 The writer has pondered and prayed long before summoning the courage to give it, but many details later on in this record, can be better understood after knowing something of one, who for forty-nine years, was Jonathan Goforth's closest companion and the mother of his eleven children.
I was born near Kensington Gardens, London, England, on May 6th, 1864, coming to Montreal, Canada, with my parents three years later. From my earliest childhood, much time was spent beside the easel of my artist-father, who thought that I should be an artist. My education, apart from art, was received chiefly in private schools or from my own mother. In May, 1885, I graduated from the Toronto School of Art and began preparations to leave in the autumn for London to complete my art studies … Those of you who have read thus far may wonder how I could have been the one of God’s choice for such a man as Jonathan Goforth. The foregoing, however, is but half the picture. Here is the other side. When I was twelve years old, I heard Mr. Alfred Sandham speak at a revival meeting, on John 3:16. As he presented with great intensity and fervour, the picture of the love of God, I yielded myself absolutely to the Lord Jesus Christ and stood up among others, publicly confessing Him as my Master. On the way home from that meeting, I was told again and again how foolish it was for me to think I could possibly be sure Christ had received me. So early the next morning, I got my Bible, and turning the pages over and over, I prayed that I might get some word which would assure me Christ had really received me. At last I came to John 6:37, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” These words settled that difficulty … Then another difficulty arose. I was told I was too young to be received, and again I went to my Bible and turned the pages to see if there was any message to meet that problem, and I came, after searching a long time, to these words, “Those that seek me early shall find me” (Prov. 8:17). On these two texts I took my stand and have never doubted since then that I was the Lord’s child. From that time, and increasingly as the years passed, there seemed to be two elements contesting within me, one for art, the other – an intense longing to serve the Master to whom I had given myself. In the early part of 1885, when still in my twentieth year, I began to pray that if the Lord wanted me to marry, He would lead to me one wholly given up to Him and to His service. I wanted no other. One Sunday in June, of that year, a stranger took the place of our Bible-class teacher. This stranger, Mr. Henry O’Brien, came to me about the hymns, as I was the organist. Three days later, two large parties were crossing the lake on the same boat, one, an artists’ picnic, bound for the Niagara Falls, the other, bound for the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bible Conference. I was with the former group, but my heart was with the others who were evidently having a wonderful time of spiritual conference. That evening, both groups returning on the same boat, I was sitting in the artist circle beside my brother when Mr. Henry O’Brien touched me, saying, “Why, you are my organist of Sunday last! You are the very one I want to join us in the Mission next Saturday. We are to have a Workers’ meeting and tea, and I would like you to meet them all.” I was on the point of saying this was impossible when my brother whispered, “You have no time. You are going to England.” Partly to show him I could do as I pleased, I said to Mr. O’Brien, “Very well; expect me on Saturday.” As Mr. O’Brien turned to leave, he called one who looked to me to be a very shabby fellow, whom he introduced as “Jonathan Goforth, our City Missionary.” I forgot the shabbiness of his clothes however, for the wonderful challenge in his eyes! The following Saturday found me in the large, square workers’ room of the Toronto Mission Union. Chairs were set all around the walls, but the centre was empty. Just as the meeting was about to begin, Jonathan Goforth was called out of the room. He had been sitting across the corner from me with several people between. As he rose, he placed his Bible on the chair. Then something happened which I could never explain, nor try to excuse. Suddenly, I felt literally impelled to step across four or five people, take up the Bible and return to my seat. Rapidly I turned the leaves and found the Book worn almost to shreds in parts and marked from cover to cover. Closing the Book, I quickly returned it to the chair, and returning to my seat, I tried to look very innocent. It had all happened within a few moments, but as I sat there, I said to myself, “That is the man I would like to marry!" That very day, I was chosen as one of a committee to open a new mission in the east end of Toronto, Jonathan Goforth being also on the same committee. In the weeks that followed, I had many opportunities to glimpse the greatness of the man which even a shabby exterior could not hide. So when, in that autumn he asked, “Will you join your life with