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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6669.txt b/6669.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28c844d --- /dev/null +++ b/6669.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4825 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Godliness, by Catherine Booth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Godliness + +Author: Catherine Booth + +Posting Date: October 2, 2014 [EBook #6669] +Release Date: October, 2004 +First Posted: January 12, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GODLINESS *** + + + + +Produced by Avinash Kothare, Juliet Sutherland, Charles +Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + + +GODLINESS. + +BEING + +REPORTS OF A SERIES OF ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT +JAMES'S HALL, LONDON, W., During 1881, + +BY + +MRS. CATHERINE BOOTH. + +_INTRODUCTION BY DANIEL STEELE, D.D._ + + + + +PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. + + +In giving this volume to our American readers, we are assured that +we are doing a special favor to all the lovers of "Christianity in +earnest." "Aggressive Christianity," from the same talented author, +has met with unusual favor, and has been the means of much good. We +are confident that the present volume is in all respects equal to the +former, and that no one can read it without great spiritual profit. + +The Introduction, by Dr. Daniel Steele, is a forcible presentation +of the main doctrines of the book, and is creditable to the head and +heart of the writer, and a commendation which all intelligent readers +will highly esteem. + +Our object in publishing these sermons, is, that their perusal may +kindle a flame of revival in the hearts of believers, which may +result in many turning unto the Lord. + +MCDONALD & GILL + +BOSTON, MASS. + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + + +In presenting another volume of reports of my Addresses, I have only +to repeat what I have said with respect to similar books before-- +Read, for the sake of getting more light and more blessing to your +soul, and you will, I trust, partake of the good which many have +professed to receive at the West-End services, wherein most of these +words were first spoken. + +I am well aware that, in such imperfect reports of, for the most +part, extemporaneous utterances, often most hurriedly corrected, +there may be found abundant ground for criticism; but, if this book +may be the means of leading only a few souls to devote themselves +more fully to God and to the salvation of men, I shall be more than +compensated for any unfriendly criticism with which it may meet. + +I have not sought to please any but the Lord, and to His fatherly +loving-kindness I commend both the book and its readers. + +CATHERINE BOOTH. + +_London, Nov._ 10, 1881. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The sermons of Mrs. Booth already re-published under the title of +"_Aggressive Christianity_," came to American Christians as a tonic to +their weakness, and a stimulant to their inertness. + +The sermons in the present volume are a much-needed prophylactic, a +safeguard against several practical errors in dealing with souls; +errors which lead them into Egyptian darkness, instead of the +marvelous light. + +The sermon on _Repentance_ is a most faithful showing up of spurious +repentance, the vain substitute for a downright abandonment of every +form of sin, and right-about facing towards the Lord. In directness and +point, it is a model for earnest revival preaching,--rather, for all +preaching to unsaved souls, outside the church, or within it. All of +these will be found in some subterfuge, which must be ruthlessly torn +down, before it will be abandoned for the cleft Rock. + +The sermon on _Saving Faith_ is next in order. The disastrous +consequences of what, for the want of a better description, maybe +styled an Antinomian faith, an unrepentant assent of the intellect to +the historic facts of the Gospel, which too many evangelists and +other religious teachers are calling saving faith, are clearly set +forth and plainly labeled, POISON. This spurious trust in Christ +following a superficial repentance, which has never felt the +desperate sinfulness and real misery of sin, has furnished our +churches with a numerous class of members, aptly described by the +prophet Micah: "The sin of Israel is great and unrepented of, yet +they will lean on the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us?" We +are convinced that much of the work of the faithful and pungent +preacher, who preaches with his eye fixed on the great white throne +and the descending Judge, is to dislodge professors from their +imaginary trust in a Saviour who does not save them, and probe deeply +their hearts festering with sin, which have been hastily pronounced +healed, "slightly healed." Many of us have incautiously said to +awakened souls, "Only believe," before we have thrust the heart +through and through with the sword of God's law. We have dismissed +God's schoolmaster. The law, like the slave charged with the task of +leading the boy to school, and of committing him to the teacher, we +have thought to be too harsh and severe for our sentimental age, and +have unwisely discharged, and have assumed its office of a +_paidagogos_ to Christ, and we have missed the way, and misled a +priceless soul. God have mercy on us, and give us humility, as He +gave Apollos, to be set right by an anointed woman! + +After her timely correction of erroneous teachings on faith, Mrs. +Booth proceeds, pruning-knife in hand, to cut away from the tree of +modern Christianity the poisonous fungus of a "spurious charity." Her +four sermons on _Charity_ are four beacons set on the rocks of +counterfeit Christian love. She sets forth several infallible tests +by which genuine love may be distinguished from the devil's base +imitation. Like the Epistles of St. John, these sermons are full of +touchstones for testing love, that golden principle of the Christian +life. It would be very profitable for all professors of that perfect +love which casteth out all tormenting fear, to apply unflinchingly +these touch-stones to themselves. They may find the word "perfection" +taking on a meaning deeper, broader and higher than they had ever +before conceived. Why should not our conception of Christian +perfection steadily grow with the increase of our knowledge of God +and of His holy law? + +The sermon on _The Conditions of Effectual Prayer_, we commend +to all Christians and to all seekers of Christ, who are mourning +because their prayers do not prevail with God. In the clear light of +this sermon they will find that the difficulty lies, either in the +lack of fellowship with Jesus Christ, or of obedience to His +commands, or in the absence from their hearts of the interceding +Spirit, or in defective faith. In the discussion of these hindrances +to prayer, the preacher lays open the heart, and with a skilful +spiritual surgery, searches it to the very bottom. The incisiveness +of her style, her courage and plain dealing with her hearers, tearing +off the masks of sin and selfishness, the various guises in which +these masquerade in many Christian hearts and obstruct their access +to a throne of grace, remind us of Dr. Finney's unsparing exposure +and condemnation of these foes to Christian holiness, and of John +Wesley's cutting up by the roots "Sin in Believers." + +In this sermon Mrs. Booth turns her attention to another phase of +faith and of practical error in the guidance of souls to Christ. Her +views on this vexed question are not extreme but philosophical and +scriptural. She teaches that God has made the bestowment of salvation +simultaneous with the exercise of faith, and that "telling a person +to believe he is saved, before he is saved, is telling him to believe +a lie." But she insists that the act of faith is put forth with the +special aid of the Holy Spirit giving an assurance that the blessing +sought will be granted. This assurance, or earnest, given by the +Spirit, becomes the basis on which the final act of faith rests, +namely, "I believe that I receive." This corresponds with William +Taylor's Divine "ascertainment of the fact of the sinner's surrender +to God, and his acceptance of Christ," before justification. +[Footnote: Election of Grace, pp. 38-42.] Both teachers agree with +Wesley's analysis of faith which teaches that the fourth and last +step, "He doth it," can be taken only by the special enabling power +of the Holy Spirit, [Footnote: Sermons. Patience, Section 13; Scripture +Way of Salvation, Section 17; and Whedon on Mark xi. 24.] All three +locate the Divine efficiency before the declaration, "I believe that I +receive," or "have received" (R. V.), making that declaration rest upon +the perception of a Divine change within the consciousness. They all +insist that saving faith is not a mere humanly moral exercise, but +that power to believe with the heart descends from God, and that it +must be waited for in prayer, and that it becomes in the believer a +series of supernatural and spiritual acts, a habit of soul, at once +the seed and fruit of the Divine life-stirring, uniting in itself the +characters of penitent humility, self-renunciation, simple trust, and +absolute obedience grounded in love. These teachers magnify the +Divine element in faith. We look in vain in their writings for any +such direction to a penitent as this, "Believe that you are saved, +because, God says so in His Word," but rather believe that you are +saved when you hear His Spirit crying, Abba, Father, in your heart. + +Many modern teachers fall into the error of treating saving faith as +an unaided intellectual act to be performed, at will, at any time. It +is rather a spiritual act possible only when prompted by the Holy +Spirit, who incites to faith only when He sees true repentance and a +hearty surrender to God. Then the Spirit reveals Christ and assists +to grasp Him. In the refutation of the high predestinarian doctrine +that faith is an irresistible grace sovereignly bestowed upon the +elect, there is great danger of falling into the opposite error, +called Pelagianism, which makes saving faith an exercise which the +natural man is competent to put forth without the help of the Holy +Spirit. The real guilt of unbelief lies in that voluntary +indifference toward Christ, and impenitence of heart, in which the +Holy Spirit cannot inspire saving faith. + +In our introduction to "_Aggressive Christianity_," we advertised, in +behalf of the American churches, a universal want--Enthusiasm. In her +brief Exeter-Hall address, Mrs. Booth discloses the source of the +supply. Holiness is the well-spring of enthusiasm. Hence it is not a +spring freshet, but an overflowing river of power in all its possessors, +and, notably in the Salvation Army, bearing the unchurched masses of +England on its bosom. A holy enthusiasm is contagious and conquering. We +cannot touch the people with the icicle of logic; but they will not fail +to bow to the scepter of glowing and joyful love. Few men can reason; +all can feel. Enthusiasm and full salvation, like the Siamese twins, +cannot be separated and live. The error of the modern pulpit is that of +the blacksmith hammering cold steel--a faint impression and huge labor. +The baptism of fire softening our assemblies would lighten the +preacher's toil and multiply its productiveness. + +The four addresses on _Holiness_ are hortatory rather than +argumentative or exegetical. They are spiritual cyclones. It is +difficult to see how any Christian could withstand these impassioned +appeals to make what Joseph Cook calls "an affectionate, total, +irreversible, eternal, self-surrender to Jesus Christ, as both +Saviour and Lord," in order to attain that "perfect similarity of +feeling with God," wherein evangelical perfection consists. + +It gives me great pleasure to have some humble part in echoing +across the American continent these glowing utterances from the lips +of this modern Deborah, the Christian prophetess raised up by God for +the deliverance of His people from captivity to worldliness and +religious apathy. "Would God that all the Lord's people," men and +women, "were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon +them!" + + "Shall we the Spirit's course restrain, + Or quench the heavenly fire? + Let God His messengers ordain, + And whom He will inspire! + Blow as He list, the Spirit's choice + Of instruments we bless: + We will, if Christ be preached, rejoice, + And wish the word success." + +DANIEL STEELE. + +_Reading, Mass., Nov._ 23, 1883. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +REPENTANCE + +CHAPTER II. + +SAVING FAITH + +CHAPTER III. + +CHARITY + +CHAPTER IV. + +CHARITY AND REBUKE + +CHAPTER V. + +CHARITY AND CONFLICT + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHARITY AND LONELINESS + +CHAPTER VII. + +CONDITIONS OF EFFECTUAL PRAYER + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PERFECT HEART + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW TO WORK FOR GOD WITH SUCCESS + +CHAPTER X. + +ENTHUSIASM AND FULL SALVATION + +CHAPTER XI. + +HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS + +CHAPTER XII. + +ADDRESSES ON HOLINESS + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +REPENTANCE, + + + And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of Heaven is at band.--MATT. + iii. 2. + + From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the + Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.--MATT. iv. 17. + + "Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly + vision: but shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and + throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that + they should repent and torn to God, and do works meet for + repentance."--ACTS xxvi. 19,20. + +In the mouths of three witnesses--John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, +and the Apostle Paul--this word shall be established, namely, that +repentance is an _indispensable_ condition of entering the kingdom of +God. + +People generally are all at sea oh this subject, as though insisting +that repentance were an arbitrary arrangement on the part of God. I +believe God has made human salvation as easy as the Almighty, +Infinite mind could make it. But there is a necessity in the case, +that we should "repent and turn to God." It is just as necessary that +my feelings be changed and brought to repentance towards God, as it +is that the wicked, disobedient boy, should have his feelings brought +back into harmony with his father before he can be forgiven. +Precisely the same laws of mind are brought into action in both +cases, and there is the same necessity in both. + +If there is any father here who has a prodigal son, I ask, How is it +that you are not reconciled to your son? You love him--love him +intensely. Probably you are more conscious of your love for him than +for any other of your children. Your heart yearns over him every day; +you pray for him night and day; you dream of him by night; your +bowels yearn over your son, and you say, with David, "Absalom, +Absalom, my son, my son." Why are you not reconciled? Why not pat him +on the head, or stroke his face, and say, "My dear lad, I am well +pleased with you. I love you complacently; I give you my +approbation?" Why are you always reproving him? Why are you obliged +to hold him at arm's length? Why can you not live on amicable terms +with him? Why can you not have him come in and out, and live with you +on the same terms as the affectionate, obedient daughter? "Oh!" you +say, "the case is different; I cannot. It is not, 'I would not;' but, +'_I cannot_.' Before that can possibly be, the boy's feelings +must be changed towards me. He is at war with me; he has mistaken +notions of me; he thinks I am hard, and cruel, and exacting, and +severe. I have done all a father could do, but he sees things +differently, to what they are, and has harbored these hard feelings +against me until he hates me, and will go on in defiance of my will." +You say, "It is a necessity that, as a wise and righteous father, I +must insist on a change in him. I cannot receive him as a son, till +he comes to my feet. He must confess his sin, and ask me to forgive +him. Then, oh! how gladly will my fatherly affection gush out! How I +should run to meet him, and put my arms around his neck! but there is +a 'cannot' in the case." Just so. It is not that He does not love +you, sinner; it is not that the great, benevolent heart of God has +not, as it were, wept tears of blood over you; it is not that He +would not put His loving arms around you this moment, if you would +only come to His feet, and confess you were wrong, and seek His +pardon; but, otherwise, He may not--He _cannot_. The laws of His +universe are against Him doing so. The good, it may be, of millions +of immortal beings, is involved. He dare not, and He _cannot,_ until +there is a change of mind _in you._ You must repent. "Except ye repent, +ye shall all likewise perish." + +Well, if repentance be an indispensable condition of salvation, let +us glance at it for a moment, and try to find out what repentance +really is; and, oh! how full of confusion the world and the church +are upon this subject! I say it, because I know it by converse with +hundreds of people. May the Holy Spirit help us! + +Well, first, repentance is not merely conviction of sin. Oh! if it +only were, what a different world we should have to-night, for there +are tens of thousands on whose hearts God's Spirit has done His +office by convincing them of sin. I am afraid we should be perfectly +alarmed, astounded, confounded, if we had any conception of the +multitudes whom God has convinced of sin, as He did Agrippa and +Festus. Oh! I could not tell you the numbers of people, who, in our +anxious meetings, have grasped my hand, and said, "Oh! what would I +give to feel as I once felt! There was a time, fifteen, or seventeen, +or twenty years ago," and so on, "when I was so deeply convinced of +sin that I could scarcely sleep, or eat--that I could find no rest; +but, instead of going on till I found peace, I got diverted, cooled +down, and now, I feel as hard as a stone." I am afraid there are tens +of thousands in this condition--once convinced of sin. + +There are thousands of others, who are convinced _now_. They say, "Yes, +it is true what the minister says. I know I ought to lay down the +weapons of my warfare against God; I know I ought to cut off this right +hand, and pluck out this right eye." They are convinced of sin, but they +go no further. That is not repentance. They live this week as they did +last. There is no response to the Spirit; they resist the Holy Ghost. + +Neither is repentance mere sorrow for sin. I have seen people weep +bitterly, and writhe and struggle, but yet hug on to their idols, and +in vain you try to shake them from them. Oh! if Jesus Christ would +have saved them with those idols, they would have no objection at +all. If they could have got through the strait gate with this one +particular idol, they would have gone through long since; but to part +with that--that is another thing. Such people will weep like your +stubborn child, when you want him to do something which he does not +want to do. He will cry, and when you apply the rod he will cry +harder, but he will not yield. When he yields, he becomes a penitent; +but, until he does, he is merely a convicted sinner. When God applies +the rod of His Spirit, the rod of His providence, the rod of His +Word, sinners will cry, and wince, and whine, and make you believe +they are praying, and want to be saved, but all the while they are +holding their necks as stiff as iron. They will not _submit_. +The moment they submit, they become true penitents, and get saved. +There is no mistake more common than for people to suppose they are +penitents when they are not. There are some of you in this condition, +I know. I am afraid you are quite mistaken--you are not penitents. +God is true though every man should be a liar; and, if you had +sought, as you say you have, and perhaps, think you have; if you had +been sincere and honest with God, you would have been saved years +ago. Oh! may God, the Holy Spirit, help you to come out and be +HONEST. That is what God wants--that you be honest. "Oh," says He, +"why cover ye my altar with tears, and bring your vain oblations? +Just be honest, and I will be honest with you and bless you; but +while you come before Me and weep and profess, and bring the halt, +and the maimed, and the blind, a curse be upon you." He looks at you +afar off. Be honest. Repentance is not mere sorrow for sin. You may +be ever so sorry, and all the way down to death be hugging on to some +forbidden possession, as was the young ruler. _That_ is not repentance. + +Neither is repentance a promise that you will forsake sin in the +future. Oh! if it were, there would be many penitents here to-night. +There is scarcely a poor drunkard that does not promise, in his own +mind, or to his poor wife, or somebody, that he will forsake his +cups. There is scarcely any kind of a sinner that does not +continually promise that he will give up his sin, and serve God, but +he does _not do it_. + +Then what is _repentance_? _Repentance is simply renouncing +sin_--turning round from darkness to light--from the power of Satan +unto God. This is giving up sin in your heart, in purpose, in +intention, in desire, resolving that you will give up every evil +thing, and DO IT NOW. Of course, this involves sorrow, for how will +any sane man turn himself round from a given course into another, if +he does not repent having taken that course? It implies, also, hatred +of, sin. He hates the course he formerly took, and turns round from +it. He is like the prodigal, when he sat in the swine-yard amongst +the husks and the filth, he fully resolved, and at last he acts. He +went, and that was the test of his penitence! He might have sat +resolving and promising till now, if he had lived as long, and he +would never have got the father's kiss, the father's welcome, if he +had not started; but he went. He left the filth, the swine-yard, the +husks--he trampled them under his feet; he left the citizen of that +country, and gave up all his subterfuges and excuses, and went to his +father honestly, and said, "I have sinned!" which implied a great +deal more in his language then than it does in ours now. "I have +sinned against Heaven, and before thee;" and then comes the proof of +his submission, "and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me +as one of thy hired servants"--put me in a stable, or set me to clean +the boots, so that I can be in thy family and have thy smile. That is +repentance--Jesus Christ's own beautiful illustration of true +penitence. Have you done that? Have you forsaken the accursed thing? +Have you cut off that particular thing which the Holy Spirit has +revealed to you? Is the _"but"_ the hindrance that keeps you out +of the Kingdom? You know what it is, and you will never get saved +until you renounce it. Submission is the test of penitence. My child +may be willing to do a hundred and fifty other things, but, if he is +not willing to submit on the one point of controversy, he is a rebel, +and remains one until he yields. + +Now, here is just the difference between a spurious and a real +repentance. I am afraid we have thousands in our churches who had a +spurious repentance: they were convinced of sin--they were sorry for +it; they wanted to live a better life, to love God in a sort of +general way; but they skipped over the real point of controversy with +God; they hid it from their pastor, perhaps, and from the deacons, +and from the people who talked with them. + +Now, I say, Abraham might have been willing to have given up every +other thing that he possessed; but, if he had not been willing to +give up Isaac, all else would have been useless. It is your Isaac God +wants. You have got an Isaac, just as the young ruler had his +possessions. You have got something that you are holding on to, that +the Holy Spirit says you must let go, and you say, "I can't." Very +well; then you must stop outside the kingdom. I beseech you, do not +deceive yourselves by supposing that you repent, for you do not; but, +oh! my dear friends, let me beseech you to repent. The apostle says, +"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;" and this +is, I believe, the greatest work of the ministry. To do what? To +persuade men to submit. We are constantly talking to thousands of +people who know just what God wants of them. We cannot bring many of +them any new light or new Gospel. They know all about it. They used +to tell me that so often, that I longed for a congregation of +heathen, which I have found since then. Consequently, when they hear +the Gospel, like the publicans and sinners of old, they go into the +kingdom, while such as some of you who are the natural children of +the kingdom, are shut out, because when they hear they receive, and +submit, and obey, while you stand outside and hold on to your idols, +and reason, and quibble, and reject! My dear friends, let me +persuade you to trample under foot that idol, to tear down that +refuge of lies, and to come to God honestly, and say, "Lord, here I +am, to be a servant, to be nothing, to do anything, to suffer +anything. I know I shall be happier with Thy smile and Thy blessing +than all these evil things now make me without Thee." When you come +to a full surrender, my friends, you will get what you have been +seeking, some of you, for years. + +But then another difficulty comes in, and people say, "I have not +the power to repent." Oh! yes, you have. That is a grand mistake. You +have the power, or God would not command it. You can repent. You can +this moment lift up your eyes to Heaven, and say, with the prodigal, +"Father, I have sinned, and I renounce my sin." You may not be able +to weep--God nowhere requires or commands that; but you are able, +this very moment, to renounce sin, in purpose, in resolution, in +intention. Mind, don't confound the renouncing of the sin, with the +power of saving yourself from it. If you renounce it, Jesus will come +and save you from it. Like the man with the withered hand--Jesus +intended to heal that man. Where was the power to come from to heal +him? From Jesus, of course. The benevolence, the love, that prompted +that healing, all came from Jesus; but Jesus wanted a condition. What +was it? The response of the man's will; and so He said, "Stretch +forth thy hand." If he had been like some of you, he would have said, +"What an unreasonable command! You know I cannot do it--I cannot." +Some of you say that; but I say you can, and you will have to do it, +or you will be lost. What did Jesus want? He wanted that, "I will, +Lord," inside the man--the response of his will. He wanted him to +say, "Yes, Lord;" and, the moment he said that, Jesus supplied +strength, and he stretched it forth, and you know what happened. + +Don't look forward, and say, "I shall not have strength;" that is +not your matter--that is His. He will hold you up;--He is able, when +you once commit yourself to Him. Now then, say, "_I will._" Never mind +what you suffer--it shall be done. He will pour in the oil and balm. His +glorious, blessed presence will do more for you in one hour, than all +your struggling, praying, and wrestling have done all these weary years. +He will lift you up out of the pit. You are in the mire now, and the +more you struggle the more you sink; but He will lift you out of it, and +put your feet on the rock, and then you will stand firm. Stretch out +your withered hand, whatever it may be;--say, "I will, Lord." You have +the power, and mind, you have the obligation, which is universal and +immediate. God "now commandeth all men everywhere to repent," and to +believe the Gospel. What a tyrant He must be if He commands that, and +yet He knows you have not the power! + +Now, do you repent? Mind the old snare. Not, do you weep? The +feeling will come after the surrender. + +Now, do not say, "I do not feel enough." Do you feel enough to be +willing to forsake your sin? that is the point. Any soul who does not +repent enough to forsake his sin, is _not a penitent at all!_ +When you repent enough to forsake your sin, that moment your +repentance is sincere, and you may take hold of Jesus with a firm +grasp. You have a right to appropriate the promise, then it is "look +and live." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be +saved." + +Will you come to that point now? Don't begin making an excuse. +_Now!--all men! everywhere!_--NOW! Oh! my friend, if you had done that +ten years ago! You have been accumulating sin, condemnation, and wrath +ever since. God commanded you these ten years to repent, and believe the +Gospel, and here you are yet. How many sermons have you +heard?--invitations rejected? How much blessed persuasion and reasoning +of the Holy Spirit have you resisted?--how much of the grace of God have +you received in vain? I tremble to think what an accumulated load of +abused privilege, lost opportunity, and wasted influence, such people +will have to give an account of. Talk about hell!--the weight of this +will be hell enough. You don't seem to think anything of the way you +treat God. Oh! people are very much awake to any evil they do to their +fellow-men. They can much more easily see the sin of ruining or injuring +their neighbors than injuring the great God; but He says, "Will a man +rob God? Yet ye have robbed me." Do you not see; the awful weight of +condemnation that comes upon you for putting off, rejecting, resisting, +vascilating, halting, while He says, _Now--now?_ He has had a right to +every breath you have drawn, to all your influence, every hour, of every +day of all your years. Is it not time you ended that controversy? He +may do with you as He did with such people once before--swear in His +wrath that you shall not enter into His rest. Are you not provoking +Him as they provoked Him? Oh! my friend, be persuaded now to repent. +Let your sin go away, and come to the feet of Jesus. For your own +sake be persuaded. For the peace, the joy, the power, the glory, the +gladness of living a life of consecration to God, and service to your +fellow-men, yield; but most of all, for the love He bears you, submit. + +A great, rough man (stricken down), said to my husband, a few weeks +ago, when he looked up to the place where other people were being +saved, "Mr. Booth, I would not go there for a hundred pounds!" My +husband whispered, "Will you go there for love?" and, after a +minute's hesitation, the man, brushing the great tears away, rose up, +and followed him. + +Will you go there for love--the love of Jesus!--the great love +wherewith He loved you and gave Himself for you? Will you, for the +great yearning with which your Father has been following you all +these years--for His love's sake, will you come? Go down at His feet +and submit. The Lord help you! Amen. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SAVING FAITH. + + + And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? + And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be + saved, and thy house.--ACTS xvi. 30,31. + +This is one of the most abused texts in the Bible, and one which, +perhaps, has been made to do quite as much work for the devil as for +God. Let every saint present, ask in faith for the light of the Holy +Ghost, while we try rightly to apply it. Let us enquire:-- + +1. _Who are to believe_? 2. _When are they to believe_? 3. _How are they +to believe_? + +I. Who are to believe? To whom does the Holy Spirit say, "Believe on +the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved?" Now mark, I answer, +_not_ to all sinners indiscriminately. And here is a grand +mistake in a great deal of the teaching of this age--that these words +are wrested from their explanatory connexion, and from numbers of +other texts bearing on the same subject, and held up independently of +all the conditions which must ever, and did ever, in the mind and +practice of the Apostles, accompany them; indeed, it has only been +within the last sixty or seventy years that this new gospel has +sprung into existence, preaching indiscriminately to unawakened, +unconverted, unrepentant sinners--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." +It seems to me, that great injury has been done to the cause of +Christ by thus wrongly dividing the Word of truth, to say nothing of +the unphilosophical character of such a course, for how can an +unawakened, unconvicted, unrepentant sinner, believe? As soon might +Satan believe. It is an utter impossibility. Thousands of these +people say, "I do believe." My dear son, only a little time ago, on +the top of an omnibus, was speaking to a man who was the worse for +liquor, and using very improper language; trying to show him the +danger of his evil, wicked course, as a transgressor of the law of +God. "Oh!" said the man, "it is not by works, it is by faith, and I +believe as much as you do." "Yes," said my son, "but what do you +believe?" "Oh," he said, "I believe in Jesus Christ, and of course I +shall be saved." That is a sample of thousands. I am meeting with +them daily. They believe there was such a man as Jesus, and that He +died for sinners, and for them, but as to the exercise of saving +faith, they know no more about it than Agrippa or Felix, as is +manifest when they come to die, for then, these very people are +wringing their hands, tearing their hair, and sending for Christians +to come and pray with them. If they had believed, why all this alarm +and concern on the approach of death? They were only believers of the +head, and not of the heart; that is, they were but theoretical +believers in the facts recorded in this book, but not believers in +the Scriptural sense, or their faith would have saved them. Now, we +maintain that it is useless, and as unphilosophical as it is +unscriptural, to preach "only believe" to such characters; and +Christians have not done their duty, and have not discharged their +responsibility to these souls, when they have told them that Jesus +died for them, and that they are to believe in Him! They have a much +harder work to do, and that is, "to open their eyes" to a sense of +their danger, and make them, by the power of the Spirit, realize the +dreadful truth that they are sinners, that they are sick, and then +they will run to the Physician. + +The eyes of the soul must be opened to such a realization of sin, +and such an apprehension of the consequences of sin, as shall lead to +an earnest desire to be saved from sin. God's great means of doing +this is the law, as the schoolmaster, to drive sinners to receive +Christ as their salvation. + +There is not one case in the New Testament in which the apostles +urged souls to believe, or in which a soul is narrated as believing, +in which we have not good grounds to believe that these preparatory +steps of conviction and repentance, had been taken. The only one was +that of Simon the sorcerer. He was, as numbers of people are, in +great religious movements, carried away by the influence of the +meeting, and the example of those around him, and professed to +believe. Doubtless, he did credit the fact that Jesus died on the +cross. He received the facts of Christianity into his mind, and, in +that sense, he became a believer--in the same sense that tens of +thousands are in these days--and he was baptized. But when the +testing point came, as to whose interests were paramount with him, +his own or God's, then he manifested the true state of the case, as +the apostle said, "I see thy heart is not right with God." And nobody +is converted whose heart is not right with God! That is the test. If +Simon had been converted, his heart would have been right with God +and he would not have supposed the Holy Ghost could have been bought +for money. And Paul added, "For I perceive that thou art still in the +gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." And what further +did he say to him? "Therefore, at once believe"? No; he did not. +"Therefore, repent, and pray God, if, perhaps, the thought of thine +heart may be forgiven thee." Repent first! and then believe, and get +this wickedness forgiven, and so we get a double lesson in the same +passage. This Simon was the only person we have any record of, as +believing, where there is not in the passage itself, taken with the +context, a reasonable and rational evidence, that these preparatory +steps of conviction and repentance, were taken before the teaching of +faith, or the exercise and confession of faith. Simon had this faith +of the head, but not of the heart, and, therefore, it ended in defeat +and despair. + +Some have written me this week that they had believed. They had been +persuaded into a profession of faith, but no fruits followed. Ah! it +was not the faith of the heart: it was the faith of the head--like +that of Simon's--and it left you worse than it found you, and you +have been groping and grovelling, ever since. But do not think that +was real faith, and that therefore real faith has failed, but be +encouraged to begin again, and _repent_. Try the real thing, for +Satan always gets up a counterfeit. Therefore, don't go down in +despair because the wrong kind of faith did not succeed. That shall +not make the real faith of God of none effect--God forbid! + +Look at one or two other cases--the three thousand in a day. Surely +this is a scriptural illustration. Surely no one will call that +anti-Gospel or legal. What was the first work Peter did? He drove the +knife of God's convincing truth into their hearts, and made them +_cry out_. He awoke them to the truth of their almost lost and +damned condition, till they said, "What must we do to be saved?" They +were so concerned, they were so pricked in their hearts, their eyes +were so opened to the terrible consequences of their sin, that they +cried aloud before the vast multitude, "Men and brethren, what must +we do to be saved?" He convinced them of sin, and thus followed the +order of God. + +Again, the eunuch is often quoted as an illustration of faith; but +what state of mind was he in? Was he a careless, unconvicted sinner? +There he was--an Ethiopian, a heathen; but where had he been? To +Jerusalem, to worship the true and living God, in the best way he +knew, and as far as he understood; and then, what was he doing when +Philip found him? He was not content with the mere worship of the +temple, whistling a worldly tune on his way back. He was searching +the Scriptures. He was honestly seeking after God, and the Holy Ghost +always knows where such souls are; and He said to Philip, "Go, join +thyself to that chariot: there is a man seeking after Me; there is a +man whose heart is honestly set on finding Me. Go and preach Christ, +and tell him to believe." That man would have sacrificed, or done, or +lost anything, for salvation, and, as soon as Philip expounded the +way of faith, he received it, of course, as all such souls will. + +Saul, on his way to Damascus, is another instance. Jesus Christ was +the preacher there, and surely, He could not be mistaken. His +philosophy was sound. Where did He begin? What did He say to Saul? He +saw there an honest-hearted man. Saul was sincere, so far as he +understood, and if, in any case, there needed to be the immediate +reception of Christ by faith, it was in his. But the Lord Jesus +Christ did not say one word about faith. "Saul, Saul, why +_persecutest_ thou Me?"--tearing the bandages of deception off +his eyes, and letting him see the wickedness of his conduct. When +Saul said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" He repeated the accusation. He did +not come in with the oil of comfort; He did not plaster the wound up, +and make it whole in a moment; but He said, "I am Jesus of Nazareth, +whom thou persecutest." He ran the knife in again, and opened Paul's +eyes wider, and his wounds wider, too, and sent him bleeding on to +Damascus, where he was three days before he got the healing. He had +to send for a poor human instrument, and he had to hear and obey his +words, before the scales fell from his eyes, and before the pardon of +his sins was pronounced, and the Holy Ghost came into his soul. I +wonder what Paul was doing those three days! Not singing songs of +thanksgiving and praise. That had to come. Oh! what do you think he +was doing? He neither ate nor drank, and he was in the dark. What was +he doing? No doubt he was praying. No doubt he was seeking after this +Christ, who had spoken to him in the way. No doubt he was looking +with horror upon his past life, and abjuring forever his accursed +antagonism to Jesus Christ, and to His Gospel. Of course, he was +bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, according to the Divine +order--Acts xxvi.: And then came Ananias, and preached Christ unto +him, and he believed unto salvation, and the scales fell off, and his +mouth was filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. + +Cornelius, is another instance, but what was the state of his mind +and heart? We know that he feared God and wrought righteousness, as +far as he was able. He gave alms to the people, and prayed day and +night. That is more than some of you ever did, who live in the Gospel +times. You never prayed all night about your souls. No wonder if you +should lose them--not half a night, some of you. But Cornelius +did--he was seeking _God_. He honestly wanted to know Him. He was +willing, at all costs, to do His will: consequently, the Lord sent +him the glorious message of the revelation of Jesus Christ. + +I might go on multiplying instances, but I must stop. We have said +enough to show who are to believe. Truly penitent sinners, and they +only. + +This text is to a repenting, enlightened, convicted sinner. Now, +some of you are enlightened, convinced, and so wretched that you +cannot sleep. You _do_ repent. You are the very people, then, to +whom this text comes--Believe. You are just in the condition of the +gaoler. + +"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," and now +let us look what state of mind the gaoler was in. We see, from the +whole narrative, how his eyes had been opened. The earthquake had +done that. Some people need an earthquake before they get their eyes +opened, and it has to be a loud one, too. The gaoler's eyes were +opened, and he made the best use of his time. He was lashing their +backs a little while before! Talk about a change--here was a change. +"Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I am ready to do anything, only +tell me what." And when a soul comes to that state of mind, he has +nothing more to do but to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he +came in, trembling, and went down on his knees, and washed their +stripes. When you get to that state of mind, you will soon get saved. +You will have nothing more to do but to believe. You will find it +easy work, then. + +II. When is a sinner to believe? When he repents? Here again I am +going to answer some of your letters. One writes: "I am afraid I do +not realize my sin sufficiently. I have no particular agony on +account of sin, but I do see my whole life to have been one huge +error and sin." There is nothing more common than for souls to delude +themselves on this point of feeling. That gentleman confounds feeling +with conviction. He thinks because he has not this extreme agony +which some have, therefore he is not sufficiently convinced, while +the Holy Ghost has opened his eyes to see that his whole life has +been one huge error and sin. He is convinced that it has been +_all_ sin--not one isolated sin here and there abstracted from +his life, but such a perception of his true character that he sees +his whole life to have been sin. Surely, my friend, you are convinced. +What else but the Holy Ghost could have shown you _that_? Now, the truly +repentant soul first sees sin; secondly, he _hates_ sin; thirdly, he +_renounces_ sin. Now, let me try you by each of these tests. Don't let +Satan deceive you, and make you belie the exercises of your own mind. +Face the facts, and when you have come to a conclusion, don't allow him +to raise a controversy, but stick to your facts, and go on from them, or +you will never get saved. Satan is an accuser of the brethren, and, I +suppose, of the sisters too. I will be as honest and as searching +with you as I possibly can. I will not spare the probe, but when we +have probed and found the truth, stand on it, for Christ's sake, and +don't let it go from under your feet, because Satan will try to cheat +you out of your common sense, conscience, and convictions. + +You _see_ sin. An entirely unawakened soul does not see sin; +that is, in its true character, in its heinousness, in its +consequences. He admits that all people are sinners. Oh! yes; but he +does not see the deadly, damning character of sin. He does not see +what an evil and bitter thing sin is in itself. Now, the Holy Ghost +alone can open the soul's eyes to see this. Without Him, all my +preaching, or any other preaching, even the preaching of the angels, +if they were permitted to preach, might go on to all eternity, and it +would never convince of sin. If you see sin, it is the Holy Ghost who +has opened your eyes. Praise Him, and take encouragement, my friend. +If God has thus far dealt with you, and opened your eyes to see the +character and consequences of sin, does it not augur well that He +desires also to save you from it? He has opened your eyes in order +that He may anoint them with eye-salve, and cause you to see light in +His light. + +Now, have you got thus far? You have told me that your life has been +one great sin; others say, one particular form of sin. Whatever it +is, if you are convinced of sin, it is the Holy Ghost who has +convinced you; therefore, thank God, and take courage thus far. + +Further, the true penitent _hates_ sin; that is, his feelings +towards sin are quite different to what they were in the past. There +was a time when you could commit sin, almost without notice, without +concern. People do not realize the great change that has taken place +in them in this respect. They are brought gradually to it. Translate +yourself back into your unawakened state. How did you live then? The +very things that now cause you such distress, you practised every +day, and they gave you no concern. The things that horrify you now, +in the very thought or temptation to them, you then were daily +practising without compunction. You had no hatred to, no dread of +sin. You were willing bondslaves of Satan. Now, you are his unwilling +slave. Then, you _ran_ towards sin, now, he has to drive you, +and when you fall, it is against your will. You hate sin. Now, mind, +this is not being saved from it. This is not saying you have power to +save yourself from it. In fact, this is the very difficulty +personified by the apostle, when representing the ineffectual +struggles of a convicted sinner. The things you would not, those you +do, and the things you would, those you have not the power to do. +Nevertheless, you _desire_ to do them. There is the difference. +Once you did not desire to do them, and, perhaps, those who did, were +a pack of hypocrites, in your estimation. Now, you feel quite +differently, and you struggle, and strive, and pray, and watch. Some +of you have told me so, and yet you say, "I am again and again +overcome." Of course you are, because you are not _saved yet_! +But don't you see, you _desire_ to be. You hate the sin which +enthrals you. You struggle against it. You watch against it and you +are not overcome half so frequently, perhaps, as you were before. +People do not see what a great deal they owe to the convincing and +preventing power of the Holy Spirit helping their infirmity, even +now, to cut off and pluck out the right hand and the right eye, and +bringing them up in a waiting attitude before God, like Cornelius and +the eunuch. You, my hearers, some of you, are following after God. +You are longing for deliverance, are striving against sin. + +Take an another illustration. I don't mean that the soul has power +to save itself from its internal maladies. That you will get when +Jesus Christ saves you. But, I mean this: here is a soul convinced of +sin. Here is a man who is daily addicted to drink. He is a drunkard. +He becomes convinced of sin. Now, then, the Spirit of God says, "Will +you give up the cup?" Then commences the struggle. Now, the question +is, are you to teach that man that he is to go on drinking, and +expect God to save him? Are you to keep putting before him faith, and +telling him, "Oh! never mind your cup, but believe on the Lord Jesus +Christ and you shall be saved"--or, are you to tell him, "you must +put away your sin, cut off that right hand, pluck out that right eye, +renounce that drink forever in your heart, in your purpose, in your +will, and until you do, you cannot exercise faith on the Lord Jesus?" + +Here is another person addicted to lying. He, when he is convinced +of sin, sets a watch over his lips, that he may not offend with his +mouth, and he does succeed in so guarding himself, or the Holy Spirit +so helps him to guard himself, that he does not lie as he used. He is +overcome now and then, because he has not yet found the power, but he +is resolutely, and as far as his will is concerned, cutting off this +outward sin, and waiting in the way of obedience for full deliverance +and salvation. + +There is a servant systematically robs his master's till. He goes to +a religious meeting and is convinced. "Now," the Spirit of God says, +"you must cut off that dishonesty. You cannot come to this meeting +night after night pretending to want to be saved, while you are going +on every day robbing your master! You must cut off that right hand, +and give up that pilfering, and resolve that you will make +restitution, and wait for Me in the way of bringing forth fruits meet +for repentance." You see what I mean. Now, you are just here, some of +you--you know you are. If you are addicted to any evil habit, it is +just the same. Jesus Christ wants you to forswear that habit in your +will, determination, and purpose. You have not the power to deliver +yourself from it. You may struggle, as some of you tell me you are +doing, but it overcomes you, and down you go. He knows all about +that, but He approves of the struggle, and the effort, and the +watchfulness, and the determination, and when He saves you, He will +give you the power, and then you will stand and not fall, for He will +hold you up. + +Now you know that you go thus far, and you know that at this moment, +if you had the power in yourself to extinguish the force of that evil +habit over you forever, you would do it without another moment's +hesitation. You say, "Oh yes, I would indeed. Would to God I had the +power." That is repentance; that is _genuine_ repentance. Now, +what you cannot do for yourself, He meets you just where you stand, +and says, "I will do it for you; I will break the power of that +habit; I will deliver you out of the hands of the enemy; I will save +you out of that bondage. Only throw your arm of faith around me, and +I will lift you up; and I will inspire you with my Spirit; you shall +stand in Me and by Me; and what you are now struggling to do for +yourself, I will do for you." + +Then you have got thus far that you hate sin? "Yes, I have." You +have said it in your letters to me, and there are others saying it +who have not written to me. "Yes," you are saying, "I desire to be +saved from it. I would save myself this very instant if I could, and +never sin again." Would you? Is not that repentance? What else is it, +think you? + +Suppose you had a disobedient and rebellious son, and he had been +living irrespective of your law and will, wasting your money and +trampling under foot your commandments. Suppose he comes back, he +sees the error of his course. His eyes are opened, perhaps, by +affliction, perhaps by want, or ten thousand other things. At any +rate he sees it, and he comes home and says, "Oh! father, what a fool +I have been; how wicked I have been. I see it all now--I did not see +it when I was doing it. I see my evil course, my sins that made you +mourn, and turned your hair grey. Oh! how I hate it all. I repent in +dust and ashes. Father! I forsake it all! I come home to you!" What +would you say? Would you say, "My son, you have not repented enough. +Go! begone! Wait till you feel it more!" No, your paternal heart +would go out in love and forgiveness, and you would put the kiss of +your reconciling love upon his cheek. "Even so there is joy in the +presence of the angels of God over one sinner that _repenteth!_" +as there would be joy in that family circle over the return of that +wandering child. + +But suppose that lad were to come and say, "Father, I do thus +repent; I do thus forsake my sins; but there are some companions who +will follow me so closely that I am afraid I shall again fall under +their power, and there are some habits so terrible that I am afraid +they will again conquer. Let me, then, be always by your side. You +must strengthen me." What would you say? Would you not say, "Then, +come in, my son; sit by me, live with me, and I will shield you--I +will deliver you? Thou shalt never cross this threshhold without me. +I will live with you; I will hold you up." And, as far as a human +being could shield another, you would shield your son; he would never +lack your sympathy or your strength day or night. Your Heavenly +Father lacks neither sympathy or strength. His eye never sleeps. His +arm never tires, and you have only to go and lay your helpless +weakness on His Almighty strength by this one desperate leap of +faith, and He will hold you up, even though there were a legion of +devils around you. + +Lastly, you _renounce_ your sins, that is, in will, purpose, and +determination. You say, "I never wish to grieve Him again." You +sing it, and you feel it. "I never want to grieve Him any more;" and +if you could only live without grieving Him, you would not much mind, +even if it were in hell itself. Is not that penitence? You know it +is. You renounce sin. You do not say, "Lord Jesus, save me with this +right hand, with this right eye; Lord Jesus, save me with these +forbidden things hanging about my skirts." No; you say, "Lord Jesus, +save me out of them. Make me clean." That is penitence. You see it. +You hate it. You renounce it. Now then, believe on the Lord Jesus +Christ. Oh, Holy Spirit, reveal the simple way of faith. + +III. You say, "How am I to believe?" Some despairing soul asked me +this in large letters, "How am I to believe?" How does a bride +believe in her husband when she gives herself to him at the altar? +She trusts him with herself. She believes in him. She makes a +contract, and goes home, and lives as if it were true. That is +_faith_. How do you trust your physician when you are sick, as +you lay in repose or anguish upon your bed? You trust him with your +case. You commit yourself to him. You believe in his skill, and obey +his orders. Have faith like this in Jesus Christ. + +Trust and obey, and expect that it is going to be with you according +to His Word. + +Instead of this, the faith of many people is like that of a person +afflicted with some grievous malady. A friend tells him of a +wonderful physician who has cured hundreds of such cases, and gives +him abundant evidence that this doctor is able and willing to cure +him, if he will only commit himself to his treatment. The sick man +may thoroughly believe in the testimony of his friend about this +physician, and yet, for some secret reason, he may refuse to put +himself into his hands. Now, there are numbers like that with Jesus +Christ. They believe He could cure the malady of sin on certain +conditions. They believe He is no respecter of persons. They believe +He has done it for hundreds as bad as they, and yet there is some +reason why they do not _trust Him_. They hold back. + +Now, what you want is to give your case into His hands, and say, +"Lord Jesus, I come as Thou hast bid me, confessing and forsaking +sin. If I could, I would jump out of it now and forever. Thou knowest +I come renouncing it, but not having power to save myself from it; +and now, Lord Jesus, Thou hast said, "Him that cometh unto Me, I will +in no wise cast out." I do come; Thou dost not cast me out; Thou dost +take me; Thou dost receive me. Blessed, Holy Father, I give myself to +Thee. I put my sins upon the glorious sacrifice of Thy Son. Thou hast +said Thou wilt receive me, and pardon me for His sake. Now, I roll +the guilty burden on His bleeding body, and I believe Thy promise, I +trust Thee to be as good as Thy word." _That is faith_. "Oh!" said a +dear lady, "I do not feel it." No: you must trust first. Mark, not +believe you are saved, but believe that He does now save you. + +"What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive +them, and ye shall have them." That is the law of faith. Believe that +ye receive it before you feel it; when you receive it then you shall +feel it. God shall be true, and every man or devil who contradicts +Him, a liar. Throw your arms around the Crucified. Take fast hold of +the hand of the Son of God. Put your poor, guilty soul right at the +foot of His cross, and say, "Thou dost receive; Thou dost pardon; +Thou dost cleanse; Thou dost save;" and keep using the language of +faith. I have seen numbers of souls step into liberty repeating these +precious words in the first person, "He was wounded for _my_ +transgressions, He was bruised for _my_ iniquities, the chastisement of +_my_ peace was laid upon Him, and by His stripes _I am_ healed." Keep +using the language of faith all the way home to-night. Go into your +closet and say, "I am determined to be saved, if there is any such thing +as salvation." Resolve that if you perish, you will perish in that room, +at the foot of the cross, suing for pardon, and you will get it. I have +never known a soul come to this who did not soon get saved. Get into the +lifeboat. Put off from the old stranded wreck of your own righteousness +or your own efforts; step right into the lifeboat of His broken, +bleeding body. Take fast hold, and resolve that you will never let go +until the answering Spirit comes into your soul, crying, "Abba, Father," +and you shall know of a truth that you have passed from death unto life. +The Lord help you. Amen. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +CHARITY. + + + And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest + of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13. + +It must be a precious thing to be greater than _faith_, and +greater than _hope_--it must, indeed, be precious!--and, just in +proportion as things are valuable and precious amongst men, so much +trouble and risk will human speculators take to counterfeit them. I +suppose that in no department of roguery in this roguish world, has +there been more time and ingenuity expended, than in making +counterfeit money, especially bank notes. Just as wicked men have +tried to imitate the most valuable of human productions for their own +profit, so the devil has been trying to counterfeit God's most +precious things from the beginning, and to produce something so like +them that mankind at large should not see the difference, and, +perhaps, in no direction has he been so successful as in producing a +_Spurious Charity_.--I almost think he has got it to perfection +in these days. I don't think he can very well improve on the present +copy. This Charity--this love--is God's most precious treasure; it is +dearer to His heart than all the vast domains of His universe--dearer +than all the glorious beings He has created. So much so, that when +some of the highest spirits amongst the angelic bands violated this +love, He hurled them from the highest Heaven to the nethermost hell! +Why? Not because He did not value those wonderful beings, but because +He valued this _love more_. Because He saw that it was more +important to the well-being of His universe to maintain the harmony +of love in Heaven than to save those spirits who had allowed +selfishness to interfere with it. So our Lord says, "I beheld Satan +as lightning fall from Heaven." + +The day is coming when He will behold all the dire progeny of this +first rebellion fall also. Haste, happy day! + +But, let us look for a few minutes at this precious, beautiful +Charity. Let us try, first, to define it. What is it? + +_First_.