becomes the life of my life, the soul of my soul; an indwelling that secures identity without confusion and possession without absorption. "He that is Christ’s not merely has the Spirit of Christ ruling in him, leading him, guiding him, sanctifying him, preparing him body and soul for glorification; but has Him also as the new animating Soul of his soul, Spirit of his spirit, repeating in himself the mystery of the union of two natures in one personality." That is the mystery of grace that passeth all understanding, and the miracle of grace by which the incarnation is perpetuated in the Body of Christ. That is the mystery of the ages. "In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you" (John 14:20). Of course it is a mystery; a truth that can never be discovered and is known only by revelation. What is promised transcends human clothed Himself with Gideon." Spirit clothing itself achievement and human understanding. "It is a work of Divine Omnipotence and love. The gift of the Holy Ghost is the most personal act of the Godhead. It is the goodness of God alone that must give it. It is His omnipotence that must work it in us. The blessing of Pentecost is a supernatural gift, a wonderful act of God in the soul. It is an unspeakably holy and glorious thing that a man can be filled with the Spirit of God." The Incarnation of the Spirit The marginal reading of Judges 6:34 (Revised Version) will help us here again, especially if we read it in the light of New Testament experience: "the Spirit clothed Himself with Gideon." Spirit clothing itself with humanity is the miracle of the incarnation. A body is as necessary to the Spirit as to the Son. For the Son a Body was prepared by the Spirit; for the Spirit a Body is made possible by the Son. The Spirit lived in and through Gideon. The life of Gideon became the life of the Spirit. The man was endued and the Spirit was clothed. The Spirit thought through Gideon’s brain, felt through Gideon’s heart, looked through Gideon’s eyes, spake through Gideon’s voice, wrought by Gideon’s hands, and yet all the time Gideon was still Gideon and the Spirit was still the Spirit. The same Spirit quickens our mortal bodies by dwelling in them. Romans 8:11 is a present experience. Calvin says by "mortal bodies" he means "whatever remains in us that is still liable to death. The customary usage is to apply this term to the more material part of us, therefore the word is used, not of the final resurrection, which takes place in a moment, but of the continual operation of the Spirit, which, quickening the flesh, sets up the heavenly life within us." The Spirit that dwells in us quickens our mortal bodies. It does not create new faculties, but it awakens the dormant and develops the latent. The natural endowments of a man are the basis of the Spirit’s energy, but there is no part of a man’s being that is not vitalized and strengthened by His power. The Spirit gives fullness of life He gives health as surely as He gives life. There is truth at the back of all the vagaries of health movements in the name of the Christian faith, and fear of extremes must not be allowed to frighten us from the truth. Sickness may be and is in the will of God for some of His children, but even in them strength is made perfect in weakness. Faith health is better than faith healing, and the quickening Spirit makes for vitality and vigor as surely as He makes for sanity and spiritual power. The Spirit redeems the material through the spiritual. Creation groans for deliverance through the Spirit, and for social redemption there is no other way of salvation. The Spirit dwells in men, clothes Himself with consecrated humanity, and accomplishes extraordinary things through quite ordinary people on the simple conditions of abiding surrender, implicit obedience, and simple faith. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 103: 04.08. THE COMMUNION OF THE HOLY GHOST ======================================================================== The Communion of the Holy Ghost Communion means partnership. The word passes through various phases in the New Testament, and is variously translated, but the idea of sharing runs through them all. In Luke 5:10, it is said that James and John, sons of Zebedee, were partners with Simon. Paul says of Titus (2 Corinthians 8:23) that he was his partner and fellow laborer; that is, they were colleagues in the ministry of the Church. Of Philemon and Onesimus it is used in the still more intimate sense of comradeship. The communion of the Holy Ghost, therefore, means that we are partners, colleagues, comrades with the Spirit of God. We are partners in vocation and resources, sharers in work and power. Such communion involves communication. The partners put into the common stock for common ends. The New Testament insists upon this grace of fellowship in the Church. The Christians at Philippi are commended because they communicated with the Apostle in the matter of giving and receiving (Php 4:15-16), and the Romans are exhorted "to communicate to the necessities of the saints" (Romans 12:13). The rich are charged "that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate" (1 Timothy 6:18). This idea of partnership is carried into the highest aspects of our calling. We are called of God "into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:9); we are "partakers of His sufferings and His comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:4-7; Php 3:10); and through Him we "become partakers of the divine Nature" (2 Peter 1:4). In all these senses the Holy Spirit of God enters into partnership with us, and becomes to us colleague and comrade, sharing what we have, and admitting us into His Mission and placing at our disposal all the resources of His Person and Power. Our Fellowship and His Emphasis is laid upon the fact that He enters into partnership with us rather than that He takes us into partnership with Him. Both aspects are true, for all fellowship must be mutual, but it is never said that our fellowship is with the Spirit. It is always "the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you." In Php 2:1, it is "fellowship of the Spirit," and not "with" Him. John says "Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). There is no mention of fellowship with the Spirit, and yet "communion" is the special function and distinction of the Spirit. The omission implies that there is a difference between our fellowship with the Father and the Son, and the communion of the Holy Ghost with us. "In the one case we are partakers with Christ; in the other the Holy Ghost is partaker with us. This may possibly be connected with the special intimacy of His communion, by which He, as a Spirit, enters into the deepest and closest relation with our spirits. That is the first form in which we know it; but thereafter there is a reflex fellowship which we come to have with Him. He enters at first into our position, because He fills our heart and sympathizes with all our need. He then leads us to enter into His position; but that is a higher thing." This distinction makes plain many things. The Christian Benediction ascribes Love to the Father, Grace to the Son, and Communion to the Holy Ghost. These qualities are common to all the Persons of the Trinity, but distinctive of each. Love is attributed to the Son and Spirit, as well as to the Father. Grace is of God the Father as well as of the Son; and our fellowship is expressly said to be with the Father and the Son. There is a distinction, however, that must not be confused. The love of the Father is the origin of Grace; the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is the medium of redeeming love; and through the Spirit is communicated both the grace of the Son and the love of the Father. The Spirit is the executive agent of the Father and the Son. He brings us into the fellowship of the Father and the Son by entering into communion with us. The range of our experience of love and grace is therefore determined by the measure of His communion with us. His partnership with us is progressive, and often His progress is hindered because we admit Him into partnership with qualifications. There are reserves of mind and heart and life. His communion is with us. He seeks to come into co-operation with us. The negotiations are from Him, the consent is with us. There are no reserves with Him. He is straitened in us, for all His negotiations wait for our consent. The Fellowship of the Spirit in the Church This distinction is observed in all the teaching of our Lord concerning the Spirit. He is the Paraclete, sent by the Father and the Son to abide in the Church until the purpose of redeeming love is accomplished in the world. For all the work of the Church they were to look to Him for light and guidance and power. They were sent forth to witness, interpret, and save, but they were first to receive a Witness and Teacher, and the Spirit of Power. He would be in them and with them. From Him would come the knowledge of the Truth in Jesus, by Him they would have the right word at the critical moment; through Him they should do greater works than they had seen Him do. The Church would be a second Body of Christ prepared and indwelt of the Spirit. In the corporate life of the Church He would find a temple, a medium, and an agent, and in Him the Church would find all its supply of life and grace, wisdom and power. The basis of His work is always that of communion. That is why the work of the Spirit is always linked with the life of the Church, and the power of the Church is associated with the presence of the Spirit. The Church derives its authority from the Spirit, but the Spirit speaks and works through a praying and consecrated people. The Church that has authority "to bind and to loose" is a Church agreed in prayer and gathered in the Name; and the Church that has power to cast out devils is a Church that believes and prays. The Spirit and the Church cannot be independent of each other. The Spirit needs the Church, and the Church needs the Spirit. They are partners; both necessary, and each dependent upon the other. The success of both is according to the measure of "the supply of the Spirit" through the Church to the world. Power is not in organization, neither is it in wealth or learning. It is still true that this work is not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. Why, then, is the Church bewildered in the day of confusion, and powerless in the presence of both her adversaries and her opportunities? The answer is found in the terms of communion. Conditions exist that make the partnership ineffective. There is "a law of the Spirit" by which His communion is made operative. The laws are few and simple, but they are imperative. He cannot work if they are ignored. Communion must rest on common ground. Its basis is a common bond of union; communion is the outcome of union. In this fellowship the bond is Christ. Where Christ is glorified the Spirit comes to abide, reveal, direct, and work. Through Him we enter into living union with our Lord, for the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God, and by Him we find the unity which brings identity of interest and community of possession. That is why faith and prayer count for so much in the work of the Spirit. Nothing else really matters. These are the things that make possible the fellowship of the Spirit. He asks for nothing more than unreserved consecration to Christ, unclouded simplicity of the open heart, and exultant faith in His grace and power. By these the Churches live and prevail through the fellowship of the Spirit. The Fellowship of the Spirit in the Believer The Apostolic Benediction prays: "The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all." All the blessings of communion are for each believer. There is nothing promised to the Church that does not belong to its humblest member. The Spirit of God is not the monopoly of any particular class. There is nothing done by a minister that may not be done by anyone to whom the Holy Spirit is given. Let that be quite clear. Everyone can say: The Holy Ghost comes into partnership with me. He is my Helper, my Witness, my Teacher, my Guide, my Strength. For all the will of God we each have the Spirit with all His resources of wisdom and power. All things are possible to the soul strengthened with His might and led in His wisdom. If these things be true, wherein lies the explanation of our weakness and reproach? Where is the note of certainty in our testimony? Where is the prevailing power of prayer? Where is the power that overturns strongholds and casts out devils? The communion of the Spirit is with us. He seeks partnership with us. His resources are inexhaustible, and His power invincible, but! but! but! There are reserves, conditions, interests; barriers that hinder, grieve, and quench the Spirit. He is held up by the barriers of unbelief, and prayerless living, worldly ambition, stupid vanity, and inflated pride. He longs for our fellowship. For the sake of Christ and the Kingdom of Grace, He longs to be admitted to confidence and co-operation. He wants a central place in our hearts, and to be admitted to the life of the soul. He comes to co-operate, and co-operation waits for confidence and consent. Where there is "agreement" there is power. Service becomes mighty in this fellowship. All the conditions of power are met in "the supply of the Spirit." Personality is quickened and sanctified. Sympathy is deepened and enlightened, and in sympathy are the discernment that understands and the appeal that woos and wins. Weakness becomes strength when the Spirit of Might comes upon us. Ordinary men become wonderful when clothed with the Spirit of Power. Weakness is a reproach when such might is at our service. Defeat is dishonor when the partnership of God is rejected. With the communion of the Holy Ghost at our command, what manner of men we ought to be! With such a partnership what mighty works we ought to do! There are no limits to His power. There are no reserves in His communion. There is no respect of persons with Him. Why do we set boundaries to His work, limit His activities, and refuse His appeal? He brings all, let us give all. "The Spirit which He has planted within us jealously longs for our love." He seeks to enter into communion with us in all our life, and in return He will lead us into the communion of all that He has and is. Sign the deed today, and there will come the joy and power of the Holy Spirit of God who is the Spirit of Christ. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 104: 04.09. THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST ======================================================================== The Spirit of Christ The Spirit of the Lord God is also the Spirit of Christ. This is the distinctive teaching of the New Testament The progress of the Old Testament revelation of the Spirit finally associates the gift of the Spirit with the promise of the Messiah. "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." Jesus Christ claimed that in Him was fulfilled the Messianic prophecy of the Sprit. He opened His ministry at Nazareth with the announcement that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him. The Synoptic Gospels reveal the Spirit as the unique power in the life of Jesus, and in St. John’s Gospel He is in a unique sense the possession of the Christ, the Son of God. In the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles He is called the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus Christ; and the Christian Benediction, like the Baptismal Formula, associates the Spirit with the Father and the Son. He is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Lord the Spirit, and He is known by about twenty-five other Names in the New Testament, but He is the same Spirit. It is this multiplicity of names and functions that leads to so much confusion about the Spirit. The Indwelling Spirit and the Indwelling Christ There is confusion in some minds because the New Testament speaks of the indwelling Presence sometimes as the Spirit and at other times as Christ. St. Paul says emphatically, "Christ liveth in me," and that Christ is in man the hope of glory; and yet with equal emphasis he tells us we are the Temples of the Holy Ghost. Does the Risen Lord live in us or is it the Spirit of Christ that dwells in our hearts? The perplexity arises from our imperfect conception of the Persons in the Trinity. With us personality is divisive and exclusive. Each is separate from the rest and must always be a separate personality. Personality in the Trinity is not exclusive but inclusive, not divisive but inherent. God was in Christ, and so also was the Spirit in each is All, and in All is each. The Spirit "proceedeth from the Father and the Son." The indwelling Presence of the Son is revealed and realized in the indwelling Presence of the Spirit. The great Temple Prayer of the Epistle to the Ephesians 3:14-19 includes all the Persons of the Trinity in the Temple of the human heart. The Spirit strengthens the inner man, the Son reveals the Divine love to the heart, and the infinite God fills the whole being with Divine fullness of love, blessedness, and power. As it pleased God that in His Son should dwell the fullness of the Godhead bodily, so it has pleased Him that in the dispensation of the Spirit there should dwell in Him the same fullness; and as in the Son the Father and Spirit were revealed, so in the Spirit are the Son and the Father made known in the soul. It need not surprise us, therefore, if such close intimacy is expressed in terms that are identical and interchangeable, but the careful reader will observe that the personalities are always distinct. Most modern writers take the view that the Spirit is the New Testament designation for the Risen Christ, perpetuated by the influence of His Spirit in the world, but the New Testament Scriptures speak of the Holy Spirit as a Person, and never merely as an influence. They always speak of Him, and never of It. And the Person of the Christ is never confounded with the Person of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit did not become Christ in the incarnation, nor does Jesus become the Spirit at Pentecost. In one sense it is true that when the Spirit comes it is Jesus who comes again to dwell and rule in the hearts and lives of men, but though the Presence is identical, the Personalities are always distinct. Moberly has expressed the distinction perhaps as clearly as we may ever hope to get it when he says: "It is not for an instant that the disciples are to have the presence of the Spirit instead of the Son. But to have the Spirit is to have the Son." The Spirit in the Earthly Ministry of Our Lord Our Lord said very little about the Holy Spirit during the greater part of His ministry. He confessed freely that He spake and wrought not in His own power, but except where necessity constrained Him to speak, He was silent concerning the Spirit by whom He taught and wrought. The explanation of His silence comes out when, on the eve of His departure, He begins to speak at length of the Paraclete, that should come when He had gone to the Father. The first word shot its revealing light through all the silent years. "Ye know Him, for He abideth with you." Just as seeing Him they had seen the Father, so in knowing Him they had known the Spirit. In Him was the fullness of the Godhead, and as through Him came the revelation of the Father, so by Him was the All themes that lead us into the inter-relations of the Trinity are "hard to be uttered," but the things that are revealed are intended to be understood, and prayer opens the eyes of both mind and heart. It is no part of faith to shrink from a subject because it involves risk, and demands great caution, sustained attention, and delicate expression. The emphasis of modern theological thought has been for years upon the Kenosis, as stated in Php 2:5-7. It is contended that by reason of our Lord’s self-emptying there remained nothing that distinguished Him essentially from other men. The contention overlooks the fact that there is a Pleroma as well as a Kenosis. Our Lord emptied Himself, but the Father gave to His self-emptied Son the fullness of His Spirit. He did not cease to be God, but He became in all things human, and was subject to such conditions as were possible to human nature possessed of His Spirit. Through all the earthly life and ministry of our Lord He was indebted to the Presence and Power of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of Counsel and Might Our Lord’s life was mapped out for Him. He came to do the Father’s Will, and that Will was unfolded and interpreted to Him by the Holy Spirit. He grew in wisdom as in stature, but it is difficult to mark the stages and boundaries of His knowledge. He was led of the Spirit, taught of the Spirit, and strengthened in the Spirit. He never said "Perhaps," never balanced probabilities, never made a mistake. His sagacity never erred, neither did His power fail, and for both He was constantly dependent upon the Spirit that was given without measure. He spake the words of God as they were given to Him by the Spirit. Five times in St. John’s Gospel our Lord claims to be speaking under authority: "He whom God sendeth speaketh the word of God: for He giveth not the Spirit by measure" (John 3:34). "Jesus therefore answered them, and said, My teaching is not Mine, but His that sent Me" (John 7:16). "Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself. but as the Father taught Me, I speak these things" (John 8:28). "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I say unto you I speak not from Myself: but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works ... He that loveth Me not keepeth not My words: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me" (John 14:10, John 14:24). The same is true of His ministry of power. His first text linked His ministry with the Messianic promise of the Spirit. He was Spirit-prepared, Spirit-called, Spirit-equipped, and Spirit-sent. He did nothing of Himself any more than for Himself. Speaking in the house of Cornelius, the Apostle Peter thus summarizes and accounts for the life of our Lord: "Even Jesus of Nazareth, how that God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him." His miracles were all wrought in the power of the Holy Ghost. Even His atoning death was by the Grace of God and through the Eternal Spirit (Hebrews 2:9; Hebrews 9:14), and it was by the same Spirit of power that God raised Him from the dead. From the incarnation to the resurrection, the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, were lived and wrought in and through and by the power of the Spirit of the Father and the Son. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God. In Christ the Spirit of God becomes the Spirit of Man in "the Word made Flesh." It is this truth, so immense in its significance, that is the distinctive revelation of the New Testament and the distinctive note in the life of the Church of Christ. For the Spirit of Pentecost is the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit He gives is the self-same Spirit that inspired, instructed, and animated His own life: His own, very own Spirit, which may be said to be His very self. He calls Him the Paraclete, and assures the distressed disciples that in that day they should know what He could not teach them, and do greater works than He had done. The Spirit is the all-inclusive gift of the Father to His Son, and the crowning gift of the Son to His people. In a deeper and fuller sense than we have yet realized, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and it is in the Spirit of Christ we live the life which is life indeed. The fullness of God is in Christ, and Christ lives in men through His Spirit. He is Himself the gift. He brings all the blessings of Grace, and Wisdom, and Power, but He is the Blesser and the Blessing. There is in the soul a very true sense of a divinely real Presence. The Spirit makes the Presence real. This is the crowning mystery and glory of Grace. The Christian religion is not a set of doctrines about Christ, neither is it a rule of life based upon the teaching and example of Christ. It is not even an earnest and sincere endeavor to live according to the mind and spirit of Christ. It is Life, and that Life is the Life of Christ. It is a continuation of the Life of the Risen Lord in His Body which is the Church, and in the sanctified believer. "Christ liveth in me" is the essence of the Christian religion as set forth in the New Testament. It is not a system, but a Presence; the Spirit of Christ indwelling the spirit of man. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 105: 04.10. THE SPIRIT OF POWER ======================================================================== The Spirit of Power There are two words for power in the New Testament, one of which stands for authority and the other for force. Much confusion has arisen from the failure to distinguish between them. Just as the two words for perfection stand respectively for completeness and consummation, so the two words for power stand for authority and effectiveness, right and efficiency. The Revised Version has been more careful to preserve the distinction than the Authorized, but it has not been so successful as might have been expected; for instance, in John 10:18, where our Lord speaks not of His ability, but of His authority to lay down His life and take it again. Both words are used in Luke 9:1 : "He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases." When the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us in Thy Name, He said, Behold, I give you authority over all the powers of the enemy" (Luke 10:17-19). Man’s Instinct for Power Man wants power. There is probably no instinct of the human heart so strong as the craving for the sovereignty of power. Might is the attribute of God most coveted of men. Satan snatched at it and fell, and the same craving was the undoing of the human race. "Ye shall be as God," was the appeal that prevailed; and its success was in the fact that it appealed to the craving for sovereignty. Man was made for thrones and dominion. He knew it He snatched at it and fell. Even then the instinct for power remained. It is the dominant passion of the human race and the key to its history. The determination to possess it is responsible for more than half the bloodshed of the world, and its urge has been the dynamic of civilization in all ages. The kingdoms of this world are built on the love of power. Babylon stands in the Bible for the symbol of human ambition. The Tower of Babel was to reach unto Heaven, and make for its people a name that should endure for ever. "Thou saidst in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the earth. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." Babylon is not a geographical term, and its spirit is still with us. Man was meant for the heights. God made him for sovereignty, and he cannot fulfill his destiny without power. God destined him for a Throne; Satan premised him a kingdom, The difference between God’s purpose and Satan’s promise is a difference of method and purpose. The kingdoms were not the same. Neither was the way the same. God’s way is the way of Grace; Satan’s is that of lawlessness. God brings it as a gift, for which man must wait in patient obedience and humble trust; Satan bids man snatch at it, demand it as a right, and take it. The devil’s doctrine has always been that might is right No authority must stand between man and his will. Animal instinct, the gratification of desire, the passion to have and to know, are declared to be the only justification man needs for taking what he wants, provided he has the power. Satan’s way to thrones and dominion is by the assertion of self for self-realization; God’s way is by the surrender of self on the altar of sacrifice. Calvary is God’s way. In the Kingdom of Heaven the Bleeding Lamb is in the midst of the Throne. and in the midst of everything else that abides. The way of sovereignty is by the way of the Cross. The badge of authority is service, the mark of distinction is humility, and the right to rule is the power to obey. God’s way gets there. The other ends in the ditch and the pit. The Promise of Power Man needs power. He is of no use without it Dominion is impossible without authority, and authority is useless without power. Man must have power. It is his supreme need. Without power he can do nothing. He needs it for both character and inheritance. He cannot be what he was made to be, and be cannot do what he ought to do, without the right to command and the power to accomplish. The gift of power was the last promise of our Lord and the first declaration of the Spirit. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Our Lord promised that the indwelling Presence of the Spirit of God should be in men the all-prevailing source of Power, The Spirit of God is always associated with energy and vitality. He brooded over the chaos of the world and brought it into order and under control. He was God’s gift to man at his creation, and it was "the Breath of God" that distinguished man from the rest of His creatures. During the period recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures the Spirit was given to men chosen for special tasks. The prophets foresaw an age in which He would be poured forth upon all flesh and spake of His coming. Jesus manifested the Spirit as He revealed the Father. By His Promise the Spirit was to succeed the Son with increased effectiveness and enlarged dominion. For that reason it was better that He should go away. The gift of the Spirit is God’s gift of power, for effective witnessing, holiness of life, and consecrated service. It gives authority, aptness, and force in speech. On the Day of Pentecost they spake as the Spirit of God gave them utterance. They spake with authority, certainty, and power, because they spake out of an experience of revealed truth interpreted by the Holy Ghost. The power of the keys follows a Divine revelation of God in Christ, and no man has a right to speak for God who has no personal, first-hand knowledge of Him: he certainly will not speak with power. The Spirit of power sanctifies, vitalizes, energizes the natural faculties, and makes possible things beyond their most perfect development. God’s man becomes mighty in the power of the Almighty. Personality is the seat of power, and the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit is the gift of a God-possessed personality. Power in Personality The gift of the Spirit is a gift of personality. It turns ordinary persons into extraordinary personalities. That is the miracle of Pentecost. Personality is the discovery of the age. It is not easy to define, but there is a certain currency of ideas and words that give it high rank in all modern thinking. It is meant to imply more than a person. It is a person of distinctive quality. Remarkably enough, the New Testament never uses it. God asks for persons, and turns them into personalities. It is a quality that counts. "For Shamgar slew six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad, and saved Israel; but the men of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." The reason was not in the weapons, but in the men. Personality is the supreme power. Superior to heredity, stronger than environment, higher than prestige, mightier than adversity, a man’s personality conquers, compels, commands. It gives distinction in art, effectiveness to energy, and character to life. In all the work of the world it is personality that counts, and everywhere it is held that the qualities of powerful personality are: courage, strength, sympathy, and sanity. Not one of them can be spared, and I do not know that the order can be changed. Now "God hath not given us the Spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind." The gift of the Spirit is a gift of personality that possesses man’s spirit, quickens man’s faculties, sanctifies man’s powers, and empowers him for all the will of God. The Bible nowhere uses the word Personality. It is difficult to imagine how it could be written without the word, but it was. God never asks for personalities. They are the first condition with us in all enterprises that call for power. God asks for persons. There is no Divine quest for supermen. He calls all sorts of people and chooses quite ordinary men and women for His great work. He somehow calls persons, and makes them personalities. He gives power. Our Lord said to His disciples: "Behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you: tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high." To be clothed means something more than to be covered. The Holy Spirit of God clothes Himself with sanctified humanity, and in Him sanctified humanity is clothed. He fits in with every element of personality, gives power of expression to every faculty, shines in illuminating power upon every theme in reason, conscience, and heart, and brings to pass the ideals, desires. and purposes of God in heart and life. Every kind of power comes in the Spirit: intellectual power, moral power, spiritual power, and physical power. That is the Personality of Pentecost. There is no higher quality of man anywhere, and he can be produced everywhere by the Power of the Holy Ghost. He is the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of Holiness, and the Spirit of Power. He quickens the mind, purifies the heart, and strengthens the whole man. Power! Power belongeth to God, and in the gift of the Spirit He makes all grace abound to us, that we, having all-sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work. Power! All things are possible to those who have power. Power! The supreme need of man and the crowning gift of God is Power: power to conquer, power to attain, power to achieve. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Power. The Laws of Power All power is conditioned. A very little thing will stop a motor-car, silence thousands of spindles, or plunge a city into darkness. Spiritual power is subject to conditions. Once it failed in the hands of the Apostles. The same chapter that tells of its gift tells how they tried to cast out an evil spirit from a demoniac lad and could not. The power of the Spirit is inseparable from His Person. God does not let out His attributes. His power cannot be rented. It cannot be detached from His presence. He strengthens by indwelling. Spirit works through spirit. He is not simply the Giver of power. He wields it. No one else can. It is His power working in us that makes us all-powerful for all the Will of God. Is it not in this we so often fail? Is there not often in our praying for power more desire for IT than for HIM? Is it not possible to be more anxious for the achievements of power than for the Spirit of Power? We want visible results, dramatic wonders, mighty works; and it is not always for these the Spirit of Power is given. Power may be as necessary for silence as for speech, and as mighty in obscurity as in high places. He comes to make us effective in all the will of God. In the one Spirit there are diversities both of function and manifestation. The work of the Spirit depends upon the power of the Spirit. No other power will do. The energy of the flesh cannot do the work of the Spirit For His power there is no substitute. When Zion covets Babylonish gold, envies Babylonish garments, copies Babylonish ways, adopts Babylonish altars, and fights with Babylonish weapons, Her strength fails because the Spirit of Power is lost. Carnal resources are no asset in spiritual enterprise. The weapons of this warfare are not carnal. Prayer brings power, for the Spirit of Power is given to them that pray. Testimony is a chosen weapon of conquest, and the Spirit is given for witnessing. He does not save by argued abstractions, but by living witnesses who testify with power out of the personal certainty of a living experience. It is by the power of the Spirit there comes conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The work of the Church is supernatural. It cannot be done in the strength of the natural man. "It is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." There is no excuse for failure, no justification for ineffectiveness, for the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Power, and the gift of the Spirit is the inheritance of every believer in Christ Jesus our Lord. "He that is feeble among them at that Day shall be as David; and the House of David shall be as God, as the Angel of the Lord before them." Where is the Spirit of Power? The atmosphere of the Apostolic Church is charged with Divine Power. Their word was with power. Conviction accompanied their speech. Signs and wonders confirmed their testimony. They uncovered the hearts of evil doers, and Heaven put its seal upon their judgments. Rulers trembled in their presence. The dead heard their voice. Disease fled at their touch. Devils were subject to their word. The presence of the Spirit endued men with Divine authority and power. They were sure of the mind of God, for they were taught of the Spirit. They asked and received, for they prayed in the Spirit. They wrought mighty works, for they were strengthened in the might of the Spirit. The normal life of the Church was filled, inspired, and empowered in the fullness of the Spirit of the living God. The study of Pentecost reveals a startling contrast between the Promise of Power and its absence in the Church of today. Judged by its own standards of power, the Church is not effectively doing its own proper work. This is the conviction of devout and thoughtful men in all the Churches. Why? Where is now the Lord God of Elijah? Where is the Spirit of Power that raised the dead, cleansed the lepers, cast out devils, and transformed men into saints and heroes of God? So far as external conditions can be judged, they are more favorable to the work of the Spirit than they have been for many years. There is a revolt against materialism and rationalism. There is an intense belief in the reality of the spiritual world. All these things have opened a great and effectual door to the witness of the Holy Spirit of God; and yet the Church has less power than in the days of aggressive antagonism. Why? is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Forsyth as usual puts his finger on the spot when he says: "The arrest of the Church’s extensive effect is due to the decay of its intensive faith, while a mere piety muffles the loss." There is no substitute for the Holy Ghost. The sufficiency of the Church is not of men, but of God. The one vital cause of failure in the Church is in the poverty of the spiritual life of its people. As the Holy Spirit was straitened in the human body and the earthly ministry of our Lord, so is He straitened in the Church which is His Body -- with a difference. There were words the Spirit could not yet speak and works He could not yet do, but there were no limitations of unbelief, unresponsiveness, or disobedience in Christ, whereas in the modern Church there are conditions that make His work difficult, and sometimes impossible. All the causes of our failure go back to this one common source: Do we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, the Lord and Giver of Life? Is it not true that there are many who have not go much as heard that the Holy Ghost has been given? Without His guidance wisdom gropes in darkness, and without His strength there is no might. Light becomes darkness, and strength weakness apart from Him. There are many who would save the Church by linking it up with the powers of the world. Christ was the Good Physician Who healed by the Spirit of Life, but the modern Saviour is an Engineer who will redeem by organization and accommodation. The salvation of the world is "not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit. saith the Lord of Hosts." There is no straitening in Him. The reason of our failure is not in Him. He is straitened in us. Is He straitened in me? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 106: 04.11. THE SPIRIT OF LIFE ======================================================================== The Spirit of Life Truth and Life are the distinctive features of the Spirit emphasized in the Nicene Creed. He is said to be the Lord and Giver of Life . who spake by the Prophets. The Lord and Giver of Life! Our Lord said that He was the Life, and the Spirit is said to be the Spirit of Life, just as our Lord is the Truth and the Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. The Eternal Word, the Living Spirit, and the Tongue of Fire are a trinity in the Unity of the Revealed Word; and so it is with the Creation, Lordship, and Perfecting of Life. Our Life is in Christ. It is in Him, and from Him, and by Him, and to Him. "In Him was life." "For as the Father hath life in Himself, even so gave He to the Son to have life in Himself." He came that through Him men might have life, and have it abundantly. Life is the gift of God in Christ Jesus. The Divine Spirit is the Spirit of Life. The Lord and Giver of Life All life is due to the direct action of the Spirit of God. He is its medium and its Lord. The phrase "Spirit of Life" is a comprehensive phrase indicating His relation to all life. By Him came the life of the world. Through all the seasons and millenniums, the earth has been renewed and replenished by the Eternal and Living Spirit of God. To Him the Bible attributes the whole life of man, From Him is every intellectual and artistic gift, every emotional and volitional capacity every gift of grace and love. The Spirit is associated with the whole man. Apart from Him men are dead. It is the coming of the Spirit that gives Life. That He is the Spirit of Life cannot mean less than that He is the Life-giving Spirit. It cannot mean less than that in the Spirit of the Living God is the Source, Medium, and Agent of living energy, the expression of revealed truth, the secret of divine power, and every other quality and function of Life. The source and seat of all life is in and through Him, for all life is of the Spirit. The Spirit is the Giver of Life, and where the Spirit is not, there is no Life. Life has been defined by the scientists as the dynamical condition of an organism, but the definition confuses more than it makes plain. Life is in its essence of the Spirit, spiritual. It is more than a dynamic, separate from conditions, and distinct from its organism. Life is in itself spirit, and the true life is from the Spirit of Life. It is more than existence, for the Bible speaks of those who are dead while they live. Life has its seat in man’s spiritual nature; in his self-conscious reason, his moral sense, and his capacity for the knowledge of and fellowship with God. Life is more than animal existence, just as death is more than physical dissolution. The Spirit of God quickens into life the spirit of man. The body of man is the temple of the Holy Ghost, but He does not dwell in the flesh. Spirit dwells in spirit. The Spirit of God dwell, in the spirit of man; and from that center of life and power He quickens, directs, controls, and sanctifies the whole man. He indwells sanctified men and women. He becomes the spirit of their spirit, the mind of their mind, the heart of their heart, the strength of their strength, and the life of their life. The sphere of the Spirit is in the realm of life. He gives the Life that is in Christ, and in all things He works through the law of the Spirit of Life. He works and fashions the outward from the inward, and the material through the spiritual. He functions through Life. The Spirit giveth Life, and the Spirit working through the Life strengthens, directs, and transforms. He reveals the Face of Christ, and transforms into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit All understanding of the Truth as Truth is in Jesus, is by the Lord and Giver of Life Who spake by the Prophets, and is given to guide believers into all the Truth. All Christlikeness of life and character is by the transforming power of Life through the Spirit of the Living God, the Lord and Giver of Life. That is why the work of God in the Church depends upon the Life of the Church. The City of the Living God comes through the Spirit of the Living God. That is why an ecclesiastical dignitary may know less about conversion than a Hallelujah lass of the Salvation Army! That is why spiritual power is so often in inverse ratio to scholastic accomplishments! It is not by might of carnal strength, nor in the power of organized authority, but by the Spirit of the Lord. Life is greater than all the resources of material power. Life in the Spirit The Holy Spirit is emphatically both Giver and Lord of the Life that is in Christ "His action covers the whole life from first to last He is the Spirit of Life for regeneration (John 3:5, John 3:8); the Spirit of Sonship for adoption (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6); the Spirit of Holiness for sanctification (j); the Spirit of Glory for transfiguration (2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 Peter 4:14); and the Spirit of Promise for resurrection (Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:30)." The Believer is born of the Spirit, he believes in the Spirit, prays in the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit. From first to last he is sphered in the Presence of the Spirit, and the Spirit dwells in him; just as in his natural life he lives in the air, and the air dwells in him. Delivered from the flesh, he lives in the Spirit And what is the life in the Spirit? It is a life lived in the realm of the spiritual. It is a life in which there is no condemnation. Guilt is purged, sin is cleansed away, carnality is destroyed. There is not only an imputed righteousness by grace, but a realized righteousness through faith. The things that bring condemnation have been put away, and life stands approved and accepted in the will of God. Instead of condemnation there is the assurance of Sonship and Heirship in Christ Jesus. The Life of Prayer finds a new intelligence, intensity, and power. The Spirit prays in the praying heart, and prayer in the Spirit prevails. Conquest takes the place of defeat, and the Spirit-filled life prevails in conflict as it prevails in prayer. Consequently there comes to the heart a deep sense of security in the love of God, and a Christlike compassion for the souls of the lost. The Spirit of Christ brings the mind of Christ, and baptizes us into the fellowship of His redeeming love. This is the abundant life Christ came to bring -- the life filled with His Spirit. The Law of the Spirit of Life The Spirit is the Ruler, as well as the Giver of Life. Rule means law, and there is a law of the Spirit of Life. There is no escape from law. There is a law of the flesh, a law of the mind, a law of sin, and a law of death. There is no escape from law in the life that is unregenerate. Neither is there any escape for those who live in the Spirit. It is another law, but it is still law. There is a law of faith, a law of grace, a law of truth, a law of life, and a law of the Spirit. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 107: 04.12. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH ======================================================================== The Spirit of Truth Our Lord spake of Himself as the Truth, and of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of Truth. The revelation, inspiration, and interpretation of truth are in a special and unique sense the work of the Divine Spirit. God has spoken through His Spirit. It is reasonable to expect that He would. He had made man for fellowship. and it is incredible that God should expect fellowship without mutual speech, especially when the need of revelation became manifest. Had there been no sin man would have still needed a guide to things beyond himself. Someone must have told him of things above and beyond himself, for there are many things that cannot be found by searching. By faith we know these things, but there is no sure basis for faith without revelation. Still more is revelation necessary when sin darkens the understanding. Love could not be silent in the presence of such need and peril. God has spoken He has revealed His mind, declared His will, and set forth His way to Truth, and Life, and Power. By the Spirit of Truth God spake through the Prophets, and by Him has come the inspired and infallible revelation of God. The Spirit of Revelation By Revelation is understood those truths made known by supernatural means, because they lie beyond the power of man to discover. Inspiration is concerned with the means and processes by which these truths are made known. Revelation comes by the inspiration of the Spirit of Truth. It is in this way we know anything authentic about creation and the events that happened before man was there to see. The records of these things must be either guesses or revealed truths. The same applies to all that we know of God in His nature and attributes, and still more of His redeeming purpose of love and grace. Many by searching cannot find God, but it has pleased God to make Himself known to the children of men. We know God by revelation, and in the knowledge of Him is the life which is life indeed. To revelation we owe also the knowledge of the final issues of the Kingdom of Grace. The ascended glory and the triumphant Return of our glorious Lord are of such a character that no human mind could have conceived them. The sum of the Divine Revelation is in Jesus Christ the Son of God. Revealed truth is truth "as truth is in Jesus." He is the Eternal Word of God; the oracle of God in human flesh. He is emphatically the truth: the embodiment of Truth, the Word of Truth, and the sum of Truth. The Eternal Word and the Eternal Truth are one. The Incarnate Word is the sum and substance of Truth. In Christ is God’s final revelation of Truth, but in the Spirit of Truth is its unfolding, interpretation, and realization. It was the Spirit that made known the Revelation, directed its development, and watched over its integrity. The Bible is the record of the Revelation of God through the Spirit. The Prophets of the Old Testament claimed to be the spokesmen of God on the ground that they had received a revelation from God. They are God’s messengers, for they have heard His voice. They gave account of the way the Word of the Lord came to them, and their claim to speak for Him is that they have received His Word. The same authority is claimed in the New Testament. The Gospel came to the apostles by Revelation. Our Lord despaired of making them understand the Gospel of His Cross, but He assured them that the Spirit of Truth would reveal it to them; and He did. Pentecost was the crowning day of Revelation. The Spirit and Inspiration It was in this way the Revelation came from God, and that is how the Scriptures came to be written. The Revelation was before the record, and it was the Revelation that created the necessity for the Scripture. They are the work of the Spirit. Whatever may be the true theory of inspiration, the Scriptures claim a special influence of the Spirit, by which they possess a Divine quality and a final authority. They are inspired and infallible, and therefore the Divine Rule of Faith and Conduct. There was given to inspired speakers and writers of the Divine Revelation a special and unique influence by which they were able faithfully to make known the truth revealed. The Bible never defines inspiration. It insists upon the fact, but it never attempts to explain the theory. That is left to the theologians, and the theory must be deduced from the facts, and it must take account of all the facts. For all practical purposes, the assurance that it is an energy of the Spirit of Truth, sufficient to secure accurate and adequate expression, satisfies all reasonable demands. The fault of most discussions on inspiration is that they have overlooked some important facts and factors. Some have claimed for the Bible more than the Bible claimed for itself, and others have ignored some of its demands. Both would have escaped their pitfalls if they had taken pains to know the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and understand the relation of the Spirit of Truth to the Word of God. Modern methods have specialized in the Scriptures, and in nothing has the change wrought been so drastic and, for the time being, disastrous. It is claimed that the orthodox and traditional views have been demolished for ever, and that never again will the Bible be regarded as a Divine and infallible Book. Great sport has been made of the superstitious reverence of the devout who accepted all its parts as equally inspired and of equal value. The so-called traditional view has been ignorantly or willfully misrepresented, or flippantly caricatured. It is difficult to be patient with the spacious shallowness and colossal vanity that masquerade under the claims of modernity and scientific criticism, but it will be plain in the end that they have helped to a better understanding of the Truth. They have taught us much of the human and historical side of inspiration. The Spirit works by human cooperation. He spake by the Prophets. No prophecy came -- as Weymouth translates it, -- of the Prophets’ own prompting. Holy men of God spake as they were moved of the Holy Ghost. He moved; they spake. There was no suspension of personal powers, personal consciousness, personal gifts. Inspiration intensified personality. but it neither changed nor confused it. The message was spoken by many voices, and when it came to be written, the writing of the Divine Word was by a man’s hand." A careful study of Luke 1:14; 1 Peter 1:11-12, 2 Peter 1:21, and Hebrews 1:1 would safeguard our thinking against many errors. There are diversities of inspiration, but one Spirit, and He is the Spirit of Truth. There are sixty-six books in the Bible, but it is one Book. There are many writers, but only one Author. The unity of the progressive Word is the miracle of the Spirit in revealed truth. The Spirit and Interpretation Before man can see he must have sight and light. Eyes cannot see in the dark, and light shows nothing to the blind. So with regard to truth there must be the seeing eye and the illuminating light The Word is Truth, but it is the Spirit of Truth that makes it the Living Word. Inspiration ceased within a hundred years. The best writings of the second century reveal a transition that is an abrupt and abysmal gulf. Creative inspiration gave place to imitative devotion. The Holy Spirit was still in the Church, but He no longer inspired new revelations. "Since the New Testament times the Holy Spirit has illumined truth, but has not revealed anything new." All agree that we must have an interpreter. The Sacerdotalist holds that the Church is the custodian and interpreter of the Scriptures. He argues that the living voice is more than the written Word. That depends on whose voice it is. We do need an interpreter, an infallible teacher, a trustworthy guide, and the interpreter of the inspired Word is the Spirit of Truth. The mere grammarian cannot find it. The controversialist cannot explain it. The critic knows not its secret. The carnal mind cannot perceive it. The natural man cannot possess it. The twice-born see. The anointed know. The Spirit that revealed illumines, and He that inspired interprets. The Spirit of Truth honors the Word of Truth. He consents to be tried by the Word of God. Illuminations that come from Him are in harmony with the Word. He guides into all truth. The Sons of God are led of the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot receive Him, but they know Him. In the world the Spirit of Truth convicts, challenges, condemns; to the Spirit-filled He illumines, interprets, and transforms. Had a Scriptural view of the Person and Work of the Holy Ghost been more powerfully prevalent in the Church, not merely in her formularies, but in reality and life, there would never have been so much occasion given to represent the teaching of the Church on the inspiration of Scripture as "mechanical" and "converting men into automata"; and the whole question would not have assumed such a scholastic and metaphysical form. For then the living testimony and the written testimony would appear both as supernatural and Spirit-breathed. The more the supremacy of the Holy Ghost -- Divine, loving, and present -- is acknowledged, the more the Bible is fixed in the heart and conscience. But if the "Book is viewed as the relic and substitute of a now absent and inactive Spirit, Bibliolatry and Bible-rejection are the necessary results." Without the Spirit of Truth even the Word of Truth is a dead letter. It is the Spirit that quickens, illumines, and interprets the Word. The Spirit and Illumination Jesus said: "Howbeit, when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak; and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. And He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you" (John 16:13-14). Divine truth is not of grammar, of learning, or of logic, but of the Holy Spirit of God. He is given to reveal "the deep things." "The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God." There is no adjective in the Greek. It is not "deep things," but "deeps." There are fringes of the Divine Glory such as Moses and the Prophets saw, and they are glorious and wonderful, but there are depths, abysses, like those of the heavens and the sea. Deep beyond deep, fathoms unfathomable, and these the Spirit of God searches and reveals. He does not search to discover. In Romans 8:27 and in Revelation 2:23 God and Christ are said to "search." It implies thoroughness, and not quest. The Spirit is ever active in fathoming the depths of God. His omniscience is ever exploring and revealing the depths of God. Romans 11:33 unites the ideas of depth and unsearchableness. The point of the argument is that the deeps in God cannot be known by any other means than the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Just as the deep things in a man are known only to the spirit of a man, so the deeps of God are known only to and by the Spirit of God. Our wisdom cannot discover Him. The princes and rulers of the world’s intellect and intelligence cannot know Him. The well is deep, and they have nothing wherewith to draw. The deep things are not discovered; they are received. They are not achieved; they are believed. They are not taught; they are revealed. The Spirit is the Spirit of God, and by Him we know the things of God. The Spirit is given to glorify Christ No man can know Jesus without the distinct revelation of the Spirit. The deeps of Christ cannot be explored by human wisdom. His life in Nazareth may be reconstructed by novelists, dramatized by genius, and immortalized by art; but the Christ is not in them. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Corinthians 12:3). The same is true of His teaching. Grammar cannot discover its truth, and the letter killeth. It is also true of His word. The Cross must always be an enigma, a stupidity, and anathema to the wisdom of this world. It belongs to the deeps known only to the Spirit and to those enlightened and instructed of Him. The depths of Christ are unsearchable. The love of Christ passeth knowledge. The grace of Christ is immeasurable. The glory of Christ is unfathomable. There are deeps beyond deep, heights beyond height. Deep calls unto deep, and glory unto glory. To the natural man they are without meaning; to the taught of the Spirit they are eternally sure. We know Him, and we know that we know Him because we have an anointing of the Holy One that takes of the things that are His and reveals them unto us. The Renewal of the Mind "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned." Part of the ministry of the Spirit of Truth, therefore, is the preparation and renewal of the mind of man, for receiving the deep things of God. But Who is sufficient to describe the transformation wrought by the Spirit in the consenting mind? The ancient Messianic prophecy finds fulfillment in the simplest believer. "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord." But the Spirit’s operation upon the mind does not end with the bestowal of understanding. The Gift of the Spirit brings a sound mind as well as a new Spirit. Both need to be renewed for the reception of Truth as it is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:23). The mind must be renewed, for through the renewed mind comes the transformed life and the proving of the will of God (Romans 12:1-2). Dedication of the body as a living sacrifice must be sustained by the constant renewal of the mind. The Spirit of God dwells in the spirit of man to guide the mind into all truth. He interprets the mind of Christ, for He takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. It is in this way the Spirit interpreted all things to our Lot. The Spirit worked through His mind. So the prophecy goes on: "And He shall be quick of understanding, and His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." And so the Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 108: 04.13. THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS ======================================================================== The Spirit of Holiness The title of the Spirit most frequently used in the New Testament is the Holy Spirit. The phrase "Spirit of Holiness" occurs but once, and it can hardly be claimed that it refers directly to the Holy Spirit. St. Paul says in Romans 1:4 that as Christ on the hum an side was of the seed of David, so on the Divine side He was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection of the dead." It was not the Holy Spirit that the Apostle evidently had in mind, but our Lord’s human spirit distinguished by holiness and conquering the powers of death. Elsewhere the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead is attributed to the Holy Spirit; and even if it be the quality of our Lord’s own Spirit that made it "impossible that He should be holden of death," the human spirit was equipped, sanctified, and kept by the Divine Spirit. The phrase, however, reaches further than the Resurrection, and implies that, by the Spirit of Holiness, men are sanctified in truth. His work is to glorify Christ and sanctify the saints, making holy the Body of Christ which is His Church. What is Holiness? It is unfortunate that the term has ceased to attract even good people. There are many who regard it with suspicion, and some who dismiss it with scorn. It is not uncommon for it to be made the butt of cheap wit and the subject of some doubtful stories. This is all the more surprising because of the emphasis with which the New Testament insists upon its necessity, urges its experience, and enforces its obligations. There is little teaching and testimony on the subject, and, therefore, there is dense ignorance and much misunderstanding. The subject is generally dismissed without inquiry, but even among those who take the trouble to think there is much misapprehension, and the reason is that due attention is not given to the place and work of the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of the Believer. He is the Sanctifier. The meaning of holiness must be interpreted "according to the Scriptures." It has a Biblical content and value. It is no use to search for it in pagan literature, however classical, for the Biblical idea of holiness is not to be found elsewhere. Even in Israel it was of slow growth, and the idea passed through many stages before it took its complete and final form. Its root meaning is separation, and it was used of things dedicated to religious uses. Then God was conceived of as separate in majesty and apart in character, and holiness was ascribed to Him and His ways. This quality in God demanded a like quality in His people, and to His covenanted people He said, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." He chose them to be "unto Him a holy people." For this purpose He called them out from among the nations. They were to be unto Him "a peculiar people" in whom all men should see a holy and sanctified people. Holiness had its positive as well as its negative side. They were to be distinguished by moral and spiritual excellence as well as by ceremonial and national distinctions. Holiness is an experience as well as an attitude, a life as well as a separation. Their separation unto God was to be manifest in their likeness to Him. The supreme revelation and standard are in Jesus Christ. He revealed the Holy Father and made manifest the Holy Spirit, thereby making known in both God and man the Spirit of Holiness. Believers are called unto holiness. "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." "God chose you from the beginning in sanctification of the Spirit." Without holiness grace fails in its purpose, and without it no man can see the Lord. The experience is set forth in various terms and under many forms, but in all its manifold representations the same root ideas persist and prevail. Holiness is an attitude of dedication and an experience of grace in which the heart is cleansed from sin and made perfect in love. Misapprehensions About Holiness There is a strange mistake abroad that holiness is something quite optional. It is regarded as desirable for certain people and in special circumstances, but its claims are by no means universal. The preachers sometimes speak of it as an alternative way to Heaven, but as both ways get there, the routes do not really matter. Holiness is regarded as an emotional luxury, if not as a spiritual fad. Its claims are deemed to be emotional rather than ethical, optional rather than imperative. There is little exposition of its character, and still less insistence upon its urgency; consequently, few seek to enter into the experience or take seriously the solemn words of Holy Scripture. Many take it for granted that if it is necessary it will come to them in due course without any concern of theirs. Such slackness accounts for much of the backsliding among believers. The Christian calling is one that demands "all diligence" and "earnest heed." Those who fail to seek after holiness "fall short of the grace of God," give opportunity to "the roots of bitterness to spring up," and become secular and worldly, like Esau, who bartered his spiritual inheritance for material good. Another mistake made by many earnest Christians about holiness is that it comes by a gradual growth in grace and a steady progress of spiritual discipline. They are always growing toward it, but they never get into it, always struggling and striving to attain, but never entering into possession. The positive expectation is always seen to be afar off, and they die without having possessed. The hopeful future never becomes the positive now. The time never comes that calls for a definite step and a positive act of faith But holiness does not come by growth; neither is it identified with growth. Growth is a process of life; holiness is the gift of abundant life. Growth is the result of health; holiness is health. Holiness implies a crisis, a new experience, a transformed life. It is not an achievement or an attainment, but a gift of grace in the Holy Ghost. It comes not by works, but of faith. Not a few good people mix up things that differ. They confuse cleaning with maturity, motive with achievement, love with blamelessness, and the perfection of grace with the perfection of the resurrection glory. People who ought to know blunder hopelessly over these things. Perhaps the confusion that is most common and most senseless is that which persists in associating perfection with finality. There are many people who seem to be afraid lest they should come to a point at which there will be no more room for improvement. They need not distress themselves. ever their best friends being judges; but really such shallow and foolish thinking is without excuse. Love never exhausts its inheritance or reaches its limit in being made perfect. Health never hinders growth. The perfection of efficiency is surely not final but primary. No doctrine of the Bible has been stated with greater care, and if any man wills to possess he need not err as to the way. Holiness Through the Spirit The Scriptural method of sanctification is through the personal work of the Spirit of God. The law of the Spirit of life makes us free from the law of sin and death. It is God’s work wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit who makes Christ our sanctification. There are diversities of operation in all the works of the Spirit, and the method of entering into possession was manifold as the temperaments and conditions of human life. No two experiences are ever really alike. Generally there is an awakening of heart and mind in which there comes vision and persuasion. There is a conviction of need and a revelation of grace, a hunger and a search, a process and a crisis, an act of faith, and an assurance of cleansing. It is as distinctly a second work of grace as regeneration is a New Birth. Consecration is as practical as repentance, and sanctification as definite as regeneration. Unbelief stumbles at a name, and the heart shrinks from a crisis that involves a death and a resurrection. Satan multiplies difficulties, and an evil heart backs him. The way of life must be sought in the Holy Word and by the Holy Spirit, and the twofold guide will not fail those who seek with all their heart. Holiness is in the spirit and of the Divine Spirit. It is not in forms and ordinances, not in "will worship and voluntary humility." It is not in prohibitions and self-denial. It is a spirit, a life, a principle, a dynamic. The Spirit of God indwells the spirit of man. He clothes Himself with man, and man is clothed in the presence and power of the Spirit. The Body is the Temple of the Spirit. Christ lives in men through the Spirit. He is no longer a model but a living Presence. Christian faith does not copy Him; it lives Him. Christ is not imitated, but reproduced. Life is sanctified because He possesses it, lives it, transforms it The Spirit of God does not work upon us; He lives in us. This is the contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Works are by the sweat of man’s brow; fruit is God’s gift to man. Fruit does not come by toil but by appropriation, assimilation, and abiding. Holiness makes life fruitful because it abides in the Living Word and gives free scope to the Spirit of Life. The Spirit of Holiness makes the heart clean, the mind true, the faculties fit, and the life fruitful, by making His holiness ours. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 109: 04.14. THE SPIRIT OF LOVE ======================================================================== The Spirit of Love Love is the last word in religion. It completes the revelation of God and sums up the whole duty of man. Love is of God, and the Spirit of God is the "Spirit of Love." This designation of the Spirit is not so well known as some others, but it is the quality that gives value to all the rest. The Love of the Spirit There is one passage that speaks directly of the Love of the Spirit "Now I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me" (Romans 15:30). There is some dispute as to whether the love of the Spirit refers to the love which the Spirit produces in us or to the personal love of the Spirit for us. The former meaning finds considerable favor, and in that case the Apostle would mean: "I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of your spirit to me, that ye strive together with me in your prayers." Such a request would be natural enough, but the form of the request would be unnatural and strange. The phrase becomes awkward and enigmatical if it is meant to mean the love which the Spirit gives, but it is natural and plain if it names the Son and the Spirit as the ground of appeal. The entreaty names all the Persons of the Trinity, and beseeches "for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and by the love of the Spirit Whom He hath given to us," that they will pray with him and for him. The love of the Spirit is the emotion and quality of love in the Spirit; it is His love, not ours, that is the basis of appeal. This is the unmistakable teaching of the Word. Romans 5:5 speaks of the love of God that hath been shed in our hearts by the Holy Ghost being given unto us. This must mean that it is God’s own love that is shed in our hearts. It is a quality of life that is given to us, and this quality comes from and through the Holy Ghost. It is not a gift that can be received apart from the Giver. The love comes with the Spirit. Love stands first in the order of fruit. Dr. Campbell Morgan argues that it is the whole fruit, and that all the rest of the list in Galatians 5:22 are but manifestations of the one great and all-inclusive quality of love. Be that as it may, and it may well be so, there can be no doubt that love in the believer is the fruit of the love of the Spirit. Fruit is an expression of life, and love is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit is not of our growth. It is the result of abiding in Christ by the Spirit of Love dwelling in us. Love is the first, the chief, the most notable result when the Spirit of Love dwells in us. There is another notable passage which speaks of the believer’s "love in the Spirit" (Colossians 1:8). This is something more than "spiritual love." It means that our love of the brethren is a love not human in its origin; not mere good nature and goodwill perfected by grace, but the love of God that dwells in our hearts by the good Spirit of Love. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but (the Spirit) of power, of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). The Spirit of God is not a spirit of fear, or a spirit of bondage, but the Spirit of Adoption, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Power, and the Spirit of Love. Just as His coming into the heart brings Assurance, and Truth, and Power, so it brings the conscious possession of love shed abroad in the heart, and the love with which we love God is God’s own love imparted to us, and implanted in us by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Love. The Ministry of Love The ministry of the Spirit is a ministry of love. The Church of Christ has chosen to call Him the Comforter. The ministry of consolation may be a very small part of the meaning of "Paraclete," but the human heart will never give up the name "Comforter" for that of "Advocate." "The comfort of the Holy Ghost" is treasured as a priceless possession more precious than power; more even than truth. Sorrow is more universal than the thirst for knowledge, and in the day of distress consolation is more than might. The word "Paraclete" means more than Comforter, but in meaning more it cannot mean less. The Comforter is in the Paraclete. Our Lord promised that He should save His disciples from the desolation of orphans. He even declared that they would gain by the exchange of His presence for that of the Paraclete. "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you" (John 16:7). It is hard to see how He could expect them to be comforted by the promise of one who would more than fill His place. Fancy a dying mother making any such promise to her children. They would protest that they did not believe any such gain possible; that they did not want anyone better, for to them none could be half so good. Our Lord said it, and none dared to deny it or even challenge His words. The Spirit came to fulfill our Lord’s ministry of love in the world. The world cannot receive Him, for the Spirit of Love cannot dwell in a heart of hate, or a spirit of worldliness. The world does not even know Him. In this He shares the fate of the Son, and in the succession He takes up the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. He seeks the lost. With loving patience He pursues and pleads. It is He who convicts the world. The sacrifice of Calvary is perpetuated in the Spirit of Love. Like our Lord, He suffers the contradiction of sinners against themselves. Love agonizes where it is powerless to help. What anguish is there like love in despair? The mother who has to stand helpless and see her child perish goes mad with grief. The father who strives in vain to keep his boy from the madness of folly either turns gray or grows hard. Think of the grief of the Spirit of Love Who can measure the anguish of His rebuffs, reproaches, and rejection. Love is sensitive. It shrinks from distrust, indifference, and reproach. It yearns for love. So the Spirit yearns for us "even unto jealous envy" (James 4:5, R.V., margin) There is the same sensitive love in all His work. The love of God in Christ made Him the friend of sinners. He associated with them. His enemies said He was a chum with them. He sat at meat with them, and was evidently welcome amongst them. It does not seem to occur to us what contact with sin must have cost Him. Love shrinks from the ugly and offensive, but it overcomes and loves all the more for the greater need. The Spirit of God dwells in men’s hearts. When Christ came a Body was prepared for Him. It had the limitations of humanity, but it was without sin. The Temple of the Holy Ghost is not thus prepared for His coming. He comes to hearts confessedly unclean. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and yet He comes to abide at its very seat and center. Through what travail the Spirit of Love must pass before the heart becomes indeed His Temple and His Home. The patience of the Spirit would be impossible were it not for His love. The Perfecting of Love "Herein is love made perfect with us, that we In the secret of the indwelling Spirit of Love. "Hereby know we that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit." "God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him." "Herein is love made perfect with us." Wherein? "That we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, even so are we in this world. There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:13, 1 John 1:1-10). The whole secret is in the "Hereby" and "Herein." Perfect love is by the Spirit of Love. There are two senses in which love may be in need of perfecting. It may be defective in quality, or it may be deficient in quantity. If the love shed abroad in the heart is the very love of God Himself, it cannot be defective in quality, but it may be deficient in range and scope of operation. The Spirit fills what is given. He does not wait for fullness of knowledge. Wherever there is a sincere purpose to serve Christ He accepts the motive, however great the ignorance. There is a law of the Spirit of Life, and it patiently waits through all the stages of the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear. He yearns for fullness of love, and as He led to repentance, so He leads to surrender and fullness of blessing. Love is made perfect when the Spirit of Love alone reigns in all the heart and life. We love because the Spirit of Love dwells in us, and that Love is made perfect when the indwelling Trinity of Love permeates, dominates, and possesses us entirely to the praise of His glory and the excellence of His power. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 110: 04.15. THE SPIRIT OF FIRE ======================================================================== The Spirit of Fire "Our God is a consuming fire." The elect symbol of His presence is the fire unkindled of earth, and the chosen sign of His approval is the sacred flame. Covenant and sacrifice, sanctuary and dispensation were sanctified and approved by the descent of fire. "The God that answereth by fire; He is God." That is the final and universal test of deity. Jesus Christ came to bring fire upon the earth. The symbol of Christianity is not a Cross but a Tongue of Fire. Strange Fire So universally is this recognized that men substitute strange fire for the fire of God. A fireless altar is the sign of desertion and death. It means that the Temple has lost its God, and worship has died out of the land. There must be fire, or there can be no religion. If it cannot be procured from heaven it must be kindled of earth. There is much speculation about the strange fire offered with such terrible results by the sons of Aaron. The offense for which they died is expressed in the words, "they offered fire which the Lord had not commanded." The exact form of their sin is not stated, but the reasonable explanation is that they carried into their ministry unconsecrated fire. It did not come from the altar. The precise form of this transgression is no longer possible, but the sin is common to all ages. It is a kind of will worship, by which man substitutes his own enthusiasms for the will of God. The revealed will is ignored, and the divine commandment set aside for other ways and means in worship and service. Earth-fires can soon be set ablaze. It is so much easier to excite the passions than to kindle souls. Thorns crackle as they burn, and the flying sparks arrest and amuse. True, the fuel is soon exhausted and the fire fizzles out, but they serve while they last. The penalty of strange fire in the sanctuary is death. "Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves about with firebrands: walk ye in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow." Earth-kindled fires burn fiercely, but they burn out. They allure to deeper darkness. Lights that glare and dazzle blind the eyes. Artificial excitement destroys spiritual sensibility. Satiated desire fails. When religion turns to humanity for its inspiration and to the world for its power, God is dethroned and the sanctuary becomes a secularized fellowship. Stage Fire Strange fire may be offered in sincerity and in good faith. Stage fire is a trick. In the absence of the supernatural, earnest souls may turn to the best substitutes they can find, and believe they are doing God’s service. When the fires of spiritual devotion go out, ritualism finds its opportunity. Aids to voluptuous meditation take the place of reverent adoration. If there be no power to cast out devils, transform sinners and save souls, there are other ministries within reach. John did no miracle; may not a ministry of "water baptism" avail for our day and generation? [Not] If we have no fire from on high by which men’s souls can be saved, there are minds to be instructed and bodies to be fed. Churches destitute of divine fire may devote themselves fervently to good works, but stage fire is a mockery and a pretense. Stage-lights have found their way into the Church. The red glare dazzles, but it does not burn. Fireworks are brilliant, but they end with the hour. No ideals are kindled, no ministry impelled, no sacrifice inspired. The pretense of spirituality is the worst profanity. Strange fire is less offensive than stage fire. A religion of mere emotion and sensationalism is the most terrible of all curses that can come upon any people. The absence of reality is sad enough. but the aggravation of pretense is a deadly sin. Holy Ghost Fire What is the fire of the Holy Ghost? Everywhere earnest believers are lamenting its absence and praying for a Pentecost of Fire. What is this Fire? The Scriptures evidently regard it as the supreme need of the Church and the final gift of God. The prophets associated it with the Messiah, and promised it as the unique triumph of His coming. It marked the difference between the Old Dispensation and the New. John’s ministry shook the nation, but was only preparatory. "I indeed baptize with water ... He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire." Our Lord spoke of the coming of Fire as the one purpose of His mission, and the fruit of His sufferings and death. "I came," He says, "to cast Fire on the earth." The supreme need of the Church is Fire. The one persistent prayer of them that "sigh and cry" is for the fiery baptism of Pentecost. What do we mean by Fire? When Jesus promised the gift of Fire, what did He mean them to expect? In our impassioned pleading for the descent of Fire, what is it we want? For what does this elect symbol stand? Our God is a consuming Fire; the gift of the Holy Ghost is a baptism of Fire; Christianity is a religion of Fire; we are saved by Fire. If Fire is so vital and comprehensive, it is important its meaning should be clearly understood. Moral and Spiritual Passion Whatever this Fire may be, it is identified with the Person of the Holy Ghost. The baptism of the Spirit is the baptism of Fire. Our Lord’s straitening for the baptism of blood was followed by the fullness of Pentecost, in the gift of the Spirit of Fire. Its power was moral and spiritual. Men’s souls were charged, saturated, enveloped, in the Spirit of God. The Divine life entered into them. The passion of God possessed them with the intensity of fire. His love was shed abroad in their hearts, and His holiness became the master passion of their souls. They burned and they shone: burning and shining lights. They were intense as they were breezy, fiery as they were jubilant, impassioned as they were daring. The spirit of cold obedience was kindled into an enthusiasm for righteousness, and the slavish sense of duty burst into a flame of eager devotion. That is the miracle of Pentecost. It kindles the fires of Christ’s soul in the souls of men. They receive, realize, and reproduce His mind, His heart, His life. His zeal becomes the all-pervasive character of their lives. They manifest His fervent devotion to the will of the Father, His holy passion for reality and righteousness, His consuming zeal for the salvation of the lost. It kindles a fervent devotion to God, a passion for righteousness, and a consuming desire to seek and save the lost. Religion at flame-heat illumines the mind, energizes every faculty, and impassions every element of compassion. Fire does not mean rant, or noise, or ruthless self-will. It acts differently on different material and in different people, but in all it burns, kindles, and glows. It is religion at white-heat. The Offense of Fire in Religion Fire in religion awakens a peculiar sense of distrust in the modern mind. There is no objection to it anywhere else. Enthusiasm in politics and recreation, fervor in reform and business, intensity in work and friendship, are among the most coveted qualities of modern life. In religion they are bad form. Enthusiasts in piety are suspects. Christians full of zeal are merely tolerated where they are not despised. They are regarded as intellectually inferior; the "babes and sucklings" to whom God has a way of revealing things precious to the soul. Their conception of religion is narrow and antiquated, and their experience of it too emotional and fervid. It is sometimes said they are defective in ethical balance and moral stamina, and they lack the charity which appreciates other types of goodness. Judged in the lump, the saints of the Fire-heart are condemned as unlovely, undesirable, and unreasonable. For things not fire-proof burning is not a pleasant sensation; but then, only that which can "dwell in everlasting burning" can be saved. We are saved by Fire. Light is not enough, and water is not enough. Knowledge does not save, neither is cleanliness the equivalent of grace. Salvation is of the heart. External conventionality and correct observance may make a Pharisee, but never a Christian. It is by a holy passion kindled in the Soul we live the life of God. Truth without enthusiasm, morality without emotion, ritual without soul, are the things Christ unsparingly condemned. Destitute of fire they are nothing more than a godless philosophy, an ethical system, and a superstition. Moral and spiritual passion are of the essence of the religion of Christ. The Power of Fire The penalty of intensity may be narrowness, but its reward is power. It submits all things to a severe test, and what will not assimilate it mercilessly assails. Fire cannot compromise. The logic of passion is direct, simple, relentless. Cool calculation is impossible to men ablaze. Inspiration despises dissimulation. Issues are simple when the heart is intense. The pure flame of a holy enthusiasm is a safer guide than the dry light of cold reason. The soul’s safety is in its heat Fire is the best defense against corruption. If we would be safe we must be clothed with zeal as with a garment. Our religion is only secure when it is guarded by "a wall of Fire round about." It is Fire that prevails. For fifty days the facts of the Gospel were complete, but no conversions were recorded. Pentecost registered three thousand souls. It is the cause that sets men ablaze that wins converts. Gladstone’s fiery passion routed Parliaments and slew the giants of oppression. Wesley, Whitefield, and General Booth wrought wonders by the Fire kindled of the Holy Ghost. Men ablaze are invincible. Hell trembles when men kindle. Sin, worldliness, unbelief, hell, are proof against everything but Fire. The Church is powerless without the Fire of the Holy Ghost. Destitute of Fire, nothing else counts; possessing Fire, nothing else really matters. The one vital need is Fire. How we may receive it, where we may find it, by what means we may retain it, are the most vital and urgent questions of our time. One thing we know: it comes only with the presence of the Spirit of God, Himself the Spirit of Fire. God alone can send the Fire. If is His Pentecostal gift. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 111: 04.16. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== The Fruit of the Spirit There are nine gifts of the Spirit and nine graces of the Spirit. The graces of the Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance. The Scriptures never confuse gifts and graces. Gifts are for service, and are bestowed in the sovereign wisdom of the Spirit. They are given according to natural endowment as their talents were according to the ability of those who received them. They are given according to Grace: "Having then gifts differing according to the Grace that is given to us." The differing gifts are adapted to the kind of service to which by the Grace of God we are called, whether of Prophecy, Ministry, Teaching, Exhortation, Beneficence, Administration, or Works of Mercy. Each may have some gift, some may have more than one, but all gifts of the Spirit are according to the Election of Grace, and are given for the effective working by each of the Divine Will. They are also according to Faith. There is a Faith that is among the gifts of the Spirit, but there is a faith that is basic to all gifts, and "God hath dealt to every man the measure of Faith." Fruit Not Gifts The Graces of the Spirit are the Fruit of the Spirit. There are three leading passages that speak of the Christian character as fruit. The first is our Lord’s allegory of the Vine and the Branches; the second is St. Paul’s catalogue of nine virtues which he calls "the fruit of the Spirit"; and the third is St. Peter’s list of Christian graces which he regards as the fruitful result of the life of Christ in the soul. There are many other passages in which the figure of fruit is used, but in these three representative passages there are set forth the conditions of fruitfulness, the cluster of fruit, and the process of fruitage. In the figure of the Vine the Holy Spirit is not mentioned, but in comparing Himself to the Vine and His disciples to the Branches, the Tree corresponds to the Body and the Life to ills Spirit. The diffusion of Life is the work of the Holy Ghost, and the fruit by which the Father is glorified is the fruit of the Spirit. Apart from Christ there is neither life nor fruit, but without the Spirit of Christ there can be neither union nor abiding. Our Lord does not specify the fruit. What He emphasizes is the fact that it is fruit, and that it is fruit directly from Himself. Some have "no fruit," and they are cast forth as a branch that is withered; others are described as having "fruit," "more fruit," "much fruit," and "fruit that abides." The conditions of fruitfulness are union with Christ; being purged or cleansed by the Father; abiding in Christ; and having Christ abiding in us. St. Paul sums up all this teaching of the Vine and its Branches in the phrase "the fruit of the Spirit." He enlarges upon neither conditions nor process, for everything is implied in the word fruit. He assumes both conditions and process, and sets forth the result. This explains the difference between his list and that of St. Peter. Paul begins where Peter ends. One gives the result, the other dwells on the process of cultivation. Peter begins at conversion, by which the soul has "escaped"; to this experience of deliverance he says, "Yea, and for this very cause, adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue, and in your virtue knowledge; and in your knowledge temperance; and in your temperance patience; and in your patience godliness; and in your godliness love of the brethren; and in your love of the brethren love." The process begins in faith and ends in love. Then the Apostle Paul takes up the list: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance." Garden or Factory In the Galatians passage the fruit of the Spirit is placed in contrast with the works of the flesh; and a striking contrast they make. The catalogue of sinful works begins with the sins of the flesh, and passes on to idolatry, discord, and drunkenness. The fruit of the Spirit begins with the characteristics of the spiritual mind, and passes on to its manifestation in personal character, social virtues, and practical conduct. The most striking feature of the contrast is the emphatic change from works to fruit. Works belong to the workshop; fruit belongs to the garden. One comes from the engines of the factory; the other is the silent growth of abounding life. The factory operates with dead stuff; the garden cultivates living forces to their appointed end. Works are always in the realm of dead things. Every building is built out of dead material. The tree must die before it can be of use to the builder. There is no life in stones and brick, in steel joists and iron girders. They are all dead and in the process of disintegration. Nothing material lasts. Man’s best works fail and fade, crumble and pass away. "The works of the flesh are these" -- these are the products of all the operations of the flesh. The sinner becomes a victim of devilish ingenuity and cunning; a monotonous machine from which are turned out "fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." That is the factory that keeps up the supply of the devil’s kingdom and furnishes Hell with the souls of the damned. Fruit does not come of man’s labor. It requires his diligence, but it is neither his invention nor his product. He does not make the flowers. No skill of his brings the golden harvest of the fields, or the luscious fruit upon the trees. When man has done all he can, then God begins, and life proceeds. Fruit is God’s work. The phrase "fruit of the Spirit" assigns the graces of the Christian character to their proper source. They are not of man’s producing. They do not spring from the soil of the carnal nature. Men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles. Every tree brings forth fruit after its kind. The fruit of the Vine is not deposited in its branches to be quickened by an act of faith. It grows by the life that is in the Vine. Salvation is by grace, and the Christian virtues are the fruit of the indwelling Presence of the Spirit of Life. Fruit, not works! The Cultivation of Fruit Fruit implies cultivation. "My Father is the husbandman." A neglected garden grows weeds in plenty, but its fruitfulness soon passes away. The gardener is a busy man. He always has to be caring for the things he grows. They only respond to love. They need protection, nourishment, and cleansing. Pruning is the surgery of love. "My Father is the Husbandman." He holds the knife. Chastening is proof of love. For the present it may not be joyous, but grievous. The present pruning is for future perfecting. It is often a painful process, but the glory of the Father is in the yield of the life in its fruit of the Spirit. Fruit must not be confused with gifts any more than it must be mistaken for works. Such confusion often leads to doubt and distress. It is not an uncommon thing for earnest workers in the Church to imagine that if they are filled with the Spirit they will be endowed with marvelous and miraculous power for service. Examples have been quoted of wonderful enduement that has turned commonplace men into marvels of power, and they look for like results. Gifts are not fruit. They may exist apart from great spirituality. The Corinthians were rich in gifts and poor in fruit. Our Lord told of some who wrought wonders in His Name, but they were none of His. Fruit is for all; His gifts He gives to each severally as He will. The fruit of the Spirit consists of sanctified dispositions. Gifts are according to the basis of natural endowments; fruit is the perfecting of grace in heart and life. Gifts apart from fruit do not glorify Him. To glory in gifts bringeth a snare, but fruit is sacrificial and sacramental and brings glory to all. It grows by abiding, and is perfected without noise or fuss, without anxiety or care. God glories in Fruit. The Nine Graces The term is singular, and though the number is plural, the grammar is correct. There is no grammatical difficulty any more than in the statement that "the wages of sin is death." The term is generic, and is used of the graces that follow as we use it of a cluster of grapes. They refer to character, and set forth the kind of man the Spirit produces rather than the things He inspires him to do. The nine elements have been divided into three sections of three each. 1) In relation to God: love, joy, peace. 2) In relation to our fellows: longsuffering, gentleness, goodness. 3) In relation to ourselves: faithfulness (not faith), meekness, self-control. Perhaps all such divisions are a little arbitrary. It is much more likely that the singular term was meant to indicate unity, and all the nine belong to all three divisions. In newspaper English, the passage would read something like this: The Fruit of the Spirit is an affectionate, lovable disposition, a radiant spirit and a cheerful temper, a tranquil mind and a quiet manner, a forbearing patience in provoking circumstances and with trying people, a sympathetic insight and tactful helpfulness, generous judgment and a big-souled charity, loyalty and reliableness under all circumstances, humility that forgets self in the joy of others, in all things self-mastered and self-controlled, which is the final mark of perfecting. This is the kind of character that is the Fruit of the Spirit. Everything is in the word Fruit. It is not by striving, but by abiding; not by worrying, but by trusting; not of the works, but of faith. If this is the Fruit of the Spirit, for whom is the fruit grown? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 112: 04.17. THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== The Gifts of the Spirit The Holy Spirit is Himself a Gift. In the Gift of the Spirit there are gifts. "Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men ... and He gave some, Apostles; and some, Prophets; and some, Evangelists; and some, Pastors and Teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:8-12). "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). Diversities of Manifestation The manifestation of the Spirit is not always the same. There are diversities of gifts, differences of administration, operation, and manifestation, but the same Spirit. There is a manifold variety of the one Spirit. There are varieties according to temperament, according to capability, according to grace, and according to function. The failure to remember this ensnares the unwary. They look for the experiences and gifts in others to be given to them. To some it is given to be as men filled with new wine, to others it is given to speak with tongues, and to others to work miracles of healing and of power, and we are apt to think these are invariable and inseparable from the Holy Spirit baptism and fullness. The Spirit divides to every man severally as He will, but the gifts of the Spirit are no more arbitrary than the elections of Grace. In the distribution of the talents each received "according to his several ability." Spiritual gifts must not be interpreted as natural endowments, but the principle of distribution is the same, and the two are not related. The gifts of the Spirit transcend the gifts of nature, but they function through the sanctified powers of man. There is a new creation, but it is along the lines of natural endowment. Not all have the same gifts, and one deciding factor in the Will of the Spirit is according to the ability of sanctified nature to receive and function. The scope is not according to our natural talents, but "according to the power that worketh in us," and the power works consistently with personality. The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit, but it is to spiritual man spiritual gifts are given according to each man’s several ability in the will of the Spirit. "All have not the gift of healing, neither do all speak with tongues." Neither does the Baptism of the Spirit make all Evangelists. This is a snare into which many fall. They read of the mighty Pentecostal experience of Evangelists who have won souls for Christ by the thousand. The Evangelist links soul-converting power with the gift of the Spirit of Power, and it is almost impossible to separate the two. Therefore as it wrought in them it may be expected to work in us, and many have passed through agonies of disillusionment and disappointment. God does not make every Spirit-filled man a Moody, a William Booth, a Thomas Cook, or a Thomas Champness. He gives the Spirit to some that they may be ministers of helpfulness; to some that they may be faithful witnesses; and to others that they may be sanctified mothers who are keepers at home and miracles of patience, wisdom, and sweetness. To each there is a gift of the Spirit, and whatever the kind of gift, there is to all the gift of power for effective service and testimony. Each receives power. Pentecost swallows up ineffectiveness in power, and banishes fear in the victory of courageous faith. Distinctiveness of Gifts The gifts of the Spirit are distinct from natural talents and from the Fruit of the Spirit. They are related to both and distinct from both. The fullness of the Spirit vitalizes natural powers, quickens dormant faculties, and reinforces capabilities. Fire quickens, energizes, clarifies. The brain gets a new quality of alertness, endurance, and effectiveness. The mind receives new powers of perception, intelligence, and understanding. The heart finds a new clarity of vision, a new simplicity of motive, and a new intensity of emotion. The impossible becomes capable of achievement in the sanctified powers of the natural man. These are undoubtedly the work of the Spirit, but the gifts of the Spirit are distinct from these, and they transcend the powers of even sanctified natural powers. They are not unrelated, and yet they are in some ways independent. There are nine gifts of the Spirit: Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Miracles, Healing. Prophecy, Discernment of Spirits, Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues. Wisdom and knowledge are related to intelligence and learning, and yet they are so distinct that they are undiscoverable from the natural powers of man, and are given to those who have neither natural sagacity nor education. Faith is man’s sixth sense. We live by Faith. We walk by Faith. We do everything by Faith. The gift of the Spirit is Faith. By the Spirit Faith sees the Invisible and proves the reality of the Unrealized. Healing is a gift of the Spirit. This is not the same as the sanctified skill of medical science. Those to whom it was given in the Early Church knew little or nothing of medicine. The sick were instructed to send, not for the doctors but the Elders, and the appointed means of healing were anointing and the Prayer of Faith. None could heal indiscriminately. Paul kept Luke, the beloved physician in his journeys, and Trophimus was left at Miletus, sick. The Lord the Healer still gives to men the gift of healing by His Spirit; and the gift works quite apart from the medical knowledge or the use of drugs or herbs. Miracles are the gift of the Spirit, and the age of miracles is not past. Prophecy is more than insight or foresight, though the prophet is a seer and a fortune-teller. By the gift of the Spirit there is a God-given discernment of spirits. The Apostles had it. Many prophets of God had it. The Gift of Tongues comes last on the list, and is first in controversy. There is a gift of Tongues that is given for a sign, and there is a gift of Tongues that is for the perfecting of the saint. and the building up of the Body of Christ. It means more than a gift for acquiring an unknown language, and it is certainly no substitute for such learning. A careful study of the New Testament places the gift among the enduements of the Church, and specially safeguards it against abuse. The gift of the Spirit gives a supernatural power to the works of sanctified natural endowments, so that men are challenged to see and consider cause and effect, and find there is nothing in the natural man to account for what is manifestly of God. The Relation of Fruit and Gifts Fruit and Gifts are not identical. Fruit belongs to character; gifts are enduements of power. Gifts are an evidence of the Spirit; but they are no proof of holiness. Gifts are according to the elections of the Sovereign will of the Spirit of God; fruit is the manifestation of cultivated Life. Gifts are for service; fruit is for character. Gifts are functional; fruit is a quality of life. Gifts are bestowed; fruit is a manifestation. Gifts may be given immediately and complete; fruit is implanted and of gradual development. They are of the Spirit, and are intimately connected with one another, but they are not inseparable, much less identical. The gifts of the Spirit are given to people who are elect according to the Sovereign will of God, who by His Spirit divides to every man severally as He will. Love, in which is included all the fruit, is not in the list of spiritual gifts. Fruit is for all; gifts are for those for whom they have been prepared. All may not prophesy, but all must love. We may covet gifts, but we must bear fruit. Gifts cannot take the place of fruit. The Function of Spiritual Gifts "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness" (Romans 12:6-8). The gifts of the Spirit are for service, and they differ according to the kind of ministry to be fulfilled. Occasion may determine function. There are seasons when special gifts abound. Some are permanent. Others are given for special vocations and exceptional occasions; as, for example, the gifts that came upon Timothy by the laying on of hands, and the special manifestations of power in times of special visitation. There are no reasons why the gifts of the Spirit should be operative in one dispensation and not in another. They did not cease at the close of the Apostolic Age. They have been manifest in all ages of the Church, and there are abundant proofs that they are still available to the faith and need of the Church. There is no reason why they should not be more manifest, and perhaps there is a greater need for them now than in some other times. The wonders of man rival the miracles of God. The psychic is hardly distinguishable from the spiritual. The Dragon-Lamb works wonders more theatrically impressive than the Lamb in the midst of the Throne. In the realm of wisdom and knowledge, faith and healing, miracles of power, prophecies and discernment of the occult, tongues and their interpretation, the wisdom of this world outvies the works of modern religion. The counterfeit outbids the true, but the true is the power that destroys the false. A revival of spiritual gifts in the Church would bring to naught the mocking pretensions of the world. Pagan cannot cast out pagan, any more than Satan can cast out Satan, but in the Spirit of God there is victory over the world. Safeguards Against Abuse Gifts are liable to abuse. In the Early Church they appealed to unspiritual men who desired them for carnal purposes, and thought they had a commercial value. They are still commercialized though not always for their cash value. In the Corinthian Church they became a fruitful source of rivalry, jealousy, and disorder. Those possessed of one gift claimed priority in importance and precedence in order. The root of the difficulty lay in the fact that carnal people were in possession of spiritual gifts, and used them for carnal ends. Spiritual gifts are no proof of spirituality. The New Testament nowhere makes spiritual gifts the sign of Holiness, and there were some greatly endowed of whom Jesus said that at the last it would be declared that He never knew them. There is no suggestion that the gifts were not genuine, but they were perverted to wrong ends or exercised in the wrong spirit. This is a serious difficulty to many, but the Scriptures make it plain that in a Church that "came behind in no gift, waiting for the Coming of the Lord," there were carnalities that would have disgraced a decent pagan assembly. Gifts are not substitutes for Grace, and ignorance and carnality have made them a menace to holiness of heart and integrity of character. The safeguards against abuse are in the loyalties of faith. The first is loyalty to the Lordship of Christ. That is the first law of Christian discipleship and the continual standard of Christian life and service. The second line of defense is loyalty to the Word of God. The Word and the Spirit are never at variance, and the Word of Truth attests the Spirit of Truth, and the Spirit interprets, corroborates, verifies, and confirms the Word. No wisdom is of God that is not according to the Scriptures. There is laid down a plain practical rule in loyalty to the Fellowship in the Body of Christ. Edification is the test and order is the rule. Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues came into competition, and for these definite rules were laid down, but the law of love applied to all. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 113: 04.18. THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT ======================================================================== The Law of the Spirit There is no escape from law. Grace, love, and faith are all declared to be the end of law, but they are also subject to law. There is a law of grace, a law of love, a law of faith, and a law of the Spirit of Life. The Christian set free from the law of sin and death is still under law. He exchanges one kingdom for another, but in each there is law. Salvation, which is of grace and not of works, brings deliverance from the law of works, but it subjects to the law of grace and truth. St. Paul glories above all others in his liberty through grace. The law has no more authority over him. He conforms to it, or rejects it as a thing of no account. Though free, he brings himself under bondage to all, that he might gain some. To the Jews he became as a Jew, that he might gain the Jews; to them that were under the law, as under the law, not being himself under law, that he might gain them that were under the law; to them that were without law, as without law, that he might gain them that were without law. His argument is familiar, and his authority and example are often quoted in defense of diplomacy, expediency, and tact; but there is a vital clause in the argument that is often omitted. The Apostle’s freedom was not lawless. All his expediency was subject to law; "Not being without law to God, but under law to Christ" (1 Corinthians 9:20-21). Christ was supreme. All expediency was subject to the will of Christ. The freed slave was the free slave of Christ; but he was still a slave; a bondservant subject to the law of Christ. To the Christian "all’s Love, and all’s Law," just as truly as all’s Law and all’s Love. Law and Spirit There is, therefore, nothing anomalous in the paradox of Law and Spirit. The Christian life is above all else a spirit. It is not a philosophy to be debated; not an ordinance to be observed; not an ethic to be achieved. Truth and ritual and ethic are important, and in some sense inseparable from Christian life and experience, but they are not of the essence of the Life in Christ. They may exist without it, and they are in no sense essential to it. Theological intelligence is not necessary to salvation. The pedant who makes doctrinal instruction a necessary content of saving faith has missed the most elementary teaching of the New Testament, and professing wisdom, he turns out to be what the Scriptures call a fool. The ritualist is no wiser. In this matter circumcision is nothing; neither is uncircumcision. Sacraments and ordinances have their value, but neither the one nor the other is necessary to a cry; and the promise is to every one that shall call on the Name of the Lord. Good works spring from grace, for faith without works is dead; but no logic can make that mean that grace is conditioned on works. Christianity is a life that must be imparted, before it can be lived. All life is a gift, and the gift of God is eternal life. It is a spirit; the Spirit of Christ indwelling the spirit of man, and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. The supreme value of all life is in the quality of its spirit. The moral quality of an act is in the spirit that prompts it. Familiarity that is acceptable to a friend is an offense to a stranger. The difference between a caress and an insult is not in the act, but in the spirit. Action is without morality, apart from questions of motive and disposition. It is the spirit that counts. In all work of the soul it is the soul that tells. Law effects nothing; certainly it makes nothing perfect. The most careful observance of technique never makes an artist, a statesman, or an orator, much less a friend, a father, or a lover. Where the spirit reigns, law is forgotten, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Worship is not of rules and regulations, it is a spirit inspired by the Spirit of Life. Preaching may be perfect art and poles away from an Evangel. The power of preaching is in the demonstration of the Spirit. So it is in fellowship. Love is without law. Cupid is of all creatures the most erratic and incalculable; and Christian fellowship is of the breath of the four winds. From first to last the life and work of the Christian Church are not of laws and rules, but of the spirit of common life, begotten of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. The life is the Life of the Spirit, and is therefore not lawless, but subject to the law of the Spirit. Law and Life Christ’s gift is a gift of Life. It is called Eternal Life, and "the life which is life indeed." Its distinctive feature is not in its duration but in its quality. It is eternal in its quality; the gift of Divine Life from Him Who is "the same yesterday, today, and for ever." Eternal life stands for fullness and fruition; life that is divine in quality and eternal in progression. It is the life of God in man. It comes by the New Birth through Him Who is the Spirit of Life. The same life is common to the Vine and the Branches, the Body and the Head. All life is subject to law. The laws of different spheres and qualities of life may not be identical, but they are analogous. In some sense the laws of life are common to all life, and the life of the believer is not without law. It needs attention or it will perish, and without cultivation there can be no progress. There are several things in which the law of the Spirit of Life follows the general order of life in other spheres. Life is inward, mysterious, and secret. It dwells somewhere at the seat of the spirit of life, and vitalizes personality without either absorbing or confusing it. The manifestation appears in an endless variety of forms, and yet through them all it is the same life that appears. There is unity of Spirit without a trace of uniformity in manifestation. The life of the One Spirit appears in each, according to the natural aptitudes and temperament of each, making all like Christ and no two exactly like each other. The law of the Spirit of Life is seen also in its propagation. Life propagates by contact and cooperation. All that lives comes into being by birth, and no living thing is born of one parent. There must be mutual and complementary service. Life lives by propagation, and there is no propagation without co-operation. This is preeminently true of the law of the Spirit of Life. As the Father is dependent upon the Son for revelation, and the Son dependent upon the Spirit for both revelation and administration, so the Spirit is dependent upon the Church for Evangelization. The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Holy Ghost in His Spirit. No soul enters the Kingdom of God born alone of the Spirit. There is a human agent, as well as a Divine Spirit. This goes far to explain the limitations of the Kingdom, the sterility of the Church, and the barrenness of the saints. Spiritual children come of a travailing Zion. The trouble of the Church is in its declining spiritual birth-rate. Space fails for extended notice of the laws of protection and progress. These also are subject to law. All life is exposed to peril, and all life is given for cultivation. There must be watchfulness and nourishment, fellowship and exercise, instruction and obedience. Health must be maintained. Waste products must be shed. Carnality must be destroyed, and "the body of sin done away." There must be receptivity, co-operation, discipline, obedience. The life of the soul cannot live haphazard. There is a law of the Spirit of Life by which spiritual life is ruled. The Law of the Spirit of Life The Spirit rules. Christ reigns. There are not two Kings in the Kingdom of Grace. The Spirit is never called King, though He is called Lord. He is the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. In all things He is subject to the Son, as the Son is subject to the Father. His mission is to glorify Christ. He takes of the things of Christ, and makes them known to us. He indwells the Body of Christ; and administers the Kingdom of Christ. He calls, equips, and appoints for service. By Him, and of Him, and through Him are all the gifts and power of the Kingdom of God. No soul is begotten of God without Him. No advance of the Kingdom is made but by Him. No victory of grace is won without Him. He is the sole source and medium of grace and power; but in all things it is "in Christ Jesus." Christ is Lord. But the Spirit of Life reigns in the Kingdom of Life. He is a Person in authority. To Him is committed the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven. He reigns in Christ Jesus and for the Kingdom of our Lord. If we would live in the Spirit we must obey the laws of the Spirit. If we would find the power we must obey the law. We must surrender to Christ, for He cannot rule where Christ does not reign. We must yield our bodies with all their powers, for they are His Temples and His instruments of righteousness. We must obey Him, for without obedience there can be neither fellowship nor co-operation. Communion means mutual understanding, mutual consecration, and mutual cooperation, and it is in the communion of the Spirit of Life we find Eternal Life, abiding peace, and prevailing power. The law of the Spirit of Life is found in such words as faith, prayer, truth, love, and obedience. By these the soul lives. Life is before law, but by law life is maintained and developed, and by the law of the Spirit of Life comes the fruit by which God is glorified and man is blessed. Life is often scant for want of law. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 114: 04.19. THE CHALLENGE OF PENTECOST ======================================================================== The Challenge of Pentecost Pentecost challenges the very citadel of our faith, The gift of the Spirit is the distinguishing feature of the Christian religion. It is the very soul of our faith. In His indwelling Presence. is the secret of all Christian experience, and in the abiding energy of His power is the dynamic of all Christian service. The promises concerning the Spirit challenge us. The record of the day of Pentecost challenges us. The history of the Christian Church challenges us. Do we believe in the Holy Ghost? If we do, what is the practical proof of our faith? The Fullness of the Spirit The blessing of Pentecost is the blessing of fullness. The symbols of wind and fire reveal the mission and quality of the Gift, but the essential truth is that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Fire, power, courage, and joy had their source in the fullness of the indwelling Spirit. They overflowed because they were filled to overflowing. They had already received the gift of the Spirit for salvation. In the Upper Room on the first day of the Resurrection the Risen Lord had breathed on them and said: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Pentecost was a second gift, which verified and completed the first in an infilling Presence and an overflowing power. It is the fullness that makes the difference. In a memorable passage William Arthur in "The Tongue of Fire" illustrates the difference fullness makes. "A piece of iron is dark and cold; imbued with a certain degree of heat it becomes almost burning, without any change of appearance; imbued with a still greater degree, its appearance changes to that of solid fire, and it sets fire to whatever it touches. A piece of water without heat is solid and brittle; gently warmed, it flows; further heated, it mounts to the sky. An organ filled with the ordinary degree of air is dumb; the touch of the player can elicit but a clicking of the keys. Throw in not other air, but an unsteady current of the same air, and sweet, but imperfect and uncertain, notes immediately respond to the player’s touch; increase the current to a full supply, and every pipe swells with music. Such is the soul without the Holy Ghost; and such are the changes which pass upon it when it receives the Holy Ghost, and when it is filled with the Holy Ghost." The Blessing of Fullness of the Spirit The blessing affects the whole being. The seat of the Indwelling Presence is the innermost recesses of the spiritual being, but it permeates, energizes, and controls every faculty of our nature. It is another incarnation of which the Body is the consecrated believer. The Holy. Ghost clothed Himself with the waiting Disciples in the Upper Room, and He still clothes Himself with consecrated believers. He clothes Himself, and they are clothed in Him. In them He finds a Body, and in Him they find the power of spiritual expression and execution. Without confusion, without loss of personal consciousness, without change of inherent qualities, there are mutual appropriation and oneness of operation. The effects are seen in the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, and in every particular the experience corresponds to the promise. Jesus had said the coming of the Spirit would bring fullness of knowledge. "In that day ye shall know." Things He could not teach them they would know with certainty when the Spirit of Truth had come; and they did. There is nothing more wonderful on the Day of Pentecost than the wisdom and certainty with which they taught. Prophecy shone with new meaning, and the facts of Christ’s death and resurrection were interpreted in the light of the eternal purpose of God. The Word of God became new, and the history of Christ’s teaching and ministry got a new meaning. They had been dull enough before, but Pentecost changed all their outlook. The Scriptures were made luminous in the light of the Holy Ghost. The change in their characters was even greater than the change in their knowledge. The Gospels portray these men as proud and contentious, selfish and cowardly; but the first pages of the Acts of the Apostles tell another story. Something had happened between the Judgment Hall and the streets of the city Resurrection found them all shivering behind closed doors for fear of the Jews, but at Pentecost they were openly preaching Jesus and charging the rulers with His death. Pentecost transformed them. It was the fullness that made the difference between timidity and joyous daring, shivering weakness and exultant power. They were jubilantly fearless and hilariously happy. That is the difference Pentecost always makes. The Challenge of Fullness How does the challenge find us? Do we measure up to the standard of the fullness of Pentecost? Is not the explanation of our confusion in the lack of it? The gift is not for the working of miraculous deeds, for there were men filled with the Holy Ghost who wrought no miracle. There is danger lest we claim more than is promised, but how dc the unchallenged tests find us? What about our assurance of heavenly things? There is an end of uncertainty when the fullness of Pentecost is known. Have we power over sin? The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Holiness. He sanctifies in truth. The Day of Pentecost changed carnal thought into spiritual vision, pride into humility, selfishness into love, and cowardice into courage. It changed hearts, and transformed lives. Victory comes by fullness. Have we the joy of conquest over sin? Is the character of the average Christian anywhere near the standard of a Spirit-filled soul? What about the love of the world? Jesus said He was One "Whom the world cannot receive." They are in irreconcilable antagonism. What has come of the doctrine of separation? If believers were filled with the Spirit, would they haunt the world’s gaudy fountains and brackish springs? It is mockery to profess fullness, and go about panting with thirst and gasping with vanity. What about the power for service? Is our decline due to external difficulties or internal weakness? Think of the host of workers, the vastness and variety of their service, the earnestness and ingenuity of their labors, and the scanty result of it all. What influence has the Church upon the life of the people, and what impression does it make upon the strongholds of iniquity? What about the dearth of conversions? Pentecost brought awakening, conviction, conversions, and baptism; but the ungodly no longer speak of chapels as "converting furnaces." The gift of the Spirit is the gift of power, and the lack of power is due to the absence of His indwelling fullness. Abounding fullness overflowed in gladness, testimony, and sacrifice. The Call of Pentecostal Fullness There is no doubt that the one thing needful for the Church is the blessing of Pentecostal fullness. The flood would sweep away all the rubbish, fill all the dykes, and fertilize all the desert. The work of God cannot be accomplished without the fullness of the Spirit, and everywhere God waits to give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. It is His Will that every believer should be filled with the Spirit, overflow in the power of the Spirit, and in all things prevail through the Spirit. What hinders? The blessing is for all, and for all now. The conditions are simple, unalterable, and universal. God waits to fill ordinary people with extraordinary power, and to turn a baffled faith into a rapturous conquest. How? Ask Peter and James and John! They were deeply attached and openly committed to Jesus Christ before Pentecost. They had left all for Christ’s sake, but were still without Pentecost. They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, were witnesses of His death and of His resurrection, but without Pentecost. They were workers: stewards, preachers, evangelists, workers of miracles, without Pentecost. Then they heard the Promise of the Spirit, and set themselves to claim, wait, and pray, and according to the Word the Spirit came, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 115: 04.20. THE WAY INTO THE BLESSING ======================================================================== The Way Into the Blessing There are many who have not because they ask not, and there are others who ask and have not because they ask amiss. There are many who miss the Blessing because they do not seek it, but there are those who seek and do not find. There are believers who are deeply concerned about the failure and disappointment of their religious experience and their lack of effectiveness and power. They yearn for a fullness of Life in Christ that never comes. They pray, and nothing happens. They seek, and somehow always miss the way. They cry unto the Lord in secret, and that which seems to come so easily to others does not come to them. They confess their need, and seek the prayers and counsel of others. They obey injunctions, repeat avowals of faith, and claim according to instructions, but the emotion passes and all is as before with the added disappointment, and another dart has been added to the quiver of the enemy. It may be as real and as easy to others as they affirm, but to them there is no answering reality to their faith, and they lose heart. They miss the blessing, but they cannot give it up. It must be there, for others have it; and it must be for them, for with God there is no respect of persons. So periodically there come a sense of hunger and a deep want of soul, and again the quest begins, and again the way is missed. What Blessing? Almost every day I get letters from people asking the way into the Blessing. They probably represent a great host, and I am going to try to help them, even though I must begin with the confession that my own plea for help brought me nothing but confusion. I was concerned to know what was the blessing that I knew I needed. Witnesses failed under cross examination, and sent me books to supply what they could not give. The books were as confusing as the witnesses, but there was no doubt that they had something I had not, and I was aware that the something they had would make all the difference to me if I could find it. Somehow I was led to leave all books and interpreters, and give myself up to a search of the Scriptures, believing that God would make the truth known to me. Our Lord prayed that we might be sanctified by the Truth, and I expected to find in the Scriptures the way into the Blessing. Even there the way was not easy to find, for I was seeking an explanation rather than an experience. There were no definitions, no explanations, and no interpretation of processes. My search was for a practical solution of a work wherein I had failed. I had energy, and lacked power. I had ideas, and I had words of my own and other people’s, but there came no convicting, converting result. The blessing I sought was power. The blessing God had for me began farther in and deeper down. Power was conditioned. The Truth that sanctifies begins with cleansing of heart and motive, a life surrendered to the Divine Will, and a personality possessed by and filled with the Holy Spirit, and I very nearly missed the way. The Way in the Word The way I came is the way I know. That is why I send every seeker to the Word of God, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit of Truth. The method looks hopeless, but it works, because the Spirit is promised to guide us into all Truth; and He does. In the light of the Word of God, a seeker should know what it is he seeks. The Blessing is known by many names, and it is often confused with other experiences of Grace. It is known as the Pentecostal Gift of the Spirit, as Entire Sanctification, Christian Perfection, and Perfect Love, according as it is interpreted in the terms of the Law, the Sanctuary, or the Home. The Scriptures are not written to exempt from thinking, and there are certain facts that need to be adjusted and accounted for. There are believers in the New Testament who had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and there were those who had not. There were those who were born again and yet carnal, and there were those who were sanctified. Some were addressed as Perfect, and others who had not been made Perfect. There is a Perfection that is definite, decisive, and determinate; and there is a Perfection that is progressive, disciplinary, and ethical; and there was an experience by which believers passed from one order to the other. It is an experience of Grace, in which the nature is cleansed from all sin. The carnal mind, the body of sin, is done way. That is the Bible word for what happens -- sin is done away. The fullness of the indwelling Spirit sanctifies and quickens every natural faculty, and bestows gifts that are peculiarly His own. Love is made perfect, and the sanctified will is energized by Divine Power. The Way of Faith Salvation from first to last is of Grace through Faith. We are Justified by Faith, Sanctified by Faith, Spirit-filled by Faith. There are those who think we are saved by Faith and made perfect by philosophy; and there are those who imagine we are justified by Faith and sanctified by Works. That is why so many miss the way. This second experience of Grace is the Gift of God through Faith unto Faith. The Word of God must. be received in Faith. Consider the commands of God that we be holy. Search out the promises of God that we shall be holy. Pray through the prayers in the New Testament which set forth the Spirit-inspired pleadings for Holiness. Have faith in God; in His Word, and in His Spirit. Where there is no faith it is useless either to ask or seek; but where Faith is, prayer will prevail. Everything depends upon what you believe about God, about Jesus Christ the Saviour, and about the Holy Spirit. God meets every seeker of the Blessing with the challenge of Faith: Believe ye that I am able to do this? To every man is given according to his Faith. Many stumble at the question of Faith. It is simple enough to those who will leave aside all disputing about Faith, and substitute honest obedience for subtle definitions. Faith is an attitude of mind and heart and an act of obedience to what is believed to be the ’Truth. An honest heart never gets lost on a straight road; and the Spirit of Truth makes straight paths for the feet of every honest seeker who desires to know the Truth that he may obey it. The Holy Spirit leads by the Holy Word. Obedience is the way of Faith. The children of light walk in the light, and in obedience to the light there is conscious fellowship with the God of Life, Light, and Love, "and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." The test of obedience is often a trial to sense and reason, and still more to freedom and pride. The decisive battle is nearly always over some apparently trivial issue. The story of the Fall is true to the experience of life, when it makes the destiny of the race turn upon the eating of an "apple." The occasion may be trivial, but the issues are momentous. It is no business of ours to go scenting idols for the burning, but the Spirit searches every honest seeker and convicts, condemns, and commands; and there is generally a bonfire when the Fire of God falls. They are not things wrong in themselves that are condemned, for this Blessing is for believers, and they that are born of God do not keep sinful things in their lives. Their condemnation does not turn upon the law of right and wrong, but upon the ethical and spiritual claims of a surrendered life. So it is wide of the mark to ask, What wrong is there in these things? They are judged by the standard of Consecration and the Law of the Spirit of Life, and they must go, however profitable, however pleasant, and however right. The Steps of Faith Two things are plain: 1) Pentecost is a definite work of the Spirit in Believers. 2) It is by Grace through Faith. Now what are the steps of Faith by which the Blessing is appropriated? The first step is to repent. "And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). There is a repentance of believers as well as of sinners. When men begin to pray for the blessing of Pentecost the answer begins in conviction of sin. The things of which they are convicted, as we have said, are not transgression of the law, but sins of the spirit. The things of which the believer is convicted are not in themselves sinful, but they are kept in disobedience to God’s will. Things are not surrendered, indulgences retained against light, possessions held for selfish ends -- these must all be surrendered to the supreme authority of Christ. For until He is exalted, crowned, glorified, there can be no Pentecost. The second step is to ask. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him" (Luke 11:13). There must be definite asking for the specific gift. I was talking with a farmer in Lincolnshire a few years ago about prayer, and he said all the preachers he heard just now were urging people to pray and come to prayer-meetings. "But," he said, "to my mind, desire has a good deal to do with praying, and praying is a slack business when desire is lacking." There must be desire that is focused into petition. "Ye have not," says James, "because ye ask not," and there are thousands of believers who have never definitely asked for the Blessing. God waits to give, but He is a God of discretion, and waits to be asked. "I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. For this, moreover will I be inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them." We must be careful not to ask amiss. Nothing hinders faith so effectually as a wrong motive. "How can ye believe, which receive the glory of one another, and the glory that cometh from God ye seek not?" James traces the failure of prayer to the same source: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures." The pleasures may be lawful and laudable enough, but God will not give the glory of His Son to another, and the mission of the Spirit is to glorify the Son. If the power is sought for success m Christian service merely, it will not be given. Christ must be supreme in affection and aim. The third step is to receive. When the consecration is complete the act of faith is quite simple. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" is the all-inclusive command. It is the word used in the Upper Room when our Lord gave them the Bread that symbolized His Body -- "Take." There is a point at which asking becomes foolishness. Faith claims and takes. "Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them." Take God at His Word. The fourth step is the continuous life of obedience. Jesus Christ identifies faith with obedience, and in the Acts of the Apostles obedience is made the condition of receiving and retaining the Spirit. "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Ghost, Whom God hath given to them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32). Abiding fullness depends upon obedience to the ever-widening circle of illumination. The blessing of Pentecost may be lost, and it is always lost when obedience fails. The Spirit-filled must be Spirit-ruled. We are ministers of the Spirit through Whom the supply is conveyed. Those who are greatly used of God have no monopoly of the Holy Ghost; they are mighty through God because the Spirit has a monopoly of them. Again I say this extraordinary gift is for ordinary people. All may be filled as full and as truly as the hundred and twenty on the day of Pentecost. The conditions are the same for all. Repent, Ask, Receive, Obey. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 116: S. CHRISITAN PERFECTION ======================================================================== Samuel Chadwick Christian Perfection The Setting This sermon was given at the Tabernacle Conference, that took place in Atlanta, Ga., March 8-18, 1906. Introductory Comments on the Tabernacle Conference: For the past seven years Dr. Len G. Broughton has conducted an Interdenominational Bible Conference at his Tabernacle every March. It has been his plan from the first to engage the best Bible expositors he could find in this country and abroad. The movement has been greatly blessed of God. From year to year it has grown until it is now one of the most important conferences in all the country. Representative Christian workers from all the Southern states and from many of the states in the North and West attend these conferences from year to year. The conference this year, which closed March 18, was one of the best ever held. Never before in its history has the attendance been so large, and the work of the teachers and expositors was equal to the very best. Six services were held each day for ten days, and the house remained full practically all the time. Following is the list of speakers: Rev. Samuel Chadwick, Leeds, England; Dr. James M. Gray, Chicago; Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, Brooklyn; Dr. A. C. Dixon, Boston; Dr. Robert Dick Wilson, Princeton, N. J.; Rev. Melvin E. Trotter, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Dr. H. M. Hamill, Nashville, Term.; Mr. Marshall A. Hudson, Syracuse, N. Y.; Miss May N. Blodgett, Atlanta, Ga., Miss Ellen M. Stone, Chelsea, Mass. Perhaps the leading spirit of the conference was the Rev. Samuel Chadwick. He spoke twice every day, at 11: 00 A. M. and at 7:30 p. M. His messages were received from first to last with great satisfaction. Mr. Chadwick remained in the South, speaking at different important centers until about the middle of April. The Southern people greatly enjoyed Mr. Chadwick, and long for him to return and be with them again.—Taken from the article’s introduction in the Record of Christian Work. Christian Perfection There is probably no subject Christian teachers touch so reluctantly as that of Christian perfection. This is due partly to the difficulties of definition, and partly to the fact that it lays one wide open to misunderstanding. A sharp shaft of ridicule may be more damaging than logic. An argument can be met, but there is no answer to a sneer, and the fear of being thought a Pharisee has silenced many on the subject of perfection. A still deeper reason for reluctance is the conscious gulf that lies between the doctrine and experience. It is not easy to urge others to perfection while our own lives fall short; and it is easy to take refuge in the differences and inconsistencies of those who profess it, and hold our peace. Such silence is neither courageous nor guiltless; for while there may be but little hope of agreement in definition, there can be no doubt that the Scriptures speak of a perfection that is both attainable and imperative. The Scriptures command perfection, promise perfection, and give examples of perfection. God does not mock us with impossible commands. For every demand He makes there is adequate grace supplied. A command is the reverse side of a promise, and a promise the reverse side of a command. Every obligation is a privilege, and every privilege an obligation. Noah, Abraham, and Job are all spoken of as perfect before God, and St. Paul exhorts the perfect in his Epistle to the Philippians. It will readily be objected that these men were far from perfect. Noah got drunk, Abraham told lies, and Job said some bitter things in his affliction, though he held to his integrity with remarkable tenacity. Even St. Paul in the same chapter where he speaks of the perfect, says of himself, “Not that I have already attained, or am already made perfect.” There is an imperfect perfection. All perfection is relative, except the perfection of God. Christian perfection does not indicate finality but fitness. A thing may be very imperfect as compared with its ultimate development, and yet be perfect in its present stage. Noah, we are told, was perfect in his generation, and it would be unfair to judge him by any other. The Sermon on the Mount corrects the deliverance of Sinai, but the law of Sinai was perfect for its time and work. A child may be perfect as a child, but very imperfect judged by the manhood it will ultimately reach. In the endless progression of the Christian life every goal is a fresh starting point. Christian perfection is neither absolute nor angelic, and to complete the orthodox round, neither is it Adamic, but Christian. The Meaning of Perfection Much of the difficulty concerning the subject has arisen from a confusion of terms. There is a perfection that is future and final, and there is a perfection that is practical and present. In the original Scriptures the two kinds of perfection are distinguished by the use of different words, but the English unfortunately has but one word for both. Our conceptions of the practical and present perfection will be simplified if we study the word in its non-doctrinal application. The Jewish law required of traders, “a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure.” That is plain enough. Every purchaser believes in perfection behind the counter. In the Old Testament it is said of several kings that they did right, but not with a perfect heart. Their righteousness fell short of the standard measurement, and in every case their deficiency arose from lack of moral and spiritual qualities. The heart was divided. In the New Testament one of the words translated perfect is used of mending nets, adjusting worlds, arranging harmony in music, repairing a fault, fitting to parts, and supplying deficiencies. The fisherman has no difficulty in understanding perfection as applied to his nets. They must be made fit for their purpose. The engineer knows the need for perfection in fitting part to part, if his machinery is to do its work. The musician understands the necessity for balance and proportion in the preparation of harmony. The pedestrian needs limbs perfect in their soundness, and must have the dislocated joint put right if he is to walk. The whole body has to be perfectly jointed if it is to do its work, and nothing can be perfect while any lack remains. To make perfect, therefore, means to make fit, to put in order, adjust, adapt, arrange, and equip, so as to secure effectiveness and efficiency for the result to be achieved. Whatever is perfect must be without deficiency, without division, without admixture of alien elements. The meaning is the same when applied to Christian life and experience. It is the adjustment, cleansing, and equipment of man’s nature for all the purposes of the life in Christ. It is nothing more than making fit in every part to do the will of God. Everything that hinders and dislocates is taken away, the powers of mind, heart, and body are restored to their true order; and every need of grace and power is supplied. There is no deficiency, no disorder, no discord ; the man of God is made perfect for, and in the will of, God. Wesley’s definition is short, simple and scriptural, “Pure love alone reigning in the heart and life, this is the whole of Christian perfection.” All the Elements of Christian Character Are Set Forth in the Scriptures As Capable of Perfection The elements that make up Christian character are Faith, Hope, Love; and each of these may be perfect. 1. Faith. “Night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith.” Their faith was deficient. It lacked something, but whatever it was in which they fell short, it was capable of being supplied. It is not unlikely the apostle anticipated this perfecting in the prayer: “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). “Thou seest that faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect” (James 2:22). The point common to both these passages is that faith may be perfect. It may be made perfect by instruction, as in the case of the Thessalonians, or by works, as in the teaching of St. James. Whatever the process of perfecting, the perfect is possible. Life may be lived without doubt, without wavering, and without unbelief. At all times and in all things, the heart may be fully assured in the truth and will of God. 2. Hope. “Be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). In 1 Peter 1:21, faith and hope are joined together, but hope comes after faith. Faith plants its feet securely upon the certainties of the Word. It examines, proves, and stakes everything upon assured truth. It builds on the rock. Hope gives wings to the soul. It dwells in the future. Its home is within the veil. Though billows and darkness be on every side, hope soars above them all, and out-flying the storm, dwells in the calm of eternal day. It is not riotous, unbridled imagination, but a sure and certain hope born of a clear and proved conviction of the soul. We are begotten “unto living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to lie revealed in the last time.” This living hope may be set perfectly on the grace that is to be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ. An unquenchable, eternal, perfect hope! 3. Love. “Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, even so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath punishment: and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.” “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” “Above all things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.” Love made perfect! Heart, soul, and mind cleansed from every defilement, united and harmonized, every part enthused with holy fervor and reverent devotion! When love is perfect there is no fear because there is no sense of guilt, no unrest because no strife, no coldness because no sin. The soul made perfect in love is delivered from all that separated it from God and divided man’s nature against itself. It is restored and sanctified, renewed and adjusted, cleansed and filled with the presence of God. Love reigns, love radiates, love inspires, love transforms. Love is the sum of duty and the inspiration of life. Perfect faith; perfect hope; perfect love; these make the perfect man in the stature of the fullness of Christ. This perfection is guaranteed as a definite and present experience. It is not the consummation of the Christian life, but its condition. The perfecting of the saints at Christ’s appearing is an altogether different matter. That is the end of our faith; this is its preparation for the life of obedience in the will of God. It is the sanctification, adjustment, and equipment of man’s nature that he may be a fit temple of an indwelling God, made meet for a life of holy fellowship, and an efficient instrument for holy service; and since the Christian life has to be lived in the present world, the perfection is for present experience and work. It is not final but initiatory, not beyond the possibility of development but essentially progressive. Surely no man will say God is not able to cleanse perfectly, renew entirely, and endue completely, every part of man redeemed by His grace, and surrendered to His will. We have a Saviour who “is able to save to the uttermost,” and “to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in everything may abound unto every good work.” He is a perfect Deliverer; Jesus Christ is a perfect Saviour, and the Spirit is a perfect Sanctifier, Sustainer, and Strengthener in the heart of man. Perfection is possible because it is the work of the perfect and infinite God. Christian Perfection Experienced in the Heart is Manifest in the Life “By their fruits ye shall know them.” True perfection of faith, hope, and love bears fruit unto perfection in the graces of the Christian life. The fitness of machinery is proved in its working. The profession of efficiency must be tested by results. Does the perfecting of grace in the soul result in perfection in the practical outworking of the daily life? Here again the meaning of the term must be kept in mind. Christian perfection does not mean faultlessness but blamelessness. It does not mean that a thing has reached the excellence beyond which there is no possibility of improvement, but that the work is perfect in motive, and perfect according to the capacity of the worker. That an act is perfect in this sense implies that it is simple in aim, and faithful in execution. So with the Christian graces in the man made perfect. They lack no essential quality, and are adequate to the strain that is put upon them. Every exercise develops and improves them, but they are sufficient for immediate demand. 1. The first-fruit of the threefold perfection of Faith, Hope, and Love is Patience. “Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing.” In 1 Thessalonians 1:3, the patience of hope follows the work of faith and the labor of love. Patience is the child of the three graces. The secret of patience is love, hopefulness and confidence. Where any one of these elements is lacking, patience will be wanting, but where these are, patience will have its perfect work; and surely we have need of patience. The Christian made perfect in faith, hope, and love will be perfect in his patience with God. Jonah is not the only servant of the Lord who has got angry with his God. Neither is the impatient zeal of James and John which would invoke the consuming fires of heaven unknown among us. The long-suffering forbearance of God provokes earnest souls to impatience. The utter absence of divine interference with tragedy and suffering and the apparent indifference of the Eternal to helpless anguish, wring the cry from the heart, Where is God? As the earnest reformer broods over the appalling scenes that confront him, and listens to heartbreaking stories of cruelty and blood, he is driven to wonder how God can sit in the heavens and witness such wretchedness and suffering. The massacre of helpless women and the butchery of little children; treachery, bloodshed, hypocrisy and devilry lie open to His omniscient gaze. We look up to the stars from the weltering mass of moaning humanity, and wonder why He does not step out from the heavens and break the forces of wickedness in pieces. We would. Who has not clenched his fist in the presence of monstrous iniquity and vowed what he would do if he were God? He is mercifully patient with our impatience, and when our anger is spent, and we have sobbed out our grief, He lulls the disquieted soul to rest like a tired child. Then faith returns to its moorings, hope spreads its wings again, and love waits in patience for the coming of the Lord. Though the kingdom of God come slowly and all things seem to continue as they were, we know that He who cannot lie has sworn to His Son that He shall have the nations for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession; and though we see not yet all things subjected to Him, we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. In that vision faith rests, hope sings, and love waits. In every lot we have need of patience. St. James exhorts us to take the prophets “for an example of suffering and of patience,” reminding us that we call them blessed which endured, and have seen the end of the Lord, how that He is full of pity, and merciful. There were times when even men of faith could not sing. They hanged their harps on the willows of their grief. But they always had hope. They hung up their harps but they did not break them, nor sell them, nor fling them away: they simply hung them up till their hearts could sing again. Things are hung up to be taken down again. You cannot bear the music to-day, but the song will return, and you will yet praise Him Who is the health of your countenance and your God. In such seasons “let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised.” It is in patient endurance that the soul is won and the promise received. There is no interpreter of life’s mysteries like patience. To them that wait upon the Lord, that do not hurry in their impatience, there shall be given strength and light, and joy. Grace will enable them to be patient under provocation that is malicious and unjust. Read the words of St. Peter: “For what glory is it, if when ye sin and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? But if ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” When people are unreasonable, unjust, and ungrateful, when the more you try the more they grumble, the perfect life is patient even then. The crowning mark of the perfection of the patience of the life made perfect is in the passage: “Walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks unto the Father.” Patience and longsuffering with joy and thanksgiving! That surely is the hallmark of perfect patience. 2. Perfect Obedience to the Will of God. Holiness is the objective of grace. Adjustment and cleansing, divine indwelling and inworking are all for the purpose of holiness of heart and righteousness of life. Goodness is the goal of all God’s working. Faith is made perfect by its works; hope purifies by its vision; and love not only keeps the commandments but sets them to music. “That ye may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.” “Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete (A. V. perfect), furnished completely unto every good work.” “Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep with the blood of the eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make you perfect in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Perfect and fully assured in all the will of God; perfect, furnished completely unto every good work; perfect in every good thing to do His will. Christian perfection means that a man lives in the assurance of God’s approval, that he is equipped and abounds in good works, and that his outward life is inspired and energized by an indwelling and inworking God. He not only does the will of God; he revels in it; it is his meat and drink. He not only abstains from evil, he abounds in goodness. He not only attains to holiness, but in his virtue there is the spontaneity of life and the ease of power. Beware of all teaching of perfection divorced from obedience. Faith that makes void the law, hope that does not purify, and love that does not keep the commandments, are a blasphemy and a lie. The soul made perfect in grace dwells in God and obeys His will. Business, friendship, home, pleasure, and all else are adjusted to His mind and maintained according to His pleasure. Such perfect obedience is only possible to perfect faith, perfect hope, and perfect love; but to faith, hope, and love all things are possible. 3. A Perfect Tongue. “If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man.” “Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle,” says Michael Angelo. Perfection in all God’s work extends to all the minutia of His operations. He takes the same infinite pains over an insect’s wing as in the making of a planet. The test of perfection is in its perfection of finish. The perfection of the perfect man finds its test in his speech. The tongue reveals the heart. It gives form and expression to the hidden things of the soul,-”Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Who can keep his tongue? The hasty, thoughtless, idle, false, and fiery words slip off so easily. It is a little member, but it has tremendous power, and is very difficult to control. It can only be cleansed and kept from within. A clean tongue is possible only to a clean heart, and a perfect tongue only to a perfect man. Here, again, salvation is in faith, hope, and charity. Evil speaking is a special snare to those who have received special gifts of grace. Censoriousness is the besetting sin of the sanctified. A watch, therefore, should be set upon the lips, for no man is perfect whose tongue is not kept from evil. Christian perfection magnifies the grace of God that is able to keep from stumbling in word as well as in deed. 4. Perfect Peace. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” What a promise! Perfect peace! Who can fathom its depth and meaning? And yet, it is the natural result of adjustment, adaptation, and power. What is peace but the stillness of harmony, proportion, and balance? When there is peace it means that all the varying forces have been so blended as to become a unit. It is the stillness and stability which is the perfection of energy. The earth is still because of its velocity. Its stability is in its speed. So in the man made perfect. His nature is unified and harmonized with God. All the forces that center in the heart are so subjected, balanced, unified, and kept, that there is unbroken, eternal, and perfect peace. Perfect peace! No friction, no controversy, no strife, no shrinking, no strain, no coercion, no condemnation! Peace, perfect peace! It is a blessed cloudless life of unbroken harmony. Peace for all time and all the time, so perfect that neither earth nor hell can disturb it, as unchanging and abiding as the God of peace from Whom it comes. This also is the fruit of perfect faith, perfect hope, and perfect love. Without these there can be no peace, but where these are perfect, perfect peace abides. “If Thou Wouldest Be Perfect!” For such a life among the redeemed who has not sighed and prayed? Not only for perfection, which shall be ours when we see Jesus face to face in the Father’s house, but for the life of patience, obedience, victory, and peace in this present life, our hearts have cried with agony and tears. To-day the Saviour looks and challenges us to perfection. The very “if,” assumes the possibility. He takes no low views of the possibilities of grace. His call is to perfection. How then may we attain unto a life so glorious? We must remember that it is not by law. “The law made nothing perfect.” Neither is it by anything we offer to God. Gifts and sacrifices cannot make the worshiper perfect. Perfection is neither by the law of Moses, nor by the law of the sanctuary. It is the work and gift of God, and can only become ours by Consecration, Cleansing and Indwelling 1. “If thou wouldest be perfect, go sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.” That is the first great commandment of the perfect life: absolute and unconditional surrender of the whole life to God. 2. “Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” After surrender, cleansing. The temple of the Lord must be clean before it can be filled with the glory of His presence. 3. “Now the God of peace …. make you perfect in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.” “Christ liveth in me.” After cleansing, indwelling. The life is not the life of the perfect man, but of the perfect Christ who dwells and works in the soul by His Spirit. It is God’s work. “The God of all grace …. shall himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you.” It is the work of the perfect Worker, and every one whom He perfects shall be as his Master. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it,” and when He has done it, we need not proclaim it, for perfection, above all things, cannot be hid. Taken from Record of Christian Work, Vol. XXV, 1906, Edited and Published W. Moody, East Northfield, MA, pp. 318-323 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 117: S. EFFECTIVE PREACHING FOR REACHING THE UNCHURCHED MASSES ======================================================================== Samuel Chadwick Effective Preaching for Reaching the Unchurched Masses If preaching is to reach the unchurched, it must begin by reaching the unsaved already within hearing. The most effective preaching for reaching the outsider is the preaching that converts every insider into a missionary, and sends every hearer to tell others the things he has heard. The same kind of preaching will not be equally effective everywhere. Localities have distinctive qualities, moods, and fashions. The mental and spiritual soil is as variable as the earth’s surface. A preacher may fail in one place and succeed in another. I have known one man fail in the South and succeed in the North, and another who has failed in the North and succeeded in the South. Provincial stars often blink dimly in a metropolitan atmosphere, and I have known a popular preacher who had a crowded audience in one street and preached to empty benches when appointed to a church only ten minutes’ walk away. The difference was not in the preacher, but in the people. In one place the intellectual succeeds, in another the picturesque, and the emotional in a third. No man is equally suited to every sphere. Soils vary. The preacher, therefore, under God must find a responsive people if he is to succeed in finding an entrance to their souls. The Preacher’s Equipment If a man is going to be an effective preacher, he must live to preach. It must be the one serious business of his life, having the first place in his thoughts and the first claim on his time. Everything must bend to his pulpit. A preacher who makes anything else his work and preaching his pastime has mistaken his calling. The demands of the church organization are seriously crippling the work of the pulpit. No man can direct multitudinous organizations, potter about after magic lanterns, social clubs, labor-bureaus, attend the committees of every public institution in the town, and be an effective preacher of the Word. The man who is called to preach must give himself to preaching. Important Accessories There are some accessories of the preacher’s work that should not be overlooked. Many a man’s work is hindered by trifling defects that might easily be remedied. Nothing in or about a preacher is unimportant. His dress, style, and manner all count for or against the effectiveness of his ministry. Slovenliness and slouching habits close many a door against both the man and his message, and, on the other hand, aloofness and affectation are equally prejudicial to success. Sometimes mere accessories make all the difference between success and failure. In one city a preacher mighty in learning and earnest in service fails to get a congregation, while another with not half his learning and not one whit more devoted preaches to a crowd. Why? Because one despises the accessories of his calling, and the other neglects nothing that will contribute to the effectiveness of his work. Professional pleasantness, studied dramatism, and rehearsed elocution are unpardonable in the pulpit, but there is no reason why any man should prejudice his mission by want of discipline, training, and care. There are no trifles in the service of God. There is no instructor of the voice like an impassioned heart, in gesture no art like the artless impulse of the soul, and in manner no tutor like a sincere and gentle spirit. There is no surer way of becoming an effective preacher than for the preacher himself to be a true sermon. The preaching reveals the preacher. Its level is determined by his own height. Truth borrowed may be either above or below the borrower, but masquerading in other men’s possessions is not worthy to be called preaching. Such preachers are timeservers, not prophets. Truth must come from the depths of a man’s own soul if it is to be the word of God upon his lips. The outsider has little respect for parsons and less reverence for priests, but he knows a man when he sees him, and the man of God he will hear. The pulpit must get rid of its unreality, effeminacy, and cant if the outsider is to be reached. The Preacher’s Message Nothing makes for a preacher’s effectiveness more than a true conception of his calling. He is a messenger. That which he speaks is not his own. He is not at liberty to criticize, modify, or tamper with that which is entrusted to him; neither has he any right to withhold it from any person to whom it is sent. But he is neither a postman nor a phonograph. He delivers an open message which he has received from God for men. His first business is to wait for his message, and his next is to see that it is faithfully delivered. Every hearer has a personal interest in the message. Once that is realized there will be no difficulty in securing a hearing. I have heard a judge sum up a case without any attempt to secure attention, but there was breathless stillness, so eager was the anxiety to hear. I have heard a lawyer read a will in a most slovenly fashion, but there was nobody asleep. Alas! we have to speak to people who have no desire to hear. The preacher has to make men understand that they are personally concerned in the Word of the Lord. One of the loudest complaints against preaching is that it lies outside the interests of the people. They care for none of the things of which the preacher speaks. To remedy this, many are addressing themselves to current topics and the week-day interests of the people. Everything from sociology and economics to disasters and plum-puddings is made the text for the popular preacher’s homily. In more pretentious circles, poets and novelists are substituted for apostles and prophets. The justification is that they get the people and manage to get the Gospel in somehow. But it is a poor business, and such sermons are difficult to preface with, "Thus saith the Lord." Fancy one of the apostles preaching on politics and plum-puddings or devoting the hours of worship to poets and novelists! It is a mistake in policy as well as in principle. The unseen realities are men’s deepest interest, and the eternal must always be the most modern. Every man has a personal interest in the questions of sin and grace, God and the devil, heaven and hell. If Christ be faithfully preached, every man must take heed. In Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, with Him is the solution of every problem in every age. It is the preacher’s fault if the hearer does not understand that he comes to him with a message of vital interest, pregnant with eternal issues. The Message Must Be Intelligible It must be spoken to the people for whom it is sent. Many preachers never speak to their congregations. Some preach to nobody but themselves. The sermon is a soliloquy spoken in the hearing of the people for the satisfaction of the speaker. Dr. Dale confessed that for years his interest was in the truth rather than in the people. What a confession for a messenger! There are preachers so busy studying the terms of the message that they forget to deliver it. The King’s messenger should make haste to deliver the King’s message. Others preach to an imaginary host; an ideal congregation that is not there. One man complained of his minister that he preached to them all as if they were M. A.’s; very good preaching, no doubt, if the M.A.’s had been there! There is a preacher’s pride that sacrifices everything to what is deemed the dignity of the pulpit and what a preacher owes to himself. It is as wicked as it is absurd. A man who was appointed to a small fishing-town remembered what was due to himself, and resolved to keep up the dignity of the pulpit. His people were of the humblest, but he preached them most scholarly sermons, so technical and academic that not one of them could understand. A dear, good soul asked him if he could not on a weeknight at least give them a simple, helpful talk. For reply he turned to his wife and said, "Would you like to see me come down to that, my dear?" and she answered, "No, my darling!" What a couple of fools they were! Is that the way a messenger should treat his message? Has he any right to despise the people to whom he is sent? Is that the way shepherds feed the flock of Christ? No wonder such churches are empty! The outsider naturally declines to come where he will be starved as well as fleeced. It is waste of time to argue with adversaries that are dead or distant. Talk to the people who are there. Talk to them, don’t read them a paper few can understand and for which nobody cares. Read sermons will never reach the unchurched masses. Their own leaders look them in the face and talk, and reading from a manuscript gives them a sense of unreality. Academic preaching interests nobody, not even theological students. The preacher must speak in the vernacular of the people. It is criminal to deliver a message involving life and death in an unknown tongue. Every available help must be used to interpret its meaning and enforce its authority. Never be afraid of Illustrations. They were not beneath the Master’s dignity, so no man need count them a degradation. Obscurity is no proof of depth. Simplicity is the mark of perfection. No man who ever heard Gladstone expound the principles of sound finance and righteous government to an audience of working men will ever deny the possibility of making the greatest subjects intelligible to the average mind. The epistles were written to new converts, and they may be preached to new converts still if they have first glowed in the soul of the preacher. It is in the heart truth is clarified, vivified, and fired. Intensity is the prevailing note of effective preaching. Speech throbbing with life and aflame with passion never fails to arrest and arouse. If the word is a fire in the preacher’s bones it will soon find its way to the hearer’s heart. It takes more to move a man than to instruct him. A farthing candle will lighten the face of a rock, but it takes dynamite to shift it. Conviction gives speech its ring of sincerity, its irresistible logic, and its persuasive passion. The speech of doubt is cold and limp, the speech of certainty is a living flame. The pulpit is passionless because it has lost its certainty. Passion is the great need, not excitement, but passion born of conviction, passion born of pity, passion inbreathed of God! The preaching that converts men is the only preaching I know that is effective in reaching the unchurched masses who are without. Everything else fails. Sensations grow stale, polemics become wearisome, fireworks fizzle out, and even anecdotes lose their charm; but the ministry that opens men’s eyes and turns them to God abides forever. Conclusion It is more than twenty years since I first faced the problem of filling empty churches. I have had a succession of them since then, and the convictions born of that first experience have never failed. They have been tested in various conditions: among the poor, in the slums, among the artisans of an industrial population, among the cultured of a university city, in a down-town church of a great city, and they have never failed. My preaching is neither funny nor short. The subjects are biblical, theological, and practical. We have scores of reclaimed drunkards in church-fellowship, and hundreds of godly men who were formerly among the unchurched. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 118: S. PRACTICAL PASTORAL METHODS FOR BRINGING IN OUTSIDERS ======================================================================== Samuel Chadwick Practical Pastoral Methods for Bringing In Outsiders Key Thought: “The real difficulty with the outsider begins at the church door. When the four men of Capernaum got the man sick of the palsy to the house where Christ was, they found the way blocked with the crowd. Some church doors are blocked against the outsider, even where there is no crowd. The church that really wants the outsider gets him, and the church that has not got him does not want him. That is the plain English of the situation. The church that is not prepared to welcome the man it invites had better go on with its pious prosing and let the outsider alone. That outsiders flock to religious services outside churches proves clearly that their objection is not against Christianity, but against the church.” Practical Pastor Methods for Bringing In Outsiders The only way to bring outsiders in is to go and fetch them. It sounds simple enough, but it is a lesson that takes much learning; it seems easy enough, but it is not easily put into practice. In it lies the solution of the whole problem, and until this simple truth is realized and this simple method adopted, the outsider will never come in. It is significant that the largest audiences are gathered in places where there is no conspicuous preacher at the head. In some instances the leader never preaches, and in others the preacher gives a plain, straight talk to the people, urging them to immediate decision for God. Organization is more effective for bringing in the outsider than preaching. It fetches all and sundry, whereas preaching only draws those after its kind. I know many places that have been filled by the adoption of sensible and practical methods. If I suggest methods, it must be understood they are drawn from my own experience. They are not warranted to succeed everywhere, but I have found them successful. Go to the People In every way possible we go to the people. I preach regularly in the open air. I use the word "preach" advisedly. Invitations and testimonies interspersed with thunder and judgment have their place, but I believe in preaching. When I go to a new center I find the place most thronged by the people, and there I preach at a given hour on a given day in the week. It needs practice, good temper, and self-control, but it is glorious work and lays hold of the outsider. Opposition adds to its interest and effectiveness. If the preacher can take his choir, all the better; but if he cannot, it really does not matter. It needs no organization. All the preacher wants is a curbstone, a distinct utterance, a level head, and a warm heart, and he is fully equipped. Occasionally I take the whole congregation on Sunday night after the first service and preach again out of doors; that always does good to both the insider and the outsider. We preach regularly in factories, foundries, workshops, anywhere and everywhere, wherever there is an open door for the gospel of peace. Halls are more easily filled than churches. To the outsider a church has all the vague possibilities of the unknown, but he is familiar with lecture-halls, concert-halls, and theaters, and attendance at a service in these places commits him to nothing. It is his habit to go whatever is on the boards, and he accepts a religious service as a novelty in the program, and is sure to feel the attraction of a " first night." Consequently a preacher can always reckon on the outsider if he will preach from a neutral platform. The stage is not the pulpit. Audiences in theaters and secular halls are intolerant of dullness, and will not hesitate to express their impatience. That is a good thing, but it needs to be remembered. If church congregations were not quite so impassive, things would be livelier. The grandest converts we have were captured in our excursions into secular halls and theaters. Let it not be forgotten, however, that in these places they are accustomed to having things done efficiently and in good style. There must be no bungling or fooling. Everything must be smart, prompt, alert, and of the best, or the church had better remain indoors, where, shame to say it, they are not always so particular. A friendly press is an invaluable ally. The columns of a newspaper reach thousands who never think of religion. Such friendliness should be encouraged, but not courted. Preachers who write up their own doings can hardly be respected. House to House Works Best Personally I have found house-to-house visitation the best method for bringing in the outsider. The whole area of our district is mapped out, and a suitable person appointed to every fifty or sixty houses. Each visitor calls at every house at a regular hour every week with a leaflet I write myself, and invites the people to our services. They are not bill distributers. They get inside the homes and become the friends of the people. Cases of sickness, distress, and special difficulty are reported to the minister. These workers should be met regularly for conference and encouragement. In our mission we visit in this way over ten thousand families every week, and I regard this as our most valuable agency for bringing in the outsider. Another valuable medium is the children. We gather them from the streets into our children’s mission, and call upon their fathers and mothers. These are some of the methods, not all. The Church Door is the Real Difficulty The real difficulty with the outsider begins at the church door. When the four men of Capernaum got the man sick of the palsy to the house where Christ was, they found the way blocked with the crowd. Some church doors are blocked against the outsider, even where there is no crowd. The church that really wants the outsider gets him, and the church that has not got him does not want him. That is the plain English of the situation. The church that is not prepared to welcome the man it invites had better go on with its pious prosing and let the outsider alone. That outsiders flock to religious services outside churches proves clearly that their objection is not against Christianity, but against the church. That is the fact the churches have to face. Instead of bringing the world to Christ, they are keeping men from Him. Every part of public worship should be regulated with one eye on the outsider. Why should worship be an unintelligible weariness to the stranger who is brought in? It is the church that is the real outsider. Its vocabulary is a jargon, its dullness a mystery, its ritual a problem. Reaching an Outsider Illustrated Take a practical illustration. How does a church set to work when it seeks to reach the outsider by a special mission? 1. The way is cleared of every other work. Sales of work, bazaars, anniversaries, and all such things arc kept at a respectful distance from the dates of the mission. As the time approaches, even the ordinary work of the church is suspended. Special meetings for prayer are held. Everything is concentrated upon the work of saving the people. 2. A thorough canvass is made of the district. Every house is visited several times. People are informed of the services and urged to attend. Earnest workers offer to call for strangers and take them to the place. Workshops are visited, services are held at the dinner hour, and every effort is made to get people to the church during the days of the mission. 3. A mission-band is formed. Sometimes a band is engaged. Open-air services are held. Street-corner men are tackled. Public houses are visited. Extra special services are held, to induce certain classes of people to attend. 4. All seats are free to all comers. Seat holders give up their privileges for the season of special effort. 5. Welcomers are appointed, who shake hands with strangers and see to their comfort. 6. The service is lightened and brightened. Mission hymnbooks are used. Solos are sung. Conventionalities are put aside. There is a " swing " and "go" in the services. Instead of conforming to the taste of the few, they cater to that of the many. The sermon even is different. There is a note of urgency and expectation in the appeal. Saving truth holds the field. The cross is the one and only theme. 7. Preparations are made for results. Conversions are expected. Inquiry rooms are set apart. Judicious workers are appointed. Cards, books, and lists are all got ready as if success were expected. 8. Finally, one man is put in charge as absolutely as a pilot of the vessel he boards. Nothing more is needed to bring in the outsider than that these methods should become the regular working order. Keeping and Bulding Converts Every church must settle for itself what provision it needs for the keeping and building up of its converts. I will only say that in some districts it is necessary to provide home and shelter for those who are gathered, and that the social organization of the church is as difficult as it is necessary. After all, the bringing in of the outsider is a question of men rather than methods. The man constrained by the love of Christ will need no other instructor how to seek and save the lost. Wherever a raised Lazarus and a risen Christ are found, the people are sure to come, if not to see Jesus, to see Lazarus, whom He has raised. A church that raises the dead never fails to reach the outsider. The miracle of conversion is the one effective method. When the risen Lord brings dead souls to life, all other questions settle themselves; where He is not, human ingenuity and energy are of no avail. Get your Lazarus and you will get the crowd. By Samuel Chadwick, Superintendent Wesleyan Mission, Leeds, England. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 119: S. QUOTATIONS ======================================================================== Quotations by Samuel Chadwick The Spirit-Led Church and Prayer "The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He fills the Body, directs its movements, controls its members, inspires its wisdom, supplies it’s strength. He guides into truth, sanctifies its agents, and empowers for witnessing. The Spirit has never abdicated His authority nor relegated His power. Neither Pope nor Parliament, neither Conference nor Council is supreme in the Church of Christ. The Church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is College-trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles. The Church that multiplies committees and neglects prayer may be fussy, noisy, enterprising, but it labors in vain and spends its strength for nought. It is possible to excel in mechanics and fail in dynamic. There is a superabundance of machinery; what is wanting is power. To run an organization needs no God. Man can supply the energy, enterprise, and enthusiasm for things human. The real work of a Church depends upon the power of the Spirit. The Presence of the Spirit is vital and central to the work of the Church. Nothing else avails. Apart from Him, wisdom becomes folly, and strength weakness. The Church is called to be a "spiritual house" and a holy priesthood. Only spiritual people can be its "living stones," and only the Spirit-filled its priests. "The Church always fails at the point of self-confidence. When the Church is run on the same lines as a circus, there may be crowds, but there is no Shekinah. That is why prayer is the test of faith and the secret of power. The Spirit of God travails in the prayer-life of the soul. Miracles are the direct work of His power, and without miracles the Church cannot live. The carnal can argue, but it is the Spirit of God that convicts. Education can civilize, but it is being born of the Spirit that saves. The energy of the flesh can run bazaars, organize amusements, and raise millions; but it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes a Temple of the Living God. The root-trouble of the present distress is that the Church has more faith in the world and in the flesh than in the Holy Ghost, and things will get no better till we get back to His realized presence and power. The breath of the four winds would turn death into life and dry bones into mighty armies, but it only comes by PRAYER!" Samuel Chadwick on Preaching “I would rather preach than do anything else I know in this world. I have never missed a chance to preach. I would rather preach than eat my dinner, or have a holiday or anything else the world can offer. I would rather pay to preach than be paid not to preach. It has its price in agony of sweat and tears and no calling has such joys and heartbreaks, but it is a calling an archangel might covet; and I thank God that of His grace He called me into this ministry. Is there any joy lke that of saving a soul from death? Any thrill like that of opening blind eyes? Any reward like the love of little children to the second and third generation? Any treasures like the grateful love of hearts healed and comforted? I tell you it is a glorious privilege to share the travail and the wine of God." On the Power of God “To men with God all things are possible. Man plus God is, to all practical purposes of the Divine will and requirements of the Divine life omnipotent as God Himself. This means that with God all that a man ought to be, he can be, and all that a man ought to do, he can do. That is the gospel that I bring to you.” On Conversion "Christianity is this: Christ in you; and Christ comes and dwells in you in the person of His Spirit. It was a great thing for God to be incarnate in Jesus Christ, but the incarnation of God in the believer is not one whit less wonderful. Every conversion is an incarnation, every believer is a miracle of God. You may be able to do a great many things, but you cannot make temples, and you cannot make conversions: you cannot make Christians. A man becomes a Christian by God coming to live in him." On Biographies that made a difference in his life "No missionary biography ever made the impression on me that the “Life of James Gilmour of Mongolia” made. His constant and prayerful study was to do as Christ would have done in his place, and this was the question he constantly asked: How would the Lord Jesus act or speak in these circumstances? And the greatest spirit I ever knew was James Chalmers, who left everywhere he went the savor of his Master’s presence, and made those whom he met feel that they had had a visit from the Lord." On God’s Power “Fire is mightier than learning. A soul ablaze is a better guide to effective speech than much scholarship. It is fire that conquers the heart, and this fire still falls from heaven.” On Samuel Chadwick’s Successful Writing Ministry "It is not often that an evangelist is successful in print. Samuel Chadwick of Leeds is a great and successful evangelist; he has published a volume of sermons which is great and successful also. How does he do it? He uses short sentences. He quotes John Wesley in preference even to John Bunyan. His doctrine is perfectly clean-cut and settled. And yet these are but the externals. He does it because he has unbounded faith in Christ, and unbounded pity for man."—From a review of Humanity and God. The Spirit-Led Church and Prayer "The Church is the Body of Christ, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He fills the Body, directs its movements, controls its members, inspires its wisdom, supplies it’s strength. He guides into truth, sanctifies its agents, and empowers for witnessing. The Spirit has never abdicated His authority nor relegated His power. Neither Pope nor Parliament, neither Conference nor Council is supreme in the Church of Christ. The Church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is College-trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles. The Church that multiplies committees and neglects prayer may be fussy, noisy, enterprising, but it labors in vain and spends its strength for nought. It is possible to excel in mechanics and fail in dynamic. There is a superabundance of machinery; what is wanting is power. To run an organization needs no God. Man can supply the energy, enterprise, and enthusiasm for things human. The real work of a Church depends upon the power of the Spirit. The Presence of the Spirit is vital and central to the work of the Church. Nothing else avails. Apart from Him, wisdom becomes folly, and strength weakness. The Church is called to be a "spiritual house" and a holy priesthood. Only spiritual people can be its "living stones," and only the Spirit-filled its priests. "The Church always fails at the point of self-confidence. When the Church is run on the same lines as a circus, there may be crowds, but there is no Shekinah. That is why prayer is the test of faith and the secret of power. The Spirit of God travails in the prayer-life of the soul. Miracles are the direct work of His power, and without miracles the Church cannot live. The carnal can argue, but it is the Spirit of God that convicts. Education can civilize, but it is being born of the Spirit that saves. The energy of the flesh can run bazaars, organize amusements, and raise millions; but it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that makes a Temple of the Living God. The root-trouble of the present distress is that the Church has more faith in the world and in the flesh than in the Holy Ghost, and things will get no better till we get back to His realized presence and power. The breath of the four winds would turn death into life and dry bones into mighty armies, but it only comes by PRAYER!" Samuel Chadwick on Preaching “I would rather preach than do anything else I know in this world. I have never missed a chance to preach. I would rather preach than eat my dinner, or have a holiday or anything else the world can offer. I would rather pay to preach than be paid not to preach. It has its price in agony of sweat and tears and no calling has such joys and heartbreaks, but it is a calling an archangel might covet; and I thank God that of His grace He called me into this ministry. Is there any joy lke that of saving a soul from death? Any thrill like that of opening blind eyes? Any reward like the love of little children to the second and third generation? Any treasures like the grateful love of hearts healed and comforted? I tell you it is a glorious privilege to share the travail and the wine of God." On the Power of God “To men with God all things are possible. Man plus God is, to all practical purposes of the Divine will and requirements of the Divine life omnipotent as God Himself. This means that with God all that a man ought to be, he can be, and all that a man ought to do, he can do. That is the gospel that I bring to you.” On Conversion "Christianity is this: Christ in you; and Christ comes and dwells in you in the person of His Spirit. It was a great thing for God to be incarnate in Jesus Christ, but the incarnation of God in the believer is not one whit less wonderful. Every conversion is an incarnation, every believer is a miracle of God. You may be able to do a great many things, but you cannot make temples, and you cannot make conversions: you cannot make Christians. A man becomes a Christian by God coming to live in him." On Biographies that made a difference in his life "No missionary biography ever made the impression on me that the “Life of James Gilmour of Mongolia” made. His constant and prayerful study was to do as Christ would have done in his place, and this was the question he constantly asked: How would the Lord Jesus act or speak in these circumstances? And the greatest spirit I ever knew was James Chalmers, who left everywhere he went the savor of his Master’s presence, and made those whom he met feel that they had had a visit from the Lord." Download the Life of James Gilmour of Mongolia; Download the Biography of James Chalmers) On God’s Power “Fire is mightier than learning. A soul ablaze is a better guide to effective speech than much scholarship. It is fire that conquers the heart, and this fire still falls from heaven.” On Samuel Chadwick’s Successful Writing Ministry "It is not often that an evangelist is successful in print. Samuel Chadwick of Leeds is a great and successful evangelist; he has published a volume of sermons which is great and successful also. How does he do it? He uses short sentences. He quotes John Wesley in preference even to John Bunyan. His doctrine is perfectly clean-cut and settled. And yet these are but the externals. He does it because he has unbounded faith in Christ, and unbounded pity for man."