mine for China?” my answer was, “Yes,” without a moment’s hesitation. But a few days later he said, “Will you give me your promise that always you will allow me to put my Lord and His work first, even before you?” I gave an inward gasp before replying, “Yes, I will, always,” for was not this the very kind of man I had prayed for? A few days after my promise was given, the first test in keeping it came. I had been indulging in dreams of the beautiful engagement ring that was soon to be mine. Then Jonathan came to me and said, “You will not mind, will you, if I do not get an engagement ring?” He went on to tell with great enthusiasm of his distribution of books and pamphlets on China from his room in Knox College. Every cent was needed for this important work. As I listened and watched his glowing face, the visions I had indulged in of the beautiful engagement ring vanished. This was my first lesson in real values. By the end of the next two years, which were given to the work in the East End slums, art had practically dropped out of my life, and in its place had come a deep desire to be a worthy life-partner of one so wholly yielded to his Divine Master, as I knew Jonathan Goforth to be. From Goforth of China by Mrs. Rosalind Goforth. |
In October 1887, my husband, Jonathan Goforth, was appointed by the Canadian Presbyterian Church to open a new field in the northern section of the province of Honan, China. We left Canada the following January, reaching China in March 1888. Not until then did we realize the tremendous difficulties of the task before us.
Dr. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, writing to us at this time said, “We understand North Honan is to be your field; we, as a mission, have tried for ten years to enter that province from the south, and have only just succeeded. It is one of the most anti-foreign provinces in China…Brother, if you would enter that province, you must go forward on your knees.”
A few months after our arrival in China an old, experienced missionary kindly volunteered to conduct Mr. Goforth and his colleague, who had just arrived, through North Honan, that they might see the field for themselves.
Traveling southward by cart, they crossed the border into Honan early one morning. As my husband walked beside the carts that morning, he felt led to pray that the Lord would give that section of Honan to him as his field. The assurance came that his prayer was granted. Opening his daily textbook, he found the passage for that morning was from Isaiah 55:8-13. Like a precious promise of future blessing for that field came the words:
“As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void."
For six years, however, our faith was sorely tested. Of all places, Changte seemed most determined to keep out the missionary. And there were other difficulties in the way. A presbytery had been formed as others joined us, and all matters had to be decided by that body. Two stations that had been opened, where a foothold could first be gained, required all, and more than all, the force we then had.
So for six years the door to Changte remained fast closed. But during all those years, my husband never once lost sight of God’s promise to him nor failed to believe it.
Again and again, when Mr. Goforth and his colleague visited the city, they were mobbed and threatened, the people showing the utmost hostility. But the day came, at last, when the long-prayed-for permission from the presbytery to open Changte was granted. The very next morning found Mr. Goforth enroute for Changte to secure property for a mission site.
Often has he told how, all the way over that day to Changte, he prayed the Lord to open the hearts of the people, and make them willing to give him the property most suitable for the work. Within three days of his reaching Changte he had thirty-five offers of property, and was able to secure the very piece of land he had earlier chosen as most ideal for the mission. Thus the Lord did break in pieces the gates of brass which had kept us so long from our promised land.
A year later I joined my husband there, with our three little children. It was arranged that our colleague should take care of the outside evangelism, while we opened work at the main station.
To understand what it meant for us to have our need supplied, there should be some knowledge of what that need was. We decided from the first that no one should be turned from our doors. Mr. Goforth received the men in the front guest room, while the women and children came to our private quarters. During those first weeks and months hundreds and thousands crowded to see us. Day by day we were literally besieged. Even at mealtime our windows were banked with faces.
The questions ever before us those days were, how to make the most of this wonderful opportunity, which would never come again after the period of curiosity was past; how to win the friendship of this people who showed in a hundred ways their hatred and distrust of us; how to reach their hearts with our wonderful message of a Savior’s love.