--_It is Divine_. It must be shed abroad in the heart by the +Holy Ghost. + +In vain do we look for this heavenly plant amongst the unrenewed +children of men--it grows not on the corrupt soil of human nature; it +springs only where the ploughshare of true repentance has broken up +the fallow ground of the heart, and where faith in a crucified +Saviour has purified it, and where the blessed Holy Spirit has taken +permanent possession. It is the love _of_ God--not only love _to_ God, +but _like_ God, _from_ God, and fixed on the same objects and ends which +He loves. It is a Divine implantation by the Holy Ghost. Perhaps some of +you are saying, "Then it is useless for me to try to cultivate it, +because I have not got it,--exactly!" You may cut and prune and water +forever, but you can never cultivate that which is not planted. Your +first work is to get this love shed abroad in your heart. It is one of +the delusions of this age that human nature only wants pruning, +improving, developing, and it come out right. No, no! Every plant which +my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. If you want this +Divine love, you must break up the fallow ground of your hearts, and +invite the Heavenly Husbandman to come and sow it--shed it abroad in +your soul. + +_Secondly_, I want you to note that this love is a Divine principle, in +contradistinction to the mere love of instinct. All men have love as an +instinct; mere natural love towards those whom they like, or who do well +for them. "If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not +even publicans the same?" Wicked men love one another from mere natural +affinity, as the tiger loves its cubs. There is great confusion amongst +professors of religion on this subject. They feel sentiments of pity and +generosity towards their fellow-men, and they may even give their goods +to feed the poor, and yet not have a spark of Divine Charity in their +hearts. Saul, after God departed from him, was not wholly destitute of +generous feeling respecting his family and kingdom. Dives in hell had +some pity for his brethren! But neither of them had a spark of this +Divine Charity. Mind you are not deceived; millions are! + +Let us note one or two points wherein a spurious and Divine Charity +utterly and forever diverge--disagree in nature. + +_First._--Spurious Charity is selfish--is never exercised but +to gratify some selfish principle in human nature. Thousands of +motives inspire it--too many to enumerate; but we will glance at two +or three. We read in the context that a man might give his goods to +feed the poor, and his body to be burned, and yet be destitute of +true Charity. + +Now what an anomaly. But we have wonderful illustrations that such a +thing is possible. First, a man may do this to support and carry out +a favorite system of intellectual belief of which he has become +enamored, just as men become absorbed, in politics, or in what they +consider the good of their nation, so that they will even go to the +cannon's mouth to promote it. + +Further, a man may do it in order to merit eternal life. Paul did +this when he went about to establish his own righteousness. He tells +us afterwards that self was the mainspring of all his zeal. It was +all his own exaltation; there was no Divine love; he was an utterly +unrenewed, Christless, and selfish man, at the very time he was doing +this. + +Or, it may be, in the third place, to gratify a naturally generous +disposition. I used to say to a generous friend of mine, when he was +talking in a confidential way about his giving, and the delight it +gave him, attributing it to Divine grace--I used to put my hand on +his, and say, "Hold! my friend; I am not so sure it is all grace. You +like giving better than other people do receiving. Look out that you +do not lose your reward through not taking the trouble to see what +you give to; don't give your money to every scheme that comes across +you. Remember that you are answerable to God for your wealth, and +that God will demand of you HOW you have bestowed your goods." That +is true Charity that takes the trouble to investigate relative +claims, and tries to find out the best channels in which to give for +God's glory and the salvation of men. Don't you put down your +generosity to the Holy Ghost if it is not of that kind, for you will +never receive a bit of interest for it, here or hereafter--not a +fraction! + +A false Charity begins in self and ends on earth. Here is a mark for +you to distinguish between it and God's Charity. The devil's Charity +always contemplates the earthy part of man in a superior degree to +the spiritual part; and here it exactly crosses and contradicts the +Divine Charity, which always contemplates man in the entirety of his +being, and always gives the first importance to the soul. + +We have plenty of spurious Charity in these days. The other day when +I took up a so-called "religious print," and saw some fulsome things +it had been saying about a certain individual, lately dead, I +thought, really, would one ever imagine this were a Christian paper, +in a Christian country? There is not the slightest recognition of a +soul, no reference to the man's spiritual condition or his future +state. Here are one or two of the most ordinary human qualifications +seized on, and made the most of, to make it out that he was something +beyond his fellows, but, as to any recognition of a soul, or of a God +who will judge him, of a Heaven or hell, nothing! + +Oh, people say, when speaking of Godless, and even wicked men, "You +must be _charitable,_ you must not judge." Satan does not care +how much of this one-sided Charity there is; the more the better for +his purpose; it will make people all the more comfortable in their +sins, and get them all the more easily down to hell. + +My friends, are you more concerned about relieving temporal distress +than you are about feeding famished souls? If you are, you may know +where your charity comes from! Don't misrepresent me, and say that I +teach all of one, and none of the other. God forbid, for, if any man +"hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and +shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love +of God in him?" But, on the other side, if he sees him spiritually +famishing--dying for want of the bread of life--how dwelleth the love +of Christ in him, if he does not minister to this spiritual +destitution? I know that real Christianity cares for body and soul. +Bless God, it does; but, always mind that it sets the soul FIRST. I +know the Master fed the multitude; but, before that, He had them with +Him three days, trying to save their souls, and when they got hungry +in the process, then He made them sit down, and fed their bodies. He +always looked after the soul first, and so does everyone possessed of +Divine Charity. + +Why? Because Divine Charity has opened his eyes. He realizes the +value of souls. He sees them famishing. He sees them being damned, +and he cannot help himself. His desire to save them rushes out of him +like a torrent; he beholds them, and has compassion on them. Try your +Charity by this mark: Do you contemplate the dying, famishing, +half-damned souls of your fellow-men? Do you look abroad on the state of +the world, and the state of the church? Do you think about it? Do you +go into your closet, and spread it before the Lord, as Hezekiah and +Jeremiah and Hosea did? Do you look at it, and turn it over, and weep +over it, and pray and cry, as Daniel and Paul did? Try yourselves, my +brethren, my sisters, by this mark. + +Divine Charity is always revolving round that great problem of +infinite love. "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole +world, and lose his own soul?" Oh, I can never get it out of my ears +or away from my heart! Oh, how I see the emptiness and vanity of +everything compared with the salvation of the soul! What does it +matter, if a man dies in the work-house--if he dies on a door-step, +covered with wounds, like Lazarus--what does it matter, if his soul +is saved? It is your creed as much as mine, that the soul is +immortal, and that the death of the body is only its introduction, if +it be saved, to a glorious future of everlasting felicity, progress, +and holiness. Does the child remember how he used to cry over his +lessons, when he becomes a man? Does he remember all the little +difficulties of his school days, when he is inheriting the fruits of +them? Just so; ten thousand times less important will be all our +sufferings, trials, and griefs here, if we save our souls, and the +souls of others. + +This Divine Charity makes everything else subservient to the +salvation of souls; it uses everything else to save and bless the +inner and spiritual man. Do you remember, on one occasion, when the +Master had fed the multitudes, and when they came to Him again to be +fed, He said, "Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but +because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." You would have +said, "Quite right; the people want to be fed; they are hungry." But +do you hear the Divine lament that comes out in these words, that +they were so spiritually obtuse, that they valued the earthly bread +more than the heavenly! Give them as much temporal bread as you like, +but mind you give them the spiritual bread first, for this is +characteristic of true Charity. + +Have you got this Charity? Every soul knows whether it has or not. +People are so unphilosophical in religion; they talk about not +knowing; but you can find out in two minutes whether you love God or +yourself best. Tell me that woman does not know whether she loves her +husband or herself best! Nonsense! What is the proof?--she seeks to +please him, and is willing to sacrifice herself for him--in fact, +merges her interests altogether in his. Do you love God best? Are you +willing to forego your interests, and to seek His? Have you this +Divine Charity, born of Heaven, tending to Heaven? If not, my friend, +resolve you will have it now. Begin to cry mightily to God, for the +Holy Spirit to shed it abroad in your heart; give up your quibblings +and reasonings, and go down at the foot of the cross and ask +Him,--"Come, Lord, and break up this poor, wicked heart of mine, and shed +this beautiful, pure, Divine Charity abroad in it," and then you will +not, henceforth, seek your own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CHARITY AND REBUKE. + + + And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest + of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13. + +The second main point of difference between a true and a false +Charity, we want to remark, is, _Divine Charity is not only +consistent with, but it very often necessitates, reproof and rebuke +by its possessor_. It renders it incumbent on those who possess it +to reprove and rebuke whatever is evil--whatever does not tend to +the highest interests of its object. + +This Charity conforms in this, as in everything else, to its Divine +model--"As many as I love I rebuke and chasten"--when necessary for +the good of its object, for He doth not _willingly_ afflict or +grieve the children of men, any more than a father willingly +chastises a disobedient child; but, if he be a wise father, he will +do it because he loves it. Just so the possessor of this Divine +Charity can afford to rebuke and reprove sin wherever he finds it. He +will not suffer sin upon his neighbor, but will in any wise reprove +him, and strive to win him to the right. We will just turn to a +beautiful illustration (there are many, if we had time to go into +them) of the working of this Divine Charity in the heart and life of +the very apostle who wrote this 13th of Corinthians. We cannot get +wrong, because it is Paul himself. (Gal. ii. 11-15.) + +"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, +because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, +he did eat with the Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew +and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. +And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that +Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I +saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the +Gospel, I said unto Peter before _them_ all"-- + +Well done, Paul,--noble, gloriously courageous Charity that! He did +not go and mutter behind Peter's back and stab him in the dark-- + +"I said unto Peter _before them all_, If thou, being a Jew, livest after +the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou +the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We _who are_ Jews by nature, and +not sinners of the Gentiles." + +You want a characteristic of true Charity. Now, listen to it. It +would be exceedingly painful to Paul thus publicly to rebuke Peter. +They loved one another, for we find Peter, long after this, in one of +his Epistles, calling Paul "our beloved brother, Paul." They loved +one another. Paul understood the claims of true Charity, for he wrote +this thirteenth of Corinthians. If he loved Peter, and if he +understood the claims of true Charity, why did he thus openly rebuke +Peter, why did he inflict upon himself the pain of doing it? +Faithfulness to Peter himself, faithfulness to the truth, +faithfulness to Jesus Christ demanded it; therefore, he sacrificed +his own personal feelings, and inflicted this pain upon himself, +rather than allow Peter to go wrong, the Romans to be misled, and the +Jews to be carried away with worldly policy. Paul set himself to +rebuke Peter in the presence of all, for truth lay, as it very often +does, with the minority; nearly all the influence was on the side of +the circumcision. _They_ were the most influential of the +brethren, and Paul set himself against all this influence in his +rebuke of Peter. Why? Because faithfulness to the truth demanded it, +and Divine Charity is FIRST PURE. + +There is a greater example still in our Lord Himself, in the Master +whose whole soul was love, whose life was one sacrifice for the good +of His creatures; and yet how faithfully He reproved His own when +they erred from the truth, and how fearlessly He exposed and +denounced the shallowness and hypocrisy of those who professed to +love God, and yet contradicted this profession in their lives. How +fearlessly He reproved sin everywhere. He said to his disciples on +one occasion, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the +Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." As +if He had said, you ought to have learned this before now. + +On another occasion, He said, "Are ye also yet without +understanding?" And again, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou +savourest not the things that be of God;" that was Divine Charity, +that was faithful love, that dared to rebuke, rather than let the +object of it do wrong, and sin against God. And again, when He goes +to the hypocrites and Pharisees, He says, "Ye say ye are the children +of Abraham"--(it was as difficult for Jesus Christ to confute the +professors of His day, as it is for His ambassadors to confute the +professors of this day, who are living inconsistently with their +professions)--He said, "Ye say that ye are the children of Abraham; +if ye were the children of Abraham, ye would listen to me; or, if ye +were the children of God, ye would believe in me, for I came out from +God. No! ye are the children of your father, the devil, and his works +ye do." And yet His Divine heart was full, to breaking, of love, and +broke itself on the cross for them, and prayed, "Father, forgive +them; for they know not what they do." Oh, that your Charity and mine +might not lack this lineament of the Divine likeness! Would to God +there were more of this faithful, loving Charity, that dares to +reprove sin, and to rebuke its brother, instead of the false Charity +that fawns on a man to his face, and goes behind him and stabs him in +the back. + +Do you suppose that the great mass of the professors of this +generation think one another to be right? Take almost any given +church. Do you suppose that the great mass of the members of that +church suppose in their hearts that their fellow members, brothers +and sisters in church communion, are living consistently--I don't +mean in _things_ only, but in heart--that they are living really +godly lives? Alas! witness what they say behind each other's backs. +They believe no such thing; they know perfectly well it is not so, +and they take care to tell other people so; and yet there is not one +in a thousand of them ever went privately to his brother, and took +lovingly hold of his hand, and reproved him for his sinful and +backsliding conduct. + +What would be thought of any woman who were to go, after being to +church the day before, and ask for a private interview with Mrs. ----, +and, when alone with her, with tears in her eyes, and deep +earnestness in her voice, were to say, "Dear Mrs. ----, I have come to +see you on a very painful errand, but will you suffer a word of +exhortation from one so unworthy and weak as I feel myself to be, and +yet, I trust, one who has the Spirit of God, which urges me to come +to you? Will you allow me to say that I was much pained with your +attitude at church, yesterday. It seemed to me that your mind was not +at all occupied with the solemnity of the service, but seemed to be +occupied in criticising the person's dress in the seat opposite to +you, and I could not help noticing that when you got outside the +doors you began to laugh and talk in a way quite incompatible with +the service you had been attending?" If she were to say, "Dear Mrs. ----, +I have not mentioned this to a soul, not even to my husband, but I +have come to tell it to you; let us go down before the Lord and ask +Him for the Holy Spirit, that He may show you how wrong you are, and +how you are sliding away from the love of God"--what would be the +thought, what would be said, of such conduct? + +If everybody who sees sin upon his neighbor would do that--if he +would take the Lord's counsel and go and see his brother alone, and +tell him his fault--how many would be saved from backsliding, and how +many a disgraceful split and controversy in churches might be saved! + +But where are the people who will do it? I don't mean there are not +any--God forbid--I know there are; but I am speaking comparatively. +Where is the man who will inflict pain upon himself?--for that is the +point. If it were a pleasant duty, he would do it easily enough; but +it is a painful duty, he does not like to screw himself up to it. +Where is the man that will do it, rather than suffer his brother to +go to sleep in his sin, and rather than the precious cause of Christ +shall be disgraced and injured? Where are the saints who will go in +meekness and in love to try to reclaim the one who has erred? I hope +you know a great many. I am sorry to say I know only a few. If you +know many, I am very glad, and the more you know the better I am +pleased. If you are one of these, that is one, at all events. If +every Christian would have this sort of Charity, what a change would +soon come about. That is what the church wants--people who can afford +to rebuke and reprove, because they don't care what men think of THEM +--who are set only on pleasing their Lord and Master, and doing His +will. + +Have you got this Charity that seeketh not her own? What a contrast +between Saul and Paul. Did you ever think about it? What does he say? +"I went about to establish my own righteousness." That was his +inspiring motive; that was the spring of his action, before he got +true Charity; not that he cared for the kingdom of God, but he cared +for his own honor, glory, and exaltation, and wanted to stand well +with his nation. Then contrast him when he becomes Paul. What does he +say? "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my +brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." _There_ is +Charity, if you like. These were the very people with whom he had +been so anxious to stand well, and whose good word he wanted; but, +when the Holy Ghost had come, and Paul had got the Divine Charity, +and got his eyes opened to see their devilish and lost condition, he +so weeps over them that he says, "I have great heaviness and +continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were +accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the +flesh." + +_There is a contrast_. He does not care now, what they think of +HIM; he is going about, trying to open their eyes and make them see +that they are not the children of Abraham, but the children of the +devil, that they are going to the bottomless pit, and that, unless +they turn round and seek the God of their fathers, they must perish. +Self is lost sight of altogether, now; Paul's heart and soul and +efforts are set on the salvation of men. If they choose to; praise +him, he takes it as a matter of course; if they choose to condemn +him, he takes that as a matter of course, too. He is seeking the +kingdom, and, however men treat him, the kingdom he seeks, right on +to martyrdom. He runs the gauntlet of their direst hate and malice, +that he may open their eyes and turn them from Satan to God, and from +sin to righteousness. Self is lost sight of; it is not Paul now--it +is Christ and His kingdom. + +False Charity is the opposite of this. Its possessor is most +concerned about what people think of HIM; not how they treat his +professed Lord. The possessor of false Charity cannot afford to +reprove anybody. Oh, dear, no! he would faint at the very idea; and +he calls people hard and legal and censorious who dare to do it--poor, +sneaking coward! but he will not be afraid to stab a man behind +his back. The speech of this false Charity betrayeth it, it +flattereth with its lips; honey is on its tongue, but the poison of +asps is underneath; beware of it! Even when it professes to commend a +brother, or neighbor, it rolls up its sanctimonious eyes, and always +puts a "but" in--one of the devil's "buts." "Oh, he is a good man, +but--." "Yes, I have a great esteem for him, only there is such and +such a thing." Oh, it is very Divine. The devil can put on a garb of +light when it answers his purpose. Oh, the fair reputations that this +slime of the serpent has trailed over! Oh, the influence for good +that this venom of the devil has poisoned and ruined, for it has +been, truly said, "There is no virtue so white that back-wounding +calumny will not strike"--even in God's perfect man, those who are +watching and seeking to betray can find something on which to ground +their accusations. + +I say, mind which Charity you have got True Charity, rejoiceth not +in iniquity. Are you conscious in your soul of a feeling of triumph +when anybody that you don't like happens to fall on some evil thing? +If you have, look out--the devil has got hold of you. Do you rejoice +in iniquity when it happens to an enemy? If so, woe be to you, unless +you get that venom out. God won't have it in Heaven. _One man with +that venom in him would damn Paradise_, "Love your enemies"--love +them; "bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and +pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye +may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven." Now, my +brother, my sister, try yourself. "We shall meet again, and you will +find that these are no imaginary vagaries that I have been talking +of; they are realities--though these great realities of our Christianity +are seldom preached in these days; but they are _here_, and there is no +truth in you if you have not got the Charity which hates evil as evil, +and which will reprove it, and root it out, and have it _cured_!" + +Here, again, false Charity is the very antipodes of the Divine. It +does not care much about righteousness. Quietness is its beau ideal +of all that is lovely and excellent. It says, "Let us be quiet; you +must not disturb the peace of the church." It cries, "Peace, peace!" +when there is no peace. It says, "We cannot help these evils. Every +man must look after himself; we are not responsible for our +neighbor." It knows very often that there are continents of dirt +underneath--"things," and "systems," and men--which it chooses to +patronize; but then, it is covered up, and so it says, "Let it alone; +we cannot have a smudge. Let it alone. Peace! Peace! Never mind +righteousness--the church must be supported, if the money does come +out of the dried-up vitals of drunkards and harlots; never mind, we +must have it. Never mind if our songs are mixed with the shrieks of +widows and orphans, of the dying and damned! Sing away, sing away, +and drown their voices. Never mind; we cannot have it looked into, +and rooted out, and pulled up. Peace; we must have peace!" And they +call you, as Ahab did Elijah, the disturber of Israel, if you dare to +touch the sore place and exhibit their putrifying wounds and bruises; +and when you say to them, "The law of life is, 'Do unto others as you +would they should do unto you,'" they impudently turn upon you and +say, "But we are not expected to be perfect in this life," and so +they throw a thicker covering over the filth, and on it goes. + +This is the devil's Charity; and the more the better for his +purpose. But the Charity and the wisdom which is from above, is first +pure, and then peaceable! I would rather be in everlasting warfare in +company with that which is fair, and true, and good, than I would +walk in harmony with that which is hollow, and rotten, and vile, and +destined for the bottomless pit. The Lord help you to make the same +choice! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CHARITY AND CONFLICT. + + + And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest + of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13. + +Another characteristic of this Divine Charity is, that it OFTEN +INVOLVES CONFLICT. + +It was so with our Lord. He was the very personification of it. He +was love itself, and grace and truth poured from His lips +incessantly. His blessed feet went about doing good, and His hands +ministering to the necessities and happiness of His creatures, yet +His whole course through this degenerate world was one of conflict, +opposition, and persecution. His proper mission was to bring peace on +earth; but the result of it was a sword! Why? That was not His fault. +He would, doubtless, have enjoyed being at peace with all men, as His +ambassador exhorts us--"as much as lieth in us to be." More, He was +the Prince of Peace! Then, how was it that wherever He went, there +was sword, opposition, and conflict to the death? Because men +_resisted_ and _rejected_ His Divine and Heavenly ministrations. They +would not hear His rebukes and His teaching, because they condemned +them. They would not listen to His voice, because they were of their +father the devil, and the works of their father they would do; and, +therefore, they went about to persecute Him, and to kill Him. + +This was the reason--not that _He_ wanted it to be so, but it +was the consequence of their resistance to the beautiful, heavenly, +and Divine truths which He taught; and it is just so now, with the +same truth, and the living embodiments of such truth. JESUS CHRIST +COME IN THE FLESH AGAIN IN HIS PEOPLE, living out before the world +His principles, acting upon His precepts, living for the same objects +for which He lived, will produce, exactly and everywhere, the same +result. It must be so while men are divided into two classes--the +righteous and the wicked--those who are born of the flesh, and those +who are born of the Spirit. One must either give in, or there must be +perpetual conflict and warfare. It was so with the Saviour, and so, +perhaps, with some of us. + +I think this is often a snare to God's really sincere people. I +think some of God's people are afraid; they don't like the feeling +that their hand is against every man, and every man's hand against +them, or nearly so. They do not like the feeling of isolation; they +do not like being compelled to take a course which nearly all the +Christian professors round about them condemn, and make out to be +uncharitable, and they often examine themselves to see whether it is +possible that they may be going wrong in following the Divine Spirit. +They say with Jeremiah, and with the Jeremiahs of every age, "Woe is +me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of +contention to the whole earth!" They are as "speckled birds, against +whom all the birds round about are gathered." They feel this +opposition and conflict deeply, but what are they to do? Very often, +in following the leadings of the Divine Spirit, it is impossible for +us to avoid such consequences. We have to march through troops of +opposing forces. We have to become the subjects of almost universal +suspicion. But what then? Must we give in? Must we decline to tread +in the bloodstained footsteps of the Captain of our salvation? Must +we decline the honor of being in the advance guard of the Lamb's army +because of the conflict, because of the pain, because of the +persecution? Nay, nay; let us hold on, those here, who are thus led +by the Divine Spirit into paths which involve conflict with +everybody. Follow on, brother! follow on, sister! + +There is no point on which those who want to come out thoroughly for +God, suffer more than oh this. They continually say, "You see, my +friends"--they are Christian, friends--"my friends object." People +come, to see me, or they write that the Spirit of God has been urging +them into a certain course, for months or years, and they are held +back by the opinions and wishes, perhaps, of parents, or of brothers +and sisters, or uncles, or aunts, or Christian friends. + +_I believe it will be found, in the great day of account, that +there have been more blessed enterprises crushed, more leadings of +the Holy Ghost disobeyed, more urgings of the Spirit quenched, +through the influence of what are called Christian friends, than all +other influences put together. "Suffer me first to go and bury my +father," is an everlasting standing excuse for those whom, the Lord +calls on in advance paths of Christian service! Oh, my friends, I am +sure of it. Look out, you fathers and mothers, you brothers and +sisters, and aunts!_ + +Do not misunderstand me. Carefully weigh, probe, and examine, before +God, your impressions and desires. Go into your closet, spread them +there before the Lord. Lay them out, examine your own heart. Be sure +there is no self-interest, no vain glory, no desire to be great, or +to do some out-of-the-way thing. Be as clear as you like; be +satisfied, in your own mind, that it is God's call, and then let +fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, husbands, or wives complain--but +go forward, my brother, and God will justify you. If, twenty years +ago, I had stopped for Christian friends to sanction and to open the +door, I should have waited till today, and the number of souls God, +in His infinite mercy, has given me, I should not have gathered. But +I did not wait for anybody's sanction to my Lord and Master's call; +but said, "Lord, if I die in attempting it, I will do it." He seldom +lets people die in attempting His will. He stands by them, and gives +them abundant fruit. + +A lady said to me the other day, "You know my father is a Christian, +and I am so afraid of going opposite to him." "Yes," I said, "that is +quite a right feeling; I respect that feeling in you." But she was a +woman of considerably matured age, and I added, "But is your father +awake to the interests of God's kingdom as he ought to be?" She +replied, "I dare not say he is." "I suppose," I said "he is +comparatively old--a sort of dried-up Christian, who has lost the +vigor and enterprise of his youthful days, when he wanted to go out +and make everybody Christian?" "Yes," she said, "he has gone sadly +behind in his zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ." "Now," I said, +"God holds you responsible, just as He holds any other being. _He +has not two codes-one for men and one for women._ There will be no +two judgment seats, whatever men do here. God will hold you +responsible for obedience to the teaching of His Spirit, and the +leading of His providence, as much as your brother. What shall you +say? You will be in the position of the man who said, 'Suffer me +first to go and bury my father.'" She said, "I am afraid I shall." + +Now, I say, let us settle this, you Protestant Christians here. +Because Catholicism has abused this principle, that a man is to leave +his father and mother, and houses and lands, if needs be, is that any +reason that we Protestants are to give it up? And has it come to +this, that a man has only to follow Christ when everybody approves it +--cries "Amen"--and when his own interests appear to him to be +secured by so doing? Then, if it were so, I would give up religion +altogether, and go and enjoy myself. I said to a lady, "When you +married yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, you put yourself in the +same position as you would to an earthly husband." What woman in the +world would feel that she ought to obey father and mother, rather +than her husband? Ridiculous! Much less is she to obey her father, if +her father's wishes are exactly contrary to the Divine teaching. She +is only to obey IN THE LORD, and yet thousands of fathers and mothers +are preventing their children working for God. Oh! what will you say +to God when your precious children stand at His bar, without the +sheaves they might have gathered, and the souls they might have won? +What will you say to Him? And why do you hold them back? Oh, the +mean, paltry considerations that you would be ashamed to own before +this congregation! Is it for fear of suffering? Not in many +instances; but, even if it were, did you bargain with Jesus Christ +when you gave yourself and children to Him, that they were not to +suffer for Him? Is it because of your pride?--because you want for +them this world's applause and favor? Look out! God has wonderful +ways of chastising His people in those very things in which they sell +His interest. But you say that "everybody will be against you!" Yes, +very likely. Let us settle that at once. Count all things dung and +dross. Let none of these things move you. You say, "It will be a life +of conflict to the end." Very likely, so was His. "I am so weak," you +say. He knows all about that. You say, "It will be so cutting to have +people saying this, and saying the other." I know it is cutting, but +that is the path He calls you to tread, and He will give you grace to +bear the cutting. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and +persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, +for my sake;" and, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy +are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." + +He does not show where He is leading us, so we can only go a step at +a time. The future may look dark, but let us be fully persuaded in +our own minds that the step in advance is the step the Lord wants us +to take--then take it, and leave the future with Him. Come out, as +Abraham did, not knowing whither you go; and, as sure as He sits upon +the throne, He will vindicate your course, and, perhaps, the very +things that you sacrifice, or that you think you sacrifice, for Him, +He will give you, as the reward of your faithfulness. + +Oh, have I not known many such instances. I have known daughters who +have been turned out of their father's houses for following the +leadings of the Spirit of God, and who have endured all sorts of +persecution, and trial, and suffering, and those fathers, when they +were dying, would have nobody else to pray with them but that +individual daughter. The way to win the souls of parents is by a +consistent, steadfast, holy consecration to the Lord Jesus; whereas, +if you pander, and trim, and hesitate, you will miss the reward. Do +you think people do not know when we are inconsistent? Oh, yes, they +know quite well, and they say, "That is not the right sort of +religion;" but you be consistent and thorough, and God will honor +these very means to the winning of the souls about whom you are so +concerned. + +Further, a false Charity shrinks from opposition. It cannot bear +persecution. Now, here is one unfailing characteristic of a false +Charity: _it is always on the winning side_--that is, apparently, down +here; not what will be, ultimately, the winning side. When Truth sits +enthroned, with a crown on her head, this false Charity is most +vociferous in her support and devotion; but when her garments trail in +the dust, and her followers are few, feeble, and poor, then Jesus Christ +may look after Himself. I sometimes think respecting this hue and cry +about the glory of God and the sanctity of religion, I would like to see +some of these saints put into the common hall with Jesus again, amongst +a band of ribald, mocking, soldiers. I would like to see, then, their +zeal for the glory of God, when it touched their own glory. They are +wonderfully zealous when their glory and His glory go together; but, +when the mob is at His heels, crying, "Away with Him!--crucify +Him!--crucify Him!"--then He may look after His own glory, and they will +take care of theirs. + +True Charity sticks to the LORD JESUS IN THE MUD, when He is +fainting under His cross, as well as when the people are cutting down +the boughs and crying "Hosanna!" I fear many people make the Lord +Jesus Christ a stalking-horse on which to secure their ends. God +grant us not to be of that number, for, if we are, He will topple us +from the very gates of Heaven down to the nethermost hell. This false +Charity cannot go to the dungeon--you never find it at the stake. It +always manages to shift its sides, and change its face, before it +goes as far as that. Never in disgrace; never with Jesus Christ in +the minority, at Golgotha--on the cross. Always with Him when He is +riding triumphant! + +Oh, I often think if times of persecution were to come again how +many of us would be faithful? How many would go to the dungeon? How +many would stand by the truth, with hooting, howling mobs at our +heels, such as followed Him on the way to the cross--such as stood +round His cross and spat upon Him, and cast lots for His vesture, and +parted His garments among them, and wagged their heads and cried, "He +saved others; Himself He cannot save"? How many of us would stick to +Him then? But, as your soul and mine liveth, that is the only kind of +love that will stand the test of the Judgment Day. + +Oh, have you got this Charity? Love in the darkness; Love in the +Garden; Love in sorrow; Love in suffering; Love in isolation; Love in +persecution; Love to the death!--Have we got this love? Examine +yourselves, beloved, and see whether you are in the faith or not, for +there is much need of it in this day, when there are so many false +gospels and so much false doctrine;--when we hear so much about being +"complete in Him" by people who never were in Him at all, and no more +understand what it means than the very kitten that lies on their +hearth. I say, examine yourself, whether you be in the faith or not, +and whether you are in Him; for, verily, it is no easier now to be +His real followers than ever it was. + +Further, a false Charity _refuses to call things by their proper +names!_ Oh! what endless ways it has of putting lying! lying that +is done on this day by professing Christians! Oh, the nice, +comfortable, self-indulgent ways it has of looking at ungodly trades +and practices! What do I mean? I mean trades that cannot be made +subservient to the interest of the kingdom of Christ; trades that +thrive by ministering either to the vile passions of human nature, or +to the ungodliness of human nature. By what nice names it calls +Satanic traffics in the bodies, hearts, and souls of men! And, when +Divine Charity remonstrates with it, it turns round and says, "Well, +you know, but we must have regard to our own interests; we have large +interests at stake." I sometimes say, "God knows you have! and, when +the Judge riseth up to avenge those who have been oppressed and +destroyed by your iniquitous traffics, you will find them sadly TOO +LARGE, TOO BIG FOR THE HELL ITSELF TO CONTAIN." + +The Lord have mercy on any of you who are living on the follies or +wickedness of your fellow-men. Make haste to get out of such trades. +Wash your hands of them, for, depend upon it, that is the devil's +Charity that would try to make you comfortable in them! It has +nothing to do with Divine Charity. + +"Oh, my soul, come not into their secret; unto their assembly, mine +honor, be not thou united," but stand aloof from all such alliances +of light with darkness, of truth with falsehood; "have no fellowship +with the unfruitful works of darkness," "For behold the day cometh +that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do +wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them +up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root +nor branch." He is the same God; He changes not! Let us call things +by their right names. Let us face the evil. Let us chase it out of +the world--or, at any rate, chase it out of the church. Depend upon +it, the Lord is going to prove all things. I can hear, as it were, +the rumbling of the earthquake of the Divine indignation underground, +I can see the gathering of the Divine wrath overhead; and, IF THIS +NATION DOES NOT REPENT, AND IF THE CHURCHES OF THIS LAND DO NOT COME +OUT AND WASH THEIR HANDS OF THESE THINGS, GOD WILL SEND US SUCH A +BAPTISM OF BLOOD AS WE HAVE NEVER CONCEIVED OF, AND HE WILL PUT US +OUT, and put some other nation in our place, or else He will act +contrary to all His former dealings with nations! Do you suppose that +Jerusalem was more guilty than we are? Have we not been exalted much +higher than Jerusalem ever was? And have we not sinned against +greater light and privilege than ever she did? Are not our professed +Christians exactly the same in character as her Pharisees? Do they +not make fine and long prayers, and, at the same time, devour the +widow and fatherless? Yea, for hellish gain, do they not make widows +and orphans wholesale? Might not God truly say of us, "Ah, sinful +nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children +that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked +the Holy One of Israel unto anger: they are gone away backward." Even +the prophets prophesy falsely, and the people love to have it so! + +Do you say, "No, we are not so _bad?"_ I answer, look abroad +over the land, open your eyes, observe and see. Has it not become +proverbial--have you not heard it until your ears have tingled, and +your face burned with shame--"Better go and deal with anybody than a +Christian"? and, alas! has there not been much ground for it? Have we +any need to wonder that infidels wag their heads? Can you go into a +shop where you are sure you will not be extortioned? Do you know +anybody who keeps a conscience with respect to the profits he makes? +Is there anybody scarcely who won't charge his neighbor more than the +article is worth, if he has a chance, and call it lawful? _That_ +is extortion. It may be only asking twopence for an article worth a +penny, or a 1,000 pounds for what 700 pounds should buy; it does not +matter the amount--it is EXTORTION! + +God puts extortioners amongst the blackest of sinners. The Lord help +me to "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on +the things of others," and have the Charity that will not take a mean +advantage of my neighbor because I have the chance, and thus traduce +the precious name of the Holy Jesus by calling myself one of His +followers. It is time this satanic Charity was swept out! The very +first law, the very vital principle of true Charity, is _righteousness._ +There is no Charity apart from righteousness. If your Charity is +incompatible with righteousness, it is born of the devil and leads to +hell! + +If you have had anything revealed to you, in your heart or life, +that you see to be wrong, say, "Here Lord, pour the light in; I am so +glad You have shown this thing to me while there is time to alter it. +Now bring your dissecting knife, and cut it away, even if the roots +go deep down into my very heart's core. I will have it out." Will +you? Will you be made true, straight, clean? Will you be made Divine? +Will you be filled with the pure, holy love of God towards God, and +towards men, and all beings? That is what the Lord wants you to have. +This is what He has sent His Son to do. No subterfuge; no make-believe +work to get you into Heaven as you are; but He wants to make +you as He wants you to be, and _He can do it._ The Great +Physician is able, He is willing, He has got love enough, and power +enough and grace enough to do it for you. Confide all your heart to +Him. Will you have this Divine Charity wrought in you? It will make +you willing to suffer, to endure hardness, and shame, and contempt, +and persecution. It will make you willing to do anything that human +nature can do, and endure anything that human nature can suffer, that +you may accomplish the same purposes that He came to accomplish, that +you may help onward the progress of His glorious kingdom. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHARITY AND LONELINESS. + + + And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest + of these is charity.-I COR. xiii. 13. + +_The possession of this Divine Charity often necessitates walking +in a lonely path._ + +Not merely in opposition and persecution, but _alone_ in it, +and here, again, Jesus, who was the personification of Divine lore, +stands out as our great example. He was emphatically alone, and of +the people there was none with Him. Even the disciples whom He had +drawn nearest to Him, and to whom He had tried to communicate most of +His thought and spirit, were so behind that He often had to reprove +them, and lament their obtuseness and want of sympathy. In the +greatness of His love He had to go forward into the darkness of +Gethsemane. He was alone while they slept, and then through ribaldry, +scorn, and sarcasm, to the cross. Alas! alas! almost alone, except a +few--to their everlasting honor--poor faithful women--_alone!_ + +And, as it was with the Master, so it has been with all those whom +God has called to go in advance of their race. It was so with John, +and with Paul, and with most of the apostles, and with all those whom +God has called to extraordinary paths since. Must John have a +revelation of things shortly to come to pass? He must go alone into +the Isle of Patmos! Must Paul hear unspeakable words, not, at that +time, lawful for a man to utter? He must go alone into the third +heaven, and not be allowed even to communicate what he saw and heard +when he came down; alone, he must necessarily go in advance. + +And just so, when God has called some of His followers to an +out-of-the-way path, they have had to go alone in an untrodden way. +Superior love necessitates a lonely walk. You shrink, and say, "That +seems so hard." Yes, I know; I wish I could make it easier, but I cannot +help it. I simply state the fact, that superior love necessitates, in +some measure, a lonely walk, because you see it is only they who--thus +love, to whom the Lord tells His secrets. If you want to ask a +confidential question and get a confidential answer, you must be on +the bosom of your Master. You won't be able to do it at a distance. +Then, you see, when He gives to any soul superior light to its +fellows, and that soul _follows_ the light, it necessarily entails a +path in advance of its fellows. Unless he can inspire and encourage them +(which, alas! is hard work) to follow, he must go on alone. + +That was a beautiful illustration we read in the lesson (Acts x.). +Here is Peter called to go in advance of the whole Church! Now, the +Lord wants a man to do this, and whom does He choose? He chooses +impulsive, energetic, head-first Peter. But then, there is something +to be done first God lets down the sheet with all its unclean contents, +and Peter fastens his eyes upon it. (I wish you had studied all the +sheets the Lord has let down before _your eyes_, you would have come out +very differently to what you have.) Peter studies them, and soon the +Divine vision has absorbed Peter's attention. When the Lord has fairly +got his attention, then comes the voice, "Now, Peter, rise, slay and +eat." Then, when the Lord had taught him his lesson effectually, and +when Peter saw that he had not yet explored all the ideas of the Divine +mind about the extension of His kingdom, and that his business was to +follow his Lord's directions, and not to have his own "ifs" and "buts," +but go ahead and do as God bade him, then Peter goes on to carry out the +Divine direction. Then the church, aghast, as usual, at anything +new--always down upon a measure, whether good or bad, if it has the _awful +quality of being new_--was down upon it. This new church, which had only +just itself been brought to God by a set of _new measures_, is down +upon Peter, and they call him to the council to answer for his conduct. + +He tells them all about it in the truthful simplicity of a man of +God, and, thank God, they had sense enough--yes, and love enough, +charity enough, to accept his explanations, and to glorify God. Would +to God we could get as much sense and charity in these days! + +A lady writes to me, only the other day, of her husband, saying that +he sympathises with outside work, but contends that there is +everything one wants in the church; and another contends that there +is everything everybody wants somewhere else, and so they are down +upon all the Peters that dare to do anything out of the jog-trot +line. You may reason ever so urgently, and show them that all these +old measures are not enough for everybody, that there is a great mass +of outlying population which they do not reach--the Gentiles of this +generation; you may show them that these Gentiles are without the +Holy Ghost, that they are not cleansed, that they are yet common and +unclean; you may show them that these new measures of yours are quite +as lawful as their old measures, and that, probably, they would be a +great deal more useful, and, moreover, that they have been borne in +upon you by the Holy Ghost, and that you feel as if there were a fire +in your bones urging you to go and try them, but they will not hold +their peace and glorify God, but will loose their tongues and villify +you. + +False Charity looks more at the means than at the end. Its possessor +is more concerned about what men will think of _him_, than what +will exalt the Redeemer. You can know it by this mark. Are you more +concerned about what your neighbor, Mr. So-and-So, or your minister, +Rev. Mr. So-and-So, or even your bishop, thinks about you, than you +are about the extension of the kingdom of Christ? Look out, my +friend, yours is the wrong sort of Charity. True Charity looks at the +end--the spread of righteousness in the earth--_the reign of the +King_--and it is not very fastidious about the measures, so that +they are lawful. + +I do not advocate anything unlawful, to do good--God forbid. Divine +Charity says, "Anywhere with Jesus"--in the temple or outside of +it--at the seaside or in Cheapside--on the mountain top or in the market +place--in the streets--anywhere, Lord Jesus, if Thou wilt only come +and take Thine inheritance and reign over the hearts and souls of +men. True Charity is only too glad to become a Jew to the Jews, as +weak to the weak, if it can only pick them up;--only too glad to +descend to men of low estate, and put its arms round their necks, if +it can only bring them to the cross and bring them back to the heart +and Heaven of God; and it does not care what the Pharisee on the +other side says; it is set on saving the poor sinner; it is pouring +in oil and wine, and putting him on its own beast; _it is intent on +saving him_, and does not care what anybody thinks. Have you got +it? It is so good. It makes you feel so warm and comfortable inside. +It is beautiful, and it proves better and better every day, and it +will be better still when you are dying--Faith and Hope will be done +away, but this love will last _forever!_ + +But this necessitates somebody leading the way--going on in advance. +Will _you_ be content to go in advance? Will _you_ endure the hardness +of a pioneer? Can you bear the ridicule and gibes of your fellow-men? +Dare _you_ go where the Holy Ghost leads, and leave Him to look _after +the consequences?_ If so, happy are you, and you shall have a harvest of +precious souls; you shall shine as the stars forever; but, if you draw +back, His soul shall have no pleasure in you. Step out on to the Divine +love, that is able, alone amongst the breakers, to bear your little +bark--able to make you _more_ than a conqueror. Oh, step out--follow, +follow, follow--do not be afraid! + +_Spurious Charity_ is the opposite of this. It must have human +notice. Ostentation is its very essence. Cease to notice it, and it +will soon die. "I went about to establish mine own righteousness," +says Paul, before he got the true Charity. Here was a grand +opportunity for Pharisaic Saul. These Nazarenes, were they not +everywhere spoken against? Was not this a grand opportunity for +_him_ to be everywhere spoken for?--and so he takes advantage of +public opinion, and becomes "exceedingly mad" against them; and, not +satisfied with persecuting them in his own city, he goes after them +into strange cities, but he reveals, afterwards, when he got the +Divine Charity, that the mainspring of his zeal was SELF-GLORY. + +False Charity hates to be in a minority--you never find it in an +unrespectable minority,--it wants company, and that of a respectable, +genteel kind. Its possessors are always sticklers for the traditions +of the elders; their horizon is bounded very largely by the opinions +of men and the attitude of the _rulers_. They are always asking, +"Have any of the rulers believed on Him?" + +Now, my friends, let this teach you wisdom and love. Prove all +things before you condemn. I have no doubt Saul was an honest man, in +the world's acceptation of the term, for he says he persecuted the +Nazarenes ignorantly, thinking he was doing God service; but what a +grand mistake he was making, and how effectually he was doing the +_work of the devil!_ Of course, if he had _seen_, he was mistaken, he +would have ceased to _be mistaken_. + +I wish people would stop and think that the path they are now +standing in the well-beaten track on which they are now walking with +such slow dignity--was one quite as new and unconventional and +outrageous to the coadjutors of their forefathers, as the path which +any new departure by the Holy Ghost may set before them _now_. I +wish such people would read history. I suppose they do not, or, if +they do, they read it as they do the Bible--they fail to draw any +practical principle from it. Such people should read "Neale's History +of the Puritans," and see in what a hurricane of excitement, +opposition, contempt, and persecution, their forefathers fought for +the very paths they are now _standing still in_, and holding so +sacred that they cannot have them disturbed. Do you see how +unphilosophically they are acting? If their forefathers had acted on +the principles they are acting on, they would have stood still in old +paths, and we would never have been in the new ones. These people +stand in these paths of traditionalism and routinism, just where +their forefathers left them, occupying all their time in admiring the +wisdom and benevolence and devotion of their forefathers, instead of +imitating _their aggressive faith_ and MARCHING ON TO THE CONQUEST OF +THE WORLD. + +Which is the most God-honoring? Which has the most common sense in +it? Which will please your forefathers the most? But it is now as it +was in the days of the Son of Man--for, "ye build the tombs of the +prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, 'If +we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been +partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Wherefore ye be +witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which +killed the prophets." + +Alas! what a deal of this is going on to-day, only there is one +difference--it is going on "under a Christian creed, instead of a +Jewish." It is only the _creed_ that differs--the character, the +spring of action, is the same. + +Now, my friends, try yourselves--which Charity _have you got?_ +Do you rejoice in the extension of the kingdom of Jesus Christ by any +lawful means, or are you more concerned _about the color of a man's +coat than the state of his heart?_ Would you rather the poor +drunkard were left to rot and seethe in his misery, than that a man +should put on a blue jacket with an S.[Footnote: Badge of the +Salvation Army.] on his collar, and go and fetch him out? Would you +rather have men damned conventionally, than saved unconventionally? +If you would, you are a Pharisee at heart--I care not what you call +yourselves. Go home and read for your instruction Matt, xxiii. 23-28. + +Further, how bitterly this false Charity often comes out in +individual cases. We will just take an illustration. We will suppose +here is a family of decent, respectable, professedly Christian +people, who have been to church or chapel most of their lives. Or +here is a Church, we will suppose, of the same character--nothing +particular has happened; they fear the Lord, and go comfortably +along, and are just where they were ten or fifteen years ago, making +up for _deaths_ and _removals_. We will suppose that a member of that +family or that church, as the case may be, gets converted. He reads a +book, goes to a special meeting, or some providential utterance is the +means of sending the light of God's Spirit upon his soul, and he is +quickened and woke up to see the miserable, half-dead, guilty condition +in which he is; he is praying and groaning, and feeling after God; he +gets the sense of his transgressions and unfaithfulness being taken +away, and the joy of God's salvation restored to his soul. Now, in a +moment, almost immediately, as in the case of Peter, as soon as the +internal work is done, comes the external path opened up. The Spirit of +God lays before him some new work, something strikes him which has been +long forgotten, or which never seems to have been recognised in his +family or church. He sees what a grand thing that would be for the +conversion of souls, and the extension of the kingdom of Jesus +Christ, and he feels it beginning to burn like a fire in his bones to +enter this path of usefulness. He prays much over it, and he waits +until he is fully satisfied that it is not a vain impulse, but that +it is of the Spirit of God. Full of love, and faith, and zeal, he +goes to tell his minister, or some Christian friend; he expects that +they will sympathise with his feelings, and enter into his project; +but, alas! alas! they begin by raising objections--they start +difficulties:--"Well, but you see that would be a little out of our +order: that is not exactly our way of doing things. I am afraid the +deacons would object, or I am afraid something would happen;" and if +he has the misfortune to be young (anybody would think it was a sin +to be young), they will "crush" him out; they put the extinguisher +on, and say, "Wait, my brother, until you have more experience," or, +"my sister," especially, "_you_ must never presume to do +anything of which we cannot approve!" + +Oh! friends, you smile because you _know_ how true it is! Oh, +alas! the thousands of urgings of the Holy Ghost; the thousands of +heavenly voices that have been as clear to human souls as ever +Peter's sheet was to him; the thousands of glorious aspirations and +schemes for the spread of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ that +have been thus crushed by this spurious, false, selfish, devilish +Charity! The Lord put it out. + +Oh! I would not care what the Lord called my child to do that would +be for the extension of His kingdom and the glory of His name; I +would not restrain her or keep her back. I might say, "My child, it +may be a painful thing for me to consent. I might have chosen another +path for you; but if you are satisfied the Spirit leads you, go +forward, and I will do all I can to help you." Why? Because I want +the King to have His own, and I do not care how it is, so that He gets +His own, and I will have Him to use _mine_ as well as me to get it. + +Fathers and mothers, look out! If you grudge your children to God, +He will be even with you. "They that honor Me, I will honor, but they +who do not, shall be lightly esteemed." They shall get light weight +all round, and be whipped with their own rods. Mind how you withhold +that which is most precious from God! Mind you do not receive the +grace of God in vain; _some people do_. + +The fifth point in which this Divine and spurious Charity contradict +each other, is, that Divine Charity--the pure love of God--is _law +abiding_. + +That is, it always manifests itself in harmony with the great moral +law of the universe--it never does evil that good may come! You never +hear it saying--"I cannot say that this is exactly square; I know +this is not exactly the right course, but then I can accomplish such +and such objects by adopting it." Never! that is of the devil! You +may always know that the law of righteousness is entwined round the +very heart of Divine Charity, and as justice and judgment are the +habitation of the throne of its Divine Author, so righteousness is in +the very core of its soul. It will never sacrifice righteousness for +peace, or anything else. + +Now, what is the whole duty of man? To love mercy, to do justly, and +walk humbly with God; and, when the Holy Spirit has brought about +that result in your soul, God will look on you with a beneficent eye, +with a smile of approbation, and its genial influence will sun your +whole being, and you will walk in the light of it, even as the angels +do in Heaven. "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God;" +that is the whole duty of man--everything is included in that. + +Do you hear it, oh! ye temporizers with Divine law? Do you hear it, +ye who say that we must come down partly, and be a little like the +world in order to win it? that you must come on to the level of the +ungodly in order that you may win them to God?--I tell you that +_all unrighteousness is sin!_ Do you hear this, you who contend +for covering up by a false Charity certain sins which are sending men +to perdition wholesale, and make laws and acts of parliament to +protect men in these crimes? I know your specious arguments that come +from the devil; but I ask, is it justice to take one part of the human +race, and that the weaker, and, therefore, according to the law of +Divine Charity, demanding the greater protection from cruelty and wrong, +and offer that part up for the _supposed_ good of the other, because +the latter is stronger? Is that justice? Is that mercy? and, mind, I say +emphatically _supposed good_; for, do you think one part of God's +creation can be trodden down without reacting with terrible moral force +upon the other? Do you think it can? Was it ever done? Will it ever be +done? _No! not while He sits on His throne_. Yes, _supposed_ good, for +facts mock your arguments. It is not for their good; you know it is not. +You cannot accomplish your purpose when you have done all; and think you +that you will escape, by your satanic inventions, the Divine +Executioner? Think you that your specious arguments will avail with Him +who hath sworn in His holy habitation that He will avenge the oppressed +and down-trodden of the earth? No, no! I see written between the lines, +and I hear muttering between your speeches. "Be not deceived; God is not +mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." You +cannot escape the penalty! + +The last characteristic of true Charity which I shall name is, that +_it holds out_, in spite of ingratitude, opposition, and persecution! +Its possessor seeks the good of all men, not because he ought, merely, +but because he cannot help it. His _heart_ is on the side of God and +truth. He _loves_ righteousness, and, therefore, cannot desist from +seeking to bring all beings to love it, too, although they hate and +despise him for so doing. Jesus held out in this glorious love, even in +the agonies of crucifixion. "Father, forgive them; they know not what +they do." His heart was set on bringing man back to God, and He went +through with it. His soul did not draw back, and His Divine love +constrained Him, even onto death. + +Paul followed his Master in this respect; and though the more he +loved some of his converts, the less he was loved, he went on, +seeking their highest good, not being hindered for a moment by their +ingratitude. He loved _them_--not their good opinion or applause! A +spurious Charity soon tires when the objects of it prove unworthy. Its +possessor says: "I have had enough of this; the kinder I am, the worse +people treat me. I shall button up my pocket, and take my ease, till I +am better appreciated." _Self_-glory is the very life of spurious +Charity: it dies right out under ingratitude and contempt. + +Which have you got, my brother?