—From a review of Humanity and God. "The meaning (of perfection) is the same when applied to Christian life and experience. It is the adjustment, cleansing, and equipment of man’s nature for all the purposes of the life in Christ. It is nothing more than making fit in every part to do the will of God. Everything that hinders and dislocates is taken away, the powers of mind, heart, and body are restored to their true order; and every need of grace and power is supplied. There is no deficiency, no disorder, no discord ; the man of God is made perfect for, and in the will of, God. Wesley’s definition is short, simple and scriptural, “Pure love alone reigning in the heart and life, this is the whole of Christian perfection.” (Read the rest of Chadwick’s sermon on Christian Perfection) On Things "To the world things are everything. It longs for them, works for them, fights for them, lies for them, lives for them. Its one ambition is to possess abundance of things. To secure them it will pay any price, endure any hardship, suffer any obloquy, sacrifice any thing. Its homage and its envy are reserved for those who have the most things. It never troubles about how they got them, nor what they do with them, it is enough that they have won for themselves piles of things! The cry of the world is for things, things, things; always more things. This is a purely pagan view of life. (Read the rest of his thoughts on ’Things’") On The Meaning of the Cross (four part series) These helpful sermons were delivered at the 25th Annual Winona (Indiana) Lake Bible Conference ,which was held in August of 1999. Some of the sermons were later published by the Winona Publishing Society. Other speakers included G. Campbell Morgan, Cortland Myers, and A. T. Robertson. Specific titles include: 1. The Cross and the Modern Mind; 2. The Cross and Personaility; 3. The Cross and the Lust of the Flesh; 4. The Cross and the World. (Read the rest of the Samuel Chadwick’s Meaning of the Cross) The Will To Do Here are a few thoughts from this article showing that doing is as important as knowing when it comes to knowing truth, for only when we combine what we know with action do we really know. As he put it: "No man ever did either by merely mastering the theories of painting or music. The only way to learn is by doing. The will to do is the way to learn, and doing is as much a part of learning as study. The law holds in the region of truth just as surely as in art and craft." (Read the rest of this article from Joyful News) On Preaching "Nothing makes for a preacher’s effectiveness more than a true conception of his calling. He is a messenger. That which he speaks is not his own. He is not at liberty to criticize, modify, or tamper with that which is entrusted to him; neither has he any right to withhold it from any person to whom it is sent. But he is neither a postman nor a phonograph. He delivers an open message which he has received from God for men. His first business is to wait for his message, and his next is to see that it is faithfully delivered." (Read the rest of his lecture on this subject) On Reaching Outsiders “The real difficulty with the outsider begins at the church door. When the four men of Capernaum got the man sick of the palsy to the house where Christ was, they found the way blocked with the crowd. Some church doors are blocked against the outsider, even where there is no crowd. The church that really wants the outsider gets him, and the church that has not got him does not want him. That is the plain English of the situation. The church that is not prepared to welcome the man it invites had better go on with its pious prosing and let the outsider alone. That outsiders flock to religious services outside churches proves clearly that their objection is not against Christianity, but against the church.” (Read the rest of his presentation on reaching outsiders) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 120: S. THE MEANING OF THE CROSS ======================================================================== Samuel Chadwick The Meaning of the Cross Introduction These sermons were delivered at the 25th Annual Winona (Indiana) Lake Bible Conference which was held in August of 1999. Some of the sermons were later published by the Winona Publishing Society. Other speakers included G. Campbell Morgan, Cortland Myers, and A. T. Robertson. I. The Cross and the Modern Mind An excerpt: "The Cross is especially repulsive to the modern mind. All the offences of all the ages outrage its sensibilities. It has all the loathing of the Jew and all the scorn of the Greek. The objections to the Cross have always been made in the interests of religion, reason and righteousness; and in these days they are an indignant protest for the honor of God, the humanity of Christ, and the defense of faith. They come from believers more than from scoffers and they are advanced from the highest considerations of spiritual religions and the coming of the Kingdom…. There is something deeply moving in the devout spirit and fine temper of much modern criticism. Objections from reverent scholars whose devotion is known in all the churches is much more impressive than from blatant and aggressive unbelievers, but the substance may be the same. Preachers and Professors say many things today that a generation ago were the stock-in-trade of infidel lectures and it is for this reason that inquiry into their value should be courageous and thorough. The foes of Theological beliefs have often been the friends of Truth…. Orthodox theology is not so wooden as its critics assume, nor so legal as they affirm; but is there not a substitute that is essential to the faith that saves? is there no vital meaning in the confession: He loved me and gave Himself for me? (Read the rest of The Cross and the Modern Mind) II. The Cross and Personality An excerpt: “There is no saving efficacy in the cross apart from faith. The acknowledgment of the historical fact of Christ’s death brings no redemption. Neither does an orthodox belief of its theological interpretation save…. Faith reasons that His death was for me, and if He died for me, I died in Him. This is the vindication of the Cross as the ground of faith and Hope; and it explains how the saving power of the Cross depends upon personal faith. It is the power of God to them that believe; for faith accepts and appropriates by personal identification. Salvation is neither by the pity of God nor by the will of man, but by the Cross of Christ…. Faith is not an assent of the mind, so much as it is an attitude of consent. The Cross is accepted as a principle of life, as well as a fact of redeeming grace…. Christ in you! That is something more than a strong figure of speech to express the domination of Christ in the life of the believer. It is the statement of a living fact, realized vividly in the consciousness of tens of thousands. This is the testimony of countless witnesses whose sanity and integrity are beyond suspicion. It is this that makes a Christian. Nothing else can, for Christianity is unique in that it does not consist of systems of Truth, ordinances of religion, or codes of conduct, but in personal experience of fellowship with an indwelling Lord.” (Read the rest of the Cross and Personality) III. The Cross and the Lust of the Flesh The difference in method is that of a factory and a Garden. The flesh works; fruit grows. A factory works entirely in the realm of death; a Garden lies entirely in the realm of life. Man’s work is always in dead stuff. It must die before he can use it. Fruit is God’s work; not man’s. Fruit comes from life, and all life is of God. Man’s part in it is cultivation; but in works it is manufacture. The works of death have in them the elements of destruction. The fruits of life have in them the propagation of life. Painted fruits fade upon the canvas; living fruit brings forth after its kind. Factories are noisy places of contrivance, enterprise, and energy. Gardens are silent places of cultivation, spontaneity, and effortless production of fruit and beauty. God does not run a factory. He keeps a garden. (Read the rest of the Cross and the Lusts of the Flesh) IV. The Cross and the World "The reproach of the cross is still with us, and there are many that seek to avoid its offense by compromising its meaning. They deny its relation to Law, and misrepresent its relation to sin. The persecutors of Paul did it, that they might fasten upon those saved by grace the yoke of bondage, and there are still those who lay upon the children of God the burden of ordinances but there are those who make the cross of no account in the interests of intellectual accommodation. The whole controversy about circumcision and the law was incidental and temporary, but the principle at stake is vital and universal." Key Thought: "The reproach of the cross is still with us, and there are many that seek to avoid its offense by compromising its meaning. They deny its relation to Law, and misrepresent its relation to sin. The persecutors of Paul did it, that they might fasten upon those saved by grace the yoke of bondage, and there are still those who lay upon the children of God the burden of ordinances but there are those who make the cross of no account in the interests of intellectual accommodation. The whole controversy about circumcision and the law was incidental and temporary, but the principle at stake is vital and universal." The interpretation of the Cross ends on the note of Glory. The final reference in the epistle to the Galatians is in the postscript. The apostle takes up the pen and in a few sharp sentences sums up the question and restates the issue. His enemies did not reject the cross. They would probably have insisted that they were its true interpreters and in it they evaded the reproach of the cross and escaped prosecution. The compromise with the flesh met a popular demand and honored an institution of divine authority and venerable tradition. Paul resisted it with ruthless logic and vehement passion. Almost alone among the apostles he stepped at one stride into the liberty of grace. The cross had put an end to all bondage; therefore he gloried in the cross and exulted in his freedom. The reproach of the cross is still with us, and there are many that seek to avoid its offense by compromising its meaning. They deny its relation to Law, and misrepresent its relation to sin. The persecutors of Paul did it, that they might fasten upon those saved by grace the yoke of bondage, and there are still those who lay upon the children of God the burden of ordinances but there are those who make the cross of no account in the interests of intellectual accommodation. The whole controversy about circumcision and the law was incidental and temporary, but the principle at stake is vital and universal. There remains no question of circumcision, but the world is still with us. A Double Crucifixion The motive for insisting on circumcision was "only that they may not be persecuted for the Cross of Christ." Paul has no desire to escape it. He glories in it. He glories in nothing else. "But far be it from me to glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world." We are back again at the passive. "Hath been crucified." By whom? He had been crucified with Christ. They that are Christ’s are called upon to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. The first was by an act of faith, the second by the discipline of faith, but here there is no mention of either faith or discipline. The crucifixion by faith and the crucifixion by discipline issue in the double crucifixion in relation to the world. It is an issue. The result of an indwelling Christ and the crucifixion of the flesh with its affections and lusts must be a double crucifixion in relation to the world. It could not be otherwise. Christ said the world hated Him and we cannot expect it to love Him in us. As He lives in us, we die to the world, just as we die to sin. As the flesh is crucified in us, the world ceases to count. The inevitable result is that the world is crucified to us, and we are crucified to the world. The World Crucified to the Believer There is no more difficult task than the adjustment of faith to the world. No one generation can do it for another. The problem is always changing its form. The spiritualities of one age become the carnalities of another. Circumcision and "things offered to idols" no longer trouble us. The points at issue are not always the same in the generation. Geography may make a difference. National customs may influence the Christian conscience. The case must be settled by principles. Rules and precepts may conform life to a letter and be disobedient to the spirit. Few things are more important than a right understanding of what the New Testament means to the world. It is not the world of nature. That is agreed and need not be argued. It is something that cannot dwell in the same heart with the love of God. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15) "Know ye not, that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever, therefore, would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4). The world in this sense is life divorced from God. It is the realm of unregenerate life. Perhaps the best definition of it is in the words of our Lord to Peter: "Thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men." It is life on the world level; horizontal instead of vertical; lived according to the world standard of values, the world standard of morals and the world ideas of happiness. The crucifixion of the world does not consist of prohibitions and precepts nor is worldliness a question of arbitrary, capricious and mechanical conventions of piety. There is doubtless some good reason for the absurd distinctions at which we smile, but our Lord deliberately defied the traditions of conventional religion. The world crucified, means that its standards of value and method of life have been judged or condemned by the Cross. They have been renounced and forsaken; crucified unto death. Our citizenship is in another Kingdom; the Kingdom of Heaven. The mind is set on the things that are above where Christ is. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 121: S. THE WILL TO DO ======================================================================== Samuel Chadwick The Will To Do Behind the will to know there must be the will to do. Knowledge is bound up with practice. The power to know comes with the determination to do. The people marveled at the knowledge of Jesus. He had not been taught in their schools, and yet He surpassed all their masters in wisdom. "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" His own explanation acknowledged the absence of learning. He had no masters at whose feet He had sat. Neither was He self-taught. The teaching was not his own. He who sent Him gave it to Him. He lays bare the secret of his own certitude, and announces the moral principle of wisdom. "If any man willeth to do he shall know." It begins with the surrender of the will to the will of God; by which is meant that all the faculties of knowledge are set to know the will of God, and the will is set to the knowing that it may do. There is a decisive and supreme choice of the Father’s will, and Christian knowledge and grace develop in life-long obedience to that will. Light comes to those who walk in the light and comes as they walk. Obedience has to keep pace with the ever-widening horizon. Obedient faith is the condition of knowledge. This is true in all things. The painter who would learn to paint must paint, and the musician who would learn to play must play. No man ever did either by merely mastering the theories of painting or music. The only way to learn is by doing. The will to do is the way to learn, and doing is as much a part of learning as study. The law holds in the region of truth just as surely as in art and craft. Carlyle says somewhere: "I tell you, the noble intellect cannot think the truth, even within its own limits and when it most seriously tries." The power to perceive truth depends upon moral qualities and spiritual motives. The cloister breeds more heresy than the battlefield, and there have always been more infidels in the study than on the pavement. The pursuit of knowledge divorced from practice always errs. Learning of itself cannot make men wise. Thoughts and Life This does not mean that practical obedience is a substitute for true thinking. Thought is the raw material of life. The way to truth makes great demands upon thought, and we cannot leave the responsibility of thinking to others. The seed of the Word that came to naught in the Parable of the Sower failed through lack of understanding. There must be hard thinking as well as honest endeavor. The point to be kept in mind is that the will to do is a condition of true knowledge, and that in the act of faith is the way of truth. Even if the sincere effort be made in the wrong way, it will lead to the right way sooner than labored reasoning that never comes to the test of doing. In his Reminiscences, Sir Rabindranath Tagore has this interesting statement on his experience of paths in which there was "No Thoroughfare." "The only way of learning how to use a thing properly, is through its misuse. For myself, at least, I can truly say that what little mischief resulted from my freedom always led the way to the means of curing mischief." That would seem as if the right could only be reached by the wrong, like the saying that he who never makes mistakes never does anything. In a sense that is true, but the believer has the promise of light that saves him from experimenting in blind alleys, though not from the need to experiment. Truth must be sought for doing, and thought once discovered must be translated into action. The Will to Pray Spiritual religion has failed in recent years on its experimental side. No one will say that it has erred on the side of mystical devotion. Its passion has been for the practical. The church has disparaged theology, and the world has despised it. The preacher has called for service, and absolved from devotion. The thing that mattered was the overthrow of social evil and the relief of human suffering. Those from whom the church recruited its workers are turning to nursing and social welfare. Worship, communion, and prayer are left for educational, philanthropic, and social work. The law will work here as elsewhere, and, in willing to do, the right way will be found, but even in such noble service the soul may find its goal. The will to serve must be linked with the will of the Father. Prayer must be linked with work, and work must be in the assured will of God. There is much talk about prayer; and perhaps the abundance of the talk comes out of the absence of praying. Books on prayer sell better than any other kind of religious book, and there is a demand for manuals of instruction on prayer. The demand may be a testimony to their value, but after all the only way to learn to pray is by praying. To obedient faith there comes both the power and the joy. Where there is a will to pray there is always a way. Study about prayer does not necessarily help praying, but the habit of prayer leads to both truth and power. Henry Martyn wrote in his Journal: "Prayer is the great thing. Oh, that I may be a man of prayer!" and he came to be what he willed to do. The Will to Spiritual Prosperity There is a widespread anxiety for a revival of religion, but there is some uncertainty as to how it can be secured. There are some who regard revivals as entirely in the secret of God’s sovereign power. All we can do is to wait and pray; tarry for the coming of the wind and fire. Charles Finney proclaimed everywhere that God’s time for a revival is always “Now.” Heaven waits for the answering faith and cooperation of the redeemed. The prevalence of wickedness is no hindrance; it may be an additional reason. The arrogant unbelief of the world is no barrier; it is not there God looks for faith. The subtle atmosphere of rationalistic culture cannot make revival impossible; for at bottom there is no difference between Greek and barbarian. A revival comes when the hearts of God’s people are set upon revival. There is a point at which faith has the authority to decree; it commands and prevails. It says to the mountain, "Be thou removed," and the mountain moves. "Concerning the work of My hands, command ye Me," saith the Lord. When the heart is so set on a revival that it cries out in travail, "Lord, give me souls or I die," the revival comes. St. Paul speaks of travailing in birth for his children in the Gospel; and the Prophet declared that when Zion travailed she brought forth her children." When the heart wills to save the souls of men it comes to know the heart and power of God.—Joyful News. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 122: S. THINGS! THINGS! THINGS! ======================================================================== Samuel Chadwick Things! Things! Things! Key Thought: "Wealth consists not in the abundance of things. For the greatest needs of life they are utterly useless. They cannot even ensure existence, let alone life. And it should never be forgotten that the world can only be secured at the cost of the man himself. He who wins the world loses his soul. To live for things is to die to all that is spiritual and divine." Things! Things! Things! ‘A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth.’ Luke 12:15. I have ceased to wonder that Jesus Christ was crucified. For many years it was impossible to imagine how men could so misunderstand and hate Him. But a fuller understanding of His teaching and wider knowledge of the world have led me to the conclusion that there is only one end to a ministry like His – and that is a Cross. Jesus Changed the Status Quo There are woes enough in these two chapters to account for all that happened. He unmasked iniquity where it was least suspected; and attacked the vices of the wealthy and powerful in terms of liquid fire; He shocked and angered the most religious people of his time; called them ‘whited sepulchers’, and defied their traditions; He hurled woe upon woe in all directions. His own friends understood Him but little better than His enemies. He talked of His Kingdom, but rebuked their determination to make Him King. He denounced sin in terrible terms, but would not let them call down fire from heaven. He preached righteousness and justice; poured scorching scorn upon hypocrisy and oppression, but when actual cases were brought to Him He declined to interfere or even to pronounce judgment. He condemned wrong, but refused to take sides. Here is one of many cases that might be cited. A man, perhaps a follower, has been wronged by his brother, and appeals to this preacher of righteousness to secure him his rights. Instead, He rebukes the petitioner, and asks, Who made Me a judge or a divider over you? Disappointment was inevitable. To preach sternly and then refuse the responsibility of practical application to particular cases always brings provocation. The explanation of His attitude is plain enough now. He came to establish a world-wide spiritual kingdom. He laid down principles that are universal, not precepts which were local. He sought to correct the dispositions of men rather than to secure their rights. He would destroy wrong, not by direct attacks upon vice, but by saving the sinner. That is His method. A new world through a renewed humanity. So here, instead of interfering in the quarrel, He reads the motive behind the appeal, and warns against covetousness. He detects the undue eagerness to gain possessions, and corrects the false estimate of the things of this world. And in so doing incidentally states one of the profoundest truths concerning the true philosophy of life. ‘A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth.’ The World’s Estimate Of Things To the world things are everything. It longs for them, works for them, fights for them, lies for them, lives for them. Its one ambition is to possess abundance of things. To secure them it will pay any price, endure any hardship, suffer any obloquy, sacrifice any thing. Its homage and its envy are reserved for those who have the most things. It never troubles about how they got them, nor what they do with them, it is enough that they have won for themselves piles of things! The cry of the world is for things, things, things; always more things. This is a purely pagan view of life. After these things do the heathen seek. Pagan philosophy is based upon the supposed supremacy of things. Heathen religions find their heaven in the abundance of things. And, alas, most of us are pure pagan. We live for the things. We toil and strive for the possession of things. Our only idea of heaven is a place where we shall have undreamed abundance of glorified things. We call ourselves Christian, but our lives are heathen. Christ’s Teaching Concerning Things He declares that true life does not depend upon things at all. Indeed the only way into life is by the renunciation of things. We must forsake them, sacrifice them, die to them if we would live. Not only He, but all the world’s greatest have proved that life is not measured by the possession of the world’s things. The greatest of all had not where to lay His head. Things are an encumbrance to the man who would rise. They cannot secure for their possessors the best even of this life. Even here the best things cannot be bought with money. Wealth can give much. Solomon says, ‘it answereth all things.’ But its limitations are as marked as its power. It can give you doctors, but not health; a good table, but not appetite; houses, but not homes; followers, but not friends; envy, but not love. An abundance of things becomes a useless burden. You can only use a few of them, the rest are a care and a snare. You may have many carriages, but you cannot ride in all of them at once. You may have many houses, but you can only live in one at a time. You may have many courses, but you can only eat till you are full. Wealth consists not in the abundance of things. For the greatest needs of life they are utterly useless. They cannot even ensure existence, let alone life. And it should never be forgotten that the world can only be secured at the cost of the man himself. He who wins the world loses his soul. To live for things is to die to all that is spiritual and divine. Life is being, not having. It is what a man is, not what he has, that really matters. What you have will perish, what you are abides forever. Seek not things. They perish, they corrupt, they pass away. Seek to be! To be manly, honest, brave and good. ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ Seek God first, always first. In Him only is the true life. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-samuel-chadwick/ ========================================================================