All that was in our power was to do, day by day, what we could with the strength that was given us. From early morning till dark, sometimes nine or ten hours a day, the strain of receiving and preaching to these crowds was kept up. My husband had numbers of workmen to oversee, material for building to purchase and to see to all the hundred and one things so necessary in building up a new station.
Besides all this he had to receive and preach to the crowds that came. He had no evangelist, Mr. Wang being then lent to another missionary. I had my three little children and no nurse or Bible woman. When too exhausted to speak longer to the courtyard of women, I would send for my husband, who though tired out would speak in my stead. Then we would rest ourselves and entertain the crowd by singing a hymn. So the days passed. But we soon realized that help must come, or we would both break down.
One day Mr. Goforth came to me with his Bible open at the promise, “My God shall supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19), and asked, “Do we believe this? If we do, then God can and will supply us with someone to help preach to these crowds, if we ask in faith.”
He prayed very definitely for a man to preach. With my doubt-blinded heart, I thought it was as if he were asking for rain from a clear sky. Yet, even while he prayed, God was moving one to come to us. A day or two later there appeared at the mission the converted opium fiend, Wang Fu-Lin.
For many years Wang Fu-Lin’s business had been that of a public storyteller; but when Mr. Goforth came across him, he was reduced to an utter wreck through opium smoking. He accepted the Gospel, but for a long time seemed too weak to break off the opium habit. Again and again he tried to do so, but failed hopelessly each time.
The poor fellow seemed almost past hope, when one day my husband brought him to the mission in his cart. The ten days that followed can never be forgotten by those who watched Wang Fu-Lin struggle for physical and spiritual life. I believe nothing but prayer could have brought him through. At the end of the ten days, the power of opium was broken, and Wang-Fu-Lin came out of the struggle a new man in Jesus Christ.
Now Wang Fu-Lin appeared at the mission. No one could have looked less like the answer to our prayer than he did. Fearfully emaciated from long years of excessive opium smoking, racked with a cough which three years later ended his life, dressed in such filthy rags as only a beggar would wear, he presented a pitiable sight. Yet the Lord seeth not as man seeth.
After we consulted together, Mr. Goforth decided to try him for a few days, believing that he could at least testify to the power of God to save a man from his opium. Soon he was reclothed in some of my husband’s Chinese garments; and within an hour or two of his entering the mission gate, practically a beggar, he was seated in charge of the men’s chapel, so changed one could scarcely have recognized him.
From the first day of his ministry at Changte there was no doubt in the minds of any who heard him that he had indeed been sent to us by our gracious God, for he had in a remarkable degree the unction and power of the Holy Ghost. His gifts as a speaker were all consecrated to one object–the winning of souls to Jesus Christ. He seemed conscious that his days were few and always spoke as a dying man to dying men. Little wonder is it, therefore, that from the very beginning of his ministry in our chapel men were won to Christ. God spared him to us for the foundation laying of the church at Changte, then called him higher.
Mr. Goforth’s need was relieved by the coming of Wang Fu-Lin, but not mine. The remarkable way God had sent him, however, gave me courage and faith to trust God to give me a Bible woman. Those who know anything of mission work in China will agree with me that it is far more difficult to find women than men who are able to preach the Gospel, or if able, who are free for the work.
But I was beginning to learn that God is limited only from the human side and that He is always willing to give beyond our asking, if the human conditions He has so plainly laid down in His Word are fulfilled.
A short time after I had begun to ask my heavenly Father definitely for a Bible woman, one of the missionaries came in from a tour; and his first words were, “Well, Mrs. Goforth, I believe we have a ready-made Bible woman for you!”
Then he told me how he had come across a widow and her son in a mountain village. They had heard the Gospel from a recent convert out of one of the other stations. This man had been a member of the same religious sect as the widow and her son. When he found Christ he at once thought of his friends and went over the mountain to tell them. Mrs. Chang received the Gospel gladly. She had been a preacher in that heathen sect and had gained the fluency in speaking and power in holding audiences so necessary in the preaching of the Gospel.