--my sister? + +Does somebody say, as a man who had been to a service at Scarborough +the other, day, and had been hearing some straight truth, said, when +asked, "How did you like it?" The man, a young, prosperous tradesman +in the town, shuffled about, and said: "Well, it was awful; if that +is true, I am on my way to hell." Thank God he had found it out. Now, +have you got this Divine Charity? I told you, at the beginning, it +did not grow on unregenerate human nature, so if you are an +unregenerate man, and have not the Holy Spirit, I want you to find it +out. You have to begin at the beginning, and get the plant planted. +No matter what spurious imitations you have got, if you have not got +_the love of God_. Have you got it, brother?--sister? If you +have not, you can have it this afternoon. Will you seek it? We were +all once without it, even as it is said, "We were the children of +wrath, even as others;" we hated those who hated us; we hated things, +not because they were wicked, and against God, but because they were +opposed to us personally; our love and hate were influenced by +selfishness, the same as others, but now the Lord has renewed our +hearts, and made us in some little measure, like Him who "loved +righteousness, and hated iniquity; and, therefore, God anointed Him +with the oil of gladness above His fellows." Oh! yes; the more you +love righteousness and hate iniquity, the more of gladness you will +have, and the more glorious the testimony you will give for God. You +will be able to say, with David, "I have not hid Thy righteousness +within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation: +I have not concealed Thy loving kindness and Thy truth from the great +congregation." There will be no difficulty about declaring it. We +find it easy to declare it when people get it. We cannot keep them +quiet; they are like the early converts--they are up two or three +together; and, like Paul, we have to say, "One at a time; you shall +all prophecy, if you do it one at a time." When people get it, it +bubbles up, and runs over; "it springs up," as out great Master said, +"as a well of water, unto everlasting life." Many floods cannot +quench it; it abideth forever. + +Have you got it? Have you got enough of it to lift you above your +petty, selfish interests, or are you guided by the Charity that first +looks inside to see how any proposition will affect _self_, +instead of seeing how it will affect the kingdom of God? And you, +poor sinner, who know you have not got it--I have more hope of you +than some who profess to have it. His great bowels of compassion move +towards you; He is waiting to shed abroad this love in your heart. +The feast is spread; all things are now ready. Oh! come into His +banqueting house, and sit under His banner of love for ever and ever. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CONDITIONS OF EFFECTUAL PRAYER. + + + If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what you + will, and it shall be done unto you.--JOHN xv. 7. + + Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye + pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.--MARK + xi. 24. + + If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all + men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let + him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a + wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that + man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.--JAMES i.5-7. + + Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not + what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh + intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He + that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, + because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will + of God.--ROMANS viii. 26,27. + +I have not taken the texts in the order in which they stand, but in +the order in which they logically follow one another, and in which +they elucidate the subject. + +And now, in the few remarks I wish to make, I shall try to embody +answers to the letters I have received on this subject. There is no +experience, perhaps, more common in these days than this, nothing +more constantly said to me by professing Christians: "Well, I have +prayed a long time for certain things, but I don't seem to get any +answers to my prayers." I often wonder such people don't give up +praying altogether I think I should if I never got answers. + +Now I say, this is a very God-dishonoring experience, and there must +be something wrong somewhere when this is the case. There must be +something wrong either with the suppliants or the Giver. Oh! I feel +often what a deeply God-dishonoring thing it is when Christians meet, +as they frequently do, up and down the country, to pray for a +revival, to pray for a specific thing in their Churches and in their +families, and it never comes. + +Some years ago, when the wave of revival was sweeping over Ireland +and America, you know the Churches in this country held united +prayer-meetings to pray that it might come to England; but it did not +come, and the infidels wagged their heads, and wrote in their newspapers: +"See, the Christians' God is either deaf or gone a-hunting, for they +have had prayer-meetings all over the land for a revival, and it has +not come." Oh! how my cheeks burned with shame as I thought of it; +how I mourned over it! I knew it was not because our God was asleep +--not because His arm was shortened--not because His bowels of +compassion did not yearn over sinners--not because he could not have +poured out His Spirit and have given us the same glorious times of +refreshing they had in other places. _That was not the reason_. +There was only one reason, and that was, that His people asked amiss. + +They did not understand the conditions of prevailing prayer. They +did not fulfil them. If they had prayed till now, and maintained the +same attitude, they would not have got the answer, because there are +conditions to these promises, as to all other promises; and we may +pray ourselves black and blue in the face if we do not comply with +the conditions. God will never move an inch to meet us, and never +fulfil the promises in our experience. May you, who are awake to +perceive your responsibilities and obligations in respect to the +perishing world, take heed to my words, and take home what I +say--think about it, pray over it, try to realize it is the Lord's +message to you. These are only a tithe of the glorious promises with +respect to prayer. There are plenty of them in the Book, in which God +has bound Himself to answer the faithful prayers of His people. + +"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." + +Now, why is it that the great mass of professing Christians do not +get answers to their prayers? In the first place, they are not the +CHARACTERS to whom God has made the promises. These promises are made +to God's saints--to those who keep His commandments, who walk in the +light and have fellowship with Him through the Holy Spirit, and, +therefore, the Spirit can make intercession for them. How can the +Spirit make intercession for a man when He is not in him? Those who +are walking in the light can see what sort of requests to put up, +when to put them up, and how to put them up; they see it all, because +they are _in the light_. Such people do ask, and receive. But, +alas! it is because there are so few of these that God's character is +traduced every day, and that infidels laugh at us and at our God, too. + +Now, do not go round about, and try to put this off you. Who are +these promises made to? I challenge anybody to find me promises in +this Book, taken with the context (except in the case of repenting +sinners, who are a special class, and met with special promises), +except to saints. There are no promises of answer to prayer, except +to this class of character. These promises are not made to everybody, +are they? The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to God, except +it be his prayer when he is forsaking his wickedness. Then that +prayer is not an abomination; but all other prayers of the wicked +are. These promises are made to righteous people--to people who are: + +First, _in fellowship with God_. "If ye abide in Me, and My +words abide in you;"--having been brought into living fellowship by a +living faith, the promises are made to those people who MAINTAIN that +union--who walk in it, who live in it, and who avail themselves of +the opportunities and privileges which Jesus has bestowed upon them +by virtue of that union. + +Now, you see, friends, it is not enough that you were _once_ in +union with Jesus, in order to get answers to your prayers. I am +afraid there are thousands in a backslidden state. They have let go +the grasp of faith; they are not abiding in Christ; they are abiding +_out of Him_, and yet they are constantly praying and wondering +why God does not answer their prayers. Don't you see, the first +condition is wanting. There is no possible way of approach to the +Father but through the Son. All prayers are an abomination to God +which do not go up to Him through His Son, and in His Son, except +such as those of Cornelius, who never heard of Christ; but to people +who have ever had the light and known His Son, no prayers while out +of living union with His Son are accepted. And that does not mean +saying, "For the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ." It does not matter +much what people _say_. God never pays any attention to people's +words; it is what they mean and feel that He pays attention to; and +He knows when people really offer their prayers in union with His +Son. They are not in union, and, therefore, their prayers never rise +any higher than the room in which they offer them. They hardly get +out of their mouths; God never hears them. They are drowned and +buried in their own throats. + +Oh! you young converts, never drop out of living union with Jesus. +Keep in it--hold it fast--walk in it, and you will get answers to +your prayers every day. You will be as sure of it as if you saw God +doing what you ask, and heard Him speaking to you. You will be able +to say, "I know that Thou hearest me always." Bless His name! Those +who abide in Him can say that in their measure. + +The next condition of prevailing prayer, is--_obedience to the +light_. Now, what does it mean to walk in obedience? Well, it does +_not_ mean, searching this New Testament to find out how little +of God's grace will get you into Heaven! It does not mean, running +round to see what this person says and the other person says about +such and such a text, in order that you may escape from the real, +practical meaning of the text! Such people are hypocrites at heart, +whoever they are; or at least, insincere. They don't want to know +God's will; they would much rather not know it. They want to get away +from the plain, practical, common-sense meaning of the text, and then +they say, "It doesn't mean exactly what it says," and "It should be +interpreted so-and-so;" and they stroke themselves down, and try to +make themselves feel comfortable when they are traitors at heart. +_That is not walking in the light_. + +Walking in the light is like walking in the sun--not running behind +a pillar there, and a tree yonder, to get away from the light. It is +coming right out, and saying, "Now, Lord Jesus; I want to know Thy +will. Lord, pour Thy light upon me. I am prepared to follow it, even +though it is to the block and to the stake." + +First, desire to have the light. Oh! it makes my heart ache--I was +going to say boil--with righteous indignation, in jealousy for God's +honor, to think that He should be so traduced and blasphemed by those +who profess to love Him--who try to make out that they get wrong for +want of light. Nothing of the kind. Here is plenty of light; but you +must say, "Yes, Lord, I am willing to have it, even if it condemns +me. If it condemns my heart, my head, Lord, pour it on me. If it +condemns my life, pour it on me. If it condemns those companions, +those indulgences, pour it on me: I will give them up. If it condemns +my business, pour it on me: I will abandon such business, and sooner +die in the workhouse than continue in it. If it condemns my family +relations, I will come out from them, and follow Thee." The Lord will +always answer such a soul as that. He will put His finger down on +this sore spot and the other, and He will tell you what to do, and +you will be as sure of it as if you heard His audible voice. What +does it mean to walk in the light? Obey His voice. Don't stop to +confer with flesh and blood, but, as Paul did, get up, and set off to +commence the career which your Master commands. Paul did not stop to +confer with flesh and blood. He did not stop to reckon what it would +cost him, but on he went, and never stops, until he reaches the +block. _That_ is walking in the light--obeying--not standing, +quibbling with the Lord about it; not saying, "Oh! but,"--but +_doing_ it. + +Oh! friends, no matter who preaches another Gospel to you; no matter +who comes with the doctrine that you can be accepted of God--be a +saint on any other conditions. For Christ's sake and your soul's +sake, don't believe them. As the apostle John says: "If there come +any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into +_your_ house, neither bid him God speed." You say, "But then it +is such a costly sacrifice." It is, in one sense; but when you have +paid the price, when you have made the sacrifice, when you have +entered upon the road, the joy, the light, the power, and the glory +are worth a hundred times as much. Did any man that ever got the +Pearl of great price feel that he had given too much for it, even if +he had given all that he had? _Never!_ Martyrs and confessors +have gloried in the possession of it while they have writhed on the +rack and in the flames, and you never heard one solitary testimony +that any man or woman of God ever thought that they had paid too +highly for it. Never! Do you want to have your prayers answered? That +is the way. Walk so that your own heart condemns you not. The +obedient child that lives in complacent affection with its parent has +no fear in coming up to ask for favors. It knows it will get them. +Its own heart does not condemn it. "If our own heart condemn us not, +_then_ have we confidence toward God." I defy any man to +separate confidence and obedience. If you will not be obedient, you +cannot have confidence. I challenge any Christian here to tell me +that he can go up to the throne of God in faith for any blessing, +when his own heart condemns him. He knows he cannot. HE HAS FIRST TO +GET THAT STATE OF CONDEMNATION TAKEN AWAY before he can exercise +faith for any blessing. Walk in the light, and then you shall have +fellowship with Him, and His blood will cleanse you from all sin, and +the Spirit will teach you how to pray, and what to pray for, which +the great mass of professors know nothing about. + +Further, the _leading, teaching, and urging of the Holy Ghost_ +is the next condition of effectual prayer. We might call these +conditions a four-linked chain, connecting our souls with the very +heart of God. First, fellowship with Jesus; second, obedience to His +commands, walking in the light; third, the intercession of the +indwelling Spirit; and fourth, the exercise of faith; and if you miss +any one of these links, your prayers are done for. You may have all +the other three, but if you miss one, you will not get answers. It +will cut communion, and there will be no response. + +I am afraid a good many professors do not know what the Spirit of +intercession means. They do not know anything about the Spirit making +intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered. When we +get more of this Spirit of intercessory prayer in parents, we shall +see more spiritual children born. Now, the Holy Spirit says, here we +know not what to pray for as we ought, unless the Spirit teaches; +hence people are constantly, as James says, asking and not receiving, +because they ask amiss. "Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon +your lusts"--that means, your earthly desires, affections, purposes, +bound by the horizon of earth. + +Now, I believe that this is the great reason why thousands of +Christians pray and never, get answers. They ARE SELFISH IN THEIR +PRAYERS; they are earthy; they ask amiss, that they may consume it +upon their earthly desires, affections, and propensities. Mothers +tell me that they have prayed for their children for years, and not +got one of them converted. I say, "More the pity; more the shame on +you." Why? Because they prayed merely selfish, instinctive prayers, +because they were _their_ children, or because they wanted them +to be religions, so that they would not go into sin, or bring +disgrace or misery upon the family, or it would be so nice to have +them religious; but they don't want them to be righteous over much; +they don't want them to be so given up to God as to cut off the +vanities and fooleries of this world, and to give themselves up +wholly to Christ--that is too much; but just religion enough to make +them a comfort to themselves. Would _you_ answer such prayers +_if you were God?_ Hundreds and thousands of prayers are put up +every day that go no deeper and no higher than that, if the motives +were analyzed--and the Holy Ghost _does analyze_. I am afraid +many wives pray for their husbands on the same tack. They are not +troubled that their husbands are living in disobedience to God, +squandering their time, talents, and money, and robbing the kingdom +of Jesus Christ of what they might be doing for it;--the agonizing +consideration is, that, if religious, they would spend so much more +time at home; that they are wasting the money, instead of laying it +up for the children; and that, if they were religious, all this would +be right. Now, I say, God will never answer that wife's prayer for +her husband! You must think of what your husband could be for +God--what he could do for God's kingdom--how Jesus Christ has shed His +blood for him--how dishonoring a life of sin is to God; and you must +dwell on this until your heart is ready to break, and you will soon +get your husband converted, if you act wisely along with your +prayers. God hates selfishness--selfishness is the devil, the very +embodiment of him. You must get out of self; you must look at your +child always as God's, as having a precious soul redeemed with the +precious blood of Jesus, and having talents and capacities to +_glorify Him_ and spread His kingdom; and you must ground your +prayers on that, and say, "I would rather lay them in the grave, a +thousand times--rather they were poor and despised--than they should +grow up to _dishonor Thee_." Then you will get your prayers answered! + +People pray about their business. God sees that the way to destroy +that man is to let him get on. He does not want money in order to +roll the old chariot along. God sees that prosperity would eat his +soul like a canker, and so He won't let him get on. The Spirit of God +never leads the soul to a selfish prayer. No; it leads the soul to +weep because men keep not His law, to cry more about His interests +than its own. It is willing for its own house to lie desolate, if +that will promote the spread of God's kingdom. It is willing for the +sparrow to find a nest on its own altar, if by that it can replenish +and glorify the altar of Jehovah. + +Then comes the last link--_faith_. Here is another secret. No +believer can exercise faith for anything that the Holy Ghost does not +lead him up to. You may pray, and pray, but you will never exercise +faith until you have the Spirit making intercession in you. There is +very little difficulty about believing with people who have taken the +three preceding steps. Those who are in fellowship with Jesus, those +who are walking in the light, those who have the Holy Ghost as an +interceding Spirit--they know what to pray for; they know what the +mind of the Spirit is; they know how the Spirit is leading them, and +they can march up to the throne and "ask and receive." They know +their request is according to the mind of God, and they can wrestle, +if need be, like the Syrophenician woman, if He sees fit to try their +faith. He does not always answer at once. He lets them wrestle with +groans that cannot be uttered; but they know the Spirit is making +intercession for them, and they hold on sometimes amidst great +discouragement and temptation till the answer comes. They get the +assurance of faith, which says, "Yes, it shall be done." People look +at them with wonder. Christian friends know the thing they are +praying for has not come, and say, "You look as glad as if yon had +it;" "I have got the earnest: I know it is coming: I have the +assurance that it shall be done." Now, every praying parent ought to +wrestle till that is got for every child. You never ought to leave +off till then, and then train as well as pray--co-work with God: that +is the law of the kingdom, all the way through. Believe that ye +receive it, and ye _shall_ have it. Oh! the confusion, the +jumbling there is, in dealing with poor souls at that point. People +say, "Believe you are saved, and you are saved." I have heard +Christians give that advice to souls many a time. "Believe you are +saved, and you are saved." Believe a lie, and it will come true. Is +that God's philosophy? What is the use of telling a person to believe +he is saved _before_ he is saved? That is telling him to believe +a lie. People say, "Believe you are sanctified, and you are +sanctified." Indeed! When were you sanctified? God never tells a +person to believe a thing until it happens. He has made the +bestowment of the gift to be simultaneous with the exercise of the +faith. Believe that ye receive, and ye shall have--not that ye did +receive an hour ago, for that would not be true; not that ye will +receive an hour hence, for that would be presumption. There is no +such promise, but believe that ye do now receive, and ye shall have. +"I will never disappoint the man who dares trust me to that extent." +He shall have it. You say the age of miracles is past. Yes, because +the age of that sort of faith is past. You will get miracles back +when that sort of faith returns. God has bound Himself over to the +faith of His real people, and He would sooner break all the laws of +nature, than He would break the laws of grace. He can easily set +aside a law of nature; but He will never set aside a law of grace. He +has bound Himself to faith--the only power in the universe to which +He has bound Himself--and nobody ever rose up in this world yet, and +said, "I trusted God, and He deceived me." Faith means TRUST--faith +means ABANDONMENT--as if you were dying, and you had nothing left but +the naked promise of God. You say, "I am dying: I must trust now," +and that man jumps on to the promise. He gives up experimenting, and +really trusts; and you have seen the light come into his eyes; you +have heard the song of praise burst from his lips, because he +believed he received, and he did receive. + +Now, then, some of you who have written to me, know you are living +in fellowship with Jesus. Some of you have lately commenced to walk +in the light. You have cut off and put away the idols; you have +abandoned yourself to the will of God, and sworn, by His grace, that +you will follow Him all the way. You _do_ feel the Holy Ghost is +in you. Oh! I entreat you to obey fully, to let the Spirit have His +way. Do not restrain Him. Don't think it will hurt your bodies: don't +think it is too much; don't think you are getting fanatical; don't +think that, after all, God does not require this kind of thing--follow +the Spirit. Let the Spirit lead you, and groan through you; +let the Spirit wrestle with God through you--follow Him. If we had +more of this in these services, we should have more fruit; and if the +church had more of this, there would be more souls born into the +kingdom. + +It was one of the things in which I grieved the Spirit of God in my +early days that I would not let Him, to the extent He would have +done, make me a woman of prayer; and yet, in comparison with many, +perhaps, I was one. He used to lay particular people and subjects on +my heart, so that I could not help praying; but oh! how bitterly I +have regretted and wept before the Lord that I did not let Him have +all His way with me in this respect. Take warning! and you whom He is +beginning to lead, let Him lead you. Pour out your souls for others +and with others. I believe that more souls are convinced in real +prayer, than in speaking. I have noticed this many a time. I have +seen at the bottom of a great hall or theatre, or in the gallery, a +lot of the roughest men conceivable, behaving in the most unseemly +manner, arrested by the influence of prayer. Perhaps, when the +rowdyism has been ready to break into open tumult, a little woman has +stretched out her hands over the congregation, and said, "Now, let us +pray;" and I have seen the whole mass of men assume an attitude of +quietness and reverence. I have watched the aspect of the +congregation, and seen great, rough, black-faced fellows get their +heads down, and sometimes wipe their eyes; and when we have got up to +sing, there has been no more disorderly conduct, but they have +settled down with the solemnity of death, to listen. Hundreds of them +were convinced of sin while under that prayer. It was the Holy Ghost +wrestling for those souls in the heart of that woman, that struck +them with conviction. + +Prayer is agony of soul--wrestling of the Spirit. You know how men +and women deal with one another when they are in desperate +earnestness for something to be done. That is prayer, whether it be +to man or God; and when you get your heart influenced, and melted, +and wrought up, and burdened by the Holy Ghost for souls, you will +have power, and you will never pray but somebody will be +convinced,--some poor soul's dark eyes will be opened, and spiritual +life will commence. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PERFECT HEART. + + + For the eyes of the Lord ran to and fro throughout the whole earth, + to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect + toward Him--2 CHRON. xvi. 9. + +This passage occurs in the history of Asa, one of the most godly and +devoted kings that ever sat upon the throne of Judah. We are told in +the fourteenth chapter that he commenced his reign by setting himself +to destroy the idolatry into which the whole nation had been betrayed +by its former ruler, and to restore the worship and service of the +God of Israel. He set himself to bring back the nation to its +allegiance and obedience to God; and his success is a great +encouragement to any who shall set themselves, single-handed and with +a perfect heart, towards God, to do this in any circle, under any +circumstances. + +_He succeeded_. God blessed him in his efforts to purge his kingdom +inside, and God also delivered him from his enemies outside, and enabled +him by His power to defeat the king of Ethiopia, who came against him +with an exceeding great army, because King Asa was perfect in his heart +towards God. + +When this king came up against him, Asa went and cried unto the +Lord, and cast himself upon his God, trusting Him to deliver him, and +God never disappointed any man, either before or since Asa's day, who +did that. God delivered his enemies into his hand and made him a +successful and happy king, over a prosperous and increasing people. + +But by-and-bye, after many years, for Asa was perfect in his heart +towards the Lord for many years of his long reign; but whether it +were, as, alas! too often happens, that a life of ease and prosperity +brought forth in Asa the results of partial backsliding, we know not; +but as years went on, another war was declared, and this time it was +the king of Israel who came up against the king of Judah. What did +Asa do? Did he go, as formerly, and cry unto the Lord, and put his +battle into His hands? No, he did not. He had left His first love; he +had become, in a measure, untrue to the Lord God of Israel. He forgot +where his strength lay; his spiritual perceptions had become dim; he +had lost his realization of God's ability to help and deliver him out +of the hands of his enemies, and so he fell back upon worldly policy. +He went down to Assyria and courted Ben-hadad, the king of Assyria, +and said, "Come and help me, that my enemies may depart, for I am +sore pressed." Ah! what a picture of backsliders. On another +occasion, when Jehosophat made an ungodly alliance, a prophet met him +and said, "Should'st thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate +the Lord?" No man ever did this without being sorely whipped, as poor +Asa was. He succeeded, indeed, in the battle, and won the victory. It +was a lawful end, but he accomplished it by unlawful means. He won +the victory, and, I dare say, he was congratulating himself, and +stroking his beard in self-complacency, when, lo! the prophet comes +to deliver God's message to him, and he says:-- + +"Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on +the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped +out of thine hand. + +"Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many +chariots and horsemen? yet because thou didst rely on the Lord He +delivered them into thine hand. + +"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, to +show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect +towards Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; therefore from +henceforth thou shalt have wars"--the very thing he went to Assyria +to seek to avoid. He wanted _peace_, not war, and he went down +to Assyria to enable him to spend the remainder of his days in peace, +when, lo! the Word of God goes forth, "Thou shalt have wars." He +was chastised in the very thing for which he sold himself and his +God. "Be sure thy sin will find thee out." It is God's way to +chastise His children by those very things in which they sell His +interests. "Thou shalt have wars." + +But we want to deal specially with the lesson which the prophet +draws from this event; for he says, "Wherefore didst thou go to +Assyria? Wherefore hast thou sinned against God? Hast thou forgotten +who the God of Israel was? Didst thou not know that the eyes of the +Lord run throughout the whole earth?" He would have helped thee now, +Asa, as much as in the past. He will help any man who is whole-hearted +towards Him--that trusts in Him. Now, I say, this is the +lesson which the prophet draws, not only for Asa, but for all the +Asas since his day, and those who are yet to come, for every man and +woman who professes to be a servant of God, the prophet sounds down +to the ages that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the +whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart +is perfect towards Him." + +Now, what is this perfect heart? "Ah!" you say, "that is the point." +Yes, that is the point, and we will try to show what kind of a heart +this is. It must be A DIFFERENT KIND OF HEART TO HEARTS IN GENERAL; +all hearts are not perfect towards God, or else His eyes would not +have to be running to and fro throughout the earth to find them. They +would be plentiful enough if they were the common sort of hearts, but +evidently they are a different kind of hearts to ordinary hearts; and +another thing is evident on the face of the text, that these kind of +hearts are very precious in the sight of God. He delights in them; He +makes greater store by one such than He does by thousands of the +other kinds of hearts, of which there are so many. I say, these two +lessons everybody with common sense will admit at once--that these +hearts are not the common hearts, and that they are very precious in +the sight of God. + +Now, what is the meaning of this term "perfect heart," referring to +the hearts of God's children, all the way through the Bible? As you +know, I like to establish my points in the mouths of two or three +witnesses, I will give you two or three texts, that we may find out +God's meaning of this term, and then we will give you the very lowest +rendering, where all schools are agreed, for I don't want +controversy. We will just look at Psalm xxxvii. 37: "Mark the perfect +man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." There +_are_ such people as God means in that verse. Psalm lxiv. 4: +"That they may shoot in secret at the perfect," who have always been +a favorite target of the devil. He does not shoot much at people +whose hearts are perfect towards the Lord. It is at those perfect +people he shoots. "Suddenly do they shoot at him," perhaps while he +is thinking they are his friends. "Suddenly they shoot, and fear not." + +"Be ye perfect," says the Saviour, "even as your Father which is in +Heaven is perfect." That means something. We will try to find out +what it does mean (Matt. xix. 21)-- + +"Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou +hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: +and come _and_ follow Me." + +And, again, at 1 Cor. ii. 6-- + +"Howbeit, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect." + +And (2 Timothy iii. 17)-- + +"That the man of God may he perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all +good works." + +There are numbers of others, but these are samples, and I suppose +all Christians attach _some_ meaning to these terms. They must +be terms signifying a great difference between the persons who are +spoken of and ordinary men and women. Now, what do they mean? Well, +the very lowest rendering of all divines and all schools is this, +that it means _sincerity_ and _thoroughness_. Well, that is all I want. +Give me a man sincere and thorough in his love, and that is all I want; +that will stretch through all the ramifications of his existence; it +will go to the ends of his fingers and his toes, through his eyes, and +through his tongue, to his wife, and to his family, to his shop, and to +his business, and to his circle in the world. That is what I mean by +_holiness_! Then, taking the lowest translation, it means that a man is +whole-hearted in love, and thorough out-and-out in service! Amen. For +that man who is thus perfect towards God, God will indeed show Himself +strong in more ways than one! + +This cannot mean a merely natural heart, it must mean a renewed +heart, because there are no perfect hearts by nature. There is no one +in this sense that doeth good and sinneth not, for every child of +Adam has gone astray like a lost sheep, has done the things he ought +not, and left undone the things he ought to have done, and the whole +world has become guilty before God. There are no naturally perfect +hearts. It must mean, then, a heart renewed by the Holy Ghost, put +right with God, and then kept right. A heart cannot be kept right +until it has been _put right_, and that is the secret of the +failure with some of you. You are trying to bring forth fruits before +the tree is planted. You are looking for the fruits of a perfect +heart before you have got one. You may well be disappointed. You must +get your heart renewed, and then kept right by the power of the Holy +Ghost. + +Then, what does this perfect heart imply? + +1. _A heart perfect in its loyalty to God_, thoroughly given over to +God's side, irrespective of consequences,--_loyal_. These are the hearts +that God wants. This was the difference between David and Saul. There +was not so much difference in the greater part of Saul's outward life, +when compared with the life of David. It was only the prophet Samuel, +perhaps, who knew the difference, and a few close observers; but the +difference was, that David was loyal to God, and God calls him, for this +reason, a man after His own heart. + +From the first calling of David from the sheepfolds, right to the +end, with one or two exceptions, during the whole of his life, he was +loyal to God, and, if you will carefully search his history, you will +find that in all his wars, and all his dealings with the nations +round about, and with the leaders of affairs in his own kingdom--in +everything, + +David was loyal to God. It was the interests of God's kingdom that +lay at David's heart--not his own honor, ease, or aggrandizement--not +his own fame or riches, or building himself a house--it was the house +of his God that was dear to his heart. He was loyal; whereas Saul was +loyal only as far as it served his own purposes and interests. Oh! +how many such Sauls there are in these days. When God's commandments +went counter with his notions, he openly set God at naught, and did +as he liked. He sacrificed God's interests to his own. He was unloyal +at heart, hence he was a traitor, and never could learn the way of +the Lord. He was never perfect towards the Lord his God, and, at +last, God cast him off, and Samuel did also, and you know what his +end was. Just the difference between the two--loyal and unloyal. + +A heart perfect towards God! What does it mean? It means-- + +2. Perfect in its _obedience_. That man or woman who has this +kind of a heart, ceases to pick and choose amongst the commandments +of God, which he shall obey, and which he shall not--he ceases to +have his own will, though sometimes he may have a struggle with his +own will, and the way that God may call him to take may look to him +as if it were a dangerous or risky way, and he may wait a little bit, +to be thoroughly satisfied; but when once satisfied that it is God's +way, the true child will not hesitate. He confers not with flesh and +blood, but on he goes, irrespective of consequences. This was Paul's +kind of obedience. He conferred not with flesh and blood; he counted +all things dung and dross, and he went on doing so to the end--thorough +in his obedience. + +People come to us and want to know what they are to do; they feel +that they are only half-hearted in God's service; they have neither +joy nor power, and say, "What must I do?" and we take, as God helps +us, the dissecting knife, and try to find out the difficulty. We get +them down under the blaze of the Holy Spirit's light, and try to +probe them and find where they are wrong. Perhaps the Lord leads us +to the sore spot, and we point out the difficulty, but, instead of +obeying, they shrink away. They look ahead, and they see that to obey +the light will involve loss of some kind--perhaps reputation, wealth, +family associations, ease, or loss of friends, loss of temporal +comforts, loss of good business. Loss is in the background, and they +see it. They know where we are leading them to, and they slip back; +they do not want to see, and yet they do not want to consider +themselves dishonest, so they turn their heads away, and will not +look in the direction of the light, smoothing it all over and +singing-- + + "Were the whole realm of nature mine, + That were an off'ring far too small," &c. + +That is not a perfect heart, but a partial heart towards the Lord God. + +The partial heart, so common, alas, now-a-days, wants to serve God a +little. It is willing to go a little way with God, but not all the +way; so that, taking the lowest interpretation, that is not a perfect +heart towards the Lord. Can it be expected that the Lord should shew +Himself strong in behalf of such people? Do you think you would if +you were God? + +Suppose you were a king, and had a prince or statesman who was +serving you very valiantly and devotedly while it served himself; +but, suppose the tables were turned, and you were dethroned and cast +away into exile, your name being bandied about the nation where you +once reigned as king, in disgrace and dishonor; suppose this +statesman gave you up, and said, "Oh! I am going to be on the side of +the reigning monarch. I was very devoted to this man while he +reigned, but I cannot afford to be devoted to him now his interests +draggle in the dust; I must be on the winning side." What would you +think of such a man? And if you were restored to your kingdom and +power, would you show yourself strong on behalf of such a man? No; +you would remember, as David did, the man who cursed you. But if you +had a prince or statesman who followed you into exile, who ministered +to you in secret, who tried to hold up your interests, who contended +for your righteousness and justice, and held up your name and tried +to make the people see that you were a good and true man, who held on +to you, when all the nation was calling you traitor--if you came back +to your throne, would you not show yourself strong in behalf of that +man? Of course you would. The Lord says He will show Himself strong +in behalf of those of such a heart towards Him. + +You masters here have a servant--a clever, smart man; you know how +well he can serve you, and how valuable he can be, and would be if he +were true; but you have reason to believe that he will only go with +you as far as it will be for his own interests; he will serve you as +far as he can serve himself, too, but, if he can get up by putting +you down, you may lie there. What would you say to such a man? You +would say, "I shall never show myself strong for him." So God is not +likely to show Himself strong for people who are not of a perfect +heart. A lady said to me, "I have been doing this and doing that for +years, but I have no power; why don't I have it?" I said, "Because +you are not true to God. He will give it to anybody who is true to +Him, and He can see into your heart, and knows you are not." Why will +He not show Himself strong in your behalf? _Because you do not show +yourself thorough in His behalf._ The moment you show yourself +thorough, that moment will He show Himself strong for you. If you had +been in Daniel's place you would not have done as he did. Daniel was +one of the perfect-hearted men; he served his God when he was in +prosperity. He set his window open every day. Then his enemies +persuaded the king to make a decree that no man should pray but to +this king for so many days. "Now," they said, "we shall have him." +But Daniel just did as he was wont, he went and prayed with his +window open. You say, "That was demonstrative religion, that was +courting opposition. What need was there for him to make this +display; could he not have shut the window and gone into an inner +room? That was just like you Salvation-Army people, you always make a +demonstration. Why could he not have gone into an inner chamber and +prayed?" Because he would be thorough for his God in adversity, in +the face of his enemies, as he was in prosperity. So he went and +prayed with open window to the God of Heaven, and because _He +is_ the God of Heaven, He is able to take care of His own. His +heart was perfect towards the Lord his God. + +3. _This perfect heart is perfect in its trust_:--and, perhaps, +that ought to have come first, for it is the very root of all. + +Oh, how beautiful Abraham was in the eyes of God; how God gloried +over him. How do I know that Abraham had a perfect heart towards God? +Because he trusted Him. No other proof--no less proof--would have +been of any use. I dare say he was compassed with infirmities, had +many erroneous views, manward and earthward, but his heart was +perfect towards God. Do you think God would have failed in His +promise to Abraham? Abraham trusted Him almost to the blood of Isaac, +and God showed Himself strong in his behalf, and delivered him, and +made him the father of the faithful; crowned him with everlasting +honor, so that his name, from generation to generation, has been a +pillar of strength to the Lord's people, and a crown of glory to his +God. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW TO WORK FOR GOD WITH SUCCESS. + + + Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.--MATT. xxi. 28. + + Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.--LUKE xiv. 23. + +I am to speak of some needful qualifications for successful labor; +and I say:-- + +First, that there are certain laws which govern success in the +kingdom of grace as well as in the kingdom of nature, and you must +study these laws, and adapt yourself to them. It would be in vain for +the husbandman to scatter his seed over the unbroken ground or on +pre-occupied soil. You must plough and harrow and put your seed in +carefully, and in proper proportion, and at the right time, and then +you must water and weed and wait for the harvest. And just so in +Divine things. Oh! we shall find out, by-and-by, that the laws of the +spiritual kingdom are quite as certain and unerring in their +operation as the laws of the natural kingdom, and, perhaps, a great +deal more so; but, through the blindness and obtuseness and unbelief +of our hearts, we could not, or would not find them out. People get +up and fluster about, and expect to be able to work for God without +any thought or care or trouble. For the learning of earthly +professions they will give years of labor and thought, but in work +for God they do not seem to think it worth while to take the trouble +to think and ponder, to plan and experiment, to try means, to pray +and wrestle with God for wisdom. Oh! no: they will not be at the +_trouble_. Then they fail, grow discouraged, and give up. + +Now, my friends, this is not the way to begin work for God. Begin as +soon as you like--begin at once--but begin in the right way. Begin by +praying much for Him to show you how, and to equip you for the work, +and begin in a humble, submissive, teachable spirit. + +Study the New Testament with special reference to this, and you will +be surprised how every page of it will give you increased light. You +will see that God holds you absolutely responsible for every iota of +capacity and influence He has given you, that He expects you to +improve every moment of your time, every faculty of your being, every +particle of your influence, and every penny of your money _for Him_. +When you once get _this_ light, it will be a marvelous guide in all the +other particulars and ramifications of your life. Study your plans. How +men in earthly warfare study plans of stratagem, and adopt all manner of +measures in order that they may take the enemy by surprise! But, alas! +how little care and attention God's people give to taking souls; and yet +it is _far harder work to take souls than it is to take cities_. + +How surprised I have often been at the assumption of people who, +perhaps, never gave one hour's consecutive thought in their lives to +the best means of doing certain work, and yet they will pronounce an +opinion right off as to certain modes and measures which have been +tried and proved successful in the lives of some of the most +successful laborers for God. They will say, "Oh! I don't believe in +it." "Oh! it is all nonsense, ridiculous, wrong!" while, perhaps, +those people whom they condemn have been pleading, and weeping, and +studying, and experimenting, and almost sacrificing their heart's +blood to try to find out the best means of winning souls for Christ. + +I shall never forget the shock that came over me once in a large +gathering of Christian people, when a gentleman, who occupied a +somewhat prominent position, was giving out a hymn which contained a +verse something about spending one hour in watching with Jesus. He +stopped in the middle of this hymn, and said words to this effect: "I +am afraid we are verily guilty here. I do not know that I dare say I +ever watched one consecutive hour with Jesus in my life." I shall +never forget it. My cheeks burned with shame. I said, "Oh! my God, if +these are the leaders, we need not wonder at the people." A man +occupying such a position to dare to say it! The Lord have mercy on +him. No wonder the Lord's work is done in such a bungling way! I say +those who want to be successful in winning souls require to watch not +only days but nights. They want much of the Holy Ghost, for it is +true still, "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and +fasting." We have grown wiser than our Lord now-a-days; but, I tell +you, it is the same old-fashioned way, and if you want to pour out +living waters upon souls, either publicly or privately, you will have +to drink largely at the fountain yourself, and have them very ready +to let out! If you have not, your talk will be as sounding brass or +tinkling cymbal. Oh! it makes my soul weep tears of blood to think of +the misdirected effort that will be put forth this very Christian +Sabbath. Plenty of labor, but how little comes of it?--all because it +is cramped, and ruined, and misdirected, for want of thought, and +prayer, and a single eye for the salvation of souls. May God rouse us +up to this, and make us willing to think, and labor, and learn, and +wrestle, and sacrifice, in order that we may do it. + +Then, further, the second qualification for successful labor is +power to get the truth _home_ to the _heart_. + +Not to _deliver_ it! I wish the word had never been coined in connection +with Christian work. "Deliver" it, indeed--_that_ is not in the Bible! +No, no; not deliver it; but drive it home--send it in--make it _felt_. +That is your work;--not merely to say it--not quietly and gently to put +it before the people. Here is just the difference between a +self-consuming, soul-burdened, Holy Ghost, successful ministry, and a +careless, happy-go-lucky, easy sort of thing, that just rolls it out +like a lesson, and goes home, holding itself in no way responsible for +the consequences. Here is _all_ the difference, either in public or +individual labor. God has made you responsible, not for delivering the +truth, but for GETTING IT IN--getting it home, fixing it in the +conscience as a red-hot iron, as a bolt, straight from His throne; and +He has placed at your disposal the power to do it, and if you do not do +it, _blood_ will be on your skirts! Oh! this genteel way of putting the +truth! How God hates it! "If you please, dear friends, will you listen? +If you please, will you be converted? Will you come to Jesus? or shall +we read just this, that, and the other?"--no more like apostolic +preaching than darkness is like light. + +God says, "GO AND DO IT: compel them to come in. That is your work. +I have nothing to do with the measures by which you do it providing +they are lawful." + +"Use just the same diligence, earnestness, and determination that +you would if you were resolutely set on any human project, and always +be sure that I will be with you to the end of the world. Never doubt +My presence when you are set on My business. I will be with you, and +I will succeed you." Do it--the Lord help us to get the truth home! + +This was the way with Paul, and this was the way with Jesus. Paul +says: "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." +Oh! what a beautiful insight this gives us into the ministry. Why do +you persuade men, Paul? "Because I know the terror of the Lord that +is coming on, and because we thus judge that, if One died for all, +then were all dead. Therefore, I persuade men." He did not give up +when he had put it before them. He carried them on his heart, and he +says, "That by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every +one night and day with tears." He wept it in, as well as drove it in, +with his logic, and his eloquence, and with the power of the Holy +Ghost in him. Make it go in--make your words felt; don't talk to them +in that sickly, languid way that makes no impression--make them know +it. If you have not enough of the Holy Ghost for this, go to your +closet till you have, and then come and drive the Word home to their +conscience as a two-edged sword, dividing asunder soul and spirit. + +The second thing indispensible to success is _simplicity_:--naturalness +in putting the truth. + +You have not only to get it home, but, in order to do this, give it +them simply and naturally. If I were asked to put into one word what +I consider the greatest obstacle to the success of Divine Truth, even +when uttered by sincere and real people, I should say, _stiffness_. +It seems as if people, the moment they come to religion, assume a +different tone, a different look, and manner--short, become unnatural. + +People sometimes come to me and say, "Oh! I would give the world to +be natural, but I have got into this way of talking to people. It +seems as though I cannot be natural. Can you help me?" I say, "Yes, I +can help you, by this advice--Determine, by the help of God, that you +will break the neck of this bondage. I will tell you how to begin. +Begin with your family. Break off right in the middle of conversation +on earthly matters, and begin to talk about their souls, or your own +experience, or drop down on your knees, and begin to pray." "Oh! but +it would be such a break." It should not be a break to talk to your +Father. If you are in the spirit of it there will be no break. This +will help you, more than anything else. Determine that you will +overcome this sanctimoniousness, which is the curse of a great deal +of the religion of this day. We want SANCTIFIED HUMANITY, not +sanctimoniousness. You want to talk to your friends in the same way +about religion, as you talk about earthly things. If a friend is in +difficulties, and he comes to you, you do not begin talking in a +circumlocutory manner about the general principles on which men can +secure prosperity, and the sad mistakes of those who have not secured +it; you come straight to the point, and, if you feel for him, you +take him by the button-hole, or put your hand in his, and say, "My +dear fellow, I am very sorry for you; is there any way in which I can +help you?" If you have a friend afflicted with a fatal malady, and +you see it, and he does not, you don't begin to descant on the power +of disease and the way people may secure health, but you say, "My +dear fellow, I am afraid this hacking cough is more serious than you +think, and that flush on your cheek is a bad sign. I am afraid you +are ill--let me counsel you to seek advice." That is the way people +talk about earthly things. Now, do exactly so about spiritual things. +If your friend is a spiritual bankrupt, tell him so. Tell him where +he is going, and that the reckoning day is coming, and that he will +be in God's prison-house very soon, and that, if the creditor once +gets hold of him, and shuts him up, he will never get out till he has +paid the uttermost farthing. If your friend has a spiritual disease, +tell him so, and deal just as straight and earnestly with him as you +would about his body. Tell him you are praying for him, and the very +concern that he reads in your eyes, will wake him up, and he will +begin to think it is time he was concerned about himself. Try to +attain this simple, easy, natural way of appealing to people about +their souls. I believe if all real Christians would attain this, and +act upon it, this country would be shaken from end to end! + +Thirdly, you must be in _earnest--desperate_, I would like to say. + +And, indeed, friends, settle this as a truth, that you will never +make any other soul realize the verities of eternal things, any +further than you realize them yourself. You will beget in the soul of +your hearer, exactly the degree of realization which the Spirit of +God gives to you, and no more; therefore, if you are in a dreamy, +cosy, half-asleep condition, you will only beget the same kind of +realization in the souls who hear you. You must be wide awake, quick, +alive, feeling deeply in sympathy with the truth you utter, or it +will produce no result. + +Here is the reason why we have such a host of stillborn, sinewless, +ricketty, powerless spiritual children. They are born of half-dead +parents, a sort of sentimental religion, which does not take hold of +the soul, which has no depth of earth, no grasp, no power in it, and +the result is, a sickly crop of sentimental converts. Oh! the Lord give +us a real robust, living, hardy Christianity, full of zeal and faith, +which shall bring into the kingdom of God, lively, well-developed +children, full of life and energy, instead of these poor, sentimental +ghosts that are hopping around us. Oh! friends, we want this vivid +realization ourselves. If we have it we shall beget it in others. +Oh! get hold of God. Ask Him to baptize you with His Spirit "till +the zeal of His house eats you up." This Spirit will burn His way +through all obstacles of flesh and blood, of forms, proprieties, +and respectabilities--of death, and rottenness of all descriptions! +He will burn His way through, and produce living and telling results +in the hearts of those to whom you speak. Earnestness--such +earnestness that it comes to desperation--like that of Paul, who +counted all things but dross; yea, and who counted not his life dear +unto him. That was the secret. He counted not his life, nor anything +that constitutes life--liberty, pleasure, enjoyment, friends, +reputation, ease, &c.,--all on the altar, all was in the scale. He +counted none of those dear unto him, so that he might win the +perfection, the fulness of Christ in his own soul, and the salvation +of the souls around him. + +Oh! what a LAUGHING-STOCK TO HELL is a light, frivolous, easy, +lukewarm professor. Oh! what a shame and puzzle to the angels in +Heaven, and what a supreme disgust to God. "I would thou wert cold or +hot. So, then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I +will spue thee out of My mouth." Oh! what will that be? Talk about +shame! Think of that! Shame! Some of you feel it going into the +streets for God. You feel it when a few people see you kneel down +here! Think of being spewed out of the mouth of God before an +assembled universe. What will that be? God helping me, I will avoid +that I will sooner hang with Jesus on the cross, between two thieves, +than I will bear that shame. "_I would thou wert cold or hot!_" + +Some of you say, in your letters, that you will have this +whole-heartedness. You say that you have given up all, and that you +are consecrating yourself to a life of labor. Now, be _hot_. I know +you will burn the fingers of the Pharisees. Never mind that. I know +you will fire their consciences, like Samson's foxes did the corn. +Never mind that. _Be hot._ God likes hot saints. Be determined +that you will be hot. They will call you a fool: they did Paul. They +will call you a fanatic, and say, "This fellow is a troubler of +Israel"; but you must reply, "It is not I, but ye and your father's +house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord." Turn +the charge upon them. Hot people are never a trouble to hot people. +The hotter we are the nearer we get, and the more we love one +another. It is the cold people that are troubled by the hot ones. The +Lord help you to be HOT. + +Then another indispensable condition is the surrendering of _all +our powers_. + +There must be no holding back. "Cursed be he that holdeth back his +sword from blood." That curse is resting on Christendom to-day. Oh! +they will thrust the sword a little way in, but they will not go in +to the core. They dare not draw blood--the soldiers of this age--for +their lives. They dare not touch a man to the quick, because, alas! +they are looking to themselves, and thinking what people will say of +THEM, instead of what God will say of them. You must not be afraid of +blood if you are to be a true warrior of the Lord Jesus Christ. You +must not be afraid to say, if need be, "Oh! generation of vipers, who +hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? "You must not be +afraid to say, if need be, "You have made my Father's house a den of +thieves," if you save some of them by doing it. + +Oh! this accursed sycophancy; I was going to say, this accursed fear +to brave the censure of the world--this accursed making good evil and +evil good, as if God were altogether such an one as ourselves. Don't +you think He sees through the vile sham? Oh! my friends, if we don't +mend in this respect, He will come in judgment before long, and we +shall find out then the difference between the precious and the vile, +if we do not find out before. If you want to be a successful worker, +you must make up your minds to begin with, that you will be CRUCIFIED. + +As a dear minister once said to somebody, when he was arguing with +him about being so hard in the pulpit, "I don't care." "Oh!" said the +other, "Don't you know what became of 'Don't care?'" "Yes," he said, +"He was crucified, and I am ready to be crucified alongside of him." +When you are in the right, don't care. You can but be crucified, and +it will soon be over; and then the Book says, "They that suffer with +Him will also reign with Him, and they shall be glorified together." +It would be a wonderful thing to be glorified alone, but, oh, think +of being glorified together! + +A gentleman said lately, "I have been thinking a great deal about +the glory. It is a wonderful thing--that glory that is to follow. +This would be worth a man sitting on the dunghill all his life to +obtain." I looked at him, and thought, perhaps you are nearer to it +than you think, and perhaps I am, too. Ah! it _is_ a wonderful thing, +that glory that is to follow. Then let us be willing to suffer with Him +and for Him. Make up your mind to be crucified at the start, and then it +will be easy. + +Further, _complete abandonment_ is a condition of successful labor. + +It is so in anything. What would you think of a soldier who was +always reckoning how much it was to cost, and when he should get +back, or whether it was worth the sacrifice? You would say, "He is of +no use to the British Army. We want men who will go in to win at all +costs." Now, God wants men and women who will go in to win, who +believe in winning, who know they have the power to win, and who +count _all things_ loss in comparison to winning. Do you want +success? If you do not come to that first, you will never get it. + +Fourthly--_You must give up, kick out of the way, trample underfoot, all +that hinders._ + +_Reputation_. Perhaps there are some ministers here. There were +some last Sunday, and there were some the Sunday before. Some of you +have written and others have talked to me. You say, "It would be such +an entire breaking from one's circle." Exactly. Some say, "You see, +the inevitable consequences of setting up this high standard would be +a constant running of the sword into some of your best hearers and +your best friends." Exactly; that is giving your sword to blood. You +would not think much of drawing the blood of an enemy--it is the +blood of your _friends_ that is the test! I know all about it; I +have been there. I was there a long while once. It was my own sore +spot. The devil said, "If you begin preaching they will call you an +impudent woman," and I felt it would be better almost to go to hell +than have that said about me. He said, "They will put you in the +newspapers, and say all manner of coarse and vulgar things about +you;" and God only knows what that was to my soul; but I battled and +struggled with it for a long while, until I said, at last, "Lord, I +don't care what they call me--I give myself to Thee to win souls." +Have I ever regretted it? Shall I ever regret it? No; He will take +care of your reputation. Give it up to Him, my brother. The Scribes +and the Pharisees never had anything good to say of Jesus coming in +the flesh. Give up your reputation--follow Him. If it must be, decide +to go after Him to Gethsemane, to Golgotha and the cross. Never +mind--follow Him. Give up your reputation. + +Then, your habits. How ashamed some of you will be who have made the +mere Paris-born frivolities of society stand in the way of your +consecration to Christ; and yet people who do this say they are +Christians. I don't know; I cannot believe it. There is drinking; +they will have a glass of wine. Very well, you can have it; but you +shall not have the wine of the kingdom. Professors will dress like +the prostitute of Paris. Very well; but they shall not be the bride +of the Lamb. He will not walk in the streets with them, nor sit at +the same table. You can go to parties where it is said there are only +religious people, but where you know all manner of gossip and +Christless chit-chat is going on, which you would be awfully ashamed +the Master should hear, and from which you retire with no appetite +for prayer. You can go to all this, but I defy you to have the Holy +Ghost at the same time. I won't stop to argue it; I ONLY KNOW YOU +CANNOT DO IT. All that will have to be put aside and given up. You +say, "That is a sore point." Yes; I know that is driving the sword to +blood. + +Fifthly.