======================================================================== WRITINGS OF SETH REES by Seth Rees ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by Seth Rees, compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 32 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 00.00. Rees, Seth - Library 2. 01.00. Fire from Heaven 3. 01.01. Fire from Heaven 4. 01.02. Established in Christ 5. 01.03. God's Choice of Instruments 6. 01.04. Stephen's Fullness 7. 01.05. The True Saint 8. 01.06. Rooted and Grounded 9. 01.07. Abounding Grace 10. 01.08. The Secret of the Lord 11. 01.09. Exploits 12. 01.10. Larger Outlook, or Spiritual Enlargement 13. 01.11. Abundant Resources 14. 01.12. More than Conquerors 15. 01.13. This is That 16. 01.14. The Holy Place 17. 01.15. The Call of Rebekah 18. 01.16. Blessings in Disguise 19. 02.00. Holy War 20. 02.01. The Holy War 21. 02.02. The Spirit of the Gospel 22. 02.03. Monarch Born in a Stable 23. 02.04. The Besetting Sin 24. 02.05. The Conquest of Canaan 25. 02.06. Messenger of the Covenant 26. 02.07. Our Father's Care 27. 02.08. Laborers with God 28. 02.09. Joy and Strength 29. 02.10. Holiness unto the Lord 30. 02.11. The Good Spirit of the Lord 31. 02.12. The Resurrection 32. 02.13. The Perfection which God Requires ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 00.00. REES, SETH - LIBRARY ======================================================================== Rees, Seth - Library Rees, Seth - Fire From Heaven Rees, Seth - Holy War Rees, Seth - The Ideal Pentecostal Church ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01.00. FIRE FROM HEAVEN ======================================================================== FIRE FROM HEAVEN by Seth Rees Chapter 1: Fire from Heaven (Matthew 3:11) Chapter 2: Established in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:21-22 ) Chapter 3: God’s Choice of Instruments (1 Corinthians 1:27-28) Chapter 4: Stephen’s Fullness (Acts 6:5) Chapter 5: The True Saint (Isaiah 33:14-16) Chapter 6: Rooted and Grounded (Colossians 2:6-7) Chapter 7: Abounding Grace (Romans 5:20) Chapter 8: The Secret of the Lord (Psalms 25:14) Chapter 9: Exploits (Daniel 11:32) Chapter 10: A Larger Outlook (Isaiah 54:2) Chapter 11: Abundant Resources (2 Corinthians 9:8) Chapter 12: More than Conquerors (Romans 8:37) Chapter 13: This is That (Acts 2:16-18) Chapter 14: The Holy Place (Psalms 24:3-4) Chapter 15: Call of Rebekah (Genesis 24:34-36) Chapter 16: Blessings in Disguise (Psalms 56:12) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 01.01. FIRE FROM HEAVEN ======================================================================== Fire from Heaven "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire " (Matthew 3:11-12). Fire is a divinely chosen symbol of God’s presence and glory. back in the Old Dispensation, before Israel was released from the iron grip of Pharaoh, God revealed Himself to Moses by the symbolic fire burning in an unconsumed bush -- a striking type of the glowing, purging presence of Almighty God. We see the type utilized again in the leading of Israel across the sandy stretches of the wilderness. However dark the night, however quiet the camp, the wakeful Israelite could quiet his nerves and allay his fears by simply going to his tent door and glancing out at the ever present pillar of fire. Fire was closely connected with the offerings. The paschal Lamb was roasted with fire. The sin offering was carried without the camp and burned with fire. Even the peace offering and meat offering had fire connected with them, God evidently designing to reiterate and re-enforce the significance of a mighty symbol by frequent presentation. In the offering of incense in the holy place the sweet spices, ground and mixed and placed in the golden censer, were burned in order that the sweet fragrance might ascend up before the Lord. There is abundant reason why fire should be selected by the divine typologist, for it is one of the most striking and powerful elements of the material world. It has always a strange, inexplicable mystery, and one never gets so wholly used to it that it ceases to be a frequent cause for wonder. Science has been baffled in attempting to explain the philosophy of the single flame, while the conflagration of the huge hotel or business block commands the respect and attention of men of all classes. Great crowds, with consternation and solemnity printed on their faces, watch at a safe distance the destruction of man’s work by the dreaded enemy. Fire has always been an object of superstitious regard among the heathen nations. In ancient Greece and Rome the sacred fire was most carefully guarded. Persons were appointed to the office of keeping the flames burning. Consecrated priests and vestal virgins took extreme care not to allow the holy light to depart from the altar. If by any catastrophe the fire was extinguished, all national affairs were suspended until it was rekindled, either, as some believed, by the lightning from heaven or by the concentrated rays from the sun, or by the sparks from friction. The foreign ambassador had to walk near holy fire before he could be admitted into the state council. The bride must bow before holy fire as she entered her new home. Sachem, the red Indian chief, walked three times around his campfire before he ventured to give counsel or receive a public visitor. The Persian fire worshippers looked upon the sun and flames as peculiarly sacred, and it was considered an unpardonable profanity to spit in the fire or commit any indecency in its presence. The Parsees of India worship the fire with veneration today. Nothing in the physical universe is more valuable than fire. The sun, the center of our system is white hot, emitting flames, visible during eclipses, hundreds of miles long, and the appearance of sun spots is usually coetaneous with the unusual brilliance of the Aurora Borealis. Stored up in our vast coal mines and unearthed by the hand of industry, fire is the power that drives the wheels of commerce and propels the screws of navigation the world round. The quick combustion of explosives is the prime factor in all the implements of modern warfare. It is seen in the terrible effect of the bomb, the Mauser bullet, the death dealing cannon. Electricity, a form of fire, with its ever widening adaptation to nineteenth century life is revolutionizing all the methods of modern business and activity. There was a time when electricity was an object of mystery, uncertainty and dread. The lightnings of the sky were known to be real forces, but no one knew when or whom they would strike. None dared to attempt to control or utilize them. But Science has scaled the heavens since Franklin pulled the spark from the storm cloud with a kite and a tow string; and now a child can make use of this gigantic force with impunity. It is brought to the ends of our fingers and mingles in our everyday life without arousing curiosity and wonder. Electric fire rings our door bells, winds our clocks, grinds our coffee, lights, heats and propels our cars, carries our messages, plates our silver, and makes our pictures. There was a time when the Holy Ghost fire was an object of mystery, striking only occasionally, leaping to Mt. Carmel’s peak or to a bush before an astounded Moses on the backside of a desert. Again it appeared as a lamp and smoking furnace, then as a destroying flame in Israel’s camp. But since Christ is glorified and Pentecost is fully come, the Holy Ghost is willing, yea, desires to dwell among us, without respect to creed or caste, upon certain plainly revealed conditions. When these are met fire will leap over the battlements of heaven, and not only illuminate and cleanse us but propel us along the highway of life. One of the most evident effects of the work of fire is purification. Many things can be purified by the application of water, especially if the impurity is merely external, but it takes the powerful heat of fire to thoroughly cleanse anything in which the baser part is mixed all through that which needs purification. All precious metals are fired and fired again until they are made fit for use. Thus the inspired writer uses a most vivid figure to illustrate the radical and cleansing work of the Holy Ghost in his Pentecostal capacity. Just as the smelter of precious metals subjects them to the intense heat of the furnace, so, says the Scriptures, does the Lord of Heaven subject the heart of the believer to the cleansing process of "the furnace of the Upper Room." "All is not gold that glitters " is a true adage applicable to many a disciple of Jesus. Not infrequently gold hunters are deceived by the shining of mica and iron pyrites, and there is much that sparkles and shines in the lives and characters of many professed Christians which is not the pure gold of perfect love for God and man. But the application of fire destroys the tin, and brass and reprobate silver. No doubt it is true that if all the alloy was destroyed from out of the hearts of some loud professors, there would be but little of anything left. The fire of the Spirit burns up all that is lightweight, chaffy, insubstantial. The desire for high reading disappears when a soul is subjected to the hot flames of Pentecost. One is then glad to read to the glory of God, and finds that his previous fondness for newspapers, etc., has gone from him forever. The tendency toward light conversation and frivolous demeanor also leaves the soul under the fiery baptism with the Holy Ghost. Oh, the twaddle of these times! The gossip, the nonsensical talk! Pentecost destroys all this. Another thing that Pentecost invariably brings about is a liberal and generous spirit. The impulses and feeling of fraternity which prompted the early church to have all things in common is infused into the modern followers of Jesus when thus experience is received, so that one is glad to share his last penny with his brother in distress. This fire burns the mortgages off of our churches and liquidates our ecclesiastical indebtedness with dispatch. A sanctified man and a stingy man are never the same person. To be sanctified implies liberality and openness of spirit. There are whole districts where the moral atmosphere is laden with spiritual disease. Black, unhealthy bogs, gigantic swamp lands, infinite everglades, breathe a mist of fever, sickness and death. Whole churches are afflicted with "chills and fever," and not a few preachers are in the throes of typhus. What is the remedy? Fire from heaven! When a boy I frequently watched my father free the well of "damps." He would fill an iron kettle with live, burning coals, and lower it into the well. Sometimes the impure gases would almost quench the fire, and the kettle had to be drawn up to the surface again for re-firing. But the fire always conquered at last. And there is no fever afflicted district, no spiritual bog, which the fire of the Spirit will not cleanse and make wholesome. Fire is a powerful element in quickening and giving life. Man labors hard, builds a conservatory, erects his furnace and heating apparatus, and with great expense and pains raises a few flowers. But God swings the frozen, barren old earth around to the sun and lets out the contract of thawing the ice and frost, causing millions of seeds to spring into life and converting the arid desert into a beautiful garden. If God can work such natural miracles what can He not also do in the spiritual world? He can make cold hearts melt and soften, causing them to blossom as the rose. Oh, the genial warmth and glow of the Spirit of God. He quickens dead spirits into life. He who brooded over the waste waters of the early world incubates dead souls into life today and brings them into a new existence. The Holy Ghost is the divine life giver. He takes the preacher’s sermons and infuses life and energy into them until they are messages of glorious fire and power. He puts new light in thee ye of the church, a new flush in her cheek, a fresh strength in her system, so that with rapid pace she runs on the errands of God. Fire is a mighty energizing force. God has created tremendous natural forces. He has stored up in the lightnings, and coal mines and tides and currents of air power enough to run the industries of the world. The same God has provided infinite might and energy in the baptism with the Spirit. Here there is ample provision made for the complete and satisfactory accomplishment of all the work of God. What folly to undertake to do divine work with human strength! What manufacturer would attempt to run his factory with a treadmill? And yet thousands of Christians are trying to do the Lord’s work with their own puny hands. Science turns on natural power by the touching of a button. Shall not the children of God learn how to apply the lightnings of the skies to the complete performance of the Master’s will in the world? Archimedes defeated the enemy by burning the vessels in the harbor of Syracuse. With a burning glass, so the story goes, he focused the rays of the sun upon the ships and they went up inflames. All that we need is to bring the divine force to bear on the human need. Than we will seethe fleets of the enemy turned into smoke and ashes, while the plans of our Adversary are utterly brought to nought. When we have divine resources why should we depend upon human? We have a God to fight our battles, why should we fight them ourselves? It is a fact that all true work, work that amounts to anything, ceases when God is not the force in operation. Human activity and human effort do not count. After God withdraws the cause is a lost one. There is no need of our going on, even with greater noise and vehemence -- it is all to no purpose. Holy fire is the only protection against wild fire and fanaticism. Moses’ rod turned into a serpent swallowed the serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians. The churches are full of fanatics – people who are foolish and blindly afraid of spirituality and thorough piety. It is sometimes said by the ignorant and talkative that the preaching of holiness is conducive of fanaticism. On the contrary it is the greatest corrective of fanaticism. it is full "of love and a sound mind." The truly sanctified man is teachable, peaceable and easy to be entreated. Holy fire is the only insurance against hell fire. When I was traveling in the Indian Territory one autumn, I was told that the greatest protection a man could have on those plains was a match -- that when the prairie fires broke out, the only safety was to start a "backfire" and burn a space over on which to stand. A place already ignited by the flame could not be hurt by a second. The Pentecostal baptism burns up all that is combustible and chaffy, leaving the heart safe from a second attack. Brother, take your choice, it is holiness or hell, holy fire or hell fire. Just as the pillar of fire was light to Israel but darkness to the Egyptians, so the Holy Ghost is clear, white light to those who want the light but darkness to those who reject it. Two men may sit in the same pew and one be fed, helped and blessed by a sermon while the other scratches his head and says he ’does not understand it.’ It is worse than Greek to him. The Spirit lights our pathway and confuses and perplexes our enemies. On what condition will this celestial fire fall upon us? In answering this question let us turn to the experience of Elijah on Mount Carmel. Here we will find the conditions enunciated in a clear and unmistakable manner. The prophet called for Israel insisting that the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of the grove should be present. The question as to the authority and divinity of the Lord Jehovah was to be settled. Elijah issued his challenge and prepared his offering. The God that answered by fire was to be conceded by all to be the true Deity. It was a whole sacrifice. The bullock was a whole bullock And unless we make an entire offering of ourselves to God there can be no answering by fire. Any degree of mental reservation will mar the integrity of the offering and retard the falling of the holy flame. Many claim that they have put all on the altar, and yet have received no answer. Usually in such cases something has been kept back from the altar. God has promised to send the fire upon a whole offering. Let God be true, though it makes every man a liar. Those who pay the price get the fire. One can have all the salvation one really wants, and it is safe to say that all over the world people have just as much of God and His grace as they really want. Elijah’s offering was entirely separated from human dependencies. Especially care was taken to prevent any human intervention. No one must be allowed to say that by an ingenious combination of friction matches the sacrifice was ignited. The water of separation was poured on until everything was soaking wet; then all stepped back from the altar making it manifest that the appearance of fire was entirely extra human in its cause. And we must be all on the altar, free from human aid and help, entirely dependent upon God for the coming of the fire. The sacrifice was definitely presented to God. Elijah stepped back, lifted his eyes to heaven, and transferred the whole affair to God. We must be definite in our asking and petitioning. It is God we are dealing with. We want him to accept us and baptize us with the Holy Ghost. We are not now giving ourselves to "the church" nor "the work," but to God Himself. He is to own us, control us, use us or let us lie idle as best suits His wisdom. We must ask for ourselves personally. Use the pronouns "I" and "me," not "we" and "us." The latter are misty and foggy and indefinite, the former personal, particular, and prevailing in their effect. Bring your guns all to bear on Number One; do not scatter shot all over the country When the fire fell it not only consumed the sacrifice, but destroyed prejudice and skepticism among the people. When the deluge of fire was seen the congregation fell upon its face with the admission, "The Lord, he is God." It takes supernatural demonstration of God’s power to wring from the people an admission like this. The hostile multitude is all about us, scoffing at the Elijahs and making sport of God’s prophets and workers. Legislation, laws, creeds, culture, money, machinery, none of these things will ever convince the world. God answering by fire can alone accomplish this blessed result. We need fire to light our unlighted candles in pulpit and in pew. The fire of God in our universities and colleges would turn these centers of learning into centers of flaming revivals. Our schools would then, instead of spending so much time in stuffing heads and training heels, devote much attention to the melting and molding of hearts into Christlikeness. Instead of turning out moral cowards, blatant skeptics, and spider legged dudes and dandies, our institutions would give to the world at home and abroad a race of successful soul winners. The last point of which we wish to speak is the suddenness of the fall of fire. It just leaped like lightning and fell upon the consecrated offering. No one gets sanctified gradually. The Lord comes suddenly into His holy temple. While untold thousands stand and testify to having been sanctified, none profess to have grown into it or acquired it by degrees. In all cases the work is the work of a moment, for God is a great God and call do great things in an instant. Praise the Lord. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 01.02. ESTABLISHED IN CHRIST ======================================================================== Established in Christ "Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath so sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts " (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). We readily recognize several very prominent thoughts suggested in the text. First, ’’in grace’’; second, ’’stablished"; third, ’’sealed’’; fourth, ’’anointed"; fifth, "the earnest of the Spirit,’’ and sixth, "fellowship." To be "in Christ’’ is a profound privilege. Salvation in its initial stages is a magnificent thing. It is the largest blessing that has ever been launched into this world for the benefit of the race, and the hour when men become Christians is an hour they will celebrate forever. If one should have been converted so early in life that one does not remember the time, it will be remembered in the resurrection. Each of us will have a day and an hour to celebrate forever and ever. To be "in Christ" means very much more than is often supposed. It is not merely to be in Christ as we are in a house with the privilege of going out and coming in, or in a cave where we can run in and out at will. To be "in Christ" is to have an experience like the finger is in the hand; a vital union like that of the branch in the vine, vitally connected with Christ. There are a great many people who suppose that Christianity is something that you can put on for a day or an hour and throw it off, and pick it up and put it on and throw it off again, and that it is sort of like a loose garment to be worn when convenient; but, while it is possible for people to backslide and be finally lost, it means so much more to be in Christ than the average thinker supposes that I want to emphasize the fact tonight that to get into Christ is to be "planted" in the house of our God, and” they that are planted in the house of our Lord flourish in the courts of our God." There is a great deal of difference, however, between being "planted" and "stuck in." Most of folks seem to have been stuck in. The fewest number seem to have roots. It is a rare thing that men are so planted by the hand of God Himself that they really flourish in the courts of the Lord’s house. We are coming back more and more to the Book, and we are praying God that the people may come back to the Book. We have not made anything by drifting from it. We have gained nothing by our "creeds" and our "catechisms" and our man made "declarations of faith" and” statements of doctrine." We have gained nothing by drifting from the Book to something manufactured by brains, and we will never "flourish" until we get back to our grandfather’s Bible and get our great grandmother’s religion and have old-fashioned Bible experiences like they had when they used to be "planted in the house of the Lord." May God give us some good clear cases of regeneration in these meetings. I have sometimes felt that I would like to be identified with some movement that would especially emphasize regeneration. We have preached holiness, and some of us have practiced holiness, and we have testified to holiness for years and years, but the doctrine of Bible regeneration is sadly neglected, and there are thousands of people who do not know the magnitude of this tremendous grace of regeneration, the new birth and justification. God has let some of us see in these last days that our only hope for the successful spread of true holiness is the emphasis of the truth in its initial stages. People must start well. People must be rooted and grounded and settled in Jesus Christ. Brother, if you have regeneration, you have something which hooks you up to the enginery of heaven and cables you to the Eternal until, if you should ever backslide, you will know you have lost something and will miss it. A good many people could ’backslide" and never miss anything. The next thought in our text is "stablished." The word "stablish" means the same as sanctify, namely, to eradicate or extract from the human heart everything movable, everything vacillating, everything uncertain, everything that wabbles, and leave only that which will stand the shocks of hell’s artillery here and the awful tests of the Judgment hereafter. We want something to settle us -- to stablish us -- to fix us. It is in the text, and He will give it to us. When we get sanctified wholly we will lose all this wriggle and wabble and shiver and leaning and propping, and will get a framework in our souls capable of resisting all the combined forces of earth and hell pitted against us. We need this in these awful times, in these uncertain times, in these windy times; in these times when wicked men are waxing worse and worse and strong positive characters, filled with error, are planting themselves exactly across our track; we need something that the devil himself is not able to vanquish. The largest ships that float roll and tumble and quake and rock on the tempestuous sea, but right out there is an iceberg which is seen to resist every billow that dashes against it, unmoved and unshaken. Why? eight-ninths of an iceberg is under water. If an iceberg stands one hundred feet above the water it goes down eight hundred feet below the surface, and the great body of the iceberg is in the still, undisturbed, restful, quiet waters below where the storm never stirs things, and the surface agitation accomplishes nothing. If God’s people could be eight-ninths root instead of eight-ninths top, it would take more than the storms of hell to shake them. The best gunboats that go to sea are principally under water. Those that are nearest to being entirely below the surface are the most efficient. What we want is not to get away up where the devil can have all power over us and at us, but to get down where we can load and fire, and be protected, be settled, be grounded, be fixed, so the breakers will simply break upon us and rollback into the sea perfectly powerless. God can settle us down. There are a great many people in these days who are so active in what they suppose to be the service of God that they do not seem to have time to "settle." They do not seem to have the time to take root and bury themselves below the surface, out of sight. The grandest saints that ever lived have always taken time to settle. I remember one saint who always prayed two hours a day, and if he had an extra heavy day’s work he prayed four hours instead of two, but nowadays if we have an extra heavy day’s work we sometimes forget to pray at all. We are so active and so busy, and there is so much to do, and so much fuss and hum that we have hardly time to get on our knees and wait for something to happen; but it would be good for us to stop and get on our knees and stay until something comes. I sometimes go to holiness meetings and hear them go through all the rounds, and I look around to see if anything takes place, but frequently nothing happens. Such as that is a fraud. As a matter of fact you can not get twenty people together who are sanctified wholly without something occurring. What we need today is not so much profession as it is possession, not so much "going on" (there are plenty of things "going on") as an experience that will settle us down to where something is obliged to occur, so that when we touch a button and turn on the power results are inevitably forthcoming. The next thing I notice in our text is that God seals us. That word seal means "to authenticate" or "to ratify" or "to testify to." For example, the government has a seal which it puts upon weights and measures, provided they are up to the standard. The government seals and stamps a great deal of its property so that it may be known as government property. Wherever you see the "U. S." you know that the thing bearing the initials belongs to Uncle Sam. The text says we are to be sealed. We are to have the government stamp of the skies put on us. God means to seal us so they will know in three worlds to whom we belong. Now, how can God put His seal on you when you do not know yourself to whom you belong? How could God authenticate or ratify a thing that is not true? How can God put His seal upon us until we are given to Him in such a way that we know we are absolutely and peculiarly and exclusively His property? He never can. You will go around without the government stamp on you until Jesus comes, unless you get to the place where you know absolutely that you belong to God. Again, God never seals people until they are tested. Every person must be tested just as abridge when built is tested before it is opened to the public. God tests His saints before He puts His stamp on them. Do you suppose He is going to put His seal on me until He knows that I am of merchantable quality? That is what it means. God’s stamp means that we are of sound and solid quality, and that we can be turned loose on the public and proven to be just what we profess. Many of our severest tests come to us after we are consecrated. The greatest trials I have ever known came after I gave all to God. They often come very soon after we surrender all, and they come to prove that we are all right. As soon as it is proven absolutely that we are all right, God says: "You are all right, I am going to stamp you." May the Lord get some one ready to be stamped tonight. He has the stamping machine here, and He has been stamping some people here at this altar. I notice they have had some difficulty in getting ready to be stamped, and God is very careful about whom He stamps. I often see some people who profess as much as anyone else, and yet there is not that about their general bearing; there is not that somewhat which makes you think they have really been stamped. There is a difference after all. There are "holiness people" and then there are holy people, but the sad part of it is that people may be "holiness folks" without being holy folks. It takes folks who have the genuine thing to have the stamp of God put on them, and when they have the stamp it somehow or other becomes visible. It will tell in a man’s testimony; it will tell in his everyday life. There is a sort of atmosphere that surrounds a man who is genuinely sanctified and stamped by God that every sinner sort of feels. God has fire to give us that will put people under conviction, and it will be perceived in our testimonies and in our songs and in our lives. People are not ready to do anything for God until they are tried and proven and stamped. You will not pass for much in the kingdom of grace until you are stamped. God is very careful not to stamp you until you are all right. The church will stamp you, pastors will stamp you. They will put buttons all over you; they will put a Christian Endeavor or Epworth League pin on you; they will put white ribbons on you and the W. C. T. U. outfit and all that sort of thing, when God has not stamped you at all. There is a great difference between the human stamp and the Divine. Preachers are glad to get you into the church especially if you have a little money; but God puts His stamp only on folks that He knows to be solid gold, 24 carats fine. When God stamps a man the devil knows it, hell finds it out. There are a good many people who do not have enough religion to interest the devil. There are lots of people to whom he never pays much attention. But let a man get filled with the Holy Ghost and receive the stamp, and the devil will be after him hoofs and horns. May God give us enough religion to stir things. I would rather make folks mad than to have them go to sleep. It is an awful thing to think of people going to hell as they are, and I put the matter to myself sometimes, and say: "Seth Rees, do you believe there is a hell? Do you believe people are going there? Do you preach and act as if you did?" Most of us do not half believe that the people we come in contact with day after day are going to hell. I frequently preach to men who stand on the border lines of eternity, who hear me preach the last time they ever hear any man preach. Only a week ago last Sunday morning I preached to an audience in the State of Pennsylvania, and a man who had had chance after chance to give himself to God and would not do it, sat just in front of me. While I was preaching, for some reason or other, he rose up and walked out the door. At the close of the service the pastor of the church was so impressed with the fact that the man would be dead before night, that he said to me: "I feel so surely that that man will be dead before night, that I would not be surprised when I go back to class meeting at 2:15 to hear that Geo. Pierce is dead." And when he went back that was just exactly what he did hear. That man walked out of that house and into eternal night, and I said to myself: "Do you know that you preached to a man the last time he ever heard anyone preach, and was there enough gospel in that sermon to save him?" I am feeling more and more in these days that I must not preach a single sermon out of which a perishing soul can not get enough truth to save him. If you were testifying, and it was the last time some man would ever hear a testimony, could he gather from what you say that he could have this salvation by repenting and believing? Supposing he hears you sing Sunday morning in the church, can he get enough out of the singing to tell him how to get saved? In some of our churches I fear he could not even understand what the soloist was singing. God help us as preachers and singers and workers! Hell is not more than two hundred yards away to many a soul, and many a time we can smell the brimstone. I say to you that it is time that holiness people were awake. The Spirit has impressed me that we are not aroused and stirred up as we ought to be about the fact that there is an eternal hell and that men are going to it in great companies. How long is it since you had a wakeful night because people were going to hell? Tell me, how long is it since you have wept over the fact that people are going to be damned? You profess to be "sanctified"; very good, but God in heaven help us, if we have not enough salvation to stir every fiber of our beings for the salvation of souls. The next thing that I notice in the text is that we are "anointed." The priests and kings and prophets of Old Testament times were anointed with oil. Oil is the divinely selected symbol of the Holy Ghost. Just as the priests and prophets entered on their office work by the anointing with oil, God means that every one of His children shall be anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit; that not one shall enter upon the work of prophet, priest, or king, (all of which we are after we are fully sanctified), until he receives this anointing. One mistake of these times is that folks are going to work without anything to work with. They are going to war without any gun. They are starting out to perform the Lord’s work without having tarried in the upper chamber in Jerusalem until they were anointed. Those who have been anointed succeed and they accomplish what God wants them to. I notice that this is an anointing not only with the Holy Ghost and with fire provided by Jesus Christ, but it is an anointing with the Bible; God melts His truth and anoints us with the liquid. In a certain and very important sense this anointing is to be repeated. Not in the sense of repentance, not in the sense of baptism, but fresh anointings with the oil of the Spirit are needed again and again all through our spiritual experience. The trouble with people is that they lack oil. Oil is necessary in order that the machinery may run smoothly, without friction and without excess of wear and tear. God’s people have to be frequently anointed with oil to keep them running smoothly. Lots of people get rusty and snappy; they get to screeching, and, soon, if they do not take care, there is a "hot box." Oh, that God may anoint us tonight afresh; anoint our eyes and enable us to see the King in His beauty; anoint our ears that we may hear the words of Almighty God; anoint our fingers that they may know how to perform the work of God; anoint our feet that we may run swiftly on the errands of God. We need to be in a hurry, for God is in a hurry to save men. If we want to keep up we will have to be nimble and oiled, running smoothly. God give us the oil. Brother, I am afraid you are nearly dry. It does not do to run machinery dry. It will pay you to stop and oil up, even if you seem to get behind schedule time. Many a preacher would save time if he would stop and oil up. How easily this oil makes folks run. You can take a sword and cut a man’s head off and have him smile while you do it. You can skin him alive and he will feel good about it. Many a man can not preach the truth without making men mad, and takes to himself great credit because of the fact, but when you get the real ointment you can cut a man to pieces and apply the healing oil and cure him perfectly. If we had this oil we would not be peevish and hard to please. Such tempers do not correctly represent holiness anyhow. God save us from misrepresenting the Christ of God who suffered and died for us. May God give us an experience that is so oiled that we can run with perfect ease and without friction and without worry. More people die of worry than of work. Beloved, you will get this on your knees looking at none but God. Just try it. Let things goon without you a while. They will go on just the same when you are dead. Remain seeking until you feel the oil all through you. There is something so refreshing about people who get well oiled. How I love to hear a man preach who spends a good deal of time on his knees. I like good preaching. I am a splendid listener. Oh, how soul refreshing it is to hear a man preach who is fresh from his closet, who hurries from his private devotions to his public ministry with something to pour out on his people. Why, the people never seem to get enough of such preaching, and you can preach to them an hour and twenty minutes, and they will shout, "O, go on, go on; don’t stop now!" There is something about the genuine thing that is so soul inspiring and invigorating that you do not seem to get tired of it. You can hear a man preach the same thing over and over again, and every time you hear it, you say, "Bless God, it is better than before." It is like turkey, the more you warm it over the better it is. But I must call your attention to something else in this text. It says that we are "stablished with Him." That means fellowship, human and Divine. I am so glad the Lord did not set us all off to ourselves, "one in a hill." I am so glad the Lord fixed us up so we mutually help each other and are "stablished together." There are a great many people who have the mistaken idea that we are to be "fixed off to ourselves"; they will not fellowship with folks unless they see eye to eye with them. If I could not fellowship people unless they saw eye to eye with me I would have it "one in a hill" sure enough! You may differ from me about many things, but, sir, if you are filled with the Holy Ghost and I am filled with the Holy Ghost we are "stablished together," and we lose sight of these minor things and run together like drops of water and are one. I never saw some of you until within the last few days, and yet I feel as if I had known you for a long time and I shall love you forever. I may never meet you again, probably never will, but we are "stablished together." I want to impress this point: Christians are essential to each other. Not in the sense of leaning upon each other, but in a very important sense we are essential to each other’s piety and progress. I need your prayers, I need your sympathy and I need your help, and you need mine. We need the prayers and help of all the saints and we must not get to a place where we” do not need anything," for we are to be "stablished together." This fellowship makes a beautiful setting to things. Take the high church Episcopalian, and the blue stocking Presbyterian and the "broad brimmed" Quaker and the reformed Lutheran and fit them all in together; they make a beautiful mosaic. That is the reason I like union services. I like to have folks all mixed up until "you can not tell one from the other." When we get this blessing we are in inner, spiritual fellowship with God and the great bloodwashed throng, whether dead or alive. We are of kin to Abraham. When I meet him on the streets of the New Jerusalem I believe I will know him without an introduction. I believe we will know the prophets intuitively, and the men about whom we have read. They are our kin folks. They were "no good" for this world, because "the world was not worthy" of them, and so they jumped over the battlements of heaven and ran up the shining way, and we are running after them, and we are going to meet them again. I belong to this holy brigade. It contains a few queer folks, but I am not going back on my people because there are a few cranks among them. They are my folks -- they are the bloodwashed. Some of them have only a thimbleful of brains, but they have sense enough to keep under the blood, and I have sense enough to stay with them. How many of us have been "planted," and "stablished," and "sealed," and "anointed," and are in fellowship with each other? If we have those five points, then we have the other. It is an” earnest of the Spirit." What is an "earnest"? This is an expression taken from an old custom of giving a sample of the things sold from the seller to the purchaser. For instance, if real estate was sold, a basin of earth was given by the one selling the property to the buyer. The basin of earth was a testimony that the whole farm was the buyer’s. When we get the” earnest of the Spirit’’ and are baptized with the Holy Ghost, we get only a basin full of what is to come, and if we get so happy over a basin full, what will we do when we have the whole thing? If we can scarcely stay in our boots with "the earnest," what are we going to do when all the delights and glory of the coming kingdom burst on our vision. The earnest of earth was a pledge that the whole farm was to follow. In the "earnest of the Spirit" God pledges that everything that He has is to follow. Certainly then there is nothing in the future to take the "dumps" about. We know that all that awaits us is something off of the same piece of cloth; and to be filled with the Spirit here, which is only an earnest of what is to come, is to be filled with the assurance from God Himself that we shall have everything He has in store, and that He will never stop until He sees that we have it. Glory to God! The earnest of the Spirit should quicken me because it is an evidence that I am to have the fullness of resurrection life. The "earnest of the Spirit" should comfort me now as a token that I am to have the fullness of joy and eternal consolation. The earnest of the Spirit should illuminate my heart because it is a promise that eternal day is going to break upon me and a time when the sun will never set. I want to testify to you in conclusion that I have received the earnest of the Spirit, and am receiving all that I can hold. The Lord sometimes blesses me almost to death, and I do not know but what He means to take me to heaven in that way sometime. I am as willing to go in that way as any. God does sometimes bless people until the vessel breaks and they fly away. Some people are afraid of getting blessed. Do not be afraid, you will not be hurt. Open your heart just now, and let Him come in. Let Him bless you now. Glory to His name! How many of us have received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire since we were converted? preached at Cincinnati, Ohio December 2, 1898 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 01.03. GOD'S CHOICE OF INSTRUMENTS ======================================================================== God’s Choice of Instruments "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are" ((1 Corinthians 1:27-28) Corinth was a city famous for wealth, culture, science, and arts, and infamous for vice. It abounded with philosophers and rhetoriticians. It was a great center of learning; and yet in this first chapter of the epistle which the Holy Ghost had sent to the church at Corinth, He gives expression to these important truths set forth in our text, viz., that God, the great God, has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise. We have in the text a list of persons and things which God chooses for the battles of faith and triumphs of grace. It may be that you will be surprised tonight to find yourself left out of God’s first choice, and yet you have an excellent opportunity to come in if you will. You have your choice -- you can be among the foolish things, or among the despised things, or among the weak things, or among the base things, or among the things that are not at all; for these five things cover all that is expressed here as God’s choice of persons and things for the accomplishment of His greatest achievements. The first in the list is "the foolish things." God has chosen foolish things with which to confound the wise. The Corinthians must have been terribly chagrined and humiliated to find that if they were to serve God and be used of Him they must ignore their culture. Corinth was a sort of modern Boston, and Paul tells them that God holds their culture in derision, and if they serve God they must give it up or at least ignore it and be among the foolish things. This was an awfully hard saying for the Corinthians, but God’s Word is settled forever in heaven; when He makes a choice the best thing we can do is to say, "Amen." If God counts us in, it is not wise for us to count ourselves out. God chooses the foolish things. It must have seemed very foolish to the people of Jericho or the army of God, 600,000 men, to march around Jericho with no weapons but ram’s horns! Think of it. What artillery! What cannonading can they do? To the military wiseacres this was worse than nonsense; but still the 600,000 men marched and did nothing but blow ram’s horns until the time came to shout, and when they shouted the echo of their shout was answered by the roar and crash of the falling walls of the doomed city. The thing that seemed foolish proved the greatest triumph possible on that occasion. "Foolish things" hath God chosen. It must have seemed very foolish to smart men for Christ to tell twelve disciples to feed five thousand men and possibly fifteen thousand women and children with nothing in sight but five loaves and two fishes. They would have said at Harvard, or Brown, or Yale, or Oxford, that that was all nonsense, but it proved the victory that He intended. It seemed very foolish for Jesus in choosing disciples to ignore Jerusalem with the Sanhedrin and all its culture. How strange that He ignored Rome; Rome ruled the world, and was in the height of her splendor. The Son of God goes down to the shores of Galilee and gets twelve men, unlearned, hard of heart, with broad, brawny hands accustomed to handling the oar and tugging at nets. Not one of them were educated. What a foolish thing to put them at the head of a movement that was expected to evangelize the world! But, sir, when He had chosen them and fitted them with fire out of the skies, the wisdom of this world was not able to resist the power with which they spake. If you accomplish the things that God wants you to accomplish, you may have to ignore what little you may have above the collar button, and turn in with the foolish folks, for they are the people who thresh the mountains and beat them small as dust. They are the people that God uses to confound heady, high-minded, lofty folks. I see clearly some of you do not care to muster here. Well, you have another chance. The next choice that God makes is the choice of "the weak things." How easy it is for God to do things when He undertakes to do them. Pharaoh thought that his oppression of the people of God would result in the extermination of the nation, but the very edict he sent forth opened the door for the little Moses to slip into his own house and be treated as his own son, finally overthrowing his throne and scattering the Egyptian tyrant and his people upon the shores of the Red Sea. Thus was the wisdom of Egypt confounded. The time has come when we ought to stop long enough to remember that in the whole of history culture has often been associated with the darkest ages. Egypt was the center of learning when Moses lived, and he had received an education that was at the top of everything; he had been "through the schools," for we are told that he was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Yet God would not let him use his culture. Egypt knew the art of embalming and the science of medicine as they are not known today. There is no undertaker now who can embalm as old Pharaoh was embalmed. Look at him today in the British Museum. The Egyptians had culture and wisdom; they had the arts and sciences that seem to have been lost, and some people wonder if the lost arts are more numerous than the living arts; but their culture did not save them; their learning did not redeem them. Babylon was once the center of culture, but what did Babylon come to? The king said, "Is this not Babylon that I have builded?" and that very night God’s word came, and the king went out under a strange form of insanity and ate grass like an ox, and the sight of Nebuchadnezzar’s grandeur can not be identified with certainty today. Greece was the center of learning at one time. Some think that the highest form of culture that this world has ever known was in Greece about the time that Paul stood at Athens when his soul was stirred within him and he denounced the whole thing, and preached to them just as he preached at Corinth, and just as I am preaching to you tonight. All our culture and refinement aside from salvation do not and can not help us. We are in bondage in these days, making a god of culture, making a god of the things of this world. God help us to keep things in their right order. No one will understand that I have any war with education or with learning. For these sixteen years I have been a student, and I am applying myself more closely than ever, but we do not want to let our heads get in the way of our hearts; we do not want anything to prevent us from sitting at the table of the Lord and eating a good square meal. We want to be so humble and childlike that God can use us as He wishes. "The weak things." What was weaker than Moses’ rod? God sent Moses against the mightiest empire of the world. Egypt then ruled the world. When Moses was wanted for God’s service he was found on the back side of a mountain feeding sheep. God found him with just a shepherd’s stick, and said, "What is that thou hast in thy hand?" and he answered, "A rod," and God said, "Throw it on the ground," and when he had done so it became a serpent, and Moses was afraid of it, but God said, "Take it by the tail," and he trusted God and took it by the tail, and it became a rod again. He stretched that rod over Egypt ten times, and ten times the heavens parted and God sent judgment on that people. With that rod he smote the waters of the Red Sea and they parted. With that rod he struck the rock at Horeb, and a vast Mississippi River sprang forth, enough for three and a half million famished souls, with all the flocks and herds. God chose "the weak thing." What was weaker than David’s sling? It was just such a sling as any boy could make. David slipped down to the brook and picked up five stones, and gained a victory for God that all the army of Israel had failed to gain. Many a time God takes a single man or boy or girl to win a victory that a whole army of folks can not win. God knows how to use weak things. He knew how to tumble a cake of barley meal down into the camp of the Midianites, and have it confuse them so that they fell to slaying themselves, and the victory was the Lord’s. What could be weaker than "Gideon’s three hundred," and what were their weapons? Nothing but lamps and pitchers, and the lamps would not shine until the pitchers were broken. The earthen pitcher represents the majority of Christians today who have never been smashed to pieces by the power of the Holy Ghost. But when the pitchers were broken the light shone out, and three hundred men with nothing but light were enough to scatter the enemy and give victory. If General Grant had been going to fight a battle he would have wanted more men than that. The American forces called for something more than that in our recent struggle. But when God wants to fight a battle He delights in getting hold of the smallest thing He can find. I have a special friend who was saved from an awful life. He used to be a drunkard, and would lie on the streets night after night, and wake up in the morning with his long hair all frozen to the sidewalk; but God saved him, and he has had ten thousand converts for God. When he was saved and sanctified he could not spell a-b-c, but he trusted the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost taught him to read, and he read the fourteenth chapter of John without ever learning to read. I can furnish you good men with reliable Christian characters who will testify to the truth of what I am saying. He read the fourteenth chapter of John in a miraculous way. He is a wonderful success in soul saving. I wish we had more like him. He can jump the highest and shout the loudest and get more souls for God than any one I know. God knows how to use the weak things, and I say, "Amen." It is very seldom God chooses a man with a "plug hat." He hardly knows what to do with folks that undertake to add a cubit to their stature, but He does know how to work with weak things. He knows what to do with a worm. Why? Because a worm has no backbone. He says He can thresh the mountains with a worm; but He can not with you, because you have swallowed a yardstick, and you go about erect and stiff and haughty with a will of your own, not having submitted yourself to the righteousness of God. God can not get a chance at you, but if you were willing to be weak, He could use you and would. The next in the roll of honor are the despised things. God has chosen the despised things .And, by the way, men do not live very close to God very long without meeting a great deal of opposition and a great deal of persecution. A man who walks with God will feel many a time the hot breath of persecution upon his inner spirit as it comes from the regions of the damned. He will frequently feel the persecution if he is in this holy war for God. He will be persecuted by whole regiments of devils, and, as all the devils have once been angels, they know how to play the angel and deceive people. Many a preacher is deceived and is leading his people down to hell, because he is duped and blinded by Satan in angel’s clothes. What we want is a salvation that is real, lets us know what we are, and gives us a persecution which will make us despised. When you get the genuine thing you will not have to seek persecution. Sometimes people seek persecution. I know a man in Boston who, I think, rather enjoyed going to jail. He was put in jail because he preached on the street. They offered to give him a license, but he would not take it, but continued preaching and going to jail. It is possible for a little bit of self to get in here, and seek persecution, but if you have the genuine thing you will not have to seek it; it will come without any attention on your part. Some people read that fourth chapter of Acts where it says, "They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus," and think that when they get the genuine thing every one will like them, but they ought to read on further in that chapter and see what they were going to do with the disciples when they knew they had been with Jesus. You will find they wanted to kill them. This experience will make this world want to kill you. God save us from our nonsense, from our fallacy. God hath chosen the despised things. He uses things that are cast out. When Jesus heard that the man was cast out of the synagogue he took him in, and when we are rejected and despised and driven and scattered, then God comes and gives us the victory. It was when the church was persecuted, when she was despised, that she had the greatest power. When the Methodists had no tall steeples, when they had no grand, groaning pipe organs, when they did not have a D. D.. LL. D., Ph. D. in the pulpit, when they did not have schools and libraries, and popularity and a name in the earth as they have now; it was then they had ten converts where they now have one. They were "despised," and the name "Methodists" was given them in derision, because they did not have any method. You can not say that about them now. Take the early Quakers. The people used to hang us and burn us; they hung people for preaching the very gospel I am preaching to you now, and it was in those early days that the power of God spread all over the country. When all the Quakers were in jail and children ten and twelve years old held services while their fathers were in prison there was more power evident than in this "the day of Christian liberty." Those preachers sometimes preached to acres and acres of faces in the open air, and hundreds of men fell in the grass under the old fashioned slaying power of God. Some are coming back to primitive piety and power, and I have sometimes seen in our own Church whole congregations fell under the power of God. Some one said today: "Did you ever see anything such as we had last night?" I have seen four or five times that much in the most staid and proper meetings you ever saw, where the fire swept from the altar back to the door and spread allover. We are despised for it. We belong to the Sheep Skin and Goat Skin Brigade of whom this world is not worthy. We are not in this world to reform it. We do not believe this world is going to be saved as a whole, but our duty is to get people to take for the lifeboats and be rescued. We are not here to organize great institutions. We are here to do a little service for God until He gets through with us, and then we are going to heaven. It was when the Salvation Army had six hundred captains and officers in jail in nineteen countries that they had four times as much power with God and souls as they have tonight. It was when they sang and prayed and shouted in the streets when snow and slush and stones were thrown at them, and they were dragged off to jail; it was then that they had their power. I pray God He will raise up some folks nowadays who will arouse the animosity of the devil until there will be persecution worth talking about. God takes the "despised things," and when the devil is through with a man the Lord takes him up. There are people here who would like to be ’’somebody.’’ Well, you never will. You had better give that up now, for you are bad mud to begin with, and the only way you can be any good is to be saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. The angel of God met Joshua, when Joshua thought he was captain, and he said, "Who is this?" and the angel said, "I am captain of the Lord’s host," and Joshua said, "I thought I was captain," but he resigned and recognized the angel as captain. It is time we understood that the angel of the Lord is captain of the Lord’s host, and that it is our place to resign, but we sort of hesitate about throwing in our lot with these "second rate" folks. God always takes the second rate folks. He does not know what to do with the "first rate" folks. The next in the roll of honor are the base things. God has chosen some of the vilest persons that ever walked this earth. There was St. Augustine. He was not only licentious, but his body was literally falling to pieces as a result of excesses, and God took him and saved him, and healed his body; and you read about him as the sainted Augustine. God gave him a half century of unparalleled usefulness, and then took him home, although he had been one of the vilest men whoever walked this earth. God chose Jerry MacAuley from Water Street to accomplish more for Him than all the white cravated preachers in the city. God went down to Water Street and picked him up. There were lots of people up town who were awaiting an appointment, but God never makes use of a person who is out of a job. If he wants some one to do something he always chooses the one who is hard at work. Jerry MacAuley had a job. There was nothing they wanted in hell that that man would not do, and God saw there was good stuff in him, and He took out the devils and put in angels. One of the basest souls who walked the streets in the Bowery district was that frail little Jessy DeVie, thirteen years in street life, at the age of twenty-six. Think of it. Yet God chose her and called her, and planted that wonderful shelter for fallen women in Mulberry Bend, that has been such a monument of divine grace in the last few years. God chooses "the base things." We have learned to sort of side in with everything that God chooses, for we want Him to choose us every time there is anything to be chosen. So we side in with people who are next to God. If we can not be with them in any other way we can pray for them, and it will pay us to do it. You have only one more chance, and some of you are not in yet. If you do not get in pretty soon you will not get to muster in with God’s folks. He has chosen "the foolish things," and "the weak things," and "the despised things," and "the base things," and then his last choice is "the things that are not." Oh, you had better have come in sooner. God takes the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are. It is wonderful to be willing to be counted foolish and weak, and willing that folks say you are weak minded; it is wonderful to be willing to be despised, and rejected, and scattered, and kicked out of town; that is wonderful, it is blessed. It is a wonderful thing to be willing to be counted with the base folks, but it is more wonderful still to be willing to be seen among those who are "not at all." Paul was that kind. He says "I, no not I, I made a mistake; it is not I, but Jesus Christ." He declared he was crucified with Christ, and that Christ was all and in all. We can have an experience where we have "sunk down" out of sight and the Son of God is come to the front; where we are nobody, with no reputation, nothing to pay, nothing to gain, nothing to lose. have lost everything in the fire, and we have gained everything. So we are not running any risk. We have no reputation except what the devil gives us, and we do not have to take care of that. Some folks run around taking care of their reputation. I remember a blacksmith whom the people advised to look up some things that had been said against him. They said his reputation would be ruined. He was hammering on the anvil at the time, and he said, "Well, I could soon hammer out another one." And so I am so full of preaching that if they take away my reputation I will preach out a new one, and if they take that away I will preach out another one, and I think each one will bean improvement on the old one. When the New York Herald took me up and just spread me out among nearly a million people, folks said, "You ought to answer." I said "I have no time, I am preaching. What time have Ito fool with a little thing like the New York Herald?" When the Philadelphia papers blew me up so high, they said to me, "You ought to just make them smoke." I said, "The most of them smoke now; and that is not all. The smoke of their torment is going to ascend up forever and ever. They are going to have enough to suffer. I would not add anything to it. They are giving me a free advertisement; that is what they are doing." I believe I may say, without egotism, that in the last thirty days I have refused four calls to where I have accepted one. Yet, I see preachers sitting around looking for a job, and they even advertise in the holiness papers. God have mercy on us. I would not do that. Oh, beloved, do you know when you get to be nobody you never feel disturbed. I can say to you I never slept sweeter when a child than I did when pulpits and papers were against me. I held a ten days’ camp meeting in my soul. Well, you will have to be willing to be nobody, to be nothing, or stay out. You hung around the edges when we were talking about "the foolish" and "the weak" and "the base" and "the despised." You did not like them, but this is your last chance. To be nobody means to get sanctified wholly, and let people kick you and roll you and tumble you and you not complain. Oh, for something that will awake folks and bring out the best there is in them for God. If you will come just now and let God send the sin killing baptism on your soul and put out all the pride and vanity and just melt you down at His feet, He will know just what to do with you and make use of you, and you will have a blessed time being one of "the things that are not." Preached at Cincinnati, O., December 7, 1898. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 01.04. STEPHEN'S FULLNESS ======================================================================== Stephen’s Fullness "And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost "(Acts 6:5). This is our first introduction to Stephen. We know nothing of his birthplace or childhood, his genealogy or his education. We are not told his political, social, or financial standing. We do not know whether he came off Fifth Avenue or off the Bowery; out of the slums or from up town. We are at once introduced to his Christian experience. This makes me think that Christian experience is the most important thing that heaven sees in a man; and we are told at once that Stephen "was full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." So this must be the Divine standard for the measurement of man. Men have their standards; men measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with each other; but God has His standard, and when man stands up alongside of God’s measuring line he finds himself too short. A little boy told his mother that he was six feet tall; and when she doubted his statement, he assured her that he had just measured himself by his own little feet. That is the way men measure themselves; that is the way men measure each other. They measure by their own rule. But God has a rule, and when we are measured by God’s rule we are altogether too short. God has a way of making men measure up, and if you feel a shortage tonight in your Christian experience, I am delighted to be able to tell you that God has a plan by which your shortage may be supplied, and there may creep into your soul the consciousness that God has rounded you out and filled you up until you meet the Divine expectation. I notice that Stephen had a double allowance. He was twice full. Most people are not once full. But he was "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost;" and while I do not care to draw the line too closely between the fullness of faith and the fullness of the Spirit, yet there are a great many people who have doubtless at some time received the Holy Ghost who are not very full of faith. There are some here now who do not have the faith they should have. We will never have much more faith than we have, unless we stop talking doubt and unbelief; for if we talk doubt we will have doubt; if we talk unbelief it will grow on our hands; but if we will cultivate faith, if we will encourage faith, we will have plenty of it. Faith is not only the gift of God, but "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," and we ought to have fullness of faith in Jesus Christ. We ought to be believing for larger things. We ought, with our faith, to look out beyond the most forbidding things that threaten us; for "all things are possible with God," and "to him that believeth." It is the people that are believing that get blessed, I do not care what the subject is. Take the subject of salvation, and the people who scratch their heads and doubt never get blessed. Take the question of sanctification, and the people who hang around the edges and say, "I do not believe this, and I do not believe that," never get very happy. You never see them filled with ecstasy and devotion. Take the question of divine healing, and the people who always say they do not believe, do not get much out of it. It is the folks who believe that get blessed. Beloved, you and I ought to let faith abound. We ought not to talk unbelief, or permit ourselves to mix up with any kind of doubt about anything which God has promised in His Word. I notice that Stephen was right in his "faith" intellectually, he was right in his faith experimentally, and he was right in his faith practically. Now, it is worth something to be right in your faith intellectually. I know that some people tell us that it does not make any difference what people believe if they are only sincere and honest. I grant that there are some people who tumble into sanctification without having their heads right; but if they stay right in their hearts, they will soon straighten up in their heads. It is worth something to have the truth in our heads. In these days of error, in these stormy times, I think it is important that you and I should be grounded in the truth, and should study our Bibles to know whether God has a salvation that is as big as our need, whether the remedy is as great as our disease. They are telling us everywhere that it is not. They are telling us everywhere that the best thing we can have is the power to control and subjugate sin; but if we can find out from our Bibles that we can be saved from all sin, we have got a good start. That is worth something. Yet there are people who are right in their heads on the question of holiness, especially Methodists and Quakers, who are not right in their hearts. But God has a plan by which we can be right in our hearts. Stephen found out God’s plan, and found the blessing; and some of us have found out God’s plan, and received the same blessing as Stephen, and we feel good about it. You can get God’s plan and have the same experience as Stephen, and it will make you right in your heart. This is exceedingly important; for the heart is your home; it is the place you live. If people can live right in their kitchens, in their homes, and around their own firesides, they can generally behave themselves when they have company. And Stephen was right practically. He was a man of good report. He was a man who was right in his walk. What he had in his head had dropped down into his heart, and he practiced what he preached. God help us to do thus in these days when men can so easily break engagements, and for such a trifling thing fail to keep their word! I pray that God may make us practical in our faith! Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost. He did mighty works and miracles among the people. He had a power that gainsayers could not resist, which is something that is very much needed nowadays. He not only had the power to perform miracles, but he had the power to stop the mouths of people and to spike the devil’s guns. We need it in these days, and, thank God, He is bestowing it. Without our scarcely lifting a finger he is giving us power to create confusion in the devil’s camp. All that we have to do is to go up and take the spoils. O beloved, when you get the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, it will not only straighten you out in your head, but it will straighten you out in your life. It will give you a power which will make you irresistible and invincible. And that is the thing which the preachers and deacons and ecclesiastics do not like; for they want folks that can be managed, and it is awfully embarrassing to "the powers that be" to find men that have a blessing that is unmanageable. The next thing I noticed about Stephen’s blessing was, that in those days it did not debar him from official position in the church, but rather confirmed him in his office. He was chosen because he was a man "full of faith and the Holy Ghost." Now, that leads me to think that, if the Church of today followed the Pentecostal Church in its selection of officers, she would choose Spirit-filled men; she would select men who were full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. But who does not know that in these days a man who is guilty of having Stephen’s blessing is placed at a great discount by the ecclesiastical authorities and powers in our churches? Let me say to you that when a witness and advocate of full salvation is held in disrepute in the church, there is something radically wrong and there ought to be a reformation. Nowadays many a man who gets Stephen’s blessing goes out of office rather than in. Many a woman has lost her position as President of the Ladies’ Aid Society because she obtained Stephen’s blessing. She could not dry the church dishes any longer, and she had to go. And many a man has been removed from the position of Superintendent of the Sunday. school or teacher of the Bible class because he got Stephen’s blessing; and many a poor preacher has had to take to the woods and Hardscrabble Circuit because he is guilty of having Stephen’s blessing. These things make my heart sad. I smile when I think of the preacher, for I know it is good for him; but I am sad when I think of the folks, for it is awful for them. I want to tell you that when a church is in such a condition that she rejects salvation, it is no time for you to spend your time and money by undertaking to promote that condition of things. God bless you, you can thunder around at Bunker Hill if you want to; but the battle was over years ago. You can waste your ammunition on an empty battlefield if you want to; but I am going to the front. I am going to fight where God is, and where God is at work, and where the devil and the enemy are, and I am going to join hands with God. When you get Stephen’s blessing you will lose sight of things that fill your vision today, and you will see that the things eternal are the all-important things, and will seek the things that will beat par when the world is on fire. God in heaven give us something that will stand when everything else has fallen! The next thing I notice about Stephen’s fullness is, that it gave him courage. He was filled, not only with the Holy Ghost, but with courage. To have encountered the jeers and assaults of the world and of worldly people would have been heroic; but to be attacked by the church, which should have stood by him, to be arrested by the people who should have been his friends, to be misunderstood and misrepresented, that was something awful; and yet Stephen stood out before allsorts of opposition. Look at him before the council! The Spirit of God comes upon him, and he arraigns the council before their own consciences, and charges home to judge and jury their awful crime. Such heroism as God gave Stephen is greatly in demand in these days; and when you get Stephen’s blessing you will have courage to face folks and look them straight in the two eyes and tell them the whole truth. You will not feel like crossing the street to escape meeting any one. So far as your motives are concerned, you would be willing to have them written on the wall, that people might read them; for your heart is clean as heaven; and you are not afraid to face people. Nothing else but the second blessing will do it. Beloved, there is nothing else but the second blessing that will save the church; there is nothing else that will save the world; there is nothing else that will deliver us in this age of compromise; there is nothing else that will save us from this pleasure seeking, time serving, ease loving spirit which has fastened itself on people generally. There is nothing else that will kill the indifference and laziness that is getting into the churches; that will fill us with courage; that will make us go through with God! If we do not get it, we are gone. Another thing I notice about Stephen’s blessing is, that it gave him great wisdom -- not the wisdom of this world, but the wisdom that comes from God out of heaven. Now, wisdom, concisely defined, is "knowledge, with ability to apply it properly." That is what Stephen had, and that is what people generally want; but it is the rarest thing in all this country -- "knowledge, with the ability to apply it properly." In these days, men know a great deal. There heads are stuffed, but their hearts are starved. We do not know how to apply knowledge, and we have, therefore, a great deal of wasted energy. We have efforts that are worse than fruitless. We are making tremendous strides in activity and in energy nowadays; but the mill is not turning out much wheat. We have the noise, and the rattle, and the ceaseless hubbub in our churches; but when you go around to where the wheat ought to run out, there is nothing. God help us! What is the use in running a machine, if you can not get any wheat? What is the use of grinding, if you can not get the grist? What is the use of paying out your money, if you can not get returns? Now, I want to say something to you holiness people. You will not pay a doctor that does not help his patient, and you will not pay a lawyer that will not win his case, and it is nonsense to pay a preacher that does not get men saved and sanctified; and the time has come when God’s people must be careful that they get returns for their outlay which will stand the fire of the judgment. The time has come when I can not invest my money in foreign missions (although I believe in foreign missions), when the missionaries have not had their Pentecost. I can not put my money along lines that do not bring me returns. I have got to have ten per cent. I must have more than that-- I must have a hundred per cent. You ought to pray about this matter of where you put your money. God bless you, you can get a soul for every dollar you invest. If you do not know the place, I can tell you where. A soul is going to be worth a great deal a little later on. When gold and silver will not be worth using for sidewalks, a soul will shine with rich luster. The time has come when we are forced to pay some attention to what will catch the fish, and less attention to the appearance of our outfit and things that do not catch fish. God bless you, I am in for a whole string of fish. I would rather get a tadpole, and sometimes a sucker, if I can get also a soul, than to return with an empty net. Stephen had a blessing that put conviction on people; he had a blessing that put the hook in men’s jaws, and made that old Sanhedrin gnash their teeth and rage, while the same blessing kept him sweet meanwhile. It is one thing to stir the devil and it is another thing to have a blessing that will keep you sweet after he is stirred. I know some people who stir the devil, but he stirs them! This wisdom comes, not so much by way of Harvard and Yale, as it comes by waiting on God; not so much by study as by devotion. It comes to people who are little and unknown, and are willing to stay unknown. You do not get it by a great deal of research, but it is something that maybe revealed to a child. I have seen a child ten years old that had that which would outdo a whole regiment of bishops. I know men that have been taken from the slums and from the saloons, and been sanctified and made preachers, that I would rather have lead my work during my absence than a Doctor of Divinity or a Doctor of Laws, if he had not had his Pentecost. I like Stephen. I expect to tell him so when I see him. He did not live long, but he made a mark while he did live. I would rather preach myself to death in three months, and go to heaven as Stephen did, than to hang around for nine hundred and ninety years inactive and ineffective – I would indeed. I have told God if I can not be something more than an ordinary Christian, I do not want to be anything. I believe that God wants us to be something more than ordinary Christians: to be filled with the divine; to be irresistible; to be irrepressible; to be so that the devil himself cannot do anything with us; to be so that we can fight our way through a whole regiment of imps, and get the victory anyway. Notice another thing the blessing did for Stephen. It put a shine on his face. Look at him before the council! His face looked like that of all angel. God did it. God knows how to shine his folks for a state occasion. I believe that God put a shine on Stephen’s face for this occasion. You have known people who at first seemed homely and unlovely, but when you got acquainted with their lives, and saw how they followed the example of Jesus Christ in their walk, they got to looking really beautiful. It was not only heaven shining down on Stephen, but it was truth shining out of his soul. It takes hard wood to polish well; and do you know that, in these days, God is going into the slums, and getting knots and making good people of them, and putting a shine on them that is going to astonish angels and devils? We sit up in our cushioned pews and frescoed churches, and we are too good to go down and fish people out of the slums; and we draw up our garments when people who are a little beneath us come around, when, if we knew God as He really is, we would be thankful to help these people for God. If you have not been through the fire that burns out pride, that burns out strife and all love of self, you are short of being a good Methodist, or a good Quaker, or a good New Testament Christian. I now come to the climax of Stephen’s experience, and that is the blessing of love. The last thing I know about Stephen before he went up was, that he was praying for his enemies. In the midst of the shower of stones, with a shining face, with a loving heart, he cried to God for his enemies. That was a love that made him forget himself, that made him forget that bruise where that stone struck him on the shoulder and where that one hit him on the side of the head; that was a love that made him forget his own injuries and pray for the people who were casting stones at him. And if you are so fortunate as to get Stephen’s blessing, it will make you like Stephen in that particular, so that when people are saying all manner of things against you, you can look up to heaven and say, "God bless them." And there is no sense in your talking about being sanctified unless you can do that. If there is some one you do not love, you have not got Stephen’s blessing. If there is some one you do not care to speak to, you do not know anything about Stephen’s fullness. If there are people who have lied about you, and you do not feel good toward them, you have not got Stephen’s blessing. This world is crying out for people who have Stephen’s blessing. You step on a geranium in your garden, and you never think of begging its pardon, and yet in return it showers you all over with a sweet perfume. O, for something that will make us return good for evil, so that when people step on us and bruise us, we will just shower them all over with a bath of heaven’s fragrance! Stephen had this blessing, and we ought to have it, and when we get the baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire we will have it; and instead of feeling sensitive and peevish, and as though every one was against us, we will just shower even one with blessings. It is no wonder to me that Jesus Christ rose to His feet to receive a man like Stephen into heaven. It is no wonder to me that He rose to welcome Stephen to the sky. If you will get Stephen’s blessing, and live Stephen’s life, and die Stephen’s death, Jesus Christ will rise up to meet you. God did not make man to mock Him. God has not put the desire in your heart for Stephen’s blessing, and at the same time refused to give it to you. God will do for you exactly what He has done for others; and if you will meet the requirements and conditions, He will do it now. Amen! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 01.05. THE TRUE SAINT ======================================================================== The True Saint "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil. He shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure " (Isaiah 33:14-16). The Bible is not only a storybook, it is not only the greatest love story ever written, but it is a picture book. It is full of pictures. We have pictures of God and of heaven; pictures of the devil and of hell; of saints and of sinners; of this world and its destiny. We are fond of pictures. Most of people are fond of their own pictures, especially if they flatter them; but there are some pictures in God’s Word that we do not naturally like. There are few people who ever read the third chapter of Romans. I doubt if you ever saw a Bible that was soiled at the third chapter of Romans. It is a very rare thing for a preacher to take his text from that chapter. In that chapter we get our own photograph, and I presume that the reason we do not take to it is because it is so very much like us. The wrinkles and blemishes have not been removed. In the language which I have read to you out of God’s Word, we have a picture of a saint. There are a great many people who do not like this picture because the contrast is so great, that it puts them under condemnation. But we had better have the truth now than to have it later on. You and I are going to come in contact with the truth somewhere; we are going to face things as they really are; and I would rather face the truth now than to face it when the death rattle is in my throat. I do not want to wait until this world is on fire to know my real self and my real need and God’s real remedy; I want to know them now. I call your attention to this photograph; for God made it, and it is a good one. The first thing that I notice about this saint is his walk, his way, his bearing, down here in this world. The text says that "he walketh righteously." This must relate primarily to his relation to this world, his intercourse with the world. "He walketh righteously;" that is to say, he is a man of his word; he can be depended upon; his word is as good as his bond; and when he says he will do a thing, he will do it. If he agrees to pay you a bill upon a certain date, he will pay you then or he will be there to explain why he can not do so. He not only pays one hundred cents to the dollar, but he gives sixteen ounces to the pound, and thirty-six inches to the yard; he will not stoop to commercial trickery; he is a straight, clean man in business, as well as in pleasure and in church work. He does not make crooked paths; "he walketh righteously;" he looks before him, and he goes straight ahead. Now, there are some parts of this sermon that you will be excused if you do not shout over; and yet I have asked God to bring me to a place where I can shout as much over righteousness as over anything else. If we are not righteous in our walk, there is not very much virtue in our shouting anyway. There would be no great loss if you should stop your shouting until you can shout over righteousness; for people who do not pay their debts, and do not purpose to pay their debts, who run up a grocery bill until it is as big as they can get it, and then take their little cash and go off somewhere else to buy, turning their back on the grocery man who has trusted them for weeks, ought to stop shouting until they get saved so they can walk righteously. This man in the text would never think of riding on an electric car without paying, simply because the car was crowded, and the conductor overlooked him; he would never think of riding twice on a railroad ticket because the conductor failed to take it up the first time. This man would hunt the conductor up and give him his ticket. "he walketh righteously." There is a man like it. I believe God can make the man. The next thing I notice about this saint is his talk. "He speaketh uprightly." That is, he has stopped his lying; he tells the truth, and nothing but the truth, and always tells the truth, if he tells anything. If he is a preacher he does not lie, he does not say there were forty at the altar when there were hardly twenty. If he is a preacher, he does not write a lie, and say there are six or seven hundred attending a meeting when there are not more than two hundred and twenty-five; and if he is an editor he does not publish such lies. I do not know that he was an editor; I do not know what he was; but I have his photograph, and the Book says he "speaketh uprightly." God save us in this day from exaggeration and from lies! I am always glad to hear of a revival, and to hear of a great number being swept in; but I am not glad to hear a report of three or four hundred people converted when you can go over the spot in thirty days and not be able to find a baker’s dozen of them. This man would not falsify. "he speaketh uprightly." Beloved, do you know that life is largely made up of words; and do you know that one of the Evangelists said that "he that offendeth not in word is a perfect man"; and do you know that it is exceedingly important that we shall have the right expression about the mouth? Do you know that it is exceeding important that we shall be saved from this sin which is not lacking in a "multitude of words"? This fellow would not gossip. I can not mention gossip but that people begin to think of women; but the biggest gossips I know of are men. This man did not talk things behind people’s backs that he would not say to their faces. No, he did not. You do, but he did not. You have said things behind folks’ backs that you would not begin to say to their faces; but here is a man who is so fair and so strict and so honest that he "speaketh uprightly.’’ There is a great deal of cheap talk these days. I want to say, that light talk, chaffy, frivolous talk, fireside and table tattle, is damaging spirituality in this country. God bless you, ’we had better be as silent as the old-fashioned Quakers than to indulge in the light, chaffy talk that is in vogue nowadays. I am disgusted, I am sick and tired of people’s tongues wagging as if they were hung in the middle. If you will undertake to record the conversations of many a tea party and many asocial, you will find that they appear awful on paper. God save us from chaff, from chaffy talk; light, frivolous, senseless talk! Preachers sometimes indulge in it. With men marching into the infernal regions in regiments as they do in these days, preachers have no time to joke and jest and guffaw, and sit around in groups, like some at camp meetings and at conferences, and tell little funny stories. I tell you the time has come when we should have more weeping prophets, preachers who weep instead of laugh; that talk uprightly instead of deal in the tattle and gossip of the day. You talk chaff because you are chaffy; or, if you are not, if you talk chaff a little while, you will become chaffy. You read chaff because you are chaffy; or, if you are not, if you read chaff a little while, you will become chaffy. There is a great deal of lightweight stuff nowadays. God help us! A man that "speaketh uprightly! " O, thank God for some one who tells the truth; some one whose words are solid, are heavy. Again, I notice that this man "stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood." He did not read murder tales. The text says it: I am preaching from the text. I did not make the Bible; I am not responsible for it; but God has given me the photograph of a man who "stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood." He had evidently lost his appetite for war stories and murder trials and adultery cases; he stopped his ears, and would not hear them. Do you know that you can not let the newspapers of this country convert the center table in your drawing room into a cesspool, and pour out the vomit of hell as it is done through the newspapers, and keep your daughters and families clean? I do not care whether you shout at this or not. The fact is, we bring men into our families and set them down at our center tables in the form of a newspaper, when we would spurn the idea of our pure daughters being associated with them in any other way. The vilest men who walk the streets of our licentious city come into our homes and pour out their damnation into our families. You indulge in that sort of thing until your boys and girls have slipped through your fingers into the cesspool of iniquity, and then you come to me, as an evangelist, to pray them out! Here was a man who stopped his ears from hearing of blood. He did not take to that sort of thing. Before I get through you will find he was going to use his ears for something else, and he was taking care of them. You can not afford to soil your ears with all the voices of this world if you are going to hear the voice of God. We are living in a time when there are a great many voices speaking. The voice of pleasure wants to fill my ears. The voice of money comes, the voice of place wants a hearing; the voice of this world makes its appeal. The voice of ecclesiasticism is calling after me. Popery and all that sort of thing, is asking me to hearken, and there are a thousand voices that I might listen to; but I have to stop my ears if I am to hear the voice of God. This man did. Another thing I notice about this man is, that he "shutteth his eyes from seeing of evil." He would not look on evil things, not so much because he was afraid he would fall, as because he did not want to be contaminated. The vulgar troupes of this country can come into our city, and post bills with the most obscene pictures, and most of the preachers will not raise a voice in remonstrance; and your daughter can scarcely walk down the street without having her eyes invited to turn to some indelicate picture. But I have the picture of a man who shut his eyes to these things. I know a person who has shut his eyes many a time when he passed a saloon, not because he was in danger, but because he loathed such things. Beloved, if you go through this world staring at everything you can see, it will not be long before you can not see anything good. You look at the sun for five seconds, and you can see suns everywhere you look; and you stare around at sin in this country, and it will not be long before you can see nothing but sin. Shut your eyes to the seeing of evil, and fix them on the Son of God, and it will not be long before you can see Jesus everywhere you look. Another thing I notice about this man is, that he "shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes." He can not be bought. He has no price. He can never be bribed. He has convictions born of certainty, and has courage enough to stand by his convictions; and there are not men enough on earth or devils enough in hell to cause him to retract from his position. A great many people are bribed nowadays. Our courts are bribed, our legislature is bribed, our Congress is bribed. Our elections are controlled by bribery. Sin is running this country, and you are so weak that you will not raise a voice against it. But here was a man who could not be bought. Preachers are bribed in these days, pulpits are bought. There sits a wealthy man over there, who is interested in the wholesale liquor business, and he has got his money influence into that pulpit and preacher until that preacher has no subjects left him to preach from except "The Jews." Nine pulpits out of ten in this country are so bought and controlled that the man who stands in the pulpit on Sunday morning to read his "little sermonette," does not dare to speak against the sins of the day; and you know it, and the preacher knows it, and God knows it, and the devil knows it, and everybody knows it. But here was a fellow they could not buy. They could not scare him off from preaching the truth by threatening to take away his bread and butter. I remember when they threatened me thus. I remember that I said, "I will preach the truth if I have to live on clam shells and potato skins." I will say to you that there are men in this country who are true and loyal to God, who do not have their price, who do not work for money, who can live without a backslidden church’s bread and butter. Here was that kind of a fellow. He knew that God’s ravens were not all dead. He knew that God owned the cattle on a thousands hills, and if he got into a close place some time, God could kill a beef and send him a hind quarter. "He shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes." He did not want a stronger impulse than for some one to threaten him. He did not want anything more than for some one to say that if he did not stop preaching the truth he would be "sent off." It only moved him to preach stronger than ever before. O the bondage of this country! Just to think of having a fellow sit in the congregation, and crack a whip over my head, and tell me what to preach and what not to preach or he would not support me! Here was a man who went straight. He always went straight. He walked straight, and he talked straight, and he preached straight, and he lived straight, and he would not mix up with anything that was even suspicious. He was a man who lived above suspicion. God help us in these days to walk so they will know in three worlds who we are, where we are, and where we belong! I want them to know! I want them to know in heaven, I want them to know in hell, I want them to know in Cincinnati, that I belong to the "sheepskin society of whom this world is not worthy." I am delighted to live in tents, or holes, or any place, until they get my mansion ready. It is almost ready. I am only waiting for them to give it a few finishing touches. The next thing I want to notice about this man is his residence. If he walks righteously, and talks uprightly, and stops his ears against blood, and shuts his eyes against evil, and washes his hands from all uncleanness, I want to know where that sort of man lives. The Book tells me, " He shall dwell on high." O, thank God! He lives on the mountain top, with mountain scenery, and mountain air, and mountain sunshine. He is above the malaria and the river fog and the miasma of the lowlands. He is above the dust and the noise and the rattle of this sinful world. He lives up where the sky is clear and everything is serene. The thunder may mutter and the clouds may roll at his feet, but the sun always shines where he is. He is where the sun never sets, and where the flowers bloom forever, and where the saints never die. People tell me you can not live on the mountain top of Christian experience all the time; but here is a fellow who could, and I believe if he could, we can. "He shall dwell on high." If he ever came down into the valley at all, it was to bring up some other fellow; his home was up there. He may have come down sometimes to pull some one else out of the fire; but his dwelling was on the mountain top. O, glory to God for the mountain top of Christian experience! The next thing I notice about this remarkable man is, that though he is so high, he is perfectly safe. "He shall have for his defense the munitions of rocks." "They say"’ that a high experience is dangerous: if you get up too high you fall. In the first place, they do not understand the paradox of the thing; for in Christian experience you can get so high you can not fail; that is, if you stay in the right place. We get up by going down, and a man is away up when he is flat on his face, and when he is flat on his face he can not fall; all he can do is to roll over, and it is those people who are not on their faces that are in danger. In that position they are safe, because they have for their defense the munitions of rocks, "the Rock of Ages." He is not safe because he is a strong man, but he is safe because he is in a strong place. I was never weaker in my life than I am now, but I am in a strong place. I am in the embrace of One who hold the Universe in His power. I am kept by the power that swung the worlds into existence. While I was never more conscious of my weakness, I am also conscious that He has hooked me up to the engines of heaven, and I need fall only when the throne falls. I believe that it is possible for men to get to a place where it is easier to go the other way than to go back. I feel "a divine pull" drawing me the other way. I am inclined to think it is going to pull until it pulls me into the harbor. Oh, the security; not in ourselves, not at all; but in Jesus Christ the Son of God, who keeps us! "The conies are a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;" and if the conies do this, certainly we also can have for our defense the "munitions of rocks"; and this we have when we receive the second blessing. I notice next that "his bread shall be given him." Given him! He does not have to work for it. Oh, think what a relief! He works for the Lord, and the Lord gives him his bread, and is careful to butter it on both sides, too. Famine never reaches him; "he can not tell when heat comes. He lives up there so high above the confusion of Wall Street, that it makes no difference to him whether gold has gone up or down. All he needs is secured to him, thank God. "His water shall be sure." He drinks pure, sparkling mountain water. His well never goes dry. There are a great many people, you know, who have water in the wet season, who have "wet weather religion"; they have salvation in the winter time, when there is nothing else but revivals going on; they do not take much interest when the summer’s work is on. Their religion fails them then. Here was a man whose "water was sure." He lived in luxury three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days every year. When we get to the place where we accept our rations from God, the high God uses people to give them to us, we accept them as from Him; and whether there is much or little of them, we are thankful for them. Never since God sanctified my soul have I ever left a meeting grumbling at what I got. I have not always had enough to pay for a ticket, but I have always had enough to thank God for. The devil is telling people all over the country that if they do right they will starve. I had a gentleman in my congregation get under conviction about selling tobacco in his store. The devil told him and some of the church folks told him that if he gave up tobacco he would starve; but he put tobacco out of his store, and he did just as well with out it, and God rewarded him. My wife and I were assisting at a Convention in Boston, and a baker came to the altar and was sanctified wholly. He was in the habit of baking bread Saturday afternoon to sell Sunday morning; but when he was sanctified he went home and told his wife that he was not going to sell any more bread on Sunday. She said: "You are a fool." He replied: "I am going to walk with God;" and he got a placard and put it up, "No Bread Sold on Sunday." On Saturday he said to his wife: "I am going to bake just as much bread as I have been baking, and I expect God to sell it all out for me on Saturday;" and Saturday night at midnight he did not have a loaf left. He kept that up all the time, and God sold his bread for him. It is the devil’s lie that people can not do business on Christian principles. They can, and they can walk with God, and do anything that is right to do at all. "He shall see the King in his beauty." You remember that he refused to look at some things back yonder. He shut his eyes a short time ago, and now he sees the King in his beauty. He stopped his ears then, and now he hears the voice of God. The King fills all the horizon of his vision, eclipsing all lesser lights. He looks out over the heads of the people of this world, and sees into the land that is very far off. What a saint this man was! Why was it? He was sanctified wholly. He had had his Pentecost. He had received the second blessing. When you get it, it will do everything for you that it did for him. It will fix your walk, it will regulate your conversation, it will stop your ears, it will anoint your eyes, it will cleanse your hands, it will secure to you your bread and water, and give you a residence where the devil can not get you. A life hid with Christ in God! Oh, it is wonderful! And you can have this hidden life! You can get away from the devil, and find a place of security. Do you not want this hidden life now? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 01.06. ROOTED AND GROUNDED ======================================================================== Rooted and Grounded As ye have therefore received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving"(Colossians 2:6-7). Out of this passage the following will be used as text: "Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." I recognize four thoughts in this text: First. The Christian’s secret, invisible, hidden life. Second. Stablished therein, as ye have been taught. Third. The Christian’s manifest, visible, outward life. Fourth. Abounding therein with thanksgiving. The manifest life is dependent upon secret forces. Look at the oak, towering into the clouds, loaded with fruit and with foliage. You say, There is although everybody knows that the real life of that tree is out of sight. The real life of that tree is beneath the soil, down where the roots are taking hold of the rocks and springs below. What appears is dependent on something that is hidden. The Holy Ghost has recognized this fact in Christian experience, and made note of it in our text, viz., the whole, manifest, outward Christian life is absolutely dependent upon the hidden life, the secret life, the correct life, hid with Christ in God. If we have only what appears, it is worthless. Our outward life may appear ever so well, but if it does not have roots, it is of no value. There is a great deal that we see in these days that is like the fruit on a Christmas tree -- tied with a cotton string. It never grew there, has no roots, is not supported by a secret, invisible life. God clearly teaches us in His Word that it is exceedingly important that we shall have the correct, inward, secret life. There are a great many people who are willing to grow tall, who are willing to grow broad; but very few submit to the conditions of growing deep. But it is not safe to grow tall unless you grow deep. It means destruction for us to spread a sail at sea unless we have ballast. The tendency of the age is to expand at the top, and most of people have gone to seed. My text begins with "Rooted." We have top enough, we have show enough, we have display enough. What we need is grounding and rooting. We need to take hold of the rocks and springs below, so we can stand the storms. If we returned to apostolic preaching, we would have apostolic conviction, followed by apostolic conversions. Our converts would be planted instead of "stuck in." They would be rooted in the house of God, rather than simply attached or joined to the church. It is one thing to add people to the church, and it is another thing to add them to the Lord. There are a great many people who have been added to the church, and their names are counted every year, who have never been added to the Lord. All that may appear well in outward life is only valuable when it is an index to the correct, inward life; and whatever we may appear to be, whatever we may profess in our lives, if it is not the legitimate product of a life that is hid with Christ in God, with roots that take hold of the Rock of Ages, it is valueless, and worse than nothing. If people get well rooted, they can stand a good deal to begin with. Young converts, that are made after the New Testament standard, can stand lots of persecution; they can stand quite a storm. And that is not all -- if they are properly rooted, storms help rather than hinder them; storms strengthen their fibers and make their leaves a richer green than before. I was once in the timber business in the West. I used to handle some very heavy timber, and I have interested myself in counting the growth of a tree, finding a tree sometimes that had stood fifty or a hundred years when Columbus discovered America -- through the cyclones of five hundred summers, and through the withering frosts and bleak north winds of five hundred winters. But that tree had a taproot that went away down to the water. That was a tree, the roots of which ran away down and took hold of the rocks and springs below, so that when the storm came, it only grasped the rocks a little more firmly. When I wanted a stick of wagon material, as I sometimes did, where did I go to find it? In ever went to the heart of the forest -- I never took a tree that had the sympathy and protection of every other tree. I went to the edge of the woods, or better still I selected a tree that had grown in the open field, where it had had to take care of itself. There I found the toughest stick that grew. And you would be surprised that that tree could stand at all, if you were to see it as I have seen it, sway and bow until the branches almost touched the ground, and then swing back to a perpendicular, and again lock in with the tempest and again sway and bow; but after the cyclone was over, it straightened back with a stronger fiber and a richer green than it had before the storm. I have watched a good man, properly rooted. I have seen the tempest strike him. I have seen him sway and bend, and I have heard critics say, "he will go down." I have seen people make ready to say, "I told you so." But he recovers, and again locks in with the tempest, and again bows and sways, and people say, "he’s gone." But after the storm is over, that man straightens back to a perpendicular, with a stronger Christian fiber and a richer green and a sweeter faith than he ever had before. If you are properly rooted, storms will not hurt you -- they are good for you; and a storm of good, old-fashioned, healthy persecution would compel our people to find out where they are. Some of you would be able to locate yourselves geographically if you could have a good storm of wholesome persecution. Oh, for people that are rooted! In these days of swell heads; in these days when the schools are stuffing the head and starving the heart; in these days when a man is measured by his smartness; in these days when rhetoric and eloquence are called for, and when a man must have well rounded sentences, and gold and silver on his tongue, or he can not get a hearing, -- what we need is a thorough, basal foundation in the things of God. Daniel took root. He submitted to the conditions, and grew downward, so that he could stand the storms of hell. He could resist the shocks of hell’s artillery; he could stand, and not only resist the force of evil, but turn back the tides of iniquity, and God has always had a few such men. May He multiply the number! Beloved, if you get rooted, you will not "curl up" like a dry leaf every time some one points a finger at you, you will not wilt every time some one criticizes you; instead you will shout and sing a little louder than ever. The Lord God bring us to the place where trials will only do us good! The next thing I notice in the text is the establishing grace, "stablished therein." Now, Greek scholars tell me -- I am not a Greek scholar, the "language of Canaan" is the only language I ever mastered -- but Greek scholars tell me that word "stablish" means the same as "sanctify." I do not know about that; but I will tell you what I do know: I know that "sanctify" means "stablish." Sanctification is the stablishing grace; it is the grace that settles people. It is a blessing that takes the wabble out of folks; it takes the quirk out of the heart; it takes the iniquity (which means inequality) out of people. To get established is to get a blessing that will answer your questions, so that you will not run around and ask questions of the evangelists. The Holy Ghost will answer your questions. He will tell you a whole lot of things that you are trying to get folks to tell you, and when He tells you anything you will somehow feel that it is true. We must be established. A ship at sea, turns out for the imbedded rock; and if you do not get established in Divine grace, when you meet stronger heads filled with error you will turn out for them. There is an experience that will give us the right of the way, and make all men and devils turn out for us. When you get this blessing you will go straight ahead; you will keep in the middle of the King’s highway. Though you may have to cut your way through a whole regiment of devils, you will go through. What is a regiment of devils anyway when you have God with you? O, I wish we knew that we had a God! I wish we knew that God is not dead. I wish we would throw away these vest pocket idols; these ecclesiastical gods to which we are bowing down. We ought to have a living God, we ought to have the only true God; we ought to know that He is just as much alive now as in the days of Christ or Paul. O, thank God, He is alive! They killed His Son, but the grave could not hold Him. He knocked the bottom out of the tomb; so that there is a south side, there is a warm side, there is a genial side to even death: and you people that are sitting around on the north side of religion, with your teeth chattering, you ought to move around in the sun. We must have something that will settle us. Unless we have convictions born of certainty, unless we have unbounded confidence in the Captain of our salvation in these awful times, we will ingloriously surrender. Thank God, there is an experience where we can get new strength all the time, and never know defeat; when failure is beyond the range of possibility. Our young people need this blessing. A young lady missionary of more than ordinary intelligence and average piety was doing missionary work and distributing tracts among the poor, when she visited a Catholic family. Happening to meet a priest there one day, she said, "I am not here preaching my doctrine."’ The priest smiled and said, "Tell me, pray, what might be your doctrine;" but she did not seem to know what her doctrines were; she had not been settled, and the consequence was, that in a few weeks the priest took her into the Catholic Church. I want to say to you that if our young people do not get stablished, they will be blown here and there, not knowing the truth. The devil, by the winds of doctrine that are blowing in these days, will sweep them off the deck of the good ship Zion. We need to know more; we need to have a religion that we know something about, so that we can look the infidel straight in his two eyes, and tell him what we know. There is no good in mere dogmas; there is no good in learned treatises on religion; but to tell a skeptical man what you know, is to attack him with a weapon he does not know what to do with. He can meet your arguments; he has as much logic as you have; but he can not answer your experience. When you have got an experience that you know about, that shuts his month and spikes the enemy’s guns. O, to know that God is with us every minute, and that success is sure! We never have to make any trial trips, never go anywhere to see if we can have a revival. For two and a half years I have never gone to any place unless I had a revival. "God is God, and there is none beside Him." We know we are on the Lord’s side; and we have got the victory before we join the battle. The battle of Winchester, in our Civil War, was stoutly contested. The Union forces were composed of brave men, but after hours of hard fighting they gave way. Their general, who was not expecting a battle, was twenty miles away. The roar of cannon told him of the conflict, and he put spurs to his horse and soon came upon his retreating troops. Shouting to them to follow, he pushed on. The men rallied, and a decisive victory was won. He brought no reinforcements with him; the same men did the victorious fighting that fought before, but their confidence in their general turned their defeat into victory. When we have confidence in our General, when we know that our God is for us, we do not retreat, but cut our way through, no matter what comes. One man with God on his side is worth a thousand without Him. God bless you, one man who with sword in hand has thrown away his scabbard is worth a thousand cowards. And this blessing that we are talking about will make you a man of that kind. It will make you know that the Captain of our salvation is always present, and is always victorious. He has conquered in the wilderness; He has conquered in Gethsemane; He has conquered at Calvary, and He has gone up to the skies in spite of the protest of all the devils in hell, and He is to reign for ever and ever. Glory to God for a resurrected Christ, living with His own people today, and making victors of all who will let Him. When you get this blessing, you will feel like a conqueror, and "with a conqueror’s tread you will push ahead." You will set your feet down so hard the demons in hell will feel the shock. You will have a salvation that will not only astonish angels and baffle devils, but the old archfiend himself will turn pale while you sweep on to glorious victory. He will sit down in the ashes of hell and do his best to contrive some new way to come at you. When you get this blessing, you can begin to talk about the Christian’s outward, visible life. People everywhere are trying to build up Christian character without roots, without a good start; but the outward life of a Christian is as easy as whistling, when you get the inward life all right. You can not get bad fruit off a good tree. People talk about building up Christian character as if Christianity was something you could build up as you build a house; but the Christian life I am talking about is built as the tree is built -- from within. Most of people are trying to get things together to make themselves a house, forgetting that they have the materials within themselves. God wants to plant us in the soil of heaven so we will grow, and produce a Christianity which is the product of a clean and holy life. It will be easy to serve God when you get an experience like that. There are people working and laboring in the Church who, when they fear the cause is not going to succeed, organize another society, supposing that that will bring success. What we need is the fire of God within the wheels to make them go. Fifty thousand of our best people assembled in Boston to hold a convention, and even the saloons put up placards, "Welcome, Christian Endeavorers." Fifty thousand of these people staid in Boston a week and never had a convert! Put fifty thousand fire-baptized Christians in Boston, and they would revolutionize it. We have gone too much to rules, and forms, and ceremonies. What we need is to get our faces toward God. It is an awful thing that we have drifted so far away that we can not get people under conviction. Oh, for a ministry that will "put a hook in people’s jaws"! God bless you, I do not want to make you feel good; I would rather preach so that a lot of you people would feel so bad you could neither eat nor sleep, until you went into an upper room, locked the door, and staid until "Pentecost was fully come." Then you would have a life that is rooted. God give it to us all. Again, in my text I notice that there is not only the "inward, hidden, secret life," and the "manifest outward life," but there is ’’abounding therein with thanksgiving." There is a life that runs over. There is a life that overreaches and overtops everything else; it is "the abounding life.’" What does "abound" mean? It means to have all you want, and some to give away. It means to have a whole lot you do not know what to do with; that is what some of us have, and this is the reason we can not behave ourselves. The time was when I could stand in one place and preach for forty minutes, and not move or make a gesture; but I have gotten over that. This abounding life must have vent, and when you get it you will not be surprised at us; you will give us credit then for behaving admirably, when you feel the current of holy power in your own soul. Did you pass by that country school house about four o’clock in the afternoon, just as the teacher turned the scholars out? Did you see those boys going out of the door, throwing their hats in the air, and tumbling over each other, and shouting? What did that mean? It meant that they had this "abounding life" physically. They had been shut up for three hours, and they had more life than they wanted. God’s people should be stall fed; they should be so well fed that when they are "turned out" they will act like stall fed calves. God, give us this life! You can have this life, and wear a shoulder shawl over your shoulders, and have a soap stone to your feet, and sit in the corner and nurse your hands; you can have people wait on you and feed you with a silver spoon, and have two pastors looking after you; many who have life are doing this. But it is one thing to have life, and another thing to have ’’abundant life.’’ O, this abounding life! It makes men of us instead of babies; it makes giants instead of pigmies; soldiers instead of cowards. And that is what God wants in these days -- soldiers of the cross -- men that are ready for a forced march through the wilderness; men who are willing to make a bridge of their dead bodies, over which their comrades may march to victory. What God wants in these days is men who will throttle the devil; who will enter his ranks, and capture his subjects, and bring them over into the ranks of God. God save us from this babyhood that is in the churches! I am a member of the Church in good and regular standing, and I am going to stay until they put me out. I am not talking against churches; but I am trying to get people out of babyhood, and away from their bottles, get them in a place where they can chew beefsteak, and stand for God. Look at that mother! She is on the sidewalk, with her darling babe in the carriage. It is a beautiful sight. A baby is a blessing to any home -- always a blessing. You look at the babe and smile. The babe smiles, and the mother smiles, and every one is happy. But if you come back ten years later, and if that babe is still in the carriage, nobody smiles; there is nothing to smile about. What has happened? The doctor says it is a case of "arrested development." What does God see when He looks down into His nursery? What does God see in our steeple houses and synagogues in these days? He sees a whole lot of ten, twenty, and fifty year old babies sitting around, having to be carried and waited upon. How it must grieve His heart; t here is nothing to smile about. We are talking about our weakness when we should be talking about God’s strength. It is all awful thing that we are sitting around and nursing our hands, with a warm soapstone at our feet, and two or three people waiting on us, when we ought to be out taking care of someone else, blessing someone else. When we go into a family, and see a girl of sixteen just as much care to her mother as the ten-year-old, we know there is something wrong; and I want to say to you that when I go into a church, and see fourteen-year-old babies sitting around, who have to be handled with gloves lest they get offended and leave the church, there is something evidently wrong. Those fourteen-year-old babies ought to be able to take care of new converts. An Eastern merchant and a Western farmer were traveling West together. They were standing on the rear platform of the last car of the train, and, looking back over the track, the merchant said to the farmer: "Can you tell me why that track over there is so moist and so green, and this track over which we are traveling is so dusty and barren?" And the other said: "Our farmers in the West produce so much grain that the elevators will not hold it, and when the cars are loaded for Eastern markets, the men are not careful about overloading. As the cars go East over that track, they scatter the grain which sprouts in the roadbed; but the empty cars come back over this track, and so this track is dry and dusty." What was the matter with those cars? They had the "second blessing,” they had the "abounding" fullness, and every time you shook them a little, they scattered the grain. You can be so saved that whenever any one touches you, you will run over. They can not any more than speak to you but you will say, "Hallelujah!" and scatter the grain. An empty car makes about as much noise as a full one, but it leaves things dry and dusty. I have had people come into my home and wonderfully bless it; and after they have gone I have felt as if an angel had been there. My children were blessed, my whole home was benefited by the presence of those saints. Then I have had other people come into my home; I was glad when they were gone. You can be a full car, making things green and fresh everywhere you go; or you can be an empty car, leaving everything dry and barren. God help us to have this overflow blessing! Paul had it. He knew what I am talking about. Paul, give us a bit of your experience. "Well, I went down to Damascus, and the Jews were in wait to kill me; and I went up to Antioch, and the chief men of the city cast me out of their coasts; and I went down to Lystra, and when they saw the miracles, they said I was a god, and I could scarce restrain them from worshipping me; but when I preached the truth, they took up stones and stoned me, until I was left for dead; and I went to Thessalonica, and I was assaulted, and sent away by night; and I went to Corinth, that center of learning, and there I was whipped in the judgment hall; and I went down to Ephesus, and there a whole city was thrown into confusion on my account. "Yet Paul says, "Thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph." Why, Paul, do you mean that you were always victorious, even when they drove you out of the city? Yes, Paul could see victory in all these things. Paul was a man that suffered no defeat. He knew God, and he walked with God; and if he had to preach with irons on, he could do it with ease. God give us this run over blessing! You can have it this hour if you will. Shall we not seek it? Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 01.07. ABOUNDING GRACE ======================================================================== Abounding Grace "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20). The primary truth set forth in this text is beautifully illustrated by a law of nature, which is a sort of a symbol of the glory of the redemption. When a boy, and passing through the woods, as I often did, I cut a deep wound in a living tree, and passed on. Returning that way some years later, I found the wound all healed over; not by uniting of the old fibers, but by a much stronger material. I found the new fibers interlaced and tangled into a sort of complex mass, which I was quite unable to untangle, and the tree was tougher and stronger at the place of the wound than anywhere else. I am told that a broken bone in healing becomes stronger than the natural bone, as if nature meant to fortify herself against a second attack. We see an illustration of this same truth in the formation of the pearl. A little grain of sand works into the sensitive side of the pearl oyster; instinct prompts the little creature, not to retaliation, for that would inflict a greater wound, but to throw about the intruding element a crystalline liquid, so that out of the wound comes beauty and victory, and the value of the little creature is enhanced a hundred fold by the very thing which threatened its destruction. The Holy Ghost had some such thought as this, relative to the plan of salvation, when He summed up His splendid antithesis between Adam and Christ, sin and salvation, the fall and the redemption; for He teaches us that out of the dreadful attack which hell has made on this world will come the victory which shall prove the triumph of the ages. Out of the awful catastrophe that threatened the eternal destruction of man, God has evolved a new creation transcendentally greater and more glorious than the old, and out of the ocean depths of sin He has brought the pearl of greatest price, the Church which is to shine with a heavenly luster, reflecting the image of His Son during all the roll of the centuries. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The truth of my text is illustrated in the salvation and subsequent usefulness of the most abandoned and ruined sinners that ever walked this earth. God seems to choose the worst material for the accomplishment of some of His greatest achievements, and He has saved some of the vilest wretches that ever crawled through the cesspools of iniquity; He has not only saved them, but He has turned them back from the saloon and the brothel and the dance hall to preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The Lord has always chosen some of the worst material for His most glorious triumphs. When He wanted a man to head the patriarchal period, He chose a man whose very name suggested that he was crooked, that he was snaky, that he was slimy; his name was "Supplanter." When He wanted a man to head the kingly period, He took a man who became not only a murderer, but an adulterer; but He saved him and sanctified him wholly, and made him mighty in behalf of his kingdom. God saved Manasseh after half a century of bloody crimes. When He wanted twelve men to found the New Testament Church, instead of going to the Sanhedrin or to Jerusalem or to Rome, He went down along the shores of Galilee among the fishermen’s huts, and selected men with broad, brawny hands, undisciplined and unschooled, and He saved and sanctified them, and made them foundation stones upon which He has built the New Testament Church. You and I would have gone to Rome, for Rome ruled the world. Or we would, perhaps, have gone to Jerusalem; she was in the height of her glory and splendor. Ecclesiasticism of this age would have gone to the Sanhedrin; but the Son of God went to the shores of Galilee. I may not be able to explain why, but, if for no other reason, that the truth of our text may be illustrated that, where sin ran riot, where sin was without restraint, "where sin abounded, the grace of God did much more abound." No difference how hard the heart, no matter how strong the aggravation, nor how long the season of impenitence, God has a gospel that will break men’s hearts, that will turn back the rising tides of iniquity, that will cancel your record, that will save you from the power as well as from the guilt of sin, and make you burning and shining light to His glory. He saved the wicked Bunyan; He saved the sinful Newton; He saved the polluted, drunken Jerry McAuley. Yes, and many a woman, whose name though not found on the tablets of fame, God has written on the palm of His hand, stands up out of the slums today as a shining light for God, and as the living illustration of the truth of my text. Glory to God! No difference how ruined and weak the life, no difference about the condition of the home, we have a gospel that will redeem them; we have a gospel that will restore them; we have a gospel that will reconstruct them. I entered into a home. A pale emaciated wife met me at the door. There was no carpet on the floor; there was no fire on the hearth; there was no bread on the table; there was not a whole piece of furniture in the house; there were old hats in the windows; the children were frightened at the footstep of their father; everything presented a picture of despair. But as we went in, the gospel entered, and conviction came down. It was followed by an old-fashioned conversion; and when the father was saved, the children got saved, the brokenhearted wife took courage, and the whole thing changed complexion. When we came back to that home a little later, there was carpet on the floor; there was fire on the hearth; there was bread on the table; there was color in the wife’s cheeks; the old hats had disappeared from the windows; the old broken chairs and stools were gone and new furniture had come; and we knelt down in that home and thanked God! Oh, there is nothing else that will do it! Signing a pledge will not do it; reforms will not do it; you White Ribboners can not do it. It takes the mighty power of the Holy Ghost; it takes the full application of my text to do the work, and then, in that home where sin had abounded, the grace of God just "runs over." We have a gospel that will do this, and yet they are trying to turn us aside from it! Do you think we are going to turn aside to preach science and philosophy, when we have a gospel that will do the business like that? And I want to tell you something else: there is nothing that will do that but the full gospel. There is nothing that will reconstruct a home like that but holiness, the second blessing; for that home can never be saved against the wiles of the devil until that man has had the second work of grace in his heart. Oh, you folks that want us to preach something else besides holiness! We will wait until you furnish us something that turns out better goods than ours! There may be a little reproach connected with this gospel; but we will share it, and we are glad to be identified with a kind of truth that will enter a man’s home, and enter his heart, and enter his life, and reconstruct him, and make him an angel instead of a devil. And that is what our gospel does; that is what holiness does. My brother, no difference how far you have gone in sin, God can save you. He likes to get hold of a tough stick now and then just to reveal His power, just to show three worlds what He can do. There is no reason why you should be discouraged; and if you are the wife of a drunken husband, I want to say to you that there is hope for you. There is an up-look to heaven; you can touch a button that will thrill the wire to the upper skies, and bring a blessing that will enter your home and save it from sin. Beloved, if you have unsaved loved ones, do not be discouraged about them. We have a gospel that will reach the lowest of the low, as well as the highest of the high, and make us feel that "one is our Master, even Christ, and all we are brethren." And do you know, beloved, that we Christians ought to be ashamed of ourselves that we do not have more faith in the power of the gospel to do the work in difficult cases? We ought not to give folks up as we do. We ought not to despair about people when they backslide. We ought to hold on to God for them. We ought to pull them through the fire, until the grace of God has prevailed, and they are brought to a place of perfect joy. God help us! We are too timid, too unbelieving; we are too faltering. This gospel is not so much to refine the naturally good, as it is to save and sanctify those who are awfully and confessedly bad. This gospel is to convert a selfish soul into a bundle of self-sacrifice and self-denial. I know that a great Brooklyn preacher said once that he was tired of helping "men in whom there was no good blood," but how different with our gospel! The Lord seems to go around and pick up folks that other people have gotten through with. He took me in when every one had turned against me, and even my own friends were discouraged about me; then the Lord took me in. Glory to God! The truth of my text is again illustrated. God’s grace is able to save the best of sinners. Of course, so far as God is concerned a sinner is a sinner, and according to His estimate a man in the slums of Fifth Avenue is just as vile as a man in the slums of "the Bend." But God is amply able to save the sinners of, what the world terms, "high life." A distinguished New York lawyer and his wife were invited to attend the meetings of a Mission downtown in order that, as church members, they might see for themselves what God was doing among the submerged and desperate classes. At the close of the address by the leader of the meeting, an invitation was given for all who wished to be saved to stand up. A "dead beat" stood up over there, a harlot, rose to her feet yonder, and a common sneak thief stood not far distant, while on the platform, back of the leader, stood the lawyer and his wife. The preacher, supposing that the visitors had misunderstood his words, said: "I want only those who want to be saved to stand up." The lawyer and his wife remained standing. Nothing else could be done but go on with the altar service. "Let all sinners who will, come to the altar!" The tramp came, the harlot, the thief, they all came, and to the surprise of everybody, the two wealthy visitors began to come, too. In mission work all decent people are usually placed on the platform to avoid the vermin. So, as the visitors began to join the seekers at the altar the leader put out his hand as if to stop them, and said: "This is just for sinners!" "But we are sinners, too, and we want salvation!" was the answer. They were both happily converted, and God has used them since to the reclamation and salvation of thousands. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." I remember that at one time I was holding a meeting in a mission and there were a great many spectators -- people who did not care for anything for themselves especially but who had a curiosity to see the riff-raff of society saved. When I made the call a number of hard, low cases came forward, and with them the sister of a former President. "Shall I allow her to seek with these desperate individuals?" I said to myself. The Spirit whispered, "Certainly!" and down on her knees went the fashionable lady to find salvation with people far below her socially. Oh, God can save all classes. This text is having hundreds of illustrations: "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Then, beloved, the truth of our text is illustrated in the sanctification of souls from tendencies and appetites and propensities most unholy, so that the heart, where there has been a whole nest of sin, is now sanctified to God. There was anger, and it developed one day, and made you say something you would give this world if you could take back. You have wept bitter tears over it; but the loved one to whom you said it is silent in the grave, and you can not take it back. Oh, the scalding, bitter tears that are shed over hasty words in respectable homes, in homes in highlife, in the drawing room, unkind words and unkind looks, the products of anger in the heart. There was a word of impatience -- Oh, mother, you would give the world if you could take it back. Only three weeks before scarlet fever came to your home and took that child away, you were impatient, and you said things and you did things that you would give the world if you could take back; but the child is gone; your opportunity has gone. You were impatient; you remember it. Oh, the pride of these times! How it is abusing people. How pride is making people do things that are awfully mortifying and awfully disastrous in their final results! It is pride that ruins many a home. It is pride that breaks many a man up financially. It makes you attempt to live so that you can keep even with your neighbors when your income will not warrant it. Many a man has jumped into the river because his family insisted on living up to the scale of some one else when his income would not warrant it. The determination in these days to dress better and live better than you can afford is caused by pride. God save us from this ungodly strutting, from this peacock vainglory, that makes us go around strutting with a suit of clothes on that is being paid for on the installment plan! Women strut around just after Easter with dead birds and rag flowers that have not been paid for! What a story the milliner might tell about her unpaid bills! It is pride that is puffing people up, and making them strut around when they have not paid their debts! We have something in our discipline against living above our incomes. The Lord give us a good dose of discipline if we will not take religion, and swing us back to common decency, so we will do unto people as we would have them do unto us! But the heart where anger, and malice, and strife, and impatience, and pride, and all these things have their nest even a heart like that can be sanctified wholly, and made as clean as heaven, that where sin has abounded grace may much more abound. The second blessing; Pentecost; the baptism with the Holy Ghost does this. The fire of God burns up proud flesh, and burns out jealousy and super-sensitiveness, so that when you see two people with their heads together you will not suspect that they are talking about you. You are everlastingly thinking people are talking about you! Beloved, you are too self-important. The fact is that people talk by the hour and never mention your name, and they have things to think of with which you are not connected at all; and it is time we got to the place where we get saved from this jealousy that makes us so sensitive and so suspicious. This gospel will save a man, until when he is put out of office he will feel relieved. You know that is not the case ordinarily; you know that usually when we change officers at the end of the year the man that goes in feels better than the man that goes out. God help us, and give us a salvation that will save us from seeking leadership, and from seeking position, and from wire pulling for a place, and from thinking that we are better qualified for the place than anybody else! In all cases our offices in the church ought to seek the men, and not the men the offices. I dare to say that if there is a man who is qualified for a position it is the man who is not seeking it and is not wanting it. I would not vote for a man for any position if I thought he was wire pulling to get it. There are lots of people who would not wire pull; who would not scheme to be superintendent of the Sunday school, but who have a secret desire in their hearts for it. In fact, we are all made on the same last, and until we get sanctified wholly there is something in us that wants a place, and until then, the best one of us feels sort of good when people say nice things about us. But when a man is sanctified wholly, it not only mortifies him for people to praise him, but it makes him feel like getting down on his face before God. This grace would save us from all fretfulness and all stewing and sputtering in the church. The stews are not all in the kitchen; there are stews in other places. I used to help my dear wife put up fruit, and we would can it, and put it down cellar, and the next day, if we heard something sputtering and sizzling, we knew we might just as well go down and get that can and open it and cook it over. If this were not done, in a few days we would have some spoiled fruit on our hands. Lots of people claim to be sanctified; but we hear them sputtering and sizzling, and it is because the fire was not hot enough; there was gas there. Better be boiled over; you did not get fire enough. The Lord give us this second blessing that "where sin abounded, grace may much more abound." Again, beloved, the truth of our text is illustrated in the fact that grace not only saves people and sanctifies them wholly, but it counteracts the influence of sin, and destroys even the scars of it. Many a poor fellow thinks, and many a sermon helps him to think, that though he is saved from sin, he has to "suffer the consequences of sin," and the text is quoted, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." I want to tell you that we have a gospel which will "restore the corn that the caterpillar has eaten"; one which will enter a man’s soul, and heal his body from the effects, for example, of licentiousness and lust, and make him a well man physically. Say what you like about Divine dealing, we that have been in the slums, and worked in the slums, know that many a man is not fit for respectable society until his rotten body is healed. We must have a gospel that not only proposes to save people, and cure them in their souls, but will touch the body and save it from disease. There was St. Augustine; you have loved to call his name. He was one of the Christian fathers; but at twenty-one, that man found himself an awful sinner, with every drop of his blood poisoned from sin, and God saved him and sanctified him, and healed his body, and gave him almost half a century of unparalleled usefulness, and we call him "St. Augustine.’’ We ought to know what God does do, and what He is willing to do; and that what He will do for one He will do for another. Do not tell me that He is a respecter of persons. Do not tell me that He will do wonderful things for some people and deny others. Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today, and forever"; and we have a gospel that will touch man, and heal him at every point where the virus of hell has touched him. We have a gospel that will save men from all that sin has brought, and God does not mean to let go of us until He gets us to that place. God seems to love to contradict human opinions, and the thing we say is impossible, God likes to do. There was a time when philosophers and learned men proved logically and conclusively that no steamship could ever cross the Atlantic. Of course, like people nowadays, they could not leave the question alone, but met from time to time to go over the matter and see if they were right. So one day, in an upper room in Liverpool, they were going over the whole thing to see that they had made no mistake, and, finally, just as they were concluding again that they were right, that it was an utter impossibility (and yet all the time there were cranks that were trying to find some way of doing it), they looked out of the window and saw the first steamer that ever crossed the Atlantic, coming into the harbor. And just when people prove that we can not be sanctified, we tumble in and get sanctification; and just when a preacher, with a tall hat and white cravat, has proved to his congregation that nobody can be sanctified, the servant frying his batter cakes in the kitchen has received the blessing! And that is not all. Just about the time he does his very best, and presents his strongest argument against it, his very best church people go to a camp meeting or a tent meeting somewhere and get sanctified, and they perplex him until he is moved off from that charge. Once more, and I think I am through. The truth of my text is going to be illustrated again. The time is coming when we will have an exhibition that will beat the World’s Fair. The time is coming when people will assemble, and God is going to put on exhibition His samples of salvation-- when out of the slums and out of the lowest walks of life He will select a company of people who will come up and go on exhibition, and unitedly illustrate the truth of my text forever and forever. Our day is coming. In numbers we are in the minority. I confess that this world is drifting hellward; I confess the church is denying the Holy Ghost, and trying to turn the holiness people out, and they are being sent to tents and woods. But our day is coming, and we can afford to wait for it. Holiness is not always going to be in the minority. Holiness is not always going to be kicked about without a place to live. The time is coming when Jesus will appear in the clouds of heaven, and those who have been true to Him, and walked with Him down here, will be welcomed to His side to reign with Him forever. When He steps out on the portico of heaven, the law of gravitation will be reversed, and you and I will be drawn to Him. But that is not all: we are not only going to attend the marriage of the Lamb, but we are going to come back to these old battlefields where we have fought for God, and rule and reign over five, ten, twenty, or more cities, according as our reward shall be. You need not prepare if you do not want to; but, by the grace of God, I will. In this great time that is coming we are going to exhibit the goods that Divine grace has manufactured, and show to all the galleries of heaven and all the pits of hell what Christ’s salvation can do for man. Then the preacher who has preached against this sweet truth -- God pity him! The Official Board that turned you out of the church, with its tall steeple, and plush cushioned pews, and thundering pipe organs, are going to wish in their souls that they had what you have. Holiness is going to be in demand then; every one will want it. Too late! too late! God has it to give away now; but your eject it now, and He will reject you then; you deny holiness now, and it will deny you then; you fail to identify yourself with God’s people now, and you will not be permitted to do so then. There is coming a time when things will be straightened up. The time is coming when you and I are going to see the exhibitions of Divine grace, when we will see what God has done and is doing, and how He will reject those who rejected Christ. He has not much more place in many churches now than when He came before. Folks do not want Him. If he went into the temple now, He would drive out the money changers. I am not abusing anybody; my heart is full of tenderness; but God raised up the shrinking Jeremiah to be a reprover of kings, and I am going to rebuke sin whether it is in the pulpit or in the slums, no matter where it is. The truth of my text is soon to be illustrated again. The time is coming when we are going up. I feel a great deal like it now. I walk the streets of your city, scarcely pressing the pavements; I only touch a little here and there, just enough to let me know that I am still in Cincinnati; but my soul is walking around in the clouds, and I am rejoicing that I do not belong to this country, that I am not a Yankee or a Buckeye; God has a city in the upper skies, and I am going in just as soon as I get through down here. I come back to you from the border lines of eternity. For weeks I have stood where I could almost hear the gates swing on their hinges; I could almost see those shining streets. I have comeback to you, and tell you that this we are preaching is the truth. I said to my wife, when she was standing in the River, "Thee knows we have been accused of being radical, of preaching more than was true, and now I would like to know just how it is;"’ and she said, "It is all true, and more;"’ and if she said that when she was in the River, I am determined to preach the gospel with stronger conviction and more courage than ever before. We are coming in at last, not like an old battleship, with masts and sails torn away and flags all in ribbons, drawn across the bar by an old tug; not thus; but with our flags all flying, with our pennants in the wind and our sails swelling in the gale of heaven, we will come sweeping in. And then, when we disembark and go up the streets of light, the angels of heaven are going to takeoff their hats to us. They will stand up to see the sight; and as we march up Central Avenue, they will look at us and at each other and then down to where we were, and then up to where we are, and, lost in wonder, will exclaim, "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!" This truth will echo throughout all eternity. We will sit down above the angels; for when man was created, he was made a little lower than the angels; but when he is redeemed he is made above archangels; we are going to sing the song of redemption, and entertain angels, telling them about the battles down here. They will want to know all about these things. O, it will be glorious to tell them the story about the Battle of the Wilderness, of Gethsemane, of Calvary, of Waterloo, of Gettysburg, of Cincinnati; to relate how, although the wicked forces of this city were against us, God saved souls at the altar, and brought them up to shine for ever and ever. I will be glad to tell the angels in those days the story of a gospel that reached the worst people; that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The thought of it makes me feel like a victorious warrior. We ought to feel encouraged, and have an upward gaze looking straight into heaven. Every one who has this second blessing know what I mean. If you do not have it, you can receive it now, if you will. Will you? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 01.08. THE SECRET OF THE LORD ======================================================================== The Secret of the Lord The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant"(Psalms 25:14). The natural world is full of secrets. It is a sort of treasure house, filled with mysteries, about which man knows but little. Science is discovering more and more every year; but the secrets of God, discovered in these days by men of research, are the more ordinary secrets which, like shells, may be picked up along the seashore. They are not more than a tithe of the secrets yet to be revealed. The best things in the natural world are hidden away. They are not lying around loose on top of the ground, to be destroyed by the plunderer’s hand. They are not for "bums and soaks" and red nosed drunkards. The valuable things are put where only the deserving can find them. Our precious metals are hidden away in the earth and in the mountains, and the rocks must be struck and blasted and burned with fire in order to secure the hidden ore. Diamonds come from great depths; pearls are taken out of fathoms of water, and often they are encased in a rough shell, covered by a film, requiring the skill of an expert to perceive their value and remove the film. The beauty of a diamond is almost always a secret, brought out by great skill in shaping and polishing. This principle is not only true in the mineral kingdom, but it is also true in the vegetable. The choicest kernels of nuts are put up in rough shells, which have to be broken. The kernel of the walnut, the exquisite milk of the coconut, are hidden away, and challenge the energies of the industrious boy. There are secrets of science, and of art, and of invention. Nearly everything we prize in these days is of modern discovery. Our great grandfathers did not know the secrets which are patent to all today, and are of untold usefulness. The labor of Watt gave us the steam engine; the toil of Stephenson, a railroad; the research of Edison and Bell, the telephone, -- and all these men are men who searched for God’s secrets, and found them: none of them "tramps," none of them "dead beats," none of them idlers, sitting on goods-boxes whittling and spitting tobacco juice. They were men who denied themselves of money, of comfort and pleasures, denied themselves socially and domestically, and shut themselves up with the works of God, and searched out these things that you are so glad to use in everyday life. There is that man Edison, shut up with nature and discovery and invention, until you can gain an interview with the President of the United States more easily than with him. Natural secrets are shut away from everybody and everything. The man who finds them has to search after them, frequently at great cost to himself. Down in South America they get down on their faces, and then on their sides, and then on their backs, and pick diamonds from the clefts of the mountains; and I want to say to you that just as men willing to deny themselves get the secrets of nature, so, they that deny themselves and search, find the secrets of the Spirit. God has some things that men do not find out by simply holding down the end of a pew. He has some things in the realm of divine grace that are known only to those who fear God and pay the price. There are a great many people who think Christians are just alike in heaven; but the Bible does not teach it. All men are not the same here, and they will not be the same there; and some of you folks, if you ever go to heaven, you will go bareheaded -- you will have no crown. As certainly as the President has his cabinet, the Lord has His; as certainly as Jesus had a few disciples who stood close to Him and went with Him everywhere, to whom He revealed His secrets and told the things of His life, God has a select few to whom He tells His secrets. There are a lot of church members here who do not know anything about the things I am talking about tonight! I am not saying that God shuts you out, but you shut yourselves out. Like the tramp who sits around and never undertakes to find out the secrets of nature, there are people in the churches who live ease loving, pleasure seeking lives, and never deny themselves anything, and never get God’s blessing. God has some secrets in the spiritual realm that He is revealing to the people who are living near Him! He has some secrets that are delightful; and it is enough to make a man’s mouth water to know that these things are here, and can be known if he only have energy to get at them. But they are put up in cases, and are hidden away, and folks that have nothing to do but take things as they come, never know what I am talking about tonight, viz.: the secret of the Lord. The discovery of some secrets in the natural world has sometimes produced great joy. I remember that a Greek mathematician, when he made some great discovery in Geometry, ran into the street, crying: "I have found it! I have found it!" If a Greek mathematician could get shouting happy over a discovery in mathematics, why should you think it strange that we should get shouting happy over the discovery of some secret in the spiritual world? It is a wonder to me that people can get God’s secrets and keep as still as they do about them. I want to call your attention to some of these secrets tonight. One of them is pardon, regeneration, the new birth. The new birth is a secret none know except those who have it. Go out on the streets of Cincinnati, and take a man who does not know regeneration, and try to explain regeneration to him so that he will understand it! Jesus Christ Himself can not do it. He tried it on Nicodemus; but Nicodemus could not understand the new birth, and no one can understand except one who has it. It is a secret that is revealed by the Holy Ghost in the heart. The heathen world would like to know this secret -- it would like to know how to get rid of sin. Men are making long pilgrimages, they are walking on spikes, they are throwing their children into the Ganges, they are doing everything they know to get rid of their sins; but they do not find pardon; and the reason is, that they have not the Bible. Job said, "How shall a man be just with God?" That was the question of the Old Testament, that was the question of that age. It is the question of all ages. That was the question that rose in the smoke of thousands of altars and flowed in the blood of millions of victims. That was the question: "How shall a man be just with God?" It is answered at Calvary. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to reveal this glorious secret to us, that we might know how to get rid of sin. You can not explain it to a man so that he can understand it -- to the most brainy, the most logical reasoner in this country -- you can not make him understand regeneration; for it is a secret revealed in the heart. Twenty-five years ago I stood up in the old Quaker church with the conviction in my heart that I was very sinful, and I meant to say so; but I was only on my feet thirty seconds; and when I rose to my feet I was an awful sinner, and I sat down a saint. I had only confessed a sentence or two; but the heavens opened, an glory dropped into my soul, and I was saved, and every sin I ever committed was removed, and God whispered a secret to my soul that I have not got over. Folks did not understand it, church members did not understand it, preachers did not understand it. One preacher said I was "like a hotbed plant, and would soon wither"; but God whispered a secret in my soul. I doubt if there is a crowned head today that understands this stupendous secret; but I was just a plowboy, and I found it. God gave me this secret in my soul, and after all the scorching suns of twenty-five summers, and all the bleak north winds of twenty-five winters, I have not given up yet. Hallelujah! O, if you had this secret, you would know what I am talking about. I am not talking about holiness now, I am talking about regeneration -- something to which many church members are strangers. They have joined the church and been baptized; but they do not know anything about experimental religion. But God one day saved my soul, and gave me a new name, and I knew it, and all the college professors and all the Doctors of Divinity would not be able to get it out of me. It is put in there to stay. It is a little secret which the Lord and I have together. O, if you ever had the genuine thing, you would know what I am talking about. It is not signing a pledge or joining the church. Lots of people have their names on the church book, and they had just as well be on aboard fence, so far as saving them is concerned. Again, beloved, holiness is a secret. There never was a time in the history of the Church when so many people were debating the question of holiness as today. There are preachers everywhere discussing and opposing holiness. They fix it once, and say that the thing is settled; but for their lives they can not let it alone. by do they not preach a good straight sermon against holiness, and fix it once and for all? Just about the time a Doctor of Divinity gets it proved in his pulpit that no one can have it, one of his best old sisters tumbles in and gets it, and then he has to preach again. The time was, in the history of the Church, when holiness was pretty much confined to the Quaker Church. That was seventy-five or a hundred years before the Methodists. (You Methodists came lagging along behind, anyhow.) The time was, again, when holiness was confined to the Methodist Episcopal Church; that was about a hundred or seventy-five years ago; but the time has come in the last twenty-five or thirty years, when God has launched a movement that is spreading all around the world. The High Church Episcopalian and the Presbyterian and the Congregationalist and the Lutheran, are getting interested about this question of holiness. This is one of the signs that Jesus is coming soon. God is selecting a Bride out of the churches of His Son; God’s people are fast becoming a unit. I have as good friends who are stanch holiness workers in the Methodist Church as there are anywhere. I have as good, strong, wholehearted friends in the Congregational Church as there are in the Methodist, and so in a number of denominations. We have come to a place in this movement where God is not going to be shut up to a denomination, but is reaching out and extending His hand to all denominations and all classes. He is going into the jungles, and into the slums, and saving people and sanctifying them wholly. Holiness is a secret, and no one knows it but those who have it. And you may know it, and the fellow who sits next you may know no more about it than a Hottentot. Your wife may know it, and you may congratulate yourself on the fact, and then know no more about it than a heathen in Africa. It is a secret. You can not get it by study. You can not get it by work. If you could get it by work, all our "supper folks’" would have it. They would get it "baking cakes and washing dishes"; they would work themselves to skeletons but they would have it. We can not get it that way. It is a secret. It is hidden away; and even if a man is brainy he can not get it by way of his head, for it comes by way of the heart; and no man can get what I am talking about until he discounts everything above the collar bone. Do you know that holiness is something you can not understand until you get it? But they who have it understand it; don’t you hear them saying "Amen"? It is the folks that have not got it that can’t understand it. When you get the blessing, it will be as plain to you as high noon. You can not see in the bunghole of a barrel very well, but if you tumble into the barrel you can see out all right. And you can not see into this blessing by way of your head, but if you tumble into it with your heart, then you will understand it! The Lord reveals it to people. God bless you, I do not take as much pains in "explaining holiness" to people as I used to. I believe our holiness people make a mistake in entering into this matter with so much reasoning. I used to take a great deal of time in defining the steps; and it maybe that sometimes folks get into it by steps, but most of them tumble in. After we get this second blessing, God reveals other secrets to us. One is the secret of faith. God whispered the secret to Abraham. Daniel knew the secret. Daniel and God had talked the matter over, and God said, "Daniel, if you will be true to me, and sleep with the lions, I will send an angel and stop their mouths." And Daniel said, "I will do it"; and God let Daniel go into the lions’ den, and he stopped their mouths. He would not let you go into the lions’ den; you will not be honored with a trip like that, because you will not be quiet and trust God. You would be screaming to get out, and the lions would eat you up. But God knew Daniel, and God knew Daniel would trust him, for he had "the secret of the Lord." Daniel went into the lions’ den and slept like a baby, and it was the king who walked the house all night that night. When I went to a New England city, to be pastor of a church, and have charge of two missions and five or six different corps of mission workers, they told me I would have many things to encounter that would be very difficult; and I said, "If anybody has to walk the floor and lie awake, it will be the other folks." And God kept me where He could put me to sleep every night. When a man gets this secret he can believe for anything, and get it. I know a woman who had prayed twenty years for her husband. Sometimes she would pray at him, and sometimes about him, and sometimes for him. When she was at low ebb spiritually she was cross, and would scold and spoil all the good she had done. But one night she got desperately in earnest, and cried for the Holy Ghost to save her husband. He retired, while she staid on her knees until eleven o’clock, and then until twelve, and then until one, and then she waited and wrestled with God until the clock struck two; and then the heavens opened, and the fire came down, and she had the witness that her husband would be saved. She also retired, and her husband waking with a start, jumped up, went down on his knees, and prayed earnestly for God to help him., and by morning he was saved! When you get this experience, you can feel assured that God has your loved ones in hand. He will attend to them. Without this secret the probability is that you will tell them this, that, and the other, and never get them saved. But you get struck with lightning yourself, and God will send conviction that will move your relatives. Would you not like to save them? This is the way to do it, -- make your own life right. You come to me to "save your unsaved children!" If the mother would learn to live as sweet a life at home, in her kitchen, as when she has company, her children would soon be converted. Some of you are so cross and hard to get along with, that no one wants your religion. God bless you, I do not wonder that your children do not want it; I do not wonder that they do not get saved. Lord, help us to get rid of inbred sin, and get saved through and through, and then we will have something that people want! There is a secret of power which the Church ought to know. Someone says, "I wish I had power. Power for what? Power to get a flaming notice in the newspaper, power to make a show, power to be somebody? That is of no account; but we do need spiritual power; and there is a secret of power that the people ought to have that will give us power every day of the year. Every time an evangelist has marvelous success, people wonder and say, Where is the secret of his power? But the secret of power is in the Holy Ghost; and if people would receive the Holy Ghost they would have power for the successful accomplishment of everything which they should do. Before I close I want to call your attention to the fact that there is a secret of joy about which the rank and file know nothing. When you get this blessing you can follow James’ injunction, "When ye fall into divers temptations, count it all joy." You can rejoice on Monday as well as on Sunday. You can rejoice when everything is against you, when you are out of a job; you can rejoice when you are out of money; you can rejoice when your friends go back on you; you can rejoice when the devil is near; you can whistle and sing and shout and laugh and praise God when there is nothing in sight to rejoice about! If you put your washing out, and the clothesline breaks, and all your week’s laundry has to be washed over again, why, Hallelujah! I know a woman who shouted over just such circumstances, and exulted in her kitchen as much as on the platform before a large congregation. I am talking to you tonight about something that is intensely practical. It is something that will make a man rejoice when his meals are not ready; it is something that will make you praise God when the beefsteak is overdone, and when things do not go to suit you. You will thank God and eat the beefsteak, burnt as it is. I tell you that when something goes wrong in your home, and you go out and slam the door, and leave your wife feeling hurt, and go down the street -- you, a member of the church and on the Official Board -- you need something, and need it badly! This secret will make us live just as God wants us to live, wherever we are. What is the difference what I preach to you, anyhow, if I am not right at home? What does it matter what I may say from your platform, if my two sons do not have confidence in me? I would rather have the confidence of my two boys than all the honors that the world and the church could roll at my feet. O for something that makes us behave ourselves in our own homes! My wife used to tell -- and I love to tell anything that my wife ever told -- my wife used to tell about a man who received this blessing out West. He had been one of these scolding church members. (Scores of people are members of church and scold terribly at home.) He got the blessing one night, and came home late, and found his children up. Ordinarily when he came home late and found them up he gave them a good scolding and sent them to bed. They began to look frightened; but he came in smiling, and he said: "Why, children, are you up yet? I thought you would be in bed." And they said: "Yes, papa, we thought we would like to sit up until you came. "And he said: "Now you go down stairs and get some nuts and apples and popcorn, and we will have a good, old-fashioned, nut cracking, apple roasting, corn popping time;" and they were thunderstruck sure enough; and when they got down into the cellar the little boy said to his sister: "Sis, do you know what I think?" She said: "No, bub; what do you think?" "Well," he said, "I think pap’s going to die." Well, do you know that is the idea that people have, that if you get a blessing so that you live very good here, that you are about ready for heaven; and wives feel anxious about their husbands when they get a good spell, and mothers feel sort of good when the sick child gets cross? You say, "It is getting better." As long as it was not cross, you thought it was getting ready for heaven, and you are glad to see it cross; you say, O, the child is getting cross; it is getting better!" But, we have a gospel that takes the crossness all out of folks, and makes them live upright all the days of their lives. People do not understand it; and some of you, if you were to get the blessing here, would behave yourself so much better that your wife would get scared and say, "John is going to die;" but the fact is that death takes place right here at the altar. Beloved, when you get this blessing you can laugh when there is nothing to laugh about. No one else sees anything to laugh at, but you see it. Do you remember that when Israel walked with God they always had good water, and when they murmured they always lost it? The river that ran from that "smitten" rock was like Lost River in Tennessee; it would disappear at times. And onetime they murmured, and God said they would have to dig for the water. And they went to digging; but they found no water, and the Lord said: "Get around the hole and sing." Sing around an empty hole! But when they sang, the water sprang up! If you have not got salvation enough to sing over an empty hole, a dry well, you have not got the blessing of the text. What is needed is a man who can shout when there is no water in sight, who can praise God when everything looks like midnight darkness. Any one can praise God after the devil has been defeated; but it takes a man full of salvation who can dance when he is being tempted. God has such people. I have gone to places where everything was as cold and frigid as an iceberg, and I began to praise the Lord for the revival that was coming. Folks did not see it, and they did not believe anything would come of it, and they held off to see if it was "going to go on or not;" for you know there are people who, if it does not "go" are not in it, but if it is a success they ’’have been in it from the beginning!" But it always goes! Glory to God! A bit of experience right here: It has been years since I have gone to any place without a revival. The last three pastorates I had, I had a revival right along. I would not be pastor of a church, if I could not have converts in July and August. The last pastorate I had we had a constant revival, and July was the greatest month we had. I am not done with this subject, but I am going to stop. There doesn’t seem to be any end to sermons anyway. If you are going to get the secret you will have to come and walk with the folks who possess it. If you are fearing an elder, or the President of the Ladies’ Aid Society, or Brother B. or Sister C., you will never get this blessing; for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. If you are willing to go alone, and do God’s errands, and please Him, you can have the blessing I am talking about tonight. You had better pay the price, and the Lord will give you the secret of regeneration, of power, of joy, and a whole lot of things I have not mentioned -- he will flood your life with the second blessing. Praise the Lord! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 01.09. EXPLOITS ======================================================================== Exploits "But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32). Someone has truthfully said: "Weakness is a spreading malady; strength is a spreading energy. If we are weak we scatter weakness, we make others weak. If we are strong we impart strength to those with whom we come in contact. If God has commanded us to be strong, we cannot afford to be weak. He has commanded nothing for which He has not provided. Every command carries with it the weight of a promise. He has placed within our easy grasp ample provision for all the strength and success which He expects of us. But there is a determined purpose on the part of many to eliminate from Christianity all that is superhuman and miraculous. The tendency of the age is to exalt man and displace God. If the supernatural could be taken out of the Bible, and its miraculous occurrences explained on the ground of natural causation, many so-called clever people would be greatly delighted. The tall men of our modern institutions of learning have reduced the phenomena of life and the world to a self-acting mechanism, running by so cunning a contrivance of pulleys, and belts, and shafts, and dynamos, that there is no need of a God. The natural man is never better pleased than when he can supplant God. Christianity is in great danger of being reduced to "a system" of theology and ethics, doctrine and dogma, laws and creeds. Many who "believe in Christianity" look upon it as simply a great institution. Many of them are devoted to its interests, are willing, in some instances, to shape their lives more or less according to its rules, and are most untiring in their efforts to further its interests. But they are not acquainted with its Author. Their knowledge of Him is indirect and remote. But away with such cold, dead, mechanical theory and practice. If Christianity is not as supernatural as in the days of Paul and Stephen, it is nothing at all. If the power of God is not so imminent and active today as in the times of Elijah or Daniel, it is nothing whatsoever. The system of redemption through Jesus Christ is intensely personal. It is the revelation of a personal God, the reception of a personal Christ, the enduement with a personal Holy Ghost. Christianity requires every moment of the presence and living hand of its Author. There was never a time in history when the world needed supernatural religion more than it does today. There was never a time when there was more need of the church emphasizing the supernatural element in religion than now. From the day of Pentecost until this hour it has taken the extraordinary, the astounding, the amazing, the astonishing to wake the old world up so that she would attend to religion. Nothing ordinary will ever capture China, India, or Africa for Christ. Nothing human will ever save rationalistic Germany, infidel France, or Unitarian New England. Man was never so great in his own eyes as he is today, never so boastful, never so defiant and rebellious. Intellect never asserted its pride and carnal importance as it does in this the last decade of the century. It is time we had something to humble us and bring us to a knowledge of ourselves. France’s greatest pulpit orator, Massillon, stood over the coffin of the great Louis, and amid the assembled nobles said the simple words: "God only is great." It was a sublime moment, and the words struck every heart with solemnity. The insignificance of man, and the all surpassing greatness of the Lord impressed the people with great force, and the people wept and sobbed, melted by the strange seriousness of the hour. But we ought to be impressed with our nothingness and God’s majesty and greatness all the time. A distinguished clergyman was crossing the Atlantic. It was noticed by the passengers that he would sit for hours each day watching the rolling sea. The gay and thoughtless crowd of promenaders passed him again and again, and were often amused at his silent, serious face. At last a young dude stepped up to him and said: "Doctor, what do you see out there that interests you so very much?" The venerable man turned his face full on the youngster, and said in answer: "Nothing but God." The dandy retreated. When we get to a place where we see nothing but God our enemies are forced to withdraw. The text says that "They that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." Let us notice for a little time the two words, "strong" and "exploits," in relation to personal experience. When we recognize the utter worthlessness of all things in our own experience we will begin to be strong. We never find God until we get through with everybody else as saviors. There is a time when we are getting saved when we want "just God." One of the mistakes we often make after we are saved is that we begin to depend on someone else. God awakened us, convicted us, and converted us; we acknowledge that, and then inconsistently depend on someone else. We know that God saved us, but we foolishly undertake to sanctify ourselves, forgetting that salvation is of the Lord from first to last. Sanctification is not by works, nor by growth, nor by development, nor by death, nor by evolution, nor by anything but by God Himself. Each soul must have a personal revelation of God. Jacob was an altogether different man after Peniel. Job’s life was revolutionized after he could say, "Now mine eye seeth thee." Moses was never the same man after he met the God of fire at Horeb. Joshua could never have taken Jericho if he had not met the captain of the Lord’s hosts. Isaiah never did much prophesying until he saw the vision of "Jehovah sitting upon a throne high and lifted up." Paul was a high churchman, but his life was worse than a failure until he met God out in the "big road" going to Damascus. We must all meet God for ourselves. A personal knowledge of Him will make us mighty. Mountains of guilt will melt away, billows of sorrow and waves of grief and tumult will give place to "peace that floweth like a river. In our life work as well as in our experience we must be strong and do exploits for Him. Then we recognize God as all in all and know Him as we may know Him we can take the jawbone of an ass and slay a thousand Philistines. We can down Jericho with a ram’s horn; slay a giant with a boy’s sling; tumble a cake of barley meal into the camp of Midianites and put to flight three hundred thousand armed men. God can thresh a mountain with a worm; all He needs is a worm --they are scarce. Oh, if we only knew God! Then we could open the skies in judgment against sin and in salvation for the sinners: we could water three million souls from a flinty rock by the use of a mere shepherd’s stick. The crying need is not more brains, money, eloquence, human magnetism, new methods nor better appointments. All we need is to know God, the Mighty God, the Irresistible God, the All-conquering God. There is a great temptation to get into bondage to methods and appliances. We catch a few fish, and then burn incense to our nets. We succeed in some method, and then decide that that method is the only one. We expect God to duplicate Himself again and again, and when He does not we are disappointed. Too often we undertake to do things ourselves. Like the disciples on the sea of Gennesaretwe, in our self-sufficiency, undertake to manage the ship, and let the Master lie down to sleep. It is no wonder that we get into storms and danger. After we have awakened Him and He has brought a great calm, we too frequently take hold of the steering wheel again and undertake to oversee the ship ourselves. When we put our hands on we find that He takes His off, relinquishing His generalship to us. If we would only recognize the Christ of God in the person of the Holy Ghost and permit Him to fight our battles for us we would find that "the slain of the Lord are many." "For the battle is not yours but God’s." "Ye shall not fight in this battle.’’ "Stand still and see the salvation of God." "Not any man shall be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life." We must stop depending upon forms and rules and methods and folks and things. We need an invisible force, an unseen but mighty God. I was sailing on the beautiful waters of Narragansett Bay. In our own harbor among many fine vessels lying at anchor was a large, fine looking, four-masted schooner. A friend beside me said, "Look! There is the ’Walker Armington,’ the only vessel of her kind on the Atlantic coast."" What is there about her peculiar?" I said; for in appearance there was nothing to distinguish her from other fine vessels lying in the harbor. But my friend pointed out that her fourth mast served not only as a mast but as a smokestack. She had an engine down in her hull by which she was able to be independent of tugs and tow boats. She could thread the narrowest channels into the most intricate of harbors without spreading sail or making "tacks." I said, "Since God sanctified my soul I am the ’Walker Armington.’ I have an engine for personal use built down in my soul. I do not depend on the direction of the wind, nor upon someone of strong convictions and great power to tug me in and out the harbor." "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." When we depend less on outside things and more on God we will do "exploits." When the temple was consecrated by Solomon and sanctified by the down coming clouds of God’s presence, the people had nothing to do but array themselves in white linen and sing and shout. God honored the action, and the Shekinah came down until the priests could not minister. "Being arrayed in white linen," "it came to pass that as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord" "that the house was filled with the cloud." One thing the matter with us is that we over estimate our own importance and place. We think that too much depends upon us. We are self-important. Our place is to stand and sing arrayed in the white robes of entire holiness. When the children of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir came up against Jehoshaphat and the Lord’s army, Jehoshaphat cried to God, and said: "O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon thee." And God answered: "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s. Ye shall not fight in this battle; set yourselves, standstill and see the salvation of God. Fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord will be with you." And Jehoshaphat "appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness." "And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments." It is so today. When we begin to sing and praise the beauty of holiness and stand still expectantly then the Lord sends salvation. Many a time God’s servants come into times of awful conflict and in the absence of feeling they begin to praise the Lord, and feeling springs up and great victory comes. Let our praise keep pace with our prayer. Praise the Lord, "for His mercy endureth forever." We will be strong and do exploits in the salvation of other men when we recognize nothing but God as our power and help. We depend upon so many second class things in this world; why should we not have the best? There are many human schemes and agencies and reforms and projects and propositions, but there is nothing that can save souls from an endless hell except the power of God. The Holy Ghost must convict and we must depend upon Him to accomplish all that is of value in salvation work. Some one has said that we are living in the Highway and Hedge Dispensation." This is a time of great opportunity in neglected fields. God is working in the slums and in the jungles. He is preeminently active in fields hitherto unworked. We must work where God is working if we would have any success. God forbid that we should thunder away on old battlefields after the war is all over. The noble founder of the Chinese Mission was sailing from New York to Canton a century ago. The captain asked him scornfully: "So you are going to convert the Chinese, are you?" "No," said Robert Morrison; "but God is." Over against the dark cloud which hangs so heavy over the foreign field is a beautiful rainbow of promise of mercy and hope. If we "know God" all things are possible with God and all things are possible to him that believeth. An old unlearned blacksmith, out in West New York State, with dark low brow and broad brawny hands, received a conviction that there ought to be a revival in his community. There had been none for twenty-five years. He closed his shop, would not lift a hammer nor shoe a horse, but went down on his knees and cried to God until God answered. Then he took his way to the backslidden pastor and said, "I want you to announce a seekers’ meeting; we are going to have a revival." "A seekers’ meeting? I will announce no such thing! There has not been a seeker since I came into this charge, and more than that there is no prospect of any." But the old blacksmith kept insisting until the preacher to get rid of him consented to announce a seekers’ meeting to be held at the old man’s home at sunrise Monday morning. The preacher in making the announcement was careful to clear himself of liability to embarrassment by saying that he had no faith in it and did not believe any one would be there. But long before sunrise the blacksmith’s house was full and the yard overflowing, and hardened sinners, strong men, were lying on the grass weeping and crying to God for mercy. All this was before a word had been said to those who came. A great and lasting revival broke out and swept the country for miles around. We may "be strong and do exploits" when in the trials and conflicts and persecutions of life, by depending absolutely upon God. He will open our eyes to mountains full of chariots and horsemen of fire so that we can look at the enemy and say: "They that be for us are more than they that be against us." In Acts 12:1-25 we are told that "Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him." There was something behind that word "but" that was stronger than all of Herod’s troops and prison bars. In a brief space of time Peter was not only free, but Herod was a corrupting corpse. God brings difficult things into my life and your life that He may show His power in removing them. Remember when trouble comes into your life that God is standing "within the shadow, keeping watch above His own: to see whether you will trust Him or sink ingloriously into despair. There are two ways of looking at a difficulty: it may be either a barrier to progress or a ladder to lift you to heaven. God put Jericho in Joshua’s way that he might batter down her stone walls with ram’s horns, and get a victory that would shine through all the roll of the centuries. He permitted Daniel to go into a lion’s den that he might astonish angels, baffle devils, and strike a heathen king and all his subjects with profound conviction. He put the Red Sea across the path of advancing Israel that He might have the opportunity of dividing it and leading His chosen people across dry shod. Paul was permitted to go into prison at Philippi in order that he might shake the old prison walls to pieces, save the jailor and his family, set up a church in his house, and liberate all the other prisoners. And when God lets His saints get into prison today it is that they may stand true to Him, and bring someone else out with them. We ought never to go into jail without bringing somebody else with us. We can afford to be bound for the sake of getting an opportunity to liberate other souls. God sent Paul to Rome with irons on his limbs that he might plant a church in Caesar’s household. And many of God’s dear people today if they would only submit to being humbled and degraded in men’s eyes would be wondrously used and exalted in God’s work and estimation. Let us get through with our own plans and our own power. Let us get on God’s side rather than attempt to pull Him over to help us and be on our side. It was a fortunate event when Joshua met the captain of the Lord’s host "over against Jericho" and he got down on his face and resigned his leadership and gave the Son of God command. Let us believe God for greater things. There is a contrivance used by stock herders in the West by which a trough is filled with water automatically. The weight of the animal which is searching for water in the trough presses an automatic spring so that the water is turned on, and the trough is abundantly supplied with fresh cool water. But the animal must be fully on the platform before the mechanism will work. It must be a complete consecration. A conservative old ox who feels his way by placing only two feet on the platform never gets the water. And the complete and unreserved and entire consecration brings a full salvation and a knowledge of God and an abundance of strength, which enable us to do exploits. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 01.10. LARGER OUTLOOK, OR SPIRITUAL ENLARGEMENT ======================================================================== A Larger Outlook, or Spiritual Enlargement Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations"(Isaiah 54:2). Many Scriptures have divers meanings and applications. They apply, for example, to the life of State, Church or Home; and they are also of times adapted to a spiritual interpretation, fitting most exquisitely into the inner life and character of the individual Christian. There are Scriptures also which refer primarily to the experience of the individual, and then secondarily to that of the community or church or state. There are two shoals which we must avoid, and they are on opposite sides of the channel. The one is the shoal of Literalization, the other is the shoal of Spiritualization. Now and then we meet a man who is so literal and absolute in his understanding of the Scriptures that he gets no soul food from them; there are other readers of the Bible who go to such extreme lengths in spiritualizing and mystifying it as to utterly destroy its original force and meaning. In the passage under consideration we have one which can with impunity be applied first to the Christian himself, then to the church of which he is only one of the members. The prophet here, by way of felicitous and effective illustration, makes use of the primitive tent. It is the simplest of human habitations. Wherever a pole, some cords or splints, a little bark or canvas or skin are to be found, there a tent can be made. It is as easily struck as pitched, and almost as readily enlarged. When the growing necessities of the family demand larger quarters, all that is required is a little longer pole, a trifle more string, and some additional bark or canvas, and lo, you can at once stretch forth the curtains of your habitation. We have said that the tent type is applicable to the church and individual. We wish to notice first that the enlargement is a symmetrical enlargement: "Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left hand." Hebrew scholars tell us that the word translated "break forth" has the meaning of "burst out." This would suggest very high internal pressure. Larger quarters must be had at any cost. That illiterate man who was converted in the slums and who said, "If I can’t speak, I’ll bust," had precisely the right idea. Salvation can not live in a human soul without expression. It must break forth in prayer, testimony, song and shouts of praise. The soul filled with God is a spiritual Vesuvius in action. The law of growth is a fundamental principle of both nature and redemption. Progression is an inexorable law of divine life; when either a plant or a soul stops growing it begins to die. Stagnation means corruption and putrefaction. The corpse belongs to the worm. When a spring ceases to flow it becomes a pool, a stagnant, malaria breeding swamp. The Christian has his choice between growth and decay, progress and stagnation. "Forward," is the watchword of full salvation, and it is either to go forward or to go backward. You are either greatly in advance of your experience when converted or you are a backslider. If there has ever been a time when you had more salvation than you have now you are a proper candidate for "the mourner’s bench." You may be unwilling to admit your fall, you may be going on with as loud or louder profession than ever and with a great bustle and rush of church work, but if there was ever a time when you had more faith, more love and more joy than you have today then you are "fallen from grace" and in danger of the wrath of God. It is refreshing to find those who have enough salvation to want more. The only way you can retain what you have is to weight it down with more. These are the days of tornadoes and cyclones, and unless your conversion is capped with full salvation it will blow away. The great plan of salvation is one which provides for no halts and no furloughs. There is no snail pace gradualism getting nowhere in particular, but a double quick step up across mighty and distinct epochs in the history of the soul. There must be a point from which to advance. We must be in a designated place before we can take a rational step. Mere movement is not always progress. The children of Israel "moved and pitched" all over the country, but they did not advance as long as they stayed east of Jordan. Multitudes are tacking and jibing and veering and backing until they have lost all reckoning, and may be, for all they know, in the region of icebergs or rounding Gibraltar. The point from which we make the most rapid progress is Mount Zion. While there is some growth between Calvary and the Upper Room, not much progress is made until the train sweeps through the station at Mt. Zion and begins to climb the grade of "Holiness Heights." The lack of satisfactory growth prior to Pentecost is due to the presence of carnality. It hinders and chokes and throttles the growing principle. This is removed by the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. Then God Himself is the propelling force of our life, and, planted in clean and wholesome soil, we spread and enlarge and flourish. The enlargement must be of the entire man. A one-sided tent is a disgrace to the tenter, and a lopsided Christian is an abnormality. An enlargement of love at the expense of righteousness and justice would be unnatural and distressing. Some have dwelt upon the love side of salvation until they have lost sight of the eternal truth that the gospel is arrayed against every unholy and unclean thing. On the other hand, a few have dwelt upon justice and equity until they have become harsh and censorious. We frequently meet those who so constantly emphasize the graces of patience and meekness that they neglect the proper discipline of their children. Now and then there is a man who makes so much of law and order as to become sort of a family constable or a household boss. This enlargement is of the heart rather than of the head. There is, then, an "enlargement of the heart" which is not only harmless, but beneficial. We are not to have new intellects nor new brains, although after heart enlargement we make better use of what we have than we did before. And no matter how great the capacity of any genius or thinker, his usefulness will be greatly enhanced by an abundance of the grace of God. Let us notice some of the other characteristics of the enlargement spoken of in the text. We are commanded to "spare not," or rather, more accurately, "grudge not." This strikes a mortal blow at human selfishness. God’s thought is to transform the selfish soul into self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness. "Grudge not;" give liberally of all you have. A stingy soul can never be enlarged; it will grow smaller and smaller every day. Small, base souls are an irritation and a nuisance, both in the home and in the church; large souls always bless and help us. "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." "God loveth a cheerful giver." Dr. Gordon says that that word "cheerful’’ means ’’hilarious.’’ Most men look very serious when the collection is taken, but God’s thought is that a man ought to give largely, then shout over it. Just think of a man tossing a bill into the basket instead of the customary copper cent, and then just chuckling and laughing over the privilege. As a matter of experience, the collection will take the shout out of an average congregation. Imagine a day coming when men will be so full of glory and of God that when they see the collectors coming down. The trouble is we are too thoughtful, too calculating. When an appeal is made the first impression is to give a dollar, but we begin to calculate, and before we get the pocket book open it is fifty cents, and by the time the basket reaches us it is a quarter, and we feel sad over that for the rest of the service. We have all seen the arrival of bad weather in a church. The sky is clear and the congregation sings lustily until the pastor says, "Your offering will now be taken," and at once a dark cloud, like a Newfoundland fog, settles down upon the whole audience. The way an offering is often taken reminds one of a funeral. Six able bodied young men march up the aisles and stand in front of the pulpit to receive the plates from the pastor. There is about them an air of responsibility and solemnity as profound as if they were receiving a charge from the Bishop. When the coppers have been gathered, the aforesaid young men organize the line of march back by the door, and slowly, sedately, majestically stride down the center aisle, bearing the yellow ore with the care usually bestowed upon a corpse. To "spare not" or "grudge not" means to give liberally of our testimonies, our sermons, our tears and our prayers. All that we give away is a good investment, returning with compound interest; all that we hoard up and save will perish forever. The sermon held over from a rainy Sunday until a more auspicious time and a larger audience, will take the dry rot meanwhile and be worthless when sunlight and the people arrive. "Fear not." If you wish to be enlarged, you must not be afraid. The fearful and unbelieving, you remember, are classed together in God’s Word. Why should we fear what man can do unto us? Thousands are so afraid of what people will say and think that they seldom have a right royal goodtime in their souls. Many a presiding elder never gets free from fear of the Bishop, hundreds of pastors live in dread of the elder, and myriads of church members tremble at the voice of the pastor. What a chain of nonsensical bondage. Held and clamped by each other, these poor souls shrink and dwindle each day. We should not be afraid of fanaticism. Fanaticism is the scarecrow with which Satan frightens the Christian from what God wants him to have. As a matter of fact, there is but very little fanaticism in the world. There is a vast deal of formalism, however, and that is most alarming. There are ten thousand icebergs to one fanatic. There are ten thousand brakemen to one fireman. God send us Holy Ghost stokers! If you want to be enlarged do not close all the dampers of your soul, but open the direct draft, throw the throttle wide open and proceed to shoveling coal. Do not get nervous over sidetracks. You can never enjoy a ride if you are always afraid of leaving the main line and wrecking your train on a switch. Trust the Holy Ghost, read your Bible assiduously, and let your engine fairly fly. This monotonous cry about "sidetracks "has become what the gaming world call "a chestnut." We all remember the thrilling incident in the reader about the boy who tended sheep and cried "Wolf!" We have been listening to the "wolf’’ cry for some time, and we never hear it now but a smile is provoked. But the laughable part, after all, is the fact that divine healing and Jesus’ return are designated as "sidetracks." One can not refrain from amusement when he observes the vociferous bellowings of these well-meaning people, for one recalls that for three years Jesus was ’’sidetracked,’’ as they would call it, for He healed everywhere; and the apostles left the main line, for they healed the sick folk; and the illustrious saints of all ages have landed in the ditch, for they have believed in and experienced healing. Paul was looking for Jesus, notwithstanding the falsifications of his detractors, and the early church looked for Christ’s return every day. O that we may believe God! Send us, O Lord! a race of moral heroes who will dare to preach a full and rounded out gospel. Lengthen the cords." Launch out into the deep. Stop paddling around shore with one oar. "One-oared" people go round in a circle. Many people do just that. Years ago they were sanctified and they have been dancing up and down in a peck measure ever since. Sanctification as an experience is not the end but the beginning. There are leagues and leagues beyond the Jordan crossing. Take the Lord for your circumstances, for your difficulties, for your business, for your burdens, for your trials, for your sicknesses, for your temptations, for all your needs. Attempt some exploration expeditions to the interior of the land of Canaan. "Stir up the gift of God that is in thee." Walk in all the light God gives you. Throw yourself into the service of God without reserve. They are rescuing men from a burning building. The ladder is just a little short and the daring fireman stands on the topmost round, thus adding his own height to the length of the ladder. The men climb down over his body and are saved. We must be willing that men shall climb over us, walk over us or ride roughshod over us, if by such action we can manifest the spirit of Christ. David said, "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads, thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." "Strengthen the stakes." How? Drive them home on your knees. Make them secure in closet prayer. John Eliott said that when he had an excess of work and a multiplicity of trials he used an engine of which the world knew nothing. It was the engine of prayer. Put down a peg and pray until it holds. We ought to strengthen our stakes by confirming and solidifying our faith in the Bible, for it is the Word of God. When we believe it with all our souls we hang our life and salvation upon our certainty of its veracity. One great hindrance to spiritual enlargement is our conservatism. We are wedded to our old wheel ruts, and find it difficult to leave them even for a better road. Your chariot has rolled along the old track with unchanging monotony until the law of habit makes enlargement almost impossible. Our love of what we call "propriety," "regularity " and ’’system," must go, for the Holy Ghost will not operate by our rules and regulations. It is time we were beyond the conventionalities of culture and the observation of what "they say". All great movements begin in great ideas. There is no progress without fresh, vital thought. China is the same for three thousand years because her teacher is dead. If China should listen to the voice of America calling across the Pacific, she would be rejuvenated and revolutionized in a few years. We, too, must have larger conceptions of God’s promises and a larger appreciation of the magnitude of our inheritance. The tendency of the age is toward ease and quiet and rest. But God wants to push us out of our drowsy nest into the great beyond, into a larger place. We need a larger love. The world is dying today for pure, holy, sweet, humble love. Men need flowers and sunshine and kind words while they live. Bouquets and wreaths and crosses from the florist’s on the casket or grave are worthless; smiles and cheer and encouragement during life are invaluable. We need a larger faith; a faith that will grasp the fullness of God’s great promises, a faith that will rise to the level of every emergency. A larger joy is needed; a joy that will not only rejoice in the gifts of God, but will rejoice in God Himself, and find in Him our portion and boundless, everlasting delight. Can we not "count it all joy ’’ when in divers temptations, as saith the Scripture? Can we not "rejoice evermore"? We need a larger work. We are too narrow in our interests and in our prayers. We may not be able to devote ourselves to but one thing, but we should feel interest in and sympathy for every good work. In this way we can "abound toward every good work." By way of the throne we should be in touch with all lands and all Christian enterprises. We must not reject or complain at God’s method of enlarging us or our work. The disciples were literally pushed out of Jerusalem and sent flying into all the world. God saw that a "dispersion" would be beneficial. "As an eagle stirreth up her nest." Thus God often stirs us up and makes our field larger and more productive. We come into most blessed places which we would never have seen but for the persecution which served to crack the shell and let us out. We ought to have a larger hope. The best men of all churches are on tiptoe with an upturned gaze. Our Lord is coming again; let us look for Him. "Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly." In conclusion, let us notice that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. There is no weapon more cutting than the tongue -- lying tongues, deceptive tongues, slanderous tongues. But God will paralyze every tongue and wither every hand that is uplifted against "the Lord’s anointed." "Not any man shall be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life." "The battle is not yours, but God’s!" Glory ! Hallelujah, and Amen! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 01.11. ABUNDANT RESOURCES ======================================================================== Abundant Resources "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work "(2 Corinthians 9:8). We have a perfect right to look for and expect the operations of the superhuman and divine in the arena of human affairs. If our expectations in this direction were greater, it would be far better for us. Thousands of professed Christians expect but little and are not disappointed. Let us notice the context. In it, and in many other scriptures, we are taught that it is a law of grace that the more we give away, the more we have. This is contrary to all human precedent and reasoning. The world says: "If you want to be rich, save all you get and get all you can." God says:" Go sell all that thou hast and give to the poor." "But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." "God loveth a cheerful giver." Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, said that a literal translation of this text is, "God loveth a hilarious giver." Just think of a man giving and then shouting happy at the same time! Imagine a man in holy glee pouring his money out to God! A farmer goes out to sow his grain. In some of our fertile valleys if he sows three bushels to the acre he will reap sixty or seventy, but if he grudges the grain and sows stingily he will reap but half a crop. "So he that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly." God’s thought and plan is to water this great, dry, famishing world through the pipes, tubes, and faucets of our hearts, lips, and hands. He does not want reservoirs but channels. God is able. Stop and reflect on that word "able." Sister, you may write it over all your difficulties. You may pen it across all your disappointments, you may inscribe it over all your fears, you may post it over all your doubts and troubles. Brother, carve it into your counter, hang it over your work bench, weave it into your business. Take the brush of faith, my friend, and paint it over your sewing machine, cook stove or wash tub, over the sick bed of your loved one. Stretch it like a bow across the darkest cloud that ever threatens your way. "GOD IS ABLE." God is not only able to help, but He is able always. It is true that He is able when money is plenty, friends are numerous, stock is rising, your situation is sure, the family is well, the sun is shining, the birds are warbling, and the flowers are blooming; but, thank God, He is ALSO able when money is gone, stock is worthless, friends are cold, and the heavens are black with disappointment. God is able ALWAYS. Look at that old eagle sitting high on the crag watching with keen eye the approaching storm. The lowering clouds are darkening the heavens, the lightnings are flashing and the thunders are rumbling. She turns her eye to the sun, for she is the bird of the sun and beholds it disappear behind an angry cloud. Still she does not move. She waits until the storm is almost upon her, then suddenly she utters a shrill scream, spreads her pinions, turns her breast full to the storm, and, as it rages, mounts higher on the crest of the tempest until she is above the clouds, up where the sun shines and all is serene. Instead of fleeing from trouble or succumbing to opposition let us throw our breasts full to the storm. God is able to make all grace abound and cause the very thing which threatened our destruction bear us up and up and on until we are in the very face of the sun. The word "abound " is worthy of our consideration. It means to run over, all you want and can use and then some to give away. It means "full, heaped up, pressed down, shaken together, and then running over." The writer once lived just across the street from an academy building out of which four or five hundred children were let each afternoon at four o’clock. They were expected to come out in order. Everyone who failed to observe the rule until he had left the grounds must go back and settle with the instructor. Every now and then one would break rank until a score perhaps returned for reprimanding. Who were they? They were the healthiest boys in school; they had abounding life. They could not be made to go by rule. When you get filled with the Holy Ghost you are spoiled for formal and set rules. People will cry "Discipline" at you, but almost unconsciously you will overstep the bounds and shock the sticklers for law. There are people who never cross the threshold of my home without blessing it. They leave a fragrance behind them. There are others who call who relieve me by their departure. You have had people in your house that cursed it with their gossip and twaddle; others have come who are so filled with the Spirit that you felt their good influence for days after they were gone People generally seem to understand that we should abound; they seem to feel that there ought to be something spontaneous about our holy Christianity. When churches lose their spirituality and spontaneity they begin to look about for a substitute. When we Quakers lost the song out of our souls and the oracle out of our "heart," not believing in a paid choir nor a hireling ministry, we sat down in silence, hats on and hands clasped. When other churches backslide they go into the market and buy canaries and an orator, and put the former on their perches and the latter in his box and say ’Go to, now; do ye entertain us this day. But when the church has been filled with the Holy Ghost she never lets out the privilege of preaching and singing. She does her own worshipping, and brings heaven to earth. We have recently heard of one of the most modern of pulpit attractions A minister in New England city has had a small fountain constructed just in front of his pulpit. While he is reading his little lackadaisical sermonette on Sunday morning the fountain is sending up a beautiful stream, symbolic of what should be in that and every other pulpit in the land. The minister was dimly conscious that there ought to be a spring or a fountain somewhere, and since he saw none in the pew and knew of none in the pulpit, he had one placed between the two. It is after God has abounded toward us that we "abound unto every good work." We must get filled up from God before we can be full for every good cause. This fullness removes from us the tendency to be interested in nothing but our own concerns. O how full the Scriptures are of an abounding gospel! Surely God hath abounded toward us in grace "exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think." For we are to abound in "faith" and "abound in thanksgiving" and "abound in joy" that our "rejoicing may be abundant." Yea, our "love" is to "abound more and more," and we are to "abound in pleasing God" and in "liberality" and in "hope." And if these things "are in us and abound they make us that we shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." "For so an entrance shall be administered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Brethren, let us come in at last with flags and pennants flying, all sails swelling in the breeze of heaven, and anchor our crafts in the harbor of our eternal home!* ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 01.12. MORE THAN CONQUERORS ======================================================================== More than Conquerors "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). It is a tremendous thing to be a conqueror in all the conflicts of the holy war, but it is vastly greater to be "more than conqueror in all these things." There are a great many of God’s own people who are terribly chagrined again and again by at least temporary defeat. If God has provided for a life of victory, a life of perfect triumph, we ought to know it; and if the Atonement made on the Cross provided a salvation that is as big as all our need, we ought to possess it; and if there is such a thing as being a "conqueror," yea, "more than conqueror," we can not afford to come short of it. We ought to know tonight what it means. After a careful study of the Word of God we are thoroughly convinced that to be "more than conqueror" means, first, a decisive victory at home, in our own heart, and our own life, and the narrow limits of our own domestic or social circle. There are a great many people who continue to leave the question as to their final victory so open as to invite the enemy to make another attack. There is such uncertainty in many minds as to their ultimate success that the enemy has great encouragement to recollect his forces and come again. To be more than conqueror means to get a victory that settles something permanently; a Gettysburg, a Waterloo, a Sebastopol, a certain, indubitable victory that fixes something so it will stay fixed. When we get this victory, we say "No" to Satan so loud that it rings through every corridor of hell and lets all the devils know that they are defeated and that we are triumphant. When this occurs Satan is not everlastingly renewing his attack at the same point. Do you know that a real Christian’s trials and testings ought to be new ones, and that he ought not to be fighting the same battle again and again? Today we ought to get a victory that will settle things, so that when Satan comes again he will have to attack us from another quarter and with some new scheme. There is something radically wrong when a Christian’s temptations are the same again and again. It is possible for us to have a victory, and have it so the devil will know it, and have it so the angels will know it, and have it so that the folks in this country will know it, and we will know it, and it will be no longer an open question, no longer an inducement to Satan to come again with rallied forces. Great God, give us something that is fixed! He wants to do it. It is His will tonight. A decisive victory would settle it in our thought as to whether we are going to get through or not. A great question with thousands of people today is as to the final outcome of this whole thing. I admit it is important. It is one thing for a vessel to throw off her lines, spread her spotless canvas to the wind with all her flags flying, and sail proudly out of the harbor, but it is another thing for her to meet the raging tempests and set her prow across the rolling billows and successfully ride the high sea and come safely into port. It is one thing for a man to be converted, to be gloriously converted, to throw off the lines and restraint of sin, to spread his canvas to the wind and with hopes and flags flying high, sail out in the time of a series of meetings, and it is another thing for him to meet the storms of next week and the raging billows of next month, and the blackness and darkness of the awful nights that may come in January and February or in the stormy month of March. It is another thing for him to meet these trials and testings and come finally in, not like an old battered ship with her sails all torn away, drawn by a tug, but with flags and pennants flying come sweeping into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ with "an abundant entrance." If God has provided a gospel that will settle us well, He has provided grace that will keep us settled. If He has provided a salvation that will give us a victory today, He has grace enough to run us up across next week and over the trials and difficulties of next month, and on and up forever; and He has grace enough to carry us over the Alleghenies, and over the Rockies, and over the Alps, and over the Milky Way, and run us into heaven. God help us to believe it, and expect it, instead of fixing a place to fall. Again, beloved, to be more than conqueror means to get a victory from which we derive benefit and help to qualify us and fit us for future encouragement. It is one thing to chase the enemy, and it is another to capture him and bring him back and make him fight in our ranks. To be conqueror is to fight the devil and defeat him, but to be more than conqueror is to capture him and make him act as slave for us. Most Christians feel satisfied if they succeed in chasing the enemy, but God clearly teaches us that we are not only to chase our enemies, but we are to overtake them, and we are to capture men from the ranks of the devil and bring them back to the Cross and have the devils cast out and angels put in, and make saints out of sinners and warriors for God out of men that have been possessed of the devil. We are never more than conquerors until we have power enough to do that very thing. There are some victories that come to us that are overwhelming, then there are victories that cost almost as much as defeat. There are victories in military life that cost almost as much as defeats. A few more such would ruin the victorious party. There are other victories that are so sweeping and so tremendous and so overwhelming that every one is filled with hope and gratitude. So it is with Christian experience. You may gain a victory over Satan, and yet feel so reduced and weak and "tuckered out" when you get through that you will not be fit for another fight for a longtime. The text talks about something that is not only victory, but is more than mere victory. It is victory with some left; so that we overcome with resources in store; so that we defeat the devil with grace enough to defeat another devil. This gospel is big enough, and this grace is extensive enough not only to defeat the devils existing, but if there were a million times as many devils as there are, it would defeat them all. God has grace enough for His people, if they will only accept it, to accomplish the impossible things as well as the improbable things. To be more than conquerors means to do just that. It is a wonderful thing to be a conqueror, but it is a much more wonderful thing to be ’’more than conqueror." David was more than conqueror when he went against the giant with five rounds of ammunition, and slew the giant with one round and came back with four rounds of ammunition left, ready for four more giants. You would probably have fired every round of ammunition you had, and felt good if you downed the giant the last shot, but David felled him the first time. That was "more than conqueror." That was conquering with something left, but the most of folks when they conquer have nothing left; when they conquer the are so weak that they would not like to enter into another engagement at once. God means for us to conquer with enough left for another fight right away. I remember that when Paul and Silas were in jail they not only got out themselves but they took the other fellows out. That was "more than conqueror." Most of people when they get in jail are glad to get out themselves and do not think about the other folks; but Paul and Silas sang and prayed until the old prison shook and the doors opened and the prisoners were out. When you and I get the blessing I am talking about tonight, we can afford to go into jail to get some one out. I never go into jail unless I bring some one out with me. God lets me get into some very close quarters at times, but when He takes me out He takes some one else out with me. It is time we had a salvation that would make us sing at midnight in jail, not so much because we are in there, as because the other fellows are going to get out, and God has honored us with the privilege of being turnkey that we may liberate the prisoners. That is more than conqueror. Daniel was a conqueror when he slept with the lions. It takes great victory of spirit to sleep with lions. Most Christians would sit up and watch the lions. They would say we were told to "watch." Daniel was much "more than conqueror" when he came out. The Hebrew children were conquerors when they could walk in the fire and not be burned, but they were much "more than conquerors " when the Son of God walked with them in the flames and they came out to conquer unbelief and make devils gnash their teeth in powerless rage and go back to hell where they came from. God in heaven save us from this little two-by-four religion that we have. Give us something that has a swing to it and that will make other folks swing. Something that has life in it and will give other folks life. It is coming. God is opening our eyes to see that we have not seen much and have not had much nor known much, and when we were sanctified wholly we only topped the reservoir, not exhausted it. God wants to raise up a race of people who will dare to go forward in the face of a regiment of devils. Again, to be more than conqueror is to have an experience that gets spoils. When the children of Ammon, the people of Mount Sier, came up against Jehoshaphat he cried to God and God sent a victory so overwhelming that it took Jehoshaphat three days to gather up the spoils. God means that we should have victories all the way along that will give us spoils. When the besieged people went out of the city and found that the camp was deserted, Samaria’s famine was turned into a great feast in a single day. God means to give us an experience that will send us right out into the famine districts, into the barren wilderness and make it blossom as the rose and convert the famine stricken country into a feast and have all we need. Glory to God! Again, to be more than conqueror means to take new territory. Do you know, one of the things that is the matter with the Holiness movement is that it has been trotting around in a peck measure? Do you know that there are thousands of people who have evidently been filled with the Spirit, who are powerless today as folks that never were? Why is this? It is because they have been willing to be confined to the narrow limits of present attainments and have been afraid to launch out and take new territory. To be "more than conqueror" means to take new territory. It means not only the knocking down of the walls of Jericho, but it means the conquering of thirty-one kings in succession. There are a great many people who without doubt have been saved, but they are so afraid of being fanatics, or of being extremists, that they have just settled down to testify to being saved at a certain time and sanctified at another certain time, and that is all there is to it. But people who know what we are talking about tonight have something added to the first and second experience. I do not mean a third blessing. I do not mean mighty epochs compared with these two, for they are the two mighty epochs in a man’s life, Calvary and the furnace of the upper room. But I do mean that if we keep on we will take victory in our bodies. We will take victory in our circumstances. We will take victory over all sorts of things, and we will be daily coming into new places and new experiences and new joys with new views of God and His grace, with extended appreciation of the magnificence of our inheritance in Jesus Christ. They will never find the ashes of our campfires two nights in the same place. If they want to find where we stayed last night they will have to go higher up the hill than where we stayed night before last. If God had an army of real progressive Christians it would not take long to "give this world fits" and carry out the great commission of Jesus Christ, spreading the gospel to all the world. The text says "in all these things." What things? Well, the first thing mentioned is under tribulation, and that means "under the harrow." If you have ever been on the farm you know what the harrow is. It is a tool with sharp teeth under which the clods and stones are tumbled and rolled and knocked to pieces. Have you ever been under the harrow? Did you have victory there? Were you more than conqueror in tribulation? Harrowing is a great deal worse than being killed. It is a real luxury to be killed outright, but to be nagged and punched and rolled and tumbled and turned over and over again -- that is tribulation. But "they came up out of great tribulation," and they never came up until they had been "more than conquerors" in it. Unless we have an experience that will keep us sweet when people are poking at us and when they are kicking us and when they are turning us over, we have not got all that God has for us. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Beloved, God means to make us more than conquerors, not only in tribulation, but in distress; in great distress, in awful distress, and if I should stop to refer to instances in the history of the Church, I would call to mind that again and again the saints of God have been more than conquerors in the most trying times. Persecution! How do you take persecution, anyway? How do you feel when people persecute you? How do you feel when you hear that some one said a mean thing about you? How do you feel when you know that there are people who desire to injure you and are malicious and underhanded and would do anything in their power to injure you? Are you "more than conqueror"? There are very few nowadays who can stand persecution. I have been pained even in the holiness ranks to see that when a man is turned down, there is so much made of it. What if folks do turn me down; I would like to know what better than that I have a right to expect. Why is it we expect to be treated so much better than our Master? God help us to stop all this noise and racket about persecution, and wait until we have something to make a fuss about. God in heaven save us from whimpering and simpering and whining and fretting, and give us grace that will make us triumphant over every power that is brought to bear against us. I know there are some that have this blessing. I know some here who have it. I know a man that has just been reading in different papers the awful things that people say about him that ought to try his patience, but it seems to put a jump in him, and I know if God can put a man up on wires so that he will turn into a jumping jack when people say all manner of evil against him, I know that God can make us "more than conquerors" in persecution. It always gives me great courage to see a sample of what God can turn out. O God, multiply these kind of people, for Jesus’ sake. "And famine." There are a lot of holiness people that freeze up at their mouth and sit down in silence every time they get into a place where there is a "famine," and there are plenty of such places nowadays. One can find a famine in most every city church -- a famine of the gospel, of real soul food, but is that any reason why one should tone down or go into silence and retirement? It is an opportunity to prove that one may be "more than conqueror" in famine. I believe in my soul that a few people loaded down with good, steady Holy Ghost gospel, can turn almost any kind of a famine into a feast. I go into some awfully dry churches sometimes. In New York City sometime ago, when I was on the retired list for a time waiting upon my precious wife, I slipped into a church in that great metropolis. My heart was hungry. I had a great deal to make me hungry, and I wanted some bread. I looked up in the pulpit and there was no bread there. I looked in the pews, and there was no bread there. Then I said, "Well, Lord, you will not fail me, we will eat a little together," and He set the table, put on the linen, arranged the silverware and cut glass and we ate supper together. He brought the supper with Him. When you and I have this experience we can have supper anytime. If the preacher will not feed us we will just let Christ set our own little table and eat and if we can find anyone who can take a piece we will feed them. God make us more than conquerors in famine. There are lots of famines in these days. God give us an experience that will make us like a well of water in a dry place. How dry and hungry people are around us! We do not know how many souls we might water if we had "plenty and to spare." "Nakedness, peril or the sword." You may be astonished at it, but I believe there are more people backsliding today over the question of eating and clothing and the poor house as a final destiny than over any other thing. There were times when Paul did not have scarcely any clothes, but he was "more than conqueror" in nakedness. He never went to making tents until the stingy churches would not pay him, and then he made tents long enough to get him a suit and went on preaching again. But he was just as triumphant when he was making tents as when he was preaching. I want to be like that. I want us to measure up. I see these things are here, and I believe God is letting us come to infinitely greater things than we have yet seen. Shall we possess them? "In danger of the sword." How people are threatened nowadays! Threatened in the churches and threatened out of the churches. It is threatened that if you do not stop preaching holiness and testifying to holiness they will put you out of the synagogue. Well, being put out of the synagogue is not so bad, but what we want is victory in our souls when we are put out. Victory in our souls when we have no friends, when there is no one to speak a kind word to us. If we attempt to speak to any one after the meeting, and they seem to be very busy talking to someone else and sort of turn the cold shoulder to us, and do not hardly have time to shake hands with us, we want a salvation that will make us feel so good that we can stop right there and hold a ten days’ camp meeting in our souls. Beloved, there are awful things that may come to us. I do not know what is coming, but I do know we are living in awful times, and I know the text offers to you and me an experience that will make us something "more than conquerors" in any place this side the flaming gates of an endless hell, and by the grace of God I am determined to go through on that line. One thing I know. We never get this experience until we receive the Holy Ghost, for He alone can fight our battles; He alone can defeat our enemies; He alone can bring in the supplies. If we have not received Him, and do not honor Him, and do not serve Him, we can not hope for success. Have you received the Holy Ghost since you were converted? Preached at Cincinnati, O., December 3, 1898.PRAYER Oh, Lord God, we are so glad tonight that a great many of us have received the Holy Ghost and are more than conquerors. He is here tonight in great power, and He is doubtless talking to some hearts that have not yet received Him, and is greatly encouraging and blessing those who have received Him. Thou art getting us ready for greater things. This meeting tonight is calculated to give us some advance in divine things. Lord, give advancement to me. I would not have Thee come and find me short in spirit or power for anything. God in heaven, I know Thou hast saved me from all sin. I know Thou hast saved me from all desire for sin. I hate sin; I despise uncleanness, but, O Lord, I know there must be other things on the positive side of this question which I need and ought to have. O Lord, Thou dost not mean for me to preach truth like this and not get something out of it for my own soul. O mighty God! make us more than conquerors in every single conflict into which we enter. Bring on the fight. We can not do anything, but we trust Thee to bring it on. This meeting is Thine. Lord God, take care of everything. Here are souls who are hungry, but we can not save them. The only thing which we can do is to give them to Thee. Here are poor, burdened souls who are not happy and will never be happy until they are saved, and we trust them with Thee. If Jesus should come tonight, we are ready. If Jesus should come while we are on our knees here, we are ready. God has saved us and filled us, and we are ready. We wish He would come tonight. We long to see this awful tragedy of sin come to an end. Mighty God! Mighty God! have mercy. Men are being damned. Women are being damned. Church members are being damned. Our own friends are going to hell. They tell us positively that they do not care to be saved. God help them! Turn on the power. Let tonight be an awful night for some souls. Let it be glorious to saints and awful to sinners. Lord, we trust Thee. We wait upon Thee. The Christ of Nazareth, we adore Him; the Son of God whom they spat upon; whom they crucified. They mocked Him with a crown of thorns, but we worship Him tonight. They pierced His side, and from it came forth blessing and salvation; we worship Him, we adore Him. We want the universe to know that we bow at His feet; that we look up into His face and see everything that is nearest and dearest to us. Heaven would not be heaven without Him. Earth would be hell without Him. In His name we pray. Amen, and amen! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 01.13. THIS IS THAT ======================================================================== This is That "But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy" (Acts 3:16-18) These are the words of the Apostle of Pentecost, repeating the prophecy of Joel, which foretold the wonderful event of Pentecost. Especially do we call attention this afternoon to the fact that the descent of the Holy Spirit, the advent of the third Person of the Trinity into this world, results immediately in the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God. As a result of the outpouring of the Spirit, the sons and daughters and servants and handmaidens prophesied. That word "prophesy" is very frequently misunderstood. The original word means "to bubble " or "to shout" or "to run over like an artesian well." Prophecy is referred to in the text we have read, as something to which all of God’s people are called, for a careful study of the Word of God reveals the fact that it covers all phases of practical gospel preaching. Preaching is not preaching that does not "bubble"; that does not "spring up." Preaching is not preaching that is worked up; it must bubble up or spring up like an artesian well, to meet the New Testament standard. We have searched the Word of God in vain to find a single trace of what is known as modern sermonizing. We can find where men, women and sons and daughters preached, but we find no trace of an attempt at sermonizing, a systematic presentation of what some people call "truth." The greatest sermons the apostles ever preached were very largely from their own experience. From the day of Pentecost to this hour, when men have preached "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," it has been with a holy recklessness and freedom from any sort of manmade or human system that would put a man in bondage. The fact is, God has called all of His children in these days to prophesy in some way, and Pentecostal preaching is that reckless, free expression of what God has done in the heart, that cannot be put under bands and will not work in harness. There were one hundred and twenty men and women, but they all began to speak, they all began to prophesy; the sons and the daughters and the handmaidens and the servants began to prophesy; they told out or let out what God had put in. That is all Paul did when he was arraigned before the council; he just turned the faucet and let the thing flow. There are a great many people who have a very false idea of what it is to preach, and there are many people sitting back and excusing themselves, saying they are not called to preach, or they are not called to talk, who ought to be up and at it. I have a concern in my soul for the sisters in the church. Thousands are making a most lamentable mistake in waiting for some human recognition. Beloved, when we swing back to Pentecost we can not wait for the ordination of any man. We can not wait for human recognition. We can not wait for the backslidden church to get ready to ordain us. We have got to preach because God puts it in us and we must give expression to it. What are we to preach? Beloved, if we are going to preach, we must preach that which God bids us. We are not called upon to preach science or philosophy, nor are we called to advance social schemes or theories about higher education. We are not called to do a thousand and one things that the Church has turned aside to do, but we are called to preach the gospel of the Son of God, regeneration for sinners, the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire for believers, that men may know holiness of heart and holiness of life: that men may be redeemed from sin and be brought to a place where they can know God and enjoy Him forever. God save us from modern preaching and swing us back to Pentecost! The average preacher is preaching his way to hell, and thousands of church members hold church membership, and it will do them no more good than simply to give them a passport to the regions of the damned. All over this country people are calling for and receiving something that is human; something that is concocted in the study, something that comes upon the plane of human intellection, when God has commanded us to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." It is an appalling fact that some awful stuff is poured forth from the pulpits of many of our churches. No one who knows me can properly understand me to tirade or abuse any one; but, sir, if to know the facts is to be oppressed with a great burden, I dare to tell the facts that our people may get under a living concern and that the Church may be redeemed from the fallacy of this latter-day preaching. Lord, give us something out of the skies that will save men from an endless hell. What do we want to preach? We do not want to preach ourselves; we want to stop that sort of thing, every one of us. It would be a good thing if we would stop testifying with a perpendicular pronoun "I" six and a half feet high at the head of our testimony. It would be a good thing if we would change things and put the Son of God to the front, and instead of saying "I am sanctified," and "I am this and I am that," if we would say "He sanctifies me wholly." If we would keep Him to the front, people would understand things better. The tendency everywhere in these days is to relegate God to the rear and promote man and bring him to the front, and the devil is helping us to do it. He wants preachers and laymen and everyone else to keep themselves to the front and leave God out. We can’t afford to do that. We must preach Jesus. We must preach the cross. I know there is some reproach connected with it, but I know that for a man who shares the reproach without complaint there is a tremendous reward. There is some persecution, but it is little compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. We are called to preach "Jesus Christ and Him crucified"; salvation for the sinner from his record and salvation for the saint from what he is that he may be filled with the Holy Ghost. The fulfillment of the words of our text gives us victory; gives us success; insures success. How is it that all over this country men are complaining of defeat? How is it that men are mortified and say they are deeply pained that they can not have a revival? Do you know it is just as easy to have a revival this afternoon as it was eighteen centuries ago? Do you know a revival is sure to follow certain conditions, as surely as God is God, and truth is truth? The reason we do not have a revival is because we do not preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. We need a regular Mississippi to sweep over us and carry away a whole lot of trash and give us an eternal victory. Many a man "preaches well." He is "logical," he is a "systematic thinker," he has a "delightful delivery," the people are "held in admiration," and they are free to express it, but no one gets saved! Another man comes along with no new truth, very little system and a great many objectionable features in the way he presents the unvarnished truth, and the fastidious are offended, but they get converted, and the backslidden church members are enraged, but they are shown that they are out of harmony with God, and the result is that a great and lasting revival breaks out! What is the difference? One man preached and he depended on brains and human education, and the other man preached the truth and depended on the Holy Ghost. A very popular evangelist said some time ago at the close of a fruitless series of meetings: "I can not understand it. I preached this same series of sermons in a certain city in the very same order, and there were two hundred converted." He ought to know that the Holy Ghost does not go according to order. He does not go by rule! One time the man preached and depended on the Spirit, and the Spirit honored the truth. The other time he depended on a systematic presentation of the truth he had preached somewhere else, and the Holy Ghost retired and did not honor it. Many a time He retires and does not honor our efforts because we try to repeat something we have preached somewhere else. Many a preacher preaches well. He is entirely orthodox, but he does no good. Why? Well, because he is so immersed in his own ideas that my text fulfilled would fill him with dismay. Do you know that we have fallen upon times when things that can not be understood are not only denounced and decried, but people are afraid of anything like the supernatural. They are afraid of being fanatical. God in heaven help us! The valley of the Nile has been famous for its fertility for thousands of years. This fertility is owing to the annual overflow. If it stayed within its banks it would serve for all the purposes of navigation, but the soil would not bring forth food, and a famine would follow. A man can not go through a round of duties simply, and yet accomplish much for God. But if he could have a freshet in his soul men could get bread from him; there would be food in God’s house for the people. Lord, run us over! The freedom from excitement that is so complimented by the world, and is so generally characteristic of the church, will never bring us a harvest of souls. We must get more reckless and more ready to preach and pray and sing and shout, regardless of what people say about us. When we get there, it will make but little difference whether people have been "ordained" or not. It will make but little difference whether you have ever had a bishop’s hands on your head or not, if you get the Holy Ghost on you. If you receive the unction of the Holy One you will preach and have converts and victory, and God’s name will be glorified, and Pentecost will return. When people receive the Holy Ghost a little child can have a revival. A little child has a revival many a time when the preacher can not. Many a revival comes to a church when it is not the preacher who is to blame for it. It is some child or some "cranky old woman" who shouts her bonnet clear over to the wrong side of her head, but who knows how to pray and wait on God until the skies part and victory comes. There is going to be a great change after a while, and many a tall fellow is coming down and many an insignificant person is going up. When the judgment is set there will be such a changing of things as will astonish many a tall-hatted preacher and many an elder, and many obscure souls who are God’s valiants but who will not even remember when they did anything extraordinary. It was all recorded, and they remember it up there. O, the blessed results of the pouring out of the Spirit. The man of weakness becomes a man of power; the woman of timidity and bashfulness becomes a steady-voiced witness to the work of God in her heart. Do you remember the account of the sanctification of Jacob? Do you recall how the blessing the Lord bestowed upon him on the bank of the brook Jabbok transformed his whole nature and life? Years before there had been estrangement between Jacob and his brother Esau, and now as Jacob starts home from his sojourn with Laban, his father-in-law, he learns that his angry brother is coming to meet him with an armed host. Ah, how fearful is the heart of Jacob! How his courage flees! In his desperation he calls earnestly upon God: "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear lest he will come and smite the mother with the children." Then the Lord comes and seeks to break his will and get him to a place of complete consecration. At last he yields and confesses that his name is Jacob (Supplanter). Now the blessing comes, and the Lord says, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel (a Prince of God), for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed." How different is the life of the man henceforth. Esau is conquered by merely meeting his brother. Peace is made at once without a particle of bloodshed. Henceforth the life of Jacob is changed and made blessedly powerful. Peniel corresponds to Pentecost and gives us power with God and with men. My fellow preacher, do you want your words to have effect when you preach? Do you want men to quail and tremble and turn to God? Then get power with God, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and power with men will naturally flow from it. It was this baptism, this anointing, that made Caughey a red hot revivalist. Before it came he was weak like any ordinary preacher, but no sooner was the Spirit poured out than he became a messenger from God, whose words shook men’s hearts as the wind shakes the leaves. Nothing else than this anointing with the Holy Ghost would ever have made a soul winner out of Sammy Morris, the Kru boy. He was ignorant, unlearned, and only a short time out of the jungles, but on the night of his arrival in New York seventeen men were brought to the feet of the Savior through his instrumentality. It is a wonderful power that can take a poor heathen lad and make of him a more successful soul saver than white-haired clergymen who have been in training for scores of years. What is this power? It is the power of Pentecost; the power of the anointing of which Joel speaks. Do you know it is a burning shame the way the Holy Ghost is neglected in these days? No man is fit to minister God’s Word until he has had this holy anointing with the Holy Ghost. Yet men are seeking every other equipment but this absolutely necessary one. What is Hebrew? What is elocution? What is sociology? What is rhetoric? Can these things put a mysterious power on men’s souls and make them yield to God? Can these things make men weep for sin? No; only the Pentecostal baptism will do this. It is alarming how men turn away from the ministry. Eight hundred ministers left the work of preaching last year and went into the practice of law or the work of journalism or some other work to which God had not called them. There is no nobler, more blessed work than that of preaching for Christ to never dying souls. The reason some men shirk it and forsake it is because they have not had the preparation for it, viz.: the enduement with the Spirit. He who has had his Pentecost would rather preach than eat, and he would preach if he had to hire people to listen to him. Is there some one here who feels that his or her talents are small and yet there is a desire in the heart to preach? Let me tell you God is as glad to get you as he is the college graduate. It was to John, the untutored, and not to Paul, the pupil of Gamaliel, that the apocalypse was given, and God will give as much success and as clear a revelation of Himself to the man of meager gifts as to the one of more extraordinary talents. We forget, sir, that if some one receives the Holy Ghost it means the conversion of sinners, and we forget that if Christians are filled with the Holy Ghost they can touch a button that will turn on a current from the upper skies until men will come tottering to the feet of Jesus Christ. If you receive the Holy Ghost you can preach; you need no man to ordain you. Our boys and our girl sought to preach, and I am here with a message to tell you to preach. At all hazards, preach! You say, "I am nothing, I can do nothing." Well, God bless you, let the thing go for nothing, and let God have a chance. All He wants is a shepherd’s sling or a ram’s horn. All He needs to confuse the Midianites and have victory is just a three-cent loaf of barley meal to tumble down into the camp. If God could get a chance at holiness people here, you would not have to be ashamed of holiness in Cincinnati; it would go through these streets and through these alleys like the Mississippi goes through the valley when she is on a tear, clearing away rubbish and sweeping away obstacles. When you get the Holy Ghost you will not have to apologize for holiness. It will make its own impression on people. God bless you, it will defend itself. The reason we have to "defend holiness" is because we have not got the pure article on hand. When the fire jumped out of heaven at Carmel it scattered unbelief, and when fire comes on you unbelief hides its accursed head in everlasting shame, and God’s people take on an air of victory and courage and strength that frightens the devil. God save us from this "holiness" that has to be apologized for! You hold a ten days’ meeting and spend all your time apologizing for holiness, and wonder why the meeting is a failure! I for one am not going to any field and suffer defeat. Not until I know they are bankrupt in heaven and until there is no more power in the throne, will I ever suffer defeat on my field. Cincinnati is a hard enough field, but God stretched people out here on this floor last night as if they were ready for the coffin. God saved people here at this altar as if it was an easy field. It is time we got through our talk about "gospel hardened" fields. There are milk and water surfeited fields. There are places where they have preached nonsense until people are tired of it, but I tell you there is an awful dearth of the real gospel. Real Holy Ghost preaching will succeed anywhere and everywhere. We demand success of everyone else but preachers and Christians, and why do we not demand success of them? We have no time, life is too short, eternity is too long, hell is too awful, and sin is too damning, for us to employ men who do not have converts. We can have success. A child preaches and prays and sings in the Holy Ghost and people weep and laugh and shout and get converted, and no one seems to be responsible for it. Over there is a man with all logic and eloquence and a system of orthodox truth who does his very best and every one seems to be interested, but no one is converted; but yonder is an old man who has not much more than half sense, but he is filled with the Spirit, and he gets up and utters a few words and the whole audience takes fire. You have heard some one sing, -- how beautifully they sang! How the people admired it and how beautiful that voice was, but no one was saved. There was, however, an old black woman who sang in the Holy Ghost and the whole audience wept. God in heaven give us something that will moisten people’s eyes. In these days, when everything is dry, we need something that will touch people’s hearts. The fire of the Holy Ghost will do it. Many a preacher has had more converts in a single week after he received his Pentecost than he had in ten years’ preaching before. James Caughey was an ordinary preacher until he was sanctified wholly, and then he ran like a blaze of fire all over England and all over America, and myriads of people were converted to God. We have lots of ordinary preachers today who would be extraordinary preachers if they were filled with the Holy Ghost. We have lots of preachers who are extraordinary in their own eyes who if sanctified would be very ordinary in their own sight, but they would have a great deal more success than they are having. In conclusion, I want to say that the call of God is upon us. I do not know whether I will ever come to Cincinnati again or not, but if I do, and find you people sitting around in the same nest you are in now, I will find you backslidden from God. I might just as well deal plainly with you. We can not feather our nest and settle down and take care of ourselves, and retain our experience. We must "preach it and pray it and sing it and shout it." We must go to every house, we must go to the cellars and garrets; we must go among the wharves along the river; we must go everywhere and carry the gospel of the Son of God. You can preach the gospel with your mouth and with your money and in your business. You can preach it in a great many ways if you have God with you. I notice when people have received the Holy Ghost they are looking out for ways to spread the truth. A colored man went from these meetings to one of the hotels last night and brought a stranger down here, and God brought him to the altar and saved him. He had come all the way from Detroit down here on purpose to get this salvation, and he did not know what he had come for. And the colored man was the means of bringing him to God. If we get this blessing we will preach it some way. There is one way in which we can all preach it. When God called me out of a delightful pastorate and a lovely home and a salary of sixteen hundred dollars, and I laid it all down without the promise of a dollar, and agreed to live in a trunk from January to January, He put in my soul the burning desire to get this message to the greatest possible number of people. So He impressed me that I could preach it and write it and give it away and circulate it in holiness books and holiness literature. All over this country He has blessed me in giving away books and papers and scattering this gospel. Any one can preach the gospel thus, and yet people sit around and say, "I do not know how I can do it." You can do it by buying books and giving them away. You can do it by taking a paper and giving it to other people. You can do it by sending the gospel to your unsanctified pastor, and your unsanctified brothers and sisters. The time is coming when we must invest money in things that will go for something in the upper skies. The time is here when we must give some thought to things that will never die. If we do not we are going to get lean in our souls. I know people who are just ready to dry up and blow away simply because they have failed to keep step with God in spreading the truth. In fact, until we come to the place where we are ready to give out everything that God puts in us, we can not hope to prosper. God help us this afternoon to spread this gospel; to preach it in every way possible. My concern this afternoon is that people may receive the Holy Ghost. My concern is that people may receive the Spirit who will make them prophesy. I know of girls, servant girls, who are prophesying in such a way as to astonish angels. I know a girl who received the Holy Ghost and she could hardly speak a word of plain English, and her worldly mistress and her husband got under awful conviction, and they did not know what they would do. One morning they were at the breakfast table. There was a lovely breakfast, but they could not eat it. They did not ordinarily have much use for Mary in the dining room, but that morning they had to have Mary. They could not think of any one else who knew how to teach them and they sent for her -- she was frying batter cakes in the kitchen, and she came in and was enabled to lead those people to Jesus Christ. You can be so full of salvation when you are frying batter cakes that folks will send for you. You can be so full of salvation when you are blacking a man’s boots that he will want you to tell him about salvation. If people had the Holy Ghost they could scatter this fire everywhere. God help us to receive Him. Cincinnati, O., Afternoon of Dec. 5, 1898 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 01.14. THE HOLY PLACE ======================================================================== The Holy Place "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully" (Psalms 24:3-4). Psalms 24:1-10 was doubtless composed for and used upon that eventful occasion when the ark of God was returned from the house of Obededom to its proper place on Mt. Zion. The ark had been in the hands of its enemies, but to them it was a great curse. In the house of Obededom, its friend, it was a great blessing. But the time had come when the ark ought to be restored to the place of public worship, and the worship of the living God resumed on Mt. Zion. It was therefore a proper question for David to ask: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?" for, if the ark of God was to return and the worship of the living God was to be resumed, someone must go into the presence of the King; someone must be fit to stand in the presence of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and act as priest and servant. So the inspired Psalmist cries out: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?" What kind of a man is fit to go into the immediate presence of the King and stay? Who has the qualifications for this ministry? The inspired answer is, "He that hath clean hands and a pure heart." We want to notice briefly, first, the holy place, and then the conditions necessary to gain admittance into that place. The holy place was the place where God came and revealed His will and communed with His people. It was the place where He was constantly present, and where He talked with those who ministered. The "holy place "of the old dispensation stands for "the state of holiness" under the new. A careful study of the Word of God teaches us clearly that just as the presence of God was known in the holy place, the immediate and constant presence of God is known today by those who are in the place of holiness, or who have entered into the experience of entire sanctification, where a clean heart is the normal condition and the Holy Ghost constantly abides. The first thing we want to notice about this place is that it is a place of honor. For one to get into the immediate presence of the King of Heaven is to get into a place of great honor. It is always considered an honor to get into the presence of an earthly king. Men go long distances to get to shake hands with the chief executive of their country. People feel highly honored to be permitted to stand for a moment in the presence of royalty, or even in the presence of the statesmen of our own country. I remember of standing for two hours waiting to shake hands with President McKinley. I felt like a fool for doing it, but there is something in us that respects and honors people in position. But, sir, the only true honor is in getting into the presence of the King of Heaven, and not only shaking hands with Him, but living in the immediate presence of the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Chief Executive of the Universe, who made all things and by whose power all things are upheld. We feel that we are highly honored to get into this holy place. There are those who so magnify the reproach that is connected with holiness that they do not consider it much of an honor to get to be with the King. In fact, if we were to judge from their conduct, they seem to be very much embarrassed when they are in the presence of those who are out and out for God and who are sanctified wholly. But some of us were over all this a long time since. We have come to know that to get into the presence of God is the highest honor that is ever paid to a human soul this side the gates of glory, and that to be cleansed from all unrighteousness and saved from all sin, to be filled with the Holy Ghost, to be permitted to live in the constant presence of the King of Kings, yea, to have royal blood and put on purple, and sit at the King’s table, are privileges beyond calculation. Despised, decried and rejected as they are, the lay people are our folks, and we are inclined to exult over the fact that we have the honor of belonging to the band. Beloved, you need not feel ashamed of us. You need not feel ashamed that you are in this crowd. Of course, if you have fallen in with a set of frauds, people who do not practice what they preach; if you have made a mistake and are in bad company, it may be well enough to break company with them; but, sir, the holy few, who dare to go through and who think more of walking with the King of Heaven than they do of the honors of this earth; who care more for the smile of Heaven than they do for the compliments of earth, are the best company you can have in this world. For those of us who have entered in, you need make no apology, you need make no excuse, you need never feel embarrassment, we are perfectly at home and satisfied. If you have any sympathy to bestow, please bestow it on the other fellow. We have gained admittance into the presence of the King, and we want no excuses. We have gained the highest honor that is bestowed. We have gained admission into the holy place. There are people who are ashamed of it, but they are the "non-possessors." People who hang on the outskirts of a holiness meeting, and come to get a crumb because everything is withered and dried up where they came from, and are ashamed to have it known they "were down at the hall," have never struck what we are talking about tonight. When you get in the presence of the King you want everyone to know it, and you want it published in three worlds. You would be glad for all the galleries of Heaven to know it, and you would be willing to have it shouted through all the corridors of hell, and you see to it yourself that the earth knows it. Again, the holy place is a place of friendship. In order to stand in the immediate presence of the king, you must be his friend. You must be on intimate terms with him. You might gain admittance into his presence possibly, through the influence of another, but you could not stay unless you had business there. You would have to relate your matter and be gone. If you could succeed in getting an interview with McKinley, you could not stay. Of course, if you are the President’s friend, you might stay overnight. If you should chance to be his son, you could live with him; but it takes intimate terms to assure one the privilege of staying in the presence of great men, and it takes intimate relations to insure us the privilege of standing, as the text says, in the holy place. We must be on intimate terms with God. We must be even more than friends; we must be of kin to Him. If we have royal blood in our veins, we can sit at the King’s table, we can sit in the council chamber of kings. We can have the privileges of the palace, the privileges of the White House from cellar to garret, if we are sons. If we are merely guests, of course we must stay where a guest stays. If we are servants, we must stay in the kitchen or where servants belong, but if we are heirs, children, then we have the privileges of the whole house. You know a guest does not always feel free in a palatial home. I have stayed in homes where everything was so elegant that I felt as if I had swallowed a yardstick, and I wished I could get out; but there is a home in which I feel perfectly easy, my own home -- and when you come into this place you get into your own home. But, beloved, do you know that to be a friend of God you must be an enemy of this world? Do you know that to be on intimate terms with the King you must break with other folks? Do you know that in order to have the undivided affection of your Bridegroom you must stop flirting with this world, you must give up casting glances at other friends, and give yourself entirely to the King of Heaven and earth? We can not be on intimate terms with God while we are trying to hold this world in one hand and God in the other. So you have to break with this world, with worldly institutions, Christless lodges and secret fraternities. You can not live with the King and be hooked up with anybody else. I am positive of it. We have God’s word for it, and it is settled forever in heaven that to be on intimate terms with Him we must deny ourselves and give up all that this world calls great and good, and take the lowly way with Jesus. We presume that is the reason that very many people fail to go in. We see those at the altar who weep for a time and seem tender under the conviction of the Spirit, but "bring up " against some obstacle, dry their tears and retire without the blessing. They come to something they must break with if they go with the King, and they choose to hug the things of this world and turn from the King of Heaven. Beloved, I choose to break with the things of this world and cleave to things that are eternal. I choose to let go of everything here and choose things that will live forever more. I deliberately loosen my hold upon dignitaries and upon honors of the world and church, and welcome any reproach that may come to me by taking the narrow way, for I am determined to go through to the skies with the despised and lowly Nazarene. Just as Moses loosened his grasp on popularity and royalty in order that he might take hold upon the skies, so I loosen my hold upon the things I was hugging down here that I might open my arms to heaven and all that heaven means. Again, the holy place is a place of safety. When you are in favor with the king, you have the protection of the king’s bodyguard. When you are on intimate terms with the king you are as safe as he is. As long as you have his favor and his smile, every man and every gun that guards him guards you, and you are perfectly safe. There are those who tell us that holiness is dangerous, and that to get sanctified wholly is very risky business. There are preachers with tall hats and white ties and lots of buttons on their coats, who tell us that "If you get so high up you may fall, and then the fall would be awful," but they fail to comprehend the philosophy of this thing. They do not understand that holiness is not getting up high at all. It is getting down on your face, and when a man is down and stays down, how can he fall? The most he can do is to roll over. The fact is that when people get sanctified wholly, they come into an experience of such security and safety and divine protection as they never had before. The safest men and women that walk this earth are those who are free from sin, who have had the last keg of gun powder removed from the basements of their souls. Every one knows it is dangerous to keep gun powder in your cellar. It might stay there a whole year and do no harm, but some day it might explode and your house would go into a million pieces. The best thing for you to do is to get the powder out of your cellar. If you would be well insured you must remove all such things. It is when we get sanctified wholly that we get delivered from that explosive element that gives us so much trouble. A man is never quite trusty -- I never fully trust a man until his soul has been cleaned out and delivered from all the devil’s dynamite and filled with the Holy Ghost. You sometimes feel when you pay your taxes that they are a little high; you can hardly seethe necessity of paying out so much money to keep up the running affairs of the government; but if you were traveling abroad you would appreciate the strength of this government. If you were on foreign soil you would have the protection of this country. Wherever the stars and stripes float you are perfectly safe so long as you behave yourself, simply because you are a citizen of this country. When you get your citizenship in Heaven every man on sea or land and every battleship that our Christ can command and all the artillery of the skies are at your back, and if hell was to turn out in full force against you, God would empty Heaven, if necessary, to take care of you, for you are a subject of the King of Heaven! This is a place of safety. If you desire to be safe make friends with the King. Some years ago an English sailor of American birth was hastily tried by Spanish authorities and condemned to death. The American consul said that the hasty trial was not sufficient, and, conferring with the English consul, they agreed that the man ought to have a new hearing. The Spanish authorities refused to grant the new trial, and the man was brought out to be shot. Just as the twelve men were put in line ready to shoot, the American consul stepped up and threw over him "the Stars and Stripes" and the English consul came forward and wrapped "the Union Jack" around him and said, "Fire if you dare." The guns fell from their shoulders and the man had a new trial. Nothing but strips of silk, but behind them were two of the strongest nations of the earth. When you are wrapped in the bloodstained banner of Christ, you are safe, for there are some things at which the devil himself does not fire. He has fought at the cross, at the wide open tomb. He was a conquered foe in the garden, on the cross and at the open grave, and all you have got to do is to refer him to the resurrection morning and he hides his head in everlasting shame. If we are under the blood stained banner of Jesus all the galleries of Heaven pledged to take care of us, and all the artillery of the skies will help us; we are perfectly safe as long as God is safe. This sounds to some folks like heresy, but it is not. It is the power of divine grace; we sit sheltered in the cleft of that rock which was opened for us, and while we abide in this cleft, there is no devil that can damage us, for we have the support and immediate protection of our King. Again, beloved, the holy place is a place of power. When you are in favor with the king you are in a place of influence. When Queen Esther stood in favor with the king she accomplished something. It looked like a perilous undertaking to go into the court room, but she said, "If I perish, I perish," and she appeared before the king, and when he saw her and she found favor in his eyes, he extended to her the golden scepter. That was the scepter that ruled the kingdom; and when she drew nigh and touched the end of that scepter, she touched the power of the throne, and her people were free. Why? Because she was in favor with the king and was in a place of power. When Joseph had influence with the king of Egypt, he stood at the elbow of a man who ruled the world, and his word was authority throughout the whole empire. Why? Because he was in a place of power. It was not what Joseph was; just a short time before he was in a pit, later he was in a jail. It was not what he was, but where he was, and it does not make any difference what we are or where we come from, whether we come from the slums or from Fifth Ave., if we get saved and sanctified wholly, we are in a place of power, where we can press a button and turn on the powers of the skies and accomplish tremendous things. When we stand before the King we can pray fire enough out of the skies to put our friends under conviction. You might preach at them and scold them and nag them for ten years because they do not go to church, and they would not be saved, but when you get into a place of power you can turn on power enough in five minutes to put them under conviction. Again, the holy place is a place of exhaustless resources. When you are in favor with the King you can have all you want as long as you want it. It will not give out, for He is able to make all grace abound that "always having all sufficiency in all things" we may abound in every good work. Now, we have accepted this theoretically; we have been singing, "I am a child of a King," but we have made the mistake of living as if our Father was a beggar! It is one thing to sing, "I am a child of a King," and it is another thing to talk and act and live as though you possessed all things! When we get into the holy place we possess all things. We are not elevators, we are not storehouses, we are not reservoirs, but we are pipes and channels through which God pours the rivers of salvation to water the famished millions of earth. We just open the faucets and God pours His blessings through us. All my life we have had to study economy. We never knew what it was to have overmuch of this world’s goods, and so to us who have had to count our nickels and see how far a dime will go, it is a great luxury to find something there is enough of. Oh, you will not misunderstand me. We feel elated, because we have reached a place where things never give out; we never strike the bottom of the flour barrel; we never have bills to meet that we can not pay, for we have a rich Father who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. There is no lack to the man or woman who walks humbly with God. I have sympathy for that little girl, who was brought up in an attic and had never seen much of anything; when she was taken to the seaside and asked what she thought of the ocean, she said she was "glad to see something there was enough of!" I am thankful I have tapped a reservoir so great that we can give people all they will take and have some left; all that we servants can use or give away! You may be a pauper if you wish, but I do not propose to be one. I propose to be a millionaire, and have all the servants and footmen and coaches and everything of that kind that I want. You can go afoot, but I propose to ride in a chariot. The Bible teaches me that Philistines can be converted into chariots, and as long as I have as many enemies as I have now I will never have to go afoot or "ride a wheel"! You and I never have to be poor! Never have to tell in class meetings how weak we are! We do not have to tell what a hard time we have had and how many crosses and losses and ups and downs we have had. All we have to do is talk about the King, tell what He has done; and we will have enough to do. Hallelujah! Now let us look for a few minutes at the conditions upon which we gain admittance into this holy place. It is a place of honor, a place of friendship, a place of safety, a place of power and a place of exhaustless resources, but you can not enter unless you have a ticket! As sure as they have twelve gates to heaven and twelve angels to guard them, this holy place is protected by a flaming sword and cherubim, and you can not enter unless you have met the conditions mentioned here. The first condition mentioned is "clean hands." If our hands are not clean of the blood of all men, if they are not free from bribery, if they are not free from other people’s property, we can not go in. There are lots of people who steal who do not take money. They just take a corner off a man’s reputation and refuse to bring it back. "Clean hands" means a strictly clean, upright, downright, Christlike nature, on the inside and outside; an everyday walk before God and before men that is above suspicion and without reproach. It was that kind of a walk and that kind of a life that the seven deacons of the early Church had. They were of honest report; were full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; they had "clean hands." Their outward life was right. If your outward life is not all right, you can make it right. You may say there are some wrongs that can never be undone, you may say that you can never make your hands clean, but I say you can. When you have made everything right that you can make right, you have done as much as you can do, and God never requires any more of a man than he can do. When a man does all he can to make his outward life right, he has "clean hands." And another condition to which I want to call your attention is that we must have pure hearts Now, the Holy Ghost would never suggest that this was a condition of admittance into the holy place if it was not possible for us to have pure hearts. God does not mock us by offering us something unto which we can not attain; and when He offers us a clean heart and makes us hungry for it, He not only makes it possible for us to have it, but puts it in easy reach at the very threshold of our souls. Any one here tonight can have clean hands and a pure heart and enter into the holy place. Those who enter, enter under these conditions, and those who are not in will never get in until they meet these conditions until they have washed their hands and had their hearts purified through the blood of Jesus Christ. How many of us are in the holy place tonight? Preached at Cincinnati, O., Nov. 29, 1898 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 01.15. THE CALL OF REBEKAH ======================================================================== The Call of Rebekah "And he said, I am Abraham’s servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master’s wife, bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath" (Genesis 24:34-36). These are the words of Abraham’s chief servant "that ruled over all that he had." He had been dispatched on a most delicate and important errand, viz., the selection of a wife for Abraham’s only son, Isaac. The whole incident is very instructive and interesting, and in a most striking manner illustrates or symbolizes the calling of the New Testament Church by the Holy Ghost to be the bride of Isaac’s great antitype, Jesus Christ, God’s only Son. It is pertinent that we notice here that it is not by accident that the events of Genesis 22:1-24, Genesis 23:1-20 and Genesis 24:1-67 come as they do. 1. Isaac is sacrificed and received back from the dead. 2. Sarah the mother of Isaac is buried. 