The way was soon opened for her to come to me and she became my constant companion and valuable assistant in the women’s work during those early years. She witnessed a good confession in 1900 –being strung up by her thumbs when refusing to deny her Lord. Faithfully she served the Lord as a Bible woman, until the time of her death in 1903.
Just before reaching our station he begged me to reconsider my decision. When I gave a final refusal, his only answer was: ‘I fear for the children.’
(Shortly after one child became ill and was sick for several weeks, before finally recovering. Later a daughter also became ill to the point of death.)
A few hours later, when we were kneeling around her bedside waiting for the end, my eyes seemed suddenly opened to what I had been doing—I had dared to fight against Almighty God. In the moments that followed God revealed Himself to me in such love and majesty and glory that I gave myself up to Him with unspeakable joy. Then I knew that I had been making an awful mistake, and that I could indeed safely trust my children to Him wherever He might lead. One thing only seemed plain, that I must follow where God should lead. I saw at last that God must come first….
Was God faithful to the vision He had given me? Or did He allow the children to suffer in the years that followed, when months each year were spent with them right out among the people? As I write this, eighteen years have passed since we started on that first trip, and none of our children have died. Never had we as little sickness as during that life. Never had we so much evidence of God’s favor and blessing in a hundred ways—as may be gathered from the definite testimonies which follow. Without one exception, every place in which we stayed for a month, and opened as my husband had planned, became in time a growing church.” Goforth, Rosalind, “How I Know God Answers Prayer,” Page 72, 73
“Friends, when I listen to such words as we have just been hearing I have to remind myself of the woodpecker story: A certain woodpecker flew up to the top of a high pine tree and gave three hard pecks on the side of the tree as woodpeckers are wont to do. At that instant a bolt of lightening struck the tree leaving it on the ground, a heap of splinters. The woodpecker had flown to a tree near by where it clung in terror and amazement at what had taken place. There it hung expecting more to follow, but as all remained quiet it began to chuckle to itself saying, ‘Well, well, well! who would have imagined that just three pecks of my beak could have such power as that!’”
When the laughter this story caused ceased the speaker went on, “Yes, friends, I too laughed when I first heard this story. But remember, if you or I take glory to ourselves which belongs only to Almighty God, we are not only as foolish as this woodpecker, but we commit a very grievous sin for the LORD hath said, ‘My glory will I not give to another.’"
Many times Jonathan Goforth on returning from a meeting would greet his wife with, “Well, I’ve had to remind myself of the woodpecker tonight,” or, “I’ve needed half a dozen woodpeckers to keep me in place.” Early in life he chose as his motto, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zech. 4:6).
Excerpted from Chapter 1: “Early Leadings” of Goforth of China by Mrs. Jonathan Goforth (© 1937 by Zondervan Publishing House).
Causes of Failure in Prayer
From that time there grew up in my heart a deep yearning to know Christ in a more real way, for he seemed so unreal, so far away and visionary. One night when still quite young I remember going out under the trees in my parents’ garden and, looking up into the starlit heavens, I longed with intense longing to feel Christ near me. As I knelt down there on the grass, alone with God, Job’s cry became mine, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him!” Could I have borne it had I known then that almost forty years would pass before that yearning would be satisfied?
With the longing to know Christ, literally to “find” him, came a passionate desire to serve him. But, oh, what a terrible nature I had! Passionate, proud, self-willed, indeed just full was I of those things that I knew were unlike Christ.With the longing to know Christ, literally to “find” him, came a passionate desire to serve him. But, oh, what a terrible nature I had! Passionate, proud, self-willed, indeed just full was I of those things that I knew were unlike Christ.
The following years of half-hearted conflict with sinful self must be passed over till about the fifth year of our missionary work in China. I grieve to say that the new life in a foreign land with its trying climate, provoking servants, and altogether irritating conditions, seemed to have developed rather than subdued my natural disposition.