--You must consecrate your money to be used for God. + +I once heard an old veteran saint say, and I thought it was +extravagant at the time, "I consider the use of money the surest test +of a man's character." I thought, no, surely his use of his wife and +children is a surer test than that; but I have lived to believe his +sentiment. Hence, you see how human experience justifies Divine +wisdom--"the love of money is the root of all evil". So it is, in one +form or other. God never uses anybody largely until they have given +up their money. I simply state a fact. We know it is so by experience +and the history of God's people. You must give up your money as an +end: saving it for its own sake, or the gratification of your selfish +purposes or those of your children--it must be all given to God, to +whom it belongs, being entirely used in His service. If you want to +be a successful laborer for souls, you will have to do that at the +threshhold. Give up your money to the Lord. If you think it right to +keep some of it, keep it to use it for Him as you go; and be as +strict with yourself, to your Heavenly Father, as you would be with +your secretary or clerk to yourself, and then you will be all right. + +It is a narrow and difficult path. I tremble for you who have got +it, and I am glad I have not; but as you have got it, I give you the +best advice I know. It is an awful thing to have it, but the next +best thing is to consecrate it and use it to His glory; and if you do +not, it will eat into your soul as doth a canker. To your spiritual +nature it will be as a cancer is to your physical nature. They are +Paul's words, not mine. + +I must say a word about _the reward_. + +You think I am always driving you _to do_. Yes, because you +need it. The Lord knows I do not find you do any too much. Some of +you I am heartily ashamed of. Some of you need driving so that you +ought to thank God for the rod. Paul says, "Shall I come unto you +with the rod?" He was obliged to do it with some people. It is not an +enviable thing to have to do; but we dare not, when God sets us work +to do, shirk it; but there is a bright side--there is the reward. +"What!" you say, "does He pay you?" Yes, good wages--pressed +down--heaped together! He says, "The man who remembereth the poor (do +you think He means only their bodies?), I will remember him; I will make +his bed (what a tender allusion!) in his sickness." He will shake it +up; spread His feathers on the pillows as no earthly nurse, not even +the tenderest wife, can do. "I will make his bed in his sickness." +You will want Him then, brother! You are very independent, some of +you, now, but you will want Him then. "I will make his bed in +sickness. I will put underneath Him my everlasting arms." He will +cause you to triumph in the swellings of Jordan. That will be grand, +will it not? He will give you a triumphant entrance into His kingdom, +those of you who have gone out in loving solicitude and anxious +sympathy to labor for the souls of your fellow-men. He will +administer unto you an abundant entrance, and then--what? He will +give you CHILDREN; and the barren woman shall have more children than +she that hath a husband. + +Oh! the whole world is akin here. Every man and woman wants +children. They are especially a heritage from the Lord. Nothing can +make up for the want of children. The poorest parents, living in the +humblest hut, would not sell you their children, and the rich man, +who has twenty thousand a year, would give it for a son or for a +daughter, when he cannot have one. All human beings want children. +Now, then, the Lord will give you children. A mother--even a +sanctified mother--I suppose, cannot help feeling proud, or, rather, +glad and thankful, when she shows good, obedient, and godly children +to her friends. I do not believe that God wants to grind this out of +us. I believe He delights in it Himself, just as He delighted to show +His servant Job to the devil. "Hast thou considered My servant Job?" +Ah! was He not proud of him?--and He has been proud of him ever +since. God has put this feeling in us, and it is a right feeling when +it is sanctified. We cannot help but be proud of godly and obedient +children; but what will it be to show your spiritual children, to the +angels? How shall you feel when you gather the spiritual family which +God has given you round the throne of your Saviour, and say, "Here am +I and the children whom Thou hast given me"?--the children won +through conflict, and trial, and strife, such as only God knew; +"Children begotten in bonds," as Paul says--chains--children born in +the midst of the hurricane of spiritual conflict, travail, and +suffering, and cradled, rocked, fed, nurtured, and brought up at +infinite cost and rack of brain, and heart, and soul; but now, here +we are, Lord. We are here through it all. "Here am I and the children +whom Thou hast given me." How shall you feel? Shall you be sorry for +the trouble? Shall you regret the sacrifice? Shall you murmur at the +way He has led you? Shall you think He might have made it a little +easier, as you are sometimes tempted to do now? Oh! no, no!--THE +CHILDREN! THE CHILDREN! you shall have children! Won't that be reward +enough? + +Oh! sometimes, when I am passing through conflict, and trial, in +connection with a work which brings plenty of it behind the scenes, I +encourage myself in the Lord, and remember those who have gone home +sending me their salutations, from the verge of the river, telling me +they will wait and look out for me, and be the first to hand me to +the Saviour when I get there. Will not this be reward enough? Even +so, Lord. Amen. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +ENTHUSIASM AND FULL SALVATION. + +AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN EXETER HALL. + + +Why should we be enthusiastic in everything but religion? Can you +give me any reason for that? If there is any subject calculated to +move our souls to their very centres, and to call out the enthusiasm +of our nature, surely it is religion, if it be the real thing. Why +should we not be enthusiastic? I have never seen a good reason yet. +Why should we not shout and sing the praises of our King, as we +expect to do it in glory? Why should not a man cry out, and groan, +and be in anguish of soul, as the Psalmist says, as if he were crying +out of the belly of hell, when he is convinced of sin, and realizes +his danger, and is expecting, unless God have mercy, to be damned? +Why should he not roar for the disquietude of his spirit as much as +David did? Is there anything unphilosophical in it? Is there anything +contrary to the laws of mind in it? Is there anything that you would +not allow under any great pressure of calamity, or realization of +danger, or grief? Why should we not have this demonstration in soul +matters? They had it under the old dispensation. We read, again and +again, that when the people came together after a time of relapse, +and backsliding, and infidelity, when God sent some flaming, burning +prophet amongst them, and they were gathered on the sides of Carmel +or elsewhere, that, on some occasions, the weeping, and, on other +occasions, the rejoicing, was so great that they made the very ground +tremble, and almost rent the heavens with the sound of their crying +and rejoicing. + +We are told, on one occasion, that the noise was heard afar off, +and, on another, that it was as the sound of many waters. Would to +God we could get men, now-a-days, so concerned about their sins and +their souls, that they should thus cry out. It would be a happy day +for religion and for the world if it were so. If these things are +realities, I contend that this is the most sane, rational, and +philosophical way of dealing with them; and I say that the ordinary, +cold, heartless, formal way (and, if it is not so, it has that +appearance) is unscriptural. + +Somebody was talking to me about having so much feeling in religion. +I said, "My dear friend, what do you think God gave you feeling for?" +Some people seem to think it a mistake that we _have_ feelings. +Our feelings play a very important part in all our social relations. +Why would you exclude them from religion? David expressed his +feelings, and was so carried away by them that he called on all +creation to praise the Lord, the hills and the trees to clap their +hands and be glad. Get the right kind of religion, and it will make +you glad. If you have not the right kind of feeling, I am afraid you. +have not the right kind of religion. We have some enthusiasm, and +when our enthusiasm dies, I am afraid we shall die, too. Nevertheless, +our power is not in our enthusiasm; neither does it consist in certain +views of truth, or in certain feelings _about_ truth. But it consists in +whole-hearted, thorough, out-and-out surrender to God; and that, with or +without feeling, is the right thing, and _that_ is the secret of our +power. We have glorious feelings as the outcome; but the feeling is not +the religion--the feeling is not the holiness. Holiness is the spring +and source of the enthusiasm. Hence our power with the masses of the +people. + +How is it that wherever we go, as an organization, these signs and +wonders are wrought? Somebody said, "It is a strange thing; see what +has been done at So-and-so, and So-and-so, and So-and-so. They had +all tried, and you send a couple of lads or lasses, and you have the +town in an uproar at once. What is it? What is the secret? Will you +answer the question?" Well, it is the whole-hearted, determined +abandonment of everything for the King's sake. That is it. It is +going in, as the Apostles went in, determined to win souls, +determined to set up the kingdom of Jesus Christ, at all costs. That +is the source of our power, and if you get that, you will have power, +and if you don't get that, it matters not what else you have. I want +you reasonably and calmly to see that this holiness is a real, +definite blessing; that it is a level on to which the great mass of +the professing Christians of this generation have not come, or even +scarcely looked up. It is a high level, but it is a level on to which +every one of you can come, if you will. You have heard enough about +it. You are convinced you may have it. Will you have it? The Lord is +sitting there; He is looking at you, and He is saying, "What is all +this stir about? What is all this talk, this singing, and this +praying about? Here I am. What do you want Me to do? I am ready to do +it." And you say, "Lord, I want Thee to cleanse my heart from sin, +and to fill me with the Holy Ghost, and to enable me to be +whole-hearted and thorough in Thy service, and to go and win souls +for Thee." "Very well," the Lord says, "I am ready to come into the +temple, if you will clear out the rubbish. Are you willing for Me to +come in? I am waiting to come in as a Refiner; but you must make a +straight way for my feet. You must pick out the stones, and throw out +the rubbish, and make Me a straight path." + +Will you make Him a straight path? Will you trample under foot that +accursed thing which has so long kept the fulness of the blessing +from you? Will you give up arguing about it and trying to make out +that it is not a stumbling-block, when you know it is? How many will? +I wish we had room to have a form. I am sorry we have not. With all +the light you have on the subject, with what I am sure the Holy Ghost +has revealed and is revealing to your souls, with all the glory that +He is putting before you, and the power for usefulness and happiness, +will you make this full consecration? The light of the Spirit is on +you: _will you, act? Will you act?_ Every spark of light you get +without obeying it, leaves your soul darker. Every time you come up +to the verge of the kingdom and don't go over, the less the +probability that you ever will. I know people who have been going up +and down for more than forty years, like the Israelites, and it is a +question if they ever go in. You have come near again. Will you go +over? You can tell the Lord without telling us, though we would like +to know, and see you put your foot over the border, into this Canaan +of peace and power. Will you put your foot over? Who will? who will? +Will you stand up and raise your voices to the Lord and ask Him? + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS. + + +I shall try, in the short time I may occupy, to go straight to the +point--to some of the difficulties and hindrances which I know are +keeping not a few here to-day out of the enjoyment of the blessing. I +know there are some here who are satisfied that this blessing is +attainable, who are satisfied that God can thus keep them, as we have +been singing, if they were to lean the whole weight of their +need--their soul, and body, and spirit--upon Him, and trust Him. They +believe He could, and they believe He would. They have come to +perceive that it is not at all a question of human strength, or human +weakness, or human knowledge, but that it is simply a matter of +Divine strength, fully recognized and fully trusted by human +weakness. Therefore, there is no more a stumbling-block in their way +about reckoning themselves holier than other people, or stronger than +other people, for they recognize themselves as the very weakest and +most sinful of _all_ people: but they have come to understand +this blessing to be human weakness, leaning with all its weight upon +Divine power; and they believe God does thus save and keep those +people who do thus lean. Then, what hinders? There they stand, just +where the Israelites stood, when they might have gone in and +possessed the good land. "They entered not in because of unbelief," +and for that unbelief there is a reason--a cause. They dare not +venture their souls on this Divine power, because there is back in +their consciousness some difficulty, some obstacle, something which +is only known to themselves and the Holy Ghost, which prevents them +from doing this. + +When they try to jump on to the Divine strength there is something +that holds them back, and they cannot make the spring. They try to +forget it--they sing, and pray, and seek, to make themselves believe +there is nothing, and they come up again and again right to the +entrance of the goodly land, and then they try to spring in. Some of +you will today, but you will not be able to spring, because there is +something holding you back; and you are conscious of it, but will not +allow yourselves to realize it. Now this is the point, when my dear +husband read that passage, "When they had prayed, the place was +shaken," I thought, Oh! what was involved in that prayer--what does +that mean? _Why_ did the glory come? Why did the Holy Ghost +overshadow them? Why were they filled with God--so filled that they +had to go down and could not help themselves, but went into the +streets and poured it out upon the godless multitudes around them? +_Why, why_ did it come? Why do hundreds of assemblies of God's +people meet and pray, but nothing comes? They hold long meetings, and +make long prayers, and sing, + + "We are waiting for the fire;" + +but nothing comes! Why did it come on that particular occasion? +Because in that prayer was thorough, entire, everlasting +self-abandonment. They came up caring for nothing but pleasing God +and doing as He bade them; and the Holy Ghost alone knows when a soul +arrives at that point. He will never come till the soul _does_ +arrive at that point. This is the deficiency, I am satisfied, with +hundreds. There they stand, right on the borders of the glory-land, +but there is some wedge of gold, or Babylonish garment that they +buried years ago. + +They won't think about it. They say, "Oh, it is nought, nought! That +little thing would not hinder, it is so long ago." They would not, +when they knew they ought, dig it up and burn it before the Lord. If +this is so with any here, you _must_ dig it up, or the Holy Ghost will +never come. A lady, a short time ago, was brought up to the very edge of +this blessing, but there was something she felt she ought to do. She had +a sum of money which she felt ought to be given up to a certain object. +She prayed and struggled, and attended prayer-meetings, and prayed long +into the night; but, no, she would not face the difficulty. She said, +"Oh! no; I am not satisfied in my own mind. How do I know God wants it +for that purpose?" She might have struggled till now if she had not made +up her mind to obey; but, the moment she did--alone, up in her bedroom, +the blessing came. A gentleman came up to the penitent-form, after one +of my West-end services, last season, and told me: "I am a preacher. I +have been laboring in the Gospel for eight years, but I know I am +utterly destitute of this power." "Do you want it?" "Oh!" he said, "I +do;" and he looked as though he were sincere. "Then," I said, "what is +it? There is a hindrance. It is not God's fault. He wants you to have it +He is as willing to give you the Spirit as He was Peter or Paul, and +you want to have it. Now, _will you have it?_ Have you understood the +conditions?" "Ah!" he said, "_that_ is the point." Now, you know I +should be a false comforter if I were to try to make you believe you +were right when you had not yielded that point. "Well," he said, "you +see it would be cutting loose from one's entire circle." Ah! he was led, +you see, by "Christian friends." I said, "Did not the Lord Jesus cut +loose from His circle to save you? and, if your Christian friends are +such that to live a holy life you must cut loose from them, what are you +going to do--stop in that circle, ruin your own soul, and help to ruin +them, or cut loose and help to save them?" Oh! there is no profounder +philosophy in any text in the Bible than that--"How can ye believe who +receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from +God only?" You will have to come to God not caring what anybody thinks. + +As a dear lady, who is going through floods of persecution for +Jesus, said, "I don't care if they turn their backs on me, and never +speak to me any more, and cast me out, and my children, too. I don't +care if I can only have His presence and follow Him." When you come +to that you will get this pearl. + +I know a father and mother who want this blessing,--especially the +mother. They have a family of beautiful little children, but the +father says, "What are we going to do for our children? It is a very +serious matter cutting loose from our circle." A gentleman said to +me, "I have to do _something_ for my sons. What am I to do?" +"No," I said, "you have got to do nothing for your sons. You have to +train them for God, and leave GOD _to do for them_, and He is +well able to look after His own. That is your business; train them +for God, and leave God to find a niche for them, and if He can't on +earth, I warrant you He will in Heaven." People have things wrong way +up now-a-days. They have the notion that they have to do this, that, +and the other, for themselves and their children, instead of +accepting it as their great commission that they have to propagate +and push along and extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ, to seek His +kingdom and His righteousness, and leave Him to look after their +interests. When you come to this it will soon be done. + + + A FRAGMENT. + + Love Him, trust Him, + Him alone; + Father, Keeper, + Three in One. + + Saviour, Master, + Leader, too; + Lover, Brother, + ALL to you. + + Fear not, care not, + Only follow + His way, this day, + And to-morrow. + + Waiting, working, + For His sake; + Watching, hoping, + Till daybreak. + + Peaceful, joyful, + In His peace; + Filled full, kept full, + By His grace. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ADDRESSES ON HOLINESS, + +IN EXETER HALL. + +FIRST ADDRESS. + + +I think it must be self-evident to everyone present that it is +_the most important question_ that can possibly occupy the mind +of man--how much like God we can be--how near to God we can come on +earth preparatory to our being perfectly like Him, and living, as it +were, in His very heart for ever and ever in Heaven. Anyone who has +any measure of the Spirit of God, must perceive that this is the most +important question on which we can concentrate our thoughts; and the +mystery of mysteries to me is, how anyone, with any measure of the +Spirit of God, can help looking at this blessing of holiness, and +saying, "Well, even if it does seem too great for attainment on +earth, it is very beautiful and very blessed. I wish I could attain +it." That, it seems to me, must be the attitude of every person who +has the Spirit of God--that he should hunger and thirst after it, and +feel that he shall never be satisfied till he wakes up in the lovely +likeness of his Saviour. And yet, alas! we do not find it so. In a +great many instances, the very first thing professing Christians do, +is to resist and reject this doctrine of holiness as if it were the +most foul thing on earth. + +I heard a gentleman saying, a few days ago--a leader in one circle +of religion--that for anybody to talk about being holy, showed that +they knew nothing of themselves, and nothing of Jesus Christ. I said, +"Oh, my God! it has come to something if holiness and Jesus Christ +are at the antipodes of each other. I thought He was the centre and +fountain of holiness. I thought it was in Him only we could get any +holiness, and through Him that holiness could be wrought in us." But +this poor man thought this idea to be absurd. + +May God speak for Himself! Ever since I heard that sentiment I have +been crying from the depths of my soul, "Lord, speak for Thyself; +powerfully work on the hearts of Thy people and awake them. Take the +veil from their eyes, and show them what Thy purpose in Christ Jesus +concerning them _is_. Do not let them be bewildered and miss the +mark; do not leave them, but Lord, reveal it in their hearts." There +is no other way by which it can be revealed, and, if you will let +Him, He will reveal it in your heart. + +It occurred to me that I might say a word or two on what my husband +said about infirmities, because I am so continually meeting people +who _will make infirmities sins_. They insist upon it that the +requirements of the Adamic law have never been abated; that we are +not under the evangelical law of love, or the law of Christ, as the +Apostle puts it, but that we are still under the Adamic law, and that +these imperfections and infirmities, to which my husband has +referred, are sins. I wonder that such people do not think of a +certain passage, which must forever explode such a theory, where the +Apostle says, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my +infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." If these +infirmities had been sins, we should have the outrageous anomaly of +an apostle of Jesus Christ glorying in his sins! You see, his +infirmities were only those defects of mind and body which were +capable of being overcome and overruled by grace, to the glory of +Christ and to the furtherance of His kingdom. + +I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me +--that, in consequence of these very infirmities, the power of Christ +shall so rest upon me as to lift me above them, make me independent +of them, master of them, so that, through these very infirmities, I +shall more glorify His strength and grace than if I were a perfect +man, in mind and body. In another place he says, "And lest I should +be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, +there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, +to buffet me." Some people think this was _sin_; but surely, the +words, "messenger of Satan," show that this thorn was no act or +disposition of Paul's, but some external temptation or affliction, +inflicted by Satan. Besides, the Divine assurance, "My grace is +sufficient for thee," _ought_ to forbid the idea of sin. Paul +sought the Lord thrice to have this thorn removed; surely if it had +been _sin_, the Lord would, have been as anxious to have it +removed as His servant was! This thorn was, doubtless, some physical +trial--as the words, "in the flesh," indicate--some tribulation or +sorrow, through the patient endurance of which the strength of Christ +could be magnified in Paul's weakness--one of those things which he +could bear "through Christ who strengthened him." + +But mark, this was a Divinely-permitted discipline to _prevent +Paul_ from falling into sin; quite a different thing to sin +itself. "God tempteth no man with evil." The Lord sent this to Paul +for the purpose _not of making_ him humble, for he was humbled +before, but of keeping him humble. And does He not send something to +us all? Do we not need trials and tribulations in the flesh in order +to keep us humble? But is this evidence that, because we require +these things to keep us humble, therefore pride is dwelling in us and +reigning over us? It is an evidence just to the contrary. + +Oh, that people, in their enquiries about this blessing of holiness, +would keep this one thing before their minds, that it is _being +saved from sin_!--sin in act, in purpose, in thought! + +I have a beautiful letter, received a short time ago from a young +lady, who wrote me soon after my former services in the West End. She +told me that she had been the bondslave, I think, for four or five +years, of a certain besetting sin, and her first letter was the very +utterance of despair. She had struggled and wrestled and prayed, and +tried to overcome the sin that had been reigning over her. Now and +then she would get the victory, and then down she went again, and she +said, "It is such a subtle thing, connected with my thoughts and +imagination, so that I do not think I ever can be saved." I answered +the letter, and tried to encourage her faith and hope in Jesus +Christ. I showed her how dishonoring this unbelief was, and that, if +she would only trust Him to come in and reign in her heart, He could +purify and cleanse the very thoughts and imagination. She made a +little advance, and wrote me another letter. I wrote her again, and +encouraged her to trust further. She said she could not come so far +as to think that He could purify her thoughts. She had got as far as +to believe that He could save her from putting them into practice, +but she could not believe that He could purify _them_. I wrote +her back once more, and tried, the Lord helping me, to show her how +Jesus, by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, could purify the very +thoughts of our hearts, and, thank God, she did go another step. I +have had two letters from her since. She said in the first of them, +"I rejoice with trembling, for fear it should be only temporary, but +I have trusted Him to purify the source, and I must say HE HAS DONE +IT, and, instead of thinking these thoughts, I have holy thoughts, +and if Satan presents anything to my mind, it is so repulsive to me +that I cannot tell you the grief and horror with which it fills me." +I wrote her again, encouraging her, and I got another letter, in +which she said, "It is a fact that He has cleansed the thoughts of my +heart, and now I am conscious that my thoughts are pleasing to Him, +that He has saved me from this sin which has been the trouble and +torment of my life for all these years gone by." + +Now, what I want to say to you, is, that what He can do for one, He +can do for another. If I am wrong here, I give up the whole question. +I am perfectly mistaken in the purpose and aim and command of the +Gospel dispensation, if God does not want His people to be pure. Not +to count themselves pure when they _are not_. Oh, no! We are +told, over and over again, that God wants His people to be pure, and +THAT PURITY IN THEIR HEARTS IS THE VERY CENTRAL IDEA AND END AND +PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST; if it is not so, I give up the +whole question--I am utterly deceived. + +In justification of this, I have selected two or three texts which +seem to put it all in one; summing-up texts, so to speak. I will take +first, as a specimen, what my husband has been trying to enforce--"The +will of God is your sanctification." There is, however, a sense, +and an important sense, in which sanctification must be the will of +man. It must be _my_ will, too, and if it is not my will, the +Divine will can never be accomplished in me. I must _will_ to be +sanctified, as God is willing that I should be sanctified. There are +as many, and more, exhortations in the Bible to sanctify yourselves +than there are promises of God to sanctify you. + +The next text is James iv. 8: "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw +nigh to you. Cleanse _your_ hands, _ye_ sinners; and purify _your_ +hearts _ye_ double-minded." This was to backsliders, to people who had +been professing to believe, but who had gone back under the dominion of +their fleshly appetites and passions. There are two or three other texts +where we seem to get the whole matter summed up, as, for instance, "He +gave Himself for us (that is, for us Christians, the whole Church of +God) that He might redeem us from _all iniquity_, and purify unto +Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."--That is, purify +_us_. And then 1 Timothy i. 5 shows God's purpose and aim in the whole +method of redemption. "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of +a _pure heart_, and of a _good conscience_, and of faith +unfeigned"--cleansed and kept clean, for if it had been cleaned and +become dirty again, it would not be a good but a bad conscience. And +again, in I John iii. 3: "And every man that hath this hope in Him, +purifieth himself, even as He is pure." Now, I say, these are summing-up +texts, and there are numbers of others to the same effect, to show +that the whole end and purpose of redemption is this--that He will +restore us to purity; that He will bring us back to righteousness; +that He will purge your consciences from dead works to serve the +living God--not only purge you from the past, but keep you purged to +serve the LIVING GOD; that it shall be done by the application of the +blood to the conscience, and then it shall be maintained by the power +of the Holy Ghost keeping us in a state of purity and obedience to +righteousness. + +Now, I say, if this be not the central idea of Christianity, I do +not understand it. If God cannot do this for me--if Jesus Christ +cannot do this for me, what is my advantage at all by His coming? + +There is a great deal more in these epistles directed to the individual +Christian to _be_ this, that, and the other, and to _do_ this, that, and +the other, than there is about what God will do for him after all! This +is not an objective Christianity--this is not sitting down and +sentimentalizing and thinking of Christ in the Heavens, in these +epistles; it brings Him down, to all intents and purposes, INTO OUR +HEARTS AND LIVES HERE, and it is one of the continual exhortations, _be_ +ye this, and _do_ ye this and the other. + +These epistles represent a real, practical transformation to be +accomplished IN US, and this is the only thing that will do to die +with. If it is not accomplished in you, I tell you, you will not be +able to die in peace. You will want to be cleansed, as my dear +husband told you, before you can venture into the presence of the +King of kings. You will want a sense of beautiful, moral rectitude +and righteousness spreading over your whole nature, which will enable +you to look up into the face of God and say, "Yes, I love Thee, I +know Thee, and Thou knowest me, and lovest me, and we are one. I love +the things Thou lovest, and desire the things Thou desirest. We are +of one spirit, 'joined in one spirit unto the Lord.'" You will want +that, and nothing less will do to die with. And why not have it? Will +you have it? Why not let God work it in us? Will you try it? People +are constantly saying, "They long for it, and they wish they could +get it." Will you let God do it? Will you put away the depths of +unbelief which are at the bottom of all your difficulty? People +really do not believe that God _can_ do it for them, and that is +at the bottom of their difficulties. But He can do it, and He +promises to do it. Will you go down, and say, "Be it unto me +according to Thy word"? + + + "BORN--A SAVIOUR." + Luke ii. 11. + + Jesus a Saviour born, + Without: + Without the inn, refused with scorn. + Cast out: + Cast out for me, my Saviour, King, + Cast out to bring this lost one in. + + Jesus a Saviour born, + A man: + A man of sorrows, smitten, torn by stripes: + By stripes, O Lord, my soul is healed, + By stripes, Thy stripes, my pardon sealed. + + Jesus a Saviour born, + The Lamb: + The Lamb of God hath bled and borne + My sins: + My sins the Sacrifice did slay, + My sins the Lamb doth take away. + + Jesus a Saviour born + To save: + To save at night, at noon, at morn. + To keep: + To keep from sin, from doubt, from fear; + To keep, for lo! the Keeper's here. + + Jesus a Saviour born, + A King: + A King! exalt His glorious horn, + And sing: + O sing, ye heavens! He burst His grave, + And sing, O earth! He lives to save! + + + + +SECOND ADDRESS. + + + I beseech yon therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye + present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, + which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: + but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove + what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.--ROM. + xii. 1,2. + +I have been thinking about the word in the text, "_that_"--"that +ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will +of God." This advance in the Divine life, as well as every other, +right to the end, till we advance into glory, has its _conditions_. +The condition of the advance from an absolutely unawakened worldly +condition, to that of a convinced sinner, _is the reception of +the light_. God awakens and enlightens tens of thousands, and +thousands reject the light--instantly put it away--shut their eyes +--will not have the light. These go back into greater darkness, +and sin with more alacrity than ever they did before;--those who +receive the light advance into the condition of awakened, enlightened +souls. + +The next condition of advance from the state of a struggling sinner, +willing to part with his sins and to follow Christ, _is faith_, +to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may receive the +forgiveness of sins. And at every advance onwards, if the believer is +ever to get beyond the first principles, if he is ever to grow a +single inch, so to speak, there is a condition involved in that +advance! For instance, if, after conversion, the Holy Spirit reveals +to him something which is inconsistent--which he did not before +see--the condition of his advance another step is the _renunciation_ +of that thing!--the reception of the light, and _obedience to +it;_ and, if he shrinks from and does not receive and obey the +light, he will never advance _any more_ until he does. There are +thousands of Christians, who, instead of advancing, have gone back +since their conversion, because they would not comply with the +condition, "THAT" they might prove the good, and acceptable, and +perfect will of God. + +There was a condition. They would have proved the will of God if +there had been no condition; but there was a condition they would not +comply with; so there they stick, just where they were--or, rather, +they have gone backward. + +Well, now, then, here is a condition to _this_ grand and glorious +advance from the state of justification, where, while the believer is +given power over sin, so that it does not rule over him, yet he +sometimes, through its inward workings, falls under its power--the +advance from this comparatively sinning and repenting condition +on to that platform where the believer so abides in Christ that he +sins not, that he loves God with all his heart, and soul, and mind, +and strength--so united to Christ that, walking in the power of the +Holy Ghost, he fulfils the law of love under which he is placed--the +advance, I say, from that up and down, in and out, falling and rising +state, to this higher platform, also has its _conditions_. + +You would go up to it to-day if it were not for the conditions; most +of you would go up in a body, as the Israelites would have gone into +Canaan, if there had been no condition. I never knew anyone so +foolish as not to want to be in the good land; they want to be in, of +course, and they would go in and get the honey and the milk, but +there are the _conditions!_ Now then, here you have it plain, +and you have it in numbers of other passages equally plain. + +There is nothing upon which the Holy Ghost has been more particular +than in laying down the conditions. And what are they? "I beseech +you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your +bodies a living sacrifice"--the living man--you, all of you; not +_it_--not something in you. + +The latter term is never used by the Holy Ghost when speaking to +Christians, but always _you, ye, your_ bodies, _your_ souls, _your_ +mind, the whole man--YOU, "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto +God, _which is_ your reasonable service." And is it not? Is it too much? +Is it more than He bargained for when He bought you? Is it more than He +paid for? It is "your reasonable service." + +And now, then, comes the conditions: "And be _not conformed to this +world: but be ye transformed_ by the renewing of your mind, _that_ ye +may prove." + +Oh! if you could be transformed to Him and conformed to this world +at the same time, all the difficulty would be over. I know plenty of +people who would be transformed directly; but, to be not conformed to +this world--how they stand and wince at that! They cannot have it at +that price. As dear Finney once said, "My brother, if you want to +find God, you will not find Him up there, amongst all the starch and +flattery of hell; you will have to come down for Him." That is +it--"Be not conformed to this world." + +Nothing wounds me more, after being at meetings for dealing with +souls, where I have tried to speak in a most pointed and thorough way +to make everybody know what I meant, when I go to the dinner or +supper-table, people have not known a bit, or, if they have, they +won't accept it. Oh! this is the secret--they will not come down from +their pride and high-mightiness. But God will not be revealed to such +souls, though they cry and pray themselves to skeletons, and go +mourning all their days. They will not fulfil the condition--"Be not +conformed to this world;" they will not forego their conformity even +to the extent of a dinner party. A great many that I know will not +forego their conformity to the shape of their head-dress. They won't +forego their conformity to the extent of giving up visiting and +receiving visits from ungodly, worldly, hollow, and superficial +people. They will not forego their conformity to the tune of having +their domestic arrangements upset--no, not if the salvation of their +children, and servants, and friends depends upon it. The _sine qua +non_ is their own comfort, and then take what you can get, on God's +side. "We _must_ have this, and we _must_ have the other; and then, if +the Lord Jesus Christ will come in at the tail end and sanctify it all, +we shall be very much obliged to Him; but we cannot forego these +things." + +Oh! friends, I tell you, this will never do. God helping me, I will, +I must tell you, because it is driven in upon my soul by what I am +seeing and hearing every day. People come to these meetings, and they +groan and cry and come to us for help, and we exhaust our poor brains +and bodies in talking to them and giving them advice, telling them +what to do, and, when it comes to the point, we find, "Oh! no; don't +you be mistaken: we are not going to sacrifice these things. We +cannot have the Lord if He will not come into our temples and take +them as He finds them. We could not forego these things." + +You remember the text that was read at the opening of the meeting--"And +the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world." +It means something! and there are a hundred other texts teaching the +same truth. Now, _what does it mean_? The Lord help us to see +it! Does it not mean that we are not to be like the rest of the +world?--that we are not to be guided by the same maxims, or act upon +the same principles as the world?--that we are not to attach the +same importance to mere earthly and worldly things that worldly +people do? Have you ever thought of those awful words in the parable +of the sower?--"And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of +riches, and the lusts of other things, entering in, _choke_ the +word, and it becometh unfruitful,"--not abominable things, not +immoral things, not shameful things, but the _desire of other_ +things. And, in another text: "_Who mind earthly things_." They +attach more importance to worldly things and other things than they +do to the things of His kingdom. They practically make these things +_first_, though they sing about His kingdom and profess to make +Him first: they make the earthly things first, and, therefore, they +will not have their earthly things upset for His things; and do you +suppose He is cheated? Do you suppose He is deceived? Do you think it +likely that the great God of Heaven, who has millions of angels and +archangels to worship and serve Him, is going to pour His glory on +such people, and reveal Himself to them, and use them? Not likely! "I +will be first in your love," He says. + +You women here, if you knew that you were not the first and only one +in the affections of your husband, what would you say? And you +husbands, would you dwell with a wife if you knew you were not the +only one in her affections, but that they were divided between you +and someone else? "Not likely!" you would say; "I am not going to +lavish my affections, and my society, and my gifts, and everything I +possess, on one whose heart is divided with another. If she will have +her heart divided, then she must go to that other." + +Now you know God is a jealous God, and He knows who do mock Him, and +He knows who will not sacrifice this conformity to the world that +they may walk with Him in white. He knows, also, who do not care what +anybody thinks of them, or what people say of them; who are willing +to be counted fools and fanatics that they may walk with Him and +promote the interests of His kingdom, and who only regard their +bodies as His instruments and their homes as His temples; who are +willing that their breakfast hours, or dinner hours, or luncheon +hours, or any other hours may be upset, and, in fact, everything made +subservient to the interests of His kingdom. We must place everything +at His service--our children, business, homes, and everything. If I +understand it, this is nonconformity to the world. + +Before I close, let me say a word to help those who are desiring to +attain this blessing. There is no other way. It is of no use beating +about. BE NOT CONFORMED, BUT BE YE TRANSFORMED. These two are in +juxtaposition. If you will be conformed, then you cannot be +transformed; if you will not be transformed, then you must be +conformed. Now, will you give up conformity to the world? If so, you +may, everyone of you, be transformed this morning--go up into the +land. You may all be saved to-day, and make your abiding-place in +Christ, and have all the power and glory which comes to those who +possess Him; you may advance from the miserable condition of a poor +up-and-down, in-and-out, wretched man, on to the glorious vantage +ground of a saved man--a saved woman--a triumphant saint of God! + + + FAITH. + + My faith _looks up_ to Thee-- + My faith, so small, so slow; + It lifts its drooping eyes to see + And claim the blessing now. + Thy wondrous gift + It sees afar; + Thy perfect love + It claims to share, + And doth not, cannot fear. + + My faith _takes hold_ on Thee-- + My faith, so weak, so faint; + It lifts its trembling hands to be, + Trembling, but violent. + The kingdom now + It takes by force, + And waits till Thou, + Its last resource, + Shall seal and sanctify. + + My faith _holds fast_ on Thee, + My faith, still small, but sure, + Its anchor holds _alone_ to Thee, + Whose presence keeps me pure. + And Thou alway, + To see and hear, + By night, by day, + Art very near-- + Art very near to me. + + + + +THIRD ADDRESS. + + +What a deal there is of going to meetings and getting blessed, and +then going away and living just the same, until sometimes we, who are +constantly engaged in trying to bring people nearer to God, go away +so discouraged that our hearts are almost broken. + +We feel that people go back again from the place where we have led +them, instead of stepping up to the place to which God is calling +them. They come and come, and we are, as the Prophet says, unto them +a very pleasant instrument, or a very unpleasant one, as the case may +be; and so they go away, and do not _get anything_. They do not +make any _definite advance_. We have not communicated unto them +any spiritual gift. They merely have their feelings stirred, and, +consequently, they live the next week exactly as they lived the last, +and go down under the temptation just as they did before. + +Would you dream for a moment from reading the New Testament that +this was the kind of thing God intended in His provisions of grace +and salvation? Is there not a definite end in every promise, +exhortation, and command? God is most _definite_ in His requirements and +promises, and in the provision which He has made; and yet many of the +Lord's people are perpetually and persistently _indefinite_. They go to +and fro, like a door on its hinges, and never get anything from the +Lord. We want you absolutely to get something from the Lord, and we are +quite sure you may and _will_, if you comply with the condition. The +Lord is ready to give you that particular measure of grace, strength, +and salvation which you need. Now that you have come up to the +threshhold of the goodly land, there is only one thing which can keep +you out, provided you have made the needed consecration. Of course, if +you are holding anything back, then you can never come in until you give +that up. If yon are cleaving to some doubtful thing, and don't give God +the benefit of the doubt, you can never come in; but, if you see this, +and make the necessary consecration, if you _really_ desire this +blessing, there is only one thing which can possibly keep you out of +its enjoyment, and that is--_unbelief_. + +It will be said of you, in years to come, as it was said of some in +olden times, "They entered not in because of unbelief." You have come +right up to the threshhold, and some of you have been there many a +time. Oh! what gracious influences you have been the subject of. You +have seen through the veil! You have felt His hand! You have had your +feet on the threshhold! You have been almost in, and then you have +drawn back through unbelief. Shall it be so again to-night? God +forbid! Will yon step over? Will you venture? Will you trust? Will +yon leap on to His faithfulness? Will you spring into the arms of +Omnipotent Love, and trust Him with consequences? Never mind if you +_do_ die, or something happens to you that never happened to +anyone else in the world's history; God will take care of you. Never +mind if the devil does come round and "consider" you, as he did Job, +and afflict you with boils, and put you upon the dunghill--you will +be happier there with Jesus than in a palace without Him. Oh! this +caring for consequences! The devil knows the grand _possibilities_ +open to many of you; he knows not only what you might receive and +enjoy in yourselves, but what you might accomplish for God if you +would only come in and possess this blessing; and so he frightens +you with consequences. He knows what you might do, and whom you +might be instrumental in saving! + +Who knows how many of these precious ones that cluster round you, +you may be instrumental in leading on to this higher platform--this +glorious vantage ground of Christian experience? and, through them, +how many more? and how, in this way, the glorious blessing would +spread? Remember, also, that every time you come near and go back, +there is less _probability that you will ever come in at all_; +and the nearer you come and go back, the less probability there is +that you will ever come as near again. + +You _are grieving the Spirit_. There are some people who have been +coming near for years, and now they have gone back altogether, and I am +afraid they will never come up again. _What will you do?_ The law of the +kingdom, from beginning to end, is, "According to your faith be it unto +you," and, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye +receive _them_, and ye shall have _them_." _Eternal truth has uttered +it_--"ye shall have them." Now then, will you? Have you let go all? Are +your skirts free? Are you leaving all behind you? Are you resolved from +to-night to cut from the past, and no more make any provision for the +flesh to fulfil its lusts, but that you will bid the things that are +behind a final adieu, close your eyes on them, and fix your eyes on the +mark of the prize of your high calling, and press on every succeeding +hour of your life until you reach it? Will you? If you will, God will +give you this blessing. He waits to do it; He is here. The Holy Ghost is +here: He is leading many of you up; He is beseeching you; He is +seconding what I am saying, in your hearts; He is saying, "Come, +beloved; come into the banqueting house;" He wants to bless you and +fill you with His Spirit. Now then, will you come? Oh! the Lord help +you not to draw back, but to press on, _press on, press on_, never +minding the consequences. + + + + +FOURTH ADDRESS. + + +I think, dear friends, that I have only a very few words to say to +you now. I am, as it were, holding on to God for power by which to +say them, so that they shall sink into your hearts and produce some +immediate and permanent results in your lives. I believe the Lord is +not only grieved and disappointed, but I believe He is angry, when +His people meet, and talk, and sing, and pray, and then go away +without any definite result having been reached--without ever having +given anything to Him, or received anything from Him. I believe He +feels with respect to us, just as He felt with respect to His people +of old, when He said, "Why come ye and cover my altar with tears?" As +though He said, "You know what I want you to do; come and do it; and, +when you do it, I will open the windows of Heaven and pour out a +blessing." + +My heart ached at what a lady told me this morning, before I came +into this hall. She said, "A friend of mine remarked, 'You don't mean +to say that you are going to call four thousand people together to +cry for the Holy Ghost?' She said, 'Yes, I do.' 'Well, it makes me +frightened. What if anything should happen; if something should be +done?'" Would to God something would happen; would to God something +might be done that should frighten somebody. But oh! what did that +reveal? Depths of infidelity and unbelief; and yet people wonder that +infidelity is increasing. Is it any wonder that infidels are laughing +us to scorn? Is it any wonder that at Christian Evidence Societies +men get up and say that the Christian system has become effete? No +wonder, when that is the state of heart of the Lord's people. + +People meet together, and pray, and talk, and sing "Whiter than +snow," and they don't believe it any more than do the heathen. They +pray for the Holy Ghost, and do not so much as believe there is a +Holy Ghost. They ask God to do something, when they never knew Him to +do anything, and don't expect He ever will. The world is dying +because of this unreality, and being damned by it. + +Josephine Butler says, about France, "France is waiting for a +_reality_:" and so is England, and so is the world waiting for a +_reality_. God help us to make some _real people_. You believe, some of +you, that nothing is going to happen. You don't believe that God is +going to do anything--so He won't in your experience. If you had lived +at Nazareth, do you think Jesus Christ would have done anything for you? +If you had been deaf and dumb, you would have remained so, for He could +not have done any mighty works in you, because of your unbelief! He is +the same now; and if you don't expect Him to do anything, brother, He +will not. But some of us do _expect_ Him to do _something_. Some of us +_believe_ He is going to do _something_, and that by this little stone, +cut out of a mountain, without hands, He intends to raise a great +kingdom. Jesus Christ is not going to be disappointed, and allow the +devil to chuckle in His face forever, and say, "I have cheated You out +of Your inheritance." We will do something, or die in attempting it. + +After all, what does God want with us? He wants us just _to be_ and _to +do_. He wants us to be like His Son, and then to do as His Son did; and +when we come to that, He will shake the world through us. People say, +"You can't be like His Son." Very well, then, you will never get any +more than you believe for. If I did not think Jesus Christ strong enough +to destroy the works of the devil, and to bring us back to God's +original pattern, I would throw the whole thing up for ever. What! He +has given, us a religion we cannot practice? I say, No, He has not come +to mock us. What? He has given us a Saviour who cannot save? Then I +decline to have anything to do with Him. What! does He profess to do for +me what He cannot? No, no. He "is not a man, that He should lie: neither +the Son of man, that He should repent:" and I tell you that His scheme +of salvation is two-sided--it is God-ward and man-ward. It contemplates +me as well as it contemplates the great God. It is not a scheme of +salvation, merely--it is a scheme of _restoration_. If He cannot restore +me, He must damn me. If He cannot heal me, and make me over again, and +restore me to the pattern He intended me to be, He has left Himself +no choice. + +I challenge anybody to disprove by the Bible that He proposes to +_restore_ me--brain, heart, soul, spirit, body, every fibre of +my nature--to restore me perfectly, to conform me wholly to the image +of His Son. If He could have saved me without restoring me, then He +could have saved me without a Saviour at all. How do you read your +Bibles? How do you read the history of the miracles--the stories of +His opening the eyes, unstopping the ears, cleansing the leper, and +raising the dead? He will heal you if you will let Him. These are the +sort of words the world wants--the living words, living embodiments +of Christianity, walking embodiments of the Spirit, and life and +power of Jesus Christ. You may scatter Bibles, as you have done, all +over the world. You may preach, and sing, and talk, and do what you +will; but, if you don't exhibit to the people _living epistles_, +show them the transformation of character and life in yourself which +is brought about by the power and grace of God--if you don't go to +them and do the works of Jesus Christ, you may go on preaching, and +the world will get worse and worse, and the church, too. We want a +living embodiment of Christianity. We want JESUS TO COME IN THE FLESH +AGAIN. + +Did you ever notice the tense in that passage--"He that believeth that +Jesus is come in the flesh"--not that He _did_ come, or _was_ come, but +that He _is_ come now. Oh! how people hate Jesus Christ in the flesh. +You may be ever so devout, ever so Pharisaic, till you come to Jesus in +the flesh, and then they will gnash on you with their teeth as they +gnashed on Christ. They can't resist such people. This is what the world +wants--holy people; and nothing else will do. We have tried everything +else. You Christian people from other divisions of the Lord's forces, +you have tried Bibles, and preaching, and singing, and services, and +Sunday-schools. I have been lately to a part of the country where they +told me that nearly every member of the population had passed through +their Sunday-schools, and yet there are men there who will drag a young +girl down a flight of stone stairs and kick her till she is black and +blue. The great mass of the people who took part in the Lancashire Riots +have passed through your Sunday-schools. + +Now, I say, God is speaking to you in these things, if only you will +hear Him, and He is saying that the letter killeth, that +circumcision, and baptism, and forms, and ceremonies, and going to +chapel, and Bible reading, is all nothing, when there is no Holy +Ghost in it. You want a real, living embodiment of Christianity over +again, and if the Salvation Army is not going to be that, may God put +it out! I would be willing to pronounce the funeral oration of the +Army if I did not believe it was going to be that. The world is dying +for this. + +I was so touched, yesterday, by hearing a story from Paris, told by +a young woman who has just returned, and was telling me about my +precious child. The story was this: A woman came, one morning, and +asked for the lady. They tried to put her off, and asked, "Will not +someone else do?" "No," said the woman; "I do want to see the lady +herself." They said, "You can't see her to-day--she is too ill!" +"Then," she said, "When can I see her?" They appointed a time the +next afternoon, and then this poor woman came, and she told this +story: "I did hear, six years ago, that there was somebody could take +the devil out. Now, see, I have got a devil in, and he do make me +wicked and miserable, and I do want him taken out, and I have been +running about these six years to find somebody who could pull him +out. I've been to lots of priests, but they could not pull him out +because they had a devil in _them_; and, you see when there's a +devil in me and a devil in them, we got to fighting, and they could +not pull him out." What a comment on "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; +but who are ye?" Of course, nobody can put a devil out who has a +devil in them. The poor old woman's sense told her this. + +"And," she continued, "a gentleman told me that this lady who has +come here is able to pull him out, and I have come to her to do it, +for I want him pulled out." Oh, yes! I thought, that is what poor +humanity wants all the world over. THEY WANT PEOPLE WHO CAN CAST THE +DEVIL OUT--people who have in them Holy Ghost power to do it. Oh! +will you be such an one? + +"Where is God?" someone said to me the other day, in agony--"Where +is God?" Where, indeed! "Why does He not show Himself? Why does He +not do something?" That lady was afraid something would happen when +4,000 met together to beseech the Holy Ghost! Why not? You say He has +not changed. Your creed says so. You say He is the same yesterday, +to-day and forever. You say the needs of the world are as great. You say +His great, benevolent heart beats for His fallen, sinful, erring +human family. You say He loves us. You are always telling about His +love. What is the reason He does not do something for us, and come +down in the same plentitude of spiritual power as He did at +Pentecost? Why? Only because you are not as given up to Him and as +willing to do it as the people were in former times. You have not +accounted all things dung and dross. You have not thrown everything +into the scale, and, therefore, He will not thus baptize you with the +Holy Ghost. These are the people that the world wants--people of one +idea--Christ, and Him crucified. For Christ's sake, give up quibbling. + +I said to a lady who had got this blessing when somebody got at her +and began with this verse and that verse, and this translation and +that translation--"Mind you don't begin to reason; you will lose your +blessing"--and she did lose it. You can't know it by understanding. +Oh! if the world could have known it by understanding, what a deal +they would have known. But He despises all your philosophy. It is not +by understanding, but _by faith_! If ever you know God it will +be by faith, becoming as a little child--opening your mouth, and +saying, "Lord, pour in;" and then your quibbles and difficulties will +be gone, and you will see holiness, sanctification, purity, perfect +love, burning out on every page of God's Word. I weep before God, I +feel almost more than I can bear, over this awful knack that some +people seem to have of plucking the bread out of the children's +mouths when they are just getting an appetite for it. The Lord have +mercy upon them! If you don't come in yourselves, for Christ's sake +don't keep other people out. + +A minister--a devoted, good man--was trying to show me that this +sanctification was too big to be got and kept. I said, "My dear sir, +how do you know? If another man has faith to march up to Jesus Christ +and say, 'Here, I see this in your Book; You have promised this to +me; now then, Lord, I have faith to take it:' mind you don't measure +His privilege by your faith. Do you think the church has come up to +His standard of privilege and obligation? I don't. It has many +marches to make yet. Mind you don't hinder anybody." The law of the +kingdom all the way through will be--"According to your faith." If +you want this blessing, put down your quibbles, put your feet on your +arguments, march up to the throne and ask for it, and kill, and +crucify, and cast from you, the accursed thing which hinders it, and +then you shall have it, and the Lord will fill you with His power and +glory now, and something _will_ happen. The Lord grant it. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Godliness, by Catherine Booth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GODLINESS *** + +***** This file should be named 6669.txt or 6669.