3. Abraham’s servant is sent away to procure a wife for Isaac, the Isaac who had been brought back from death. The counterpart of this type is to be seen in the New Testament. Most prominent and conspicuous of all events in the New Testament is the death of God’s only Son, the sacrifice of the second Isaac. Then comes the burial of Judaism, the laying away of the rejected Jews. Third, the Holy Ghost comes, selects, and calls out from the world the church, "the bride, the Lamb’s wife. "Types are didactic in their aim, for "whatsoever things" that "were written aforetime were written for our learning." The oath between Abraham and his servant had for its object the obtainment of an help-meet for Isaac, and correspondingly, far back beyond the bounds of time in the council chamber of the Almighty Trinity, the covenant of grace was instituted. The oath must be ratified, but there was none greater by whom God could swear, so He sware by Himself. His oath had for its object not only the redemption of the world, but the entire sanctification of the church that she might become "the bride," the Lamb’s wife ; so our entire sanctification rests on God’s eternal oath. Thank God, our full salvation was not an afterthought with Him. Let us notice next the testimony of Abraham’s servant. He had a very distinct and definite testimony to give. He symbolizes not only the Holy Spirit, but Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered disciples. These were the man’s words "I am Abraham’s servant." When we are filled with the Holy Ghost we will have a clear and distinct testimony. The man knew that he was Abraham’s servant. He did not guess or hope or suppose, he knew, for he said: "I am." He could never have succeeded with Rebekah if he had been uncertain as to who he was or from whence he came; and Christians need not hope to win others to Christ if they do not know positively that they are Christ’s. When we receive the Holy Ghost He so emphasizes and clears up justification and Calvary, that if we had any doubts about our conversion we lose them forever. Many have never been able to locate the time of their conversion until they experienced their Pentecost, when, under the illumination of the Spirit, they saw clearly where and when they were converted. We must have a distinct, positive testimony. And just as the ancient Jew must be able to declare his pedigree before he could take a place in the ranks of the army, so those who do not know that they are saved are not trusted to take a place in the ranks of God’s tried and conquering hosts. But mark; as soon as Eleazer, the servant, has given a straightforward testimony as to who his master is he says no more about himself, but at once sets about to represent and reveal the father and the son. "He shall not speak of himself." He speaks of the resources of the father: "The Lord hath blessed my master greatly, and he is become great, and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold," etc. Beloved, we may never expect much success until we properly represent our Master. He is a great God. Possessing measureless, boundless wealth, he owns the cattle on a thousand fields and a universe of whirling worlds. How many misrepresent God! The world surely thinks we have a very diminutive God. Many professed Christians do not know that their God has ever done much for them. Their lives suggest that He is not able to give them perfect victory or save them from all sin. Their spiritual constitution disgraces the God they profess to worship. Who would ever suppose that these skin-and-bone individuals who reel and stagger about, making "crooked paths" and going into "by and forbidden ways" were children of a King? Can it be that these emaciated forms ever sat at a King’s table? What a burlesque on salvation! What a slander on the skies! When the servant has made it clear to Rebekah that his master is wealthy and very great, "he tells her that his master has an only son, and that he is now on the mission of securing for him a wife. Rebekah is attracted toward the heir of whom Eleazer speaks in such glowing terms. "When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." "He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you." By revealing the resources of God in their magnitude, and by exemplifying the supreme loveliness of the character of Christ, men are won to grace and salvation. The servant showed Rebekah a fair desirable object in the distance and set before her the blessedness of being united with that object. All that belonged to Isaac would belong to Rebekah also when she became his wife. We have in the deportment of Eleazer an excellent touchstone by which to test the propriety of our ministry. The most spiritual teaching fully and constantly presents Christ as able to save to the uttermost. In such teaching there is small room for human theories and reasonings. A man who wishes to preach himself does very well to deal in these toys, but the Holy Ghost preacher points to Jesus. The result of Eleazer’s quest was most pronounced and decisive. The words of the servant had won her heart to Isaac. She was ready to go off into a strange land away from kindred and home to find the Isaac of the servant’s report. In the jewels of silver and gold and in the raiment, Rebekah saw an earnest of her approaching fortune. Her old habit would not do; she must don the purple of nobility in order to meet her bridegroom. The yielding sinner gets rid of his rags, is clothed, and put in his right mind, and gets a sample of heaven’s wealth. Rebekah was now really betrothed to Isaac, and must assume garments worthy of her honor. She must not only consent to be Isaac’s bride, but she must practically and really consecrate herself and all she had to that end. "And Eleazer said, Send me away to my master." But the "old man," the father, and those to whom Rebekah was bound by earthly ties, objected. "Let her remain with us a few days at least." Here is the crucial point. A test is to be made. What will Rebekah do? Is she so in love with Isaac as to entirely detach her heart’s affections from things around her? Will she turn her back upon the homestead, forsake father and mother, brother and sister, houses and lands, and go forth to Isaac? If what she has heard is true, attachment to these things is worse than folly. If she could really become the joint-heir of Isaac in his life and possessions, what foolishness to still tend Laban’s sheep? It would be to despise all that was set before her. The prospect is far too bright to be thus lightly given up. Hence Rebekah unhesitatingly arises and expresses her readiness to depart in those simple yet wonderful words, "I will go." "Forgetting the things which were behind and reaching forth toward the things which were before, she pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling." Every true convert is speedily brought to the question of practical consecration and true holiness. Here the natural man and earthly ties always remonstrate and insist that the separation be delayed at least for a time. Few there are who walk in the light of justification many weeks or months without being brought face to face with the question of holiness, a full, complete separation from the "natural man,’’ the ’’carnal mind,’’ and all worldly entanglements. With those who say, "I will go," the Holy Ghost will journey all the way, and ’’in the evening" of "this age," perhaps (who knows?) in the evening of this century, perhaps this evening, Christ, of whom the Paraclete has talked to us so much, will walk out as did Isaac, lift up His yes and behold His bride coming in the clouds of Heaven to meet Him. He will take her on His strong arm, conduct her into His banqueting hall, and seat her at he royal table. "So shall we be ever with the Lord." Hallelujah! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 01.16. BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE ======================================================================== Blessings in Disguise "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." (Psalms 66:12). The margin reads "a moist place," which means ’’a fertile place.’’ The great primary truth set forth in this text is the service of difficulty in the Christian experience. It is a fact in the history of nations that adverse circumstances have always been favorable to national prosperity. The inhabitants of a northern country have always had the ascendancy over those of the southern and more tropical lands. The inhospitable climate and sterile soil and adverse conditions have demanded energy and rugged strength. It was opposition and oppression that forced our fathers to the Revolution and into heroism, and ultimately into independence. Israel gained more by Pharaoh’s oppression than she lost. The more she was oppressed the more she multiplied and grew. It has been in the times of great political and social upheaval that the strongest men have been developed. Such men as General Washington, Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, Robert E. Lee and a host of others would never have come to the front in times of peace; but in the nation’s greatest struggles they shone forth. There are millions of people who would never have heard of Hobson or of Dewey had it not been for the recent struggle between this country and Spain. There is something about opposition and difficulty that wakes up the strongest qualities of the soul and brings forth activity the best men to be had. The illustrious characters of the Bible were all educated in the school of difficulty. Abraham was never called "the Father of the faithful" until that awful tragedy on Mount Moriah. Jacob rode to his highest achievements in the chariot of severe discipline. Joseph’s path to the throne lay through Egypt’s prison cell. David’s way to the throne was through the valley of nine years’ persecution and oppression. He knew what it was to be a king and at the same time to have to wait for his crown. Paul preached in Caesar’s household with iron on his limbs, and John Bunyan did his best work in Bedford jail. The most illustrious men of the ages have blazed forth when earth and hell were pitted against them. The darkest hours that the church has ever seen have been the times when she has won some of her most tremendous victories. This is not only true of the church as a whole, but it is also true of individuals; oppression and opposition and poverty have forced many a life into moral honor and spiritual greatness. Thousands of men are stalwart for God, and will shine like particular stars in the firmament of history, who would have been of no account and would have been worthless but for the force of circumstances, which has forced them out of a place of ease, out of a place of comfort, into great struggle and tremendous conflict; and the greater the conflict, the greater the victory. We can never have a great victory unless we have an engagement. There are thousands of people who seem to want victory, but who dread the conflict necessary to obtain it. Those who shrink from trial, from temptation, from difficulty and from testing, fail to understand that it is impossible for us to have a grand triumph over a foe unless there is a foe to contend with -- unless there is a battle to be fought. If we want to know the triumph of the ages, we have got to be willing to engage in a hand-to-hand conflict with the powers of darkness, that God may have a chance to display His power in making us victorious over the world, the flesh, the devil; over death, hell and the grave. What is the service of difficulty? What is the benefit of trial and temptation? Most of people dread them. People look upon severe temptation and on testing as calamities. For what purpose do these things come to us? First, we want to say that they prove our real value. God never tries or tests a worthless soul; and so, if we are severely tested, it is because we are worth it. The devil never tempts a man who is already his; so, if the devil tempts people severely it is because they have been delivered from his clutches and he wants to get them back. Isaiah says the tares are not threshed like grain and wheat. Why not? They are not worth it. Grain and wheat are worth threshing, but the tares are not. And if you and I get a threshing once in a while, it is because God thinks we are worth it, and He wants to get the chaff out of the wheat. If you find that other people are in comparative ease and comfort, while you yourself are having a severe time, just conclude that possibly they are not worth testing, but that God has seen something in you that can be brought out by a trial of that kind; that can be developed, that can be shaped, as the diamond whose beauty is only brought out by shaping and cutting and polishing. If the devil is after us it is because he has not got us. So when we hear his hoofs and horns rattling, instead of looking down over our noses and having the dumps, we should thank God that he has not got us. He is not after folks that he has; he is rocking them to sleep in the cradle of carnal security. He is dosing out opiates to put them to sleep and numb their consciences, so they will not get stirred up and be converted. The folks that he is after with a whole brigade of his emissaries are the people that have been saved and rescued from his clutches, and he wants to recapture them. So trial proves what we are worth -- shows what we are made of -- for the way we act in time of trial and under opposition and in severe tests proves what we can stand. If we are all right under this high pressure, we will be all right when things run smoothly; but, sir, we might be all right when things run smoothly, and not be all right in the teeth of a northeaster. God sometimes sends a northeaster to let us know the strength of our cable. He sometimes rocks us in the storm to let us find out that the old ship of Zion is seaworthy. He sometimes sends the enemy after us with all his powers, that we may understand and know that we have something we can put our feet down on and feel secure. This gives us courage, it gives us strength of conviction, it gives us boldness and heroism of spirit that will dare death in its most frightful forms and push out into the battlefield for God. Again, opposition, difficulty and trial are valuable because they wake up the slumbering faculties of our souls and bring out the very best there is in us. If we have latent powers, if we have qualities that have never been developed, we ought to want them brought out, and it would seem from the course that God has pursued with His people that oppression is one of His incentives to faith and holy activity. God lets opposition come to wake up the best there is in us and bring into full activity the strongest qualities of the man. It was the weights on father’s old clock that kept it going. It may be the weights and burdens and difficulties that keep us going. God can set our sails so that we can sail in the very teeth of the gale. Our sails fill with an opposing wind, and we set our prow across the waves and we plow through to victory in the face of the strongest opposition. Two men meet a difficulty. One says, "This mountain came to stop my way," and he succumbs. The other says, "This mountain came that I might climb it," and he mounts to the top and looks away into the land that is afar off. God means that everything that opposes us should be converted into a steppingstone; that we should mount our difficulties and ride; and if, when opposition comes, you will get into the chariot and settle back into the soft cushions and behave yourself, then, when the footman opens the door to let you out, you will find yourself on an elevated spot, having outgrown your clothes! But if you get down under the wheels of the chariot, they will mangle and bruise you, and you will come out defeated. Beloved, let us ride. Let us mount everything that opposes us. Let us take it for granted that everything that God permits to come to us, comes to us that we may mount from its summit to the summit of something else and go on to victory. The ancient Parthians believed that the strength of every foe they slew went directly into themselves. So let us take from conquered difficulties the strength they sought to take from us, and turn it to our account so that we may be made giants instead of pigmies. We should never yield. We should never suffer even temporary defeat. We should be victorious from this moment until the clouds part and Jesus comes. God has placed within our easy grasp all the conditions of perpetual triumph, and we may be victors every single moment, whether in the kitchen or in the parlor, whether in the slums or in high life. We may have victories for God everywhere, if we will only trust Him and appropriate the resources placed at our disposal. We need never be ashamed, never confused, never confounded. "They that trust in the Lord shall never be confounded." Hallelujah! Again, beloved, our enemies and our difficulties and our opposition are intended to be servants. The giants of Canaan were to be bread for Israel; and if God has a process by which he can convert giants into bread, He has power by which He can convert all our enemies and all our oppositions and all our difficulties into friends that will help us. The prophet said that Israel should return from bondage to their homes "on the shoulders of the Philistines.’’ The Philistines were their enemies; and if the Israelites were to convert Philistines into saddle horses and ride them back home, we ought to be able to ride our difficulties and our oppositions, and make servants of everything that confronts us, capturing even the devil, and making him forge the weapons of his destruction, and causing his thunderbolts to fall back upon his own head, giving him to understand that through Jesus Christ we conquer the world, the flesh and the devil. We ought to stand on our own caskets and flap our wings in victory, and give Satan to understand that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. Oh, this cowardice! Oh, this cringing! Oh, this leaning and propping! Oh, this whiny, delicate type of Christianity! God have mercy on us! The demand today is not for babies, but for soldiers; not for cowards, but for heroes; not for people in the hospital -- we have enough of those -- but for men who are willing to go to the front. God in heaven send us some men with boiling blood in their veins, who will never be satisfied until they go to the front and do their best for God! Some of us have never had servants, but we can convert our enemies into servants. We are not able to have hired servants, but we are able to convert giants into hot biscuits, and feed on the very folks that mean to damage us. The men that have designed the most malicious things against me have been the men that have been the greatest blessing to me. Some of my greatest enemies have been my greatest benefactors, and people have blessed me and helped me when they did not intend it. Afterwards they would have liked to have taken it back if they could. We should understand that our enemies are for us, for "if God be for us who can be against us?" if God is for us, every one is for us, and everything is for us, and "all thing work together for good to them that love the Lord," and "this light affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen." May God get our eyes off the visible and let us see the things that are out of sight. Let us see the King in His beauty and the country that is very far off. Then we will have a good time when other folks are having a bad time, and when you get to this place you will feel almost under obligation to the man who kicks you. I have been kicked sometimes, and have turned around and said, "Thank you." The man has so blessed me. How could I help it? I am under obligations to every one that helps me, and when a man gets sanctified wholly and filled with the Holy Ghost, people may kick him, and it does not affect him any more than it does a football. Of course, it takes a ball a second to adjust itself, and when a sanctified man gets kicked he feels it. We do not preach a sanctification which takes the feeling out of folks, but it takes him but a second to adjust himself, and he is ready for the next fellow. The people that are well saved can be kicked and cuffed and abused, and they are always at their best, for every kick and cuff only develops something better in them, and fits them for a better place. God save us from this dread of a little persecution. We have a type of Christianity that is too weak and delicate for anything useful. It is too sickly for the war. It is too feminine for the open field. It is too nervous and whiny and too hard to please, and requires too much attention and too much apology and too much excuse to do anything for God. I can go into some places in the Holiness movement, and there is not one in ten of the Holiness people that are ready for the fight and are just prancing for the war. The most of people sigh a sigh of relief when they think the war is over; but God has put something into me that demands a conflict, and if I could not live where there is war I would do something to bring one on. I would have war if I had to do something to provoke it. I see more and more that stagnation and damnation are characteristic of the people that are at ease in Zion. God help us and save us from this type of Christianity, and give us something that can stand the stress of real war. Difficulty and opposition not only have the effect of proving what we are worth and developing the best there is in us to serve us in our work for God, but they drive us to appropriate divine resources. It is when I get into a close place that I make a heavy draft on heaven’s bank. It is when I am crowded to the wall that I write my name to a check for half a million and stick my face into heaven’s window and stay there until the Cashier gives me attention. It is when I am "pressed above measure," as Paul says, that I make my heaviest draft on heaven’s resources. There is nothing that pleases God more than for us to draw heavily. It proves that we have confidence in Him as the President of the whole business. We have confidence in the exhaustless resources of the Kingdom, and we are not afraid that things are going to give out up there, and so we just draw heavily. I have been forced to make out some drafts in the last few months that I never dreamed of having to make out, but I am here to confess to you tonight that I have never yet made a demand on heaven’s bank that it was not promptly responded to. God’s storehouses are just lying there, ready to be tapped by the man of faith. The man who will dare to believe God will leap from a beggar and poverty to a millionaire, and by a single stroke of his pen of faith appropriate enough of the eternal wealth to put him among the aristocracy of the skies. I would rather belong to heaven’s nobility than to belong to Boston’s four hundred. I would rather be one of the elect of the upper skies than to have all this world can offer. We have a salvation that is so tremendous and so magnificent and so extensive that no man has ever yet taxed it; and if the whole earth should apply at once, there would be enough for every angel and archangel in the skies. God wake us up. If He has to get us out of our present condition to get us into something better, I say, "Amen." When the mother eagle wants to teach the eaglets to fly, she stirs up the nest. She frequently picks the cotton out of it and leaves the thorns; and sometimes that does not do, and some great, lazy young bird wants to stay in the nest. After she has gotten out on the limb and set an example and exhorted them and entreated them to attempt to fly, it is not uncommon for her to tear the nest up and make that young fellow do something. Of course she has the mother heart in her, and when the young eaglet starts to fly and falls, she always spreads her wings beneath it. The mother eagle stirs up the nest and picks out the cotton in mercy. She knows that if the birdlings were allowed to stay in the nest, they would become good for nothing, and their wings would be useless. We have in the church a great lot of folks who are sitting in the nest. They are thoroughly paralyzed, and mostly head and stomach; they can never fly until God sends something to stir up the nest. Many a time the very thing you dreaded most was God stirring up your nest so as to get you over here in a better place. When I feel things stirring nowadays, I have learned to take courage and thank God that there is something better for me. We read in God’s Word that when David was made king the Philistines came up against him. They did not come up against him before he was made king. Why? Because he was not worth it; but as soon as he was made king they were after him. When we hear the Philistines thundering and tramping and howling about us -- why do we not suppose that they have overheard that we are about to be promoted? Why do we not look on the favorable side of things, and think that God is about to move us into a better place, a moist place, a fertile place, where things never get dry? I think it would be a great blessing to us to get into a place where things never get dry. I have been into so many dry churches that I shall be glad enough to get into a moist place. I have had to pray fire out of heaven to wake up many cold churches lately. I am praying God to give us a revival of full salvation, a full salvation which causes people to shed tears. I am praying God to give us tears over the fact that churches are going backwards and that sinners are going to hell in regiments. If people are going to hell as you and I believe they are, then we ought to say something about it, and I am following sinners to the very flaming gates of hell and protesting against their entrance. God is gaining souls brought back from the flaming gates and planting them in the army of God. The possibilities are simply tremendous if we will only enter in and stand true to God instead of being cowards and whining and simpering. When men get sanctified wholly by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, they get an experience that lifts them out of the rut and moves them out of the repair shop; that puts them out on the line, with motive power enough to run them through a whole regiment of devils. Men who do not have this power have not this experience. I want to say to you that people who really have the glorious experience we are talking about are men who are not afraid of earth or hell. The are not afraid of ten thousand devils. The Holiness men of this country can not be stopped. They are dying all around because they would rather die than be idle; they would rather preach than do nothing. They would rather suffer with the Son of God than to have an easy time in this world. They would rather share the reproach that comes than to have all this world can offer. People who are having easy times in these sinful days will have a hard time in the judgment. If they are sitting in idle content while this world is going down to hell, they will be filled with dismay on that day. I will take my hard time now, if you please. Let me wear out now. Let me go and serve God while I am able; let me preach when I have a raging headache, but do not let me ever sit down in ease; do not let me ever get in sympathy with myself; do not let me ever get to pitying myself; do not let me ever conclude that I am having a hard time; do not let me ever ask to go to the rear. I am asking God to send me to the front and keep me there. Beloved, if we knew what a victory there is, what a triumph there is, what a glorious overcoming there is for God’s people, we would all want to go to the front. Thomas, of the Rough Riders, who fought in the battles of the late war in Cuba, lay on a blanket mortally wounded. His comrades took hold of the blanket and undertook to move him over into the shade, and he rose up and said, "You are carrying me to the front, aren’t you? Carry me to the front. They have killed my captain; carry me to the front!" and they carried him over the stones and through the briars, leaving a streak of blood as they went, and he shouted, "For the front!" until he fainted dead away. I said, when I read that in "Scribner’s Magazine," that if a Rough Rider can do that for his country, it is time Christians forget their pains and their trials; it is time we stop our self-pity; it is time we forget our oppressions and cry, "For the front!" and trample our enemies in the dust and plant the blood stained banner of the Son of God at the summit of the enemies’ earthworks. I modestly believe that God has taken the last drop of cowardly blood out of me, and, if I knew there was a drop in me, I would open the vein and let it out. This everlasting cringing and whining and toadying and catering to men, and catering to churches, and catering to pastors, and catering to elders and bishops, and catering to moneyed men and tall hats and white cravats! God have mercy on us. The time will come, sir, when we would give more for a smile from the Son of God than we would for all the applause that either the church or the world can heap upon us. "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy, a moist place." I want to notice, in conclusion, that the two elements mentioned in my text are the two most fearful and destructive elements in nature – fire and water -- and if God can take a man through fire and through flood, He is able to keep us anywhere this side the gates of hell. We can dare trust Him, no difference what comes. Fire and flood will only have the effect of bringing us into a moist place where we shall enjoy more than ever before. But we can never know this experience unless we are sanctified wholly by the baptism with the Holy Ghost, for only this delivers us from carnality and brings us into perfect loyalty to Almighty God. Therefore, we will have to seek and find this second blessing, this Pentecost, this baptism with the Holy Ghost if we want to be Christians after the type that we have talked about tonight. I believe there are scores of people in this audience tonight who do not want to be cowards and who would like to be delivered from the last symptom of cowardice, who would like to be "soldiers of the cross and followers of the Lamb," and stalwarts who are ready to live or die for the Son of God. Every one of us may be the same if we will receive this blessed baptism. How many are there here tonight who are ready to walk with "the resolute few who dare to go through" at all costs? Preached at Cincinnati, O., November 30, 1898 THE END ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 02.00. HOLY WAR ======================================================================== HOLY WAR by Seth Rees Chapter 1: The Holy war (Ephesians 6:10-11) Chapter 2: The Spirit of the Gospel (Isaiah 61:1-2) Chapter 3: Monarch Born in a Stable (Isaiah 9:6-7) Chapter 4: The Besetting Sin (Hebrews 12:1-4) Chapter 5: The Conquest of Canaan (John 13:1) Chapter 6: Messenger of the Covenant (Malachi 3:1-4) Chapter 7: Our Father’s Care (Isaiah 49:16) Chapter 8: Laborers with God (1 Corinthians 3:9) Chapter 9: Joy and Strength (Nehemiah 8:10) Chapter 10: Holiness Unto the Lord (2 Peter 1:21) Chapter 11: The Good Spirit of the Lord (Nehemiah 9:20) Chapter 12: The Resurrection (Mark 16:1-14) Chapter 13: The Perfection which God Requires (Php 3:8-15) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 02.01. THE HOLY WAR ======================================================================== The Holy War "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Ephesians 6:10-11.) The word war is pregnant with horror. It has associated with it everything that is terrible, horrific, heart-rending. The earth has groaned to its very center. Its surface has been crimsoned with blood again and again. When we think of the widowed mothers and orphans; when we think of the myriads of graves that mark the tread of earthly conquerors, enough to girdle the earth four hundred and forty times; when we attempt to measure the expense of war in money and blood shed, we almost unconsciously find ourselves praying for the day when they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and the nations shall learn war no more. Thank God that day is coming! Earthly conquerors have gained their fame through the shedding of blood, but our King is coming, the King of peace, and will reign over the earth without the shedding of the blood of a human being. War is an awful thing. The world is bristling with bayonets. The nations of the earth are looking into each others faces across living walls of men in uniform. Ten million men stand today ready to fire into each others ranks at a word. All this is the product of sin, the work of the devil. As I walked through the cemetery yesterday, where about seven thousand souls are buried, at the National Encampment at Dayton, I thought of the awful devastation the devil has made. As I thought of the thousands groaning, crying and suffering on account of these things, my heart cried out for the time of peace, for the time of righteousness, for the time when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Thank God it is coming! All this war, all contention, all family quarrels, all domestic misunderstandings, all unkind words, and everything that would mar the peace, thank God, it is going to be at an end forever. But we are in the greatest warfare of all the ages. We are called to be soldiers in a conflict, the issues of which are to astonish the assembled multitudes of the universe. All the inhabitants of multiplied thousands of worlds will stand with uncovered heads and witness the outcome of this great conflict in which you and I are engaged. As horrific as war is the Holy Ghost has frequently used military life, military appointments, and military rules as a type of our conflict in this great struggle against the powers of earth and hell. In this chapter, to which I call attention this afternoon, the Holy Ghost uses a figure familiar to all Bible students. The more we study it the deeper we enter into it the more it is developed and the more profoundly we are impressed that this warfare is the conflict of the ages. It is not only the battle of life but the battle of eternity. Thank God we are called to be soldiers of the cross, followers of the Lamb; and with the assurance that all rebellion is going to be put down, and that the arch fiend, who has given all the trouble that they have ever had in heaven, and who was cast into the earth, and who has caused all the devastation and sorrow that this world has known, is going to be locked up in the bottomless pit forever. O, it is not going to be a thousand years only! This seems a long time, but all too short when we have nothing to do but live with the Lord and praise Him. Thank God, the time is coming when the glorious gospel shall triumph forever, and all the powers and forces of evil will be locked up where they can never again disturb or get at God’s saints. Beloved, ours is a real conflict. No mere uniformed regiment; no mullen stalk fight; it is something that is real and will require all that God has provided for us in order that we may be successful in this warfare. A general never gains anything by allowing his army to undervalue the strength of the enemy. We never gain anything by dealing with sin and Satan flippantly or in a jocular way, as if to overcome and get the victory was a little matter, or by speaking of Satan as we speak of other enemies. Beloved, we have a tremendous foe. He is not almighty, but he is so mighty that we must wear all the panoply of heaven if we are to stand against him. He is not almighty, but so mighty that it will take the Mighty God to stand between us and him all the time. God is our only protection against the clutches of Satan. Beloved, have you got the armor on today? Are you in the harness? Can you be trusted? Could the Lord appoint you and then go off and come back again and find you at your post? How are we to know? We are to know by testings. Have you been tested? When the Lord came back did he find you there? There is an experience where God can trust us and we will stand, and "having done all, stand." and then stand, and when there is nothing else to do just to stand. Glory to God! And so I find this afternoon in the message the Lord has given me, like calling your attention to the armor which He has provided for us. The Holy Ghost has used the figure of the Roman armor and of the Roman soldier, and He knew what He was doing when He chose this figure to illustrate what we are to have, and what the results are to be. O, I thank God for that tenth verse, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might;" then the Holy Ghost tells us how; "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Then He tells us this is necessary, for "we wrestle not against flesh and blood," that is we have no common foe, we wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, and wicked spirits as well, and in high place -- in places where you would expect to find angels, you find devils; wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand in the evil day. This is an evil day. Say what you may it is a very evil day. While it is a day of blessedness and privilege to those who will be blessed, it is a day of awful apostasy, indescribable wickedness among those who have rejected the light. I would rather live today than at any time in the world’s history. It is the Saturday evening of this age. The triumph is in sight. But it is a day when wicked men and seducers are waxing worse and worse. It is a day when this world is on a mad rush toward hell. It is a day when the Church has gone into apostasy. It is a great surprise that preachers will tell us that the world is getting better, when we know that while all Protestantism was making three million professed converts among the heathen, the heathen have increased two hundred million. This is a day when eight hundred preachers a year leave the pulpit, go to law, to medicine, to merchandise, and to the devil. Take your pencil and paper and tell me how long it would take for Protestantism to save the world at the present rate. This is a day when not one person in ten professing Christians, knows anything about vital godliness and spirituality. Ministers and people are as destitute of a real knowledge of God and of spiritual things as if they had never heard the gospel. O, these are awful days! But, thank God there is an armor, there is an outfit in which the follower of the cross can conquer. "He that endureth to the end shall be saved.” These are days when many have the form of godliness but are denying the power. The apostle said” from such turn away." The time has come when we have to take to the caves and the dens and dugouts. A full gospel is driven to the halls and street corners, and brush arbors, and canvas tents. The synagogues, the temples and steeple houses will not receive it. We must stand shoulder to shoulder and go through with the King. Turn away from everything and everybody who will not follow Jesus. The Holy Ghost not only calls us to put on the whole armor but tells us what it is, piece by piece. The first is the girdle. The military girdle serves three purposes. First, to bind the loose flowing garments worn in those days, which otherwise would be a hindrance in battle. Second, to strengthen the loins; and third, as a protection or defense, often having a wide piece of brass attached to it. You remember that Elisha said to Gehazi, "Gird up thy loins and run to the house of the Shunamite." And John the Baptist wore a strip of the skin of an animal around his loins. The military girdle often had an ornament of either silver or brass. Our girdle is the girdle of truth. It will bind up all the loose and flowing graces, and strengthen us for the conflict. "Truth," that is what the Bible students are here for. This is where you dig truth like they dig gold in Colorado or the Klondike. Now, we must have the truth to save us from our early education, from our notions, from our prejudices, from our denominational proclivities. We must have something from which there can be no appeal, no mistake whatever. We must fill our heads and our hearts and our mouths with this truth. Under the Mosaic dispensation they had it on their foreheads, on the front of the houses they lived in; they had the truth everywhere. They were commanded to teach it to their children; to quote it when they rose up and repeat it when they lay down; and no doubt they had it in their dreams and it was with them all night. The "breastplate of righteousness" is true holiness. This piece covered the heart. A great many people have thought it was for their heads. There is no breastplate for the head. The breastplate of righteousness was for the heart. It is the only thing that will protect the heart, that will turn away the shafts of evil, that will turn to one side the darts of Satan. A clean heart is not only clean but it is fortified, it is possessed, it is guarded. The angel of the Lord protects a clean heart. The Holy Ghost lives within. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about" clean people and protects them. If you are not sanctified wholly you ought to have nothing on hand until this work is accomplished. Let us be sure we have our "peace" shoes on; "our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." It may seem strange that we go to war with peace shoes on. This is one of the paradoxes of the gospel. We war not with men but our war is with sin and with the devil. We hate sin; we dare to attack sin wherever we find it, whether in high places or low places, at the same time having the peace of God in us and covering us all over. Now, if we have not an experience in which we are kept under all circumstances, there is something radically wrong. In all our conflicts we must be kept placid within. It is the other man that must be disturbed. We must keep sweet. We may preach and pray and sing. Satan may be roaring on all sides but we are kept as peaceful as a Spring morning, and "He spreads a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Brother, have you got this peace? Are you saved so that when you deliver a message, and it stirs people up to answer back that it does not stir you up? Is the armor on? Is it comfortable? Does it chafe? If there is irritability there is a mistake somewhere. Then you notice that we must have the sword. We must take the sword up by the handle and not by the blade. If we take it up by the blade we will cut ourselves; if we take it by the handle and wield it right we may have victory, no matter how hard the battle. This Word, backed up by the Holy Ghost, is sharper than any two edged sword. Beloved, I want you to feel that you are equipped. If you have on the whole armor of God you have nothing to fear, nothing to dread. You do not have to carry a fallen countenance. You are ready for action, ready to die with the armor on. O, it is a wonderful privilege. I want to die on the fresh dirt of the breastworks of the enemy, doing my best at the front. How many in this school are ready for war? How many are ready, not only to live on hard tack, but to go without anything, and are willing to live or die any death for the sake of your Commander? Preached at God’s Bible School, Cincinnati, Ohio ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 02.02. THE SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL ======================================================================== The Spirit of the Gospel "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." (Isaiah 61:1-2) These words not only express the spirit of Christ but the spirit of His gospel and of all those who are truly His followers. Just at the time when through the healing of the sick, the casting out of devils, and the blessing everybody in sight, Christ was about to become popular in a certain locality, the disciples came to him and said, "All men seek for thee." He answers, "Let us rise up and go to the next city; it is time to be leaving" and on He went from city to city, from village to village, and from hamlet to hamlet, until within two years and a half He had walked through all the villages and towns of Galilee, Samaria and Judea preaching the gospel everywhere. There have been a great many preachers who thought that the fact that certain localities received them well and wanted them to stay was an evidence that their work was there. Christ said, "It is time to be going.” The spirit of the gospel and its author is that of evangelizing, is aggressive. The apostle Paul, the greatest warrior of all the past, pressed on to the regions beyond, and said, "Let us forget the things that are behind." This is the Spirit that actuated Christ and when they made it comfortable for Him in any locality He was thinking about some other village, some other town, or some other city, or some other country. No doubt Martha and Mary made it very comfortable for Jesus. No doubt they were delighted to have Him. There were times when He had no place to lay His head, and spent the nights in the mountains, but He was always welcome in the home of Mary and Martha, and yet He did not spend much time there. He journeyed from place to place, from city to city. He was about His Father’s business. It is easy for us to stay with our friends. It is not always easy to get up and go among strangers. There is a tendency these times to settle down with comfort, with ease, with the people that love us, but the spirit of the gospel is aggressive and progressive and, hence, must either evangelize or crystallize and fossilize. People who have the spirit of the Master are everlastingly thinking about somebody else; another village, another hamlet, another humble home, another broken heart, another wrecked and ruined life; and when we get the spirit of Jesus we can hardly be content anywhere except in the blessing of humanity and the publishing of the glorious gospel of "good tidings." Let us remember this morning, beloved, that while there are times when it is proper for us to come together and celebrate, and derive assistance from each other, the time will soon come for us to scatter; we will have to be going; we must get into the regions beyond and find those to whom the Lord wants us to carry this great message. There is something about Pentecost that, while it unites, it always scatters; if by no other means, by that of persecution. When the early Church received the Holy Ghost they soon received persecution enough to drive them everywhere, and under persecution some bold and daring spirits crossed the boundary lines and rushed over into ancient Britain and Germany and gave our ancestors the gospel and we are here this morning in this Tabernacle instead of sacrificing human lives in heathendom because somebody was persecuted, somebody crossed the boundary lines and pressed into the regions beyond, somebody left home with all that was near and dear to them that we might have the privileges we enjoy today. Our ancestors were not only idol worshipers but often mingled their worship with the shedding of human blood: Do we owe anything? Have we any debt we ought to pay? Certainly it is for us who know the Holy Ghost and understand the spirit of the Master to realize that we are under obligations to carry the glad tidings, not only to our neighbors and friends, but to all the world. Somebody brought it to us, and we must take it to others. The spirit of our Master is of that push, that aggressive forward march which has always characterized the deeply spiritual. He would say to this congregation this morning, "Go forward." It is the watch-word of the gospel in all time. Let the people rise up and pitch their tents in other fields. Your daughters must find their crowns in the slums. Your sons will find their thrones under the burning sun and on the sandy plains of foreign fields; and if ever we keep step with the spirit of my text we will walk and walk until we have fulfilled all that Jesus has planned for us. Yes, it is easier to stay with your relatives and friends but it may be better to turn your backs upon them and go out, "not knowing whither you go." Many preachers stay three years, four years, five years, because they are liked by the congregation they still hang on. Many a time they had better be up and gone. One of our greatest needs is this aggressive spirit of Jesus. Press out, press up, follow the water courses, and the ravines; seek the mountains, the slums; seek the jungles, and seek the lost everywhere. This prophecy is unquestionably the prophecy of the Son of man. "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because He hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek." This gospel is one of "good tidings." Our mission is much the same as that of our Master. If He was commissioned to preach "good tidings," so are we. I hope the Lord will somehow turn His hand upon us and preserve us from an unhappy presentation of the bone and skull side of the gospel until the people will be frightened from it. Of course there are things to endure, there is reproach, there will be persecution, but for all that it is a gospel of "good tidings." The most glorious news that was ever carried into the world is this gospel of the Son of God. Then if it should bring some privation, it carries with it such good cheer, such sunshine, such flowers, such sweet perfume, such blessing of every kind that we almost forget our trials. We may weep or groan but we end up with a shout. We suffer but we rejoice. We are sorrowful yet always glad. We are in tribulation but never hurt. Our sorrows never hinder us. There is something about the gospel that is good tidings and I hope we will keep preaching the mellow side of this gospel, for I have failed to find that Christ was ever severe except with hypocrites and church members who ought to have known better and were deceiving the people. His great heart of compassion was always deeply touched at the sight of suffering, and this gospel is a gospel of good things. Brother, when we come to you with this gospel you ought not to look down your nose, you ought not to look sad, you ought to lookup and say, "Glory to God." We often preach this gospel to people and at first they look sad. We tell them a little more and they begin to cry; and we keep on talking and they begin to scream, and they treat the subject as though it was something greatly to be dreaded. O, beloved, this gospel which has been deposited with us as His followers is His everlasting and most profound commission ever given to man. It is a gospel of glad news declaring the "acceptable year of the Lord." It is the jubilee, the fiftieth year. It is to end bondage, to end servitude, to put an end forever to all slavery. It is complete victory through Jesus Christ. I love to preach this gospel because it helps people, it lifts their load and chases away their clouds, it seems to almost sing their sorrow into oblivion. I know people; I am intimately acquainted with them; I know they suffer but no one would ever suspect it in the public assemblies of the people. Their sorrow is hidden away and their joy, sunshine and smiles abound. So I want you to tell the people that this gospel brings good cheer. If it brings you a little persecution He will pour in the intoxication, the wine of the kingdom until you will hardly feel it. He will make you so drunk that while people are despising you and saying all manner of evil against you, you will rejoice and be exceeding glad. O, glory to God! The next thought that I want to put especial emphasis upon is the fact that this gospel is for all classes. Especially for the poor, the common people, the neglected, the people who are down and cannot get up. The people who are held in disrepute by the world and the worldly churches. They are the people that we are to cheer. Thank God for a gospel that will cheer folks the darkest night that ever was! It is awfully dark in this country. All about us people are feeling their way. One or two in a church, or two or three in a community. Common people, honest souls who are looking for light. Thank God we are commissioned to preach the gospel of "good tidings" to them. Again, "He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted." You know we are inclined to suppose that things and people are as they seem. They are not. Nobody is as they seem to be until they are sanctified wholly. You meet people on the street and engage in conversation with them, and they will not disclose a single trace of the fact that they are broken hearted, but before they are two blocks from you, their breasts may be heaving with the deepest sorrow. There is a way that this world has of covering up the fact that it is broken hearted. People assume a frivolous and lighthearted exterior, many times to cover up conviction, and their appearance of being without trouble is only to hide awful sorrow. Not only is this true among the poor but in palatial homes, on boulevards and avenues, in every station in life there are broken-hearted people with heart aches and sorrows untold. Family difficulties that never can be healed but by the gospel of the Son of God, and if we do not carry this message to them their lives will be wrecked forever. We are commissioned this morning as servants of God, to preach this gospel to the broken-hearted. O, the sorrows that we meet in the slums, in the hotels, in the holes and hovels and cellars and garrets! The people who are tired of life; the people who are on the very verge of suicide! A gospel of cheer is their only salvation. That man who met with financial reverses and went and jumped into the lake might have been saved if he had heard this gospel. That woman who put an end to her life because she was disappointed would never have been disappointed if she had heard these good tidings. Ah, there is power in the gospel to bind up the brokenhearted, to renew ruined and wrecked lives, to restore the joy and sunlight of God’s eternal grace to the soul until life is worth living and we will be glad to live it for other people. The dear man in Chicago was in the employ of the great Northwestern Railway Company. He met with many reverses. Sickness fastened itself upon him. He went to the hospital. After some weeks returned to his job. Was again taken down and sent to the hospital a second and third time. He was finally told that he must go to a higher altitude. His money was almost gone but being a railroad man, his pass was secured to Denver. Before he could recover strength a telegram announced the serious illness of his family. He returned home without health and without money, and it is well known that when a man’s money is gone his friends are scare. His family was sick, his rent was due. His children were hungry. The only thing he had left in the world was a life insurance policy. He said: "I will give my family the benefit of this," and started to the lake intending to commit suicide. When within about three blocks of the lake he was passing the church where we were holding a convention. He heard the singing. He stood on the side walk and mused. There was a great struggle going on in his breast. Only three blocks away was the lake, and the morgue. Up one flight of stairs was gospel singing. He first thought that he would go in, and then remembered that his family were hungry. He said: "No, I will hurry to the lake." What an awful conflict was going on between the powers of darkness and the Spirit of God. He finally said, "I will go upstairs and listen to this singing before I go down to the dock." I will not soon forget that hour. He threw himself down in a pew in the very rear end of the church, and as he threw his head down on the back of the pew in front of him and listened, he heard a gospel of good cheer. The Spirit of God seized him with awful conviction. When the altar call was made he came forward, yielded himself to God and was gloriously saved. He returned home with money enough to pay his rent and give his family a square meal. He soon brought his wife to the church and she was saved. Soon after he sought the baptism with the Holy Ghost and was sanctified wholly. He erected a family altar in a Christian home. He heard about divine healing and was anointed according to the fifth of James. Jesus healed his body. He returned to his employment, and a more cheerful, happy home you will seldom find. This is a sample of what a gospel of good cheer will do wherever preached. I want to remind you this morning that you do not know when you stand upon a street corner, or under a brush arbor, or in the pulpit, or in the mission to preach this gospel, who is listening to you. It may be somebody who is dying for salvation. Somebody who has reached his extremity. Thank God, if you will faithfully preach this gospel you will help people. Little did I dream when Abe McPeak sat in the back pew so heavy hearted that he could not hold up his head, afraid and ashamed to look up, that we had in the audience such a character, such possibilities. The gospel is the same every where. God spoke to him on that back seat and sent the gospel at the right time to save him from a life of sin. You heard his testimony last Sunday night. God has saved, sanctified and kept him until the police officers have been forced to acknowledge that his whole life has been changed and transformed. And they have been forced to take his photograph out of all the rogue’s galleries in the country. You are continually rubbing up against people whom you will never meet again in a life time. You will never cross their path again. You will never have but one opportunity. If you do not have this gospel of good news with you, you may lose the chance of your life. God help the young preachers and evangelists, you are called to proclaim the glad tidings, to preach every time as if it were your last time, and your only chance to rescue men from sin and hell. O, thank God for the broken hearts that have been healed! One November night a broken-hearted, disappointed, friendless, hopeless and homeless girl stood at the door of our Rescue Home in Chicago with a six weeks old infant in her arms and asked admission. Of course she was taken in, but as soon as she came under the power of this gospel there was such a transformation, such a change of heart and life, such a change in her spirit in every way that today she is a charming, sanctified, Christian girl. She would grace any church in the land and this gospel of good news did it. O I wish we knew the power! I am sure we would not pass the hard cases by, for there are no cases too hard for this gospel of good tidings. I am greatly burdened this morning that we may go from this camp meeting not to look for splendid things, not to look for favor either of the world, or of the church, but to look for souls. Hunt them out; run them down. Ask God to give you a nose that will scent hungry, saveable souls. Let us ask God to save time by putting us on the track of people who want salvation, instead of spending so much time upon those who will never get it. I am constantly coming in contact with hungry souls, and for years there has been an understanding between the Lord and myself, that I am not to go any where to hold meetings where there are no hungry people. It has been years since God has allowed me to go into a single locality where I have not witnessed a revival, a few souls saved at least. You say there are places where you can not have a revival. Well, if there are I trust God to keep me away from them. I have been wonderfully blessed in finding the places where wean have revivals. I would not stay in a place, either as pastor or evangelist, where we could not have a revival, but would trust God to put me on the track of dying souls who would accept the truth. Life is short; our opportunities will soon be in the past; our chances will be no more. If we are going to rescue people from sin and hell we must do it quickly. Thank God we are commissioned to proclaim "liberty to the captives;" to undo the heavy burdens. O there are burdened people here this morning! Some of you are carrying burdens that will hump your back and kill you finally if Jesus does not unbind them. When sanctified people are so burdened that they can not rest, He rests them. When you can not bear another thing the Lord comes in and He bears your burdens, lifts your loads, relieves and rests you, and you rejoice in the fact that He came for that very purpose. Brother, let Him carry your load. If I would carry mine I would go to the coffin box in a hurry. Sister, unload on Him. Brother, there is nothing so dark in your life but Jesus can help you. It may be something you can hardly unbosom to your dearest friend, but Jesus knows about it, and He came to unbind and release and set free every burdened soul. Glory be to God forever! O this gospel is our commission. Let us preach it everywhere. Let us preach to those who are in prison, in bondage to appetite, in bondage to lust, lust for money, lust for the world, lust for fame; the people who love this world and yet wish they could get away from it. Why, a wealthy man in Nebraska spent hours with me in a recent camp meeting, telling me how he loved money, and hated himself for loving it, but was powerless to help it. He is bound. He is the son of a banker, born with the lust for money. He said to me, "I despise this mercenary spirit; but how am I to get rid of it?" Thank God, I could tell him. There is a gospel that unbinds, that sets free. When you get this Blessing you can write checks just like you drink water. You can bless the poor, you can help the fallen, you can nurse the sick, you can go any where, do anything for Jesus when you get this Blessing. Beloved, don’t forget that this world is dying for this gospel. In the jungles, on the great thoroughfares of life, people are crowding their way through and hastening to the judgment. If we give them the "good tidings" we will have to hurry. "The opening of the prison to them that are bound." If ever He turned the apostles out of prison, He is turning men out of prison these days. Deliverance from the stocks, chains, or the guards, is no more real than is the deliverance from sin. Many a time I stop and celebrate my deliverance from prison. Well do I remember the chains that bound me. Well do I remember the stocks on my feet. Well do I remember the ring that was on my tongue, and the bondage in which I lived. Thank God, every chain fell off! My feet and hands and tongue were loosed, the prison door was opened, and I walked out in the society of angels. Thousands of people of whom you have thought but little, are in the same condition today. Well do I remember of spending a whole Sunday in the woods alone, after a hilarious night in sin, as heartbroken and homeless as I felt I believe if there had been a saint there to turn some old log into a mourner’s bench and gotten me down on my knees, I would have been saved. But saints were very rare in that country. But few ever spoke to me about my soul. I did not know there was a better way. So when I walked away from sin, heartbroken, sick and nervous, there was nothing to-do but to stray off alone and weep my sorrow out with myself. Had I known such a Christ as this I would have turned to Him. There are multitudes today in the same condition. They are as savable as I was; they are worth as much in the sight of God as any one, and we must give them a chance before they drop into the pit. Notice, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me" to preach this gospel especially to the poor, to the masses. O my heart yearns over the bums and thugs, tramps and homeless men, who are down and cannot get up; over the harlots and jail birds who have lost every thing and do not dream that there is a ray of hope. How my heart yearns over the three thousand fallen women in this country; the one hundred thousand men, women and children in prisons, jails and workhouses. The one hundred thousand bootblacks; the one hundred thousand newsboys; and two million and a half of homeless men. Many of the homeless, worthless, hopeless men have come from the best of families; are graduates from colleges and universities; have filled places of trust and honor, but sin has brought them down to the depths. The gospel is their only hope. There are thousands of poor waifs and friendless children for whom nobody has ever prayed in particular -- not once. They are some mother’s child, but nobody knows their name today except as "Jack," "Dick" "Bob," or some such nick name. There are hundreds of street urchins living on garbage and apple cores, any thing they can pick up. Some of them live by gathering cigar and cigarette butts. They might be saved. There are not many to do it. The holiness fighting preacher will not do it. The churches of these times seem to have forgotten the poor. It requires money to secure a pew in the modern church, but there is a little boot-black down there you might pray and weep over until God saves him and sends him out to preach the gospel. Some who have been saved from houses of shame are so burdened for others who are where they used to be that they can hardly eat or sleep. God has rescued them and they feel that they must rescue others. This is why Jessie, who was saved from a life of sin in New York, could not rest until she had preached this gospel in the houses of sin until hundreds and hundreds had received this message. At the age of twenty-six she had spent thirteen years in street life. She said, "My people are in bondage, I must declare this gospel of good news to them." Never am I more affected than when in Harrison Police Station in Chicago, than when listening to Brother F. preach to the prisoners there. A little more than a year ago he was in the same condition; occupying one of those same cells, but one day one of our slum missionaries, a messenger of light, extended her hand through the bars and offered to take his hand, but he ordered her to leave his cell-door; fortunately she had received the Holy Ghost, and instead of leaving she sank down in the filth on that stone floor and prayed for his salvation. She wept and prayed until she had the assurance that he would be saved. God touched his heart so that he received a card announcing the place of our meetings, and promised that when he was released he would come to the services. The promise was made to get rid of the missionary. A few days latter putting his hand in his pocket for a piece of tobacco he found the card which reminded him of his promise. A liquor dealer had paid his fine. He was walking the street with only ten cents in his pocket, had no place to go, so came to the service. It was that very night this gospel reached him, and at the altar in floods of tears, and cries of penitence, he was gloriously saved. He was a bar-tender, a pugilist, a drunkard; he could demand large pay because of his skill in mixing fine drinks. That night he was saved; it seemed almost to good to be true. He went out that February night into a dark alley just back of the church, and kneeled down in several inches of snow and slush and prayed, and this washes prayer, " O God, if this is true, if I am converted, and you mean for me to live a Christian life, take away this appetite, for rum and tobacco," and like a flash the appetites were gone. O that God will help us to see the possibilities of this gospel! The possibilities are limitless, they are boundless; let us rise up and preach it. Let us receive the Holy Ghost. Let us getaway from our own interests, from our own selfishness, and help and bless some body else. Do you know the worst I wish for some of you is that you would come to this altar and get so saved that you would never come to another altar while you live; so that you would never feel your pulse again to see if you have got the experience? There is a place beyond searching; there is a place beyond researching, beyond going for another baptism; a place where if Gabriel, himself, would come and tell you to search, you would look him straight in the two eyes and say, "Glory to God!" Why do I wish you such a blessing? It will put you perfectly at leisure from yourself. You will give no more precious time to tinkering with the running gear of your soul; no more time spent thumping yourself to see if you have the blessing. Glory to God, you will have all your time to rescue men and women from sin and shame! Imagine Paul, who said, "it is no more I" spending days and weeks searching and examining his own experience. Ye are dead. There is no more "I" to examine. There is not "I" enough to examine; not "I" enough to search. It is "no more I." It is Christ, and Christ says He has anointed me, He has commissioned me to preach the gospel to this dying world. People come to me and say "I want to go into the slum work." I ask them, "Are you sanctified wholly?" and before they have had time to answer they have answered. Their very hesitation is an answer. The Lord wants us to get done with ourselves and with our own interests, and have all our time to weep and pray over the lost. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 02.03. MONARCH BORN IN A STABLE ======================================================================== Monarch Born in a Stable "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon His kingdom, to order it, and establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever." Isaiah 9:6-7. The old prophet here stood upon the mount of inspiration and looked down the dark valley of seven hundred and thirty-eight years and saw the coming of the Messiah. He gazed upon the circumstances of His birth, the trials and tests of His life, the awful dark tragedy of His death, and he breaks out in the language of an inspired prophet, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given." As we think this morning, of all that it means, it breaks our hearts. The circumstances of the birth of Jesus were quite unique. The birth of earthly kings is always attended by great royal display. Lords wait in the antechamber, messengers are mounted at the door, ready to herald the news of the advent, from city to city. Great preparations of the most splendid character are always made for such an event; but here the prophet sees a monarch born in a country village barn. His parents had walked eighty miles, and were hoteled in a stable. Strangers among strangers, and surrounded by enemies, Jesus the King of kings, and Lord of lords was born. What a strange sight! The Creator of the universe, the God of all living, born among cattle, with no display and no reception and no recognition, and almost nobody to love Him. Just a few shepherds and a few wise people, some humble folks gathered about the manger. But for the fact that it seemed to interfere with the supposed rights of others it would never have been known a half dozen blocks away. Thank God, He was born under just such circumstances. It would be well for us to remind ourselves that real Christianity will never get beyond the stable and manger. Even in this age of culture and refinement. It seems very strange that we should expect and demand the recognition of this world, that we should ever expect the favor of men when our Lord was born under those circumstances, and living under the frown instead of the favor those years, and was put to death by those who ought to have received Him and honored Him. I can not quite understand the great disappointment that some people seem to suffer when a little persecution comes to them. I am at a loss to know what some holiness papers mean by making so much of the fact that a holiness preacher is placed at a great disadvantage ecclesiastically, and possibly deposed and sent to the woods. What more should be expected? Is the servant above His Lord? Why should we expect places of ease, and comfort, and luxury, and favor in this world when our Lord came unto His own and was rejected? When he came as the light of the world they rose up and put out the light? When He came to bless men He was treated as a curse, and was hung between two thieves? God help us not to get too far from our position, and keep us to where we will remember the crowd to which we belong. We are not of this world and this world can not love us, and it is absurd for us to expect the love or favor of the world, or worldly churches, so long as we are closely identified with the despised Nazarene. I fear the applause of men. I repudiate and revolt from everything that seems like the favor of the world. Our Lord did not have it, and we must somehow order our steps so we will escape it. We must go through this world without allowing it to pat us familiarly on the shoulder. I can hardly endure the familiar pat, or familiar expression, from men whose hearts I know to be against the Christ of my text. So our blessed Savior in this glorious prophecy is given five illustrious names. O how replete, how full! How much there is in the description heaven has given us of our Lord! An attempt has been made to aid us to appreciate all that He is and all that he can be to us. He is "Wonderful, Counselor." The word "Counselor" means one who is not only fitted to give advice, to stand near kings or princes to give counsel, but the word involves the thought of giving wise counsel. A man may know a great deal, and may be able to express it and yet not be a good counselor. But our Christ has always been not only the counselor of His people, but He has the power to Divinely guide them and turn them and enable them to escape all they ought to escape, and come in contact with all they ought to have. He is a wonderful Counselor! Beloved, I love Him this morning because He gives counsel contrary to all human instructions and often leads us in paths which we would never choose and our friends would never choose for us. He often leads us contrary to what is known as prudent, or where some folks would choose to call sanctified common sense, because He leads us many a time contrary to the judgment of our friends. He has always done this; He of His own choice takes the foolish things and often counsels that which would seem to this world to be foolish. It must have seemed very foolish to the Canaanites to have folks marching around their city every day for a week, and then to march around seven times on the seventh day, and then do nothing but blows a ram’s horn and shout. They must have laughed over it; but that was God’s way of accomplishing His purpose, and He does not have to go according to the counsels of earth. It has always seemed strange to people that a boy -- just a lad -- should be sent out against a giant with nothing but a shepherd’s sling, but it was God’s counsel and it was the wisdom of heaven. It has never been accepted yet by the world nor by the schools, and nobody seems able to explain why He should choose twelve fishermen and commission them to evangelize the world when there stood Rome ruling the world; there sat Jerusalem in the height of her splendor; there was the Sanhedrin, it was all that man could wish, yet God’s counsel was to go down along the shore and take some boys with fish scales all over their clothes, to stop the mouths of earth’s counselors and give wisdom to the schools. Don’t you suppose, Beloved, that you are going to be lead according to the counsel of our Christ if you are going to follow the schools or the counsel of ecclesiastical bodies. If you are going with Jesus, many times you will have to go so misunderstood and misrepresented that you will go weeping, but you will go smiling through your tears; you will go burdened but dancing with joy; you will go serious and steady, but you will go surely. If you will follow His counsel you will go forward, not ignoring or despising the counsel of your friends, but weighing it all with care, you will follow the Lord just the same. Well, this counsel is wonderful because of His choice of instruments. Why, nobody would want the folks He takes. There is hardly anybody gets chosen anymore until other folks have gotten through with them. The counsel of the Son of God is to take the people and the things that are no good, "that no flesh should glory in His presence," and then whatever is accomplished the honor and glory will be given to Him; but if you will read the list and look over the roll of honor this morning, most of you would doubtless feel disappointed and feel that you are not in it. Some of you might feel very much humiliated to find yourself counted out, but God’s choice, and the counsels of heaven is that He should take the weak things, the things that are despised, the things that are not. Praise the Lord! He makes no mistake. He is a "Wonderful Counselor," again because He not only counsels you as to how you, should go but He says, "I will go with you, and see that you get through alright." If you were to go to Cairo and ask a native for a chart by which you might cross the desert, he would laugh at you; he would say, "I can not tell you how, but I will go and show you." He has been there and knows the way. God has not only given us the chart, He has not only shown us the way, but He has been over it Himself and has sent the Holy Ghost as the representative. There are finger-boards up, it is true; there are warnings, "Look out for the engine;" there are indications all along, but for fear we may overlook some of them He sends the Holy Ghost with us that we should not lose our way, and with the chart in hand -- the Bible -- and the Holy Ghost in our hearts, a common fool can go through safely. The plan was conceived in the counsel chamber of the skies, but it has been given to us, and wherever people have followed the counsel they have landed safely without shipwreck. Again, He is a "Wonderful Counselor," because there is nothing in our lives so intricate, so difficult, so insignificant, but that He cares; and there is never such a tangled skein but that He can untangle it. He is interested in all you do or say. Other folks would listen to you but they have not time. You may meet me on the way and want to enter into conversation, but often I have a dozen things just ahead of me, and I can’t listen to you, and everybody may seem so busy that they cannot stop to listen, but Jesus always has time to step and hear you through with every little thing. If you talk half an hour it is all right; if you talk three hours He likes it better. If you come to me, sometimes from force of circumstances, I am compelled to ask to be excused; but the Lord never does, He will hear you through. Never a tear gathers on your cheek, my sister, never a heartache, never a heave of your breast, but that the Son of God knows about it, and is moved with compassion, and His great tender heart of love is ready to advise you in the little things, the difficult things, in the things you can hardly explain to your dearest friends, in the things you keep shut up in your own soul, and oftimes it is proper that you should, and He will comfort you. Others sleep, but He stays awake all night and watches your interests. He sees how you act and how you feel in the severest trials that ever come to you; and He will untangle the most tangled circumstances, and pile it up in a straight pile like cordwood. If there is anything so knotty that you do not understand it now, He will make you feel as contented as if you did. Instead of being troubled about the mysterious you will say, "I will just leave that until the clouds part and He comes back again." The next name is "The Mighty God." What does this suggest? It suggests that He is not only capable of giving counsel but He is able to carry it into effect. He is able to advise, and He is able to execute. He can tell you what and how, and He is able to do it for you. Some people can counsel us but they leave us counsel-less. The Mighty God who framed the world; the God by whom all things exist this hour. We have Him. Why should we fear? Why should we tremble? "What have I to dread, what have I to fear, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms?" The clouds gather, the thunders rumble, I almost get frightened. I sometimes feel like my whole frame was fairly quivering, then I remember some text like this, and I hide and rest and sleep like an infant. There is nothing to fear, my sister; do not be afraid. Brother, do not tremble; the Mighty God is ours and He will stand between us and all difficulties. "The Everlasting Father." What does this mean? It means that He can, not only do all that we have hinted at, but He can keep it up forever. He can, not only do it once, but again and again, and what He did for the prophets or martyrs He can do for us, and He is doing them for some of us. What He did for us yesterday He can do for us tomorrow; He is "the Everlasting Father." Thank God for something that will not fall, for a salvation that will never crumble! Mutability is written on everything about us. Stand where you will, everything is getting mossy and dingy; and everybody is getting wrinkled and gray; and everything is getting old. It only takes a few years to change the old homestead until you can hardly feel that it is the same place when you go back. You go into the old country church where you went when you were a child and you see but few people that you ever saw before. Everything is changing. Thank God we have a salvation that never changes. "The Everlasting Father!" How little the things of this earth have amounted to anyway. The great centers of this world, the boasted centers of power; the kingdoms and thrones and emperors of this earth -- how they have gone down into oblivion! But how people who have had "the Everlasting Father" have scattered all their foes, outlived all their enemies, and blazed and burned and shone for God, and will go on forever. What is Pharoah this morning but a withered old mummy in a glass case in the British museum? Moses stands out as the most illustrious character of all that century. What is Caesar anyhow but a particle of dust that goes to make up old Rome, but Paul is preaching to millions and millions of people this hour. What has become of Nebuchadnezzar’s grandeur? I am told that the exact site of his splendid magnificence can not be identified, but the prophecies of Daniel live on, and are just now reaching their most glorious fulfillment. Who in this audience can tell me the names of the ten unfaithful spies? Not one. But every school girl knows of Caleb and Joshua. The kingdoms of this world have fallen into decay but the smallest particles which have been truly Divine lives and will live forever. Many of the greatest men of earth are almost forgotten, but the men who have walked with God in the past, however humble, are walking with Him today over the hill-tops of glory and they will come with Him in the clouds when He comes back to this world. Thank God for something that will never get old -- "the Everlasting Father." I remember when I used to have a sense of loneliness and regret for such a glorious opportunity as this Campmeeting to come to a close. How I dreaded for the meeting to conclude, but when I get to this thought that is burning in my soul this morning, and came to know the Christ of my text, it was all changed. The Cincinnati Campmeeting will never break up, these are days of triumph and of victory; and the very Person who makes this Campmeeting what it is, has promised to go home with everyone of us and make our homes, our kitchens, our parlors, our farms and places of business a Campmeeting, and He has promised to journey with us until the Lord comes back again. Holiness will never get old. People come to me and say, "Well, this is a wonderful meeting; I never saw anything like it." Well, it is under wonderful management. His name is "Wonderful." Every time I get a new glimpse of new scenes in the kingdom, I say, "It is wonderful." But why not? This is His name. Do you know our lives are not only to be filled with wonder, amazement, astonishment, and with things that the world does not understand, but it is going to be wonderful forever. Don’t you suppose for a minute that we are going to comprehend Heaven in half an hour. Do you suppose there will be no progress there? We are distinctly told that "to the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end." Not only what we have is to reap forever, but there is to be no end to the increase of it. Do you know we will add to it, the next day it will be doubled, and soon it will be multiplied; to the increase there shall be no end. This Campmeeting will never die. Again, He is the "Prince of Peace." This distinguishes our Christ from the kings and princes who have delighted in conquest and bloodshed, and have made themselves distinguished because they have loved that sort of thing. Our Christ is just the opposite: He loves peace, and He declares it everywhere He goes and if he ever comes into your heart, He will not only give you peace, but He will be the "Prince of Peace" to sit on the throne and see that peace is observed, that there are no disturbers of peace in your soul and that all the combined forces of earth and hell cannot disturb the peace that comes into your breast. Just as He beckoned to the troubled sea; just as He speaks a word; just a look is enough; the "Prince of Peace" will hush and quiet all our fears and all disturbing elements will be paralyzed. The delegates from hell will find themselves stunned, paralyzed, held in powerless inaction when they come to attack us. They will find us under the reign of a "Prince of Peace." Glory to God for this Sabbath-like rest, this holy hush, this tranquil stillness that can never be explained! Thank the Lord it can never be taken from us. When our Lord shall come again, the nations of the earth will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and they will learn war no more. It will be a time of blessed, holy peace and quiet such as we have read and dreamed of all our lives. Let Him come in. He will take all your cares, answer all your questions, satisfy every longing, rest your tired soul, and you will sing and smile and laugh and will hardly know why, but the peace of God will flood your being, and every time a wave comes in it will only cut deeper channels for fuller tides, and you will go on and on in this holy peace forever. In connection with this I want to notice that "the government shall be upon His shoulders." Turn to Isaiah 22:22, and we find it declared that the keys of the house of David shall be upon His shoulder, and as the text says, "to His government there shall be no end." A key is that by which we unlock or fasten a house. To possess the key is to be in possession of the property. You sometimes surrender the property by giving up the key. To have the key, means a right to possess, or go in or go out, a right to shut and to open. The verse referred to says, "He shall open and no man shall shut; He shall shut and none shall open." Now, I am told that the ancient lock was a large wooden lock, and the keys were large and also made of wood. They were sometimes carried on the shoulder, and to see a man carrying a large wooden key meant that he had authority to unlock the treasury, that he had access to the storehouse where the treasures were kept, so the Word says that the keys of the house of David are placed on the shoulder of Jesus. That means that He can unlock all the treasures of the skies; that He can get in to where all the resources are held in reserve; that He understands the whole combination; and when He walked out of Joseph’s new tomb with the key of the house of David on His shoulder He practically said, "Come on, Beloved, I will let you in; come on, everything is purchased, and however it is locked, or however it is guarded I am able to unlock it. I will take you to where the gold is, to where the diamonds shine, where there are pearls of great price. Come, go with me when you are hungry, and I will take you to the cupboard." You can not think of anything that your soul may desire but that He is able to give it to you. Come on, Beloved, let us go with Him; the keys are on His shoulder. Angels may seem to forbid you; men may say, "Do not trouble the Master;" but He says, "Come on. When I open no one can shut; when I shut none can open." Thank God this morning, He has opened the treasures of the skies to my soul! How slow my heart has been to follow; by the grace of God I will quicken my pace, and I am making better time in this campmeeting than ever before. The more I am called to suffer, the more I am going to find among the supplies. Come on, poor soul; come on, sin-sick sinner, disappointed heart and He will make life worth living; He invites the hopeless of earth. Let everybody come and follow Him; He is just now about to turn the key; some of these days the lock will spring back, and the door will open wide, and we will be ushered into the presence of the King. There have always been a few saints who were determined to follow Him so closely as to get the best things. There have always been a few, Elisha-like, who were determined to see Him and get the mantle. The key of the house of David is on His shoulder, and on His broad shoulder rests the government of the kingdom. Why, some people seem to think that they are almost too much for God to manage. They would not be if they would only give Him a chance. He who created us is able to deliver us and guide us through all the minutia of life. Sinner, receive Jesus. Believer, seek and find your Pentecost. Saints, do not be discouraged. He who sends us against brazen walls will be there in time to batter them down. Let all who will receive and walk with Him. Open wide the door of your hearts and let the blessed Savior come in. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 02.04. THE BESETTING SIN ======================================================================== The Besetting Sin "Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself lest ye, be wearied and faint in your minds." Hebrews 12:1-4. These first verses of Hebrews 12:1-29 gives us a description of the heavenly race which must be run with patience, looking unto Jesus. The world is full of races in these times. During the past year there have been hundreds of competitions, both by sea and by land. Some of them have been credible but, usually, they are most disreputable and demoralizing in their influences. They are entered into with all the zest of which human nature is capable. We have reached a time in the history of the world when many of our seminaries and universities give almost as much time to training heels as heads. These worldly competitions have a strange fascination for almost all classes except the wholly sanctified. Many of the evils of these days are but perversions of something good. A desire to excel in the best and highest things is quite lawful. God has planted in the human heart for wise purposes a desire to reach the highest excellence. The Apostle, who is the author of this text, some times speaks in a military style; and when he does he uses the strongest figures possible. For the most forceful illustration of the warfare against sin and Satan, as waged by a true Christian soldier. But here he is speaking in a gymnastic style, and refers to the Olympic games and races, which were the customs of those times, as a figure of the Christian race and makes the strongest possible effort to apply this illustration to the principles which he has recorded in the previous chapter. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is often called the pyramid of faith. It is a collection of the most wonderful things that have ever occurred in the history of God’s own people. He piles up in this, the eleventh chapter, the strongest characters -- the men who have reached the highest experiences in Divine grace. We find that he begins at the beginning of all things and declares that it was by faith that all these mighty results were brought to pass. And the men who have stood head and shoulders above the rank and file in the realm of the spiritual life reached this eminence and accomplished what they did, and suffered what they endured, through faith. Such men as Abraham and Moses or Enoch, who walked with God three hundred years, are in this list. One after another of the holy prophets are mentioned, together with their startling exploits until he comes down to the days of Jesus and then turns and says, that all the wonderful things thus piled up were wrought through faith. He then regards this long list of heroes as a cloud of witnesses, watching our race. “Seeing we are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight, running with patience the race that is set before us." The Christian race is full of rugged realities. There is a great deal about some people’s religion that seems mostly emotion, gush or foam, but I do not see how anybody can walk through the eleventh chapter of Hebrews without being profoundly impressed with the fact that it means walking in a rugged way to go through with God. To face our foes and to enter upon this holy warfare means a perpetual conflict, an engagement with regiments of living foes. Enemies entirely too strong for us confront us at every forward step, but while we have the most powerful enemies to face we have the most glorious possibilities stretched out before us. Here we are called upon to run a race and I notice enough in this text to make me feel that we ought to be bent on this one thing. "This one thing I do." And if so every thing that would hinder must go. Anything that would impede our progress or that would in any wise hinder us from making the best possible time in this heavenly race must be laid aside. It is not enough that we are saved and sanctified. This is wonderful but it is not the ultimatum, it is only the beginning. We are to run the race and run it creditably. To run it to win a prize. It is glorious beyond expression to be saved, to know that our names are written in heaven, to have a clear, keen, sweet consciousness that we are ready to enter into the city; but in this text there is more. A prize is held up, plaudits are to be sounded, scepters to be given, well dones announced, crowns to be bestowed, and the lasting fame of eternity may be ours through all the roll of coming centuries. There is something besides salvation for every man who wants it. The apostle was saved from all sin but he said, "I must forget something and I must get something, a prize, a crown, something at the end of the race." There is something a man may loose and yet have salvation. There is something a man may miss and yet get into heaven. Paul had forgiveness of sins, he was sanctified wholly, but there was a something at the end of the race which induced him to do his best. There was something he might possess and so he says, “forgetting everything else, leaving everything else behind, I will press through what ever comes but I must have this prize." I want to notice at this stage of my remarks that the racer was trained and prepared with great care by a trainer. Great preparations were made for these races. The runner often carried bags of sand for days before the race came off, that he might feel light footed and do his best. But he never ran with a bag of sand. He always laid everything aside before he ran the race. There are certain things we are called upon in this passage to lay aside. want to notice that we are to lay aside the sin that does so easily beset us. That besetting sin is inbred sin. Someone said the other day "my besetting sin is a hasty temper;" another has said, “mine is pride;" another has thought it is "selfishness," and so on, but this is a mistake. The besetting sin is inbred sin, and pride, temper, malice, selfishness, anger, etc., are the outgrowth or the outputtings of it. Inbred sin is responsible for the whole catalogue. It is the nest egg or the original stock of everything that is evil. "The upsetting sin" as the old lady said. The sin that causes a person to do unkind things. The sin that keeps him from self-denial and from being unselfish. Inbred sin is responsible for all the irregularities in the life of one who is a real Christian but is not yet sanctified. There are a great many people who have gone through the motions of getting it out and say they have gotten rid of it, but their life proves their mistake. Inbred sin will not relinquish its hold on the spiritual nature by mere hints or signs or resolutions. Do not think you can shout it out or frighten it away by a few jumps. Carnality fastens its awful fangs on the human soul and grips the very fiber of your being, and buries its talons in the innermost part of your moral nature. It will never let go until the mighty power of God comes upon the soul and bids it depart. Many are mistaken. There are people here this morning who think they have been sanctified who are not. Inbred sin is subtle, it is deceptive, it is persuasive. Inbred sin is sometimes termed the Old Man, the body of sin. He will agree to put up with all sorts of treatment or discipline that it is possible to subject him to, if he is only allowed to remain in the soul. He will agree to take the smallest and most inconvenient corner if he may only be allowed to stay. He dreads the thought of annihilation. He stoutly protests against cruelty and against being expelled. The cross is a rugged way and he seeks something easier. But real crucifixion of the body of sin is the only cure for irregularities in Christian life. Thank God, it is possible to get the real thing. The baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire destroys carnality, settles us down and gives us a solidity found no where else. This is what gives us weight; takes away all that is chaffy, frivolous and nonsensical. We are often deeply pained by a frivolity found among the so-called Holiness people. The entirely sanctified soul takes on solidity and moves with a sort of a spiritual poise and fixedness of purpose that causes him to keep on his way no matter what difficulties and trials he may be called to encounter. "Lay aside the sin." It is hard work to do it. It means a funeral. It means to be crucified. It means to part with the thing that is nearest and dearest to your heart. The thing that you have coddled and nursed and hugged. God help us this morning to see, that if we are to run this race we must lay aside inbred sin. I have seen many altar services where people are put through a sham process with shouting and singing, and when they get through the work will have to be done over again. If you get through by the Omnipotent energies of the Holy Ghost you will be free from inbred sin. I am so glad that He sanctified me, and that I laid aside every weight and the sin that did so easily beset me. It is a great mistake to go forward to the altar to get rid of any particular sin, the thing to do is to get rid of inbred sin. If you can down and conquer yourself you will be able to down and conquer all that come up against you. We must have victory in our own souls before we can expect to conquer in the open field. Again, I notice that we are not only to lay aside the sin, but there are weights. There are many weights not sinful within themselves but they will impede our progress, and if we find that this is the case, they must be laid aside. The Holy Ghost will teach us how we ought to live and act. But we must never undertake to harness anybody else up to our practice in things not essential. There are some things too heavy to carry and run well. A flowing wrapper or a morning robe may do for the chamber or rocking chair, but it would not be convenient to run a race in. There are some things we must lay aside. The Holy Ghost will tell us what they are. If we are going to run this race we must be at our best. Now the thought I want to impress is this, that we are not to stop at being saved and sanctified, shouting over this fact all the time, jumping up and down in a peek measure, but we want to get up and go out and get somewhere. We must make progress. It is a race and we must win. I say to you this morning, that if I can find anything in my heart or life that is hindering me from making the best time possible in this race, I will lay it aside. It will take at least a two forty gait to make this race creditably. God’s thought is to so fill us with the Holy Ghost that we can run this race with ease, with alacrity and speed. I once read about two Irish chieftains, who both laid claim to a beautiful mountain lake. To settle the question of ownership a challenge was made of a race across the lake, and the one who first touched the opposite shore should be declared the owner. They rowed hard. The race was even until they were more than half across the lake, when one of the boats began to fall behind and the other was fast nearing the shore. Suddenly the one who was behind picked up a hatchet and cutoff his hand, and taking it in the other hand threw it to the shore. With respect to his courage he was declared the owner. This is only a story which I read, but it illustrates my point. We must win the prize if we have to cut off our right hand, or pluck out a right eye. We must touch the shore. We must win the crown. The Bible announces that if your right eye offend you pluck it out, or if your right hand, cut it off. Anything that impedes your progress you must lay aside, no matter what the cost. Another thing I notice in this race the racer had no time to watch what was going on around him. He must live in constant application to the end in view. The galleries were crowded with people, but he had no time to glance at them. If you are going to make the best time you have got to keep your eyes off of people and surroundings. In a very important sense we have got to leave other people alone if we are going to succeed in this race. Again, I notice it is a race of patience. When I begin to talk about "running" and "getting somewhere," and "doing something," somebody feels they must jump higher and make more noise, but that is not it. Our race is not a race of manliness so much as it is one of patience. It is not so much what we do as what we can suffer. Often we are making the best time when we are waiting upon God, and perhaps in the eyes of others are making little progress. Surrounded by a great deal of noise and demonstration there often comes a temptation to some to think they must be doing the same way. This race is a race of patience and many a time I have made more progress by standing still to see the salvation of the Lord. There will be times when you will not feel like you are running but you are, and these are the times when you outgrow your clothes. In the midst of the sorest trials, the deepest testings, the most painful conflicts, the most protracted sorrows, the things that seem to have no end, these may be the very things that are giving you spiritual development. I am talking to you right out of my own heart. There is a patient running of this race in which you will be making good time even when folks think you are backslidden. If we are making good time with the Lord it is enough. Oh, if He can look at us and say, "well done;" if He can say, "she hath done what she could." If the Lord can smile upon you in your coffin-box and say, "good and faithful servant," it will be well. It is not so much what we accomplish as where we are. Your race may largely be one of suffering, but if you patiently endure all and suffer without complaint, you will certainly touch the other shore and win the crown. Look at the characters piled up in Hebrews 11:1-40. They were sawn asunder, they were hung on hooks, they were crucified, some of them with their heads downward; they were boiled in oil and were better after they were boiled than before. Stripes, imprisonments, scourgings -- Paul, this does not look much like victory, you being let down the wall of the city in a basket to save your life. But Paul cries out, "Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph." As much going down in a basket as up in a balloon. The lower down you go the higher up you are. It is not in how high you can jump, nor how loud you can shout. All there is in demonstration is simply the product of what you have in your soul and when it is regarded as more than this, it is a snare and a hindrance. The emotions you can only have for a time, but I am talking about something you can keep up forever. I used to be afraid to get old until I had met a few old folks who had the blessing, then I had no more fears. I am going to finish my course, I do not care how I feel. If I would thump myself to see how I feel, many times I would conclude that I had no religion, but I have something better to go by than that. We live by faith. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for;" and I would rather have the substance any time than the shadow. If a man has faith he can run through Monday, and over across Wednesday, and down through Friday and Saturday and have victory every step of the way. Now, beloved, it is easy for you to shout just here, but do you know I am burdened. Do you know I have groans in my soul. Some of you were raised on farms and you know the difference in the sound of the rattle of a loaded or empty wagon. You know how on a cold wintry day a heavily loaded wagon starts to market, how she jingles. How different the sound is when she comes home empty. Beloved, I am concerned that our people should be loaded wagons and that they should be burdened and carry this burden of souls until the Lord shall say, "you are running this race with patience, looking unto Jesus." There were times in the life of Jesus when "for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame." He was buffeted and rejected; He was spit upon and smitten; He wore the purple of derision, but despising the shame He hurried to the cross. He pressed His way through and accomplished the object of His undertaking. Many times they tried to kill Him; but He said, "My Father’s work I must do." And He pushed through the forty days and nights in the wilderness; through the darkness of that awful night in the garden. He hurried through the judgment hall and hurried up to the cross. He pressed His way to where He could say, “It is finished." It was the joy that was set before Him that made Him forget everything; and when the multitudes were around Him, and they were weeping, He turned to them and said, "Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children." He was so self denying and forgetful of all His own interests, His thought was all for others despising the shame He forgot everything and suffered everything to save you and me. Beloved, let us go and do likewise. We want to get through so the witnesses will not be ashamed of us. Now they are in the galleries of Heaven. He says they are witnesses. Talk about wondering whether Brother Knapp knows what is going on in this Bible School. If this text means anything it means that those who have gone before are witnessing our race. What is contained in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews is just like saying, "The galleries of heaven are full of just such men as I have mentioned here; Do your best." This is my translation. Oh, if we could just realize the fact that we are surrounded by those who have run the race and won the prize. A few years ago they were in the very race we are now running. A few years more and we will be where they are. It is only a short time. The race is short. We must succeed. "Looking unto Jesus." You know these are days of awful testings. These are days when those who walk in the Holy Ghost have trials to bear that they never dreamed of. Hence there must be a continual “looking unto Jesus." We sometimes try to do too much; make too hard work of it. It is just by a look that we get the Blessing, and just by a look that we keep it. Considering Him. Not considering ourselves; not considering our trials; not considering our circumstances. Consider Him and you will be making time in the heavenly race. I was burdened with a message for you this morning. Not for your sakes alone but for the people to whom you are going to preach. I want you to tell them it is a race and they must be up and at it. The young man, when he went to Jesus laid aside his garment. He felt it might hinder him getting through the press. We must do likewise. In conclusion I want to testify I am asking God to eliminate from me everything that impedes my progress. Entire sanctification is instantaneous in its reception, but there is so much to leave off, such a vast deal to learn, so much to be developed after we are sanctified, that in this sense it is a gradual work. If God can have His way with us He will bring out the rugged qualities and make us strong men and women to run a good race. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 02.05. THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN ======================================================================== The Conquest of Canaan "There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." Joshua 13:1. The conquest of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua was a most striking type of the conquest of Christianity under the leadership of Christ, the Captain of our salvation. It is one thing to cross the River Jordan and sing a song; it is another thing to enter in, and quite another thing to shout down the walls of Jericho, to stone Achan to death at Ai, to go on until it can be said that the whole land is possessed. At the time these words were uttered it could be truthfully said that the land of Canaan was subdued. The Southern kings and their power had been broken at Horeb, and the North countries had been subdued at the waters of Merom. But when it came to the individual possession of their individual inheritance the people were so slack that Joshua threw down a challenge and cried out, "how long are ye slack to go up and possess the land which the Lord your God hath given to your fathers." Their hesitation is a striking picture, first, of the Christian age, and second of individual Christian experience. When we glance over the past wean not fail to note how slack, how reluctant Christianity has been to go up and possess the land, and to carry out the great commission of her glorified Head. How slack American Protestantism has been, and is, to publish the whole Bible to a lost world. After nineteen centuries, two thirds of the population of the earth are without a knowledge of Christ, and nine-tenths of the people are without salvation. With the awful increase of heathenism during the centuries of sin, with the neglected masses in so called Christendom, and darkness that can be felt on every hand, we must see how slow the professed Christian Church has been to go up and accomplish the purpose of God. God’s purposes are most noble. He has some magnificent plans even for this old world if He only can find somebody who would carry them out, but in all the past ages it has occurred again and again, that He has had to make much of sanctified individuality, and sometimes has had to take a single individual with whom to accomplish that, which the whole Church ought to have done. Many a time He has lifted, even from the masses, somebody who could stay the rising tide of spiritual death, and turn back the powers of darkness and publish a gospel that would save from sin, and give another generation a chance. All along the ages the reluctance of His people has been apparent. It is all about us to day. The necessity of this camp meeting, the fact that we are here as we are this morning is the result of almost universal lethargy and indifference about us. We are here from the force of circumstances. To see what the Lord will do and to see what can be done to carry out the great Commission so neglected by its professed friends. God have mercy on the empty profession of these times! Uncover deceit and bring such power upon us as will cause hypocrisy to cover its accursed head in everlasting shame. Lament these facts as we may, there is no earthly power that can change them. God must make bare His arm, let the power of His gospel fall down upon us. He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto Him. This is not only a picture of the Church but a picture of individual Christian experience. Here questions will confront many of us that must be settled. God help us to meet them manfully and to settle them for the right. And "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." The weakness of the Christian Church is traceable to the fact that she has never received the Holy Ghost. The weakness of the so called Holiness movement is traceable to the fact that they have failed to recognize the Holy Ghost, and go on to possess the land. Many have doubtless received the Holy Ghost, but by ignoring His gifts and graces have grieved Him and quenched Him until He has withdrawn. The weakness of the Holiness movement and its inglorious defeat in many places is traceable to the fact that the people have failed to receive the gifts of the Spirit, have not recognized Him as Captain of the Lord’s host, and have failed to keep Him in the front. Many of us have desired to be leaders ourselves. We have called upon Him to help us when we ought to have recognized that the work was His, and we are the helpers. We have called upon Him in our emergencies when we ought to have recognized that He is the sole proprietor of all that concerns us. We have come to Him in times of trouble when we ought to have trusted Him to keep us out of trouble. Some have made the mistake of supposing that entire sanctification is the ultimatum of Christian experience when it is only the beginning of a triumphant, victorious, conquering tread which means to possess the land to the going down of the sun. Thousands have failed to keep step with God, and the worst thing that could be said about them is, that they are left behind. Many of them still profess holiness and testify to it straight, but they are certainly deserted, empty, and powerless, and making a disgraceful failure. Many forget that entire sanctification is not only instantaneous. but gradual, and the gradual phase of this experience is sadly neglected in these days. It is instantaneous in its reception and the destruction of inbred sin takes place in a moment of time, and the coming of the Holy Ghost to His temple is sudden, but sanctification is gradual in its out workings and out puttings of the Spirit in every day life. While our hearts are made clean in a moment, our lives are conformed to His image as the years go by. This requires time, patience, labor, and waiting upon God, that the highest purposes of God may be accomplished in and through us and that we may possess the land. The principles of the art of stenography may be learned in a comparatively short time, but the easy and rapid development and practical exercise of these principles requires time. There area great many things in Christian experience that we can get in a moment which it may require years to learn how to use with perfect ease. Paul says, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content." I have learned them. Some things come by revelation and some things come by learning. Paul says, "I have learned how to be abased as well as how to abound." There are a great many people who are abased but they do not know how, Paul says, "I know how to be abased." He knew how to have comforts, to have comfortable circumstances without allowing it to puff him upon the other hand he knew how to be abased. He knew how to sleep on the floor of a dark, dingy room without complaining. He knew how to do it. It is one thing to have to do it and another to know how to do it. This gradual phase of Christian experience is so sadly neglected that many are shorn of their strength and have utterly failed to keep step with God. It was the Lord that said unto Joshua, "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed;" and at the time He uttered these words there were thirty-one headless sovereigns lying at Joshua’s feet, and thirty-one mighty strongholds in his grasp, and yet there remaineth very much land to be possessed. They downed the representatives of the land they possessed, they had possessed the strongholds but God says, "Do not conclude that you have reached your climax." There are greater lengths to be traversed and higher heights to be scaled. Go on to the going down of the sun. With many of us our former education is against us, we have been wrongly instructed. It has been laid on in such thicknesses that the Holy Ghost must take it off in layers; layer by layer. Peter was such a Jew that he had to have a sheet experience to stretch his head after his heart had been made clean. If we will walk with God, we will go on to find tremendous things, things we have never dreamed. We will find the Lord talking to us about our body, and will be lead to trust him with our physical condition, with our circumstances, with the strange providences that come into our lives, the things that never can be explained, and He will guide and protect us under awful pressure. In the most perplexing and trying surroundings, we will find the Holy Ghost hushing our soul’s cry, singing some sweet song which will put us to sleep. To follow on, to know the Lord is to trust Him in the strangest and most aggravating circumstances. We may find ourselves enveloped in difficulties, trials and circumstantial darkness, yet singing like a nightingale, rejoicing evermore, and drinking from a fountain of such depth that there is no possibility of exhaustion. The opposition to a whole Gospel in the so called holiness movement is traceable to the fact that the people have not kept step with the Holy Ghost. They may have had as genuine a Pentecost as any one, but if they object to anything between the lids of the Book it is because of a lack of acquaintance with the Author of the Book, and persisted in, will produce leanness of soul. If some of you who listen this morning had kept step with Him, He would have whispered to you about the picnic that is to take place in the skies. If you had walked in solitary retirement with the presence of the Lord, you would have known the secret of His coming back to earth again. With the real progressive saint there are times when friends have proven false, everything seems unfavorable, heartbroken, filled with sorrow inexpressible, suddenly the whole scene changes and He whispers to you about His coming back to pick you up and take you out of the coming tribulation and house you up in the New Jerusalem, where you shall not see the awful things which are surely coming upon the inhabitants of this earth. Those who receive the Holy Ghost do not have to have much theology to know the value of salvation. They may need it to know how to tax the patience of the people with their dry sermons but they never need the theology of the schools to get the old fundamental truths from God. Man does not have to leave his business and glean libraries to make him orthodox. The Lord may have to knock out of him a lot of things the schools have put in, but He is able to do it. God not only scrapes the heart and enlarges the head but men with only a few ounces of brains have been used to accomplish more than the heavy weights in theology. The wholly sanctified see the city that is out of sight; comprehend the incomprehensible; understand the mysterious and know the things that the thousands of earth never know. The Lord will whisper secrets to you that would astonish lords, counselors, and kings of earth. If you walk with Him you will get acquainted with Him and His works. You will find great comfort and consolation in trials, in sorrow, in bereavement. It is simply unexplainable. Nobody can understand it; but they who shut themselves up in the secret place of the Most High and talk with the Comforter and He bathes their souls in the water of life, and pours in the oil -- the pure beaten oil, and they sit in His presence. If He seems to be silent at times they are not restless. There is something most satisfying about sitting in the silent presence of one whom you love. His comforting presence gives consolation and solidity; He holds us steady with remarkable fixedness while we go on to possess the land. Brother, sister, are you going on? Have you reached the banks of Jordan? Canaan is spoken of as being bounded on the right and on the left, but in front of us there is no boundary line, it is to the going down of the sun. This glorious morning some of us are sitting upon the summit of a great blessing, but it only enables us to see another range, and when you reach the top of another peak, there are still other ranges, other heights of spiritual blessedness. You will go on bounding and bounding, and some of these days, like bounding Paul, you will go bounding into the city of God. There is something in this progressive, this arm to arm walk with the Holy Ghost, that is like nothing else in the universe. On and on, we do not stop with the downfall of any city, or the beheading of any king, we go on to obtain our individual inheritance. Let us lift up our eyes this morning and behold the magnitude of His purchase for us. Some of these times we will go over there where Achsah’s blessing is found. When she was married, she requested her father, Caleb, to give her not only the Southland, which was her inheritance, but also "the upper and nether springs.” The Southland was located under a burning sun, and often scorched with burning heat, but she succeeded in getting, not only the lower springs, but the upper springs, and from the springs in the mountains, fed by the constantly melting snow, she had waters that not only cooled and refreshed, but fertilized the Southland. When under the scorching sun her pools, rills, rivulets and brooks dried up, when the rills of the valley were no more, here came the streams from the upper springs. They were never falling. The others would dry under torrid heat, but she had demanded springs which would never dry up no difference what came. Achsah was a most striking and beautiful type of this wonderful blessing of sanctification. O, there is a place, thank God, where we may, not only have the nether springs of earthly joys, companionship of friends and loved ones, of temporal blessings which the Lord bestows upon us, but when these are all gone, and every earthly joy is dried up, and the last human prop is fallen, then from the upper springs of God’s bountiful ocean of love and grace will come the cool, refreshing streams upon our souls that will cause us to "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." There are times with all of us when earthly springs fail; the joys of this earth will fade. I have known some who once lived in palatial homes, drove fine horses, and rode in splendid carriages, but their earthly resources have fled away and they are living in a humble cottage, but I find them with streaming eyes, with shining faces; I find them drinking of the springs that never fail, the upper spring. Thank God there is a place of never failing fountains! It is mountain water, it comes from the hill tops of Heaven, it comes from the streams that make glad the city of God. Here the saints are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of His house, and they drink of the rivers of His pleasure. The saints who have persevered through and who have accomplished the most for God have always had these springs. Abraham found them on Mt. Moriah. Moses found these springs among the hills of Midian. David found them when he had to flee for his life from the face of his enemies, and hide in caves and desert places. He drank, and drank, and drank, he sang about the rivers "the streams whereof make glad the city of God." Isaiah, in the midst of the darkness and trials which surrounded his life, found these upper springs and sang of the glorious streams and fountains, and would break out sometimes and say, “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." Habakkuk found these springs when the pastures were dry and sear; when the flocks had failed; when there was nothing in the herd or stall; when the crops were all dried up and there was nothing in the vineyard, he sat down under his own vine and fig tree and sang, "Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Paul and Silas found these springs in the old prison at Philippi, and they sang the doors open and sang the prisoner free, for they had these upper springs of never failing joy. John Bunyan found these springs in Bedford jail and said one day, "So they had me off to prison, I sat me down to write. I wrote and wrote, for joy did make me write." Mary Dyer found these springs on the scaffold on Boston Commons, and she drank and drank until her soul took its flight to the city of God. Her shining face, after she was in the coffin box, witnessed that she drank until she was intoxicated from the holy water of the upper springs beyond the stars. Beloved, don’t mistake yourself. These springs are still running. Don’t you believe that they are all dried up. Don’t you believe that a spontaneous Christian experience is a thing of the past? Christianity has not changed. They may tell you that we are less emotional and that education has changed our feelings, but don’t you believe it, sir. The spirit of this world has not changed and the spirit of the Gospel is the same forever. When the school men tell you that we have outgrown an emotional religion you just take another drink from the upper springs. When you are puzzled how to sufficiently thank God for what He has done for you, join the Psalmist and say, "I will take the cup of salvation." If the ponds and pools about you are empty, and the rills have gone dry, remember that you can drink from the upper springs and thirst no more. In every age where men have accomplished the purpose of God in any marked way they have had to cut new channels. They have had to leave the old land marks, they have had to go alone. They have had to cut new channels for fuller tides. And, sir, if you are in this movement to have something merely ordinary, I can not go with you; but if this congregation will join us in seeking something extraordinary, even if we have to cut new channels, to leave the old beaten paths and get out of the old ruts, to go the whole way with God, regardless of men or devils, I am with you forever. The men and movements who have accomplished the most for God have been those who have utterly ignored the beaten paths of a worldly religion, and have done things regarded as extreme, extravagant, unreasonable. They have never tried to make Christianity harmonize with human reason or human smartness. Abraham was a pioneer; Jonah was the first missionary to Nineveh; Moses had to turn his back upon all the learning of forty years and go out with nothing but a crooked stick. With all his knowledge of medicine, with all his learning, for he was laden with literary honors, he had to turn his back upon it and simply put a piece of brass upon a pole for folks to look at. Martin Luther, George Fox, John Wesley, and every one who has accomplished any great thing for God has had to go at it misunderstood, and has had to do seemingly outlandish and most extreme things to accomplish the purpose of God, so, if we are going to go on we will have to cut new channels. New trials will come to us, very difficult things will appear before us, the enemy will accuse, plan, scheme and come from various quarters, but if we are going to walk with the Holy Ghost, thank God, we will possess the land. For one, Beloved, I am going on to possess the land. I have prayed and wept and written articles and preached about the coming Pentecost too long to back down when it comes. It is folly for us to write about it and tell about it and then get frightened when we see the billows of glory breaking in upon us. God is my witness, there is not in my soul a trace of compromise, and while I am here on earth and God gives me breath I am going to do my utmost against sin and to possess every foot of territory possible. Beloved, we are not back to Pentecostal power, we are not back to Pentecostal manifestations, but some of us are headed that way. We are going after the sunset. We see that “there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." If squatters have taken possession of our plains that is their lookout, we will have to look after our own affairs. They must retreat, we must possess the land. All we have to do is to put our foot on the territory and the Lord says we may have as much as we walk over. I purpose to walk myself to death. I must possess the land. While in my room, before I came to this platform, I heard from the skies. I saw that for this camp meeting "there remaineth yet much land to be possessed." Somebody must take it. Somebody must pitch their tents that way. The coming of the Lord has been delayed because the land has not been possessed. One generation after the other has been swept off the earth. God is waiting until He can find a generation who will go up and possess the land. What if it might be us? It seems too exalted to be true, but I would like nothing better. I believe if God can have His way with it, this very movement, will finally bring about the consummation of this present age. Every seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb must be taken. The last seat may be taken soon, then our Lord will rise up, gird Himself, and we will meet Him in the air and will go in to the marriage supper of the Lamb. I must be there. You can not go up to possess the land unless you are in it, and you can not get in unless you are fully saved. So many will have to begin at the beginning. I have before me a lot of people who if they had given attention to the gradual phase of sanctification would have been years and years in advance of where they are, and instead of running in for repairs at every camp meeting, would be preaching and singing and shouting for God; perhaps on the other side of the world. I wish this morning you would go down and get something so that you would never have to go to an altar again. I wish you would get something so that if Gabriel himself should come down to preach to you he would have to go back and say, "I cannot get those folks to the altar." Shall we go on to possess the land and keep step with the Holy Ghost? You may have to drink from the spring under very peculiar circumstances and strange surroundings, but thank God, He will be with you. I feel somehow like the Lord had put iron timbers in my soul. It is wonderful! If you keep step with God and He sees that you are going to have hard things, rugged things to encounter; He will put in some iron ribs. Glory to God! I feel like jumping. It is the progress of the saint, it is the united efforts of God’s own people under the leadership of the Holy Ghost, that will cause this earth to feel the shock of an earthquake. When a sinner sees you rejoicing in God under great trial and perplexity, in great distress, when he sees you at such a time drinking at the springs that are out of sight, it is then he will call for a drink himself. He says, "That is the kind of religion I want." If we do not drink at such times God is watching and the sinner is watching; and if we do not sing, shine and shout in hard places, it will be against the interest of our King and His Kingdom which we claim to represent. O, God help us this morning to possess the land! I am looking out for another hill top. I am expecting to see another range. I am not considered very demonstrative, but if I have got to turn somersaults, I am going on. Anything that is in the Holy Ghost is always in order. Have you new light? Could you take God for your body this morning? I believe some people here are going to loosen their grasp on things below and reach up and take a firmer hold on the things that never die. This world will pass away; it is to be consumed. We must have something that will not burn up. Let us rise up and go forward. Let us see the heights and depths. We are spoiled for this world anyhow. The Church can hardly endure us. We might just as well see what there is in salvation. If you find that you are not in the land will you not get up and go over? You can not afford to fail. Do not criticize; do not ask questions, but go up and go on. Do not talk about yourself; do not tell the Lord how much you have given up, and what you are doing, but tell Him how loving He is and what a fool you have been; how slow you have been, and how stupid. Do not go the altar and tell Him how much you have surrendered to Him. He knows that there is only a hand full of it anyhow, and I have heard so much about what you have given up. It makes me sick at heart. I want to hear you talk more about God; about His resources, His willingness, His faithfulness. I want to hear you say that He is more willing to do it than you are to have it done. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 02.06. MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT ======================================================================== Messenger of the Covenant Behold, I will send My messenger and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the Covenant, whom ye delight in: behold He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth. Malachi 3:14. This is the very last message from the very last messenger of the Old Testament dispensation. His very name means "my messenger," and he was God’s last messenger uttering His last message to that dispensation. When the echo of his voice had died in the distance that awful silence of four hundred years set in. Not a single word was heard from the lips of God from the time Malachi closed this last message until "He who had spoken in times past by His prophets spake unto us by His Son." O the appalling darkness of those four centuries! It is always distressingly dark in this world when God is silent. If we can not hear from God, there settles down upon us such a gloom, such a silence, such an unbearable silence that people often wring their hands and tear their hair and walk through the streets, or wood, or open field and scream and cry, and yet to the echo of their voice there comes no answer. O the silence of God! What if He should not speak to your soul again? What if you should be standing upon the threshold of four centuries of appalling silence? Think of it! How glad we ought to be this afternoon that God ever speaks to us at all. I read that when Judas received the sop he immediately went out and it was night. It is always night when a soul goes out from the presence of God! O the blackness and darkness, of that awful night of gloom, that settles down upon the soul who can not hear from God! Those who have ever gone through the awful ordeal of crucifixion appreciate what I am saying when I speak of that distressing silence which proceeds the breaking of the day; that awful night that seems like it would never come to an end, the blackness and darkness which seems unbearable. How glad the soul when God speaks again! O glory to His name, that He should speak to us at all! This old prophet stood upon the heights of revelation and looked across the dark valley of four hundred years and saw the breaking of the day. While he announces the coming of Jesus and tried to turn the people back from their sin to repentance and to God, he calls attention to the fact that they grieved God, that they had insulted Him, that they had apostatized had gone away until God would speak to them no more. What an awful thing! Brother, if you are seeking God this afternoon the darkness in itself is enough, but supposing it should go on and on and increase, and century after century pass by and you should never hear a sound from God. It seems to me it would be hell itself. It certainly would be hell enough for me. I remember when I was seeking the blessing of entire sanctification I used to get away from my family, I used to go away from my friends, away out among the gigantic oaks, under the twinkling stars where I could hear nothing but the song of crickets, or now and then the mournful cry of a whippoorwill, and even these seemed to deepen my conviction, and the very silence of those hours seemed as though it would kill me. I cried and screamed and rolled on the ground and plead with God. O what a thrilling sensation filled me! What a breaking of the day! What a sunlight in the East when God began to answer, when He began to whisper to my soul. I leaned forward to hearken to what He had to say. O what a mercy that He should speak to us! Again and again we are commanded to hearken. Whenever God has something to say, He has something worthy of our most profound attention. If God would speak to us today out of Heaven it would be something of great value. If it were only a single sentence we would do well to frame it and gild it and hang it on the walls of our souls forever. I want to notice this afternoon that the closing days of the dispensation of the prophets were strikingly typical of the closing days of the present age. As certainly as Adam failed in Eden, as certainly as the Antediluvian age went out in judgment, as the Patriarchal family sank into Egyptian darkness and bondage, as the conquests of Canaan ended in long captivity, as certainly as the old dispensation went out in blackness and darkness of four hundred years of awful night, so this present dispensation will end in apostasy and awful darkness. I know that people do not seem to see it; nobody seems to realize it but the truly spiritual. The average Christian does not have the slightest conception of the awful darkness that surrounds us; it is most distressing. Many a time the truly sanctified walk the streets or the fields with aching hearts and streaming eyes, crying to the Lord to come and put an end to this awful reign of sin. After Israel was restored from captivity they had a season of prosperity, but this they could not endure. How few people today are able to stand prosperity. More people become spiritual under deepest sorrow and severest trials than under prosperity. The old prophet stood up and called their attention to the fact that there had arisen among them a mercenary spirit, and all their free will service and all their self denial was a thing of the past. "Why," he said, "we have reached the place where nobody will close the doors of the temple without a salary. We can not find anybody who will kindle a fire up on the altar without pay." We have reached a time now in spiritual declension when men are religious for mercenary gain, and people are members of the Church for what they can get out of it. Thousands of people are members of our worldly and popular churches for financial gain. The merchant patronizes the Church that the Church may patronize him. The tinner, or the saddler, or the shoemaker, on entering a village and settling down, inquires for the most popular Church, and attends service there that he may gain the patronage of the members. O these days of large salaries and no revivals, salaried organists, salaried choristers, paid singers, and no conversions! Do not these days resemble the days of Malachi? These mercenary times when it seems as if everybody wants big pay for everything they do for the Lord or for the Church. The awful apostasy of the closing days of this age is already upon us. God help us to see that these are awful times, and that we have awful things to encounter, and that if we are going to stand, we will have to be girded with more than human strength; we must have something that will fix us so, no matter what the storm may be, nor how raging the billows, we will ride serenely on. We see that the old prophet calls their attention to a state of apostasy in which they have offered polluted bread. When the bread was too old for them to eat they offered it to the Lord. You can hardly imagine such a thing; but is it not a fact that the offerings of these days are simply, in many instances, what we do not need, or what we can conveniently do without. He says, "You have offered the blind and sacrificed the lame and the sick." They reached a place, in those days of spiritual declension. when they would hunt out a one-eyed animal, or one that went on three legs, or one that was sick or lame, for an offering unto the Lord. This seems ridiculous, but it is exactly what I am faced with all about me. The sacrifices and offerings of the people are lame and sick. They are not full, fat offerings, they are not whole offerings, they are seldom free will offerings. I believe that one dollar of sanctified money will go further than ten dollars of sick money. A free will offering of one dollar, backed up by prayer and a holy life, is worth more than ten dollars raised by fairs, festivals, or bean suppers in the churches. Who of you would give a one-eyed or a lame animal to God? and yet is it not true that any who hold back any part of their tenth are making a lame offering? Is it not true that all who give grudgingly, or sparingly, are offering the halt, the lame and the blind? We are to give the very best and the very first fruits to God. Instead of that, many so called Holiness people are holding on to their dollars, and giving their pennies. God can receive the widow’s mite but He never accepts the sick or the lame or the blemished offering. What God wants, in these days, is a self-denying, self-sacrificing people. He asks for the best, not because He is in need, but because in giving it we show forth the intensity of our love and devotion to Him. Thank God, it is an experience that will cause us to bring the best, the firstlings of the flocks, in fact all we have, and lay it down at His feet. The prophet here is talking about the coming of the present dispensation. He is announced as the messenger of the Covenant the ushering in of the Holy Ghost dispensation: the grandest age of the world’s history. Our privileges of today surpass everything that has ever been. I used to think that if I could have been with the Lord when He was here in person, and walked with Him from hamlet to hamlet, and from village to village, and listened to the gracious words that fell from His lips, that would have been a great privilege, but, beloved, the Holy Ghost opens our eyes to see that there is something even better than the dispensation of the Son. Something that towers above all the past and lifts us into the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. It is one of the grandest privileges of all the ages, and one can do more for God in one of these days than they could in fifty of the former. Everything is contributing to the possibilities of a sanctified Church. Everything seems to be working toward the objective point of getting ready to evangelize the world. All mechanical invention, all recent developments, all modem discoveries, are meant to aid a sanctified Church in accomplishing the plan and purpose of her glorified Head. This is a fast age: an age when men will not wait for time: whether awake or asleep we are on the run. The other night I went to sleep in Chicago and woke up in Cincinnati. If the results of human genius could carry me three hundred miles while I was taking a nap, what could a sanctified Church do if she were adjusted to all the appliances and wisdom of Heaven. These are days of tremendous progress, days of lightning express trains. This old world is turned into one vast whispering gallery. I sit in my office and converse familiarly with my friends at great distances. O, if the saints of God were on fire and were up with the times, what we might accomplish. A man who knows the Holy Ghost can go into a closet here and pray a little prayer and hang up the receiver and go off and God will answer him in India, Africa, or Japan. O beloved, who shall abide the day of His coming? God has always used certain symbols for the forceful illustration of His truth. Here we find that we are taught by the "fullers’ soap," and the "refiner’s fire. Soap, of course, goes with washing. That is the first blessing: the washing of regeneration. Fullers’ soap is strong soap, and the washing of regeneration is a very strong washing. It not only removes all guilt, all the pollution of committed sin, but whatever remains of the depravity caused by committed sin, so there is nothing left in the human soul which has a good case of regeneration but the depravity that was born there originally. All the increase of human depravity which comes as a result of a long period of disobedience is taken away in this strong washing of regeneration. Then come the fire of the Holy Ghost. Water is for washing, but fire is for destroying. Beloved, if we get a good case of regeneration it does for us far more than is ordinarily believed. I understand that the fullers’ soap not only removes the dirt and the grease, but takes the shrinkage out and fixes the cloth so that when the garment is cut it will remain the same size as the pattern. This makes me know that a great many people have never been regenerated. They puff up, they shrink down, they are not reliable. There is a grace even before entire sanctification that makes us stand true to God. It is true it is with difficulty; it may sometimes be hard, but there generated man goes through with God and conquers, and this fallacy I love to repudiate, that we have got to get sanctified wholly in order to have victory. There is great victory and there can be no perpetual justification without tremendous victory over all the forces of evil. Who shall be able to stand when He appeareth for He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. A few weeks ago I went through the smelters in Denver, Colorado. I started at the beginning where they were dumping whole car loads of Cripple Creek ore into the great furnaces, mixed with lime, stone, and other materials, tons and tons of it. It was black and dirty and did not look much like gold. They took me down to where the ladles were filled. I saw great ladles holding a half ton, filled with beautiful flowing metal, and I said, "O that is fine!" They said, "That is no good," and they sent it off to the dump; hundreds and hundreds of tons they were dumping and called it slag. They would open the furnace and run out several hundred pounds of white, hot, flowing metal, but still they said, "That is only slag." I said," Where is the gold?" They took me around on the other side and shewed me a little basin. It looked like it would hold about two quarts but was not half full. They said, "This is where the gold comes out." I said, "Is that all?" I waited along time for the little basin to fill up sufficiently for them to mold a brick. I can never think of a gold smelter without thinking of tons and tons of slag, and only a few spoonfuls of gold. This all carried me back to when I went through the furnace being sanctified wholly. I remember the fire of separation revealed an alarming amount of dross and slag, and almost no gold at all. As one after another of my heart’s idols were committed to the flames and carried to the dump, it seemed to me that there was nothing worth saving. This is the way you feel when you are under fire. The baptism with the Holy Ghost will greatly decrease the bulk but greatly increase the value. The real stuff will stand the fire; the more you burn it the more it improves it. You can not injure gold by burning it. O beloved, this is what we want, something that will not burn. The judgment is coming; there is coming a test that will destroy everything that is combustible. The fire never comes until after we are saved. If it would it would destroy us entirely, but regeneration gives us a new nature, an indestructible nature, and that is why God holds back the fire for the second blessing. When God gives us the Divine nature then we will not burn, and when He turns on the fire it will only free us from everything that will burn. It is very humiliating to see nothing but a spoonful of gold, but it is a glorious relief to feel that the slag is gone. Glory to God! He wants everything about us that will burn consumed now. If we have been through the refiner’s fire here, the fires of hell will not be able to take hold upon us hereafter. We do not want false gold, we want the real thing; we want something, the more you burn it the better it is; the smaller it gets the more valuable it is. Who shall be able to stand? Nobody will be able to stand except those who have surrendered absolutely to God. If you hold onto a single thing, if you do not turn against yourself, you will never stand. Beloved, let us quit talking about ourselves, and go to talking about God. Honor God and He will honor you. The judgment is coming, Gabriel is coming to sound the trumpet, the world is going to be sanctified by a baptism of fire. We must be built of something that will not burn; not wood, hay, or stubble, but gold, silver, and precious stones. Then, I want to notice, beloved, that this blessing of entire sanctification is something that comes suddenly. He will come suddenly to His temple, not to yours. Abandon yourself to the Holy Ghost and talk about God’s faithfulness, the certainty of His promises. Begin to reason with Him; tell Him He never has failed and that He never can. Talk to Him about His faithfulness a little while; wait patiently for Him, and He will come. He will never come while you are all the time talking about your consecration; "I have consecrated," "I have given up all," "I will do anything; Lord, I, I, I." This will never bring the blessing. Get away from your great "I," and begin to talk about God. Tell Him how faithful He has been in the past, and how you expect Him to fulfill every word promised; tell Him how the Scriptures can not be broken, and when He sees that you really mean to trust Him, He will come and will not tarry. Very few people believe God; nobody hardly trusts Him fully. How seldom you hear anybody say a nice thing to the Lord. I heard a person say the other day, "I am trying my level best to believe the Lord will help us." What an awful thing! Suppose I should say to my wife, "I am trying my level best to believe what you say. I wish I could trust you; I am trying to put my confidence in you. Please help me to believe you." Shocking! God have mercy on us. O beloved, how can we dare to insult God by talking about our efforts to believe. When the Holy Ghost comes He comes to stay. What if I had concluded He had left me every time my emotions subsided; that would leave me in a pickle. I do not want to feel like jumping over the moon all the time. I want to settle down in a rocking chair part of the time. I want to rest and the Holy Ghost rest us. We must not get into bondage to each other, or to each other’s experience. Do not lay any plans at all; let the Holy Ghost do the whole business. He will come suddenly but He will stay gradually. If you should chance to sleep in a draft and wake up with a headache, and your religious emotions absent, you must not conclude you have backslidden. After the Lord says He has come to stay, He has come to stay. Sanctification is not a question of feeling it is a question of facts. If you have a good set of facts you can praise the Lord without feelings. Do not let the devil get you into a snare and browbeat you because you do not feel like someone else, or like you have felt at some other time. Remember God’s covenant is to endure forever; an everlasting covenant. Unless you violate it, it will go unviolated. A marriage covenant, if it is made right, is enough to last a lifetime. Nobody who is really married ever thinks of getting married again. All this Christian Endeavor idea of consecrating once a month is the worst of folly. The Holy Ghost comes to abide. You will not grieve Him without His letting you know it, and He will let you know it in time. He will be with you when you retire at night and when you wake in the morning. He will be with you in sickness and trouble, no matter what the emergency, He will always be there on time; He will never be late. When the waves are tossing, and it seems as if everything is going to fail, He may be in the other end of the ship asleep, but He will wake up in time. He is faithful and can not fail. Glory to His name forever! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 02.07. OUR FATHER'S CARE ======================================================================== Our Father’s Care "Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me." Isaiah 49:16. This was an answer to the cry of Israel, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me." It was an hour of distress, an hour of discouragement, but God lifted up His voice and made the announcement of my text. "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." God has always had infinite care of His own. Christ gave His life for the Church, as well as for the world, " that He might sanctify it and present it unto Himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." When Israel has been discouraged, and cried, “The Lord hath forgotten me, my God hath forsaken me," there always came back something helpful, something cheering -- as we find it in my text this morning, "Behold I have graven thereupon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me." In the previous verse He has called attention to the most constant, relentless affection that this world ever knows, the love of a mother, and then He undertakes to teach Israel and all the world that His love for you is infinitely greater than the affection of the fondest mother that ever lived. How I wish that we might believe it this morning! How it breaks our hearts as we come more and more to know that it is so. I notice in this text first, the announcement of His personal knowledge of each one of His children. That word "thee" suggest to me that He knows everyone of us by name, that we are not lost in the masses, or loved in the aggregate; we are not dashed in the billows of humanity upon the distant shores of destiny but singly and alone, God knows and loves everyone of us. It is a great comfort to remember that He knows us by name, and that the very hairs of our head are all numbered. As the oriental shepherd knows everyone of his flock of perhaps a thousand sheep by name, so that he only has to speak the name and it will lift its head and come, so we are known personally, individually, every one of us singly and alone, known of the Lord. Sometimes we forget each other and fail to recognize each other when we meet, though we may have had sweet communion in other days, but God knows us and He never fails to recognize us, and if you meet somebody whom you think ought to know you and they do not seem to recognize you, remember that the Lord always knows you and knows where you are and never fails to recognize you or the cry of your voice, no difference how dark the hour or how strange and aggravating the circumstances. Glory to His precious name forever! He knows what you are doing and what you are suffering; He knows what you are capable of enduring and will see to it that there is never too much for you to bear. Satan has great power but he is limited; he is not always able to bring into active use all his power and then he is limited in the use of what power he has. He is under certain restraints; there are certain barriers which he dare not cross. Our strength is measured so that Satan comes out against us with carefully measured power, so that with every temptation there shall be a way of escape that we shall be able to bear it. God not only has personal knowledge of us, but a personal love for us. What greater proof can He give of His never failing affection and fidelity? He has employed the strongest figure possible for the forceful presentation of His truth, and yet how many there are who question His love, His faithfulness and care. The Lord help us to see that Satan can never confront us with difficulties or surround us with sorrow so deep but that there will be poured out upon us the warm tender affection of the compassionate Christ. I have read recently where a mother followed her worthless, profligate son until he was incarcerated for life, then at the door of the prison she insisted upon having a little hut where she lived and spent her days as near to him as she was permitted, and when he was dead and buried in that prison yard she insisted upon her dead body being laid in the same place of shame, hoping that in death her bones might touch his unworthy dust. She followed him and followed him until everybody said, "Let him go," but, no, her mother heart never released itself from him until it was still in death. Now, in this text the comparison is drawn and the teaching is clear that there never has been any human affection approximating the tender, compassionate affection of God for His people. You may picture to yourself the deepest, most tender, most noble type of human affection and then dare to step out and believe that God loves you infinitely more than that. It occurs to me sometimes that if we believed more in His love we would bear ourselves more noble, if we had more confidence in His faithfulness we would be ashamed to ever intimate that it was possible for Him to fail. If we would study more carefully God’s faithfulness to His people, in all generations, there would rise up in our souls a courage that would dare to believe in the face of every opposing element that God is with us and will see us through. Sister, no difference how dark it may be, God loves you; no difference how the people turn against you, He is your friend; no difference how things may pile up around you and how the tempest may rage, God will not forsake you, the God of Israel is moved with compassion at every sight of suffering. There is never a tear that hangs on your cheek, never a sigh, never a heave of your breast or a heartache but that the compassionate Christ sees and understands it all and is moved with great tenderness toward you, and as He wept over Jerusalem who rejected His love, if you are true to Him, His great heart yearns over and sorrows for you, and He wants to take away all your anxious care, discouraging sorrow and cause you to rejoice in His presence. He never failed Israel; it was Israel who failed Him. He says, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Again, He not only knows and loves us but I notice that His care of us is everlasting. He says, you are "graven upon the palms of my hands." Praise God for something that will stand during all the roll of the centuries. Not printed, not written, not stamped -- graven, cut in. Thank God for the privilege of having our names in the palm of the hand of the Everlasting Father. This figure is doubtless taken from the Jewish custom. When in bondage and the city in ruins they used to put on their arms and on their hands pictures of Jerusalem, of its walls, and often look at them with tearful eyes. So He says, you are always before my eyes and held in everlasting remembrance. Just as an architect traces the details of a building and keeps it always before him while the building is in construction, so all the plans of your life are made out and held before Him in constant love and unforgetfulness. A mother may be true, her affection may be as pure and as strong as earth can furnish but she may forget. But here is somebody who always has us in everlasting remembrance. We are kept right before His eyes all the time -- graven upon the palms of His hands. Brother, did you ever think that the plan of your life is mapped out before God, just as the plans of a building are mapped out before the chief mechanic? Did you know that the things that come to you if you are a child of God, come not by accident, not by misfortune, but as a part of the Divine plan, and God will permit nothing to come but that He will work out for your good if you trust Him? Sometimes these things come in rough wrappings, but they should be accepted as a part of God’s great plan for you and He will make them a blessing. He has the map, and if He is allowed, will guide you according to the Divine counsel of Heaven. He will send you to the places He wants you to go, and give you just the work He wants you to do, and though there will be difficulties and hindrances and trials, He will see to it that nothing comes that will not serve to develop your spiritual strength and help you best to glorify Him. How this takes away all fretting, unrest, and planning! For once it puts us where we have nothing to say. Our plans are made and our lines are in His hands, they fall unto us in pleasant places; they are made out in the counsel chamber of the skies where they are able to do everything and know all that lies in the future and they know how to guide us for our greatest good and His highest glory. We have nothing to fear. The lesson is made the more striking when I remember, that at the very time He spoke these words, the walls of Jerusalem were down and the Temple in ruins, and yet He says; "Thy walls are continually before me." There will be times in your experience when it will seem like everything is down, when it will seem as though the Temple of God is in ruins, even in the Holiness movement as it stands today I see so many schisms, failures and splits, and splits of the splits, and failures in failures, that it makes me want to turn to a text like this, and throw my arm around it and hear the Lord say, "Thy walls are continually before me." How glad I am that He knows the walls are down; He knows the Temple is in ruins, He knows the people who once preached a full salvation have gone astray, some into skepticism, some into fanaticism, some into formalism, all sorts of isms are making inroads on every hand, but He says this morning, "Thy walls are continually before me." When all is down and there is no hope, Israel is discouraged, everything as black as night, He says," I have graven you upon the palms of my hands." "I know the walls are down but I love you, I will not forsake you, and the time will come when the walls will be built again." The time will come when the temple will be in good repair, and when the city --the New Jerusalem -- will come down out of Heaven, and then we, arrayed as a bride adorned for her husband, will go up, enter in and be with the Lord forever. "The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His." God is good and I am going to trust Him. If the walls are down and the temple is filled with birds and beasts and bats and every unclean thing, God is all right and He has a people; He has folks who are written upon the palms of His hands. He is true to them and they are true to Him. Glory to God forever! Brother, the next time everything seems to be going to pieces and everybody seems to be failing, spread yourself out over this text and shout. Yesterday was one of the most tearful days, from morning till night, that I have ever spent. I wept among strangers, I wept on the road; I do not know what people thought, and it does not give me much concern, but as God was manifesting Himself and giving me such visions of His glory and of his faithfulness and undying love, I was lifted to realms where earth can not hinder and people are unable to obstruct the splendor of the vision. Glory to God! The next thing suggested in the text is intercession. If our names are in the palms of His hands, these are the very hands He holds up in the presence of the Father when He prays for us. Remember that there is not an hour that Jesus is not there. He is there for you and for me; He prays for us. If I were passing through some strange, inexpressible sorrow, some heart rendering trial or test and I was in this room and could hear Brother Pennington and Brother Godbey in an adjoining room praying for me it would greatly strengthen me. If I could hear Brother Godbey, the dear old saint who has been a conqueror for so many years, say, "Lord bless Brother Rees," I should certainly feel blessed and would rise up with new strength to fight the battle of the Lord. But do you know that just in the adjoining room, Jesus is praying for us? Though we are on earth, since we have been saved and sanctified it is the very vestibule of Heaven, just in the adjoining room, and Jesus is praying for us. In the hardest trial, in the longest strain ever permitted to come, Jesus with both hands uplifted is praying to the Father for you. If you could only hear Him it would help you out of the fog, you would put on strength in His name; and this suggests the thought of the atonement. When I see the names engraved in the palms of His hand, I know they must be closely identified with the nail prints -- the Blood -- for it was these very same hands that were pierced. The Father looks at your name, at the very same instant He sees the Blood. The atonement stands between you and difficulty, trial and the devil; between you and the coming judgment; between you and an offended God. There stands Jesus Christ with your name graven in the palm of His right hand, in the prints of the nails. A poor soldier was court-martialed for desertion. The judge was about to pass sentence when he stopped for a moment and said, "Is there anybody present who has anything to say for Jack." An old veteran stepped up, lifting his empty sleeve and stood there in silence for a moment, the tears rolling down his face, then only said, "He is my brother." The appeal was sufficient. The soldier had lost his arm in his country’s service and he had a right to appeal for his brother’s life. The sentence was canceled and he was pardoned. The howling wolves of earth and hell may be all around you but there is One who stands in the court of Heaven, who has a right to appeal for you. He has a right to throw back His sleeve and throw up His arm and show the prints of the nail, and your name graven in His hand and say, “Spare him for my sake." Thank God He is always heard. The Heavens may seem to be brass when you pray, but they never are when Jesus prays. It may seem that you can not get anything through, but there is somebody at work at the instrument at the other end of the line and He can make it plain to the Father. Christ is there; He knows how. A little girl with her heart running over with affection for her sick father went through the garden and gathered a bouquet, but she was so small that she gathered not only flowers but red clover, white clover, some weeds and a mixture of things you could hardly call flowers. But her mother took it first, straightened it up, took out the weeds, made it presentable and returned it to the little girl. With childish glee she carried it to her father and he was delighted. We pray sometimes and get in some weeds. We mumble and mutter and stammer and ask for many things and if we should get all we ask for we would have a strange looking bouquet, but our prayers pass first through the hands of the Son of God and He takes out the weeds and grass and fixes them up so that the Father is delighted to see them. Glory to God for the intercession of Jesus Christ, for uplifted hands or a lost world and a saved Church! Again, the thought of confession is suggested here. If you are on the palm of His hands and His hands are lifted up before the unveiled world and before the galleries of the skies He confesses you in Heaven and on earth, to angels and to men. The Scriptures declare that when we confess Him in the presence of a wicked world, He confesses us in the presence of the angels of Heaven. When we honor Him here, He honors us there. Sister, you may be small and unknown, your surroundings strange, and your sphere limited, the people may despise you. some probably will, if you are true to God, but you may be well known in the galleries of the skies, you may pose in the metropolis of the universe. The Son of God has already told the angels of Heaven about you. Many a time you have confessed Him with trembling and with tears, and He has gladly confessed you up there amidst the shouting of angels and the music of Heaven. If you never have much honor down here you may have it up there where honor is the most desirable. We are not asking for honor here. If there is anybody here who wants people to put flowers on your casket after you are dead, anybody who thinks of giving money or doing anything to perpetuate your name, I beg you to come to this altar and get sanctified. After you get the blessing you will get such a view of eternal things, you will care for nothing that this world can bestow. You will want nothing but the recognition of God and the angels. It will be enough to stand with a company of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews and shout victory forever through the Blood. Glory be to God! O there is a great day coming! I wish we could get through trying to get something and wondering whether we have it or not, fearing to go to sleep for fear we will lose it. There is a place we may come to where our names are graven on the palms of His hands. We may come to a place where it is easier to go on than to go back. Let us not fear to backslide. Let us go on forever. Centuries ago a certain Mohammedan mosque was erected and had the name "Mohammed” placed in great letters over the door. A Christian architect had the construction of the building and before the plastering was put on, he had the name of "God" placed over the door, carved in the stone with this text: "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom," and then the plaster covered it over. The building stood for centuries, the plastering finally fell off, the name of Mohammed was gone. The mosque stands today, and if you will visit it you will see the name of "God," and "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." Everything that really comes from God is going to last forever. Everything that comes from man will perish and go into oblivion. I am delighted to announce to you this morning that there is a place of security from our own experience and our own interests where we will have both hands with which to pull men out of the fire. We do not have to be lean and hungry and needy; there is a place of plenty, a place of such absolute forgetfulness of your own concern and interests that you will be wholly absorbed in the salvation of souls, and your whole time and all your energy and every God given power will be poured out in seeking the lost. A friend wrote me recently to drag my heart with a drag net and see if I had not let in selfishness, an unholy ambition, a desire to lead, and so forth. I said, "It has been dragged; He has dragged it." If I should undertake it I would not know how. I have turned it all over to Him long ago and promised to keep my hands off. He must look after all the searching, and must do all the keeping. I know very well I have put no pig in the well and I have no use for a drag net. It has been years since I have thumped myself to see if I was sanctified. My eyes are upon Him, and I purpose in my heart to follow the cloudy pillar by day and the fiery cloud by night. If you will keep your eyes upon Him, you will be able to follow Him with great ease and pleasure, and He will see you safely through. One more thought. As sure as Jesus went up, He is coming back again, and He will come with outspread hands, as He went up, so that He will not only announce the Holiness crowd to the angels but to the nations of the earth and they will know them who are true blue, who are the faithful ones who went through with Jesus. When He comes again His hands will be stretched out in blessing to the saints, and with judgment to the sinners. The nations of the earth will then know who are faithful, and if you are sanctified wholly you can go into the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Beloved, we can afford to wait for this announcement and for our vindication; we can afford to wait for recognition; the people do not have to believe now that we are sanctified. You can have the blessing when they think you have not got it and when they announce that you are backslidden. O the tender faithful love of a compassionate Christ can never break down! But, brother, you will have to get sanctified wholly to live with this crowd. You can hang on to the movement, you can have your name on the list and be covered with buttons, badges and ribbons and still folks will not know you, but if you will get the real thing you will have to put on no outward sign that people may know who you belong to. If God gives you the blessing and people refuse to believe it, it will only increase your joy that you know about it, and you will be so glad that you know you have it and that your name is written in the palm of His hands that you will not care to answer those who doubt. The God who took me when I was between the plow handles, the God who took me when nobody else wanted me, when I was down and could not get up; He who took me when He knew I was nothing, is not going to drop me now. O glory to His name! Beloved, is your name graven, is it cut in? There is a sort of a bearing, there is a sort of a polish that comes in court life; there is a sort of holy independence of the world that comes when you are fully surrendered to God and sanctified wholly so that people will generally understand that you have gotten through with the world and are going with God forever. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 02.08. LABORERS WITH GOD ======================================================================== Laborers with God For we are laborers together with God." 1 Corinthians 8:9. This is the announcement of the greatest partnership known in the history of time. It almost staggers our hearts as well as thrills our hearts when we remember that there is a partnership, and that the God of the universe has taken us into the corporation -- the worms of clay that we are. There is no explanation; it is beyond all human comprehension. The statement is brief, but it is a fact. In facts we may greatly rejoice. There sat at one table in Exeter Hall, London, two thousand partners to partake of an annual dinner. They were members of an English publishing firm. They had adopted the plan of making all the employees partners in the business, and when they came together at their annual dinner it was a great sight. They represented a great firm, and it strikingly suggests to me a great time coming when not merely two thousand but that number represented by the one hundred and forty-four thousand, whatever that number may be, shall sit down to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. At that time, every partner in this great firm shall be recognized and shall have a seat at the table. That will be a great supper; a great day. When we remember that we are called with such an exalted calling, it gives us a very keen sense of our utter nothingness, and we never could feel like rising up to embrace our privileges but for the grace of God. In this holy partnership we are one; members of the same body. One is our Master, even Christ, and all we are brethren. In every partnership there must be two parties; there must be two sides. In this there is a Divine and a human. What a mercy that God should ever have looked upon us and agreed to take us into partnership with Him! On each side there are conditions that must be met. There are certain things that transpire. I glance first at the Divine side, and find that God takes us in when we are not only insolvent but we are in rebellion. He assumes all our liabilities; He cancels the debt that stands against us, and establishes our credit at the bank of Heaven, just as if we had never squandered a cent. No difference what the catalogue of crime, no difference what the pollution or stain may be, the God of the universe takes us in and wipes it all out and gives us a commercial standing, a credit at the bank of Heaven, so that we are treated as though we had always belonged to the firm. We ought to worship God this morning. Just to think that He would take us up under such circumstances! I heard of a noble business gentleman who had an employee who embezzled several sums of money from him but was finally brought to true repentance, and after a long struggle went to his employer, not only to confess but to suffer the penalty of the law, and in great humility he made his confession and closed by saying, "Of course I shall not expect you to keep me in your employment." After a pause the answer was, "No sir, I shall not keep you in my employment, but I will make you my partner for I know the value of such a testimony, and the repentance that would bring such a confession." Not many men would act so nobly, but God always does. When we confess our sin, He not only forgives us but He takes us into the greatest partnership of all the universe, and we sit at His elbow and are co-workers together with God. Next thing, I notice on the Divine side, is that He furnishes all the capital stock for the transaction of just as much business as we are willing to do. It is not so always in earthly corporations. You take up the announcement of earthly corporations, and you often find the word “limited." When we asked the state of Rhode Island to incorporate us as Portsmouth Campmeeting Association, they limited our capital stock, and put the word "limited" on our papers, but God never does that. You can find such articles as this in the corporation papers: "God is able to make all grace abound toward you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work." So that the capital stock with which we do business is bounded only by our faith, there is no other limit. Brother, you can be a penny host or be a millionaire. You can go to sea in a ship and transact business in great waters, and behold wonders in the deep. God has placed within our grasp such possibilities and such exhaustless resources. All we have to do is to believe God and our resources are without limit. Glory to God forever! Not only does God take us in and furnish everything but He gives us the Divine qualification for this work. He takes the hardest knot He can find for the finest polish. He takes the weakest things in the market with which to accomplish His greatest purposes. He gives us the Divine qualification so that it is no more a question of our natural abilities, it is not a question of appointments or of acquirements; it is a question of preparation, of the hand of God upon us. We prepare men by schools, by rhetoric, by philosophy, parchments; we turn out men supposedly to God’s work. They often make a most disgraceful failure, but God turns His hand upon a servant, and though His hand may seem heavy He never lets him up until he can come in victory, and run through a troop or jump over a wall, and successfully accomplish that to which he is sent. God could have called the angels; they would have been glad to go. They do everything as a glad service; they fairly fly at His beck and call. All they want to know is that there is a chance to serve, and they are off, but God calls us unto this glorious partnership of carrying out the great commission, that of evangelizing the world. There is a human side, it is true, but there is not much of it. The most there is to it is to submit, to say "Yes" to God. The most there is, is to keep out of the way, and acquiesce in all that He does. We are called to the highest calling on record, and yet how slow people are to respond to it. It is a great wonder to me that He would call us at all, and a greater wonder, since He does, that we do not always respond. How can we hesitate? How can we procrastinate and move so slowly in responding to such a call? Thank God, many of us are learning to come quickly and run with alacrity on the errands of the Lord. All we want to know is His will and purpose for us, and we gladly take our position in the ranks of this glorious army. Thank God for the privilege of being a co-worker together with Him! There is such power in our united action. The smallest animals can build a coral island because there are so many of them. If we are one with each other and one with Him there is nothing that is impossible, and no weapon formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue that is lifted against us shall be paralyzed, and we shall know the conquerors tread from victory to victory, from strength to strength, and from glory to glory, until in eternal glory we have sat down together, the one hundred and forty-four thousand in spotless white, to celebrate the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We need this morning, not only united action on our part, but we need to cheer and help each other, recognizing that He is the sole proprietor and that we are His helpers. It goes very easy if we are helping Him. With this recognition we are so united, so yoked together that we will pull once, twice, always together. There is nothing that can stand in our way. There come times in our work when things seem difficult. There come epochal periods when something tremendous must be done and it looks as if everything had been done that could be, but thank God, if we are one, victory is sure. If we are co-workers together with God we must recognize His work and distinguish between it and the works of man. If I am to work with Him I must find out where He is at work. I announce to you this morning that the blessed Holy Ghost who is preeminently active in the salvation of men in this last and Christian age has changed his center of operation, and He has moved into another territory. He has left certain fields, they are deserted, they are empty, there is nothing done in them. If you tarry in those deserted districts you can not be a co-worker with God. The time was when He worked there. lie has done His best in the great ecclesiastical bodies as they exist, or have existed in the past, but He is now in other fields. When a young man or a young lady gets filled with the Holy Ghost, he or she usually makes for the slums or the Bible School, in preparation for missionary work. They lose their relish for societies and organizations of the ecclesiastical bodies; they can no longer join in the socials, entertainments, fairs and bazaars, so common in American Protestantism. God has a great center of operation from which center He is radiating, and streams of salvation are flowing in every direction. He no longer centers with the board of bishops, ecclesiastical convocations, or great institutions of learning. You will find Him now outside the camp, outside the gates, beyond the city limits, you will find Him in the hedges among the robbers and drunkards and friendless; and in the lanes with the harlots, the hopeless and homeless. He is at work on the frontier and back among the mountains and in the foreign fields; in humble little missions, under brush arbors and in tents, but the supposed centers, of supposed religious power, are destitute of the Holy Ghost and Holy Ghost revivals. That is why we say it is wasting time and squandering money and throwing away our energies to stay and try to work where God is not. You say, "Why doesn’t He work there?" Well, it is not my purpose to answer all your questions. There are reasons. One is, that the Holy Ghost does not stay where He is not wanted. He does not stay where He is insulted. He can not stay where He is not archbishop. He must hold the control and power; the reins must be left loosely in His hands. He will not work in human harness; He will not follow human plans; He does not submit to man made rules and regulations; though made by the learned doctors. He will leave town before He will submit to such conditions. He will take a thug or a tramp or a bum, a man who has looked for work for twenty years and hoped he would never find it, and save and sanctify him and heal his body, and start a nucleus around which the powers of Heaven will gather, and sing and shout until there is a great revival. Don’t you believe, brother, that you are a co-worker with God if, you are thundering around on an empty battle field and there is nothing going on. I would rather sit up with a corpse that has been dead four days than to stay with many of the so-called churches of our land. God has called us to keep step with Him. We must ascertain where He plants His battery, where there is a real engagement and go forth with Him to battle. If you want to fire blank cartridges and fool around with a popgun, and celebrate with fire crackers and hurt nobody and bring nothing to pass, you can do so, but you are certain to lose your reward. I am seeking to know what God will put His seal on. I can not afford to sanction what He does not endorse. Not even for the sake of schools, centers of learning, titles, or anything that the religious world may applaud or eulogize, not for a single moment can I afford to lag behind when I see that the pillar of fire has made advance. What we enjoy today has cost us too much, it is to sweet to our souls to change off now for a mere, empty, powerless form of religion. It is no time for you to tie yourself up to a dead ecclesiasticism which will mar your progress in Divine things. There is no hope of a resurrection of these dead bodies. This is why my heart is in the slums and in the jungles; this is why I have hope for the people who are down, and my whole soul and being is being poured out to help them. We have approached the highway and hedge dispensation; we are right down in the Saturday evening of the world’s history. We must go outside of our little Jerusalem and find the lepers lying in the hedges and lanes outside the gate. Show me a movement today of any sort that really has the Divine impress and the Divine stamp upon it, which is not giving especial attention to evangelizing the neglected masses. Where is such a movement? Not one can be found. Everything with the Divine stamp upon it, everyone who bears the image of the Master is going forth to seek the low, lost and neglected. This is why we have a missionary day in this Camp meeting. This is why we are sending missionaries abroad, why we establish Rescue homes; this is why we have city missionaries who are willing to leave good salaries, deny themselves, suffer all sorts of exposure to pull people out of the fire, to save and get them ready for that great day when we are going to sit down together. Here you are, some of you, members of the great popular Churches, pouring your money out to support them and the masses of the unsaved are not sought for, they are not helped, they are not wanted. The Church would pull her skirts about herself and spurn the thought of their coming into her best pews. You may fight against the organization of independent Holiness Churches if you like, but we are going to encourage it. We are organizing Churches that are willing to take in drunkards, harlots and tramps. A thousand million heathen go into Christless graves every generation. Three hundred and fifty thousand fallen girls in this country without friends, without sympathy, without hope, and the churches running up their steeples, changing their pipe organs for something better, exchanging their pews for something more expensive, renting them for such prices that no common people can attend, and the girls and boys who are down and are going down in platoons have no chance. Many of them have never had a good chance; you have had a thousand. Would it not be consistent for you to give them a second chance. Many of them are in sin from force of circumstances; they are helpless, hopeless and homeless, and there is not one Protestant Church in ten that is willing to take them in and give them recognition. There is no place where God so loves to work as among them. Am I going with God or am I going with the folks? Preachers and people singing and talking about rescuing the perishing and at the same time putting emphasis upon fundamental error, often expressed, frequently quoted, "A bird with a broken wing can never soar so high again," suggesting that if a woman is once down she can never rise again. It is as false as hell. It is as black as the back walls of damnation. It had its origin in the infernal pit among the damned creatures who are staggering their way through eternal night. We have a Gospel that can heal a broken wing, that can heal a broken limb, a broken heart, and a broken home and can renew and transform the most wrecked and ruined life that Satan ever spent his venom upon. We have a Gospel that will make a bird fly higher after its wing has been broken than before. A Gospel that will restore the year that the caterpillar and canker worm hath eaten. A salvation that not only takes the sin away, but, thank God, it will cover the scars. It can take the lines of sin out of a woman’s countenance. We have a Gospel, Sir, that has been misrepresented and consequently misunderstood. The cause is traceable to the fact that American Protestantism is backslidden from God. You say that is too sweeping. My soul is stirred. I have been spending my Sundays when at home in the Harrison police station in Chicago where the Norway rat drinks out of the same pail of water and eats off of the same loaf of bread with the prisoner, and where the vermin are seen crawling on every hand; where I find eight men packed in one little cell about eight by ten feet, with no chance for more than two to lie down even by telescoping, and the other six must stand up all night or take their turn lying in the filth. I go through the different wards and as I see the state of affairs, the condition of the submerged classes, I say to you that when Stead was in this country from London, on his tour of investigation, and received such criticism by the American press for what he published, he never exaggerated so far as I can learn, and yet your preacher that you are paying gets up and reads a little rose colored sermon about the world getting better. I say to you with measured tread, we are in an age when if a man is going to keep step with God he cannot remain in any sort of bondage, to any sort of ecclesiastical powers, but he must go with God, and rescue men and women as God has appointed him. I am not speaking particularly about Church membership. I have not time to deal with a thing so small, I am dealing with great principles and things that seem too large for my soul to set forth. If the people of God would unite in this work we might evangelize this world and bring about the coming of Jesus in a single decade, yet I am facing hundreds of people here this morning who will never accomplish much unless you discover where God is at work and where He wants you to invest your money. The Lord help us to lie on our faces and weep and fast and pray until we are sure of Divine guidance and of Divine success. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 02.09. JOY AND STRENGTH ======================================================================== Joy and Strength "For the joy of the Lord is your strength." There is no greater difference between the Christian religion and other religions than in the matter of cheerfulness and joyfulness. The natural countenance of heathendom is gloomy and often very sad. Wherever you find the heathen at worship, they seem to have a veil over their faces; they are having a hard time. There is nothing about any other religion but the religion of Jesus Christ that is really joyous. The natural countenance of genuine New Testament religion is radiant. It is something that is joyful and happy and yet a great many people misunderstand what real joy is. They suppose that it is only transient and is absent when certain conditions and manifestations do not appear. The joy of the Lord is something as substantial as the Lord Himself, and does not depend upon outward circumstances, it does not depend upon frames or moods or feelings or ecstasies. Some people imagine that there is no joy where there is no emotion, ecstasy or rapture. People are sometimes troubled just here and suppose that they have lost the joy of the Lord when they have lost the conscious feeling of ecstasy or intoxication. Not so; the joy of the Lord is something that abides in the heart in the midst of untold sorrow, under burdens that seem too heavy for us, when pressed above measure, when in perils -- everywhere, no difference with what we are surrounded if we have the joy of the Lord it is our strength. We are commanded to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might," and we have no right to be any other way. What we claim in this movement is to be getting back to the Bible. We claim to be hunting for Bible principles, Bible practices, Bible experiences, and Bible results, and we are seeking to make the nearest possible approach to the Bible, to the Acts of the Apostles, to whatever the infant Church had when she was inaugurated under the personal leadership of the Holy Ghost, and we ought to look diligently to see what is expected of a Holy Ghost Church. We ought to search the Acts of the Apostles especially, to know how near we are approaching the Bible standard and Apostolic practices, power and results. It is utterly impossible for us to succeed unless we have the joy of the Lord. This is more than happiness, more than rapture, and more than can be expressed by hallelujahs and shouts. These are the best we can do in the attempt to express it, but it is much deeper than all of these. The man who has a clean life, a pure heart, and the Holy Ghost indwelling has a joy inexpressible. When he has done his best with hallelujahs, amens, etc., he feels that he has not uncorked his experience. Words are inadequate to express it, it may be with streaming eyes, it maybe with groans that can not be uttered, it may be with carrying a yoke that is easy only because the Lord carries the heavy end of it. We are often allowed to be partakers of His sufferings for we must have enough to make us conscious that we are yoked up with Him. He lets enough suffering come as we go along that we may truly say that we have tasted of the cup of which He drank, and are experiencing something through which He has passed. How we ought to praise the Lord for something that abides, for something the mail can not change or unexpected telegrams can not affect. Sometimes I have said to my wife, "It seems like my mail will turn me gray:" such startling disclosures, such strange revelations, such awful tales of woe, such wrecked homes, ruined families and blasted hopes; such divisions and subdivisions, even among so-called Holiness people, to which I do not wish to refer except to impress upon your minds that we are living in awful times and we need something that abides: something so deep, so permanent, so unshaken that we are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Beloved, we are going to have to face more rugged things. Most of this audience are young, life is before you, but rugged things are in your path, you will have to shoulder great responsibilities, you will have to face ranks of malicious and designing enemies. You will have something for this fight that when all your friends are gone and there is nobody in reach that you can lay your hand upon; when you are so separated and isolated from everybody else that you feel absolutely alone you will have something that will under gird and support you in it all. Thank the Lord it is afforded in the joy of the Holy Ghost which is your strength. You never saw anyone who was sad and gloomy who was strong. Sorrow, sadness, gloomy appearances affect others; this is catching, you can spread it through a whole family. So is joy and radiance catching, and is as spreading and more so than sadness. If you are joyful you will say hopeful things that will bless somebody. When you find people in awful straits God will make you a blessing to them. Having been in straits yourself you will be able to comfort them with the comfort wherewith God has comforted you, and having known joy in sorrow, having known strength in weakness, having been able to pull through long hard straits yourself you will be able to lift others and will know how to tide them over a crucial point. Let us look at some of the things that may be expected when we receive the Holy Ghost and when this holy joy comes into our lives. First, it makes us strong. We have no weakness to talk about. We have had our little time of weakness, but now we are strong in Him. It will add to your strength to talk about what He can do to magnify and exalt Jesus. You will always grow weak talking about your own defeats, and your own lack, and your own weakness. It is far better to go to the great supply house of grace and help yourself to plenty instead of mentioning that you are weak or small and insignificant. Look God in the face and claim grace and faith enough to make you a giant to leap over a wall and run through troops, you will then accomplish the purpose of God. This we can do while we look with a steadfast gaze on the Christ of Calvary. A look is enough for the penitent; a look is sufficient for those who are seeking salvation, and when the struggle is over and the consecration is made and everything else is done then a single look is enough. No one ever gets the blessing of holiness or any experience until they look. They can fuss around and roll in the straw and beat the bench or chew the carpet but they have got to get through and take a look. When we look at Jesus then the joy of the Lord comes pouring in. We must lean forward to see and hear what the Lord has to say, and that means to shut out all other voices, to shut out other people: that means not to look here and there, but in looking to Jesus you will get your strength. There is enough in a look to make you defeat a whole regiment of devils. There is strength in simply lifting your eyes. When the Israelites were bitten, the pole with the brazen serpent was set up in the midst of the camp, in sight of every tent, and the only way to be healed, was to look. I suppose hundreds of them were just able to crawl to their tent doors and then they had only to lift their eyes and look. This is the great secret of success in the New Testament law, "looking," oblivious to everything else and everybody else -- I mean in the sense that they do not hinder us. I do not mean that you get stoic and refuse counsel. Nobody in the world is easier to approach or more willing to receive counsel than the man or woman who has received the Holy Ghost, but after we have received and weighed the counsel with courtesy and considered it with candor we still have to follow the Lord as He leads. When battles are upon us we do not have to fight them ourselves but "looking unto Jesus” we find that He will fight them for us. When trials and testings are upon us and temptations multiply we only need to know how to "look." I have heard people say, "When trials come, I run to my closet;" but there are times when they will overtake you and you will not have time to get into your closet. There is a place where you can live in the element of prayer and in such close touch with the Son of God that when temptations overtake you on the street car, on the steamboat dock, or in the midst of business you will simply lift your eyes. They may fill with tears, and your friends may imagine you are in trouble but you are not, you are all right -- "looking unto Jesus." There is no pattern but Jesus, there is no law but the Bible. We must take the New Testament as our rule of practice and Jesus as our only pattern. We must refuse to pattern after each other either in experience, not even demonstrations or emotions, in feelings or exhibitions of any kind. We can not measure ourselves by somebody else’s life. Somebody else may have been longer on the emery wheel. They may have been sandpapered for years. The sin is taken out of our life in a moment of time but the corners and rough places are not all taken off at once. If you take a Christian for your pattern he may have been dressed down and shaped up and polished and God may have expended thousands of dollars worth of grace upon him before you get started, and the fact that he is somewhat ahead of you should not discourage you, but if you will have patience and trust Him, He will put you on the wheel too, and sandpaper and fix you up so you will shine as well as shout. We are not to compare ourselves with somebody who is six months ahead of us; we are to do our best to overtake them, but are not to be discouraged with the grace, powers and capacities that God has placed in our own lives. Many a time we do not see the best there is in us. Sanctified people are not very fond of looking at themselves. Moses’ face shone but he did not know it. When people are always looking at their own experiences or at somebody else’s experience they will lose the shine. Our only business is to please Jesus. Keep this one thing before you, "This one thing I do forgetting the things that are behind, I press." The standard is Jesus, and we must keep our eyes fixed on Him, and while we look and listen the joy of the Lord will pour into our souls and we will take on Divine strength. Glory to His name! If we get back to the Bible, and get the fruits of Pentecost, we will have developed in us such rugged qualities and such strength of purpose that no difference what comes we will face it. Pentecost is death to cowardice; Pentecost destroys all fear. If you are afraid to face your foes, when the test comes you will fail; but they who trust in the Lord shall never be confounded, they shall never fail, never know defeat. Hallelujah! I say, that with the Holy Ghost failure is impossible and you can press your way through any crowd of enemies of any sort and triumph over every foe that dares to lift its head against you. Glory to God! One of the most positive evidences of spiritual wreckage and ruin is the unscriptural and unwarrantable demand that everybody shall make certain demonstrations and practice certain gymnastic movements or else they have not the experience of full salvation. God has never intended that we should all be alike. He has never made two blades of grass alike or two leaves on a tree after exactly the same pattern. He does not want us to ape others in experiences or in manifestations. All He wants you to know is that you are clean, and are His, and that you will follow Him to the ends of the earth. When you are sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost you will know this, and the joy of the Lord will remain in your souls, and you will go from victory to victory, and from triumph to triumph, until you leap into the gates of the city of God. Hallelujah. I am glad the battle is on, and it will soon be over. I am glad the time will come when we will be through the fight. The digging will be done and we will shine and shout and live to the glory of God forever. The Lord bless you, Beloved, let the joy flow. When you see somebody else blessed half to death do not try to work yourself up to be like that. If in their experience the joy is manifest through their shouts or through their heels, yours may flow just as strong through silent tears and suppressed, quiet hallelujahs. I am sure I do not know which is the best. Nothing is profitable unless it is inspired by the Spirit. Ordinarily I feel the least like jumping when others are doing the most of it. The times when I feel especially demonstrative is when I get among a lot of dead heads. When I am among those who think I must jump and shout or I have no salvation I usually feel very quiet. Instead of trying to pattern after someone else if we can only fill two by four let us do it to the glory of God. I would rather fill two by four, and fill it full than to fill four by six only half full. You will always feel awkward and out of place trying to fill somebody else’s place, but if you fill your own you will feel comfortable and move with perfect ease. You are not your own any way: you are God’s property and He has the responsibility. You will be satisfied with whatever the folks think about you, there will never be any running about to find out what they do think. You will not care what they think about your messages, they are not yours anyhow. If you understand that the whole business is the Lord’s, and make or break, success or failure; if you can realize that He is responsible for the whole, you can afford anything that He can afford. Everyone who is sanctified wholly has his own music box. It may not always be musical to others, but you are satisfied. I have the joy of the Lord this morning. I also have some burdens, it is true, but why should I tell you about them or burden you with them? You have some burdens -- perhaps enough; why listen to mine. I do not mean that we are never to go to each other with these things. I suppose that we ought to go occasionally for counsel and advice, but we ought not to pour a whole reservoir of our individual burdens over on to somebody who has enough already. If you are having it hard, you are having it just like someone else had it, who was a hundred years ago exactly where you are. But they are in Heaven now, and it will not be long until you will be there too, and somebody else will be going through the same trials that you are today. If we are the Lord’s it is no difference where we are, or what we are going through, we are headed for the Kingdom and we are going in. Praise the Lord! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: 02.10. HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD ======================================================================== Holiness unto the Lord "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:21. We may trace Divine inspiration all the way back to Eden. God used to manifest His will to Adam and Eve in the garden and all through the antediluvian period we see that when a man wanted to have His will He was always glad to give it. All through the kingly period He had a few men who were called "holy men of God," who communicated with Him, received and understood the will of Heaven. These "holy men were called prophets, and here in the epistle of Peter they are referred to as "holy men of God" -- as prophets -- and it is said that they wrote the Scriptures "as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The prophets were, as a rule, the most noble men who have ever lived. As a class, the prophets were the most devout and illustrious characters of all the past. With but few exceptions the kings were wicked and lived in idolatry. The priesthood was almost as corrupt as the throne, but even in these apostate times when kings, priests and people were backslidden from God, He had some prophets who would stand up and rebuke sin, and work for the establishment of the Divinity and authority of God. As a rule, kings were not only corrupt themselves but they corrupted the kingdom. The prophets were holy men, the Bible says so. Thank God, that there has been some holy men. Some people tell us it is impossible to be holy, but if there had been no holy men during the Old Testament age you would find no reference to them in the New Testament. If Jesus had not known them to be holy He certainly would not have spoken of them as such. Moses was called to break the throne of Pharaoh and overthrow the greatest empire of the past. He was called to lead His people out of bondage, but this commission was not given him until after he was a "holy man of God." Before he was permitted to enter upon the most eventful period of his history he had to receive his Pentecost. Moses announced to the people that God would raise up one from among them "like unto me, Him shall ye hear." So Moses confessed that he was a prophet of God, was the great antitype of Him who was to come, for he says, "He shall be like unto me." God stands Moses out as a sample of what He could do in the way of holy men. Let us take courage and expect God to make us holy. The great and good prophet Samuel was called out in the hour of his country’s greatest need. He was anointed prophet and was the most brilliant light of that century. He was the Martin Luther of that age. When Israel was in bondage, and idolatry had come among her people and the preachers had drifted far from God, Elijah stepped out from behind the curtain of God’s presence and dared to face the multitude and tell them that the God of the universe was the only one whom they should worship. He went forward fearing nothing but succeeding at every move he made. Thank God for the baptism with fire that takes the fear out of a man and puts strength, courage and energy all through his being. It will make a man dare to tell ecclesiastical bodies the whole truth of God. And there was Isaiah who stood true to God under the darkest and most aggravating circumstances. Isaiah announced the truth and stood by it until they sawed him asunder like a beef. He had received a message from God and dared to deliver it. There was Jeremiah; when Jerusalem was fallen and there was little hope of her restoration he was true to announce God’s message and denounce all forms of sin, and then weep over the lost until he was styled, "The weeping prophet." If God had such men in the past He certainly has need of them today. If a holy man was needed to overthrow the throne of Pharaoh, there is a greater need for a few who may be used to refute the number of false teachers and preachers of this time. God has need of some holy men and women as well, who fear not to declare the whole truth. It was said of Samuel, "The Lord was with him and none of his words fell to the ground." If the Lord is with you it is enough. Brother, if you can conduct yourself so that the Lord is with you and will go with you, He is quite sufficient. Where He does not go let us not go. God help us not to attempt a battle where the Lord is not at the front. So there were holy men, and they lived holy lives, and they all had awful and tremendous things to encounter. The prophets had to face kings and denounce their corruption. How few there are today who would dare to look a king in the face and tell him he was on the road to hell! The prophets, the holy men of God did. George Fox, the founder of the Quaker Church did this. They faced king’s houses, conferences, synods, and the greatest centers of false religion. If they were moved by the Spirit thus to warn and rebuke, we wonder why nobody is called to this service today. When a holy man came to Damascus the Jews were lying in wait to kill him. When he came to Antioch there was a coffin awaiting him there. When he performed a few miracles at Lystra the people were ready to worship Him; they said "he is a god," but he preached the truth to them and they took up stones to stone him. When he visits Jerusalem he is beaten and barely escapes with his life, and at Rome he loses his head and one of his last utterances was, "Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph." O I love to read such passages. If other men have done so and come out victorious we may conquer too, but they were holy men -- holy in heart, holy in life; and do you know that holy men can never die? A holy man lives after he is dead. They are sometimes better dead than alive. One of these old prophets had so much power that after he had been dead for years and all the flesh had dropped off of his bones, when a corpse was thrown into his sepulcher the moment it touched his bones it revived and stood upon its feet. So you see that the dry bones of Elisha had more life than American Protestantism has today. If the Lord tarries, Brother Knapp’s name will gradually drop out of this movement and after a few years more his name may be seldom mentioned. Some other names may be more prominent in the minds of the people, but there will still be power in the holy life he lived, and hundreds of people will eventually think of him as a holy man and appreciate his loyalty to God more than they did when he lived. "Holy men of God" -- I am truly glad there are such. They live to relieve the suffering, lift up the fallen, and bless everybody who will be blessed. A walk through Custom House Place or Canal Street, in Chicago causes me to feel very strange as I think how little is ever done to relieve the suffering or better the condition of the poor unfortunates found there. I see what was once a man leaning against a barrel house. He is simply a sample of what the devil can do. He is an exhibition of the products of hell. I have said, "What if I had to associate with such souls forever!" There is something in my soul since God saved and sanctified me which fairly revolts from such society except for the purpose of helping and lifting them to their feet. Holy men are always glad to aid the fallen and restore the lost. It is hard work now but let us be encouraged. There is a time coming when there will be no more fasting, no more weeping and prevailing prayer to get souls to turn to God. There will be one universal reign of peace and triumph. Beloved, we are called to be "holy men." If there is a shrinkage in your soul this morning from being called a holy man you must seek and obtain your Pentecost. We are commissioned not only to preach it but to have it, to live it, to walk it, and talk it. We must live such holy, humble lives that our children will not need to fear to follow in our footsteps. You have no right to engage in conversation that you would shrink from having your lovely boy or charming daughter hear. It is common to excuse sin in the home, such as anger and unkindness, hasty words uttered under provocation, but, Beloved, you and I are expected to live so that our children will dare to put their feet in our tracks. If in conversation you use slang or any improper language, the children will use it too, and if you are unkind they will be the same. If you get angry they will excuse themselves forgetting angry. Beloved, we are not only called to a holy life but there is provision made for it. He would not call us to anything without first making provision for it. If we do not live holy it is because we do not have the experience. If holiness is not just as practical in the kitchen and dining room as in the parlor; if it is not just as practical on the farm, in the home, or on the railroad car as on the platform preaching, then it is worthless. I thank God that He has called us to holy living. The example of a holy man and his influence upon the community in which he lives is always a benediction. The effect of his character upon his children will be lasting. We had better leave our children an example of godliness than to leave them farms or bank stocks which it may take a lifetime to accumulate and which may damn their souls in hell forever. The influence of a godly example will never die. The boys may sometimes drift out of the path, or the girls may seem indifferent for a season, but I hold to the Old Book that says if we, "train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it." A godly mother -- a praying, weeping, sensible, loving mother, who lives holy before God and her children -- her tears will never be wasted. The hours she spends in the closet will not be spent in vain. Parents let me encourage you to walk uprightly, live your religion, live a life unspotted and without blame and some of these days your sons and daughters will come home though they may be a thousand miles away and deep down in sin. Pray on, weep on, believe on; your prayers will come home some night and bring your boys and girls with them. One of the greatest prophets in the past approached a mother in distress and asked her what she had in the house. She replied, "Thine handmaid hath nothing in the house but a pot of oil," but there was a man of God there, and he prayed and his prayer reached the Throne. She gave the pot of oil to the Lord, and He returned her two boys. She asked the prophet what she should do with the oil and he said, "Sell it," and when she had prayed over it and sold it she found that she had enough to pay all her debts and a permanent support beside. I want to ask you parents this morning, "What have you in the house?" It may be a daughter who loves dress and the world and does not care much for holiness, but you can give her to the Lord and ask Him to save, sanctify and call her to soul winning. He will answer. She will go to India, Africa or Japan and some day will come back home, not with literary honors, but with sheaves of golden grain, and she will put a crown of glory on your head that will last forever. She will bless you in your old age because you gave up the pot of oil for God. Or it may be a son. If so give him over to God; give the whole household over to the Lord. Write it over the door, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord." There may be objections at first, but where goes the head there goes the whole household. God has called us to live holy lives, to not only love our children but our neighbors’ children, and He wants to extend our influence and give us greater victory than we have ever known. Some of us have struggles and sorrows inexpressible, but someday the lost ones will come home. If you could read the letters we receive from heartbroken parents, or if we could give you an idea of the joy in homes over this country where we have returned a wayward daughter to a heartbroken mother and sorrow stricken household you would better appreciate the power of a holy life. Imagine the joy around the fireside of that stricken home when the daughter who has been absent more than two years comes back saved and sanctified. The mother says, "For more than two years I have been weeping, praying and watching for her return. I have prayed every hour in the day and have watched and waited until late at night." And then, listen to the blessings which she pours upon those who have pushed their way down into the slums and rescued her wayward child. Some mothers send word for us to pray and search for their only girl. We pray and God directs. The girl is found, saved, and returned to her heartbroken mother. If you could witness the scene as they embrace each other and go down to family prayers, it would break your heart. Parents, God will reward you for your heartaches, for your sleepless hours or your protracted waiting upon Him. My text says there were holy men. Thank God there are holy men today. Brother, as long as you live, do not ever dare to lift your voice against holiness. God has sent me to warn you. If you do, it may be that it not only means the wrecking of your own life but that of others. I might tell you of the awful results of parents talking against holiness. I just want to warn you this morning that God has a few holy men and women, and that you must "touch not the Lord’s anointed." Do not criticize, do not find fault, do not even insinuate in the presence of your children. If you do not receive this experience and practice it in your every day walk some of your loved ones will meet you at the Judgment, and they may burn forever because you failed. Let us practice what we preach, and let us awaken sleeping souls to a sense of their real danger. I am talking to more than three hundred people in this audience who are not saved at all. God help you. The destiny of your own children may be hanging upon your words and life. A holy testimony with a holy life back of it is something that all the armies of hell can not break down. God said to Job that he was a "perfect" man and under all his afflictions he had "sinned not." Brother, Sister, whatever of this message you may forget, I want you to remember the text. Forget me as soon as possible but remember the text forever. You can be a holy man or woman and God can give you the Holy Ghost and keep you in His Divine order. Some day you will thank God that a holiness preacher ever came your way. It is so in my case. I know now, what I did not know then, that he came to our town because he was needed more than because he was wanted, for the Churches thought then as Churches do now, and many of them rejected the truth, but he endured hardness and pressed through opposition and carried the message to my soul. When I meet him on the hills of Heaven I shall thank him for his faithfulness in preaching a faithful Gospel. Now, beloved, if you want this blessing come to the altar and get it. I will see that there are not two or three workers buzzing in your ears, and confounding you until you cannot pray. You shall have a good chance to get to God. Won’t you come this morning? He is waiting to save, sanctify, and cause you to live a holy life. Praise the Lord! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: 02.11. THE GOOD SPIRIT OF THE LORD ======================================================================== The Good Spirit of the Lord "Thou gavest, also, thy good Spirit to instruct them, and withheld not Thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst." Nehemiah 9:20. "Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them." This is a statement of the fact that the Lord gave His Spirit to the patriarchs and prophets and leaders of these centuries before Christ. That those men who were always looked upon as so illustrious, so extraordinary, so miraculous in their lives, won their triumphs through grace, and their victories were due to the fact the Lord gave His "good Spirit" to instruct them. All their victories and achievements are traceable to this secret. It was the Spirit of the Lord who gave them their success. There are comparatively few today who are willing to give honor where honor is due. We hear much said of the triumph of human character and of human wisdom and of human genius, but none of these can truthfully be said to have figured in the lives of the greatest men of the greatest times of the past. All they were and all that they did was due to the fact that God gave them His "good Spirit." Take for instance the life of Joseph, the most faultless, and one of the most famous of Old Testament characters. All of his victories were owing to the fact that the Lord put His Spirit within Him. Hated by his brethren; sold from his home; reduced to the lowest place on earth; I see him with the wisdom that comes from God by the Spirit of God out of Heaven, and he leaps from Potiphar’s kitchen to the throne of the mightiest empire of the past, simply because the Lord gave His "good Spirit." Look at him sitting in the dingy old cell; first hated and then forgotten, his heart true to God and righteousness, never breaking in his fidelity or integrity. See his face shedding alight that had never fallen upon those dingy old walls before. See him when misunderstood and misrepresented, down where nobody could touch him but God, and then hear the old king, himself, say to his servants, "Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is!” Certainly He gave His good Spirit to instruct him. Joseph’s triumph was not caused by what he was or what he did; it was because God was in him, working through him, and making him more than conqueror. It was because of the Divine, supernatural, energizing power of the "good Spirit." Beloved, I wish we knew, as we may know, that everything hinges upon having the Holy Ghost. Everything depends upon the "good Spirit" of God. If we may have the hand of the Lord with us, that is enough. We may lose our friends, our homes, everything, but if the hand of the Lord is with us we can sit in a dingy old prison and He will make the stones in the walls shine like diamonds, and our songs of victory will ring through the corridors until the angels will join in the chorus. When the Spirit of the Lord was upon Stephen, we are distinctly told that they were notable to resist the wisdom with which he spake. He was altogether unqualified until God touched him, but He sent him out against the pride and wisdom of the synagogues, and He stopped the mouths of counselors and they were not able to resist the spirit and wisdom with which he spake. Look at Moses. I see his little crude crib among the rushes on the bosom of the Nile with nobody to rock the cradle but the hand of God. I see his mother stoop over him and tuck him in his little crib and plant a kiss upon his cheek and push him out upon the waves. There he is divorced from all human dependencies. Nobody left to look after him but God. No mother to tuck him up and kiss him that night, but the Lord came down and hovered over that little crib and put His almighty hand between him and evil, and the next time the curtain lifts I see him in Pharaoh’s court, receiving royal attention, administered to by his mother and being trained for the mightiest work of those centuries, because the "good Spirit" of the Lord was with him. Beloved, there is no place so dark, no circumstances so forbidding, no situation so strained, but that when the Spirit of the Lord is upon us and with us victory is assured. Joshua was a good, godly man. He was Moses’ servant for forty years, and the man who has learned to serve and obey is most likely to be called to lead, so when Joshua received his second blessing, when the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire fell upon him, he went forth to lead one of the grandest exploits in all military history, and all his victories were only because the Spirit of the Lord was upon and within him. He was nothing but a servant trotting along by the side of Moses, but when Moses laid his hand upon him and the Spirit of God came upon him, he went forth to lead that army in a campaign of victories that never closed until thirty-one headless kings were at his feet, and thirty-one mighty cities in his grasp. Why? Only because the "good Spirit" of the Lord was in him. It was not his human wisdom, or human strength; it was not the triumph of any human power or magnetism, but the mighty triumph of the mighty God; and if you and I ever get to see God as He is, everything else will sink into insignificance, and more than that, we will never want anybody else but God to lead us, to hold us and give us victory. O glory to His name! He who fought for Joshua in thirty-one mighty conflicts, and who gave him victory on every occasion will also fight for us and sepulcher all our foes. When the "good Spirit" of the Lord is upon you and in you, you will never know defeat. You will clean up everything you come to. It is an awful thing to shirk responsibility, or to ask God to excuse us; or to share the responsibility God lays upon us with anybody else. God called Moses and promised him, that He would be unto him, mouth and wisdom, tongue and utterance, and would go before him and give him victory. People sometimes suppose that when Moses’ request for a partnership was granted, and Aaron was taken in, that it was a great blessing, but this is very questionable, for while we find that Moses leaned upon Aaron as a prop, the prop broke at a most critical time, and while Moses was up in the mountain talking to God, Aaron made a golden calf, and the people bowed down to it; and it was Aaron’s conduct that pierced Moses’ heart through and through with awful sorrow. Again he said, "This is to much for me, I am not able to bear it;" and he asked for a council of seventy to share the responsibility. God took him at his word and the seventy were appointed, but God took of His Spirit that was upon Moses, and put it upon the seventy. But did that help Moses any? It is true that the Spirit of the Lord rested upon seventy-one then instead of one, but there was no more power upon the seventy-one than there had been upon one before. God’s plan was to have stood Moses up before the people, empower him with condensed lightning, and condensed wisdom and power, until he could have done the work of seventy-one men. The glory and honor was divided until Moses’ share was only one of seventy-one. The council never proved a blessing. That was the start of the very Sanhedrim that crucified our Lord. Beloved, let us not shrink from responsibility. Let us not draw back when God wants to send us to the front. Let us shoulder without hesitation every single thing that God puts upon us. It is an easy thing for us to lose our crown. We are warned faithfully, "Let no man take thy crown." If we want to be at our very best we must go forth unhesitatingly; grasping every opportunity; cherishing the cross, and leaning upon God every step of the way. Beloved, if we can get the Holy Ghost to come into our hearts and take charge of everything, He will solve every difficult problem; He will untangle every tangled skein; and will make every intricate and difficult matter as plain as high noon. He will enter into the most minute details of life, and help us through them all. The “good Spirit" of the Lord may be with you just as much in swinging a pick as sitting on a throne. He may just as really help you at the kitchen sink, or at the wash tub, as in the drawing room, or on the platform. The Man of Nazareth, who spent years of His life swinging a hammer, pushing a plane, or driving a saw, will never forget you, no difference how humble your work in life. No difference how mean our calling, we need and may have our Pentecost. There can be no real, constant victory until the Holy Ghost comes to abide. The "good Spirit" of the Lord will insure victory through the most protracted tests He will never leave nor forsake you. When people turn from you, trials multiply, and sorrows seem to crush you, in the midst of sickness and distress, when all from a human standpoint looks dark, then the Lord is with His truly sanctified children and whispers, “when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." "When thou walkest through the fire, thou salt not be burned, neither shall the flames kindle upon thee." It is at least intimated in this text that we shall go through the fire and the water; but when we do, thank God, we will not drown or burn. There will be something in us that will stand the storm. Away down in the basement of our souls, there will be a framework built of steel ribs and girders, and we will be upheld by the hand of Omnipotence. So strong and firm will He build us that no storms of hell will be able to break down the structure. Glory to God! A sea worthy vessel may be tossed and rolled and tumbled, swinging over the tops of the billows and down through the trough of an awful sea. She resists and throws off wave after wave, and rides serenely on without damage from the storm. This is one of the grandest pictures, to my mind, of a life that is permeated through and through with the "good Spirit" of God. The billows of the most agitated seas may sweep across your deck, and you may sometimes seem to be out of sight; the world may have forgotten you; in the small hours of the morning you may be slipping noiselessly about, watching the sick bed, in great suspense as to what the consequences are to be. All human voices and human sympathy are as silent as death; you look out upon the stars of the night; you are weary. Satan would tempt you that even your own friends have no feelings for you, but, thank God, the "good Spirit" of the Lord is there and rejoices over the victories that nobody knows but the King Himself. This "Spirit," spoken of in the twentieth verse of the ninth chapter of Nehemiah, is the mighty Spirit of the mighty God. O, beloved, I wish we knew Him. I wish that you would not only receive Him, but that people who have received Him, would cultivate His acquaintance. I wish you would court His favor; study His likes and dislikes. He is very sensitive; is most refined in His tastes. O, if we only knew how to please Him; how Divine the fellowship. Thank God, we may, and when we come to know Him, and get through with everything else and just step out in the power of His might, depending alone upon Him, He always gives glorious victory. The "good Spirit" is gentle. He is not only symbolized by fire, but also by the dove. There are many striking symbols of the Holy Ghost. Sometimes He comes as a mighty rushing wind; sometimes as a cooing dove; sometimes He comes as a flame of fire; sometimes as a still, small voice. It is just as sweet to know Him in the one as in the other. After your heart is open to receive Him, if you love Him and know Him, it does not matter under what symbol He comes to you. You will understand it. All this confusion which we find around, all asking questions, all this wondering, comes from a lack of settled conviction. When we get a settled conviction and come to know Him as God, He may come as a storm and we will stand upon our feet. He may come like the morning air and we will welcome Him, and when He comes we will cherish Him; we will embrace Him and will seek to know Him better. Beloved, to know the Holy Ghost is not only to swing a meat ax in preaching. This may sometimes be necessary, but to know Him, means to weep and weep, like the red eyed Jeremiah until the proud and impenitent may reject us for our very tears. There is such a tenderness, and such a gentleness springing up when the Holy Spirit comes in. He not only transforms us but it seems as if the glory of God is setting upon every blade of grass; as if the trees were clapping their hands for joy. It sometimes seems that every cricket and insect that makes a noise is singing and rejoicing over this salvation. I am fond of demonstration when it is in the Spirit of the Lord. It is very refreshing to my soul, but what can be more refreshing than to see someone stand with streaming eyes and laughing, radiant countenance, weeping out the joy which the Holy Ghost has put in. I have recently witnessed a camp meeting well nigh swept off of their feet by the tearful, laughing of a little woman who was saying "farewell" to friends, home and native land. She was headed for the sandy stretches of India, but her eyes were so full of tears, and her soul so full of laughter that she was unable to speak to the people. A more eloquent message I have never heard. It was truly uplifting. Manifestations of the Spirit are many; they are various; they may come this way or that. We dare not lay down any rules for God. He will not follow rules or human regulations; but with all our demonstration let us never suppose that the deepest spirituality is in demonstration. Let us understand that the deepest spirituality is in letting God absolutely have His way with us. As willing to be still and be misunderstood when God puts a hush on our soul as to be misunderstood when He puts the shouts and demonstration upon us. If you shout, there will be somebody who will criticize you. If you do not shout there will be somebody else who will think you have not got the victory. The thing we want is to be possessed with the "good Spirit" of the Lord. O, beloved, I am looking for something more than I have seen manifested in this world yet. I am seeing something of it these days. Sometimes God comes down, takes hold of people and shakes them over hell. It is more of this mighty, griping conviction we want to see. Just at this time we are confronting a phase of fanaticism which rarely appears in the religious world. I refer to excessive demonstration, and to a spirit that would censure and denounce all who are not physically demonstrative. Sweet and refreshing as real Holy Ghost demonstration is, it is important that we shall not lay too much stress upon it. The devil can take advantage of human feelings, but what we want is something thousand fathoms deeper than shouts or gymnastic exercises. But the Holy Ghost can settle you down so that when the people attack you all you will do is say; "Hallelujah!" We can not defend ourselves if we are dead; we must be good corpses; we must stay dead. A person can talk about a good corpse all day and there is no reply, no answer, no retaliation. Now, beloved, the point I want to bring before you is, that what God gave to comparatively few men in the Old dispensation, He wants to pour out on all flesh today. Under the Old dispensation the multitudes stood outside the temple or tabernacle. They heard the jingle of bells and caught a glimpse of the pomegranates on the garment of the priest as he entered the holy place alone, but the masses did not come in touch with God. He put His Spirit upon Moses, Elisha, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hezekiah and others; all along down through the ages there have been some who have had His "good Spirit." But God promised that the time should come when He should pour His Spirit upon all flesh. What Moses found on Horeb, and Elijah found at Carmel, you may have today if you will meet the conditions. The coming of the "good Spirit" of the Lord will destroy all sin in the heart and fill you with perfect love. We "receive not the spirit of fear but of love and power and of a sound mind." We stand before the world entirely sane for the first time in our lives when we are sanctified wholly. All who are not sanctified wholly are more or less insane. A sanctified man, full of the Holy Ghost, stands out before the world, yes, before three worlds, as God’s representative, as a sample of God’s goods, and he stands ready for inspection. If we are not ready to stand off somewhere and let all the sharpshooters of hell do their worst on us, we have not got the thing I am talking about. If somebody comes along and says, "You have not got it," that does not affect matters a particle. You have not time to defend. The real thing does not need any defense, but I feel sure this is Greek to most people. I am speaking to some now who are comparative strangers to these things, but it is coming. Before our Lord comes back to earth again, I believe there will be a real revival. I do not mean fanaticism; I do not mean mere noise; I mean that the gifts and graces of the Spirit will reappear as in the apostolic church and will be recognized by the real saints, and will be exercised to the blessing of thousands. Many have received the Holy Ghost but have refused to receive His gifts. There seems to be a special aversion to the gift of healing among many who call themselves Holiness people. This is one of the gifts in the Pauline catalogue. Beloved, I am preaching and praying and weeping and looking for a people who will swallow the whole Bible and go through with God. Beloved, let us not be afraid. If somebody has gone into fanaticism we must not draw back into the cold twilight of spiritual things. Let us not make a mistake here. He is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those that seek than we are to give good gifts to our children. He wants to come and He will come and He will not tarry. He will come suddenly to His temple. He might come now; ’most any time. Look out! Glory to God! I believe He is coming! He comes when everything is ready. Some have received Him while washing dishes. Some while walking along the street. Some while lying in their beds, and have jumped out as if the bed was on fire. O let Him come! If He does not come, there is a reason for it. He will never withhold His manna or the fruits of Canaan or the best things He has from us. He fed three million people in a barren wilderness where there was absolutely nothing in sight, to settle it forever that we do not have to depend on what we can see. If we know Him He will take care of us. He causes the lilies to grow and they are beautiful. The Lord has promised to make us like wrought gold. "The King’s daughter shall be all glorious within." Have you received Him? Do you believe He wants to come? Suppose He does come, will you consult Him? Will you court His favor? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: 02.12. THE RESURRECTION ======================================================================== The Resurrection "And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James and Salome, had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great." Mark 16:14. The Company of devout, loving hearted women who lingered at the cross, hurried to the sepulcher, and the words which we have read were some of their words as they journeyed to Joseph’s new tomb. In the devotion and love of their hearts they were going to do their last and best for the Lord. They seemed to have almost forgotten that there were difficulties, possibly did not remember them until they were approaching the tomb, and then said among themselves: ’"Who shall, roll us away the stone." "For it was very great." There were three almost insurmountable difficulties in the way of these holy women, and their difficulties, at least, strikingly illustrate the difficulties which come in our way, and lie across our path. First, there was the stone, and it was very great. Second, there was the Hebrew seal. Who dared to break t? Third, there was the Roman Guard; and before they could render their love service these three must be overcome. In every Christian life there are difficulties corresponding to these. The stone was inactive but obstinate, and too much for frail, tired women, who had passed through such a protracted strain. The stone well represents the inert, inactive obstacles that lie across our path, which seem impassable and yet do not attack us. They lie like a log or like some heavy weight, some immovable, some impassable obstacle in our way. It may be circumstances which go on for years without change. It may be an affliction that hangs like a black cloud over our way, and never seems to lift. Every person who would be a real Christian finds that there are certain great difficulties, there are certain forbidding circumstances which it seems impossible for us to overcome, but the removal of the stone from the mouth of the sepulcher was a Divine guarantee that all our stone-like difficulties shall be taken away. The fact that this great stone was removed is security, is a pledge, it gives every man and woman of faith to understand that however great or heavy or sluggish our difficulties may be, however obstinate they may seem, they must give way at the touch of the resurrected Christ. I wish to help the people this morning, who are hindered by difficulties those who succumb to opposition, to mountains that lie in your way; to circumstances which you are powerless to control. Thank God, the very greatness, of the stone is a good reason why we should expect that He will take the matter in hand. The very greatness of the difficulty is a good reason why we should not attempt to manage it ourselves. Most people rush to God for aid only in great difficulties; they undertake to manage the small ones themselves. A Christian merchant receives a telephone message that his suburban home is in flames. He hurries to the spot. His home is in ashes. his insurance ran out last week, but his family are saved. He gathers his little family around him and hurries to God and pours out his soul to Him. He breaks down and God comforts him and sustains him in a difficulty like that; but the same man, when a tired clerk, who has worked twelve hours for ten hours pay, comes ten minutes late in the morning, flies into a passion and sins against Heaven. He does not seem to be able to manage a little thing like that, and he does not trust God to keep him in the small matters. I am glad sometimes that our difficulties are too much for us. I sometimes rejoice that it is a great stone, for if there is a great stone, if there is a great need, we are forced to find a great Christ. If our difficulties are beyond human help, then we apply to Him who never fails. The stone will be rolled away no difference how great it may be. The very greatness of it affords a great opportunity for a great God to display his power. This truth you must remember all through your Christian experience. I wish the saints knew how to let the Lord take care of the great stones; the inert and obstinate difficulties that we cannot manage. I wish we knew how to stand still and see the salvation of God. The next difficulty was the Hebrew Seal. This was the seal of authority, of law. To break the seal was to break authority, to defy law. It is not very common that our Christian privileges are interfered with in these days, by civil law, but it is very often the case that we come up against things that are controlled by the laws of nature, and they seem so forbidding that it is impossible for us to get through them without God. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is enough for the seal of authority. It is enough for law; it is enough for the suspension of natural law, that we may obtain the purpose of God, and know the best things which He has for us. Just as a watch maker knows how to stop a watch as well as to start it; just as he knows how to turn the hands backward, so God knows how to turn the shadow back fifteen degrees on the dial of Ahaz. God knows how to suspend all natural law and bring in the supernatural, and bring deliverance in spite of every obstacle. When as good medical authority, as Boston could furnish, told me that my loved one was beyond the reach of human skill or aid, and that there was no human law or power by which he could be restored, the resurrected Christ stepped in, suspended natural law long enough to perform a miracle, and the sick one arose from his bed and called for something to eat. In all the miracles which are performed, there is a manifestation of the power of God in the suspension of natural laws. The Bible is filled with the history of cases where nobody could do anything until Jesus got there. Nothing could be done until the Lord came, and then the law of gravitation was nothing. The law of cause and effect was nothing. No difference what natural law stood in the way, the Author of all law said to it, "Step aside," and the work was accomplished. Glory to God! Laws often have to be reversed and set at naught, and in the resurrection of the Son of God we have a guarantee that we shall rise above all our foes. Peter was in prison; the edict had gone forth; the sentence was passed. He was to be executed on the morrow; "but prayers were made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him. “Behind that "but" was something more powerful than all Herod’s armies; and when those prayers were answered another angel came down and stood in the prison. The light of Heaven filled all that dark dungeon. Peter stood on his feet; the chains fell from his limbs, and with an angel by his side he walked out of that jail. The first and second walls became as thin air, and he passed through without opening the doors; and when he came to the outer gate, which was so heavy that it took twenty men to swing it upon its hinges after it was unlatched, it opened of its own accord. Peter was free, and in less than a week Herod was a corrupting corpse. O beloved, there is nothing too great for our Christ. Even Darius could find no law by which Daniel could be relieved from going to the lion’s den. He would have been glad to find some law of escape, but could find none. The author of the Hebrew seal says, "You have got to go in;" but the Author of all law says, "You must come out." It is the overcoming of the laws of nature that makes it possible for a fellow to burn and not be scorched; that makes it possible for a man to be better after he has been boiled in oil than he was before. It is this that makes it possible when a poisonous snake has fastened itself upon one’s hand to throw it off and go on to Rome. It is this power that lifts us above all human authorities, and makes it possible for us, "with a conqueror’s tread to push ahead," and trust God to roll the sea away. I wish we knew Him. I wish we knew His greatness. We would certainly get through with magnifying our petty difficulties and trials. We would get through with our putting our faces up to the side of the room and whining like children. In the history of the Covenanters they tell us of times when the enemy was after them, and they were in the mountains when an attack was about to be made on them, there would settle down over their little assembly a mist that would hide them from their enemies until they could escape to the ravines and caves and hide away. John Payton tells us again and again of times when natural laws were suspended, prospects reversed, plans changed, and the victory came to him in the face of the worst things that could be imagined. O glory to God! Who knows but that the prayers and the tears and the waiting upon God is suspending certain laws and certain rules this very hour, which gives us the privileges which we so greatly enjoy? All through your life there are going to be difficulties that seem insurmountable because natural laws are across your path, that to get victory at all will require a miracle. Thank God, the resurrected Christ can do it. He can break the Hebrew seal; He can break every stamp of authority that earth or hell puts forth. Again, the third difficulty was the sturdy Roman guard. This may illustrate the active forces, the living powers that attack us. The things or persons that come against us with gnashing teeth, frowning countenances, and stentorian voices, demanding our surrender or forbidding our progress. Thank God, there is deliverance from even the living, acting forces! Whether they be in the form of human beings, or be black-winged demons from the pit, thank God, there is deliverance. Who does not know that every time we take a bold stand, or plant our feet on higher ground, the atmosphere fills with opposition, and our progress is challenged by ranks of living foes from the lower regions. They call for us to "Halt," but he who knows the resurrected Christ can look a regiment of devils in the face, and one throb of the pulse of the risen Lord coursing through your veins is enough to paralyze a sturdy Roman Guard, and put them on their faces while you shout the victory. So we are not going to be afraid of a regiment of devils any more than a Hebrew seal. We have a Christ who can go the rounds and clean up the whole outfit, and give us victory, no difference what our foes. Brother, do you practice it? Is it a fact in your every day life? Do you have victory in those hours when it would seem that the hosts of earth and the legions of hell have agreed against you? There is power in the resurrected Christ to stretch them out as unconscious as the Roman guard slept on the ground that morning. A difficulty is harmless while God has His hand on it. Under the Divine touch of a Divine Christ the Roman guard lay on their faces while the angel rolled away the stone. Beloved, if we have wisdom enough to keep Him between us and difficulties, if we have sense enough to trust Him, to make Him responsible, we will find His touch will answer all our needs and defeat all our enemies. I notice in the lesson that the stone was not only against the women but it was against Christ. He was on the other side of it, and if He had to get out they certainly could get in. If we could remember that everything that is against us is against Him; that all our enemies are the enemies of Christ; if we will let Him deal with them as His, since they are His, He knows how to manage them, and we may simply commit the matter to Him and shout the victory through all. There are things that seem to be against us and that seem to be against Christ, but really and truly nothing can stand against Him, and if He be for us who can be against us? O, I want to help somebody. O, that we might get a new vision of the power of God, of the resurrected Christ, and understand that He is more than a match for all the foes that earth and hell can bring against us. It is here I find my safety. If I could not hide away, many a time I would fall. Here is my hope; here is my victory. I keep my eye on an all conquering Christ, and they must down Him before they down me; and they are always paralyzed when they come into His presence. Notice in the lesson that when these devout sisters called to mind, just as they were approaching the sepulcher, that there were difficulties, they did not turn back. Many of you would have said, "It is of no use to go any further. Mary, do you not remember how big that stone was?” The most of us would have turned back, but though they remembered the stone, the seal and the Roman guard, their hearts fired with devotion, love, and loyalty to their Christ, hurried them to the sepulcher where they were to find that the stone was rolled away. How many times that has been true with us? We have thought about difficulties in the distance, we have thought about bridges that had to be crossed, we have looked ahead and imagined that there were lions in the way; we saw great stones lying in our path; we saw gum logs we never could split; there have been circumstances that it seemed impossible to overcome; but when we came to the place it was gone. Sir, if you will walk on, if you are faithful, just when you get over the top of the hill where the thing was, you will see that the stone has been rolled away. Notice in the teaching of the lesson that God is always faithful to be there just in time; not too soon, not a second too late -- just in time. The stone had not been rolled away long, for the angel was still sitting upon it. How often Satan says, "Now, this thing is upon you and the time is short, and there are no signs of deliverance, and the Lord is going to fail you." The devil says, "I know the Lord has never failed you in the past, but this is different, this is an emergency; something must be done at once, and you see He is not here." Ah, that is devil talk. God is always there just in time. Many a time faith has to walk right up against a stone. God does not waste any time, but He is there just the right minute to deliver us; just in time to display His wondrous power and grace. Moses must lead the people into, what seems, the very jaws of death. There was no opening. Mountains were on either side, the roaring enemy in the rear, and the sea stretched out in front of them. The case looked hopeless, but God was there just in time. Joshua’s test of faith was even more severe. He had to make the priests put their feet in the water before there was anything done. God never fails. As faith is tested and you are true, the triumph is sure to come. Notice that the stone was removed without their touch; without an effort; without drawing a sword. Don’t you know, sir, there are certain things God does not want us to do? And when this is the case we are never stronger than when in the attitude of perfect silence. Paul says, "When I am weak, then am I strong." Some of the mightiest victories come when we stand absolutely still and see what God will do. "Ye shall not fight in this battle." That does not mean that you shall not go forth, possibly with a ram’s horn, or a shepherd’s sling at some other time, but there may be occasions upon which you are only to stand still and sing a holy song. There will be times when the best thing in the world you can do is to do nothing. There will be times when the devil will try to hurry you and make you do a lot of things, hasty, unreasonable things, but you stand still and wait until God makes it plain. Again, there was deliverance by a celestial messenger who sat upon the stone, as if to say, “My difficulties are my thrones;" Thank God they do come to this earth. They are represented in some places in the Bible as living down here. Jesus said, "They shall ascend and descend;" as much as to say they are already down here. How could they go up before they come down? The angels are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who are heirs of salvation." They are all about us today, no matter what the difficulties, "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him." Yes, there were other armies there that Sabbath morning beside the Roman guard. The armies which Elisha saw when one hundred and seventy-five thousand of his enemies fell in a single day; the armies which are in the galleries all about us, witnessing our conduct, and whenever we need assistance, are dispatched to aid and guard us. Where is the Christian who can not cite back to hairbreadth escapes; to times when you can not explain why you were not killed in some awful accident? The angel of God was there just in time to take care of you as you stood on the very precipice of ruin. How many of us can look back and remember times, even when we were sinners, and we cannot understand why it was that we did not drop into hell. Even then, God had the holy angels guarding us. If the Divine protection were withdrawn from the sinners in this audience while we preach, they would suddenly drop into hell. Have you ever noticed how a man will live through a dozen things? You thought any one of them would kill him; it seems as if nothing can kill him; and finally, some day, some little thing, utterly insignificant, the same he has passed many a time before, occurs, and he drops dead. O, there was a time when God was guarding and protecting him; his cup of iniquity was not yet full, but the day came when the angels retired, and he was dead. It does not take much to snap the thread of life and send a man to hell when he has crossed the dead line, and there is no more hope of his turning to the Lord. O, we have a little idea what is going on overhead, just above us, but there are companies of angels with the saints, and there is a certain restraining, protecting power over the sinner for a time, for which they ought to stop and thank God. God help us to appreciate the company of angels who are delegated to journey with us here below. Sometimes we almost seem to feel their wings, and some of these times when we are passing through the severest trials, and it seems as if all hell were howling and raging against us, the angels of the Lord are fanning our brow, and we get unspeakably happy in the absence of anything in the world to make us happy. If you get God, if you get the Holy Ghost and your Pentecost, you will get linked up to Heaven, and the angels are pledged to take care of you. Thank God, our Christ can lift us above difficulties as well as roll stones away. I find no Scriptural authority for saying that the stone was rolled away in order that Jesus might rise, because I find after the resurrection that He passed in and out through closed doors, and if He could do that, He could go through a stone just as well. And then I notice another thing, that when he appeared to Mary, He was not coming from the tomb but from the garden where he had been taking a walk. The probability is that He got up long before the angel got there, and was walking about in the morning air. This proves to me that circumstances do not have to be taken out of the way: our Christ can go through them. It is a wonderful thing to have the stone rolled away, but I reckon it is even greater to be up and gone before the angel comes. When Jesus Christ went into Joseph’s new tomb, He went in with the intention of knocking the other end out of it; I believe He went out the other way, and by His resurrection has knocked the bottom out of all the graves, and guaranteed the resurrection of all the saints. The entirely sanctified do not live on this side of the tomb, the dark death side, but on the resurrection side. I know there is a gloomy side to religion; there is a cheerless, gloomy, north side, but I know there is a sunny side, a tropical side where flowers bloom and birds sing, and we can bask in the sunlight of eternal glory. O, I wish the Church knew it -- knew the resurrection side of life. Almost everybody is sitting on the north side of religion. They are chilly, their hands are cold, and their teeth chatter. O, I wish they could get around on the south side. Do you know, sirs, that the fact of the resurrection is the great hinge on which swings the whole plan of salvation. Do you know that as Christ arose, so will we get up, and there are not devils enough to keep us down? Do you know that as He got up in the early morning, sanctified saints are going to get up a thousand years before the other folks? And we will walk out in the morning air. The delicious fragrance, the music that fills the air, the charming voices of the early morning, we will witness, and we will walk and sing and praise God a thousand years before the other folks are out of their graves. I can almost smell the fragrance of the morning air now. How bracing! There is something about it that puts the electricity, the elixir of life, that puts the hop, skip and jump in a man’s soul. Glory to God! If you will get sanctified wholly you will get up before the angel gets there, and I think the trumpet sound is going to be the sweetest music we have ever listened to. The trumpet that calls the nations of the dead in Christ to rise up and meet a glorified and descending Lord. The trumpet that calls the living saints to drop their mortality and be translated in the twinkling of an eye, and go to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This is going to be the climax of the ages. This is the great day to which all other days are pointing. I am going to be there! "And, the stone was rolled away." Do you want the blessing! He will, roll away the stone, break the seal, speak to the guard. It would be tantalizing to preach to you this way if I did not know that you can have the blessing. I am sure I love you too much to tantalize you with something you cannot have. If you will meet the conditions God will break every Hebrew seal, roll away every stone, paralyze every guard, and this resurrection life, coursing through your being will make you a giant, "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: 02.13. THE PERFECTION WHICH GOD REQUIRES ======================================================================== The Perfection which God Requires Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. -- Php 3:8-15 The word "perfect" when applied to salvation is so widely misunderstood that we are compelled to repeat again and again the New Testament line of teaching, and the New Testament thought with regard to what Christian perfection is. You notice that the word "perfection" is used twice in the lesson which I have read. First, referring to a perfection yet to be reached, a perfection yet deferred until the resurrection out from among the dead -- the first resurrection. Second, a perfection which the apostle professes that he has, and he addresses those who have the blessing and says, "Let as many as be perfect be thus minded." Men seek perfection with diligence in everything else but religion. They are desperately in earnest to reach perfection in agriculture, science, art, invention, in fact everything but salvation. Men do not hesitate to use the term when applied to things temporal, material, or things perishing. They speak of a perfect day, a perfect machine, a perfect fit, a perfect gentleman, a perfect flower, in fact, you can hear the word almost everywhere until it comes to the great Gospel of our God, then when we talk about perfection men lift their hands in horror; they say that is going too far. Everybody understands, and especially those of you who have read something of theology, (and I hope you are not afraid to rub up against it) that the apostle here is not talking about absolute perfection, the perfection of God, for as we have been made perfect we will make progress not only here, but hereafter and to the increase there shall be no end, but for that we will never reach a place where we will approximate the perfection of God, nowhere is it promised that we are to be gods, and we want to be careful to stay where we belong. So we are not talking about the perfection from that standpoint but there is something required of us, a perfection we ought to have, and I trust we may be able to get at an intelligent understanding of what God expects of us. The apostle here is not talking about perfection that comes from creation, but from redemption. All that you or I have, or ever will have, or be, we get through redemption. Our first parents had a perfection that was by creation, but they lost it, and the estate squandered we have never been able to regain. It was lost -- absolutely lost. All that we have, or ever will have, we have through Jesus Christ, and around the cross clusters everything that is nearest and dearest to us this afternoon, and from it we must never wander a single step. There is no place on earth or in Heaven where we will get beyond the cross of Jesus Christ. The very privileges that we will enjoy through all the cycles of eternity are purchased through the Blood; and we will sing about the Blood age upon age as the centuries roll along. The Lamb that was slain, the Blood that was shed, the Christ that volunteered to lay down His life to redeem us, will forever be our theme. Glory to His name! If this perfection is not the perfection of creation then it cannot mean the perfection of our bodies or our minds. I am confident that serious error and sometimes shipwreck comes as result of misunderstanding God’s salvation in this particular. Nowhere in the Word are you commanded or promised to have a perfect head. There is an idea abroad in these days that people have got to get saved so that they will make no mistakes. This is not true. It is not a perfection of mind but of spirit. The only perfection taught between the covers of the Book is that perfection of heart which comes when we are sanctified wholly and filled with perfect love. John Wesley was right when he said, "The only thing you can add to the experience of perfect love or entire sanctification is more love." The reception of the Holy Ghost is always subsequent to regeneration, always after conversion, is never one and the same with it. When we receive the Holy Ghost we receive a heart made free from sin and filled with perfect love, and when the Holy Ghost comes in and makes us perfect in heart; while he greatly aids our heads and corrects our erroneous thought and false teaching, preserves us from mistakes in many matters, and while He enables us to see clearly things that seemed mystical and hard to be understood before, He does not give us perfect heads and he does not fix us up so that we do not make any mistakes. The devil is an accuser of the brethren and he does not want anything better than to get us to accusing ourselves when there is no occasion, or accusing others when there is no evidence against them. If sin is removed from our hearts it is impossible for it to get back without our consent. For as a flaming sword guarded the gate of Eden after sin was driven out, so after we are cleansed from inbred sin, the Holy Ghost keeps guard at the gate and sin can never reenter the human soul without the consent of the will. Some people seem to have an idea that they can get into sin unconsciously and unbeknown to themselves. Not at all. If you ever get into sin after you are saved, you get into it from your own choice, you go into it deliberately. There is no sin about ignorance. God means not only to give us perfect hearts but to guard and preserve and keep us true to Himself. A child a few weeks old shows signs of anger and strikes at its mother. This would be sin if it had knowledge, but where there is no knowledge, no law, there can be no sin. The Blood stands for all mistakes. The Blood atones for the child up to the years of accountability, until that time he is held free from guilt though he is filled with carnality. A mistake is not a sin and you will cripple your experience and weaken your influence by a confession of sin when it was only an unintentional mistake. Sin is a willful transgression of the law of God. If a man sins he knows it. If the Holy Ghost does not let me know that I have sinned I will never believe it, no difference who charges me with it. I cannot take what people say about it. He will notify me when there is anything wrong. It is the will that is the king of the man. Where goes the will there goes the whole man. God says if any man willeth to do His will he shall know of the doctrine. Then if I will to do His will He has engaged to keep me from guilt and from the consequences of sin. So I trust we will be careful about accusing ourselves or accusing others. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." There is no darkness, no real spiritual darkness unless there is willful transgression of God’s law. There may be circumstantial or providential darkness and there may be no outlook from a human standpoint, but there is always a hole in the top; you can look up when you can look nowhere else. John was mistaken in his judgment when he thought that God’s messenger was the angel of the Lord, and he was mistaken again in his practice when he got down and worshipped him. The messenger said, "No, don’t do that. I am one of the Lord’s servants. That is all." Then we must recognize the fact that our treasure is in earthen vessels, and I do not believe it is a bad idea to exercise care about being too positive that the Lord is speaking to us or that the Lord is leading us. We often hear, "The Lord said this to me," and "The Lord told me to do that,” or "I dreamed a dream and the Lord told me in the night." Now, the Lord is not the only one that speaks to folks. The Holy Ghost does guide us, to be sure, but He has a threefold guidance, not always by a voice; He guides by providence, by the written Word, and by spiritual intuition or impressions made on our minds which are sometimes almost as clear as an audible voice. But as we are commanded to try the spirits so we must try the voices, for Satan often speaks, he is a ventriloquist and can throw his voice so as to sound as if he was in the center of your being and attempt to make you think that it is the Lord talking. Let us lie low at the feet of Jesus and try every spirit and every voice by the written Word. Some claim to get the voice by opening the Bible at random and other ways almost like lottery. I would not say that the Lord does not sometimes use such means, but they are certainly not always reliable. In these and other ways some have fallen into grievous mistakes. It was all right for Gideon to put out the fleece and ask that it should be wet and the ground around it dry and I think I can see reasons for his putting it out the second time and asking that it should be dry and the ground wet, but we are now in altogether a different dispensation and the Lord does not speak so much to us though signs as He does through His Word, Providences, and the Spirit. That was not a bad clause in the old Quaker discipline under which I was brought up in regard to being careful about the assertion that our messages were of Divine authority, rather allowing the message itself to be the evidence. If a thing is Divine, it will prove itself. Sometimes I have seen people label their messages before they were born and when they appeared they did not fill the bill. The Holy Ghost has all our interests at heart, and He will give us time to find out His will. It is not necessary for us to be in a hurry and run after strange voices. The best and solidest convictions are formed in solitary retirement with His presence. As a rule when you feel somebody driving you and pushing you, it is the devil, and should be looked on with suspicion at least. The Lord is so good and kind that if you have any doubts about a matter He will give you time to weigh it, test it, hold it before Him until you get convictions born of Heaven, and feel settled in regard to it. Again, I want to say it is not a perfection of service. There is a vast difference between a perfect heart filled with perfect love, controlled by the Holy Ghost, and a perfect service. We will never do a perfect service in this life. There is a vast difference between a perfect service and serving the Lord with a perfect heart. I remember one time when I was pastor and my little boy was four or five years old, I sent him down the street for five distinct articles of merchandise. He was delighted to go shopping. In a little while he came back filled with childish glee, but was much mortified to find that he only had four bundles. His service was not perfect, but he had certainly rendered the service of a perfect heart, and it was just as satisfactory to me as if he had gotten the rest, so I kissed him and pressed him to my heart and praised him. The Lord has treated us that way so many times. We have started out with a perfect heart to do a perfect service and thought we would get it all done, but when we came in and laid down the bundles we found there was one missing; then the Lord has taken us up and caressed us and made us feel just as if we had done everything for the very best. What would He care about the amount of service anyhow, if it is done with a perfect heart? What did I care about the bundles that my little boy brought? I did not send him so much for the bundles as to give him the lesson. What I cared for was the perfect obedience of the child. What God cares is to see that your heart is perfect towards Him and that you are doing your best to do His will. It is just like Satan to come and talk to you about the fifth bundle and call your attention to your mistake and ask why you did not get the other bundle, but if you did your best the Lord says it is all right, and He may let us go shopping again some time, so remember there is a difference between the service of a perfect heart and a perfect service. Satan will accuse you and charge you with everything that is bungle some and awkward and when you have prayed in public your sentences were not completed and grammar incorrect, Satan whispers "What a fool you have made of yourself." No; you did not make a fool of yourself. You did not get all the bundles, but you did your best and you got enough to please the Lord. Sometimes when you have publicly testified, your heart was full and you broke down and wept and did not say all you intended or had thought to say. When you sit down the devil whispers, "What a fool you have made of yourself." No, you did not make a fool of yourself; you just forgot one of the bundles, and probably had all you could carry. The experience of a perfect heart is not exempt from temptation. There is a difference between temptation and sin. There is a difference between impatience and being tempted to be impatient. I only referred to impatience as a sample of the many temptations that come to us. You cannot be tempted to impatience without having feelings very similar to the feelings of impatience. The devil makes sanctified people feel as if they were very impatient sometimes when they are not. They should simply turn on him and tell him to take his goods and go. Tell him it did not originate in your heart for you do not grow that sort of fruit. Satan comes at sanctified people as an angel of light. All of this going down every few days, one day you have the victory and the next day the dumps, is not New Testament piety, it is not salvation. The baptism with the Holy Ghost is a definite work; it occurs but once in a lifetime; never will be repeated unless you backslide. When the Holy Ghost comes it is to abide. The fact that you do not feel He is there is none of your business; it is your business to know that He has come in and has sanctified you wholly, and that you are walking in the light. If you know this there is no reason why you should dictate to Him how He should conduct Himself or cause you to feel. There is not power enough in earth or in hell to overthrow you while you remain utterly yielded to God. There are people who would destroy you if they could, but they cannot. He opens and no man can shut. The sanctified are absolutely dead to flattery and to criticism. What I have said of temptation will apply all the way around. How can you be tempted unless there is something similar to the thing itself? Many a time people have temptations often severe and they do create suffering but it is that we may know the fellowship of His sufferings. Did not Jesus suffer awful temptation in the garden? Did He not sweat great drops of blood? Yet He never had guilt for a moment. Beloved, no difference if sorrows untold, anguish inexpressible, and temptations that seem like torture sweep over you, there is no guilt, there is no pollution as long as the Holy Ghost abides. While you walk in the light and obey God the power of the evil one is paralyzed. There is only one chance for him to regain entrance into your being, and that is through the consent of your will. Another result of this perfection is that it puts us where we will forget the things that are behind and press on towards the things that are before. He says to the Hebrews, "let us go on to perfection;" that is to be sanctified wholly. Here he says, "Forgetting those things which are behindhand reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ our Lord." Let us get away from our experiences, think of something in the future. What can be accomplished if you run back every day to where we started from. O for a race of men and women who will get beyond their own experiences and their own interests and commit it absolutely and forever to God. He will care for the deposit, He will keep it forever. Every time you take a spell of the dumps and go down you weaken your faith and injure your influence as a Christian. What would you think of an army of soldiers, just ready to face the foe, if two thirds of them would break ranks and go back for a canteen of water? What we want is to keep in line, stand shoulder to shoulder; be true to God and to each other. You can never gain anything by disturbing your experience, by examination or investigation. In your covenant you agreed to commit it to God forever. If my watch should be out of order I should take it to the watchmaker. He made it and he can fix it. When I got it he gave me a written guarantee that he would keep it in repair. He has the number of the watch and keeps the dates. Brother, God has the number of your soul; He has your name graven in His hand; He has given a written guarantee to keep the running gear of your soul in good order. Why not leave it with Him? I see a whole lot of people, spiritually speaking, setting their watches, tinkering with the hands. I have known people to carry a watch they had to set everyday; always at work with the hands. The difficulty was in the inside; get the inside works right and the clock will strike twelve at noon. God wants us to live so that sinners will look at us any time and see the time of day. They could tell it on your face, and they will want to set their watches by you. This is what Paul said, "Set your watch by me; I have the right time; follow me as I follow Christ." He did not say, "I am afraid there is a cog out of one of my wheels," or that "there is something wrong and if you set your time by me you will go astray." He said, "Here is the time of day; set your watch." Glory be to God! "I wish all your watches were just like mine, except this chain!" "I wish you had everything I have," said Paul, "except this watch chain." With a perfect heart we must allow a good broad margin for each other and for the Holy Ghost, and we must not get critical either with ourselves or with others, but we must smile and sing and shout and go on and forget the past. Sometimes I have said to someone, "Are you sanctified?" "Well, brother Rees, I have got the victory today," and the very way they said it indicated that they expected to lose it tomorrow. Brother, let the Holy Ghost abide; talk to Him as a person; court his favor; tell Him how glad you are of His presence; tell Him He is always welcome to the best chair in the house, and that he may always have the head of the table. Many imagine that He comes and goes like their feelings. Why, the Bible teaches us better than that. His purpose is to stay and if we let Him, no one can drive Him from us. I purpose to let Him abide forever; do you? Glory to His name! Hallelujah! ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-seth-rees/ ========================================================================