One day (I can never forget it), as I sat inside the house by a paper window at dusk, two Chinese Christian women sat down on the other side. They began talking about me, and (wrongly, no doubt) I listened. One said, “Yes, she is a hard worker, a zealous preacher, and—yes, she nearly loves us; but, oh, what a temper she has! If she would only live more as she preaches!”
I saw then how useless, how worse than useless, was it for me to come to China to preach Christ and not live Christ. But how could I live Christ?Then followed a full and true delineation of my life and character. So true, indeed, was it, as to crush out all sense of annoyance and leave me humbled to the dust. I saw then how useless, how worse than useless, was it for me to come to China to preach Christ and not live Christ. But how could I live Christ? I knew some (including my dear husband) who had a peace and a power,—yes, and a something I could not define, that I had not; and often I longed to know the secret.
Was it possible, with such a nature as mine, ever to become patient and gentle?
Was it possible that I could ever really stop worrying?
Could I, in a word, ever hope to be able to live Christ as well as preach him?
I knew I loved Christ; and again and again I had proved my willingness to give up all for his sake. But I knew, too, that one hot flash of temper with the Chinese, or with the children before the Chinese, would largely undo weeks, perhaps months, of self-sacrificing service.
The years that followed led often through the furnace. The Lord knew that nothing but fire could destroy the dross and subdue my stubborn will. Those years may be summed up in one line: “Fighting (not finding), following, keeping, struggling.” Yes, and failing! Sometimes in the depths of despair over these failures; then going on determined to do my best,—and what a poor best it was!
In the year 1905, and later, as I witnessed the wonderful way the Lord was leading my husband, and saw the Holy Spirit’s power in his life and message, I came to seek very definitely for the fulness of the Holy Spirit. It was a time of deep heart-searching.In the year 1905, and later, as I witnessed the wonderful way the Lord was leading my husband, and saw the Holy Spirit’s power in his life and message, I came to seek very definitely for the fulness of the Holy Spirit. It was a time of deep heart-searching. The heinousness of sin was revealed as never before. Many, many things had to be set right toward man and God. I learned then what “paying the price” meant. Those were times of wonderful mountain-top experiences, and I came to honor the Holy Spirit and seek his power for the overcoming of sin in a new way. But Christ still remained, as before, distant, afar off, and I longed increasingly to know—to find him. Although I had much more power over besetting sins, yet there were times of great darkness and defeat.
It was during one of these latter times that we were forced to return to Canada, in June of 1916. My husband’s health prevented him from public speaking, and it seemed that this duty for us both was to fall on me. But I dreaded facing the Home Church without some spiritual uplift,—a fresh vision for myself. The Lord saw this heart-hunger, and in his own glorious way he fulfilled literally the promise, “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psa. 107:9, A. V.).
A spiritual conference was to be held the latter part of June at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and to this I was led. One day I went to the meeting rather against my inclination, for it was so lovely under the trees by the beautiful lake. The speaker was a stranger to me, but from almost the first his message gripped me. Victory over Sin! Why, this was what I had fought for, had hungered for, all my life! Was it possible?
The speaker went on to describe very simply an ordinary Christian life experience—sometimes on the mountain-top, with visions of God; then again would come the sagging, and dimming of vision, coldness, discouragement, and perhaps definite disobedience and a time of down-grade experience. Then perhaps a sorrow, or even some special mercy, would bring the wanderer back to his Lord.
The speaker asked for all those who felt this to be a picture of their experience to raise the hand. I was sitting in the front seat, and shame only kept me from raising my hand at once. But I did so want to get all God had for me, and I determined to be true; and after a struggle I raised my hand. Wondering if others were like myself, I ventured to glance back and saw many hands were raised, though the audience was composed almost entirely of Christian workers, ministers, and missionaries.
The leader then went on to say that life which he had described was not the life God planned or wished for His children. He described the higher life of peace, rest in the Lord, of power and freedom from struggle, worry, care. As I listened I could scarcely believe it could be true, yet my whole soul was moved so that it was with the greatest difficulty I could control my emotion. I saw then, though dimly, that I was nearing the goal for which I had been aiming all my life.