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/6/6/6669/ + +Produced by Avinash Kothare, Juliet Sutherland, Charles +Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Godliness + +Author: Catherine Booth + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6669] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 12, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GODLINESS *** + + + + +Produced by Avinash Kothare, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. + + + + + +GODLINESS. + +BEING + +REPORTS OF A SERIES OF ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT +JAMES'S HALL, LONDON, W., During 1881, + +BY + +MRS. CATHERINE BOOTH. + +_INTRODUCTION BY DANIEL STEELE, D.D._ + + + + +PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. + + +In giving this volume to our American readers, we are assured that +we are doing a special favor to all the lovers of "Christianity in +earnest." "Aggressive Christianity," from the same talented author, +has met with unusual favor, and has been the means of much good. We +are confident that the present volume is in all respects equal to the +former, and that no one can read it without great spiritual profit. + +The Introduction, by Dr. Daniel Steele, is a forcible presentation +of the main doctrines of the book, and is creditable to the head and +heart of the writer, and a commendation which all intelligent readers +will highly esteem. + +Our object in publishing these sermons, is, that their perusal may +kindle a flame of revival in the hearts of believers, which may +result in many turning unto the Lord. + +MCDONALD & GILL + +BOSTON, MASS. + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + + +In presenting another volume of reports of my Addresses, I have only +to repeat what I have said with respect to similar books before-- +Read, for the sake of getting more light and more blessing to your +soul, and you will, I trust, partake of the good which many have +professed to receive at the West-End services, wherein most of these +words were first spoken. + +I am well aware that, in such imperfect reports of, for the most +part, extemporaneous utterances, often most hurriedly corrected, +there may be found abundant ground for criticism; but, if this book +may be the means of leading only a few souls to devote themselves +more fully to God and to the salvation of men, I shall be more than +compensated for any unfriendly criticism with which it may meet. + +I have not sought to please any but the Lord, and to His fatherly +loving-kindness I commend both the book and its readers. + +CATHERINE BOOTH. + +_London, Nov._ 10, 1881. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The sermons of Mrs. Booth already re-published under the title of +"_Aggressive Christianity_," came to American Christians as a tonic to +their weakness, and a stimulant to their inertness. + +The sermons in the present volume are a much-needed prophylactic, a +safeguard against several practical errors in dealing with souls; +errors which lead them into Egyptian darkness, instead of the +marvelous light. + +The sermon on _Repentance_ is a most faithful showing up of spurious +repentance, the vain substitute for a downright abandonment of every +form of sin, and right-about facing towards the Lord. In directness and +point, it is a model for earnest revival preaching,--rather, for all +preaching to unsaved souls, outside the church, or within it. All of +these will be found in some subterfuge, which must be ruthlessly torn +down, before it will be abandoned for the cleft Rock. + +The sermon on _Saving Faith_ is next in order. The disastrous +consequences of what, for the want of a better description, maybe +styled an Antinomian faith, an unrepentant assent of the intellect to +the historic facts of the Gospel, which too many evangelists and +other religious teachers are calling saving faith, are clearly set +forth and plainly labeled, POISON. This spurious trust in Christ +following a superficial repentance, which has never felt the +desperate sinfulness and real misery of sin, has furnished our +churches with a numerous class of members, aptly described by the +prophet Micah: "The sin of Israel is great and unrepented of, yet +they will lean on the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us?" We +are convinced that much of the work of the faithful and pungent +preacher, who preaches with his eye fixed on the great white throne +and the descending Judge, is to dislodge professors from their +imaginary trust in a Saviour who does not save them, and probe deeply +their hearts festering with sin, which have been hastily pronounced +healed, "slightly healed." Many of us have incautiously said to +awakened souls, "Only believe," before we have thrust the heart +through and through with the sword of God's law. We have dismissed +God's schoolmaster. The law, like the slave charged with the task of +leading the boy to school, and of committing him to the teacher, we +have thought to be too harsh and severe for our sentimental age, and +have unwisely discharged, and have assumed its office of a +_paidagogos_ to Christ, and we have missed the way, and misled a +priceless soul. God have mercy on us, and give us humility, as He +gave Apollos, to be set right by an anointed woman! + +After her timely correction of erroneous teachings on faith, Mrs. +Booth proceeds, pruning-knife in hand, to cut away from the tree of +modern Christianity the poisonous fungus of a "spurious charity." Her +four sermons on _Charity_ are four beacons set on the rocks of +counterfeit Christian love. She sets forth several infallible tests +by which genuine love may be distinguished from the devil's base +imitation. Like the Epistles of St. John, these sermons are full of +touchstones for testing love, that golden principle of the Christian +life. It would be very profitable for all professors of that perfect +love which casteth out all tormenting fear, to apply unflinchingly +these touch-stones to themselves. They may find the word "perfection" +taking on a meaning deeper, broader and higher than they had ever +before conceived. Why should not our conception of Christian +perfection steadily grow with the increase of our knowledge of God +and of His holy law? + +The sermon on _The Conditions of Effectual Prayer_, we commend +to all Christians and to all seekers of Christ, who are mourning +because their prayers do not prevail with God. In the clear light of +this sermon they will find that the difficulty lies, either in the +lack of fellowship with Jesus Christ, or of obedience to His +commands, or in the absence from their hearts of the interceding +Spirit, or in defective faith. In the discussion of these hindrances +to prayer, the preacher lays open the heart, and with a skilful +spiritual surgery, searches it to the very bottom. The incisiveness +of her style, her courage and plain dealing with her hearers, tearing +off the masks of sin and selfishness, the various guises in which +these masquerade in many Christian hearts and obstruct their access +to a throne of grace, remind us of Dr. Finney's unsparing exposure +and condemnation of these foes to Christian holiness, and of John +Wesley's cutting up by the roots "Sin in Believers." + +In this sermon Mrs. Booth turns her attention to another phase of +faith and of practical error in the guidance of souls to Christ. Her +views on this vexed question are not extreme but philosophical and +scriptural. She teaches that God has made the bestowment of salvation +simultaneous with the exercise of faith, and that "telling a person +to believe he is saved, before he is saved, is telling him to believe +a lie." But she insists that the act of faith is put forth with the +special aid of the Holy Spirit giving an assurance that the blessing +sought will be granted. This assurance, or earnest, given by the +Spirit, becomes the basis on which the final act of faith rests, +namely, "I believe that I receive." This corresponds with William +Taylor's Divine "ascertainment of the fact of the sinner's surrender +to God, and his acceptance of Christ," before justification. +[Footnote: Election of Grace, pp. 38-42.] Both teachers agree with +Wesley's analysis of faith which teaches that the fourth and last +step, "He doth it," can be taken only by the special enabling power +of the Holy Spirit, [Footnote: Sermons. Patience, Section 13; Scripture +Way of Salvation, Section 17; and Whedon on Mark xi. 24.] All three +locate the Divine efficiency before the declaration, "I believe that I +receive," or "have received" (R. V.), making that declaration rest upon +the perception of a Divine change within the consciousness. They all +insist that saving faith is not a mere humanly moral exercise, but +that power to believe with the heart descends from God, and that it +must be waited for in prayer, and that it becomes in the believer a +series of supernatural and spiritual acts, a habit of soul, at once +the seed and fruit of the Divine life-stirring, uniting in itself the +characters of penitent humility, self-renunciation, simple trust, and +absolute obedience grounded in love. These teachers magnify the +Divine element in faith. We look in vain in their writings for any +such direction to a penitent as this, "Believe that you are saved, +because, God says so in His Word," but rather believe that you are +saved when you hear His Spirit crying, Abba, Father, in your heart. + +Many modern teachers fall into the error of treating saving faith as +an unaided intellectual act to be performed, at will, at any time. It +is rather a spiritual act possible only when prompted by the Holy +Spirit, who incites to faith only when He sees true repentance and a +hearty surrender to God. Then the Spirit reveals Christ and assists +to grasp Him. In the refutation of the high predestinarian doctrine +that faith is an irresistible grace sovereignly bestowed upon the +elect, there is great danger of falling into the opposite error, +called Pelagianism, which makes saving faith an exercise which the +natural man is competent to put forth without the help of the Holy +Spirit. The real guilt of unbelief lies in that voluntary +indifference toward Christ, and impenitence of heart, in which the +Holy Spirit cannot inspire saving faith. + +In our introduction to "_Aggressive Christianity_," we advertised, in +behalf of the American churches, a universal want--Enthusiasm. In her +brief Exeter-Hall address, Mrs. Booth discloses the source of the +supply. Holiness is the well-spring of enthusiasm. Hence it is not a +spring freshet, but an overflowing river of power in all its possessors, +and, notably in the Salvation Army, bearing the unchurched masses of +England on its bosom. A holy enthusiasm is contagious and conquering. We +cannot touch the people with the icicle of logic; but they will not fail +to bow to the scepter of glowing and joyful love. Few men can reason; +all can feel. Enthusiasm and full salvation, like the Siamese twins, +cannot be separated and live. The error of the modern pulpit is that of +the blacksmith hammering cold steel--a faint impression and huge labor. +The baptism of fire softening our assemblies would lighten the +preacher's toil and multiply its productiveness. + +The four addresses on _Holiness_ are hortatory rather than +argumentative or exegetical. They are spiritual cyclones. It is +difficult to see how any Christian could withstand these impassioned +appeals to make what Joseph Cook calls "an affectionate, total, +irreversible, eternal, self-surrender to Jesus Christ, as both +Saviour and Lord," in order to attain that "perfect similarity of +feeling with God," wherein evangelical perfection consists. + +It gives me great pleasure to have some humble part in echoing +across the American continent these glowing utterances from the lips +of this modern Deborah, the Christian prophetess raised up by God for +the deliverance of His people from captivity to worldliness and +religious apathy. "Would God that all the Lord's people," men and +women, "were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon +them!" + + "Shall we the Spirit's course restrain, + Or quench the heavenly fire? + Let God His messengers ordain, + And whom He will inspire! + Blow as He list, the Spirit's choice + Of instruments we bless: + We will, if Christ be preached, rejoice, + And wish the word success." + +DANIEL STEELE. + +_Reading, Mass., Nov._ 23, 1883. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +REPENTANCE + +CHAPTER II. + +SAVING FAITH + +CHAPTER III. + +CHARITY + +CHAPTER IV. + +CHARITY AND REBUKE + +CHAPTER V. + +CHARITY AND CONFLICT + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHARITY AND LONELINESS + +CHAPTER VII. + +CONDITIONS OF EFFECTUAL PRAYER + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PERFECT HEART + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW TO WORK FOR GOD WITH SUCCESS + +CHAPTER X. + +ENTHUSIASM AND FULL SALVATION + +CHAPTER XI. + +HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS + +CHAPTER XII. + +ADDRESSES ON HOLINESS + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +REPENTANCE, + + + And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of Heaven is at band.--MATT. + iii. 2. + + From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the + Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.--MATT. iv. 17. + + "Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly + vision: but shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and + throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Qentiles, that + they should repent and torn to God, and do works meet for + repentance."--ACTS xxvi. 19,20. + +In the mouths of three witnesses--John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, +and the Apostle Paul--this word shall be established, namely, that +repentance is an _indispensable_ condition of entering the kingdom of +God. + +People generally are all at sea oh this subject, as though insisting +that repentance were an arbitrary arrangement on the part of God. I +believe God has made human salvation as easy as the Almighty, +Infinite mind could make it. But there is a necessity in the case, +that we should "repent and turn to God." It is just as necessary that +my feelings be changed and brought to repentance towards God, as it +is that the wicked, disobedient boy, should have his feelings brought +back into harmony with his father before he can be forgiven. +Precisely the same laws of mind are brought into action in both +cases, and there is the same necessity in both. + +If there is any father here who has a prodigal son, I ask, How is it +that you are not reconciled to your son? You love him--love him +intensely. Probably you are more conscious of your love for him than +for any other of your children. Your heart yearns over him every day; +you pray for him night and day; you dream of him by night; your +bowels yearn over your son, and you say, with David, "Absalom, +Absalom, my son, my son." Why are you not reconciled? Why not pat him +on the head, or stroke his face, and say, "My dear lad, I am well +pleased with you. I love you complacently; I give you my +approbation?" Why are you always reproving him? Why are you obliged +to hold him at arm's length? Why can you not live on amicable terms +with him? Why can you not have him come in and out, and live with you +on the same terms as the affectionate, obedient daughter? "Oh!" you +say, "the case is different; I cannot. It is not, 'I would not;' but, +'_I cannot_.' Before that can possibly be, the boy's feelings +must be changed towards me. He is at war with me; he has mistaken +notions of me; he thinks I am hard, and cruel, and exacting, and +severe. I have done all a father could do, but he sees things +differently, to what they are, and has harbored these hard feelings +against me until he hates me, and will go on in defiance of my will." +You say, "It is a necessity that, as a wise and righteous father, I +must insist on a change in him. I cannot receive him as a son, till +he comes to my feet. He must confess his sin, and ask me to forgive +him. Then, oh! how gladly will my fatherly affection gush out! How I +should run to meet him, and put my arms around his neck! but there is +a 'cannot' in the case." Just so. It is not that He does not love +you, sinner; it is not that the great, benevolent heart of God has +not, as it were, wept tears of blood over you; it is not that He +would not put His loving arms around you this moment, if you would +only come to His feet, and confess you were wrong, and seek His +pardon; but, otherwise, He may not--He _cannot_. The laws of His +universe are against Him doing so. The good, it may be, of millions +of immortal beings, is involved. He dare not, and He _cannot,_ until +there is a change of mind _in you._ You must repent. "Except ye repent, +ye shall all likewise perish." + +Well, if repentance be an indispensable condition of salvation, let +us glance at it for a moment, and try to find out what repentance +really is; and, oh! how full of confusion the world and the church +are upon this subject! I say it, because I know it by converse with +hundreds of people. May the Holy Spirit help us! + +Well, first, repentance is not merely conviction of sin. Oh! if it +only were, what a different world we should have to-night, for there +are tens of thousands on whose hearts God's Spirit has done His +office by convincing them of sin. I am afraid we should be perfectly +alarmed, astounded, confounded, if we had any conception of the +multitudes whom God has convinced of sin, as He did Agrippa and +Festus. Oh! I could not tell you the numbers of people, who, in our +anxious meetings, have grasped my hand, and said, "Oh! what would I +give to feel as I once felt! There was a time, fifteen, or seventeen, +or twenty years ago," and so on, "when I was so deeply convinced of +sin that I could scarcely sleep, or eat--that I could find no rest; +but, instead of going on till I found peace, I got diverted, cooled +down, and now, I feel as hard as a stone." I am afraid there are tens +of thousands in this condition--once convinced of sin. + +There are thousands of others, who are convinced _now_. They say, "Yes, +it is true what the minister says. I know I ought to lay down the +weapons of my warfare against God; I know I ought to cut off this right +hand, and pluck out this right eye." They are convinced of sin, but they +go no further. That is not repentance. They live this week as they did +last. There is no response to the Spirit; they resist the Holy Ghost. + +Neither is repentance mere sorrow for sin. I have seen people weep +bitterly, and writhe and struggle, but yet hug on to their idols, and +in vain you try to shake them from them. Oh! if Jesus Christ would +have saved them with those idols, they would have no objection at +all. If they could have got through the strait gate with this one +particular idol, they would have gone through long since; but to part +with that--that is another thing. Such people will weep like your +stubborn child, when you want him to do something which he does not +want to do. He will cry, and when you apply the rod he will cry +harder, but he will not yield. When he yields, he becomes a penitent; +but, until he does, he is merely a convicted sinner. When God applies +the rod of His Spirit, the rod of His providence, the rod of His +Word, sinners will cry, and wince, and whine, and make you believe +they are praying, and want to be saved, but all the while they are +holding their necks as stiff as iron. They will not _submit_. +The moment they submit, they become true penitents, and get saved. +There is no mistake more common than for people to suppose they are +penitents when they are not. There are some of you in this condition, +I know. I am afraid you are quite mistaken--you are not penitents. +God is true though every man should be a liar; and, if you had +sought, as you say you have, and perhaps, think you have; if you had +been sincere and honest with God, you would have been saved years +ago. Oh! may God, the Holy Spirit, help you to come out and be +HONEST. That is what God wants--that you be honest. "Oh," says He, +"why cover ye my altar with tears, and bring your vain oblations? +Just be honest, and I will be honest with you and bless you; but +while you come before Me and weep and profess, and bring the halt, +and the maimed, and the blind, a curse be upon you." He looks at you +afar off. Be honest. Repentance is not mere sorrow for sin. You may +be ever so sorry, and all the way down to death be hugging on to some +forbidden possession, as was the young ruler. _That_ is not repentance. + +Neither is repentance a promise that you will forsake sin in the +future. Oh! if it were, there would be many penitents here to-night. +There is scarcely a poor drunkard that does not promise, in his own +mind, or to his poor wife, or somebody, that he will forsake his +cups. There is scarcely any kind of a sinner that does not +continually promise that he will give up his sin, and serve God, but +he does _not do it_. + +Then what is _repentance_? _Repentance is simply renouncing +sin_--turning round from darkness to light--from the power of Satan +unto God. This is giving up sin in your heart, in purpose, in +intention, in desire, resolving that you will give up every evil +thing, and DO IT NOW. Of course, this involves sorrow, for how will +any sane man turn himself round from a given course into another, if +he does not repent having taken that course? It implies, also, hatred +of, sin. He hates the course he formerly took, and turns round from +it. He is like the prodigal, when he sat in the swine-yard amongst +the husks and the filth, he fully resolved, and at last he acts. He +went, and that was the test of his penitence! He might have sat +resolving and promising till now, if he had lived as long, and he +would never have got the father's kiss, the father's welcome, if he +had not started; but he went. He left the filth, the swine-yard, the +husks--he trampled them under his feet; he left the citizen of that +country, and gave up all his subterfuges and excuses, and went to his +father honestly, and said, "I have sinned!" which implied a great +deal more in his language then than it does in ours now. "I have +sinned against Heaven, and before thee;" and then comes the proof of +his submission, "and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me +as one of thy hired servants"--put me in a stable, or set me to clean +the boots, so that I can be in thy family and have thy smile. That is +repentance--Jesus Christ's own beautiful illustration of true +penitence. Have you done that? Have you forsaken the accursed thing? +Have you cut off that particular thing which the Holy Spirit has +revealed to you? Is the _"but"_ the hindrance that keeps you out +of the Kingdom? You know what it is, and you will never get saved +until you renounce it. Submission is the test of penitence. My child +may be willing to do a hundred and fifty other things, but, if he is +not willing to submit on the one point of controversy, he is a rebel, +and remains one until he yields. + +Now, here is just the difference between a spurious and a real +repentance. I am afraid we have thousands in our churches who had a +spurious repentance: they were convinced of sin--they were sorry for +it; they wanted to live a better life, to love God in a sort of +general way; but they skipped over the real point of controversy with +God; they hid it from their pastor, perhaps, and from the deacons, +and from the people who talked with them. + +Now, I say, Abraham might have been willing to have given up every +other thing that he possessed; but, if he had not been willing to +give up Isaac, all else would have been useless. It is your Isaac God +wants. You have got an Isaac, just as the young ruler had his +possessions. You have got something that you are holding on to, that +the Holy Spirit says you must let go, and you say, "I can't." Very +well; then you must stop outside the kingdom. I beseech you, do not +deceive yourselves by supposing that you repent, for you do not; but, +oh! my dear friends, let me beseech you to repent. The apostle says, +"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;" and this +is, I believe, the greatest work of the ministry. To do what? To +persuade men to submit. We are constantly talking to thousands of +people who know just what God wants of them. We cannot bring many of +them any new light or new Gospel. They know all about it. They used +to tell me that so often, that I longed for a congregation of +heathen, which I have found since then. Consequently, when they hear +the Gospel, like the publicans and sinners of old, they go into the +kingdom, while such as some of you who are the natural children of +the kingdom, are shut out, because when they hear they receive, and +submit, and obey, while you stand outside and hold on to your idols, +and reason, and quibble, and reject! My dear friends, let me +persuade you to trample under foot that idol, to tear down that +refuge of lies, and to come to God honestly, and say, "Lord, here I +am, to be a servant, to be nothing, to do anything, to suffer +anything. I know I shall be happier with Thy smile and Thy blessing +than all these evil things now make me without Thee." When you come +to a full surrender, my friends, you will get what you have been +seeking, some of you, for years. + +But then another difficulty comes in, and people say, "I have not +the power to repent." Oh! yes, you have. That is a grand mistake. You +have the power, or God would not command it. You can repent. You can +this moment lift up your eyes to Heaven, and say, with the prodigal, +"Father, I have sinned, and I renounce my sin." You may not be able +to weep--God nowhere requires or commands that; but you are able, +this very moment, to renounce sin, in purpose, in resolution, in +intention. Mind, don't confound the renouncing of the sin, with the +power of saving yourself from it. If you renounce it, Jesus will come +and save you from it. Like the man with the withered hand--Jesus +intended to heal that man. Where was the power to come from to heal +him? From Jesus, of course. The benevolence, the love, that prompted +that healing, all came from Jesus; but Jesus wanted a condition. What +was it? The response of the man's will; and so He said, "Stretch +forth thy hand." If he had been like some of you, he would have said, +"What an unreasonable command! You know I cannot do it--I cannot." +Some of you say that; but I say you can, and you will have to do it, +or you will be lost. What did Jesus want? He wanted that, "I will, +Lord," inside the man--the response of his will. He wanted him to +say, "Yes, Lord;" and, the moment he said that, Jesus supplied +strength, and he stretched it forth, and you know what happened. + +Don't look forward, and say, "I shall not have strength;" that is +not your matter--that is His. He will hold you up;--He is able, when +you once commit yourself to Him. Now then, say, "_I will._" Never mind +what you suffer--it shall be done. He will pour in the oil and balm. His +glorious, blessed presence will do more for you in one hour, than all +your struggling, praying, and wrestling have done all these weary years. +He will lift you up out of the pit. You are in the mire now, and the +more you struggle the more you sink; but He will lift you out of it, and +put your feet on the rock, and then you will stand firm. Stretch out +your withered hand, whatever it may be;--say, "I will, Lord." You have +the power, and mind, you have the obligation, which is universal and +immediate. God "now commandeth all men everywhere to repent," and to +believe the Gospel. What a tyrant He must be if He commands that, and +yet He knows you have not the power! + +Now, do you repent? Mind the old snare. Not, do you weep? The +feeling will come after the surrender. + +Now, do not say, "I do not feel enough." Do you feel enough to be +willing to forsake your sin? that is the point. Any soul who does not +repent enough to forsake his sin, is _not a penitent at all!_ +When you repent enough to forsake your sin, that moment your +repentance is sincere, and you may take hold of Jesus with a firm +grasp. You have a right to appropriate the promise, then it is "look +and live." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be +saved." + +Will you come to that point now? Don't begin making an excuse. +_Now!--all men! everywhere!_--NOW! Oh! my friend, if you had done that +ten years ago! You have been accumulating sin, condemnation, and wrath +ever since. God commanded you these ten years to repent, and believe the +Gospel, and here you are yet. How many sermons have you +heard?--invitations rejected? How much blessed persuasion and reasoning +of the Holy Spirit have you resisted?--how much of the grace of God have +you received in vain? I tremble to think what an accumulated load of +abused privilege, lost opportunity, and wasted influence, such people +will have to give an account of. Talk about hell!--the weight of this +will be hell enough. You don't seem to think anything of the way you +treat God. Oh! people are very much awake to any evil they do to their +fellow-men. They can much more easily see the sin of ruining or injuring +their neighbors than injuring the great God; but He says, "Will a man +rob God? Yet ye have robbed me." Do you not see; the awful weight of +condemnation that comes upon you for putting off, rejecting, resisting, +vascilating, halting, while He says, _Now--now?_ He has had a right to +every breath you have drawn, to all your influence, every hour, of every +day of all your years. Is it not time you ended that controversy? He +may do with you as He did with such people once before--swear in His +wrath that you shall not enter into His rest. Are you not provoking +Him as they provoked Him? Oh! my friend, be persuaded now to repent. +Let your sin go away, and come to the feet of Jesus. For your own +sake be persuaded. For the peace, the joy, the power, the glory, the +gladness of living a life of consecration to God, and service to your +fellow-men, yield; but most of all, for the love He bears you, submit. + +A great, rough man (stricken down), said to my husband, a few weeks +ago, when he looked up to the place where other people were being +saved, "Mr. Booth, I would not go there for a hundred pounds!" My +husband whispered, "Will you go there for love?" and, after a +minute's hesitation, the man, brushing the great tears away, rose up, +and followed him. + +Will you go there for love--the love of Jesus!--the great love +wherewith He loved you and gave Himself for you? Will you, for the +great yearning with which your Father has been following you all +these years--for His love's sake, will you come? Go down at His feet +and submit. The Lord help you! Amen. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SAVING FAITH. + + + And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? + And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be + saved, and thy house.--ACTS xvi. 30,31. + +This is one of the most abused texts in the Bible, and one which, +perhaps, has been made to do quite as much work for the devil as for +God. Let every saint present, ask in faith for the light of the Holy +Ghost, while we try rightly to apply it. Let us enquire:-- + +1. _Who are to believe_? 2. _When are they to believe_? 3. _How are they +to believe_? + +I. Who are to believe? To whom does the Holy Spirit say, "Believe on +the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved?" Now mark, I answer, +_not_ to all sinners indiscriminately. And here is a grand +mistake in a great deal of the teaching of this age--that these words +are wrested from their explanatory connexion, and from numbers of +other texts bearing on the same subject, and held up independently of +all the conditions which must ever, and did ever, in the mind and +practice of the Apostles, accompany them; indeed, it has only been +within the last sixty or seventy years that this new gospel has +sprung into existence, preaching indiscriminately to unawakened, +unconverted, unrepentant sinners--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." +It seems to me, that great injury has been done to the cause of +Christ by thus wrongly dividing the Word of truth, to say nothing of +the unphilosophical character of such a course, for how can an +unawakened, unconvicted, unrepentant sinner, believe? As soon might +Satan believe. It is an utter impossibility. Thousands of these +people say, "I do believe." My dear son, only a little time ago, on +the top of an omnibus, was speaking to a man who was the worse for +liquor, and using very improper language; trying to show him the +danger of his evil, wicked course, as a transgressor of the law of +God. "Oh!" said the man, "it is not by works, it is by faith, and I +believe as much as you do." "Yes," said my son, "but what do you +believe?" "Oh," he said, "I believe in Jesus Christ, and of course I +shall be saved." That is a sample of thousands. I am meeting with +them daily. They believe there was such a man as Jesus, and that He +died for sinners, and for them, but as to the exercise of saving +faith, they know no more about it than Agrippa or Felix, as is +manifest when they come to die, for then, these very people are +wringing their hands, tearing their hair, and sending for Christians +to come and pray with them. If they had believed, why all this alarm +and concern on the approach of death? They were only believers of the +head, and not of the heart; that is, they were but theoretical +believers in the facts recorded in this book, but not believers in +the Scriptural sense, or their faith would have saved them. Now, we +maintain that it is useless, and as unphilosophical as it is +unscriptural, to preach "only believe" to such characters; and +Christians have not done their duty, and have not discharged their +responsibility to these souls, when they have told them that Jesus +died for them, and that they are to believe in Him! They have a much +harder work to do, and that is, "to open their eyes" to a sense of +their danger, and make them, by the power of the Spirit, realize the +dreadful truth that they are sinners, that they are sick, and then +they will run to the Physician. + +The eyes of the soul must be opened to such a realization of sin, +and such an apprehension of the consequences of sin, as shall lead to +an earnest desire to be saved from sin. God's great means of doing +this is the law, as the schoolmaster, to drive sinners to receive +Christ as their salvation. + +There is not one case in the New Testament in which the apostles +urged souls to believe, or in which a soul is narrated as believing, +in which we have not good grounds to believe that these preparatory +steps of conviction and repentance, had been taken. The only one was +that of Simon the sorcerer. He was, as numbers of people are, in +great religious movements, carried away by the influence of the +meeting, and the example of those around him, and professed to +believe. Doubtless, he did credit the fact that Jesus died on the +cross. He received the facts of Christianity into his mind, and, in +that sense, he became a believer--in the same sense that tens of +thousands are in these days--and he was baptized. But when the +testing point came, as to whose interests were paramount with him, +his own or God's, then he manifested the true state of the case, as +the apostle said, "I see thy heart is not right with God." And nobody +is converted whose heart is not right with God! That is the test. If +Simon had been converted, his heart would have been right with God +and he would not have supposed the Holy Ghost could have been bought +for money. And Paul added, "For I perceive that thou art still in the +gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." And what further +did he say to him? "Therefore, at once believe"? No; he did not. +"Therefore, repent, and pray God, if, perhaps, the thought of thine +heart may be forgiven thee." Repent first! and then believe, and get +this wickedness forgiven, and so we get a double lesson in the same +passage. This Simon was the only person we have any record of, as +believing, where there is not in the passage itself, taken with the +context, a reasonable and rational evidence, that these preparatory +steps of conviction and repentance, were taken before the teaching of +faith, or the exercise and confession of faith. Simon had this faith +of the head, but not of the heart, and, therefore, it ended in defeat +and despair. + +Some have written me this week that they had believed. They had been +persuaded into a profession of faith, but no fruits followed. Ah! it +was not the faith of the heart: it was the faith of the head--like +that of Simon's--and it left you worse than it found you, and you +have been groping and grovelling, ever since. But do not think that +was real faith, and that therefore real faith has failed, but be +encouraged to begin again, and _repent_. Try the real thing, for +Satan always gets up a counterfeit. Therefore, don't go down in +despair because the wrong kind of faith did not succeed. That shall +not make the real faith of God of none effect--God forbid! + +Look at one or two other cases--the three thousand in a day. Surely +this is a scriptural illustration. Surely no one will call that +anti-Gospel or legal. What was the first work Peter did? He drove the +knife of God's convincing truth into their hearts, and made them +_cry out_. He awoke them to the truth of their almost lost and +damned condition, till they said, "What must we do to be saved?" They +were so concerned, they were so pricked in their hearts, their eyes +were so opened to the terrible consequences of their sin, that they +cried aloud before the vast multitude, "Men and brethren, what must +we do to be saved?" He convinced them of sin, and thus followed the +order of God. + +Again, the eunuch is often quoted as an illustration of faith; but +what state of mind was he in? Was he a careless, unconvicted sinner? +There he was--an Ethiopian, a heathen; but where had he been? To +Jerusalem, to worship the true and living God, in the best way he +knew, and as far as he understood; and then, what was he doing when +Philip found him? He was not content with the mere worship of the +temple, whistling a worldly tune on his way back. He was searching +the Scriptures. He was honestly seeking after God, and the Holy Ghost +always knows where such souls are; and He said to Philip, "Go, join +thyself to that chariot: there is a man seeking after Me; there is a +man whose heart is honestly set on finding Me. Go and preach Christ, +and tell him to believe." That man would have sacrificed, or done, or +lost anything, for salvation, and, as soon as Philip expounded the +way of faith, he received it, of course, as all such souls will. + +Saul, on his way to Damascus, is another instance. Jesus Christ was +the preacher there, and surely, He could not be mistaken. His +philosophy was sound. Where did He begin? What did He say to Saul? He +saw there an honest-hearted man. Saul was sincere, so far as he +understood, and if, in any case, there needed to be the immediate +reception of Christ by faith, it was in his. But the Lord Jesus +Christ did not say one word about faith. "Saul, Saul, why +_persecutest_ thou Me?"--tearing the bandages of deception off +his eyes, and letting him see the wickedness of his conduct. When +Saul said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" He repeated the accusation. He did +not come in with the oil of comfort; He did not plaster the wound up, +and make it whole in a moment; but He said, "I am Jesus of Nazareth, +whom thou persecutest." He ran the knife in again, and opened Paul's +eyes wider, and his wounds wider, too, and sent him bleeding on to +Damascus, where he was three days before he got the healing. He had +to send for a poor human instrument, and he had to hear and obey his +words, before the scales fell from his eyes, and before the pardon of +his sins was pronounced, and the Holy Ghost came into his soul. I +wonder what Paul was doing those three days! Not singing songs of +thanksgiving and praise. That had to come. Oh! what do you think he +was doing? He neither ate nor drank, and he was in the dark. What was +he doing? No doubt he was praying. No doubt he was seeking after this +Christ, who had spoken to him in the way. No doubt he was looking +with horror upon his past life, and abjuring forever his accursed +antagonism to Jesus Christ, and to His Gospel. Of course, he was +bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, according to the Divine +order--Acts xxvi.: And then came Ananias, and preached Christ unto +him, and he believed unto salvation, and the scales fell off, and his +mouth was filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. + +Cornelius, is another instance, but what was the state of his mind +and heart? We know that he feared God and wrought righteousness, as +far as he was able. He gave alms to the people, and prayed day and +night. That is more than some of you ever did, who live in the Gospel +times. You never prayed all night about your souls. No wonder if you +should lose them--not half a night, some of you. But Cornelius +did--he was seeking _God_. He honestly wanted to know Him. He was +willing, at all costs, to do His will: consequently, the Lord sent +him the glorious message of the revelation of Jesus Christ. + +I might go on multiplying instances, but I must stop. We have said +enough to show who are to believe. Truly penitent sinners, and they +only. + +This text is to a repenting, enlightened, convicted sinner. Now, +some of you are enlightened, convinced, and so wretched that you +cannot sleep. You _do_ repent. You are the very people, then, to +whom this text comes--Believe. You are just in the condition of the +gaoler. + +"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," and now +let us look what state of mind the gaoler was in. We see, from the +whole narrative, how his eyes had been opened. The earthquake had +done that. Some people need an earthquake before they get their eyes +opened, and it has to be a loud one, too. The gaoler's eyes were +opened, and he made the best use of his time. He was lashing their +backs a little while before! Talk about a change--here was a change. +"Sirs, what must I do to be saved? I am ready to do anything, only +tell me what." And when a soul comes to that state of mind, he has +nothing more to do but to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he +came in, trembling, and went down on his knees, and washed their +stripes. When you get to that state of mind, you will soon get saved. +You will have nothing more to do but to believe. You will find it +easy work, then. + +II. When is a sinner to believe? When he repents? Here again I am +going to answer some of your letters. One writes: "I am afraid I do +not realize my sin sufficiently. I have no particular agony on +account of sin, but I do see my whole life to have been one huge +error and sin." There is nothing more common than for souls to delude +themselves on this point of feeling. That gentleman confounds feeling +with conviction. He thinks because he has not this extreme agony +which some have, therefore he is not sufficiently convinced, while +the Holy Ghost has opened his eyes to see that his whole life has +been one huge error and sin. He is convinced that it has been +_all_ sin--not one isolated sin here and there abstracted from +his life, but such a perception of his true character that he sees +his whole life to have been sin. Surely, my friend, you are convinced. +What else but the Holy Ghost could have shown you _that_? Now, the truly +repentant soul first sees sin; secondly, he _hates_ sin; thirdly, he +_renounces_ sin. Now, let me try you by each of these tests. Don't let +Satan deceive you, and make you belie the exercises of your own mind. +Face the facts, and when you have come to a conclusion, don't allow him +to raise a controversy, but stick to your facts, and go on from them, or +you will never get saved. Satan is an accuser of the brethren, and, I +suppose, of the sisters too. I will be as honest and as searching +with you as I possibly can. I will not spare the probe, but when we +have probed and found the truth, stand on it, for Christ's sake, and +don't let it go from under your feet, because Satan will try to cheat +you out of your common sense, conscience, and convictions. + +You _see_ sin. An entirely unawakened soul does not see sin; +that is, in its true character, in its heinousness, in its +consequences. He admits that all people are sinners. Oh! yes; but he +does not see the deadly, damning character of sin. He does not see +what an evil and bitter thing sin is in itself. Now, the Holy Ghost +alone can open the soul's eyes to see this. Without Him, all my +preaching, or any other preaching, even the preaching of the angels, +if they were permitted to preach, might go on to all eternity, and it +would never convince of sin. If you see sin, it is the Holy Ghost who +has opened your eyes. Praise Him, and take encouragement, my friend. +If God has thus far dealt with you, and opened your eyes to see the +character and consequences of sin, does it not augur well that He +desires also to save you from it? He has opened your eyes in order +that He may anoint them with eye-salve, and cause you to see light in +His light. + +Now, have you got thus far? You have told me that your life has been +one great sin; others say, one particular form of sin. Whatever it +is, if you are convinced of sin, it is the Holy Ghost who has +convinced you; therefore, thank God, and take courage thus far. + +Further, the true penitent _hates_ sin; that is, his feelings +towards sin are quite different to what they were in the past. There +was a time when you could commit sin, almost without notice, without +concern. People do not realize the great change that has taken place +in them in this respect. They are brought gradually to it. Translate +yourself back into your unawakened state. How did you live then? The +very things that now cause you such distress, you practised every +day, and they gave you no concern. The things that horrify you now, +in the very thought or temptation to them, you then were daily +practising without compunction. You had no hatred to, no dread of +sin. You were willing bondslaves of Satan. Now, you are his unwilling +slave. Then, you _ran_ towards sin, now, he has to drive you, +and when you fall, it is against your will. You hate sin. Now, mind, +this is not being saved from it. This is not saying you have power to +save yourself from it. In fact, this is the very difficulty +personified by the apostle, when representing the ineffectual +struggles of a convicted sinner. The things you would not, those you +do, and the things you would, those you have not the power to do. +Nevertheless, you _desire_ to do them. There is the difference. +Once you did not desire to do them, and, perhaps, those who did, were +a pack of hypocrites, in your estimation. Now, you feel quite +differently, and you struggle, and strive, and pray, and watch. Some +of you have told me so, and yet you say, "I am again and again +overcome." Of course you are, because you are not _saved yet_! +But don't you see, you _desire_ to be. You hate the sin which +enthrals you. You struggle against it. You watch against it and you +are not overcome half so frequently, perhaps, as you were before. +People do not see what a great deal they owe to the convincing and +preventing power of the Holy Spirit helping their infirmity, even +now, to cut off and pluck out the right hand and the right eye, and +bringing them up in a waiting attitude before God, like Cornelius and +the eunuch. You, my hearers, some of you, are following after God. +You are longing for deliverance, are striving against sin. + +Take an another illustration. I don't mean that the soul has power +to save itself from its internal maladies. That you will get when +Jesus Christ saves you. But, I mean this: here is a soul convinced of +sin. Here is a man who is daily addicted to drink. He is a drunkard. +He becomes convinced of sin. Now, then, the Spirit of God says, "Will +you give up the cup?" Then commences the struggle. Now, the question +is, are you to teach that man that he is to go on drinking, and +expect God to save him? Are you to keep putting before him faith, and +telling him, "Oh! never mind your cup, but believe on the Lord Jesus +Christ and you shall be saved"--or, are you to tell him, "you must +put away your sin, cut off that right hand, pluck out that right eye, +renounce that drink forever in your heart, in your purpose, in your +will, and until you do, you cannot exercise faith on the Lord Jesus?" + +Here is another person addicted to lying. He, when he is convinced +of sin, sets a watch over his lips, that he may not offend with his +mouth, and he does succeed in so guarding himself, or the Holy Spirit +so helps him to guard himself, that he does not lie as he used. He is +overcome now and then, because he has not yet found the power, but he +is resolutely, and as far as his will is concerned, cutting off this +outward sin, and waiting in the way of obedience for full deliverance +and salvation. + +There is a servant systematically robs his master's till. He goes to +a religious meeting and is convinced. "Now," the Spirit of God says, +"you must cut off that dishonesty. You cannot come to this meeting +night after night pretending to want to be saved, while you are going +on every day robbing your master! You must cut off that right hand, +and give up that pilfering, and resolve that you will make +restitution, and wait for Me in the way of bringing forth fruits meet +for repentance." You see what I mean. Now, you are just here, some of +you--you know you are. If you are addicted to any evil habit, it is +just the same. Jesus Christ wants you to forswear that habit in your +will, determination, and purpose. You have not the power to deliver +yourself from it. You may struggle, as some of you tell me you are +doing, but it overcomes you, and down you go. He knows all about +that, but He approves of the struggle, and the effort, and the +watchfulness, and the determination, and when He saves you, He will +give you the power, and then you will stand and not fall, for He will +hold you up. + +Now you know that you go thus far, and you know that at this moment, +if you had the power in yourself to extinguish the force of that evil +habit over you forever, you would do it without another moment's +hesitation. You say, "Oh yes, I would indeed. Would to God I had the +power." That is repentance; that is _genuine_ repentance. Now, +what you cannot do for yourself, He meets you just where you stand, +and says, "I will do it for you; I will break the power of that +habit; I will deliver you out of the hands of the enemy; I will save +you out of that bondage. Only throw your arm of faith around me, and +I will lift you up; and I will inspire you with my Spirit; you shall +stand in Me and by Me; and what you are now struggling to do for +yourself, I will do for you." + +Then you have got thus far that you hate sin? "Yes, I have." You +have said it in your letters to me, and there are others saying it +who have not written to me. "Yes," you are saying, "I desire to be +saved from it. I would save myself this very instant if I could, and +never sin again." Would you? Is not that repentance? What else is it, +think you? + +Suppose you had a disobedient and rebellious son, and he had been +living irrespective of your law and will, wasting your money and +trampling under foot your commandments. Suppose he comes back, he +sees the error of his course. His eyes are opened, perhaps, by +affliction, perhaps by want, or ten thousand other things. At any +rate he sees it, and he comes home and says, "Oh! father, what a fool +I have been; how wicked I have been. I see it all now--I did not see +it when I was doing it. I see my evil course, my sins that made you +mourn, and turned your hair grey. Oh! how I hate it all. I repent in +dust and ashes. Father! I forsake it all! I come home to you!" What +would you say? Would you say, "My son, you have not repented enough. +Go! begone! Wait till you feel it more!" No, your paternal heart +would go out in love and forgiveness, and you would put the kiss of +your reconciling love upon his cheek. "Even so there is joy in the +presence of the angels of God over one sinner that _repenteth!_" +as there would be joy in that family circle over the return of that +wandering child. + +But suppose that lad were to come and say, "Father, I do thus +repent; I do thus forsake my sins; but there are some companions who +will follow me so closely that I am afraid I shall again fall under +their power, and there are some habits so terrible that I am afraid +they will again conquer. Let me, then, be always by your side. You +must strengthen me." What would you say? Would you not say, "Then, +come in, my son; sit by me, live with me, and I will shield you--I +will deliver you? Thou shalt never cross this threshhold without me. +I will live with you; I will hold you up." And, as far as a human +being could shield another, you would shield your son; he would never +lack your sympathy or your strength day or night. Your Heavenly +Father lacks neither sympathy or strength. His eye never sleeps. His +arm never tires, and you have only to go and lay your helpless +weakness on His Almighty strength by this one desperate leap of +faith, and He will hold you up, even though there were a legion of +devils around you. + +Lastly, you _renounce_ your sins, that is, in will, purpose, and +determination. You say, "I never wish to grieve Him again." You +sing it, and you feel it. "I never want to grieve Him any more;" and +if you could only live without grieving Him, you would not much mind, +even if it were in hell itself. Is not that penitence? You know it +is. You renounce sin. You do not say, "Lord Jesus, save me with this +right hand, with this right eye; Lord Jesus, save me with these +forbidden things hanging about my skirts." No; you say, "Lord Jesus, +save me out of them. Make me clean." That is penitence. You see it. +You hate it. You renounce it. Now then, believe on the Lord Jesus +Christ. Oh, Holy Spirit, reveal the simple way of faith. + +III. You say, "How am I to believe?" Some despairing soul asked me +this in large letters, "How am I to believe?" How does a bride +believe in her husband when she gives herself to him at the altar? +She trusts him with herself. She believes in him. She makes a +contract, and goes home, and lives as if it were true. That is +_faith_. How do you trust your physician when you are sick, as +you lay in repose or anguish upon your bed? You trust him with your +case. You commit yourself to him. You believe in his skill, and obey +his orders. Have faith like this in Jesus Christ. + +Trust and obey, and expect that it is going to be with you according +to His Word. + +Instead of this, the faith of many people is like that of a person +afflicted with some grievous malady. A friend tells him of a +wonderful physician who has cured hundreds of such cases, and gives +him abundant evidence that this doctor is able and willing to cure +him, if he will only commit himself to his treatment. The sick man +may thoroughly believe in the testimony of his friend about this +physician, and yet, for some secret reason, he may refuse to put +himself into his hands. Now, there are numbers like that with Jesus +Christ. They believe He could cure the malady of sin on certain +conditions. They believe He is no respecter of persons. They believe +He has done it for hundreds as bad as they, and yet there is some +reason why they do not _trust Him_. They hold back. + +Now, what you want is to give your case into His hands, and say, +"Lord Jesus, I come as Thou hast bid me, confessing and forsaking +sin. If I could, I would jump out of it now and forever. Thou knowest +I come renouncing it, but not having power to save myself from it; +and now, Lord Jesus, Thou hast said, "Him that cometh unto Me, I will +in no wise cast out." I do come; Thou dost not cast me out; Thou dost +take me; Thou dost receive me. Blessed, Holy Father, I give myself to +Thee. I put my sins upon the glorious sacrifice of Thy Son. Thou hast +said Thou wilt receive me, and pardon me for His sake. Now, I roll +the guilty burden on His bleeding body, and I believe Thy promise, I +trust Thee to be as good as Thy word." _That is faith_. "Oh!" said a +dear lady, "I do not feel it." No: you must trust first. Mark, not +believe you are saved, but believe that He does now save you. + +"What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive +them, and ye shall have them." That is the law of faith. Believe that +ye receive it before you feel it; when you receive it then you shall +feel it. God shall be true, and every man or devil who contradicts +Him, a liar. Throw your arms around the Crucified. Take fast hold of +the hand of the Son of God. Put your poor, guilty soul right at the +foot of His cross, and say, "Thou dost receive; Thou dost pardon; +Thou dost cleanse; Thou dost save;" and keep using the language of +faith. I have seen numbers of souls step into liberty repeating these +precious words in the first person, "He was wounded for _my_ +transgressions, He was bruised for _my_ iniquities, the chastisement of +_my_ peace was laid upon Him, and by His stripes _I am_ healed." Keep +using the language of faith all the way home to-night. Go into your +closet and say, "I am determined to be saved, if there is any such thing +as salvation." Resolve that if you perish, you will perish in that room, +at the foot of the cross, suing for pardon, and you will get it. I have +never known a soul come to this who did not soon get saved. Get into the +lifeboat. Put off from the old stranded wreck of your own righteousness +or your own efforts; step right into the lifeboat of His broken, +bleeding body. Take fast hold, and resolve that you will never let go +until the answering Spirit comes into your soul, crying, "Abba, Father," +and you shall know of a truth that you have passed from death unto life. +The Lord help you. Amen. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +CHARITY. + + + And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest + of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13. + +It must be a precious thing to be greater than _faith_, and +greater than _hope_--it must, indeed, be precious!--and, just in +proportion as things are valuable and precious amongst men, so much +trouble and risk will human speculators take to counterfeit them. I +suppose that in no department of roguery in this roguish world, has +there been more time and ingenuity expended, than in making +counterfeit money, especially bank notes. Just as wicked men have +tried to imitate the most valuable of human productions for their own +profit, so the devil has been trying to counterfeit God's most +precious things from the beginning, and to produce something so like +them that mankind at large should not see the difference, and, +perhaps, in no direction has he been so successful as in producing a +_Spurious Charity_.--I almost think he has got it to perfection +in these days. I don't think he can very well improve on the present +copy. This Charity--this love--is God's most precious treasure; it is +dearer to His heart than all the vast domains of His universe--dearer +than all the glorious beings He has created. So much so, that when +some of the highest spirits amongst the angelic bands violated this +love, He hurled them from the highest Heaven to the nethermost hell! +Why? Not because He did not value those wonderful beings, but because +He valued this _love more_. Because He saw that it was more +important to the well-being of His universe to maintain the harmony +of love in Heaven than to save those spirits who had allowed +selfishness to interfere with it. So our Lord says, "I beheld Satan +as lightning fall from Heaven." + +The day is coming when He will behold all the dire progeny of this +first rebellion fall also. Haste, happy day! + +But, let us look for a few minutes at this precious, beautiful +Charity. Let us try, first, to define it. What is it? + +_First_.--_It is Divine_. It must be shed abroad in the heart by the +Holy Ghost. + +In vain do we look for this heavenly plant amongst the unrenewed +children of men--it grows not on the corrupt soil of human nature; it +springs only where the ploughshare of true repentance has broken up +the fallow ground of the heart, and where faith in a crucified +Saviour has purified it, and where the blessed Holy Spirit has taken +permanent possession. It is the love _of_ God--not only love _to_ God, +but _like_ God, _from_ God, and fixed on the same objects and ends which +He loves. It is a Divine implantation by the Holy Ghost. Perhaps some of +you are saying, "Then it is useless for me to try to cultivate it, +because I have not got it,--exactly!" You may cut and prune and water +forever, but you can never cultivate that which is not planted. Your +first work is to get this love shed abroad in your heart. It is one of +the delusions of this age that human nature only wants pruning, +improving, developing, and it come out right. No, no! Every plant which +my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. If you want this +Divine love, you must break up the fallow ground of your hearts, and +invite the Heavenly Husbandman to come and sow it--shed it abroad in +your soul. + +_Secondly_, I want you to note that this love is a Divine principle, in +contradistinction to the mere love of instinct. All men have love as an +instinct; mere natural love towards those whom they like, or who do well +for them. "If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not +even publicans the same?" Wicked men love one another from mere natural +affinity, as the tiger loves its cubs. There is great confusion amongst +professors of religion on this subject. They feel sentiments of pity and +generosity towards their fellow-men, and they may even give their goods +to feed the poor, and yet not have a spark of Divine Charity in their +hearts. Saul, after God departed from him, was not wholly destitute of +generous feeling respecting his family and kingdom. Dives in hell had +some pity for his brethren! But neither of them had a spark of this +Divine Charity. Mind you are not deceived; millions are! + +Let us note one or two points wherein a spurious and Divine Charity +utterly and forever diverge--disagree in nature. + +_First._--Spurious Charity is selfish--is never exercised but +to gratify some selfish principle in human nature. Thousands of +motives inspire it--too many to enumerate; but we will glance at two +or three. We read in the context that a man might give his goods to +feed the poor, and his body to be burned, and yet be destitute of +true Charity. + +Now what an anomaly. But we have wonderful illustrations that such a +thing is possible. First, a man may do this to support and carry out +a favorite system of intellectual belief of which he has become +enamored, just as men become absorbed, in politics, or in what they +consider the good of their nation, so that they will even go to the +cannon's mouth to promote it. + +Further, a man may do it in order to merit eternal life. Paul did +this when he went about to establish his own righteousness. He tells +us afterwards that self was the mainspring of all his zeal. It was +all his own exaltation; there was no Divine love; he was an utterly +unrenewed, Christless, and selfish man, at the very time he was doing +this. + +Or, it may be, in the third place, to gratify a naturally generous +disposition. I used to say to a generous friend of mine, when he was +talking in a confidential way about his giving, and the delight it +gave him, attributing it to Divine grace--I used to put my hand on +his, and say, "Hold! my friend; I am not so sure it is all grace. You +like giving better than other people do receiving. Look out that you +do not lose your reward through not taking the trouble to see what +you give to; don't give your money to every scheme that comes across +you. Remember that you are answerable to God for your wealth, and +that God will demand of you HOW you have bestowed your goods." That +is true Charity that takes the trouble to investigate relative +claims, and tries to find out the best channels in which to give for +God's glory and the salvation of men. Don't you put down your +generosity to the Holy Ghost if it is not of that kind, for you will +never receive a bit of interest for it, here or hereafter--not a +fraction! + +A false Charity begins in self and ends on earth. Here is a mark for +you to distinguish between it and God's Charity. The devil's Charity +always contemplates the earthy part of man in a superior degree to +the spiritual part; and here it exactly crosses and contradicts the +Divine Charity, which always contemplates man in the entirety of his +being, and always gives the first importance to the soul. + +We have plenty of spurious Charity in these days. The other day when +I took up a so-called "religious print," and saw some fulsome things +it had been saying about a certain individual, lately dead, I +thought, really, would one ever imagine this were a Christian paper, +in a Christian country? There is not the slightest recognition of a +soul, no reference to the man's spiritual condition or his future +state. Here are one or two of the most ordinary human qualifications +seized on, and made the most of, to make it out that he was something +beyond his fellows, but, as to any recognition of a soul, or of a God +who will judge him, of a Heaven or hell, nothing! + +Oh, people say, when speaking of Godless, and even wicked men, "You +must be _charitable,_ you must not judge." Satan does not care +how much of this one-sided Charity there is; the more the better for +his purpose; it will make people all the more comfortable in their +sins, and get them all the more easily down to hell. + +My friends, are you more concerned about relieving temporal distress +than you are about feeding famished souls? If you are, you may know +where your charity comes from! Don't misrepresent me, and say that I +teach all of one, and none of the other. God forbid, for, if any man +"hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and +shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love +of God in him?" But, on the other side, if he sees him spiritually +famishing--dying for want of the bread of life--how dwelleth the love +of Christ in him, if he does not minister to this spiritual +destitution? I know that real Christianity cares for body and soul. +Bless God, it does; but, always mind that it sets the soul FIRST. I +know the Master fed the multitude; but, before that, He had them with +Him three days, trying to save their souls, and when they got hungry +in the process, then He made them sit down, and fed their bodies. He +always looked after the soul first, and so does everyone possessed of +Divine Charity. + +Why? Because Divine Charity has opened his eyes. He realizes the +value of souls. He sees them famishing. He sees them being damned, +and he cannot help himself. His desire to save them rushes out of him +like a torrent; he beholds them, and has compassion on them. Try your +Charity by this mark: Do you contemplate the dying, famishing, half- +damned souls of your fellow-men? Do you look abroad on the state of +the world, and the state of the church? Do you think about it? Do you +go into your closet, and spread it before the Lord, as Hezekiah and +Jeremiah and Hosea did? Do you look at it, and turn it over, and weep +over it, and pray and cry, as Daniel and Paul did? Try yourselves, my +brethren, my sisters, by this mark. + +Divine Charity is always revolving round that great problem of +infinite love. "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole +world, and lose his own soul?" Oh, I can never get it out of my ears +or away from my heart! Oh, how I see the emptiness and vanity of +everything compared with the salvation of the soul! What does it +matter, if a man dies in the work-house--if he dies on a door-step, +covered with wounds, like Lazarus--what does it matter, if his soul +is saved? It is your creed as much as mine, that the soul is +immortal, and that the death of the body is only its introduction, if +it be saved, to a glorious future of everlasting felicity, progress, +and holiness. Does the child remember how he used to cry over his +lessons, when he becomes a man? Does he remember all the little +difficulties of his school days, when he is inheriting the fruits of +them? Just so; ten thousand times less important will be all our +sufferings, trials, and griefs here, if we save our souls, and the +souls of others. + +This Divine Charity makes everything else subservient to the +salvation of souls; it uses everything else to save and bless the +inner and spiritual man. Do you remember, on one occasion, when the +Master had fed the multitudes, and when they came to Him again to be +fed, He said, "Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but +because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." You would have +said, "Quite right; the people want to be fed; they are hungry." But +do you hear the Divine lament that comes out in these words, that +they were so spiritually obtuse, that they valued the earthly bread +more than the heavenly! Give them as much temporal bread as you like, +but mind you give them the spiritual bread first, for this is +characteristic of true Charity. + +Have you got this Charity? Every soul knows whether it has or not. +People are so unphilosophical in religion; they talk about not +knowing; but you can find out in two minutes whether you love God or +yourself best. Tell me that woman does not know whether she loves her +husband or herself best! Nonsense! What is the proof?--she seeks to +please him, and is willing to sacrifice herself for him--in fact, +merges her interests altogether in his. Do you love God best? Are you +willing to forego your interests, and to seek His? Have you this +Divine Charity, born of Heaven, tending to Heaven? If not, my friend, +resolve you will have it now. Begin to cry mightily to God, for the +Holy Spirit to shed it abroad in your heart; give up your quibblings +and reasonings, and go down at the foot of the cross and ask Him,-- +"Come, Lord, and break up this poor, wicked heart of mine, and shed +this beautiful, pure, Divine Charity abroad in it," and then you will +not, henceforth, seek your own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CHARITY AND REBUKE. + + + And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest + of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13. + +The second main point of difference between a true and a false +Charity, we want to remark, is, _Divine Charity is not only +consistent with, but it very often necessitates, reproof and rebuke +by its possessor_. It renders it incumbent on those who possess it +to reprove and rebuke whatever is evil--whatever does not tend to +the highest interests of its object. + +This Charity conforms in this, as in everything else, to its Divine +model--"As many as I love I rebuke and chasten"--when necessary for +the good of its object, for He doth not _willingly_ afflict or +grieve the children of men, any more than a father willingly +chastises a disobedient child; but, if he be a wise father, he will +do it because he loves it. Just so the possessor of this Divine +Charity can afford to rebuke and reprove sin wherever he finds it. He +will not suffer sin upon his neighbor, but will in any wise reprove +him, and strive to win him to the right. We will just turn to a +beautiful illustration (there are many, if we had time to go into +them) of the working of this Divine Charity in the heart and life of +the very apostle who wrote this 13th of Corinthians. We cannot get +wrong, because it is Paul himself. (Gal. ii. 11-15.) + +"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, +because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, +he did eat with the Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew +and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. +And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that +Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I +saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the +Gospel, I said unto Peter before _them_ all"-- + +Well done, Paul,--noble, gloriously courageous Charity that! He did +not go and mutter behind Peter's back and stab him in the dark-- + +"I said unto Peter _before them all_, If thou, being a Jew, livest after +the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou +the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We _who are_ Jews by nature, and +not sinners of the Gentiles." + +You want a characteristic of true Charity. Now, listen to it. It +would be exceedingly painful to Paul thus publicly to rebuke Peter. +They loved one another, for we find Peter, long after this, in one of +his Epistles, calling Paul "our beloved brother, Paul." They loved +one another. Paul understood the claims of true Charity, for he wrote +this thirteenth of Corinthians. If he loved Peter, and if he +understood the claims of true Charity, why did he thus openly rebuke +Peter, why did he inflict upon himself the pain of doing it? +Faithfulness to Peter himself, faithfulness to the truth, +faithfulness to Jesus Christ demanded it; therefore, he sacrificed +his own personal feelings, and inflicted this pain upon himself, +rather than allow Peter to go wrong, the Romans to be misled, and the +Jews to be carried away with worldly policy. Paul set himself to +rebuke Peter in the presence of all, for truth lay, as it very often +does, with the minority; nearly all the influence was on the side of +the circumcision. _They_ were the most influential of the +brethren, and Paul set himself against all this influence in his +rebuke of Peter. Why? Because faithfulness to the truth demanded it, +and Divine Charity is FIRST PURE. + +There is a greater example still in our Lord Himself, in the Master +whose whole soul was love, whose life was one sacrifice for the good +of His creatures; and yet how faithfully He reproved His own when +they erred from the truth, and how fearlessly He exposed and +denounced the shallowness and hypocrisy of those who professed to +love God, and yet contradicted this profession in their lives. How +fearlessly He reproved sin everywhere. He said to his disciples on +one occasion, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the +Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." As +if He had said, you ought to have learned this before now. + +On another occasion, He said, "Are ye also yet without +understanding?" And again, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou +savourest not the things that be of God;" that was Divine Charity, +that was faithful love, that dared to rebuke, rather than let the +object of it do wrong, and sin against God. And again, when He goes +to the hypocrites and Pharisees, He says, "Ye say ye are the children +of Abraham"--(it was as difficult for Jesus Christ to confute the +professors of His day, as it is for His ambassadors to confute the +professors of this day, who are living inconsistently with their +professions)--He said, "Ye say that ye are the children of Abraham; +if ye were the children of Abraham, ye would listen to me; or, if ye +were the children of God, ye would believe in me, for I came out from +God. No! ye are the children of your father, the devil, and his works +ye do." And yet His Divine heart was full, to breaking, of love, and +broke itself on the cross for them, and prayed, "Father, forgive +them; for they know not what they do." Oh, that your Charity and mine +might not lack this lineament of the Divine likeness! Would to God +there were more of this faithful, loving Charity, that dares to +reprove sin, and to rebuke its brother, instead of the false Charity +that fawns on a man to his face, and goes behind him and stabs him in +the back. + +Do you suppose that the great mass of the professors of this +generation think one another to be right? Take almost any given +church. Do you suppose that the great mass of the members of that +church suppose in their hearts that their fellow members, brothers +and sisters in church communion, are living consistently--I don't +mean in _things_ only, but in heart--that they are living really +godly lives? Alas! witness what they say behind each other's backs. +They believe no such thing; they know perfectly well it is not so, +and they take care to tell other people so; and yet there is not one +in a thousand of them ever went privately to his brother, and took +lovingly hold of his hand, and reproved him for his sinful and +backsliding conduct. + +What would be thought of any woman who were to go, after being to +church the day before, and ask for a private interview with Mrs. ---, +and, when alone with her, with tears in her eyes, and deep +earnestness in her voice, were to say, "Dear Mrs. ---, I have come to +see you on a very painful errand, but will you suffer a word of +exhortation from one so unworthy and weak as I feel myself to be, and +yet, I trust, one who has the Spirit of God, which urges me to come +to you? Will you allow me to say that I was much pained with your +attitude at church, yesterday. It seemed to me that your mind was not +at all occupied with the solemnity of the service, but seemed to be +occupied in criticising the person's dress in the seat opposite to +you, and I could not help noticing that when you got outside the +doors you began to laugh and talk in a way quite incompatible with +the service you had been attending?" If she were to say, "Dear Mrs. ---, +I have not mentioned this to a soul, not even to my husband, but I +have come to tell it to you; let us go down before the Lord and ask +Him for the Holy Spirit, that He may show you how wrong you are, and +how you are sliding away from the love of God"--what would be the +thought, what would be said, of such conduct? + +If everybody who sees sin upon his neighbor would do that--if he +would take the Lord's counsel and go and see his brother alone, and +tell him his fault--how many would be saved from backsliding, and how +many a disgraceful split and controversy in churches might be saved! + +But where are the people who will do it? I don't mean there are not +any--God forbid--I know there are; but I am speaking comparatively. +Where is the man who will inflict pain upon himself?--for that is the +point. If it were a pleasant duty, he would do it easily enough; but +it is a painful duty, he does not like to screw himself up to it. +Where is the man that will do it, rather than suffer his brother to +go to sleep in his sin, and rather than the precious cause of Christ +shall be disgraced and injured? Where are the saints who will go in +meekness and in love to try to reclaim the one who has erred? I hope +you know a great many. I am sorry to say I know only a few. If you +know many, I am very glad, and the more you know the better I am +pleased. If you are one of these, that is one, at all events. If +every Christian would have this sort of Charity, what a change would +soon come about. That is what the church wants--people who can afford +to rebuke and reprove, because they don't care what men think of THEM +--who are set only on pleasing their Lord and Master, and doing His +will. + +Have you got this Charity that seeketh not her own? What a contrast +between Saul and Paul. Did you ever think about it? What does he say? +"I went about to establish my own righteousness." That was his +inspiring motive; that was the spring of his action, before he got +true Charity; not that he cared for the kingdom of God, but he cared +for his own honor, glory, and exaltation, and wanted to stand well +with his nation. Then contrast him when he becomes Paul. What does he +say? "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my +brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." _There_ is +Charity, if you like. These were the very people with whom he had +been so anxious to stand well, and whose good word he wanted; but, +when the Holy Ghost had come, and Paul had got the Divine Charity, +and got his eyes opened to see their devilish and lost condition, he +so weeps over them that he says, "I have great heaviness and +continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were +accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the +flesh." + +_There is a contrast_. He does not care now, what they think of +HIM; he is going about, trying to open their eyes and make them see +that they are not the children of Abraham, but the children of the +devil, that they are going to the bottomless pit, and that, unless +they turn round and seek the God of their fathers, they must perish. +Self is lost sight of altogether, now; Paul's heart and soul and +efforts are set on the salvation of men. If they choose to; praise +him, he takes it as a matter of course; if they choose to condemn +him, he takes that as a matter of course, too. He is seeking the +kingdom, and, however men treat him, the kingdom he seeks, right on +to martyrdom. He runs the gauntlet of their direst hate and malice, +that he may open their eyes and turn them from Satan to God, and from +sin to righteousness. Self is lost sight of; it is not Paul now--it +is Christ and His kingdom. + +False Charity is the opposite of this. Its possessor is most +concerned about what people think of HIM; not how they treat his +professed Lord. The possessor of false Charity cannot afford to +reprove anybody. Oh, dear, no! he would faint at the very idea; and +he calls people hard and legal and censorious who dare to do it-- +poor, sneaking coward! but he will not be afraid to stab a man behind +his back. The speech of this false Charity betrayeth it, it +flattereth with its lips; honey is on its tongue, but the poison of +asps is underneath; beware of it! Even when it professes to commend a +brother, or neighbor, it rolls up its sanctimonious eyes, and always +puts a "but" in--one of the devil's "buts." "Oh, he is a good man, +but--." "Yes, I have a great esteem for him, only there is such and +such a thing." Oh, it is very Divine. The devil can put on a garb of +light when it answers his purpose. Oh, the fair reputations that this +slime of the serpent has trailed over! Oh, the influence for good +that this venom of the devil has poisoned and ruined, for it has +been, truly said, "There is no virtue so white that back-wounding +calumny will not strike"--even in God's perfect man, those who are +watching and seeking to betray can find something on which to ground +their accusations. + +I say, mind which Charity you have got True Charity, rejoiceth not +in iniquity. Are you conscious in your soul of a feeling of triumph +when anybody that you don't like happens to fall on some evil thing? +If you have, look out--the devil has got hold of you. Do you rejoice +in iniquity when it happens to an enemy? If so, woe be to you, unless +you get that venom out. God won't have it in Heaven. _One man with +that venom in him would damn Paradise_, "Love your enemies"--love +them; "bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and +pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye +may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven." Now, my +brother, my sister, try yourself. "We shall meet again, and you will +find that these are no imaginary vagaries that I have been talking +of; they are realities--though these great realities of our Christianity +are seldom preached in these days; but they are _here_, and there is no +truth in you if you have not got the Charity which hates evil as evil, +and which will reprove it, and root it out, and have it _cured_!" + +Here, again, false Charity is the very antipodes of the Divine. It +does not care much about righteousness. Quietness is its beau ideal +of all that is lovely and excellent. It says, "Let us be quiet; you +must not disturb the peace of the church." It cries, "Peace, peace!" +when there is no peace. It says, "We cannot help these evils. Every +man must look after himself; we are not responsible for our +neighbor." It knows very often that there are continents of dirt +underneath--"things," and "systems," and men--which it chooses to +patronize; but then, it is covered up, and so it says, "Let it alone; +we cannot have a smudge. Let it alone. Peace! Peace! Never mind +righteousness--the church must be supported, if the money does come +out of the dried-up vitals of drunkards and harlots; never mind, we +must have it. Never mind if our songs are mixed with the shrieks of +widows and orphans, of the dying and damned! Sing away, sing away, +and drown their voices. Never mind; we cannot have it looked into, +and rooted out, and pulled up. Peace; we must have peace!" And they +call you, as Ahab did Elijah, the disturber of Israel, if you dare to +touch the sore place and exhibit their putrifying wounds and bruises; +and when you say to them, "The law of life is, 'Do unto others as you +would they should do unto you,'" they impudently turn upon you and +say, "But we are not expected to be perfect in this life," and so +they throw a thicker covering over the filth, and on it goes. + +This is the devil's Charity; and the more the better for his +purpose. But the Charity and the wisdom which is from above, is first +pure, and then peaceable! I would rather be in everlasting warfare in +company with that which is fair, and true, and good, than I would +walk in harmony with that which is hollow, and rotten, and vile, and +destined for the bottomless pit. The Lord help you to make the same +choice! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CHARITY AND CONFLICT. + + + And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest + of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13. + +Another characteristic of this Divine Charity is, that it OFTEN +INVOLVES CONFLICT. + +It was so with our Lord. He was the very personification of it. He +was love itself, and grace and truth poured from His lips +incessantly. His blessed feet went about doing good, and His hands +ministering to the necessities and happiness of His creatures, yet +His whole course through this degenerate world was one of conflict, +opposition, and persecution. His proper mission was to bring peace on +earth; but the result of it was a sword! Why? That was not His fault. +He would, doubtless, have enjoyed being at peace with all men, as His +ambassador exhorts us--"as much as lieth in us to be." More, He was +the Prince of Peace! Then, how was it that wherever He went, there +was sword, opposition, and conflict to the death? Because men +_resisted_ and _rejected_ His Divine and Heavenly ministrations. They +would not hear His rebukes and His teaching, because they condemned +them. They would not listen to His voice, because they were of their +father the devil, and the works of their father they would do; and, +therefore, they went about to persecute Him, and to kill Him. + +This was the reason--not that _He_ wanted it to be so, but it +was the consequence of their resistance to the beautiful, heavenly, +and Divine truths which He taught; and it is just so now, with the +same truth, and the living embodiments of such truth. JESUS CHRIST +COME IN THE FLESH AGAIN IN HIS PEOPLE, living out before the world +His principles, acting upon His precepts, living for the same objects +for which He lived, will produce, exactly and everywhere, the same +result. It must be so while men are divided into two classes--the +righteous and the wicked--those who are born of the flesh, and those +who are born of the Spirit. One must either give in, or there must be +perpetual conflict and warfare. It was so with the Saviour, and so, +perhaps, with some of us. + +I think this is often a snare to God's really sincere people. I +think some of God's people are afraid; they don't like the feeling +that their hand is against every man, and every man's hand against +them, or nearly so. They do not like the feeling of isolation; they +do not like being compelled to take a course which nearly all the +Christian professors round about them condemn, and make out to be +uncharitable, and they often examine themselves to see whether it is +possible that they may be going wrong in following the Divine Spirit. +They say with Jeremiah, and with the Jeremiahs of every age, "Woe is +me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of +contention to the whole earth!" They are as "speckled birds, against +whom all the birds round about are gathered." They feel this +opposition and conflict deeply, but what are they to do? Very often, +in following the leadings of the Divine Spirit, it is impossible for +us to avoid such consequences. We have to march through troops of +opposing forces. We have to become the subjects of almost universal +suspicion. But what then? Must we give in? Must we decline to tread +in the bloodstained footsteps of the Captain of our salvation? Must +we decline the honor of being in the advance guard of the Lamb's army +because of the conflict, because of the pain, because of the +persecution? Nay, nay; let us hold on, those here, who are thus led +by the Divine Spirit into paths which involve conflict with +everybody. Follow on, brother! follow on, sister! + +There is no point on which those who want to come out thoroughly for +God, suffer more than oh this. They continually say, "You see, my +friends"--they are Christian, friends--"my friends object." People +come, to see me, or they write that the Spirit of God has been urging +them into a certain course, for months or years, and they are held +back by the opinions and wishes, perhaps, of parents, or of brothers +and sisters, or uncles, or aunts, or Christian friends. + +_I believe it will be found, in the great day of account, that +there have been more blessed enterprises crushed, more leadings of +the Holy Ghost disobeyed, more urgings of the Spirit quenched, +through the influence of what are called Christian friends, than all +other influences put together. "Suffer me first to go and bury my +father," is an everlasting standing excuse for those whom, the Lord +calls on in advance paths of Christian service! Oh, my friends, I am +sure of it. Look out, you fathers and mothers, you brothers and +sisters, and aunts!_ + +Do not misunderstand me. Carefully weigh, probe, and examine, before +God, your impressions and desires. Go into your closet, spread them +there before the Lord. Lay them out, examine your own heart. Be sure +there is no self-interest, no vain glory, no desire to be great, or +to do some out-of-the-way thing. Be as clear as you like; be +satisfied, in your own mind, that it is God's call, and then let +fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, husbands, or wives complain--but +go forward, my brother, and God will justify you. If, twenty years +ago, I had stopped for Christian friends to sanction and to open the +door, I should have waited till today, and the number of souls God, +in His infinite mercy, has given me, I should not have gathered. But +I did not wait for anybody's sanction to my Lord and Master's call; +but said, "Lord, if I die in attempting it, I will do it." He seldom +lets people die in attempting His will. He stands by them, and gives +them abundant fruit. + +A lady said to me the other day, "You know my father is a Christian, +and I am so afraid of going opposite to him." "Yes," I said, "that is +quite a right feeling; I respect that feeling in you." But she was a +woman of considerably matured age, and I added, "But is your father +awake to the interests of God's kingdom as he ought to be?" She +replied, "I dare not say he is." "I suppose," I said "he is +comparatively old--a sort of dried-up Christian, who has lost the +vigor and enterprise of his youthful days, when he wanted to go out +and make everybody Christian?" "Yes," she said, "he has gone sadly +behind in his zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ." "Now," I said, +"God holds you responsible, just as He holds any other being. _He +has not two codes-one for men and one for women._ There will be no +two judgment seats, whatever men do here. God will hold you +responsible for obedience to the teaching of His Spirit, and the +leading of His providence, as much as your brother. What shall you +say? You will be in the position of the man who said, 'Suffer me +first to go and bury my father.'" She said, "I am afraid I shall." + +Now, I say, let us settle this, you Protestant Christians here. +Because Catholicism has abused this principle, that a man is to leave +his father and mother, and houses and lands, if needs be, is that any +reason that we Protestants are to give it up? And has it come to +this, that a man has only to follow Christ when everybody approves it +--cries "Amen"--and when his own interests appear to him to be +secured by so doing? Then, if it were so, I would give up religion +altogether, and go and enjoy myself. I said to a lady, "When you +married yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, you put yourself in the +same position as you would to an earthly husband." What woman in the +world would feel that she ought to obey father and mother, rather +than her husband? Ridiculous! Much less is she to obey her father, if +her father's wishes are exactly contrary to the Divine teaching. She +is only to obey IN THE LORD, and yet thousands of fathers and mothers +are preventing their children working for God. Oh! what will you say +to God when your precious children stand at His bar, without the +sheaves they might have gathered, and the souls they might have won? +What will you say to Him? And why do you hold them back? Oh, the +mean, paltry considerations that you would be ashamed to own before +this congregation! Is it for fear of suffering? Not in many +instances; but, even if it were, did you bargain with Jesus Christ +when you gave yourself and children to Him, that they were not to +suffer for Him? Is it because of your pride?--because you want for +them this world's applause and favor? Look out! God has wonderful +ways of chastising His people in those very things in which they sell +His interest. But you say that "everybody will be against you!" Yes, +very likely. Let us settle that at once. Count all things dung and +dross. Let none of these things move you. You say, "It will be a life +of conflict to the end." Very likely, so was His. "I am so weak," you +say. He knows all about that. You say, "It will be so cutting to have +people saying this, and saying the other." I know it is cutting, but +that is the path He calls you to tread, and He will give you grace to +bear the cutting. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and +persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, +for my sake;" and, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy +are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." + +He does not show where He is leading us, so we can only go a step at +a time. The future may look dark, but let us be fully persuaded in +our own minds that the step in advance is the step the Lord wants us +to take--then take it, and leave the future with Him. Come out, as +Abraham did, not knowing whither you go; and, as sure as He sits upon +the throne, He will vindicate your course, and, perhaps, the very +things that you sacrifice, or that you think you sacrifice, for Him, +He will give you, as the reward of your faithfulness. + +Oh, have I not known many such instances. I have known daughters who +have been turned out of their father's houses for following the +leadings of the Spirit of God, and who have endured all sorts of +persecution, and trial, and suffering, and those fathers, when they +were dying, would have nobody else to pray with them but that +individual daughter. The way to win the souls of parents is by a +consistent, steadfast, holy consecration to the Lord Jesus; whereas, +if you pander, and trim, and hesitate, you will miss the reward. Do +you think people do not know when we are inconsistent? Oh, yes, they +know quite well, and they say, "That is not the right sort of +religion;" but you be consistent and thorough, and God will honor +these very means to the winning of the souls about whom you are so +concerned. + +Further, a false Charity shrinks from opposition. It cannot bear +persecution. Now, here is one unfailing characteristic of a false +Charity: _it is always on the winning side_--that is, apparently, down +here; not what will be, ultimately, the winning side. When Truth sits +enthroned, with a crown on her head, this false Charity is most +vociferous in her support and devotion; but when her garments trail in +the dust, and her followers are few, feeble, and poor, then Jesus Christ +may look after Himself. I sometimes think respecting this hue and cry +about the glory of God and the sanctity of religion, I would like to see +some of these saints put into the common hall with Jesus again, amongst +a band of ribald, mocking, soldiers. I would like to see, then, their +zeal for the glory of God, when it touched their own glory. They are +wonderfully zealous when their glory and His glory go together; but, +when the mob is at His heels, crying, "Away with Him!--crucify +Him!--crucify Him!"--then He may look after His own glory, and they will +take care of theirs. + +True Charity sticks to the LORD JESUS IN THE MUD, when He is +fainting under His cross, as well as when the people are cutting down +the boughs and crying "Hosanna!" I fear many people make the Lord +Jesus Christ a stalking-horse on which to secure their ends. God +grant us not to be of that number, for, if we are, He will topple us +from the very gates of Heaven down to the nethermost hell. This false +Charity cannot go to the dungeon--you never find it at the stake. It +always manages to shift its sides, and change its face, before it +goes as far as that. Never in disgrace; never with Jesus Christ in +the minority, at Golgotha--on the cross. Always with Him when He is +riding triumphant! + +Oh, I often think if times of persecution were to come again how +many of us would be faithful? How many would go to the dungeon? How +many would stand by the truth, with hooting, howling mobs at our +heels, such as followed Him on the way to the cross--such as stood +round His cross and spat upon Him, and cast lots for His vesture, and +parted His garments among them, and wagged their heads and cried, "He +saved others; Himself He cannot save"? How many of us would stick to +Him then? But, as your soul and mine liveth, that is the only kind of +love that will stand the test of the Judgment Day. + +Oh, have you got this Charity? Love in the darkness; Love in the +Garden; Love in sorrow; Love in suffering; Love in isolation; Love in +persecution; Love to the death!--Have we got this love? Examine +yourselves, beloved, and see whether you are in the faith or not, for +there is much need of it in this day, when there are so many false +gospels and so much false doctrine;--when we hear so much about being +"complete in Him" by people who never were in Him at all, and no more +understand what it means than the very kitten that lies on their +hearth. I say, examine yourself, whether you be in the faith or not, +and whether you are in Him; for, verily, it is no easier now to be +His real followers than ever it was. + +Further, a false Charity _refuses to call things by their proper +names!_ Oh! what endless ways it has of putting lying! lying that +is done on this day by professing Christians! Oh, the nice, +comfortable, self-indulgent ways it has of looking at ungodly trades +and practices! What do I mean? I mean trades that cannot be made +subservient to the interest of the kingdom of Christ; trades that +thrive by ministering either to the vile passions of human nature, or +to the ungodliness of human nature. By what nice names it calls +Satanic traffics in the bodies, hearts, and souls of men! And, when +Divine Charity remonstrates with it, it turns round and says, "Well, +you know, but we must have regard to our own interests; we have large +interests at stake." I sometimes say, "God knows you have! and, when +the Judge riseth up to avenge those who have been oppressed and +destroyed by your iniquitous traffics, you will find them sadly TOO +LARGE, TOO BIG FOR THE HELL ITSELF TO CONTAIN." + +The Lord have mercy on any of you who are living on the follies or +wickedness of your fellow-men. Make haste to get out of such trades. +Wash your hands of them, for, depend upon it, that is the devil's +Charity that would try to make you comfortable in them! It has +nothing to do with Divine Charity. + +"Oh, my soul, come not into their secret; unto their assembly, mine +honor, be not thou united," but stand aloof from all such alliances +of light with darkness, of truth with falsehood; "have no fellowship +with the unfruitful works of darkness," "For behold the day cometh +that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do +wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them +up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root +nor branch." He is the same God; He changes not! Let us call things +by their right names. Let us face the evil. Let us chase it out of +the world--or, at any rate, chase it out of the church. Depend upon +it, the Lord is going to prove all things. I can hear, as it were, +the rumbling of the earthquake of the Divine indignation underground, +I can see the gathering of the Divine wrath overhead; and, IF THIS +NATION DOES NOT REPENT, AND IF THE CHURCHES OF THIS LAND DO NOT COME +OUT AND WASH THEIR HANDS OF THESE THINGS, GOD WILL SEND US SUCH A +BAPTISM OF BLOOD AS WE HAVE NEVER CONCEIVED OF, AND HE WILL PUT US +OUT, and put some other nation in our place, or else He will act +contrary to all His former dealings with nations! Do you suppose that +Jerusalem was more guilty than we are? Have we not been exalted much +higher than Jerusalem ever was? And have we not sinned against +greater light and privilege than ever she did? Are not our professed +Christians exactly the same in character as her Pharisees? Do they +not make fine and long prayers, and, at the same time, devour the +widow and fatherless? Yea, for hellish gain, do they not make widows +and orphans wholesale? Might not God truly say of us, "Ah, sinful +nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children +that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked +the Holy One of Israel unto anger: they are gone away backward." Even +the prophets prophesy falsely, and the people love to have it so! + +Do you say, "No, we are not so _bad?"_ I answer, look abroad +over the land, open your eyes, observe and see. Has it not become +proverbial--have you not heard it until your ears have tingled, and +your face burned with shame--"Better go and deal with anybody than a +Christian"? and, alas! has there not been much ground for it? Have we +any need to wonder that infidels wag their heads? Can you go into a +shop where you are sure you will not be extortioned? Do you know +anybody who keeps a conscience with respect to the profits he makes? +Is there anybody scarcely who won't charge his neighbor more than the +article is worth, if he has a chance, and call it lawful? _That_ +is extortion. It may be only asking twopence for an article worth a +penny, or a 1,000 pounds for what 700 pounds should buy; it does not +matter the amount--it is EXTORTION! + +God puts extortioners amongst the blackest of sinners. The Lord help +me to "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on +the things of others," and have the Charity that will not take a mean +advantage of my neighbor because I have the chance, and thus traduce +the precious name of the Holy Jesus by calling myself one of His +followers. It is time this satanic Charity was swept out! The very +first law, the very vital principle of true Charity, is _righteousness._ +There is no Charity apart from righteousness. If your Charity is +incompatible with righteousness, it is born of the devil and leads to +hell! + +If you have had anything revealed to you, in your heart or life, +that you see to be wrong, say, "Here Lord, pour the light in; I am so +glad You have shown this thing to me while there is time to alter it. +Now bring your dissecting knife, and cut it away, even if the roots +go deep down into my very heart's core. I will have it out." Will +you? Will you be made true, straight, clean? Will you be made Divine? +Will you be filled with the pure, holy love of God towards God, and +towards men, and all beings? That is what the Lord wants you to have. +This is what He has sent His Son to do. No subterfuge; no make-believe +work to get you into Heaven as you are; but He wants to make +you as He wants you to be, and _He can do it._ The Great +Physician is able, He is willing, He has got love enough, and power +enough and grace enough to do it for you. Confide all your heart to +Him. Will you have this Divine Charity wrought in you? It will make +you willing to suffer, to endure hardness, and shame, and contempt, +and persecution. It will make you willing to do anything that human +nature can do, and endure anything that human nature can suffer, that +you may accomplish the same purposes that He came to accomplish, that +you may help onward the progress of His glorious kingdom. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHARITY AND LONELINESS. + + + And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest + of these is charity.-I COR. xiii. 13. + +_The possession of this Divine Charity often necessitates walking +in a lonely path._ + +Not merely in opposition and persecution, but _alone_ in it, +and here, again, Jesus, who was the personification of Divine lore, +stands out as our great example. He was emphatically alone, and of +the people there was none with Him. Even the disciples whom He had +drawn nearest to Him, and to whom He had tried to communicate most of +His thought and spirit, were so behind that He often had to reprove +them, and lament their obtuseness and want of sympathy. In the +greatness of His love He had to go forward into the darkness of +Gethsemane. He was alone while they slept, and then through ribaldry, +scorn, and sarcasm, to the cross. Alas! alas! almost alone, except a +few--to their everlasting honor--poor faithful women--_alone!_ + +And, as it was with the Master, so it has been with all those whom +God has called to go in advance of their race. It was so with John, +and with Paul, and with most of the apostles, and with all those whom +God has called to extraordinary paths since. Must John have a +revelation of things shortly to come to pass? He must go alone into +the Isle of Patmos! Must Paul hear unspeakable words, not, at that +time, lawful for a man to utter? He must go alone into the third +heaven, and not be allowed even to communicate what he saw and heard +when he came down; alone, he must necessarily go in advance. + +And just so, when God has called some of His followers to an out-of- +the-way path, they have had to go alone in an untrodden way. Superior +love necessitates a lonely walk. You shrink, and say, "That seems so +hard." Yes, I know; I wish I could make it easier, but I cannot help +it. I simply state the fact, that superior love necessitates, in some +measure, a lonely walk, because you see it is only they who--thus +love, to whom the Lord tells His secrets. If you want to ask a +confidential question and get a confidential answer, you must be on +the bosom of your Master. You won't be able to do it at a distance. +Then, you see, when He gives to any soul superior light to its +fellows, and that soul _follows_ the light, it necessarily entails a +path in advance of its fellows. Unless he can inspire and encourage them +(which, alas! is hard work) to follow, he must go on alone. + +That was a beautiful illustration we read in the lesson (Acts x.). +Here is Peter called to go in advance of the whole Church! Now, the +Lord wants a man to do this, and whom does He choose? He chooses +impulsive, energetic, head-first Peter. But then, there is something +to be done first God lets down the sheet with all its unclean contents, +and Peter fastens his eyes upon it. (I wish you had studied all the +sheets the Lord has let down before _your eyes_, you would have come out +very differently to what you have.) Peter studies them, and soon the +Divine vision has absorbed Peter's attention. When the Lord has fairly +got his attention, then comes the voice, "Now, Peter, rise, slay and +eat." Then, when the Lord had taught him his lesson effectually, and +when Peter saw that he had not yet explored all the ideas of the Divine +mind about the extension of His kingdom, and that his business was to +follow his Lord's directions, and not to have his own "ifs" and "buts," +but go ahead and do as God bade him, then Peter goes on to carry out the +Divine direction. Then the church, aghast, as usual, at anything new-- +always down upon a measure, whether good or bad, if it has the _awful +quality of being new_--was down upon it. This new church, which had only +just itself been brought to God by a set of _new measures_, is down +upon Peter, and they call him to the council to answer for his conduct. + +He tells them all about it in the truthful simplicity of a man of +God, and, thank God, they bad sense enough--yes, and love enough, +charity enough, to accept his explanations, and to glorify God. Would +to God we could get as much sense and charity in these days! + +A lady writes to me, only the other day, of her husband, saying that +he sympathises with outside work, but contends that there is +everything one wants in the church; and another contends that there +is everything everybody wants somewhere else, and so they are down +upon all the Peters that dare to do anything out of the jog-trot +line. You may reason ever so urgently, and show them that all these +old measures are not enough for everybody, that there is a great mass +of outlying population which they do not reach--the Gentiles of this +generation; you may show them that these Gentiles are without the +Holy Ghost, that they are not cleansed, that they are yet common and +unclean; you may show them that these new measures of yours are quite +as lawful as their old measures, and that, probably, they would be a +great deal more useful, and, moreover, that they have been borne in +upon you by the Holy Ghost, and that you feel as if there were a fire +in your bones urging you to go and try them, but they will not hold +their peace and glorify God, but will loose their tongues and villify +you. + +False Charity looks more at the means than at the end. Its possessor +is more concerned about what men will think of _him_, than what +will exalt the Redeemer. You can know it by this mark. Are you more +concerned about what your neighbor, Mr. So-and-So, or your minister, +Rev. Mr. So-and-So, or even your bishop, thinks about you, than you +are about the extension of the kingdom of Christ? Look out, my +friend, yours is the wrong sort of Charity. True Charity looks at the +end--the spread of righteousness in the earth--_the reign of the +King_--and it is not very fastidious about the measures, so that +they are lawful. + +I do not advocate anything unlawful, to do good--God forbid. Divine +Charity says, "Anywhere with Jesus"--in the temple or outside of it-- +at the seaside or in Cheapside--on the mountain top or in the market +place--in the streets--anywhere, Lord Jesus, if Thou wilt only come +and take Thine inheritance and reign over the hearts and souls of +men. True Charity is only too glad to become a Jew to the Jews, as +weak to the weak, if it can only pick them up;--only too glad to +descend to men of low estate, and put its arms round their necks, if +it can only bring them to the cross and bring them back to the heart +and Heaven of God; and it does not care what the Pharisee on the +other side says; it is set on saving the poor sinner; it is pouring +in oil and wine, and putting him on its own beast; _it is intent on +saving him_, and does not care what anybody thinks. Have you got +it? It is so good. It makes you feel so warm and comfortable inside. +It is beautiful, and it proves better and better every day, and it +will be better still when you are dying--Faith and Hope will be done +away, but this love will last _forever!_ + +But this necessitates somebody leading the way--going on in advance. +Will _you_ be content to go in advance? Will _you_ endure the hardness +of a pioneer? Can you bear the ridicule and gibes of your fellow-men? +Dare _you_ go where the Holy Ghost leads, and leave Him to look _after +the consequences?_ If so, happy are you, and you shall have a harvest of +precious souls; you shall shine as the stars forever; but, if you draw +back, His soul shall have no pleasure in you. Step out on to the Divine +love, that is able, alone amongst the breakers, to bear your little +bark--able to make you _more_ than a conqueror. Oh, step out--follow, +follow, follow--do not be afraid! + +_Spurious Charity_ is the opposite of this. It must have human +notice. Ostentation is its very essence. Cease to notice it, and it +will soon die. "I went about to establish mine own righteousness," +says Paul, before he got the true Charity. Here was a grand +opportunity for Pharisaic Saul. These Nazarenes, were they not +everywhere spoken against? Was not this a grand opportunity for +_him_ to be everywhere spoken for?--and so he takes advantage of +public opinion, and becomes "exceedingly mad" against them; and, not +satisfied with persecuting them in his own city, he goes after them +into strange cities, but he reveals, afterwards, when he got the +Divine Charity, that the mainspring of his zeal was SELF-GLORY. + +False Charity hates to be in a minority--you never find it in an +unrespectable minority,--it wants company, and that of a respectable, +genteel kind. Its possessors are always sticklers for the traditions +of the elders; their horizon is bounded very largely by the opinions +of men and the attitude of the _rulers_. They are always asking, +"Have any of the rulers believed on Him?" + +Now, my friends, let this teach you wisdom and love. Prove all +things before you condemn. I have no doubt Saul was an honest man, in +the world's acceptation of the term, for he says he persecuted the +Nazarenes ignorantly, thinking he was doing God service; but what a +grand mistake he was making, and how effectually he was doing the +_work of the devil!_ Of course, if he had _seen_, he was mistaken, he +would have ceased to _be mistaken_. + +I wish people would stop and think that the path they are now +standing in the well-beaten track on which they are now walking with +such slow dignity--was one quite as new and unconventional and +outrageous to the coadjutors of their forefathers, as the path which +any new departure by the Holy Ghost may set before them _now_. I +wish such people would read history. I suppose they do not, or, if +they do, they read it as they do the Bible--they fail to draw any +practical principle from it. Such people should read "Neale's History +of the Puritans," and see in what a hurricane of excitement, +opposition, contempt, and persecution, their forefathers fought for +the very paths they are now _standing still in_, and holding so +sacred that they cannot have them disturbed. Do you see how +unphilosophically they are acting? If their forefathers had acted on +the principles they are acting on, they would have stood still in old +paths, and we would never have been in the new ones. These people +stand in these paths of traditionalism and routinism, just where +their forefathers left them, occupying all their time in admiring the +wisdom and benevolence and devotion of their forefathers, instead of +imitating _their aggressive faith_ and MARCHING ON TO THE CONQUEST OF +THE WORLD. + +Which is the most God-honoring? Which has the most common sense in +it? Which will please your, forefathers the most? But it is now as it +was in the days of the Son of Man--for, "ye build the tombs of the +prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, 'If +we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been +partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Wherefore ye be +witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which +killed the prophets." + +Alas! what a deal of this is going on to-day, only there is one +difference--it is going on "under a Christian creed, instead of a +Jewish." It is only the _creed_ that differs--the character, the +spring of action, is the same. + +Now, my friends, try yourselves--which Charity _have you got?_ +Do you rejoice in the extension of the kingdom of Jesus Christ by any +lawful means, or are you more concerned _about the color of a man's +coat than the state of his heart?_ Would you rather the poor +drunkard were left to rot and seethe in his misery, than that a man +should put on a blue jacket with an S.[Footnote: Badge of the +Salvation Army.] on his collar, and go and fetch him out? Would you +rather have men damned conventionally, than saved unconventionally? +If you would, you are a Pharisee at heart--I care not what you call +yourselves. Go home and read for your instruction Matt, xxiii. 23-28. + +Further, how bitterly this false Charity often comes out in +individual cases. We will just take an illustration. We will suppose +here is a family of decent, respectable, professedly Christian +people, who have been to church or chapel most of their lives. Or +here is a Church, we will suppose, of the same character--nothing +particular has happened; they fear the Lord, and go comfortably +along, and are just where they were ten or fifteen years ago, making +up for _deaths_ and _removals_. We will suppose that a member of that +family or that church, as the case may be, gets converted. He reads a +book, goes to a special meeting, or some providential utterance is the +means of sending the light of God's Spirit upon his soul, and he is +quickened and woke up to see the miserable, half-dead, guilty condition +in which he is; he is praying and groaning, and feeling after God; he +gets the sense of his transgressions and unfaithfulness being taken +away, and the joy of God's salvation restored to his soul. Now, in a +moment, almost immediately, as in the case of Peter, as soon as the +internal work is done, comes the external path opened up. The Spirit of +God lays before him some new work, something strikes him which has been +long forgotten, or which never seems to have been recognised in his +family or church. He sees what a grand thing that would be for the +conversion of souls, and the extension of the kingdom of Jesus +Christ, and he feels it beginning to burn like a fire in his bones to +enter this path of usefulness. He prays much over it, and he waits +until he is fully satisfied that it is not a vain impulse, but that +it is of the Spirit of God. Full of love, and faith, and zeal, he +goes to tell his minister, or some Christian friend; he expects that +they will sympathise with his feelings, and enter into his project; +but, alas! alas! they begin by raising objections--they start +difficulties:--"Well, but you see that would be a little out of our +order: that is not exactly our way of doing things. I am afraid the +deacons would object, or I am afraid something would happen;" and if +he has the misfortune to be young (anybody would think it was a sin +to be young), they will "crush" him out; they put the extinguisher +on, and say, "Wait, my brother, until you have more experience," or, +"my sister," especially, "_you_ must never presume to do +anything of which we cannot approve!" + +Oh! friends, you smile because you _know_ how true it is! Oh, +alas! the thousands of urgings of the Holy Ghost; the thousands of +heavenly voices that have been as clear to human souls as ever +Peter's sheet was to him; the thousands of glorious aspirations and +schemes for the spread of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ that +have been thus crushed by this spurious, false, selfish, devilish +Charity! The Lord put it out. + +Oh! I would not care what the Lord called my child to do that would +be for the extension of His kingdom and the glory of His name; I +would not restrain her or keep her back. I might say, "My child, it +may be a painful thing for me to consent. I might have chosen another +path for you; but if you are satisfied the Spirit leads you, go +forward, and I will do all I can to help you." Why? Because I want +the King to have His own, and I do not care how it is, so that He gets +His own, and I will have Him to use _mine_ as well as me to get it. + +Fathers and mothers, look out! If you grudge your children to God, +He will be even with you. "They that honor Me, I will honor, but they +who do not, shall be lightly esteemed." They shall get light weight +all round, and be whipped with their own rods. Mind how you withhold +that which is most precious from God! Mind you do not receive the +grace of God in vain; _some people do_. + +The fifth point in which this Divine and spurious Charity contradict +each other, is, that Divine Charity--the pure love of God--is _law +abiding_. + +That is, it always manifests itself in harmony with the great moral +law of the universe--it never does evil that good may come! You never +hear it saying--"I cannot say that this is exactly square; I know +this is not exactly the right course, but then I can accomplish such +and such objects by adopting it." Never! that is of the devil! You +may always know that the law of righteousness is entwined round the +very heart of Divine Charity, and as justice and judgment are the +habitation of the throne of its Divine Author, so righteousness is in +the very core of its soul. It will never sacrifice righteousness for +peace, or anything else. + +Now, what is the whole duty of man? To love mercy, to do justly, and +walk humbly with God; and, when the Holy Spirit has brought about +that result in your soul, God will look on you with a beneficent eye, +with a smile of approbation, and its genial influence will sun your +whole being, and you will walk in the light of it, even as the angels +do in Heaven. "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God;" +that is the whole duty of man--everything is included in that. + +Do you hear it, oh! ye temporizers with Divine law? Do you hear it, +ye who say that we must come down partly, and be a little like the +world in order to win it? that you must come on to the level of the +ungodly in order that you may win them to God?--I tell you that +_all unrighteousness is sin!_ Do you hear this, you who contend +for covering up by a false Charity certain sins which are sending men +to perdition wholesale, and make laws and acts of parliament to +protect men in these crimes? I know your specious arguments that come +from the devil; but I ask, is it justice to take one part of the human +race, and that the weaker, and, therefore, according to the law of +Divine Charity, demanding the greater protection from cruelty and wrong, +and offer that part up for the _supposed_ good of the other, because +the latter is stronger? Is that justice? Is that mercy? and, mind, I say +emphatically _supposed good_; for, do you think one part of God's +creation can be trodden down without reacting with terrible moral force +upon the other? Do you think it can? Was it ever done? Will it ever be +done? _No! not while He sits on His throne_. Yes, _supposed_ good, for +facts mock your arguments. It is not for their good; you know it is not. +You cannot accomplish your purpose when you have done all; and think you +that you will escape, by your satanic inventions, the Divine +Executioner? Think you that your specious arguments will avail with Him +who hath sworn in His holy habitation that He will avenge the oppressed +and down-trodden of the earth? No, no! I see written between the lines, +and I hear muttering between your speeches. "Be not deceived; God is not +mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." You +cannot escape the penalty! + +The last characteristic of true Charity which I shall name is, that +_it holds out_, in spite of ingratitude, opposition, and persecution! +Its possessor seeks the good of all men, not because he ought, merely, +but because he cannot help it. His _heart_ is on the side of God and +truth. He _loves_ righteousness, and, therefore, cannot desist from +seeking to bring all beings to love it, too, although they hate and +despise him for so doing. Jesus held out in this glorious love, even in +the agonies of crucifixion. "Father, forgive them; they know not what +they do." His heart was set on bringing man back to God, and He went +through with it. His soul did not draw back, and His Divine love +constrained Him, even onto death. + +Paul followed his Master in this respect; and though the more he +loved some of his converts, the less he was loved, he went on, +seeking their highest good, not being hindered for a moment by their +ingratitude. He loved _them_--not their good opinion or applause! A +spurious Charity soon tires when the objects of it prove unworthy. Its +possessor says: "I have had enough of this; the kinder I am, the worse +people treat me. I shall button up my pocket, and take my ease, till I +am better appreciated." _Self_-glory is the very life of spurious +Charity: it dies right out under ingratitude and contempt. + +Which have you got, my brother?--my sister? + +Does somebody say, as a man who had been to a service at Scarborough +the other, day, and had been hearing some straight truth, said, when +asked, "How did you like it?" The man, a young, prosperous tradesman +in the town, shuffled about, and said: "Well, it was awful; if that +is true, I am on my way to hell." Thank God he had found it out. Now, +have you got this Divine Charity? I told you, at the beginning, it +did not grow on unregenerate human nature, so if you are an +unregenerate man, and have not the Holy Spirit, I want you to find it +out. You have to begin at the beginning, and get the plant planted. +No matter what spurious imitations you have got, if you have not got +_the love of God_. Have you got it, brother?