Early the next morning, soon after daybreak, I went over on my knees carefully and prayerfully all the passages on the Victorious Life that were given in a little yellow leaflet that the speaker had distributed. What a comfort and strength it was to see how clear God’s Word was that victory, not defeat, was his will for his children, and to see what wonderful provision he had made! Later, during the days that followed, clearer light came. I did what I was asked to do—I quietly but definitely accepted Christ as my Saviour from the power of sin as I had so long before accepted him as my Saviour from the penalty of sin. And on this I rested.
I left Niagara, realizing, however, there was still something I had not got. I felt much as the blind man must have felt when he said, “I see men as trees, walking” (A. V.). I had begun to see light, but dimly.
I saw at last the secret of victory—it was simply Jesus Christ himself—his own life lived out in the believer. But the thought of victory was for the moment lost sight of in the inexpressible joy of realizing CHRIST’S INDWELLING PRESENCE!The day after reaching home I picked up a little booklet, “The Life That Wins,” which I had not read before, and going to my son’s bedside I told him it was the personal testimony of one whom God had used to bring great blessing into my life. I then read it aloud till I came to the words, “At last I realized that Jesus Christ was actually and literally within me.” I stopped amazed. The sun seemed suddenly to come from under a cloud and ?ood my whole soul with light. How blind I’d been! I saw at last the secret of victory—it was simply Jesus Christ himself—his own life lived out in the believer. But the thought of victory was for the moment lost sight of in the inexpressible joy of realizing CHRIST’S INDWELLING PRESENCE! Like a tired, worn-out wanderer finding home at last I just rested in him. Rested in his love—in himself. And, oh, the peace and joy that came flooding my life! A restfulness and quietness of spirit I never thought could be mine took possession of me so naturally. Literally a new life began for me, or rather in me. It was just “the Life that is Christ.” [This document is available at this link.]
The first step I took in this new life was to get standing on God’s own Word, and not merely on man’s teaching or even on a personal experience. And as I studied especially the truth of Christ’s indwelling, victory over sin, and God’s bountiful provision, the Word was fairly illumined with new light.
The years that have passed have been years of blessed fellowship with Christ and of joy in his service. A friend asked me not long ago if I could give in a sentence the after result in my life of what I said had come to me in 1916, and I replied, “Yes, it can be all summed up in one word, ‘Resting.’”
I have learned that there is instantaneous forgiveness and restoration to be had always. That there need be no times of despair.Some have asked, “But have you never sinned?” Yes, I grieve to say I have. Sin is the one thing I abhor—for it is the one thing that can, if unrepented of, separate us, not from Christ, but from the consciousness of his presence. But I have learned that there is instantaneous forgiveness and restoration to be had always. That there need be no times of despair.
One of the blessed results of this life is not only the consciousness of Christ’s presence, but the reality of his presence as manifested in definite results when, in the daily details of life, matters are left with him and he has undertaken.
My own thought of him is beautifully expressed in Spurgeon’s words:
“What the hand is to the lute,
What the breath is to the ?ute,
What’s the mother to the child,
What the guide in pathless wild,
What is oil to troubled wave,
What is ransom to a slave,
What is flower to the bee,
That is Jesus Christ to me.”
A Bible Study
=God’s Presence=
It is a mystery.
The secret of Victory is simply Christ himself in the heart of the believer. This truth, of Christ’s indwelling, is, and always has been, a mystery.
Romans 16:25.
Ephesians 3:9 with Colossians 1:26, 27.
Ephesians 5:30, 32 (R. V.).
Colossians 4:3.
Christ himself taught this truth.
John 14:20, 23; 15:1-7; 17:21-23.
Matthew 28:20.
Revelation 3:20. (See also Mark 16:20).
It was a vital reality to the Apostle Paul.
Romans 8:10.
1 Corinthians 6:15.
1 Corinthians 12:27 (R. V.).
2 Corinthians 5:17.
2 Corinthians 13:5.
Galatians 2:20.
Galatians 3:27.