--sister? If you +have not, you can have it this afternoon. Will you seek it? We were +all once without it, even as it is said, "We were the children of +wrath, even as others;" we hated those who hated us; we hated things, +not because they were wicked, and against God, but because they were +opposed to us personally; our love and hate were influenced by +selfishness, the same as others, but now the Lord has renewed our +hearts, and made us in some little measure, like Him who "loved +righteousness, and hated iniquity; and, therefore, God anointed Him +with the oil of gladness above His fellows." Oh! yes; the more you +love righteousness and hate iniquity, the more of gladness you will +have, and the more glorious the testimony you will give for God. You +will be able to say, with David, "I have not hid Thy righteousness +within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation: +I have not concealed Thy loving kindness and Thy truth from the great +congregation." There will be no difficulty about declaring it. We +find it easy to declare it when people get it. We cannot keep them +quiet; they are like the early converts--they are up two or three +together; and, like Paul, we have to say, "One at a time; you shall +all prophecy, if you do it one at a time." When people get it, it +bubbles up, and runs over; "it springs up," as out great Master said, +"as a well of water, unto everlasting life." Many floods cannot +quench it; it abideth forever. + +Have you got it? Have you got enough of it to lift you above your +petty, selfish interests, or are you guided by the Charity that first +looks inside to see how any proposition will affect _self_, +instead of seeing how it will affect the kingdom of God? And you, +poor sinner, who know you have not got it--I have more hope of you +than some who profess to have it. His great bowels of compassion move +towards you; He is waiting to shed abroad this love in your heart. +The feast is spread; all things are now ready. Oh! come into His +banqueting house, and sit under His banner of love for ever and ever. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CONDITIONS OF EFFECTUAL PRAYER. + + + If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what you + will, and it shall be done unto you.--JOHN xv. 7. + + Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye + pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.--MARK + xi. 24. + + If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all + men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let + him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a + wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that + man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.--JAMES i.5-7. + + Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not + what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh + intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He + that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, + because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will + of God.--ROMANS viii. 26,27. + +I have not taken the texts in the order in which they stand, but in +the order in which they logically follow one another, and in which +they elucidate the subject. + +And now, in the few remarks I wish to make, I shall try to embody +answers to the letters I have received on this subject. There is no +experience, perhaps, more common in these days than this, nothing +more constantly said to me by professing Christians: "Well, I have +prayed a long time for certain things, but I don't seem to get any +answers to my prayers." I often wonder such people don't give up +praying altogether I think I should if I never got answers. + +Now I say, this is a very God-dishonoring experience, and there must +be something wrong somewhere when this is the case. There must be +something wrong either with the suppliants or the Giver. Oh! I feel +often what a deeply God-dishonoring thing it is when Christians meet, +as they frequently do, up and down the country, to pray for a +revival, to pray for a specific thing in their Churches and in their +families, and it never comes. + +Some years ago, when the wave of revival was sweeping over Ireland +and America, you know the Churches in this country held united prayer- +meetings to pray that it might come to England; but it did not come, +and the infidels wagged their heads, and wrote in their newspapers: +"See, the Christians' God is either deaf or gone a-hunting, for they +have had prayer-meetings all over the land for a revival, and it has +not come." Oh! how my cheeks burned with shame as I thought of it; +how I mourned over it! I knew it was not because our God was asleep +--not because His arm was shortened--not because His bowels of +compassion did not yearn over sinners--not because he could not have +poured out His Spirit and have given us the same glorious times of +refreshing they had in other places. _That was not the reason_. +There was only one reason, and that was, that His people asked amiss. + +They did not understand the conditions of prevailing prayer. They +did not fulfil them. If they had prayed till now, and maintained the +same attitude, they would not have got the answer, because there are +conditions to these promises, as to all other promises; and we may +pray ourselves black and blue in the face if we do not comply with +the conditions. God will never move an inch to meet us, and never +fulfil the promises in our experience. May you, who are awake to +perceive your responsibilities and obligations in respect to the +perishing world, take heed to my words, and take home what I +say--think about it, pray over it, try to realize it is the Lord's +message to you. These are only a tithe of the glorious promises with +respect to prayer. There are plenty of them in the Book, in which God +has bound Himself to answer the faithful prayers of His people. + +"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." + +Now, why is it that the great mass of professing Christians do not +get answers to their prayers? In the first place, they are not the +CHARACTERS to whom God has made the promises. These promises are made +to God's saints--to those who keep His commandments, who walk in the +light and have fellowship with Him through the Holy Spirit, and, +therefore, the Spirit can make intercession for them. How can the +Spirit make intercession for a man when He is not in him? Those who +are walking in the light can see what sort of requests to put up, +when to put them up, and how to put them up; they see it all, because +they are _in the light_. Such people do ask, and receive. But, +alas! it is because there are so few of these that God's character is +traduced every day, and that infidels laugh at us and at our God, too. + +Now, do not go round about, and try to put this off you. Who are +these promises made to? I challenge anybody to find me promises in +this Book, taken with the context (except in the case of repenting +sinners, who are a special class, and met with special promises), +except to saints. There are no promises of answer to prayer, except +to this class of character. These promises are not made to everybody, +are they? The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to God, except +it be his prayer when he is forsaking his wickedness. Then that +prayer is not an abomination; but all other prayers of the wicked +are. These promises are made to righteous people--to people who are: + +First, _in fellowship with God_. "If ye abide in Me, and My +words abide in you;"--having been brought into living fellowship by a +living faith, the promises are made to those people who MAINTAIN that +union--who walk in it, who live in it, and who avail themselves of +the opportunities and privileges which Jesus has bestowed upon them +by virtue of that union. + +Now, you see, friends, it is not enough that you were _once_ in +union with Jesus, in order to get answers to your prayers. I am +afraid there are thousands in a backslidden state. They have let go +the grasp of faith; they are not abiding in Christ; they are abiding +_out of Him_, and yet they are constantly praying and wondering +why God does not answer their prayers. Don't you see, the first +condition is wanting. There is no possible way of approach to the +Father but through the Son. All prayers are an abomination to God +which do not go up to Him through His Son, and in His Son, except +such as those of Cornelius, who never heard of Christ; but to people +who have ever had the light and known His Son, no prayers while out +of living union with His Son are accepted. And that does not mean +saying, "For the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ." It does not matter +much what people _say_. God never pays any attention to people's +words; it is what they mean and feel that He pays attention to; and +He knows when people really offer their prayers in union with His +Son. They are not in union, and, therefore, their prayers never rise +any higher than the room in which they offer them. They hardly get +out of their mouths; God never hears them. They are drowned and +buried in their own throats. + +Oh! you young converts, never drop out of living union with Jesus. +Keep in it--hold it fast--walk in it, and you will get answers to +your prayers every day. You will be as sure of it as if you saw God +doing what you ask, and heard Him speaking to you. You will be able +to say, "I know that Thou hearest me always." Bless His name! Those +who abide in Him can say that in their measure. + +The next condition of prevailing prayer, is--_obedience to the +light_. Now, what does it mean to walk in obedience? Well, it does +_not_ mean, searching this New Testament to find out how little +of God's grace will get you into Heaven! It does not mean, running +round to see what this person says and the other person says about +such and such a text, in order that you may escape from the real, +practical meaning of the text! Such people are hypocrites at heart, +whoever they are; or at least, insincere. They don't want to know +God's will; they would much rather not know it. They want to get away +from the plain, practical, common-sense meaning of the text, and then +they say, "It doesn't mean exactly what it says," and "It should be +interpreted so-and-so;" and they stroke themselves down, and try to +make themselves feel comfortable when they are traitors at heart. +_That is not walking in the light_. + +Walking in the light is like walking in the sun--not running behind +a pillar there, and a tree yonder, to get away from the light. It is +coming right out, and saying, "Now, Lord Jesus; I want to know Thy +will. Lord, pour Thy light upon me. I am prepared to follow it, even +though it is to the block and to the stake." + +First, desire to have the light. Oh! it makes my heart ache--I was +going to say boil--with righteous indignation, in jealousy for God's +honor, to think that He should be so traduced and blasphemed by those +who profess to love Him--who try to make out that they get wrong for +want of light. Nothing of the kind. Here is plenty of light; but you +must say, "Yes, Lord, I am willing to have it, even if it condemns +me. If it condemns my heart, my head, Lord, pour it on me. If it +condemns my life, pour it on me. If it condemns those companions, +those indulgences, pour it on me: I will give them up. If it condemns +my business, pour it on me: I will abandon such business, and sooner +die in the workhouse than continue in it. If it condemns my family +relations, I will come out from them, and follow Thee." The Lord will +always answer such a soul as that. He will put His finger down on +this sore spot and the other, and He will tell you what to do, and +you will be as sure of it as if you heard His audible voice. What +does it mean to walk in the light? Obey His voice. Don't stop to +confer with flesh and blood, but, as Paul did, get up, and set off to +commence the career which your Master commands. Paul did not stop to +confer with flesh and blood. He did not stop to reckon what it would +cost him, but on he went, and never stops, until he reaches the +block. _That_ is walking in the light--obeying--not standing, +quibbling with the Lord about it; not saying, "Oh! but,"--but +_doing_ it. + +Oh! friends, no matter who preaches another Gospel to you; no matter +who comes with the doctrine that you can be accepted of God--be a +saint on any other conditions. For Christ's sake and your soul's +sake, don't believe them. As the apostle John says: "If there come +any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into +_your_ house, neither bid him God speed." You say, "But then it +is such a costly sacrifice." It is, in one sense; but when you have +paid the price, when you have made the sacrifice, when you have +entered upon the road, the joy, the light, the power, and the glory +are worth a hundred times as much. Did any man that ever got the +Pearl of great price feel that he had given too much for it, even if +he had given all that he had? _Never!_ Martyrs and confessors +have gloried in the possession of it while they have writhed on the +rack and in the flames, and you never heard one solitary testimony +that any man or woman of God ever thought that they had paid too +highly for it. Never! Do you want to have your prayers answered? That +is the way. Walk so that your own heart condemns you not. The +obedient child that lives in complacent affection with its parent has +no fear in coming up to ask for favors. It knows it will get them. +Its own heart does not condemn it. "If our own heart condemn us not, +_then_ have we confidence toward God." I defy any man to +separate confidence and obedience. If you will not be obedient, you +cannot have confidence. I challenge any Christian here to tell me +that he can go up to the throne of God in faith for any blessing, +when his own heart condemns him. He knows he cannot. HE HAS FIRST TO +GET THAT STATE OF CONDEMNATION TAKEN AWAY before he can exercise +faith for any blessing. Walk in the light, and then you shall have +fellowship with Him, and His blood will cleanse you from all sin, and +the Spirit will teach you how to pray, and what to pray for, which +the great mass of professors know nothing about. + +Further, the _leading, teaching, and urging of the Holy Ghost_ +is the next condition of effectual prayer. We might call these +conditions a four-linked chain, connecting our souls with the very +heart of God. First, fellowship with Jesus; second, obedience to His +commands, walking in the light; third, the intercession of the +indwelling Spirit; and fourth, the exercise of faith; and if you miss +any one of these links, your prayers are done for. You may have all +the other three, but if you miss one, you will not get answers. It +will cut communion, and there will be no response. + +I am afraid a good many professors do not know what the Spirit of +intercession means. They do not know anything about the Spirit making +intercession for them with groanings that cannot be uttered. When we +get more of this Spirit of intercessory prayer in parents, we shall +see more spiritual children born. Now, the Holy Spirit says, here we +know not what to pray for as we ought, unless the Spirit teaches; +hence people are constantly, as James says, asking and not receiving, +because they ask amiss. "Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon +your lusts"--that means, your earthly desires, affections, purposes, +bound by the horizon of earth. + +Now, I believe that this is the great reason why thousands of +Christians pray and never, get answers. They ARE SELFISH IN THEIR +PRAYERS; they are earthy; they ask amiss, that they may consume it +upon their earthly desires, affections, and propensities. Mothers +tell me that they have prayed for their children for years, and not +got one of them converted. I say, "More the pity; more the shame on +you." Why? Because they prayed merely selfish, instinctive prayers, +because they were _their_ children, or because they wanted them +to be religions, so that they would not go into sin, or bring +disgrace or misery upon the family, or it would be so nice to have +them religious; but they don't want them to be righteous over much; +they don't want them to be so given up to God as to cut off the +vanities and fooleries of this world, and to give themselves up +wholly to Christ--that is too much; but just religion enough to make +them a comfort to themselves. Would _you_ answer such prayers +_if you were God?_ Hundreds and thousands of prayers are put up +every day that go no deeper and no higher than that, if the motives +were analyzed--and the Holy Ghost _does analyze_. I am afraid +many wives pray for their husbands on the same tack. They are not +troubled that their husbands are living in disobedience to God, +squandering their time, talents, and money, and robbing the kingdom +of Jesus Christ of what they might be doing for it;--the agonizing +consideration is, that, if religious, they would spend so much more +time at home; that they are wasting the money, instead of laying it +up for the children; and that, if they were religious, all this would +be right. Now, I say, God will never answer that wife's prayer for +her husband! You must think of what your husband could be for God-- +what he could do for God's kingdom--how Jesus Christ has shed His +blood for him--how dishonoring a life of sin is to God; and you must +dwell on this until your heart is ready to break, and you will soon +get your husband converted, if you act wisely along with your +prayers. God hates selfishness--selfishness is the devil, the very +embodiment of him. You must get out of self; you must look at your +child always as God's, as having a precious soul redeemed with the +precious blood of Jesus, and having talents and capacities to +_glorify Him_ and spread His kingdom; and you must ground your +prayers on that, and say, "I would rather lay them in the grave, a +thousand times--rather they were poor and despised--than they should +grow up to _dishonor Thee_." Then you will get your prayers answered! + +People pray about their business. God sees that the way to destroy +that man is to let him get on. He does not want money in order to +roll the old chariot along. God sees that prosperity would eat his +soul like a canker, and so He won't let him get on. The Spirit of God +never leads the soul to a selfish prayer. No; it leads the soul to +weep because men keep not His law, to cry more about His interests +than its own. It is willing for its own house to lie desolate, if +that will promote the spread of God's kingdom. It is willing for the +sparrow to find a nest on its own altar, if by that it can replenish +and glorify the altar of Jehovah. + +Then comes the last link--_faith_. Here is another secret. No +believer can exercise faith for anything that the Holy Ghost does not +lead him up to. You may pray, and pray, but you will never exercise +faith until you have the Spirit making intercession in you. There is +very little difficulty about believing with people who have taken the +three preceding steps. Those who are in fellowship with Jesus, those +who are walking in the light, those who have the Holy Ghost as an +interceding Spirit--they know what to pray for; they know what the +mind of the Spirit is; they know how the Spirit is leading them, and +they can march up to the throne and "ask and receive." They know +their request is according to the mind of God, and they can wrestle, +if need be, like the Syrophenician woman, if He sees fit to try their +faith. He does not always answer at once. He lets them wrestle with +groans that cannot be uttered; but they know the Spirit is making +intercession for them, and they hold on sometimes amidst great +discouragement and temptation till the answer comes. They get the +assurance of faith, which says, "Yes, it shall be done." People look +at them with wonder. Christian friends know the thing they are +praying for has not come, and say, "You look as glad as if yon had +it;" "I have got the earnest: I know it is coming: I have the +assurance that it shall be done." Now, every praying parent ought to +wrestle till that is got for every child. You never ought to leave +off till then, and then train as well as pray--co-work with God: that +is the law of the kingdom, all the way through. Believe that ye +receive it, and ye _shall_ have it. Oh! the confusion, the +jumbling there is, in dealing with poor souls at that point. People +say, "Believe you are saved, and you are saved." I have heard +Christians give that advice to souls many a time. "Believe you are +saved, and you are saved." Believe a lie, and it will come true. Is +that God's philosophy? What is the use of telling a person to believe +he is saved _before_ he is saved? That is telling him to believe +a lie. People say, "Believe you are sanctified, and you are +sanctified." Indeed! When were you sanctified? God never tells a +person to believe a thing until it happens. He has made the +bestowment of the gift to be simultaneous with the exercise of the +faith. Believe that ye receive, and ye shall have--not that ye did +receive an hour ago, for that would not be true; not that ye will +receive an hour hence, for that would be presumption. There is no +such promise, but believe that ye do now receive, and ye shall have. +"I will never disappoint the man who dares trust me to that extent." +He shall have it. You say the age of miracles is past. Yes, because +the age of that sort of faith is past. You will get miracles back +when that sort of faith returns. God has bound Himself over to the +faith of His real people, and He would sooner break all the laws of +nature, than He would break the laws of grace. He can easily set +aside a law of nature; but He will never set aside a law of grace. He +has bound Himself to faith--the only power in the universe to which +He has bound Himself--and nobody ever rose up in this world yet, and +said, "I trusted God, and He deceived me." Faith means TRUST--faith +means ABANDONMENT--as if you were dying, and you had nothing left but +the naked promise of God. You say, "I am dying: I must trust now," +and that man jumps on to the promise. He gives up experimenting, and +really trusts; and you have seen the light come into his eyes; you +have heard the song of praise burst from his lips, because he +believed he received, and he did receive. + +Now, then, some of you who have written to me, know you are living +in fellowship with Jesus. Some of you have lately commenced to walk +in the light. You have cut off and put away the idols; you have +abandoned yourself to the will of God, and sworn, by His grace, that +you will follow Him all the way. You _do_ feel the Holy Ghost is +in you. Oh! I entreat you to obey fully, to let the Spirit have His +way. Do not restrain Him. Don't think it will hurt your bodies: don't +think it is too much; don't think you are getting fanatical; don't +think that, after all, God does not require this kind of thing-- +follow the Spirit. Let the Spirit lead you, and groan through you; +let the Spirit wrestle with God through you--follow Him. If we had +more of this in these services, we should have more fruit; and if the +church had more of this, there would be more souls born into the +kingdom. + +It was one of the things in which I grieved the Spirit of God in my +early days that I would not let Him, to the extent He would have +done, make me a woman of prayer; and yet, in comparison with many, +perhaps, I was one. He used to lay particular people and subjects on +my heart, so that I could not help praying; but oh! how bitterly I +have regretted and wept before the Lord that I did not let Him have +all His way with me in this respect. Take warning! and you whom He is +beginning to lead, let Him lead you. Pour out your souls for others +and with others. I believe that more souls are convinced in real +prayer, than in speaking. I have noticed this many a time. I have +seen at the bottom of a great hall or theatre, or in the gallery, a +lot of the roughest men conceivable, behaving in the most unseemly +manner, arrested by the influence of prayer. Perhaps, when the +rowdyism has been ready to break into open tumult, a little woman has +stretched out her hands over the congregation, and said, "Now, let us +pray;" and I have seen the whole mass of men assume an attitude of +quietness and reverence. I have watched the aspect of the +congregation, and seen great, rough, black-faced fellows get their +heads down, and sometimes wipe their eyes; and when we have got up to +sing, there has been no more disorderly conduct, but they have +settled down with the solemnity of death, to listen. Hundreds of them +were convinced of sin while under that prayer. It was the Holy Ghost +wrestling for those souls in the heart of that woman, that struck +them with conviction. + +Prayer is agony of soul--wrestling of the Spirit. You know how men +and women deal with one another when they are in desperate +earnestness for something to be done. That is prayer, whether it be +to man or God; and when you get your heart influenced, and melted, +and wrought up, and burdened by the Holy Ghost for souls, you will +have power, and you will never pray but somebody will be +convinced,--some poor soul's dark eyes will be opened, and spiritual +life will commence. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PERFECT HEART. + + + For the eyes of the Lord ran to and fro throughout the whole earth, + to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect + toward Him--2 CHRON. xvi. 9. + +This passage occurs in the history of Asa, one of the most godly and +devoted kings that ever sat upon the throne of Judah. We are told in +the fourteenth chapter that he commenced his reign by setting himself +to destroy the idolatry into which the whole nation had been betrayed +by its former ruler, and to restore the worship and service of the +God of Israel. He set himself to bring back the nation to its +allegiance and obedience to God; and his success is a great +encouragement to any who shall set themselves, single-handed and with +a perfect heart, towards God, to do this in any circle, under any +circumstances. + +_He succeeded_. God blessed him in his efforts to purge his kingdom +inside, and God also delivered him from his enemies outside, and enabled +him by His power to defeat the king of Ethiopia, who came against him +with an exceeding great army, because King Asa was perfect in his heart +towards God. + +When this king came up against him, Asa went and cried unto the +Lord, and cast himself upon his God, trusting Him to deliver him, and +God never disappointed any man, either before or since Asa's day, who +did that. God delivered his enemies into his hand and made him a +successful and happy king, over a prosperous and increasing people. + +But by-and-bye, after many years, for Asa was perfect in his heart +towards the Lord for many years of his long reign; but whether it +were, as, alas! too often happens, that a life of ease and prosperity +brought forth in Asa the results of partial backsliding, we know not; +but as years went on, another war was declared, and this time it was +the king of Israel who came up against the king of Judah. What did +Asa do? Did he go, as formerly, and cry unto the Lord, and put his +battle into His hands? No, he did not. He had left His first love; he +had become, in a measure, untrue to the Lord God of Israel. He forgot +where his strength lay; his spiritual perceptions had become dim; he +had lost his realization of God's ability to help and deliver him out +of the hands of his enemies, and so he fell back upon worldly policy. +He went down to Assyria and courted Ben-hadad, the king of Assyria, +and said, "Come and help me, that my enemies may depart, for I am +sore pressed." Ah! what a picture of backsliders. On another +occasion, when Jehosophat made an ungodly alliance, a prophet met him +and said, "Should'st thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate +the Lord?" No man ever did this without being sorely whipped, as poor +Asa was. He succeeded, indeed, in the battle, and won the victory. It +was a lawful end, but he accomplished it by unlawful means. He won +the victory, and, I dare say, he was congratulating himself, and +stroking his beard in self-complacency, when, lo! the prophet comes +to deliver God's message to him, and he says:-- + +"Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on +the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped +out of thine hand. + +"Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many +chariots and horsemen? yet because thou didst rely on the Lord He +delivered them into thine hand. + +"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth, to +show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect +towards Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; therefore from +henceforth thou shalt have wars"--the very thing he went to Assyria +to seek to avoid. He wanted _peace_, not war, and he went down +to Assyria to enable him to spend the remainder of his days in peace, +when, lo! the Word of God goes forth, "Thou shalt have wars." He +was chastised in the very thing for which he sold himself and his +God. "Be sure thy sin will find thee out." It is God's way to +chastise His children by those very things in which they sell His +interests. "Thou shalt have wars." + +But we want to deal specially with the lesson which the prophet +draws from this event; for he says, "Wherefore didst thou go to +Assyria? Wherefore hast thou sinned against God? Hast thou forgotten +who the God of Israel was? Didst thou not know that the eyes of the +Lord run throughout the whole earth?" He would have helped thee now, +Asa, as much as in the past. He will help any man who is whole- +hearted towards Him--that trusts in Him. Now, I say, this is the +lesson which the prophet draws, not only for Asa, but for all the +Asas since his day, and those who are yet to come, for every man and +woman who professes to be a servant of God, the prophet sounds down +to the ages that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the +whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart +is perfect towards Him." + +Now, what is this perfect heart? "Ah!" you say, "that is the point." +Yes, that is the point, and we will try to show what kind of a heart +this is. It must be A DIFFERENT KIND OF HEART TO HEARTS IN GENERAL; +all hearts are not perfect towards God, or else His eyes would not +have to be running to and fro throughout the earth to find them. They +would be plentiful enough if they were the common sort of hearts, but +evidently they are a different kind of hearts to ordinary hearts; and +another thing is evident on the face of the text, that these kind of +hearts are very precious in the sight of God. He delights in them; He +makes greater store by one such than He does by thousands of the +other kinds of hearts, of which there are so many. I say, these two +lessons everybody with common sense will admit at once--that these +hearts are not the common hearts, and that they are very precious in +the sight of God. + +Now, what is the meaning of this term "perfect heart," referring to +the hearts of God's children, all the way through the Bible? As you +know, I like to establish my points in the mouths of two or three +witnesses, I will give you two or three texts, that we may find out +God's meaning of this term, and then we will give you the very lowest +rendering, where all schools are agreed, for I don't want +controversy. We will just look at Psalm xxxvii. 37: "Mark the perfect +man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace." There +_are_ such people as God means in that verse. Psalm lxiv. 4: +"That they may shoot in secret at the perfect," who have always been +a favorite target of the devil. He does not shoot much at people +whose hearts are perfect towards the Lord. It is at those perfect +people he shoots. "Suddenly do they shoot at him," perhaps while he +is thinking they are his friends. "Suddenly they shoot, and fear not." + +"Be ye perfect," says the Saviour, "even as your Father which is in +Heaven is perfect." That means something. We will try to find out +what it does mean (Matt. xix. 21)-- + +"Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou +hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: +and come _and_ follow Me." + +And, again, at 1 Cor. ii. 6-- + +"Howbeit, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect." + +And (2 Timothy iii. 17)-- + +"That the man of God may he perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all +good works." + +There are numbers of others, but these are samples, and I suppose +all Christians attach _some_ meaning to these terms. They must +be terms signifying a great difference between the persons who are +spoken of and ordinary men and women. Now, what do they mean? Well, +the very lowest rendering of all divines and all schools is this, +that it means _sincerity_ and _thoroughness_. Well, that is all I want. +Give me a man sincere and thorough in his love, and that is all I want; +that will stretch through all the ramifications of his existence; it +will go to the ends of his fingers and his toes, through his eyes, and +through his tongue, to his wife, and to his family, to his shop, and to +his business, and to his circle in the world. That is what I mean by +_holiness_! Then, taking the lowest translation, it means that a man is +whole-hearted in love, and thorough out-and-out in service! Amen. For +that man who is thus perfect towards God, God will indeed show Himself +strong in more ways than one! + +This cannot mean a merely natural heart, it must mean a renewed +heart, because there are no perfect hearts by nature. There is no one +in this sense that doeth good and sinneth not, for every child of +Adam has gone astray like a lost sheep, has done the things he ought +not, and left undone the things he ought to have done, and the whole +world has become guilty before God. There are no naturally perfect +hearts. It must mean, then, a heart renewed by the Holy Ghost, put +right with God, and then kept right. A heart cannot be kept right +until it has been _put right_, and that is the secret of the +failure with some of you. You are trying to bring forth fruits before +the tree is planted. You are looking for the fruits of a perfect +heart before you have got one. You may well be disappointed. You must +get your heart renewed, and then kept right by the power of the Holy +Ghost. + +Then, what does this perfect heart imply? + +1. _A heart perfect in its loyalty to God_, thoroughly given over to +God's side, irrespective of consequences,--_loyal_. These are the hearts +that God wants. This was the difference between David and Saul. There +was not so much difference in the greater part of Saul's outward life, +when compared with the life of David. It was only the prophet Samuel, +perhaps, who knew the difference, and a few close observers; but the +difference was, that David was loyal to God, and God calls him, for this +reason, a man after His own heart. + +From the first calling of David from the sheepfolds, right to the +end, with one or two exceptions, during the whole of his life, he was +loyal to God, and, if you will carefully search his history, you will +find that in all his wars, and all his dealings with the nations +round about, and with the leaders of affairs in his own kingdom--in +everything, + +David was loyal to God. It was the interests of God's kingdom that +lay at David's heart--not his own honor, ease, or aggrandizement--not +his own fame or riches, or building himself a house--it was the house +of his God that was dear to his heart. He was loyal; whereas Saul was +loyal only as far as it served his own purposes and interests. Oh! +how many such Sauls there are in these days. When God's commandments +went counter with his notions, he openly set God at naught, and did +as he liked. He sacrificed God's interests to his own. He was unloyal +at heart, hence he was a traitor, and never could learn the way of +the Lord. He was never perfect towards the Lord his God, and, at +last, God cast him off, and Samuel did also, and you know what his +end was. Just the difference between the two--loyal and unloyal. + +A heart perfect towards God! What does it mean? It means-- + +2. Perfect in its _obedience_. That man or woman who has this +kind of a heart, ceases to pick and choose amongst the commandments +of God, which he shall obey, and which he shall not--he ceases to +have his own will, though sometimes he may have a struggle with his +own will, and the way that God may call him to take may look to him +as if it were a dangerous or risky way, and he may wait a little bit, +to be thoroughly satisfied; but when once satisfied that it is God's +way, the true child will not hesitate. He confers not with flesh and +blood, but on he goes, irrespective of consequences. This was Paul's +kind of obedience. He conferred not with flesh and blood; he counted +all things dung and dross, and he went on doing so to the end--thorough +in his obedience. + +People come to us and want to know what they are to do; they feel +that they are only half-hearted in God's service; they have neither +joy nor power, and say, "What must I do?" and we take, as God helps +us, the dissecting knife, and try to find out the difficulty. We get +them down under the blaze of the Holy Spirit's light, and try to +probe them and find where they are wrong. Perhaps the Lord leads us +to the sore spot, and we point out the difficulty, but, instead of +obeying, they shrink away. They look ahead, and they see that to obey +the light will involve loss of some kind--perhaps reputation, wealth, +family associations, ease, or loss of friends, loss of temporal +comforts, loss of good business. Loss is in the background, and they +see it. They know where we are leading them to, and they slip back; +they do not want to see, and yet they do not want to consider +themselves dishonest, so they turn their heads away, and will not +look in the direction of the light, smoothing it all over and +singing-- + + "Were the whole realm of nature mine, + That were an off'ring far too small," &c. + +That is not a perfect heart, but a partial heart towards the Lord God. + +The partial heart, so common, alas, now-a-days, wants to serve God a +little. It is willing to go a little way with God, but not all the +way; so that, taking the lowest interpretation, that is not a perfect +heart towards the Lord. Can it be expected that the Lord should shew +Himself strong in behalf of such people? Do you think you would if +you were God? + +Suppose you were a king, and had a prince or statesman who was +serving you very valiantly and devotedly while it served himself; +but, suppose the tables were turned, and you were dethroned and cast +away into exile, your name being bandied about the nation where you +once reigned as king, in disgrace and dishonor; suppose this +statesman gave you up, and said, "Oh! I am going to be on the side of +the reigning monarch. I was very devoted to this man while he +reigned, but I cannot afford to be devoted to him now his interests +draggle in the dust; I must be on the winning side." What would you +think of such a man? And if you were restored to your kingdom and +power, would you show yourself strong on behalf of such a man? No; +you would remember, as David did, the man who cursed you. But if you +had a prince or statesman who followed you into exile, who ministered +to you in secret, who tried to hold up your interests, who contended +for your righteousness and justice, and held up your name and tried +to make the people see that you were a good and true man, who held on +to you, when all the nation was calling you traitor--if you came back +to your throne, would you not show yourself strong in behalf of that +man? Of course you would. The Lord says He will show Himself strong +in behalf of those of such a heart towards Him. + +You masters here have a servant--a clever, smart man; you know how +well he can serve you, and how valuable he can be, and would be if he +were true; but you have reason to believe that he will only go with +you as far as it will be for his own interests; he will serve you as +far as he can serve himself, too, but, if he can get up by putting +you down, you may lie there. What would you say to such a man? You +would say, "I shall never show myself strong for him." So God is not +likely to show Himself strong for people who are not of a perfect +heart. A lady said to me, "I have been doing this and doing that for +years, but I have no power; why don't I have it?" I said, "Because +you are not true to God. He will give it to anybody who is true to +Him, and He can see into your heart, and knows you are not." Why will +He not show Himself strong in your behalf? _Because you do not show +yourself thorough in His behalf._ The moment you show yourself +thorough, that moment will He show Himself strong for you. If you had +been in Daniel's place you would not have done as he did. Daniel was +one of the perfect-hearted men; he served his God when he was in +prosperity. He set his window open every day. Then his enemies +persuaded the king to make a decree that no man should pray but to +this king for so many days. "Now," they said, "we shall have him." +But Daniel just did as he was wont, he went and prayed with his +window open. You say, "That was demonstrative religion, that was +courting opposition. What need was there for him to make this +display; could he not have shut the window and gone into an inner +room? That was just like you Salvation-Army people, you always make a +demonstration. Why could he not have gone into an inner chamber and +prayed?" Because he would be thorough for his God in adversity, in +the face of his enemies, as he was in prosperity. So he went and +prayed with open window to the God of Heaven, and because _He +is_ the God of Heaven, He is able to take care of His own. His +heart was perfect towards the Lord his God. + +3. _This perfect heart is perfect in its trust_:--and, perhaps, +that ought to have come first, for it is the very root of all. + +Oh, how beautiful Abraham was in the eyes of God; how God gloried +over him. How do I know that Abraham had a perfect heart towards God? +Because he trusted Him. No other proof--no less proof--would have +been of any use. I dare say he was compassed with infirmities, had +many erroneous views, manward and earthward, but his heart was +perfect towards God. Do you think God would have failed in His +promise to Abraham? Abraham trusted Him almost to the blood of Isaac, +and God showed Himself strong in his behalf, and delivered him, and +made him the father of the faithful; crowned him with everlasting +honor, so that his name, from generation to generation, has been a +pillar of strength to the Lord's people, and a crown of glory to his +God. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW TO WORK FOR GOD WITH SUCCESS. + + + Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.--MATT. xxi. 28. + + Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.--LUKE xiv. 23. + +I am to speak of some needful qualifications for successful labor; +and I say:-- + +First, that there are certain laws which govern success in the +kingdom of grace as well as in the kingdom of nature, and you must +study these laws, and adapt yourself to them. It would be in vain for +the husbandman to scatter his seed over the unbroken ground or on +pre-occupied soil. You must plough and harrow and put your seed in +carefully, and in proper proportion, and at the right time, and then +you must water and weed and wait for the harvest. And just so in +Divine things. Oh! we shall find out, by-and-by, that the laws of the +spiritual kingdom are quite as certain and unerring in their +operation as the laws of the natural kingdom, and, perhaps, a great +deal more so; but, through the blindness and obtuseness and unbelief +of our hearts, we could not, or would not find them out. People get +up and fluster about, and expect to be able to work for God without +any thought or care or trouble. For the learning of earthly +professions they will give years of labor and thought, but in work +for God they do not seem to think it worth while to take the trouble +to think and ponder, to plan and experiment, to try means, to pray +and wrestle with God for wisdom. Oh! no: they will not be at the +_trouble_. Then they fail, grow discouraged, and give up. + +Now, my friends, this is not the way to begin work for God. Begin as +soon as you like--begin at once--but begin in the right way. Begin by +praying much for Him to show you how, and to equip you for the work, +and begin in a humble, submissive, teachable spirit. + +Study the New Testament with special reference to this, and you will +be surprised how every page of it will give you increased light. You +will see that God holds you absolutely responsible for every iota of +capacity and influence He has given you, that He expects you to +improve every moment of your time, every faculty of your being, every +particle of your influence, and every penny of your money _for Him_. +When you once get _this_ light, it will be a marvelous guide in all the +other particulars and ramifications of your life. Study your plans. How +men in earthly warfare study plans of stratagem, and adopt all manner of +measures in order that they may take the enemy by surprise! But, alas! +how little care and attention God's people give to taking souls; and yet +it is _far harder work to take souls than it is to take cities_. + +How surprised I have often been at the assumption of people who, +perhaps, never gave one hour's consecutive thought in their lives to +the best means of doing certain work, and yet they will pronounce an +opinion right off as to certain modes and measures which have been +tried and proved successful in the lives of some of the most +successful laborers for God. They will say, "Oh! I don't believe in +it." "Oh! it is all nonsense, ridiculous, wrong!" while, perhaps, +those people whom they condemn have been pleading, and weeping, and +studying, and experimenting, and almost sacrificing their heart's +blood to try to find out the best means of winning souls for Christ. + +I shall never forget the shock that came over me once in a large +gathering of Christian people, when a gentleman, who occupied a +somewhat prominent position, was giving out a hymn which contained a +verse something about spending one hour in watching with Jesus. He +stopped in the middle of this hymn, and said words to this effect: "I +am afraid we are verily guilty here. I do not know that I dare say I +ever watched one consecutive hour with Jesus in my life." I shall +never forget it. My cheeks burned with shame. I said, "Oh! my God, if +these are the leaders, we need not wonder at the people." A man +occupying such a position to dare to say it! The Lord have mercy on +him. No wonder the Lord's work is done in such a bungling way! I say +those who want to be successful in winning souls require to watch not +only days but nights. They want much of the Holy Ghost, for it is +true still, "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and +fasting." We have grown wiser than our Lord now-a-days; but, I tell +you, it is the same old-fashioned way, and if you want to pour out +living waters upon souls, either publicly or privately, you will have +to drink largely at the fountain yourself, and have them very ready +to let out! If you have not, your talk will be as sounding brass or +tinkling cymbal. Oh! it makes my soul weep tears of blood to think of +the misdirected effort that will be put forth this very Christian +Sabbath. Plenty of labor, but how little comes of it?--all because it +is cramped, and ruined, and misdirected, for want of thought, and +prayer, and a single eye for the salvation of souls. May God rouse us +up to this, and make us willing to think, and labor, and learn, and +wrestle, and sacrifice, in order that we may do it. + +Then, further, the second qualification for successful labor is +power to get the truth _home_ to the _heart_. + +Not to _deliver_ it! I wish the word had never been coined in connection +with Christian work. "Deliver" it, indeed--_that_ is not in the Bible! +No, no; not deliver it; but drive it home--send it in--make it _felt_. +That is your work;--not merely to say it--not quietly and gently to put +it before the people. Here is just the difference between a self- +consuming, soul-burdened, Holy Ghost, successful ministry, and a +careless, happy-go-lucky, easy sort of thing, that just rolls it out +like a lesson, and goes home, holding itself in no way responsible for +the consequences. Here is _all_ the difference, either in public or +individual labor. God has made you responsible, not for delivering the +truth, but for GETTING IT IN--getting it home, fixing it in the +conscience as a red-hot iron, as a bolt, straight from His throne; and +He has placed at your disposal the power to do it, and if you do not do +it, _blood_ will be on your skirts! Oh! this genteel way of putting the +truth! How God hates it! "If you please, dear friends, will you listen? +If you please, will you be converted? Will you come to Jesus? or shall +we read just this, that, and the other?"--no more like apostolic +preaching than darkness is like light. + +God says, "GO AND DO IT: compel them to come in. That is your work. +I have nothing to do with the measures by which you do it providing +they are lawful." + +"Use just the same diligence, earnestness, and determination that +you would if you were resolutely set on any human project, and always +be sure that I will be with you to the end of the world. Never doubt +My presence when you are set on My business. I will be with you, and +I will succeed you." Do it--the Lord help us to get the truth home! + +This was the way with Paul, and this was the way with Jesus. Paul +says: "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." +Oh! what a beautiful insight this gives us into the ministry. Why do +you persuade men, Paul? "Because I know the terror of the Lord that +is coming on, and because we thus judge that, if One died for all, +then were all dead. Therefore, I persuade men." He did not give up +when he had put it before them. He carried them on his heart, and he +says, "That by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every +one night and day with tears." He wept it in, as well as drove it in, +with his logic, and his eloquence, and with the power of the Holy +Ghost in him. Make it go in--make your words felt; don't talk to them +in that sickly, languid way that makes no impression--make them know +it. If you have not enough of the Holy Ghost for this, go to your +closet till you have, and then come and drive the Word home to their +conscience as a two-edged sword, dividing asunder soul and spirit. + +The second thing indispensible to success is _simplicity_:-- +naturalness in putting the truth. + +You have not only to get it home, but, in order to do this, give it +them simply and naturally. If I were asked to put into one word what +I consider the greatest obstacle to the success of Divine Truth, even +when uttered by sincere and real people, I should say, _stiffness_. +It seems as if people, the moment they come to religion, assume a +different tone, a different look, and manner--short, become unnatural. + +People sometimes come to me and say, "Oh! I would give the world to +be natural, but I have got into this way of talking to people. It +seems as though I cannot be natural. Can you help me?" I say, "Yes, I +can help you, by this advice--Determine, by the help of God, that you +will break the neck of this bondage. I will tell you how to begin. +Begin with your family. Break off right in the middle of conversation +on earthly matters, and begin to talk about their souls, or your own +experience, or drop down on your knees, and begin to pray." "Oh! but +it would be such a break." It should not be a break to talk to your +Father. If you are in the spirit of it there will be no break. This +will help you, more than anything else. Determine that you will +overcome this sanctimoniousness, which is the curse of a great deal +of the religion of this day. We want SANCTIFIED HUMANITY, not +sanctimoniousness. You want to talk to your friends in the same way +about religion, as you talk about earthly things. If a friend is in +difficulties, and he comes to you, you do not begin talking in a +circumlocutory manner about the general principles on which men can +secure prosperity, and the sad mistakes of those who have not secured +it; you come straight to the point, and, if you feel for him, you +take him by the button-hole, or put your hand in his, and say, "My +dear fellow, I am very sorry for you; is there any way in which I can +help you?" If you have a friend afflicted with a fatal malady, and +you see it, and he does not, you don't begin to descant on the power +of disease and the way people may secure health, but you say, "My +dear fellow, I am afraid this hacking cough is more serious than you +think, and that flush on your cheek is a bad sign. I am afraid you +are ill--let me counsel you to seek advice." That is the way people +talk about earthly things. Now, do exactly so about spiritual things. +If your friend is a spiritual bankrupt, tell him so. Tell him where +he is going, and that the reckoning day is coming, and that he will +be in God's prison-house very soon, and that, if the creditor once +gets hold of him, and shuts him up, he will never get out till he has +paid the uttermost farthing. If your friend has a spiritual disease, +tell him so, and deal just as straight and earnestly with him as you +would about his body. Tell him you are praying for him, and the very +concern that he reads in your eyes, will wake him up, and he will +begin to think it is time he was concerned about himself. Try to +attain this simple, easy, natural way of appealing to people about +their souls. I believe if all real Christians would attain this, and +act upon it, this country would be shaken from end to end! + +Thirdly, you must be in _earnest--desperate_, I would like to say. + +And, indeed, friends, settle this as a truth, that you will never +make any other soul realize the verities of eternal things, any +further than you realize them yourself. You will beget in the soul of +your hearer, exactly the degree of realization which the Spirit of +God gives to you, and no more; therefore, if you are in a dreamy, +cosy, half-asleep condition, you will only beget the same kind of +realization in the souls who hear you. You must be wide awake, quick, +alive, feeling deeply in sympathy with the truth you utter, or it +will produce no result. + +Here is the reason why we have such a host of stillborn, sinewless, +ricketty, powerless spiritual children. They are born of half-dead +parents, a sort of sentimental religion, which does not take hold of +the soul, which has no depth of earth, no grasp, no power in it, and +the result is, a sickly crop of sentimental converts. Oh! the Lord give +us a real robust, living, hardy Christianity, full of zeal and faith, +which shall bring into the kingdom of God, lively, well-developed +children, full of life and energy, instead of these poor, sentimental +ghosts that are hopping around us. Oh! friends, we want this vivid +realization ourselves. If we have it we shall beget it in others. +Oh! get hold of God. Ask Him to baptize you with His Spirit "till +the zeal of His house eats you up." This Spirit will burn His way +through all obstacles of flesh and blood, of forms, proprieties, +and respectabilities--of death, and rottenness of all descriptions! +He will burn His way through, and produce living and telling results +in the hearts of those to whom you speak. Earnestness--such +earnestness that it comes to desperation--like that of Paul, who +counted all things but dross; yea, and who counted not his life dear +unto him. That was the secret. He counted not his life, nor anything +that constitutes life--liberty, pleasure, enjoyment, friends, +reputation, ease, &c.,--all on the altar, all was in the scale. He +counted none of those dear unto him, so that he might win the +perfection, the fulness of Christ in his own soul, and the salvation +of the souls around him. + +Oh! what a LAUGHING-STOCK TO HELL is a light, frivolous, easy, +lukewarm professor. Oh! what a shame and puzzle to the angels in +Heaven, and what a supreme disgust to God. "I would thou wert cold or +hot. So, then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I +will spue thee out of My mouth." Oh! what will that be? Talk about +shame! Think of that! Shame! Some of you feel it going into the +streets for God. You feel it when a few people see you kneel down +here! Think of being spewed out of the mouth of God before an +assembled universe. What will that be? God helping me, I will avoid +that I will sooner hang with Jesus on the cross, between two thieves, +than I will bear that shame. "_I would thou wert cold or hot!_" + +Some of you say, in your letters, that you will have this whole- +heartedness. You say that you have given up all, and that you are +consecrating yourself to a life of labor. Now, be _hot_. I know +you will burn the fingers of the Pharisees. Never mind that. I know +you will fire their consciences, like Samson's foxes did the corn. +Never mind that. _Be hot._ God likes hot saints. Be determined +that you will be hot. They will call you a fool: they did Paul. They +will call you a fanatic, and say, "This fellow is a troubler of +Israel"; but you must reply, "It is not I, but ye and your father's +house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord." Turn +the charge upon them. Hot people are never a trouble to hot people. +The hotter we are the nearer we get, and the more we love one +another. It is the cold people that are troubled by the hot ones. The +Lord help you to be HOT. + +Then another indispensable condition is the surrendering of _all +our powers_. + +There must be no holding back. "Cursed be he that holdeth back his +sword from blood." That curse is resting on Christendom to-day. Oh! +they will thrust the sword a little way in, but they will not go in +to the core. They dare not draw blood--the soldiers of this age--for +their lives. They dare not touch a man to the quick, because, alas! +they are looking to themselves, and thinking what people will say of +THEM, instead of what God will say of them. You must not be afraid of +blood if you are to be a true warrior of the Lord Jesus Christ. You +must not be afraid to say, if need be, "Oh! generation of vipers, who +hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? "You must not be +afraid to say, if need be, "You have made my Father's house a den of +thieves," if you save some of them by doing it. + +Oh! this accursed sycophancy; I was going to say, this accursed fear +to brave the censure of the world--this accursed making good evil and +evil good, as if God were altogether such an one as ourselves. Don't +you think He sees through the vile sham? Oh! my friends, if we don't +mend in this respect, He will come in judgment before long, and we +shall find out then the difference between the precious and the vile, +if we do not find out before. If you want to be a successful worker, +you must make up your minds to begin with, that you will be CRUCIFIED. + +As a dear minister once said to somebody, when he was arguing with +him about being so hard in the pulpit, "I don't care." "Oh!" said the +other, "Don't you know what became of 'Don't care?'" "Yes," he said, +"He was crucified, and I am ready to be crucified alongside of him." +When you are in the right, don't care. You can but be crucified, and +it will soon be over; and then the Book says, "They that suffer with +Him will also reign with Him, and they shall be glorified together." +It would be a wonderful thing to be glorified alone, but, oh, think +of being glorified together! + +A gentleman said lately, "I have been thinking a great deal about +the glory. It is a wonderful thing--that glory that is to follow. +This would be worth a man sitting on the dunghill all his life to +obtain." I looked at him, and thought, perhaps you are nearer to it +than you think, and perhaps I am, too. Ah! it _is_ a wonderful thing, +that glory that is to follow. Then let us be willing to suffer with Him +and for Him. Make up your mind to be crucified at the start, and then it +will be easy. + +Further, _complete abandonment_ is a condition of successful labor. + +It is so in anything. What would you think of a soldier who was +always reckoning how much it was to cost, and when he should get +back, or whether it was worth the sacrifice? You would say, "He is of +no use to the British Army. We want men who will go in to win at all +costs." Now, God wants men and women who will go in to win, who +believe in winning, who know they have the power to win, and who +count _all things_ loss in comparison to winning. Do you want +success? If you do not come to that first, you will never get it. + +Fourthly--_You must give up, kick out of the way, trample underfoot, all +that hinders._ + +_Reputation_. Perhaps there are some ministers here. There were +some last Sunday, and there were some the Sunday before. Some of you +have written and others have talked to me. You say, "It would be such +an entire breaking from one's circle." Exactly. Some say, "You see, +the inevitable consequences of setting up this high standard would be +a constant running of the sword into some of your best hearers and +your best friends." Exactly; that is giving your sword to blood. You +would not think much of drawing the blood of an enemy--it is the +blood of your _friends_ that is the test! I know all about it; I +have been there. I was there a long while once. It was my own sore +spot. The devil said, "If you begin preaching they will call you an +impudent woman," and I felt it would be better almost to go to hell +than have that said about me. He said, "They will put you in the +newspapers, and say all manner of coarse and vulgar things about +you;" and God only knows what that was to my soul; but I battled and +struggled with it for a long while, until I said, at last, "Lord, I +don't care what they call me--I give myself to Thee to win souls." +Have I ever regretted it? Shall I ever regret it? No; He will take +care of your reputation. Give it up to Him, my brother. The Scribes +and the Pharisees never had anything good to say of Jesus coming in +the flesh. Give up your reputation--follow Him. If it must be, decide +to go after Him to Gethsemane, to Golgotha and the cross. Never +mind--follow Him. Give up your reputation. + +Then, your habits. How ashamed some of you will be who have made the +mere Paris-born frivolities of society stand in the way of your +consecration to Christ; and yet people who do this say they are +Christians. I don't know; I cannot believe it. There is drinking; +they will have a glass of wine. Very well, you can have it; but you +shall not have the wine of the kingdom. Professors will dress like +the prostitute of Paris. Very well; but they shall not be the bride +of the Lamb. He will not walk in the streets with them, nor sit at +the same table. You can go to parties where it is said there are only +religious people, but where you know all manner of gossip and +Christless chit-chat is going on, which you would be awfully ashamed +the Master should hear, and from which you retire with no appetite +for prayer. You can go to all this, but I defy you to have the Holy +Ghost at the same time. I won't stop to argue it; I ONLY KNOW YOU +CANNOT DO IT. All that will have to be put aside and given up. You +say, "That is a sore point." Yes; I know that is driving the sword to +blood. + +Fifthly.--You must consecrate your money to be used for God. + +I once heard an old veteran saint say, and I thought it was +extravagant at the time, "I consider the use of money the surest test +of a man's character." I thought, no, surely his use of his wife and +children is a surer test than that; but I have lived to believe his +sentiment. Hence, you see how human experience justifies Divine +wisdom--"the love of money is the root of all evil". So it is, in one +form or other. God never uses anybody largely until they have given +up their money. I simply state a fact. We know it is so by experience +and the history of God's people. You must give up your money as an +end: saving it for its own sake, or the gratification of your selfish +purposes or those of your children--it must be all given to God, to +whom it belongs, being entirely used in His service. If you want to +be a successful laborer for souls, you will have to do that at the +threshhold. Give up your money to the Lord. If you think it right to +keep some of it, keep it to use it for Him as you go; and be as +strict with yourself, to your Heavenly Father, as you would be with +your secretary or clerk to yourself, and then you will be all right. + +It is a narrow and difficult path. I tremble for you who have got +it, and I am glad I have not; but as you have got it, I give you the +best advice I know. It is an awful thing to have it, but the next +best thing is to consecrate it and use it to His glory; and if you do +not, it will eat into your soul as doth a canker. To your spiritual +nature it will be as a cancer is to your physical nature. They are +Paul's words, not mine. + +I must say a word about _the reward_. + +You think I am always driving you _to do_. Yes, because you +need it. The Lord knows I do not find you do any too much. Some of +you I am heartily ashamed of. Some of you need driving so that you +ought to thank God for the rod. Paul says, "Shall I come unto you +with the rod?" He was obliged to do it with some people. It is not an +enviable thing to have to do; but we dare not, when God sets us work +to do, shirk it; but there is a bright side--there is the reward. +"What!" you say, "does He pay you?" Yes, good wages--pressed down-- +heaped together! He says, "The man who remembereth the poor (do you +think He means only their bodies?), I will remember him; I will make +his bed (what a tender allusion!) in his sickness." He will shake it +up; spread His feathers on the pillows as no earthly nurse, not even +the tenderest wife, can do. "I will make his bed in his sickness." +You will want Him then, brother! You are very independent, some of +you, now, but you will want Him then. "I will make his bed in +sickness. I will put underneath Him my everlasting arms." He will +cause you to triumph in the swellings of Jordan. That will be grand, +will it not? He will give you a triumphant entrance into His kingdom, +those of you who have gone out in loving solicitude and anxious +sympathy to labor for the souls of your fellow-men. He will +administer unto you an abundant entrance, and then--what? He will +give you CHILDREN; and the barren woman shall have more children than +she that hath a husband. + +Oh! the whole world is akin here. Every man and woman wants +children. They are especially a heritage from the Lord. Nothing can +make up for the want of children. The poorest parents, living in the +humblest hut, would not sell you their children, and the rich man, +who has twenty thousand a year, would give it for a son or for a +daughter, when he cannot have one. All human beings want children. +Now, then, the Lord will give you children. A mother--even a +sanctified mother--I suppose, cannot help feeling proud, or, rather, +glad and thankful, when she shows good, obedient, and godly children +to her friends. I do not believe that God wants to grind this out of +us. I believe He delights in it Himself, just as He delighted to show +His servant Job to the devil. "Hast thou considered My servant Job?" +Ah! was He not proud of him?--and He has been proud of him ever +since. God has put this feeling in us, and it is a right feeling when +it is sanctified. We cannot help but be proud of godly and obedient +children; but what will it be to show your spiritual children, to the +angels? How shall you feel when you gather the spiritual family which +God has given you round the throne of your Saviour, and say, "Here am +I and the children whom Thou hast given me"?--the children won +through conflict, and trial, and strife, such as only God knew; +"Children begotten in bonds," as Paul says--chains--children born in +the midst of the hurricane of spiritual conflict, travail, and +suffering, and cradled, rocked, fed, nurtured, and brought up at +infinite cost and rack of brain, and heart, and soul; but now, here +we are, Lord. We are here through it all. "Here am I and the children +whom Thou hast given me." How shall you feel? Shall you be sorry for +the trouble? Shall you regret the sacrifice? Shall you murmur at the +way He has led you? Shall you think He might have made it a little +easier, as you are sometimes tempted to do now? Oh! no, no!--THE +CHILDREN! THE CHILDREN! you shall have children! Won't that be reward +enough? + +Oh! sometimes, when I am passing through conflict, and trial, in +connection with a work which brings plenty of it behind the scenes, I +encourage myself in the Lord, and remember those who have gone home +sending me their salutations, from the verge of the river, telling me +they will wait and look out for me, and be the first to hand me to +the Saviour when I get there. Will not this be reward enough? Even +so, Lord. Amen. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +ENTHUSIASM AND FULL SALVATION. + +AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN EXETER HALL. + + +Why should we be enthusiastic in everything but religion? Can you +give me any reason for that? If there is any subject calculated to +move our souls to their very centres, and to call out the enthusiasm +of our nature, surely it is religion, if it be the real thing. Why +should we not be enthusiastic? I have never seen a good reason yet. +Why should we not shout and sing the praises of our King, as we +expect to do it in glory? Why should not a man cry out, and groan, +and be in anguish of soul, as the Psalmist says, as if he were crying +out of the belly of hell, when he is convinced of sin, and realizes +his danger, and is expecting, unless God have mercy, to be damned? +Why should he not roar for the disquietude of his spirit as much as +David did? Is there anything unphilosophical in it? Is there anything +contrary to the laws of mind in it? Is there anything that you would +not allow under any great pressure of calamity, or realization of +danger, or grief? Why should we not have this demonstration in soul +matters? They had it under the old dispensation. We read, again and +again, that when the people came together after a time of relapse, +and backsliding, and infidelity, when God sent some flaming, burning +prophet amongst them, and they were gathered on the sides of Carmel +or elsewhere, that, on some occasions, the weeping, and, on other +occasions, the rejoicing, was so great that they made the very ground +tremble, and almost rent the heavens with the sound of their crying +and rejoicing. + +We are told, on one occasion, that the noise was heard afar off, +and, on another, that it was as the sound of many waters. Would to +God we could get men, now-a-days, so concerned about their sins and +their souls, that they should thus cry out. It would be a happy day +for religion and for the world if it were so. If these things are +realities, I contend that this is the most sane, rational, and +philosophical way of dealing with them; and I say that the ordinary, +cold, heartless, formal way (and, if it is not so, it has that +appearance) is unscriptural. + +Somebody was talking to me about having so much feeling in religion. +I said, "My dear friend, what do you think God gave you feeling for?" +Some people seem to think it a mistake that we _have_ feelings. +Our feelings play a very important part in all our social relations. +Why would you exclude them from religion? David expressed his +feelings, and was so carried away by them that he called on all +creation to praise the Lord, the hills and the trees to clap their +hands and be glad. Get the right kind of religion, and it will make +you glad. If you have not the right kind of feeling, I am afraid you. +have not the right kind of religion. We have some enthusiasm, and +when our enthusiasm dies, I am afraid we shall die, too. Nevertheless, +our power is not in our enthusiasm; neither does it consist in certain +views of truth, or in certain feelings _about_ truth. But it consists in +whole-hearted, thorough, out-and-out surrender to God; and that, with or +without feeling, is the right thing, and _that_ is the secret of our +power. We have glorious feelings as the outcome; but the feeling is not +the religion--the feeling is not the holiness. Holiness is the spring +and source of the enthusiasm. Hence our power with the masses of the +people. + +How is it that wherever we go, as an organization, these signs and +wonders are wrought? Somebody said, "It is a strange thing; see what +has been done at So-and-so, and So-and-so, and So-and-so. They had +all tried, and you send a couple of lads or lasses, and you have the +town in an uproar at once. What is it? What is the secret? Will you +answer the question?" Well, it is the whole-hearted, determined +abandonment of everything for the King's sake. That is it. It is +going in, as the Apostles went in, determined to win souls, +determined to set up the kingdom of Jesus Christ, at all costs. That +is the source of our power, and if you get that, you will have power, +and if you don't get that, it matters not what else you have. I want +you reasonably and calmly to see that this holiness is a real, +definite blessing; that it is a level on to which the great mass of +the professing Christians of this generation have not come, or even +scarcely looked up. It is a high level, but it is a level on to which +every one of you can come, if you will. You have heard enough about +it. You are convinced you may have it. Will you have it? The Lord is +sitting there; He is looking at you, and He is saying, "What is all +this stir about? What is all this talk, this singing, and this +praying about? Here I am. What do you want Me to do? I am ready to do +it." And you say, "Lord, I want Thee to cleanse my heart from sin, +and to fill me with the Holy Ghost, and to enable me to be whole- +hearted and thorough in Thy service, and to go and win souls for +Thee." "Very well," the Lord says, "I am ready to come into the +temple, if you will clear out the rubbish. Are you willing for Me to +come in? I am waiting to come in as a Refiner; but you must make a +straight way for my feet. You must pick out the stones, and throw out +the rubbish, and make Me a straight path." + +Will you make Him a straight path? Will you trample under foot that +accursed thing which has so long kept the fulness of the blessing +from you? Will you give up arguing about it and trying to make out +that it is not a stumbling-block, when you know it is? How many will? +I wish we had room to have a form. I am sorry we have not. With all +the light you have on the subject, with what I am sure the Holy Ghost +has revealed and is revealing to your souls, with all the glory that +He is putting before you, and the power for usefulness and happiness, +will you make this full consecration? The light of the Spirit is on +you: _will you, act? Will you act?_ Every spark of light you get +without obeying it, leaves your soul darker. Every time you come up +to the verge of the kingdom and don't go over, the less the +probability that you ever will. I know people who have been going up +and down for more than forty years, like the Israelites, and it is a +question if they ever go in. You have come near again. Will you go +over? You can tell the Lord without telling us, though we would like +to know, and see you put your foot over the border, into this Canaan +of peace and power. Will you put your foot over? Who will? who will? +Will you stand up and raise your voices to the Lord and ask Him? + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS. + + +I shall try, in the short time I may occupy, to go straight to the +point--to some of the difficulties and hindrances which I know are +keeping not a few here to-day out of the enjoyment of the blessing. I +know there are some here who are satisfied that this blessing is +attainable, who are satisfied that God can thus keep them, as we have +been singing, if they were to lean the whole weight of their need-- +their soul, and body, and spirit--upon Him, and trust Him. They +believe He could, and they believe He would. They have come to +perceive that it is not at all a question of human strength, or human +weakness, or human knowledge, but that it is simply a matter of +Divine strength, fully recognized and fully trusted by human +weakness. Therefore, there is no more a stumbling-block in their way +about reckoning themselves holier than other people, or stronger than +other people, for they recognize themselves as the very weakest and +most sinful of _all_ people: but they have come to understand +this blessing to be human weakness, leaning with all its weight upon +Divine power; and they believe God does thus save and keep those +people who do thus lean. Then, what hinders? There they stand, just +where the Israelites stood, when they might have gone in and +possessed the good land. "They entered not in because of unbelief," +and for that unbelief there is a reason--a cause. They dare not +venture their souls on this Divine power, because there is back in +their consciousness some difficulty, some obstacle, something which +is only known to themselves and the Holy Ghost, which prevents them +from doing this. + +When they try to jump on to the Divine strength there is something +that holds them back, and they cannot make the spring. They try to +forget it--they sing, and pray, and seek, to make themselves believe +there is nothing, and they come up again and again right to the +entrance of the goodly land, and then they try to spring in. Some of +you will today, but you will not be able to spring, because there is +something holding you back; and you are conscious of it, but will not +allow yourselves to realize it. Now this is the point, when my dear +husband read that passage, "When they had prayed, the place was +shaken," I thought, Oh! what was involved in that prayer--what does +that mean? _Why_ did the glory come? Why did the Holy Ghost +overshadow them? Why were they filled with God--so filled that they +had to go down and could not help themselves, but went into the +streets and poured it out upon the godless multitudes around them? +_Why, why_ did it come? Why do hundreds of assemblies of God's +people meet and pray, but nothing comes? They hold long meetings, and +make long prayers, and sing, + + "We are waiting for the fire;" + +but nothing comes! Why did it come on that particular occasion? +Because in that prayer was thorough, entire, everlasting self- +abandonment. They came up caring for nothing but pleasing God and +doing as He bade them; and the Holy Ghost alone knows when a soul +arrives at that point. He will never come till the soul _does_ +arrive at that point. This is the deficiency, I am satisfied, with +hundreds. There they stand, right on the borders of the glory-land, +but there is some wedge of gold, or Babylonish garment that they +buried years ago. + +They won't think about it. They say, "Oh, it is nought, nought! That +little thing would not hinder, it is so long ago." They would not, +when they knew they ought, dig it up and burn it before the Lord. If +this is so with any here, you _must_ dig it up, or the Holy Ghost will +never come. A lady, a short time ago, was brought up to the very edge of +this blessing, but there was something she felt she ought to do. She had +a sum of money which she felt ought to be given up to a certain object. +She prayed and struggled, and attended prayer-meetings, and prayed long +into the night; but, no, she would not face the difficulty. She said, +"Oh! no; I am not satisfied in my own mind. How do I know God wants it +for that purpose?" She might have struggled till now if she had not made +up her mind to obey; but, the moment she did--alone, up in her bedroom, +the blessing came. A gentleman came up to the penitent-form, after one +of my West-end services, last season, and told me: "I am a preacher. I +have been laboring in the Gospel for eight years, but I know I am +utterly destitute of this power." "Do you want it?" "Oh!" he said, "I +do;" and he looked as though he were sincere. "Then," I said, "what is +it? There is a hindrance. It is not God's fault. He wants you to have it +He is as willing to give you the Spirit as He was Peter or Paul, and +you want to have it. Now, _will you have it?_ Have you understood the +conditions?" "Ah!" he said, "_that_ is the point." Now, you know I +should be a false comforter if I were to try to make you believe you +were right when you had not yielded that point. "Well," he said, "you +see it would be cutting loose from one's entire circle." Ah! he was led, +you see, by "Christian friends." I said, "Did not the Lord Jesus cut +loose from His circle to save you? and, if your Christian friends are +such that to live a holy life you must cut loose from them, what are you +going to do--stop in that circle, ruin your own soul, and help to ruin +them, or cut loose and help to save them?" Oh! there is no profounder +philosophy in any text in the Bible than that--"How can ye believe who +receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from +God only?" You will have to come to God not caring what anybody thinks. + +As a dear lady, who is going through floods of persecution for +Jesus, said, "I don't care if they turn their backs on me, and never +speak to me any more, and cast me out, and my children, too. I don't +care if I can only have His presence and follow Him." When you come +to that you will get this pearl. + +I know a father and mother who want this blessing,--especially the +mother. They have a family of beautiful little children, but the +father says, "What are we going to do for our children? It is a very +serious matter cutting loose from our circle." A gentleman said to +me, "I have to do _something_ for my sons. What am I to do?" +"No," I said, "you have got to do nothing for your sons. You have to +train them for God, and leave GOD _to do for them_, and He is +well able to look after His own. That is your business; train them +for God, and leave God to find a niche for them, and if He can't on +earth, I warrant you He will in Heaven." People have things wrong way +up now-a-days. They have the notion that they have to do this, that, +and the other, for themselves and their children, instead of +accepting it as their great commission that they have to propagate +and push along and extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ, to seek His +kingdom and His righteousness, and leave Him to look after their +interests. When you come to this it will soon be done. + + + A FRAGMENT. + + Love Him, trust Him, + Him alone; + Father, Keeper, + Three in One. + + Saviour, Master, + Leader, too; + Lover, Brother, + ALL to you. + + Fear not, care not, + Only follow + His way, this day, + And to-morrow. + + Waiting, working, + For His sake; + Watching, hoping, + Till daybreak. + + Peaceful, joyful, + In His peace; + Filled full, kept full, + By His grace. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +ADDRESSES ON HOLINESS, + +IN EXETER HALL. + +FIRST ADDRESS. + + +I think it must be self-evident to everyone present that it is +_the most important question_ that can possibly occupy the mind +of man--how much like God we can be--how near to God we can come on +earth preparatory to our being perfectly like Him, and living, as it +were, in His very heart for ever and ever in Heaven. Anyone who has +any measure of the Spirit of God, must perceive that this is the most +important question on which we can concentrate our thoughts; and the +mystery of mysteries to me is, how anyone, with any measure of the +Spirit of God, can help looking at this blessing of holiness, and +saying, "Well, even if it does seem too great for attainment on +earth, it is very beautiful and very blessed. I wish I could attain +it." That, it seems to me, must be the attitude of every person who +has the Spirit of God--that he should hunger and thirst after it, and +feel that he shall never be satisfied till he wakes up in the lovely +likeness of his Saviour. And yet, alas! we do not find it so. In a +great many instances, the very first thing professing Christians do, +is to resist and reject this doctrine of holiness as if it were the +most foul thing on earth. + +I heard a gentleman saying, a few days ago--a leader in one circle +of religion--that for anybody to talk about being holy, showed that +they knew nothing of themselves, and nothing of Jesus Christ. I said, +"Oh, my God! it has come to something if holiness and Jesus Christ +are at the antipodes of each other. I thought He was the centre and +fountain of holiness. I thought it was in Him only we could get any +holiness, and through Him that holiness could be wrought in us." But +this poor man thought this idea to be absurd. + +May God speak for Himself! Ever since I heard that sentiment I have +been crying from the depths of my soul, "Lord, speak for Thyself; +powerfully work on the hearts of Thy people and awake them. Take the +veil from their eyes, and show them what Thy purpose in Christ Jesus +concerning them _is_. Do not let them be bewildered and miss the +mark; do not leave them, but Lord, reveal it in their hearts." There +is no other way by which it can be revealed, and, if you will let +Him, He will reveal it in your heart. + +It occurred to me that I might say a word or two on what my husband +said about infirmities, because I am so continually meeting people +who _will make infirmities sins_. They insist upon it that the +requirements of the Adamic law have never been abated; that we are +not under the evangelical law of love, or the law of Christ, as the +Apostle puts it, but that we are still under the Adamic law, and that +these imperfections and infirmities, to which my husband has +referred, are sins. I wonder that such people do not think of a +certain passage, which must forever explode such a theory, where the +Apostle says, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my +infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." If these +infirmities had been sins, we should have the outrageous anomaly of +an apostle of Jesus Christ glorying in his sins! You see, his +infirmities were only those defects of mind and body which were +capable of being overcome and overruled by grace, to the glory of +Christ and to the furtherance of His kingdom. + +I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me +--that, in consequence of these very infirmities, the power of Christ +shall so rest upon me as to lift me above them, make me independent +of them, master of them, so that, through these very infirmities, I +shall more glorify His strength and grace than if I were a perfect +man, in mind and body. In another place he says, "And lest I should +be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, +there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, +to buffet me." Some people think this was _sin_; but surely, the +words, "messenger of Satan," show that this thorn was no act or +disposition of Paul's, but some external temptation or affliction, +inflicted by Satan. Besides, the Divine assurance, "My grace is +sufficient for thee," _ought_ to forbid the idea of sin. Paul +sought the Lord thrice to have this thorn removed; surely if it had +been _sin_, the Lord would, have been as anxious to have it +removed as His servant was! This thorn was, doubtless, some physical +trial--as the words, "in the flesh," indicate--some tribulation or +sorrow, through the patient endurance of which the strength of Christ +could be magnified in Paul's weakness--one of those things which he +could bear "through Christ who strengthened him." + +But mark, this was a Divinely-permitted discipline to _prevent +Paul_ from falling into sin; quite a different thing to sin +itself. "God tempteth no man with evil." The Lord sent this to Paul +for the purpose _not of making_ him humble, for he was humbled +before, but of keeping him humble. And does He not send something to +us all? Do we not need trials and tribulations in the flesh in order +to keep us humble? But is this evidence that, because we require +these things to keep us humble, therefore pride is dwelling in us and +reigning over us? It is an evidence just to the contrary. + +Oh, that people, in their enquiries about this blessing of holiness, +would keep this one thing before their minds, that it is _being +saved from sin_!--sin in act, in purpose, in thought! + +I have a beautiful letter, received a short time ago from a young +lady, who wrote me soon after my former services in the West End. She +told me that she had been the bondslave, I think, for four or five +years, of a certain besetting sin, and her first letter was the very +utterance of despair. She had struggled and wrestled and prayed, and +tried to overcome the sin that had been reigning over her. Now and +then she would get the victory, and then down she went again, and she +said, "It is such a subtle thing, connected with my thoughts and +imagination, so that I do not think I ever can be saved." I answered +the letter, and tried to encourage her faith and hope in Jesus +Christ. I showed her how dishonoring this unbelief was, and that, if +she would only trust Him to come in and reign in her heart, He could +purify and cleanse the very thoughts and imagination. She made a +little advance, and wrote me another letter. I wrote her again, and +encouraged her to trust further. She said she could not come so far +as to think that He could purify her thoughts. She had got as far as +to believe that He could save her from putting them into practice, +but she could not believe that He could purify _them_. I wrote +her back once more, and tried, the Lord helping me, to show her how +Jesus, by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, could purify the very +thoughts of our hearts, and, thank God, she did go another step. I +have had two letters from her since. She said in the first of them, +"I rejoice with trembling, for fear it should be only temporary, but +I have trusted Him to purify the source, and I must say HE HAS DONE +IT, and, instead of thinking these thoughts, I have holy thoughts, +and if Satan presents anything to my mind, it is so repulsive to me +that I cannot tell you the grief and horror with which it fills me." +I wrote her again, encouraging her, and I got another letter, in +which she said, "It is a fact that He has cleansed the thoughts of my +heart, and now I am conscious that my thoughts are pleasing to Him, +that He has saved me from this sin which has been the trouble and +torment of my life for all these years gone by." + +Now, what I want to say to you, is, that what He can do for one, He +can do for another. If I am wrong here, I give up the whole question. +I am perfectly mistaken in the purpose and aim and command of the +Gospel dispensation, if God does not want His people to be pure. Not +to count themselves pure when they _are not_. Oh, no! We are +told, over and over again, that God wants His people to be pure, and +THAT PURITY IN THEIR HEARTS IS THE VERY CENTRAL IDEA AND END AND +PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST; if it is not so, I give up the +whole question--I am utterly deceived. + +In justification of this, I have selected two or three texts which +seem to put it all in one; summing-up texts, so to speak. I will take +first, as a specimen, what my husband has been trying to enforce--"The +will of God is your sanctification." There is, however, a sense, +and an important sense, in which sanctification must be the will of +man. It must be _my_ will, too, and if it is not my will, the +Divine will can never be accomplished in me. I must _will_ to be +sanctified, as God is willing that I should be sanctified. There are +as many, and more, exhortations in the Bible to sanctify yourselves +than there are promises of God to sanctify you. + +The next text is James iv. 8: "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw +nigh to you. Cleanse _your_ hands, _ye_ sinners; and purify _your_ +hearts _ye_ double-minded." This was to backsliders, to people who had +been professing to believe, but who had gone back under the dominion of +their fleshly appetites and passions. There are two or three other texts +where we seem to get the whole matter summed up, as, for instance, "He +gave Himself for us (that is, for us Christians, the whole Church of +God) that He might redeem us from _all iniquity_, and purify unto +Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."--That is, purify +_us_. And then 1 Timothy i. 5 shows God's purpose and aim in the whole +method of redemption. "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of +a _pure heart_, and of a _good conscience_, and of faith +unfeigned"--cleansed and kept clean, for if it had been cleaned and +become dirty again, it would not be a good but a bad conscience. And +again, in I John iii. 3: "And every man that hath this hope in Him, +purifieth himself, even as He is pure." Now, I say, these are summing-up +texts, and there are numbers of others to the same effect, to show +that the whole end and purpose of redemption is this--that He will +restore us to purity; that He will bring us back to righteousness; +that He will purge your consciences from dead works to serve the +living God--not only purge you from the past, but keep you purged to +serve the LIVING GOD; that it shall be done by the application of the +blood to the conscience, and then it shall be maintained by the power +of the Holy Ghost keeping us in a state of purity and obedience to +righteousness. + +Now, I say, if this be not the central idea of Christianity, I do +not understand it. If God cannot do this for me--if Jesus Christ +cannot do this for me, what is my advantage at all by His coming? + +There is a great deal more in these epistles directed to the individual +Christian to _be_ this, that, and the other, and to _do_ this, that, and +the other, than there is about what God will do for him after all! This +is not an objective Christianity--this is not sitting down and +sentimentalizing and thinking of Christ in the Heavens, in these +epistles; it brings Him down, to all intents and purposes, INTO OUR +HEARTS AND LIVES HERE, and it is one of the continual exhortations, _be_ +ye this, and _do_ ye this and the other. + +These epistles represent a real, practical transformation to be +accomplished IN US, and this is the only thing that will do to die +with. If it is not accomplished in you, I tell you, you will not be +able to die in peace. You will want to be cleansed, as my dear +husband told you, before you can venture into the presence of the +King of kings. You will want a sense of beautiful, moral rectitude +and righteousness spreading over your whole nature, which will enable +you to look up into the face of God and say, "Yes, I love Thee, I +know Thee, and Thou knowest me, and lovest me, and we are one. I love +the things Thou lovest, and desire the things Thou desirest. We are +of one spirit, 'joined in one spirit unto the Lord.'" You will want +that, and nothing less will do to die with. And why not have it? Will +you have it? Why not let God work it in us? Will you try it? People +are constantly saying, "They long for it, and they wish they could +get it." Will you let God do it? Will you put away the depths of +unbelief which are at the bottom of all your difficulty? People +really do not believe that God _can_ do it for them, and that is +at the bottom of their difficulties. But He can do it, and He +promises to do it. Will you go down, and say, "Be it unto me +according to Thy word"? + + + "BORN--A SAVIOUR." + Luke ii. 11. + + Jesus a Saviour born, + Without: + Without the inn, refused with scorn. + Cast out: + Cast out for me, my Saviour, King, + Cast out to bring this lost one in. + + Jesus a Saviour born, + A man: + A man of sorrows, smitten, torn by stripes: + By stripes, O Lord, my soul is healed, + By stripes, Thy stripes, my pardon sealed. + + Jesus a Saviour born, + The Lamb: + The Lamb of God hath bled and borne + My sins: + My sins the Sacrifice did slay, + My sins the Lamb doth take away. + + Jesus a Saviour born + To save: + To save at night, at noon, at morn. + To keep: + To keep from sin, from doubt, from fear; + To keep, for lo! the Keeper's here. + + Jesus a Saviour born, + A King: + A King! exalt His glorious horn, + And sing: + O sing, ye heavens! He burst His grave, + And sing, O earth! He lives to save! + + + + +SECOND ADDRESS. + + + I beseech yon therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye + present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, + which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: + but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove + what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.--ROM. + xii. 1,2. + +I have been thinking about the word in the text, "_that_"--"that +ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will +of God." This advance in the Divine life, as well as every other, +right to the end, till we advance into glory, has its _conditions_. +The condition of the advance from an absolutely unawakened worldly +condition, to that of a convinced sinner, _is the reception of +the light_. God awakens and enlightens tens of thousands, and +thousands reject the light--instantly put it away--shut their eyes +--will not have the light. These go back into greater darkness, +and sin with more alacrity than ever they did before;--those who +receive the light advance into the condition of awakened, enlightened +souls. + +The next condition of advance from the state of a struggling sinner, +willing to part with his sins and to follow Christ, _is faith_, +to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may receive the +forgiveness of sins. And at every advance onwards, if the believer is +ever to get beyond the first principles, if he is ever to grow a +single inch, so to speak, there is a condition involved in that +advance! For instance, if, after conversion, the Holy Spirit reveals +to him something which is inconsistent--which he did not before see-- +the condition of his advance another step is the _renunciation_ +of that thing!--the reception of the light, and _obedience to +it;_ and, if he shrinks from and does not receive and obey the +light, he will never advance _any more_ until he does. There are +thousands of Christians, who, instead of advancing, have gone back +since their conversion, because they would not comply with the +condition, "THAT" they might prove the good, and acceptable, and +perfect will of God. + +There was a condition. They would have proved the will of God if +there had been no condition; but there was a condition they would not +comply with; so there they stick, just where they were--or, rather, +they have gone backward. + +Well, now, then, here is a condition to _this_ grand and glorious +advance from the state of justification, where, while the believer is +given power over sin, so that it does not rule over him, yet he +sometimes, through its inward workings, falls under its power--the +advance from this comparatively sinning and repenting condition +on to that platform where the believer so abides in Christ that he +sins not, that he loves God with all his heart, and soul, and mind, +and strength--so united to Christ that, walking in the power of the +Holy Ghost, he fulfils the law of love under which he is placed--the +advance, I say, from that up and down, in and out, falling and rising +state, to this higher platform, also has its _conditions_. + +You would go up to it to-day if it were not for the conditions; most +of you would go up in a body, as the Israelites would have gone into +Canaan, if there had been no condition. I never knew anyone so +foolish as not to want to be in the good land; they want to be in, of +course, and they would go in and get the honey and the milk, but +there are the _conditions!_ Now then, here you have it plain, +and you have it in numbers of other passages equally plain. + +There is nothing upon which the Holy Ghost has been more particular +than in laying down the conditions. And what are they? "I beseech +you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your +bodies a living sacrifice"--the living man--you, all of you; not +_it_--not something in you. + +The latter term is never used by the Holy Ghost when speaking to +Christians, but always _you, ye, your_ bodies, _your_ souls, _your_ +mind, the whole man--YOU, "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto +God, _which is_ your reasonable service." And is it not? Is it too much? +Is it more than He bargained for when He bought you? Is it more than He +paid for? It is "your reasonable service." + +And now, then, comes the conditions: "And be _not conformed to this +world: but be ye transformed_ by the renewing of your mind, _that_ ye +may prove." + +Oh! if you could be transformed to Him and conformed to this world +at the same time, all the difficulty would be over. I know plenty of +people who would be transformed directly; but, to be not conformed to +this world--how they stand and wince at that! They cannot have it at +that price. As dear Finney once said, "My brother, if you want to +find God, you will not find Him up there, amongst all the starch and +flattery of hell; you will have to come down for Him." That is +it--"Be not conformed to this world." + +Nothing wounds me more, after being at meetings for dealing with +souls, where I have tried to speak in a most pointed and thorough way +to make everybody know what I meant, when I go to the dinner or +supper-table, people have not known a bit, or, if they have, they +won't accept it. Oh! this is the secret--they will not come down from +their pride and high-mightiness. But God will not be revealed to such +souls, though they cry and pray themselves to skeletons, and go +mourning all their days. They will not fulfil the condition--"Be not +conformed to this world;" they will not forego their conformity even +to the extent of a dinner party. A great many that I know will not +forego their conformity to the shape of their head-dress. They won't +forego their conformity to the extent of giving up visiting and +receiving visits from ungodly, worldly, hollow, and superficial +people. They will not forego their conformity to the tune of having +their domestic arrangements upset--no, not if the salvation of their +children, and servants, and friends depends upon it. The _sine qua +non_ is their own comfort, and then take what you can get, on God's +side. "We _must_ have this, and we _must_ have the other; and then, if +the Lord Jesus Christ will come in at the tail end and sanctify it all, +we shall be very much obliged to Him; but we cannot forego these +things." + +Oh! friends, I tell you, this will never do. God helping me, I will, +I must tell you, because it is driven in upon my soul by what I am +seeing and hearing every day. People come to these meetings, and they +groan and cry and come to us for help, and we exhaust our poor brains +and bodies in talking to them and giving them advice, telling them +what to do, and, when it comes to the point, we find, "Oh! no; don't +you be mistaken: we are not going to sacrifice these things. We +cannot have the Lord if He will not come into our temples and take +them as He finds them. We could not forego these things." + +You remember the text that was read at the opening of the meeting-- +"And the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world." +It means something! and there are a hundred other texts teaching the +same truth. Now, _what does it mean_? The Lord help us to see +it! Does it not mean that we are not to be like the rest of the +world?--that we are not to be guided by the same maxims, or act upon +the same principles as the world?--that we are not to attach the +same importance to mere earthly and worldly things that worldly +people do? Have you ever thought of those awful words in the parable +of the sower?--"And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of +riches, and the lusts of other things, entering in, _choke_ the +word, and it becometh unfruitful,"--not abominable things, not +immoral things, not shameful things, but the _desire of other_ +things. And, in another text: "_Who mind earthly things_." They +attach more importance to worldly things and other things than they +do to the things of His kingdom. They practically make these things +_first_, though they sing about His kingdom and profess to make +Him first: they make the earthly things first, and, therefore, they +will not have their earthly things upset for His things; and do you +suppose He is cheated? Do you suppose He is deceived? Do you think it +likely that the great God of Heaven, who has millions of angels and +archangels to worship and serve Him, is going to pour His glory on +such people, and reveal Himself to them, and use them? Not likely! "I +will be first in your love," He says. + +You women here, if you knew that you were not the first and only one +in the affections of your husband, what would you say? And you +husbands, would you dwell with a wife if you knew you were not the +only one in her affections, but that they were divided between you +and someone else? "Not likely!" you would say; "I am not going to +lavish my affections, and my society, and my gifts, and everything I +possess, on one whose heart is divided with another. If she will have +her heart divided, then she must go to that other." + +Now you know God is a jealous God, and He knows who do mock Him, and +He knows who will not sacrifice this conformity to the world that +they may walk with Him in white. He knows, also, who do not care what +anybody thinks of them, or what people say of them; who are willing +to be counted fools and fanatics that they may walk with Him and +promote the interests of His kingdom, and who only regard their +bodies as His instruments and their homes as His temples; who are +willing that their breakfast hours, or dinner hours, or luncheon +hours, or any other hours may be upset, and, in fact, everything made +subservient to the interests of His kingdom. We must place everything +at His service--our children, business, homes, and everything. If I +understand it, this is nonconformity to the world. + +Before I close, let me say a word to help those who are desiring to +attain this blessing. There is no other way. It is of no use beating +about. BE NOT CONFORMED, BUT BE YE TRANSFORMED. These two are in +juxtaposition. If you will be conformed, then you cannot be +transformed; if you will not be transformed, then you must be +conformed. Now, will you give up conformity to the world? If so, you +may, everyone of you, be transformed this morning--go up into the +land. You may all be saved to-day, and make your abiding-place in +Christ, and have all the power and glory which comes to those who +possess Him; you may advance from the miserable condition of a poor +up-and-down, in-and-out, wretched man, on to the glorious vantage +ground of a saved man--a saved woman--a triumphant saint of God! + + + FAITH. + + My faith _looks up_ to Thee-- + My faith, so small, so slow; + It lifts its drooping eyes to see + And claim the blessing now. + Thy wondrous gift + It sees afar; + Thy perfect love + It claims to share, + And doth not, cannot fear. + + My faith _takes hold_ on Thee-- + My faith, so weak, so faint; + It lifts its trembling hands to be, + Trembling, but violent. + The kingdom now + It takes by force, + And waits till Thou, + Its last resource, + Shall seal and sanctify. + + My faith _holds fast_ on Thee, + My faith, still small, but sure, + Its anchor holds _alone_ to Thee, + Whose presence keeps me pure. + And Thou alway, + To see and hear, + By night, by day, + Art very near-- + Art very near to me. + + + + +THIRD ADDRESS. + + +What a deal there is of going to meetings and getting blessed, and +then going away and living just the same, until sometimes we, who are +constantly engaged in trying to bring people nearer to God, go away +so discouraged that our hearts are almost broken. + +We feel that people go back again from the place where we have led +them, instead of stepping up to the place to which God is calling +them. They come and come, and we are, as the Prophet says, unto them +a very pleasant instrument, or a very unpleasant one, as the case may +be; and so they go away, and do not _get anything_. They do not +make any _definite advance_. We have not communicated unto them +any spiritual gift. They merely have their feelings stirred, and, +consequently, they live the next week exactly as they lived the last, +and go down under the temptation just as they did before. + +Would you dream for a moment from reading the New Testament that +this was the kind of thing God intended in His provisions of grace +and salvation? Is there not a definite end in every promise, +exhortation, and command? God is most _definite_ in His requirements and +promises, and in the provision which He has made; and yet many of the +Lord's people are perpetually and persistently _indefinite_. They go to +and fro, like a door on its hinges, and never get anything from the +Lord. We want you absolutely to get something from the Lord, and we are +quite sure you may and _will_, if you comply with the condition. The +Lord is ready to give you that particular measure of grace, strength, +and salvation which you need. Now that you have come up to the +threshhold of the goodly land, there is only one thing which can keep +you out, provided you have made the needed consecration. Of course, if +you are holding anything back, then you can never come in until you give +that up. If yon are cleaving to some doubtful thing, and don't give God +the benefit of the doubt, you can never come in; but, if you see this, +and make the necessary consecration, if you _really_ desire this +blessing, there is only one thing which can possibly keep you out of +its enjoyment, and that is--_unbelief_. + +It will be said of you, in years to come, as it was said of some in +olden times, "They entered not in because of unbelief." You have come +right up to the threshhold, and some of you have been there many a +time. Oh! what gracious influences you have been the subject of. You +have seen through the veil! You have felt His hand! You have had your +feet on the threshhold! You have been almost in, and then you have +drawn back through unbelief. Shall it be so again to-night? God +forbid! Will yon step over? Will you venture? Will you trust? Will +yon leap on to His faithfulness? Will you spring into the arms of +Omnipotent Love, and trust Him with consequences? Never mind if you +_do_ die, or something happens to you that never happened to +anyone else in the world's history; God will take care of you. Never +mind if the devil does come round and "consider" you, as he did Job, +and afflict you with boils, and put you upon the dunghill--you will +be happier there with Jesus than in a palace without Him. Oh! this +caring for consequences! The devil knows the grand _possibilities_ +open to many of you; he knows not only what you might receive and +enjoy in yourselves, but what you might accomplish for God if you +would only come in and possess this blessing; and so he frightens +you with consequences. He knows what you might do, and whom you +might be instrumental in saving! + +Who knows how many of these precious ones that cluster round you, +you may be instrumental in leading on to this higher platform--this +glorious vantage ground of Christian experience? and, through them, +how many more? and how, in this way, the glorious blessing would +spread? Remember, also, that every time you come near and go back, +there is less _probability that you will ever come in at all_; +and the nearer you come and go back, the less probability there is +that you will ever come as near again. + +You _are grieving the Spirit_. There are some people who have been +coming near for years, and now they have gone back altogether, and I am +afraid they will never come up again. _What will you do?_ The law of the +kingdom, from beginning to end, is, "According to your faith be it unto +you," and, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye +receive _them_, and ye shall have _them_." _Eternal truth has uttered +it_--"ye shall have them." Now then, will you? Have you let go all? Are +your skirts free? Are you leaving all behind you? Are you resolved from +to-night to cut from the past, and no more make any provision for the +flesh to fulfil its lusts, but that you will bid the things that are +behind a final adieu, close your eyes on them, and fix your eyes on the +mark of the prize of your high calling, and press on every succeeding +hour of your life until you reach it? Will you? If you will, God will +give you this blessing. He waits to do it; He is here. The Holy Ghost is +here: He is leading many of you up; He is beseeching you; He is +seconding what I am saying, in your hearts; He is saying, "Come, +beloved; come into the banqueting house;" He wants to bless you and +fill you with His Spirit. Now then, will you come? Oh! the Lord help +you not to draw back, but to press on, _press on, press on_, never +minding the consequences. + + + + +FOURTH ADDRESS. + + +I think, dear friends, that I have only a very few words to say to +you now. I am, as it were, holding on to God for power by which to +say them, so that they shall sink into your hearts and produce some +immediate and permanent results in your lives. I believe the Lord is +not only grieved and disappointed, but I believe He is angry, when +His people meet, and talk, and sing, and pray, and then go away +without any definite result having been reached--without ever having +given anything to Him, or received anything from Him. I believe He +feels with respect to us, just as He felt with respect to His people +of old, when He said, "Why come ye and cover my altar with tears?" As +though He said, "You know what I want you to do; come and do it; and, +when you do it, I will open the windows of Heaven and pour out a +blessing." + +My heart ached at what a lady told me this morning, before I came +into this hall. She said, "A friend of mine remarked, 'You don't mean +to say that you are going to call four thousand people together to +cry for the Holy Ghost?' She said, 'Yes, I do.' 'Well, it makes me +frightened. What if anything should happen; if something should be +done?'" Would to God something would happen; would to God something +might be done that should frighten somebody. But oh! what did that +reveal? Depths of infidelity and unbelief; and yet people wonder that +infidelity is increasing. Is it any wonder that infidels are laughing +us to scorn? Is it any wonder that at Christian Evidence Societies +men get up and say that the Christian system has become effete? No +wonder, when that is the state of heart of the Lord's people. + +People meet together, and pray, and talk, and sing "Whiter than +snow," and they don't believe it any more than do the heathen. They +pray for the Holy Ghost, and do not so much as believe there is a +Holy Ghost. They ask God to do something, when they never knew Him to +do anything, and don't expect He ever will. The world is dying +because of this unreality, and being damned by it. + +Josephine Butler says, about France, "France is waiting for a +_reality_:" and so is England, and so is the world waiting for a +_reality_. God help us to make some _real people_. You believe, some of +you, that nothing is going to happen. You don't believe that God is +going to do anything--so He won't in your experience. If you had lived +at Nazareth, do you think Jesus Christ would have done anything for you? +If you had been deaf and dumb, you would have remained so, for He could +not have done any mighty works in you, because of your unbelief! He is +the same now; and if you don't expect Him to do anything, brother, He +will not. But some of us do _expect_ Him to do _something_. Some of us +_believe_ He is going to do _something_, and that by this little stone, +cut out of a mountain, without hands, He intends to raise a great +kingdom. Jesus Christ is not going to be disappointed, and allow the +devil to chuckle in His face forever, and say, "I have cheated You out +of Your inheritance." We will do something, or die in attempting it. + +After all, what does God want with us? He wants us just _to be_ and _to +do_. He wants us to be like His Son, and then to do as His Son did; and +when we come to that, He will shake the world through us. People say, +"You can't be like His Son." Very well, then, you will never get any +more than you believe for. If I did not think Jesus Christ strong enough +to destroy the works of the devil, and to bring us back to God's +original pattern, I would throw the whole thing up for ever. What! He +has given, us a religion we cannot practice? I say, No, He has not come +to mock us. What? He has given us a Saviour who cannot save? Then I +decline to have anything to do with Him. What! does He profess to do for +me what He cannot? No, no. He "is not a man, that He should lie: neither +the Son of man, that He should repent:" and I tell you that His scheme +of salvation is two-sided--it is God-ward and man-ward. It contemplates +me as well as it contemplates the great God. It is not a scheme of +salvation, merely--it is a scheme of _restoration_. If He cannot restore +me, He must damn me. If He cannot heal me, and make me over again, and +restore me to the pattern He intended me to be, He has left Himself +no choice. + +I challenge anybody to disprove by the Bible that He proposes to +_restore_ me--brain, heart, soul, spirit, body, every fibre of +my nature--to restore me perfectly, to conform me wholly to the image +of His Son. If He could have saved me without restoring me, then He +could have saved me without a Saviour at all. How do you read your +Bibles? How do you read the history of the miracles--the stories of +His opening the eyes, unstopping the ears, cleansing the leper, and +raising the dead? He will heal you if you will let Him. These are the +sort of words the world wants--the living words, living embodiments +of Christianity, walking embodiments of the Spirit, and life and +power of Jesus Christ. You may scatter Bibles, as you have done, all +over the world. You may preach, and sing, and talk, and do what you +will; but, if you don't exhibit to the people _living epistles_, +show them the transformation of character and life in yourself which +is brought about by the power and grace of God--if you don't go to +them and do the works of Jesus Christ, you may go on preaching, and +the world will get worse and worse, and the church, too. We want a +living embodiment of Christianity. We want JESUS TO COME IN THE FLESH +AGAIN. + +Did you ever notice the tense in that passage--"He that believeth that +Jesus is come in the flesh"--not that He _did_ come, or _was_ come, but +that He _is_ come now. Oh! how people hate Jesus Christ in the flesh. +You may be ever so devout, ever so Pharisaic, till you come to Jesus in +the flesh, and then they will gnash on you with their teeth as they +gnashed on Christ. They can't resist such people. This is what the world +wants--holy people; and nothing else will do. We have tried everything +else. You Christian people from other divisions of the Lord's forces, +you have tried Bibles, and preaching, and singing, and services, and +Sunday-schools. I have been lately to a part of the country where they +told me that nearly every member of the population had passed through +their Sunday-schools, and yet there are men there who will drag a young +girl down a flight of stone stairs and kick her till she is black and +blue. The great mass of the people who took part in the Lancashire Riots +have passed through your Sunday-schools. + +Now, I say, God is speaking to you in these things, if only you will +hear Him, and He is saying that the letter killeth, that +circumcision, and baptism, and forms, and ceremonies, and going to +chapel, and Bible reading, is all nothing, when there is no Holy +Ghost in it. You want a real, living embodiment of Christianity over +again, and if the Salvation Army is not going to be that, may God put +it out! I would be willing to pronounce the funeral oration of the +Army if I did not believe it was going to be that. The world is dying +for this. + +I was so touched, yesterday, by hearing a story from Paris, told by +a young woman who has just returned, and was telling me about my +precious child. The story was this: A woman came, one morning, and +asked for the lady. They tried to put her off, and asked, "Will not +someone else do?" "No," said the woman; "I do want to see the lady +herself." They said, "You can't see her to-day--she is too ill!" +"Then," she said, "When can I see her?" They appointed a time the +next afternoon, and then this poor woman came, and she told this +story: "I did hear, six years ago, that there was somebody could take +the devil out. Now, see, I have got a devil in, and he do make me +wicked and miserable, and I do want him taken out, and I have been +running about these six years to find somebody who could pull him +out. I've been to lots of priests, but they could not pull him out +because they had a devil in _them_; and, you see when there's a +devil in me and a devil in them, we got to fighting, and they could +not pull him out." What a comment on "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; +but who are ye?" Of course, nobody can put a devil out who has a +devil in them. The poor old woman's sense told her this. + +"And," she continued, "a gentleman told me that this lady who has +come here is able to pull him out, and I have come to her to do it, +for I want him pulled out." Oh, yes! I thought, that is what poor +humanity wants all the world over. THEY WANT PEOPLE WHO CAN CAST THE +DEVIL OUT--people who have in them Holy Ghost power to do it. Oh! +will you be such an one? + +"Where is God?" someone said to me the other day, in agony--"Where +is God?" Where, indeed! "Why does He not show Himself? Why does He +not do something?" That lady was afraid something would happen when +4,000 met together to beseech the Holy Ghost! Why not? You say He has +not changed. Your creed says so. You say He is the same yesterday, +to-day and forever. You say the needs of the world are as great. You say +His great, benevolent heart beats for His fallen, sinful, erring +human family. You say He loves us. You are always telling about His +love. What is the reason He does not do something for us, and come +down in the same plentitude of spiritual power as He did at +Pentecost? Why? Only because you are not as given up to Him and as +willing to do it as the people were in former times. You have not +accounted all things dung and dross. You have not thrown everything +into the scale, and, therefore, He will not thus baptize you with the +Holy Ghost. These are the people that the world wants--people of one +idea--Christ, and Him crucified. For Christ's sake, give up quibbling. + +I said to a lady who had got this blessing when somebody got at her +and began with this verse and that verse, and this translation and +that translation--"Mind you don't begin to reason; you will lose your +blessing"--and she did lose it. You can't know it by understanding. +Oh! if the world could have known it by understanding, what a deal +they would have known. But He despises all your philosophy. It is not +by understanding, but _by faith_! If ever you know God it will +be by faith, becoming as a little child--opening your mouth, and +saying, "Lord, pour in;" and then your quibbles and difficulties will +be gone, and you will see holiness, sanctification, purity, perfect +love, burning out on every page of God's Word. I weep before God, I +feel almost more than I can bear, over this awful knack that some +people seem to have of plucking the bread out of the children's +mouths when they are just getting an appetite for it. The Lord have +mercy upon them! If you don't come in yourselves, for Christ's sake +don't keep other people out. + +A minister--a devoted, good man--was trying to show me that this +sanctification was too big to be got and kept. I said, "My dear sir, +how do you know? If another man has faith to march up to Jesus Christ +and say, 'Here, I see this in your Book; You have promised this to +me; now then, Lord, I have faith to take it:' mind you don't measure +His privilege by your faith. Do you think the church has come up to +His standard of privilege and obligation? I don't. It has many +marches to make yet. Mind you don't hinder anybody." The law of the +kingdom all the way through will be--"According to your faith." If +you want this blessing, put down your quibbles, put your feet on your +arguments, march up to the throne and ask for it, and kill, and +crucify, and cast from you, the accursed thing which hinders it, and +then you shall have it, and the Lord will fill you with His power and +glory now, and something _will_ happen. The Lord grant it. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Godliness, by Catherine Booth + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GODLINESS *** + +This file should be named gdlns10.txt or gdlns10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, gdlns11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, gdlns10a.txt + +Produced by Avinash Kothare, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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