Galatians 4:19.
Ephesians 3:17.
Philippians 1:21
1 Thessalonians 5:10.
Hebrews 3:6.
The words “in Christ,” which recur in many other passages, will have a new literalness when read in the light of the above.
The Apostle John had a like conception of Christ’s indwelling presence.
1 John 2:28 to 3:6, 24.
1 John 4:4, 12, 13, 16.
1 John 5:20.
=God’s Purpose=
As Victory is the result of Christ’s Life lived out in the believer, it is important that we see clearly that Victory, and not defeat, is God’s Purpose for his Children. The Scriptures are very decided upon this truth.
Luke 1:74, 75.
Romans 5:2.
Romans, chaps. 6 and 8.
1 Corinthians 15:57.
2 Corinthians 2:14.
2 Corinthians 10:5.
Ephesians 1:3, 4.
Colossians 4:12.
1 Thessalonians 5:23.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 (R.V.).
2 Timothy 2:19.
Titus 2:12.
Hebrews 7:25.
1 Peter 1:15.
2 Peter 3:14.
1 John 2:1.
1 John 3:6, 9.
And many other passages.
That Christ came as the Saviour from the power as well as the penalty of sin we see in Matthew 1:21, with John 8:34, 36, and Titus 2:14.
=God’s Provision=
God knew the frailty of man, that his heart was “desperately wicked,” that even his righteousness was “as filthy rags,” that man’s only hope for victory over sin must come from the God-ward side. He, therefore, made kingly provision so rich, so sufficient, so exceeding abundant, that as we study it, we feel we have tapped a mine of wealth, too deep to fathom. Just a few suggestions of its riches:
God’s greatest provision is the gift of a part of His Own Being in the person of the Holy Spirit. The following are but some of the many things the Holy Spirit does for us, as recorded in the Word:
He begets us into the family of God.—John 3:6. He seals or marks us as God’s.—Eph. 1:13. He dwells in us.—1 Cor. 3:16.
He unites us to Christ.—1 Cor. 12:13, 27. He changes us into the likeness of Christ.—2 Cor. 3:18. He helps in prayer.—Rom. 8:26.
He comforts.—John 14:16.
He guides.—Rom. 8:14.
He strengthens with power.—Eph. 3:16.
He is the source of power and fruitfulness.—John 7:38, 39.
The Results
Some of the victorious results in our life, as Christ has His way in us, are shown in:
Romans 8:32, 27.
Romans 15:13.
2 Corinthians 9:8, 11.
2 Corinthians 2:14.
Ephesians 1:19.
Ephesians 3:16, 20.
Philippians 4:7, 13, 19.
Colossians 1:11.
1 Peter 1:5.
2 Timothy 3:17.
Jude 24.
John 15:7.
Further Study
To the seeker for further Scripture help the writer would suggest a plan that has proved a great blessing to herself.
Read the Psalms through, making careful record of all the statements of what the Lord was to the writers of the Psalms. The list will surprise you. Then on your knees go over them one by one, with the prayer that Christ may be to you what he was to David and the others.
Tips for More Study
Take a Cruden’s, or better still a Young’s, concordance and look up the texts under such headings as Love, Fulness, Power, Riches, Grace, etc., grouping them into usable Bible studies. As a sample, taking this last word, “grace”; the more one studies it the more wonderful does it become. Here are some of these headings:
Grace for grace.—John 1:16.
Suf?cient grace.—2 Cor. 12:9.
More Grace.—James 4:6.
All Grace.—2 Cor. 9:8.
Abundant grace.—Rom. 5:17.
Exceeding abundant grace.—1 Tim. 1:14.
Exceeding riches of His grace.—Eph. 2:17.
But let us remember that to simply know of riches will never materially bene?t us. We must make them our own. All fulness dwells in Christ. It is only as we “apprehend” (which means take hold or take in) Christ through the Holy Spirit can it be possible for these spiritual riches to become ours. The slogan of this glorious life in Christ is just “Let go and let God.”